Patience grasshopper Our marathon man’s motoring metaphor, likening pacing oneself on the hills to using a gearbox may have worked well last week, but Duncan has gone too far this week with his suggestions. He reckons he needs to do longer sessions like the full 42 kms of the marathon. That’d be like driving the car from here to Cape Reinga without having finished building the car, and with inadequate oil. The wheels would fall off, nuts and bolts would rattle loose, (especially the nut behind the wheel) and the motor would burn out the bearings and pistons. (major injuries) The human body adapts gradually to the new demands we’re subjecting it to. That’s why we’ve started training 22 weeks out from the race giving plenty of time to build up to the distance of a marathon, and this gradual build-up reduces the chance of injury. A longer-term goal like this marathon goal takes patience “grasshopper” and that’s why it’s so rewarding! Periodisation As a coach, I have a plan and am using “periodisation”. I’m showing Duncan’s metabolism and his physical body, the principles of marathon running in components and in increments. Just as in an orchestra, we will combine all of these parts in one grand performance on November 22nd at the marathon. At this early period or phase of the plan, we are mainly teaching and training the endurance aspects. Slowly but surely, we are increasing the duration of sessions. This develops not only the muscular endurance, but also teaches the energy systems or metabolism the duration that they need to keep supplying consistent energy to the muscle cells. Map my Run Duncan also complained that his mid-week runs weren’t getting any easier and his legs were still hurting, especially half-way through. But Duncan, ever the clever geek, has loaded “Map my Run” on his smartphone, and it showed that he’d actually improved heaps on previous weeks. Yes, he still felt the effort during the run, but for that same hard effort, he’d been going faster. I.e. He’s getting fitter! His time-trial proved this too, knocking another minute off this week. Whilst technical stuff like “Map my Run”, and GPS watches with Heart rate monitors can be fun and useful tools, they’re not something you absolutely need. Each of us has fantastic software and circuitry intrinsically build in! We just need to learn to be aware and able to be in tune with our bodies through practice and being “present”. Marathon Masterclass - come and join us! Join myself and Duncan for a Q & A session, training advice and a few racing stories over a few free nibbles. A chance to catch up with other budding athletes. August 20th 5:30 pm to 7:30pm Queenstown Motor Group (Subaru Dealership) Remarkables Park Frankton It’s free, but please RSVP to steve@stevegurney.co.nz so we have enough nibbles for everyone. Strength and conditioning sessions Starting Aug 27th Wednesday 5:30pm to 6:30pm in Frankton. If you’re keen let me know steve@stevegurney.co.nz Week seven training schedule: This week we’re introducing some variation in pace and Duncan gets a bit of his wish, with a long walk session on Sunday. Thursday 31st July 45 minutes total, comprised of "accelerations" 10 minutes warm up walk to a grassy jogging area (park or similar) 5 minutes of "accelerations". Start with a fast walking pace, increase the pace one faster gear every minute until at the start of minute three you are jogging. Keep increasing the jog pace slowly until you are jogging at a good old clip at the finish of 5 minutes. Do a total of 6 accelerations Warm down walk for 5 minutes Friday 1st Aug Rest day Saturday 2nd Aug Time trial #4. Aim to beat last week's time. Warm up 10 mins brisk walk or easy jog. Warm down 10 mins walking. Record your time, we're looking for improvement in the long term. Sunday 3rd Aug Long, easy walk. Between 90 minutes and 4 hours. Find an enjoyable track, take a wee backpack with 3 litres of water to drink, some food, a map, a raincoat, a hat, some gloves, and warm thermal layers, and a friend. Tell someone where you’re headed, check the weather forecast and have a back-up safety plan. Have some fun exploring!! Monday 4th Aug Rest day (optional swim or bike or yoga or gym 30 mins) Tuesday 5th Aug Jog 30-40 minutes at a medium pace on undulating, small hills Wednesday 6th Aug Walk / job 43 minutes total as follows: 10 minutes easy jog warm-up, on the flat or hill, at talking pace. 5 minutes jog /run so that you’re breathing hard, (include a bit of a hill or stairs if available). 2 mins easy walk, recovery (could be back down the hill/stairs Repeat, (2) and (3) to a total of 4 times. Finish with 5 minutes warm down as easy walking, giving a total session time of 43 minutes Thursday 7th Aug 45 minutes total, comprised of "accelerations" 10 minutes warm up walk to a grassy jogging area (park or similar) 5 minutes of "accelerations". Start with a fast walking pace, increase the pace one faster gear every minute until at the start of minute 3 you are jogging. Keep increasing the jog pace slowly until you are jogging at a good old clip at the finish of 5 minutes. Do a total of 6 accelerations Warm down walk for 5 minutes

Treat yourself to some good gear Some of you will have been out running in the snow and rain this week …and some of you won’t have! It can be difficult to summons the motivation to get out the door if you don’t have the right gear. The solution is simple, go reward and incentivise yourself with a warm hat, a fleece face Buff, some gloves, some over trousers and a nice jacket. They needn’t be expensive, I’ve used XXL dishwashing gloves over my cheap polypro gloves instead of fancy weather-proof gloves, and a plain nylon jacket and over-pants will suffice, because Goretex seldom “breathes” enough for the sweat of runners. Later when we get into longer runs, you’ll also need some sort of drink holder. So it’s a good idea to get something like a small Camelbak pack with a drink bladder and enough room to pack a spare thermal, some spare muesli bars, a small first aid kit, your headlamp and a cell phone. It’s very satisfying, motivational and virtuous, out training in snowy, stormy weather if you’re well equipped and with back-up gear in your back-pack, knowing that you’re getting “one-up” on those softies indoors. Just remember to check the weather’s not gonna get worse, choose a safe trail, that someone knows that you’re out there, stay safe and be a clever planner. Duncan's continuing success Duncan stuck to the schedule again, went 2 minutes faster on his time trial, and came up with some great metaphors for training speeds. In Duncan’s words; “Being a car guy I found it helpful to liken my running to engines; I experimented a little with using different gears ie on downhill gradients lengthening my stride and getting gravity to give me some free distance, similarly on uphill gradients I used a lower gear, speed or rhythm which is reasonably comfortable to sustain – just like using the correct gear in your car to take it easy on the engine!” Week six training schedule: This week we’re cutting out the walking if possible. Just easy and sustainable jogging. Of course it’s fine to walk for a few minutes here and there if you need to. Thursday 24th July Jog 40 mins; start and finish with a slow job, as warm up / down. Flat Friday 25th July Rest day Saturday 26 July Time trial #3. Aim to beat last week's time. Warm up 10 mins brisk walk or easy jog. Warm down 10 mins walking. Record your time. Sunday 27th July Jog 50 mins at a conversational pace (Easy-Medium) Monday 28th July Rest day (optional swim or bike or yoga or gym 30 mins) Tuesday 29th July Jog 30-40 minsMedium Pace Wednesday 30th July Rest day (optional cross train eg swim, bike, yoga 30 mins) Thursday 31st July Jog 45 mins, start & finish with a slow jog, as warm up / down. Small hills

Enjoyable exercising when on holiday Aiming for the Queenstown Marathon, Duncan managed to stick to the training schedule this week, despite being away in Sydney for 4 days. He’s never taken his running shoes on holiday before, but he surprised himself at how it added enjoyment to his holiday. He used the hotel treadmill and got his training done and dusted first thing in the morning, leaving the day free for doing all of those holiday things. Time trials prove you’re getting fitter! This week we’re doing the first of what will become a regular “time trial”. The idea is to time yourself every fortnight on this exact same piece of track to measure how much you’re improving, starting and finishing with ten minutes of brisk walking or easy jogging to warm up and down. Choose a convenient and enjoyable piece of track between 7 and 10 km long, that replicates the gravel tracks of the Queenstown Marathon, and will be exactly the same each time. If you live in Queenstown, I’d recommend the Lake Hayes loop because it’s part of the actual course, it’s delightfully picturesque, and it’s got a typical small hill in it. It’s about 8 km. Record your times either as a simple list, or you make yourself a graph and proudly stick it on the fridge! Stretch after each session I’ve introduced three simple stretches for Duncan to do when warm, straight after finishing his sessions: the quadriceps, calves and hamstrings. Week four training schedule: Thursday 10th July Walk 10 mins, jog 20 mins, walk 10 mins. Small hills. Friday 11th July Rest day Saturday 12th July Warm up 10 minutes with brisk walk or easy jog. Time Trail Course at your fastest sustainable pace. This could be running all the way, or it is fine to walk parts of it too. Warm down 10 min walking. Record your time. Sunday 13th July Walk / jog 40 mins at a conversational pace (Easy-Medium) Monday 14th July Rest day (optional swim or bike or yoga or gym 30 mins) Tuesday 15th July Walk 5 mins, jog 20-30 mins, walk 10mins. Medium Pace. Wednesday 16th July Rest day (optional cross train eg swim, bike, yoga 30 mins) Thursday 17th July Fast walk 5 mins, jog 25 mins, walk 10 mins. Small hills Listen to your body, if it’s really struggling after 15 minutes on a session, ease up and take it easy or reduce duration to avoid injury. If you’re finding it really easy, go a little further that day if you like. Next week we’ll discuss research about goal-setting and how you can apply it to improve your marathon goal (or any other goals).

Make it a habit - the principles of training Our man, Duncan Wright this week discovered that instead of taking the car, choosing to sometimes walk or jog for commuting ultimately saves time. It just takes a bit of planning. For example, driving to work on Monday with a five-day supply of clean shirts and undies, means he can leave the car at home and walk/jog Tuesday, Wed, and Thurs (along with his new headlamp of course). After missing sessions last week, Duncan noticed how important it is to make training a regular “habit”. This week, he’s off to Sydney for 3 days, which previously could’ve easily blown the exercise “habit”. However, he’s excitedly packed his running shoes, (much easier than packing a bike or kayak if you’re a coast to coast athlete!), explaining to me all the options he has, like getting up early to use his jog/walk time to explore the city, or to use the hotel gym treadmill for something a bit different, ….or to totally think outside the square, and climb up and down the 32 storey hotel stair-well for some hill simulation! The importance of rest days Duncan also commented how, on the long Saturday session, his legs felt like jelly near the end; but found by Tuesday, they felt surprisingly strong again. You’ll see that the training schedule is planned with some strategically placed rest days. The training schedule is planned with the “overload principle” in mind. The hard sessions in the weekend and mid-week, challenge the body a bit more than it’s used to. By allowing recovery time (typically 1, 2 or 3 days depending on how hard the hard session was) of easy training, the body responds something like this; “Whew! That was tougher than I’m used to, I’d better rebuild a bit stronger in case he does that to me again”. And he does do that again a few days later, plus a bit more. And so the fitness increases. In between hard sessions, our bodies need sufficient recovery to adapt and become stronger. It’s tempting to think; “If a good, hard session gets me fitter, then surely more hard sessions are better”. I personally recall my mistakes of trying to jam more hard sessions into a week when I’d gotten behind in my schedule due to work commitments or injury. It only made things worse. Extrapolating this out, if we keep on doing hard session after session without enough recovery days in between, soreness and tired muscles cause slower performance. For the athlete who is blindly and doggedly driven, this often makes us think “Argh, my training is getting worse, I must need to put even MORE hard sessions into my schedule.” And so begins a downward spiral, into what we call the over-training syndrome. Often over-training is recognised first by the people around us, because we’ve become grumpy and irritable. Rest days are for Recovery Sessions Recovery sessions are usually something to look forward to, but it’s not sitting in front of telly with chocolate. Active recovery helps flush out the by-products of hard sessions, such as lactic acid. Recovery is lighter exercise such as a walk or very easy jog around the lake edge or in a forest, or some cross training such as an easy bike, or a swim session. In addition, recovery can be enhanced by things like, massage, yoga, getting a bit of extra sleep, eating really healthy and drinking a bit extra water. If you want to go a subtle, but powerful, step further, I also suggest that mental, spiritual and emotional growth will help recovery too. This can be as simple as meditation, being loving to those around you and spending time planning and evaluating life goals. I’ll help Duncan explore and define his goals more clearly over the next two weeks, sharing some motivation research with you all. This will be an opportunity for those readers who’ve not yet joined Duncan in his training for the Queenstown marathon, to join us. It’s not too late. Week three training schedule: We’re slowly introducing more running. For now, where-ever possible, run on trails and off-road, to avoid injury. We’ll introduce some road-running sessions later to get you “tarmacized” for the road bits. Thursday 3rd July Walk 10 mins, jog 10 mins, walk 10 mins. Fast walk on small hills Friday 4th July Rest day Saturday 5 July 70 mins total, (walk 10 mins, jog 5mins)x 4. Finish with 10 mins walk. Easy effort, Flat trails. Sunday 6 July Walk 40 minutes. Medium pace but still able to have a conversation Monday 7th July Rest day (optional swim or bike or yoga or gym 30 mins) Tuesday 8th July Walk 10 mins, jog 20 mins, walk 10mins Wednesday 9th July Rest day (optional cross train eg swim, bike, yoga 30 mins) Thursday 10th July Fast walk 10 mins, jog 15 mins, walk 10 mins. Small hills. Remember, take it easy the first 2 or 3 weeks. It’s OK to halve the duration if you’re feeling sore or tired.

Ever wanted to run a 10 K event, a half or full marathon? Or just get fit? Many of us aren’t quite sure how best to start, or put it off til “one day” when we’ve got more time, (but you know how it is,.. that “one day” never comes.) Well opportunity’s knocking. (Or, here’s a boot to get you out the door!) Mountain Scene will publish a weekly beginner’s training schedule leading up to the new Queenstown Marathon. That’s a generous 22 weeks away. Plenty of time for any couch potato to prepare. And what an exciting and fun race it will be with the majority off-road, on our stunning trails! I’ll be coaching a beginner runner, Duncan Wright, our local Subaru general manager, and gradually coaching him up to finish the Queenstown Marathon on November 22nd this year. Every week we’ll publish Duncan’s weekly training schedule in the Mountain Scene, along with a few tips and some motivation for readers who’d like to join in. Information on nutrition for running, preventing injuries, gear choice, etc. We’ll start at the total beginner level, just walking for the first week, and then graduate to introducing jogging in 30 second increments, some cross-training and gradually building up to continuous running after two or three weeks, depending on how Duncan, and you readers progress. The trick is to make it enjoyable and to stay totally free of injuries with a planned and measured build-up. If you’re not up to Marathon level, remember you could alternatively enter the half marathon or the 10 km. If you're not into doing the race, but just want to follow the training schedule, that’s totally cool too! If you’re doing the half or 10 km, then simply reduce the training schedule 50%-75% depending on how you’re feeling or the time you have available. Getting started: The hardest part of any goal (and especially with running), is getting out the door. Ask any seasoned runner and they’ll tell you that once you’re out and jogging, and warmed up it’s suddenly easy and enjoyable. And then there’s that feeling of pride and satisfaction once we’ve finished the run and had a hot shower. It’s well documented that for any new sport or fitness endeavour at fitness, there’s a “beginner’s threshold”. The first 4 to 6 weeks are often quite challenging, after which it kinda dawns on you that you’re enjoying it more than ever, a kind of addiction, and it becomes easier. So make sure you keep this in the back of your mind if the going gets a bit tough, and look forward to the buzz that will begin after one or 2 months. IMPORTANT: it’s a common mistake to start with too much enthusiasm, ease into the first few weeks. I’m also assuming that you’re all in good health. You take on this exciting goal at your own responsibility. Most folks are fine if we start this training gradually. If there’s any doubt, just pop along to your GP for a simple warrant of fitness clearance. In the next few weeks, we’ll publish some times and locations in Queenstown that we can meet to train together. We’ll have information on Facebook and on right here on this blog. Finally this week, a HUGE congratulations to you for committing to this. Marathon training schedule - Week 1 Thursday 19th Walk 20 mins - easy effort - flat trails Friday 20th Walk 20 mins - easy effort - flat trails Saturday 21st Walk 45 -60 mins - easy effort - flat trails Sunday 22nd Walk 30 minutes - easy effort - flat or small hills Monday 23rd Rest day - or optional swim or bike or yoga or gym optional 30 mins Tuesday 24th Walk 40 minutes - easy effort - flat or small hills Wednesday 25th Rest day - or optional cross train eg swim, bike, yoga 30 mins Thursday 26th Walk 30 minutes - easy effort - small hills Friday 27th Rest day - Remember, take it easy the first 2 or 3 weeks. It’s OK to halve the duration or miss a session if you’re feeling sore or tired. Duncan Wright 49 General Manager Queenstown Motor Group I am probably what you would describe average build and I’m not particularly fit, working long hours in a relatively non physical showroom work environment. I don’t play any competitive sport other than a bit of social grade tennis. Goal: To participate in and complete the Queenstown marathon Why: I want to get fit before I turn 50 next year and I need a challenge Fears: Injury and failure to finish – not an option! Steve Gurney “That Coast to Coast guy” (he won it a record 9 times). He’s now a coach, professional motivational speaker, adventurer, inventor, author and motivation expert. Goal: To help Duncan and Mountain Scene Readers reach their goal of completing the Queenstown marathon in November. Why: The more people there are reaching their fitness goals, the healthier and happier the Queenstown community will be. Fears: That some readers may miss the first week and think they can't join in - I'll be posting the training notes right here each week so you can pick up your training at any time.

Gurney successfully summitted Aoraki Mt Cook last week, and Moffatt succeeded in reaching the same point Marmaduke Dixon and George Mannering did, just 200 feet below the summit. But the pair have had to pause for a few days before continuing their journey by kayak to the sea. The climb came at a dramatic cost… Steve Moffatt discovered on reaching the Hermitage at Mt Cook Village that he had frostbite to several of his toes. “We need to respect frostbite… if we don’t allow Steve’s feet to recover, there’s a good chance they’ll get infected, especially sitting with wet feet in a kayak for 4 days, and then there’s a good chance they’ll need to chop bits of toes off. We don’t want that, so we’ll give them a couple of weeks to heal a bit” Gurney and Moffatt are on a journey from the top of NZ, Aoraki Mt Cook to the sea, re-enacting the same journey of pioneers Marmaduke Dixon and George Mannering in 1890 when the pair attempted to be the first to summit Aoraki Mt Cook. Dixon and Mannering came within a tantalizing 60 metres of the summit in 1890, but had to retreat due to bitter cold and failing light. Out of respect for their feat, Moffatt chose to climb only as far as Dixon and Mannering, whilst Gurney pressed ahead to the summit. Gurney and Moffatt are making a movie comparing the differences between adventure technology, lifestyles, and beliefs between now and the 1800’s. Moffatt is doing the journey using only gear, food and clothing as Dixon and Mannering did, which includes leather hob-nail boots and tweed suit to climb in. Gurney by comparison has the latest and greatest gadgets. The frostbite came as quite a surprise to the pair and Gurney commented that “this opens up all sorts of questions now… were the explorers of the 1800’s just picky with the weather and perhaps lucky, or were they clever and more in touch with the mountains than we are? Where they more skilled than us, or just lucky they didn’t fall into crevasses and slide off the mountain? The frostbite truly does validate our investigation into old vs new” says Gurney. “Before we started I thought the explorers of the 1800’s were tough buggers, but now after walking many miles in their hobnails I now have a huge respect for them!” says Moffatt. “With these new questions now about tough vs luck, we’re both just itching to finish off the trip” commented Gurney. The pair plan to continue the trip on Dec14th. They will start at Ball Flat which appropriately, is where Dixon and Mannering took a few day’s break between the finish of the climb and the start of the kayak leg to the coast. Gurney plans to kayak from the newly formed Tasman glacier lake, as befits the modern method, whilst Moffatt will walk to Birch Stream, as did Dixon and Mannering. If you’d like more details and comments, please call: Gurney 021 487639 Moffatt 021 436830

Typing this as I fly out to the States to give the kite buggy speed record a nudge. Currently it stands at 127km...which is pretty fast when your odd-fellows are a mere 3 cms off the ground! And it’s no ordinary ground either,... imagine concrete with a 40-grit sandpaper finish, YEEEOW! There are seven of us kiwis taking on Germans, Dutch and Team America! .....But we have a secrete weapon! We have the Grand Guru; the man that invented it all, the one and only, Peter Lynn. Peter Lynn is world famous for inventing the sport of kite buggying twenty years ago and is constantly innovating for higher performance and for whackier new angles. Peter and our team have brainstormed a new buggy design, and built a wheel testing rig to find the most efficient configuration for the resultant wind and force angles of this specific application. The contest is at Lake Ivanpar, 60 kms south of Las Vegas. Its similar to the Bonneville salt flats, only it’s a dried up mud flat (better grip for lateral wind forces) Discovery Channel are coming to film us and we also have a new GoPro video unit to record the on-board action. We’ll post some pics and footage here as it comes available. You’ll recall our World Record across the Sahara Desert last year, where we were the first in the world to cross the Sahara by kite power. Check out www.madwaysouth.com We broke records and I broke bones when I smashed into a rock at speed! This time I’ll be a bit more careful, there shouldn’t be any rocks, and if we do roll our rig, riders are strapped securely under a roll cage.

Bumped into Gurney the other day. Bike Crash! I was in an accident the other day. But I’m doing fine now. I was only in hospital for a few hours. My mother was right. (May she rest in peace). She always told me: “make sure you wear clean underpants,…you never know when you’ll have an accident!” She also told me as a boy, “If you’re going to do a job, do it properly” So I did! I “T-boned” that car that drove right across my path! I went through the glass and metal of the back door, almost far enough to put the seat-belt on! I was biking home from a meeting, in the bike lane, which was clearly marked as such. Beside me was a queue of stationary cars facing in the same direction as me, queued for those confounded Ferrymead road-works. Unbeknownst to me, the driver of a 4WD SUV in the queue had flashed a car coming from the opposite direction (trying to get to the supermarket carpark), to come through the gap they’d left. That’s the 2nd thing my mother was right about: “don’t trust flashers”. I’m usually very observant and aware of such possibilities, but this was a very large 4WD flasher that I couldn’t see past. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a small red car shot in front of the flasher, through that queue and across my cycle lane. I had nowhere to go, no time to stop. I hit hard! Years of crashing off my trike, and all of those normal accidents that kids used to be allowed to have, along with the constant chiding of my mother as she patched up my grazes, has taught me a thing or 2 about crashing. In the split second before impact, I had the experience learned from my trike days to choose my point of impact with the car. The door would hurt less than the pillar. Out of control on my trike, I’d learned that mum’s rosebush hurt less than the fencepost. Mum taught us kids to remember the emergency phone number, 111, but someone else had done that by the time I came around in the back of an ambulance. The police officer told me he’d take the remains of my bike in his car, to my house. Wheeled into hospital, Gurney on the Gurney, doctors with furrowed brows checked me out, poked, prodded, x-rayed, and after 5 hours pronounced me unbroken. Unlike the car, for it had certainly come off second best. I’m grateful that my mother fed me proper. I have strong bones. Not wanting to hang around any longer I asked to please be excused, just like my mother taught me. They insisted I needed someone to keep me company that night because of the concussion. I shot an enquiring glance in the direction of the nurses. There where no offers, so I decided the neighbour’s cat would have to do. He regularly does a sleep-over. He’d surely be able to do a “Lassie” should he notice from his perch on the chair that I’d stopped breathing. Cats are smart and intuitive like that aren’t they? With no bike and no money, I had to find a way to get home. It was nearly 10 pm and I didn’t want to bother any of my friends to pick me up. ACC clearly hadn’t thought this one through. All I needed was $2.50 for a bus, but there were no contingencies for even this. So, donning my smashed helmet for a bit of warmth, I zipped up my bloodied cycling top, bade farewell to those helpful and over-worked medics in the A and E department, and clip-clopped awkwardly in my cycling shoes, out into the night. After half an hour of failed hitch-hiking, I’d only walked one eighth of the way home. I suppose it was little wonder no-one picked me up looking like I did. It would be a late night, and I hoped the neighbour’s cat, my guardian-to-be, would still be waiting for me. Then my luck changed. I ended up making full use of the emergency services that night. Previously, the Police had dropped my bike bits home, the ambulance had whisked me to hospital, and then finally I was picked up late that night by a passing fire engine! It was the Woolston Crew on their way back to base and they kindly offered me a ride home. Driving back past my accident scene, riding high in the colossal cab of this, day-glow-red, formidable fire-fighting beast, I spotted the broken glass of that errant car, scattered on the road. ”Ha!” I declared. I defy you to cut across my lane now! Fortunately, the cat was stoically waiting at my back door. He intuitively knew he was needed, or maybe it was the previous visit of the Policeman or the pile of bits by the door that were once my shining bike that told him. Laying in my bed that night, Oscar the cat contentedly curled on the chair, I reflected on the accident; A higher power was looking out for me that day, because those motorists certainly weren’t looking out for me. That flasher in the large 4WD in the queue should’ve looked in their mirror to check the way was clear before flashing the red car through. The driver in the red car should’ve looked before lurching into my lane. If it were 2 lanes of cars instead of bikes, the drivers would’ve treated that inside lane with a whole lot more reverence. And indeed they will need to in future, for with the rising price of fuel, soaring sales of commuter bikes, and Christchurch being an otherwise ideal commuter-cycle city those cycle lanes are set to be chokka full this summer. They’ll also need to check for cyclists before opening their doors. In a simple catch-all lesson, those motorists might like to try biking themselves once in a while? Win-win for all. I don’t want those 2 drivers to be charged with dangerous driving. It was an accident. I just want them to spend that energy instead teaching other motorists what we all learned. I also pondered on my poor mother. She would’ve been distraught, for I hadn’t been wearing my clean undies in that accident. I smiled as I realised I’d defiantly finally broken free from the grip of my mother. We cyclists don’t wear undies!

What comes from from losses, challenges and crises? Suffering or Growth - It’s our choice: Losing the America’s Cup yachting after such a huge leading margin was a massive disappointment! …. but then again, I never learnt much from winning. My best learning and growth came from my mistakes and losses. This learning and growth only comes to those who are gracious enough to be open to the learning with an attitude of non-judgmental curiosity. My first step to growth; I acknowledge the pain with something like “Yes, ouch, that hurt and was disappointing, and it possibly wasn’t even fair, but then, life’s not always fair, just move on. Look at the big picture now Steve.” Then I ask myself non-judgmental questions like: “What positives can I learn from that?” “What other possible learning is there?” “If it were someone else in my shoes, what might they learn from that?” “How can I use that to increase my motivation toward other really worthwhile goals?” Summer’s here, set some fun, audacious and powerful goals. Steve Gurney “Life truly begins at the edge of your comfort zone.”

Steve runs coast to coast multisport seminars covering everything from goal setting to mental excellence, and including tips on training for running, cycling (mountain and/or road), kayaking, transitions, training schedules and plans, gear, racing techniques, and much, much more. I'm running Coast to Coast clinics on getting your best possible performance, goals, mental excellence, principles of training, overcoming hurdles and practical technique sessions for off-road running and kayaking. If you want a clinic run in your location, please contact Steve today. This all-day workshop is for beginners, and for experienced athletes. I’ve got separate break-out segments for novices, and for experienced students. The workshop is predominantly working at the level of mental excellence. It’s not dependent on fitness or experience. It’s the fundamentals of what goes on behind this. It’s about getting the best out of your training and preparation through mental processes, attitude and setting very specific goals. One of the Challenges facing Auckland athletes is the lack of access to the Coast to Coast course. I’ll be dedicating time on the workshop to alternative training to develop the specific skills required. I’ll be sharing what I learned from winning and losing over 20 years of Coast to Coast. This workshop is about getting better results, more easily. Like all multisport events, the Coast to Coast has it’s unique terrain, and challenges. This is about learning how to train smart. How to train specifically for the mountain conditions. I’ll be sharing with you the latest research from people who successfully and consistently achieve their goals. I’m delving deeply with you into the psychology of how connect powerfully with your goals. We’ll explore the many ways to change training drudgery into excitement and fun. We’ll have two 60 minute physical sessions Session one, rock running: The science of rock running technique, with drills and practice. There is no need to be fit at all for this, it’s simply about technique. Session two, kayak: Kayak technique and drills. Once again there’s no need for fitness. There is no physical bike session, but there is a little cycle theory covered. There is plenty of road cycle coaching available in most cities, so I have elected to cover the specialized specifics of multisport. The venue is stunning, perfect for our specific learning, and has a café and bakery for lunch nearby (or bring your own). Basic Agenda: (order may change according to tides/weather for practical sessions) What REALLY drives you? Getting the best from your time and investment (goals enhancement) Mental excellence Coffee break Rock Running • Specificity explained • Training principles • Practical session Lunch break Motivation techniques Overcoming hurdles, injuries, breakages, plan blow-outs etc Principles of training Specific training ideas Training programs Coffee break Kayaking • Boat choice • Boat set-up and optimization • Paddle choice • Paddling technique • Practical session BYO kayak, PFD, Spray deck, paddle etc BYO Running gear, for off road. BYO towel BYO lunch BYO notebook and pens You’ve already invested a lot in this race, make sure you get the best possible performance you can. Get Gurney!

Source: Mountain Scene's Print Edition, May 30, 2013 in Queenstown