How many drinks per week do you have per week, on average?

You know that uncomfortable question you have during a physical when the doctor tries to gauge how much you drink?  It's hard to pin down an exact average so you end up guessing, and erring on the low side just to be safe.  Well, I had a checkin at the gym over the weekend and it started to turn into one of those uncomfortable conversations where I felt I had to lie a little bit to make him feel better.  I didn't really set any goals for myself when starting to work out other than to help strengthen my running.  I didn't have any weight loss targets or anything like that, I just wanted help getting into shape.

So when my trainer took my measurements this time around there was some improvement, but I guess not as much as he would have wanted for me.  It was rather awkward because he started asking questions about how many times per week I go to the gym, if there's room to pick up the intensity and then we went to nutrition.  While I didn't get the exact "drinks per week" question, I did feel like I was being judged a little bit for my eating.  But frankly, I workout and run so that I can eat and drink what I want.  I think I forgot to include that "goal" in my initial sit down session.  My next weigh in isn't for 10 weeks so I guess I'll really need to up the weights and hope that helps the improvement.

But frankly, I'm getting exactly what I wanted from the program.  And by the results from the run on Sunday, I'm pretty happy.  They finally posted results in the newpaper (but not online) and I was just outside the top third percentile for finishing.  I came in number 23,089 out of 67,974 finishers and clocking in at just under 9:30 miles.  For not running more than 2 miles at a time in the past 12 months, I'll take it.  Now I'm just deciding if I have enough time to ramp up for a half marathon in a few weeks.  As you can probably tell, the marathon goal for this year is pretty much out the window at this point.  I'll have to settle for 2011.

I'm number xx,xxx

I can say that I've successfully completed the worlds largest "fun" run.  The annual City2Surf run took place yesterday.  It's a 14K run from downtown Sydney along the coast and ends at Bondi Beach for me and 79,999 of my closest friends.  I was rather unprepared for the run seeing as though the longest I've run in about a year was 2 miles and I'm pretty sure I walked half of that.  But I will say that the CrossFit program I've been doing for the past 6 weeks is definitely helping.  I was able to power through the whole race, including the 2K long Heartbreak Hill, and finish with a respectable time.  Now I don't know exactly what time that is because results won't be posted until Wednesday.  Again, the technology here is a little behind.

Here's a rather choppy video of the start to get an idea of what 80,000 people look like.  They sent everyone off in 5 different waves and this is just the start of the elite group.  There were still 79,000 people to come.  I don't know exactly what time I crossed the start line because I was trying to get around all the people walking already, but it was probably somewhere around 18 minutes after this group.


The post race party was pretty lacking though.  After the finish, there was Gatorade and water, but no food and worst of all, no beer stand.  Next year I'm going to have to weasel my way into one of the corporate tents on the beach.  I certainly didn't let that stop me though.  I met up with a few friends and we did a little day drinking along the beach in Bondi and followed that up with dinner at a restaurant on the beach in Coogee.  It was a family style dinner with 5 or 6 courses and all the beer and wine you could drink.  Needless to say we're all feeling a little fuzzy headed today.

If I can find more pictures of the run, I'll try to post them.  And if any one's looking for a good get in shape program, I'd highly recommend finding a crossfit gym. 

5 Days and 7 Visits

So I stopped by the Apple store a few times today (let's just say I was lucky to have meetings just down the street) and each time there were lines.  Ridiculous lines that weren't moving.  The last time the line looked short, but it turns out they stopped the line as they ran out, again.

I'm hoping to pick one up before this weekend because I'm going to give the City 2 Surf 14K run a shot on Sunday and I'd like to have some sort of GPS device to help me translate kilometers to miles without having to think too hard.  I haven't been able to quickly translate miles per hour into kilometers per hour and on a 9 mile run, I don't want to over work the brain.  If it has to work too hard, I might have to stop at a bar to quiet it a bit.  And while I'm certainly not as prepared as I'd like to be, I figured I should give it a shot anyways.  I don't have the miles under my legs to feel comfortable with the distance or the hills, but I have been hitting the gym about 4 days a week and am feeling in pretty good shape. 

Speaking of the gym, I have a 6 week status check in on Saturday.  It feels similar to the Biggest Loser weigh in without the cattle scale.  They take all your measurements and compare those to the last check in, measuring everything from height to weight to body fat percentage.  I am rather curious to see if there's been any improvement from the first week.  With the pain that those kettle balls have given me, there better be some decent improvement.

In true Matt training fashion, instead of hitting the gym tonight or going for a run, I'm going to see Miike Snow.  I've heard he puts on a pretty good show so it should be a nice Wednesday night, most likely with way too many drinks.  But hey, what else do I have to do, other than wait and hope Apple gets more phones in tomorrow.

Oh yeah, and work.

Damn you nokia

Well, it's been 5 days since the new iPhone came out here and after 5 trips to the Apple store, I'm still empty handed.  I'm beginning to think I'm under the spell.

Restaurants, Part I

This post is more for my record, but I figured there's probably no better spot than here to mark down the restaurants I've been to (and will get to) while I'm down here.  The food situation has improved, but I think that's partly because I've accepted the price tags and am more surprised when something isn't sweet than when it is (ie, ketchup, salsa, pasta sauce, etc).

Fix St James
I've been here a few times now and some of the wait staff recognize me.  The food is good, but nothing too original.  The wine list is probably their speciality.

Rockpool Bar & Grill
Australia doesn't do burgers very well, but Rockpool B&G does put up a nice full blood wagyu hamburger.  However, I would suggest getting the pickles, beetroot and ketchup on the side because of the sweetness.  If they have a roast pork sandwich on special, that is definitely worth getting as well.  This place has a strong wine list as well.

Spice I Am
Thai restaurant that wasn't anything special.  It seemed more like a mass produced chain restaurant than an authentic (though I haven't been to Thailand yet).

Kammadhenu
I'd never had Sri Lankan food before, but this was fantastic.  It may have been the 2 for 1 cocktails before hand, but of the 8-10 different courses we tried, only the salt cod missed the mark.  We went with everything from Roti's, to baskets, to curry's.  I'll definitely to back for more.  And, it's BYO which makes it all the better.

Baravian Bier Cafe
They have a schnitzel special on Tuesday's.  Haven't tried anything else here other than copious amounts of beer.

Belgian Beer Cafe
This cafe has half priced mussels on Wednesdays.  Good after work spot for drinks and a heaping pile of mussels.  Solid Belgian beer list as well.

Il Baretto
This is a small italian spot down the street from me (BYO as well).  The specials looked pretty good when I was there, but by the time I got there around 8 they were all sold out.  I'd probably try it one more time if I could get the specials, but everything else was pretty basic.

BBQ King
Good peking duck served in two courses.  Not the classiest of joints, but worth it for the duck.

Gumshara
Excellent japanese ramen, in a food court no less.

Prasit's Northside Thai
Small Thai takeaway place around the corner from me.  I've only had the curry's so far, but they've been good and reasonably priced.

Pompei's
This is a well known pizza spot in Bondi.  I haven't had much pizza here yet, but it was definitely better than the looks of the fast food pizza places I walk past on my way to work.  Though, they could do a bit more with the toppings.

Hurricanes
Stopped here for ribs on the 4th of July.  The ribs were good and the sauce wasn't too sweet (the complete opposite of what I was expecting).  It was a little cool, but sitting next to the high powered propane heaters made it feel close to summer.

Sean's Tapas
Good, though probably not 100% authentic.  The paella was extremely small and could have had a bit more flavor.  The pork belly squares were pretty spot on though.

Now for the bucket list of places I want to get to:
Marque
Berta
Buzo
Wine Library (judging by the wine by the glass list, charcuterie plates and this is almost exactly halfway between my place and the beach, there's a good chance I'll have my own seat at the bar by summer)
Bentley Bar and Grill
Quay Restaurant

Surf School, Here I Come

It's been a pretty low key past couple of weeks.  The rain has stayed longer than I would like which has hindered some exploring.  I've also realized that of everything I bought before I left, the one thing I forgot to pickup was a Sydney/Australia travel guide.  I need to go pick one of them up this week to help me find places to explore.  The weather did ease up this weekend at times.  So I took advantage of it and went out to Bondi to meet up with some friends for lunch and spend the day near the beach.  They had the Winter Fest going on and actually setup an ice skating ring just above the beach.  If you look to the far left of the picture, you can kind of see people skating (by the white globes).

I also spent some the afternoon walking around the area and stopped to watch a group of surf schoolers.  While the water is cold this time of year, maybe low 60s, watching the class is really making me want to start taking lessons.  I was initially shooting for a weekend surf school in September, but now I'm thinking I might have to brave the cold to take a few lessons first.  I figure I should get some training in before summer when the beach is packed with 30,000 people.

I'm hoping to get to the zoo next weekend to start to see some of the crazy poisonous animals this country has just crawling around, from a distance of course.  I'll make sure to bring the camera for that trip.  One one local animals that are everywhere are Flying Foxes.  I didn't want to grab a picture from the internet and ruin the surprise of what these things look like for everyone before I can get picture myself.  They're pretty creepy, rather large and just about everywhere.  Search if you want, but I'll try to get a picture of these creatures.  Let's just say I haven't been keeping my window wide open in the event one of these things gets close.

What I learned this past weekend

I know, it's been a while.  It's just been pretty boring.  Not much going on.  You know how winter is.

But, on an upside I am starting to feel like more of a local.  I stopped by a restaurant last week and some of the people working there actually remembered me, and what I ordered (that was a little weird).  I feel like I have the starting of a new Franklin Cafe, only it's not as good of value and there's no bar to eat at.  I tried their "Winter Wine."  I wasn't really sure what it was, but since it came from a large glass fermenting cask I figured it had to be fresh.  I wish I had a picture because it seemed like the wine equivalent of bath tub whiskey.  It was a big glass jug (like what I used to ferment homebrew in) with a long tube that they used to siphon the wine out.  There was also a litre of olive oil floating on top as a protective layer to keep the oxygen out.  Pretty ingenious and made about an hour or two away.  To top it off, it was a pretty good house wine.

But on to the list of things I learned over the past weekend:

• I still don't fully understand Aussie Rules Football.  I went to my first Sydney Swans game last weekend (yeah, they all have horrible names like swans and roosters).  Every time I thought I understood the game something strange happened and the ball went to the other team.  Out of bounds is only a concept.  Half the time the ball crossed the line play continued.  There are also quarters but they ran anywhere from 27 to 32 minutes.  Sure there could be stopage time, but there were never any injury timeouts or anything that had a long pause in the game.
• Hot dogs here is a general term.  I went with the Aussie Dog instead of the meat pie at the game because I had to try one.  And it will probably be the last time.  It had a bright red casing but was white on the inside (definitely not answering to a higher authority).  Plus add on raw onions, sweet ketchup (it's not called sweet ketchup, but it just tastes really sweet) and tasty cheese.  I think it's just cheddar, but all the shops call it tasty.
• When at an outdoor bar with a pool (the upside of winter), stay away from the edge, no matter what.  Now I didn't go all the way in or frankly how it happened, but I definitely had a wet leg for a part of the night.  Thankfully it was more of a roof top kiddie pool, but my food definitely hit the bottom.