As we draw closer to Ironman WA it’s incredible to think there are 1200 individual competitors at Busselton Western Australia on 7 December for this epic event. There are also 72 teams of which our team, Three’s Company, is but one.

Tonight, I worked hard on my running with Front Runner. There are so many good male and female runners in this group and a new guy called Macca that Raf introduced me to that will be a newcomer to the WA tri scene after a 10yr hiatus. Brynt McSwain also there with Sally O’Dea and most of the regulars. Many did very well in the recent Hillarys and Bunbury triathlons either winning or placing second in their age group.

Tonight, I ran most of my kms at just over 4min/km pace. I feel I’m edging closer and closer to that elusive 4min/km pace for a 10km effort. It will come but not easily. We hike the Bibbulmun track this weekend and I’ll try to get some extra distance in as we inch closer to 7 Dec.

Many folk at my work are now cycling commuters which is heartening to see. Also a very effective way of saving money in tough financial times. As I’ve said before, I’ll give myself a one week taper into the marathon effort at IMWA. Good luck to all my teammates doing the 2 x laps of the Great Perth Bike ride. Its a frenetic effort near the front and one of my friends has nominated in the 40kph+ category.

It’s all happening as they say in the classics. Mel’s in Queensland, Matt’s off to Leavers soon. Dee’s Kilimanjaro trek gets closer and closer. I’m off to Melbourne for a week in early Jan 09 to visit family. Dee is still ripping up her Jacob’s ladder efforts and staying very fit. I’m still losing weight and getting very close to my 75kg goal.

A bit of wet weather in Perth but hopefully fining up soon.

Reservoir until later when I’ll hopefully have a bit more news.

CHRISTO

Last week has been mainly cycling to work and back. I did the Front Runner training on Thursday which was a 3km warmup, a 3 km warm down and 3x 2km efforts with some interval work. These guys (and girls) all run well. It’s a great running group.

Sat AM was a solid 60km effort with BFSR cycling into some very windy conditions. I can’t help think of all the folk doing their cycle training into these winds as they prepare for Ironman WA. I was happy with the effort and after an early puncture (see the Stercus Accidit saying) I worked hard for most of the journey.

On Sunday was the 10km Peninsula run as part of the WA Marathon Club. I was hoping to sneak under 45mins but 46mins had to do. A few friends had done the Bunberri triathlon in Bunbury with some 42min run efforts at the end of an Olympic Distance triathlon.

Just half an hour of swimming last night and some solid cycle efforts. A 20km run this evening should finish me off today. We’re preparing for our Bibbulmun walk track effort from Dwellingup this coming weekend. Its a 13km trek to Swamp Oak hut - a walk we’ve done a few times. Staying overnight this time.

The Gunners lost to Aston Villa so the Man Utd supporters move a little further ahead with a game in hand. Looks like Ben Cousins will get a green light at AFL level. Remember I told you all to look out for an AFL draft prospect called Kieran King - a great footballer and runner.

Funny that the third placed runner in the WAMC Peninsula run was one of my son’s running teammates, Josh Tedesco. The others, Paul Berenger, Jace Collingride and Adam Bastick all still doing their middle distance running. I’m sure my son will get back into it.

Reservoir. Not a lot of news for now. Just less than 3 weeks to go till the Ironman WA run leg as part of our team. Our rider posted a solid effort in the Chidlow ATTA time trial and our swimmer still powering along. It’ll be great to go to Busso without the burden of doing the whole Ironman this time.

CHRISTO

It’s now only 4 weeks to Busselton Ironman WA. Friday night was Casa Del Amici, a little Italian restaurant just up the road from us, with some friends. Sat AM I met up with around a dozen ‘Cool Runners’ at the south end of Mt Henry Bridge for a 5km time trial anticlockwise to the Deepwater Pt café. Got there in 22mins which I was happy with and which was pretty consistent with my 45min 10km run at the John Gilmour event. I saw Clarky and the others cycling along Canning Hwy and said gidday as I was crossing Canning Bridge. Felt a bit guilty about not cycling with them but my focus now has to be on running.

Nick Cunnington said the other BFSR boys went out to Freo. Not sure what distance they put in but last weeks was 170kms. To Todd, Hammo, Clarky, Hannah, Brendan, Paul P, Ashleigh, Tim and Emily (and anyone else putting in training efforts for IMWA, individually or part of a team) best of luck with it.

Also on Saturday I did Dee’s abs workout routine. This has to be the hardest core strength activity I have done. Essentially it’s 3 circuits of hard abs workouts. My stomach is still very sore from it. Complaining like a little girl, I was (hmmm, like Yoda, I sound!!)

Yesterday was a massive effort for me as I did four laps of the 7.5km Deepwater Pt circuit. First lap in 32mins, second in 33mins, third in 34mins and last lap in 35mins. A total of 2hrs 14mins for the 30kms. Now it may be that its only 7kms around, not really sure but I’ll take a sub 5min average on this 30kms. The challenge remains as to whether I could maintain this for the remaining 12kms of a marathon. I’d like to think I could keep my form. My right ITB (illio tibial band) a bit sore but no remnant ‘granny’ walk after this effort. I had 500mls of powerade after each lap and one carboshotz after 2 laps.

I said gidday to Mark Batten who just runs very fast and fluid. I think he is destined for a big IMWA result.

Dee went for 20 ascents of Jacob’s ladder (took her 90mins) and followed up with a long walk around Kings Park coming back via the Law Walk.

Driving back from JL along the freeway, saw Paul Prottey and the Cyclebuzz crew (I actually spotted them while I was running along Esplanade in Mt Pleasant earlier)

After this, Dee and I did some ‘power walking’ from Port Beach to Swanbourne and back then had a little pizza at the Beach Café. We figured that we’d both done well over a marathon distance for the day’s effort. I have to say that kitesurfing really appeals to me….but I just lack the courage to give it a go. It’s great walking along the coast.

Today, I will do swimming with Richard Kelly at Riverton. It will be 5.30 till 6.30pm. Be good to work the ’smooth’ muscles. It will be akin to a recovery for me so no sprint swimming, that’s for sure.

I’m on a diet at the moment and have already lost 1.4kgs over a few days. My aim is to lose another 4kgs and be 75kgs come race day for IMWA in 4 weeks time.

I will likely do the Peninsula Run for 10kms on 16 Nov and the Deepwater Pt run of 15kms on 30 Nov. These are both WA Marathon club runs. This last run will be one week prior to IMWA so all efforts in taper week will be moderate and nothing over 15kms.

Today, commuted in on ‘Sparkles’ for a short ride from Murdoch to City (and back again when I leave work). It’s funny, I can basically run till I drop and be very sore from it but when I get on the bike it’s a different sort of effort and the running aches and pains seem to disappear. Quite bizarre.

I enjoyed watching Rove last night - especially the bit about Rob Schneider having a Jewish dad and Chinese mum. In the year of the pig ,his dad wouldn’t talk to his mum for a whole year. Very funny!

CHRISTO

Last night was a tough grind on the bike into a south westerly. A guy from work, Mark, shared the work with me and took the edge of what would have been a very tough ride. Today, I met up with some ‘Cool Runners’ at Deepwater Point and did a 5km run in 22mins. This is about on par with my 10Km effort recently. Did a very hard abs session alongside Dee. She did 3 reps of a very hard routine. She simply has more core strength than me. Tomorrow, I run 30kms ( or 4 laps of Deepwater Point). Dee has 20 sets of Jacobs ladder and a long walk around Kings Park to look forward to. She now controls my diet as I need to lose 5kgs in 4 weeks in time for the run at Ironman WA.

I saw the Bikeforce Southern River guys at Canning Bridge as I was finishing my run. They are into serious distance now as some of them wheeled around to Freo. Last week they put in a 170km effort. Not sure about today although 3 of them went the normal 60km route.

Great weather in Perth this next week. Great to be alive.

CHRISTO

On Friday 31 October I went along after work to do the John Gilmour 10K track run. My aim was to do this in 45min (my ultimate aim is to run distance in 4min/km pace but I’m a way off that at present)

I got to Coker Park near Carousel and registered. I met up with John Gilmour and he seems in fine fettle. He is nearly 90yo now and looks like he could probably still run this event. I also saw Raf Baugh there and one of his charges( Mark)  won the over 40min event with a time of around 39m45s. The serious insects did it in just over 32mins.

I had type out my expected 1min 48s lap time for each set of 400metres and stayed pretty close to this for the first 15 laps. I blew out a little but not much and the last lap was a lot quicker. Tried to encourage a couple of women (both named Fiona) to stay on the pace. They also did a great job. A great event that I’ll do next year.

On Saturday morning, I drove down to Dunsborough and got in the queue for Anaconda registration around midday. It was still a 45min wait to get registered. I drove straight down to Vasse Felix to meet with Declan and Monica, some friends. I had gnocchi and a decadent 3 chocolates dish. We observed a wedding at which the bride was around an hour late. A beautiful place along Caves Road near Wilyabrup.

I drove down to Margaret River at Prevelly to our house (Dolfinn House). This was a beautiful big house and I’d brought down a spinach lasagne that Dee cooked. Monica had also made her famous Lamb Biryani so it was good tucker all round. Tim Roach, Steve Stick and Mick Edwards all made their way to the house and Craig Fisher popped in for a while (well, it is his house!)

Tim and Craig were in a team called Far Canal 1 and our other team was Far Canal 2. We set our alarms for 4.30am (ok, snoozed till around 4.50am). When we got to Dunsborough, the scene was surreal. There were hundreds of paddle skis on the beach and some dejected team members who discovered there had been a run on the Anaconda towels and no large t-shirts left.

The logistics of just organising one team was hard enough to fathom, let alone nearly 1600 participants. Mick started off the swim confident as he had a half ironman under his belt and was familiar with the ‘washing machine’. Even still, it was a 300m wade through the shallows near the end of the 1.9km swim and a further 400m to get to Steve’s ski. Mick had a nasty injury from stepping on a piece of coral but did a great job. Steve ended up taking a fairly direct path out (as had Craig a little earlier). I understand the 13km paddle was fairly uneventful and Steve paddle on strongly passing around 24 people.

I started the run with my 3 litre camelbak on and negotiated the first few hundred metres of rockhopping slowly. The path running over the first hill was challenging enough and the mixture of rockhopping and soft sand running to get to Sugarloaf was draining. A huge queue of people were at Sugarloaf. Organisers came around saying it was only a 10min penalty to walk around to water and a 15min wait to actually do it. I said to Serena Nathan, a Cool Runner , that I hadn’t paid my entry fee to walk around. Heck it was chalk and cheese compared to last year’s dip. The swell this year was quite big and waves just rolled in. I reckon I had 4 waves toss me around before I managed a secure hand grip on a rock and clambered up. Jacoby’s Revenge lay waiting and after about 1km of fairly flat running, I did the 1.5km hill. I saw a huge line of people walking up this so I wasn’t about to add contrast to that!!

After putting away my second carboshotz gel, I felt good for the meadow runs and passed quite a large number of people who were, by now, walking. Declan was ready with his sparkly Cannondale and took off on his mountain bike leg. There was a young lad challenging people to plough through a muddy bog with the reward of being on youtube. I think Declan may have reacted to the prospect of such fame as he managed a full layer of mud from head to toe. Unfortunately, no youtube evidence!! Declan emerged at Old Dunsborough and our team proceeded on its 1.8km beach run to the finish. Amid the courage of teams with amputees and palsy - afflicted competitors was the shame that they actually passed us. Good on ‘em.

We had a blast and all vowed to do the event next year. Last night I watched a fantastic documentary on Australian swimming and revived all the memories of watching great Aussie swimmers do their stuff. It was a great tribute to Australian swimming and reminded me that if you do something as a team you find a little bit extra so as not to let your team mates down. Anaconda was the epitome of that.

I drove home fairly soon after the event and ended up having a 40min snooze at a service station near Bunbury (to avoid falling asleep at the wheel)

Tonight, Dee and I will watch ‘Spirit of the Marathon’ at Cinema Paradiso in Northbridge. I am hoping to eke out some inspiration to enable these next 4 to 5 weeks to be meaningful in preparing for my marathon run as part of an Ironman WA team.

Big congrats to Raf Baugh who posted 1hr 11mins to win the Anaconda run leg quite easily. Also to Tim Roach who put in 5th best MTB in spite of his 1hr 43min run.

Kudos to several of my friends who put in a 170km bike training effort in their final IMWA preparations. There are 72 teams at IMWA in addition to nearly 1200 individual competitors. We’ll be staying at Peppermint Park Eco Village.

We have an overnight hike on the Bibbulmun Track at Dwellingup on 23 Nov down to Swamp Oak hut. Should be fun. I’ll also do the Deepwater Point 15km run on 30 November.

Reservoir for now.

CHRISTO

The weekend involved a fair bit of training with a fair bit of Spring cleaning. On Saturday, our BFSR group detoured from the Narrows to Fremantle for a coffee stop then down Marmion St and back to Canning Vale. I think we’d done around 80kms instead of our usual 60kms and it was a sensible ride (with some of our group doing the Golden Spokes event the next day). Still, its hard to know if we are actually saving our legs from a mashing. It seemed a pretty challenging effort to me. Dee did her usual 1hr run, an abs workout and a solid effort on the exercise bike. She’s getting very, very fit but I can’t get her to use her powers for a competitive run or cycle. Sometimes I can hear her Trek 1000 road bike crying in the garage!!

Yesterday, I was going to hit Deepwater Pt but I ended up dropping Dee at Jacob’s ladder so it was twice around the Bridges circuit for me. Now sub 50min efforts for each of these laps may not seem much to write home about but if I can maintain that pace for a marathon then a 3hr30min effort is possible. Reality says the second 21kms will be slower so the aim of going sub 4hr remains. I had a guy running around 10metres behind me on the second lap. He was with someone else and joking that they were trying to keep up with the triathlete. It was light-hearted stuff as they caught up to me and he ended up being a triathlete a little older than me who had travelled to Vancouver to compete in the World Tri championships. He trains with the Stadium Tri Club and just a nice guy. It was a bit of an obstacle course trying to run around all the preparation for the Red Bull Air Race this weekend. (My brother John is down to 75kgs now (heck, he’s a good 6kgs lighter than me now. Good job Buddha!) He’s also contemplating his first marathon).

Anyway, back at the Causeway, I unwittingly found myself part of the Cliff Bould Masters event at McCallum Park. Didn’t take much fluids on board for this effort but only very minor ITB soreness near the knees this time after the 20kms. Definitely no ‘granny’ walk afterwards. I joined Dee and her mates for a coffee and chat at Zamia’s in Kings Park. Dee and I were in the middle of Spring cleaning on Sun pm.

I caught up with Shannon and Paul and they had capped off a very successful weekend. Paul P had ridden strongly with Peter Clark and Brendan McSweeney for around 2/3 of the open event. Its hard to stay on the pace with the likes of Cameron Meyer in the mix. A fantastic effort. Shannon Arnott and Hannah Lawton had just given another 30 women the triathlon bug by introducing them to their first triathlon. Their Fitness Hub triathlon training programme is going from strength to strength. (Shannon and Hannah had placed third among the females last week in the ATTA ‘two up’ event)

Also, Luke Hardy rode strongly in the open event and Richard Kelly won some prizemoney placing 4th in the support event at Golden Spokes.

Lorraine Shutz is still eking out 38 to 39kph efforts. ATTA plan an event along the new Mitchell Freeway extension this coming weekend. I think its 35kms covering a few laps of a new 8km stretch of the freeway. I did want to echo Mouse’s sentiments toward Guy Pritchard in recently breaking the 40kph barrier in a 20km ATTA event. A big, big milestone he’s been aiming at for some time.

Anaconda looms large now at Dunsborough. Less than a week to go. I have the big hill (Jacoby’s Revenge) after the Sugarloaf Rock dip as the major obstacle for the run. Of course, there are also many, many, many rocks and soft sand to contend with. I hope the conditions are also good for the swimmers and paddlers. Should be a great event. If Dee wants to travel down Friday night, then I’ll have to give the John Gilmour 10km event a miss at Coker Park near Carousel. She will be bringing down some Spinach Lasagne (a dish that my mum used to cook quite regularly). Yum! 

Google ‘Dolphin House’ at Margaret River to check out the place we are staying at. Fantastic digs! Come on teams Far Canal 1 and Far Canal 2.

I  checked Ironman WA and around 1200 individuals have signed up. Entries are now closed. Not sure how many teams but you’d have to think 50 plus. Its gonna be huge!! Our team of Emily Panietz, Brendan McSweeney and myself (Team Three’s Company) will have Ashleigh Davis, Paul Prottey and Tim Roach (Team Ain’t going to rehab) to keep us company in the mixed category.

Swimming tonight with the ‘Golden Spokes’ boy, Mr Kelly, at 5.30pm at Riverton Leisureplex. The more the merrier so come along if you wish. Don’t expect to learn any swimming technique from me - just a little pool rage at the ‘apple bobbers’ who swim in the Medium lane. We plan to make 5.15pm Fridays a regular swim too at Riverton.

Arsenal won, the Perth Glory were robbed, Wildcats won, the Phillies won. Let’s win the cricket at New Delhi now.

These next 6 weeks will see some heroic training efforts from a lot of you and steely resolve. Good luck to all of you pushing your physical and mental limits. Finally, on 30 Nov, there’s a 7.5km and a 15km run around Deepwater Pt starting at 7.30am. Check our my recent forays on the Cool Running forums (forii??)

We have an overnight hike at Dwellingup to Swamp Oak Hut and return (26km total) planned in a few weeks time. Should be fun.

Remember, life is short and hard…..like a body building midget!!!

CHRISTO

Ok, not a big fan of losing 1hr of daylight after tonight. I’m sure a lot of athletes feel the same. Today’s cycle was around 80kms and we had a few ‘Golden Spokes’ entrants for tomorrows event at Champion Lakes in Armadale. Some of the guys were going on for yet another 70kms of cycling. Phew!! I’ll go for another long run (3 laps of Deepwater Pt) tomorrow. No breakneck speed for this effort. Dee will be at Jacob’s ladder.

It’s a busy time of year. Anaconda coming up. We’re staying at a place called Dolphin House in Margaret River (Gnarabup). Hopefully with around 1400 entrants registered for this event, I won’t get lost in the Anaconda run (or lead others astray!!)

Had my first swim in a few months last Monday. Plan to make Mondays at 5.30pm at Riverton Leisureplex a regular training effort. We are busy trying to get at least one more regular swim in each week - likely 5.30pm on Fridays!

Final big cycling event this year is the Great Perth Bike Ride around the river. We have the Mitchell Fway Aust Time Trial event coming up, the John Gilmour 10km run on Fri 31Oct, and many triathlon events coming up around the corner.

As I cycled back along Marmion St Booragoon I had a touch of nostagia as I saw all the Melville Roar (Melville Little Athletics Centre) athletes at Len Shearer Reserve. I used to be the PA announcer here for several years as well as co-organiser of Bateman Bullcreek Little Athletics Club. In many ways, its a shame the kids are all grown up now (17yo and 20yo)

Watching a Pink concert on Foxtel with Dee now, just eaten a really healthy lunch. Gonna catch the ACDC live concert on Foxtel tomorrow.  Congrats to Ireland on a 45 to 44 win over Australia in the International Rules game last night in Perth. Over 35000 people.

I have good health, good training in me, a good attitude and really looking forward to Anaconda and IMWA. I have organised to catch up with some Cool Runners next Sunday at Deepwater Pt.

Life is good. I have to show my face again at Front Runner training otherwise Raf Baugh will have my guts for garters. Getting stronger. Who knows- one day I may run like Mike Szalek.

Reservoir for now.

CHRISTO

Well, it was a big weekend for this little black duck. I travelled over to Rottnest on the 3pm Ferry from Northport and, after a fairly rough trip, got there and checked out Stephen Dunn’s ‘digs’ with the WA Marathon Club. They were hosting a young Japanese girl who’d flown over just for the marathon . On Steve’s advice, I grabbed a large banana smoothie from ‘Juicenest’ ( I think that’s its name)

Steve was a bit curious that I’d done a 12km run around Deepwater Pt that morning but I did tell him I’d done it easy.

I walked all the way to Kingston Barracks but got to the room and found it was locked. I later discovered I should have picked up a key from the Visitor’s Centre in Thomson Bay so I trekked back to get the key. I was ‘rooming’ with Tom Bakowski who is gunning for a spot in Hawaii Ironman and his partner was also going to compete in the New York Marathon in a couple of weeks. He ended up winning the Rotto Marathon!

I also met up with two other guys who had both done Comrades ,86kms of running ‘hell. For what its worth, they’ve run it  ‘up’ and ‘down’. Apparently, Comrades in South Africa changes direction each year. Another guy had flown all the way from Mackay after having driven 300km to the airport. In fact, everyone I met was doing the marathon so it was a great, infectious atmosphere.

I downed a couple of big tins of spaghetti bolognaise for dinner, a couple of milo’s and lots of water. I got to sleep at around 9pm (after draping a Huntsman spider the size of my hand across my body in the gent’s showers after it had parked on my towel. Freaked me out a bit (ok, a lot))

I discovered that Tom snores and he was in the bunk underneath me. All in all though , a fairly good nights sleep. I met up with Steve at 5.30am near the start line and spent a bit of time stretching and hydrating, suncreening, dencorub, BodyGlide, etc, etc. I had decided to wear my 3 litre camelbak for the Marathon. I only saw one other person wearing one but I was happy enough with the decision.

The bagpiper started to play ‘Chariots of Fire’ and with that the marathon had started. Steve and I had counted on just sitting at 5min 30sec/kms - the focus was on Steve finishing his 100th marathon intact and that was a good enough reason for me to be running it. It’s a fairly undulating course and the first half weather conditions were pretty good with a tailwind heading out over the saltpan causeway. The third and fourth laps proved testing and we slowed down a fair bit. In the end we posted over 4hrs 40mins and Steve got the acclaim he richly deserved.

After the event, I walked back to Kingston Barracks for a shower and to pack my gear. At around 11.45am, I headed back to Thomson Bay and was just in time for the presentation ceremony. A couple of my son’s running mates, Jace Collingridge and Adam Bastick went well in the 5km fun run. In the marathon results, the guy who slept in the bunk under me, Tom Bakowski ( not sure of the spelling) finished first in around 2hr 51mins) and Mike Szalek finished 3rd overall. At age 49, that’s a great result for Mike and I think his time was around the 3hr mark (again, not sure). It was funny to hear the reaction from some of the seasoned marathoners that triathletes/ironmen had put in the best times. No surprise to me. Tom was saying to me that in the 25 to 29 age group he needs a sub 9hr IMWA time and he just seems to be in rock solid shape for it.

The Japanese girl (Kaoki) won her second marathon in a 3hr 20min time. I put two steak and onion pies into me from the bakery and just took a load off. Apart from some minor ITB soreness, I feel fine. Cycled into work today and kept a few other guys honest.

I heard from Richard that our Cyclosportif team finshed under 2hrs and around 5mins faster than our team time last year at Pickering Brook. Luke Hardy did well steering the ship and cracking the whip. Haven’t heard how the Two Up teams of Paul P and Brendan (and Rod Mejias and Guy Pritchard) went but I’m sure they did very well.

Dee went in the John Hughes 17km Big Walk with a few of her training friends. She also posted 90kms on the exercise bike which is a phenomenal effort. Our next adventure is Anaconda then, in around 5 weeks from now, Ironman WA team event.

A mate at work is trying to get me to commit to a Cape to Cape 135KM  walk in mid November. I just think my schedule has become too busy at the moment.  And its just a really hard effort. Matty has his Leavers trip to Dunsborough on 23 Nov.

As they say in the classics, its all happening. I would have loved to hang around Rotto some more and explore the Island but there’s time enough for that. I had a friend who has just bought himself a Searay 48 foot boat. Would have been nice to chill out on that after the marathon. Still it was a great event, plenty of inspiration out there. I am encouraged that I have pulled up very well but , with a 4hr 40min effort, I think I took it pretty easy on my body. It was great to share Steve’s 100th marathon and a memory that will stay with me forever. We saw Darryl Howe battling through the marathon but there were so many other gutsy efforts out there. Anyway, I’ve bought the singlet and that’s the first official marathon.

CHRISTO

At around 80kgs, I’m around 5kgs heavier than this time last year. But I had Ironman WA to prepare for last year. On Sunday, I will attempt the Rottnest Marathon at around 5min30s pace. Slow and steady for this little black duck!

Good luck to the BFSR Force team in cyclosportif at the 75km Pickering Brook event this Sunday. I start swimming every Monday evening at Riverton Leisureplex - I hate that black line. I have a work friend who swims 13kms every day for an average of 5hrs. Amazing really.

Had a big bowl of porridge, just about to commute into work. Plenty of dolphins in the Swan River lately - adds to the aesthetics of the trip in.  I’m really looking forward to Anaconda. We’re staying in a big house at Gnarabup. I’m also going to do the John Gilmour event on Friday 31 Oct. 10km of lap running. John’s a fantastic bloke.

Today, time to buy some qoleum gel, carboshotz gels, carboshotz tablets and a decent running top. Dee needs some new ASICS DS Trainers (her favourite running shoe). We’ll start to do some planning soon for tackling the Bibbulmun Track end-to-end in Nov 2009.

Stay fit, healthy.

Reservoir

CHRISTO

I write not of my own but of others who deserve recognition for their efforts against considerable obstacles. Today, I went for a 7.5km jog around Deepwater Pt circuit then on to drop Dee at Jacob’s Ladder and on to do 2 x 10km laps of the Bridges. On my second of these laps I chanced upon a man , Darryl Howe who I greeted and spent a little while chatting to. He has a type of palsy that contorts his muscles to the point where it makes running very, very challenging. Darryl will also be doing the Rottnest Island Marathon, his third (and his 11th marathon overall) Some of you may have seen a TV special on Darryl. I was just about to tell him that my training effort today was nearly 30kms when he beat me to it and said he was on his final training run of some 37kms. Whew!! Time to eat a major slice of humble pie.

Lots of runners and cyclist out today. Yesterday, I was very happy with the Bikeforce Southern River ride (60kms) as , again, Luke Hardy and Richard Kelly dominated the efforts. Todd Panietz and Peter Clark are well into their Ironman WA efforts and they certainly looked strong on the bike today. Todd was going to put in around 130kms today with Peter Clark a similar load. Brendan McSweeney is up in Pt Hedland working and also putting in major bike training efforts in very oppressive conditions.

Yesterday afternoon, I thought I would give my wife some company doing her abdominal training. Boy was that  mistake. She has far superior muscle conditioning to me and I just complained like a little girl doing 3 sets of abdominal exercices. Feeling it today.

Dee and I went to see ‘My Best Friends Girl’ at Hoyts Carousel La Premiere. Boy has La Premiere gone down hill. They usher you straight out of the place after the movie, you no longer get free coffee or tea…..and its $33 each. Great movie though.

Good luck to all the Cyclosportif cyclists for this Sunday at Pickering Brook. A challenging 75km course.

I am encouraged see so much support for Stephen Dunn on the Cool Runnings Rottnest Marathon threads for his upcoming 100th marathon.  Looks like Perth will get something akin to summer weather in the next few days.  I know I’m way underdone for the Rotto Marathon but I also know I’ll finish it.

I have to say I’ve really enjoyed some specials on Foxtel recently. First it was a great Neil Young special a couple of months back (and I hear he is headlining Big Day Out in Perth. I then say a Midnight Oil special on Foxtel and a special on SBS on The Angels. The icing on the cake will be the live ACDC concerts on Foxtel at Midday this coming Saturday.

The three bands I used to see live in my younger days. Good training to all of you. I have a bit of a granny walk at present but I am already feeling better. I must remember the purpose and value of a training taper some day.

Some relatives of mine got involved in a large brawl near Sandalfords at Spring in the Valley. After witnessing a female getting punched in the face by a guy, they naturally stepped in, only to be set upon by some goons in what appeared to be army camouflage type outfits. One of our rellies seriously injured with dental damage (lost molar) and facial fracture.

Reservoir

CHRISTO