Cancer Society of New Zealand

It been just over 3 years now since my Dad died...he spent the last 18 months of his life suffering greatly as a result of Cancer.

He was diagnosed in February 2005, and on the 5 May 2005 he had is first surgery in an attempt to remove the tumour. The reason I remember the date is because my son Matthew was born on the 2 May. Dad was so excited about the birth of his new grandson he jumped on a plane and within hours he was in Auckland. I’ll never forget how happy he was holding his new grandson, it made me feel happy that we could provide the distraction he needed....he was scared.

Over the next 18 months he underwent the usual treatments of chemo, radiation, more surgeries etc... it was truly devastating watching the man I looked up to shrivel away to a frail & lifeless shell of the man he once was. Throughout this 18 months my mother soldiered on, providing her undivided care & attention on him. Mum is a stoic and private person and is not good at asking for help, but without the assistance of the Cancer Society of New Zealand she would not have been able to provide that level of care that she did. We as a family will be forever grateful to them.

Now, If that hasn’t brought a tear to your eye, you better check yourself for a heartbeat.

As you will all know I am going to the big island of Hawaii in 47 days, to take part/race in Kona - 2009 World Ironman Championship, and my aim is to raise $5000 for them.

To donate please visit my fundraising page. I am happy to accept any reasonable challenge . FYI - I met every single challenge at Ironman NZ.

Thanks Cancer Society of New Zealand

Get more go on Moro...

When you literally spend your whole Sunday on the bike you need fuel...and plenty of it. My latest craving has been for the good old Kiwi Moro bar. This little piece of Kiwiana has been made even more enticing with Cadbury’s generous ‘1 in 5 wins a Freebie’ deal that they have going at the moment.

This competition is a blessing for my Moro craving and is a bloody good thing too, because of the eight....yes, eight I have had in the last 9 days six of them have been FREE!

Craig Kirkwood = 6

Michael Kelly = 0

Mate I love free stuff...Thanks Cadbury

Art

I believe training the body to its optimum is a form of art...of sorts. It takes time, patience, skill, hard work, perseverance...and often you and others don’t appreciate what you’ve achieved until it’s all over. The art is in the balance between being a big softy and not doing enough, to being a hard arse and doing too much. I like to think that I push the envelope of the later, although some may disagree. Therefore for me the balance between doing enough and overdoing it something that I like to test in an attempt to push the boundary further and further away than what would be perceived as normal. There are a few people that I have had the pleasure of being involved with over the years that have left me with a couple of key memories that have help me mould this ability.

• In 2001 I was training for my first marathon (London), and at one point during the training I was fried. When I spoke to my coach at the time, the legendary Alan Storey, about it he simply said ‘Kirkwood, you’re in a hole, so stop f..... digging!’ - simple, but perfect.
• Right before that first marathon I was speak with one of Britains greatest marathon runners, Jon Brown (4th Olympic marathon 2000 & 2004), about racing a marathon, his advice was ‘the 1^st time you want to go (meaning pick up the pace), don’t!, the 2^nd time you want to go, don’t!, the 3^rd time you want to go, you won’t be able to’ - so true
• Earlier this year when I was training for my first Ironman, my coach Uncle Wattie (Mark Watson) and I were talking about racing the Ironman or more specifically the ride and he said ‘every 20km or so of the ride, do a mental check and ask yourself the question ‘can I still run a fast marathon after x km at this effort?’’ – so valuable

The real art to all of this is learning what you are capable of and where your boundaries lay, then have the courage and the skills to push that boundary without destroying yourself in the process. If you can't master that technique then you’ll never really discover your true potential.

This is different form of art; maybe Blue seventy can make this into a swim skin.

Now the reason for all of this babble is that in the last two weeks I feel that I have pushed a boundary in my training, and have nudged myself up to another level. All three disciplines are on going very well, and I am feeling confident. I am training well and I feel like I am recovering very well from the volume and intensity I am putting in...and yes Alan I am making sure the hole isn’t getting too deep. I think I can put this down to 3 main elements

1. Well structured training programme - thanks wattie

2. Nutrition & hydration - Part of my nutrition is a daly intake of Resveratrol which I think is really aiding my recovery - thanks About Health.

3. Weekly Massage - thanks Kylie (Bay Massage Therapy)

Whatever it is...I like it.