This is a little late coming, but congratulations to Tom and Laura on the birth of Charlie. It sounds like they're doing well and judging by the photos he'll be a lot better looking than his Dad!
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Monday, 7 September 2009
Scan!
Last friday we had our first baby scan! A nuchal-fold translucency scan to be precise, which is to check for the risk of Downs syndrome and the like. It was fantastic to see that yes, there actually is baby in there (and a reason for Sarah's sickness) and it has two arms and two legs. It was really wriggling around too, so maybe it's a mover, which i'm sure will be fun for Sarah!
The scan technology is really good and so was the service. We got a CD with 20 something screenshots and a DVD with the whole thing on video. Really good quality. I've uploaded the images to Facebook and the video to YouTube. When i remember i'll embed that here in the blog.
Providing there are no problems we'll probably only have one more scan, around the 20 week mark. Looking forward to that already!
The scan technology is really good and so was the service. We got a CD with 20 something screenshots and a DVD with the whole thing on video. Really good quality. I've uploaded the images to Facebook and the video to YouTube. When i remember i'll embed that here in the blog.
Providing there are no problems we'll probably only have one more scan, around the 20 week mark. Looking forward to that already!
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
General stuff
Not a lot to report at the moment on my end really. Work has been very slow this week (this is Matt by the way), so i've been kind of bored. Tomorrow i've got a training thing 9am-3pm so I don't actually have to come into the office and I'll finish early which is nice. They're not providing lunch though, which is definitely a downside.
Finishing early will mean I can go for a run while it's still light outside, which is handy. A fairly steady 10/11kms I think, depending how I feel. I've got just over a week until the Lake Macquarie 10.5km race and i'm pretty well prepared I think. My goal is still 50:00 or less, but i'm realistic about my chances being fairly low. I'm definitely going to push myself for it though.
In Sarah's news, she's got an interview for a Paediatrics SRMO (Senior Resident Medical Officer) that would start in january. Getting a job in janaury would put her in line with the Australian clinical year, making things a lot easier overall. Not to mention that she's enjoyed her term doing paeds and is very interested in doing more. I'm sure she'll do really well. She was close to getting a paeds job before and now that she's done a paeds term she should get straight through.
In other news, Happy Birthday to Kevin/Dad, who is the big 50 today. Half a century. Probably still got to put up with him for the majority of another one, there's a thought!
Finishing early will mean I can go for a run while it's still light outside, which is handy. A fairly steady 10/11kms I think, depending how I feel. I've got just over a week until the Lake Macquarie 10.5km race and i'm pretty well prepared I think. My goal is still 50:00 or less, but i'm realistic about my chances being fairly low. I'm definitely going to push myself for it though.
In Sarah's news, she's got an interview for a Paediatrics SRMO (Senior Resident Medical Officer) that would start in january. Getting a job in janaury would put her in line with the Australian clinical year, making things a lot easier overall. Not to mention that she's enjoyed her term doing paeds and is very interested in doing more. I'm sure she'll do really well. She was close to getting a paeds job before and now that she's done a paeds term she should get straight through.
In other news, Happy Birthday to Kevin/Dad, who is the big 50 today. Half a century. Probably still got to put up with him for the majority of another one, there's a thought!
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Year One Down Under
As of today, we've been in Australia for a year. Another amazingly fast year! Our life has, on the whole, been so great that the last couple of years has just flown by and the first year here in Oz is no exception.Apart from having some slight homesickness in the first couple of weeks (which I think was mostly cold induced (both temperature and illness), I've really enjoyed our time here and I'm 100% certain that we made the right decision in coming.
Financially it wasn't great (we still can't sell the house in York and make a profit, and the rent still doesn't cover the mortgage payments), but that's irrelevant when you consider that we both have better jobs, we live in a fantastic location, we're outdoors more, the weather is generally great, we've got all the benefits that we wanted. The year has had it's downsides, well, downside singular really, with the miscarriage, but despite being crushed at first, we know these things happen and we kind of moved on.
If we'd stayed in the UK i'm not sure we'd have gotten off our bums and improved our fitness. Sure we could have done, but we wouldn't. You can't overestimate how much difference the better weather has on how much you want to be outside and active. It makes everything so much easier.Looking into the future and the next year, i'm pretty damn sure that we'll have another fantastic, super fast year. Bring it on. :)
Financially it wasn't great (we still can't sell the house in York and make a profit, and the rent still doesn't cover the mortgage payments), but that's irrelevant when you consider that we both have better jobs, we live in a fantastic location, we're outdoors more, the weather is generally great, we've got all the benefits that we wanted. The year has had it's downsides, well, downside singular really, with the miscarriage, but despite being crushed at first, we know these things happen and we kind of moved on.
If we'd stayed in the UK i'm not sure we'd have gotten off our bums and improved our fitness. Sure we could have done, but we wouldn't. You can't overestimate how much difference the better weather has on how much you want to be outside and active. It makes everything so much easier.Looking into the future and the next year, i'm pretty damn sure that we'll have another fantastic, super fast year. Bring it on. :)
Official City2Surf times!
Finally got the official times!Mine was 1:17:55 (77:55), Sarah's was 1:46:37 (106:37). I just snuck in under that 78th minute! Pleased with that time, and I know Sarah will be with hers.
City2Surf
So Sunday was 'the big day' we finally did City2Surf. I put a lot of hard work in, and it was all worthwhile as I really enjoyed the event.For those in the UK or that haven't read it here before, City2Surf is a 14km (about 8.7 miles) road race going from Hyde Park in Sydney to Bondi Beach. This year 75,000 people took part, making it the biggest road race in the world.
It's a course with hills in several places, and one stretch in particular, called Heartbreak Hill, that begins at the 6km point and lasts until around the 8km mark. It was pretty hard, especially getting elbowed and having to dodge people in order to move up the field, but great fun at the same time. There were a couple of gorgeous views out over Sydney where you can see the bridge and opera house. And the finish is at Bondi Beach, which is fantastic.
I'll hopefully get my official time later today if I can get my hands on the paper, or tomorrow if I can't (the online ones are delayed so they can sell more papers grr). However, going by my heart rate monitor, I think I came in at around 78-79 minutes.Not fast in the grand scheme of things (the winner came in at 41:02!), but for my first 14km run and only second road race, I'm really pleased with it. I'm building a really good running base now and will be looking to improve times steadily as I gain more experience.
It's a course with hills in several places, and one stretch in particular, called Heartbreak Hill, that begins at the 6km point and lasts until around the 8km mark. It was pretty hard, especially getting elbowed and having to dodge people in order to move up the field, but great fun at the same time. There were a couple of gorgeous views out over Sydney where you can see the bridge and opera house. And the finish is at Bondi Beach, which is fantastic.
I'll hopefully get my official time later today if I can get my hands on the paper, or tomorrow if I can't (the online ones are delayed so they can sell more papers grr). However, going by my heart rate monitor, I think I came in at around 78-79 minutes.Not fast in the grand scheme of things (the winner came in at 41:02!), but for my first 14km run and only second road race, I'm really pleased with it. I'm building a really good running base now and will be looking to improve times steadily as I gain more experience.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Fintess test
Fitness test... sounds awful doesn't it? We actually enjoy it now, which is perhaps slightly bizarre. Here's an overview of what we did this past Sunday, which was our latest one (they're every 8 weeks or so). We also had City2Surf training, so that's in here too.
We started by doing three 1km pacing laps. In theory this should be at the pace you actually want to run the race at, but I find it hard to slow my pace down on the 1km laps. I was hovering at about 4:30, with a couple of minutes break between each lap. If I could do 10km at 4:30/km pace i'd be really pleased, but i'm a long way away from that (this is Matt writing if you hadn't figured it out already). That was the City2Surf session. A lot shorter than usual, but the pacing is good practice.
The first item on the agenda for the actual test is a run. At the standard level it's a 2km run, and it's kind of a time trial so you're trying to set the fastest time you can. I'm at the point now where I can do that in 7:45 but I've started to try and do more laps at a fast pace. So I did 4km in 17:10. My goal was 16-17 minutes. A shame to be slightly outside that, but a good time nonetheless. Sarah did 3km, besting her 2km time and then doing a 3rd lap as well. Go her!
After that is a shuttle run. I can't remember how far apart the cones are, but it's how many runs you can do in 90 seconds. I did 17, which is one less than my best. On to 'exercises' next. We do push ups, sit ups, the plank hold and squats, followed by shoulder presses to finish. These are all done to the maximum number of reps you can complete in a minute, except the plank hold, which is as long as you can hold it up to 2 minutes. I only managed 1:10, which is my PB.
We get a printed report of our test results which compares it to our previous ones and gives us averages of performance. Don't have that yet but i'm looking forward to getting it as I'm fairly sure I did better on everything except the shuttle run. Sarah bested pretty much everything too.
8 more weeks until the next test and we'll need to set some new goals. I'd like to bring my 4km time under 17 minutes and get to 20 push ups in a minute. My arms and shoulders are slowly getting stronger, but it's still far from my strongest point. Fingers crossed. Further down the line I want to be able to do a 20 minute 5km, but that's a way off yet.
We started by doing three 1km pacing laps. In theory this should be at the pace you actually want to run the race at, but I find it hard to slow my pace down on the 1km laps. I was hovering at about 4:30, with a couple of minutes break between each lap. If I could do 10km at 4:30/km pace i'd be really pleased, but i'm a long way away from that (this is Matt writing if you hadn't figured it out already). That was the City2Surf session. A lot shorter than usual, but the pacing is good practice.
The first item on the agenda for the actual test is a run. At the standard level it's a 2km run, and it's kind of a time trial so you're trying to set the fastest time you can. I'm at the point now where I can do that in 7:45 but I've started to try and do more laps at a fast pace. So I did 4km in 17:10. My goal was 16-17 minutes. A shame to be slightly outside that, but a good time nonetheless. Sarah did 3km, besting her 2km time and then doing a 3rd lap as well. Go her!
After that is a shuttle run. I can't remember how far apart the cones are, but it's how many runs you can do in 90 seconds. I did 17, which is one less than my best. On to 'exercises' next. We do push ups, sit ups, the plank hold and squats, followed by shoulder presses to finish. These are all done to the maximum number of reps you can complete in a minute, except the plank hold, which is as long as you can hold it up to 2 minutes. I only managed 1:10, which is my PB.
We get a printed report of our test results which compares it to our previous ones and gives us averages of performance. Don't have that yet but i'm looking forward to getting it as I'm fairly sure I did better on everything except the shuttle run. Sarah bested pretty much everything too.
8 more weeks until the next test and we'll need to set some new goals. I'd like to bring my 4km time under 17 minutes and get to 20 push ups in a minute. My arms and shoulders are slowly getting stronger, but it's still far from my strongest point. Fingers crossed. Further down the line I want to be able to do a 20 minute 5km, but that's a way off yet.
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