The Elixir of Life

It’s been a while since we last updated this which I take as a good sign that we’re actually really busy doing stuff rather than just being lazy!

We’ve been here 4 months now and are settling in. Firstly I can report that we appear to have acclimatised just as the summer has ended and we’re entering the cooler autumn months. Apparently this year has been very wet in Sydney which is great news for most people as they’ve had precious little rain the last 10 years.

What we’ve noticed is that pretty much on the dot of 4pm throughout the back end of the summer the weather would change with a stiff breeze blowing in off the sea and up the harbour, occasionally turning into a full on raging storm. It makes for very entertaining viewing from the safety of our balcony. Some of the sunsets here have been incredible, we’ve tried to capture some of them and posted pics here but they really do fail to do them justice. I blame it on the camera personally.....

We celebrated Australia Day in full on Aussie style with a BBQ and the best of Slim Dusty! I got to try out the obligatory Barbie which seemed to work a treat despite tales of horrific blowback from the died in the wool Aussies present! As a bonus we got to witness the fireworks taking place over the harbour in Darling Harbour.

Liz has been busy working for a company translating tapes of random conversations being used by a company who are developing speech recognition software. Through this she’s made some good friends who are sadly now off travelling Australia before heading back to the UK. Although the job has had its moments, Liz starts a new job working for a government agency based in the heart of the CBD.
Her role will be as the Stakeholder Engagement Analyst for a Health project called E-Health which is based around the implementation of a Digital Health Network here in Australia. She’s really looking forward to it, especially as at the end of the day she can just walk to any one of the cities great bars for a quick glass of vino!

My job also has an office in the city so we will be able to meet up after work and also share the same transport to work. In most cases we get the train but occasionally we treat ourselves to catching the ferry. Our route takes us under the Harbour Bridge and past the Opera house, all up only a 10 min trip. One of the things that has been difficult for us here is making new friends. We’ve hosted a couple of parties but return invites have been sadly lacking – I don’t know why this is but Liz reckons it might’ve been my BBQ skills!

So to make more of an effort I’ve recently joined a local Rugby Seniors team called Lane Cove Oldies much to the apparent amusement of Pedro! Oldies being the operative word as most of us are getting on a bit, going grey and carrying a few decades worth of beer and pies. Still, it’s a good way to meet a bunch of blokes and as a bonus we’re sponsored by the local pub.

We’ve once again been blessed with lovely neighbours; Phil and Maggie have helped us settle in and introduced us to the main golf course in Sydney. Liz had her first 18 holes the other day and is now hooked so we’re sorting out lessons. Back home our tenants have final beaten us down with their trivial complaining so we’ve just served notice on them which is a blessed relief.
It does mean that we are going to struggle financially paying a full UK mortgage and rent here but the hassle and stress of dealing with them was unbearable. To compensate we’ve taken on a lodger for a short term and so far this is working out very well. I spend a fair amount of time in Melbourne, Adelaide or Perth and it’s been good for Liz to have another female for company. Sadly she’s heading off on her own travels shortly so we’ll begin the search for a replacement until we either rent out or sell Corner Cottage.




Most of our spare time is spent at the beach with one memorable visit being to a place 45 mins north of Sydney where we caught a ferry over the Pittwater River to the Kuringai Chase national park. It’s an absolutely magical spot and a great day out.

This Easter weekend we headed off down the Kangaroo Valley, a national park area about 2 hours drive south of Sydney. We bought some basic camping gear and slept on a blow up mattress in the back of our 4x4. The area is stunningly beautiful with a resemblance to the Sussex Downs in terms of luscious, rolling, green meadows and hills with rivers full of fish (that I couldn’t catch) running through it. Liz’s university friend Alex was there with a group of her friends who we didn’t know before the trip but they were great fun. We managed a spot of off roading and tasted some local wines at a wonderfully cavalier vineyard where they left us the bottle with instructions to “help yourselves” so we did! We also did a bit of river swimming, kayaking and waterfall watching during the day and spent the evenings eating and drinking with our new friends.

Finally a little thank you to Mum and Keith for helping us get the new Corner Cottage window sorted and to Mandy, Anna and Dom for saving our lives with emergency rations of chocolate just in time for Easter. You simply cannot get good choccy here and that, my friends, is a terrible thing.

The End of Days

Well having returned from a fantastic trip to Chicago Liz and I set about uprooting our life to the other side of the world as I accepted a job from my UK employer, Canon, to move to Australia.

The last few weeks were spent in a blur of parties, goodbyes, packing and selling off anything we weren't packing. Constantly saying goodbye to all our wonderful friends made us feel very lucky and not a little unsure if we were doing the right thing but we both love an adventure and this was too good an opportunity to miss.

So having finally let out our loved Corner Cottage and said our goodbyes to our wonderful neighbours Rog, Sarah and Josh, we were winging our way on Singapore Airways and could, for the first time in many weeks, relax completely knowing nothing we could do now would change anything for the next 24 hours.

Arrival in Sydney was a shock, literally, it was 41 degrees and we just holed up in our hotel room with the aircon on trying to stave of a desperate desire to sleep. It took 4 days to get over the jet lag properly and roughly 4 weeks to get some kind of bodily acclimatisation sorted.


Work has been an interesting experience, it’s actually almost exactly like the UK in every way except people go home at 5pm and actually do stuff rather than working til late, eating dinner and flopping, exhausted, into bed. The main difference though, and the reason we came, is the ease with which you can find yourself enjoying any number of outdoors activities. So far we’ve been sea kayaking which we could get to love, hiking through the coastal trails, boogie boarding, bbq’uing and generally hanging out on the beach with all the associated sunburn us Brits manage to catch.

It’s also interesting to note that our xmas party was an extremely lavish affair taking place in the Grand Ballroom of Sydney’s Star City Casino with free champers and grub all night and a twirl from a much loved Aussie crooner and one time Australian idol judge, Marsha Hynes – think Cheryl Cole’s significantly less attractive grandmother who can actually sing. The point being that it’s absolutely like the Aussies not to let a Global Economic Crisis get in the way of a good p*ss up!

The other significant event to happen to us has been New Years Eve which is a huge deal here. We headed down to a less touristy vantage spot and were rewarded with a spectacular view of the fireworks over the harbour bridge. It was a great night and I’ve attached a short vid which simply fails to do it justice.

In a week’s time on the 9th Jan we move out of hotel room and into our new apartment. Neither of us can wait as living in a hotel is fun for a weekend but after 6 weeks the novelty has worn a touch thin – that and the fact that our apartment has the most incredible views over the harbour as well as a lovely guest room for all our friends WHO ARE COMING TO VISIT!

The 2009 Chicago Marathon

Liz and I completed the 2009 Chicago Marathon.

Following a couple of great days with our Chicago friends Sharon and Dan and their adorable young Miles we signed on at the Expo the day before and picked up our race numbers and signed up for the Nike 4hr 30mins pace team. I was pretty impressed by just how slick the organisation was and this carried through into race day as well.
Chicago is a really striking city and at first light on a freezing cold October day it looked quite stunning as we lined up along with 50,000 other runners for the start.

We weren’t expecting the cold conditions given that the previous year it was quite hot and the year before it was over 30 degrees.

The reality of running in near freezing weather is that everything takes that much longer to warm up and my already pathetically short muscles were struggling after just 6 miles when the first of five stretch stops had to take place.

Our pace was easy to maintain, we would be running around 10 min mile pace but that was really too slow to get warm and with the cold also forcing a number of toilet breaks, when combined with the stretch stops and a couple of first aid station stops for much needed painkillers we were actually had to run around 9.15 pace to stay on target.

Liz’s race wasn’t helped by the fact that she tweaked her calf muscle at around the half way mark. It was really hurting and I thought she would have to pull out but she’s a tough cookie and after downing some ibuprofen pills she dug in and toughed it out.

Sharon, Dan and Miles came to cheer us on and we first spotted them at mile 15 where we stopped for a quick stretch, photo and energy gel. Having them there really gave us a boost, especially when we came across them at mile 19 by when things were getting a bit hard and definitely at the 23 mile marker. At this point it was a mixture of feeling like I was running on wooden legs through a vat of treacle but I was also a bit excited knowing that with only 3 miles to go that we would definitely make it.

The flip side was that we had slipped behind our 4hr 30min pace which would mean running the last 3 miles around 8.30min pace. Although in many ways it seemed pointless to make any extra effort I think it was a combination of having something to aim at and desperately wanting to end the thing that got us to the line in 4hr 29mins and 27secs!

Crossing the line together we were amazed to see free beers being donated by the Goose Island Beer Company, usually I’m not one to pass up a free beer but somehow this one was easy to give up!

We collected our medals and picked up some bananas and bagels and as soon as we had collected our gear we sat in the park and ate. It felt great to get some real food inside instead of the slightly nauseous energy gels we’d been slurping for the last 3 hours or so.

The downside of stopping running is that it was virtually impossible to start even a slow hobble afterwards and we were rescued from having to walk too far by Dan picking us up and driving back to his place to spend the rest of the day on their wonderful recliners being waited on patiently with food and cups of team.

We need to say a massive thanks to Sharon and Dan for letting us stay with them and also for their wonderful hospitality. We also need to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has contributed to our Just Giving page. We raised just under £1000 for Trust Pa which was almost twice what we originally hoped for.

For us we have another challenge coming up as I’ve recently accepted an offer to work in Australia and we head off in mid November to start a new way of life in Sydney so the next blog will hopefully come from the other side of the world.

For whom the bell tolls....

Is that a ringing in my ears or the sound of a fat bird in the corner clearing her throat? Either way, it’s time!


The final throes of our training schedule passed in a painful blur with Liz completing her 18 miler last weekend and me finishing my longest run the weekend before but then spent a few days lugging a rucksack up and down a few hills in the Italian Dolomites which turned out to be great strength and endurance training. Plus though i'd mention it as it's allows me to upload a pic that's actually relevant.


In between then and now I’ve been doing a few cycle rides and a couple of 4 mile jaunts which have seemed like a warm up session compared to the mileage we had been putting in.
Injury wise both of us seem in pretty good nick with no real issues to speak of. My calf’s have been OK since I finished the long runs, my physio gave me some ultra sound and massaging which helped massively and the comparative rest has been the single biggest contributor.
Liz’s shin splints have completely gone and she’s been going great guns, both of us have been stretching quite a lot with the main beneficiary being our gas supplier as most of the stretching sessions have taken place in piping hot baths!


So we fly out at ridiculous o’clock tomorrow but that’s nothing compared to the lunacy of a race start time of 7.30am which effectively means eating our bowlfuls of porridge (we’re taking it with us) at about 5.30am – eeugh!


On the plus side we are staying in Chicago with our good friends Sharon and Dan who recently brought young Miles into this world and we’re very much looking forward to meeting them all.


Our original goal was to run a sub 4 hour time, however, this got revised to just being happy to complete the course once our injuries robbed us both of approximately 8 weeks of training. The good news is that having slogged through the long runs we’re feeling more positive about hitting a decent time and are planning to latch onto one of the specially provided pace runners in the hope they can drag us round as close to the 4 hour mark as possible.


A massive thank you to all who have sponsored us via our Just Giving page http://www.justgiving.com/lizandmatt this is reason we’ve being doing all of this and with times being as difficult as they are we really do appreciate every single penny.

Blood, sweat & tears

Mid week we are running a mixture of short 5-6 mile runs at fast pace with the odd sprint session thrown in and every Sunday we head out for a long run which increases by a mile every weekend. The idea is to build up to about 20 miles a couple of weeks before the marathon and then taper the training right down.

So far we are at the 15 mile mark and it’s not pleasant. In fact we have been so concerned about our body’s ability to deal with nearly 4 hours of running that we decided about a month ago to really focus on our endurance and ran effectively 3 half marathon distances in 5 days.

The good news is that we managed to do it OK. Interestingly (well it was to me) I weighed myself before and after the final run and found I’d lost 5 lbs of which the majority would’ve been through sweat and this despite drinking 500ml en route . This is a good indication of what the body goes through when running longer distances in heat (it was 27 degrees) and really shows the importance of being properly hydrated to start with.

Of more concern however was the distinctly blood coloured urine I had the joy of passing after one of the fast paced mid week runs. A trip to the GP ended with the cheerful assumption that “it’s probably Kidney stones” and I was packed off to hospital for an ultrasound.
Fortunately the ultrasound showed no problems and following consultation with a specialist urologist (now there’s a sh*t job) I was informed that it was due to over training and I should cut back a bit – great news for me!

Liz hasn’t escaped scot free either and has been suffering painful shin splints for the last week for which the only cure is rest. This is a bad time to go down with an injury so she’s been out on the bike to keep things ticking over. We’re hoping that two weeks off the roads will be long enough.

I’d like to end on a positive note but seeing as I’ve just returned from a long run with a torn calf muscle it might be a bit difficult! Although two weeks of rest, ice and ibuprofen means at least I get to put my feet up!

All the gear, no idea!

Thought I’d share a brief look at some of the running specific stuff we’ve been accumulating over the recent months.

First of all I’ve been trying a new pair of shoes designed by Newton Running, a US manufacturer based out of fantastically named Boulder, Colorado.

The concept is simple, if you take your shoes off and run you will naturally run more on your toes than you do with shoes on. This means less stress on the ankle, knee and hip joints and is generally more efficient. To promote this more forward running style they have developed special lugs on the forefoot area, it’s that simple.

But does it work Well the short answer is yes although it takes a little getting used to. However, after several short runs I’ve become accustomed to the style and it feels pretty natural. I can definitely feel the difference in impact but it does work your calves and achilles quite heavily so I’d suggest that unless you have calves like bullets that you build the miles gradually.

I use the Newtons for my faster mid week runs and normal trainers (Mizuno Waveriders for the geeks out there) for the longer stuff.

Of course there is one major flaw in the Newtons which Liz expertly pointed out, namely that they really are the most awful colour combination imaginable!

The Newtons came from a company called Stride UK who are a small company that specialise in video gait analysis and following several recommendations Liz booked herself in for what they call the mid level analysis which concentrates on everything from the hips down.

This consisted of drawing various markings on Liz’s legs and getting her to run with and without trainers on a special treadmill whilst being filmed from the side and the front.

From this simple exercise it appears any amount of information can be deciphered and Liz walked away with a full analysis of her running style, suggestions for how to reduce stresses such as where she might benefit from building muscle strength and improving flexibility. In addition she was given a list of suggested stretches and exercises designed to specifically address these areas.

The best bit though was when we got home and installed the CD they gave us onto our laptop. It contained all the video analysis and we had a good laugh at just how knock kneed Liz is. (wel I did anyway!)

Hydration and energy play an important part in marathon training, lots of studies show how performance is affected by these two things. All I know is I get hungry and thirsty on any run longer than 45 mins so we’ve been stocking up on Isotonic drinks and energy gels.
Energy gels are great for squeezing down during a run, they’re much easier than trying to chew through a flap jack and generally more effective than the classic runners friend the Jelly Baby.

Of course, carrying a couple of energy gels and half a litre of Isotonic drink on a long run presents it’s own logistical challenge but fortunately gear manufacturers have overcome this obstacle with any amount of storage devices. I chose the red and black one because it matched the colour of my vest/shorts/cap combo!

OK, so now we were isotoniced up, gelled out and fitted with the latest hyper trainers what we really needed was a GPS tracking system that allows us to monitor our speed, pace, heart rate, altitude and any amount of other information useful to the modern marathoner, if only I could get the bloody thing to tell the time.....

Bandit Paddlers

Well it’s been a busy time in the Jones household so I apologise for the slow update of the blog recently.

The marathon training has finally started to ramp following a series of set backs for both of us.

Liz has been suffering from sore knees which become quite painful after only a few miles. After trying rest and anti-inflammatories she visited a specialist who has told her to stretch various muscles. After a few weeks of stretching things seem to have improved a little but it’s still painful on longer runs.

I’ve had a recurring calf muscle strain which restricted me to one session a week for 6 weeks which was not ideal. I think this came about from focusing on stretching that calf muscle as directed by the Podiatrist.

However, as I have now found out, all that was in vain because my sore foot arch was being caused by nothing more than badly fitting shoes! I had them originally fitted by a specialist running shop with video analysis and also took them with me to the Podiatrist (who never looked at them on me).

So after 6 weeks of stretching but not really getting any better I decided to stick 2 pairs of inners into my shoes in a desperate attempt to rid myself of the a pains. I got approximately half a mile before my leg went completely dead from the pain. So I removed the second inner and re-fitted the now loose shoe – instant relief, no pain at all!

So the next day I undid my trainers and ran with them as loose as possible and again, no pain!

Now I know I should be happy to have cured this problem but I can’t help being just a tad p*ssed off with the so called experts who simply failed to spot such a basic mistake. I work in computers and the first thing we do when responding to a fault call is ask if they’ve turned the PC on, this lot had jumped straight to page 10 of the fault manual!

So to celebrate I’ve purchased a new pair of shoes from Newton, they’re supposed to promote a more forward footfall which in turn prevents stress on the ankles, knees etc. and so far they seem very good. Liz is thinking about getting a pair if her stretching doesn’t work out.

A typical week for us is 3 lots of 5-6 mile interval type runs during the week with a 10-12 miler on a Sunday. Every other week we put a sprint session in to replace one of the 6 mile runs. I think we’re both seeing real improvements although neither of us is confident of lasting the full distance at the pace needed to dip under 4 hours.

To really mix things up myself and my two step brothers, Pete and Andy, undertook a bit of a Bandit Paddle over a recent weekend, all 40 miles of it!

Buying inflatable canoes off ebay may not sound the best idea but these were beauties and had plenty of space for us to store all our kit, including a 3 man tent!

Liz dropped us off at the River Rother in Midhurst and we had a wonderful time wending our way down this beautiful if un-kept river picking up floating polo balls from the Cowdray Park estate. We had a mixed reaction from the small number of fishermen we met on the way, some were perfectly pleasant but a couple got quite abusive and muttered about our trip being illegal. Now I had looked into this and simply put, the law is unclear with regard to recreational activities so we put our heads down and carried on.

By the evening we had been on the go for 8 hours and were feeling the strain although pitching on down through several weirs we encountered had made it a memorable day despite the now persistent rainfall.

We found a likely spot to set up camp for the night and trundled off to a local pub for something warm and plenty of alcohol to wash it down. Liz made a welcome appearance and it was with some regret that we all said goodbye as she headed off to a nice warm dry bed whilst we trudged wearily through sodden fields to our tent.

The next day dawned grey and wet and we set off this time up the River Arun to cover the remaining 20 miles by early afternoon. Fairly quickly the sun came out and with the tide on our side we made good progress despite my inflatable canoe suffering a puncture which required a mid river pump up every 20 mins. After a mere 6 hours we arrived at Arundel and slipped and slid up the cloyingly muddy river bank, dragging the canoes with us and into the back of BA ( our van, so called cos it’s hard as nails) and off to a scrumptious roast that Liz had cooked.

All in all, great fun and really good endurance training as well as being something we wouldn’t usually do.

Car racing has been going OK although my lack of focus on it has been showing. The race at Brands Hatch was great fun with Liz coming along for the first time as well as Roger and Sarah our neighbours and parents to Josh and Sean who are the Custard Tart Racing’s official pit crew.

The weather for qualifying was extremely wet and surprisingly I managed to bag 4th on the grid for both races. Good starts are becoming a speciality and after briefly taking 2nd place on the opening lap I settled into 3rd place until a couple of missed gear changes saw me drop to fifth at the flag but still my best result so far. Unfortunately race 2 had me on the wrong tyre pressures and again after sneaking up to 2nd I dropped back through the pack to a disappointing 8th.

If I’d got my act together and done the test day I really think a podium was there for the taking and so now it’s on to Castle Combe for the next two rounds.