Friday, August 27, 2010

training

Hi

Training is going alright here, shins have still been giving me grief so have to watch the running and back off a bit. Biking and swimming is going good though, the weather here is very average, had couple hot days but mainly raining every other day, but still warmer than home. getting close to Budapest now and getting pretty excited, should be good. Sigmaringen is a cool town, me and penny went downtown yesterday and had good look around. Quite good with penny here as got someone i now well and also saves me cooking haha she cooks me lunch!!!!! anyway im off to bed, got a big set of 4km bike 1km run max reps tomorrow......5 of them if the shins can handle it, will see how it goes.

Aaron

Monday, August 23, 2010

siggy

getting settled into Sigmaringen in southern germany. Is real cool place, love training here. The europe roads are awesome to ride on and awesome scenery. feeling not to bad, still bit smashed after plane ride and not fully recovered after both the races, but getting better. Cant wait to come home, its a long time to be away and cant wait to catch up with everyone, but the training is ideal and pretty good fun hanging with everyonme who has the same goals as me and train just as hard as me.

Thats enough for me, off to bed.

Laters Aaron

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Silver and off to Germany

Hi all,

Been a bit slack with the whole blog thing as been travelling to germany for past 24hours. Been a llooonnggg day.

Our Oceania team won Silver at the first ever Youth Olympic Games team triathlon the other day, awesome to get another medal, 2 medals out of 2 opportunities aint bad at all. Below is a race report if you want to rad it. I was honoured  yesterday to accept a gift on behalf of the NZ Youth Olympic team from like our twin school for the Youth Olympics, so that was a great opportunity and a real privlage to take some leadership for the team. At presnt Im in Sigmaringen in southern Germany and loving it, only ben here for half a day so far but its awesome! Lovely lifestyle and awesome laid back village life, definitly going to enjoy my time here. Cant wait for training to start with the elites early this week, will be a great opporunity to learn new stuff and get to know them all. I have internet access for the whole time im in Germany, so will keep this updated.

Thanks for your support
Aaron

Race report:

I teamed up with Maddie Dillion from NZ and Michael Gosman and Ellie Salthouse of Australia to form an Oceania team for the first ever Youth Olympics Team triathlon. Ellie lead off, racing really well and finishing in the main front bunch off the bike and finishing the run in the top 5, only a small gap behind the leaders. Next was Michael and he also raced awesome and held his own, with the leaders being the European and Americas teams opening the gap a little more. Maddie was next, and she had an absolutley amazing ride, gaining 44 seconds on the front bunch and running up 2nd placing when she tagged me. I left about 15 seconds down on an athlete from Argentina who was racing last for the Americas number 1 team, and leaving only about 2 seconds before the Europeans number 1 team. Us 3 had a good lead on the rest, and thats where the medals were at from that point on. The Argentina athlete held his own on the swim, and I worked with the Austrian (Alois Knabl who won bronze in the individual race) on the bike to try bridge the gap on the leader. We were flying, and working extremely hard. I desperatley wanted to bridege the gap, as the run was only 1.6km, so didnt want to muck around and give him much of a lead. The Austrian and myself come off the bike together and I lead out of transition in hot persuit of the Argentina guy, and we were gaining fast, but we were running out of metres to the finish. He had about 30m on us when the Australian coach screamed at me and said "The Argentina guy has a 15sec penalty, so you two are racing for Gold" (the penalty box is about 100m from the finsh, and you must do your penalty there or you are disqualified. As soon as I heard that, I surged desperatly and tried to drop the Austrian. I was hurting bad, completely on the red line, full throtle. He surged back and was simply to strong for me and opened up a small gap. As we passed the penalty box, the Argentina athlete had served about 10sec of his penalty, so I sprinted as hard as I could. He started sprinting after me, and after having a small break, he was absolutly hauling it!!! I held on to take the silver, 3 sec back from the Austrian, and about 5 sec up on the Argentina guy. Was extremely satisfying to get another medal and proud of how our team raced, it was awesome!!!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Gold Baby Gold

Hi,

As you may have seen or heard back home I won the first ever guys Youth Olympics Games triathlon. Was awesome. Feels unbeliveable, and hasnt really sunk in yet, but it will when I get home mid next month and get to see friends and family. I had a good race, raced smart and hard and gave it everything I had in the tank. I took a risk on the bike, which I dont normally do, but I only had one chance so I thought why not. It worked out alright, got a small lead at the start of the run but it didnt really relive the pressure. The USA athlete put lots of pressure on me throughout the run and we were neck n neck the whole way. I had a bit more in the tank at the end and wanted it that tiny bit more, and dam was it sweet. I won by 13sec, so had time to enjoy the last couple hundred metres. Was a very proud moment and een better when I had the haka done for me by the NZ team, which was unbeliveable. That was just as cool as having gold dangling around my neck, was so proud to be a kiwi. I've been resting up today and just cruising, and same tomorrow with a it of recovery training. On Thursday I will team up with the Australians and Maddie and do a 4 person relay for Oceania which will be awesome, and cant wait. Been a cool experience and a huge learning curve, experiencing the highs and lows of sport at the elite level. All I could think about during the run was 'dont give up, dont give in' and thinking about everyone thats helped me along the way, espicially someone special starting with J (with the lucky pink ribbon tied to the stem of my bike), who never ever left the back of my mind!!!. Without the support of everyone i wouldve struggled t get here, let alone get on the podium, so for all the help Ive bee given I am extremely grateful. When i return home on the 18th September I will be keen to catch up with everyone and show my medal and have a yarn. In Friday I head to Germany for training camp, so Im not done yet. So I need to focus on Worlds now and try and back up the gold with a solid performance in Budapest. Thanks again, and keep following my blog. I'll try my best to update it everyday in Germany and Hungary. Check out link below on you tube for highlights of race.

PS. Gore High School is awesome-especially the year 13's, luv u guys!!!



Thanks

Aaron

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu2f_y2mLFI

Friday, August 13, 2010

Getting Close!!

Hi peoples

Got training over and done with quite early this morning. Went to the pool for light swim then a run before, feeling alright but the shins are giving me bit of grief today.

Slept like a baby last night, but had bit of a sleepwalking disaster and ended up 5min away in the food hall before I relised that it was actually 3.30 in the morning and food wasnt being served yet. looked like a fool when I asked one of the cleaners what the time was!!!

Going to go have a feed now, and have a look around. In the main village square, there are about 100 booths set up representing different countries and activities around their culture, so might go check some of them out. Also we get given about 20 or 30 NZ koru badges, and each nation has one, so might go do a bit of swaping. Some awesome ones out there. Leave for opening ceremony later in the afternoon, which will be pretty cool. Meant to be huge and quite amazing so Ive heard.

Cya Aaron
Hi

Had course familarisation today which was cool. Early start and about a 50min bus trip to race venue. Kinda annoying being so far away as we have to leave our bikes and gear there. Bikes all set up and rearing to go. The swim is good, very warm 28 degrees which is warmer than most indoor heated pools. Water isnt the nicest, typical city beach with bit of rubbish and bit dirty.The current in the water is extremly strong, pushing you to the right; which is less than ideal when im number 7 and must start on the far right. So there will have to a lot of tactics to sort out how ill get around that, cos it could easily stuff things up. Bike course is cool, tight course mostly but flat. just a wide footpath inside a park beside the beach, similar to queens park..kinda..um yea kinda not haha!!! The run is pretty gud, going to be very fast bike and run. Also had athlete briefing so most things all srted and rady to go. Still coming to grips with the heat factor, its very hot and constantly sweating. Olympic village is pretty cool but a lot of hype. Opening ceremony is tomorrow, like a haf hour bus trip away, so its going to be chaos transporting about 10000 people fromn the village to there!!!! Rules are so strick for the race, especially with uniform and sponsors logos. On our bike, we are only allowed the brand and model displayed once, and my bike says 'specialized' about 6 times, so everything must be taped up and covered. Same  with drinkbottles, race suits etc, everything is plain or given to us. at the course is cool, we get our own athlete lounge (but its really just a tent) and got a big fridge full of free drinks...so dont worry im getting my fair share of stuff thats for sure. Its been really cool talking with athletes from other countries and meeting them. Had a yarn with few guys that ill race which is cool. Opening ceremony tomorrow which should be pretty cool.

Will post something tomorrow.

Cheers Aaron

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

in singapore!

Hi, I am writing from the Olympic Village in Singapore. Landed here a few hours ago and got a bus to village, which is HUGE!! but really cool. It's quite hot here which is a shock coming from the southland winter, but its good. The whole experience is huge already and it hasnt even really begun. Got free flash touch phones over here to keep, so they will come in handy while in here. At the airport, there were camera crews all over the show filming, and I had a short interview with a channel called World i think which was pretty cool. Heard I'm getting one with sky sport tomorrow arvo which is choice, nervous but an exciting opportunity. I race on Monday, so have got a few full days to climatise and get familiar with the whole environement. Getting quite nervous being amongst it all, just a small fish in a huge pond here with 5000 other athletes. I'm rooming with dallas Seymour, havent met him yet but heard he's bit of a legend so that will be choice. Seeing some famous people around hopefully which will be cool.

Will keep this updated daily as I have wireless in my room here at the village, so thats all from me. I'm hitting the sack after a lllooooonnnggg day.

Chow
Aaron

Monday, August 9, 2010

getting ready

Everything is all sorted to go- getting all packed tonight. I fly to Auckland tomorrow and stay a night there, then fly to Singapore early Wed morning. Very excited and cant wait to see the big wide world. I race on the 16th, which is one week today. 32 athletes in my race at the Youth Olympics, the start list has just come out and numbers have been drawn randomly by previous Olympic champions/medalists which is cool.

I'd like to thank all the people from the community that have helped me out, especially the Riversdale/Waikia/Gore community- without your support I really would've struggled to get to this point. I'll try and keep this updated everyday from now so keep an eye out!!

Aaron

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Training is ticking over just nicely. I leave next Tuesday. Can't wait to get some sunshine.