Happy New Year 2010....
What a fantastic way to see the new year! according to the pilot of NZ1 earlier this morning, my flight (NZ1) was the last plane to leave Los Angeles that would be crossing the international date-line, which means we were the first people to see 2010! How cool is that :)
Flight's were nice and uneventful (just how i like my flights!!) and I was entertained by Peter Kay's (comedy genius) new book.
The other athletes are now starting to arrive throughout today and early morning and then tomorrow we'll be making our way by coach to Cape Reinga, where we'll properly kick off the camp with a 20km run. Now, as everyone knows its a pretty long way to go, but you get 24 athletes together in the same place at the same time, and yep, pretty much it'll turn into a race!! :) brilliant.
Im sure we'll settle into a rhythm by day 2, so everythings shaping up to be a great trip. Some quality banter already taking and shape and incredibly cricket hasnt been mentioned once as yet by the aussies!! :)
So far not falling asleep which is good, so just need to make it to 9pm this evening and I should be set for tomorrow's early morning easy run, just to stretch the legs.
Oh yeah, techy bits;
Resting HR this morning: 39bpm (hhmmm...very rested then)
Bodyweight: 72.5kg
Be interesting to see how these change on a daily basis.
Thursday 31 December 2009
Tuesday 29 December 2009
Production Crew
Just found out that our training camp will have a documentary production crew in tow throughout the trip. Exciting stuff! Don't fancy cycling or swimming with those big heavy cameras though.
Pre-Flight Checks
Pre-Flight Checks!
Right then...only a day to go before the flight and its FREEZING in the UK!! no change there then :) but we've had the shortest day now so its all good.
Xmas was fantastic with the family and managed to get in a couple of solid back to back 10milers in on xmas and boxing day, more just to check out the fitness and the legs really. No more gains can be made in the fitness department now, so just ticking over nicely at the moment.
So then....packing! the tricky bit of deciding what to take....after a few false starts the bike is in the box. When im back at work, I'll start designing stuff using the same threads as my pedals - im sure they are self tightening!!! never to be loosened. Fortunately an allen key with a 1.5m long aluminium broom handle seemed to loosen it nicely! :p
Im just chilling now, having a little think as what I want out of the training camp...after a lot of deliberation, I think i have the following aims;
1. Have fun and do something so far out of my comfort zone, I cant even see the horizon. Based on the fact that its fascinating to find out what happens when we go up and beyond normal physical boundaries but with full support from a team of helpers...interesting to see how i handle it :)
2. Train with some of the best endurance athletes in the world and see how i stack up, competitive edge starting to overtake the initial nervous anticipation that i had earlier today :)
3. Have fun (did i mention that already!?), get some top photos, some quality banter with people on camp and some quality pub stories for the next year or so :)
4. Play at being a pro for the next 18 days and experience what they actually get up to - apparently, despite popular myth, its not 8hrs training on the Wii!! - although the Wii Fit is pretty hard!!!
Haha...oooo....nearly forgot, also get to spend 18days chatting about bikes/training/carbon and whether Team Sky will dominate cycling season, without people glazing over, hehe...
My next update should be when i arrive in NZ on the 1st Jan, a couple of days before the start of training proper. Ill try and describe the training, food intake (massive) and a few general stats and comedy notes about the guys im training with.
Have a great New Years Eve.
Right then...only a day to go before the flight and its FREEZING in the UK!! no change there then :) but we've had the shortest day now so its all good.
Xmas was fantastic with the family and managed to get in a couple of solid back to back 10milers in on xmas and boxing day, more just to check out the fitness and the legs really. No more gains can be made in the fitness department now, so just ticking over nicely at the moment.
So then....packing! the tricky bit of deciding what to take....after a few false starts the bike is in the box. When im back at work, I'll start designing stuff using the same threads as my pedals - im sure they are self tightening!!! never to be loosened. Fortunately an allen key with a 1.5m long aluminium broom handle seemed to loosen it nicely! :p
Im just chilling now, having a little think as what I want out of the training camp...after a lot of deliberation, I think i have the following aims;
1. Have fun and do something so far out of my comfort zone, I cant even see the horizon. Based on the fact that its fascinating to find out what happens when we go up and beyond normal physical boundaries but with full support from a team of helpers...interesting to see how i handle it :)
2. Train with some of the best endurance athletes in the world and see how i stack up, competitive edge starting to overtake the initial nervous anticipation that i had earlier today :)
3. Have fun (did i mention that already!?), get some top photos, some quality banter with people on camp and some quality pub stories for the next year or so :)
4. Play at being a pro for the next 18 days and experience what they actually get up to - apparently, despite popular myth, its not 8hrs training on the Wii!! - although the Wii Fit is pretty hard!!!
Haha...oooo....nearly forgot, also get to spend 18days chatting about bikes/training/carbon and whether Team Sky will dominate cycling season, without people glazing over, hehe...
My next update should be when i arrive in NZ on the 1st Jan, a couple of days before the start of training proper. Ill try and describe the training, food intake (massive) and a few general stats and comedy notes about the guys im training with.
Have a great New Years Eve.
Wednesday 23 December 2009
Morning, well then....its all snow and ice here in the UK at the moment, -4deg when I stepped into the car earlier on... hoping the temperatures are significantly warmer the other side of the planet.
Right then...the boys have sorted the stages out for the riding, so here's a breakdown of the cycle distances pencilled in for each particular day. This dont include the swimming and the running sections!!! Hhhmm...think Gordon might be saving those as special end of the day treats????
ISLAND STAGE DISTANCE (km)
North Island Stage 1 - Cape Reinga to Kaitaia 89.7
Stage 2 - Kaitaia to Whangarei 199.33
Stage 3 - Whanagarei to North Shore 172.06
Stage 4 -Coromandel to Matamata 143.91
Stage 5 - Matamata to Turangi 181.91
Stage 6: Turangi to Wanganui 170.05
Stage 7: Wanganui Masterton 197.19
Stage 8: Masterton to Wellington 133.58
The Cook Straight
South Island Stage 9: Picton to Blenheim 28.2
Stage 10: Blenhiem to Kaikoura 128.11
Stage 11 Kaikoura to Christchurch 180.5
Stage 12 Christchurch to Geraldine 149.27
Stage 13 Gerladine to Waianakarua 147.58
Stage 14 Waianakarua to Balclutha 184.04
Stage 15 Balclutha to Bluff 181.35
Tickover training is going well, although I think ive almost stared through the backwall of the garage, seems like ive been in there for hours, in reality probably only a few minutes, seems like hours though!
Getting excited now and raring to go, trying desperately to avoid the urge to go and do some nuts last minute training - fortunately xmas cake and snow is helping me prevent that.
Right then...the boys have sorted the stages out for the riding, so here's a breakdown of the cycle distances pencilled in for each particular day. This dont include the swimming and the running sections!!! Hhhmm...think Gordon might be saving those as special end of the day treats????
ISLAND STAGE DISTANCE (km)
North Island Stage 1 - Cape Reinga to Kaitaia 89.7
Stage 2 - Kaitaia to Whangarei 199.33
Stage 3 - Whanagarei to North Shore 172.06
Stage 4 -Coromandel to Matamata 143.91
Stage 5 - Matamata to Turangi 181.91
Stage 6: Turangi to Wanganui 170.05
Stage 7: Wanganui Masterton 197.19
Stage 8: Masterton to Wellington 133.58
The Cook Straight
South Island Stage 9: Picton to Blenheim 28.2
Stage 10: Blenhiem to Kaikoura 128.11
Stage 11 Kaikoura to Christchurch 180.5
Stage 12 Christchurch to Geraldine 149.27
Stage 13 Gerladine to Waianakarua 147.58
Stage 14 Waianakarua to Balclutha 184.04
Stage 15 Balclutha to Bluff 181.35
Tickover training is going well, although I think ive almost stared through the backwall of the garage, seems like ive been in there for hours, in reality probably only a few minutes, seems like hours though!
Getting excited now and raring to go, trying desperately to avoid the urge to go and do some nuts last minute training - fortunately xmas cake and snow is helping me prevent that.
Saturday 19 December 2009
A week and a half to go
Hi, only a week to go till christmas, which only a week and a half to go until the big flight to NZ - kit list is now complete, so just the packing and keeping tickover on the training side of things.
Starting to get my head around the task of riding 2300km from the Northern tip of the North Island to the Southern tip of the South Island. Really looking forward to it and catching up with some good mates ive not seen in a while.
My weapon of choice for the training camp is a 2008 Specialized Tarmac Pro SL...mmmmm....super comfy, but brilliantly stiff for climbing and going for those extra little points at the sprints to keep me high on the score board. Im also taking my Powertap SL+ to track power and chart progress throughout the trip.
My aim is to try and upload notes and photos at the end of each day, so you can all keep track of where I am and how im doing.....and more importantly record the cake consumption.
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