Favourite Places

Friday, 27 February 2026

This is my favourite part of my new local running route which I can only take first thing in the morning or just before the botannical gardens close as there is a rule prohibiting running in the gardens. Although to be fair, it would take a kind groundsperson to classify what I'm doing as 'running' - more like fast walk/slow shuffling...

 

Dad

Friday, 27 February 2026

I normally try to avoid any sad or serious stuff on here, so are some nice photos of dad:

 

 

 

 

Antartica 2025

Friday, 27 February 2026

Although I wasn't a participant (nor was Jett), it would be wrong to omit mum, Zali and Jon's amazing drip down to Antartica from this big blog recap I'm doing. I don't have any photos of mum unfortunately but a great time was had by all!

 

 

 

 

Kangaroo Island 2025

Friday, 27 February 2026

Another very belated post! We had a lovely few days just before Christmas at Penneshaw with Jon's mum.  We did all the usual activites plus a few more pulled out of a hat after chopping up the KI tourist magazine. That sent us to the Wildlife Park (below), the raptor show and to a delicious cafe for Breakfast. 

 

 

 I did a few of my favourite runs:

 

 

And we did some touristy sight seeing: 

 

 

And we had a delicious afternoon at False Cape Winery.  

 

All up it was a lovely trip, and likely to be one of our last as Shirley investigates selling up and moving back to the mainland. 

 

Easter Orienteering 2025

Thursday, 26 February 2026

The Easter orienteering last year was around the Bendigo area, I don't remember a whole lot about it except that it was very dry. In fact one of the places we pass through a few times got very heavily bushfire affected recently. I do remember this guy though, who we walked past on the way to the arena one of the days:

 

And we stayed in a cute apartment at a very little winery outside Bendigo - the winery part was wasted on us but it was very nice:

 

One of the areas we ran at had these scary looking cacti sprinkled all over it :

 

The weekend after the major easter events had us back at Bridgewater on Lodden, which was a nice little town with a delicious bakery opposite us - that was probably the highlight. 

 

Actually as I write this, I realise that while I don't remember a whole lot about my own performance I definitely remember that we were all a bit dissapointed and sad for Jett, who after strong performances in NZ earlier in the year, and a good result at the first day of the competition, crashed out a bit in the remaining two selection trial races, and consequently was selected as a non-travelling reserve on the JWOC team.  Now that almost a year has gone by I can reflect that while he missed out on a week of probably quite stressful orienteering in Portugal in the team, it did mean he was able to do his first year of Uni without the complications of travel interfering with exams, and for the rest of us, since we didn't use up leave and cash travelling to Europe last year (we would have gone to watch), it does mean we're been able to plan a fun trip for this year - so it hasn't been all bad.

Finally a pair

Thursday, 26 February 2026

Many years ago - probably more than a decade, I bought two fibreglass frogs from Bunnings with the intention of mosiacing them both.  I managed to do one of them but the fiddlyness of it put me off doing the 2nd until last year, when frog number one finally got a friend..

 

  

 

 

Melbourne Laneways

Wednesday, 25 February 2026

I can't believe I haven't wanted to post these cool photos earlier (for myself in the future), but back in April 25 I went for an early morning run around some of the more famous Melbourne Laneways - it was pretty early so they weren't all at full steam but it was fun nevertheless..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pinto in St Helens

Tuesday, 24 February 2026

Last year me, Jon and Pinto spent 4 lovely weeks in St Helens which we thoroughly enjoyed.  Well, most of us enjoyed it. Pinto did not.

 

Under the influence of anti-anxiety drugs she did come to terms with it though, and moved out of the wardrobe drawers after the first week or so.


She also didn't mind the sunny afternoons and the relaxing moments with Jon.

 

 

After 3 weeks she was brave enough to look out the windows:

 

But I don't think she's looking forward to this year's return visit as much as we are.

 

 

Brisbane September 25

Tuesday, 24 February 2026

This post is shamefully late but I wanted to remind myself of our trip to Queensland for 9 days to participate in the Australian Orienteering Champs but also to take in a week in Brisbane as we haven't spent much time there before.

To truly soak it up we rented an apartment beside the Brisbane River and very close to one of the River Cat stops so between events we rode it up to the cbd, to Brisbane's version of Southbank,  and just for general site seeing.

 

 

As expected, the orienteering was pretty hot and scrappy, but still fun:

 

 

Our highlight was definitely Jett's junior elite team winning the night relay. A nice way for him to round up his junior orienteering career.

 

We also found time to visit some cool swimming holes and waterfalls just outside of Brisbane:

 

 

Overall it was pretty fun. Good to get an insight into Brisbane life and enjoy some what it had to offer.

 

 

Melbourne Greenscapes

Sunday, 22 February 2026

Our apartment in Southbank Melbourne is just a stone's throw from the CBD and Arts Precinct, but it's also a just short run from plenty of hidden ferny glades, the Domain and the botanical gardens, which makes an late evening or early morning run just a delight at this time of the year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cradle Mountain 25/26

Sunday, 22 February 2026

A few days out from Zali's 21st Birthday in 2024, Zali let us know that her birthday dream was to paddleboard on Lake Dove at Cradle Mountain National Park.  Unfortunately it could only be a dream as at that late stage, even if we had unlimited cash (which we don't), it would have been next to impossible to find accommodation over NYE.  

But the good thing about birthdays is that they roll around again, so I jumped online and booked arguably the best accommodation in the park at the Waldheim Cabins for NYE 25/26.

The very advanced booking meant we had time to see who was interested to join us and we were lucky enough to have Stix & Tracy, Alexa and Lyra making the trip down. Andy also came down for a few adventures before we headed up but he had to leave early.

Zali had organised a pretty extensive smorgasbord of activities that had a good balance of arts & games,  five-sies, hikes and of course the feature paddle boarding.  

Once we got there we also discovered that as we were staying inside the park we could drive down to the new Dove Lake visitor shelter once the shuttles stopped working at 7pm,  whereupon we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. 


We took advantage of this a few times and drove down to the lake a few mornings to run a lap of the lake and had an amazing evening boiling water with the EV and having hot chocolates and birthday cake while watching the sun set and the local wombat feasting on every newly planted shrub right outside the massive windows.

 

 

The evening we chose for the paddle boarding was pretty perfect with hardly any wind and still some sun on the lake.  Unfortunately the one paddle board we chose to bring with us (as the 2nd one wouldn't fit in the car) turned out to have a hole in it - so although the photos make it look idyllic, the person on the back of the board was pressing their thumb against the hole as hard as possible to stop the air blasting out! It wasn't quite the relaxing experience we had hoped for but it was still fun, and almost all of us had a go. Next time we'll take both boards and some repair kit! 

 

 

All up it was a fantastic trip, we couldn't have asked for better weather or company, and we'll be planning a repeat visit soon.

 

 

Walls of Jerusalem - This time in a day

Saturday, 21 February 2026

Ever since our super fun girls hike late last year I'd been thinking that the Walls of Jerusalem could also be enjoyed as a long day walk, or even a jog-a-hike.  I suggested this to the rest of the family, and with the prospect of some pretty demanding day walks coming up in our future we agreed that tackling it this summer would be a good plan.  Also neither Jett or Zali had been to the Walls of Jerusalem National Park before. 

The only barrier to the day walk is the 4hr + drive each way to the start of the trail head.  I decided the best way to deal with this was to drive up to Mole Creek, 1 hour away from the trail head, the night before. That way we could get an early start to the next day and the kids could do a full day at work on the blueberry farm before we left.  

With only one option for accommodation we stayed at the Mole Creek Hotel, which was cheap and actually pretty comfortable. 

After a not too early start the next day arrived at the car park at 8:50am.  Jon and Jett were going to run the route and do all the side trips, while Zali and I would just do the circuit. We would still have to walk pretty quickly to avoid J & J having to wait for a long time when they got back. 

So we  all set off - once we cleared the first big hill up to Trappers Hut,  Zali and I  set a pretty reasonable pace. The weather was fantastic, not too hot but perfect to enjoy the amazing views all around.

 

We caught up with Jon and Jett after a few hours as they finished their 2nd side trip, then we pushed on as they went up Mount Jerusalem. 

  

 

 

 

We had a couple of short stops but otherwise kept moving, and eventually arrived back to the car 45 minutes after the boys, all up 6hrs 45 minutes for the trip.   Such a great day out.

 

 

Four minute k - Part 4

Saturday, 6 December 2025

I'd done some research and found that the public (i.e. chumps like me) are allowed to use the Domain Athletics Track whenever it isn't booked, which during work hours would be quite often as there are only so many school carnivals to be had.   And sure enough, when I arrived there were only two other people using it - someone doing some sprints on the other side, and another person doing lap after lap.  

With my new shoes on I did a few warmup laps and a few stretches,  then running out of reasons to stall, I started my watch and set off.  The first 200 metres always feels good, and I can convince myself that I'm running strongly, however as I approached the 350 metre mark things were starting to hurt. It crossed my mind that perhaps I should pull the pin and just come back another day but I quickly realised that the other day would be just as painful as this day so I may as well keep going and find out the truth about my progress.

I crossed the 400metre mark and glanced at my watch and was heartily surprised to see it showed 1:32, definitely faster than I'd done before.  I was paying the price though, as the next lap felt awful and I was sure I was now well off the pace I needed. Imagine my surprise when I passed the 800 metre mark and another glance at my watch revealed I was at 3:11, well within range if I put in a good effort for the last 200metres.   

So I put my head down and went for it. And I did it!! 3:54! I couldn't be happier! or more surprised! I still had 6 weeks of my program to go - I could tear it up and let the pieces flutter down on Jett's head!

For reference, here are my splits compared to the first trial:

 Trial 400 400 200 Total
 1 1:36 1:46 55 4:17
 2 1:32 1:39 43 3:54

 In the first trial, my slowest pace was at the 875 metre mark before it improved slightly as I approached the line, in the second trial, it was at the 660 mark, earlier but also a lot less slow than trial one, and from there I improved back up to the pace I was doing at the 300 metre mark as I gave it everything to get to the finish line. 

So all up I'm pretty pleased with myself - I did it!  - but it does raise two questions - 1. What do I do with the rest of the time before the Oceania Sprint Champs and 2. What will become of Jett?

I think now that it has proved that pain does equal gain, I'll adjust the intervals for the 2.5 km sprint race length, and continue doing them.   

As far as Jett goes, we're in negotiations.  I'm pleased he has passed is first year of Uni as it's in even more in my interest he secures a good future :)

 

Four minute k - Part 3

Saturday, 6 December 2025

While I was comforted by the fact my first real test showed I wasn't too far way, I had a niggle in the back of my head that reminded me of the time I was training for the World Ultimate Frisbee Championships.  The whole team had done fitness testing at the NSW institute of sport, and although I'd performed really well in the endurance componant, in the vertical leap test I was dead last, meaning the difference between my standing reach and my jumping reach was the smallest of everyone.  To address this before we went away to Hawaii I got a program and went to the gym two or three times a week for 8 weeks.  At the end of that I tested it again and found that I hadn't even improved a single centimetre.  Which goes to show that sometimes things  just don't turn out how you want them to - even when you do the work!

So I was nervous that I wouldn't improve but I still plugged away for the next 4 weeks doing those 2 sessions in various locations as well as the runs in between.  As the interval lengths were similar  I could compare times from week to week and it didn't help that I really didn't see much change until finally this week my 400metre time ducked below 1:40 for the first time.  Until then I'd been in the low 1:40s up to 1:50 - much slower than the training program said I should be doing them to make a 4 minute k.   Buoyed by this I thought I'd brave another time trial. My biggest fear was that it was actually going to be slower than the first time but I figured I still had plenty of time to train if that happened.

Co-incidentally, the day before I planned the time trial, a new pair of shoes arrived in the mail.  I hadn't been able to justify Nike Vaporflys so I had ordered a pair of carbon plated shoes from a cheap Chinese brand that Jon was using.  By some fluke they fitted perfectly so I decided to give myself all the possible advantages by doing the 2nd time trial with these shoes AND at an actual tartan track at the Domain Athletic Centre.

Four minute k - Part 2

Saturday, 6 December 2025

The first week of training was as per the chatGPT training program and asked for two interval sessions. These filled me with dread but also made me wonder where I would do them.  Our local little athletics track is handy but also definitely not 400m around and often used by actual athletes (all be them little ones).   The thought of running around a random oval somewhere with cricket or any other sport going on also sent shivers down my spine.

In the end I decided I'd brave the little athletics track but when I got up there it was being used by a few people and I was too intimidated I just drove down to Kingston Beach and ran laps of a little bush path circuit at Kingston Beach.  

The 2nd session was 3 x 8minute intervals which I decided I'd do on the pipeline track. In hindsight it was a weird (and hard) session and I ditched the chatGPT training plan completely after that and trawlled around the internet until I found a runners magazine article about how to train for a 1km race. From that I set myself a 12 week program featuring 2 interval sessions a week, one of 400s and 1 of 200s,  plus 1 tempo session session and two nicer runs up to 50 minutes. 

During week 2 I decided I needed to face the music and actually do a time trial for 1k just to see how far off it I was (and if it was even going to be feasible). As my only previous test had been 500m on the Tan track in Melbourne some months earlier, which was no-where near the 2 minutes it needed to be, I was quite concerned the gap between where I was, and where I needed to be would be too great. Avoiding it wasn't going to help either so just  I had to do it.  I was hoping for somewhere around 4.30-4:40, and fearing I'd be closer to 5minutes, so it was with great delight that it turned out to be just a very unpleasant 4:18 - proving it should be absolutely completely doable if I kept at it. 
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