Hi Blog followers
Well I made it. Secretly I felt positive that I would get selected for Ultraman Australia to compete in the gruelling 515 kilometres of swimming, cycling, and running over three days. Normally they take a maximum of 40 athletes.
We found out in November 2015 that I was accepted for Ultraman Australia 2016. I remember that Coach Ray text me as I was opening my Hotmail account to see if I was accepted. When I opened my Hotmail account I saw the email and I didn’t want to open it. Of course I did and I loved the journey.
This time, I had no hesitation to open the email and was absolutely stoked to see I had made the cut. Finding out a few months earlier will be so much more beneficial for training and planning. Thank you Ultraman Australia!
At the same time I also received an email from Challenge Wanaka who became aware of my 3+2+1=Charity and offered me a discounted entry to support my cause to assist with the personal funding I am undertaking for my charitable challenge. Challenge Wanaka is the first of the two full Ironman distance events I am undertaking over two weeks as part of the ‘2’ for the 3+2+1=Charity. Thank you Challenge Wanaka!
Training has been a different routine from Coach Ray this week. He has me doing some sprint work on the bike instead of the normal distance ride on a Monday night. This was interesting, so I used a flat stretch of road behind Trentham Camp going up and down. The locals were probably thinking “what’s this guy up to”!
On Tuesday evening Coach Ray had me doing some hill work running. Unfortunately I chose the wrong hill thinking the infamous Tank Hill near both the Army Camp and Rimutaka Prison would be high enough having previously run up it a number of times for Army Physical Training. The reps were for 4 minutes at a high intensity and 4 minutes slowly coming down repeating this a number of times. I made it up in less than 3 minutes so carried on past the Water Tanks and up the next rises which were nothing but mud. I realised that this was going to defeat the purpose of what Coach Ray was trying to achieve, so I doubled the number of times Ray wished me to do it and ran up at high intensity until I reached 2 minutes and ran back down for 2 minutes repeating the process until I matched the number of distance / time planned by Coach Ray. Time to find a higher hill. Plenty to choose from with working in Wellington.
I also had time trials planned this week from Coach Ray on all three disciplines: in the pool, then hitting the Hawkes Bay Expressway on the bike and using the Hastings Athletic Track for the run. It’s great to have a mix-up for training under the watchful eye of Coach Ray. He will certainly be planning my training with a difference now that the 3+2+1= Charity events are falling in to place.
This brings me to this weeks photos from Ultraman Australia 2016: Day 2 being the 280 km cycle. Don’t be fooled by the smile on my face in the first photo. It is dark and I have just started my journey. The next photo shows a lack of smiling as the day wears on 🙂 The distance versus heat versus mucking up my nutrition intake taking it’s toll. Coach Ray and my support crew of Scott Cordwell and Derrick McMillan got me back in line by loading me up on food and drink, although we soon realised a sticky donut leaving sugar all over my handlebars and hands wasn’t a good idea… albeit humorous in hindsight!
Photos courtesy of Barry Alsop, Official Photographer for Ultraman Australia.
Take care team, regards UltraHumps!