My old phone finally started screwing up often enough to warrant a replacement, so I’m the proud owner of a new Sony-Ericsson K700i. It has all the gimmicks: video camera, bluetooth, FM radio, MP3 ringtones and so on, so it should do me for a few more years.
Spent last night at a dinner for the Trade Minister, Mark Vaile. Dave’s company had bought a couple of tables, and Dave got to fill one, so he just invited a load of mates for some free food and wine. The event itself was a bit of a fundraiser for the National party so there were speeches and an auction. Listening to all the political waffle was pretty tiresome, especially when I support the Opposition, but when there’s steak & creme brulee on offer I can put up with quite a bit, especially as it wasn’t costing me anything. Apart from the speeches, it was a very nice dinner with a good munch of friends, which was Dave’s intention all along.
Cycled home, then went for a quick run. The first half of the run felt pretty crap, but after that it was plain sailing. My knees were giving off a few twinges, probably from the different movements associated with snowboarding, but nothing serious.
B: 30km – R: 3.5km – S: 1000m – W: 1 sessionBiked home last night, did some weights, ate healthy. Got up early this morning and went for a swim.
I was really feeling it in my arms on the last two 200s, even though the pace is really slow. I’m sitting here in work yawning as well. I now know why most people don’t bother exercising – you’re just exhausted a lot of the time! Being unfit, you might get a bit out of breath after climbing some stairs or something, but you breeze through the rest of the day. Exercising tires you out, and while the long term benefits are huge, day to day it’s can be a struggle.B: 20km – S: 1000m – W: 1 session5 * 200 FS, 60s rest (3:00)Total: 1000m
Weighed in at 89.5kg this morning, with 19.1% body fat.
Tom, Sean and Niall have decided to start what has become known as Fat Club. Myself and John have joined in as well. The basic idea is that we’re all carrying a little extra which we plan to get rid of. We have to report in every week with weight & body fat and there will be an “Underachiever Of The Month” award. So far it’s all talk, but we’ll see how things pan out.Now that the snowboard season is almost over (this weekend will be the last), I hopped back on the bike into work this morning. Next step will be to get back into the pool and stay there this time!B: 5kmWent for my first group ride with BRAT this morning in Centennial Park. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was all very civilised. We were taught how to ride in groups, what hand signals to give and the two different ways of “rolling over” – doing your turn at the front then dropping to the back for a bit of a rest. The hour and a half went by pretty quickly, the pace was pretty relaxed and I even managed to come first in the two hilly laps at the end, though only because the guy who was way ahead of me had a puncture ;-)
It’s a 7-week course, though I’ll miss next week as I’m down the snow again, which is probably just as well as it’s going to be a hill session next week!B: 30km89.3kg this morning, meaning a gain of 1.5kg over the two weeks in NZ. How much is muscle and how much is fast? Well, I’ll find that out this evening.
Just got back from NZ today. Had a fantastic time. Lots of high quality snow; too much, if indeed there is such a thing. Spent the first week boarding every day, in knee-deep powder. The contrast between the conditions last year and what greeted us this year were amazing. Powder, while being more fun anyway, also has the benefit of making it easier on steep slopes, so I managed to cover more terrain this year too.
Met up with Bevin, who’s in great form. She has settled into Wanaka nicely and is enjoying life there. Brought her up to Treble Cone and went boarding with her in Cardrona a couple of times too. She seems to be quite comfortable on any slope, but not too happy picking up speed yet. She’s progressing quickly. The weather turned on us a bit in the second week. Lots of snow storms, meaning almost total whiteouts on the slopes, so we took a day off. Myself and Kev did some sight-seeing, the lads sat on the couch and ate, we all got trashed that night, Sean & Tom had an egg fight in their apartment, after literally crawling home, and Paul slid down an embankment, narrowly missing ending up in a stream. There was an avalanche in Treble Cone the next morning, which was fine by us as we were still drunk, so we hadn’t made it up the slopes that morning. Rumours flew, but no-one was injured.Spent a couple of days in Queenstown after Wanaka. Brought Bevin with us and introduced her to Fergburgers. Myself, Bev, Neil and Sean had booked a trip to Milford Sound, but it got called off as the airport was snowed in. Went boarding in The Remarkables instead, which was almost as much fun. Said goodbye to Bevin that night as she returned to Wanaka, then went out and got drunk on Honey Vodka as it was our last night in town. Did a bit more sight-seeing, then had a go on the Luge at the top of Queenstown Hill. Great fun!Overall it was another great holiday. Plenty of Brewskis, Fergburgers, mulled wine at the Cardrona Hotel and snow. What more could we ask for. No doubt the scales will indicate the downside tomorrow morning!I’m off to Wanaka to catch up with Bevin and go snow-baording in Treble Cone. Yee haw!
Well I finally got the 2003 skiing video done, just in the nick of time. The deadline was for a viewing on Monday night, regardless of the state of the movie. I had almost all the editing done, and wrote it out to video tape. Everyone showed up in Tom’s to check it out along with some nibbles & jar. At an hour long, it was a bit longer than people were expecting, but since everyone laughed the whole way through, it was deemed a success.
There were two main issue, both with the audio; it got a bit out of sync for some reason, which I have now fixed, and some of the background tunes were a little loud. I just have to fix that, then do some white-balancing and it’s finished.Just back from a good run. Managed 4.4km in 24’20" at an easy pace. Finished up with a HR of 150, but given that the last bit was downhill forcing me to speed up, average HR was probably close to 144. It felt really easy and, aerobically at least, I could have gone another few kms, but my legs would probably protest a lot.
I’m off snow-boarding in NZ tomorrow evening, so the test will be whether I can continue getting some runs in over there. If I do, the 10km race should be fine. If I don’t, well there may be a few issues…R: 4.4kmWent for another run this afternoon. Same as before; 3.5km nice and easy. I’m sticking to the ball/heel/ball style which smoother than how I used to run. After the run my quads are a little sore, as are my achilles. I probably just need to do a bit more stretching on my achilles before I head out and my quads are just sore from the downhill sections, as I’m not sure how you’re supposed to run them without jarring.
R: 7kmGot home this evening and decided to go for a run on the spur of the moment. Took it really easy, keeping the heart rate around 144bpm, and just plodded along. In the end I got 3.5km in fairly easily, so I’ll see how the legs feel in the morning.
I’ve got about 6 weeks until the 10K race, and I haven’t run in about three weeks, so I’d better get my act together. Running for a time is out of the question at this stage, so my aim now is to try and run the whole thing, rather than doing a run/walk strategy. If I can run roughly every 2-3 days between now and then I should be OK, though that means going for a run after I get off the slopes in NZ. Easier said than done ;-)R: 3.5kmJust ordered myself a Sony DCR-PC109 video camera in preparation for the trip to New Zealand. I ordered it online from a shop in Adelaide, saving myself about $250 over the street price, and I’ll save a further $170 because I can get the GST back when flying to NZ.
It should arrive on Monday.This Land, a shockwave animation poking fun at both Bush & Kerry. Good for a giggle.
Just read a great series of articles on why run training should almost always be slow. There’s a lot of talk about lactate testing, which isn’t practical for amateur runners, but the later sections discuss how you can get a good approximation of your lactate threshold using a heart rate monitor. Worth a read if you like running.
I caught part of Andrew Denton’s interview with Bill Clinton last night and it was bloody good. Thankfully Monica Lewinsky was only mentioned once. He managed to criticise Bush’s policies in a very measured way, pointing out exactly what was wrond with them and what he would have done had he been in the same situation. When you compare it to Bush’s interview for Irish television earlier this month, the intellectual chasm between the two presidents is clear: Clinton was articulate and quite capable of thinking on his feet, whereas Bush seemed to have a limited repertoire of answers and got quite rattled when he got a question which wasn’t a perfect match for one of the pre-canned answers. Poles apart…
I think I’ll have to read his book. I almost bought it a couple of weeks ago but changed my mind at the last minute.Went for a run on the treadmill in the hotel last night. 2.5km @ 10kmh. I had intended going for 5km, but I still felt a bit tired after the weekend, so stopped early.
Crawled out of bed at 6:50 this morning, after staying up to watch the l’Alpe d’Huez time trial in the Tour de France. Armstsrong hammered everyone as usual, and didn’t appear to be too troubled doing it. Ullrich came second which was good to see. He’s up to 4th at the moment, so there’s still a slim chance he may pull second out of the bag by Paris.After getting up so early (relatively anyway) I managed a 1000m swim this morning. Not particularly far, but it will have to do since I haven’t been in a pool in over a month.R: 2.5km – S: 1000m
Myself, Kevin and Tom headed down to Perisher on Friday for some more snowboarding. Woke up on Saturday morning and Jindabyne was covered in snow, which was something we’d never seen before. We had to put on chains as soon as we left our accommodation at The Station!