I've found my first victim, er...I mean trainee. Or apprentice. But definitely not victim. Didn't mean to type that.

His name is Vaughn and he's a pretty regular guy--a thirty something school teacher, married, two little kids at home. He's set his sights on Fiordland's two biggest events of the year, the Kepler Challenge 62 km mountain run in early December and the Milford Mountain Classic 120 km bike race from Milford Sound to Te Anau in February. He's not a runner. He just bought a road bike three weeks ago. But he's committed to following my instructions for training and has turned out to be pretty good at suffering and so I think he's got a shot. He'll be documenting (in his own fabulous style) the ups and downs of training 1 Hr. Series/UltraMental style--using workouts from this guide.

So check out his blog, give him some support, and lets see where that happens when we take this thing from N=1 to N=2!

UPDATE: Vaughn, despite weeks of setbacks due to illness, completed the Kepler challenge in early December, finishing in the top third of the field despite clocking only 13 hours or so of run training over 4 months. Of those 13 hours, roughly 8 hours came from 3 separate bigger efforts, meaning that the bulk of his running averaged out to only a bit more than an hour a month or 15-20 minutes a week. His speed improved so much over those 4 months due to the HIIT style of training that on his last 'pylon run', which I accompanied him on, he finished some 15-20 seconds before I did. All his notes and doubts and struggles are there on his blog (link above), so check it out! Next up, the Milford Mountain Classic!