Happy New Year

Apparently myself and my fellow NZ1 passengers were the first people on earth to see the first sunrise of 2010. No sooner had we crossed the dateline than the sun started to rise over the Pacific.

The journey was long but not that bad - plenty of movies and some sleep after leaving LAX have left me feeling tired but not completely disorientated. Unpacking and re-packing in a small hotel room has left me feeling a bit dizzy though, so i will take the chance for some fresh air and go for a 20min run soon.

I have met up with a few fellow campers (campee's?) and the mood seems bouyant and excited. Some Aussies, Americans, Canadians and a few Brits make up the 25 of us. People are friendly and the banter is already starting. Oh, and no one has any hair on their legs. And everyone is ripped. Its like walking through a moving Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue - needless to say i'm sucking in my mince pie belly and wishing I had put more work in on the guns.

the official start of camp is tomorrow where we gather at midday for a welcome briefing before getting a 4hr bus ride to Kaitia, our first stop of the camp. Training starts on Sunday from the northernmost tip of the North island - Cape Reinga. Details to follow tomorrow,

My prep for this camp has been great, well October and November were excellent. The weather and travelling in December put paid to any big bike work in the final 14 days. As such I feel like I am coming in very rested but slightly underdone. I think I probably peaked in early December and have lost a few% since then (with the compromise that I have shed all the fatigue from a solid 10 week cycle)

Looking at my numbers I have done more training hours in the last 12 weeks than I did in the 12 weeks prior to Ironman Austria this year, which is a good confidence booster. However on the flip side my body composition has slipped slightly in the past few (Christmas dinner(s) weeks). I am currently about 81kg, which is 5kg more than Austria and 3kg more than I wanted to be at this point.

As for my strategy - well its pretty simple: survive. Complete the camp minimums. Anything else is a bonus. From day 4 its all new territory. No ego riding in the first few days (by all accounts the first few days are very lumpy which should serve to break the pack up) and no heroics.

I'll leave them 'till the second week :-)

Packed and ready?

ready to leave for the airport, looking at my bag and bike box that contains all I will need to cycle the length of an entire country in 2 weeks.

Not quite true actually, as I will need a whole dose of luck as well. Its obvious that what im trying to do can't 'really' be trained for or visualised as I have no experience of such long distance cycling. I know I can cycle 160km in a day - easy. I know i can back that up with another 160km the next day, and the next.

After that its in the lap of the gods - i will be broaching new ground with every meter swum, biked or run.

My main fears are illness or injury preventing me from completing my main goal: completion of all the camp minimums. In my next post (from NZ!) i'll go through the daily schedules and my thoughts about how to approach this monster.

right now all i can think about is "what have I forgotten to pack"

Gathering storm clouds

A quick post to kick the blog off and gather my thoughts prior to the start of Epic camp. I'll put together a more in depth look at my goals, fears and feelings tomorrow but for now I will only say that I am excited and worried in equal measures.

For those who dont know, Epic Camp is a training camp run by a trio of former professional triathletes based in New Zealand. The initial aim was to create something very special, something that would be above and beyond the remit of a 'normal' training camp. Something that would leave attendees with long lasting physiological and psychological consequences (for the good ;-)

For 2010, the organisers decided to do something special and put together a two week camp cycling the entire length of New Zealand (2300km) with a fair amount of swimming (26km) and running (100km) thrown in for good measure.

Epic Camp:NZ'10

Here is the rough map showing the daily stages:



as i said, excited and worried..........

more details tomorrow.