1 day to go!

I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Been in Wanaka since Monday and swam 1 lap of the course on Wednesday. Had the carbo loading dinner last night and that was cool. So much food and so nice!

There are heaps of people here for Challenge Wanaka from all over the world and at the dinner last night we met up with our Uncle who is doing Challenge also, whom we've not seen for about 16 yrs - so it was nice to catch up.

We've not long come from the athletes pre race briefing which was informative, and will just chill out now. I'll have a little swim maybe, still undecided about that. The Contact energy tri races are on this afternoon so I guess we'll be down town in amongst it watching the guns doing their thing. I've taken some cool photos so will post some on here next week after it's all done and dusted.

Talk to you Sunday maybe with a post race report. 

Mr Tua

The coundown thingy says 8 days to go!

Happy New Year people. 8 days into it and I'm becoming rather excited about the whole affair.

Just a short blog today. Have to pack my bag for the 3rd time!

I worked out yesterday and I thank the internet for sites like www.zoggs.com.au for being able to track ones training, that from when I started training for this journey to Wanaka and up until the 31/12/09 I had clocked up 222.375 km in the pool. Sort of blew me away really because it seems like such a long way. I just hope I do the training I've done some justice.

Remember Mr Tua's wish list? Well there were a couple of things that never happened:

1) The wedding... Nevermind life goes on and am happy to report that I am very happy. Thanks Anna and I guess thanks Mrs Miller :)

2) 100 kg by race day, not going to happen BUT to be honest I'm not at all bothered! I made it to 120.3 and it will happen but just not now. I'm happy, healthy, can swim like a demon when I want to AND can run 5 km in under 30 mins which wasn't at all possible when I was 156.5 kgs. I've done well I think and it's still a work of art in progress, oh and I got to throw out the fat bastard clothes lol.

Off to ChCh in the morning and I'm excited.... Did I say I was excited?

One last thing, GOOD LUCK to Kathy and Paul, along with all the others that I've met in swim squad and along the way who are doing the Port of Tauranga Half Ironman in the morning. Go Hard and kick it's arse!

Mr Tua

17 days to go

Only 17 days to go then it's all on for young and old! I'm looking forward to it to say the least. I looked at the athletes list and saw that there are 76 teams in our race. That's a lot of teams don't you think? I know we'll do our best and we all have something to race for now after hearing that our rider lost her coach last week. Be strong Katrina - I know you're riding in memory of your coach and we'll be right there with you.



Christmas was a pretty quiet affair this year which was nice. Just chilled out, ate too much and had a laugh. All good. Shame I had to go to work on Boxing Day, but you do what you have to, don't you?



All up last week to Sunday I had clocked up 19.3 km in the pool, which was pleasing but at the same time, taxing. Had a small swim last night of 2.5km and will be heading off for another swim shortly. It seems weird to say I had a small swim of only 2.5 km. When I first began on this journey, 2.5 km was a huge swim for me, but now it seems like nothing at all.
I'm looking forward to having a lake swim on Sunday at the Blue Lake in Rotorua. I'll be doing 4 km and hope to time it so I can get some sort of gauge as to where I am with 2 weeks to go.

Have decided to take my pedals and shoes etc, to ChCh so I can do some other training apart from swimming for the Ohope tri in Feb.

Well.... to my peeps who follow this, have a great New Year to you all and your families. Be safe and see you in 2010... (2days).

Only 22 days to go....

It's getting closer now and I'm getting rather excited.

Have been putting in some fairly big efforts lately, with this week alone having done 13 km in the pool with a swim Saturday to go to finish the week off. Am looking forward to going to the Blue Lake in Rotorua next Sunday for a lake swim.

Have also changed gyms and programs. The whole gym change just made sense to me, as I get the use of the gym and the swimming pool. The program that the trainer has got me on is a goodie - loads of core strength in a circuit type program. It hurt on Tuesday when I went through it for the first time, (hurt the next day, but it was a pleasant pain - if there is such a thing), but having done it again yesterday I'm feeling pretty bloody good.

Well that's me, going to go and get somethings done for Christmas dinner now.

Have a safe and merry Christmas everybody.

36 days to go........

It's getting closer and to be fair, I'm starting to get very excited about the whole thing and I know that all the hard work that we've all done will pay off. It's going to be awesome!

Last Sundays squad swim was the best session I have had in a long time, it was such a good session I did it all over again on Thursday after work. It was an endurance/strength session 3 km.

Have been doing some sea swimming at Pilot Bay and Wednesdays tri club swim was really hard work, battling the current of the outgoing tide and the shit load of jellyfish that are in the bay at present, however, I will say it is their house and we just have to get over the jellys.

Last Sunday also saw me watch for the first time, a triathlon from start to finish and I have to say that I knew there was a reason I wouldn't go and watch rugby, or even watch it on TV when I stopped playing and that reason was because I knew that if I did, I'd want to play. The same thing has happened, but this time it feels different. Probably because it is foreign to me really and I just want to have a crack at it. I had planned on making Mr Tua's 1st ever triathlon the Bayfair Pharmacy triathlon at the end of March, however, I found a triathlon to do on the 20th Feb in Ohope, so that's what I'm going to do. It's a sprint tri and I'm champing at the bit to do it.

I've also been doing more running having run on Monday and last night at the Everyones 5km run and walk. I just had a look at the website to see how long it took me and I'm bloody rapt to report that I did a sub 30 min run. 29.47 and I won a spot prize too. A half hour massage worth $30. Not too shabby eh? Anna won a prize too being a towel and $20 off voucher on shoes from Smiths Sports Shoes. It was pleasant running out with a bit of a head breeze but on turning to go back was a different story - the breeze disappeared and it was so hard to breathe! When I finished, I had never gasped so hard for air, it was crazy!

Well, off for a swim soon, run in the am, swim in the am, and hopefully Kathy will give us a hard session on Sunday at squad.

Talk to you soon people

Ma te wa

Mr Tua

Not long to go now.....

Yeah, like it says, not long to go now! Only a few more weeks and we'll be doing our thing in Wanaka. With approximately 7 weeks to go I think it's time to step it up a notch with the swim training. The plan now is to swim 5 to 6 days a week and taper off with about a week to go, doing a couple of BIG swims in those 5 to 6 days. It's all good.

Just returned to Tauranga from Taupo where I went and introduced Anna to some very good friends of mine, do a spot of training last night and a very nice lake swim session this morning.
The Great Lake Cycle Challenge was yesterday and our mate Paul Miller did the enduro ride and kicked it's arse. For someone who cycled 320 km in about 11 and a quarter hours, he swam bloody well in the lake this morning. Well done Paul, you certainly can be very proud of yourself.

As for my training, it's been ok, not mind blowing, exceptional, or excellent - just ok. Some aspects of my training havn't been too shit hot, but I'm certainly not going to panic. Steady as she goes I think.

Well that's about it from me. I look forward to sharing the next 6 weeks of my training with you all.

Have a good week.

Mr Tua

I lost my car key.....

This morning Anna & I went for a run around the mount. I had put my key in the pocket of my shorts. Halfway round, I decided to put the key in the little pocket inside my shorts.... Safe as houses I thought! Ha, famous last words indeed. I finished my run and when I got back to the car, it was OH F@#K!!! where is the bloody key? An immediate turn around was in order and backtrack to where I had swapped pockets to no avail.:(
I still have no key as the spare is @ Sharleen's and she's away for the weekend.
I really needed to get into my car, to retrieve cellphone, wallet, swimming bag, mp3 player, you know the important stuff, so a quick call into work to pick up some essentials and it was off to break into the car. Nice to know I haven't lost my touch hahahaha. Items retrieved and car locked. Hope it's OK. I'm sure it will be. I'll check in the morning when Anna & I go for a ride. (Anna has a 2 hr ride to do).
In the afternoon, we had a pool session. It was supposed to be a long one for me, but for some reason my head really wasn't in the right place and I stopped at 3.3km. I had planned on doing 4km.

Well, just a short blog tonight, it's almost 11 and we want to be riding by 7 so better get my carcass into bed.

Haere ra ki a koutou

Mr Tua