Triathlon

Mr Smiths Coaching

There’s a lot of crossover between runners and triathletes in Wellington and in October 2011, a friend mentioned she was going to try out for the New Zealand Age Group Team for the world championships, being held in Auckland the following year. She suggested I should have a go at qualifying too. I thought, what a great challenge, let’s give it a go.

I was on great running form at that point, having just crushed my half marathon personal best on the hilly Auckland course, and I already swam a couple of times a week, mountain biked, cycled commuted, and had dabbled in a few sprint triathlons over the years. My running coach at the time was about to move away, and so the timing was right to try something new from that angle too.

I loved the idea of training to be the best I could be and representing New Zealand. I decided I needed a coach to help me get there, particularly for the cycling aspect, and started working with Gerrard Smith, of Mr Smith’s .

In three months, where I put everything into it, Gerrard helped me qualify for the 2012 Age Group World Championships. I trained with Gerrard for three years and in that time I won a silver medal at the National Sprint Championships in Kinloch, won the womens masters age group in the 32km Round Rarotonga Road Race, chipped some more time off my 10 km personal best running time and came 2nd in my age group for the Motatapu Off-Road Triathlon, which earnt me the Tri Wellington Club ‘Multisporter of the Year’ award in 2014.

Gerrard helped me become more confident as an athlete and complete longer events. I progressed to completing olympic distance triathlons, the 100km Grape Ride, the 160km Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge, 34km Abel Tasman Coastal Classic run and infamous hilly 192km K2 Cycle Challenge in the Coromandel.

From Gerrard I learnt life-long transferable skills around process goals, prioritising, and managing controllables vs uncontrollables in training and racing. He taught me how to create everyday manageable goals and bronze, silver and gold race goals, that weren’t just about a time or position. His calm and insightful influence has stayed with me ever since. He now has a great podcast aimed at the everyday triathlete not ‘racing snakes’ - Mr Smith Talks Triathlon.

The Wellington Triathlon Scene

I was fortunate to be a Wellingtonian triathlete at the peak of the Scorching Triathlon series. Created by the inventive Daryll Bloomfield, the summer series of triathlons and winter duathlons brought the triathlon community together on a regular basis at an idyllic spot in Scorching Bay.

Daryll created a unique atmosphere of community, fun, inventive race formats and attracted beginners to elite age groupers. Here’s a two minute film I made about the 2014 teams race that, to me, captured the essence of ‘The Scorchers’.

The Splash and Dash swim run series is another much loved Summer ritual for Wellingtonian triathletes. As with the Scorcher Triathlons, the organisers created a fun, social atmosphere of friendly competition. I remember the first time I attended prizegiving in 2012 at the end of the first whole season I took part in and got the warm fuzzies from realising I knew most people in the room and felt connected to a great community.

After several years of trying and coming second or so, I finally managed to win my age group in 2016 and I think it meant more to me than any other race I’d ever done!

I just managed to reclaim the title in 2017 by one point after a summer-long battle with my friend and fellow triathlete Susannah Sharpe. I love how exciting and fun the Splash and Dash events are, and the varied sea and wind conditions that add a bit of spice to it. I hope they continue for years to come.

Capital Sports Performance

I joined Capital Sports performance for a couple of years from 2015 to experience more of a group training format. Coached by Gene MacNaught I trained several times a week with a highly motivated bunch. I competed in two more Age Group World Championships, the Sprint Duathlon in Adelaide 2015, and the Snowy Mountains Cross Tri in 2016, placing in the top 10 in my age group each time. In 2016 I also won another silver medal at the National Sprint Championships in Kinloch, which, together with an age group win at Takapuna, earnt me joint ‘Age Grouper of the Year’ from Triathlon New Zealand.

Gene and swim coach Lucy Cotterill helped me to improve my swim, bike and run technique some more with the group format, and Gene taught me to ‘back myself’ and helped me to realise how determined I am and what an asset that is. I enjoyed the feeling of camaradarie of training with a group and the resulting shared history.

I created a website around my journey to the Snowy Mountains in 2016 and interviewed several of my team mates from the group.

Podcasts

Since 2012 I’ve been listening to the podcast IM Talk and co-host Bevan Eyle’s podcast. A couple of years later I started listening to Fitter Radio too. These podcasts are a great mix of news, banter and interviews with a range of interesting people in the field of triathlon, sports science and related areas. I heard about John Helleman’s autobiography Never, Ever Give Up? on IM Talk, and enjoyed reading about one of New Zealand’s triathlon legends and coaches.

I’ve learnt a lot about a wide range of topics, in areas that translate across into ‘real life’ and also, by general osmosis, learnt more about small business too, as the presenters run their own enterprises and I’ve found myself subconsciously analysing their business models and service offerings!

My friend John Hancock who has been ever encouraging along my triathlon journey is often mentioned on IM Talk, where he is affectionately known as the ‘Mountain Snail’. John was interviewed on the show recently about his favourite topic Swim Run, and, in an awesome moment of two of my favourite podcasts colliding, IM Talk recently interviewed Brian Rose from London Real.

Bevan Eyles’ own podcast has also been a considerable influence on my thinking around fitness behaviour and motivation, which he crystallised into his book The Fitness Attitude. I was thrilled Bevan interviewed John Polley recently after I suggested John as an interviewee for his show.

I also recently enjoyed reading John Helleman’s memoir Never, Ever Give Up? - John Hellemans is a legend of New Zealand triathlon both as an athlete and coach. The book is a great read, and funny, you don’t even need to be a triathlete to enjoy it.

Retirement

I ‘retired’ from triathlon after the Sea 2 Sky Challenge in April 2017. I decided I’d reached the point where I’d done all the races I wanted to do and taken it as far as I could performance wise for the amount of time I wanted to invest in training, particularly on my weakest link, the bike. I really didn’t fancy another winter on the wind trainer in the garage!

So it was time to stop competing, for the time being at least, do some other things and use my body in different ways. Later on that year I started my training as fitness instructor and personal trainer, and went on to train in MovNat. I still enjoy swim, bike and run and will likely come back at some point!