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