Ben Fouhy World Champion K1 1000m Kayaking New Zealand

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.

Well I am pleased to say that I survived the Ironman for 2009 while also managing to pick up a spot for Kona as the NZ Ironman is an official qualifying race.

Overall it was a really good day for me. I was pleased with my splits too which were somewhere around 52.52 for the swim, 5.13.21 bike and a 3.27.12 run making a total of 9.41.10s.

The conditions were kind with lower temperatures and some light rain which kept things cool.

The bike set up thanks to Pinarello and Kiwivelo was fantastic. I was grateful to have the fast wheels and aero helmet too which made the long day which is the Ironman that little bit shorter!

The first photo is lap one and the second is lap two. As you can see not quite the same spring in my step second time round! I was really happy to maintain just under 5 minute kilometers but the motivation changed through out the run from wanting to do a good run split to just finishing the run as quick as I could so I could get my feet up!

Below race winner Cameron Brown looks like he still has plenty of Gas! Running sub 2.45! for those that havnt worked it out 4 min ks is a 2.48 marathon so well under that!

When I was offered the use of some carbon race wheels I wasnt going to say no, you can buy an Olympic class kayak for the price of a top of the line set of race wheels. Being a rookie I was hoping the wheels might be something a little on the conservative side and not too deep. When they arrived the rear wheel was a disc with a message passed on to harden up! It is commonly accepted that you need to be riding a lot closer to Cameron Browns speed than what I am capable of to make it worth your while.I have received mixed advice about how efficient Disc wheels are at various speeds..

I went for an easy hour ride today to get the feel of it all. Luckily there was some wind around to get some kind of idea what the disc will feel like in the wind, particularly side wind. So far all good. The other thing I am told is that I will need to be careful not to get too carried away as the set up I am on is inspiring to say the least. Fast wheels make you want to ride faster than you really should.. sounds like it is a good idea to train on them for a bit to calibrate your effort to the feel of the bike as it does truly feel different with the fast wheels on.

The aero helmet thanks to Kiwivelo was a nice surprise too! I am really looking forward to Saturday.

www.kiwivelo.co.nz