Noosa Training Adventure

Danny, myself and the Crossfit Noosa combi

Last month i took a couple of weeks off work, keen to take a break and get out of town, and very keen to learn something new while i was at it. I was thinking that a course overseas would be awesome but i couldn't find anything appealing on during the time that i had available. I came up with a close second-best option - my buddy Danny has a gym up in Noosa, Queensland where I knew i could get my fix of education and training! I emailed to check if he was going to be there, which he was, and then googled 'jiu-jitsu noosa' - i found an academy literally around the corner from Danny's gym. Crossfit Noosa and Noosa Mixed Martial Arts - the location had been found!

Yoshi Hasegawa - Noosa Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

I arrived on Saturday morning, grabbed my rental race-car, and headed out to Sunset Beach where i had booked a cheap little private room out of the back of a nice young family's home. It took only a couple of hours to acquaint myself with the local area and find a good coffee (Organika Cafe FYI). Sunset beach has an awesome old water-pipe that has been reused as an under-road walkway. Its also awesome for pull ups.

'Suns out guns out'

On day 2 i took a run through the Noosa National Park. I am not a fan of running for a distance longer than 400m, however the only other option was walking and i found that to be a less-appealing option than the run, so running it was. I only ever have the urge to run when i'm travelling, and like i always seem to do when i run, i took off at a motivated pace in my barefoot shoes (New Balance Minimus) mackin' it through the shrubby trails and cliff-top pathways. As always happens when i do that, both of my achilles and calf muscles kicked my ass for the next 8 days (note to self - practice running barefoot, before actually hitting a 5k trail). That aside, the national Park is lovely and the run was quite enjoyable. I arrived at an awesome point called 'Hells Gates' where there is some serious water moving around below the cliffs. I watched a bunch of Pied Cormorants' peering down into the water from the cliff tops, zeroing in on fish. They would dive down into the crashing waves and hang on the surface dodging the craggy rocks before snatching a fish from underneath them. Quite awesome..

BJJ lifestyle rule # 2: you will spend lots of time hanging
out at the laundry while travelling and training BJJ

Day 3, 4 and 5 i followed a pretty consistent schedule. 0900 class at Crossfit Noosa, and then 1830 class at Noosa BJJ. In the middle was plenty of time for eating, swimming, laundry, and catching up on emails. Danny and Woogie at Crossfit Noosa are awesome dudes, and there's a bunch of legends training at their gym. It was good to hang out and catch up with Danny again and pick his brain on all things training. Yoshi over at Noosa BJJ was super cool and very welcoming. He has a team of beasts training in there who were also very open to newcomers. Danny and Woogie were in at the BJJ class on Wednesday so i was able to exact a little revenge on them for having kicked my ass at the gym over the few days prior. A fair deal..

Food wise i found a bunch of good options. Holy Mackerel down at Noosaville had some awesome wild barramundi on hand that i ate a bunch of. Moondoggys Cafe just a few doors down did awesome poached eggs, and then there was a late night post-training trip to a Chinese noodle bar where i got some beef noodles - you wouldn't be missing anything by not eating there, i still enjoyed it however (it ticked some rudimentary macronutrient boxes for me - noodles for carbs and beef for protein). My room had access to a BBQ so i cooked up some organic beef sausages and raw veg on a couple of occasions. Sometimes it can be tough to find decent food options when you arrive in a new town, however i feel it worked out OK.

some kinda food montage

I arrived back in Sydney suitably sore and well recharged after the 5 days. I had gotten what i was after there - some relaxing time to myself, some quality training, and some new tips and tricks for my own training and coaching. Noosa is a lovely town and i definitely found some places and people worth going back for.

Next training adventure - Rarotonga part II!