My Life

I never really started running until I went to Uni. I had always thought of myself as too stocky or thicc to ever get into long distance – ‘it’s just the way I’m built’ I would tell myself. After years of mediocre attempts at running around the neighbourhood (just 5km or so in 25ish minutes) I started living with a guy who was actually good at running, Carl Puchner. Even though the guy ate a full pizza every night for dinner and KFC for lunch he had the perfect runner’s physique.

We’d often go on short jogs together on concrete around Chatswood where I’d just be slowing him down. One fateful day I was exploring the neighbourhood and found a nice little jungle path and thought to take it at some pace. I took Carl back here and thought we could do it together and found out I was actually able to keep up (or even slightly ahead) of this milo fiend. He even mentioned it after the run saying I was flying and he was struggling to keep up. Not sure if this is yet a law but I’m going to claim it

Ross’ Law - You find more enjoyment in activities you are good at

And I think this is where it all began. Next thing I knew my brother Thomas sporadically asked if I wanted to try the Tamworth TrailBlazer in 2019 (15K +900m elevation) back in my hometown. Obviously I signed up, and didn’t put in near the effort required for a decent time, worst of all my knee starting playing up about 10Ks in, so I ended up walking / hopping the remainder of the course – still coming in a respectable 14th, I knew this could be the start of something. 

Realising I gained so much enjoyment and accomplishment from the race, I started more recreational running around my local tracks – Lane Cove National Park, Boronia Park to North Ryde and more. I finally decided to buy a Sports GPS watch – however that was more for my Japan Trip. 

The Benefit of Running & Trail Running

  • Fitness (or you can basically eat whatever you want guilt free!)
  • Time saving vs walking
  • Health – heart training
  • Amazing views – more trails
  • Explore places you wouldn’t usually visit
  • Something you can do by yourself or with friends
  • Meet plenty of great people out there with the same hobby and interesting stories
  • ‘Find that place in yourself’ – I find this happens any distance over 30 minutes where you find a comfortable rhythm, you’re in like as Sherlock Holmes calls it – a mind palace. Where you think just what you are thinking and nothing else really matters. Like a moment of calm or clairvoyance. 

In 2021, I really started picking up Trail Running as an enthusiast (one day I hope to call myself an athlete), signing up for multiple events every month and even winning a few. 

Get out there, explore and enjoy it!

One of the main things I wanted to get out of creating a blog was a way to autobiograph-ise my life. I like dates, timestamps and visuals – so I went in search of something of the Timeline variety to record, remember and relive my life. After all, my biggest fear is to look back on my life and regret not doing enough. 

I stumbled upon an amazing, innovative site Knightlab which is all free to use their templates on Storytelling – Timelines and Storylines being my 2 favourites. 

Hours upon hours of my time went into the creation of this:

  1. Planning – design, template dates, highlights, databases, storage, naming conventions, etc
  2. Scouring my Memories – Looking through photos (Google Photos is a great tool), memories, talking with friends for memories, old photo albums and others to pull out the moments in my life that I want to look back on and remember. Those critical moments where I achieved or learned something amazing. Or just something funny happened.
  3. Putting it all together – writing the memoirs, making the short highlights videos, uploading everything, ensuring everything works and the main point, redoing it all every (year?) to keep it up to day.

Without further adieu, the Timeline of Ross Michell until the end of 2020 (as of time of writing).

Timeline of Ross Michell

Again, I would strongly recommend everyone to find your own way to record, remember and relive your own life. This last few weeks has been a saviour with COVID lockdowns coming back into Sydney, it has helped me reconnect with people and myself looking back on these memories and learnings.

“…After all, these are not the memoirs of an empress, nor of a queen. These are memoirs of another kind.” – Memoirs of a Geisha

I’m raising money for my niece Imogen who has a rare disease called ATS. She has been supported through HeartKids over the last few years and I want to give back.

I’m doing a triathlon in November (The Noosa Triathlon) with Heartkids and looking to raise some funds for the charity so they can continue supporting kids in need.

Just in time for Tax Season, any help would be appreciated and fully TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!!

Donate
mim2 (Large)
Ross and Imogen
mim 3 (Large)
mim 4 (Large)

I never had planned to build a website let alone do it. Every year (for the last maybe 10 years) I’ve set my goals or as most people know them new years resolutions within the start of January. This year was like any other where i had them split into long and short.

Placeholder link – writing goals

On there for 2021 was the usual get fit, Run this, start that, etc. Only after I started chasing on of them – running events did my goal expand into this beast of starting a website and blog.

See the quote above from one of my favourite Anime: Hunter x Hunter 2011. “You should enjoy the little detours to the fullest. Because that’s where you’ll find the things more important than what you want”. I understand this as, even though you may have goals, sometimes the side tracks are where you really find meaning to the goals. 

It all came about as I was training for my link: 50k ultra first lumberjack, where mid-way into a 40K run I thought this is amazing, I want to:
1. Notes for my own records
2. Share my learnings with a wider audience and hope to inspire

For me personally, when you’re out there running for up to 6 hours alone with a flat set of earphones, you have a lot of time to thing (Link to: Japan Bike Tour). So many things are going through your mind but there’s no way to write them all down. 

For me personally, I want to be able to look back at my life and easily see what I’ve done. Not dissimilar to a diary or scrapbook but in a digital and interactive format. I want to see my triumphs, failures and stagnations. Learn from this and go forward.

Leading into the 2nd part, when listing all of these learning, why not share the learnings I have with a wider audience. I always thought things like the school curriculum and life lessons you learn to be almost irrelevant in shaping someone into a future success. Hopefully my way of living “live the life you want to live / live your own life / You are accountable for your own happiness” will inspire others to seek better in their own lives. My wife has taken this own board and just (as of 20/04/2021) posted her newest PB for a park run 29 minutes which she largely attributes to my enthusiasm for running and other hobbies motivating her to get out there.

Finding this website as a detour on my life path has inspired me to further mature and pass on whatever wisdom I can.

After almost 2 years and 6 months my Garmin Forerunner 935 seems to have finally clocked its last activity:

What I Need a Sports Watch For
I do a fair bit of outdoor activities (From Jan to March 158 hours) mostly Running (trails 80%, Road 20%), Cycling, Golf and Swimming. I NEED a watch with the ability to track all of these and I WANT one that will also include Music, GooglePay and Triathlon Functionality. It’s also important to consider future goals, I’m considering doing an Ironman (Full or 70.3, tbd), so for this I will need strong battery performance and triathlon sport function is preferred.

Here’s the breakdown in a (simple) table: Garmin Compare March 2021

The Selection Process
seemed difficult at first, but once put in an orderly spreadsheet, it becomes a simple process of elimination.

This simple process put me down to 4 watches (non-greyed lines) which then I had to determine if the additional features of the more expensive watches was worth it. A simple way of doing this is allocating each (useful) feature with a $ value and then using a more comparative price. The additional features (additional to the more basic and cheaper Vivoactives) were – Full Map Functionality, GP accurate, Extra battery life, Triathlon ability and ‘future proofing’. These are very subjective and up to each individual to allocate the $ values. 

An honourable mention to the other major brand – Suunto. A really great watch (Suunto 7), however let down severely in Battery life.

Conclusion
In the end, I went with the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro. It houses everything I need and then some. I’m also wary of the value I gain from having such an important tool to my health, fitness & Goals, so even though I would consider it a significant price tag, it will be a worthwhile investment.