Winter Wind Up

After birth our beautiful daughter Elsie in February the 2013 winter has been eventful in more than just the usual training and racing adventures.

The Dunedin Cycle World Cyclo-Cross series was a great motivation to get out in the wet and cold weather and enjoy some high intensity ‘racing/ training’ each Sunday. Racing the series on my MTB was great fun on the sometimes relatively technical courses and I even managed some reasonable finishes in the 5 races I competed in over the 10 race series.

Brendan Ward Photography took some fantastic photos of these races.

 The annual Peak to Peak Training Camp that Exponential Performance Coaching runs in Queenstown is always a great opportunity to get out and train hard with some of the athletes that I work with. This year was no exception with 4 days in Queenstown in the cold but clear conditions for the majority of the camp with heavy snow for the final day.

This years camp included a new mind over matter challenge of swimming in Lake Wakatipu following a workshop on ‘Mastering your Mind’ in which we watched some amazing footage of Wim Hoff and his ability to control his body and mind (see below). It was a great lesson for all involved about perception of physiological signals from the body. 

We had a great family day out in the sun at a local rogaine with Elsie in the front pack. We managed to pick up a few check points and Elsie was so excited by the whole ordeal that she slept for the entire 3 hours we were out in the hills.

Through the Otago University School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Science I run an Applied Theories and Practice course, focused on students applying the knowledge learned throughout their degree to training and preparing for an adventure race. This year’s final goal race that the students prepared for was the Dunedin City Mazda 6 hour AdventureChallenge. Seeing a good opportunity to get out and stretch the legs at the end of a long winter I teamed up with Jim Cotter. Pete Smallfield and this team mate Tim Farrent put the slip on us in the thick fog early in the race after we missed a check point and had to back track for it. We ended up riding and running around the course all day with Milan Brodina and Dave Slater in a very social and fun day out coming in to draw 2^nd place after 3 hour 45 min of racing.

Bring on the summer and warmer weather!

Have fun out there.