Running the Abel Tasman Park Coastal Trail

My friend Liza was coming to New Zealand for a visit and to watch Ironman N.Z. A great athlete, who I met through the TriCats Triathlon Club, I suggested that as part of her tour she visit us near Nelson and either go sea kayaking or join me for a run of the Abel Tasman Park Coastal Trail. In the end she opted for the trail and my wife Lis organized a great day. Liza, Gary (who was travelling with Liza) and I would run the 32 km from Awaroa to Marahau, while Lis and our other friend Anke would hike part of the trail. So at 9:30 we boarded a water taxi at Kaiterteri on a perfect day for a visit to the park. Anke got the photo of us below before boarding.

Book Recommendation – Training and Racing With a Power Meter

This is one of those books which was seminal for cycle training. Hunter Allen and Andy Coggan explain the concepts of training with a power meter and how you can use it to maximize the benefits of your time in the saddle. If you have a power meter and don’t have this book you are wasting your time and money.  You should also join the ‘Wattage Group’ which is a very active online community devoted to power cycle training. Join at: http://groups.google.com/group/wattage/topics

Race Rehearsal

With just over four weeks to go until Ironman Australia, my Endurance Nation training plan had me do a number of fitness tests this week and then a race rehearsal. The race rehearsal is particularly important as the goal is not only to do a very long training session at your race pace, but also to test out things like your nutrition plan, bike position, etc. so you have time to make adjustments before the race.  My race rehearsal was to consist of a 180 km bike ride and a 10 km run. In the days before I did bike and running tests to confirm how hard I should ride/run.

Book Recommendation – The Runner’s Edge

This was the best $14.21 I’ve spent at Amazon.com in a long time.  In this book, Stephen McGregor and Matt Fitzgerald put forward an excellent strategy for maximizing your race performance. It definitely supersedes Daniel’s book on running. They give training strategies, explain how to monitor your fitness and performance, and best of all, it is all built around the WKO+ Performance Management system. I can’t recommend this book highly enough—except for the egregious error of calling the New Zealand coach Arthur Lydiard an Australian. After I pointed this out Matt did a mea cupla and copped the blame for that one—and promised to correct it in the next edition.

New Zealand – Perfect Place for Ironman Training

It is all my mother-in-law’s fault. She lives near Port Macquarie Australia, home of Ironman Australia and every year she sends me newspaper clippings of the race with the note ‘when are you going to race here?’.  Since I am starting a new job in Sydney Australia on 1 April, and the race is the Sunday before I start, I felt I no longer had any valid excuse (lack of training notwithstanding). So I plonked down my money and now have to do the blasted race—swim 3.8 km, bike 180 km and run 42 km. This is one of those good news, bad news races. The good news is that I will be doing my training for the race in New Zealand at the top end of the South Island which, as you will see from the photos that follow, is stunningly beautiful.

The Presentation Secrets Of Steve Jobs

View more presentations from Peter Walker.

P90X – It Really Worked!

I have now gone through 90 days of training with P90X (although it has taken longer than 90 days due to travel interruptions and falling off the wagon for a week).  So the question now is what difference did it make? If you watch the infomercial they make all sorts of grandiose claims about how it will transform you. Given that I was fit when I started – I had just finished Ironman Louisville with a 12:18 finish time and did a 3:27 in the Boston Marathon – did it make any difference? In a word, yes. In three words. A big difference…

P90X – Week 13: The End is Nigh!

When I started P90X I created 13 weeks of posts in Windows Live Writer (BTW: if you don’t use it check it out – a great tool for blogging), each containing seven days of workouts. So each week I would just open the week’s workout. Since it was over three months ago that I started P90X I had long forgotten what each week’s workout contains. I was therefore very pleasantly surprised to find Monday morning that the worst is over! Week 13 is a tapering week with lots of Yoga … and no pull ups I need it since, as I blogged last week, I’m pretty fatigued now that Ironman training has started.

Cable Bay Triathlon

My wife Lis was perched on the top of a hill where she could watch the ocean swim. There were two other spectators with binoculars. With the waves coming in they could see the swimmers being tossed about, and then gradually being strung out as they headed NE towards the turn around buoy.  Lis took offense when they laughed saying that one swimmer had missed the turn around buoy and kept going. “Easy for you to say – you aren’t out there”, not realizing that the poor swimmer was her husband …

P90X – Week 12

The second to last week of P90X, and the end cannot come too soon. It is not that I am tired of doing the routines; I’m just plain fatigued. I’ve got 13 h of triathlon training scheduled this week, as well as a lot of manual work do to around the property we’ve bought. Oh yes, and there is a sprint triathlon this Sunday as well.  Anyway, that which does not kill you makes you stronger …