Friday 20 October 2017

Speedygeese training summary

Posted by speedygeoff on Friday, October 20, 2017 with
Sunday 15 October long run report [Dave]: At this morning’s speedygeese long run I was pleasantly surprised to find myself outnumbered 7 to 1 by a group of fit, lovely ladies, including new starters Jinny, Laura and Fiona. Eventually Warrick and Graeme turned up, evening the odds somewhat, and then Mhairi made an entrance, a wee late, posing in a towel disguised as a kilt for some unknown reason (not unusual for Mhairi). 🤔
With another perfect Canberra Spring morning, we headed off from Mawson shops up Athlon Drive to Farrer Ridge and Isaacs Ridge. Jason managed to catch us near the start after slightly missing the meeting point.
After suffering from a sore heel last Sunday, I decided to continue my easy week and just do a short out and back slow run today, and caught up with Ewen on the way back. Ewen decided to run at 8:30 after checking the comfort meter and seeing that it was still sub 10 degrees at 8:00. I also caught the rest of the mob heading back from Wanniassa Hills and snapped a few pics before they went off to do a lap of Mount Taylor.
Narelle, Graeme, Shiree, Bron, Fiona, Jinny and Laura did the full 22k course, while Jen, Mhairi, Ewen, Jason and Warrick finished with around 16k and I [Dave] did 12k.
Meanwhile in Melbourne, Giles did the marathon in a great time of 3:27:15 and Sandeep got a half marathon PB of 1:45:50. Others were doing the “Run With The Wind” at the wind farm, but some of us ran with our own wind (especially after last night’s curry).🤢
I’m told that no one got lost, and my secret surveillance appeared to confirm that when I found them all together later, but stories began to leak during coffee about Narelle going the wrong way around Isaacs Ridge. That opened up a whole gamut of possibilities and I wouldn’t believe of word of any claims of sticking to the course. 😉
Most of today’s fun was had at the extended coffee rendezvous at Fox and Bow. A couple of new records today, with a 2 hour post-run coffee session and a PB for me of 4km per coffee after my third cappuccino. The conversation ebbed and flowed from topics involving Jen's and Narelle’s planned activities next Monday night (that probably should not be mentioned here) to the more usual reminiscing of past events and PBs. We also managed to post a few Facebook likes and Strava kudos/comments on Ewen’s phone while he wasn’t noticing.
Jen and I vowed not to bicker as usual for the rest of the day but soon realised our goals were way too ambitious. It wasn’t made any easier by the fact that Jen was introduced to some new drugs on the run – caffeine strips. 😯 We did manage 5 minutes of peace at one stage and agreed on one thing – Jen has no biceps. 💪 Meanwhile others were enjoying much more interesting and stimulating conversations.
Thanks for the run everyone (what I saw of it) and especially for the conversation (and the free coffee Bron)..Thanks also to Jen for creating today’s route on Strava (or, more accurately, for outsourcing it to Isaac with a $5 bribe).

Monday 16 October at Parliament House it was a warm pleasant evening and we ran 2 sets of continuous relays on the lower flagpole grassy area. Training hard were Jinny (new to intervals), Narelle (new to intervals), Chris (new), Tim (re-visiting from Basel), Isaac, Bronwyn, Warrick, Thomas, Rae, Ruth, Ewen, Sandeep, Brownie, Paul, Colin. I supervised.

Afterwards the speedygeese had a meal at Yarralumla with Isaac, Jen, Richard, Laura, Daniel, Sandeep, Brownie, Ewen, Christopher, Warrick, Thomas, Paul, Mya, Susan, Rae, Ruth, Dave, Colin & me attending.

On Thursday 19 October, meeting at Woden Athletic track, warming up - Brownie, Bronwyn, Ruth, Margaret, Jennie, Ewen, me. The first two proceeded to run a "traffic light" fartlek session: red light = run normal pace; amber = pick it up to tempo effort; green = sprint. The program was 5R 2A 1G 2A 5R 2A 1G 2A 5R (numbers are minutes). The others went for a splish/splash tempo run or race on the all-weather track, after which I rushed home to get dry.

Sunday's run






Photos by Dave.