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

Last year I was involved in Anaconda at Dunsborough in Western Australia. It was a great event and our team had its share of drama. Our swimmer had a tough chop to work with and our paddler had a carbon blade from his paddle become dislodged and did the last half of the paddle Canadian canoe style. I had just seen Raf Baugh scamper over the rocks like a whippet and figured the run couldn’t have been that difficult. Wrong, wrong, wrong!!

Not only did ai get lost a few times on the way to Sugarloaf Rock but I led a group of at least 6 other people left instead of ducking under a barbed wire fence. So be warned. I reckon we had gone 5mins the wrong way before backtracking so I felt awful that others had suffered a 10min loss of time as well.

Yesterday, Dee and I travelled to Dunsborough early so that we could start the familiarisation run from Bunker Bay to the MTB transition area. I have to say that I felt for the paddle ski’s at Eagle Bay who did their own familiarisation in huge swell and atrocious weather. A few of them were taken out around 5 to 6km out to sea and rescued by a fishing boat. The organisers , to be fair, could not have anticipated how bad the conditions would be.

Back to the run start and , after a delayed start from the original 10.45am start we set off at 11.50am. The path initially is pretty tricky across the rocks before rising to some forest tracks and sandy tracks leading down to many,many more rocks. After a while , you develop a proficiency in rockhopping and looking a few metres ahead of where you’re going to land next. The calf muscles and quads got a real workout. Combined with the soft sand running, it was also important to hydrate well. The surf around Sugarloaf and swell was enormous and very, very windy.

I’m sure our little group of 6 didn’t traverse the proper Anaconda track however we weren’t that far off the mark. Clambering around rocks got the adrenalin going. Thankfully, no-one was at Sugarloaf during this familiarisation run egging us on to jump into the water. The real surprise packet is a hill that goes up for around 1.5kms at least from Sugarloaf. Its a hard run after your shoes are wet and you’re still smarting from the icy plunge. The last few kilometres are mainly across farmland and, for the most part, pretty quick. Near the top of the big hill, a dead kangaroo provides quite a unique sight (and smell)!!

Our sincere thanks to Stu Durham from Eclipse Fitness for picking us up and taking us the 8.4kms back to Bunker Bay where our car was parked. We stayed at Peppermint Park Eco Park near Busselton which was a beautiful park. We had our camping gear but we booked an ensuite site.  A couple from Tas have recently taken over and refurbished this place. We’ll be back there for sure when we venture down for Ironman WA.

Thanks to Bunker Bay Resort coffee shop for a nice cuppa at the start. Also congrats to our fellow runners including Maxine, Holly and a few others. Looking forward to doing this great event again on 2 Nov 2008. Staying at salubrious digs at Gnarabup for that actual event. Also, congratulations to my Daihatsu Sirion for thousands of kilometres of hassle-free country driving recently.

I have a lot of longish runs ahead of me over these next 2 to 3 weeks. Managed to get some accommodation at Rotto for the Marathon. Pretty well booked out for 19 Oct.

Reservoir

CHRISTO

Have just spent the long weekend at Bluff Knoll in the Stirling Ranges. Its the highest peak in Western Australia at approx 1050metres. Looked at it thinking Dee has to climb 6 times this height at Kilimanjaro in around 12 weeks. Actually, the Bluff Knoll carpark is around 350m above sea level so its only around a 700m climb.

We stayed at Stirling Retreat which was pretty busy but a fantastic little place. We had an unpowered camp site but some friends has one of the family ensuite rooms and we had nice weather for the whole weekend. Nearly ran over an emu and her chick just near the Retreat (but didn’t)

We packed our backpacks pretty full and around 10 of us did the climb. It was like a big anticlockwise climb from the front of the mountain and ending near the back of it. I was just awestruck by the gliders that were there from the Narrogin Gliding club. They were towed up effortlessly and taken to just above Bluff Knoll where the updrafts from the mountain face kept them aloft for ages. They came close enough for the pilot and passenger to give us climbers a wave. Eerie watching them just slice through the air in near-silence. We saw a huge wedge-tailed eagle just beneath the glider. We could see the ocean near Albany looking one way, Ellen Peak off to our right, Mt Trio to our left. Beautful place, a lot cooler that I thought it was going to be. I saw one of our Front Runner crew up near the summit. I brought my little Kovea stove and we all managed to boil our water and have a hot coffee at the top. We had our lunch at the top and made our way down. Pretty slippery and lots of other people climbing up and down Bluff Knoll. Its hard to believe that whiteout conditions could make visibility vanish to just 5 metres at short notice.  The Stirling Ridge walk looks difficult from Ellen Peak and 15.5kms to Bluff Knoll as the crow flies. If only we were crows.

I have so many people hooked on such a simple habit now. As soon as we say a word that an ‘I’ sound, we make it sound like Kath and Kim would say it. Hence the ‘cloimbing and hoiking’!! I will travel to Dunsborough for the day next week to do the Anaconda familiarization for the run leg (after leading several runners astray last year and getting lost a couple more times to boot!)

Our little Daihatsu Sirion did the trip at around 100kph for a total of 850kms all up. Waiting for our Supremo Wrap from Nando’s right now and chilling out. Nearly unpacked, washed all the clothes and ready for another working week. Bit of a wet week ahead but all is good with the world.

The dogs are thankfully still alive and the main source of amusement was a wind up torch/radio I bought from an auto shop that just wouldn’t work properly. So back it goes. Its seems people were winding me up all weekend about my futile attempts to wind the torch up.

Well done to the Hawks and Tassie. Another grand final we didn’t get to see. Last year this time, we were trekking Dwellingup to Swamp Oak hut and back.

Life certainly isn’t boring.

Reservoir

CHRISTO

As most of you know, just over a week ago, near the end of a 15km run around Deepwater Pt, I felt my right calf muscle give way (what I was doing with a cow strapped on me I’ll never know! Ok, just kidding!) And I was only half a km from finishing the run. Pretty frustrating.

Saturday’s bike ride was pretty frenetic. Rodrigo Mejias was at the front which always means a fast, unrelenting ride. He’s one of the best time triallers in the state here in Western Australia. I got dropped again just before the Causeway but the group always wait for us stragglers near the Narrows Bridge. No Richard Kelly, no Rob Walt, no Luke Hardy so a lot of the pacesetting was on Rod’s back.

I’ve been able to cycle with this calf injury but no running for a week now. Not sure if its my soleus or gastrocnemius muscle (I hope it’s the first one because it’s much easier to say!) It’s been very sobering for me to be hit with running impediments.My family will tell you I’ve never (ever) had running injuries before! Before this calf muscle, it was 3 weeks of bronchitis. Hopefully, that’s the end of a patch of bad luck.

Last Sunday, around 6 of us went trekking from the Northern start of the 950km Bibbulmun track at Kalamunda and 10.5km to the first hut called Hewitts Hill and back for a 21km round trip. Our same group (plus another 6) are all camping and trekking at Bluff Knoll this long weekend. Bluff Knoll is the highest of WA’s peaks and apparently there was snow in these Stirling Ranges last weekend. And unpowered campsites to boot. I have an uneasy feeling already!!!!!

Back to our Sunday trek, it was a cold, wet and windy walk but we were pretty well decked out with wet weather gear. Dee and I have decided we will prepare ourselves (in just over 12mths time) for an assault on the entire Bibbulmun Track. So giving you all plenty of notice in case any of you want to tag along (or just do a section or two with us). We figure it will take 4 to 5 weeks with 30kms a day being the aim. If any of you are serious about joining us, feel free to let me know so we include you in all the planning.

A few of my friends did the Team Time Trial near Pinjarra last weekend (weather didn’t seem to be on your side). Paul Prottey, Peter Clark and Brendan McSweeney placed 3rd in the competitive Masters category. Well done guys. There’s no such thing as an easy time trial. Very taxing in atrocious weather. 

I’m aiming to run with Stephen Dunn in the Rottnest Marathon. There’ll be no sub 4hr aspirations, it will just be a trundle through to finish it with Steve. It will be his 100th marathon and he’s only around 41yrs old. It’s hard enough for most of us to imagine doing just the one marathon (or a half marathon for that matter!)

I’m also on board for Anaconda with Declan in a team of 4 again. I’m just doing the 14km run but once bitten twice shy - it’s a flamin’ hard run and it would be good if I didn’t get lost on the run this time. Can’t wait to jump off Sugarloaf Rock again (actually, I can wait!)

And I know I’ve said this before, but I plan to start swimming training again at Riverton Leisureplex with at least one other person. We won’t set the world on fire at between 50 sec to 1mins per 50metres. Still, swimming is good because you can feel it doing you good and it becomes meditative (also a lot easier to do now that the weather is getting warmer)

Todd Panietz and Peter Clark in the business end of their IMWA training. I hope its all sailing along nicely. If any of you IMWA aspirants want some company on the long cycling digs (and I don’t slow you down too much) give me a yell and I’ll join you. Brendan, our team cyclist and Emily our swimmer for IMWA- I’m sure you both are getting stuck in to your training. I haven’t yet booked accommodation in Busselton but no need to panic at this stage.

There’s also a 12 hour rogaine coming up on 11 October (I’m reliably informed). It’s near Dryandra /Wandering way. (Actually its rather ironic because when I rogaine, I feel like I’m just wandering anyway!!)

Stay happy, healthy.

I’ve only just revived our Sony Vaio so have been offline at home for a while.

CHRISTO