Marina Duvnjak

Hey…

So, long time no write…oops.
We got back from Croatia in one piece and things are pretty sweet. I have officially had almost 11 months off the bike now, well of course I’ve done a couple of rides, but I can probably count those on one hand…… This friday is the Takapuna Grand Prix, which also doubles as the NZ crit champs…. This event was held in January this year and that was my last race. The thing is, its a home race, and my sponsor, that has stood by me Kiwivelo, would love to have their kit riding round even if it means hanging on for dear life with a bright red face gaaaasping for air!!!!!! eeeek….
So who knows, they say “oh just do it you’ll be fine” but the burning lungs and the bleeding teeth feeling from just riding up my street tells me otherwise!! oh shit what to do!!??!…. I really think people don’t quite realize how UNFIT I really am…. they judge the fact that I haven’t put on 20kg just cause I stopped training and think “ohh you’re looking fit” hehheh this could almost be a reason not to go back…… NO more thunderthighs!!!!!!!!!

Aaaanyway…..I’ve got today, Wed, Thur and Friday morning to train!!! oh nah maybe i’ll taper on thursday…
Oh man…… will seee
Are you glad I wrote this useless bit of info?? Now get back to work!!!!!

Ok bye
Marina

So, the other day we went to an extended family lunch! It was a national holiday here, and in a local town Klostar there was a fair and stuff. So to start off with we went to this lunch. At these peoples home, they had a few pets/animals… mini farm type thing… some pigs, a goat, geese, chickens etc..
Well little V loves animals so off we went with the other kids to have a look round the garden etc. So the Geese were doing their thing, and so were the chickens, then we went over to this cute wee goat, we talked a bit about it then I asked where the mother was…….”oh, thats lunch” answered one of the kids….. you know… as you do… chop up your pet goat and make a mean feed!
It was a little sad I must say, I think I get waaaay to attached to things, can’t see me doing that!! Especially a goat! Goats are cute!! I’d get one and call it Gavin!! Mike wants that name for a dog, but I think it suits a goad way more!!!
So yeah lunch was amazing. As always way too much food, and cakes/cookies!
Then we went off for a walk round the fair etc lots of music, beer, stalls selling clothes, and all sorts of crap. I think the highlight was the donkey, and the home made “eco ride” (merry go round). This dude made one from bits of wood and some woven baskets and rope… To make it stable he had to prop it up with some bricks, but besides that, safe as!!! The “eco” part of this is, he stands there turning the thing….. yeah the kiddies sit in the basket and he stands by the pole in the middle turning it!! I would have had a go, it looked like fun, but yeah…. I’m a little too old apparently !! Violeta had a BLAST, she LOVED it!!! Kids get to do all the fun stuff!!
Anyway thats all for now, It freaking hot here and Im hungry… till tomorrow…… Byebye!!

Hey
Well its now been like forever since I have ridden my bike, my god, I think January 20th was my last race and since then….. well I thought I would have a wee break…. 7 months to be exact! Oops
I am in Ivanic-Grad, Croatia at the moment, and will be here for a bit. Mama and I have decided a 6 week holiday is in order, since we are now living on the other side of the world… I was born in Ivanic, so this is where most of the family still live!! We left in 1990….
We travelled over with my brother his wife and little 16 month old girl, Violeta. She’s sooooooo cute. Runs in the family I guess….. hehe.. I can honestly say I am in awe at people that travel with kids, far out, its hard enough traveling 30hrs by yourself but with a baby, 4000 nappies, wet wipes, food, pram, toys, change of clothes, and then a few personal things, wow, I will never whinge again! Violeta was great for the first loooong trip!! And mama and I seem to have a gift of tiring out kids!! Shame take that kiddy!!

Anyhooooo the grandparents were STOKED to say the least at finally meeting their first great grandchild (now they keep asking when Im having one…. easy on…) She won them over immediately … smiling away through the glass at Zagreb airport!!
So yeah, Im here now and loving it. The first week has basically just involved hanging out with immediate family.
Grandad put me straight to work mowing the grass at the Hazelnut farm, fek its hard work, but Im a tough cookie my cousin and I shared the job, boom… done! next!! Pick the boysenberries, tomatoes and peaches!! Done!! next!!??!! Bring it on pop!!!!
I think the funny thing, for me anyway, is that grandad’s got this 30yr old Opel Kated, with like over 400,000km, its his baby!! Once he rides the clutch for the first 2 gears WHEEEEE!!! he then drives in 3rd gear most of the time, 70km/hr, engine going WHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Poor thing!!!! Mama and I just sit in the back cracking up… No air con, 30000 degrees outside, and the olds don’t like opening the windows, like 3-5cm max, oh yeah its a 3 door car so we don’t have windows in the back… sun beaming down our backs, mamas resorted to taking a towel along… wipe the sweat!! eeew!!

Righto, I’ve had enough of typing, gotta save some typing for another day! Heck knows who even reads this now…. oh well …
K bye for now
Marina

Hey! So, something must be working. I’ve had pretty much 6 weeks off the bike and I am feeling like 100000 time better. No more sleeping during the day. yaaay!!!!
Last night I joined mama at her Aqua aerobics class at the local pools here. Wow, its hard work. I really really enjoyed it though, and it was actually quite tough. Every single muscle in the body is being used. I’m gonna try doing this at least once a week as x training!!!
So Mike’s in Singapore at the moment for a huge Crit with 3 other Kiwis, last year they did really well and came back with a fair wack of money, this year it has double in prize money so fingers crossed they kick some butt!!
After this he is off to America to join his team from last year. Leaving on 9 April, and wont be back till mid September
At this stage I am not going anywhere to race, a: I have no money for it and b:slight minor detail of I havent ridden in a while.
Anyway we’ll see how the rest of the year unfolds and go from there.
I went for my 3rd ride today, did 1 hour, felt pretty good stunning day for it! I’d like to race in the B grade next thursday at the Bio Sport Crits, If I can finish I will be happy with that!!
Anyway better go to work.
K bye

Hey!!

Its been a while so I thought I better write something soon!! All 3 people that follow my blog have asked for an update!!

Before I get into the cycling side of things I would just like to tell the world how proud of myself I am right now. Today I changed the plug on my vacuum cleaner “Henry”. I have been dodging the ecectric shocks from the broken one for a month now!! I remember having to change on at school in South Africa when I was like 12, so I knew it wasn’t soo scary!!

Right now I am sitting at home watching the winter Olympics. For the past 2 days the Figure skating pairs have been fascinating and its pretty amazing what those athletes can do!! Today however the scene has chaged, I am no longer looking at the pretty, artistic, flexible and gracefull skaters…. not to mention their female partners…. nah today I am amazed how freaking HUGE and how shall I say this politely….. butch??manly?Completely opposite?? the speed skaters are… WOW. One of the Germans… her bubble butt was the size of at least 4 of Serena Williams… google it..! uuuugghh!!
Ok back to me.. So, for the past month I have not touched my bike, I have looked at it. But only cause its sitting by the TV. I have finally found out why I have been feeling so sluggish, and lacking energy! My Iron levels have dropped really low and at the moment I am not even thinking about training, I am just stoked not to have to sleep during the day. Since October-ish I basically been running myself intot he ground.
My trining has been soooo inconsistent I dont even know how I managed to pull off some of the rides I did. I know people always go through ups and down in training but this was getting waaay too much and starting to get to me.
This might also explain my last blog ay!! Ha, how depressing was I !!
Anyhoo….at this stage I won’t be riding till the end of February. Rather annoying as, at this time of the year is when all the fun events are on like the local crits and Bev May Tour etc.
Oh well, I’ll make the most out of summer time I guess!
Ok bye
Marina

Meh…… thats all I have to say…. Happened a month ago… and not worth talking bout..

Hey.

So We finally got internet at home now! Yay!! Only took 2 months but here I am!!
Quick rundown, Auckland 1000 started off pretty well. I was feeling really good and really enjoying the race. Then after the last turn to the finish about 1.5 km to go, I got a puncture. Got a wheel change, and managed to finish 4th, so a little frustrating but the $250 prizemoney for 1st wasn’t quite worth riding the $2000 carbon rim to the finish!
Auckland champs about 3 weeks ago….. Man I thought I was going to die on the first lap…. I felt terrible…I’m glad I kept going though as I started feeling better as the race went on. I can’t say it was an enjoyable race, in fact would prob go as far as to say I was hating it!! So for me, sounds so dumb but just to finish was a good result, and to get 3rd was even better!!
Since then I have been training a bit for the Oceanias coming up next week, and originally I was going to do the road and track events, but looking at the schedule I think I made the right decision to just do the road. Think the event I am most exctied about is the TT. Lately I have been trying to improve in this event. For the past 12 years I have hated it, but now I think I rather like it! Still alot of improvement to be had but hey, will go with the flow..
Mike’s at the Tour of Southland at the moment. Flat feels kinda empty So wish I was there. It seems like there is soo much drama!! Looking forward to being down there next week!! Not so much hanging out in Invercargill though, jsut being round some racing will be good!
Ok thats all for now.
Bye
man blog website has changed I dont even know how to post this now……grrrr

So I was gonna do another report on Saturday, but I thought that was just too sad!! So now its Monday nigtht and I have nothing better to do!! And plus today has been a major CBF day.. training wise, the most exercise I got was just walking across the road to buy a memphis meltdown…… yum!! soooo good! At least doing this update I will feel like I’ve achieved something! ha..

Yeah so still got no internet here so its back to mamas house to upload this at some stage this week!!

So when I got back I thought it would be a good idea to do the Auckland TT champs. 3 days after landing. So after crossing the line in Canada 2 weeks earlier I rode once for 1 hour in in 35degree heat! Lining up in Aka aka it was a rather different story! Holy crap I dont think I felt my body the whole time I was on the bike, I knew I was creeping as I was barely puffing, but I could not move my legs any faster! I thought it was pretty funny!! You know its bad day in the office when you get asked if you had a puncture!! hahaha… I was like nah mate just felt horrible.. hah anyway, after the race there were kids running round bare feet, and I was piling on every bit of clothes I had to try and get warm… the heater in the hall was mine!! all MINE!! Man I was frozen to the bone! Crouching next to it for 20 min solid!! yeah ,pointless story ……
Anyhow, so basically I have been back now for just over 3 weeks and pretty much had that time off the bike,chillax and work as much as I could!
I had another good idea…. I’ve decided that this weekend I will do the Auckland 1000, they’ve put on a separate race for women, so it’s cool to make up numbers!! So see what happens!!

Anyway, I’m off …
Over.

Well… Hey there!!

So this has to be the slackest report out!! Right now I am sitting in my new flat in Auckland on a Saturday night with nothing else to do but to update my blog while waching Americas funniest videos! Nice!! wish you were me??
So I’ve been home for the past 16 days!! Oops, so taken me all this time to update the last 2 races with the Jazz girls!! Tour De Delta and Tour De white Rock, Vancouver Canada!
I got to drive up from Portland with mikes team in the Range Rovers, it was pretty cool! Only like 5 hr drive! While the rest of the girls flew up from California!
Malindi and I were in the same house, staying with Maria and John, whom the team’s stayed with before! So they were pretty happy to have us back for the week!

Tour De Delta
Stage 1: 3km prologue! 4 of us were in the top 10 today. Pity no one quite got on the podium, but not a bad position to be in right now
Stage 2: 1 hr crit. Having Steph the local Vancouverian (is there such a word??) in our team the plan was to get her the win!! Unfortunately it didnt quite work out to plan! But none the less, Jazz was 1,2,3,5 and 6!! Not bad!! Lauren, and Dotsie had a wee breakaway going, and Malindi and I set up Steph for the 3rd!! We pretty much cleaned up every preme on offer too!!
Stage 3; 86 Km road race: Today there were QOM points and Sprint points up for grabs on almost every lap. My job was to go for the Hill points and Malindi was going for the Sprints!! After 9 laps, we were were set up for these two categories too!! We were now going for the time bonuses in the finish and to try sweep the top 3 GC spots!! It turned out that I managed to win the stage, Steph was 2nd and Dotsi 3rd!! Greedy maybe, but hey it was a blast!! The team worked sooooo well together and things could not have possibly worked out any better. Byt the end of the 3 days we had. The Young rider and the overall leader jersey! Top 3 spots on GC. 2 stage wins, the QOM jersey, Sprint Jersey, and Overall top team!! Wicked ay!! Needless to say we were on a buzz and Looking forward to next weekend!!
The week was spent pretty much hanging out at the house and a couple of trips to the shops!! I think we all deserved a little shopping after all the Prize money we had won!! But nothing major was happening!! I should have gone to have a look around Vancouver….. but … maybe next year!
Tour De White Rock!!
Stage 1: 750 m Hill climb. I would give you the details of this hill, but I cant really describe it, just UP!!! and up and up!! really steep! Basically they run it like a 2 up time trial. You go balls out and hope you get in the top 5 where you line up after everyone has gone and do the hill again! Luckily Jazz has one of the best hill climbers in the business, and Dotsie easily cleaned up!! I managed to get 2nd by riding my own tempo and just waiting for the other 3 to blow 300m into it, after exploding out of the block like they were doing a 500track race!! sheesh!!
Stage 2: Criterium! Well with the tour based on a points system over the 3 days we knew exactly who we had to look after to keep the girl in the top positions. By the end of the day we had managed to clean up all the premes and another 1st and 2nd in the stage with myself and Lauren!!
Stage 3: Far out, this was a tough wee circuit! Think we did something like 8 laps! Dotsie was going for the QOM points, and we knew with a top 3 placing in the stage she would move int o 2nd on GC!! So basiclly 1.5 laps to go Susy launched her and she was off on her merry way!! I was fortunate to win the bunch sprint which meant we had secured the tour win!! yay us!
I wont lie this would have to have been the best 10 day of racing ever!! It was soooooo much fun! The people were so excited to see the Jazz girls back (as in the past they have always done very well at these two events) and the atmosphere was wicked too!!
Sadly this was the last race for the season, and everyone pretty much went their separae ways that afternoon! Chris and Susy flew back to NZ, and I was off back to Portland/Bend to hang out/ help with mikes team for a week before heading home!!

The last week in was spent in Bend, following the Cascade Classic. A 6 day tour. Can’t say I was jealous not racing, the heat was insane and It was nice to know there was no pressure to perform, my time was done!! Probably the highlight was being able to float down the river in these little single blow up boats!! Seems to be the thing to do there as there are heaps of people out doing the same thing! Mike thought it was a great idea to float donw on a little pink lilo the half sunk as he straddled it.. half way down the river he was blue, teeth chattering and I think hyperthermia starting to settle in!! Needless to say I had to rescue him and drag him into my little boat!! heheheh…….

Back soon
Over