My NZ race schedule

I trained 19 hrs last week, which is a near record. But part of that was a 5 hour paddle on the Waimak River (same as the Coast to Coast). I wanted to have a successful (and dry) run before heading home so I can stuff it away in my memory for my next attempt at The Coast.

We had a perfect day — little wind, temps in the high 20s C, and a good group. Nathan Peterson, who is a five-time C2C racer and his buddy Keith who is a 55 year paddling machine. Keith has competed in the World Champs of marathon kayaking in Australia and Portugal and will soon be competing in Denmark. He had a strong push at the end and some good tips for this Swedish multisporter.

Although 19 hours is a solid week, it’s not what I need. I need fewer hours and more intensity — i.e., painful intervals. The reason? Well, I’ve done enough aerobic training the last 6 months and my Coast to Coast result showed I need to work on speed. On top of that I will be gunning for three “short and hard” multisport races in the next 5 weeks before I head home again at the end of March.

RACE #1

This weekend is the Kaiteriteri Beach Adventure Race. Not a bad looking beach hey?

The Kaiteriteri is a a full weekend of racing with a multisport race on Saturday, a MTB race on Sunday morning, and a surfski race on Sunday afternoon. Sounds like my kind of weekend !

The Kaiteriteri multisport race on Saturday is

2.5km trail run
8km surfski paddle from the beach
20km mountain bike
5km trail run

Winning time was 2 hrs 30 min last year.

RACE #2

A week later I wll do the Mototapu Multsiport Race. It looks a bit like ÅEC:

15km paddle on the Matukituki (class I and II)
a 55km technical MTB
15 km mountain run.

Lots of uphill …

Winning time last year was just under 6 hrs. A few shots from last year’s race:

RACE #3

I’m saving the best for last — the Gold Rush, a real “racer’s race” that everybody talks about in NZ. It takes three days and 11 stages to cover 376 km using your mountain bike, road bike, kayak and running shoes. Each night the race organization sets up camp in another location and dinner is served. Sounds quite civil doesn’t it? But I’ve also heard it’s painful, check out this race course:

Day 1 (Approx time: ~6 hrs)