Keeping healthy with Blackmores!

I am very pleased and grateful to announce my recent partnership with Blackmores New Zealand.

Blackmores New Zealand provides information, advice and knowledge on natural health. Blackmores New Zealand are leaders in developing and marketing innovative products and services that deliver a more natural approach, based on their expertise in vitamins, minerals, herbs and dietary supplements.  

Blackmores New Zealand products will help keep me healthy and stress free so I can train to the best of my abilities and not let a boring cold get me down! Keep healthy during the late winter blast with Blackmores New Zealand. Find the right healthcare product for you by checking out Blackmores online and order your next batch here http://www.blackmoresnz.co.nz/

SO, here is how Blackmores came about:

Maurice Blackmore (1906 – 1977) was an English immigrant who had ideas about health way ahead of time. He would be truly proud that Blackmores today is Australia’s most trusted name in natural healthcare.

Maurice Blackmore was responsible for starting Australia’s first health food store in Brisbane in 1938 and he worked with colleagues and friends to establish the first naturopathic colleges in the country. His beliefs are still valid today and his teachings are incorporated in the training programs of many natural   health practitioners’.

Marcus Blackmore, Maurice’s son, followed closely in his father’s footsteps studying naturopathy and dedicating him-self to the business. With an innovative mindset and as a respected and a passionate industry leader, Marcus has not only grown the company, but helped to make natural healthcare and important part of many people’s lives.

Today, as Blackmores Chairman, Marcus oversees a management team committed to the company’s founding policies. As the company continues its expansion locally and into international markets, Blackmore’s passion for natural health care, quality products and commitment to sustainability will continue to touch more and more people’s lives empowering them to take more control on their health and well being. 

Talking tactics with Olivia Podmore, Ione Johnson and Madi Farrant.

I'll also take this opportunity to give you a wee update on what I have been doing and what's next for me!

Just last week I volunteered alongside with Racquel Sheath and helped out with the female Junior track development camp. It's great to see so many young riders coming through and wanting to give track a go! I took the riders through a few basic skills that can be used both as a sprinter and also an endurance rider. By the end of the 4th day the riders were all confident on their bikes and could ride in a close bunch and also ride around the top of the banking, even though it was a short camp they all gained some skills and also was a great opportunity to get back on the boards before Nationals! Personally I has lots of fun and no one fell off, well there were a few near misses, so I thought that was a great success!

Next on the cards for me is Oceania's which will be held in Adelaide, Australia from November 28th - December 2nd! I am heading over there as part of the Southland team, which I am really looking forward to having such an awesome support crew over there with me! :)

That's all from me for now,

Thanks for taking the time out and reading through!

Cheers,

Steph :) xx

Pit to the Peak.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently on route back to New Zealand, i said my goodbyes to my teammates and Stu Mac in berlin as they were also making their way to Bordeaux to start their final preparations for the Olympics. This trip for me was such a good opportunity to gain valuable experience both on the bike and off the bike and i was was also able to get to know my teammates better! I am lucky enough to have been a part of the first big trip/campaign for the NZ Women's Sprint squad if this trip was awesome I'm hoping it's only going to get better and I'm sure everyone is looking forward to what we are going to bring!! :)

So, as much as I didn't want to end this trip I got the feeling that the Germans didn't want me to leave either since it was a bit of a mission to get my bag and boxes checked in, as im use to travelling with a team with lots of oversized pieces it just seems like it all works out when your in a big group but today I was traveling alone....After not having Internet available to us for the week I felt so lost and forgot to transfer money into my account to pay for excesses luggage.... at the time it was a little overwhelming and tested my airport patience, but I was lucky enough to have met some young New Zealanders which thankfully helped me out and I was all under control...

Until we started to board, the lady checked my passport and noticed that I didn't have any stamps for leaving Spain and entering Germany.... It's because we didn't get any so i have no idea what was going through her head, but in the end she gave me a stamp and off I went.....And it didn't exactly help she spoke no English!

Waiting to race!

So the reason we were in Germany was for some racing and for myself to gain experience... First weekend of racing was hard, you learn the hard way and have to make the mistakes to actually learn, which I did so I was really keen to have a good race the next weekend. I started the next weekend average and made another mistake during the first round of the keirins, which I learn't from but it gave me something to work at for the next round. The senior women were also racing some local junior men which made the racing a bit more exciting and hard!

I went into the next round angry and annoyed at myself for making the previous mistake. I didn't want to be the last rider whilst behind the derny so I was able to position myself second to last but was then challenged by one of the guys... I had never been in a situation like this so I just stood my ground and didn't let the sneaky German in, the race was then stopped and he was disqualified for crowding me.... the race was then re-started with one less sneaky German! Later that day I made it through the rounds safely and made it to the final which then didn't go so well and finished up 6th behind my teammate Natasha :) Katie won the 9-12 so we all ended up in the top 10... Boom.

Oh SNAP! Casually looking at the photographer, ready to race

The second day of racing consisted of sprints which started earlier in the day and we were also combined with the junior men again. My sprint qualifying time (11.68s) was faster than the previous week which gave lifted my spirits and gave me more confidence....I also bet my sneaky German friend! But lucky for us we were up against each other along with another German junior, to be fair I got bullied by the too riders and i was sent to the repercharge along with my german friend.

I successfully made it through the sprint rounds, again they varied from 2-4 ups which keeps the sprinting exciting.... Although both Natasha and I ended up racing together for 3rd, we were both relieved that the race was only 1 sprint as we were pretty tacked by the end of them! I finished up 4th but it was a great sprint and was happy to finish off on a good note. Thanks Eddie for the weekend and just being there and being he Dawk...Keep up the good work and train hard yaaaya!

Lining up for my final Keirin of this Germany trip 

So my pit of my trip was probably the whole bike situation and not being able to start and finish the first day of sprints 110% but everything ended up being all under control and things like that do happen! And the peak of my trip... Well there are a few, so here they are; the beach in Valencia, Spain; traveling as a team for the first time; the oversized ice-cream sundae and last but not lest the last night, all thanks to Dawk and stu for their persistency and getting us to Al-Toronto! Best dinner ever whilst being away and must admit I'm going back. I'm sure I've missed maybe peaks of my trip, but this trip has gone super fast but Wales seems like it was ages ago!

I just want to say good luck to all the Olympians heading to london! GOOD LUCK :D

Thanks for taking the time to read through :)

Steph.

Germany

Guten Tag,

Greetings from Cottbus, Germany! Just thought I would let you know that we are still alive as we haven't had much luck with connecting to any Internet so we came up with an idea to head to a cafe just in the square and hook into their wifi and connect with the outside world and have a coffee whilst doing so.... we all thought it was a genius idea!

So here I am having a coffee at a cafe called the Mosquito, we have also had dinner here a few times which was pretty amazing, but it seems like the Europeans don't have much consistency with the size of their meals or maybe the chief gets bored with making that same meal because one of us would order a meal one day and the next day we would order it again and boom it's completely different, but hey we didn't have to cook so that was a bonus. I'm not going to lie but one of my favourite dishes was the massive desserts we got after racing! Both stu and I got the fresh strawberries and chocolate ice cream, we all looked at the prices and they were nearly the same price as our main dish!!...... But once we got our dessert we knew why, check it out! And it was amazing, just to let you know :D

I have to say that Germany could be one of my new favourite places! The square is only a few k's away from where we are staying, it has all sorts of shops and a really good variety of restaurants and cafe's it's just so convenient... Just sounds like Invercargill...

Sooo we arrived last week a couple of days before our first weekend of racing in Cottbus we were lucky to have landed in Berlin because just as we arrived they closed the airport because there was a massive thunder and lightening storm that greeted us. The track here is semi covered which leaves the middle of the track open it's also 333m just like Moscow's track buuuuut here you don't feel like our falling out of the sky when doing your 200m! Even though it's summer here and the weather is now bearable compared to Spain they still have to deal with all sorts of weather conditions, if it's raining or even hailing you just have to get over it and still ride our bike which I think is awesome! Some crazy Germans will still ride on the track when it's covered with snow up to the red line they just ride high!

Racing last weekend didn't go so well for me I qualified just over half way in the field with a 11.76, plenty of numbers and an awesome quality field! The sprint rounds here are a little different but a great opportunity to learn they tend to make them 3 or 4 ups match sprints unfortunately, between my qualifying and match sprint we had a little disaster with my bike, it was misplaced in our pen and fell onto the forks causing the bottom of the fork to snap off....so it looked like I wasn't going to be riding for the rest of the weekend which was a bit of a shame! But thankfully I was lucky enough to be given a spare bike, I was expecting to be given an old steel frame but was so thankful to have been given one of the German FES bikes! Lucky they had one there that was rideable and my size and just so happens to be Miriam Welte's old bike. So after all that sager I was able to make it to the repercharge and race the rest of the weekend :)

On our rest day we had a wee ride in the morning and just followed our noses around the outskirts of town then later in the day we caught the train and headed to Berlin for the day, what an amazing experience we were lucky enough to have gone on a sunny day and see such an historical city!

Now I am looking forward to rest of the week here in Germany and also the last weekend of racing this Friday and Saturday and then it will be my time to say adios to the team and head back to New Zealand.

Lifting some tin before racing..Whilst Stu tries to do some core with Katie

Cottbus Track...Track is covered, the middle is open. Can still race and train whilst its raining

Berlin adventure day

Radsprint Grand Prix, Cottbus

Strawberries and chocolate ice-cream sundae. It was Delicious 

Centre square in Cottbus

FES bike that I was fortunate enough to borrow for the week

The Brandenburg Gates

6 person bike!

The Aquarium

So we had another rest day yesterday and thought we would head along to Europe's well known aquarium here in Valencia. It was another hot day so only spent a few hours looking around also watched a dolphin show to finish off the visit... I just thought it would be easier put a few photos up on here.

Ups and downs. RIP Nic.

¡Hola

Firstly, I just want to say a little message; unfortunately we lost a friend, a sister, a best friend and a member of “the crew” to cancer. Everyone is still struggling to come to terms with this, but Nicola Stock I still can’t believe you are not here with us anymore you were one of the most courageous, talented and humorous young ladies I have ever met! Jerry you have always been there for her, Nic will always be watching and guiding you. Rest in peace Nic xxx.

We have now left Wales and have arrived in Spain to train in the heat and have also met up with the male sprinters that had arrived a few days earlier than us.

In Wales we were all unsure what to expect or what we would find in Wales, but we were lucky enough to venture to Cardiff on our rest day which is the capital of Wales – 30 minutes drive from Newport if we were lucky with the traffic. To start our day in Cardiff we did what all tourists do and jumped onto a double decker touring bus with Nigel our tour guide after the 50 minute tour we split up and did a bit of shopping. Wales was definitely a place that I wouldn’t have expected to go to but I have got to say I would love go back!

Wales National Velodrome, Newport

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Wales tour bus

Something interesting on the tour bus.

A castle with the girls.

More Castle

Yankees...

Out to dinner with the team.

  

The track in Newport was quite different to any other track that I have been on. We spent 10 days to familiarise ourselves with the track and especially for Natasha as the transitions on the track in Newport are very similar to the one she will be racing on during the London Olympics!! If you are on twitter I think you should follow her progress  and support her at  

https://twitter.com/#!/NatashaHansen01   

  So we have finally settled into our crib in Valencia. Our first hit out was on the road and went for a spin through Valencia’s city and we even got to ride through the start/finish straight for the formula 1 grand prix circuit! The weather here is hot and quite humid. It’s good to actually feel some heat in the sun and get some vitamin D, rather than waking up to frosts in the morning. The track here isn’t your norm it's an indoor concrete 250m, felt like I was back on Auckland’s track so it took a while to get use to it and its colour...on that not I am looking forward to getting some more Vitamin D into me and get some colour back into me!

Adiós a mis amigos!

Beach time here in Spain!

Beach again...

F1 Tourists

Valencia's Track!! Temperatures inside!

 

Arrival

Hi there,

Heavy frost - day of departure

Snow - Drive to Alexandra!

Firstly we have all safely arrived in Wales, after Natasha and John (JR) were stuck in Christchurch as they experienced an early snow fall which closed down the Christchurch airport so they met us the next day...not to mention the snow fall in and around Alexandra during May and also the heavy frost the morning I left Invercargill, so I’m not going to lie I’m pretty happy to be in ever so slightly warmer weather here. It’s meant to be summer but I don’t think Wales experience summer as well as other countries...quite similar to Invercargill .....

Governors House

But before we departed BikeNZ held a camp over the Queen’s birthday weekend for the sprinters that are off to Junior Worlds and also a few other up and coming sprinters both U17 and U19 had the privilege to be invited to the camp. They were an awesome bunch of people and I was delighted to be involved with it, even I learnt lots that weekend! Thanks to the coaches and the helpers that gave up their time and helped us all out and congrats to the Queen’s birthday Weekend champion – Jeremy Presbury, there was some great sprinting that’s for sure...can’t wait to see them in action later this year if you haven’t got your tickets yet, I suggest you should get some by visiting  this website  http://www.juniorworlds2012.com/

Diabetic alert dog :)

Governors House

On a different note at the end of May I was asked to speak at the 50th Annual Diabetes Conference in Wellington alongside another very talented Diabetic Morgan Curry. It was only for a couple of days but I was able to met lots of people and I hope everyone that was there listening to me actually got something out of it! Whilst I was up in Wellington we were also invited to the Governors House as part of the AGM and conference. I was very privileged to have met the Governor but I don’t think he was so excited to met me as I could imagine he would have met hundreds if not more people that day before he me! But still it was pretty awesome to have seen the house, wish I lived in a house like that!

Governors House

The Governor and I

So for now we are knocking up the track and the gym in Newport, Wales. We had our first day on the track today to get use to it and also to smash out some starts alongside the GB Junior Development endurance squad which was pretty cool! We will then be moving onto Valencia, Spain in 6 days here we will be meeting up with the male sprinters!

Bridge to Newport!

Casual update

Well hello there,

This would have to be procrastination at it's best, as it's been awhile since I have last updated my wee blog and I have assignments to do! But it has to be done right?

Since we are in May now and I haven't given you an update since November! There are only a few things that have happened in this space of time so it will be kept brief :)

Over the summer I was in Christchurch and I was able to attend the Carnival that was held early this year. It was a good few nights of racing..hard but fun! It was also the first time I been on the Denton track and also experienced a big earthquake so all in all it was a pretty exciting time spent in Christchurch. I must admit that the Denton track is one of a kind! I could say that my road rides were completed....on the track!

One of many long races...as you can see I'm at the back!

Nationals were held in February, this was my first Elite Nationals so it wasn't going to be easy.

But I did come away with a Gold, Silver, Bronze and a 4th - I thought that having every top 5 placing was a good variety and I was pretty happy with my results.

Tarsh and I sprinting in the final.

500m Time Trial

Team Sprint with Tarsh and coach Stu.

Keirin. Hansen 1st, Steel 2nd, Mitchell rd, Me 4th.

Graham Sycamore and I.

Later that month the Age Group nationals were held, here I was awarded the 2011 Junior Track Cyclist of the year. This was awarded to me by Graham Sycamore and was for my achievements at the 2011 Junior Worlds.

Me, Katie, Natasha and Stu.

I am now part of the New Zealand Women's sprint squad along with Katie Schofield (Dunedin), Natasha Hansen (Christchurch), myself originally from Auckland and last but not least our Walsh coach Stuart McDonald.  We are now all based here in Invercargill training together in a full-time camp environment before we head overseas early next month. I have been lucky enough to come on board and be involved with the final preparations that will be based over seas for the athletes that are heading to the London Olympics!

So, on that note I am pretty excited to head over seas to gain experience both on and off the bike and also experience living with the team! Exciting times ahead.

Olympic add...Kate and I

At the end of March Kate Dunlevey and I were involved in an add promotion for the Olympics. It was long day in a sexy retro skin-suit that had no Chamois......but lucky enough we were able to wear a chamois underneath but we were in it for 12hours straight! It was all worth it, it was a great experience and we both meet some awesome people behind the production!

If you haven't see the add on TV yet or if you have and you didn't recognize us!? Watch it  and just listen to the guys voice below or you can hit it up on you tube thanks to Cycling Southland! I hope you like it, leave a comment on your thoughts about it :)

Catch you on the flip side :)

Steph