Hawaii Training

While I would normally have a bunch of cool shots and some funny stories to post unfortunately in this blog I do not. I am on the couch, hot, buggered and training like a crazy person. I am getting into HEAVY training for IM Florida while every tom, dick and harry in town is heading into taper for the big dance. I promise to get my ducks in a line and write something worthy of your time soon. Just not today!!!

Stay tuned 

Memphis x 

Back in Bend

A week and a bit later we are back in Bend. Now I am not sure what happened in the week that we were away but someone turned the thermostat down and I am not happy about it. I actually recovered quite well and drank my way back into training. Red wine will heal all. After a 3 day break in Vegas visiting 3 of our awesome friends we flew home. I would go into details but as you all know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!!!! ( A massive thank you how ever goes out to our beautiful hosts)

We landed and no longer had the "Turtle" as she is parked safely in Louisville awaiting our return. After we picked up the little hire car and drove to Matt and Lea's house with a  quick stop by our Bend parents "Lady B and Big Daddy" to pick up all the mail and goodies sent by our awesome sponsors. 

The little house on the hill was suddenly very full. Matt , Lea, Luke , Milli the dog , Clyde the bobcat and myself. At least there are plenty of people to keep warm. This morning I left to go ride and it was 9.30 am and a mere 49 degrees. HECK! I looked quite the sight wearing Matt's warmers... Matt is 6 foot 2+ and I am 5'8. 

Apparently there was a light dump of snow up at 7000 ft last night. Time to go I say. Hawaii here we come!!! 

Stay tuned 

Memphis x 

Happy Father's Day !!!!

Today is father's day here in the USA !!! 

A big HFD to my daddy Jim Balding!!!! Hi daddy I miss you and I love you x x x x He is super awesome and I don't get to see him a lot as he lives all the way over in Perth Western Australia!!!

Sorry we don't get to hang as much as we would like. At least I know you are in good company and Wilma is keeping you on your toe's. 

See you at Christmas!!! 

Love Memphis x x x x 

aka Amanda (sounds so serious)

aka Mandy (yuck) 

aka Grub (an oldie but a goodie)

aka pain in your ass (probably the most used when describing me as a youth)

Ride Memphis Ride!!!

IM Louisville!!

What a place and what a race!

We arrived at our home for the next few days ... the KOA !!! Our KOA is run by Ben and Thomas. They welcomed us with that southern charm. People from the south are awesome. The know how to look after you. They also have a very cool drawl when they speak. I think I may use it for a while.

We set up camp and then headed out over the next few days to do countless interviews and some course recognisance. First thing we noticed was how tough the bike course was. Holy smokes someone needs to re write the race guide. Try hills, hills and more hills. Rolling course my ass. At least they got the run description right ....flat. 

We got all the serious stuff like interviews out of the way and went to see the kids at the K-Swiss booth. Love those crazy peeps. They were busy selling a truck load of shoes but had a few minutes to have a quick reunion. 

Luke and I spent the day before the race setting out our stuff and relaxing. Late in the afternoon we dropped the bikes off and then headed back to camp to get a good nights sleep. 

Race morning came so quickly. We both threw down the standard breakfast before donning the Lycra and heading to the race start. There are a few unusual things about IML. The first is the river. MMMM not the cleanest water but at least it was 89 degrees. Warmer in than out. Also a sneaky late entry by my old Timex team mate Viktor Symetzev (Spelling). He had the pro men buzzing as he is a 6 time IM champ with a kick ass bike/run combo. Pre race it was all Luke, Max and Raynard as favourites. Luke and I knew Viktor was a massive danger though and it was going to be an interesting day. 

The gun went off and we got underway. I was in a great group early and held onto some fast feet. As we headed around the 5th buoy I was starting to feel the strain. I just was not fast enough to hold on and the girls got away a bit and I was out on my own. This was not too bad as at least I was not pulling the second pack as I find my self so often doing. At about the 3 km mark someone came up on my inside but I was tiring and strangely could not go with. I got out in 1.04 a little outside my 1 hour goal. Mental note to myself.... more pool sessions Memphis. 

Not wanting to stick on things I cant change I headed out of T1 with fire in my legs. On the bike I quickly got into it and felt great. All the hard work was paying off and I was riding really well. I passed one or 2 heading into the 30 mile point. I was told the one and only Fernanda Keller was just ahead. She is amazing. She was trying to get her slot to Kona for the 23 straight year in a row. She is a legend and can still mix it with the young girls. Even if she is in her 40's. I rode up to her and told her to snap out of it and get riding because she was not going to get a slot if she rode like she was. She fired up and smiled and said "you are right" She is one hell of a rider and we both got going. We managed to drop last years winner Mariska Kramer pretty quickly and passed a bunch of other girls too. All was going great and we were making good ground until 90 mile and at the bottom of the last climb I got a dam puncture. F*ck!!!!

The worst part was that there is meant to be a gap in the glue directly opposite the valve so that when deflated it pulls off but if the dickhead who glued it on (some random bike shop who did it for me before my last race) does not do that it is impossible to get off. After screaming expletives while on the side of the road for 5 mins my race was saved by some amazing man who stopped and interrupted his day to help me. It turns out this saint was non other that one of Hillary's athletes. God bless him. He is a doll and I can never thank him enough. I still owe him a beer :) 

5 more mins and I was back on the road. Tyre fixed and anger pushing the peddles. On the results it said my bike split was 5.35 with the flat but on the clock I rode 5.25 so I was very pleased. My bike legs had decided to show up. 

I got done with the last 22 miles and headed into T2 with a marathon to run. I was pumped up and ready to smash myself. Over the last few months I have worked hard on my run. Really hard. I have a bad habit of getting tired and running up and down on the spot. My stride shortens and basically it all goes to crap. My new and improved cadence and forward lean would be put to the real test now out on the hard road. It is on thing to do it up in Bend and another thing entirely to do it after the swim bike. 

The first 21 miles we terrific. The next 3 were bad. The last 2 were shocking. However in the past when I fall apart I go over 4 hours. Way over. Not this time. I was just 3 mins short of my personal best. 3.54. Progress is happening. I look back now and see that smashing the final 22 miles on the bike hurt me. I can't believe that I still managed 10.41 and did not loose my shit after the flat. I can get a little rattled with that stuff sometimes. Amateur stuff really. 

Anyways enough about me. How about my man Lukey!!! What an incredible race he was out of the water behind super swimmer John Flannagan. He took off after him on the bike, made the pass and spent the rest of the ride solo. He built a massive 7.5 min gap out of T2. As I entered the run course I saw him meters ahead making the turn for his second lap. He looked amazing and ran the race of his life. Viktor Symetzev had to pull out the run of the year to catch him. A 2.43. Viktor caught him at mile 23 and Luke refused to give it up. He picked up to Viktors pace and held onto him for the next 2 miles running side by side, stride for stride. With 1 mile to go the Ukrainian picked up the pace and broke my man :( In the end he took the race over Luke by 30 seconds.

Had Viktor not been a late entry the result would have been very different. However I think that by Viktor being there and pushing Luke so hard it took Luke to a new place. A place that he had not been to yet on the run. I am so frigging proud of him and suspect that in spite of the 2nd place I believe that he learnt more than he ever would have if he had won by 13 mins. 

Sometimes the loss in a tight battle makes you a bigger better athlete for the next race. 

Now it's time for a little r and r in Vegas. 

Stay tuned 

Memphis x 

More from Speedway ...

MMMM Pulled pork!!!

MMMM Ribs

Earlier when we were making healthy options!

Doing the podcast at Zipp!!!

Speedway Indiana

Jimmy, Go Pro and Memphis!

The Brick Yard

Nice lycra kids !!!

"Go Pro" just a few days before our visit. 

Sweet lord, Baby Jesus..... maybe I am picking up some of the south! What a wicked awesome day we had today. We rolled into town an hour late due to the fact that we crossed a time line and no one in the car realised. We headed to Zipp World Headquarters. At Zipp we have the coolest sponsor ever. Greg "GO Pro" he is a sweet young thing ..... that's the south getting to me again.... who has just gotten his pro card. He is super awesome and showed us around the factory. Zipp makes the fasted wheels in the business and what an amazing place. They banned us from taking any cool pictures unfortunately. Top secret stuff you know. He showed us the whole process of carbon fiber wheel making and I was very impressed with the intricate hand made process. Who would have thought!!!!! Not me.  We sat down with some of the media guys and did a cool web live pod cast. I will add the link when we get it :) 

Anyways after the tour we strapped on the lycra and headed out to the local park ride.... Go Pro is not yet allowed out on the open roads after face planting it off his bike the other week and loosing some teeth. Ride done and a huge salad  to refuel we headed back out on the road for the final leg to Louisville KY. But not before stopping at the world famous Indianapolis "Brick Yard" Speedway. 

Some how on the way we got hungry again. We tried really hard to take the sandwich Subway option but as we pulled up to the exit there was trouble on the side of the road. A sign saying "Real Fresh BBQ" Heck no that was too good to pass up. Hell we were in the South and lord knows that you don't get better BBQ than in the south. Clearly not a healthy choice but hell I love BBQ.  Ribs and pulled Pork sandwich. Yum. 

Back in the car and over the state lines to Louisville we go!

Stay tuned 

Memphis x 

Kansas Pix

 Classic! 

Some wildlife!

Boulder to Kansas!!!!

After driving through religious billboard country.... apparently "Jesus will save me" and "Jesus rescues and pornography distroys " mmmm, we got us to our next training stop Lawrence Kansas. The home of Basketball. This is a cool little town where Pip Taylor and hubby Justin lives. The a one of the few places in the States that embrace the 50mt pool.  We had a good chat and catch up before heading out to the pool. They took us unto town for a awesome sandwich to refuel and then we pulled on the K-Swiss trail shoes ready for a run. Justin road the MTB while guiding Luke and I through a river trail. We were back in some humidity which was a welcome change from the dry mountain air. It was a quick stop. But a fun one. Only one more pit stop before Louisville now. 

Sun Valley to Boulder CO

After escaping with our lives from the boys at Scott it was a quick trip across the car park to Chopper at Smith. We love Chopper. Basically he is a man/child. Man because he is married with 2 kids and holds down a job but child as the day we visited him he had just done nine holes of golf that involved large quantities of beer. My kind of fellow really. 

Chopper has taken care of Luke for 10 years at Smith. They make the worlds best and coolest glasses. We managed to rumble him for some racing brand spanking new ones and even left him with a massive order of casuals. Not sure if later in the day when the booze will wear off weather  he will put the Kibosh on it but hey you can't blame a girl for trying. 

We packed up and rolled out of there riding off into the sunset. Colorado bound. 

My coach and dear friend "Mina" lives in Boulder with her beautiful husband better known as "Coconut Bum". We stopped a few nights at Greg and Laura Bennett's house. Bless them they threw a BBQ that grew and grew till there house was filled to the rafters. Some hard sessions at altitude was in order. I loved it except the asthma went nuts. Never fear. Mathias claimed to see a bear while out riding with GB. Very exciting !!!!!!!

Sadly we said goodbye to all our great friend in Boulder and rushed out of town.... late again ha ha ha Jimmy tries to make me a schedule but I can never keep it with all the chatting needed. 

Never fear plans were made to meet up later in the year. 

Off on the road again

Stay tuned 

Memphis x