Nothing to see here

It is amazing how training can change when you do not have a goal. I have trained most days just without the intensity and drive of pre Canberra. I am putting it down to resting up before the baby comes.

My wife and I have a labour communication strategy planned. Basically she will call my mobile when she thinks she is in labour. Since we made this plan she has not called my phone in over two weeks.....

Yesterday I was in a cab heading to a meeting when my phone rang......

It was my wife......

My heart boomed and a quick sweat came over me as I fumbled for the phone

Turns out she wanted to talk about the plumber who had just come to look at the leak in the bathroom

It took me 10 minutes to get my heart rate back to normal!

Cheers

Greg

Never Swim on a hot day.....

Sounds ridiculous right?

Well not really when you are trying to fit in a bit of training

Last week was a fairly lazy one for me. By Friday I started to get a bit toey and decided to go for a lunchtime swim.

I went up to the pool and it was jammed – the lap lanes were full of people doing everything other than laps. Now as you know I am not the greatest swimmer, but I know my limits. Some things observed you should not do in the medium lane (I know look at me I am now in the medium lane!)

· You do not tread water in the deep end
· You do not “run” in the water
· You do not do laps floating on your back

All that was missing was someone with floaties.

Cheers

Greg

PS When did I lose my tolerance for other swimmers?

Results are up

And I was fairly spot on

My splits were

Swim 40:18

Ride 1:45:56

Run 1:02:59

Total 3:29:13

My swim was around 5 minutes faster than I thought it would be, ride about 15 minutes slower and run around 10 minutes slower. Overall there were 5 pages of results and I finished towards the bottom of page 4……..

As for what is next I have my biggest challenge coming up – the birth of my first child!

The next month is about getting the house ready, doing last minute reading and supporting my wife (hopefully as much as she has supported me with the whole tri thing!) Fingers crossed I can get some training in as once the bub is here I will be on a training break for a while!

Cheers

Greg

PS Thanks to all for your messages of support pre and post race!
PPS Yes the results are nagging at me a bit...I want to do it again and better....

To be continued (my first real race report)

So that’s that then. My first Olympic distance tri in the bag.

It all started on Saturday with an early morning drive down to Canberra with my wife and mother in law.

Canberra is a nice place but I found it hard to shake the small town feeling. For instance at dinner I went to the bathroom and walked past the coat rack. On the rack was a pair of pants.

That’s right a pair of pants

So someone (fingers crossed it was a cook) was walking around the restaurant with their plums out…….

Surprisingly I slept okay and was up about an hour before my alarm. I chewed down some cereal and grabbed all my gear

As you can see there is a fair bit of stuff there! No bike though……

I got there signed in and started to sort out my gear in the transition. As I looked around the other people I noticed I was

· The only guy who did not have shaved legs.
· The only guy who was not wearing a one piece tri suit
· The only guy who had a bike without tri bars
· The only guy who had no idea what the course was like (none at all – it would make the ride especially interesting. I spent most of the time figuring out where I was going)
· The only guy who had 6 people supporting him!

For an amateur hack like me to have my Mother in law, Father in law, Brother in law, a couple of friends (the other Jax and Greg) and the most supportive pregnant wife a man could want supporting me was a very humbling experience.

While I was warming up, I decided to ditch the wet suit. Despite wearing my wet suit around the house I was still not 100% comfortable (poor J having to put up with me prancing around the house in more latex than any man should)

My plan was to hang at the back of the pack and just cruise through the swim see if you can spot me

All was going to plan until the 700 mark when my goggles started to fog up. After struggling for a little bit I decided to ditch the goggles. Thankfully it was a fresh water swim so it was not too hard on the eyes. I was pretty happy that the swim was over.....

I was one of the last out of the water but feeling very good (around 40 min or so – I am sure I went faster than I was timed!)

The bike was tough with the first 20 k’s into a head wind. My favourite part of the ride was when I started to slow down going down hill due to the wind! Turns out my ride was mega slow (around 1 hour 45! How bad is that?) As I had thought pre race my big issue was with pacing. I felt great after the ride with plenty in the tank, I am pretty sure I could have gone much harder

The run was scenic (along bush tracks for a few k’s) and not overly hard. My only challenge was my right foot which went to sleep after 4k’s or so – it meant I had to stop every 1500 metres to get feeling back!

Before I knew it the race was over.

I ended up finishing in just under 3:30 with plenty of room for improvement.

I am happy I that I finished (a fair achievement considering where I have come from) and am sure that experience will serve me well for the next one……

Back into training tomorrow!

Cheers

Greg

You’ve come a long way baby

Of course I was going to be sick this week.

Anyone who has read this blog will know that if something can go wrong for me it generally will. All that said I have been pretty lucky overall (nothing too serious touch wood!)

So with less than 3 days to go I am feeling good.

Sure it is going to be hard but when you think 6 months or so ago I did not own a bike, could not swim more than a couple of laps and struggled to run because of my knees I am pretty happy with where I have come from…..

Cheers

Greg

Everything you wanted to know about my stomach but were afraid to ask

I have had my stomach bug for around 36 hours now; thankfully I am on the upswing and starting to feel better.

This morning was pretty dicey as I spent most of it around the bathroom thinking I was going to throw up. Safe to say this put an end to any ideas I had of going for a swim today. In fact I have not done much this week bar a light jog on Monday.

Fingers crossed I can get out tomorrow morning for a light paddle

Cheers

Greg

PS picked up the bike from it’s service, it looks real preeeetty....also when I went for a ride the other day I saw someone flossing their teeth at a set of lights. I like clean teeth as much as the next guy but there is a time and a place for it....

Oh No

What a time to get a stomach bug.

The only last minute training I am getting in is running to the toilet ever 30 minutes (sorry for being so graphic). Fingers crossed I can shake this today and get in a couple of swims this week

At least I will be well rested for Sunday

Cheers

Greg

PS Apart from the tummy I am feeling pretty good about Sunday. It will be hard but I am confident I can do it and do it well

Crisis averted

So with just over a week to go I thought it would be a good time to do a full dress rehearsal.

I put on my trusty tri shorts (I am not a fan of the one piece. I have tried on a one piece once but they are not flattering for anyone especially me) and wetsuit and went down to the ocean for a swim.

After my swim I stood under the shower at the beach, struggling to get my wet suit off I noticed that my tri shorts had become see through after the swim.

Put it this way, I could see more of me than I would have liked when showering in a public place.

Thank the lord I figured this out before the race!

Cheers

Greg

10 More Sleeps

When it comes to triathlon know how I am almost completely self-taught (when you stop to think about it that has to be the cause of all my problems – I am not an especially good student or teacher). What I have learnt is from books, articles websites etc.

As it is only 10 days till tri time I have been reading up on how to taper. One thing I am sure I have not read is to start renovating your place during taper time.

It seemed like a good idea to paint all the doors and skirting boards.

Seemed like a good idea.

After spending a weekend sanding, whilst wearing a mask and goggles, I have spent the next three days coughing up paint.

Mix this in with the hay fever and it is not great for the lungs!

Cheers

Greg

Hair Shorts?

It just over 3 weeks until my first Tri.

There is no easy way to say this...so here goes....

Should I shave my legs?

If so where do I stop? The knee's?

I am a hairy guy so I think I need to go all the way up...or have my self a nice pair of hair shorts.....

Cheers

Greg

PS I was going to post a picture of my legs but thought people are still recovering from "that" picture of my ass in lycra

The way it is

Why is this blog the way it is?

I train everyday, sometimes even twice a day (apart from that cherished rest day). A few people have asked me why there are not some more serious training posts.

Well I am new at triathlon and find it hard to offer anything on training programs. Plus there are some great blogs out there (like http://www.everymantri.com/ ) full of good info

Instead you get my somewhat bizarre training observations like…..

I only like to swim in dry clothes.

When I go jogging I try to focus on my form, pace and breathing. The other day I went for a run and saw a dude jogging in the distance with two boxes of Krispy Kremes. It is safe to say that my form, pace and breathing went out the window…I just had to catch him. When I got him I was fairly puffed but it felt very good….although I am not sure how much of an accomplishment it is to overtake a fat bastard carrying two dozen donoughts.

And finally there just some things you do not do whilst naked in a change room

1. Stretch
2. Dry your hair (I know I am a bald man but why dry your hair naked?)
3. Drop things
4. Then bend over / squat to pick up what ypu have dropped

Less than 4 weeks to go!

Cheers

Greg

Help (the worlds worst competition)

Here is the deal.

I have managed to snaffle a sponsor (to be honest it is a buddy of mine....even my family are not dumb enough to throw money at this thing....and it looks like he is doing some dodgy wog style tax manoeuvring)

The catch is I need to design a t-shirt, with his company logo on it, and wear it around a bit

Now in case you had not picked it up I am not the most creative person going around

So far all I have some up with is a message on the back saying

"you are about to pass Greg"

Kind of like the ones you see on fox trucks....

Email me or post your ideas. The best idea / design will get a t-shirt

Cheers

Greg

Indecent Proposal?

I have stepped up my training I am not where I wanted to be at this stage of my preparations but I am not that far off. I could blog about my recent training but there is not anything really interesting going on (to be fair you could say that about any post on this blog)

Instead I will tell you about something random that happened to me

I am currently trying to sell my car (anyone interested? One owner, good condition, low k’s……..special price for you…..) there are the ads on the net and for sale signs on all the blind spots of the car. The other day I drove out to visit a client out west (about an hour away).

So I was driving around the wild west of Sydney (lost) when a guy starts to honk and flash his lights at me. After 5 minutes of this, I started to get worried. Here I was in the road rage capital of Australia, with some lunatic on my tail.

I am not the bravest guy when it comes to physical confrontation, the only punch I have ever thrown ended up hitting someone in the back.

Despite feeling decidedly nervous, I thought it was best to pull over. I locked the doors and unrolled my window. The guy pulled up next to me and yelled

“What’s your best price for your car”

I told him $9,000

He said

“I will give you $6,000 in cash right now, but it has to be right now”

A couple of things

Who drives around with 6,000 in cash just in case they see a car they like?
How would I have gotten home if I had taken him up on the offer?

Less than 40 days to go!

Cheers

Greg

Just a short one

Tonight I am going to try on wetsuits.
If that does not give me material for a blog nothing will.

In other unrelated news I decided to man up, ignore my hamstring pain and just go for it. I went for my first run in a long time and it felt good…..no it felt great!

Apart from that I have taken my training up a couple of notches this week doing double sessions every day.

Look what happens when you have a big cup of toughen the f up…..

Cheers

Greg

Six Things about Me (the self-indulgence post...)

Instead of bizarre swim stories I am going to dip into the self-indulgence pool (see what I did there) and write a little bit about me…….besides if you get bored reading this you can always fill in time by counting the amount of times I is used

1. Each post takes me at least a week to write. There are several drafts before it gets to this. Here is a scary thought; you are reading the final draft. Can you imagine the first?

2. I used to weight 25 kilo’s more than I do now. In fact, I was a cheeseburger off the 100-kilo mark. How did I get that way? I used to eat bowls of melted cheese. As you can gather this was not my proudest moment (or moments)

3. I am not the greatest friend in the world – you would struggle to find someone who is worse at returning phone calls. Worst part is that afterwards I will feel guilty about it then get too embarrassed to call

4. I have no idea how many people read this blog. I am sure there is some fancy way to find out but I have no idea.

5. I was definitely NOT a child prodigy when it came to triathlon.

I almost drowned at a school swimming carnival; a teacher had to jump in and save me. To be fair it was butterfly.
I did not learn how to ride a bike until I was 13 (I spent one school camp making excuses as to why I did not want to bike riding)
You do not get to near 100 kegs by being a good runner....

6. My lucky number is six. Whilst wearing Six and playing football I have torn my cruciate ligament (twice), broken my nose 4 times and torn a heap of different muscles. Can you imagine how bad my injuries could have been without my lucky number??

Cheers

Greg

PS I was used 24 times (including at the start of this sentence)

Sniffles and softball

I am currently “battling” a cold and have taken the opportunity to spend some quality time watching the Olympics (even I am not that dumb as to try and take on a cold.....)

Talk about poor coverage.

I was watching the epic softball match between Australia and Japan complete with the heavy pro Australian commentary.

For a while Australia was struggling - the Japanese pitcher was striking out batter after batter. Now this was not the frustrating thing.

What really got to me was the Australian commentator kept on banging on that each swing “ was a good swing” even when it was a strike

I do not know allot about much, especially softball, but I am pretty sure a good swing would equal a hit

And do not get me started on the triathlon coverage. The most exciting finish in how long and the commentators are speculating about where the Australians are?

I am as patriotic as the next guy but come on!

Cheers

Greg

PS It appears as though when I do not train I tend to become a little angry.......

Silver Lining?

Apart from the one poor sucker who goes out on painfully slow (for him) rides with me, I pretty much train by myself. For some reason no one seems that keen to join me in the pool…..I wonder if it has anything to do with this blog…..

Anyhow on Saturday I tried a new swim session (Pyramid swimming - 50, 100, 150 all the way up to 400). After a good swim I was driving home when it hit me.

I had left my goggles at the pool

Anyway, it was a good excuse to splash (see what I did there) out on some new goggles. After trying on about 20 different pairs, I settled on a new fancy shmancy pair.

As you can imagine I was pretty keen to bust out the new goggles. My old goggles (RIP) were not the most comfortable piece of sporting equipment with a tendency to cut into my face and fog up after a couple of laps.

It was with much excitement that I dove in, new goggles slapped on my face, and started thrashing up and down the pool.

Wow. This IS swimming

As I swam up and down enjoying clear water something caught my eye.

It was a man swimming in skin coloured Speedo’s

Seriously. How many colours are there in the world? Why choose the skin? Why?

If only I had my old goggles!

Cheers

Greg

Is it just me.........

Or would you find the sight of a middle aged man sitting by himself in a communal spa a bit seedy?

Did I mention he was wearing goggles?

Or that he was sitting directly on a jet?

In case you can not pick it up I am starting to go a little chlorine crazy. Too much swimming not enough run or bike. I have constant waft of chlorine and have drunk at least 2 litres of pool water (this says a fair bit about my swimming style)

Last night I actually dreamt of going for a ride. It was a sweet ride, but to tell the truth I really struggled through it.

Only I would dream about going for a bike ride where I would struggle.

Cheers

Greg

PS Lets hope the hammy heals sooner rather than later - there are only so many pool based blogs I can write!

Well that's new

A quick training update - this week was all about the swim. My hamstring is still too sore to run or bike (if only it was a oneathan not a triathlon)

Apart from the hamstring I am now carrying another injury.

Each morning I walk around 3 kilometres from my bus stop to work. Being a some what brittle soul I do the secretary - take off my heels (work shoes) put on my sneakers. Now I can appreciate this is not the hottest look going around as I end up looking like a poor mans Jerry Seinfeld

but it works for me (actually looking at the picture you could make a case for me looking more like George)

The other day I had to get to the Opera House. Other people (i.e. smart people) would have caught a train or bus.

Not me.

This idiot thought what a good time to bust out a 4k walk. Regular readers will have noted that I am not the greatest planner going around. Of course this was a day that I forgot to bring my sneakers.

Again smarter people would have admitted defeat. No not me, and to tell you the truth by the time I got to the Opera House I felt great.
Later that night my shin's started to get sore। After a couple of hours I was in a world of hurt. As I sat there legs throbbing I could not figure out why I was so sore.


Then it hit me

My high heels had given me shin splints!

Well done Greg. Well done.

Cheers
Greg

Bugger

This week was a good training week with strong swims, light jogging and some gentle work on the bike. Today should have been the cherry on top, a swim to finish of the week.

I got to the pool (which is by far the hardest part) and started getting undressed. Now in case you had not picked up on it I am not what you would call an exhibitionist. Basically I am a shy guy who does not like taking his shirt off in public let alone stripping down.

So there I was in a freezing changing room, naked as the day I was born, ready to change into my Speedo's. I took out my towel, goggles, ear plugs and swimming top only to discover that I could not find my Speedo's. I was determined to swim (after all I had walked there) so I started to go through every part of my bag to see if the speeds were in a different section.

Whilst naked

I was taking things out of my bag, shaking my bag and looking in pockets that were to small even for Speedo's. I was a naked man possessed.

After about a minute of increasingly frantic searching it dawned on me

I was naked.

At that point I admitted defeat, got dressed and left the pool

Mental note

Unpack before getting undressed

Cheers

Greg

6 weeks of pain

My first triathlon is around 12 weeks away.

Realistically the next 6 weeks are make or break for my tri dreams - unless I build a decent base I have no chance of completing let alone competing.

I am swimming almost every morning. Rather than thrashing up and down the pool I am concentrating on my form. I have noticed that the first 200 - 300 metres are a struggle, but once I warm up and get into a rhythm I feel okay.

In fact the toughest part is getting on a early bus. Has anyone caught the bus at 6 in the morning? It is a different world out there

This morning I watched in awe as a guy ate fruit loops straight from the box. Not a small pack but a 1kg box. If that was not bad enough he was jamming them into his mouth handfuls at a time. While he wore woollen gloves.

It was bizarre.

For some reason the bus was actually full by the time I got on. As I settled into my standing up spot a youngish girl offered me her seat.

Now I know I do not look the best first thing in the morning but I do not look that old...........

Do I?

Cheers

Greg

PS back on the bike tonight I hope the hamstring holds up!

Real Stress

Real stress is not that nagging feeling you should be running, swimming or cycling as you sit watching TV.

Real stress is not the need to produce a mildly amusing (in the right conditions i.e. half drunk) erratic blog.

Real stress is a day like yesterday

As some of you might know my wife is 19 weeks pregnant. Yesterday we had the big scan. The scan where they check the baby is growing as it should.

I am not normally a stressed kind of guy. Getting ready to swim in my first mini tri, knowing that I was woefully under prepared and had a fair chance of drowning, I was not stressed. Stupid yes but not stressed.

Yesterday I was stressed.

I laughed, I cried and I saw my child. Everything went well (we still need to get official confirmation but so far so good). It was truly an unforgettable experience.

I have not completed an Ironman but I am sure nothing compares to days like yesterday.

Going through some of my recent posts this blog seems to be less about training the more actual training I do (I have swam almost everyday this week and the hammy is almost back)

Funny how things in your life seem to take precedence

Cheers

Greg

Inner City Swimming

My sore hamstrings mean I am spending a fair bit of time in the water. This week I have far I have manage to hit the pool 3 out of 4 days (I even spent some time in the medium swimming lane…till I got tired...). I have to say swimming at a city pool is a different world than what I am used to.

Today in the change room there was a lot of sand. Not a little but a lot. The only thing missing was a small child making sandcastles. I spent my whole swim trying to figure out how that much sand ended up in city (It is not like there is a beach near by).

In the end I came up with nothing

Anyone have any ideas (besides the sand being left in someone’s swimmers from the beach – I do not even want to entertain that thought)

Cheers

Greg

Ever tried to swim with a hamstring strain?

Don’t

It hurts. It really hurts.

So Sydney is all about World Youth Day. To avoid contestation the government telling people to avoid three places - Darling Harbour, Wynyard and Circular Quay

There are only two places I can get home from work– Wynyard and Circular Quay….and I have to walk through Darling Harbour every day……

As you can gather I have been able to really soak up the Youth Day shenagins. As I have watched I have wondered

Why does World Youth Day go for a week?
Why have I only seen middle aged “pilgrims”, no “youths”? Is it for the young at heart?
Surely the money spent making a pilgrimage be better spent as a charitable donation?

Finally I saw a man in a turban wearing a world youth day t-shirt.

Now that’s good marketing

Cheers

Greg

The start of a new relationship

That got you interested…..

I am talking about my search for a new gym. As some of you might know I recently moved jobs. It says a lot about my work situation that the saddest part of me leaving was moving away from my old gym.

I loved my old gym; it was the definition of old school. It was like Mickey’s gym in the first Rocky (or how Rocky trained for his fight against Ivan Drago)

The weights room had polished timber floor boards – it used to make the sweetest sound when you dropped weights onto the floor.

My favourite 3 memories were

The guy who wore bike pants to do weights। Not cardio. Weights. Do you know anyone who has gotten chaffing from doing weights?

The grunter who sounded like he was having marital relations every time he picked up a dumbbell (regardless of the weight – where do you look when someone groans “lifting” 5 kilo’s?)

And my favourite, the smelly guy who used to stand in front of the fan with his hands on top of his head

Wish me luck on my search

Cheers

Greg

It is enough to make you drown

Due to my current work situation (and that is a whole other story......) I have a lot of spare time on my hands. Maybe it says something about me but one of my great luxuries is not having to get up at the crack of dawn to train.

The other day I woke up around 8 and thought it would be a choice time to go for a swim. The pool was surprisingly busy for 9am on a weekday. Most lanes were full and there were a lot of old women (think 70 plus year olds) hanging around.

Then I saw it, the holy grail of indoor swimming, a free lane। It was all by itself next to the deep water area (where they do diving etc) .Perfect, on the side with no one else in it. I dove in and started to thrash up and down.

I have a confession to make (my secret shame). When I swim I can only breathe on one side (to the left). If I try to breathe to the right I swallow a lot of water and start the drowning process

As I worked my way up the pool I could hear some music being played. After performing a trademark Szudrich turn I swam back with the diving pool on my left.

Then I saw them

Thirty 70 year old women doing aqua aerobics

Suffice to say I swallowed a hell of a lot of water during that swim

Cheers

Greg

You get what you pay for

It’s cold and seems to be raining all the time. In weather like this the simple pleasure of getting into bed watching a DVD is hard to top

After the shoes, bike, not to mention all the lycra I am not exactly flush with cash. Despite this I really wanted to buy a second DVD player. Hello 30 dollar DVD player from the supermarket.

Perhaps this was my first mistake, it is never a good sign when you are putting a DVD player into your trolley next to tomatoes and toilet paper.

Second mistake was to buy a palsonic....not a Panasonic but a palsonic....

So I got home, put the rest of the shopping away (you have to get your cold stuff in the fridge..) I set it up and, somewhat surprisingly, it worked. As I started to doze off I thought it would be a smart idea to turn the DVD player off. I hit the off button on the remote and closed my eyes and started to drift off.

After about 5 minutes I noticed a glow in the room. I opened my eyes and saw this

What kind of genius thought it would be a good idea to put an off sign on a DVD player? This is how the DVD platers stays when it is off

Cheap and environmentally friendly.....nice.....

Cheers

Greg

Almost a setback

My training has hit a lull at the moment.

A combination of the cold weather, crazy times at work and football means I have not been training as much as I would like. The goal was to train twice a day, at the moment I am lucky to get out once day.

In an effort to step up my training I got online, found a store in the UK and bought an indoor trainer for my bike (lets all say a little prayer for birthday money...this tri business is expensive!).

Basically the trainer turns a normal bike into a stationary bike (kind of like an exercise bike).

There was only one problem........ it took me over a month to set it up. It is not like I did not try. Every night I would take the parts out of the box read the instructions and try to put it together (emphasis on try). This thing was harder to build than anything from IKEA. The worst part was it was not like I could take it back to the store!

The situation got so dire that I had to ask my wife to help out. What ever masculinity I had left is now officially out the door (to be fair I have been considering shaving my legs..). Thankfully even she was stumped

In the end I had to get a friend over to sort it out.....

Good news it works and I am back on the bike. Now I have some catching up to do

Cheers

Greg

Have I seen it all?

This triathlon business is a time consuming hobby. I spend large chunks of my day swimming, riding, running or recovering (to be fair I often spend more time recovering than exercising)

Basically I have a lot of time to think and observe. Some things that stood out this week

1. I rode behind a guy in skin tight stubbies. It could very well be the only time in my life I will say the words “can you please put on some lycra” out loud

2. One of the great pleasures (you could argue it is the only pleasure) of going for a bike ride at 5 in the morning is the post ride coffee.

I was sitting down having my skim flat white (two sugars) when a middle aged woman started yelling at the barista. Turns out he was not using organic fair trade coffee.

Part of her rant centred on how the barista could sleep at night selling coffee that was not made ethically, what about the children in Africa etc.

Funny thing is she was wearing a Chicago Bulls cap and a pair of Nikes all of which are made in sweat shops. I aint no Alanis Morisset but that was ironic

3. I swam next to a guy who was using a snorkel. In an indoor heated pool. Ridiculous.

Have I seen it all?

Greg

Getting serious?????

The BRW is run and done. Highlights include

I managed to talk my way into a male race on the day (I am sure this was a massive disappointment to all the ladies out there…).

During the swim, which was in Sydney harbour, I went head first into some seaweed – at least that is what I am calling it

I got the swim wrong and had to back track about 30 metres….I was out of the water in around 90th place out of 100 (30 metres is deal breaker to me)

By the time I was off the bike I close to last place

I smoked the run leg. I started feeling very good and at the half way stage I decided to take it up a notch was flying (relatively speaking) by the end.

I passed some “proper” tri guys on the run....and almost everyone who was in my race. Who would have thought a short bald man with dodgy knees would be able to take on some of the glamour boys!

I am starting to realise that I lack confidence in my own abilities. I need to have more faith in myself and my training so I can push myself even more.

By the way I finished in 39:08 - 5 minutes and 19 seconds quicker than last time.....and I bought some arm warmers to ride in

Things are getting serious.....

Cheers

Greg

49, 44:27, 12.4, 9 and Man Woman

Hi All,

Let’s not even talk about how long it has been since my last blog…..

49. I went for a 49 k ride the other week with my buddy Alex. For those of you who know the Northern beaches we rode from Balgowlah to Bayview and back (kind of near Mona Vale). I have to tell you the more I ride the more addictive it gets. By the end of the ride I was swaying like a drunk and could not sit properly for a good couple of days (padded pants are just not that padded)

44:27. This was my time in the last BRW tri. To be fair I had no idea what I was doing or how to race. When I finished I felt good, probably too good. In fact I felt so good I did the race a second time (and I was quicker). My two favourite memories from last year were

I used a 10 year old rusted mountain bike. With tyres thicker than an average car. And a bell. Every time I got out of my seat to pedal the bell would ring. Imagine me straining to get this 20 kilo thing up and down a hill and all you can hear is ring ring ring. The only thing my bike was missing was a basket

I stopped in the transition area to put on socks, dry myself and change my shorts. I am sure if I had hair I would have spent time sorting that out as well


12.4. 400 metre swim, 8 k ride and 4 k run. This is the BRW corporate tri that I am competing in this weekend. I want to take 4:27 from my time this year and get under 40 minutes. I am going to play football the day before so who knows how I am going to go!!

9. 9 degrees. I went swimming the other and it was 9 degrees. It was awesome

Man Woman. The BRW tri is in waves i.e. you get put in a group of 100 people and you all start at once. Due to a stuff up with my entry I am in a womens wave. I will be the only guy out of 100 women…..I am going to look like an East German swimmer in the 80’s

Wish me luck

Greg (PS hopefully i will get back into the swing of these)

Long Time Between Drinks

It has been too long since I last wrote! Rather than doing a crappy flashback I thought I would do a short and sweet summary. Here goes

I spent 250 dollars on a new helmet. It is red. Which must mean it is fast and bloody safe

I almost drowned using a kick board (think red flotation device from Baywatch). Have you ever tried to do laps using one of these things? It is hard work

I went cycling with an expert – it is amazing what you can learn. I was not using the correct gears, did not have the correct seat position, right body structure …..

The person I went riding with is so skinny that lycra is actually baggy on him

I pushed an 85 kilo Greek man up and down a gym hall until I almost threw up

I learnt how to take the wheels off my bike. Unfortunately I am not 100% sure how to put it back together

I am starting to run in tri shorts…they are lycra and way too tight

I bought a pair of white boots to play football in. In 27 years of playing footy I have only ever had black ones. These ones have silver on them…..

I heard one of the more funny jokes recently “ If Kevin Rudd wants to apologise for anything he should apologise for Adelaide”

I swam for 1 Kilometre. I remember when I could not swim a lap without drowning. I can feel the self belief building

With the start of the biggest loser I have been able to indulge in my secret pleasure – eating ice cream whilst watching big people exercise.

I heard that Sly Stallone has released another sequel to Rambo. So lately he has done another Rocky movie then a Rambo movie. Has he finally given up on coming up with new ideas (fair enough if you have ever had to sit through “Get Carter”)? Whats next……Tango and Cash 2? Stop or my mom will shoot again (is Estelle Getty even alive?)

Cheers

Greg (the sporadic blogger)

See a penny pick it up

See a penny, pick it up…..

Exercise: Monday weights, Tuesday 30 Min Bike, Wed 20 Min Bike / Weights, Thurs 30 Min Bike, Today Swimming (700 Metres)

I am a strong believer that you make your own luck. Lately I have been working pretty hard on my swimming technique – keep my core straight etc. I figure even if I can not swim very far I might as well look decent doing it.

Today I was warming up with a few slow laps (try and imagine how slow that would be – I was almost sinking to the bottom of the pool) when saw what looked like a two dollar coin in the deep end.

After another lap up and down I saw it again. I thought to my self why not, and dived down to grab the coin. The only problem was that the pool was pretty busy, so when I re-surfaced it was behind the person who was swimming after me. That had to mess with them a little bit.

Bizarre thing is that I also found 2 dollars at the shops…..

Tomorrow I am going to take out the kick board…wish me luck!


Cheers

Greg

Climb Every Mountain

Exercise: A couple of more swims – I even bought a kick board (things are starting to get serious)

Firstly a belated happy new year to all.

In an effort to start the New Year in a healthy fashion J and I decided to get out of Sydney for New Years Eve and go down to the Snowy Mountains…that’s right to the snow in summer (it was about 35 degrees every day!).

For those of you who do not know the highest “mountain” in Australia Mount Kosciusko is in the snowys. When I pictured the highest mountain in Australia I had always thought of a jagged peak, a step climb with some sort of a rock face and maybe some snow

Not this (it is the one circled in red)

It looks more like a hill, and not a very step one. To be fair it was a vigorous 1 hour walk but you could tell it was not overly difficult by the number of small children who where at the “summit”. In all it was one of the best holidays I have had although there was a down side…….I had the unfortunate experience of watching the Catherine Zeta Jones movie “No Reservations”. What a steaming heap of crap! She has to be the worst actress I have ever seen.

How do they make these movies? It was clichéd, boring and poorly acted! (rant over)

Cheers

Greg