Shona at Challenge Wanaka

Dunedin super woman Shona Carruthers completed her first 1/2 Iron man at Challenge Wanaka. After deciding to 'do a few' triathlons after ticking off the Coast to Coast 2day individual event in Feb 2009, Shona put in the hard yards and stormed through her first 1/2 Iron man blowing away every ones (including her own) expectations.
Shona sets herself BIG goals a with a lot of hard work and determination she always gets there. One goal that she missed out on last year was completing the Kepler ultra marathon due to the race selling out and her not making it off the waiting list. However I think 2010 will be her year to nail the Kepler.

Well done Shona, I look forward to working with you towards your next big goal

EPC athletes at the races

Well done to all those who competed in Challenge Wanaka.

Shona Carruthers of Dunedin stormed through her first Half Ironman to finish 15th in her age group in a time of 6hrs 48min. Rebecca Darracott of Dunedin/Hamilton Island, Australia and Chris Yeats of Hokitika had strong 180km cycle stages as part of the teams competition. Rieke Stackmann of Dunedin overcame some significant obstacles during her training to complete the half marathon swim and run stages, while Sue Clarke of Dunedin put in an amazing performance in the half marathon for her team.

Bec's at Challenge Wanaka

Pam Thompson of Invercargill raced strongly in the Dunedin round of the South Island Mountain Bike Cup series to place 2nd in the Masters section in what was a tough race.

A good work ethic and consistant training has ment Pam's performance is always improving. Here Pam takes the podium (right) in 2nd place in the Dunedin round of the NZ MTB cup series

In her first year of racing elite level, Hannah Throne has put in two strong performances in the South Island Cup series over the past two weeks and has one more race to go in the series this weekend in Nelson.

Hannah riding the chute at Bethunes Gully during the elite womans race.

Charlotte Breeze of Hokitika competed in the Croesus Crossing 26km trail run as part of her build up for the Coast to Coast. Charlotte showed that her training is on track placing a strong 8th place to end her peak training week.

Charlotte during the 2009 Coast to Coast. After a big summer of training and some good results under her belt, Charlotte goes into her final 4 weeks of training looking focused and strong.

Coast to Coast Training Camp 2010

The aims of the Exponential Performance Coaching C2C camp were to 1, Gain specific C2C course knowledge 2, Develop specific C2C skills and 3, Develop fitness improvements through the training camp effect. While the weather tried its best to stop us we still completed these aims. On Friday 8th January 8 keen athletes arrived at Klondyke corner ready to sink their teeth into the training camp. Friday evening consisted of setting up camp and getting to know everyone. This was followed by a rock run and river crossing session to familiarise the athletes was the specific skills required for the mountain run. The evening was completed with a presentation on nutritional, transition and race strategies for day 1 of the race, followed by a discussion on different points of the race.

Day 2 started early with a drive to Kumara Junction. From the Kumara beach the sprint was on up the 3km run section to the waiting bikes. 55km of road riding working on bunch riding skills took the athletes to Atkins. During the ride up the valley all had their fingers crossed that the rivers would have come down after the serve flood a few days earlier.

A short time up the Deception Valley reveled that the rivers were still high preventing race lines being taken so it was decided to turn back for the groups safety. That afternoon Adrian Hamill from PhysioMed gave a presentation/ practical session on Physio for multisport. This included a discussion on issues/ injuries athletes had had, why and how to strap ankles for off road running finishing with some individual muscle balance assessments of everyone which revelled some interesting points.

As the final training session for the day, everyone rugged up and we headed off into the cold windy conditions for a 2 hour run on the lower section of the Minga Valley up to Dudleys knob and back. The evening activities included a presentation and discussion on nutrition, transition and race strategies for the second day of the race and a briefing for the river session the following day.

Day 3 started early in the rain. Heavy rain meant that the training session down through the waimak gorge was not possible due to safety. Instead a 2hour session was completed on the upper reaches of the waimak between the Bealey and Mt White bridges. This secton of river is usually almost dry, however with the rain it was the perfect flow to work on C2C paddling skills. With everyone soaked to the bone and cold it was a quick change of cloths and off to the Bealey Hotel for hot chips and a debrief.