The Hill City-University runner has been driving around the country this month attending the New Zealand track and field classic series meetings. It was a trip with stops in Timaru, Hastings, Wanganui and Wellington, before completing the journey home from Picton on Monday.
"It was pretty tough, doing a big 10-hour day on the way back," the 21-year-old said.
"It probably wasn’t ideal, but it saved a bit of money."
It did not seem to hurt his performances. Bremer was in top form at all four meetings, notching personal bests in the 800m and mile. His 1min 52.08sec in Hastings was the fastest 800m time this year. Along with his win in the Lovelock Mile, he said that that was a highlight and showed there could be more to come.
"They were pretty consistent results. Nothing too extraordinary but I got a PB and that was what I was after.
"The Lovelock one, it was good to get a win there, that was my only win. But I enjoyed the Hastings one because I ran poorly tactically, but still got a PB.
"That was the one that showed to me I could be due for a good breakthrough, maybe get under 1min 50sec. I ran really poorly and still managed to get an all right time, so it showed there’s a lot still there."
Bremer had taken the early part of the summer to transition to track running after spending the winter doing longer distances. In August, he showed his class in winning the Otago open men’s 10km road title, although was mainly using those events as training races for the summer season. He had targeted the latest series of meetings given the level of competition to which he would be exposed.
In those, he lined up against several of New Zealand’s best over 800m, alongside Australian record-holder Alexander Rowe, who has a personal best of 1min 44.40sec.
"It’s kind of funny because [Rowe is] on a-whole-nother level. So it’s not like you’re really racing against him. But it’s cool to see him run. But there was definitely a lot of other competition around my sort of level, so it was good to have some people to race against.
"In Dunedin you wouldn’t get the same people pushing you. So it’s well worth travelling up north and seeing those guys. It always makes you push a bit harder and get those PBs."
Bremer grew up in Dunedin and attended Kavanagh College. He recently completed a degree at the University of Otago, double majoring in maths and physics. This year he plans to do honours and has been doing a research summer internship with his maths professor.
He has been coached by Chris Pilone since last year’s national championships, at which he won a silver medal in the 800m. Previously, he had been working with Richard Barker. Pilone is involved with Triathlon New Zealand and lives in Auckland, coaching the likes of Andrea Hewitt. His coaching extends to runners too, and Otago’s Caden Shields is also one of his athletes.
Bremer is working on a two-year plan with Pilone, focusing on building strength while also running from 80km to 90km on a training week.
He is set to have a break from competition — Auckland’s Porritt Classic on February 11 is next up. After that, he will look to both the Otago and national championships. The Otago championships will be the best chance for local fans to catch Bremer competing, as he is not regularly in action at home.
"I’ll do the Otago champs here I think. Apart from that, probably not too much racing in Dunedin. It takes quite a big toll on your body the racing, so you want to be targeting the ones that you think you’re going to get fast times.
"That’s the reason I don’t race down here too much. I’d like to, but it’s just the toll it takes."
