1,000 miles in my Newton’s

This weekend I hit 1,000 miles of running in my Newton Gravity’s.  While it is customary to change into a new set of shoes every 300-500 miles, mine have been still going strong and not showing a lot of wear.  The wear pattern is even across the lugs too, showing that my foot strike/form must at least consistent.

Until now I didn’t really see a need to get a new pair.  I have raced in them a few times, but recently only used them for training (using the Distance lightweight trainer for races).    Of course lugs have worn down over time, but the rest of the shoes are still in great shape.

After hitting the 1,000 mile mark – I think it is time these shoes entered retirement. The good news is that Newton just released the new model of the Gravity training shoes, this time in Red!

Valentines Day

I have to admit that in the past I have made some pretty lame efforts on Valentine’s day.  This year I was hoping to do something a little unexpected, and hopefully appreciated.

Instead of flowers, I bought a gift certificate to Annabel’s favorite day spa so she can get a facial whenever she wants.  At the end of this week she will be submitting the first draft to her publisher for her first book!  Hopefully a nice facial will help to reduce the rising stress levels!

We exchanged cards this morning, and I think the spa certificate went over well.  I had no expectations of what she might be giving me, and was surprised to have the image of a new pair of Newton’s that she was going to buy for me (they are not released yet).  My existing pair are just about to hit 1,000 miles, so they really do need to be replaced!

I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful wife!

I did have more planned than the gift certificate.  We managed to steel ourselves away from work for a nice lunch today, and instead of going out for dinner tonight I decided to stay home and cook a special dinner.

What’s on the menu?  Roasted Rack of Lamb, Baked potatoes, and a Chocolate Mousse Martini – all made by me, with a little help from the kids making the dessert. Inspiration for the chocolate martini’s came from Bertie’s Bakery.

Everything turned out very well, here’s a few pictures to show off my handy work.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

looking forward to ITU World Triathlon - San Diego

This year will ‘A’ race is going to be a full Ironman at Lake Placid.  My original plan was to complete a local sprint triathlon in May, then EagleMan 70.3 in June leading up to lake placid in July.

I recently found out about the 2012 ITU World series race in San Diego.  This is the qualifier for the Olympic games for a lot of countries, including the US team.  This was a race that I was interested in seeing, but didn’t really think I would get a chance to see in person.  I found out through the DC Triathlon Club that USA Triathlon CEO Rob Urbach offered FREE bike shipping to and from the ITU San Diego race for all members, on top of that was a $15 discount for the race itself.  Since I travel to California (San Francisco area) regularly for work, I figured it would be a great opportunity to see the top pro’s at ITU racing and complete an Olympic distance race instead of a sprint for my opening race of the season.

After looking more closely, I am pretty excited about this race – the course looks to be amazing, check out this video from the ITU race website.

And in this clip just released, where they preview the bike course.

I think this should be a great experience, and will also serve to keep my mind off the full ironman I will be preparing training for.

A Blast from the Past

A few months ago, I made a trip back to Australia to renew my work visa.  During that time, I finally got to cleaning out all of our things in storage, shipping some of it for us to use. 

There were a few things that I had completely forgotten about, including some old entries into some windsurfing world championships from my early 20’s.

The first one is from 1991, from Adelaide.  I look so young!

This one was from Singapore, I think from 1992, raceboard world championships.  I ended up finishing 10th after having some equipment problems.

and the last one is a really terrible photo, from 1994.

it all seems like so long ago now, but I have fond memories of all of these competitions, especially from Singapore.

to continue with the nostalgia, here are some pictures of me windsurfing.

I was about 16 here.  Between races on at Narrabeen Lake, Sydney.  My dad took this, on the boat the he used for the start/finish of our local races.  The equipment I was using was the original Windsurfer – we raced on these for years.

The next one was taken @ Palm Beach, Sydney.  I still remember this day.  A winter westerly wind.  I was using a large sail (7.3sqm) with a weight jacket.  This was back in the days when our Australian numbers were all ‘KA’ before switching to AUS.

the last one for today was taken at Mona Vale Beach, Sydney.   At the time I was living with friends close enough to walk here.  The photo’s were taken from a rocky point.  The board that I was using was one of my favourites – a custom slalom/racing by John Hall (Hybrid)

after all of this water sports reflection this morning, it’s time to go off to the pool for a swim!