Worlds to Ocea's

Awesome photo from
Hannah Bayard

So since the completion of the worlds back in August I’ve been up to many things, some a little different to others. I’ve done everything from exams to milking cows even. After the worlds I took 2 weeks fully off the bike followed by a light week of training to try and get the body use to gym sessions and riding my bike again. Since then my training has been full on and non stop with up to 4 gym sessions a week at points to try and up my power so that I can make the jump up form junior to elite to try and post some reasonable results down in Invercargill at the UCI tier one event and the Oceania Champs which are coming up very shortly!

For this build up my coach Murray and myself decided to try a slightly different approach to our usual build up as we both agreed that this being my first ever elite competition I have a lot less pressure to succeed that I have had for a while we would try something different and see what results it gets. So far it seems to be working as I’m constantly pushing out pbs on the track behind the bike and also in the gym would is really good for your mindset if you are achieving these going into a competition like this

I mentioned earlier that I had been doing everything from exams to milking cows and that’s not wrong at all, with school exam season in full swing I’ve had to juggle not just training but also studying for my final exams which went all of your final mark hang on these exams it can be difficult to not let training slag off trying to keep your studying at 100% but thankfully so far I’ve managed to do it and the exams that I’ve sat so far were difficult but I think I handled them well. I’ve also been milking on and off at my Uncle and Aunties farm which isn’t that pleasant when you have to get up at 4am but it’s a good chance to get outdoors and also to make some money.

The instructors and myself after my first
rpm session at the crank

Another thing that I’ve done is in September I was very grateful to be a part of the canteen crank fundraiser help at the cloud in Auckland. It’s a great event where the rpm bikes out of the Les Mills around Auckland are taken to the cloud and set up for hundreds of people at a time to take part in hour long rpm sessions to raise money for canteen which is such a great cause. I was set to ride in front of everyone to participate alongside the Les Mills instructors, I did my session which was defiantly tougher that I thought it would be and then one of the instructors convinced me to do another later on that avo and although I loved every minute of it as it was for a super cause its hurt, quite a lot and left me at times during it wondering why I had agreed to a second rpm class.

Another mega pic of me from Hannah!

I also help a fellow cyclist and friend Hannah Bayard do a photo shoot for her university assignment by myself being the model, it was defiantly a learning experience being in a pretty cool studio and having to pose in static positions for what seemed ages at the time while the lighting levels were checked and lights repositioned to get a perfect shot. I thought this was only for the start of the shoot just to set everything up but I was wrong due to every picture needing its own different lighting meant the process was very lengthy but it was still a fun time with lots of joking around which in hindsight probably added to the length of the shoot. You can see some of these awesome shots on this update and a big thanks to Hannah for the opportunity to do this shoot you can check out some of her other work on her facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HannahBayardPhotography

Liv and myself with my
awards from my school
sports dinner

My school sports awards dinner was held in the middle of September and it was a great occasion, this year was my third time at the awards dinner and it was my best one awards wise, I walked home with 8 awards ranging from head of cycling to the two sportsman of the year awards. My sportsman of the year awards made it 3 years in a row for sportsman of the year for and individual sport and the 2nd year in a row for the overall sportsman of the year award. I'm honoured to have received these awards so many times over my years at St Peter's, this leads me to my last day at SPC in October which was a sad occasion to be leaving all my brothers behind but also an exciting day to find out what's to come in the next chapter of my life

Finally I’m looking forward to some good hard and fast racing down in Invercargill and can’t wait to see what times and results I can punch out. Have to say a massive thank you now to Steve and Jess and Cycle City who recently sold the shop, they've

A photo from during the crank
a lot of hurt going on then

been beyond amazing to me over the years and it’s sad to see you guys go but thank you for everything you've done for me. Also if anyone is looking for a good deal on a gym membership to try and get in shape for summer Les Mills is running a deal that if you join now you’ll get till next year free so take advantage of this and head into Les Mills and see the team there!