A Love / hate relationship - Garmin

I recieved my new Garmin Forerunner 405 running GPS watch in the mail whilst we were in Europe.

I was hoping to get it before I went so I could easily track my runs, which is the main reason I got this thing. I have been pretty excited about it for the last 4 weeks (since the time of purchase) so when I had a few issues I was became extremely vexed.

The design is a little clumsy. I managed to somehow turn it off half way through a run along the Torrens over the weekend and it does feel like a wieght on my wrist. Although I am not used to wearing watches.

After reading the instruction manual, downloading some software, setting up personal profiles (I would love to know how many of these i have floating around now) and syncing it all together I now finally have what I wanted all along.

A Google maps map, some times and some other useless info that I may get into at a later date but for now is just making my running look more complex than it actually is.

This is what you get.



This is the one that turned off half way through. You will just have to trust me that I ran back to the starting point. Which was my old house at George St, Thebarton which I use now as my weekend house thanks to my kind ex housemates.


this was after a MASSIVE friday night. Ended up at Cuckoo to see Rick Wade (serious Techno). It was effort to even think straight so excuse the distance.



And this run - Cured my Jetlag from Europe. Back in the Game!

So my recent inspiration is this guy

Mr. Mod Euro - A bloke in Paris

He runs fast. I want to run fast. I need to shave 15 minutes off of my 10k to run like Goetze.

Check it out - "Hard and fast 45 minutes through the guts"

Treadmills dont get colds AHHHH!!!

So I am in Changi Airport again.

Become a Changi Millionare! the banners say. Well, I might give the gambling/promo a miss, instead opting for the "pay as you go, feel like George Clooney from Up in the Air" Ambassadors Lounge.

Plus they got a treadmill, which regrettably The Qantas club does not.  So I just did 5 Kms. 

I know I have said it before but when you are travelling for the best part of 24 hours to get home. It kind of makes sense to have a few hours of transit and get some excersise and a good shower in. 

It's Probably the one good thing our travel agent has done over the past 2 weeks.

I feel re-charged, re-set, and re-passengerarised. 

                                                        (New word - YES!)

We have came from our last show in Oslo through Frankfurt Airport. Oslo was really cool. Minus temperature cool. It would have been at least 0 the first day, and -1 the next. With temperatures reaching -6 at night. If there are any Vikings reading this I know that you will be spurting out in between gulps of your meed, that temperatures like that are nothing, and that it gets a lot cooler over the winter in Norway.
But for a pack of 'Aussies' like 'The Swiss,' its kind of cold. A little too cold to run around the streets of Oslo to get my 'me-time' away from the boys, and to get my metabolism up for the day so I don't feel so guilty eating that 711 Wienerpølser that cost me $40 Australian dollars with a 600ml Pepsi max.

$40! AHHHHHH!!!! Thats really Expensive!!

I did however do a couple of treadmill runs at the hotel gym in Oslo. The first was around 6Km and the second was 7.5Km. I also did some sit-ups and push-ups which I have recently added into my fitness regime.

Oslo was really fun though. It was great to have a day off with the guys, without having to be at an airport or to do a soundcheck, or catch a train or something like that. We had a lovely afternoon at the gallery. We saw some Picasso's, and the famous "Scream" (pictured above), we also bitched, moaned, and plotted everything 'The Swiss.' A much needed reset before we have to look at each other for the next 25 hours and put up with each others idiosyncrasies.

I love it. 

Gent - the sequel 2, then Amsterdam

So I crammed in the same route I did a few nights before in Gent just before we had to leave.

The only difference being that it wasn't at 2 in the morning, and it was super windy and really hard.

We played at Paradiso in Amsterdam last night. Thats all I want to say about that.

Going to Milano tonight. yay!

Got Ghent?

We had a big day running around buying underwear and in the studio yesterday so I didn't get much of a chance to go for a run. Instead I ate heaps of food, including waffles, cakes and hamburgers.
Couple that with a massive dinner late last night meant I needed to do something this morning.

Although it was not a long run, the surroundings where so pretty that I don't really care.

Ghent, Belgium -  the 7th most liveable city....yeah sounds about right.

NOT A LOT OF SLEEP, A LOT OF FUN

Its been a while since my last entry. I have been in Europe touring with The Swiss. It's been kind of crazy, so donty expect marathon runs with this entry.

Here is a poem about the tour I call it:

Poem about the tour

a lot of shows

not a lot of sleep 

a lot of planes

not a lot of sleep

a lot of clubs

not a lot of sleep

a lot of toxins

not a lot of sleep
a lot of winks
not a lot of sleep

Okay, so on the way over to Rome from Australia we stopped at Changi Airport with a few hours to spare at the airport. I usually moan and groan about stop overs but this one was great.

 They have a lounge there with a small gym and so Sid and I hit it up while Luke got a massage. 

It's a really good way to break up the flight and to work off crap unnecessary plane food 

Although Singapore airlines food is actually not that bad.

So yeah 6Km on the treadmill with speeds varying from 10 - 16km/hr.

I have recently been getting into running faster when on treadmills.

Then it all got a little hard. The first 3 - 4 days of the tour the schedule was pretty rammed. Stuff like leaving straight from the club at 5 in the morning to get to the airport then having to catch multiple flights  to get to the next destination. Being super excited after shows and having celebratory drinks with new and old promoters. Catching up with friends that we met on the last tour and seeing friends from home who are in Europe. Then doing it all again for 6 days in a row.

But...I did get a run in Italy. 

We played just outside of Naples in a place called Caserta. It has the 2nd largest Palace in the world built by a French King as his holiday house. So I ran around that. The gardens are mind blowingly huuuuuuge.

Nice house dude.

It was sunny too, which was lucky. I sort of got lost on the way back to the hotel, then found Luke and had an espresso. I love Italy.

CASERTA, ITALY 29/10/10  /// 6.6Km

Then more shows happened. Kind of a crazy schedule again.

We played Paris, Brussels, and Rouselare.

Great nights, short flights, a train, some nice people, some attractive people, nice gene pools, 1 swimming pool.

To see some video from Brussels check this link out

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=453461301883

So Now we are in Gent, Belgium and we have had a day off although we were so excited to be back in Gent with our friends The Glimmers and family that we went to this awesome party until the daylight hours of Monday morning.

Which meant that Yesterday was a write-off for me. I finally awoke at 7pm, had some pizza for breakfast and went for a run at 2am along the Canal near our hotel. 

I felt like I was in a thriller movie. It was quiet, there was low fog and I was running through some crazy gothic architecture. 

Surreal

Ok so thats about it.

Today we are heading into the studio with The Glimmers to work on some new stuff.

Rad!

Alice, who the %$*& is Alice! & GC for life!

Went to Alice Springs to play "The Concert." Empire of the Sun were on after the Northern Territories best covers band and old mates Sneaky Sound System(s). It was great to see them after so long and it turns out we are playing with them tonight in the Epicentre of Australian culture, the Gold Coast.

Friday I pushed out 8km on the treadmill in the hotel.

Saturday morning post "Concert" I ventured out and got some red dust on my heels, in the (pla)centre of Australia, Alice Springs. 

It was 31 degrees which was taxing, and there were a lot of flies. I think I may have swallowed a few.

WELCOME TO THE GOLD COAST

Where culture is only a 3 hour flight away

Probably the worst time ever to be in the GC. 

While the V8 supercars are on -  Wowser.

Looking forward to playing the concert though. I am going to see how many southern cross tattoos I can spot during the show. Bring on Europa!

Ciao

Lets go Shopping

The only reason why this entry is titled 'Lets go Shopping' is that I ran past the beautifully dated Tea Tree Plaza on my run a few days back.

9.03 Km

And I also have been in Melbourne to "play" at the launch of a Nespresso store on Collins street. 

The Nespresso people were extremely friendly, great hosts, looked after us well and I now can retire comfortably knowing that I have achieved all I set out to do in my career as a professional musician.

The Ness heads put us up at the Crown Metropolitan where I took use of the treadmills in the gym.
I haven't been on a treadmill for a long time party due to the fact that I don't own one and also because I have been enjoying running outdoors so much. I have to say that although I know that the treadmill is much better for your joints and you can get more out of them in regards to controlled environment and a controlled speed. I found it a little boring and I also could not stop looking at time, distance, calories etc on the screen. This did not help me mentally. I kept saying to myself only 50 minutes to go, 40 minutes to go, 30 minutes and so on. To the point where I had to cover the time with my towel and just concentrate on the distance.

With a goal of 10km I started pretty strong at 12km/hr. About 20 minutes I got cramps in my shins to the point where i had to stop for a minute or so.

ANYWAY I got back with speeds between 10.5Km/hr and 11.5km/hr and I complete the 10 kmin 53 minutes.

I also squeezed in 5 km this morning on the treadmill before i checked out.

Heading to Alice Springs tomorrow. Hopefully I can get some red dust on my Nike's.

Luke Million takes my Saturday away, Easy Sunday and Wood Ovens.

So we had a Swiss show in Fremantle on Friday night. It was great, had a ball, Kids danced, Blah, Blah.
Anyway come Saturday morning too fly out. We had to get up at 6:00 am to get this ridiculously early flight so Luke Million could play Vocoder at his nieces 10th Birthday Party.

- Who's that guy?

- Oh that's her creepy 'Uncle Luke' on Vocoder.

Anyway, Saturday was pretty much a write off for me. Didnt get a run in, but I did sleep for 5 hours only to wake up at 10pm then went to DJ at Limbo sober.

Awesome

So around 4:30 am I crashed at Sids house in his 'guest' room.
Thanks Sid.
I woke up at a reasonable hour and was looking forward to running a few laps around Victoria Park.
I remember a few years ago Nick DuBois trying to get me active and taking me out there and struggling to even complete a lap so I was eager to try show that oval what I was made of and pump 3 or 4 laps out on this Sunday morning.

By the time I got down there I found that half the track was roped off and ripped up and it was all a little bit of a shambles really. Without a clear plan I just started aimlessly running around the park, and back again, up a few streets and back to Casa del Surahnos.

After a pretty amazing wood oven pizza session and meat festivas at my Dads. I had to back it up with something this morning.

Here is...Something This Morning.

Eating Carbs isn't all bad. 

I guess if you get something out of it like -  life skills. It makes it even better.

Check out my life skills. 

Thanks Dad

Standard

The Hills

So, once I started I couldn't stop!


Feeling great after a different route than usual this morning. I ended up taking the high road to Houghton in the Adelaide hills from my mums house in Highbury. 


Ended up jogging 13.5 Km (personal best) and a large amount of it was uphill.
Once I got to a the first township I stopped to turn back. I made it to a small town called Houghton thinking there would be a general store where I could grab a bottle of water. 
Instead, I ended up knocking on the door of a house that I spotted with an outdoor tap. I didn't get an answer so I went for the tap. Whilst spitting out a spider and taking a sip, I hear from behind my shoulder in a soft voice, "excuse me?"


"Sorry love, just wanted some water..."


'Adelaide Hills mum,' did offer me some country hospitality, but I declined. Politely opting for the run back down to the suburban sprawl instead. 

13.5 Km...Yep

HITS - It hurts!

I tried HITS (High Intensity Training) this morning which I have been told good things about by my friend and fellow running advocate $$ Mike Cash $$


I actually tried this last Saturday, but I was told by Cash's Brother, Dr. Cash to do it this way.


(30s SPRINT // 1m30s WALK) x 8


It was pretty challenging like that because I have never done anything like this before. I was feeling sick and had a huge amount of saliva along with that wierd blood-like taste in my mouth. Basically it worked.


But this morning....
I tried the $$ Mike Cash $$ way which is much more intense and ends up being a longer workout. 


(30s SPRINT // 30s WALK // 30s SPRINT 1m WALK // 30s SPRINT 1m30s WALK) x 7


...it was good.


I think the thing I like most about this style of running is that in around half an hour I am getting a good morning run, as opposed to having to run for an hour or so the traditional way. Also the interval training is meant to really get your Metabolism firing for the rest of the day.
It is definately harder on my body so I am thinking twice a week will be a good addition to my current regime. 


To be honest I find distance running more enjoyable, but I can see how I will benefit from this.

My leg hurts ... HITS!!!!

Westpac Stair Climb

This was a bit crazy for me. By the 10th flight of stairs I was seriously tired. It wasn't too enjoyable and only lasted a few minutes but was well worth it. I will give it another go next year. 


I was pretty surprised that I finished 51st out of 450 competitors. Although I know a guy who finished 6th so I guess I have a long way to go. Still... for a newbie like me. None too shabby.

http://results.au.eventdirector.net/List.asp?a=1&EventID=4293&RaceID=STAIR&nDBFirst=51

over the last week or so

 6_10_10

 10_11_10

11_10_10