lost momentum

g'day folks.

yeah, lost some momentum somewhere along the way with the blog. got a couple pictures emailed to us this week that i thought are worth sharing.

here we are atop the eureka tower.


and, as lynn mentioned in her blog, we attended a friend's baby's christening. Afterwards at the bbq, we got a chance to entertain the guest of honour (Charlie). or, maybe he entertained us:

karekare

had a conference over in christchurch, on the south island of new zealand in late january. so i figured since i was in the country that i'd head up to auckland for the weekend after the conference and hang out with jay and gesa 'at the beach'. they live a bit west of auckland, in a rainforest on the west coast, literally a couple metres from the beach. a very beautiful spot. was quite a shock coming from australia where it only rains once every couple of months. the grass was green! the waterfalls have water. its a whole other world over there.

mades for some difficult cycling too, because you have a 10k climb to start your ride. needless to say, i wasn't eager to get up in the morning for that. jay was in heavy ironman training mode when i visited, so we ended doing a 6.5hr 155k ride. he's got it tough, i must say. hills everywhere. we averaged about 25kph, which is ~10kph slower that our beach rd. great workout though, very scenic.

couple photos below ...

rubbing the belly. very nice. i believe we are looking at the waterfall that is about 50 metres from their house.


after a 10 minute hike, we are treated to these views. one of those house's below is when hamster lives. the beach is just off camera on the left.


fantastic area of the world.

the near death experience

ok, well, it wasn't really near-death. but it freaked me out pretty good. with all the publicity of steve irwin's death-by-stingray, it was quite a shock when i jumped in for a quick swim and first thing i see was a stingray scooting away from me. i jumped up pretty quick and back to shore. lynn had a good chuckle at me.

while in tasmania, we spent a couple days on the freycinet peninsula at coles bay. hiked over to see the infamous 'wineglass bay' ... named that not because it is shaped like a wineglass (though it is), but because there was a lot of whaling when the bay was discovered .... the water was coloured red from the blood. or, at least that's the (wives?) tale we were told.

Here are some pictures of us sea kayaking around coles bay.

tassie!

Sorry folks. Been a bag blogger lately. My plan is to get up-to-date, especially on the major things like Ironman Oz 07, a wee trip over to new zealand, but let's do this in chronological order, shall we?

Back in January (which seems so long ago), Lynn and I went to Tassie for a week. We did a half ironman race down there, and then travelled around for a few days.

What do you think of when you think 'Tasmania'? Untouched wilderness. Very laid back friendly folks. Seafood. Tasmanian Devils ... Yep, all that and more. Here are a few photos of our expedition.

The gorge in Launceston.


Burger joint in Hobart.


Looking up to Mt Wellington from Hobart.


Lynn up at the lookout on Mt Wellington.


Look down at the city of Hobart.


Funky rocks at Mt Wellington.


Tesselated Pavement on the east coast.


The former convict settlement at Port Arthur.

stacked it ...

well, after 2 years of cycling 200-450km per week, I was involved in my first stack (stack is australian for a crash). It was 'dumb driver day' on the roads in melbourne this weekend ... had a number of close calls, both on the bike and in the car. some people here have little regard for other's safety, or such minimal skill in driving to be aware of their surroundings.

it was days like this, that lower my desire to stay in this country long term. too many cowboys.

it happened pretty quick. one second, 7 of us were travelling along 2 abreast as normal in the bike lane around 40kph near Rosebud, 80km south of melbourne, and the next second my tailbone was kissing the pavement.

i'm thankful it wasn't worse as the guy beside me went over the handlebars, cracked his full carbon Orbea along the top tube, broke his helmet as his cheek and face rubbed pavement and probably also broke a finger.

some old guy, who evidently could barely see let alone drive, rolled past us and then 5 seconds later turned into a driveway directly in front of us. I was second wheel on the left side, the guys in the front managed to react well enough but trying to avoid them I veered left towards the truck, slowed a bit, ran out of real estate and hit the deck no-hands and onto my tailbone.

it could've been worse. the bike is ok and i was able to ride the 130k home, though with some pain.

major bummer. pun intended.

one of those days

It has been one of those days where I ask myself: why am I here? is my research *important* to anyone?

Maybe some light reading will do me good.
Example: Are doctorates worthwhile?

Oh well, tomorrow is a new day. A nice 90 minute run ought to put the mind (and body) at ease.

swimmin in the bay

here we are (me, ian, george) about to get tossed around in the bay. it doesn't look all that inviting, does it? this was taken over the christmas holidays.

and now, because the water is warmer than in past years and there has been prevailing southerly winds, the north part of the bay where we swim is chocked full of jelly fish. now these aren't the super stingers e.g. box jellies that can kill you (those are up in queensland), but they do give a slight sting and are a real nuisance. i personally get freaked out by coming across wildlife in the sea. much prefer fresh water swimming.

thanks to lavinia (ian's wife) for taking the picture of us (and for being our onshore lifeguard on a rather unpleasant day).

finally did it

Well, it happened. I won my age group in a half-ironman triathlon. Obviously, this depends on who shows up on the day, and the 25-29 group was much tougher. Good thing I'm 30! Finished in 18th place overall in a time of 4.22.31 (~29 swim, 2.27 bike, 1.25 run), 6th amateur.

I pretty much put together the best possible race I could and finally ran to my potential. Actually, I think I had a really good race back in Shepparton in December, it just happened to be 38 degrees that day.

So, all is coming along well for the big show, Ironman Australia in 4.5 weeks. Hope to have some heart rate data posted shortly, in addition to some pictures from Tassie.

here is lynn cruising through the run.


here she is hammering down the finish chute.


the name on the board at the awards ceremony.


the 'G' on the calf.

the great australian pastime

Aussie youth drinking till they drop


I've certainly seen some evidence of this. Of course, it may well exist back home, just that I was never awake to see it. Here, before 7am on a Saturday/Sunday, there is always a good number of young folks either passed out in the street or randomly meandering through the streets (presumably to their homes?).

heart rate data

i find this stuff very interesting. plotted below is my heart rate, taken every 15 seconds, for ironman uk last august and the half ironman in shepp in december. swim plotted in black, bike in blue, run in red.

you can right click on it and 'view image' to get a larger view.

ironman uk (august 2006)


the major thing to notice for ironman uk is that i had a really tough time after about 7 hours. notice the hr dropped considerably on the run and never returned. my run speed also dropped. if i can find a way to keep that up for longer, i should be able to go faster, even if that means going slower earlier in the race.

shepparton half ironman


in shepp, i deliberately went conservative on the bike, with the occasional 'lazy' period.