2XU Photo Shoot

I have been a sponsored 2XU athlete/ambassador for over 5 years now and this week I was given the opportunity to fly to Melbourne to be a model for the day in a photo shoot for the new range of clothing hitting stores for 2XU in 2012.

It was also great to have the chance to work along side such an amazing group of people which helped make the day a whole lot of fun. Thanks again to everyone!

The day started with a 5am flight to Melbourne. I was picked up by my driver for the day and driven to the photo shoot studio. A small accident on the highway meant that I got to see a bit more of Melbourne on the drive (which was nice) when we hit some of the less major roads trying to avoid the peak hour traffic congestion.

 Lots of make up/bronzer/baby oil/hair products later I looked something like this... 

Checking out the shots

If I have a chance I will try and post up some of the photos from the photo shoot soon.

Sunday run

This morning marked my first Sunday morning run in over 5 months. After being out of action with a stress fracture for the better part of this season its felt so amazing over the past few weeks to be getting back into the training I should be doing.

This morning was a nice steady 40 min jog at just below 4 minutes/per 1km pace.

Such an amazing morning and so much fun getting out along the water. I'll let the photos' do the rest of the talking.

 My brother came along for a jog as well.

 Dad also rode out and met us out there.

Le Grand Cirque

Last night I headed to see Le Grand Cirque on a family night out.

We chose to eat at 'Jackpot' at West End which is a pretty amazing little restaurant both in regards to the food and price (around $60 for meals, drinks and dessert for 4 people)

Mine, roasted duck (half eaten)

Brothers, mongolian beef

 The deep fried ice cream was amazing. I'm not an ice cream person usually however this was too good to pass up. My brother seemed pretty excited when it came out. 

Onto 'Le Grand Cirque'. All in all it was a great show and very funny. You could really see the strong french influence though out the show. After seeing a couple of the 'Cirque du Soleil' shows I can say its not of that level by any stretch of the imagination. Taking it for what it was there was some amazing stunts and the obligatory motorcycle cage of death in the finalle which was very cool.

This morning my training squad planned to head to Sutton's Beach for some open water swimming and mini triathlon race simulations. However it seemed like at the last minute the squad decided to change plans and head back to the safely of the pool for a swim there instead. Disappointing form to say the least and its funny how a little bit of rain can do that.

This fella turned up before promptly bailing....

Surprisingly it wasn't really rough in the water and I ended up swimming for an hour or so with my brother. I made the most of the morning by cooking a BBQ breakfast after the swim as well. 

 Result...

Mixing it up

This morning I decided to forgo my usual friday morning pool swim and head to Mooloolaba for an open water swim. It was an amazing morning and after having a few words to the local lifeguard it seemed like we'd picked the best morning all week.

The water was the clearest that I've seen it in a while and it was great to look down and be able to see the ocean floor with all the fish swimming right underneath you (beats staring at the black line in the pool if you ask me). While drying off post swim we were told by a local (who saw us swimming) that there was dolphins playing about 20 meters from us at one point during our swim. I just really hope he knew the difference between dolphins and sharks.

The only downside to the swim was the water temp which felt a lot colder than 19.5 and needless to say we seemed to be only ones swimming. My brother went the wetsuit but I went without and paid the price as you can see in the photo.

When at Mooloolaba I nearly always head to RAW ENERGY for coffee and/or breakfast and this morning was no different. Great food and good coffee.

Sunday Golf Game

Today I hit the links with fellow triathlete Nick Hull and elite swimming brothers Cody and Ridge Grimsey.  It was a great morning out with the weather being just perfect. Instead of taking photos I thought i'd put together a quick video of the day. Enjoy!

Back into it again

Today was my first training session back after a 5 week 'forced break' (for lack of a better word) as a result of my troublesome stress fracture.

I skipped the usual morning rush at the local pool and headed down just after lunch time for a couple of km's in the water. It was a weird feeling to finally get back into the pool after having so long off but was very satisfying nonetheless. Swimming feels quite foreign to me (as to be expected after having so long off) but I'm sure after another few sessions I'll be feeling a lot more comfortable in the water.