Silver Stream weekend adventures

With a beautiful Dunedin day on the cards I just had to get out in the hills to stretch the legs. With the Bendigo rogaine coming up next weekend a bit of an off road adventure was needed. A bit of a stomp around in the Silver Stream area with our two dogs was just the ticket to get things broken in for the race next weekend.

Dunedin Winter Multisport Series Round 2: Whare Flat duathlon

This duathlon course is without a doubt one of the coolest courses I have ever done. The first 3km off road run has some steep climbs, flat water race tracks to stride it out on and some technical down hills to keep your mind on the job. Once off the run it’s on to the MTB for some solid climbing on forestry roads before descending on to the water race track. A few creek crossings and sections of technical riding makes this ride unlike any other multisport bike stage. Course map

Course profile

The final run is a repeat of the first run which does not seem to get any easier.
A strong field turned out for some fast racing. Coming into T1 a lead group of four kept the pace hot. Once on the bikes ex-Olympian Kashi Leuchs showed this class pulling away to take the lead.
Jim Cotter chased Kashi hard with Gavin Mason and me not far behind. Losing contact with the lead group on the first major climbs I worked hard through the single track and eventually caught and passed Gav. We raced back and forth for the remainder of the race with Gav just pulling away on the final run to take the 3rd position with Jim 2nd and Kashi 1st.
Same course but 1 year earlier - just as great this year

Whare Flat/ Sliver Stream training session

Another fantastic Dunedin day allowed for a solid afternoon on the MTB checking out the course for the second round of the Dunedin Winter Multisport series with some of the athletes that I coach through Exponential Performance Coaching.
A solid 3hour 30min session saw 1700m of climbing on the bike and a short up tempo off road run in the Whare Flat/ Sliver Stream area. The course for next week’s race includes a fantastic single track MTB which I am really looking forward to doing again.

Heading home at dusk the view over the Taieri planesand Silver Peaks was just amazing, I tried to capture it with a photo but it does not do it justice.

Dunedin Winter Multisport Series - Round 1

After a busy few months at university being full immersed in my masters research doing minimal training the first race of the Dunedin Winter Multisport Series was a bit of a shock to the system. A beautiful day made for great racing conditions.

The first 5km kayak start with a hot pace driven by a number of K1 paddlers keen to push the pace. Having done every limited paddle training this year meant that I was red lining the whole way. Thanks to my new Sission Evolution Omega I was able to limit my losses to the top paddlers to 2 minutes.

On to the MTB stage I worked my way through the field from 7th out of the water to 5th going into the run. Once into the brutal off road run my Salomon Speed Crosses came into their own on the steep greasy slopes. Over the 5km run to the finish I managed to reel in 4th and 3rd place to finish in 3rd place.