The latest from Taupo, New Zealand

I have tons of news--where should I start? I have been training really well and as it looks, I will get in really good shape for my first race in a few weeks. The race is soon approaching, so right now is the time to put the big volume in.

My little foot injury is getting better each day and I had a few days of running up to an hour, and have had some pain afterwards–-but it has mostly been fine during the sessions. So that could be better--but no need to worry. My swim is awesome and my biking skills seem to get better each day as well so I am very confident at the moment.

But let me ask you a question: What’s the worst part about changing from Olympic Distance to Ironman distance? And my answer is: Sitting for hours on the saddle without moving too much (and in that aero position)--all I can say is "ouch". Anyway, I thought I needed to share that with you. Thanks to my new clothing sponsor Santini SMS, it’s really not as bad as it could be--because they have a brilliant gel patch in the seat area of all of their tri suits.

Just a few weeks away from my first Ironman race, I still haven’t received 3/4 of my gear, so Alicia is working very hard to get everything sorted, from material shipments up to race entries and all that. I am so glad I finally have someone who does this stuff for me. It helps me so much because I am able to focus on my real training and not worry too much about all of the other necessary stuff outside of that. I am sure this caused a lot of distractions for me in the past—so it is awesome to have my mind clear.

In other news: Last week I had an off day followed by a easier day and so we had the chance to drive to the Coromandel Peninsula and stay there for two nights. It is the most amazing place I have been to in a long time--so beautiful and peaceful. We went out on a boat to do some serious fishing and we just had a blast. I am like a little kid when it comes down to going out on a boat--I LOVE IT SO MUCH. It is really fun and so relaxing, and boy--once I got my first Snapper we smoked and cooked up all the fish and had some nice New Zealand wine with it. What a great time to get a change for weekend.

My longest training day has been close to eight hours, so you guys can imagine how tired I am once I am done with the load. Apart from some minor exciting things, it is all about training right now:

We have met some world travellers from Belgium and had a chance to have a nice picnic on the lake shore (see photo above).

Vinny, a Norwegian triathlete who is a strong cyclist, just lives around the corner from where I am staying and we have done some good sessions out here.

I have also put in some hard efforts with a very promising athlete from Taupo, Duncan Milne who just won the New Zealand Half Ironman Champs. He is a guy to watch for the big race…

It has been a lot of fun training with and hanging out with the athletes here. Life is just great--and it is really quite stress free and it makes training very enjoyable.

Before I forget, tomorrow I was going to race the Kinloch triathlon here in Taupo as a last check up before the Ironman, but I decided to give my foot a bit more time before I put it to the test. So I changed my plans a bit and will be a part of Relay Team "Bockel Up” (do you get it?) meaning I will swim and bike and John (my world travelling buddy) will do the running section—and that should be lots of fun. This triathlon series is a big deal down here and lots of good athletes will be out there: Bevan Docherty is the one to watch for that race.

Well, that’s it for now. I better go out in sun (with loads of sunscreen) and have a coffee on the lake during my precious half day off.