Blog: The Fitness Zone
You're never too old or too fat to uncover the competitor within. The Nelson Mail's Peter Gibbs helps readers to overcome their fears and discover the pleasures and benefits of being fit.
Blink and you'll miss triathletes in action
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PETER GIBBS
If you're stepping out of Nelson's Elma Turner Library any time after 12.30pm tomorrow, look both ways.
Some of the world's top triathletes will be belting by at race pace – that's about 20kmh. They'll be on the first leg of an event that includes a 2.5km run, a 1km swim and another 2.5km run.
Better still, get down to Rutherford Park and watch the start of the Nelson Mail Aquathlon National Championships.
From the gun at 12.30pm, expect Nelson's Harrison Dean, England club champion Tom Curtis and Dutch triathlon squad member Marco Van der Stel to go toe-to-toe on the run course up Paru Paru Rd, along Halifax St and down past Trafalgar Park. The leaders will come into view as they cross the QEII Drive bridge, head around behind the Trafalgar Centre, then race for their swim caps.
The 2.5km run will take less than eight minutes, so it will pay not to blink.
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Listen to your inner music
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PETER GIBBS
If the summer's sports events were a symphony, many Nelson athletes would be past the allegro and the adagio and be building into the scherzo. I'm feeling a little as if I'm into the rondo at the moment.
It's not classical music that's been stuck in my brain lately. Do you ever have times when you get a song so stuck in your brain that you ache for a switch to turn it off?
I've had Regina Spector and Amy Winehouse beating around in my head for a few weeks – they seem to have the kind of rhythm that keeps your legs turning over long after your body says that it's time to quit.
Summer is just building to a climax for the many Nelson athletes who are preparing for the Buller half or full marathon or the Coast to Coast. That means the allegro, or buildup phase, is done. The slow adagio is the taper period.
It can be enjoyable slowing down, appreciating the hard work that's been done and feeling the body starting to gather strength.
Swimming spectacle
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PETER GIBBS
Nelson traditionally faces an exodus of athletic talent in the second weekend of February.
Runners and walkers are off to Westport for the Buller half and full marathon. It's the 30th Buller this year, so it'll be a bit of a celebration.
A day or two earlier, multisport types head for the West Coast, ready for the annual journey across the island in the Coast to Coast.
On the same weekend, the triathlon community will expand as the Nelson Mail-sponsored Aquathlon National Championship unfolds.Aquathlon is a funny word for a sport no-one much has heard of. It used to be called aquathon, but the `l' has recently been added, presumably to bring it into line with triathlon and duathlon.
An aquathlon involves a 2.5km run, followed by a 1km swim and then another 2.5km run – triathlon without bicycles.
Southern challenge awaits
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PETER GIBBS
We arrived in Wanaka on Monday, passing a few cyclists as we drove the final leg in from Tarras.
Signs of triathlon increased the closer we got. The town was adorned with hundreds of Challenge Wanaka banners. Down by the lake, a marquee village was springing up.
Later, I ran part of the lakeside run course, meeting plenty of others on a similar familiarisation mission.
At 7am on Wednesday there was the chance to swim the 2km course in the lake.
Competitors in the challenge, over the ironman distance, will swim the course twice. For those, like me, doing the Lake Wanaka Half, just one lap will kick off the race tomorrow.
Measuring up to a challenge
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PETER GIBBS
I've been getting into holiday mode. Over the past three weeks, while everyone else was partying and lying around in the sun (or bailing out their tents and houses in the rain), the daily deadlines were still being met at newspapers around the country, so I was fixed to my desk. After work, I was out getting the final big training days in before the Lake Wanaka Half, now just a week away.
Tomorrow I'm on holiday. On Sunday we'll be in Pegasus, just north of Christchurch, where I'll race in a Triathlon New Zealand race over the sprint distance, along with several other Nelson athletes.
Then it's off to Wanaka, where more than 50 athletes from Nelson will race next Saturday over either the full Ironman distance Challenge Wanaka, or the half.
On the Friday night, there's another Tri NZ sprint race, where even more Nelsonians will feature, along with the seven-strong Dutch team now in residence here.
They say the atmosphere is great, with more than 1000 people racing in one of the events over the weekend. I can't wait for the excitement and a bit of family down-time.
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