1.  A long steady slow paced run once a week: teach your body to endure a long run.

2.  Once a week do 3x 4min runs at race pace in intervals: teach your body to sustain speed.

3.  Run 50m in ski/snowboard boots to practice the first leg (run to skis/boards).

4.  Love your knees! Knees are important in all ‘legs’ of the event. Here are some good knee exercises to repeat while you are watching TV at night:
a) Sit upright on the couch and lift your feet up and down from the knee
b) Do the above with a weight on your foot such as ski/board boots or shoes
c) With a straight back and steady legs at shoulder length apart do a series of squats
d) Lie on your side like a swimsuit model and lift your top leg up and down
e) Do the same as above but with a bent knee and heels together.

5.  In order to practice skiing gates for the first part of the race: the race on snow, practice skiing around things when you are skiing so you can keep your speed while turning.

6.  Go for a bike ride on a gravel access road-ish track, for example the Port Hills walking track from Heathcoate Valley by the Lyttleton Tunnel in Christchurch, or head to Potts Cutting up the Rangitata Valley (on the way to Mt Sunday the Lord of the Rings filmsite location). Don’t forget to wear protective safety equipment, especially your helmet!

1. Transition – This is going to be a key in this sprint race. Minimise the time stopped. Consider wearing the same gear through the whole race to same time changing. For gear that has to be changed, choose gear that is easy to change such as Velcro shoes instead of laces, or elastic laces. Then practice with this gear before the race,.. lots to make it slick.

2. Also consider Mtb in running shoes to save the change later. Remember that you’ll be wearing a stretchy race number bib over the outside of your clothing. I advise wearing the same gear for the snow and mountain bike, right down to the helmet, goggles, jacket, gloves etc. At the end of the mountain bike you can strip off a layer or 2 and head into the run.

3. There’s a reasonable chance on the mountain bike that you’ll get totally mud spattered. To avoid scratching my precious goggles, I don’t wipe them, I turn my head sideways to clear the mud and snow that accumulates on the lens. The wind speed blows it off. Alternatively, you can get tear-off plastic for the lens, or yet another option is to lift them off your eyes after the muddy sections and go bare-eyes for the last part of the ride. Another option is to wear sunglasses instead of goggles.

4. Practice transition in the back yard a few times in the week leading up to the race.

Ideas for the really serious folks from legend Steve Gurney:

1.   Label your stuff – The transitions can be bedlam for your support crew, especially off the snow. I recommend labeling your gear with your name with marker pen.

2.   Prevent punctures – Punctures are very common on the mountain bike leg of the Peak to Pub. As you’d expect and hope for in the mountains, the road is rough and challenging. Snake bite punctures are common. That’s where a rock squashes the tube onto the rim and makes 2 “bite” punctures. The advent of tubeless tyres has solved this, but for those with tubes, you can reduce the likelihood by increasing the tyre pressure to something like 50 or 60 PSI. However, beware that this makes for less grip on corners and a bumpier ride. So you can counter this grip reduction by using tyres with an aggressive tread pattern.

3. Prevent breakages – Time and time again in the race I see frantic figures bent over their bike trying to fix a broken chain, a jammed derailleur, brakes that have worn out the pads, a pedal that has come off, or a seat that has broken. This stuff is all preventable by thoroughly checking your bike before the race or sending it to Big Al’s (or your local bike shop) for a service before the race.

4.   Nutrition – Peak to Pub is a short race, 1 hour for the winners, double for some folks. Even at that shortness, fluid intake is useful and I use Leppin Squeezies too.

So here’s what I do. I make sure Friday I’m drinking enough that my pee is clear. I have a good breakfast of porridge and fruit on race morning. 2 hours before race start I have a bit of a nosh-up with easy to digest food, soup, sandwiches etc, and a good drink of water or juice up to 750 mls.

From then on I wear a camel back before the race so I can sip a bit of water every 15 minutes. Drinking a total of 500 to 750 mls before the race starts.

In the race I don’t bother with a camel back. I just have a drink bottle on the bike with water. You’ll need a firm fitting drink-cage to stop the bottle from jumping out on the rough road (I like the Cateye plastic cage) I shove a Leppin Squeezies in my race shirt pocket, and eat one every 30 minutes. One just before the start followed by a gulp of water, and then one half way down the mountain bike where it has that little uphill (it’s slow enough to drink/eat), followed by several mouthfuls of water, and then another just before the end of the mountain bike on the tarseal followed by a big drink of water, so I’m set up for the run. If you anticipate being on the run for a while (longer than 1 hour) , you might consider taking your drink bottle with you off the bike or get a second one at the transition and one more Squeezie to take with you on the run and have it 30 minutes into it.

6. My best bit of advice – Have heaps of fun. You’ll race faster and have better yarns to tell, after all it’s the stories at the Blue Pub that really matter!