K2 - it's not about the hills...

First of all, I know it's been an age since I posted anything on this site, but trust me a lot has been happening, and my blog disappeared on me so I've had to fix that too!.

The start of Ocotber saw me and Bede upping sticks and moving to Auckland from Christchurch. I finished my job in Christchurch and stayed around to supervise the move, and literally at the last hour, we sold the house!

Training has been easy to fit in, not having to work and I fitted in a ride to Akaroa and back from Christchurch, about 150km. I trained in Wellington on the way up to Auckland as well. To be honest it’s hard to stop yourself from overtraining when you aren’t working, but I've had plenty to do finding a job and a place to live.

Once I arrived in Auckland I found my way around by exploring a different suburb on each ride, round the Bays and through the Waitakeres. It has been quite nerve racking getting used to more traffic and coping with a multitude of punctures, to the point I think I have developed puncture paranoia!

The main focus of Ocotber was the K2. This is a 200km ride from Thames around the Coromandel Peninsula via Whitianga and Coromandel and back to Thames. Therefore my training programme for the last eight weeks building up to the race was based around long rides and hills, as the K2 is reckoned to be the hardest one day race in the Southern Hemisphere. I wanted to do a race which really tested my endurance on the bike as that is where I need to make big gains for Ironman. I have never really felt as though there was literally nothing left in the tank after a race, and the K2 should satisfy that I thought!

In the week leading up to the race, I did my last big ride on the Sunday, which was a bit of a mission. I biked to Raglan from Hamilton on the windiest day I have seen for ages, and I got a flat after just 15 mins which set me back a bit. It took forever to get there, at one point the wind was literally pushing me backwards. It was a real test in mental endurance, even though it was only 50km there! There was a lot of self talk (and expletives!) for sure. I treated myself to a moccachino in Raglan (caffeine and chocolate to keep me sane) and the return leg was 40 mins faster with the tailwind and the caffeine boost!

I didn’t taper for the race, as it was just a C race (A being Ironman, B being Taupo Half etc), and I planned to have a solid training day at a pace I could maintain for Ironman, test myself over the distance and try out a nutrition strategy similar to Ironman. The two days before ended up being totally off training though as I had a bad migraine, and my sister was in town, so I did plenty of power walking (well "shopping walking"/retail therapy perhaps!) and I felt mentally tired, and anxious in anticipation of the race. All I missed off my programme was a 1hr spin so I didn’t feel too bad.

The day before the race, I increased my hydration and decreased my fibre intake, by cutting back on veggies, salad, fruit (apart from bananas) and grainy bread. I heard that one Ironman pro calls this “going white”. To be honest it makes me feel mighty unhealthy, but I have to avoid the call of nature at all costs on the day!

I had a big bowl of spaghetti bolognaise on the Friday night and early to bed.

An early start and over to Thames on Saturday morning for the 7.30 a.m. registration and the 8 a.m. race start. I was a little nervous as this was my first bike race, but I consoled myself that I didn’t have to swim first at least!

I started steadily and got in a good bunch on the flat out to the Kopu-Hikuai hill- the first of the big seven climbs after 15km. It was a great long steady hill and I reached 85km/h on the way down!

After the next hill I found myself on my own when we reached the flat, and pegged it at the 35km mark to reach the tail end of the bunch ahead of me, which was hard work, but allowed me to test my interval power. As I approached Whitianga I realised how the time was flying. Just out of Whitianga I reached the 100km mark at exactly 3.5hrs, which I was surprised at as I was contemplating an 8hr finish time.

The main hill of the next 100km was just before Coromandel. It was described as “hors categorie” meaning it was beyond the 1-5 hill grading used for the ride! I loved it, a fantastic challenge. After whizzing down the next hill, I unfortunately got a flat at about 160km…but luckily enough a support motorbike man stopped and basically changed my tyre for me, and used a stand pump, so I was back on my bike after about 5-6 mins, but three or four girls did pass me during my unplanned stop. I was gutted, and the last 30km was a bit demoralising and I felt myself hitting the wall a bit. Fortunately a girl doing the K1 let me draft off her and carried me through- she said she had done the K2 the same way 2 years ago and understood what I was going through! I kept eating and drinking and soon came right. I was elated when we got into Thames and picked up the pace to finish strongly across the line. Funny that, whenever I see the finish line I seem to find my overdrive gear and finish at a sprint!

Nutrition wise, I used One Square Meal bars, bananas, jet planes, leppins, water, enervit and my new find- Apricot Naked Protein Bars. Seven hours is a long time and I ate at least every 30 mins. My stomach seemed to handle it all well, whether a marathon after would soon put an end to that I’m not sure!

My computer showed my time as 6.55. Officially it was 7.01 due to the flat but 7 hours was a good day’s ride. I was 8th in my category as well and got a spot prize too, which more than enough covered the entry fee.

It was a fantastic ride, beautiful scenery and I loved the hills. I felt that my hill work in training paid off, as did my big long rides. I pushed myself over the 150km limit previous to the race and sorted out a wee black spot after my flat to finish happy. I kept my pace to Ironman heart rates- steady expect for the climbs and tried to keep sat down most of the way and not to draft too much as you can’t in Ironman. You certainly have a lot of time to think abour things and to focus on the job at hand, and to keep your eyes on the prize which is of course March 1.


November - back to base training, the Harbour swim and building up for Taupo half IM.


Man it's getting close! K2 over, the focus for this month is getting back to base training over all three disciplines, and working towards Taupo Half Ironman in early December. My aim for Taupo half is to test myself to see where I'm at right now. I know I SHOULD race at IM pace, but I know I'll get sucked into "racing" and really want to go hard with the hope of doing a reasonable time. Afterwards my Mum's coming up for a few days Christmas shopping so I have a really easy week planned- the last respite before the hammer goes down for IM.

Looking forward to Christmas, and the rest of the summer I'll head down to Taupo a few more times to ride the bike course as I have at least 3 180km rides to do before 1 March and swim in the lake as recovery! The weather in Auckland was fabulous this month, and whilst job hunting I have had plenty of opportunities to enjoy the sun whilst training. Maintenance of aerobic endurance was paramount this month, building my long runs to 2-2.5hrs with a recovery bike ride of an hour afterwards, and my long rides to 5.5hrs. I haven't as yet joined a swim squad, expense being the main reason as I'm not working, and have been focussing on my own technique sessions and getting used to swimming in my new Blue Seventy Helix wetsuit at Parnell saltwater baths and in the sea. Swimming in a wetsuit is a lot different as it affects your bouyancy and body roll, so it's good to swim all the time in a suit, plus no more sniffles and colds from chlorinated pools! I have rotator cuff sopreness in my shoulder so I have dropped the paddles for a while and I'm compensating my using fins.

I did the Harbour Swim this month from Devonport to the Viaduct. I much prefer lake swims, but this swim was designed to take me out of my comfort zone and overcome my fear of open water....there are no sharks in the Harbour I kept telling myself! My time was 53 mins, which I found a little disappointing for 2.8km, but then with open water swims I for one never swim in a straight line and most of the time there was no one to my left so I reckon I swam at least 3km, and as heading home to Mission Bay at one point...but then I hate being in the mosh pit washing machine in the middle, so there's go to be a bit of give and take there. If I have to swim a bit further to avoid getting frustrated I will do, I really don't want to drown!

Right now I'm feeling pretty confident about my biking, having focussed on biking for the K2 and my running's feeling strong. I've been to a few sessions with Walter Thorburn and his "No Regrets" squad, which focusses on core strength exercises and interval training, much like a circuits class. One week I was very sore after the walking lunges, so it's working! I've also purchased a new Giant Trinity Alliance tri bike with some Grammo race wheels from Planet Cycles in Mount Eden so it will be put through it's paces at Taupo Half. They are a great bike shop, really helpful and I'm now sporting one of their jerseys, and I certainly get some envious looks on my new steed. The idea behind it is to get more speed on the flat, being more aero and leaving me fresher for the run, so I can execute my softly softly catchy monkey race plan.

So at the moment my training's looking like this through to the end of the year:

Mon - Distance swim 60-75 mins, 75 min undulating run, steady pace
Tues - 2hr hill repeats on bike, 20 min steady run, 10 min drills and 20 min core
Wed - Swim- intervals, Running squad/Stroke and Stride
Thurs - LSD run building to 3hrs, with 1hr easy spin on bike straight after
Fri- Technique swim
Sat - S/B/R brick, open water swim 45-60 mins, 2.5hr bike, 1 hr run
Sun - Long bike building to 180km/6.5-7hrs

I did my first Stroke and Stride last night in awful blustery conditions- a 1km swim and 3km run. Swim was manic mosh pit and the waves were pretty testing, then it was horrible on the run, but I love running in the rain! I went at a good pace, but didn't smash it completely as I have Taupo half IM this weekend. I think I finished in under 35 mins, which given the horrific swim, is not too bad. Like Lance Armstrong says wind and rain are your friends, if you can train and race in those conditions you can do anything. But fingers crossed Taupo is a bit friendlier on Saturday!

So day off today, a quick S/B/R run through tomorrow and I'll be on the start line in Taupo at 6.30 am! The first real test of the season....watch this space...