Day 7 - Another North Island city and another swim/bike/run day ahead of us. I apparently slept OK last night according to one of my room mates Scott Molina as he was complaining about my snoring. Sounds like he will make sure the rooming list do not have us sharing again! Sorry Scott but it was good to catch some sleep. We run to the Wanganui pool, just over 3km to do our swim. Nick Hutton who grew up in the Hawkes Bay and was a swimmer kid said this pool was fast. So we decided it would be a good opportunity to do a couple of the bonus points sets that Molina had set for the camp. So Dan McDonald, Nick and myself aimed to do the 10 x 200 set and the 200m fly as part of our 3k set. We where supposed to do the 200s on 3:35. Nick obviously got a bit excited about being in a familiar pool and lead the first 200 through in 2:40. Thank god he backed off and we got through that ok. Dan & Nick did it easy. Next the 200 fly. I was rather concerned about this as I tried it in Whangarei and only managed 75m before I gave up on threat of drowning. We watched Nick do his and managed like a pro cutting it out in 3:05, solid. Dan and I took off next. I tried the big glide between strokes technique which worked well for the first two lengths then I started running out of breath. By the end of the fifth length I was getting really concerned and starting to have a bit of a panic attack that I would not make it due to lack of oxygen. I decided to up the stroke rate to get in more breaths and that seemed to work. With only 2 lengths to go I was determined not to stop as I did not want to go through this pain again. The high rate got me through and my first ever 200m fly was done. Most probably my last as well. Tough way to earn a point. Thanks Scott.
Run back to the accom then quick breakfast and off on the longest ride to date. 200k to Masterton. My legs had nothing in them after yesterday. I was lucky enough to get a massage from Russell (fantastic masseur! and amazing ultra runner) the night before and that also may have deadened the legs a bit. So I started of with the second group on the rode. After 20k the pace picked up and Nick said he was backing off. After 10 seconds deliberation I decided I would stick to my plan for the day to ride as easy as possible and try and get some recovery, or not do any more damage. So Nick and I with Rob C rode together for the whole day. It was a really nice ride with a tail wind. Enough hills and changing scenery to make it interesting and quiet roads. Nick and I chatted for most of the 7 hours and Rob who was feeling tired today (we all have days like that) sat in. We decided we would stop for a beer in the last part of the ride. As it happened that was on the outskirts of Masterton. Nick had to do two laps of the pub carpark to break 200km distance for the first time in his life. A good reason to celebrate with a cold beer in the sun. The acomm was only 2k away so a nice finish to the day.
Tomorrow is to Wellington and we will have completed the North Island, unbelievable.
Until then
Run back to the accom then quick breakfast and off on the longest ride to date. 200k to Masterton. My legs had nothing in them after yesterday. I was lucky enough to get a massage from Russell (fantastic masseur! and amazing ultra runner) the night before and that also may have deadened the legs a bit. So I started of with the second group on the rode. After 20k the pace picked up and Nick said he was backing off. After 10 seconds deliberation I decided I would stick to my plan for the day to ride as easy as possible and try and get some recovery, or not do any more damage. So Nick and I with Rob C rode together for the whole day. It was a really nice ride with a tail wind. Enough hills and changing scenery to make it interesting and quiet roads. Nick and I chatted for most of the 7 hours and Rob who was feeling tired today (we all have days like that) sat in. We decided we would stop for a beer in the last part of the ride. As it happened that was on the outskirts of Masterton. Nick had to do two laps of the pub carpark to break 200km distance for the first time in his life. A good reason to celebrate with a cold beer in the sun. The acomm was only 2k away so a nice finish to the day.
Tomorrow is to Wellington and we will have completed the North Island, unbelievable.
Until then
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