The New Zealand Moto-Map

I thought it might be fun to keep a map of the roads/towns I visit on the motorbike here in New Zealand. I am still working on the photos from the most recent trip. The photos in general turned out great and really highlight the rugged beauty of this country. Look for a post soon with samples and a link to Flickr

The outline of the 5-day motorcycle trip:

-Tuesday 6th of September I took a bus from Christchurch up the east coast through Kiakoura, Picton and into Nelson where I met Wayne (the seller of the moto) and picked up the motorcycle. I overnighted in Nelson at The Palace Backpackers.

-Wednesday I set out for Golden Bay north along the coast from Nelson traveling through the Takaka pass and turned around at the Farewell Split. The next night in Nelson I stayed at a much nicer hostel Tasman Bay Packpackers(the famed chocolate pudding has a well deserved reputation).

-Thursday I set out for Greymouth which is southwest of Nelson along the west coast. The Moteuka river valley took me to Reefton which was the first city in the Southern hemisphere to have electricity in 1888. The eclectic Neptunes International Backpackers was a bit low on occupancy so I was able to snag an entire 6 bed room to myself and sleep peacefully sans snoring.

-Friday turned into an long cold beautiful ride on the bike. Leaving before sunrise I went north along the coastal highway to Punakaiki to visit the famed pancake rocks. From there I set my sights on Wanaka by way of the Haast Pass. I stopped at the Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers to snap a few pictures and see my first glaciers. Although the pass was beautiful the two hours of cold rain dampened my spirits only to be lifted by a 45minute hot shower upon my arrival in Wanaka.

-Saturday I got up early and checked the weather in Queenstown and Milford Sound. Unfortunately it was pretty crudy for the next 4 days with Milford being described as torrential downpour. I decided to head back to Christchurch by way of the Lindis pass, Lake Tekapo and the transition line of the Canterbury plains and western mountains.

The trip was 1850km (1150miles) and it was great to see a good bit of the South Island landscape.

The yellow is my travel path and the blue dots are the towns I stopped in. This map also shows a ride out to Akaroa this weekend with my flatmate James and friend Rick which is a nice twisty 100km jaunt south-east from Christchurch. I regret not taking my camera as the approach into Akaroa Bay is stunning. Next time. (*working on making this image less giganitic*)

A 'lil taste

WHOA!!!!! It has been 1 forever unit of time since I've updated the blog and a lot has changed. 2011 brought a sad end to a great experience at Beta Pro Inc. and the final chapter to a coming of age story in Austin. My official age upon leaving Austin is 32 but the true value number is up to debate.

I'll spare the details of how/why/when/what/who regarding the move to New Zealand and start with feet down on Kiwi soil. I arrived on the 27th of July with my bike box, a 5600cubic inch duffel bag, a wheely bag, medium size suit case and a laptop carrier. I didn't pack light but it consisted of most all my possessions. The triathlon and mountain bike are packed and waiting at the parents house awaiting shipment.

Spent 10 days at a local Hostel (kiwi house) just east of the city center. During that time I updated some contacts regarding my new local status, sent out more job applications, rode my bike all over town and searched for flatmates. Flats are houses and flatmates are roommates. I visited 4-5 houses south of city center and met one creepy old lady before i stopped by the 8 Merlewood flat in the Cashmere neighborhood securely in the green undamaged section of town. I moved in shortly after with the 3 other british occupants. Kirsti and Lizzy are PhD students at the local Uni and James is a working professional. Each have been lovely and accommodating the new guy.

Employers and recruiters have been much more interested in me upon gaining a NZ address. To date I've been on 5 interviews and twice as many phone calls with prospective employers. Unfortunately my unique skill set doesn't have a market here in NZ so I've had to really force fit my prior design skills into an image which the employers will like. Generally I've gotten the response that they like me but want to continue searching for someone with more specific experience to their field (forestry, trailer design etc..). So the search continues but the fact people are bringing me in and talking to me keeps the hopes up.

Exercise. Been getting lots of it. Most of the inner city is a bit rubbish for running but a once you get a bit south of town the Port Hills open up with a myriad of trails and hills climbing to challenge anyone. My favorite Saturday run is to leave my house and climb Dyers Pass out to Summit road which results in a consistent 4% average grade over the 12-14km out. Similarly I've been riding my bike all over and a couple of times got in over my head by keeping on when I should have turned around. As long as you get home before dark and don't get hit by a car then its a good ride.

This coming week I will be traveling to Nelson to pickup a motorcycle I purchased from TradeMe (the ebay of NZ). It is a 2007 Suzuki V-Strom with 600miles. 6-0-0. I'll have to take a couple of cautions with buying a four year old bike which has mostly sat garaged the entire time but I feel that I snagged a killer deal. The only decision now is what to name her/him.

2007 Suzuki DL650 A-waiting

Some pictures from a recent ride.

A couple of photos from the kitchen window.

Everyone has a little Rookie in them

Rookie moves conducted:

-Swam 5 yards past the turn around buoy

-Fell over and onto my bike while conducting a flying mount

The Rookie is always a fun one. It is short, fast and usually populated with plenty of local talent. I have been concentrating on aerobic fitness this year in preparation for IMCDA in June so there was a bit of apprehension going into this race regarding my ability to redline. ESPECIALLY on the run. My running has been super solid with most of the weeks being 45+ miles BUT not a single one of these miles has been faster than 7:15 pace. Eek!

Prep: Saturday I logged my trademark 4hour trainer ride in the garage and set a new best mark averaging 213watts and expending 3050kj of work. The legs were pretty sauced all afternoon but I know from previous experience my Sunday workouts won't be much affected. Sunday morning was a bit cool and there were some serious patches of rain encountered on the drive down to the Texas Ski Ranch. Turned out that the rain was a non-factor and the chill was manageable.

300m Swim: 6:28

I slotted myself in the back so I wouldn't get swum over during my flail session around the buoys. This worked out well and overall the swim was decent considering my complete lack of swim fitness. The only mistake was taking too long between sightings and swimming clean past the turn around buoy. Things are bad enough with my swim without me tacking on extra yards.

T1: Running from the swim exit to the bike was fast and I ended up stepping on a rock with my left foot (more on this later). This transition took a tad longer than normal as I had to check my foot cause it was hurting a bit AND I nearly took my ear off pulling my tightass aero helmet down. Unracking my bike I run it out of transition, onto the roadway and past the mount line. Usually this is not problem as I am pretty awesome at doing a flying mount onto the bike. This time I tried it from the left side with my right foot onto the left pedal... quite literally exactly opposite from any way I have ever done it before. The outcome was my falling onto my bike and then my bike and me falling onto the pavement. Utterly embarrassing. I hopped up quickly, taking some time to readjust my aerobars with a mightily tug, and slowly mounted my bike with we were both at velocity = 0mph. This outcome resulted in a properly mounted bike and I was on my way. Here is the fun thing... I can tell you exactly how much time it took me to fall and get back on my bike. 14 seconds. The power meter recorded all this in glorious detail.

11.2mi Bike: 28:43

I took the first several minutes of the bike "EZ" as I was a bit shaken up from falling. My hand also got cut a bit which resulted in lots of blood. Getting passed by three doods really got me fired up and I laid into the pedals. I passed each one of them back and never saw them again. The bike went great and in fact by the time we were a mile from the finish I felt warmed up and really ready to go. The watts flowed well and I made up a lot of time.

Power: Taken from the business part of the file 27:45

277watts average: 279watts normalized @ 0.96IF

87RPM average

24.4mph

2mile Run: 12:01

I was feeling pretty solid coming on the bike and I slipped my new most favorite shoes (Nike Lunaracer 2) on and set out. Coming out of transition I was by myself. Once I got onto the out/back portion of the run I was able to spot a couple people ahead which gave me a little incentive to crank the pace. I could tell I was closing the gap steadily between these two runners to the turn around. The turnaround during a run is both a blessing and a curse. This time it was a blessing, I was able to see that there was no danger of anyone sniping me from the back and I was also less than 10 seconds back from the two runners. It ended up taking me the entire "back" section of the run to close gap and get into striking distance to launch an attack on the finish line. Once we turned back into the Ski Ranch ground from the roadway there was about 1/3mile left to the finish line and I was maybe 4 seconds back. I put in a hard surge close that final gap and relaxed to wait for the right time to throw a finishing sprint. Natasha forced the issues with a push past Billy and I had no choice to go with her. I came past Billy and threw down my sprint. I caught and passed Natasha with about 200 yards to go and ended up putting about 4 seconds into her at the finish. Overall I was very happy with my "speed" and I posted a faster time than last year.

Summary:

I was 13th overall with an 8th place in the Open Mens group and snagged a cool plastic license plate. Can't complain about that one bit.

**As it turned out, I got a bad stone bruise on my foot along with a moderately deep cut. Might be Wednesday before I can ride/run again.

Longhorn 2009 - Final Test

I started this entry as a season wrap up, but thought it was a bit premature. This season has been a fantastic success but I'm sure that Sunday afternoon my perspective of the season will be substantially altered by the results of Longhorn 70.3. I have two big season goals which hinge on my performance this weekend. This season has been GREAT, but I'm not getting into the water on Sunday morning to have a "good" race, finish the distance or set a PR. I'm showing up to take 9m31s out of Benjamin Ryan* (#1599) and to podium in my AG. I've got the fitness and have done the work. Its time to execute the race plan and do a little old fashioned suffering.

*Mr. Ryan is a nice guy, but he has the unfortunate position of being in first place and 9m30s ahead of me in the Texas Tri Series standings and so I've been gifted for 6 weeks with an abundance of motivation. His wave will also be starting 10minutes ahead of mine which means I must pass by the finish line to scratch one of the race goals. I love playing catch up.

Game On

Austin RR - Kill'in It

Austin Tri is one of my favorite races by far. Swimming in town lake, hammering Cesar Chavez/Congress and running the looped course on Riverside is such a great atmosphere. The training in the weeks leading up to the race went great although I battled a little fatigue from the harder workouts. My parents finally made their mind up about down for the weekend which always a treat. I have to give my parents credit, they are very easy going and let me do my pre-race workouts, rituals and keep to a comfortable pattern. Thanks Vicki and Mark!

My goals for this race were to push the bike (in a controlled manner) and then let it hang out on the run. Also I was hoping to take back a large portion of time from the 8 people ahead of me in the Texas Tri Series standings.

Swim:
I picked up a swimskin from Rocket Science Sports as the swim was not wetsuit legal and I need every help I can get in the water. The gun goes off and the water polo begins... well it was actually swimming but in the middle of the pack it feels like a battle. Swishing feet and swinging arms from all degrees. I pulled around a couple guys and got into some open water in the front(ISH) of the pack. The swim felt fantastic, I was in breath the entire time and never felt like I was pushing myself. Since i was in the front of the pack with only a few lime green caps ahead of me I thought we were cruising at a good pace. The reality was that we all were going slow. That fantastic feeling swim was actually because I was noodling along.

Swim: 27:16

Bike:
So, I came out of the water feeling great and thinking I was killing it so far. Time to do some damage with my one and only ace. The bike started off at about 280 watts which was a tad to hot to for the entire leg, but wouldn't hurt me for a couple minutes while I got up to "speed'. On the start of my second lap I caught up to some of the pro/open wavers who were on their 3rd loop. I was in cruise mode - legs hurting a bit but my breathing was relax-o-easy. Passing the other fast guys and pros was BANANNAS. Not much else to say, I killed it without killing myself.


Bike 58:57 (3rd fastest split of the day!)
Avg Speed: 25.2mph
Avg watts: 251w
Normalized Watts: 254

Run:
Being an Olympic distance event the run is 6 miles which means you gotta run hard but you still need to run smart. I'm still working on the smart aspect. Coming into T2 I got a little too excited to see that no other bikes were present which means that I would be the lead out on the run course. This rush resulted in me running sub 6 for the first mile AND forgetting my race number in transition. Technically I could be disqualified for not displaying the race number on the run. Ooops. Anyways, i cooled off the pace around the first mile mark and settled into a steady rhythm concentrating on a quick foot turn over race. I finished with the fastest "10k" split I have ever ran. I put 10k in quotations as I think the course was a bit short which resulted in an inflated pace.

Run: 38:31 (6:13 average pace)

Overall
Finish time: 2:08:37
1st 30-34M
2nd Overall Age grouper
20th Overall

Pros:
I'm riding FAST on modest watts
Run was solid and on the fast side of what I thought was possible
Bike nutrition was spot on, one 300cal bottle worked great
Leading the AG race is fun

Cons:
The whole swim, failed to pick the pace up or swim smart
My run split could have been significantly faster had I paced the first mile better.

I ended up moving myself from 8th to 2nd Overall Standing in the Texas Tri Series and lost 45 seconds to the first place guy. 9m30s to make up at the Longhorn Half Iron, that's a lot of time but its a long race and I've got time to prepare. Game on.

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta

River Ranch Triathlon July 25, 2009

This wasn't really a A or B race for the season and actually only signed up for it three weeks ago. It turned out to be a very well run small race right on the San Marcos river in a loted out subdivision (lots and infrastructure but no houses yet). I knew going into this race that if I had a decent performance I could be in the running for an overall win. With the smaller races (~175 people) the fast people don't normally come out which leaves some room to us fast age groupers to shine. The training has been pretty solid lately and the biking has been great after I made some small tweaks to my bike (1.5mm more seat height, 3mm front end drop and a switch from 172.5mm to 170mm cranks.).

I got about 6 hours of sleep and race morning went normally with a almond butter english muffin and a big bowl of organic raisin bran with a banana, strawberries and honey. Packed up and headed to the race site. Picked my packet and chip up and got a big surprise. For whatever reason they assigned me BIB #1. Dang, it is officially on. In reality it was a bit embarrassing and they many comments from races and spectators about having big shoes to fill and living up to #1 didn't help to let me relax.

I warmed up with a 5minute swim in the ski pond and got out just in time for the instructions for the time trial start. Time trial start going by bib #. Which means that I should have gone off first but they placed some guy in front of me who was a "really fast swimmer, you'll be glad he goes first". I didn't care about the fast swimming, but not having to jump in the water first was a relief.

Swim: 400m - 8m28s
The ski pond we were swimming in was around 3-7 feet deep and surprisingly cool/clean for what it appeared to be. It hit the water and went full on gas for 2-3 minutes but the guy in front of me still pulled away and the guy behind me caught up around that time. I pulled in behind him and finished the course with a hard yet reasonable effort. Overall I was top 5 in the swim which is not too shabby [for me :-) ]. I came out of the water behind the #1 and #3 guy.

Bike: 15.7m - 38m52s
267w avg / 271w normalized (37:38 before the incident)
24.7mph

I had a slower transition as I took time to clean my feet off. Since the transition was in the not yet finished community park the ground was mostly packed fill dirt with some green sprigs. I raced out of the transition ahead of the #1 guy which left only #3 to chase down. Man on a mission. I was determined to give it full on gas till I caught (and passed) #3 dude. I caught him about a mile out as he had flatted and looked to be walking back to transition. Bad luck for him. I'm now in first place WITH A LEAD OUT CAR clearing opening the course for me. I settled in and put the hammer down which turned out to be a good strategy as the course was mostly headwind/hilly out with a great tailwind back. I let off the gas a tad on the return tip so I didn't completely trash my legs.

Everything was going great until I get within site of the transition area and open my shoes to get my feet out. About the time I got my left shoe undone my rear tire blows out with a firecracker caliber POP. If you are wondering... Yes I said the F-word and I'm not really sorry. After a lightening assessment of the situation I decided to take my shoes off and run the last 200 yards barefoot while holding the rear wheel of my bike off the ground. I hope these race pictures come out well as I am sure it looked ridiculous.

Fastest overall bike split of the day by ~45 seconds including the impromptu warm up run before the real run.

Run: 3.1miles - 19m55s (6:38 pace)

I knew this was going to be a tough run when I got up at 4:30 that morning. On Thursday I had a fantastic but exhausting 7mile track workout and I still had some DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) race morning.

Anyways, I took a SIU pull and got over it. I'm gonna keep this part short. I ran hard and keep the pace up even though a couple times I knew I could have gotten away with a walk break. The finish line came rather quickly despite the high amount of pain I was feeling.

First finisher, bib #1, fastest time. It was a great feeling to be the big fish in the small pond for a couple hours.

Final Thoughts:
I had four glasses of beer in an hour after the race and didn't get a buzz. Wtf?

I was a little disappointed that when they announced the results and had me come up they didn't have ANY sort of award to give me. They told me to come by the shop and get fitted for the pair or newton running shoes I had won. Nothing to pose for the cameras with, i felt silly just standing there by myself for the photo.

The finish line was great!!! It was in a shaded grove right next to the San Marcos river with a constant breeze the entire time. No hiding under tents in a crowd of sweaty people like most of the other local races.

Stickers and bad luck

2009 Couples triathlon is more of a beginners event which put a majority of its focus on 2 person teams and the respective combined time for the two. I didn't have a team mate so i entered the individual male category (no AG glory here). I've had been feeling decent the week leading up to the race and the softer recovery based schedule has been making me feel a little guilty in my training. I ended up going to visit family for a short camping trip fri/sat which took a good bit out of me with the long drive and time spent in the heat/sun. Since this wasn't and A race i wasn't that concerned about being rigorous with my pre-race prep.

Race day morn, up bright and early to make my 1 cup of raisin bran + almond milk + crushed walnuts, banana, wheat pancake + honey + almond butter. This (or something like it) has evolved into my standard pre-race meal and works very well providing I get this down 2+ hours before race start. Loaded up and picked up a McDonalds latte on the way to the race site.

I was the next to last wave to go off so I had plenty of time to visit, warm-up and cheer on the first racers. I did Light stretching and 10 min of easy jogging to break a sweat just before race start.

In the water I lined up front-middle of the pack and went off like normal and planned to punch it for 200m, settle in and get on some feet. Right off the bat I was hit in the face by something which unsealed and flooded both goggles. I was able to somehow clear one side and get the other halfway decent and keep swimming to the turn around bouy. At that point I had to roll onto my back and reseal the goggles as they were leaky as heck. This didn't really help and they continued to leak and required clearing every couple min. The water was pretty warm and overall I never got my breathing under control after the hectic start. I need to get into the water, simple.

Swim: 15:21 (poor poor poor)

In the bike transition went well aside from getting one of the abundant stickers on my tender feetsies. Got onto the bike and started pushing it hard. Never really felt good, but the watt numbers were decent and I was hoping once warmed up I could come unglued and really smack it. Halfway or so I heard the sizzling/whooshing sound of a blown tube. This turned out to kill my entire race... I stopped and ripped the wheel off the bike and went to work jimmying the tire off in order to extricate the punctured tube. Couldn't do it and I must have messed with it for 3-4 min. Lucky for me course support came by and stopped to assist. This guy even had a hard time but we got the tube changed and the bike back together. Damage 8m20s. My "race" was over. I biked a little angry to the bike finish. Bike power was a little low, but my time would have been very competitive with no flat.

Bike: 37:37
Pre Flat watts - 251 (23.9mph) @ 16m20s
Flat time: 8m20s
Post Flat Watts - 261 (22.9mph) @ 12m53s

After that flat BS I decided to run steady-hard as i really didn't have the will or desire to destroy myself for 1-2minutes which wasn't going to get me on the podium. On checking the result the run time was very good considering I didn't push it and that I stopped to remove a sticker and fully walk one aid station.

3.1m Run: 20:49 (6:43 pace)

Total Time: 1:16:57

On investigation of my tire problem I found out that the latex tube developed a pin size hole at one of the spoke holes of the rim. The tube looked to be chaffed from the rim strip, but examining the rim strip everything appeared to be just dandy. BSS will be put on this case to figure out what the issue was/is. I refuse to race on something I can't rely on.

I also found out that changing the tube of my rear wheel is a holy mother-&*%#( with the wheel cover bolted on. Not sure how I am going to fix this.

Hopefully this can be my race of firsts and lasts and the rest of the season will get ripped up.