Danger 1000

I entered this race because I thought the name sounded cool and I liked all the flags that advertised it - however it wasn't to be my day ...

This was part 2 of a 2-day event by the Jan Juc Surf Life Saving Club, so having completed the 8km Bells Bash the night before, Saturday 17th, was a return, this time to Torquay Beach for a 1000m ocean swim race. There was some purpose to entering 2 events on subsequent days; it was to see if I had the stamina to complete both, to see if my protein intake was sufficient for recovery from the night before. (It was also part of an overall training program for bigger and longer races I am hoping to take part in later in the year.)

Everything looks fine right, there I am, looking ready to go with my distinctive orange and black shorty ...

And soon we were off - so your all thinking, this'll be fine, after all my last ocean race was 1.2km, so I can do this easy right? Well let me just add, we got stuck in awful road works crossing the city and arrived just as my category was about to start, so I ran and grabbed my race-pack and changed my category to the 'open' race (18-29 years), and my cap colour along with it. Not really a big deal, but long distance sea swimming isn't real my strength, I can do the distances, but I am slow, and it is painful for me.
Again, you can spot me in the center with the orange armpits - after my last race (where I was quickly overtaken by the majority of swimmers), I knew to start further back, especially as I had taken quite a few kicks in my last race, and didn't want to wreck my newly repaired smile.


To be honest, I regretted this race from the start - I started OK, and my start position was right, so in the outward 500m I plodded along at my pace, slowly moving past a few other swimmers, and still with plenty behind. Unlike my last race, both the men and women started at the same time (150 swimmers total). But I found myself looking across at the kite surfers wondering why I was swimming, and not just playing around on my board?

So as we reached the turn around buoy, the sea conditions had picked up and there was quite a strong current to swim against. I was still doing OK, and had the same few swimmers around me jostling for each others positions, and plenty still behind. Then about 150m from the shore my right calf started to cramp, I tried to relax and keep it from cramping further then about 75 meters out my left calf started to cramp. I tried to keep moving as I was still out of my depth and had passed all the paddle board life savers. As other swimmers passed me I was gutted, knowing that I was losing my hard fought positions. I rolled onto my back and thought I'd give up, I was certain I would collapse as soon as I reached the beach.

I waved my right arm, to indicate I needed assistance, and my legs just cramped more, and I disappeared underwater - more to the point, no-one noticed! I came up again and was a bit more concerned, 50 meters from the shore and I was really in trouble! I raised my arm again, but the paddle boarders were way behind me, and the lifeguard in the water waste deep directing everyone else passing me towards the finish line, just wasn't looking in my direction. I gave one more attempt raising both my arms and sinking underwater again, still no one coming towards me ...

I laughed at myself, stayed on my back in agony and just started sculling backwards towards the shore, deciding I would have to finish after all, even if everyone else passed me. As I reached a point where I could stand (about 15m out), a life guard finally came to me, and asked if I was OK - now though I was going to finish, even if I had to crawl up the beach, so I waved him away. I couldn't wade forwards, as the cramping was so bad, so I made my way in backwards, finally turning and making a limping run towards the finish line.

As it happened I still wasn't last, 4 men came in slower than me in my official category, and 2 in the open category I raced in (and fortunately I still managed to beat several women) :D. However my time was 47 seconds slower than my last race which was 200m longer (but calmer conditions). So I had completely miscalculated my hydration requirements before the race, the power gel that I had 15 minutes before only acted to dehydrate me further - there was also some observation that I was overheating in my shorty ...

Noëlle had noticed my waving for help, but struggled to get anyone else to notice - thanks Noëlle, at least someone cared ;p - Still more work to do ...

My first Bash ...

Last Friday (16th January) I entered my first Bash - no I don't really know why it is called that either, but it was the Bells Bash, 8km cliff run on Victoria's Surf Coast. Noëlle picked me up from work and we drove straight there. I hadn't run for a week and really had been quite slack on my training, but as I was only doing it for fun and as part of a bigger training program I wasn't too worried.

Every category started together (571 of us), and we were asked to place ourselves according to pace in the start line up - I had no idea really so put myself somewhere in the back third, not wanting to hold faster runners up (this turned out to be the wrong choice).

The gun fired, and nothing seemed to happen, then there was a surge forward, we jogged a few paces and then stopped again, then walked, then jogged, then some more walking before everyone on the middle managed to sustain a slow jog - then came the bottleneck as we came up to the clifftop single-track, and everyone from the middle back slowed to a walk again. I found my place on the track, and was still frustrated with the slow pace, so after about half a km, decided on my own meaning for 'bash', and started to make my way past people by bashing through the bush on the side of the trail. I kept to this method throughout the first 4 km, half choked at the first water station (it was 29 degrees). I came across the first elite on his way back from the turn around just after the second water station (just over 3 kms in). At the turn around we entered the road for almost 1km, we lost both the breeze of the coast, and the shade of the bush, and I hate running on tarmac. I was still working my way slowly past other runners coming up to the 3rd drink station, and back on the trail with runners still heading to the turn around, but it meant I also had the hills to deal with again.

Other than my starting position, the other mistake that I made was not bothering with the final drink station - as I headed to the finish line, my knee was hurting and I didn't really feel like going for any kind of additional acceleration, but when I saw an old guy next to me, a young kid in front of me, and far too many women around for my liking, I put in the extra effort and took another 5 people as I came over the line.

I will get past the old guy ...

... and I can take those women before the line too!

It was a lot of fun, I am not in shape for running at all. I lost at least a few minutes in the slow start - Beautiful views and run, everyone was really friendly, just a great fun atmosphere. I came somewhere in the middle of all runners, unfortunately I was 71 out of 99 in my category :(

Thanks for cheering me on Noëlle

...Just one man...?!

Noelle here...

Ok, so I was watching one of those Border Patrol programmes a few Sundays ago, when I thought that they said that New Zealand was protected by their 'airline and port authorities, and Matt!' Now I know NZ is considered relatively small, but I figured that they'd need more than just Matt to work there! As I was laughing so much, it took me quite a while to explain to Coop what was so funny to me... All those visitors to their country and their national security rides on just one man?! ;)

Apparently I'd mis-heard and there is some government body called MAF - phew! I mean, think of all those criminals who would slip into the country on his days off! :D

Something had to happen ...

Maybe I should have taken a more relaxing day on the beach on Tuesday after my race on Monday ...

Instead I went out kayak training. To the left is me heading out on the sea-ski kayak. What differences can you spot on the picture on the right of me heading back after training?

All I can say is that the training didn't exactly go to plan and I ended up looking like this ...

I sat on the beach for about an hour, threw down some ibuprofen while Noëlle phoned around - then I drove for over an hour to sit for another 2 hours waiting in an emergency dental hospital waiting room.

Who votes I keep this new look and the speach impediment that comes with it?

Rock 2 Ramp

What better way to get rid of those Christmas excesses than to go for a swim? Well yesterday I took that a little further by entering and completing the the Anglesea Rock 2 Ramp 1.2km open water swim. I only heard about this event on the 6th of December, so with an insane work schedule before Christmas didn't have much training time. I completed my last main training swim for it last Wednesday, a 950m sea swim and then waited to see how I felt the next couple of days before fully committing to the event.

Before

I have to say that my goals were not too lofty for this event, it forms part of a training schedule for a bigger event to come, so I did not want the dreaded DNF (did not finish), and I didn't want to be last. That was about it ... oh, I didn't want to use the option of taking a rest and carrying on. (Due of my shoulder, spine, brachial and right arm injuries, swimming is incredibly painful for me, and while to some this distance may not be a big deal, it was a big achievement for me, and allows me to set new goals).

Getting ready for the start

The women in my category set off 5 minutes after the men, the lead 2 women were hot on my heals at the 400m mark, and several more passed me in their pink caps before I reached the 600m turn. I actually started to catch the back markers of the pack on the inward 600m; each time I looked up the shore did not look any closer than last time. I looked behind me to make sure there were still a few green caps behind me as I waded in and managed to take one more who seemed slightly disorientated in his direction towards the finishing line.

You can make out the bright orange of my faithful shorty in the centre near the front ... that didn't last for long :(

Battling in the water - I was still somewhere in the middle at this point

Oh dear, all those women folk have caught me up, but at least there are still some green caps behind me ...

My official time won't be posted for a day or two, with my position, but neither were good, but I reached my goal. I have a lot more training to do to reach my end goal, but it is a good start. This is the first competitive event that I have done since Swamp Soccer (not sure if that really counts).

After

Recovered ... somewhat

Both Noëlle & I had a lot of fun, and spent the rest of the day enjoying the beach and 28 degree sun, with a bit of kite flying too. I'll try and catch the blog up on the rest of December, but keep an eye out for my next event ...

Noëlle hiding amongst the rocks - it was beautiful beach/cove

The rest of Spring

Spring move over for Summer ...

Lack of posts does not mean lack of activity for us, it has been a hectic month and a half. I wasn't sure that I was such a fan of the transition season of Winter to Spring - I mean, sure we got early Spring snowboarding in; so not such perfect, but at least dry (you know what I mean), white water rafting done, but then the snow left and the real sun didn't seem to arrive. Late October and the month of November changed all that :D

Return to the sea, 24th October, Frankston Beach, still a little chilly after a swim.

As well as venturing into the water less a wetsuit, Spring brought us a 3 day 1050km motorbike camping trip from Oct 31st to November 2nd.

1st November - enjoying 100's of kms of great winding coastal roads heading west from Melbourne towards Adelaide, SA

5km from our camping spot for the first night (31st Oct) the view of the 12 Apostles from the Great Ocean Road, Victoria.

1st November, it's a camping life for us, and Noelle is smiling about it ;p

We love rugged lonely coastlines, just Noelle's footsteps in the sand - 1st November

We had a great trip, just to explore new areas and get away from the 'burbs

The weekend didn't end for us when we got back from the bike trip. The Tuesday was Melbourne Cup day and a public holiday, but we had both been given Monday off work. So after the fun we all had on the demo day in October, we headed out in the same group for some real rock climbing.

As we left the sealed roads and headed into the bush, we all thought this was a pretty funny sign ...

From where we parked the car, it was about a 45 minute hike to Falcons Lookout where we would be climbing, so we had some fun messing around en-route.

Looking out and down Werribee Gorge from the top of Falcons Lookout crag

3rd November - this climb was actually a lot tougher than the picture makes it look

Noelle meets the challenge of the face

Hiking back after a long but great day climbing, this is my new local climbing spot :D
Dean, Adrien, Coop, Noelle & Mayank

November was a funny month, it ended up being the hottest November in Melbourne ever with two heat waves; Melbourne also had the most rainfall in 5 years? The first heat wave resulted in my busiest week since arriving in Australia, early starts and getting home after 10pm most nights. At the same time Noelle got an unexpected paid week off work. Eventually we caught up with each other again, and got back to the important things in life ... the beach & playing

Noelle relaxing at St Kilda Beach, 7th November

Dean's video compilation of us playing at St Kilda

Spring means wind, and wind means kites - Brighton Beach, 13th November - I wish I'd had my big kite with me that day, the wind on the water was perfect, and even with the small kite plenty of barefoot drags along the beach.

Kingston Beach, 18th NovemberDon't come to the beach with me if you don't want to go in the water ... (Adrien)

You want to fly? I can arrange that too, power kiting is easy when there is someone to pull you back down (Mayank) - St Kilda Beach - 19th November

Noelle tends to keep out of the way when there is a water bundle

Skim boarding is something new to me, I bought a board at the beginning of the winter when we we waiting for all our stuff to arrive from the UK ... it is much more fun when the water is warm :D

We drag Noelle from the peace and quiet of her reading as often as we can ...

19th November - St Kilda Beach - I have been unlucky at not having wind and my board with me combined with my time off. I still get out on the water as much as possible, again now minus the wetsuit.

Those were some of the bits of our Spring, Summer plans are already in motion, but will be mostly more of the same :D Oh and our 2nd Summer Christmas ...

MOvember

Noelle was obliged to take up 'Moustache Riding' for the month of November ... why you may ask? Well, despite that fact that I still only shave twice a week at most (I just don't get much facial hair and what I do get isn't really visible). I have been participating in the Movember Campaign. (For those who don't want to check out the link, this is something that started about 5 or 6 years ago in Australia, but is now in the UK and US as well as other places. The idea is to raise both awareness and money for men's health needs, specifically prostate cancer).

Prostate Cancer isn't spoken about much, although in most Western countries including the US, Australia and the UK, there are higher new cases of Prostate Cancer each year than Breast Cancer (the death rates are comparable). I am not trying to knock the attention given to Breast Cancer, but much more money is spent on it's research than for the male equivalent.

This is something closer to my heart as my Dad died almost 3 years ago of Prostate Cancer (his whole body was riddled with cancer in the end, but it started as Prostate Cancer).

Despite jokes about 'man-flu' men are less likely to go to the doctor, even if something seems serious. This, combined with the fact that the simple test for Prostate Cancer is not particularly desirable, means that many men are tested for it too late, or not at all.

So just be aware guys and girls, prostate cancer kills a plenty. We don't need pink ribbons, but I am more than happy to sport a moustache for the month of November to get people talking about this horrible disease. (I am also glad that my Dad got diagnosed when I was young and got a lot more years than most sufferers do.)

The pictures don't really show it, but I was attempting a handlebar moustache (to participate you start with a clean shave at the beginning of the month and keep a moustache trimmed for the rest of the month (beards and goatees are not allowed). One of the Indians at my college said I looked like a film star, I am not sure what kind of films he watches as? Noelle's boss gave me a pornstar name when she saw it, and one of my bosses was ready for it to be removed by about half way through the month as he also said I looked like a pornstar.

The question now is should I keep it, or wait until next November before I offend the world again???

Anaconda Demo Day

Last Saturday we got the chance to introduce some of our hobbies to our friends for free at a demo day in Westerfolds Park north east of the city ...

Adrien, Noelle, Dean & Mayank racing up the pinnacle

Dean, Coop & Mayank, hanging out

After that, there was some time to try out some bikes and hit a few short trail rides (I loved the trail/street/park bike I tried, as I have been wanting to try out this style of bike for ages)
Dean, Noelle, Coop, Adrien & Mayank

Noelle and Adrien back on the main trail after navigating through the trees

Time to cool off and get wet after the trail ride, Dean, Mayank & Adrien

Mayank, Adrien & Dean navigating the river



Coop, Dean & Adrien, playing around & ready to race

Us ... just paddling down the river 'on a kayak made for two'

We had beautiful sunny weather all day. We both did a 3km run first thing before heading to the park. Before we left the park, Noelle & I hung out to find out about some race events that I am planning on entering after Christmas (we'll see how the training goes). Then we ended the day the best way; at the beach catching some rays and my first ocean swim of the Spring.

The sun can keep this coming:)

Dean put this great video montage together of our day, just click to play :)

I officially declare winter over!

I have been reluctant to make this declaration as the last Victorian ski fields only closed their lifts for the winter season 3 weeks ago, and they have had significant snowfalls since then. There has also been plenty of hail and wild winds down on the coast where we are. But I have finally had my first sea swim of the Spring and we have been able to spend much more time outside benefit ting from the clocks going forward for Spring 3 weeks ago here.

That said this was our winter:

I love winter as long as snow is involved (even with the insanely early alarm clock on Saturday mornings to drive to the better slopes). This year the snow came early & stayed late which meant we hit the slopes for the first time the first weekend of May. We had some gorgeous weather, blue skies and a BBQ on the slopes :)

Noelle catching some rays on the chair lifts at Mt Buller

Not quite such sunny conditions, some great runs at Mt Baw Baw our closest downhill resort, but only when there is enough snow (we only managed one trip here this winter due to lack of snow the 2nd half of the season)

We also had some very bitter and poor visibility days, this was one of those at Falls Creek (the furthest slopes from us), but when you've driven all that way, you just grin; your face is soon fixed in that position :) - We are in that picture ... somewhere

Buller, and Mt Hotham threw some equally biting days at us in the 2nd half of the winter.

The last 3 photos are all from our final boarding of the season at Mount Hotham at the end of September, it was the 2nd to last day of their season and more than 50cm of snow fell on us and the approach roads throughout the day. The wind lead to almost zero visibility on the summit slopes, but middle mountain (and for me) off-piste were fantastic; tracks were constantly re-covered with powder. This made for a perfect end of the season (which officially ended at Falls a weeks later).

Mt Hotham summit, 26th September 2009

Noelle, protected from the elements

Most people already had snow chains fitted in the morning, we luckily found a fairly protected spot to park, and had no issues with our 4WD locked. We drove down from the mountain on freshly snow covered roads, just enjoying the beauty of it all.

We also decided to go white water rafting only 50km from Mt Hotham the same weekend, which, despite the weather above the snowline, was probably just right on the river :)

We have had great winter. I usually rate my winter activity on the number of lift passes I collect over the season, considering our own boards only arrived from the UK late July, we did pretty well - we hit all 4 Victorian downhill resorts, but with Buller being the closest with reliable snow conditions for day trips, this was tackled most.

Winter camping was included twice to give us more time at the better snow of Falls Creek and Hotham which are further away. I have definitely been impressed with the quality and quantity of snow, and while some might not find all the runs challenging enough, you can challenge yourself on them.

We are looking forward to summer (and those same resorts opening for their green seasons and downhill MTBing), I am not so keen on the transition from one to the other ...

Oh and my only snowboarding injury this winter was a cracked rib from a rail back in June :D

Keeping Cool

Just a question for readers.

Is it conceited, arrogant, or just unwise to use my name within my business name?

I am in the process of setting up a business in Australia (which if the stats for start-ups are correct, will probably make us poorer rather than richer).

It has been a good while since I have had to come up with a new business/trading name, and it is causing me some problems.

The name I am most likely to register at the moment is 'Cooper Cooling' (Just to clarify, to move to Australia I have re-specialised/re-trained as a refrigeration and air conditioning engineer). I want the name to incorporate all parts of what the business will cover, which primarily is the design, construction, manufacture, installation, servicing, and sales of all things that help keep life 'cool'. (Something quite important down under, somehow the 4 million + feral Australian camels seem to cope)

Any thoughts or ideas much appreciated, as this name may well haunt my life for years to come ...

I don't have much time to make a decision as I am already trading, and have to complete the company registration ASAP or risk big fines.

(Yes we are still having lots of fun down here, and will try and get some more of it up online to share when we get this next step up and running)