Here We Go...

January. I’ve been dreading this month a little — from now until October it’s nearly a non-stop-go mode. It starts off with a week long training week in Nelson, NZ with Gordo, his girlfriend Shan, and the Vikings (Clas, Bjorn and Ragnar). Gordo and Shan are racing the Tour de Vineyards cycle race and the rest of us are training.

Two days after returning from Nelson I fly to Tauranga on the North Island for a half Ironman the following day. Just to make it even more fun, the day after the race I fly back to Christchurch where I hang out at the airport and wait for the arrival of my Mom an hour later. And the fun hasn’t stopped yet. The very next day, my Mom and I go back to the airport, hop on another plane, and spend three days hanging out in Queenstown. We have a few touristy things planned to keep ourselves busy and out (or maybe in ;-) of trouble.

Two days after we return from Queenstown, we pack up a van and trailer and drive to Auckland to start Gordo’s third Epic Camp. Two weeks of running support for the camp, followed by two days of training on the Ironman course in Taupo and then its back to Christchurch.

Hold on there, I’m not done just yet. Three days after returning from the Epic Camp, about a dozen of us are taking off for a three-day training trip to Hanmer Springs. We ride the 150K there and back, and do a long run and swim on the middle day.

Finally I’ll get about two and a half weeks to stay put in Christchurch before heading back to the North Island to compete in Ironman New Zealand in Taupo.

And the fun keeps rolling...

Two days after I race my fourth Ironman triathlon, I hop a big ole jet plane bound for Canada. I’ll spend all of four days there before loading up “The Big Rig” and driving to San Diego, CA. On the 20th of March, myself along with Gordo and Clas, start our TransUSA training road trip. Gordo and Clas are going to ride their bikes from coast to coast, taking about 10 weeks. I’ll be doing the driving and support as well as my own training along the way. We’re not really sure where the trip will end just yet, only that it will end somewhere we can dip our toes into the Atlantic Ocean. From there, we B-line it to Ohio for the Triple T race at the end of May. After the race, I drop Gordo and Clas off at the airport in Chicago and then I, once again, make my way back to Canada.

And I’m still not done here...

On my way back to BC, I’ll be making a few stops to visit friends along the way, as well as a stop in Calgary to visit my dad and other brother and sister. Maybe a week back in BC and then I head back to Boulder. Then I get to stay put for the summer. What a treat that will be. :-) Late August I head back to Canada again to compete in Ironman Canada and then mid-September I head to Kona, Hawaii for Gordo’s next Epic Camp and the Ironman World Championships.

And now we’re in October — October 20th to be exact — and I don’t have a clue what happens next, but there’s still two months left in the year!

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Happy New Year — Training in Nelson

I started 2004 off the best way I can think to start a new year. Not hung over like had so many years previously, but full of energy and doing one of the things I love most. I started the day, and the year, off with a solo triathlon.

The house we had rented for the week was only 500 meters up the road from a 25-meter pool. Home was my transition area. How convenient is that. I walked over to the pool, swam 1500 meters, ran up the street to T1, changed, hopped on my bike and was off for a toasty 40K ride. Back to T2, dropped the bike swapped shoes and hat and took off running. Gordo commented that my transition was faster than race day. ;-) I found a nice little trail close to the house. It wasn’t very long, but any trail rocks in my books. This one was no different. Through part of it the trail was actually a wooden bridge walkway. I kept running circles so I could run that part over and over again. There’s something about the sound of feet striking wooden bridges that I really dig.

So that was New Year’s Day. A mighty fine way to kick off the year, if I do say so myself.

The rest of the week’s training in Nelson was pretty good, but I started getting tired. Gordo decided I needed a day off to do something non-tri. Do something fun that I always wanted to do. Hmm... I drew a total blank. I had no idea at all what to do! Kind of funny really. We spend so much time swimming, biking and running as triathletes, that when its time to do something else, we don’t know what to do. I mentioned this to Scott Molina who suggested making a “Things I Like to Do” list for days just like this. A “things I like” list — we are an anal bunch, aren’t we. ;-)

One thing I do love to do that is non-triathlon related is horseback riding. So, I took a few hours out of my day and found a riding stable not far from us to go for a ride. Bit of a boring route, but it was just nice to be out there and getting lost in the day.

I ended my stay in Nelson with another solo triathlon. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning. The kind of morning that makes you realize how lucky you are, that makes you smile just because. Nothing quite like those mornings. And I got the best of the day. The guys left for the road trip home, on their bikes, after I returned from my solo tri. About an hour later, the weather turned nasty in a flash — the temperature drops several degrees, the winds picked up, and the heavens opened up with heavy, non-stop rain... all day long.

6 January 2004

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Trouble in Queenstown

January 12th was my birthday. I started the day by hopping on a plane with my Mom, who arrived in New Zealand the day before, and flying to Queenstown for three days. The plan was for the two of us to have some time together and be touristy while I recovered from my half Ironman race two days earlier. As well, Mom was helping with support on the Epic Camp again, and once that started it would be hard for us to spend any mom/daughter time together.

The first day there started off innocently enough. We walked all over town shopping and café hopping. We treated ourselves to a massage, caught an afternoon movie and then went out for an excellent dinner of Thai food and wine. It was certainly and relaxing and enjoyable day, although my heel is a little sore from all the walking.

The next day we had an all-day horseback ride planned. My Mom used to have her own horse as well, and its one of the things we like to do together. At 7am a shuttle picked us up and drove us the 45 minutes to Glenorchy. A little village of less than 200 permanent residents. I saddled up on an awesome horse named Jazz. He was a big Thoroughbred that had been a champion eventer in his day. What a fantastic horse to ride.

The ride took us up along the Dart River — and through it a few times — as it wound its way into Lord of the Rings filming territory. That was the main reason for taking this all-day ride — my Mom really wanted to see some of the LotR filming locations. An all-day ride might have been a little ambitious, however. It’s a long time in the saddle when you don’t ride regularly. My butt was fine, probably because I spend so much time on a bike saddle, but my knees were cramping up something fierce. I think my Mom’s butt suffered a little more. It was a good day out when all was said and done though. Certainly a nice way to spend the day.

So now I have a sore heel, my lower back is a little sore from all the riding and I have bruises on the insides of my calves from the stirrup buckle. But, I’m recovering from my half Ironman.

Our third day we had another adventure planned. This one was a coach/hike/jet boat adventure up the Dart River and into Paradise where a fair bit of Lord of the Rings was filmed.

Again, an early morning shuttle picked us up for the drive to Glenorchy. There we got on the coach for an hour’s drive to Paradise. The driver pointed out spots along the way where not only LotR was filmed, but also such films as Vertical Velocity (I think that was the name – the climbing movie with Chris O’Donnell) and Willow were filmed.

When we arrived in Paradise, we did a short hike through a moss-carpeted forest. No wonder they filmed parts of LotR there. Absolutely gorgeous. The trail spit us out in an opening where three jet boats were waiting. My Mom and I hopped into the front seats on one and off we went.

If you’ve never been on a jet boat, I’d highly recommend it... sort of. It’s a total blast! We were whisked up the river into glacial waters whose colours were so beautiful no description could do it justice. We shot around boulders rising up out of the river and tall towers of rock topped with trees that were cut and shaped by the raging river.

Bouncing along, twisting and turning, having a blast when all of a sudden, BOOM! What the...? Was that supposed to happen? Apparently not. The driver managed to broadside the back of the boat into a rather large submerged boulder. It was enough to nearly bounce a couple people out the back. Fortunately everyone remained in the boat. However, one girl hurt her forearm, the driver nearly dislocated his shoulder, my Mom got a huge bruise on her arm and I not only smacked my head pretty good, I also got a touch of whiplash. Joy. Just what I need when what I need to be doing is training.

So that afternoon, I returned to Christchurch with a sore heel, a sore back, bruised calves, a goose egg on my head, whiplash, and a little more tired than when I left. I think I've recovered quite well from my race. ;-)

All that aside, it was a great few days. Too bad I don’t have any time for some recovery from my recovery. In two days we leave for Epic Camp. Nothing has changed, however. It’s still all good. :-)

14 January 2004

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What Do You Do For Fun?

On the second day of Epic Camp I was pretty wiped out. The travel up to Auckland where the camp started was a little psychotic. We had a 5:30 am ferry to catch, and a 4.5-hour drive to get to it. We left at 10:00 pm the night before and managed to snooze in the van about 90 minutes. The ferry takes three hours to cross the Cook Strait, so I took advantage of that for another nap. Once off the ferry, it was another eight-hour drive to Auckland. Needless to say, we were a little tired and somewhat irritable when we arrived.

I slept a solid 12 hours that night. One of those slumbers so deep you wake up in the exact same position you laid down in. All would have been good if I’d gone to bed at a decent hour that night, or not risen so early for a swim with the Epic Crew the next morning. However, I had just landed a new web client and wanted to get some work done on the project... one of those ‘can’t sleep ‘til I’m done’ modes.

By the second day of the camp, Gordo decided it was time for drastic measures. The Crew would be riding to Colville that day, leaving the bikes there then shuttling up to the start of the trailhead. I was told to do absolutely nothing that day, and to ensure I would do nothing, my job for the afternoon was to stay in Colville and babysit the bikes.

What to do for five hours sitting under a tree? I did some yoga and stretching, wrote some postcards, took a nap, chatted with the locals that were most intrigued with all the flash bikes. So, as I was sitting there hanging out, eating a bag of cherries, this Maori dude comes over and starts talking about the bikes, and what we do, and the “shiny guys” that ride them. He started telling me that he would like to do an Ironman one day and that he used to be really fit... but that was 16 years ago.

A little into our conversation he says to me, “Do you smoke pot?” What? He must have thought I didn’t understand since he then said, “You know, marijuana.” Yeah, I know ‘marijuana’. Been there done that — a lifetime ago. I said, “Uh no, not so much.” Then he asked if the other athletes smoked pot. Same answer, not so much. He ponders that for a minute and then says, “So what do you do for fun?” I had to laugh, “Dude, this IS fun!”

I don't think he got it.

20 January 2004

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Muddy & Bloody

I’ve discovered a new passion — trail running. The crazier the trail the better. There’s just something about being out on a trail that’s so completely insane, all you can do is laugh. Maybe it’s the being out in total wilderness, or the adrenaline rush from keeping your feet quick and senses sharp. I really don’t know, but it feeds something in me that I can’t quite describe. Quite simply, I love it.

So when Gordo told me to go do a four-hour hike, I asked if I could run some of it. I had a bit of a cough that half the Epic Crew succumbed to, but I was feeling good, my energy was rising, and I wanted to run. He said I could run as much as I wanted. I don’t think he would have said that if he’d known just how much I’d run. ;-)

The route was a trail called Mangahuia Track. It picked up right off the state highway just a mile down the road from our hotel and wound its way to the Whakapapa Village. The plan was I would leave first to hike/run, then the Epic Crew would leave an hour or so after and we’d all arrive in the Village about the same where the van would pick us up. Some folks had the option to run back to the hotel — an additional 8K downhill along the road.

I started off running, planning only to run as long as I felt good. The trail wasn’t much to speak of at first, but I kept running. Then the trail dipped into a small wooded area — undulating, winding, through mud, gulleys, over rocks and tree roots... I started smiling and kept running.

I’d been running just over an hour when I hit a section that opened up, almost like a plateau, but seemed more uphill than it looked. The ground was boggy and there were tree shrubs that had been chopped down close to the ground, making footing even more tricky. I had to walk across this section as I just couldn’t keep my heart rate under 160 bpm. That’s well above an easy, even steady, HR. The bog almost took my runners a couple times. One time my foot sunk as far as mid-shin. I’ll be keeping my shoe, thank you very much.

Twenty minutes later I was running again along path that was now a wood bridge trail. I love running on wooden bridges and this one seemed to go on forever. It wound along and stair stepped up and down as it went.

Now I was back into the woods and sections of the trail were no more than creek beds. Up and down I ran, over rocks and trees and ledges and through creeks and streams. Coming down to one stream crossing, the trail was ledged clay-like wet dirt. I miscalculated my footing and went sliding down the embankment on my butt. I was laughing, totally covered in mud, but got up and kept running. Then I noticed blood on my knee. Stopped in a creek to rinse it off and ascertained it was nothing at all to worry about, so I continued on. Running.

I kept running until suddenly, the trail popped out into a parking lot. Just like that. I had run the whole trail and I was feeling excellent. I wandered into the Village, refilled my water, ate a Powerbar, stretched a little, and wondered how I was going to kill the next 90 minutes waiting for the van. I did a little calculation in my head, took a mental stock of how my body was feeling, how my energy levels were, and decided, yeah! I started running again... the full loop back to the hotel.

When I got back, I had run a total of three hours and I was feeling fantastic. Gordo said, “Great workout, Wy, but I don’t think we need to be doing anymore three hour runs for IMNZ...” ;-)

29 January 2004

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