Sushi Friday Extravaganza topped off with deep tissue massage!!!

Suffering from a severely tight calf muscle after my Australian Mountain Running Championships, I’ downed my special Muesli mixed with Protein powder, almond milk, cinnamon, flaxseed oil, and lecten this morning.

Then, on with Sushi Sushi’s great raw Salmon, Tuna, and King Fish set, plus an additional salmon roll for lunch.

And finally, tonight, it was off to a massage to treat my calf. Man, was that an experience! Apparently I’ve got the tightest muscles he’s ever seen!!! – apparently 3 years of Marathon running without a massage in sight will do that to the body!!!

A nice eventful Friday… All in the name of recovery!!!!

Ahhhhh Sushi Friday!!!!

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My 20th Sushi Friday!

It has been 20 Sushi Fridays in a row! That’s got to be some kind of record, right? Well, for me, it’s a PB! This has included a dash out into flood ravaged Brisbane, a desperate 100km drive to the ocean over in WA, and a ‘make your own’ effort on Good Friday. I’ve had to work hard at this, and so far, so good!

I’m trying to write this while eating this wonderful raw fish and rice delight. I’m struggling, to write that is, because this sushi is just so good! I can’t believe I haven’t grown tired of sushi yet. In fact, my love of sushi has only increased ten fold since I started all of this!!!

This week, I even ate sushi on Tuesday as well! I tried a different sushi shop, with the lovely Kyles and Julia at 400 Food. It was sooooo good!!!! But the queue was sooooo long!!!! So it was back to ‘Sushi Sushi’ today for the old favourite, and they have not dissapointed!

In other Fuji news, training is going well. Well, I’m struggling, to be honest: after my first place finish two weeks ago, I’ve had tight calves to deal with, have been fighting off a cold/flu, and now have a sore back. They’ve all played a part in really testing my resolve! But if nothing else, my 20 Sushi Fridays in a row demonstrate my commitment, my stuborness, and dogged determination to finish what I start. I’m pushing on with all of this. It’s less than 2 months now to go. Nothing is going to stop me, if I have anything to do with it!

This week, has seen me back onto full training (despite all of the above), including my Tri Thursday (the first of which I’ve done in about 3 weeks) - a 1500m swim, 10km ride, and 7.6km run. This was all carried out in freezing cold temperatures, with a bad cough, and a very runny nose – it was literally running out like a tap as I transitioned from swim to bike! :-). But it was worth it. I felt better afterwards, and today I am travelling much better than I have felt for the entirity of this week. Could that be that it is because the weekend is here? That I have the Australian Mountain Running Championships on Sunday? Or the simple fact of the matter, that Project Fuji is now really starting to come to life!!! Probbly a bit of all three!

So, it’s onwards and upwards! Literally! Keep the donations coming in. I’m doing well, thanks to all of your support, but I have a long way to go to make $10,000. Dig deep for me, for Christina, and Oxfam, because you know I will dig deep for all of you come July 22nd when I face off against Mt Fuji!

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The Victory Sushi Friday!

Today will be a raw fish, seaweed and rice victory extravaganza. Yes, I’m still riding high on my victory. And why shouldn’t I? Victories for amateur runners like me are few and far between! Actually, to be honest, they just never normally happen. Yes, in some small way, I kind of did a bit of a Bradbury, and I’m going to run with it (a full race report with pictures will be posted this weekend)!

Every race, for me, comes at a price, and this one, having dished up the very best of results has asked from me the ultimate of costs. My body has been a train wreck since Sunday. More pain, have I felt, than from any Marathon! And now, I’m dealing with a dodgy calf. It’s back to the left leg again, and for a few days there I thought I’d torn my calf! It was off to an emergency Physio yesterday where Tad assured me that it wasn’t a tear, but simply an extremely tight calf muscle. Good news! But, with it came some bad news, no running until at least Tuesday! No Saturday long run!?!? No tri thursday!?! Heartbreaking!

So, more stretching, more strength exercises, more protein, and more Sushi! I’m desperately trying to get back right for next weeks Australian Mountain Running Championships…

In Project Fuji News, some big news, Tourism Queensland is backing me, as is Tangalooma Island Resort, and Sirromet Wines! Julia has done a fantastic job for me in getting some great sponsors. Without her, I wouldn’t have any!

I’m hoping to get a few more sponsors on board before I go to print with my running t- shirt next week…

In donations, so many of you have been truly generous to date, with Kirsty Langford’s contribution last night pushing the online tally now to over $1500! This is fantastic news, and I’m well on the way to $10,000. That being said, I need your help more now than ever. Let’s spread the word. Let’s make this bigger than just friends and family…

Thank you to all my sponsors to date. You are truly helping do honor to Christina, and helping her do great things through Oxfam. Thank you!

Until next week, keep an eye out for my race report, and keep enjoying the sushi!

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Sushi Friday!

Another week, another Sushi Friday, but this was the second week whereby I tried a competitor sushi shop. It’s out with the old (Top Sushi) and in with the new (Sushi Sushi)! I tried them last week, and their sushi took me to a whole new world of raw fish delight!!!

Not only do they have raw salmon sets, but these guys have sets with raw salmon, raw tuna, and some other raw white fish, that I have no idea the name of, but absolutely love!!!

So, I’m now on board, comitting whole heartedly to this shop for the remainder of Project Fuji! I wish I could blame the change in sushi for my sudden good form and relatively injury free feel. Actually, no I don’t. That’s taken a lot of hard work, training, excercising my injuries, and stretching my legs like you wouldn’t believe!

Actually, I’m pretty sure our neighbours think I spend most of my day out on the steps in front of our place lifting the heel of my foot up, and then down, and then up again, and then the other foot, up, and then down, and then up again. It has been a long hard road to recovery, but the legs are feeling better, my runs are feeling better. I have found a new invigoration to my running, my pace increasing, and my routes getting longer! In short, right now, I’m loving it!

It’s the Glasshouse Mountains 30km Trail Run this weekend. It’s going to be an early 5am wake up, but I will love every minute of it! I must take it easy though, and ensure I don’t injure myself again. That’s going to be rather hard when I have a top 10 finish in my sights. We will see!

Fundraising is on the rise. I’ve made just over $2,000 in donations so far, and that’s just in the first week. I know there’s a lot more to come, and am really looking forward to smashing this $10,000 target before I leave for Japan. Imagine that, the first part of my gaol already met, before I leave. I can’t wait.

Thank you all so much for your support and continued interest in this project. Things are about to get really interresting!

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The Sushi Friday Before Launch!

It’s the Friday before Project Fuji Launch and I’ll be trying a new sushi place. Why change when it’s all been working so well? All I can say is, sometimes it’s worth trying something new, even if everything has been working along smoothly.

Take my training for an example. I have been pounding the concrete paths around my place non stop for months, and suffering the consequences of the overuse injuries you get from hitting that concrete over and over again. So, a trail run through the Sunshine Coast forests on Easter Sunday, something totally different, and all my soreness and injuries seemed to subside!!!

That being said, I returned to the pavement last weekend, and all the injuries have started to flare up!!!

Imagine a fireman trying to douse spot fires in order to prevent a major blaze from taking hold and you have a pretty good image of me and my injuries. After the trail run, the Achilles injury finally started to simmer down, only for the right calf to flare up! Seems that when I ran the trail run, I rolled my ankle, and I did dome bad damage to the calf. So, it’s been a matter of taking the icing away from the left leg and hitting it now hard on the right leg.

Compression bandages are out in force, even sleeping with them on, stretching like crazy, and the old voltaren and massaging have even been brought out! This flare up is serious and I’m treating it as such.

Thankfully, the calf is not bad enough to stop me running. So I’ve continued with my training, only for last night, the dreaded Achilles flared up. I’ve doused this injury again with ice, compression, and stretches. But then I got a sore thigh and groin from my swim/run which I had to massage and ice right after the right calf! Meanwhile, I’m shoving into me as much protein as I can ingest and every morning getting up and treading very carefully as I wait to see what’s hurting now!

As Julia said – I’m a runner, and therefore I’m just going to have to get used to the fact I’m going to be sore!!! The challenge is, stopping this soreness flaring up into a major injury and at the sane time continuing my training – enter sushi Friday and the magic of raw salmon!

So, getting back to the Sushi, I’m off to see if Sushi Sushi in Brisbane has anything better to offer me. I need it! I need the recovery powers, the de-inflammation that the wonderful raw salmon can offer me… Only 2 & 1/2 months to go! It’s Launch weekend for Project Fuji. It’s getting serious now…

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Sushi Friday!

All is right in the world today. It’s Sushi Friday, I’m at work, meaning it’s off on a lunch excursion to my favorite sushi shop, Top Sushi.

Had a good week of training after a huge run on Sunday. Legs feeling good, although Achilles is a little sore today on both legs! At least it’s a recovery day today, and I’m sure the raw salmon I’m looking forward to for lunch with it’s omega 3 fatty acids will assist in repair and also the reduction in inflammation.

Looking at the possibility of a 36 km long run this weekend if legs feel good. This is to see if my goal of a 50 km in 2 weeks time is possible, or if I should stick to the 30km…

New newsletter due out in a couple of weeks. And the official Project Fuji launch, so start spreading the word as much as you can. This is going to be big!

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Tri Thursday

  • 1.5km Swim
  • 10km Ride
  • 7.6km Run

The rain subsided, so it was a great night for it!

The pool swim wasn’t the most fun considering I had to go to a new pool (they’ve closed my old favourite Centenary Pool for maintenance) which was substandard compared to what I was used to. The Valley Pool is salt instead of clorine, and it was half blocked so it was 25m… a lot of turning!

The ride was good, but rather hairy with all the traffic around the Valley area… going to have to get used to that!

The run was the highlight (of course). Ran at a great pace (4:18) and completed it in 23:30 which was phenomenal for a post swim/ride run. Achilles, touch wood, keeping quiet! Could this be the turning point…

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Wildhorse Criterium Easter Sunday Race

The 5am alarm goes off on Easter Sunday morning, and I’m up and about the house as quiet as possible to be sure not to wake anybody.

“You’re mad to be getting up so early for a race on any day, but on Easter Sunday? That’s just crazy,” were the words that echoed in my ears, as I showered. At this point, I was inclined to agree with my family and friends.

1 berocca, 2 pieces of toast, and 1 very strong coffee later, and I was on the Bruce Highway, heading to Wildhorse Lookout. I’d signed up for this trail run only a week before, unsure as to whether I’d even be able to run it on account of my constant Achilles Tendonitis injury. But here I was, doing it. Suddenly I felt excited.

Just before the run... still looking a little sleepy... that was all about to change!

Trail running is a new frontier for me. The unkown. Something I seemed to be quite good at (placed 6th in the Glasshouse 30km in 2010), but still a very new concept and adventure for me.

I arrived at the race start at 6am, and a few toilet stops later, a brief stop by the Salomon shoe stand, some last minute clothing adjustments, and I was ready to race.

We were off running.

I started close to the front, knowing that I had the pace to run, not quite with the leaders, but close just behind them, and that is exactly what I did.

The course was good. A mixture of compact gravel tracks, rough sandy 4wd paths, a couple of knee deep creek crosings, and a bit of an overgrown grassy track in the middle of it all. It was a 10km circuit, that you doubled back on to make up 20kms, and then doubled back on again to make up the final 1okms. I actually really liked this approach. I remember thinking to myself while I was running, why not just do 3 circuits? But, by re-tracing our steps, it kind of felt like a different course going back, and then re-aquainting oneself with an old friend for the last 10kms.

Unfortunately, I’m not one for faces it would seem. Or for a sense of direction! I was trailing Gaeten Oliver, a strong trail runner by the way he skipped around the huge puddles of water and smashed through the mud. He was a strong runner, and seemed to know where he was going. This didn’t stop me at the point where we turned off into grass, questioning his decision. We’d lost sight of the leaders, and the trail seemed to go straight ahead, but we’d taken a right turn. We re-traced our steps briefly until we met another runner, who confirmed that the right turn Gaeten had taken was indeed correct. We were back up and running, me feeling awful for interupting Gaeten’s pace.

That didn’t stop me from passing him, however, as he charged down the straight back towards the start/finish area, and the end of the first leg. We were not only keeping each other company, but we were really racing. He re-took me just as we hit the rougher final 2kms before the turn. He was stronger on the rough terrain, had better shoes, and seemed more adept. His sense of direction was not all that much better than mine, however, as he nearly decided to avoid the second of two creek crossings and dash under the Bruce Highway instead. I helped him stay on track, and felt we were now even, especially since he rounded the 10km turne a few meters ahead.

I was stuck in behind Gaeten as we completed the next 10kms. I was happy enough to follow for a time, what with my awful sense of direction, and it helped a bit by following someone through the obstacles and around the puddles. However, as he neared the 20km mark and the start/finish area once again, I sensed Gaeten was struggling. He’d slowed just a little, but also, I was feeling strong.

The Achilles injury had been hurting intimittently throughout the first 20kms. I also had managed to roll my right ankel quite badly in the first 10kms, feeling like I’d possibly even torn my other Achilles. That being said, I’d run through my soreness, and by 20kms, I was feeling better and stronger than I’d felt in the last 6  months since the Melbourne Marathon. I was running hot!

I dashed past Gaeten just before the 20km turn. I felt this was fare, considering he’d done the same to me at the 10km turn. I felt that high that I sometimes get during a run like this, and that burst of energy. I was off! I left Gaeten in the dust, pounding my way back into the last 10kms at a 4:15min/km pace.

It was great doubling back, hearing those coming towards you giving you a cheer, and also giving them a cheer back. We were all in our own races out there, but at the same time, connecting as runners as we passed one another. This was how running was meant to be, sprinting along dirt tracks, over crevices, around puddles, and through creeks. Running by yourself, but amongst friends, all of us trying to achieve the same result; finish!

I was smashing it, and loving ever minute of it. Gaeten by now, was long gone, as was any of the runners behind or in front of me. I took the first left turn, pleased with myself that I was navigating my way through this course on my own now. I was even more pleased with myself, that I’d left such a tough competitor behind in my dust. This was real running. This was real racing!

I had in the back of my mind one thing. Well, a couple of things. Don’t let Gaeten catch me, because I knew he’d smash me on the final 2kms if he did. Don’t go too fast, or else I’d crash and burn before the end, and don’t miss that damn right turn off into the grass! With that in mind, I came to the end of the path I was on and turned right, increasing my pace further. I looked over my shoulder as I rounded the corner and noted Gaeten nowhere in sight. In fact, there was no sight of anybody.

I pounded my way along the path, noting to myself as I went that this seemed like unchartered territory. Where was the long grass? Also, there were plenty of Mountain Bike tracks, but no foot prints. What was going on here? Why wasn’t I meeting anyone on their way back towards me? The real sign that I’d gone the wrong way was when I came to a burnt out car and the path’s end. Shit!

I couldn’t believe I’d gone the wrong way. I’d stuffed up, and covered a fair bit of distance too! At least 1.5 kms each way. That was something like 8 minutes at least that I’d blown. I felt like an absolute idiot. I turned and re-traced my steps, noting to myself that there were now foot prints on the path. My own!

Suddenly exhaustion kicked in. I was no longer feeling light as a feather. My legs felt heavy, my heart started to race. I made my way back to the turn, to see that I should have turned left, not right. The right turn was further up.

I pushed on, downing an endura carb shot to help bring me back up to speed mentally and physically. Gaeten was nowhere to be seen. I had to assume he was long gone. I’d come back to the creek crossing to see Tim right behind me now. I calculated that I’d lost at least 2 places. 5th to 7th, what a demoraliser. That being said, I’d be damned if I would lose any further placings. I was going to finish this race.

My pace slowed over the last 6kms. I hadn’t run anything over 26kms in more than 6 months. The muscles did not want to continue. But the heart and mind did. I pushed on, and charged my way over the finish line for 7th in 2hrs 38mins. I was just glad to have made it out of the Wildhorse Criterium Forrest! And the Cholcolate Easter Bunny sure made it worthwhile!

What a race, a real race. I couldn’t have enjoyed my first trail run for the year any more. And, as I say with every run I do, I’ll be back next year, perhaps next time around for the 5okm, hopefully with better shoes, and a better sense of dirrection!

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Sushi ‘Good’ Friday!

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My Sushi Making Extravaganza!

At the start of this week it occured to me that I was going to be hit with quite a predicement on Sushi Friday. It was going to be a Public Holiday. I wasn’t going to be at work, and therefore, I was going to have no access to my favourite sushi shop, Top Sushi.

Worse still, no Sushi shops were going to even be open! What on earth was I going to do?!?

I’ve eaten sushi on a Friday for 15 weeks straight, and I’ll be damned if I was going to leave a little thing like Good Friday get in the way.

The ingredients prepared...

The week started, therfore, with a plan: I was going to make my own sushi. I’d never tried it before, but how hard could it be?! I started with quizzing my sister, Catherine, who I knew had made sushi before. Her tip, was to make sure I had some Rice Vineger. Check!

I went on a special trip to the Asian Grocery Shop just for that.

I also needed, Japanese rice. Check!

Julia purchased this for me on Wednesday, and also got me some seaweed, some Avacado, and a nice big chunk of fresh salmon. She had her reservations regarding the raw fish, but sushi for me, is raw fish and rice. That’s what the word means, and that’s what I was going ahead with!

So Friday morning, I set to work, cooking up the rice, preparing the soy sauce and wasabi. I cooked up some miso soup, and then, I cut the Avacado. Then the salmon.

With the rice cooked, I added my rice vineger, and began wrapping.

It worked, and all came out looking wonderful, if I do say so myself!

Admittedly, it didn’t quite look as good as Top Sushi’s produce, but it was pretty darn close, and pretty darn good!

The Final Presentation!

 

The Final Product!

Next, it was for the taste test. First Julia, with her Avacado, smoked salmon, and cucumber sushi roll… she’s a tough cookey to crack at the best of times…

But, it seemed to go down well. She liked it! She ate it all up!

Julia didn’t even unwrap the seaweed (a past habbit of hers).

She was super hungry, so that might have helped, but nevertheless, her sushi was a success!

Then for me, it was on. Would it be as good as Top Sushi’s. Would it even come close. WOuld the raw fish just taste all wrong? Would it all fall apart. Would it all make me horribly sick!?!?!

I started with my favourite, the raw salmon simply placed over the rice. Superb. I’d made it all a little on the large side, but a beginners mistake. It tasted sensational. Indeed, the salmon tasted better than the bough stuff. Bigger slices, fresher, tastier. Devine!

The taste test!

Then it was on to the sushi roll. Salmon, Avocado all warpped beautifully together. It tasted great! I must say though, there was a little chewiness to the seaweed. I’m not sure how to combat that. Any suggestions would be appreciated! But all being siad, it hit the spot, and it hit the spot well!

Sushi ‘Good’ Friday was a success. Indeed, I feel certain I will continue making sushi going forward. No, I’m not about to give up on Top Sushi. I’ll be back there with all the others in the queue next Friday. But I will be adding sushi on the weekend from time to tome going forward. It was just too good, not to try it again.

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Tri Thursday

My Holy Grail - Liquid Gold at the moment!

A week is a long time in training, and this time last week, I was at my very lowest. The Achilles was hurting, and I was feeling like giving it all away.

This week, I had the great news of the Fuji Mountain race going ahead, and Tokyo now safe to visit.

I had a fantastic swim (the last at my much loved Centenary Pool for quite some time!) 1.3km in 35min.

My Ride was good, without any pain from the Achilles for the first time in weeks!

And then, it was on to the run, and that went well, despite some initial pain in the Achilles. It was a great time of 33min for 7.6kms and I pulled up with relatively little soreness. I felt strong and my strides were solid, and without favouring. A great experience all round.

Could this be the turning point? 2 days of rest before my 30km trail run this Sunday. I can’t wait! I also can’t wait for my ‘make my own’ Sushi Friday. Stay posted for the video!

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