Between 1-6 December, Campbell Hanson and I are teaming up for the 6 day, 433km, 12540m of climbing that is the The Pioneer. The cross country mountain bike stage race across New Zealand’s Southern Alps is a truly inspiring adventure and the reason why we deiced earlier in 2019 that we would set this as our main goal for the year.
Before writing this, I’d planned to a review of the event (which I will), but much of the adventure started for us when we first met to discuss the possibility of doing The Pioneer. We both had quite demanding triathlon schedules in 2018, we both are busy with family and work commitments, so we wanted to make sure 2019 had a different focus and to give enough time to our other commitments.
The Pioneer Race
The Pioneer starts with a 26km prologue, then ranges from 69km-112km stages with up to 2730m of climbing in a single stage, no easy feat on a mountain bike. The terrain is a mix of farm track, cycle trail, gravel, sealed road and single track. Each night, you camp between stages and the wonderful people that make up the Pioneer event team, pack up your tent, transport your gear to the next location and pitch your tent again. As the race moves from stage to stage, so does the race village which is equipped with mechanical, laundry, shower and massage services. The entry includes access to all of this plus your breakfast, dinner and aid stations.
Part of this adventure will not only be tackling the terrain of the Southern Alps of NZ, but the discovery in pushing ourselves physically and mentally and the camaraderie of sharing the challenge with your team mate and other Pioneer adventurers.
Team SquareOne Physio
Many in my immediate community will know Campbell. He is from Queenstown and is an avid mountain biker and triathlete, as well as the owner of SquareOne Physio, Pilates and Exercise. Being a Kiwi, the Pioneer had been on his radar for a little while. As he’s spent quite a bit of time mountain biking through his life, riding some of the trails we will take on on in December, I hope his local experience will help us through ta tough 6 days. Coming from a running background and being a triathlete, I’m sure I was probably not Campbell’s first choice partner, but in the end I’m glad I made the cut and have survived the MTB life so far.
As a Team, we feel like we can be fairly strong, we have a good dynamic and friendship which will help over the long days. Cam is the one with the MTB experience, I’d ridden mountain bikes as a kid and through University, but I’m starting to make my way onto the scene and am looking forward to following his lead. We both have completed multiple Ironman’s and 70.3’s, including 70.3 World Championships and Kona. While our triathlon strengths differ in subtle ways, we are quite evenly matched and this will bode well as we aim to be consistent and help each other perform to our best as a team. What I lack in specific MTB experience, I will try and make up for with over accomplished organisational skills and a good engine. Either way, I think we look set for a solid week of work and adventure, lets just hope we get the good weather.
The Bike
The awesome team at Giant Sydney helped hook me up with a 2020 Anthem Advanced Pro 29 1 , a bike that really is made for the cross county. This carbon machine is so fun to ride and really got me excited to ride the trails again once I picked it up. One things for sure, equipment can’t be an excuse for me when I hit the NZ trails.
The Training
One of the main reasons I wanted to share some of my pre event thoughts is due to the shift in training over the past 12 weeks. With the grueling 6 day schedule and the terrain of The Pioneer, I can confidently say that endurance component is probably a much higher requirement than the technical ability on a bike (although needed). Cam and I both handle a bike pretty well, but training to back up 6 long days in a row over cross country is the biggest challenge in my mind. With it set to be a tough test, we want to try to compete and finish as high up the field as we can by the end of the 6 days. For this reason we both set out to deliver around a 16 week block of more bike focused training into The Pioneer, outlined below.
The goal of my training was to ride 4-5 times a week, one of which would be a longer ride. Still aim to swim and run twice per week, but with reduced focus and volume. Cam followed a similar routine but mostly rode 4 times, but with a bit more volume than me. Most of our training would be completed on the road or the Kickr, as it was really is the most convenient way to fit it in during in the week, and Sydney lacks long flowy trails that would replicate the riding of NZ. We aimed to do a few key, longer mountain bike rides together at the weekend, hit up some local MTB trails and parks, but the key was to be fit and strong. Our build would include two road races incorporated into a long ride, I would throw in a 175km Gran Fondo with the cycling lads and Cam would head to NZ for a family holiday and get some time riding the xc trails in NZ. Last week we both completed a 4 hour XC MTB where Cam won his category and I finished 3rd. We also both made sure to maintain at least one gym session per week. This seemed like a manageable training load and allowed us time for other commitments too.
Overall this meant that I would average (up to now) around 650-750 TSS per week, approx 12-14 hrs training per week (this is my sweet spot for training when I’m making sure I have more time with the family). The biggest change to my bike training over this period has been the increased intensity in the sessions, aiming to replicate some of the demands of mountain biking. I increased my cycling frequency to 5x week, 4x 1 hour sessions with one longer weekend ride, trying to get use to backing up sessions with fatigue in the legs. I have definitely seen an improvement in my cycling, especially with more Threshold and VO2 work during this period (partly due to the Zwift Academy sessions - thanks).
The Final Stretch
With only a short time to the event, Cam and I are putting the finishing touches on the training and completing a few more key rides/ events. A lot of the work now is focused on logistics too. We have to make sure we pack everything we need for the varied weather conditions NZ may offer, our mandatory equipment, nutrition, camping equipment and finish the travel arrangements. It’s been a really enjoyable experience so far, not only changing the focus of training for a while, but preparing for the adventure that the event will be. We both look forward to updating you on our progress from the event and after. If you want to keep up to date on our progress, check out my Instagram feed too.
