25 Jun Client Focus – the man who out ran even his own expectations in the North Face 100!
Who are you? David Jones
Who do you work for? Baker & McKenzie, an international law firm.
What do you do for a crust? I eat all the rest of the bread, and voila! Crust. Hmm, perhaps not what you were asking? I’m a partner at my law firm, working in the Structured Assets team. Basically means helping people buy and sell large commercial office buildings and Hotels & Resorts around the World, primarily in the Asia Pacific region. To appease my conscience I also help organise various parts of our Pro Bono program, including a service for low-income terminally ill cancer patients where we help with early access to superannuation, preparing wills and the like.
What do you do with Joe? I do the Sweat & Tears bootcamp in the City with Joe on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and also have a personal training session with him once a week.
How long have you been training with Joe? I started the Sweat & Tears group in a former incarnation around March 2008 when I decided to start training for my first Oxfam walk. Have been with it ever since and Joe took over the group about a year ago.
If you could live anywhere, where would it be? I would need to move Hobart to a spot about 3km south of Noosa, then we’re pretty much perfect.
What are you reading? ?Two books at the moment which I normally hate doing, but one is “Guns, Germs and Steel” by Jared Diamond – basically a summary of the last 13,000 years of human history and an attempt to explain why various races on earth have evolved differently – an incredible book and one that I think everyone should read. However it is pretty serious stuff and I like a bit of escapism with my reading, so I’m alternating chapters of that with “Solar” by Ian McEwan.
What do you watch? With 2 kids we tend to need to plan our watching times, so we are a big fan of TV series which we tape or download (legally of course!) in advance. At the moment we’re working our way through the latest seasons of 24, Lost, Supernatural, Family Guy and Heroes. I’m also a big fan of British Comedy and enjoy repeated episodes of Phoenix Nights, Max & Paddy and League of Gentlemen. Escapism again I guess.
What are you listening to? Anything you have to throw at me! I love variety in my music and have over 18,000 songs on my iPod which I leave on random most of the day at work. Some recent regular plays are Dan Mangan, Spoon, Paul Dempsey, Mumford & Sons, Pink Floyd and Dream Theatre, but next week are just as likely to be 60s jazz and swing plus a bit of Laura Marling!
What’s your vice? Joe is doing his best to cure all of them…but I still enjoy a good red wine and a few glasses of home brew or boutique beer whenever he’s not looking. Music, movies and books are up there as strong vices and he hasn’t weighed in on those yet…
If you could have dinner with anybody, who would it be? My wife and kids. But assuming I’ve had at least a week of continuous dinners with them (which is unfortunately not always the case with my work) I’d be keen for a dinner party hosted by Sophie Dahl, with the Coen Brothers, Chuck Palahniuk (the guy who wrote Fight Club), Diane van Deren and Michael O’Loughlin.
Tell us a secret? While I pretend to not be interested in it, I do actually enjoy watching the occasional episode of Glee.
What is the key to happiness? True friendship, taking joy in other people’s happiness (and being responsible for that happiness wherever you can) and not stressing about the small stuff.
What have been the benefits of training with Joe? Overall sense of wellbeing, better energy levels and generally feeling much better about myself in all aspects of life! I believe this is also assisted by my recent conversion to a daily dose of Frog Spawn (Joe’s famous Chia Seeds).
What is you next goal? I’m aiming to complete my first marathon in September in under 4 hours. Sounds a bit of a strange goal given I’ve just recently done the 100km thing but I think the constant pace over 42km will be as much, if not more of a challenge for me. All going well with that the plan is to do the Six Foot Track Marathon next year, shave a few hours off the North Face time by running that again a few months after that, and I’ve now convinced myself of a long term goal to take part in the 240km Coast to Kosi in about 3 years time. My wife is still accusing me of various forms of mental deficiency…
David Jones at the 50km mark in the recent North Face 100
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