Since I arrived back in Auckland on 12th March I’ve been back on the job working on the planes ] and loving it. Change is good, some time to get back into my other life as an Technician and less training is just what I needed served. Along with the some social time with my mates from up here.

It only took a few days until my next race believe it or not: March 14th I competed in a 24hr Adventure race with Ryan Thompson, Corrinne Smit and Brandon Purdue. Location Waihi/upper Kaimai’s. We were the 24hr race overall until the last stage where we got piped due to a small nav error and remained 2nd place by 7mins after 18hours of racing. Race report: arc-adventure-race

The rope activity in the ARC adventure race

The Following weekend March 21st I found myself in an Airforce team for the 24hr Moonride Mountain bike race in Rotorua. We rode from 10pm Friday until 10pm on Saturday. Great day for interval training in the Whakarewarewa forest. Not so good when your headlight goes flat during mid-ride at 4am! Our team came 1st place overall in 24hr teams, 2nd place 7 laps back. We retained our title from 2014 strongly!

Watching the cold morning wake up and evaporate after a long first night

Team mate Ted heads out for a lap, He came 1st inthe Downhill event at Crankworkx not long after this!

Us on the podium in 2014 – no photo this year but we were there, all the same people.

The next weekend, MArch 28th, I found myself on Rangitoto Island helping with event management and course setup for The Dual, and helping them drink beer afterwards. Really long hot day but learnt a lot about what goes behind the scenes in races. Over 2,200 competitors at this race. In 2012 I won the Marathon by 12mins, even after after limping the last 4 kms due to horrendous cramp from going too hard  excellent pacing.

What The Dual finish line looks like

Next weekend was Easter but I was stuck on duty at work so did minimal, mostly spent reading books and studying up on my 2015 training (new approach)/racing plan.

I have always loved the approach this guy has to training and racing

Last weekend I flew down to Napier and represented myself and the RNZAF as guest speaker at the NZ National Secondary School Adventure Racing Champs. A great event organised by Dave Tait. I helped out as a safety kayaker on the Ngaruroro River while the kids rafted down on tyre inner tubes. Some had much better rafts than others. On what was only the second stage of the day, I was on the water from 8am until 4:30pm supporting and motivating teams to get down. A few got guided trips by me and I ended up doing about 5 full runs of the river. A quick sandwich thanks to the Support crew of Garin College in Richmond (Nelson) and a cup of tea to warm me up I was set for next stage. Tail end charlie for Trek number 3 – about 15km of steep kaweka trails – last time I was there was competing in the Kaweka mountain run race – my first ever run race back in 2008.

Start of raft

Here is the event write up: 2015-go-4-12-schools-adventure-racing-champs/

The next day the prizegiving was back in town in Havelock North Village. After a nervous breakfast I was asked to talk to everyone and inspire them by telling them about my history and current racing.

Looking smart

I think I did an OK job. Call me today for your own motivational Sam. Check out the video below:

Planning has been underway for a while now for this years new approach to training. I have been experimenting for a while and I am developing a plan. I still however haven’t decided I whether I will train myself again or go back to having a smart coach like I did over summer for C2C. We will see!