Prologue – ECNZ 2010 – “The length of New Zealand”

Prologue – ECNZ 2010 – “The length of New Zealand”

My first epic camp was in Australia in January 2005. I was an Epic greenie and wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself in for - it’s fair to say there was plenty of apprehension with the distances we had planned. Gordo just said to come along and get some solid training done as I was training up for my first serious attempt at an Ironman (I had been out of the sport for about 3 years after a semi pro short course career). Apart from some shoulder issues whilst swimming early in the camp I came through well and went on to have a solid 10th place at Ironman NZ on what was only a 16 week build up (coming from close to zero training). There’s been plenty of water under the bridge since then – plenty of epic camps, marriage, 2 kids and a growing coaching business. Why am I writing all this? I feel the same apprehension before this camp as to that first one. Whilst plenty of the other Epic Camps have been tough there has usually been a bail out option if the crap really hits the fan (like last year when I buggered by knee and couldn’t ride one day). With this length of NZ camp there really is no bail out option. I am absolutely determined to bike every single km of our great country no mater what gets thrown at me. Whilst I’m excited this is somewhat dampened as I am the camp organiser and I have so much else on my mind, I just want to get things underway. Being a moving road show for 15 days for a group of 30 has been quote a logistical challenge.

We’ve scheduled a reasonably direct route whilst trying to avoid the main highways in the North Island. We start at the top of the North Island at Cape Reinga and finish in Bluff at the bottom of the South Island. Bike distance is 2300-2400km in 15 days and I am looking to do the minimums of approximately 26km swimming and 100km of running. I’ve never done any significant riding in the North Island and there are plenty of unchartered roads in the South as well – I am really excited to be able to see some new countryside and unique sights of NZ.

What do I think about this camp? Whilst the distance is daunting I know I can get through it my main concerns are

• saddles sores and chaffing – I have a huge tub of chamois cream, Vaseline, lots of pairs of bike shorts and will be shooting for very good undercarriage hygiene


• Achilles and other over use injuries. One of our camp sponsors is CEP compression socks that I will be using a lot along with a daily stretching routine, ice baths and other recovery techniques - (kiwi’s and aussies can buy CEP socks here http://www.dcmsport.com/ )


• stomach issues – I’ll be trying to eat simple food and regularly whilst also avoiding high intensity efforts close to meals


• lack of fitness – it’s fair to say that training had not been big on volume (with a 9mth old baby and 2.5 year old priorities have been elsewhere – I literally only have a handful of long rides in the last few months). I will counter this by taking it pretty easy through the north island, especially when the testosterone is following hard and fast on the first few days.


• Ditching my wife with the kids for a couple of weeks – there is no easy solution to this one -diamonds have been suggested
  

Other than that I am good to go. There’s still a couple of days until we start in Sunday NZ time.

Check back here daily and I’ll let you know what we’ve been up to. I’ll also try to do a few podcasts but I’m picking these will become less frequent as we go through the camp – go to http://www.imtalk.me/
There should be some great stories to come out of this camp so check out other blogs as a number of the athletes have said they will blog.

I’ll be back soon 