Here Come The Students!

Firstly, before I begin.

Sadly, it appears that the Australian Surf Lifesaving community has lost another young member to the surf in Kurrawa. Tragic for the family more than anyone else and my thoughts go out to them at this terrible time. Who knows how many lives this young lifesaver would have saved in his time on the beach. A terrible tragedy and another reminder that the surf can be a very dangerous place, even for highly trained and extremely fit competitors. Being a surf lifesaver is a great thing, it requires dedication, strength, knowledge and often,  a whole heap of courage. There is no reward for being a lifesaver aside from personal pride and great friendships. Our lifesavers deserve all the respect that our war heroes get. Week in week out over summer, volunteers put their lives at risk to keep the public safe and literally thousands upon thousands of people owe their lives to these remarkable people.

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So, tomorrow morning I will be the subject of an interview and story being put together by a bunch of students from the North Sydney College of TAFE. It should be a good bit of fun and hopefully the final product might be a great tool for me to tug the interest strings of possible corporate sponsors. I have only a vague idea of what they are planning but apparently they want to overlay some old photos of me as a lifesaver down at Newport Beach (where the interview will be filmed). There are surprisingly few photos from my 13 or 14 seasons in the boat so I'll have to do some digging! I think my two boys will be starring in some of the shooting tomorrow so fingers crossed that neither of them have a meltdown!

In about 2 weeks I will be having my second fitness test with my sponsors down at Freshstart Narrabeen
which I am definitely not looking forward to. I am keen to see how much fitter I am than the first fitness test a month or so ago. I would hope that some of the weights and ergo's I've been tackling will have at least some effect on my time. Last time was 16min 36sec from memory so if I can get it below 15min 36, I'll be stoked. Luckily for you all, you will be able to see the carnage on your computer screens because the students didn't want to miss filming that one!

In case you are interested, here is a comparison between my first weights session and the one I did today, 4 weeks later.

Feb 29 (Leap day...hopefully a positive omen)

A)

1. Front squat (heel chock)5x5@bar (20kg)

2. Walking lunge 4x12steps each leg@body wt

B)

1. Chin up 5x5 @body wt with purple band (Couldn't complete the first 5 un-assisted)

2. Shoulder press 4x10@bar (20kg)

C)

1. Roll out 3x12@body

2. Russian twist 3x20@10kg

Cardio: rower 5mins max cals, 5min rest, 5mins max cals (Could not do as I was too buggered!)

Today

A)

1. Front squat (heel chock)1x5@70,4x5@75

2. Walking lunge 4x12steps each leg@6kg

B) 

1. Chin up 1x5 @body wt , 4x5@body wt + purple strap

2. Shoulder press 4x10@32.5kg

C)

1. Roll out 3x20@body,body,body

2. Russian twist 3x30

@10kg,10kg,10kg

Cardio: rower 5mins max cals, 5min rest, 5mins max cals (Killer but the progress has been great)

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Beaten To The Punch!

Finally, I read in the Manly Daily today that a 51 year old woman from the Curl Curl is running across the Simpson Desert starting on April 1 (no joke) and intends to start from the geographical centre of the country, ending in Birdsville after running 650km over 1300 odd dunes. Is she mad? She attempted it last year but bushfires ended the attempt. This year she has to avoid quicksand! It will be really hot at that time of year but I'm sure she will do it. Unlike me she will have support the whole way but she is running it....running! 

Its all in aid of Bear Cottage so if you want to check out Jane Trumper, check her out. What a legend!

The Publicity Machine Starts Up!

Oh yeah,

I got a call from a the producer of the Brig & Lehmo for Breakfast show on Gold FM Melbourne a few weeks ago. He knew about Seb Terry's 100Things phenomenon and had actually interviewed him in Sydney a while back on the Johnno & Danno show. Because Seb is now helping others tick off their own bucket lists, he wanted to use me as a follow up to that.

Anyway, Seb did an interview with them and this morning I get a call from Clint asking me to call in and talk about the trek. What timing, I had my 3 year old begging for breakfast, my 6 month old under my arm, also begging for breakfast and my wife was still at work from he night shift. So, unfortunately, I couldn't speak to them live on air. I love my boys but they will owe me big time by the time they fly the coop!

So, instead of chatting to me they used my email from a while back and described what I am doing. They also put a link on their website and suggested that I'm looking for equipment and sponsors.

So, you never know where these things will lead but in the mean time, big thanks to Clint from Gold FM and the Brig & Lehmo for Breakfast show for getting the word out there in the public forum!

Time to chase something more local....Manly Daily time!

http://gold1043.com.au/shows/breakfast/

Fresh Start with Freshstart

Hi Everyone,

Yes, it has been a while since my last blog but I'm hoping that today's blog will refresh your interest in my trek, despite the fact that it is now 16 months away rather than 4 months away! But as they say, good things come to those who wait!

As I type this evening, there is a pain in my neck shooting down my arm and making typing with already fatigued hands even harder, so please forgive any spelling mistakes. Why am I in knots I hear you ask?!?! Well, last week, on the advice of an old mate of mine who is ex Army and current Navy (so he knows about this sort of thing), I approached Scott Flint down at Freshstart at Narrabeen to see if he would be interested in training me up for the big trek for Camp Quality. Without a moments hesitation he he agreed. It turns out that Scott trains people for 'big adventures' a lot and had just finished training a local guy to compete in the Molokai Championships in Hawaii. Great timing, looks like he needs a new project!

So, what that means is that I have secured my first sponsorship, and a very generous one at that. Scott is going to train me from start to finish, helping me build strength and endurance, far beyond what I would have achieved by simply pulling that tyre up and down Newport Beach for what would have been a total of 19 months! Don't worry, the tyre and I still have plenty of time to reacquaint over the next year and a bit, but for now it's all strength, strength, strength. We are going to work out exactly how much water I will be consuming per day, when I will consume it and in what quantity. I will be conditioning myself to the point where I can make a definitive decision on how long it will take, what routes will be opened for me to choose from, how much water I will need and how much total weight I will need to pull. These are all very important factors that need definitive answers before I can mount such a huge physical challenge, something that was completely lacking from my strategy for a 2012 attempt, but are now, thanks to Freshstart, a reality.

Today was my first session with big Scott (I call him big because he is 6ft 6in in the old scale). He checked over my old bones and rickety joints before sending me off on a very painful (and eye-opening) fitness test. The fitness test lasted 16min 35 sec and hurt...a lot! The pain started about, say, 20 seconds and lasted until, ah, actually, I'm still waiting for it to stop. Apparently a good time is 9 minutes! Hmmmmm.

Anyway, a massive THANK YOU goes out to Scott Flint at Freshstart Narrabeen. Not just for taking me on but for taking one look at me and not saying, 'Mate, I think you should think smaller!'. Maybe he sees me as the challenge of his career, I don't know, all I can say is thanks and I won't let him (or Camp Quality) down.

Next on the agenda, securing more sponsorship to the approximate value of $20,000 to get this trek to happen. Any ideas??

p.s. If you are looking for a great gym on the Northern Beaches, check out Freshstart. It's big, clean, full of all the equipment you could ever need and the staff are awesome!

FRESHSTART

Ever So Slight Change Of Plan

OK, this is the blog that I NEVER wanted to write but it's here now and I have to deal with it.

It is with great frustration that I have to postpone my trek across the mighty Simpson Desert. It's not because of injury, work, nuclear war or anything of any real substance. No, it's a money issue and I HATE the fact that money has played such a big part. I knew it was going to be difficult to raise money for this trek but I didn't know how hard it would be, and in hindsight, 6 months is nowhere near enough time to organise such a massive event. I'm sure if it was my full time job then it would't have been a problem, but with two young boys and a burgeoning photography business to deal with, I simply need more time. On the nature front, there is also the possibility that the desert would be too wet this year as it has been for the last couple of years. There are several normally dry lakes that I would need to cross that are currently in flood, and with the rainfall of the past two years, there is every chance that I might have had to cancel at the last minute...which would have really sucked!

However, there is some relief mixed in with the frustration. I now have time to build a much better base fitness and strength. I can now do a test trek to see how much water I will need per day which may (fingers crossed) bring me back into the mix of a COMPLETELY UNSUPPORTED trek with no water drops. That also opens the door to going through the geographical centre and puts me in a category of only one other person having done that in history, which would be quite special.

As frustrating as the fact is that money has had such an influence on this trek, I also know how important it is to get this thing right and have all the safety provisions in place. Now I have more time to make sure that I raise enough so that I don't need to cut any corners!

'No Beers Till Birdsville'. Well, as much as I would like to tell you that I will still lay off them from now until Birdsville in 2013, I can't lie! However, as the trek will begin on June 29 2013, I pledge to you all now that I will have my last sip of alcohol on June 30 2012 and spend a year as a teetotaler! Again, if anyone out there wants to join me, you liver will thank you for it!

So, this is a new beginning and I have every intention of making it bigger and better than it could have possibly been this year. I will be doing some filming with some Tafe students some time this term which I will be using as part of a package to present to possible corporate sponsors. I will also be approaching the engineering faculty of universities to see if they can get their students to build me some sort of super light weight, aerodynamic cart with built in air conditioning and mp3 player, something inspired by this maybe! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3A9rLoz_0o

So please, keep following my blog, I still need your support!

It's All Coming Together

Well, things are really starting to move now.

Last weekend I met up with the crew from one of the support vehicles to work out timing and a possible route. Although the route is still up in the air, we do have a date....30 June 2012. Mark it in your diaries because from that day you will be able to follow our progress online. With the Spot Connect device we will be carrying, you will be able to see exactly where we are as well as receive short notes from us (40 words per message). I don't expect anyone will sit there and watch us drag ourselves across the Western side of the desert at 3km/h, just checking in every couple of days should hopefully maintain your interest.

Speaking of the route, we have decided that we are not going to trek too far from vehicle tracks. We were originally going to go through the middle of the desert but from a safety perspective (I have a wife and 2 young boys) we need to be a bit sensible. It will still be extremely hard yakka, no less than the original idea but we won't have a 100km trek to the nearest vehicle if something goes wrong, just 10 or so! There is another reason for the change of plan too. We are intending to film as much of the journey as possible and may even have a film crew in tow if the stars line up for us. There is no guarantee for the film crew but it would be out of the question if we went further north! There is one more reason too. Although we fully intend to go completely unsupported, we will have a water supply ready to be dropped in front of us if we need it. We will aim to carry 6 litres of water for each day (total starting weight for water on a 20 day trek, 120kg) and hope that it will be enough, but if not, we have no intention of dying out there! I should take possession of a the vehicle map for the area today or tomorrow and will plan the route from there. I hope to have the details finalised in the next couple of weeks.

I have ramped up my training a bit and I am now filling the already heavy tyre with sand and using the walkways on the dunes at Newport as mini desert dunes. I know they are not quite as big as what we are going to be faced with, but with the tyre full of sand I am already walking up one constant sand dune! It really is hard going but in training, the harder the better! I have to admit, having been off the drink for nearly 4 weeks and doing all this training, I already feel sooooooo much fitter. Just walking around and doing daily life, I feel quite cleansed. My mind is sharper and my motivation for the trek and indeed work, is spiking. Like I suggested in my last blog, if anyone wants to join me for a dry first half of 2012, your body will thank you for it. Mine already is!

Reset 2012!/ No Beer Till Birdsville

Happy New Year!

You will notice the double heading for todays blog! That is because I was planning the 'No Beer Till Birdsville' blog since I wrote my last blog in December. However, since then, things have gone a little belly up and that's why I am going to tell you why I want to 'Reset 2012!'.

So far this year I have had my eldest son (3) to hospital twice and the doctor/xray place as well. No broken bones, just a nice lung infection that turned to early stage pneumonia. He is all good now but he was a sick little boy for a while there. Before that, my wife got sick and was bed ridden for 2 days with some weird flu virus. Then it was my turn, 5 days of feeling like the proverbial and I'm still dealing with dodgy lungs. Finally, my youngest (4 months) copped it and is still suffering today and my wife is also back to being ill. So since New Years (and in fact from a few days before), we have had constant sickness in our house and I have to say, I'm a little bit over it.

To top all that off, I threw my back out coughing (believe it or not) and my dear old Grandfather passed away last Wednesday.

So, you can see now why I want to press the 2012 reset button.

How does this all relate to my trek? Well, the short answer, no training for the last 2 weeks. That's right, the last training I did was the 2nd of January. Not good when I'm due to walk 400+km in 6 months time. I can hear the words of a mate of mine who is a bit of an outback adventurer/ultra-marathon man, who gave me some advice a month ago. 'Mate, you cannot have time off over Christmas, get into it and you might be fit enough in time!'. Awesome!

Anyway, not to let adversity get in the way, BACK TO TRAINING IN THE MORNING! And I cannot wait. I reckon I will struggle a bit and cough up at least half of one lung, but I'm psyched.

I am picking up some ski poles from my old Surfboat mentor this afternoon. I was looking at buying some proper walking poles, but with sand having a similar consistency to snow, I can't justify the expense (not for training anyway).

I also started using my 'non deer carcass dragging' harness on Jan 2 and it works a treat. I definitely move faster than with the 'lady belt' but it incorporates more upper body muscles, so it will take some getting used to. Well worth the $35 it cost me!

PART II - No Beer Till Birdsville

OK, pretty obvious what this is about. I have sworn off all forms of alcohol until I reach Birdsville, probably in July. I am 15 days in and I haven't missed it at all strangely enough!

There is a famous pub in Birdsville called the....wait for it...Birdsville Pub, seen here in all it's glory. Oh what a sweet beer that will be. Let's just hope that I time the arrival with opening hours! I figure that in my state of no shower for 3 weeks prior, I might have to sit on the road to enjoy it!

So, if there is anyone out there who feels like joining me for a 'tee-totaling' 6 months, I'm sure your body will love you for it and I could do with the support!

The Lady Belt Works!

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick blog today people, coming down from yesterdays sugar high still.

I have had a couple of goes with the lady's leather belt and the tyre and it works a treat. It's incredible how it isolates by legs and helps me utilise my big hairy gluteus maximi! The scary thing is that despite the strain of dragging a 4x4 tyre along the soft sand for an hour today, I feel surprisingly strong. It's like I am made for this sort of thing. I rowed surfboats for 15 years and did quite well from time to time, but to look at me, I'm not 6ft 4 and 104kg, I'm 6ft and 104kgs, hardly the svelte rowing physique! I used to feel sore in so many places after a rowing session with muscle and joint pain everywhere, but with this, I feel great.

Anyway, here are a couple of shots from my iPhone this morning. Like I said, I spend 15 years rowing surfboats and Newport Beach was my training ground for all that time. I feel like I have come back to my spiritual home again after quite a few years on the side line and I feel invigorated by the place! But I wonder how I will feel after doing 1000 laps!

Notice in these shots how the 'Non-Draggers' (beach runners with no ticker) used my drag marks to make their soft sand runs easier! Toughen up!