kiwi cycling Legends of the 2010 commonwealth games

Alison Shanks - Gold Medal Winner - 3000m Individual Pursuit

Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Eddie Dawkins - Silver Medal Winners - Team Sprint

Sam Webster - putting his body on the line!

Joanne Kiesanowski - Silver Medal Winner - Women's Scratch Race

Lauren Ellis - Silver Medal Winner - Points Race

Jesse Sergent - Silver Medal Winner - 4000m Individual Pursuit

Sam Bewley, Aaron Gate, Westley Gough, Peter Latham and Jesse Sergent - Silver Medal Winners - 4000m Team Pursuit

Linda Villumsen - Silver Medal Winner - Individual Time Trial

Hayden Roulston - Silver Medal Winner - Men's Road Race

Sam Webster - Bronze Medal Winner - Sprint

Simon Van Velthooven - Bronze Medal Winner - Keirin

Eddie Dawkins - Bronze Medal Winner - 1km Time Trial

tour of Waikanae

A tough day at the office today.

For some reason I’m always underestimating how tough it is to ride 100km. The Tour of Waikanae is a completely flat course, a circuit of 25km, giving the participants the option of cycling 25km, 50km, 75km or 100km.

It was a bit if a wake up call for Taupo. I still haven’t learnt my lesson about eating right and not going out too fast at the start. In the end it was not conserving my energy that killed me, that and the headwind all the way along Te Moana Rd!

My official results are here.

fancy a great white Nipping at your ankles?

Today I went for a swim at Freyberg pool, hopefully the first of many trips to the pool. I was surprised at my total uselessness at swimming! In total I swam 250m, mostly free-style. My problem was my breathing – I couldn’t coordinate breathing out while my head was underwater and breathing in while my head was turned out of the water. I sort of ended up breathing in and out with my head out of the water resulting in only a really short intake of breath. I felt really short of breath the whole time which wore me out totally. A lot of work is needed! I was also told that I’m all out of balance in the water – leaning to one side the whole time – oh dear!

In other news a great white shark was caught at Breaker Bay, just off Wellington’s South Coast! They reckon it was feeding on seals in the area. It was 3 years old and 2.6m long.

Peter Amitrano and Alfonso Basile with the Great White Shark they caught at Breaker Bay

snap

Yesterday I went for two training rides. The first was about 75km with lots of hills, the second was about 20km, a slow spin around the bays. Today I woke up feeling sore!

I didn’t want to seize up so I decided to go for another easy ride around the bays just to loosen up the muscles. Thought I’d take the camera along as well.

Here we have a few snaps of Wellington on a lovely spring afternoon. Enjoy.

The view towards the CBD from Mt Crawford

The Obligatory Photo of the Monza

The Old Shelly Bay Military Base: Pre-WW2 it was a submarine mining depot, during WW2 it was a naval base, since WW2 it has been occupied by the RNZAF, eventually being taken over by the Maori Iwi Taranaki Whanui.

Mt Crawford Water Tank

Scorching Bay - home of the Scorching Triathlon Series of which I hope to take part in

Fishing at Burnham Wharf

Evans Bay Marina - who has ever seen Wellington so calm?!

Evans Bay Parade Cycle Lane - does that sign mean there is wine ahead??

Finally, here are three sculptures in the Meridian Wellington Wind Sculpture Series located on Cobham Drive. This a collection of wind-motivated sculpture that celebrates not only Wellington’s climate, buts its dynamism and creativity.

Akau Tangi - the lamenting sounds of wind in the bay

Urban Forest - an intriguing play on urban values in a very exposed and natural area – each stack of five cubes represents an urban tree, and the three trees make the forest

Zephyrometer - the dynamic mast-like structure graphically marks out the strength and direction of the prevailing wind with an elegant swaying motion

Red Devil Eyes

Red Devil Eyes

Eyes are pretty important. I mean, vision is something most of us take for granted. But just imagine if there was this crazy problem some people have with their eyes where the pigment cells slough of the back of your iris and float around your aqueous humor. Then imagine if the pigment that was all floating around in your aqueous humor got all clogged up in your trabecular meshwork so that all the liquid in your eye couldn’t drain properly. Then imagine if the pressure in your eye increased because of all this build up of liquid. Then imagine if you started to lose your vision because the increased pressure started to cause permanent damage to your optic nerves. Doesn’t sound too flash hot huh?

A few years ago I was told I had this problem. I was told not to go running or take part in any form of impact sport because of the danger of a “pigment storm.” That actually sounds pretty cool doesn’t it? Pigment storms and trabecular meshworks and aqueous humor and all that. So since then I’ve had to be a bit careful. So imagine my surprise when upon my visit to the optometrist the other day I was told that she could find no evidence of pigment dispersion syndrome, a disease of which there is no cure and which does not “heal” all by itself. The pressure in each eye was normal, and my vision field test came back with perfectly normal results. Pretty good news! Me being the skeptic I am I have decided to see an ophthalmologist in a couple of weeks time for a third opinion. Fingers crossed!

So that’s the second lot of good news I have received in the last couple of weeks! First was the phantom horizontally impacted wisdom tooth that I don’t have because of my evolutionary advancement, and now my Pigment Dispersion Syndrome has miraculously disappeared! Good things come in threes so I wonder what’s going to happen next. Better pick up that Big Wednesday Lotto ticket this week I reckon…..

So once I confirm with my ophthalmologist in a couple of weeks time that the pigment in my eyes is firmly where it should be the world will once again by my oyster. So what to do? Well, I think I’ll take part in a triathlon. Swimming, biking and running. New Zealand has a great history and many heroes to look up to in this sport. Two of the heroes have to be Hamish Carter and Bevan Docherty. The Gold and Silver medal winners at the 2004 Athens Olympics – what an amazing day that was in New Zealand’s sporting history! Its spine-tingling stuff alright!

Bevan Docherty and Hamish Carter dominating in Athens. Sven Riederer from Sweden finished in third place.

Legends of the sport: Hamish Carter and Bevan Docherty

Bevan Docherty has been involved in some pretty amazing races in his time. Here I leave you with two: