1) I have a goal - It is always good to have a long term goal to keep you motivated and focussed, for me this is the Ironman World Champs in Kona, Hawaii.  But this goal could be anything, my brother just did his first sprint triathlon as part of the PeoplesTri series and this goal kept him motivated with regard to getting in the pool and actually learning how to do freestyle.  Having a goal means that when my alarm goes at 5.30am every morning and I start asking myself those familiar questions such as ‘just stay in bed’, ‘just do the swim session tonight instead’, ‘sleep in for another 1hr and go swimming then’ I can answer them all with reasons why I am getting out of bed.  What also helps is that in my bathroom at home I have a photo of the 40km marker on the IMNZ run course, that always reminds me what my goals are and why I am doing this.

2) I want to win – I read a great quote a while back that went along the lines of ‘if you’re not out there training, your competition is’, for me this is a great source of motivation when I look out the window and see pouring rain just when I need to be going out for a 6hr training ride!  I find a lot of people see the glory of the win, you know the crossing the finish line arms in the air, tears sometimes, and don’t quite realise the work that goes into getting there.  Motivation is easy to come by when you’ve just won a race and you’re at the start of the season, but when you’re in a hard training block you have to draw from something deeper to get the motivation to head out when really what you want to do is lie on the couch with a blanket watching re-runs of keeping up with the kardashians!  I’m a sucker for routine and I HATE missing a training session and it is a great feeling to be standing on the start line and knowing you have done absolutely everything you need to have done and know it’s about going out there and smashing it.  Maddy, a girl I train with and a very strong triathlete, words it nicely when she says racing is the fun part after all the hard work – unless you see it that way you probably need to ask why you’re doing it.

3) Training with friends – I am really lucky to have a super supportive bunch of people around me at the North Harbour Tri Club, sometimes the motivation to get up in the morning is knowing that in a few hours I’ll be sharing a coffee and some brekkie with a great group of friends.  Training for something like an Ironman requires a high level of support and having training partners for those big sessions is critical.  My training buddies for IMNZ (the ‘mongrel squad’) were fantastic and absolutely made my Ironman journey what it was.  When you go through tough times, like the race being halved, you can go through it together and have people around you who understand what it is you’re going through.  Race day is obviously an individual event, and to be honest at the start of a race I have no friends out there but leading up to the race and afterwards I need those people around me – enthusiasm is infectious and when you feel low you can be pulled up by those around you and vice versa.

So there’s my little speel about motivation.  I do find videos and music really motivating too, the song ‘Sail’ by AwolNation is my new fav, and the following youTube clip is a recently found gem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DriSmFYnUeo

Training wise, this week was my first week back to ‘proper’ training, culminating in a 4hr ride tomorrow through the waitaks (and to Kumeu for a delicious rasberry bun at the local bakery!) – and it feels great to be back, only 4 short months before I head across to Hawaii, cannot believe it has crept up on me so fast!

Catch ya laters

pre race nerves

post race high!!

After the 70.3 I enjoyed the time half training/half eating a lot of candy, choco and wines!  The week after a crew of us from NHTC went down to Wellington to race nationals, it was awesome.  It was actually really good to just do a race without much pressure/nerves and enjoy the whole atmosphere.  A group of us did the team super sprint (200m swim / 5km cycle / 1500m run), and it was so much fun.  Swimming in the Wellington harbour in March without a wetsuit was definitely an experiece, at least it was only 200m.  That night was a blast…Hayden, Jo, Indy, Leon, Shannon and I went out to Sweet Mothers Kitchen where I went into a total food coma: fried chicken, queasdilla, curly fries and deep fried donuts, also a decent amount of sangria, a great night, the next day…not so fun, haha!

Since Wellington I started getting into a bit of mountain biking as I was surprising Hayden over easter with a mountain biking trip to Taupo, and thought I perhaps should be a bit more skilled than the 1st grade beginner I was previously – even did a skills course down in Rotorua, primo!  Taupo was great, we rode the W2K track over by Kinloch and I didn’t get off my bike once, good times…although Hayden and Lachie were ripping it up quite far ahead of me, it was nice to be out amongst the forest, rather than worrying about being hit by a car!  Then it was on to one of my favourite triathlons of the season, Xterra.  Hayden and I decided to do it as a team (with him doing the Mountain BIke) and me doing the swim and run…problem was I had lost a bet earlier in the year and I had to do the run dressed as a cavewoman.  Never had so many people cheering me on, although not much of them were saying my name, it was more like “go Jane, where’s Tarzan?!”, “whoop whoop go pebbles!” etc.  On Sunday headed out for a ride with my old training partner Graham, it was stunning and felt like I was getting back in the grove again, almost ready to begin the build up to Kona I think – it’s taken a while…funny how physically you can be so ready but mentally it seemed to take longer.

can't complain about the view here (and love the new Air NZ kit, thanks Nige!)

 And now, here I am…just finished the Panasonic Triathlon, last one for the season.  Was a great day out, it was a bit of mano o mano between Indy and I, she’d beaten me at Wellington and I was after a bit of redemption…looks like i’ll have to wait till next season though, damn!  Was awesome to see so much of the club out there, and a lot of friends out racing, including my brother Stu who did his first ever Triathlon and he was awesome!  Hope he’s been bitten by the bug.  All of this reminds me that although triathlon is an individual sport, in reality it’s not.  The amount of support I had down at Taupo after the Ironman cancellation, the people I train with and the people I race with really show that it is a collective sport, and this is what has given me that kick of motivation I was after to get into my Kona campaign…Bring on October 2012…less than 6 months

draft legal races can be a LOT of fun!!!

Kulia i ka nu’u – Strive for the Summit

Every day as I lead up to Ironman i’m getting more and more excited and nervous, heading down to Taupo on Monday morning to chill there for the week and soak up the atmosphere (read: chilling at BodyFuel!).  I have a great support crew heading down, led by my super-supportive amazing boyfriend Hayden – I think he is stoked I am less of a zombie now I’m on taper!!!  I have gone without candy and chocolate for the last week and will try and hold out until I cross that finish line, then I swear to god I will be going absolutely nuts!  The champagne is bought and sitting where I can see it each day as a bit of motivation, 2mths of no alcohol and counting.  My bike and helmet have been pimped out with customer made ‘Kawasaki Ninja’ stickers and bright green speedy tyres – looks awesome.  Toe nails are painted in racing green.  So i’m set to go!  Good thing about taper was that this morning I actually got to have brekkie with the NHTC crew, was so good, and the team was super supportive in sending me off, see you guys out on the course!

hmmm ensure - drink of champions (and the elderly!)

the pre-race pedicure!

the Kawasaki Ninja, boom!

 So this will be the last post before I get out there to test myself both physically and mentally (and emotionally).  It’s been a hell of a journey and has taught me a lot about myself and has really shown me that any boundaries or limits you think you have are actually not there at all – with committment and dedication you can break through anything.  As always I’ll finish with a quote, this will be the one i’ll read on race morning…

“Your biggest challenge isn’t someone else.  It’s the ache in your lungs and the burning in your legs, and the voice inside you that yells ‘CAN’T', but then you don’t listen.  You just push harder.  And then you hear the voice whisper ‘can’.  And you discover that the person you thought you were is no match for the one you really are.”

Whaia te iti kahuranga ki te tuahu koe me he maunga teitei

I’d always heard about the infamous Auckland to Coromandel ferry ride that is about 200km and the various stories involved i.e. people missing the ferry and having to stay in the Coromandel for 3 days until the next ferry, pies and chelsea buns in Thames etc.  So three weeks ago, when the weekend weather actually looked fairly reasonable I organised a bunch of us to head out.  There were about 11 of us in total (an early bunch and a late bunch) and it was an awesome ride and definitely lived up to expection!  First stop was coffee at Clevedon and then after time trialling our way to Thames (thanks Mike for the drag!) we had lunch at a bakery…hmmm delicious bakery food – ginger crunch is the ticket.  Weather got pretty cold so after a quick stop at Farmers to pick up cheap-as thermas we were on our way to the Coromandel.  I’d heard a lot about the last 3 hills that lead into Coromandel, they were great actually, long, windy and steep, just the way I like it (yes I am slightly crazy!).  All of us met up at a great cafe in Coromandel and the last snacks before jumping on the 2hr ferry back to the city…learning of the day, after spending the ferry ride napping and eating, probably not the best to head out for a run, a few ‘head-spinning’ stops later and i was walking home to eat dinner and go to bed

hmmm lunch at Thames, delicious!

the crew at coromandel...all smiles after 200km!

at the ferry ready to head back home

booo-yahhh my first 200km ride!

So the training doesn’t stop with a 200km epic ride to Coromandel, the weekend after it was off for a tour of Northland for Auckland Anniversary.  Michelle was back in town (after her fantastic Ironman WA performance) and we’d planned a trip that started in Omapere, stopped off in Kai Iwi Lakes and then ended on Steve’s lawn at Mangawhai Heads.  Another great trip and such a good way to mix up the long training hours, accidentally had some of the girls come on a 3hr hilly ride when i’d promised them an easy 90min effort…whoops!  The ride from Omapere through the Kauri Forest into Kai Iwi is still my favourite ride in New Zealand, especially with a stop off to see Tane Mahuta, god of the forest.  Of course food was a highlight of the trip and the fish and chips at Kai Iwi was primo!  After a brief stop at cafe ‘blah blah blah’ in Dargaville for eggs on toast, Michelle, Leon and I rode the 6hr trip into Mangawhai Heads.  Weather became beautiful on Monday morning which was perfect for our trail run to the top of Mangawhai heads and our swim around the heads – was like swimming in a fish tank…so clear!  Dave brought out the skim board and long boards and we spent the rest of the afternoon lazing on the beach and, in my case, getting really really burnt (I swear my whole back has now peeled off).

rearing and ready to go!

Indy and Becs cycling up to the Kauri Forest

the massive Tane Mahuta!

camping at Kai Iwi...whoop whoop

the Mangawhai trail run

running along the beach...awesome!

And finally, to top off the last awesome 3 weeks, I had my Ironman Training Camp down in Taupo over this last weekend.  It was fantastic!  Admittedly I was pretty shattered most of the time but the people who were there were really inspirational and motivating, including coach Farrell of course.  Sue did a great job with the cooking and wrote out the whole menu (breakfasts, lunches and dinners) on the first night…bliss…so much to look forward to.  We all arrived Friday night and introduced ourselves, had some great choco-caramel slice and rasberry coconut slice (cooked by my roomie Sam) and then went to bed pretty early to get ready for our first big day Saturday.  We got up at the gentlemens hours of 7am and then of course went and got coffee from BodyFuel (best cafe in Taupo) and headed out for our 6hr ride.  I was under strict instructions to ride easy and with 200+ other Ironmen athletes out on the course, it was hard not to get carried away and pretend you were racing.  But I behaved and rewarded myself by smashing the run afterwards and trying to ‘break’ my coach…don’t think that is possible though, won’t be trying that again!

I was quite nervous about Day2 which was getting up at 5am and doing my longest run ever…3hrs!  It actually turned out to be pretty good, a few of us got into a great debate about milk pricing for about an hour which definitely made the time pass pretty quick.  After the run it was off into Kinloch to watch the elite sprint racing…was pretty smashed so most of the time was spent under a tree by the chilly bin eating!  Thanks for the choco coated jelly beans Indy, they were gold!  If a 3hr run and 1hr ride wasn’t enough, we then went out for an ocean swim when we got back to Taupo…was definitely a challenge to get the motivation to keep swimming in chop for an hour, the fun trampoline at Acacia Bay made up for it though  

Monday was a ‘chilled’ out day and we did lots of fun stuff like floating down from Cherry Park down to the hot pools near the Huka Falls.  Floating down a river was awesome and made you feel like such a quick swimmer, we even saw some trout and a fresh water lobster, wicked!  That chilled out day was totally needed for what was going to happen the next day…race simulation for 7.5hrs!  I felt pretty nervous but once we started it was AWESOME!!!  The swim was great, swimming in the lake at sunrise was beautiful, especially being able to see the bottom the whole way out to turnaround.  Five hour bike was next and the weather was stunning, perfect for working on the cycling tan lines, have to say that I am getting pretty sick of ensure now though!  Finished it all off with a run on the course and I did a little finish chute visualisation…think the girl sitting in the park might have thought I was a bit crazy!  Ended the weekend at Bodyfuel eating and eating and eating and drinking some coffee…perfect end to the weekend.  Bring on Ironman!!!!!!  Big thanks to the Mongrel Squad too (Steve, Sam, Graham, Pauly, Rick, Johnny and Wayne!) and also Sue the great cook – made the weekend

Steve and Graham being...themselves

hmmmm dinner...not much talking that's for sure!

morning swim at Acacia Bay

ohhh body fuel - legend!

A couple more weeks of massive training and then it’s game time!  Getting excited!

Anna.

My first goal for the day was to avoid all the road cones along marine parade and thank god I did not hit a single one and I could actually finish the race instead of hearing radio coverage while lying in a hospital bed!  Got into a good bunch with a couple of girls in it and a few guys.  Rode the first lap on target and headed out for the second.  I’m not used to flat courses like Tauranga, mostly do hilly ones where I barely listen to the drafting rules because it’s pretty hard to draft up and down hill.  I knew I was pretty close to the girl in front but thought it was on the 7m rule…apparently not, next thing I have a motorbike come up to me with a big yellow card “number 179 you have a drafting penalty” – oh mi god did I feel like such a cheater!!!!  Same feeling I would have when I was little and get caught eating the cookie mix before my mum put them in the oven!  Was pretty disappointed with myself but sucked it up and kept and eye out for the penalty box…have to say that 3mins was the longest in my life!  Did give me some good motivation heading back for the last portion of the bike and I knew I would have to do a killer run to catch the leader.  I did manage my fastest run time ever but not quite good enough to catch the leader who finished 2mins ahead of me…all in all though totally stoked!

kawasaki!!!!

out on the run and a rare smile!

pammie and I celebrating our medals

hmmmm post race burger!

The Bet

Another big motivation for doing well in this race was a bet I had on with Sarah (the swimmer), Libby (the cyclist) and Indy (the runner) on who would have the faster race time…me as an individual or them as a team.  The consequence of losing this bet was skulling a warm pint of Guinness then running to the summit of The Mount, that is pretty good motivation not to lose!  I had people yelling at me on the run ‘Anna think about the Guinness’, ‘You don’t want to drink warm Guinness do you?!’…it was hilarious, probably for the people racing next to me too!  I was pretty nervous at the end when someone said Indy was about to finish, that would have put them about 20mins ahead of me…thank god she was about to finish her 1st lap, not the second!  So long story short, I won, yay!  And all respect to those 3 girls who turned up at the base of the mount at 3.30pm sharp, strugged through their beer (with a little bit of reverse skulling action) and then ran/walked/crawled to the top.  Hayden very nicely ran to the top and made sure they got their legitamately…I think they are plotting their revenge now – bring it on

not many happy faces here!

hmmm Libby looks like she may be sick, Indy is 2secs away from losing her lunch!

and off they go!

they made it...respect!

So now back to work and then into the hard work of prep into Ironman, feeling a lot more confident now – will be an interesting few weeks!

Catch ya later

Anna.

riding out of Whitianga

sun rise at the top of Coromandel hills...stunning

riding into Coromandel Township

very inviting water at Thames

hmmm Christmas Cake!!!

i'm home...such a great sign to see!

not quite 200km but definitely the longest ride ever!

hmmmm my post ride snack, such a good mix of food

The rest of the holiday was spent eating lots of food, reading and trying to chill out.  Did a great run with Kristen from the top of pumpkin hill down to Sailors Grave, quite technical but loads of fun.  Met Little Jo and Jarrod for a ride out of Cooks beach and then it was back to work for me   Next blog…Tauranga and ‘The Bet’!!

Kristen at Sailors Grave

Anna

Last weekend had my first ‘race’ since Vegas, i’ve put inverted commas there because under coaches orders I wasn’t allowed to do the run and so it was just a swim/bike effort for Rotorua half IM.  Was really disappointed I couldn’t do the whole thing because it’s one of my favourite races and last year I managed to win it, so was hoping to go back and defend my title.  This is apparently what the local paper though to as I was on the front page with the words “Anna Ross, the female winner of last year’s Rotorua Half Ironman, is back for more this Saturday.” – ohhh if only that were true!  But lucky for me I had a great runner to do the run for me, Lachie promised a sub 1.20 half marathon, and he got pretty damn close to that, coming in with a 1.24 in extremely muddy and wet conditions and only 3mins behind the pace of Keiran Doe – good work Lachie!!!!  As far as my race went, it was AWESOME, I absolutely love racing in Rotorua, especially down at the Blue Lake and although the constant rain was a downer for the supporters I didn’t even notice it.  The swim in the lake was beautiful as always and I actually managed to stay on someones toes for the entire swim, never been able to do that before, she probably found it super annoying but oh well, guess that’s racing (hehe).  The bike was heaps of fun, had put some race wheels on and was in the kawasaki green aero helmet, how things have changed, at the beginning of the year I wouldn’t have been caught dead in any aero gear!  I had a goal to catch up to as many age-groupers as I could (they had started 25 mins before me) and I managed to get all but 2 of them, super stoked!  It was great to have my parents out there on the course too…being willing to drive around then stand in the pouring rain waiting for me to speed past is the true meaning of support, really appreciated guys , here’s hoping the weather in March is nice and sunny aye!

lachie and I getting ready for the race

we won!!! 1st prize = champagne and a giant soft toy penguin!

A big shout out to my friend Rachel too, she did her first half IM down at Rotorua, which is very impressive as it is one of the hardest half IM courses in NZ.  She made it in well before the 6hr mark and looked strong crossing the finish line…see you at the next one Rachel

We spent the rest of the weekend either inside our cabin at the thermal park or down at Zippy’s drinking coffee, I don’t think I have seen such hard, consistent rain for a while.  We all got a bit of cabin fever and were well and truly grumps by the time we got back to Auckland on Sunday afternoon!  This week I have decided it is my last week of eating crap food before the build up to Ironman and I have definitely been making the most of it!  On Monday night we headed to Hayden’s family friends place (Gary and Olwyn) where we had a pre-christmas dinner…and it was amazing!  First there was the camembert that was baked in maple syrup, hmmmm and then a big highlight for me which is rum balls, Olwyn had given me my own little stash and although I tried to make them last until christmas day I’m sad to say they are all gone   Tuesday night was another food highlight.  It was our last official training day at NHTC and we had our annual christmas bbq at Jane’s place after a peskly little 40km time trial on the Wind trainers.  Congratulations have to go to Hayden who beat me in the time trial…i’ll have to wait another year now until I can seek my revenge, lucky there was no bet on this one!!  Jane’s partner Mark makes cakes…enough said, the cakes at the bbq were absolutely amazing – a mars bar and kahlua cheesecake, anything better?!?

it's all mine!!!!

not only one cheesecake, but two!

Just about to go into 4 days off work for the Christmas break, heading across to Whitianga to spend it with my family and have decided to use it as a bit of an unofficial training camp.  Have put the challenge to myself of riding the K2 course (solo) this Saturday, it’s going to take a while but with slices of christmas cake in tow it shouldn’t be too bad.  A friend of mine from work is going to be in the same area so we’ve got lots of adventures sorted too…heading out on some great trail runs, one of the to a sailor’s grave, should be interesting, i’ll take lots of photos.  Have been watching lots of IM videos at the moment as well, feeling super motivated and can’t wait to get to March – have even found an IM song…Titanium by David Guetta – listen to the lyrics, very relevant

Well that’s all for now, will check back in after the holidays, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

While I’ve been whiling away the days watching TV I have lived vicariously through Hayden’s adventures, which I will now pass of as my own.  Firstly was the walk of Las Vegas strip at night, a must do, and what we will be doing together the night after the race where we’re staying at the Bellagio, yeah!  I think Hayden was pretty amazed with what everyone calls the ‘adults disneyland’… there are roller coasters everywhere, margarita’s to be drunk by the yard glass and lots and lots of neon.

viva las vegas!

The Bellagio, the location of our all-nighter post race celebration

the location of our pre-race athletes briefing...a hotel in the middle of the desert, next to a man made lake, only in vegas!

The highlight of the week was Diggerland, actually started by a New Zealander in the heart of vegas that lets boys go and use big diggers to basically dig holes…This was Hayden’s mecca and you can see by the cheesy shots below how ‘unhappy’ he was to be there…not!

a dream come true

big yella the digger!

big yella in action

Okay, now onto the race.  This is a long distance triathlon which sits somewhere in between a 70.3 and an Ironman, but on courses that are deemed ‘the hardest in the world’ due to the hills involved.  This course was no different, originally it involved a 4km swim, 120km cycle and 30km run, the cycle had 9,600ft of elevation and the run 2,000ft.  The weather in Vegas when we arrived was about 30deg and forecast to stay that way, oh how things change.  By Friday it was snowing overnight in the hills (didn’t realise it snowed in the desert) and when we woke up at 4.45am on Saturday morning it was a brisk 4deg.  Turns out that this, plus the wind, plus the flooding in the lake led to the swim being cancelled, not too gutted about this but definitely made for a different race.  Instead of doing the swim as per normal we started with the 120km cycle being done in a Time Trial format.  This meant that we started at 5 second intervals – made it a little hard to pace myself as I could see all the athletes in front of me and my competitiveness won out as I sprinted past a few before I had to tell myself to calm down, it would be a long day!

transition at 5.30am

the sun rising over a very very chilly race morning

the beginning of the 120km TT

The cycle was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, we rode through what I describe as the moon landscape, super dry rocks all around and then the odd lake interspersed.  The roads were constantly rolling but they were so smooth (a far cry from the chip seal of NZ) that I was riding faster than I ever thought I could uphill.  Because I started near the end of my age group I knew I had to pass all the girls to put myself in a gold medal position going into the run, I caught up most of them but had 2 left to go in front of me as I came into transition.  Still love the long course transitions, they are so chilled out, firstly they grab your bike from you (the volunteers are called ‘bike catchers’) and then you just head into the tent where it’s heated, you have a seat and take your time getting ready for the run – how civilised!  All the while having a one-on-one volunteer giving you words of encouragement and picking up all the things you haphazardly throw on the ground!

the bike course, awesome!

kawasaki in action

Kiwi Corner...man the support was outstanding!

And then the run…why are these never easy in long distance triathlons!  The course consisted of 4 x 7.5km laps, there was absolutely no flat ground, it was either up or down.  Riding the course a few days before I thought it seemed pretty easy, and for the first 2 laps it felt great, and then it hit, oh yes I ran headfirst into the wall of pain!  I will try and not dramatise this too much, but as I sit here typing in my hospital grade compression tights (thanks for these mum!) with regular cramp spasms hitting my hammies and calves, it’s a bit hard to tone it down!  So, halfway through lap 3 I’m running downhill when…Bam, argh, what the hell was that ‘ping’ in my archilles?!?!?!  Okay quick stretch and we’re good to go…right still sore, will have to alter my running style into what I will call ‘the robot’.  Right turn the corner, head on one of the uphills, ahhh this isn’t too bad, it’s bearable, great all could be okay.  Bam, another downhill, oh god what is up with my cramping IT bands?!?!?!  Okay my running style is now the ‘retarded robot’!!  One more lap, one more lap, one more lap….this was probably the most agony I have been in during a triathlon, but what gave me comfort was looking at all the faces around me, no one was looking comfortable at all!  Seeing the finish line was one of the best sights I saw all day and I must have looked terrible because the first thing the volunteer (‘human catcher’) said to me was “do you need a wheelchair”, right, obviously did not look great crossing the line, can’t wait for the finishers photo!  Didn’t need the wheelchair but as I went first into the food tent I thought I would throw up into the soda bin…first smell was stack upon stack of meat lovers pizza, oh god not good.  Next stop the med tent, turns out having numb hands, feet and mouth is not such a great thing, no drip though, gutted!

So as I write this I have just come back from the medal ceremony, I came 2^nd in the world!!!!!  Definite highlight was having the guys in the team perform the haka while I was on stage with my medal, a few tears for sure.  Embarrassing moment came when I realised the guy that presented me with my medal had chatted to me in the convenience store prior to the ceremony, I was buying bags of chips and limping around…he decided to tell the story to the whole audience “A little story about Anna here our silver medallist, I ran into her shopping around for bags of chips and asked her how she went, her response of ‘I did okay’ didn’t quite justify the medal here around her neck”, haha yes I’m the chip girl now!  After eating Taco Bell on the way back from the race, a bag of pick n mix I have saved, untouched, for a week and then copious amounts of cheesecake (plus a beer and champagne) I am full and ready for bed.  Tomorrow we are hitting International House of Pancakes, $2 all you can eat, for brekkie and then packing up and heading off to the strip for our one night party in Vegas, staying at the Bellagio, whoop whoop!

here comes the retarded robot!!!

happiness = Taco Bell nachos!

on the podium

Helen and I celebrating with some champagne

some of the other medalists, legends!

Thanks everyone who supported me through this, especially Hayden.  At times I would wonder why I was getting up at 5.30am most mornings, killing myself on the bike and eating like a nun…but when you stand there with the silver fern on, getting recognised as one of the best in the world, while your teammates perform the haka makes it absolutely all worthwhile.  Would I do it all over again, ask me tomorrow!

“A lot of people run a race to see who is the fastest.  I run a race to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into an exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.” – Steve Prefontaine (my pre-race quote)

Wow, wow, wow, I love Colorado!!! I came here 9 years ago as a wide-eyed 20yr old looking to live the life of a ski bum, and although my motivations for being here this time are a little different, the wide-eyed state has not changed. This place is beautiful, I could totally see myself living in Boulder, it has everything I love and a great supermarket called Whole Foods….but more on that later. I’ll start at the beginning.

We had a late Friday night flight from Auckland to LA and because I’m off the juice at the moment I was a little concerned as to how I would get to sleep without my usual bloody-mary tonic, but all was good. We had a spare seat next to us which meant we could stretch out and I actually got a solid 8hrs sleep. Have to say I was pretty pleased I cut myself off from the show ‘Air Crash Investigation’ about 6 weeks ago as the little turbulence we had didn’t put me into a head spin  LA airport was uneventful and uninspiring as usual, spent most of the time convincing Hayden that this is NOT what the rest of America is like and to wait till we get to Colorado before judging the country, and it didn’t disappoint. We woke up Saturday morning (at about 10am…I’d told Andy I’d get up and join him on his 6.30am morning run, didn’t quite happen!) and it was stunning, we headed out for a walk with the family: Andy, Erin, Cameron, Emily, Makenna and Fresno the Labra-poodle, and had views right out over the Colorado rockies. Didn’t feel the altitude, but something tells me training at intensity at 5,600ft might be a different story.

first ride in Colorado...very smooth roads for a change

Had a nice early night as I had my first ‘race’ the next morning. This ‘race’ was an indoor triathlon which involved a 15min swim, a 15min cycle and a 15min run, have to say I was a bit of a burglar, probably shouldn’t have turned up in my NZ tri gear…what a hard-out! What a small world though, the guy who was counting my laps in the pool had on a Taupo Ironman t-shirt, turns out he did it in 2008, crazy! Taupo is a big Ironman destination for triathletes here, I think because it was the 2^nd Ironman after Kona and because it’s flat(ish). The triathlon was heaps of fun and afterwards we got a great protein shake and a whole smorgasbord of free Ironman candy…I mean energy gels. Little disappointed with the café though as when I asked what kind of coffee they had the response was “oh it’s just free over there in the pot”, hmmm guessing no trim Flat White then! That afternoon took Kawasaki out for a bit of a spin, man I love the roads over here, they are so smooth and they have these signs that say ‘cyclists use the whole lane’ – how awesome, don’t have to ride in the gutter with cars almost hitting you with their wing mirrors.

so happy to be doing my first indoor tri

blowing apart the treadmill to take the indoor tri win! haha

On Monday Andy took a half day at work and then took me on a guided tour up Lookout Mountain, a favourite for cyclists, and actually used for a pro-race earlier in the year…hence why ‘Go Hincanpie’ was chalked all the way up the hill. It was stunning and had views all the way to Denver, really tried not to get competitive, but with so many other cyclists out it was hard not to try and pick them off on my way up. After the mountain we headed out to Red Rock, another awesome cycling spot that goes right up through these amazing rocks, that you guessed it, are bright red. Pretty knackered at the end of that ride, it was about 30 degrees and I finally got a cyclist tan – no more wet winter days here, or so I thought… Monday night was my first swim squad, and it went from 8pm to 9.30pm, a bit hard to be swimming that late, but the squad was great. I think everyone was a bit amazed that this random girl from NZ had turned up at their swim squad, the swim squad is quite small and run out of the local Broomfield gym, I would kind of relate it to if a random American triathlete turned up at a local Timaru swim squad! I finally found what made me feel the altitude too, butterfly, oh mi god each breath was really not getting in enough air, it was a struggle!

it's called Lookout Mountain for a reason - awesome!

Well this is really turning into a day-by-day account but there has been a lot going on this week. Tuesday Hayden and I rented a car and headed into Boulder for the night. We went out for Mexican, note: not on the Nutritionist handbook that Mikki gave me before I left, but it was great…however didn’t get my appetite back until lunchtime the next day, not sure my body is used to all that American cheese! What was the most amazing thing about being in Boulder though was that it started to snow!!!! So we’d gone from record high temperatures on Monday to snow on Wednesday, it was beautiful. The next morning we went out to the Boulder Running Company, OH MY GOD, what an experience…picked up some awesome bright green (of course) old school running shorts and even scoped out a new flavor of energy bar…Margarita, not kidding (still on the hunt for the elusive gingerbread man flavor GU though)! What was such a highlight though was as I was checking out the Steve Prefontaine poster on the wall the shop guy said to me “oh yeah the owner of this shop used to run with Prefontaine” – the owner was in the shop so I got to have a chat to him, great story. He lived in South Africa during Apartheid times and decided to immigrate to the States, once here he totally killed the running scene and runs a 2.08 marathon, legend! As if the day couldn’t get any better, we also headed to Whole Foods, a bit of a Boulder legend, it sells all organic, healthy, yummy food…BUT surprisingly has the most amazing pick n mix I have ever seen. I’ve grabbed a massive bag of pick n mix which will be waiting for me at the end of the race, hmmmmmm.

From Boulder we drove up into Breckenridge, a very cute little ski town, that with the fresh snow was really awesome, a great place to spend our anniversary  The next day I had a 1hr run on the programme, so we headed up to a local trail and I went for my first snow run, not as hard as I thought, however running at 10,000ft was pretty challenging. The run was interesting for the fact that I saw a guy leaving the trail as I was going in and just thought I’d ask whether there were any animals I had to watch out for, verbatim his response: “oh yeah, well we have a big 500 pound bear around here at the moment, but don’t worry he’s really friendly, just don’t surprise him. You should watch out for mountain lions and also there is the odd cougar, well that’s about it, enjoy your run!” – holy hell, not quite the animal encounters I wanted to come across…thank god my breathing was so loud that I scared off the potential ‘when animals attack’ moment – however I did see a fair few tracks left in the snow that were definitely not human! As a count now these are all the wild animals we have seen: ravens, deer, elk, eagle, coyote and prairie dogs, something tells me we won’t see many wild animals in Vegas (maybe some cougars?!).

it's snowing!!!

wow running at -5deg at 10,000ft is cold!!!

well I cannot complain about this running trail, worth risking bears for

running in the snow downhill...takes a bit of practice

Today went out for a great ride up a local mountain called Flagstaff, nice 40min switchback climb, with mr hardcore man doing hill repeats up it….made me feel like I was standing still. I swear that it was Craig Alexander, but after just checking his twitter account it turns out he is in Dubai, gutted, no celebrity sighting  Now we’re back in Broomfield as we get set for the pre-Halloween weekend, bought my massive pumpkin today to start carving tomorrow, as well as building a snowman (yes I’m living all the American stereotypes). Another early morning start with the temperature below 0, good times, so off to bed for me.

I love Halloween in America!

Next blog…Vegas Baby!

Anna.

- missing out on post-saturday training coffee

- knowing that while everyone was having coffee and big brekkies I was in a world of pain trying to negative split runs after 3hrs of swimming and riding!

- consistently feeling on the brink of bursting into tears during training sessions…whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?

- my daily routine becoming centered around sleep, eat, train, work…Hayden calls it ‘Zombie Anna’

- feeling sick after training sessions instead of having an insurmountable appetite!!

But enough of that bad stuff, truth is that I love it – there is something about pushing your body over the limit that makes you feel alive, it makes you realise you actually don’t have any limitations, and that’s a pretty good place to be if you ask me.  No woman is an island though and it’s times like these when you realise the importance of the support around you.  First off are all the regulars at NHTC; the smiling face at 5.30 in the morning, the borrowed pair of socks, the banter.  Then there are the front row girls (Indy, Sarah, Jo) who are a constant source of support even though I may not say much as i’m killing myself on the TT bars, just the presence is sometimes enough!  Steve for putting up with my freak outs, especially the last minute decision to race on a different bike, and then his 2hr lesson on different bike gear ratios – lets just say it was thorough, involved spreadsheets, tape measures and controlled experiments!  Mum, Dad and Stu – especially the unbelieveable roasts my Mum has been making on Sunday’s…she should open a restaurant.  And of course Hayden, he was warned about the 3 weeks of ‘hard stuff’ and was a complete rock, great dinners on the table (which otherwise would have been a slice of bread with cheese considering the amount of energy I had!), complete understanding of the ‘zombie’ state and keeping me positive and upbeat no matter how much I wanted to just stay in bed!

Okay, enough of the sappy stuff, now onto some cool pics and things I’ve been up to over the last few weeks.  Of course the rugby world cup has been on which has been fantastic, heading to the fan zone for some of the matches has been totally worth it, what a great atmosphere!  I can’t go there for the ABs games because I get too nervous and get weird superstitions (i.e. having to close my eyes every time Peri goes for a kick), but the Irish v Wales game was definitely a highlight.

fiddle de de, potatos

Hayden and I also went out and did a Tapas course at the seafood school as part of my birthday present, honestly it’s the birthday that never ends!  It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  I had to show so much self restraint though as the chef showed us how to make all the dishes, but didn’t give us any samples, honestly I was about to jump onto his kitchen bench and start hoeing into the chorizo.  Once we started making them though it was delicious, especially great when Hayden set fire to the frying pan…classic!

very professional...

and the close up...hmmm mmm

Have also finally had some good weather for my Sunday training sessions, which is good because they got up to 7hrs and 7hrs in the rain is not fun at all.  Went out with the hot cycles group on a ride through Hunua, what a beautiful ride, goes up right next to the Hunua gorge and through all the farmland into Clevedon.  Was trying really hard to take easy but of course the competitiveness got the best of me and when I got nicknamed ‘speedy’ by the squad I realised that perhaps I was going a little harder than intended  

Last weekend Hayden and I hit the Waitaks again, and what a difference sunny weather makes, I didn’t actually fear for my life while riding down to Piha for once!  Again it was absolutely stunning, I really do love NZ, such great riding – bring on the summer!

oh yes the pose is back

view from telegraph hill out back to Auckland city

wow...turn it on NZ!

So…9hrs and counting till we get on that plane and start the adventure!!!!!!  Will keep the blogs updated while I’m away, first stop 13,000ft hill climb to test how altitude sickness works

Anna

“You have to wonder at times what you’re doing out there. Over the years, I’ve given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.” – Steve Prefontaine