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My time in Christchurch was good, a city that had been devastated several years ago, countinues to rise from the rubble and bring itself back, bigger and better than ever.

If lnly a brief stay of 2 nights in the city, it was a good glimpse into what is a massive undertaking to rebuild their lives and in some cases start fresh.   It was great to see things like the gap filler projects that help fill those small pockets of the city with community driven ideas (like the pallet Pavillion) to keep residents and visitors sane.

We also left the city limits and headed towards the south, towards the banks peninsula and Akaroa. Akoroa is a small quaint seaside town about 90 minutes south of Christchurch and has a very heavy French influence. We were in town during french fest and so everyone was out to have a good time. The sun was out, the temperature though not hot was pleasantly warm (enough) and relaxing on a Saturday afternoon was like a gift from above. Add in the views, (that were stunning) a nice spot in the sunshine under a tree and some time to catch up with an old friend and the day was a real treat.

Running in Christchurch was a treat as there was not a single hill around so it was all flat all the time, but there is no sense in the way that streets are laid out at all, so I easily got lost, several times. Running in the dark, in an unfamiliar city is always an adventure.

Time to head north now, away from the plains, to the peninsula areas towards Kaikoura, Blenheim and Nelson. I have to say as we leave that Christchurch is not yet fully recovered, but it will.  Time, dedication and passion will help rebuild the city. Something a lot of residents have.

Current Location:somewhere between Christchurch & Kaikoura

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Well after a truly long “Day” I am finally down in New Zealand. After waking up in Seattle at 4am on Wednesday, its now 11:30am on Friday and here I am at my destination. The flights down went off without a hitch and I managed to get myself window seats the whole way. Mind you two of my flights (both on Hawaiian) meant that I was way down the back, but hey, that is what we do for a window seat right?

It was great to get the new airline experiences and getting to add some new lines to my map is fantastic as always. Still need to get my head back on the ground, but it is going to be a busy time down here in NZ. Don’t know if I will have time to do everything I want but there is hopefully going to be a bit of downtime where I can do some of the stuff I want to.

Anyway just a shot out to let you all know that I am safe, alive and well down here in the Southern Hemisphere. Try not to miss me to much guys!

Current Location: Chateau on the Park, Christchurch – New Zealand

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It has been a quiet weekend. Paine Field has had its main runway closed, so on a weekend where I have no travel planned or anything crazy like running a triathlon, it makes it REALLY quiet. I haven’t spent any time going back and forth to Paine Field. It meant I have had plenty of time to catch up on a lot of things, finishing off stories for AirlineReporter (like the one that went live today) or get some stuff done around the house. I have even had the time to do most of the packing for my trip to NZ this week. The weekend was just so quiet yet so awesome at the same time. I was able to get get a haircut and try a few different things and now as my weekend comes to a close, it feels kind of weird to not be running around like crazy finishing things off.

Really happy with my training over the weekend. Saturday was bootcamp and I went for a 2 mile warm up run before the session but the session was a challenge as well as we were taking on the hill. I think I went a little to hard to fast on the first hill run as I could not manage the top, something I have done in the past many times without hassle. Eagerness is not always a good thing it seems. But I managed to concur the hill in the second time around and I was happy to do so. Really happy. I came home from bootcamp totally satisified. After a half decent nights sleep last night, I headed out on my training run for the 10k at the end of this month. I am happy with my run this morning, but not overly so.

That was my run this morning and it may look good, but not when you break it down. I am trying to Average 6 min kms for the 10k as I really want to try and get under 1 hour, and keeping it at that level is where I need to be. But breaking down the run it was off pace. I was on pace up until the last km or so which if you check the splits, that’s what I was at. So did I tire out in the last km or did I just screw up? I don’t know to be honest as the first 2km were mostly uphill as I run Punishment Hill as part of the course. Normally if I was running this route as a distance route (rather than punishment) I would run it with Punishment Hill at the end, so that I have the downhill to pick up some speed and as a bit of a reward before powering the last km home. But today it was a bit about pushing myself to do some more uphill training (the last part of the MCM10k is uphill) so the first part of my run was uphill and it was tough but the splits were spot on, they should be that slow. So maybe I just screwed up?

I am quite proud of myself so far this weekend though, being so quiet, old habits could easily come out. But I have kept it under control and I am looking good heading into the start of the trip to NZ. I did give in to a little treat at breakfast this morning but well, I need some reward right? What did I do, well I had some of the Biscoff spread I bought a couple of weeks back and finally cracked open this morning. O M G, this stuff is the BOMB. Way better than peanut butter (And thats saying something coming from me). Amazing and delicious… probably taste pretty awesome stirred into some ice cream… hrmmm now I have ideas!

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Like I said earlier in the week, October is going to be a tough month because I am travelling quite a bit. How much you ask.. well just take a look for yourself:

octobertravel

That is a total of 20,543 miles, and that is just the air legs! It is broken into 2 seperate trips though. On Wednesday I am heading to New Zealand for work and spending time on both Islands. That should get me back into Seattle late evening on the 21st October. Then on the morning of the 26th October I am headed over to Washington DC for the Marine Corp marathon. Although I will be gone only two days it is a long way to fly for a 10k run.

All in all I have a big month of travelling with some pretty cool stats:

2 New Airlines (Hawaiian & US Airways)
2 New Aircraft (Dash 8-300, A321)
4 New Airports (WLG, ROT, PHX, PHL)

Should be a good month for the mileage account hopefully! Where are you off to this month?

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I have been struggling lately and it is not exactly what you think. Work and life have been buay lately and stress has been high but that is not what I am talking about now.

September was a bad month for me, sure I got to travel for a day, spend time with friends and also complete my first Triathlon, but on the more personal level I struggled, big time. This is tough for me to admit, but I struggled with my eating. In the last month I have gained around 10 pounds (4.5kg) and although that doesn’t sound like much if I leave it the way it is, it could get worse.

This all stems back to Hong Kong and my injury, after that I think I have had some depression as I couldn’t do the one thing I loved, run. But the training I was doing helped offset whatever eating I was doing that was not healthy. I was binge eating at times and was ashamed to admit it. Well no longer. It all came undone in the final weeks of September no matter how much I tried to change, I slipped and went back to “old habits”.

October is a fresh start for me, it won’t be easy as I am traveling quite a bit, but I am going to do my very best to stay in control, if people don’t like it, tough shit to them, this is about my health, fuck anyone else. What it means right now to me is that I need to get back in control, my exercise hasn’t faltered over the past few months, so that won’t change. What will change is the way I have been thinking, no more “Just one won’t hurt”, that is just a lie to myself. No more weekly treats till this changes and even then I am going to really control it afterwards until my brain ia back to the way it was, before this all happened.

I have no one to blame but myself and I hope that those around me will be supporting of my wishes. I won’t be doing anything food related socially for a while, I just don’t want the temptation right now, and this upcoming trip is going to be a real test. Part of me thinks I should just worry about it when I get back but that isn’t going to help. Doing this now will mean that when I get back I will be all the better for it.

I hope.

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No full trip report on yesterday’s trip down to LAX for Dorkfest but just a brief overview of what was a pretty good day.  I got to go down to LAX last year for Dorkfest and at the time, David joined me.  However this time it was just me on my own.  I didn’t mind, there was plenty of Avgeeks around to chat to etc.  I had picked up the flights super cheap so again like last year it was just a same day turn.  But this year I was going down on Virgin, coming back on Delta.  Not only would I get to try out Delta’s new service on their own metal between LAX and Seattle, I would have a double wammy in that I would be starting my requalification off early.  30 status credits in the bank (which is just under 10% towards requalification) within 2 days of starting again?  Sign me up!

The flight down with Virgin was pretty average.  The onboard crew were not the usual you would expect from Virgin and in fact felt more like flying United.  The whole morning with Virgin America was a shambles.  No recognition of status with Virgin Australia so that meant if I had not of even pushed for it, I would of been stuck in the giant security lines.  The person who checked me in even said and I quote “This line is for those flying First Class only, you shouldn’t be here unless you wanted to upgrade”… ummmm I don’t think so!  The little Gold Card in my hand should be worth something!  The only good thing about SeaTac in the morning is that they seem to have expanded the amount of coffee outlets in the terminal and there is now 2 in the B concourse so it means that the one right out at the end of the pier is empty when the close one fills up.  Perfect!  The funniest thing was my TSA experience which was pretty good considering the usual suspects, but one of the guys working the bag scanner had a good joke about my camera gear telling me I “need more lenses”.  I commented back that I was only going for the day so didn’t want to bring them all.  He joked back “Well you sure as hell brought one that is big enough”.  Ahhh the Bigma… getting comments everywhere!

Dorkfest was great, and it was great catching up with some people, getting some tips and just generally talking shop.  I did manage to score myself the new Boeing Calendar.  No one else seemed to want it and I was going to buy it myself anyway, so figured why the hell not!  Also scored an Etihad A340-600 model… that made me happy.  The days spotting was hit and miss though.  I missed out on the KLM MD-11 because it went North when I went South.  I did catch a couple of One World aircraft and also got the Eva Airlines Star Alliance, so the day was not a total failure.  National Car rental made it a tough morning as the variety on the lot wasn’t that huge, but there was a number of Challengers to choose from.  Though next time I might try the Kia Optima that they had (some of them were Hybrids).  The weather was amazing, the sunburn was avoided.  It was a great day out!

The flight back with Delta was probably one of my highlights for the day.   Security at T5 was pretty empty and the TSA screener even wished me a “pleasant trip Malcolm” which was nice.  The SkyClub staff were great and we had a little discussion about how nice and handy the new Virgin cards are.  At least with Delta being a Virgin Aus gold means something.  T5 is a bit of a mess though, can’t wait for them to hurry up and finish all the work that is going on.  I left the Skyclub a bit early (After snagging Salmon 30 Salmon in REALLY nice light) to get a better seat and was told “take my pick.. its wide open”.  Exit row it is! I was originally slated for a CRJ-900 flight, direct back to SeaTac.  Though for some reason as I stepped onboard it was 3-3 and my brain didn’t even flag it for a good 3 or 4 minutes and then it went…. umm WHAT THE HELL!  We must of been equipment swapped.  The crew had mentioned onboard that tonights load was 33.  That is one EMPTY plane and it made for the best service onboard.  Hand service of snacks and drinks, crew who wanted to do everything to please you cause they had nothing else to do.  I had a full 3 rows of 6 seats to myself.  Two of those rows were exit rows!  Having 18 seats to spread out on is a bit much.

By the end of the day we were early into SeaTac, and I was hopping off my flight and things just timed well. I managed to make the light rail back to the station within seconds of it pulling out and within half an hour of that I was driving into the Apartments driveway.. Can’t beat that for a day in the sun!

Crankyflier Dorkfest 2013

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Well as i mentioned yesterday I got to go to the first flight of the 787-9 and instead of talking more about it… just check out the prettyness

click for bigger images 😉

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Yep, I have been slack lately, but there has been good reason. The last two weeks at work have been so full on that I haven’t had much time to do anything else but work, sleep and eat. It has been a rough week as I was averaging 12 hour shifts at work (that’s actually at work, doesn’t add in the travel time or the mile and a half walk home from the Park and Ride) but I got through it. I managed to get myself up to speed and I should be ok this week. I probably won’t be leaving work on time most of the week but at least I won’t be starting work at 730am every day.

I have also been battling some personal demons this past week, trying hard to get through that, while working has been tough and it has meant I could distract myself from those demons and push through it, dealing with them on the weekends is tougher when I have more downtime, so keeping myself busy is a must… but I would rather not talk to much about that. One thing that did keep me happy this week was that on Tuesday I got to head on up to Paine Field and down to Boeing Field to cover the action of the 787-9 First flight. Awesome day and I loved every minute of it.

Getting to see the first flight, take heaps of photos and tweet it all out. Since I had Bernie with me as photographer for the day I could focus on the social media side (though I didn’t miss to many photos) but I also got to focus on getting the story out as well. So while Bernie drove between Paine Field and Boeing Field down I5, I was writing the story on the laptop. Doing 60 😉 down I5 writing on a laptop is a little bit wierd, but hey… it works!

Photos to come!

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With the triathlon over, my life returns to normal, if you could ever call it that. It is kind of wierd not swimming or having to push hard in my runs or training and a week of recovery, so far, has been good to me.

I have been running the last three mornings on my old 5k routes something I haven’t done in a while. My body is taking it in strides, though sometimes it isn’t to happy. Come down from the triathlon was fairly good and after the day of rest Sunday I actually felt pretty good on Monday. Though for some reason my finger feels like it’s broken, no idea why.

Looking forward to a slow week training wise, but work has been insane and I’ve been pushing extra hours as usual (so much for taking it easy this week). At least I have the weekend to relax and get away with a trip up over the border planned again.

Today being September 11th, a lot of people are making the usual statements about rembrance etc, but I won’t do that. I was in Australia 12 years ago and although it didn’t really affect me directly, it did in some ways, but over all today doesn’t have the impact on me that it does on others. So I will just make it short. A lot of people died that day in vain, and they deserve to be remembered. Those who have served since then to right the wrongs caused that day have my utmost respect and admiration. Now back to your average blogging about crap and stuff.

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A week full of hard training and sacrifice paid off really well. I was super nervous last night when I showed up at Cottage Lake to pick up my race packet, and I explored a little to scope out the scene for this morning. I was especially nervous about the swim but when I saw the buoys out in the water, I calmed down a little because it didn’t look to far. I signed my life away, picked up my stuff and headed on home to set up my gear and get myself some sleep.

From Seattle Life 2013

Fast forward to this morning after I barely slept and in the end, I just packed it all up and headed on out to Cottage Lake. It wasn’t the best weather, definitely the usual Seattle grey, however I wasn’t to worried, as long as it didn’t pour down, I would be fine. I spent most of the time setting up my gear, walking around scoping things out and trying to adjust to the cold cold water. The lake was DAMN cold and even a pre race quick dunk didn’t help, I think it just made me even more colder.

From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013

I had scored a pretty good space for transition, my race number was 24 and I wondered what it meant from the start. However what it meant was that I was in the first Wave behind the elites (aka crazy people who do two tris back to back), so my race number had me on the first rack for the transition area inside the entry!! However I didn’t quite score the ideal spot that was nabbed by someone else but I was still pretty happy with what I had. Race time came about and the nerves kicked in. When the elites hit the water, we were less than 60 seconds behind them. Nervous as hell when they gave the 10 second warning, I had a little bit of a thought of “what the hell am I doing” and then “Bang” off we go. I waited back a few seconds to let the rest of my wave hit the water ahead of me, and then I hit the water, starting my first ever Triathlon.

The swim was just wierd. I had to stop at one point because the water was really cold. But i sucked it up and kept pushing. The sensation of swimming in the lake was really weird as at times I had fish swimming against me, or some seaweed below me. Just random. When I turned the second buoy heading into the final portion back to the start I was passed by the lead elements of the wave behind me. O dear! I got out of the water when I reached the end and got moving quickly. Focusing on transition and as soon as I got my stuff, I threw my stuff on and got on that bike. The swim went well and I figured I had done about 12 mins or so and my transition though slower than I had trained for (if you call it training) was not to bad.

The ride was much better than I expected and although there was a hill at the back of the course and had me in the lowest of low gears on my bike, at a couple of points I was in the highest gears struggling to get more speed had it been possible. I was FLYING at a couple of points. The two laps just flew by and before I knew it I was pulling off. During the ride I was passed several times by lots of different people. I was lapped by an elite rider about 1km out of transition, he was on his 2nd lap of his bike while I had barely started. Those guys are freaking NUTSO! I passed a number of people and they passed me back a few seconds later. I was contending with an older guy from the wave behind me who had saddle bags on the side of his bike. That was shameful I swear, getting beaten by a guy on a commuting bike!

When I was out riding my first lap I rode past a checkpoint and thought I heard someone say my name. Not really sure if I saw anyone or anything really, I just kept on riding and put it out of my mind. When I got off the bike though and hit the run, I saw Shanwa so I knew I had friends around! My Bike to Run transition wasn’t as smooth as it could of been but I shoved my wet feet in my shoes and kept on moving, knowing that now was my time to move. Move I DID! I started passing people left and right and knew I had it in the bag. When I looked at my watch (which I hadn’t till tht point), I was SHOCKED. I was WAY ahead of the time I expected and pushed even harder, knowing I could possibly make a really good time.

The run went flawless and as I turned the final corner to the end I saw my friends, threw them a wave and focused again. It was then over the line and done!!!

From Seattle Life 2013

The post race set up was great, and whoever’s idea it was to have Peanut Butter and Honey sandwhiches for the recovery food choices deserves a freaking medal. It was epic and just what I needed. Caught up with my friends for a bit and packed up my stuff and headed off, medal and some swag in hand.

From Seattle Life 2013

Looking back at the Tri Now, I am ecstatic with my time and when I got my Final Results this afternoon I was even more happy. I ranked 115th out of 220 overall. Pretty good if you ask me for my first Triathlon. Considering just over 2 years ago I had never even ridden a bike, I couldn’t be happier. But breaking down the stats is where you see some goodness. Although my swim was nothing special, my Bike was 35 minutes, a solid 10 minutes FASTER than anything I had done before. Next up the Run stat just made me happy. I placed 46th overall in the Run Leg, 4th in my Age group! With a time a few seconds shy of 13 minutes, that puts me in 5k race pace.

Would I do a try again? Right now… no. I am going to rest up and slack off before I pass out. Next year? well, time will tell. I think a mixture of adrenalin, stupidity and just downright force of will got me through this race, as I almost gave up in the swim. Part of me thinks that I could definitely do it again, just not sure if I will.