Pain Train

 Hard training was promised and it has for sure been delivered.  I’ve been a passenger on the pain train for a few days now and am yet to get off. It would be fair to say I’m stuffed! Although other words would describe it better. The last few days have been all go with some hard bike efforts one day, a killer of a swim the next, a nicely broken 5km run TT tailor made for hurt and finished it off yesterday with more bike efforts. Living the dream they say, living the hurt explains it slightly better, but enough moaning on a whole it has been awesome. Training with all the guys here really brings you up to a new level and there is absolutely no room for slacking off.

The typical day consists of 1^st breakfast  morning training generally our key session for the day, 2^nd breakfast, a sleep then secondary training, lunch, possibly another sleep and if we’re lucky a massage (although that could be debated whether or not it is enjoyable). Dinner here is a bit of a spectacle, we’ve been split into groups of about 4 and cooking for 20 athletes means good times had by all. A few ooh ooos crept in through our meal. Sadly I don’t think we won master chef for this week.

You really know you’re in an elite athlete environment when the casual quiz night turns into something similar to the Olympics and the term sore loser could probably apply to most around here. The Nightly card game also seems to be slightly firing up and just quietly I think I have been one of the most consistent performers, although Marty would be a big contender.

From here I’ve got a couple of easy days before our race simulation, will be trying to get rid of a small cold and trying to get as much sleep as possible.

Lausanne triathlon

Well what can i say first race since March and well...The result looked good on paper, i came 2nd to round out the NZ 1,2 in both the womens and mens races, showed when i got messages from my flatmate on the good performance. Eddie Rawles, my room mate pulled out a good performance and showed he is in good form, the U/19 team is looking fierce.
Myself well i raced average. I really struggled to get going right from the start, the gun went and i got clear water almost straight away and moved across for some feet to draft off. I felt good in the water but just not able to put myself in any pain, 3rd place out of the water not bad but improvement is needed. A long run to and through transition about a 1km or more it was massive!! Welcome to European age group racing (1800 people competed today!). I pushed hard and had the fastest transition leaving 12sec down. From there the race continued in the same fashion riding strong but not able to hurt. This mixed with a crash on lap 1 led to a shocking bike split. Luckily hay bails are soft so no damage to me or the bike. Well kinda  a badly buckled rear wheel let for a lot of wasted power. Out on to the run and where those running legs went, well your guess is as good as mine. Battling the way through i managed a podium place, not bad nice prize of a day skiing, pity there's no snow
On the whole a flat day, but could be partly due to the travelling and the fact that this race was given zero preparation and importance.

Now the most important part, what can be taken and put into positives. A reasonable swim effort technique was good and i didn't lose a lot of time especially considering i had no feet to skip between. My first section of my bike was strong and for the run i may have beaten myself up about it but 2nd fastest run split on a bad day is not bad especially when it would have given me 22nd fastest in the Elite men run times.
Positive feedback from Greg Fraine when looking at the power data

Mens Elite teams race this afternoon shaping up to be an exciting one. Back to the NZ base in  Germany for a few more hard hours, will be for sure climbing into the hurt box, but hey no pain, no game.

I have finally left NZ which is a relief all the uni work gone for a month, well kinda. It's kind of hard trying to prepare with recent races being abroad but i think i've managed to do enough. However all the cramming had a bit of an impact on my training, the enthusiasm and energy being put into training was lacking, however that seems to have picked up in the last week and the old legs seemed to have come back.

On Tuesday i started the big trip, packing seemed like a bit of a mission and as always something has to be left behind luckily only shoelaces not too much of a sought after thing. We seemed to be travelling in style courtesy of Mr Sheldrake managing to get us into the Koru lounge at each airport, i swear a couple of kilos managed to sneak in there.

We eventually ended up in Frankfurt and had the first proper airport experience with bike boxes and bags. Thanks to  Penny Hayes we had our entertainment covered, yes we were away for a month but 68kg is a just a little bit excess. Along with the incident of her bike box tumbling the entire way down the escalator.

6 hour train ride later and we've now ended up in Lausanne, Switzerland. Amazing place that is with some of the best landscapes i've seen.
Unpacking the bike is always a nervous moment and rightly so, my bike box came out open and my pedals and allen keys seemed to have fallen out somewhere on my travels. Just an 80franc replacement and i was back on the road.

Only 1 day till the next race, feeling quite excited and slightly nervous considering i haven't raced since March lets hope the body still remembers how to go to that special place.