The Fear Sets In

Assuming that things go according to plan, in 3 weeks time I will have been riding for nearly 72 hours and most likely still have a little way to go.  Since Wednesday lunchtime I have been thinking about how long the 8 laps of Taupo ride will be.  I am very scared……each night (Wed/Thur/Fri) I have thought about how while riding there won’t be much sleeping. Will I be tough enough?  I hope so!

In high level sport I have often heard that there are 2 reasons why people are scared when they are about to race, scared because they haven't done the work, or scared because they have. I'm not completely sure which place my fear is stemming from....most of the hard training and long miles are over (that in combination with a more than full work load has contributed to the lack of posts), I have done what I can within the constraints of work and making sure that I don't break......but is it enough? Only time will tell.

Coping with stress – virtues of a good bike ride

The last couple of months have been stressful at work!  Fortunately, most of this stress has been the good kind of stress in that has resulted from me receiving more recognition, but it has also meant more responsibility and wanting to live up to my own expectations. Without this sort of stress I find that I easily become bored and feel unchallenged and my level of motivation drops.  However, during the first three days of last week I experienced the kind of stress that is 100% unproductive, the sort where you are all wound up about something that you have very little, if any control over.

While riding my bike home from work on Wednesday, I realised that one source of stress was simply arising from communication difficulties with a colleague and Thursday morning’s bike ride was filled with planning on how to at least change this one thing that I had some control over.  Interestingly, in the midst of resolving this stress we ended up having a bit of a conversation regarding our views on life, the universe, and everything, and while the book “hitchhikers guide to the galaxy” states the answer to this is 42, our answer was not so simple.

During our conversation I was asked “how do you deal with stress? How do you deal with big problems? How do you deal with catastrophes? How do you deal with the thought of death?” Without thinking or hesitation, I replied to each of these in turn – I ride my bike. At first, my colleague found this difficult to comprehend, and I’m not sure if I had him convinced by the end, that for me, being out on the bike, or really just being outside exercising is an incredibly effective reliever of stress.  After the conversation was over, I reflected a little on how easily those answers had come to me, and I decided that, having resolved the one bad stressor that I had some control over, the weather forecast for Friday was looking great, I would take the day off and ride my bike all day.  And that is exactly what I did!  For good measure, and because I have a bike race of 1280km coming up, I followed that up with a long run on Saturday and a bike ride of almost 9 hours on Sunday.  By Sunday evening I was very sleepy, but happy that my body felt great and more importantly I had refound my inner peace - the world looked a better place again. After a goodnights sleep, Monday morning came about and I had let go of all those unproductive stresses and was raring to tackle the things that I had control over.  AHHHHH.

Week tally of exercise:

Bike ~580km

Run ~5 hours

Feeling strong, not crazy fast, but my body handled the 3 bigger days of training well, I didn’t feel tired at the start of the days, I didn’t get progressively more tired, no major pains on Sunday while riding, felt solid all day.  8 laps of Taupo makes me scared, but I’m pleased with my current fitness level.

Planning Planning Planning

While out on a hilly road training run yesterday we met Perry Newburn out running around New Zealand (5000km over 71 days). What an inspiration chatting to Perry who is out there running to raise awareness and fund for the mental health foundation.  Details and a map can be found  here (Mental Health - Perry) and you can follow daily progress on facebook  Enzed Total Hose and Fitting Service Great New Zealand Run with Perry.  Perry was cranking it out, one km at a time – the mark of an ultra distance running, his brain breaking down the job to small manageable pieces.  The thought of riding around lake Taupo eight times (1280 km) has been weighing heavily on my mind over the last few weeks, so it was good for me to be reminded that it just needs to be broken down into manageable pieces.

Breaking it down into pieces not only applies to doing the actual riding itself, with any great adventure planning the logistics is an epic job in itself (Perry was commenting on this himself)!  Logistics for Taupo is something that has started to consume much of time while I am on my bike, sometimes it seems overwhelming, I need to remember, one step at a time.

 

1)    Who will be my support crew, it’s a long way, I’ll need quite a number of people, and it really takes a special sort of person to be support crew, it’s no easy job! 

2)    Accommodation, where to stay, it needs to be big enough to hold maybe 6 support people, be right on the route, it needs to have cell phone coverage (many areas around lake Taupo don’t), needs to not have steps as I won’t be able to get up them after a few laps have been ridden. And it needs to not break the bank….which pretty much rules out any accommodation in Taupo.  I also need to think where it would be most optimal to have support crew swap over, and a bed to have a little sleep in on occasions.  A rest stop just before a hard part of the course might make it harder to get back on the bike…….somewhere easier where I can ease myself back into riding might be more optimal.  So many things to think about

3)    Sleeping strategy – I have thought a lot about this, I think I need to come up with multiple plans for sleeping.  A plan is needed because it’s best to maximise sleep for the wee hours of the morning when I feel the lowest, but it’s hard to work out how to plan begin back at headquarters at that time of the day.  Plans for mobile sleeping are also needed, there are a few places around the loop where sleep can be had outside but undercover in case of rain.

4)    Writing a plan for support crew, clothes, food, hydration, what I need for all circumstances, I fear this is going to be a long document.  I also think there will be a need for some laminated check lists for support crews getting ready to head out for headquarters, when they get into the support car, and once they have finished their lap supporting. 

5)    Equipment – which bike, which wheels, which cycle shorts, what happens if the support car breaks down? What happens if my bikes break down, will the support crew be able to fix it – I guess I need a plan for that too!

 

The thoughts go on….so many things to work out, so many questions to be answered.

 

I need to remember to break it down into small manageable bits.

Long time no write!

Well it’s been a while. Inexcusable really, but since I wrote last I had to make the very hard and rather heartbreaking decision to not go to Mexico and the dream I have had for the last 10 years of competing in the Deca Ironman triathlon has had to be postponed again due to security concerns (see previous post).  I weighed up all the pros and cons for weeks.  I won’t bore people with the details, but there were a couple of final factors that “broke the camels back”.  The first of these was the reluctance of my support crew to come, something that I realised from that factor was that, for me, I want to do this right first time and have the total experience, and for me, having my friends supporting me there is almost as important to me as having my bike there…….I could do it if I had to, but it won’t be the experience that I want to have.  The final factor was far less deep and meaning full, I have been given a great opportunity career wise that I can’t afford not to take, this involves a couple of university courses from the postgraduate  diploma in management at Waikato university, and we have been told to expect a big work load start of Oct – mid November, if I were to go to Mexico, I would be gone the majority of that time – so with that, I decided to pull the pin.

But I can’t go from thinking of doing such an epic event to nothing at all, so I am refocusing and think I will attempt to be the first woman to complete the 8lap version of the Lake Taupo bike race (1240km).    This is pretty epic in itself, with the notable elevation every loop and the often harsh weather conditions, finishing will be formidable task in itself.  I have already started stressing about not having trained enough recently with mostly work (but also a short holiday) having seen me travelling almost every week since the end of June (and away again next week).  Hopefully the big training weekend planned for this weekend will put that stress to rest for a little while.

Stay tuned!

Even athletic women like to wear pretty dresses!

With all the hours that I spend out training, my wardrobe contains a lot of, lycra based, fast drying, wicking clothing suited well to running, cycling, kayaking for hours at a time.  At work a lot of cotton is worn, and although my parents instilled in me the importance to wear clean and tidy clothes, I have never had either the fashion sense or the “clothes shopping gene” that so many women are blessed with. Let me loose in a bike store, or sports clothes store and I feel right at home, but other than that, until recently I have considered shopping for clothes a necessary evil – an activity that is to be avoided at all costs!!!

Fortunately I have recently discovered that, although fraught with potential disaster, I really do enjoy dressing up and looking smart, maybe not on a daily basis but for special occasions it is actually fun.  My first few shopping trips I enlisted the help of a master shopper as my own personal tutor, and success breeds success.  And it was during one of these trips, at a time where I was under pressure to buy my first cocktail dress that I discovered “Birds of a feather” by Annah Stretton in Hamilton.  Fuelled  by my success late last year, in March of this year I experienced something that I had never imagined, even in my wildest dreams. 

I bought a pretty frock by accident!!!  

I had just walked into Birds of a Feather to have a bit of a browse as I was in town and it was a bit early to go to dinner, and within 30 min had tried on “the perfect dress” and knee high leather boots (by Minx).  The frugal side of me said “you don’t need a new dress, you have a pretty dress from last year”, but as I looked in the mirror, the girly side of me said “but I love this dress, it makes you look so feminine, and so different”.  The girly side of me had an unexpected victory that day.

It was a good job that I had such a shopping success that day, because 4 weeks ago I was asked to speak about my science and how it will be important in farming over the next 20 year at the AgResearch Fielddays dinner, to an audience of academics and industry leaders that are involved in New Zealand agriculture.  Before I had even contemplated what I would say in my 7 min time slot, I knew EXACTLY what I would be wearing.

The dinner was lovely, I managed to keep my nerves under control until my speaking slot after the main course, and then I got up on stage feeling nervous, it was a big deal to speak in front of such prominent people and explain my field of epigenetics to a group of mostly non-scientists.  But at the same time, I loved how my dress and boots made me feel so powerful, and after a deep breath I started……..the rest was sheer enjoyment, the audience responded well – whether or not it was from what I was saying, or because of the clothes, who knows.  But 5 days later I am still on a high from the experience.

Because most people only ever see me in lycra, I figure I had better include some pictures!!!

I am second from the left with AgResearch CEO, Young farmer of the year and Sharemilkers of the year

THE BOOTS in action - a pretty frock and some boots make any speech better!

All those things I learnt in toastmasters about hand and body movement to create a memorable speech were put into practice!

Deca Triathlon and Travel Warnings

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine (Dr George Wortley) posted this on his face book page:

“Will be leaving early in the AM for Mexico and the Tarahumara Indians. David Horton is going with me. It is getting increasingly difficult to find helpers to go with me due to the Drug Wars. Why would 49 decapitated bodies in the road discourage anyone.”

It reminded me that Mexico, the location of the Deca Triathlon is anything but a safe place.  Sure many of the murders are those involved in the drug wars, but it is so very easy for innocent bystanders to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Since then I have been spending a significant amount of time deciding if the risk of going to do the Deca Triathlon is worth the risk! 

George has visited Copper Canyon and the Tarahumara Indians many times over many many years, starting well before the Born to Run craze of the last few years.  He is an incredibly kind hearted man that treks many miles to take not only food but also his incredible medical skills to see to their ailments as it is the only time they are able to see a doctor.  I know that George and ultra distance legend David will bring a lot of good to these communities.  And for them, because of their good hearts, the risk that they face traveling through remote and not so remote regions is far out weighed by the good that they will do.

But for those of us heading to Mexico for ourselves, and our own goals, is it worth it?  In reality the chances of being caught up in the drug wars is slim, Jorge the race director puts on a great race, he picks athletes up from the airport, the race is in a family park where we will be for the majority of the time, but that’s not to say that by some unlucky random chance, some group won’t decided to make a statement with a bunch of international crazies riding and running around a park for days on end. 

The logistics of organizing myself to get to the Deca Triathlon are hard enough as it is, I have already put my heart and sole into training and organizing.  My bike maker Rob English has taken the time in his busy schedule to whip me up a new bike.  It would be terrible to call off this epic mission, as it is very much part of who I am now.  The thought of just doing the Deca is immense and the commitment to pay up the entry fee a big one…..it’s hard enough without the worry of what might happen outside of the actual racing.  Yesterday I spent much to the 7 hours on my bike pondering such factors….the conclusion that I came to was…if the Deca Triathlon was in a location without travel warnings, I would now enter in a heartbeat – and the only thing stopping me now is the worry of those drug cartels in a country that I am unfamiliar with and don’t speak the language.

What to do?  Would going and racing this race be selfish?  It’s not only my safety at stake but also that of my support crew.  Or are these travel warnings over dramatizing the danger to Joe average innocent public?  

Or is this just another challenge to an already epic goal?  

Sri Chinmoy 50 mile (80.4km) Race report

  Achieving self transcendence through running!

The Sri Chinmoy marathon team web site says “Sri Chinmoy, founder of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, spent his life vividly demonstrating how sports can be a powerful means to unlock the true potential of the human spirit”

While many will laugh at the mention of seeking self transcendence, since signing up for this race I have spent many of my training hours thinking about it – and it turns out that I need to add “seeking self transcendence” to the list of reasons why I undertake ultra-distance racing.

My running has been a mixed bag the last couple of months – and that’s really how the Sri Chinmoy 50 miler turned out as well.  Tightness in my calf muscles has been plaguing me for the last 6 months, some days it’s better, some days it’s worse.  This has added an extra challenge in training and racing – the thought of running 80km with legs that don’t want to work worried me in the week before the race, even though this was to be more training than racing.  Two km loops in Hagley Park, excellent DecaTriathlon training! It also proved to be a good chance to do a lot of thinking about self transcendence.

The race started out in enough light that headlamps were not necessary, but even before the first of 40 loops my calf muscles began talking to me.  But 4km in they were fully tightened and causing pain……I was running a pleasing pace, with a nicely relaxed heart rate, but those legs, maybe they would loosen up a little once I was properly warm.  So I kept running.  The weather forecast had promised a nice, although cool day, and it started out perfectly.  But as Hagley park filled up with joggers, cyclists, families out for a walk, the weather did it’s upmost to drive as many of them home as possible, a dreary day with an ever strengthening cold wind followed.  The first 30km passed very quickly, I felt good, I enjoyed watching all the other park users, and other than my legs I felt great.  Heck, I thought to myself, all this training is really paying off well.  Even up to the marathon distance it seemed too easy (inspite of those legs), I began to contemplate what sort of time I could run just a marathon in these days??? 

Going around for another loop!

Then BANG all of a sudden at 42km my body started to rebel and I started to slide into a dark place. I started to feel terrible physiologically. A few laps later my first experience of gastrointestinal distress stared. Fortunately there were two toilets evenly spaced on the 2km circuit….and for a few laps I ran from toilet to toilet.  Thinking about the whole 80km with terrible calf pain and an upset tummy was too much – one lap at a time. Stopping was not an option, but I did question my reasons for doing this for sometime.  On the course there were a number of quotes from Sri Chinmoy about self transcendence, about pushing your self, self motivation, self discipline  - all things that I strive for.  Little by little, I convinced my mind that it was okay to feel the way I did, I began to accept it and not fight it, because I knew that testing myself is an important part of why I undertake these ultra-distance events.  And I took comfort in the loops, I set up little rituals, I had a lamp post where I stretched briefly, a region that I walked a little while the rest of the loop was a walking free zone, I had a zone where I alternatively clenched my fists to help the fluid that was accumulating in my hands move back into the lymphatic system, and I concentrated on …..well….self transcendence, I can’t really think of a better description.

Sometimes you just have to concentrate hard!

All of a sudden, after 25km of hard work, it all came right….well my calf muscles didn’t but somehow it was no longer a struggle, my pace picked up again, I was thoroughly enjoying it again, my stomach had come right and I was keen to finish up those last laps.  On hind site, if I were more religious I would probably say that at that point I had at least touched upon self transcendence.

The last few kms flew by, my great support crew of Nicol and Betty were there cheering me on every lap in spite of the cold wind. I lived with Betty as an undergraduate and she had seen me push myself to the limit academically to ensure top grades, could see that it was the same mental attitude that was needed here as was needed 20 years ago with my books. The lady who was counting my laps cheered for me with a wave and smile every single loop, it was like I had my own little cheerleading team – who wouldn’t love loops when you get this much support! 

And soon, with calf muscles that still feel many centimeters too short I had finished running 80.4km in little circles.  With just a little group to welcome me into the finish line, I was thrilled to have not only completely another good long training day, but happy to have reminded myself that when the going gets tough, you just have to get into a state of mind over matter, and the harder it is, the greater the feeling at the end will be.

Totally worth it!

Maybe Sri Chinmoy is right about self transcendence, that that is when the true peace, joy and satisfaction of ultra-distance racing is felt. Or perhaps as people we each need some activity that provides us with a state of mind where we can meditate to reset our brains.

Self Transcendence

Going Loopy

Last weekend while the V8’s were racing loops in the streets of Hamilton, I started my own “loop training” just a couple of kilometers away at Hamilton lake. I am glad, not only that the V8’s loop is gone forever as it turned my cycle commute into a suicide dash across town, but I am also glad that my first attempt at practicing for the “loop format” in the Deca triathlon also went well!   It’s good that it went so well, because in the Deca there will be 380 100m swim loops, 1797 1km bike loops and 422 1km run loops….and no I haven’t missed any decimal places! 

Now I have to admit something, as much as I love exploring the outdoors and using my ultra-distance fitness to take me long distances to cool places, I am actually quite fond of loops too.  To me there is a great comfort in going over the same piece of road time and time again for hours on end.  Many people comment more on how they think that the mental aspect of loops would be the hardest part of a race like the Deca.  For me that is definitely not the case, admittedly I have never done a race that consists of 2599 loops but in the past I have found the repetitiveness allows me to get into a good mental zone.  And as long as I break down the task at hand into a series of small goals I can’t think of a time in an ultra-distance race when I wished I wasn’t just going around in circles.

While I was running around and around the lake I had plenty of time to think.  For those of you interested in the inner workings of my mind in these races (and training) here is a tiny snapshot (more in future blogs as it is a long and involved topic).  I started thinking about how much I like running around in circle and actually how I like repetitive things in general. All the sports I enjoy require the same motion again and again and again thousands and thousands of times, one foot in front of the other, one pedal or paddle or swimming stroke after the other for hours on end, the same motion again and again.  These thoughts then got me to thinking about some information I had read on Asperger syndrome and how repetitive behavior is one of the classic symptoms.  Ever the scientist I gave this more and more thought, I have enjoyed repetitive movement for as long as I can remember (often testing my parents patience), what if I did have Asperger?  Maybe that would explain my intense focus at time, but then again I don’t have trouble with social interactions and I am a big believer that we are all some point on a spectrum with  “normal” being some group in the middle.  But then I had to start thinking about what is “normal” anyway – socially acceptable? Who gets to decide where the lines defining “normal” are?  Many people would say that wanting to do a race that requires you to do 2599 little loops, swimming, cycling and running is not normal, but if you asked those that have competed in such races, they would be likely not only think it normal, but also, I would guess that they would feel the same way as I do about swimming, cycling and running around in little loops.  Maybe to do these races you need to have a certain attraction to repetitive movement and going around and around in little loops.

All these thoughts took up a good amount of time while running, especially because they were interspersed with noting of land marks on each loop, running, past the group celebrating something fun, past the hospital now, past where the geese are, past where we park when we kayak, nearly at the start finish of the loop,  finished X number of loops only Y number of loops to go, both the percentage left to run as well as the fraction left to run were then calculated to the lowest denominator.   Okay, now starting again with the next loop…..and so the process goes on and on with each loop.  Last weekend the weather was so stunning that the views of the lake also interrupted my deep and meaningful thoughts about what “normal” really is.

Maybe it is because I am very goal oriented and I find that breaking the big goal into lots of little goals is easier when running small loops rather than one big loop, whether it’s the familiarity and undertaking little rituals such as eating and drinking etc. at specific spots on the loop, or maybe I am just loopy as far as racing is concerned!  Whatever the case, it was a great day out running!

Oh Marathon Canoe – How I Miss You!

Having lived in the USA for 6 years, if you ask me what I miss most from my time there, right near the top of the list (after my friends of course) would be marathon canoe racing!  In fact each of my summer visits back to the USA have involved racing marathon canoes – easily my favorite out of the many boats that I have paddled.  Marathon canoes are a far cry from their “traditional Canadian canoe” cousins, these are lightweight, carbon fiber racing boats.

Photo by Blaise Rhodes - Mitch and I racing in the General Clinton canoe race 2011.

  

I recently got to relive some of my canoeing (and kayking) memories when I chatted with Alix from Endurance Racing Magazine.  So in order to show you that I’m not just all about riding, running and swimming, here is the article written by Alix: http://enduranceracingmagazine.com/?p=523

I would love to paddle one of these boats here in New Zealand!  I wonder what the logistics of getting one of these shipped here would be? 

And remember: if you ain’t rubbin’, you ain’t racin’

 Photo by Paul Grubber (I'm on the very left, there was plenty of rubbin' in this race - especially at the start with something like 200 boats all headed to do a U-turn around a bouy about 200m after the start)

Just another training weekend

Once again the end of the weekend rolls around and I am shattered, too much fun playing! Training for a Decatriathlon takes you a lot of great places, but it sure does leave you feeling the worse for wear on a Monday morning!

I try and structure my training to have three progressively harder weeks followed by one slightly easier week to allow some recovery. The last couple of weeks have been big training weeks for me, I’m looking forward to easing back a little this week.  Here is a summary of what I have been up to in the last two weeks:

Week beginning April 2^nd  - Total 27 hours

Road bike riding  21 hours

Run                       4 hours

Swim                    2hours

The running looks a little lacking in this week, but I was still recovering from the Tarawera ultra marathon and had a big/fast hike coming up on the first day of the next week, Which looked like this:

Week beginning 9^th April – Total 28 hours

Road bike riding    14 hours

Fast hike                 7 hours

Run                         6 hours

Paddle                     1 hour

Do you spot the trend, biking is far more my thing than running!  In fact, my body does not handle running all that well and tends to break if I do too much of it, whereas I tolerate long rides day after day extremely well.

With Easter weekend being included in these two weeks I was able to do a first test of how my body was able to handle training in a fatigued state, going out and training hard four days in a row, followed by a recovery day and then good solid training for the rest of the week.

I am extremely pleased to report that the body stood up well to this test. The days did not get progressively harder, the body seemed to switch into the mode of “well complaining isn’t going to help so I might as well just enjoy the scenery”!  I am extremely pleased about this, I feel strong at the moment –well except for the four hour beach run that I finished the week off with last night…that could just have easily been described as a death march.  In reality though, although I never really felt great I didn’t actually feel any worse at the end of the four hours than I did at the start, and it was great mental training to have to keep going, knowing that in the Deca I would be feeling much worse than this and I will have to keep going.

Part of all the joy from all this training is going cool places, so here are some picture from Easter weekends training evolution:

Great views of the Kawhia harbour on Good Friday and Easter Saturday

Fast hike (zone 2 and 3 training) up Mt Ngauruhoe (otherwise known as Mt Doom)

That was a spectacular day, not a cloud in the sky!  When people ask me "why do you do this?" part of the answer always has to be "because I get to see such cool things out training"!  And for the record, my climb to the top of Mt Doom was considerably easier than Frodos mission. 

Because I am also a scientist, my training really needs to fit in with my full time job, but come Monday morning, I'll be plenty happy to be sitting at my computer with some 34Gb files, giving my legs a well deserved rest!

It's all about the soup

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting about some local cafés with a work colleague.  For each café that we had both been to I made some comment about the soup there – my colleague was quick to point out that it seemed a lot like I rated cafés by the quality of their soup.  After some thought, it turns out that this is indeed the way it is these days. With the endless hours that I spend on my bike, there is plenty of time to ponder all manner of things, and one day my mind turned to pondering “the soup”, why do I always order the soup at a café? What makes soup good soup? Should I be judging a café based on the quality of the soup?  Ahhh, the subconscious mind of an ultradistance athlete working on life’s great problems.

So the soup – After much contemplation of such weighty issues, and a significant amount of soup eating this weekend I think I have some answers.  Most of my café visits occur in conjunction with training missions – often feeling at least two of the following states, cold, hungry, tired, sore (if those states didn’t exist I wouldn’t be stopping).  In these cases, soup is warm and comforting and has a miraculous way of making you feel better!  One of the most notable examples of the healing power of the soup was on one of the first rides around the “no wimps allowed” ride, 130km of very very hilly and very beautiful back roads around Kawhia, Te Anga and Waitomo.  Two thirds of the way around, I was feel worse for wear and asked if we could stop in Waitomo for a few minutes and have a coffee – it was then that we discovered the Huhu café (www.huhucafe.co.nz), they were serving potato and leek soup which came with the most delicious bread.  Within minutes of consuming the soup I was revived and the last third of that ride was almost effortless.  Hardly a “no wimps allowed” ride has gone by since then without stopping to eat the soup – without fail it is tasty, seasonal, homemade and revives us.  This weekend we had roast pepper and chili! 

The soup needs to be homemade, last winter, after a cold wet mountain bike ride we turned up at a café, I was excited to order some warming soup, imagine my disappointment when it tasted as though it had been made from a packet, I have not returned to that café since.  I mean, how hard is it to make soup……if you can’t do that you shouldn’t be running a café!

For me, I think you can judge a café by its soup!  The effort a chef puts into making a good tasty, hearty well balanced soup says a lot about how much they care about their food in general.  Currently my two favorites are the Huhu Café in Waitomo (we start discussing the soup up to 3 hours before arriving in Waitomo) and The Shack in Raglan – they both also serve good coffee but caffeine and the ultradistance athlete is a separate topic all together.

It is all about the soup – I wonder if I could convince the owners of the Huhu to come and cook soup for me at the Decatriathlon????

How the ultradistance seed got planted in my head

A quote from Sir Edmund Hillary “In some ways I believe I epitomise the average New Zealander: I have modest abilities, I combine these with a good deal of determination, and I rather like to succeed”

 

I love this quote, it so accurately and cleverly describes quite a large portortion of people who take part in crazy ultraendurance events (and the first successful accent of Everest is definitely one of them!). 

 

In fact, on of the main reasons that I entered into the world of ultradistance racing 10 years ago came about by spending time with the folks at Odyssey Adventure Racing.  These people no only put on double and triple Ironman distance races, multiday adventure races, but at the same time raced in similar races around the world.  As I helped set up races, look after aid stations (sometimes for days on end in the middle of nowhere), and man the radio, I watched the others involved in the management of the races.  In that setting, they came across as normal people, different sizes and shapes, they had regular full time jobs that they went to when they weren't out in the wilderness.  But then, on other occasions, they would themselves be racing, and these seemingly normal people would somehow transform themselves and be able to perform what seemed to me to be superhuman feats of strength and endurance. 

 

I began to wonder whether I could me mentally and physically strong enough to compete in races that went on day and night for up to 5 days at a time.  I would like to think that I was mentally tough enough – getting a PhD was a mental ultraendurance feat in itself.  So I figured I would approach ultradistance racing in the same way as I had my PhD – with a good deal of determination and a strong will to succeed.

 

I have to say, that when I started ultradistance racing, I would not necessarily have described my abilities as “modest”, I think I would have chosen the words “non-existant”, at school I was the chubby uncoordinated child at school, picked last for every sports team, and actively discouraged from participating in sports by my physical education teachers. But that did not deter me, after all, I knew a lot about hard work, and I now saw that all these other seemingly normal people were able to do remarkable things.

 

Ten years on, people are frequently surprised; those that know what I do are surprised  when I tell them that I have very little in the way of natural sporting ability and that most of what I do is through sheer hard work and determination, and others, that aren’t aware of my crazy adventures are surprised, that given my short stature and “plentiful curves” that I can actually do what I do. 

 

At the end of the day, being successful in ultradistance racing, is so much about having modest abilities and combining them with a good deal of determination, and a desire to succeed”.  Many would call this goal setting!

My first ever blog entry

Almost everyone I have met in the last 10 years of my life has called me crazy at least once, and one of my friends only refers to me as “Krazy Kiwi”.  So I thought it was time to share the craziness, and in doing so, amuse, entertain, inspire or empower people by demonstrating that, with the right amount of hard work, even the things that seem impossibly crazy are indeed possible!

Many crazy adventures have gone before, but the current crazy adventure is the “Decatriathlon World Challenge”, a race being held in Monterrey Mexico from 22^nd October 2012 – 5^th November 2012.  This race is ten times the distance of  a standard ironman triathlon, so 38km swim, 1800km bike ride and finished up with a 422km run!  It’s hard to imagine a race of that distance (even for me), but those distances are roughly equivalent of swimming from the Auckland Viaduct to Waiheke island and back, getting on a bike and riding down to Invercargill via the west coast, and then turning around and running up to Timaru (and a little further).  Usually by this time in the conversation people will have already told me that they think I am crazy, and if not, the next bit certainly does – the swim will be in a 50m pool while the bike and run will be completed by riding and running on a 1km loop!!!

Is it physically and mentally possible to complete this race in under the 14 day time limit?  Well a small handful of people in the world have finished, so it must be possible. But can I do it? I believe I can.  It’s a huge goal, not only physically and mentally, but also logistically. But part of the reason that I undertake these crazy goals (which include Double and Triple Irontriathlons, Taupo MaxiEnduro bike race, and a PhD in molecular biology) is to work out HOW to do it – mentally, physically, and logistically.

This blog will not only track my progress in getting to and competing in the race (as well as live race updates), but I’ll also share with you how my life as a scientist is intricately important in my life as an ultradistance athlete and as an inspirational speaker.  I plan on sharing my aspirations, inspirations, and motivations. Who knows, I may even surprise people by showing them how normal I am – even though I most definitely do crazy things!