Less than a Month

The title of this post excites me. I am definitely in countdown mode now and to be honest just can’t wait to get out there and compete. After a few weeks of sporadic training (haha) I am feeling surprisingly good. I would genuinely love this feeling to last up until race day, but going on past experiences I think it may swing back to the nerves and same old question ‘have I done enough?’

I had quite an intense month of training in December, only to be hit with the dreaded cold on Christmas day. This may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I was forced to take a break and rest my fatigued body, without the guilts of not being out there exercising.

The last few weeks have consisted of some good training runs, some awesome partying and great catch-ups with family and friends. I’m all about moderation and balance so on reflection I think I managed this pretty well. Christmas was pretty quiet spent at home with not much training, a few ‘light’ bike rides with Mum and my Aunt Sally, where I taught Mum that biking with flat tyres was much harder than it had to be and informed them both that a little bike up-keep goes a long way! Sally, I hope you have cleaned and oiled that chain!

After Christmas, I headed south to Wanaka for New Year. Up first was the Clutha classic, a 54km kayak race starting at the Wanaka foreshore following the lake to the outlet (the head of the Clutha) and then down the river past Albertown and Luggate to Maori Point Road. With one of the rapids called ‘shitters ditch’ it was no wonder I was nervous! We cracked some brilliant weather, and I had support crew to burn. Nothing beats having your friends give up their days to come and watch and support you so a massive thank you to you all, especially Alex and Booker who is pretty much as part of my races now as I am! The rapids thankfully were manageable, although quite a few eddies to catch you out when the concentration was lacking. I arrived at the end still dry with a good friend Jacqs, then I believe the topic of conversation was where we were headed for our first beer! Training for 2013 had officially ended.

Happily accosted by a few friends we saw the New Year in at Rhythm and Alps; a great few days although it was mentioned we may be getting too old for festivals! (I said maybe…) I was a little worse for wear heading into 2014, and at the time I would have said stupidly, but looking back now I would say I had very wisely, entered a multisport race on the 2nd. Nothing like a good workout to blow away the cobwebs (or more likely alcohol in this case!). Maybe it was the guilts, yes it was definitely the guilts, but I managed a first place which was a great start to the New Year. Turns out partying does do wonders for my racing. Not too sure if I’m keen to test it out on the Coast to Coast though. They were interesting conditions; a strong breeze coming down the lake meant we were more surfing then kayaking, one of the very few times a shorter boat has an advantage. At one stage I was entirely out of control and ended up facing backwards! I’m just happy I didn’t fall out. I managed to get a small lead on the other girls which I somehow kept throughout the race. While it wasn’t a big race; 5.5km kayak, 22.4 bike and 5.8 run, nothing beats actually racing and practising transitions, and I crossed the finish line in just over an hour and a half.

After a quick stop in at home where I crossed off the annual climb of little Mt Peel with Gina (record time), I headed north to near Kaikoura for the wedding of two very special people, my cousin Milly and her now-husband (eeek) Tom. It was held at Milly’s home, Bluff Station, which provides some of the most amazing scenery this country has to offer. Being a bridesmaid, I headed up early to help out where I could with the plan to get in some quality training out the back of their property. So I managed one great run up the riverbed, and even a sneaky run on the morning of the wedding, but my family loves to party, and this occasion was no different. So it wasn’t ideal training, but it was fine. I’m back on board this week just in time for some more nor’ westers to raise the rivers in time for the weekend! (I just wrote that to make myself feel better, I’m actually going to Whangamata to a special friends 30th!) It’s all about balance, right?

You know things have changed when you head out for a quick run and without thinking clock up 21km, off-road as well. I remember very vividly, almost a year ago, when a 6km run around the park was a big deal. It’s a New Year people, this is about the time I decided to tick another item off the bucket list and train for Coast, and I don’t regret it for a second.