Last days in Vegas

Had a bit of a rough start to the week, with a few late nights and 2 sleep ins. Good news is that I finally got the report done for our client, meaning that my official stint in Brisbane is over. I expect I'll be back for short periods to wrap this job up, but hopefully most of the work is now done! What a relief.

I managed to wake up for a run on Thursday morning and a crossfit sesh today.

Thursday's run was 12.7km in 48minutes (average 3:48min/km) according to the Suunto. I still haven't calibrated the new watch, but I don't think it's far off when compared to MapMyRun. I did the usual route along the river to the rowing club and back, but did it as a random fartlek session. Basically, I started slow, then whenever I saw a logical stretch I went hard for a few hundred meters (up to about 800m I'd say). Kind of like a very random Pain in the Domain, but on my own, at odd points, and along the river. Anyway, I enjoyed it and the average pace was pretty good.

This morning I did yesteday's Crossfit North Manly WOD. It was a 1-11rep ladder of the following:
40kg squat clean
40kg thruster
40kg overhead squat

So, you do 1 rep of each, then 2 reps, then 3 reps, etc. up to 11. Man, it was tough! Working up in reps is mentally hard. Funnily enough, none of the individual exercises were too hard, but it was the cumulative effect that killed me. Even the overhead squats themselves were OK (hopefully I was going deep enough). I did it in 35:02 and wished I was able to throw the weight around, because controlling it at the end of the last OHS set was hard! Anyway, I feel like my Oly lifting is improving, and hopefully with some direction from the coaches next week I'll start getting even better.

300

In a blatant copy of the Crossfit North Manly WOD from Saturday, Dave and I did the 300 workout today. I love this workout - it's one of the first "Crossfit style" workouts I ever did. I also love the hype and misunderstanding around it. Google "300 workout" and you'll find a ream of sites written by uninformed idiots with a baseless opinion. I find these very amusing as these people obviously have no clue what they're talking about. But, don't let me rant, check out the following article from the creator of the workout (click here). Gym Jones, the bunch who were tasked with training the cast of the movie "300", have a very similar fitness philosophy to Crossfit. Their website is very informative as well. Check it out.

We did a slightly modified version this morning, with Dave scaling down the floor wipers and cleans.

25 pullups
50 deadlifts at 60kg
50 tuck jumps
50 pushups
50 floor wipers at 60kg (1 rep is 1 one each side, so a total of 100 raises)
50 cleans (25 each arm) with a 17.5kg dumbell
25 pullups

I did 18:52, Dave was about a minute behind but he had to wait while I did my last few reps of floor wipers. We did abs after. Great workout. The floor wipers were killer. It's the first time I've done them RX'd.

New shoes AND GO THE SEA EAGLES!!!!!

Annabel thinks I have a running shoe problem. My Mizunos were feeling a bit flat and I was concerned that I'd injure myself again (a year ago I hurt my legs by over-using a pair of Newtons), so last weekend I bought a new pair of shoes from Northside Runners. Luke got me to try out a whole bunch of flats, but with similar cushioning to the Ronin Wave 3's I'd been in. I settled on a pair of bright green Saucony's. Today was my first run in them.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but felt good after the first few kilometres, so decided to hit Mt Coot tha. I just did the JC Slaughter falls summit trail and back, but it was still a good 94minutes. The new Suunto Quest said a racked up 23km, but I think it may have overstated that a little. I'm guessing it was more like 21km. I need to calibrate the new watch!

I t was a beautiful day for running and I felt fantastic. I put in a really hard few kilometres at the end and just didn't feel tired. I am keen to work on my negative splitting so today is a positive sign.

Only a few more days to go in Brisbane. I worked til 9pm Saturday night getting a report out, and hopefully Monday/Tuesday will be OK. Annabel arrives Wednesday and we have a big drive back down the coast planned for Sat/Sun/Mon next week.

In the meantime, here a few photos f my new shoes and the whole Brissy shoe collection. Oh, and GO MANLY!!!!!!!! YEWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!

The new Saucony's. Porno, huh?

From the left: North Face Single Tracks (trail shoes), ASICs Kayano (very old runners that gave me shin splints, now my gym shoes), new Saucony's (training shoes), Mizuno Ronin Wave 2's (racing flats)

Games WOD

I've been working late and eating at work all week, so I felt crap and really had to force myself out of bed this morning. I got Dave's text at 6am to confirm he was coming, so I was committed.

We did 2 rounds of a slightly modified Games WOD 10 (final workout) as follows:
- 20 calorie row
- 30 thrusters with a 10kg dumbell
- 20 toes to bar
- 30 tuck jumps
- 20 SDHP with a 25kg dumbell
- 30 burpees
- 20 push press 50kg

We rested a few minutes between the rounds and did abs after.

Both rounds hurt, and took just over 10mins I think. I started this first rounf on thrusters, finishing on row, but did the prescribed order for the second round. I think that rowing first was harder. The push presses killed me - I need to work on my shoulder strength.

I wish I'd slept in

I really didn't want to get out of bed this morning. Like, really didn't. BUT, I'd committed to Dave that I'd do gym so I rolled out at 6am. Unfortunately, Dave slept through his alarm, and by the time I found this out, I'd already started the workout! Oh well, it's probably a good thing. I can sleep Friday.

I did the Crossfit North Manly session from today (that Annabel, Mom, Dad & Angus did in Sydney at the same time!). It was in two parts:

21-15-9 reps of supine ring rows and walking lunges with 20kg dumbells

then,
"Annie" which is 50-40-30-20-10 reps of double unders and situps

The first part took me 6:40, so was hard but quick. That is about as heavy as I'd want to go for walking lunges. "Annie" was a bit more challenging as my skipping was completely out of kilter this morning. I felt completely unco-ordinated, mainly because I WAS completely unco-ordinated!!! I did 3 skips per double under and the first set took me ages because I just couldn't get into a rhythm. Fortunately, I worked through it by the thrid set and was fine from there on. I also did GHD situps which are a bit harder than normal situps.

A weird problem I'm having from working late every night is that I never have time to go grocery shopping! Woolies shuts at 9pm so I left work early last night to get there just as it was closing. That meant I could feast this morning on a brekky of smoked salmon, poached eggs and baby spinach with my usual smoothie and coffee. At least that partly makes up for not sleeping in.

AMRAP

Did an AMRAP with Dave this morning and it hurt like hell. I haven't done one in a while but I think I'm going to start doing more as they're such an effective workout. I wish I'd had my heart rate monitor on.

The session was - AMRAP 20minutes of:
10 reps x Pullups
10 reps x Situps
10 reps x 40kg thruster
10 reps x ring pushups

It was great to have Dave there pushing me - we both almost caught each other once or twice (he was a lot closer to my heels than I was to his!!!). His thrusters were solid, whereas I found them a little heavy!

We got 9 full sets and 3 rounds of 10 (i.e. 9 plus 10 pullups, 10 situps, 10 thrusters for me). Afterwards, Dave did 50 box jumps and I did 2 hill "sprints". Not that I could really sprint after! My head went into a spin on the first hill and I battled up the second but called it a day when I saw Dave had done his box jumps.

Full gym this morning - the usual two ladies, the cougar, the little bloke in the hat and a few other dudes I've never seen before. Good start to the morning, although I'm going to need serious amounts of coffee today. I also need to shop - my smoothie was basically only chia, berries and milk this morning as I've run out of everything else!!!

Hurt Locker, rainy run and Monday

I won't have much time to blog this week due to work. A quick summary of the weekend in Sydney:

Saturday
I went to Keith's gym for a workout with Annabel. It was great! The session was a Games WOD:

Pullups, 100 reps
Kettlebell swings 24kg, 100 reps
Double unders, 100 reps (I did 300 skips)
Overhead squat 40kg, 100 reps (I only did 30kg)

My time was a bit of 32mins. I finished 1 second behind a girl who had done the same OHS weight as me (but lower KBS)!! I clearly have work to do. I thought it was a good workout and I learned a lot, including how to properly do a kettlebell swing! Apparently I've been going too far down and not using my hips enough. Keith also showed me some muscle-up progressions, which I'm going to practice.

Sunday
I picked up my new Suunto Quest from Northside on Saturday, so took Bo for a run to test it out. It was pouring with rain but we met Rochey for the 12km Seaforth loop. Had a great run despite the wet - Bo was fantastic and Rochey and I were going at a really good talking pace. The Suunto said 12.5km so I need to calibrate it for that 400m gain. Total of 54minutes (approx. 4:30min/km pace), including warmup and cleaning up after Bo!!

Monday
Back to Brisbane last night for what is set to be a hectic week at work. I did a modified WOD as follows:

21-15-9 reps of
Power clean 60kg (it was meant to be bodyweight, but I'm not up to that yet)
Ring dips
Burpees

I'm very glad that I got the cleans out. They weren't overly pretty, and I need to get under the bar more, but I still got em out! I did 4 sets of 10 toes-to-bar afterwards, as well as some muscle-up progression practice.

I also confirmed that I'm getting better at skipping! I think I'll try to start each session with skipping / DUBs practice and end with MU progressions until I get it right!

Back to work now.

Hectic week

Having a hectic week at work. Was in the office til 3:30am on Tuesday (after waking up at 5:10am) and just generally getting slammed. I forced myself home early tonight to a) get a decent dinner and b) sneak in a quick workout. Dinner was stuffed roasted capsicums, paleo style, with steamed broccolini. Nice and clean - exactly what I needed. While the capsicum was in the oven I went for a super quick gym sesh. I did:

Tabata squats - 18 reps for each round. Not sure how I could go any faster!

Then, "Lynne", which is 5 rounds of max reps bodyweight bench press and max reps pullups.

You're meant to take as much rest as you need between sets, but I didn't have much time so didn't do it properly. My sets were as follows:
Bench (70kg) - 15 / 8 / 7 / 5 / 6
Pullups - 20 / 15 /12 / 12 / 13

Then, 25 GHD situps.

In and out in 25mins. Perfect.

My work computer just crashed so I'm blogging. Back to work now ...

PCRG

It's after midnight and I'm sitting at work waiting for a report to be finished. How sad. I woke up at 5:10am this morning to do the Pat Carroll Running Group (PCRG) session. Pat himself was a freak runner (2:09 marathon) and now sells his services as a running coach on Tuesday/Thursday/Friday mornings around Brisbane. The first session is free so I thought I'd check it out.

Pretty massive turnout - there must have been 50 people of all different shapes, sizes and running speeds. From the QLD Premier (not kidding) to ironman triathletes, they were all there! I arrived late and tagged onto the two fittest looking guys. After a seriously long, seriously slow warmup, we got to the Botanic Gardens for the session. Basically, for 20 minutes Pat pointed to a hill and we sprinted up it, and jogged back down! Every now and then, he'd change the hill. It felt like there was a lot of variety, even though we were running up a lot of the same paths for most of the time. Each sprint was between 100m and 400m, on both paths and grass, with nothing too steep.

There were 2 guys who were pretty quick, and one tiny girl who was threatening to put us all to shame! I stuck in the second group for the first 10mins, then moved up to run with the leader. i ran with him for most of the next 8mins, until the last 2 efforts, in which I overtook and held my lead. Happy with that.

It was nice to be running with people again, and to be doing some speed work. I think the session was too short, with way too much warmup/warmdown (if you include my run to/from home, I reckon I did about 8-10km of easy jogging!!). I'll probably go back again next week.

Cracking morning and day in Brissy again. Not sure if I'll be able to wake up tomorrow for the gym.

Powerful Owl

Brisbane last night seemed to be a mass of screaming people with weird accents in green jumpers. Must have been a rugby match on?? I had a bit too much red wine to drown the Wallabies' sorrows.

I wanted to do a long run today, but decided that checking out Mt Gravatt would mean too much running through suburbia, so went back to Mt Coot tha. It was a perfect day - warmer than we've had in a while - so I was shirts off! At Mt Coot tha, I went up the Powerful Owl trail, which I haven't done before. It was brilliant - a very steep fire trail that reminded me of the Pluvio on the Six Foot Track. I was tempted to run down it as well, but my ankle tweaked just near the top and I figured I didn't want to aggravate it.

I tried to start slow and finish fast today, and it worked. I felt brilliant at the end, pulling out 4min/km pace along the river on the way home. Despite the steep trails, I did a total of 25km in 2:00 hours (average 4:48min/km). I'm feeling strong, so just need to keep it up, not get injured, and try to get even faster before the Six Foot! The mapmyrun course is below:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/50999220

I love the forest up at Mt Coot tha. It really feels like you're in the middle of nowhere. There were lots of people out and about today, walking or running with their mates, dogs, spouses, babies, etc. Great to see the Queenslanders getting out and about!

Due to lack of both milk and eggs in my fridge, I had a very healthy post-workout meal of milk-free smoothie and simple tuna salad (baby spinach / rocket / baby tomatoes / tuna / feta / onion / lime juice). Very lazy afternoon recovering.

Staying in Vegas

Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for work. I hate working the weekend, and would rather do whatever it takes during the week to keep my Saturdays/Sundays free. Unfortunately I had to work this Saturday, and therefore had to stay in Brisbane, rather than heading home. I had been really looking forward to going back down South as well - next weekend hopefully!

One of the things I wanted to do in Sydney was to check out Keith's gym. Since I couldn't be there, I did the session myself. It was a modification of a mainsite WOD from this week (and July). The Crossfit North Manly version was as follows:

Back squat 40kg x 50 reps
5 rope climbs (I subbed 5 towel pullups for each climb - i.e. this round was 25 towel pullups)
Back squat 50kg x 40 reps
4 rope climbs
Back squat 60kg x 30 reps
3 rope climbs
Back squat 70kg x 20 reps
2 rope climbs
Back squat 80kg x 10 reps
1 rope climb

It took me 19:45. Good modification of the original workout. 50 squats @ 40kg is pretty hard, and towel pullups aren't anyone's favourite exercise. I'm happy with my squat technique, though could potentially get deeper when it gets heavy (for me, 80kg is heavy!).

I did 5 sets of toes-to-bar at the end (total of 60reps). I also warmed up with skipping. After a minute or so of frustration, I made a breakthrough! I changed the way I jumped and got 75 skips in a row!! I'm stoked - now just have to remember what I did!!

Annabel made a breakthrough as well today - she did 4 Crossfit workouts this week and is feeling much fitter. She also found out she's good at rope climbs! I cant wait to get down to the gym and check out her progress.

45min run

Boring title for today's post, but I literally just ran for 45mins! Woke up late so didn't have the full hour to play with. Went through the gardens to the GBB then back along the Story Bridge. Put in a few surges when I felt good - getting down to 3:30 or so pace. Generally felt great and loved being out there!! The GPS said 10km (including the hill sprints), so it could be anywhere between 10km and 12km! It felt like I was going a fair bit quicker than 4:30 pace. I can't wait for my Suunto to arrive.

I had a quick chat to Pat Carroll and may join his group on Tuesday to see what it's like. They go at 5:30am though so it would mean a bit of an earlier start than I'm used to! Some of them look quite quick though, and it'd be nice to train with a group every now and then.

I got back to the Marriott 5mins early, so I did 3 hill sprints up the evil little hill. There are always people doing sprints up the hill, and you can tell the ones who do it regularly ... because they look fit!!! Good on them I say - it's a tough little beast. My times up the hill today were 33s-36s-30s. Not very consistent, but with no rest.

I am currently booked to fly home tonight, but still waiting to see if I have to work this weekend, which could force me to stay in Brisvegas! Arrrrghhhhh, certainty would be good.

Squats

Worked til 11:15pm last night, ate out 2 meals yesterday (lunch of baked salmon with potential clients and dinner with the team of eye fillet and salad), and was seriously doubting whether I would get up this morning. I'm glad I did.

I had decided to do Tuesday's mainsite WOD, which involves:
1-1-1-1-1 Overhead squat
1-1-1-1-1 Front squat
1-1-1-1-1 Back squat
Increasing the weight each time (i.e. for each of the 15 rounds).

Given how shite I am at overhead squats, I started light at 30kg. I increased the weight in 5kg increments, and actually survived! i.e. Worked up to 50kg overhead squat (my one rep max by 20kg!), 75kg front squat (again, my new one rep max) and 100kg back squat.

The weight started to get heavy by the end. I think I could have managed heavier but was tentative as I couldn't drop the weight to fail (as there are apartments below the gym). I'm really happy with my OHS and front squat maximums though - showing much more flexibility and range of motion than 2 months ago!

I then did Tabata ring pushups and Tabata pullups. Results as follows (from memory as I didn't write them down) ...
Ring pushups: 10-10-10-10-9-8-8-8
Pullups: 10-10-8-8-7-6-6-6

Pretty happy with that start to the day! The guy from a few apartments down, who has run 17 Boston Marathons and 5 marathons this year alone, had a pacemaker put in this week! Crazy - he was walking down the street and just blacked out. Just shows how careful you have to be, regardless of how fit you think you are.

First run after Coastal Classic

It was a cracking morning for running this morning - sunny but not too hot. There were loads of people out and about too. Since the Coastal Classic, I've had 2 days off and a Crossfit session, but no running. I aimed to do a tempo-ish run, just seeing how my legs felt after the Coastal Classic. They've been stiff, and I did deadlifts yesterday so was expecting to feel sluggish.

Amazingly, after a very easy first few kilometres, I started to feel OK and decided to carry on up the river for 30mins before turning. I got to my furthest point again (see "We've got a bleeder!"), meaning that I did about 15km. The GPS stopped working part way*, but based on the time of day I know I was a bit under 59 minutes. So, that's an average pace of about 3:56min/km and the same, if not faster than a few weeks ago. Given that I raced 29km on trails 4 days ago, I'm pretty happy with that! My legs actually felt really good for most of the way, and I got into a good rythm.

Mom, Dad, Angus and Annabel all did Crossfit this morning. I can't wait to join them this weekend. Annabel is even talking about ramping up to every day as she is starting to feel a lot stronger/better. How good is that!

*Re: the GPS - I cannot wait for my new Suunto Quest to arrive. So excited and impatient!

Make up a WOD

I wasn't sure what to do this morning, so decided to make up a WOD depending on what equipment was available in the gym! Pretty much everything was available, so I did five rounds for time of:
- 15 reps, 80kg deadlift
- 15 reps, pushpress with 15kg dumbells
- 15 reps, towel pullups
- 15 reps, GHD situps

Took me 28:29. I tried to minimise rest between sets, but my forearems were blowing up like crazy so I had to split the last few rounds of pullups into 2-3 sets. Deadlift and towel pullups is a mean combo!!

I then did 4 sets of bench press as follows:
- 60kg x 10 reps
- 70kg x 8 reps
- 70kg x 6 reps
- 70kg x 6 reps

All up, a good session to start the week.

Annabel did a Filthy Fifty yesterday at Keith's gym. I'm stoked for her - it's a great session! She enjoyed it and sounds like she went really well.

I made it ... and came 12th!

Big relief - I made it through without falling over from cramp or fatigue!! I also came 12th overall and missed the previous course record by only 4 minutes! Stoked. Official place - 12th (2nd in my age group) and official time 2:34:32.

My prediction for 1st place was bang on - Tucks won in 2hrs 17mins (13 mins ahead of last year's winning time). Somehow Terence, who was with me for a few km's before and after Wattamolla, had an incredible second half and came in 4th. Poor Tiger (the mad bastard) limped home in 3:17)

What an incredible race though. It was a perfect day and the track was in pretty good condition. SO hard though - picture the most difficult terrain types you could think of, and they're all thrown into this course. You couldn't stop concentrating at all, meaning that it's mentally draining as well. Despite the steep hills, steps and soft sand, I found running through the long grass the toughest. You just couldn't get a rythm, and were constantly at risk of falling into a hole and spraining an ankle. There were a couple of guys absolutely flying along these sections though, so clearly I just need more practice. I didn't mind the metal walkways, though I was careful not to slip, and I really enjoyed the rocky sections that reminded me of the top of North Head.

I started in the 10th wave of 2, but caught a lot of people up the first hill. I followed the Tiger down the palm jungle, and took my first (and only) stack. After the palms, I lost a few spots through the grass, but picked up some more up the hills/stairs leading to Era. I actually didn't mind the downhill-beach-uphill-rocks cycle, but it clearly took it out of me. Around 20km, Terence and some sponsored dude left me, and I felt like I just got slower. The last 4km were torture - mostly on soft sand. With 500m to go, there was a little steep uphill, and my legs felt like they were starting to cramp, reminiscent of 6 Foot Track. Thankfully, I made it to the finish and smashed some salt tablets to get rid of the cramps!

Mom, Dad and Annabel were brilliant. Dad even ran along the course to give me water bottles! Fantastic day out, and definitely one to do next year.

Some photos and the link to results:
http://www.multisportaustralia.com.au/RaceTecResults/Results.aspx?CId=1&RId=575&EId=1

Running into Garie - supersupporter Dad in the foreground

Running out of Garie - lonely on the soft sand!

10 metres from the finish!

Pre race

I love this pre-race period, when you know you've done the work (well, hopefully) and all that is left is to get to the start line and give it your best shot.

Did my standard pre-race routine the last 2 days - resting Thursday (I had a swim and a spa before work which was fantastic!) and an easy 3km run this morning. The only spanner in the works was the hangover! My boss called yesterday and informed me he'd be in Brisbane for one night only and was keen to catch up for dinner. I had more wine than I should have and got to bed an hour after bedtime!!! I then had an early meeting this morning so the prep is not exactly ideal.

One more sleep until race day - how exciting. Hopefully I can have a snooze on the plane tonight.

Without knowing the full field that will be lining up tomorrow, my predictions are:

1. Tucks
2. Brendan
3. The guy who won last year
4. Fats?
5. I'm getting hazy now, but I reckon the guy who won the Tough Bloke (Lachlan?) will be up there

I have no expectations really. If I can go faster than 2:55 I'll be happy (that was Ben's time last year), but the course will be wet so who knows what the times will look like.

Easyish tempo run

Wow, my legs are STILL stiff from the Curtis P's! Maybe that wasn't the best idea. Or, maybe my grand plan will work and with a day of rest tomorrow I'll feel amazing and fresh on Saturday! Fingers crossed.

I just did an easyish tempo run this morning. The same 9.5km route I did on Monday, but without the hydration belt. I went out very easy, increasing the pace gradually throughout and getting to the bridge before Monday's time. I had to make a pitstop at Southbank, but felt pretty good after that and put in a few hardish efforts along Southbank and through the gardens. I didn't feel very comfortable at all, but I didn't feel bad either.

Let's hope the race organisers make the "right" decision today and let us run! I have officially missed out on entering both the Bridge to Brisbane and the Blackmores Half Marathon, so unless I enter the marathon, the Coastal Classic is the only race I'll be doing for the next few weeks!

Stuck in a lift

You know how after the gym you are more prone to sweating? Well wearing a blue shirt today proved to be a bad choice after I got stuck in a lift with no aircon for 20 minutes! The sweat just kept coming!!

I had a great massage last night but was seriously tight after the Curtis P's so it hurt like hell. I also haven't had a massage since June so my calves and ITBs were terrible. I've booked in again for 2 weeks time.

I had a relatively "easy" gym session this morning and did lots of stretching both before and after. I did 5 rounds of:
- 15 pullups (first round was 20), surprisingly these felt the "easiest" of the exercises
- 15 x 60kg bench press
- 15 deep dips
- 15 GHD situps

I also had a good chat to the marathoner from my floor - apparently he's done 17 Boston marathons IN A ROW!!! What a machine! He's also done 5 marathons this year already and is doing another next weekend. Makes me feel weak as piss not even doing one in 2011.

Coastal Classic decision day is tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Short ultra

It's becoming a Monday morning routine - wake up at 4:30am, take Annabel to the airport, get back by 6:30am for a run/gym before work. I managed to get lost on the way back from the airport so didn't give myself much time for exercise this morning, but after the Curtis P's last night, my legs were in no state for anything too fast or too long.

One of the requirements of the Coastal Classic is that you carry your own water. I haven't run with my Nathan hydration belt for a little while, so I decided to fill up both bottles and practice running with it this morning. it bounced around a bit at first, but I tightened the velcro as small as it would go, and the bouncing stopped. It's a very well-designed belt, with an elastic strap, and you hardly notice it's there when you're running. Only thing is that I must have looked like the biggest try-hard, running less than 10km with a hydration belt! Like a super-short ultra marathoner.

I ran out for 20 minutes, past Southbank to the Gobetween Bridge, then back. Not fast, just a comfortable pace. Total of just over 9.5km in 38:52 (approx. 4:05min/km). I feel tired from the gym session last night and the early start, but there is just something so refreshing about a morning run.

I'm now looking forward to a massage tonight!!

Curtis P's

First, let me say that Brisbane's Riverfire last night was AMAZING! We had the boys from work (and Lia) over for dinner and had the most perfect view of the fireworks, both from a barge on the river and the Story Bridge. Anyone who thinks that Sydney's NYE fireworks is unrivalled needs to see Riverfire.

Annabel and I had a very lazy day today, and by 4pm we both needed to stretch our legs, so decided to hit the gym. I follow a blog called No Meat Athlete. Now whilst I'm far from vegan, I really like some of the stuff (and recipes) that this blog has. I also like the way that he writes and thinks about running. Last week I was intrigued by a post he put up that mentioned strength training for runners. He referenced a workout called "Curtis P's", originally from a website called Mountain Athlete. It's basically just another barbell "complex" (similar to the Bear Complex I did a few weeks ago). The workout is as follows:

100 reps @ 55% (I used 40kg) of bodyweight of: Hang squat clean, left leg lunge, right leg lunge, push press. No dropping the bar between each movement.

I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get the full 100 out, especially after my first set only managed 7 reps! Needless to say, I did it, all in sets of 5 (and two sets of 7). This was a seriously tough workout - each movement smashes you in a different way. I actually found it hurt my wrists to do the push presses as I had "racked" the bar on my shoulders for the lunges.

I was really happy with my power in the cleans, and with how deep I was getting on the front squat. If I'm honest, I didn't hit my knee to the floor on every single lunge, but all in all I think my form was pretty good given the number of reps.

By 50 reps I was hurting a lot. Annabel didn't think I'd finish, but I got there in the end. The last 2 reps were very satisfying!!!!

I did a few hundred skips as a warmup, practised my kipping pullups, and did 3 sets of 10 toes-to-bar at the end. Long workout, but a goody.

My plan for the week is:
- Monday - easy morning run and massage in the evening
- Tuesday - upper body bodyweight gym sesh (i.e. pullups/pushups/dips)
- Wednesday - tempo run
- Thursday - rest
- Friday - short, easy run
- Saturday - race!

Mountain repeats

It was a cracking morning in Brisvegas today, and I felt like a trail run. I convinced Annabel it would be a good idea to head to Mt Coot-tha to do some hill repeats. To cater for her needs, I chose an easy trail - the JC Slaughter Falls summit track. It's very well maintained, is tar and good steps in places, is nice and wide, and has a lot of foot traffic. Not overly challenging from a technical trail running perspective, but also very little risk of twisting an ankle a week out from the Coastal Classic! Mt Coot-tha is also a beautiful area, so close to the city, that I had really wanted Annabel to see it.

I wanted to do at least 2 or 3 repeats, whilst Annabel was going to do one then check out the summit view. I ended up doing 3 in total, cutting it short there mainly because Annabel was finished her workout (yep, I'm blaming her for stopping early!!!). All three took me exactly 15 minutes - 9 mins up, 6 mins down. I'm very happy with that consistency. It's meant to be a 2.2km track from where I started to the top, and it's pretty steep in places. I felt very strong both up and down the hill, so am quite confident I'll be able to handle the hills next weekend. I really don't want a repeat of the 6 Foot Track (where I cramped up after 25km because of the downhills).

So, a total of about 14km or so in just under an hour (including warm up / warm down). Annabel did about 6.5km or so, but declared that she really prefers trail running to road running - I might make a trail runner of her yet!

It's Riverfire tonight so we've just shopped up a storm and have a huge array of tasty looking goodies for the boys from work who are coming over to watch the fireworks.

Modified Mona fartlek

Worked late last night and picked Annabel up from the airport at 9:30pm so slept in and didn't have much time this morning. What to do when you want a run, your legs are hurting from jumping lunges and you don't have much time? The Mona fartlek of course!

After a warm up, my version this morning was:
2 x 90 seconds on, 90 seconds float (not easy)
6 x 60 seconds on, 60 seconds float
8 x 30 seconds on, 30 seconds float

I turned the last effort into a hard run right along the Story Bridge - about 90 seconds. I was totally wrecked by the end of it. Total of about 8km in 36mins according to the never-reliable GPS (including warm up, warm down and floats that's an average of 4.5min/km). I think it was a good use of the time available!!!

Very busy day at work today.

First day of spring

Brisbane certainly knows how to turn on spring weather - it's an absolutely cracking day here. Pity I'm stuck in the office. Oh well.

I started the day off with a series of Crossfit WODs as follows.

Warmup of 3 rounds 10 pullups, 15 pushups, 15 bench dips, 15 squats. All fairly easy, no rest.

Then, yesterday's mainsite WOD, which was eight rounds for max reps of:
35kg push press, 20 seconds
Rest 10 seconds
Alternating jumping lunge, 20 seconds
Rest 10 seconds

So, it was like doing a double Tabata with different exercises. Pretty tough 8 minutes - I was sweating up a storm by the end, and failing on the push press. My reps were:
Push press - 19, 19, 19, 19, 19, 17, 15, 15 - Total 142
Lunge - 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 17 - Total 129
Not bad scores compared to the benchmarks, but I think I need to get more extension on my PP's.

I then did a modification of today's Crossfit North Manly (my mate Keith's gym) WOD:
18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3 reps of:
DB bench press, 20kg
Renegade rows, 20kg (I assumed that one rep was both arms, i.e. 18 reps on each arm for the first set)

The first few sets were torture, but I love these descending workouts because generally you can do the whole set but descend in reps quickly enough that you're failing at the end of each set. I had to partition the renegade rows, then wipe up a huge volume of sweat from the floor after!

I finished with a set of abs - the usual 7 minutes special with clapping pushups at the end.

The whole workout took about an hour and felt like I'd earned my breakfast. What a start to the day!

We've got a bleeder!

I think I have the world's weakest nipples for running. Take this morning for example - it was a beautiful morning (i.e. no rain) and I ran hard for an hour. Walking into the apartment building after my run I was feeling quite good about myself, until I looked down and saw this:

Pathetic!!! Short of buying a whole lot of new singlets (as opposed to the half price Aussiebum ones Annabel got for me), or running shirtless, I'm not quite sure what to do. Putting Pawpaw ointment on beforehand seems to help, but it's easy to forget at 5:45am!

This morning's run was pretty good. I aimed to do an hour tempo run - building into it for 30mins, then turning around and trying to get back home under 60mins. I ended up getting back in 58:57, so a full minute under. Not a bad negative split, although given that I built into it from the start, I would've been disappointed if I'd gone any slower for the second half.

I actually ran further along the river this morning than I ever have before. Total of 14.66km according to the GPS (MapMyRun says more like 15km so not too far off). That is an average of 4:01min/km (by the GPS distance) or 3:56min/km (by MapMyRun). Neither is a blistering pace, but my legs were still feeling a bit sluggish from the sand running on the weekend. Hopefully Friday will be better!

On another note, right at the point where I turned there were about 6 guys with surfskis who had obviously just finished a session. Surfski is apparently alive and kicking in Brisvegas, despite the lack of surf! The guys were all on Think skis, and at least one looked like a pretty beginner model, so I don't know if these guys will be tackling the 20 Beaches anytime soon, but good on them for getting out there.

Fraser Island

Despite the miserable weather, Annabel and I headed off for Fraser Island on Friday evening. Without giving a blow-by-blow of the weekend, we had a great time hooning around in the hired Landcruiser, got some sunshine on Sunday, saw some beautiful rainforests/lakes/beaches and even managed to stay dry Saturday night.

I also managed to use the opportunity to practice my sand running in preparation for the Coastal Classic. I went for a 12.3km (approx 57 minute) run on Saturday - mostly along the beach but some on sandy tracks that were actually quite hilly. I aimed to go out for 30mins then back, but got pretty deep into some forest and turned at a logical point at about 29mins instead. I was pretty happy with my ability to retain speed on the sand, and it felt great to be on trails again.

Sunday morning I went for another run - this time going inland almost straight away to try and explore some trails. I found some great little tracks that seemed not to have been walked on for some time. I was a little worried about getting lost though as I took a few forked turns and was just following my nose a bit. I ended up popping out right near our car after less than 30mins on the track! Very disappointing given that I was hoping to go for longer - I thought about heading back into the forest but opted to go along the beach to find Annabel instead. I found her 2.5km up the beach, and had a very nice easy jog with her back to the camp. All up about 9km in 50min or so.

Here are a few pics of the beach we were running along:

We had to share the beach with these guys:

Monday morning I had to be up super early to drop Annabel at the airport, and was pretty wrecked from a LOT of driving over the weekend. I did a quick gym sesh before work though. I started with 5 rounds of:
20 pullups
20 pushups
20 deep dips
20 squats

THEN, 3 rounds of:
Clean 50kg x 6 reps
GHD situps x 15 reps

A bit of a random add-on at the end, but I wanted to do the clean/burpee mainsite WOD but ran out of time!

Slept in this morning (Tuesday) - probably necessary after a long weekend. I'll hit the road again tomorrow morning for a hard run.

Sleep in again

I picked Annabel up from the airport last night and we only ate dinner late so it was difficult to get out bed this morning! I slept in til 6:15 so only had time for a quick workout. After a warm up of pushups/pullups/dips/squats, I did a mainsite WOD from earlier this week.

Five rounds for time of:
85kg deadlift x 15 reps
Toes to bar x 15 reps

The mainsite benchmarks suggested this could be as quick as 6mins30s. What a joke - it took me more like 20minutes! The hardest thing was grip strength. I can usually do 15 reps of toes to bar in a row without too much trouble. By the 4th set I was struggling to do 5 in a row. It was a tough workout and I was glad when it was over. On the positive side - my deadlifts have improved a lot in the last month and felt really strong and controlled (when I could actually grip the bar). No lower back pain at all during or after the workout, suggesting that my form has improved.

I've been tracking the Coolrunning forums about the Coastal Classic. People are pulling out and selling their tickets left, right and centre!! I sincerely hope it's still on as I'm flying back to do it, and missing out on the Bridge to Brisbane which looks like fun. The speculation is that the trail is very muddy still and even if it doesn't rain in the next few weeks (not likely), it'll still be wet. They were pretty quick to cancel the event in June so I'm not too confident, but trying to look on the bright side! I'll try to get some long sand runs in this weekend at Fraser Island anyway.

Get out of bed!

For some reason I found it very hard to get out of bed this morning. Dave texted just before 6am to say he was feeling unwell and wouldn't be training. It was cold, I was comfy in bed, but there was a little voice telling me "get out of bed!!!". So I did, and I'm very happy for it.

I decided to go for a straight run - out for 25mins and back (I was a bit late out of bed so only had time for 50mins). I took the usual route along the river, through Southbank, past the rowing club and back. The GPS was taking ages to acquire satellites and was messing up a bit. It only acquired about a kilometre into the run, but said that I did 11.1km. I subsequently checked the distance on MapMyRun and it said 13.1km. So, something is up with the GPS! The run took 51:12, implying a pace of either 4:15min/km or 3:55min/km whichever distance source you believe. It certainly felt faster than 4:15, so I'm inclined to go with MapMyRun (but then I would say that, wouldn't I?). The MapMyRun link showing the route is here:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/47492296

I know I said I aimed to go out for 25mins and back. I ended up going out for 25:30, so I obviously missed getting back by 12 seconds. Not ideal when you'd like to train to negative split. So what happened? Well, I made a schoolboy error at the start. Right at the beginning of the run, when I was meant to be jogging for a warm-up, some girl runs past me like she's racing an 800m. I figured I'd catch her up when I started running, but I accelerated a little anyway. She must have slowed down or something, because I overtook her after right away, which obviously annoyed her because she started sprinting again to get ahead of me. I thought it was hilarious that she was racing, but felt I couldn't let the challenge go unanswered. So, I started going hard a LOT earlier than I should have. Stupid stupid stupid. A proper athlete would never have done that. It meant I was throwing out 3:30s in the first few kilometres! I know it's not the "Kenyan" way either (see this great article), and I'm sure that if I had started slow and allowed more build-up, I would have had a much better overall run.

Oh well, not to worry, I still had a great morning and wasn't unhappy with the session. My legs are still stiff, possibly from the snatches on Sunday or squats yesterday, but they still felt strong at the end.

Gator

Exercise is seriously keeping me sane at the moment. My routine is:
5:45am Wake-up and have a protein shake or electrolyte drink
6:00am Gym or run
7:15am Make breakfast (this doesn't change: smoothie with chia, oats, banana, mixed berries, yoghurt, tahini and milk and 2 eggs, either poached or hard boiled, this week with rocket/spinach and avo but sometimes with salmon and coffee)
8:00am Walk to work
12:15pm Lunch (today was leftover homemade curry, but usually a chicken wrap, beef and salad sandwich or sushi)
7:15pm Leave work, go home and cook dinner (some sort of meat with some sort of veges)

Without the exercise, my day would literally only consist of sitting at my desk and eating! The food is not strictly Paleo, but I try to restrict the amount of processed sugars/grains, and eat lots of veges with every meal. I very seldom feel a "sugar low" and am happy that I'm not eating too little. If anything, I could cut the intake a bit, but then I really like food!

With that in mind, despite having very stiff legs from the long run and the snatch WOD, I went for an easy 40minute run on Monday morning. I'm guessing the distance was 7-8km but the GPS wasn't working properly so I can't be sure. I felt OK but definitely not fast. It was good to get out and run though - I really enjoy running along the river, although I do miss running with Bo.

This morning, after a warmup of 5 sets of max pullups, Dave and I did Gator. We did 8 rounds for time of:
- Ring pushups 26 reps (feet on a bench, rings suspended from the pullup bar)
- Front squats 5 reps at 50kg (on the Smith press, Dave did back squats same weight)

Doing 208 ring pushups is HARD. I only got 3 sets out in one hit (i.e. 26 reps in a row), the rest were partitioned into two or three sets. Given that the pushups took a lot longer than the squats, I did either swiss ball situps or an extra 5 squats whilst waiting for Dave. The whole workout took us 30mins, with the 7 minute ab set after.

Ring pushups make your whole body work - there is so much stabilisation involved that your abs, lats, shoulders, everything is working. It's only 8 hours after the workout ended and my chest is already starting to ache. I'm not looking forward to the pain I'm in for tomorrow!

Dave is keen for another 2 crossfit days before he goes overseas, and Annabel is keen for a session on Friday morning, so it looks like I've got 3 more days of Crossfit to go this week! Hopefully the rain clears up and we can do some of it outside. At least I've got a weekend in Fraser Island to look forward to, and to provide some relaxation!

Snatch

Snatch: Nope, not the movie, the exercise!

After watching Muzza win a silver medal at the world champs last night, I had a sleep in and a VERY lazy morning. Yep you read correctly - my little brother's K4 crew is not only going to the Olympics, they're going as medal contenders!

I hit the gym late this arvo for a quick workout. It was quite funny - when I arrived there were these two guys doing horrific-technique back squats on the Smith. They spent more time chatting than anything else and I got my entire workout done whilst they were still mucking around at the same station! My workout was similar to Isabel (mainsite WOD from last week) as follows:

40 x 40kg snatch

That's it. It was hard. I am now hurting.

I also did a few sets of shins, pushups, dips, squats and 30 x 30kg overhead squats at the end. I'm stoked because I can actually do an overhead squat with load now! My snatch technique needs work - my shoulders still aren't flexible enough - but I felt like I've improved a lot so am happy.

Muzza and Mt Coot tha

My brother qualified Australia for the Olympics last night!!! Woo hoo!!!! His K4 crew son both their heat and semi final of the K4 1000m at the World Champs in Szeged, Hungary. They were the fastest crew to qualify for the final so are favourites to be the world champions! The final is tonight, but it doesn't really matter where they place - making the final means they're in the top 9, and therefore have qualified! He still has to jump through some hoops and actually make the Australian team next year, but it's a big start. Good work Muzz.

With the Coastal Classic coming up in less than a month, and with Annabel in Sydney, I took the opportunity to do a long run to Mt Coot tha to play with some trails. The weather couldnt have been better and, except for the GPS not working, I felt fantastic. I had one of those runs where you feel incredibly happy with the world and lucky to be alive. I felt light on my feet, and every new song that came on the iPod brought a huge smile to my face. I was even shirts-off for the last half and felt incredibly free.

I ran for 2hrs5mins, and covered around 22-25km (I think), about 5km of which was on trails. I ran to Mt Coot tha, then up the Simpsons Falls track to the Channel Seven HQ, along Samuel Griffith Drive, then down the JC Slaughter Falls Summit Track and back home. The trails after Simpsons Falls felt like they have been used in a while and were quite overgrown. They were pretty technical and good fun. The JC Slaughter track was a lot busier and wasn't technical at all. Just lots of steps.

It felt seriously good to be back on the trails again. By the end of the run I was getting pretty tired, but was overall very happy that my legs managed the time and felt strong up the hills (despite doing 50 lunges yesterday!). I'm confident that with some consistent training I'll be in top shape for the CC.

Filthy fifty

Today Dave was keen for another Crossfit session so we did a modified Filthy Fifty. Our version went as follows:
50 burpees
50 thrusters, 10kg plate
50 floor wipers
50 push press, 30kg
50 knees to elbows
50 kettlbell swings
50 walking lunges
50 pullups
50 box jumps

Any workout that starts with 50 burpees is always going to be tough. Dave was churning through them so I felt I had to keep up. We didn't keep time, but it would have been fairly quick I think. We were both spent after.

We did the walking lunges near the pool and the box jumps on the fountain out the front of the building. Some lady came up to us and commented that doing box jumps on a fountain really provides an incentive not to go too far over! Thank you Captain Obvious.

Linda

Dave and I took advantage of the public holiday yesterday and went surfing at Snapper. You've never seen anyone more stoked to be surfing on a miserable day - Dave is like a little grommet! I must admit though, it was a lot of fun. The first clean-up set that came through, I'm scratching to get over the wave and there's Dave, flying down the face, weaving in and out among the crowd with a massive grin from ear to ear! I only lasted one surf though. A consequence of all this running is that I've lost my layer of insulation that used to prevent me getting cold in the water. Now I freeze like a little girl! I'm glad I don't live in Cape Town anymore.

Thursday morning I introduced Dave to Linda. I love this WOD - it typifies Crossfit for me. You hurt so much during that you never want to do it again, but you have this massive sense of accomplishment when you finish so you know you'll be back for more. The workout is 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps of:

Deadlight 1.5 times bodyweight (for me that's 105kg)

Bench press 1 time bodyweight (70kg)

Clean three quarters bodyweight (50kg)

I've never done it as RX'd before and today I did!! I'm absolutely stoked. Yesterday's rest from work must have helped to clear up the cough as well - it's not totally gone, but nearly there. The time for Linda was approx. 21:40. Unfortunately Dave didn't do the deadlifts - after the first round his back wa too sore so he subbed pullups instead. He still had a hard session. 

At the end of my first set of deadlifts (which were not easy  - 105kg is still heavy), some lady came up and had a go at me for dropping the weights. I wasn't even dropping them from a big height - just letting them hit the ground - but she reckons there are apartments below the gym that will be affected. So, I had to complete the last 9 rounds of deadlifts, and all the cleans, without letting the bar touch make a sound when it touched the ground! It certainly adds another layer of control to the exercise!

Five rounds for time

I should have known that racing on an ill body is not the best idea in the world. After Sunday's race, I felt rubbish on Monday - as though I was on the verge of getting very ill. I developed a nasty cough, and just didn't feel right. I knew that I had to get back on the wagon though, so decided to hit the Crossfit sessions this week.

Tuesday morning I was on my own and did a five rounds for time, 20 reps of each of:
40kg thruster
Ring pushups
Pullups

It should have been an easy workout but it hurt a lot! It took about 35mins. The thrusters were very painful but I made sure to do full range of motion.

It's Ekka Day in Brisbane tomorrow so were having a few beers after work tonight then a day off tomorrow!

51:04 - PB!!

The final days of my City2Surf prep couldn't have been worse. Somewhere between the Qantas Club and airplane food (Thursday night) and fancy work lunch (Friday), I managed to get the worst bout of food poisoning I've ever had! Friday night was horrific - I was waking up throughout the night to be sick and woke up Saturday feeling weak and drained. I concentrated on drinking as much water as I could, eating throughout the day as I felt better, and getting as much sleep as possible. At about 5pm, I decided I'd give the race a crack.

Maybe it was Rochey's amazing spag bol Saturday night, but I woke up Sunday actually feeling half decent! Unfortunately the weather was shite, but at least I felt I could run. Annabel, not convinced I'd actually make it, kindly drove us in and offered to meet us at Bondi.

I went through the motions in the warmup, seeing a lot of familiar faces huddling for shelter before the marshals pushed as back behind the line. All the HuRTs guys were there, Cyril was announcing, and I had a good chat to Lewis before the start. It's always an amazing experience being right up the front and knowing that there are over 80,000 people lining up behind you to run in your footsteps.

Not being sure how my body would react, I decided to stick to m 'original' race plan - i.e. go out at about 3:30 to the Hill and see how I held up! Amazingly, it worked. I wouldn't describe it as "comfortable"; I felt on the edge of falling apart the entire race. I guess that's the hard part about shorter races - you cant afford to just feel comfortable, you've got to hurt yourself. Down to Double Bay, I was doing around 3:25min/km and holding the pace OK. That slowed down up the Hill, but not as much as expected, and certainly not as much as last year. Somewhere in Dover Heights I passed Fast Charlie (who must have been having a very bad race) and caught up to Luke B, with Lewis not far ahead. Seeing those two made me realise I must be running well - Luke has beaten me convincingly in every race we've had over the last year. We went through 10km in 37minutes, which I knew was the right pace for a PB, and it was game on.

I ran the last 4kms in a little group with two girls (who ended up being 6th and 7th) and a few guys, with Luke just ahead. I've been conscious of my downhill running in training, and I ran down the hill faster than I've ever done. Coming into Bondi I realised that sub-52 was definitely on the cards. I actually felt really strong for the last kilometre, overtaking a number of people and not losing pace. 

In the end, one of the girls got ahead of me, as did Luke and Lewis, but not Laurens' time! I finished in amongst a whole lot of HuRTs guy - with Luke just in front and Pete just behind. My official net time was 51:04 and place 158 (one ahead of my bid number!). Im absolutely stoked with that time and place. It's certainly better than I could have hoped for under the circumstances. 

The tent afterwards was awesome, as usual. All the boys were there and we had a really enjoyable morning. Annabel was also a super-supporter, cheering at the finish, taking my stuff, and driving us home! The results wrap-up: Shauny ran sub-56, Rochey ran 57:22, Dave ran 60:32, Big Al ran a 62:11, Min (the sprinter!) ran 67:02 and Mitch did sub-80. From what started as a miserable day, some great runs! Poor DJ missed the memo saying that Batman is meant to fly, not run, and ended up limping home. Hopefully he recovers quickly.

In retrospect its easy to wonder whether I could have just run 4 seconds faster to be under 51. The answer I keep coming back to is that I gave it everything I had on Sunday and I think that i as fast as I could have run on the day. Do I think I can go a lot faster next year? Absolutely.

Easy jog

I had a bit of a late one at work last night, and only got to bed at midnight as I had to sort stuff out to go back to Sydney tonight. Fortunately, I had arranged to meet Dave for a jog at 6am, so his call forced me to get out of bed! We did a really nice, easy jog from my place, across the Story Bridge, to Southbank, across the bridge after the art gallery then home. All up 6.9km in 34mins. Nice and slow, just loosening the legs up.

Chatting to Dave, it sounds like the Sydney office has been getting hammered with work!

The Bear

I did the "Bear Complex" this morning. Each rep is a combination of Olympic lifting movements as follows:
- Clean
- Front squat
- Push press
- Back squat
- Push press
The idea is that you do 5 rounds of 7 reps each. You can have as much rest as you want between rounds, but during each round, you cannot rest or drop the bar at all. If you do, you start the 7 reps again.

You're meant to try for max weight (i.e. increase throughout the WOD). I started on 40kg* (bar + 20kg in plates) and found that tough so just stuck with that throughout. The workout was hard - I found myself having to sit down between rounds and took a good few minutes between each. I am happy that my squats were deep and solid, but I'm still concerned that I'm being inefficient in my cleans and that I need to engage my core more throughout. Things to work on! Very busy workday today.

* I'm starting to have doubts on whether the bar is actually 20kg as previously thought. I may be artificially inflating my recorded weights!!!! The bar feels the same as a 20kg dumbell, but it's hard to say.

6 x 800m

Given the City2Surf this weekend, I wanted to do a short, sharp session today so decided on 6 x 800m. I did it on my normal "800m course", with the standard 1.6km warm up and warm down. I was really happy with my splits (for what it is worth, compare to the last 8 x 800m I did in July):
2:34 - avg 3:13min/km
2:29 - avg 3:06
2:29 - avg 3:06
2:30 - avg 3:08
2:27 - avg 3:04
2:27 - avg 3:04
The Timex watch doesn't give me heart rate and when I download the data to the PC, I can't see the distances per lap unfortunately so have just assumed each lap was 800m.

So, an average of 2:29 across all the reps (or 3:07min/km). That is 2 seconds faster than the last 8 x 800m I did, and 4 seconds faster than the first one. Can't complain about that! The body felt pretty good too. No more hard runs now until Sunday.

If I can get out of work in time tonight, I'll try to do "The Bear Complex" Crossfit WOD. Stay tuned!

The Timex

As I was unpacking ym bag last night, I realised that I'd left my training shoes in Sydney. D'oh! Looks like I'll be training in the racing flats this week. Not that that is a terrible thing - it's probably good to get my legs used to the lower support shoes for Sunday. As I went out for my run this morning, I also realised that my iPod shuffle had been left on and the battery was dead. Another D'oh! I'm not pointing any fingers, but Annabel was the last to use my shuffle!!!

Brisbane has definitely warmed up since last week - I hardly need any shirt at all this morning, let alone my thermal top. It was a beautiful morning out along the river. I went for a bit longer than usual (with a pit stop) as I doubled back around Southbank to the rowing club. Ended up doing a firm 14km in 57mins (including warm up / warm down). I felt comfortable but will have to go a fair bit faster on Sunday!

The Timex that Luke lent me is really easy to use and seems pretty good. I have to admit, I still prefer the footpod system of the Suunto to the GPS for three key reasons:
1. With the Suunto you can just start running, you don't have to wait for satellites to acquire
2. The GPS pacing is very volatile - one second it'll say you're going at 3:40, the next at 4:30! I think I need to fiddle with the pace smoothing settings
3. Battery life. Enough said.

Anyway, it's really good to still have a watch, and I think the Timex will be fine for Sunday. SO all the gear is ready, what about me??

Catchup and debauchery

I'm sitting in the Qantas Club lounge on the way back to Brisbane after a fantastic weekend in Sydney. I figure this is as good a time as any to do a bit of catchup blogging!

Friday's WOD was 30-25-20-15-10 reps of:
- Burpees
- Toes to bar
- 60kg deadlift
It took 25:40 and was pretty damn tough! Annabel skipped it as she was feeling sick. I didn't have a lot of time so only did a quick warmup, but my legs have been stiff for the last 2 days so I figure it was a tough enough workout.

Saturday morning I went for a great run with Bobo - the ultimate running partner. We did the standard 10km along the Manly beachfront, to Fairlight along the harbour path and back. It took about 40 mins, and was a firm, not hard, pace. Bo was really good - he started to tire near the end but was very exciteable at the start. It's hilarious how grateful he is after a good run; he couldn't have given me more attention if he'd tried!

Sunday I was meant to take Bo for the pet+owner race on the Bay Run. Unfortunately I drank for 12 hours straight at Donut's bucks yesterday and was in no state to walk this morning, let alone run! I'll have to sweat out the booze tomorrow. I must stop this binge drinking - it cannot be good for the body.

In other news, my brilliant Suunto watch died yesterday. I had the battery replaced a few weeks ago and the guy obviously didn't seal it properly. I was very upset, but Luke at Northside (who may be the best customer-service shop owner in the world) took the watch back to send to Suunto, and has leant me another GPS watch to tide me over. What a champ! He also introduced me to a possible new-favourite website - DC Rainmaker. The site combines two of my favourite things - running and gadgets! It may well lead me to invest in a new gadget for my iPhone - the ANT+ attachment from Wahoo Fitness. Wahoo seems to be a great little company specialising in ANT+ attachments for iPhone. I want to investigate the applicability of Wahoo's cases to surf ski paddling. Could the iPhone be the best new surf ski training partner??

Fight gone bad and hills

Tough one this morning. Annabel actually described it as the hardest Crossfit session I've made her do yet! After a warmup of skipping (in which I proved once again that I am the world's worst skipper), we did:

3 sets of pullups for reps (I got 25/20/13, Annabel used less resistance with the band and did 10/9/7)

THEN, a modified Fight Gone Bad. For those of you unfamiliar with FGB the workout involves a continuously running clock - every minute for 18 minutes you change stations and do max reps/calories at each station as follows:
- Thruster (J: 10kg plate, A: 5kg plate)
- Tuck jumps
- Sumo deadlift high pull (J: 35kg, A: 15kg ezy bar)
- Push press (J: 35kg, A: 15kg ezy bar)
- Concept2 erg row
- Rest

So, it's basically three time through a circuit of 5 exercises with a minute on each and a minute rest between rounds. It's also damn tough.

We then did 4 x hill sprints on the mean little hill near our building.

By the end of the session we were both stuffed. My average HR (including rest) for the FGB was 163bpm. The hill sprints were just an extra little killer. Unfortunately I forgot to take a pencil and paper down to record my FGB scores. They weren't great anyway - I started on SDHP so was getting decent reps (around 25-30) for those and around 30-35 for push press, but my thrusters and tuck jumps were horrific.

River Tempo

Tempo run along the river this morning. Having not run in a few days, my legs just wanted to go! It was another perfect morning in Brisbane and I took my usual route along the river down to the rowing club near Davies Park and back.

Vital stats: 12.3km in 46:37 (including an easy warm up), average pace of 3:47min/km (max of 2:30!), average heart rate of 165bpm. The pace fluctuated a bit as every now and then I did a section at 3:30 or faster, just to get some energy out. I also had to take a pretty serious pit stop just before 9km - unfortunately the stomach issues seem to be coming back. Overall, I'm happy that I managed to keep the pace up pretty consistently. Interestingly, 165bpm is my marathon heart rate average. I'm not sure if this means I'm fitter than I was then (because I was going faster at the same HR) or less fit (as I had the same HR despite it being a shorter run). Hopefully I'm fitter!

If the City2Surf website is to be believed, the course is 14km long (I think it's a bit less than that). To beat Laurens' time of 51:49 I will need to run an average pace of 3:42. That's not easy, particularly with the hills, but given how I felt this morning, I reckon I might get close. I'm worried I haven't done enough hill work (again!!!). I seem to do this every year - I am great at hills later in the year when I'm running lots of trails, but come July/August, I seem to leave hills out of my training. I might try to hit the little Marriott hill tonight for a last-ditch session!

Man makers

We had a very indulgent few days this weekend - with two fancy dinners out, a night in Byron Bay, a lot of red wine and a fantastic visit from Rochey and DJ. Not much exercise unfortunately, other than a surf on Saturday morning. Having lost a fair bit of weight in the last year, I didn't realise how much I had previously relied on body fat for warmth in the water. Usually I'd be fine in just boardies and a wettie top, unless it was seriously cold outside. However, without that extra 5-10kg of insulation that I've stripped back in the last year or so, after 10minutes in the surf, I was shivering and blue like I haven't been in years!

This morning I set us a workout designed to cleanse ourselves from the weekend. Five rounds for time of:
- 5 renegade man makers (I used 12.5kg dumbells, Annabel 2.5kg)
- 10 towel pullups (Annabel used her rubber band to assist)
- 15 thrusters (I used 40kg, Annabel 15kg)
- 20 floor wipers

THEN, 4 sets of 6 reps bench press (Annabel 25kg, Jamie 65kg-75kg on the last three sets).

We had to warm up for a while beforehand to wake up. I skipped and realised that I still have a lot of work to do - I was struggling to get 40 skips out before breaking! The actual WOD took me 18:11, and Annabel 17:51. I was ahead of her the whole way until the last set of thrusters, which almost killed me. My thrusters are definitely improving, but they're still hard.

Annabel was great this morning, despite a very slow start getting out of bed! Her thrusters are looking good and she's getting the hang of the assisted pullups. We're going to have to start dropping the assistance soon!

Less than 2 weeks to go before the City2Surf and I'm a little worried I haven't been doing enough running. Might try to do some hill sprints tonight/tomorrow.

Quick double up

After a brilliant dinner with Rob last night, we slept in AGAIN! So, I went to the gym after work. Funny how much the crowd had thinned out since Monday, there were only 2 other people in there!

After a warm up, I did:

Tabata squats, then

12-9-6 reps of 60kg clean&jerk, L-pullup, 10kg weighted deep dip

The Tabata squats went better than expected - I managed 18 reps in each of the 8 sets. My legs were jelly after so I had a little shake-out before the double-up. The 12-9-6 was a hybrid of today's main site WOD, but subbing muscle ups. It took me 12:16.

I found the C&J very hard. I think that's too heavy for me as I had to split all of the sets into a max of 3 or 4 reps at a time. I also don't think I was squatting low enough to catch the bar. Mental note to work on C&J! L-pullups hurt my abs more than my arms and the dips were hard but manageable.

Short sesh, but a toughie. Annabel has cooked up a storm for the post-workout meal!

3RM

Slept in today so only had time for a very quick spin in the gym. I really wanted Annabel to try out the new Force USA resistance band I bought for her, to help her do assisted pullups. After trying a few different method of securing it, she seemed to get the hang of it. Proper pullups, here she comes!

Even though I wasn't feeling that strong, I wanted to use the time to establish my 3 rep max for bench press and deadlift (to compare to Min & Shauny in Sydney). After a bit of warmup, I had a crack at the deadlifts - I started on 110kg, then went to 120kg. That was about the limit of my form and strength, so I'll call 120kg (the 20kg bar plus 100kg in plates) my 3 rep max. Bench press was a bit more difficult as my chest was still hurting from Monday's dips. I started on 90kg (20kg bar plus 70kg) and JUST got 3 reps out. I tried to do a second set and failed almost straight away. Annabel had to help as spotter!

So, my personally-assessed 3 rep max for deadlift is 120kg and bench is 90kg. Better than 6 months ago!

8 x 800m

This morning I did the 8 x 800m again. I did this session a few weeks ago, on the 9th of July, and wanted to see how I was going against that benchmark. I figure that since I'm training on my own, I need to do some interval sessions on a "known" course to see how I am going. The Suunto is good for distance / pace, but nothing compares to hitting 'start' at one known landmark and 'stop' at another. This session is also very convenient - the 1.7km to get there is a great warmup, the 800m course is not busy and it is very scenic along the river and under the bridge.

I felt very sluggish in the warmup, but I was wearing my 'race' shoes (the lighter, less forgiving black Mizunos) so was hoping to at least match my previous times. My splits were:
2:40 - avg 161bpm - 810m - 3:18 min/km
2:35 - avg 165bpm - 820m - 3:10
2:30 - avg 167bpm - 810m - 3:06
2:29 - avg 169bpm - 780m - 3:12
2:31 - avg 168bpm - 800m - 3:09
2:30 - avg 165bpm - 790m - 3:10
2:31 - avg 169bpm - 790m - 3:11
2:28 - avg 169bpm - 790m - 3:08

Session total of 10.8km in 50:23. The average pace on each rep was ever so slightly quicker than last time (2:31 versus 2:33). Heart rates were a bit higher than last time though, and my fastest rep last time was 1 second quicker than the fastest rep this time. It's not exactly the most scientific analysis ever (just look at the variance in the distances, which are from the same point-to-point), but I'll take the average pace as a good indication that I'm not going backwards!!

5 rounds in a zoo

We slept in this morning after watching Cadel Evans make Australian sporting history. What a legend. Watching him come back again and again, and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat on the last stage is seriously inspiring stuff. He may have the biceps of a 10 year old girl but he's got the heart of a lion and deserves all the credit he gets!

After a fairly busy day at work, I hit the apartment gym for a quick WOD before dinner. It was an absolute zoo down there. Note to self to avoid the gym after work if at all possible!!!! After finding my square metre of space to do my WOD, and doing a quick warmup in the corner, I was able to observe a very interesting study in gym dynamics. It occurred to me that the gym at my apartment block may be the ultimate "typical" Globo style gym that Crossfit.com talks about. There were the people power walking on the treadmills, the bored-and-unfit-looking personal trainer supervising some big guy doing the worst crunches I've ever seen, even the two little blokes in Vanilla Ice pants trying not to snap their arms off pressing 20kg dumbells. Hilarious.

My session involved 5 rounds for time of 15 reps of each of the following:
- 35kg thrusters
- Pullups
- Deep dips
- Toes to bar

It took me 26:09 with an average HR of 153bpm. Very tough WOD - the first set was pretty quick but I had to slow down as the session went on, and by the end I had that feeling where you're so stuffed you can't look upwards without getting a piercing headache. A good feeling. I think the other people in the gym thought I was mad, but all I was thinking about was the amazing roast lamb Annabel had waiting for me upstairs. Yummmmmmmmmmmmm!!! Perfectly cooked lamb, broccoli, sweet potato, tomato and onion. Paleo (arguably except for the kumera) and very tasty.

Thank you Google maps

With a very sore head this morning, I set out on a run to fetch the car from St Lucia golf course, where I left it at the party last night. I decided to go via Mt Coot-tha, partly to add a few more miles, and partly because I wanted to see the mountain where, for some reason, all the TV networks decided to base themselves in Brissy!

It took a few kilometres to get rid of the headache, but once I hit the river my head cleared - it was a perfect Queensland day and a great one for running. Unfortunately, the path along the river was closed for a long section that I needed to run along, so I had to take some main roads, freeways and back streets to get to Mt Coot-tha. The "Mt" is a bit misleading - it's more of a long hill. Running up it was like a few slightly less steep Darley Roads strung together. At the top, I decided to change my route and take some trails through the forest to the gold course. Unfortunately, I got lost and spent the next few clicks running around trails, all of which looked identical, trying to get back to the main path! At that point, the first of many iPhone consultations occurred - without Google maps, I may still be out there.

All up, 17.5km in 1:26. Not fast, but the legs felt great and my head is now clear. And now? I'm off to enjoy this absolutely glorious day!

A few pics:

The running / cycle route along the river - unfortunately some of it is closed, but it's perfect for running

The view from Mt Coot-tha

The "Lookout Trail" going down from Mt Coot-tha to Indooroopilly

Fire alarm

After a rest day yesterday, a fantastic Turkish dinner last night (with Sara Lee Ultra Choc ice cream!!), our beauty sleep was disturbed at 4:45am by the fire alarm. Apparently there was smoke detected on the floor below us, so the entire building was evacuated. Walking down 21 flights of stairs, waiting around for 20mins, then walking back up to avoid waiting for the lift is not the best way to ensure an undisturbed sleep cycle! We both woke up again at 9am.

This morning's workout was a bit disjointed:

Warmup of mobility (with the broomstick) and skipping (which I'm still crap at). Then 3 rounds of 10 hands-off pullups. i.e. Pullups where you kip and explode so your hands release from the bar, then catch the bar and lower down. I'm trying to learn how to do a clapping pullup, so this is part of the progression. Unfortunately my short caught on the dip bars in the last set and I ripped the left hand side - that's the second pair of shorts in a week!!

The main WOD was a 20 minute AMRAP (as many rounds and reps as possible) of:
- 5 x push press (I used 35kg, Annabel about 10kg)
- 7 x hang power cleans
- 9 x sumo deadlift high pull
The idea is that you use the same bar for each exercise and have as little rest as possible.

THEN, 4 x 5-6 reps max bench press (I did 80kg, Annabel 25kg). THEN, 3 x 10 toes to bar.

For the AMRAP, I got 12 rounds plus 5 PP and 3 cleans. Annabel did about 8 rounds but was going slow because she wanted to concentrate on form and watch out for her back (and it's her first 20min AMRAP!). I reckon this is one of the toughest Crossfit workouts to do - it's a full-body killer and doesn't allow you to rest. I used gloves but the forearms were still hurting.

It's a cracking day in Brissy so we're off to run a few errands and hit the farmer's markets. Then, the EY Brisvegas ball tonight - should be fun!

The grand piano drops ...

I couldn't decide what sort of run to do this morning, so just went out for a firm 14km along the river. From the start, I didn't feel great - the bounce in my step was more like a thud and whenever I leaned forward to accelerate, my legs had a serious delay before responding! I've had this sort of day many times before, when lack of rest and multiple consecutive days of training catch up with me. Combined with consistent 11 hour workdays, the body can only cope with so much. I find the best way to deal with it is either to roll over and stay in bed, or to do the session as best I can, but not kick myself too hard if I don't meet the time/pace/distance/weight I wanted to do.

Given how I felt, I decided to just try to stick to a consistent pace of around 3:55min/km, which I normally should be able to do without too much trouble. After a bit of a warmup, I got to the pace and was pretty happy keeping it there on the way out. I turned at 7km, which was fortunately located at the middle, rather than the top, of a little hill (my legs didn't really want to think about hills this morning).

I kept the pace up, past other runners, cyclists, jogging groups and rowers next to me on the river. Every time I looked at my watch, the pace was 3:55 or 3:56 - I was happy. Then at 12km, just at the start of the Botanic Gardens, the wheels fell off. In the space of about 5 seconds, my legs went to lead, I got a stitch and my breathing became laboured, my running form was all over the place, and I was struggling to run in a straight line, let alone keep pace! The fabled grand piano had dropped in a big way.

The rational thoughts going through my mind were - "don't worry, you were feeling crap anyway" and "use this opportunity to push through, like you would want to in a race". I pushed on, at a much slower pace, for the next 1km, before stopping at my "start/stop point" and jogging very slowly home. On the plus side, breakfast tasted amazing and at least I know that my shite session for the week is out of the way (fingers crossed)!

Total of 14k  in 56:46 with an average pace of 4:05 (includes warmup/warmdown and the grand piano section), average heart rate of 169bpm and peak of 186bpm.

Barbara

I'm not sure what we would do if the apartment was further from the office, but it's getting increasingly hard to get both Annabel and I up for 6am training! We were both a bit tired this morning - Annabel was still sore from Monday, and I think I was a bit drained from a long work day yesterday. Regardless, we did one of the original benchmark girls - Barbara.

5 rounds, each for time, of:
20 pullups (I did kipping, Annabel did jumping with close grip)
30 pushups (I did strict chest-to-floor, Annabel was on her knees)
40 situps (I did full ROM with hands touching behind my head and to my toes, Annabel did crunches)
50 squats
Rest exactly 3mins between each round.

It took me a total of 34:04 with an average heart rate of 136bpm. I did crunches the first round, so it was quicker, and I rested for 3:40 between the first and second rounds (and 3:07 between rounds 2 &3) waiting for Annabel to finish her pullups. My round times were 3:42, 4:07, 4:33, 4:35, 4:14.

I managed to get all the pullups out in rounds of 20 reps, but had to split the last two rounds of pushups. I was concentrating on getting full ROM on the squats but still managed to be quite quick - my squats have improved remarkably since last year!

I was stoked with Annabel - her jumping pullups were really good and she got through all of them. Next step - real pullups! She was pretty fatigued throughout so couldn't get as explosive as she probably should have in this WOD. I did, and by the end of the WOD, I was absolutely wrecked - I had to lie down for about 5 mins before making breakfast!!!

Progressive tempo

Doing HuRTs sessions without the squad is difficult. Not because it's physically harder, but because forcing yourself to hit the paces is mentally tough! I did the progressive tempo this morning - 45mins starting at marathon pace and dropping by 10sec/km every 10mins and again for the last 5mins. It's designed to teach you to negative-split a course, so you turn at 23:30 and try to get back to the starting point. I did so today, but I think I could have / should have gone harder, especially in the last 2 tempo legs. Not including a 700m warm up and warm down, my splits were:

10:00min - 2.41km - avg 155bpm - pace 4:09min/km
10:00min - 2.51km - avg 167bpm - pace 3:59
10:00min - 2.62km - avg 172bpm - pace 3:49
10:00min - 2.68km - avg 176bpm - pace 3:44
4:52min - 1.35km - avg 177bpm - pace 3:36

Total for the progressive tempo was 11.6km in 44:52 (average pace of 3:52min/km). I'm happy with my pacing for the first 30mins, but really should have picked it up more in the last 15min. That said, doing a 13km session with warm up and warm down in 51:44 is not bad - it's quicker than my City2Surf PB!

On the scenery side - I got all the way past Southbank down to Davies Park (where the markets are on Saturdays). It's actually a really good running route and, if you can dodge the cyclists, is a great place to train. There were quite a few runners out and about, but the closest thing to a HuRTs runner that I saw was a triathlete looking lady who was absolutely moving in the opposite direction to me. It seems the more serious runners and cyclists train further upstream than Southbank.

The ankle was aching a little yesterday but I haven't had a chance to ice it this morning. Here's hoping it doesn't flare up and I can actually run tomorrow / Thursday.

5 rounds for time

We had a little sleep-in this morning, but sprung out of bed at 6:15 for a WOD. I've had to start making WODs up to a) use the equipment available and b) take into account Annabel's muscle pain and c) ensure the WODs are scaleable so that Annabel can do them around the same time as me!

This morning we did 5 rounds for time of:
Lunges, holding a plate above your head (Jamie: 20kg, Annabel: 5kg) - 10 reps each leg
Dumbell ground to overhead (Jamie: 17.5kg, Annabel 7.5kg and 5kg) - 10 reps each arm
Pushups (Jamie: 15 x incline pushups off bench, Annabel: max 'proper' pushups trying for at least 5)

It took me 15:17 (Annabel about the same) and got the heart rate up (average 153bpm, max 168bpm). We finished off with Shauny's 7minute ab workout (alt crunches, scissors, toe touches, lateral scissors, penguins, floor wipers, russians, jacknifes, plank LHS, plank RHS, straight plank, mountain climbers, straight plank, then 10 x clapping pushups - switch every 30seconds).

A good, quick set for a beautiful Monday morning!

Quick deadlift sesh

Just a quick one this arvo after a lot of walking around art galleries and markets during the day. I did a recent main site WOD, but with deadlifts (which I need to improve) instead of front squats. For weight:
1 rep - 10 reps - 1 rep - 20 reps - 1 rep - 30 reps

I did 115kg - 95 kg - 115kg - 75kg - 115kg - 55kg

115 is the most I've ever deadlifted, so I'm pretty happy, and I got the rest of the sets out in one hit (except for a quick pause during the 20).

I've been feeling pretty stiff the last few days, especially my shoulders so I did some rotations and overhead squat drills before the workout. I also did some laps in the pool an sat in the spa for a while after. I have to say, sitting in a spa, overlooking the Brisbane River a perfect evening is a pretty good way to recover from a WOD!

Upper body Saturday

Rested Friday and awoke Saturday to Annabel claiming being unable to move her legs due to Thursday's WOD! We therefore took a very easy jog to the park under the Story Bridge and back (about 4km) to warm up the legs. Both of us were still hurting a bit so when we got back to the gym I decided to do an upper body WOD as follows.

21-15-9 reps of:
- Chest to bar pullups (Annabel did incline pullups on the Smith Press)
- Ground-touch pushups (i.e. Lower yourself to the ground, releasing your hands at the bottom)
- Deep dips (Annabel did bench dips)
- Push press (I did 35kg, Annabel 15kg)

Followed by 3 sets x 15 reps of GHD situps.

The whole thing took quite a bit of time but the WOD itself was only around 10 mins (Annabel 9:40, Jamie 10:40). Annabel beat me again!!! A good, hard session. Now for chocolate brownies, yum yum!

Morrison

I took Annabel down to the apartment gym for her first Crossfit session set by Jamie. We did 4 rounds of 6 bench press (I did 80kg, Annabel 25kg), then Morrison:

50-40-30-20-10 reps of
- Wall ball (we did thrusters, me with 25kg bar, Annabel with 5kg plate)
- Box jumps (we did tuck jumps as the gym doesn't have a box)
- Kettlbell swings (I used a 20kg plate, Annabel used 5kg plate)

It's a tough WOD - and our subs were pretty much as hard as RXd (thrusters were harder than WB but tuck jumps are faster than box jumps). Annabel was great - she gave it everything and her form was good. I found the thrusters tough, and was trying to get full range of motion with every rep. My time was 24:26 and Annabel's 25:21. We were both stuffed at the end, with Annabel struggling to walk down stairs an hour later!

I think Annabel summed it up best: "that was much tougher than the Crossfit gym". Settled? I think so.

Annabel's first Crossfit

Yesterday we went to the Crossfit gym for our first group session. The WOD was 5 rounds for time of:
10 x wall climbs (i.e. start lying on your stomach, feet against the wall, then climb up the wall to a handstand)
10 x toes to bar
20 x box jump with full hip extension on a 24" box

The way the gym works, the 20 odd people in the class pair up, with one person doing the WOD at a time, with the other person counting your reps. This meant that after a post warm-up warm-up (i.e. the group warm up after individual warm-ups), a demonstration of each exercise, explanation of scaling options, meeting your partner, having a coffee, chatting about the day's news, etc. etc., we only got to the WOD at 6:25am. This left only about 30mins for each pair to do the WOD. The trainers therefore "decided" to make it only 3 rounds, with the times being between 11mins and 15mins. I subsequently discovered that this is how they seem to do all their WODs. A bit disappointing to be honest. That's not to say the WOD wasn't tough - the 3rd round of wall climbs almost killed me! But then, I am terrible at handstands. Apparently I'm better than anyone in their gym at TTB though. And apparently Annabel is better at everything - she got the fastest time in the gym! (She did scale every exercise - "walk outs" instead of climbs, "knee raises" instead of TTB and 18" box).

The people were nice, although there were heaps of them, making the gym feel a bit squashed. The trainers seemed to know what they were doing, but with the vast number of people, I think they only actually saw one rep of each individual! We're both hurting today - my shoulders and Annabel's abs - but we're still undecided as to whether we go back to the gym, or whether we just do our own workouts. We may give it one more try.

My time for 3 rounds as RXd was 14:30. About 2mins slower than my partner, who was the fastest in the gym, but then hardly any of the guys did as RXd.

This morning I went for a great tempo run. Did 7.5km, starting at around 4:30min/km, getting to about 3:55s for most of the run, and getting down to about 3:10 for the last 500m-1000m. I finished off with 6 sprints up this mean hill near our apartment. Total of 9.5km in 40:37. My right ankle is now sore - bugger.

I'm loving the iPod for running, by the way. Favourite song to make me want to run fast  at the moment is Banquet by Bloc Party - an oldie but a goodie.

Mainsite WOD

The alarm went off at 5:30am and I awoke to a string of excuses from Annabel as to why going to the Crossfit gym this morning would be a bad idea. Apparently the first taste of Crossfit on Saturday has left her in pain!! I left her sleeping whilst I went downstairs to try out the apartment gym. I was impressed - it wasn't too busy, and the only guys using the chinup station and weights seemed friendly enough. After a quick warmup, I did yesterday's main site WOD.

Five rounds for time of:
400m run (I did 400m C2 row)
20 deadlift 65kg
20 pushups
10 deadlift 65kg
10 pushups

I got 28:59. It was a pretty tough WOD - mainly due to the deadlifts (total of 150 reps!!!). The C2 rower slowed me down as there seems to be something wrong with the settings and the resistance wasn't as much as usual, meaning that you couldn't go as fast. Oh well, it was the "recovery" station anyway. After the last set of pushups, I collapsed in a heap and some old lady commented about how hard my workout looked!! Classic.

Brisvegas

Part of being a corporate athlete is that you sometimes have to deal with corporate challenges that threaten to disrupt your routine. Personally, I've just been transferred to Brisbane for 2-3 months! Fortunately Brisbane has a much more bearable winter than Sydney, and my company has put me up in a very comfy pad on the river. Wednesday involved a full day of driving with an even fuller car, and needless to say I was stuffed by the end of the day. On Thursday morning before work, I decided to do a bit of exploring around Brisvegas so went for a run. Did about 8km, from my apartment, around the CBD through the Botanic Gardens, across to Southbank and back. Easy jog and nice to stretch the legs.

On Friday I discovered that the culture in my team here is VERY different to Sydney. No-one seems to exercise at lunch, so my usual routine is out the window. I therefore rested on Friday. Fortunately, my office is only a 5 minute walk from home so morning training should be fine.

Annabel & I spent Saturday investigating training options. We tried out a promising Crossfit gym about a 5min drive away. Did some skills/technique with the head trainer, followed by a quick 10min AMRAP WOD (250m row, 7 x 12.5kg DB front squats, 14 Crossfit situps - I did 5 rounds, Annabel almost got 4 with 7.5kg DBs). We'll try that gym out again this week. The pros are that it's a fully-equipped gym with experienced trainers and people to train with. The cons are that its exy ($175 p month), the only sessions I could get to is 6am (i.e. not flexible) and apparently half the session is spent counting someone else's reps!! Ill try Monday and see what it's like. The other consideration is that the gym in our apartment block is actually pretty good (Smith press, chinup/dip station, a few free bars and full DB set).

Saturday arvo I did the HuRTs Thursday session. 8 x 800m with 2mins rest. I found a great place to run - directly across the river from our apartment, over the Story Bridge in the park underneath the bridge. It's about 1.8km away from home (good warm up/ warm down distance), and has a "track" of almost exactly 800m around. My reps were as follows:

2:46 - avg 160bpm - 800m - 3:28
2:35 - avg 158bpm - 780m - 3:19
2:32 - avg 161bpm - 800m - 3:10
2:31 - avg 164bpm - 790m - 3:11
2:32 - avg 165bpm - 800m - 3:11
2:32 - avg 160bpm - 800m - 3:10
2:30 - avg 166bpm - 800m - 3:09
2:27 - avg 166bpm - 800m - 3:05

I'm stoked because the reps were really consistent and I felt pretty fast by the end. Next time I'll have to start a bit quicker!! Total of 10.6km for the session with a slow warmup and warm down. Things in Brissy are looking up!

Sunday - drove to Noosa and spent the day on the beach. No training, but I did bump into Sam + family and Trent, Candice, Dev and co who were doing a winter training camp!

The view from our apartment! (The running loop is basically around the water where you can see the base of the bridge and the wharf)

Annabel walking me to walk on the first day. Tough walk to work, huh?

The tall building in the back ground is home from 8:15am to 7pm