miles miles miles

abit long since the last update and alot has happened since then! Had the wires out and the improvment from that was very significant, ive really been able to ramp things up since then. Racing wise i did the Taupo to Napier late september, my first race since december, I was reasonable confident after recording some high power numbers in training and was pretty happy to come in 2nd beaten in a close sprint by team mate Tim Gudsel, the following week was a team training camp in Waimarama (hawkesbay) which was a good chance to spend some time with the boys and soak up some sunshine! Next up was my home race(RTM) and the 100th edition to boot, it's not a race to suit me but i gave it a good nudge and finished 6th, we rode a record time of 3h25m, again a teram mate taking the win but this time was Dan Barry.
I had been starting to feel abit mentally fatigued from a winter of hard work and seemingly not alot of gain so post RTM I took off to the bush for a week, I would love to have spent more time there over the winter but the strength of the knee just wouldnt allow it, it was a great time, i came out smashed physically but recharged and ready some some hefty training.
22nd of october was the Te Awamutu open, I went with a move at 1/2way and we just slowly edges away never to be seen again, I was feeling good but unfortunatley one other guy was also so it was another 2nd place for me, very positive signs though.
The following weekend was K2, a race very suited to me and i made the most of it, taking the win solo by 3mins, the weekend wasnt over though, the next day i got baptised, it was grea to have the support of family and friends there and just in general.
So now its just mile munching, the body feels great, the weather is good(by naki standards)and im motivated by what is ahead of me :)
Ill try report again soon.
Mike

rebuilding

5 months post surgery now and things are ticking along very nicely, next up will be the removal of wires from the patella, just waiting on a date for that. Training has consisted of 2-3 gym sessions a week and 5-6 days on the bike, the quad is still pretty small and the knee pretty big but is all functioning pretty well and have been given the go ahead to increase the volume and intensity of training :)
Life in general has been good apoart from a flu/cold i have right now...I've moved into a flat in town with a friend and really just enjoying spending some time in NZ.
At this stage I'm hoping to get back to racing by september but that will now depend on the wire removal and for now im starting to do the odd club race which feels nice but certainly a wee way to go.
Mike

Patients

Well it's been 6 weeks since the surgery on the knee and 1 week since I had a cyst removed from my jaw, time for an update.
Firstly the knee. It's looking quite good. Swelling is on the decline and movement in the other direction. I did get into the swimming pool for a week but managed to pick up an infection which i noticed mostly in the jaw as my face swelled up and the jaw closed down. Ouch. I then got into the ocean for a couple of swims which felt good. So it's off to see the specialist and an X-Ray next week and take it from there.
Then there was the wisdom tooth/cyst removal. I went into this feeling nervous but excited, like a race. This thing has been plaguing me for some years now, and who knows what effect it may have been making. One of my wisdom teeth has been coming out crooked, and in doing so has created a hole in the jaw. Lights out again on the operating table then awake 1hr later with a numb face. Lets hope this is my lot for a long time. I couldn't wait to get out of the hospital but was feeling alot worse for wear once I was and it's taken most of this last week for the miserableness to subside.
I'm looking for the positives out of all of this which is tough. My Pure Black Racing team mates are all gearing up to hit the states in a week, Dad is in the hills searching for the elusive 8 point trophy and earthquakes are shaking the world. I believe there is honey from the carcass though and i'm sure that will unravel with time. My little sis did come home for afew days this week, which brung a painfull smile to the face, a positive.
So here comes the rehab, bring it on, although patients will also be required with that I know. One step at a time.
Mike

Positivity

One day i'll get to post something positive on here,
Saturday week ago I was on a team training camp, and had managed to get onto the windtrainer for the first time in a month, this comeback was very short lived though.
Abit about the training camp first...I was travelling with local rider Nick Sutton who is a member of the U23 Pure Black Racing team, first stop auckland for an interview to get my visa for the USA sorted then back down to Karapiro to meet with the whole team minus the 5 who were racing the tour of wellington. The place we were staying was crawling with wilflife so while the boys were out riding i entertained myself with afew farm/bush walks. The purpose of the camp was team building so there was a wide range of activities to bring us together and help us get to know abit more about our team mates. I felt this went super well and after a short time everyone was nice and comfy all crammed into one room. Highlights for me were raft building, archery and the team quiz.
There were some serious sessions aswell with Paul Kane from Grant Thornton taking some of his time to advise us on accounting issues and Greg Cross one of our team managers giving us a good run down on media, networking, the internet and sponsors.
Then onto saturday night after our team was won the weeks challenge i decided to walk down to the lake edge where a couple of guys were via some slippery muddy sloped steps, maybe not such a great idea...but sitting round isn't really me! I slipped at some point and sat back onto my heel which at that stage had only been bending to about 90 degrees at the knee...I heard a loud crack and after straightening out the leg I could clearly feel a huge gap between 2 pieces of my knee cap, oops...after crawling on hands and knees back to the house an ambo was quickly called and off to Waikato hospital I went! the x-ray confirmed what I already knew and surgery was to come the next morning.
I had some amazing team support through this and the older members of our team really showed their maturity which was great for the young guys to see, I kept my cool and hopefully the guys could see how easily these things can happen and hopefully my reaction will help them at some stage if they have to deal with tough times.
They let me out of hospital pretty quick and while my knee/ leg is still looking like a small balloon is reasonably pain free. Ill probably need to get the wires taken out at some stage but before then ill have some more surgery on my jaw...more on that next time maybe. Rehab for this is kind of a guess at this stage but it won't be quick...So, no USA this year which has left me thinking about doing some study so i don't turn to mush, still tryna work out what ill do exactley...
I guess there is a fair bit of positive stuff in amongst that so im trying to focus on that and make good use of this time that i've now got.
Photo shows my knee cap in 2 pieces.

Down Again

After a sucessfull recovery from a broken collar bone I was feeling pretty motivated and had a good month of racing lined up.
Cristmas was spent with the family in the hawkes bay with some hunting, fishing and plenty of riding, while I wasn't feeling super fast on the bike I knew abit of racing would have me good for nationals then the tour of wellington, so first up was the tour de vinyards in nelson, a good fun tour but with a high calibre of riders, 40mins into the first stage there was comotion up infront of me, I looked up to see riders heading into the ditch, hitting the anchors to avoid it all was my reaction, unfortunately this wasn't the same from some riders behind me as I was rear ended at full gas, i stood up...look at my knee...and knew I was out, I hobbled over to the side of the road and lay down in a pool of emotion, angry, frustrated and confused at what had just happened.
Into the ambo and off to the hospital to get cleaned up, the knee took 9 stitches and an x-ray to my hand showed a chipped scaphoid. Into a cast i went and a knee i couldn't bend, although i was relativley pain free at that stage by night things had settled and the pain was cripling, a wee trip at 5am to get some pain killers and I finally got some sleep.
I stayed with the team for the tour then went on down to christchurch for more checkups. By this stage more problems had come up, my jaw(another story altogether...it has a hole in it) got infected and so did my leg, so a course of IV antibiotics was administerd, 3 weeks later, im still trying to get some movement into the knee and feel unsure how long that will take.
Staying with the team was a good move, most of the guys have had some injury of some kind and the support they gave was invaluable, after initially feeling pretty down I am very peacefull and unshaken which is good considering the amount of time I have to just sit pondering and thinking about the important things in life.
Next step...get on the windtrainer...rebuild some strength...see what happens...the team has gained UCI Continental status and we are all go to head to the states mid march.
Bring it on.

Racing, Crashing and a Team.

There has been abit going on since I last updated...
Firstly we had the NZ teams time trial champs, it was a 3 race weekend with the TTT being in the middle, first up was a 1hr Crit round central Hamilton, the legs were not so great but it was a nice leg opener, the following day was the TTT, our team was unchanged from the week before and we all rode pretty well, I was feeling pretty good and strong which was nice, we rode the flat 40km in 53min11sec and took the bronze which we were all pretty stoked about. The next day was a 100km race with afew lumps to mix it up, I had a great start when my speedo fell off in the first KM, I went back and picked it up, then had to chase back on for the next 10-15km, that really hurt so had to spend some time recovering, with about 20km to go we went up the hardest hill of the day and I made my move reaching the 3 leaders just at the top, it was pretty uneventful from there as we just rode to the finish for a sprint, I was beaten into 2nd place there...need to work on that sprinting! I was feeling good though and there was only 1 weel till southland.
Mid week I flew to Queenstown to meet up with my new team for next year, Pure Black Racing, we got alot of kit, the first of our bikes and some choice weather, this was a chance to do some team bonding, visit some cafe's and plan for next year so it was a pretty choice time, the new bike is really nice the kit fits superb and it's a good bunch of guys so some exciting times ahead for sure. I will start riding for them in the new year.
Then it was down to invercargill to join some friends in the Ascot Park Hotel team for the tour of southland, all the boys were well prepared and we were looking to take it to a fairly strong feild. The TTT prologue went to plan, we finished 7th reasonable close and the legs were good...that afternoon was the stage to bluff but unfortunatley I didn't get there, near the front of the peloton a rider hit a rock and lost control causing a nice pileup...I came off worst breaking my collar bone putting an end to my tour right there. That was a pretty painfull and dissapointing experience and 2 weeks later im just starting to turn the pedals again on an indoor trainer, it will be another 2-3 weeks before I can ride on the road so thats slightly frustrating but something that comes with the sport.
I stayed in southland for the week though and tried to enjoy what I could, one of the days the tour stays in TeAnau for the night, a tradition with the Ascot team is a boat cruise with BBQ dinner on the lake, that was by far the highlight of my trip, that place is just massive and untouched, pretty incredible!
So for now it's just 'Poco a Poco' and ill be up and going in no time, probably the tour de vinyards starting 1 jan.
Cheers for reading
Michael.

WCNI TTT

After an easy week of training(very easy) to recover from the mountain of km's I had done and also to get stuck into some solid efforts this week and the following there was the West Coat Nort Island Teams Trial Champs, a 40km race against the clock with 4 of us from the Stratford Club, with your time taken on the 3rd rider finished.
The team was Dad, Greg Marfell, Nick Sutton and myself, it was a windy day on a flat course, the 2 boys were abit tired from a race the day before but we were still planning to have dad as our 4th rider and not expecting to take him all the way...well that plan changed after about 3km when nick couldn't hold the pace, this meant we went into conservation mode just to get to the finish, there was some solid croswinds in the first 15km which can be abit sketchy when your riding deep section wheels...Dad rode well meaning we only had to ease the pace 2 or 3 times for him and we came home 55sec ahead of the next team so a successful day, 56mins for 40km on a very windy day isnt bad.
I was happy with how I felt and feeling ready to do some hard work with only 3 weeks untill the tour of southland, coming up is a club fun ride going over some choice roads on the 'Forgotton World Highway' starting in Taumarunui through to Stratford.
Should be a good bit of fun.
Mike.