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Day in the life of an Adventure Racer. Jo Williams

admin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:03:32 +0000

Yesterday 11/01/12 I had a portering job up to French Ridge hut for two climbers. Jo caught wind of this and thought it would be great idea to join me as she is training for a 10 day Adventure Race in Patagonia. After several days of back to back missions her day went something like this. In the lake at 7am for a 1.8k swimm (Jo is doing Wanaka Challenge) at work by 8am, finish work at 1pm meet Ed at 1.15pm. Drive to Rasberry flat, hop onto MTB 2.30pm and bike through to Aspiring Hut . I drive to Aspiring Hut in Nigel No Worries, (Nissan Safari) with the gear to be portered to FR. 23kgs, off bike on with pack, trek up to FR hut. Spend about an hour there as Jo’s hubbie, Simon, was there guiding. Whilist there Simon talked Jo into her bring down his wet climbing rope, the deal was a free dinner out on Simon, I thought Jo bring the rope down was a great idea as it would give me a chance of keeping up. Next a very quick trip back down to Aspiring Hut arriving 8.45pm, onto bike to Rasberry Flat head back to Wanaka at 9.15pm. Goodness knows what she is doing today. I don’t know how she does all that training and work as well, it is amazing!!!

All the best for Patagonia Jo

Big Easy MTB and Mountain Marathon Profiles

admin — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:44:08 +0000

Check out our Big Easy course profiles for both the Marathon and Mountain Bike

Make sure your breakes are well maintained for this one!

If you are considering atempting this as your first Mt. Marathon because it looks relatively easy with all the down-hill please remember to take it VERY easy on the steeper down-hill bits (about 5ks of the course) this will make completing the distance more comfortable. If you’re well experienced and fast down-hill sections don’t bugger-you-up too much then we’ll leave it to your own judgement. But be aware – experienced trail/mountain runners found this course quite a bit harder than expected last year.

The BIG EASY – a cross country trail with ‘a whole lotta downhill!’

Terry — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:12:38 +0000

Just a couple of months until the BIG EASY once again. This unique course starts up at the Snow Farm at an elevation of 1500m above sea level. After a brief down-hill you then ride about 14km up to 1900m above sea level. Then you get one of the longest down-hills anywhere in the country – a total drop of over 1600m spread-out over about 22km. With all that adrenalin you hit the flat and ‘power’ home the last 12km (undulating) to the Albert Town Tavern.

MT Outdoor Rogaine Pics

admin — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 06:15:35 +0000

I had a great day out last week setting control for Rogaine. I never get sick of going out in this sort of terrain. It is so interesting with all the different land formation and Gold mining relics. Get registered for this one it is goig to be awesome.

Favourite trails for training runs

Terry — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 02:05:06 +0000

We’re doing a series of vids on our fav trails for training on around Central Otago.

Here’s #1 – Fern Hill Loop Track Queenstown. 1hr 10mins – 2hrs 30min for elite/newbees. Start at One Mile Creek 3min run from central Queenstown.

Starts off very steep up through pine/fur forest, then a short traverse through open tussock before a fantastic down hill through native beech…

Is Rogaining the ultimate off-road running experience?

Terry — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 21:02:31 +0000

Check out the video below and decide for yourself – don’tlet the map reading put you off – it’s not that difficult and easy to learn – just email Terry or Ed for tips on how to improve your map skills…

Terry and Gavin made this wee vid while checking out the Earnscleugh course yesterday.

Please note – private land only available for public participation on the 17th September Rogaine or as organised with the land owners.

MT Outdoors Rogaine – MTB preview

Terry — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:55:18 +0000

Fantastic country for mountain biking around Earnscleaugh Station for the up-coming MT Outdoors Rogaine. below is just a wee taste for ya…

Please note – private land only available for public participation on the 17th September Rogaine or as organised with the land owners.

Turn Mild into Wild

Terry — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 08:32:49 +0000

Turn an average training run or MTB into an all new wilderness experience by trying one of the following: If you’re planning on putting some of these idea’s into practice please make sure you take a friend, weather sealed cell phone and an emergency blanket…)

Full moon adventures: Leave your headlamp in your backpack and just go by the light of the moon. You’ll need to get up onto ridges, away from town lights (it may take up to 20mins for your eyes to fully adjust). A perfect trail for this in Dunedin is from ‘the bull ring’ across to Swampy summit and down to Pigeon flat (yeh you’ll need to get your headlamp out for the last little bit through the tree’s). Mountain trails in early winter with a light skiff of snow (and a clear forecast!!) are the best – full moon on the snow… it just doesn’t get any better than that.

Storm missions: I’m not sure people actually believe me when I say this but I fully believe ‘the worse the weather, the greater the adventure!’ Without a doubt my most memorable runs have been during storms. Summer storm, warm rain, bare legs are best, t-shirt and light rain jacket – you’re going to get saturated via perspiration anyway and rain wet feels nicer than sweat wet.

In winter you’ll need to dress up in all your merino, leggings and possibly even over-trousers. Gloves and wool hat and a decent seem-sealed actual water proof jacket. You’ll still get soaked with sweat but at least the wind won’t go through and chill you. In a ‘real storm’ keep to low tracks you know well that don’t include creek crossings (even running on footpaths in a good storm can be a wild experience!). My all-time most beautiful life experience was running up Mt Cargill near Dunedin in a blizzard, there were some sections through the tree’s where the snow had settled all through the tree’s and bent the top branches over so that it appeared you were running through a tunnel of snow. Do not try mountain passes during storms – that’s just silly, but running down the valley either side of the pass can be fine – just watch out for rising side-streams!

Crap for taking photos and video in these conditions – you’ll just have to get out there and try it to see what it’s like.

Anyone out there agree with my fondness for extreme weather?

Getting fit for adventure

Terry — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 01:14:58 +0000

Terry’s all psyched up after years of average fitness (blamed on the young children) and recently 6 weeks off running due to injury… he’s back in the saddle and motivated to get fitter than ever.

Goals:

Off road half marathon, mid October in under 1hr20mins.

Deans bank 12hr MTB ride, Labour Weekend. (Either 6hrs hard with a mate or 12hr steady solo)

Southern Lakes Multisport Club 24hr Adventure Race, 19th November. (Top 3 finish)

Northburn100 (as the race director I cant do it on race day 24th March 2012 but would like to complete it in under 30hr about mid December this year)

I’ll be keeping a training log on our facebook page and using my not-so-secret training weapon bHIP.

Update: 12th July – after starting back into training nice and slowly for two whole weeks I then went and ran 10ks per day for 4 consecutive days and noticed niggles appear back in my stress fractured feet. Damn, just too keen. So since then I’ve been running no longer than 5mins at a time with 3min walking/stretching and doing about 3-4 reps 2-3 times a week. Also been doing some reasonably steady MTB sessions and a couple of bigger MTB/RUN/Tramp session in my nice ridged soled tramping boots (I can do anything in these awesome Gronell boots and not stress my feet) -

I’ve incorporated a wobble board into my training – have it set up in the office and when ever I’m on the phone (cordless) I just wonder over and stand on it for a few minutes at a time.

Did some good hill work yesterday climbing up the old cromwell reservoir track (basically steps straight up for 4 mins then a rough track through some rocks for another 4 mins) x 3 reps. Ran an easy flat 12mins 3min walk/rest and another 12min run home (in running shoes) – longest run in running shoes for nearly a month, I stretch it out with a good steady 10min MTB before and after.

At least I’ve been consistent – the most consistent I’ve been in 7 years! Only taking one or two day off per week.

So fitness will still be improving enough for my 10hr MTB and 24hr challenge goals but my 80min half marathon may have to get put back a couple of weeks…

Update 25th July: Feet feel fine – did a 10k today, first 5ks in 22mins then eased off on the way back, still walking the odd short steep section just so as I don’t push too hard. Running 4 days per week, biking 2 other days, one run mid week is steep hill reps. Longer run in the weekends all hills. 2 other mid week runs are the flat trail vid below.

My regular 10k ‘flat’ run from Old Cromwell Town to Bannockburn Bridge and back…

New Rogaine controls.

Terry — Tue, 10 May 2011 02:21:42 +0000

This is what you are looking for folks, the whole purpose of Rogaining is finding these controlls out in the hills. We’ve taken special care NOT to hide them this year.