Kate writes: it was all my fault!

-
I usually blame Karen. Its always her fault, she got me into this sporting thing! But a couple of weekends a go it was all my fault. On the Saturday my swim group decided to have an adventure. Let's go mountain biking from Port Waikato to the caves 28km, morning tea and then onto Waingaro Hot Springs another 30km.

Firstly I have never been mountain biking or had a mountain bike, secondly I had booked a bike race on the Sunday with Karen and my brother-in-law David at Okoroire, a 70k. But it was going to be fun so why not!

I decided before I went that I would only do the first half. Lets be sensible, haha. I borrowed a bike and off we went, 8 of us in all. Well what fun it was. Mountain biking is so much fun. Hills, what hills? The bike has so many gears it was easy. Amazing countryside, lots of hills and green grass. We got to the cafe and I stopped. We had a van and a man and a trailer. 3 others carried on until 40km and then stopped and the last 4 went all the way to the pub and the hot pools. A good soak in the Waingaro Hot pools was well deserved.

The next day off I was again with Karen and David in tow on our 70km bike race at Okoroire. Well the pace was fast and off everyone else went. The aim of our day was to get David through though. It was his first race and he had only ridden 45k before so it was going to be fun. There is a saying about enjoying yourself and smelling the roses. Well that's what we did. We enjoyed ourselves, looked at the scenery, looked at the houses and gardens and smelled the roses. We were the last ones in, but what fun we had. David said "never again", but by the time we got home he could not stop talking. I think he now understands about eating and drinking while exercising. Also about Chamois cream! Sore parts!

So as I said it was all my fault but a good week end was had by all. Roll on the summer.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kate writes: never belive what Camp mother says....

-
"A HAUNTING IN HUNUA" Sunday 9th June 2013, 10:00am start, Hunua Falls car park Yes - Its that time of year that you need to get wet and dirty.  This club event has been designed to have a difficulty rating between "easy peasy to survivalistic". Leg 1: Road Cycle, 30km. May have some flat sections. Leg 2: Run, 9km. Will I stay dry? Leg 3: Mountain Bike, 20km. Pure downhill pleasure. This was the advert for the multi sports club outing. Yes I can do that I thought, no problem.  The road cycle was down and up hills, most of which I had done. That's half the battle when you know you can do it. But it was raining, well actually hailing. I was well prepared, loads of layering of clothing and a hat. So up the hills we went and I made them all. Back to the carpark and a quick change of clothes. Dry ones, even dry socks. I went off with one of the ladies who had an injury to her ankle. It was going to be a good walk.  Over the bridge at Hunua falls and ...
Read more

Karen writes: Life is strange

-
Image
This has not got the remotest thing to do with training for Ironman, but definitely is sports related. The first I'd heard of it was the phonecall from the promoter offering congratulations for the daughter winning "breakfast with the All Blacks".  Turned out the 9 year old had taken advantage of mum being off on her weekend run to enter a competition on the Sunday morning TVNZ kids programme, 'What Now'.  When I heard, I came out of my office perplexed, told the rest of the team, and there were suddenly a whole heap of self-appointed guardians over the age of 21 kindly volunteering to give up their day to go along and help out. I asked some questions when I got home, like "what did you have to do to enter?".  She said "say why I was the All Blacks biggest supporter".  "And what did you say?".   "Um...that I really, really liked them".  "Do you know anything about rugby darling?".  Silence.  Then, "but I rea...
Read more

Karen writes: 2 weeks to Taupo

-
Less than 2 weeks to the  Taupo cycle challenge .  The big bikeride with Kate on Friday did lots for my confidence though, 5 really enjoyable hours on the road, circumnavigating the whole of the Hunua ranges and covering 105 spectacular km.  This was the course followed for the SRAM Tour de ranges held in January of each year, or pretty close to it, I forgot the map and relied on the "I'm sure we just keep turning left" style of navigating. It is so much more enjoyable to do these things in company, picture us starting out by climbing the hills out the back of Clevedon until we were way above the tallest power pylons, stopping for a snack and to take in the view. Then plunging along the rollercoaster roads past Hunua, stopping for a snack and to take in a view.  Next racing along the beautiful coastal road at Kaiaua looking towards the Coromandal, stopping for a snack and to take in the view. At last, grinding up winding (hilly) roads through gorgeous bush before K...
Read more