Winning starts on Monday's

Following yesterday's MTB session at Ourimbah State Forest, with Conor and some guys from Deloitte, I knew the 04:25am alarm wouldn't be friendly today.

At the pool for the 5am opening with Mark Davis, Peter Quick & David Isaacs from OB and a bunch of squad swimmers.

The first kilometer was sluggish as the lactic build up in my shoulders and arms worked itself free. By lap 35 I was working to ensure Mark didn't lap me inside 2k. Ended up putting 2.4k in before heading home.

Time b4 breakfast for the 30 day challenge exercises with 30 sits, 30 push ups and 30 leg lifts.

That should do it... let's go Monday!!

Conor & Me go MTB

As we've signed up for the Mont24 hr in Canberra in April we thought we had best join the training squad at Ourimbah State Forest for some hard yards.

Scott, Murali, David, Greg, Richard#1, Patrick drive up from Sydney for the morning session. Starting at 8am we headed off on the 9.5k trail for some technical riding. It was pretty awesome and not for the feint of heart!

We rode for about 1.25 hrs but worked up a sweat in the humidity.

It sure tested us out and we learned a few things along the way.

Back for this course in the next week or so

What's different in February after 30 years

We're up in Newcastle staying at the Novotel behind the Newcastle Beach SLSC. This location is bloody awesome as we haven't needed to use the car for anything since we parked yesterday after lunch. in that time we've dined, shopped, walked up to Nobby's Beach over Sratchley's lookout and all within walking distance.

This morning we rose liesurely at 0700am and threw on the joggers before heading up 'The Hill' (no truely that's what it is called) where there is a stair case leading to an obelisk where the old water supply for the town stood. There's even a time capsule up there from 1986. Anyhow, we decide to do some exercises and Mary makes the call. Nat Howden would have been proud as we did pushups while the other did five sets of stairs and then squat jumps.

Heading back down the Hill into the gardens we stopped for some lunge walks and dips in a little table setting in the shade. Then we ran back along the beach front grabbing a towel at the Hotel before hitting eth Ocean Baths at Newcastle. What a hoot ... the pool is the size of a football field and while fresh it was more refreshing than just cool. we swam across it and back before heading around to the main beach for a dip before breakfast.