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)