Ben Fouhy World Champion K1 1000m Kayaking New Zealand

After a very nice time in Kona I am back home and enjoying a few recovery weeks before the kayak training ramps up. I had a great time in Kona and found it to be a fantastic place to visit with the people being very friendly. This combined with the relaxed atmosphere and lots of fresh fruit and good training I would only be too happy to stay longer.

I had a really good day in the Ironman so here is the report..

Firstly a BIG thanks to the sponsors that helped me get over to Kona and supported me with all the right gear to have a great day. Energy NZ for getting me there, 2XU for the awesome race gear and swim suit, Pinarello for the really cool bike, Reynolds for the fast wheels, Asics for the shoes and Oakley of course for the eyewear.

Also a big thanks to the people that helped me with advice in training. In particular Rick Wells, Ally Boggs, Paul Hamblyn, Dene Coleman(physio) for fixing the inevitable niggles you get when you train for an Ironman in less than an a 8 week buildup. Mark Watson training partner, Wifey – chef and also training partner for those rainy days in the last two weeks when I felt training for Kona was not what I wanted to be doing in my year off, Steve from Kiwivelo for tuning the bike. Also Janette and the team at the Ironman NZ office. There were quite a few and I apologise if I have left anyone out but thank you all. My advice to anyone thinking they may want to do the Ironman.. do it! It is an real eye opening experience in to what you can achieve unless of course you have already swum the channel or rowed the Atlantic. If you do though my only other advice is get the very best advice you can get your hands on. There is no point making something that is incredibly challenging even more difficult and there are no shortage of opportunities to make life harder for yourself!!

Back to the race – I had a very comfortable day, well as comfortable as you can have doing the mother of all Ironmans in Kona Hawaii. Overall I was happy with my split times in all my legs. The swim I got smoked off the start and once the dust was settled got stuck behind a lot of people that I was quicker than, with 1500m to go I decided that I would swim out to the side and get some clean water and spent the next 20mins passing people which was a good move but a little late. The swim was the one leg that I was not so enthusiastic about leading up to Kona but it turned out to be a real highlight for me. Training on the course in the week leading up the water was very clear and pleasant. One of the practice swims we even had the company of a pod of dolphins at the turn around marker which was an amazing experience. One of them had a young calf with it and from my experience with swans with young babys on the lake I decided to keep my distance!! Still a surreal experience.

The bike ride was conservative for me and I am not sure I passed anyone as I was very aware that this was a long a day that was only going to get tougher. It felt like a headwind for 70 percent of the ride although the 15mins in the 53×11 after the turn around was a nice respite before the home tail wind turned head late morning! Most of my day was spent in the 39! unlike Taupo.

The run was comfortable to begin with, doing my best to stay within my self but still went past the six mile marker in 43mins, I walked every drink stop (every mile)and I am glad that I did. The heat was as hot as I have ever had to deal with and never for such a prolonged time. I found I was more concerned about keeping my body temperature down rather than conquering the distance and being concerned too much with pace.

For many the hottest part of the race was Ali’i Drive and in particular the right turn “Hot corner” up Palani where to me it felt 5 degrees warmer than any other part of the course, all I could think about was ice from the next aid station. From there the next thing was the fact you still had 25km to go after already having run 17!

Ali’i Drive

Overall I am stoked I made the decision go to Kona. Once again I feel I have grown as an athlete in the way I did the first time I attempted the Taupo Ironman back in 2000 which led to me lifting my goals and beliefs in what I could do in sport. After 2012 I would like to have another go at Ironman and really put a good year or two into doing a better time but for now at least if I dont get back there I am very satisfied with my experience on the big island.

A few more easy weeks getting familiar with the K1 again and it will be full on again in the kayak for 2010. It looks like the competition is getting stronger and I am excited about competing again at an elite level.

I’ll post a more detailed account soon.

I am now in Kona – Hawaii for the World Ironman Championships. Its been a great trip so far with fantastic weather and my bike and kit all arriving on time safe and sound. Once again the build up has been very low key which is great for me as this is purely about the experience and learning what its all about for maybe a solid attempt in the future.

Training has been minimal as I have really been enjoying freshening up from over six years of top level international kayak racing by having a rest from serious training this year. When late July came around I couldn’t bring myself to refund part of my entry as it was just far to cool of an experience to forgo so here I am!

Below is a photo from this mornings session. Very clear and warm water made for an enjoyable swim.

The FT 1 made it safe. I am looking forward to getting out on the bike course tomorrow.

I have enjoyed having a very low key year and although I havnt been able to keep myself away from the paddling all together I have definitely been happy so sit back and watch the sprint racing rather than be part of it. Having said that last weekend I did part in the Cambridge to Hamilton kayak race which is a 22k race down the Waikato river between the two places. It was good to dust off the Evolution Edge and win the Multi-Sport category with Gordon Walker this years Coast to Coast champ in second place.

Over the weekend just been I travelled home to Taumarunui and had a very chilled out time while getting some fitness in the system. The photo is from a stunning hike we did on Saturday afternoon. Hard work after 160km on the bike in the morning but well worth it for a view like that! Dinner tasted pretty good that night too! Sunday was a mint paddle down the Whanganui river in the multi-sport boats. All in all one of the most beautiful places I have ever trained.

Last week I had a very cool opportunity to attend the Cirque du Solei – Dralion. Wow! I dont think I can even begin to do it justice by writing a review on it but what I can say is that it is all that it is made out to be! Go see for yourself!

On the other end of the spectrum I saw Bruno at the movies over the weekend. That was equally entertaining but on the other end of the spectrum in terms of refinement.. actually I am lost for words on Bruno as well. I liked it a lot more than Borat and was pretty much speechless/ stunned the whole way though. As funny as it was I am just about as much in ore of Sacha Baron Cohen for how he can take things so far and make it out alive!

One of the best things about living in Auckland is being close to the water – lots of it! This morning I paddled out to Rangitoto with Coast to Coast champion Gordon Walker and past World Duathlon Champion Dr Mat Brick.

What a fantastic start to the day. We paddled the 4 or 5k out to the island then ran around one side of the base of this old volcano before running to the summit and the down the other side and back to our kayaks.

Gordon with the Rangitoto light house in the back ground

The summit of Rangitito in the background

This week the NZ Kayak team left for Europe. This will be the first time since 2001 that I wouldn’t have been overseas for competition. I wondered how I would feel about that when the World Cups came around… The first one has now come and gone and I am happy to say there were no pangs of envy or withdrawal. I am very much embracing the year out from competition and enjoying the recreational approach to paddling.

Thanks to the team at Nelo I am now enjoying the latest in kayaking – the new Vanquish 3 has lived up to my high expectations as a boat that has the Nelo appeal and a performance characteristic more suited to my style of paddling – that is a boat that has a straighter hull and tends to run.

Over the past weekend I had the opportunity to join the current NZ kayak team in camp prior to their departure for Europe. It was very enjoyable to be out on the water with New Zealands best paddlers without being too concerned about form. I was amazed to paddle a 7.39 for the 2k TT that kicked off the camp as I have been doing very little in the way of any training. I was also happy to come fourth in the 500 in which I was 2.7 seconds behind the winner paddling a 1.48 into the headwind – quite surprising and definitely a nice way to christen the new boat.

Inside the cockpit they have laid down a nice timber veneer which in the flesh adds a nice element of luxury.

Since the Ironman things have been pretty low key. I have enjoyed training for only the sheer fun of it. When I have felt like sleeping in or having a day off exercise I have which has been great.

The weather lately has been amazing! A little cooler but beautiful fresh blue sky days week after week! So perfect weather for cycling! The funny thing about cycling that I have found is that the body can push so much harder for longer than it can in other sports like running or paddling.. but in cycling when you blow up you really blow up! when the body has had enough and the legs go on holiday there is not much to do about it apart from rest or ride easy and keep the expectations in check. In paddling I have been very tired but never something a few easy days couldn’t fix.. One of the challenges after the Ironman is taking the recommend rest which seems to be not much more than nothing in the first two weeks then very easy after that and nothing too serious for a month! A lot easier said than done. Once the muscle soreness was gone I couldn’t wait to get out there -the advice was echoing in the back of my mind in the Sunday bunch ride just a week after the Ironman as I was getting it fed to me by the national road race champ on the customary hill climb! Now I am paying for it as my legs are dead as. Not too concerned though as I am just cruising at the moment and enjoying the sheer pleasure of being outside exercising rather than training with the burden of Olympic aspirations.. creeping is just fine.

Last week I did feel the urg to get in the boat though and decided the local Tuesday night ski race would be a goer, without prize money or competition points up for grabs a few of the tops guys sat it out, even so I was still surprised to win and have a winning margin very comparable to the guys that had sat it out to the guys that were there looking back over previous weeks.. curious I thought.. I was intrigued to quantify just how much I would have dropped off on just over two months without paddling.. so a blood lactate test was in order I felt. As it turned out I finished well inside a stage of my best ever on water blood lactate test! For those that dont know a lactate test is like a beep test at school. We do one kilometer repeats that get progressively faster by ten seconds per stage. We go one stage past threshold and end up finishing by doing a 3.50min km. At the end of each stage the heart rate and blood lactate is recorded on a graph. The blood lactate is measured by taking a drop of blood from the ear lobe and putting it onto some thing that looks like a glucose meter.

Encouraged by this I did the 10k race with the boys on Saturday morning and finished a close second in a sprint finish going 41m36sec over 10.07km with 10 180 degree turns.. so a decent enough effort after only paddling a couple of times in just over two months! I can see how it works for the Europeans who are unable to train on the water in their winter/our summer and come back fresh to paddling but being very fit from all the cross training. A very nice platform to work off.

Next plans are to get some good miles in on the bike while the weather is so kind. I have a few little projects on the go so I will let you know when things have progressed a bit further on those.

All for now.