Monday, December 11, 2006
My New Sport
We are winding down our time here in
We visited Sydney Olympic Park, the site of the 2000 Summer Olympics. It is a huge complex with many sites and venues including the Telstra Stadium, the competition pool, running track, archery range, courts of every type (basketball to badminton), a skate park, etc. It is open to the public and there are also instructed lessons at a number of the sites.
I had my eye on one sport in particular that I wanted to give a go. I've always been a bit of a monkey boy wanting to climb around and hang on stuff and my swimming background has given me some upper body strength that I thought could be helpful. So I signed up and went through the introductory course and did some drills and practice maneuvers on the ground to get me going. Then we moved onto the real deal and built up the foundation motions and then worked on some more advanced moves. See the video of me in action.
Video of Jim in Action
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Jim smashes 2 hours at the Noosa Tri!
This weekend we were up at Noosa for largest triathlon in the Southern Hemisphere. There were about 2500 individual competitors and over 870 teams of 3 people each. That created quite a mess out on the bike course; lots of crashes and near misses. Jim and I both made it through unscathed. Jim raced in the Age Group Elite category and improved his personal best time at this distance by about 4 minutes with a finishing time of 1:57:48! He was able to nab 4th place out of 42 (one spot out of the money). I also improved my personal best at this distance by just over a minute to finish in 2:36:44, good enough for me to grab 37th place out of 145 in my age group. Technically it was a non-drafting race, but with thousands of cyclists on the road at once, officiating such a rule was impossible. Because Jim is fast, he started in the 3rd wave, 8 minutes behind the pros, so they had a bit more of an open course to work with. He had a good swim, good bike and excellent run. It seems like all 3 sports are coming together now for him so he should have an great race at the Long Course World Championships in Canberra this November.
Results for this weekends race can be found here: http://www.usmevents.com.au/series/NTMSF/results.cfm
We had an early and tiring day, so that's it for now...
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Bribie Island Triathlon
Last weekend we went to Bribie Island (about a 1 hour drive north of here) for a sprint distance triathlon. It was a 750 meter straight, tide assisted swim followed by a 20 km bike ride and a 5 km run. Jim had a great race and finished forth overall. I also finished forth, but out of 17 in my age group. I found out that wetsuits really do give an advantage when most of the rest of the people don't wear them!The first picture is of Jim and I just before leaving Bribie Island after the race. The last picture is of me finishing the race. The second picture is of Jim adjusting his bike position at the fit studio he put together at the bike shop. Notice him watching himself on the bigscreen tv.
This weekend we head up to the Sunshine coast for a preview of the Noosa triathlon race course with a friend of Jim's from swimming. Noosa is a very big event with around 25oo individual competitors racing the olympic distance course. We'll post our results after the race.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Gold Coast Half Ironman
First the 
alarm goes off at 3:30am. Next we're on the road to the Gold Coast Half Ironman at a resort development at Coomera (45 mins drive south of here). Jim's wave or the elite males started the race off at 6:00am. He got to race with some of the big names here in Australia, including Chris McCormack. Jim had a great race and set another PR for himself, finishing in 4:13:48! That put him in 10th for the elites and 12th overall, out of a field of 900 people (men, women and teams included). He was third for most of the bike - pulling about 6-8 other guys most of the way.
My wave started at 6:13am. I was glad to get the swim over with - I did beat 9 people though! After the swim I was off on the bike and run, racing myself from 36th place to 20th place (out of 45) in the end. I was hoping to finish between 5:45 and 6 hours and finished at 5:41:15. The results can be found at http://www.usmevents.com.au/home/home.cfm, then click on Cannibal Gold Coast Half Ironman Triathlon.
The first picture is of me running down one more place before the finish. The second photo is after I finished! The third picture is of Jim at Green Island off the coast of Cairns. We visited the area with my parents when they were here.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Ayers Rock, Cairns vacation and Evan's Head triathlon
Here's some photos of our trip to Ayer's Rock and Cairns. We had a great time with my parents. They are now off to drive from Melbourne to Sydney, checking out the sights along the way. We'll see them next weekend in Brisbane for a few days before they leave the country for good. Visiting and climbing Ayers Rock was certainly a highlight of the trip. It is much more impressive than any photos or postcards can show. The reason my dad looks like he is struggling in the photo above is because it was extremely windy up there. Some lady's glasses blew off her face and were lost for good...On a side note, Jim and I got back yesterday morning from Cairns and went to Evan's Head (a town 2.5 hours south of here) for a sprint distance triathlon - 750meter swim, 20km bike, and 5km run. It was the first one of the season for us down here. Jim got third overall and first in his age group. I got 3rd in my age group (out of 5!!)
The swim was in the ocean with lots of big waves and currents pulling you around. It was by far the hardest swim I've ever done - since I've learned to swim this past year. I wanted to quit half way out to the first bouy when I was in the big crashing waves and not going anywhere, but the lifeguards and their boats weren't nearby. Good thing I guess, since I eventually worked my way around the course and ended up getting $20 for my 3rd place effort. Jim, on the other hand, made it around the swim fine and had a good race overall and won $50 for his effort...
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Jim runs his personal best 10km
Last weekend Jim and I went to Noosa for a 10km and 5km run, respectively. Jim ran his personal best in the 10km by 2 minutes, finishing in 36:30! I ran the 5km and finished 8th out of 70 something people (walkers included). The first picture is of Jim before he started the race. He was to get the camera when he was done and take a picture of me finishing my race. Unfortunately, I ran so fast he missed me! Therefore, I've included another picture of me and the other 2 gals (Louise and Amy) that finished the cycling teams time trial a few weekends ago. I'm on the blue bike...On another note, John Bruch has arrived to the land downunder. Tomorrow Bonnie arrives and we're all 4 off to Ayers rock and Cairns for the week. I'll post photos of the fun later.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Queensland Team Time Trial Championships
Today Jim and I spent the day in Laidley, a town about an hours drive from Brisbane, to compete in the Queensland state team time trial championship. It consisted of teams of 3 or 4 people working together to get the fastest time (your team time was recorded when your 3rd team member crosses the finish line. Jim's race was about 76 kms. They finished with 3 out of their 4 team members (Jim included) to an 8th place finish. Jim and Gavin were the two strongest guys on their team; the other two were totally buggered and their legs were smashed when they finished. Dave was so buggered he could hardly walk and needed assistance to sit down because of his cramping legs...
My race was around 37 kms. We too, finished with 3 out of our 4 team members together (me included). We raced ourselves into a 4th place finish out of 8 teams, in just under an hour at 59:59!
You can see the photo of my team above (from left to right: Eve, Amy, myself and Louise). Jim's team above at the starting line from left to right: Jim, Gavin, Dave and Shaun.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Finally...A post of the new pad
Sorry about the huge delay between posts. The move across town was successful. We now can leave our car parked for the majority of the week. Jim is only a 4 minute bike ride to work and I am only a 15 
minute ride to 
school. The new 
neighborhood is much closer to restaurants, little shops and the grocery store - so very convenient. The apartment is a bit smaller than the last one with no individual garage, but we do have secure undercover parking. We now have a much larger deck as you can see in the photos. Jim has built us a bike rack so the bikes can be easily stored - what a handy guy he is! Another bonus for me is I now have a dishwasher and a washer and dryer in the apartment.In two weeks I will be finishing up with my forth teaching period of classes. That means I'll be 2/3 the way done - I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! The classes are going pretty well. I've been able to get to know some of the other students pretty well which makes it nice, especially since it is a very diverse group of students.
Jim has been working at lot at the bike shop. He's also been leading some of the weekly rides - which leave at 5:30am! Yep, they're all early birds here. The other guys at the shop have really taken a liking to him (who wouldn't) and are really going to miss all his help when we leave.
The other photos of us are from the Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter's zoo) which we visited last weekend. The elephants got our hands full of slober and dirt when we were feeding them...
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Moving Soon!
So finally another blog entry. I'm not sure where the time went. I just finished up with my 3rd teachingt period for my MBA (half way done!). Jim's been busy getting the "Fit Studio" done at 
the bike shop where he is working. He will be putting to use the fit bike he built and using it to fit people to their bikes for petter performance. He has a great deal with the shop he works at. The shop owner will do all the marketing; Jim just has to come in and do the fits and they both make money. Yippie! The first two photos are from a time trial Jim and I did last weekend. The last picture is of me (in the red helmet) getting ready to do my first criterium. In this race, you ride around in a cirlce of about a mile for 40 minutes + 3 laps. It was rainy and a bit chilly, but non-the-less, it was a fun workout.Hopefully we will be moving soon to a new apartment in the suburb called the West End. That location will be much more central for us. I will be able to ride my bike to school and Jim can ride his to work. Plus there are lots of little cafes located nearby and a nice bike path along the river. We are waiting anxiously to see if we can get an apartment secured in the complex that we want. I hope so because then I will be upgrading to a place with a dishwasher again!!
If you had to guess, which appliances to you think an unfurnished apartment would NOT normally have here in Australia? They are ones that people own and move with them. Give it a guess. I'll post the answer in the next blog...
Monday, May 22, 2006
Noosa Ocean Swim
This past weekend Jim and I went to Noosa to do an Ocean Swim. We got up at 4:30am so we could make the 2 hour drive north and get there in time for check-in and numbering (yep Jim and Mieke up at 4:30 in the morning to go swim in the ocean)!Both Jim and I completed our races. Jim swam in the open category for his 2000 meter race against some of the best swimmers in Australia. Had he registered with his age group he would have finished 3rd. Me, on the other hand, swam in the 1000 meter race (which turned out to be more like 800 - much to my liking)! I finished ahead of 3 people in my age group, so I'm moving up from not being able to swim at all last fall to smashing people in races! The full results can be found at http://www.usmevents.com.au/s
eries/waterSwim/results.cfm.The top picture is of Jim playing on the rocks after his race. Then there's me checking out the water before hand. The last picture is of Jim and I just before I was about to do my race.
Noosa is a very nice little town located on what the Australian's call the Sunshine coast.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Western Oz
Jim and I arrived back in Brisbane yesterday morning at 5:50am, just in time for me to get a few hours sleep before my first class of my next teaching period. We spent the last 8 days over on the other side of the country, in the state called Western Australia.
The original reason for heading over there was for Jim to compete in the Busselton Half Ironman. He had a grea race, finishing in 4:15:56! That was a personal best for him at that distance by 14 mintues. He raced in the open category again. It was a mass start with about 800 people. He placed 15th overall and had he registered in his age group he would have won it by 10 minutes! The entire results can be found at www.busseltonhalf.com if you want to see his splits.
We rented a campervan for our trip. It was perfect for the two of us. It had a fridge and a gas cook stove, so we were pretty self sufficient. Two of the nights we just camped out in the middle of nowhere, one night on a nature reserve, the second time just off a gravel road by a bunch of sheep. We saw our first live kangaroo in the wild and lots of cool birds.
Jim was finally able to catch a wave during a surf attempt! One of the photos is of him surfing at Wave Rock.
The photo with the nice green grass is of the oldest racehorse track in Australia. It was supposedly given to them by the queen herself many years ago. At least that's what the caravan park owner told us. We had been looking for a place to run that day and started by trying to locate a track in Perth before we headed out. However, it was a week day and the parking lots were all full at the colleges that had tracks. In the end, it worked out as the campervan owner sent us to the horse track that evening! The grass was actually too difficult to run on because it was so think and had divots. However, there was a gravel/dirt road just to the inside of the grass that we ran on.
Western Australia is great! We'll definitely be heading back there some day in the future.
