Triathlon: Stephen Houghton blog Fri Sep 9

The lead up to the event has not been smooth sailing at all. Two weeks out a number of work demands popped up which were unexpected and although training was still on track I was doing a fair few late nights in the shed on the bike and treadmill.

Our kids Libby who is 15 and Rylee who is 11 both have busy lives while we are away. Libby has to study for Year 11 exams and both indoor and beach volleyball training is full on. She has weekends away, the first in Matamata and then in Tauranga before flying out to Australia to compete in their Australian State Nationals for Indoor Volleyball. Rylee is off to the New Zealand Junior Rugby Festival in Taupo where he will represent in the Clifton U11 section.

So, thankfully Carla is on to it, she works fulltime in our business and her training consists of organising the kids and family life. Organising everyday life is bad enough, Libby trains two hours for indoor and two for beach everyday leaving home at 7.30am and sometimes not getting home until 9pm - no free weekends in this family 7 days a week!

Rylee trains with his team four hours a week so the drama of trying to organise before we go on a major trip is hell. The kids have to stay apart as one trains in New Plymouth and the other near our home. She managed to organise the kids and pack their bags making sure nothing is forgotten; passports, tickets the works and of course the awesome grandparents who without them this would not be possible.

After organising the kids she still managed to pack her bags four days before me which is an absolute first. So, as you can see we lead very busy lives, Carla does carry me a lot even though I do get to do ¾ of my training during the time of day that does not impact work or school duties.

Diary Account:

Day 1
6:30am - The day started with an endurance swim (3.1km) - this was more about relaxing and going over all my swim training targets that Tracey Wales my swim coach set and telling myself I have got these two non-wet suit swims in the bag.
8am - Meet Carla and Libby at her school front gate and we said our goodbyes and she wished me all the best.
10:30 - Home and showered and packed up the van. Our son and my mum and dad took us to the airport. Air New Zealand were amazing alongside Stars Travel - we were looked after incredibly well. We arrived at Cancun at the Ritz Carlton the people in this place are awesome. I checked the bikes to make sure they were in one piece so now I can go and sleep easy.

Day 2
Woke up to see an amazing site out our window. Powder white sand a beautiful beach and pools. The body feels a bit flat due to the jet lag still. However, my plan had me do an easy run for 30mins to get the legs going after a long flight. So, in about 30-degree heat and 90% humidity I hit the road. The weird thing is I felt quite good so I hope that's a good sign after 6km I got back to the hotel and once I stopped moving my body temp just rocketed.

Day 3
I was still suffering from jet lag so slept off and on then I crashed about 3am-9.30am. The plan today is lazy day by the pool side. Had a great swim in the sea, the sea here is warmer than our indoor pools at home and so clear, some great surf here at the moment so it was a great way to get back into sea swimming. I'm lucky I love the rough sea conditions so I'm the only one out there must be a West Coaster thing. 50 minute run this evening with some short bursts built in to get the ticker pumping and it sure did.
The food on this trip so far has been great there are lots of low fat, carb and sugar options but I'm missing my porridge I would normally be eating that twice a day at this stage

We are now on Cozumel island weather here continues to be beautiful with little wind the temperature in the between 10-4pm is intense and there are people out training in it not sure why as all our races have start time between 6.45 and 8am.

Next blog will have more about how it feels to be here training and what is running though my head trying to cope with the heat. I would say this event, if nothing changes with the weather will surprise some runners.