Sunday, June 29, 2014

180/365


What a beautiful day. I started with a 20km run, watching the sun rise over the Adelaide Hills. The sun then came out and gave us a superb day after the crappy week of weather that we have had. The sun shine was nice and warm and it made for some perfect vibrant shots of the vineyard. I enjoyed this view while chilling on an old bamboo "couch", sipping coffee and reading my Zen Buddhism book. A perfect place for reflection and soul searching.

179/365


I think this is the coolest "outhouse" I have ever seen. It has so much character, a window with no glass and a door that doesn't close properly. So when you are on the can it's a bit breezy, but kind of relaxing looking out at the environment. We were at our good friends vineyard for the weekend camping. It was so beautiful and quiet up there, albeit cold and wet. However we were super impressed with our cheap camping gear that kept us cold and dry, even though I'm guessing temps would have got to 5ish degrees with the clear evening.

178/365

Thursday, June 26, 2014

177/365


Wandering in my lunch break. Scoped this rad bike at Gawler Place in front of Nespresso. Had to take a photo! Love the chrome finish of it and the exposed welds. Nice!

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

176/365


Me on my lunch break in the stairwell at work! Just grabbed a big ass block of Organic Tofu for dinner :-) We were making Vietnamese cold rolls with peanut sauce and tofu :-)

175/365


Looking sky high out front of my work at a glimpse of one of the rare glimpses of blue sky that we have had recently. It was bloody freezing and so damp. The last few days have been interesting commuting to and from work that's for sure. It seems that Adelaide puts the nice weather on during the day while we are in work, and then pisses down on me when I'm riding home..oh well. It makes you feel alive!

174/365


My pretty new bike :-) I am going to have a lot of fun on this machine. Such a beautifully made piece of machinery. It rides so nicely; feels like it is on rails! I got her from Bicycle Express through some of the guys that I used to know from way back in the downhill days. I got my first downhill bike there, and it's funny that 15 years later, I am back there buying a bike from one of the guys that was there when I started downhilling. That passion for bikes always brings the crew back together.

173/365


A rekky mission with my good friends Grace and Daniel. I have been given the honour to photograph their wedding, so we thought a day visiting their ceremony location for some photos would be a good way to have a test photo shoot and check out the area. The venue is beautiful and I feel that Daniel and Grace will be very fun to work with on the day. Looking forward to it!

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Swimming

As the hammy is feeling a bit shit house, my long endurance Saturday morning session became a swim :-( Unfortunately as I was really hoping to hit my 27km trail run today..oh well. Anyways, I dashed down to Immanuel College this morning for a swim. Even though it is only 25m, the pool is really nice and I thoroughly enjoy swimming there. I was feeling really good in the water this morning and ended swimming 4kms, and finished feeling great and putting some of my hardest effort into the last km.
Todays session was one of those great sessions where you clear your mind and manage to just ponder on problems and issues while you are swimming. You kind of get in a rhythm and forget that you are doing that repetitive motion and entertain yourself with problem solving and different trains of thought. When you get in the zone like that it makes endurance sport thoroughly enjoyable.
To top the session off, I happened to bump into a bloke out front of the pool afterwards ho asked me if it was busy and what the pool was like. He was visiting Adelaide and said it was his first time to the pool, but it had been recommended to him. It sounded like he previously came from Adelaide from the way he spoke, but he now lives in Panama and has headed up a running group there which sounded super interesting, and funnily enough this worldwide running crew is home to the founders of Iron Man ;-)
I believe this group is an Aussie started running group called the Hash House Harriers. Check it out.
All up a beautiful morning!

172/365


House hunting Saturday. Shitloads of open inspections and a good afternoon spent driving around and snooping through other peoples houses! This is a really nice feature wall in Brompton, just accross the road from a beautiful house we were looking at. Unfortunately said house is way too expensive :-( However we learn a lot every time we go out looking and are slowly adjusting what we are looking for as we learn the market.

171/365


I love lighting fires, so I made the most of the in-laws fire and timber supply. I sat in front of this fire while getting it going for a good hour, adding timber and reading my Zen Buddhism book. I got caught in the most ridiculous downpour on the ride home from work, so this fire was well and truly necessary to a) warm up and b) dry my riding gear which was so wet that I was wringing water out of it. The downpour was so heavy that you could see headlights beaming through it like thick mist. Funnily enough I was loving riding in it, it was like being a kid again.

170/365


Nice wine collection. A whole bunch of Old Adam Vintages. Nice.

169/365


Wow, what a shitty photo. Another day lacking motivation for this project. This was taken late in the evening, well after cooking dinner. The Protea stems are from the in-laws garden. They had brought them around the previous Sunday when we had them over for lunch. They look quite nice against the grey feature wall.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

168/365


The building I work in. All deliveries this way! What mode can I say, standard day, standard lunch break. Not much interesting to take a photo of today!

167/365


Kate practicing her song of choice for her Adelaide Choir audition. She chose a new Kate Miller Heidke song and killed it at her audition.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

102km Bike Ride

This morning I headed out for an amazing solo bike ride. I headed to the hills where it was a bit wet, but still got some great climbs in. Norton Summit, Little Italy, Forest Range, Lofty Summit, and Ashton from Range Rd. I then headed out to Sheoak Rd behind Belair, over to Cross Rd via Fullarton Rd, down to Anzac Highway, along the coast to Henley Beach and back home. 3hrs 40mins. It was all beautiful, and the sun coming out at the end of the ride while I was hurting and pushing it along the coast was such a bonus.
The whole ride was full of beautiful views. It is crazy how easily you can pass 4 hours on the bike.

166/365


A beautiful afternoon stroll at Henley Beach with Kate. A great time to reflect on the week and everything that is going on for us at the moment, A moment to get some fresh air and get away from the demands of our silly busy lives, which of course we are to blame for making them so busy, but we like to fit a lot in I guess! Today has been an epic day, 100km bike ride, Kates parents over for lunch for which Kate cooked an epic stew and then a afternoon stroll at Henley. What more could you want!

165/365


Legs post wet and muddy Clealand Trail Run. Such an epic run, so much fun and I can't wait for next weekend to do the same again! I think this is why I love trail running, it gives me an excuse to get out in the fresh air and to get dirty, reminding me of when I was a kid and my mum would just pick me up out of the mud in the garden and place me right in the bath tub to soak, clothes and all!

164/365


Impromptu meeting with Kate over lunch. This was a very wet day for Adelaide, the umbrellas were out in force. We wandered down Rundle Mall to Haigs Chocolate for a little treat. Kate had just been at university using a practice scanning machine, and I was in a quick little lunch break when I got a surprise call from Kate to meet up :-)

163/365


Wandering the Plympton suburbs in my afternoon off to take care of Kate with her freshly operated knee. I was running some errands to get devices to ice the fresh wound. This is a cool little semi run down house - needs a bit of work but would be a cool investment if it were for sale.

162/365


Another late night with no photograph, and this led to some creativity. I recently bought some books on Zen Buddhism and am working my way through them hoping that they will help me relax and look at life with a much more positive perspective. Anyways, while reading these books I have been burning some calming incense and this got me thinking of some creative photographs. I shone my desk lamp through the smoke from screen left and came up with this photo :-)

Saturday, June 14, 2014

26 km Trail Run

As it may have been picked up from my blog, I am now in Marathon Training mode. I am loosely following a training schedule for a 12 week, up to 55miles per week training plan from Fitzingers book "Advanced Marathoning". I say I am loosely following it as I have a tenancy to get injured when I follow plans to the dot, so I am taking the long runs and doing them, and then doing the in between recovery runs when time permits. This way I only end up running 3 times a week, but still getting some good mileage, and because it is from a plan at least the lengths of the run follow some logical progression.
Another alteration I'm making is that I will do some runs on trails. I know this messes up my pacing and that it is completely different to race day simulation, however it is fun! And that's really what it should all be about. Atleast with trail running the same distance takes longer, but the impact is lower so you end up with less fatigue, but longer on your legs.
Yesterdays 26km trail run was a loop I''ve been wanting to do for a while. It started at the base of Chambers Gully, and headed towards Mt Lofty summit. From the summit I traversed just below the Mt Lofty > Crafers road along the Heysen Trail, and then I followed a few trails to get onto the Mileen Trail, then Old Bullock Trail that run just below the old freeway and take you out to Mt Osmond. From Mt Osmond, there is a trail network that weaves down and led straight back to the car. This run let me pretty much circumnavigate all of Clealand National Park and I got to see some amazing scenery that in 30 years of living in Adelaide, I have never seen.
Best bit is, today, legs have pulled up pretty good which I am happy with, hopefully they'll be up for another big run on Tuesday.

161/365


Cold winters morning! The windows have fogged over but at least there is sun on the horizon. So far I have ridden to work everyday, so it's always a blessing to look outside and see sunshine, although the windows being fogged up didn't heighten my confidence of warmth outside.

160/365


A man in his shed. My good mate Andrew in progress of building up a beautiful custom Vespa. Every man needs his cave right? We were over at his place as Astrud and him were throwing an amazing afternoon to support his wine venture, "Rusty Vine".

159/365


We had a group of amazing friends over for dinner and I cooked up a vegetarian Moroccon tagine. It was delicious thanks to this wide array of spices that went into the initial spice mix. We also had some amazing rice on the side thanks to a new rice cooking technique derived from Jotan Ottolenghi.

158/365


This was a beautiful persimmon tree in the backyard of the first property we were seriously thinking of buying. It was a beautiful house, however things just didn't go our way and it sold for waaaay more than we expected. This photo was minutes before the auction.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

24 km training run

So, this is my first ever iPhone blog post! How exciting! Anyways, last sunday i hit an amazing 24 km marathon training run. As we were headed to Gepps Cross market that morning, i got kate to pick me up en route so i could run 24 km point to point and not have to double back to home and run the same path in reverse! This makes it so much more fun! So my run took me from plympton, down the tram tracks to glenelg, out towards brighton and then i pulled a u-turn and headed to Henley Beach. This run was amazing. At least 12 km of running along the ocean as the sun rose. So beautiful. I saw some dolphins and finished my run at the end of Henley Beach jetty. This was then topped off with a coffee at Cibo when kate arrived to pick me up. This was followed by fresh fruit from the market for brekky! What a wholesome way to start the day!


157/365


Wandering along Rundle Mall in my lunch break. Motion is an easy topic to photograph in this pedestrian precinct. This is a photo of random passers by in front of the super busy Apple Store.

156/365


Some of my photos of late have been pretty dismal, this one included. I guess it tells a story...late at work, winter, dark outside and too busy during the day to get out in my lunch break.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Berri Race Weekend

Last weekend was "The Tour de Riverland". A two day cycling event held by the Norwood Cycling Club at Berri, SA. Kate and I decided to take the weekend to head out for the race, and in doing so booked into some nice accommodation. We booked into these sweet eco villas just out of Berri, near Lyrup, sitting on top of the cliffs of the Murray River.
We got up early on Saturday morning to find some real shitty weather. The drive to Berri is almost 3 hours, and it rained nearly the whole way. It was beautiful to see this part of SA when it was raining, however when you are headed to a 86km road race, rain = shit!
Anyways, we get to Berri nice and early so we can enjoy the farmers market and have a pre race coffee. We poke around for a bit, then I start to warm up and am racing by just after 1:30. I was placed in the 28 minute handicap group, and we smashed it. The group worked really well together and we pushed it hard. I had learned from Milang that I really wanted to hang onto any pack that caught us, and hang on I did. It was an amazing feeling pushing it with the faster groups in the last 30 or so kms, and at times being out front of the whole pack. I was having a blast.
The race came down to the last few kms, and I was feeling pretty good, then in the last Km I got boxed in with shitloads of other riders, making it almost impossible to sprint to the finish. In the end I finished 18th, making myself a sweet $110, but I knew that I could have pushed it way harder had I had some clear road. Oh well, this was a darn sight better than my last handicapped road race, so hopefully I can learn from this and pull a better result next race. My mate Steve killed it pulling 3rd!
That night at the b&b was amazing. We cooked some nice food and relaxed in the hot tub looking over the Murray. We wound the night up watching a movie on the ginormous TV and veging out!
The following morning I was up at 6:30 to get some sunrise photos. It was so beautiful at that time of day watching the sun rise over the Murray. My legs wee toasted from the previous days racing, and the thought of having to race the criterium did not sit well.
I headed back to Berri and prepped for the race with some light warm up riding. I knew straight away that I was in trouble. I could tell that there was nothing left in my legs, and once racing started it really showed. I lagged behind early on, and just managed to tag back onto the group after a few laps, to only mooche around and not really compete with anyone for anything! Oh well, it was a good learning experience. I think it shows that it is not a good idea to run 3 half marathons in the 6 days leading up to a big race.
All in all it was a great weekend away. Our first proper holiday since returning to oz and our first roadtrip in our new Clancy. As a sidenote I paid for the racing for the next few days with absolutely pooched legs!


155/365


The Rundle Mall Pigs! Such colorful characters. I have seen so many drunk people ride them, so many tourists snap pics of them and many children play with them. They are truly a dynamic piece of public art that appeal to all age groups and walks of life. Seeming I work right around the corner I don't think my photo a day series would be complete without having a photo of them!

154/365


Wandering through the somewhat neglected Dacosta Arcade in my lunch break. It is such a random space, full of random shops, and the only reason I walk through there is because it is quieter than the sidewalk so I can get to the supermarket or back to work quicker. I'm not really sure how the shops in there make much cash, but they obviously stay afloat. I think the most random store is an old record store that only seems to sell classic old rocker tunes and is full of old men that are balding and have grey hair. Actually this place probably stays open as they have the monopoly over this makret!

153/365


The old school New York style lift at my work. I try to use the stairs whenever I can, but this day my legs were so thrashed from the weekend of racing that I cheated and caught the lift in my lunch break. Soft right?

Sunday, June 1, 2014

152/365


Waking up early at our amazing Lyrup b&b, I went for a walk to stretch the legs that were totally smashed from the 86km handicap race the day before. I had placed 18th, and the prospect of racing the criterium later this day was not that appealing. However the morning walk was a great time to reflect on my previous days performance and to ponder the best way to tackle the race today. This photo was taken at about 7am as the sun rose over the Murray River.

151/365


We were in Berri for the 40th Annual Berri Race Weekend. The scenery there is so different to what we have been used to recently. The colors are ever changing, the vegetation is totally different. I find the environment so vibrant, and after returning from Canada I find it even more appealing as it is so different. This shot was taken half way between our acommodation at Pike River B&B in Lyrup and Berri on Lyrup Road.