EPC Athletes at the Coast to Coast

Here are a few photos of a few of the EPC athletes during day 1 of the 2010 C2C

Emmah Ussher strides it out in the closing stages of the Mnt run

Phil Te Tana at the end of the Mnt run

Rosie Taylor striding it out to the finish of the Mnt run

Nic McAra and Husband Neil relax after a big day

Charlotte Breeze of Hokitika storms through the final stages of the Mnt run

Mat Snowdon looking strong with only 3km to go

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.

EPC athletes at the races

EPC athletes have been racing hard all over New Zealand in the past few weeks and have been proving that they have been getting out and training hard.

Well done to Milan Brodina of Gerldine who competed in the Teva Big Day at the Office. Milan had a good race in tough weather conditions and a strong field to take 12th place. See photo below of Milan out on the mountian run.

Becks Darracott of Dunedin took on the Ashburton ½ Ironman as part of a team in her build up to Challenge Wanaka. Becks rode hard and completed the 90km TT in good time and her team took 6th place.

Hannah Throne managed 5th place in a very tough field in the epic Bannockburn Gut buster MTB race. Hannah is now turning her attention to the South Island Cup race series over January.

Nic McAre of Invercargill showed that her running is progressing well for the Coast to Coast when she put in a good run at the Luxmore Grunt. Nic ran strongly to place 9th Woman and 41st overall out of 150 competitors. Well done Nic.

A big team of EPC athletes took on the Waimak Classic river race in their build up to the Coast to Coast. Charlotte Breeze, Bruce Ranga, Hannah Yeats and Scott Finnie all paddled in the race. Stories of kayak crunching rocks, broken rudder lines and shoulder injuries indicate that it was a tough day on the river. Well done to those who survived.

Rosie Taylor ran well in the brutal 21km Goat mountain run to take 30minutes of last year’s time and take 4th place in the under 23 woman’s section. This race is held in the Tongariro National park and this year had terrible weather conditions.

Well done to all of these athletes.

EPC athletes at Kaitangata MTB race

EPC athletes had a good day out at Kaitangata this weekend in the 45km MTB race

Hannah Thorne battled it out with the best of the woman to take 3rd within 1minute of first place

Pam Thompson had a great ride taking 2nd in the Vet woman's section. Over the past month Pam has demonstrated that she is ready for a good up coming summer season. Nick Taylor finished strong in his first race back after 4 weeks and is eager to get into some more racing this summer.

This week at Exponential Performance Coaching

Squad paddle
The Exponential Performance Squad kayak sessions will be held on Wednesday as usual. This session will start at 7.30am from the University Rowing club. This week’s session will be focused on technique and endurance development. These sessions are $20 each or sign up for 5 sessions for $80.
Squad run
The Exponential Performance Squad running sessions will return to the normal day and time of Wednesday at 5.30pm.
This week we will how ever be meeting at Tomohawak beach for a sand dune session. This session is ideal for developing your strength endurance while targeting your threshold. These sessions are ideal cross training for those training for cycling so come along and be part of a specifically structured session. Training in a squad environment has been shown to get better results than training alone as you push yourself more than you would by yourself so come work hard and have some fun training with others.
The Cost of these sessions are $15 per session or sign up for 4 sessions for $50.
Coast to Coast Training camp
There are a few spots still available on the C2C training camps. So if you are interested in attending or know of someone who is let me know.
EPC athletes at the races
In challenging windy conditions Nic McAre of Invercargill improved 30min from last year in the Source to Sea 160km cycling race. Well done Nic that is a huge improvement. Chris and Hannah Yeats also had a good day out at the Source 2 Sea cycle race as well in a mixed team. Hannah rode strongly to take 4th overall in her section of the race and Chris came 3rd in his section of the race.
The EPC mountain bike athletes had another good showing at the 45km Kaitangata Black gold MTB race on the weekend. Pam Thompson came 2nd in the Vet woman’s race while Hannah Thorne Finished 3rd place in a tough open woman’s race that saw the top three woman finish with in 1 minute of each other. In his first race in a few months Nick Taylor rode well and finished the race strongly. Well done guys a great day out at the office.
Exponential Performance Coaching tip of the week
Strong windy conditions are perfect for developing strength and mental toughness. Most people see windy days as a good time to stay inside and give training a miss. Do not be one of these people instead see windy days as an opportunity to become stronger for race day.