Kate writes : What a weekend

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My coach Gerrard Smith had organised a weekend camp to jump start our Ironman campaign. It was only 10 days since my marathon and my last run had ended with sore knees, but I had booked and paid my money so off to Taupo I went.

 Friday I arrived at the house to find 10 other mad ironman athletes. We went off for an 8k run from the AC Baths to Huka   falls. It was a lovely run along the river climbing up high with great views of the river. The knees felt fine so I was happy with that.
Saturday we were up early and at the pools by 7am.  Gerrard forgot to tell us that the main pool was closed and we were in the outside pool. Luckily it was heated and as long as my shoulders were under water it was OK. We did some work on drafting and sighting.
Back to the house for breakfast and then out on the bike.  The weather was looking to be a problem with wind and rain forecast. We found a flat straight road and were shown some spin routines with high cadence. Then off to a large hill and some hill repeats. Back to the house for lunch. I had not eaten very much and lost the plot at lunch and went to bed for an hour.
After a quick sleep we were out doing a run session, looking at cadence and hill repeats, before back to the house and a sit down session looking at gap analysis. Lots of stuff for me to work on. Out to dinner at a local pub and to watch the All Blacks win, thank goodness.
Sunday morning we were up at 7am. Again we were lucky with the weather. No rain or wind so off for a quick ride. 60k a bit slow but the wind did pick up. It was good to be back out on the bike again, but loads to remember.
It was a great weekend. I’m now ready to get going.  Thank you Gerrard for all your hard work and the team of mad people that helped to make it fun – Pete, Daniel, Paul, Saul, Bret, Merjan, Emilia, Jen and of course Camp Mother Brandon (hope you get better soon). See you all again next year.

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