0 Train Like You Mean It! Making The Most Of Your Workouts.

 I've got a confession to make.  In the past I often didn't work as hard as I could when I trained.  I backed off momentarily during a run, slowed down for a light that was still green, or tucked in behind another cyclist for a couple of kilometres to enjoy the free ride that drafting provides.  Now these are not sins that will condemn me to eternal damnation, but as someone with limited time to train, I can't afford to be wasting time by not giving 100%.  So I made a promise to myself that I will always make the most out of every minute of every workout. Realistically, most people aren't worried about preparing...

0 Can't We All Just Get Along? Sharing the Road With Cyclists

I love riding my bike.  I get out for a ride as often as I can.  I HATE riding my bike to work though.  Hate it with a passion.  The roads in Melbourne are by far the most hostile environment I've ever ridden in.  Any regular cycle commuter will have at least one "near-death" story to tell, and there was a highly publicised incident involving Shane Warne recently. This morning I was riding along Macarthur Street near St Patricks Cathedral, when an attractive, impeccably dressed woman driving an expensive European car almost drove into me and then had the temerity to call me a less than flattering name that started...

0 Beat The Cold Weather Blues - Staying Motivated in Winter

“It’s too cold.  It’s too wet.  It’s dark.  I’ll go tomorrow.  Maybe I’ll go to the gym tonight after work.  I just can’t be bothered.” If you’re anything like me, this is the conversation that you have with yourself every morning when the colder weather sets in.  Every morning when the alarm goes off, I lay for a few moments in the dark and try to work up the motivation to get my body out of bed and out the door to train.  Summer is ok, as it’s light, warm and the birds are singing.  In the colder months, it’s usually pitch bIack, freezing and lonely.  I often hear of people who “bounce...

0 Real Men Do Pilates? Why Pilates could be the missing ingredient of your training mix.

I've always been suspicious of "new age" activities. I steered clear of Yoga and turned my nose up at meditation.  I always figured if you're not sweating, you're not working hard enough.  This led to one very, very uncomfortable and rather inelegant encounter with Bikram Yoga.  I always felt the spiritual element was a bit forced and that I was better off just sticking with "real" activities like running, cycling or boxing.  I could not have been more wrong. Developed in the early part of the 20th Century by Joseph Pilates (above), the practice of Pilates is growing with startling speed.  Performed either on a mat...

0 Running with baby. The easy way.

Mums (and Dads).  You need to be running.  With your babies.  Now before you lynch me for making such a presumptuous statement, hear me out. Running is hands down one of the most effective ways of getting back in shape after childbirth.  It burns calories faster than almost any other activity, strengthens your cardio-vascular systems and tones your legs, core and butt.  More importantly though, running with your baby lets your child experience all of the interesting sights and sounds of the outdoor world, in a fun way, whilst sharing time with you.  Your baby will love watching the world go by, and you can even...

0 Hit The Dirt. Your Fitness Will Thank You

Best way to get an extra fitness boost from your weekend long run?  You don't have to go longer or faster.  You just need to hit one of the off-road trails that abound in Melbourne.  I took this photo this morning as I ran through the bush, next to the Yarra River less than 7kms from the centre of Melbourne. There are so many benefits to running off road.  Let's start with fitness.  I could definitely feel myself working harder than I normally would on a smooth concrete path.  The trail undulated, twisted and was covered in rocks and roots that needed to be dodged.  This means that I had to adjust my...

0 Ditch The Car.......Hit the Road

The traffic in Melbourne sucks. Anyone who drives to work in this city knows the pain of being stuck on one of our "freeways" or, god forbid, Punt or St Kilda Roads.  I've always been a fan of public transport.  It's ecologically responsible, cheap and usually pretty quick.  Unless you're in Melbourne! I live about 8kms from my office, the route taking me along Brunswick St, past Edinburgh Gardens and down Collins St.  I used to sit on the tram for 45 mind numbingly boring minutes each way (plus the 8 minute walk to the tram stop), paying $8 for the privilege of having some disgustingly smelly stranger grinding me in...

0 Climbing Mountains...slowly

It's funny how things just come together sometimes.  I had to go to Nagambie today for work,  and at first I was not exactly ecstatic about the idea of three hours in the car, but then I started to think more creatively.  "Aren't there some great climbs up north of Melbourne?"  Damn right there are!!  So when I packed my car this morning, my bike and some super sexy lycra came with me.  After all, we're all time-poor and fitting a great workout into a work-day is the perfect way to save time, and enjoy work a whole lot more. The township of Kinglake is about 60kms north of Melbourne.  A couple of years...

0 The Day of Rest

When you are training a lot, it is really easy to get obsessed with exercise and to try and "do something" every day. After a few small niggles that turned into more serious injuries because I ignored them and kept training, I've come to realise the very real value of doing nothing sometimes. I woke up this morning sore.  After a half marathon, a 5K effort and some hill climbs in the last few days it's not surprising really. Lying in bed my quads felt like they'd been kicked.  My calves are tight and I just generally feel a little run down.  So I went back to sleep. The science is clear.  We get fitter, faster when we take...

0 A Cold Morning Commute

This morning was the first really cold morning of 2012.  It was a real struggle dragging myself out of bed this morning at 6am, and I could very easily have stayed in my nice warm bed. I made a great purchase last year and bought a long sleeve Merino wool jersey from Vintage Velos .  Not only is it warm on a chilly day, but super comfortable and harks back to a time when men were real men. Suitably layered, I set out to ride some hills along Yarra Boulevard in Kew before work.  While Kew is a bit out of my way, I love being able to incorporate some hill climbing into my morning commute.  The great thing about Yarra...

0 New 5K PR and a healthy dose of disappointment

I woke up this morning feeling a bit under the weather.  Now that the excuses are out of the way, I'll get to the point.  I just ran a 5K PR of 20:01 around the Princes Park running track.  Whilst I am excited to be improving and happy to have knocked 36 seconds off my best time, I can't help but be a little disappointed to have not gone under 20 minutes. My plan was to go out at a 4:00/km pace for the first 3 kilometres, and then to bring it home quite a bit quicker as  I've gotten some pretty good results by negative splitting my runs recently.  The first two kilometres went well, but for some reason I had heavy...

0 Paris-Roubaix 2012

Congratulations Tom Boonen! Fourth victory at Paris-Roub...

0 Norseman Extreme Triathlon

This is by far the most scary race I've ever seen.  I'm determined to one day finish this thi...

0 5K PR attempt tomorrow

I recently ran my fastest ever 5k. I ran a 20:37. The strange thing was that this was at the end of a triathlon. Normally I'm running quite a bit slower after T2. This got me thinking that I should be able to go a bit quicker on fresh legs. So tomorrow I'm heading to Princes Park to try and go sub 20 min for the first time ever. I'm relatively new to pacing my runs and negative splitting has been a revelation to me. My plan is to go out at 4:00/km for the first 3k and the. Try and bring it home somewhere between 3:15 an 3:30/km. Wish me lu...

0 A picture is worth a thousand words

Approaching the finishing line of my first Olympic Distance Triathlon (that's me on the right)...