Hairspray and hiking boots - Oxfam Trailfinder walk

Yes I have done it, signed up with a team to walk the 100kms in 48hrs. Myself, Caroline, Debs and Katie to trek from the Hawkesbury to the Harbour for Oxfam - one of my charities who do such brilliant work. Check out the Oxfam website to see all the good work they do.

If you would like to donate, please see the link on the left hand side of the blog to donate.

I will be updating my Born to Tri blog with training updates....

Bring it on!

Paella & Rioja at Casa Donnas

Love having people over for dinner and it has been a while since I invited some great friends over for some good food and wine. I have been wanting to cook Paella for years as I love the dish, especially with loads of fresh Sydney seafood. So invited Sera, Kevin, Claire, Amy & Adam over for some spanish cuisine...

After a slow shopping day at Birkenhead point in Sydney I managed to get some amazingly priced seafood for the paella. It was quite easy to cook and I think for my first one it tasted pretty awesome. I am in love with vintage cellars as they stock some classic red riojas and crianza - spanish red wine for an afordable price.

A great evening, with good cheese, wine, paella, company and Adam's amazing delicious cheesecake that he slaved away on all day whilst the girls were shopping... scrumptious!!! The good thing about having dinner at your casa is you get to keep the leftover cheesecake for breakfast... time to get the coffee pot on the stove.

Ciao

I am successful

Completing the 2-day Success & You seminar in Lindlfield on the weekend has re assured me that I am on the right track for my purpose in life.

My purpose is:
To be true to myself, my feelings and my passions. To work in health, nutrition and fitness, to be more honest within myself, my feelings and decisions made in my life. To allow opportunities to be accessible by keeping an open mind and not limiting myself in career, money, relationships or spirituality.

My mission is to:
Learn all that I can, be open and a sponge listening and learning from others. To control my finances and not limit myself by the amount of money I have or don't have, to achieve all I want. To eliminate negative thinking and fill my life with positive surroundings, ideas and goals that are realistic and achieveable.

I will complete this by:
studying further in fitness, health & nutrition, keeping my personal training on purpose, keeping records of emotions and tracking patterns with my training, letting go of emotions, reducing my busy mind and taking time out to switch off. Sticking to goals set that are my passion. Reducing my habits associated with emotions (spending, eating). Having the faith that the decisions I make will be on purpose.

Triathlon ticked off on the to do list....

As most of you know I completed the BP Ultimate/BRW corporate triathlon yesterday at Mrs Macquarie's Point in Sydney.

It seems like so many months ago that I signed up and paid $120 to race the most amazing corporate triathlon in Australia. With breaktaking views of the bridge and opera house it defnitely was worth the effort.

The morning started off an early one catching the train at 5:35am at St Peter's station. It was quite comforting to see a few bikes at the station and on the train, all heading in at the same ridiculous time to do the race.

Putting the bike into the compound, setting up my runners, hat etc and making sure I had everything I needed for the swim I headed off to have a look at the set up. Lots of tents and people wandering around aimlessly looking for team members.

Race officially commenced with the first wave at 07:30am, there were 39 waves. Our time was +1hr 10mins. The time just seemed to drag on, waiting for the clock. By the time we got down near the water the nerves hit and I just remember thinking "oh my god". But as Kate (my team mate) pointed out where the swim ended I thought, that looks super easy. The swim was great, I am wishing I had of started at the front of the pack but being my first time sat in the middle and just swam where I could find room, finally getting free and being quite early out of the water. I love the picture above when you can see me running and there are still heaps of girls in the water... seems my swimming training prepared me.

The transition time seemed to take the longest for the bike - quite a long run from water to bikes (600m) and had to get shoes/helmet/bib on and then walk bike to the road to start... so I would take 10mins off the actual cycle time! Quicker change coming back to put bike in compound and start on the run (across the bridge and down stairs... legs were a bit wobbly). Overall I am very impressed with my time. Completed the triathlon in 51mins. I am keen do do it again now that I know what is in store for me and to try to get the time down. I ran 80% of the way and comfortable to know that I could of run the entire jog leg.

Swim 5mins 31sec
Cycle 27min51 sec (17km/hr)
Run 17mins 50 sec (4.7min/km)

Personal Training

After many years of competing, coaching, training myself and others in and out of gyms, circuits, pools, beaches I started last night at Fernwood, training clients as a fully registered, insured and qualified PT.

An amazing group of ladies last night totally made me feel accepted as a trainer, they were ready to tackle anything that I was to give them, and it was such a great feeling to finally be a trainer. It felt like I had been doing it for years and didn't have any awkward moments, I think they were very impressed at how I train. It has only taken me a couple years to get my studies completed (get my shite together) and to actually enrol at TAFE and complete the Cert IV for 6 months part time at the end of last year.

I am excited and energised! Wondering where this will take me. I am addicted already. So many CEC's to gain through courses, keen to do boxing trainer courses and even some part-time subjects at uni. I am doing my first triathlon on Sunday and I am keen to keep entering into competitions to broaden my experiences. Signing off, Donna (PT)

Lunch for Marty

A few of us gals met at Vicini cafe in Annandale for lunch to celebrate Marty's journey into motherhood. With 2 weeks to go we wanted to catch up and wish her well - discussing would it be a girl or a boy? Using the blue and pink love hearts displayed on the table as a "fortune teller" to see if indeed inside her kicking belly was a little girl or boy. Lots of chatting was done, eating and a lovely bottle of Juniper wine was devoured.

With good old fashioned table service, our host Tracey was a hoot - great fun, organised and very attentive to our needs (wine list ladies...). Nice to get some friendly service. Highlight of the lunch was of course the yummiest cupcakes, baked & supplied to the cafe by Nadine Ingham from Cookie Couture selections (Nadine was a pastry chef at The Ivy in London, making exquisite sugary treats for the likes of Princess Diana and Madonna). Best cupcakes ever I said, and in agreeance Marty replied, "the icing is like chocolate mousse", with us all nodding in agreement. Delicious, delicious.

A truly wondeful way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Am looking forward to meeting the little Shqau and looking forward to returning to the Vicini cafe for another event.

Welcome, welcome!!

So the new Onnada blog..... branching out from my fitness blogs to a keeping up with the Dons blog. From yahoo to blogger - thought it best to keep them all together. For 2007 festivities check out my retired yahoo link.

So Onnada (onna-day)... is my title, a name that I have had for many years and I am sure like many other families, the Martin family used this pig latin language to entertain themselves and talk amongst others for these main reasons:

a) to keeping the conversation quiet from non pig latin speakers
b) to talk about those that couldn't understand or
c) keep up with the hard task off adding "ay" to the end of each word

Looking forward to adding my adventures and findings for those of you who like to keep blogs as your favourites for some light entertaining reading from time to time.

Stay tuned.