Nelius Murphy, is he a man or a machine…

As the only representative of the Fitta Bodies Crew, Nelius took on the tough bloke challenge.

5km’s of extreme trail running mixed in with obstacles like crawling through underground pipes filled with muddy water, a mud pit covered in barbed wire,  climbing over hundreds of old tyres, scaling over army nets etc etc etc

Not only did he take it on, he came 10th overall out of over 600 people in a time of 36 mins!!!!!

What a legend!

He said it was much tougher than he had expected and he had a blast although he was a no show at training today, something about sore legs or something soft like that…

From what he told me, it was the up and down hills in the bush that got him along with the extra 3 – 4 kg’s you are carrying when you come out of the mud pit to finish the run.

A very special thanks has to go to Darrin Penola who made the trip down there to be Nelius’s only support crew and to take with him some warm soup and bread for after the event. Darrin took loads of photos as well so you can all get a feel for the action. Thanks mate!

Here’s a few photos and all the rest are up here on our Facebook page. You don’t have to be a member of Facebook to view the photos.

On Saturday, Adam, Damian, Darrin, Nelius and Myself headed down to Cataract Park at Appin for some training for the Tough Bloke challenge coming up in 2 weeks. The course was fun, the water was cold and the spirits were high!

To view all of the photos from the day, click here to go through to our facebook page. You don’t have to be on facebook to view the Fitta Bodies page, it is just viewed like any other webpage, you just won’t be able to interact, only view.

We hit Challenge Valley on Saturday in preparation for the Tough Bloke/Chick Challenge.

It was awesome fun! I want one of those courses in my backyard!

Over and under logs, climbing nets, climbing logs, crawling through muddy pipes, crawling through water undernets, monkey bars, flying foxes, climbing through tyres, over balance beams, they had the lot!

I have to admit it was a bit blokey when you have to get down in the mud, but everything else would be heaps of fun for both male and female.

I will organise another one in June, so let me  know if you are keen to give it a go. Click here to register interest.

Here’s a few photos from the ANZAC Day lawn bowls. Looks like everyone had a great time, I’m sorry I couldn’t be there!

As you all know, Fitta Bodies has had a team in the Oxfam Trailwalker for the last 2 years and we have another team ready to go this year.

Kirsty, Kelly and Christie will be forming a team and being joined by one of Kirsty’s friends to make up the 4.
They will be doing training walks on weekends leading up to the event in August, so if anyone is keen to join them, it would be a great way to get some more exercise into your week, you can enjoy the beautiful bushland around Sydney and help keep the girls motivated. Let me know if you would like to join them and I will hook you up.

But, let’s not forget this is a charity event and trust me, it is worth every penny you donate. Walking 100km’s through the bush is no mean feat, I did it in 2008 and I can vouch for how hard it is!

So, below is the blurb from Kirsty and Oxfam:

Hey all,

I am taking part in Oxfam TRAILWALKER Sydney 2010.

Thanks J

Thanks to everyone who turned up last night, we had a great time.

It was awesome to see everyone out of their sweaty exercise gear. You all scrub up nicely!

My apologies to everyone who left before the camera came out ;(

I think I am still digesting the lamb that was on that pizza. I think 3 sheep gave their lives for that meal.

Don’t forget, we’ll still have the traditional Christmas breakfast on the 23rd.

We had an awesome race last weekend up on the Central Coast for the start of the adventure racing season, even if we did make a major mistake at the start line.

The race started out tough with a long beach run from Shelley Beach to the Entrance. We made the mistake of heading to the streets to avoid the first section of sand. This unfortunately put us behind the pack and we ended up at the first transition area in 106th place out of 153 teams. Oh well, that is what it is all about, making the correct navigational decisions.

We then had to swim across the channel at the entrance, which was short and intense with an extreme current running through the mouth of the river.

The next leg was a kayak from The Entrance to Wyong. Kayaking is always our least favourite leg and this was an extremely long kayak, seeing us completing this leg in 1hr flat.

After a quick swim across the Wyong river in the freezing cold water, pushing aside the masses of jelly fish that floated in our paths, we emerged dripping wet and with a mild case of hypothermia. (well it felt like it for 10 mins anyway)

We got onto our bikes and headed to Ourimbah State Forest. Sweet! I love those trails. Unfortunately, we were stuck behind so many poeple and it’s all single track, so hard to make a break for it. The upside is that I saw some scenery I have never seen there before as I have never been along the tracks so slowly before.

The next leg was running and navigation. We had a great run, no mistakes on the navigation and managed to make up some ground on this leg.

Back to the bikes and the dash for the finish. When I say dash, I mean 1hr 5mins intense uphill and single track mountian biking. Awesome fun! For those of you who know Ourimbah, we had to get back to the top of the Roller Coaster before heading back to Wyong.

Then it happened… I got a flat tyre! Luckily we are somewhat fast at changing flats, so we were done in around 7 mins. Unfortunately, this put us back about 8 places.

We finished up the race in 52nd position. not our best result, but we thoroughly enjoyed the race! (other than the kayak)

Our direct competition was Jack Peacock’s team – “The Calamari Brothers”. Jack was my team mate in April at Lake MacQuarie. We beat his team by 6mins and 10 places.

Our other competition was Mark Smith’s team – “Giant Gonzalez”. Mark was my team mate in last October’s Cattai National Park race. We beat them by 41mins and 51 places.

The next race is on the 28th November, let’s get a few teams together and have some fun!

For the second year running, Fitta Bodies had a team of 4 people enter and complete the Oxfam 100km walk for charity. There was a change of team members this year with myself and Frank dropping out to make way for Rachel Newman and Matt Smith to join last year’s walkers Gwen and Mark Jenkins.

It was a gruelling walk as usual, but made all the worse for Rachel by her feet being covered in blisters by the half way mark. Add to this a tight ITB and cramping calves and you can see she was a champion for pushing through where many would have quit. Gwen also had her share of pain with her knees still undergoing physio weeks after the walk was over. Mark pushed through like a trooper making sure he tracked the whole event on his GPS watch and Matt was the wild card, only being added to the team a week before the event and not having completed any of the training walks. 

Special mention has to go to Rachel’s dad Bob and sister Katie who did the majority of the support crew. They took on checkpoints 2 & 3 on Friday and 7 & 8 on Saturday. Legend! Darrin Penola offered his good humour and support at checkpoint 7 aswell. Myself, Matt and Shikha helped out on checkpoints 5 & 6 through the night, first greeting the guys at 2am for some food and stretches and then again at 8am for some more food and stretches.

Not only did they do an awesome job with the walk, but they also raised over $5000. A huge part of this money was raised by team mate Tom Carmody who had to drop out at the last minute due to a tonsil infection, but he deserves a massive wrap for his fund raising abilities!!!

I have included a few photos at the checkpoints I was at and here is a link to a couple of professional photos taken out on the trail,
The happy walkers
Smile for the camera

If you are interested in entering the Oxfam 100km walk in 2010, please let me know and we can get started on the next Team Fitta Bodies:)

Hey Guys,

Thanks for everyone who came along on Saturday, I had a blast and I am sure you all did to!

Here is a few photos from the day.

Hopefully we can do it agin in a month or two…

Team Fitta Bodies

Fitta Bodies entered 2 teams in the latest AROC adventure race on Saturday 18th April at Lake Macquarie.

What a race it was, orienteering around beautiful Lake Macquarie, running, mountain biking, kayaking and swimming. Taking in beach, lake, rocky ocean outcrops, dense bushland and suburbia, we covered it all.

My team – Fitta Bodies 1 came in in 34th position out of 199 entrants in 4 hours 14 minutes. We are happy with that result, putting us at 17% from the top of the field.

Team Fitta Bodies 2 came in in 141st place in a time of 5 hours and 28 minutes. Well done to Gwen, Rachel and Tom, they did really well.

Our goal of beating Jeff from Addventure Training didn’t come to fruition on this occassion with his team coming in in 19th place in a time of 3 hours and 52 minutes.

The race started with a dip into Lake Macquarie to bring back items from 3 buoys. Once we handed in our collections, we were given a map of the nearby development with 22 checkpoints to find. When we handed in our completed checkcard, we were on our bikes and the race officially began.

The mountain biking was tough on this leg with very steep rutted trails which everybody had to walk their bikes down. We had 3 checkmarks to collect on our way.

The next leg was coasteering. Running along the rocky coastline, jumping in and out of the ocean as required in order to collect 5 checkmarks and then it was back up to the bikes.

We rode to Caves Beach to crawl into a very small cave to retreive a checkmark, then into suburbia to park up our bikes and run approximately 1.5km along soft sand to the next checkmark.

We ran through the suburbs collecting 2 checkmarks on our way to the kayaks and paddled our way along the lake to 2 more checkmarks. 

The paddle back was not so pleasant as the rain and howling winds picked up. It also didn’t help the run back to the bikes as we collected 1 more check mark on the way.

Back on the bikes, it was the dash to the finish. We had 3 more checkmarks to collect and we went for it. I had 2 crashes on my bikes, but no injuries. We completed this leg 16th fastest out of the whole field. We passed 5 teams on the 2km single track from the final checkmark to the finish line. Not an easy feat when it is single track!

This was one of my favourite races so far. What an adventure, I can’t wait for the next one!

Yours in Fitness

Troy Shipsey

Your Group Training Specialist Come see me in Centennial Park