Fixing my PC

I won't talk about running today, but something close to the heart of all readers no doubt, given that you are all on-line if you are reading this. What do you do when your PC mis-behaves?

I spend a fair bit of time on my computer; a small proportion of it on this blog project; reading, writing and researching; a larger proportion "working" on a whole lot of other projects.

But over the last few weeks, intermittently, at least daily but sometimes more frequently, switching windows and the like causes the monitor display to jump and then blank out and freeze, meaning I have to switch off the PC and give it ten minutes rest before it comes good again.

So far I have tried to fix this by
. switching monitors. No luck.
. changing the screen resolution and the colour quality. No luck.
. changing the hardware acceleration to "none". That's where I am now, but I don't hold up much hope. I am sitting here typing away scared to change windows and waiting for the crash!!!

OK the PC is nearly five years old, I bought it in early 2003, but it fully meets my needs. Except for the need to stay calm.

And my good lady is frustrated too - she is currently researching genealogical websites and using word to summarise her findings - and is even more black and white about these random computer events than I am.

Ah but who cares. No silly computer can determine how I feel.

Happy days


It is nearly five years since I retired. Happy days indeed!

De do do do

Speedygeese results for the CCC Summer Series Race #1
Stromlo Forest Park 5k
27. Richard Faulks M45 19:29
38. Geoff Moore M55 20:27
50. Roger Pilkington M45 21:43
60. Cathy Newman W45 23:14
63. Ewen Thompson M50 23:39
69. Jeni Greenland W30 24:22
71. David Webster M55 24:45
72. Geoff Barker M60 24:58
73. Rae Palmer W60 25:03
74. Neil Boden M55 25:04
81. Mick Charlton M55 26:15
90. Caroline Campbell W65 28:38
94. Thea Zimpel 29:29
105 finishers

Friend-of the-geese Bruce Graham ran fifth in 16.29. Not bad for a 46 year old! I achieved all stated targets, with splits for the two laps of 10.04 and 10:22. It was 33.3 degrees at 6pm, with an unwelcome hot northerly wind to struggle against. After the race was over, a much cooler easterly blew in.

Thursday track program. I will warm up for the 1500m but may wait and run the 3000m (or even the spiral if I feel like a win!). Otherwise I will be there to cheer everyone on. BTW the program has changed at the last minute again, with a 100m race added.

6.00 1000/3000m walk
6.10 100m (new)
6.30 1500m
7.00 60m
7.20 3000m (GM)
7.40 400m (B)
8.00 4x100m Relay
8.10 6 Lap Spiral (A)

Lucky Tesso, went to a police concert.
De do do do, de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do, de da da da
Their innocence will pull me through
De do do do, de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do, de da da da
They're meaningless and all that's true
-Police
Sting, of course, was a champion 200m runner in his youth.

Cool cat

"What's your problem? It's nice and cool inside."

Gross

My favourite cow picture; my favourite Larson cartoon.

We seem to be suffering from gross-time-itis this week.

From the ACT Athletics website:
Mixed 800m Run Veteran (gross times, starts not given)
1, Jeni Greenland, Actvac, 3:26.49. 2, Katie Forestier, Actvac, 3:28.34
Men's 800m results not there at all.

From the ACTVAC handicap results
Rae started off group 24, not group 1, so her time wasn’t 49.12 as I published, but probably 31.07 (I will correct it)

And the ACTCCC jogalong results are still on the database as I reproduced a few days ago. No net times are yet available (but they will be, sometime).

Today is the 5k Summer Series race at Stromlo. Even if 34 degrees as promised, the heat will not deter me from blitzing my two goals, which are
1. Run faster than Ewen did last time
2. Finish further ahead of Ewen than he flogged me by last time.
Ewen, not being a wimp, will of course take up the challenge.

Boy it's quiet around here today.

Monday Monitor
My training progress
last week’s target: 90k
achieved: 96k
year 2008 total to date: 341k in 4 weeks
this week’s target: 80k
weight: 65kg ▼
song of the week: “Death of an Interior Decorator” by Death Cab for Cutie, from “Transatlanticism” - it's in the playlist on the side-bar.
"can you tell me why you have been so sad? "


It's a holiday Monday. Why are you on the computer? It's time you shut it down and got into a good book.

Speedygeese running the Campbell Park 6k handicap
5 Rae Palmer W60 49:12
12 Roger Pilkington M45 26:20
13 Rachelle Ellis-Brownlee W35 29:31
14 Geoff Sims M55 30:39
28 Mick Charlton M55 32:42
33 Kathy Sims W55 30:12
38 Annette Sugden W45 28:44
42 Colin Farlow M45 23:42
53 Richard Faulks M45 24:26
54 Bronwyn Calver W35 29:46
57 Margaret McSpadden W60 35:42
58 Amanda Walker W40 29:17
60 Jeni Greenland W30 31:32
63 Charlie McCormack W40 28:26
77 Peter McDonald M50 30:33
81 Mick Horan M45 26:28
84 Maria O'Reilly W50 28:38
86 Ewen Thompson M50 35:43
92 Cathy Newman W45 28:52
102 Tony Booth M65 33:37
105 Peter Hogan M60 34:59
107 David Webster M55 31:01
(116 finishers)

Campbell Park 3k handicap
12 Geoff Moore M55 12:20
15 Neil Boden M55 13:45
17 Ken White M50 12:11
19 Cathy Montalto W55 15:14
21 Katie Forestier W40 12:32
22 Gary Bowen M50 12:51
(50 finishers)

Plan a day off

Asked what training pattern we should be following here in Canberra, here is my advice.

Current Training Pattern
Mondays Speed / Tempo
Tuesdays Long Steady
Wednesdays Easy
Thursdays Race
Fridays Rest
Saturdays Tempo / Speed (opposite of Monday)
Sundays Easy

The principles followed with this pattern are:
(a) A long day each week is important. Perhaps extend the distance every couple of weeks.
(b) One rest day is a good idea - remember the "Sabbath day" principle.
(c) The longest day should be preceded by a speed day and followed by an easy day; that way, appropriate recoveries occur.
(d) Three demanding days in a row should never be attempted.

Today at the Campbell Park Vets handicap I ran only six seconds slower in the 3k than I did last year. I think my form has returned. This is after a One Hour race on Thursday at the track, and yesterday at Stromlo averaging 3:45 for my kilometre reps. I was joined there this week by Bronwyn, Rachelle, and Kelley. Tomorrow at Parliament house we will meet at 4:30pm and 5:30 pm as always, but for an evening of easy recovery running in preparation for racing at Stromlo Tuesday evening. Given that Monday is a holiday, attendance is optional! (Or, more optional than usual).

I have been following the above pattern for most of my recent training. It is good to plan a day off. But the Friday "day off" comes between an intense Thursday night and a hard Saturday morning. Makes for a short "day". And, a day off can be a jogging day. Or, a jogging day in place of a speed day, as tomorrow will be.

Yes, today's race was an "extra" not in the pattern, but I couldn't resist trying to outrun the other geese. And although I took a gut with me, I did not bust it.

Just another reason for an easy day tomorrow.

Frylink Pointscore winners 2007

...for we are young and free

Happy Australia Day. (Hugs).

Our results from Thursday night track
800m
M45 Mick Horan 2:15.72 84.2%
M45 Rod Lynch 2:28.14 77.1
M60 Kevin Chamberlain 2:31.95 83.7
W35 Bronwyn Calver 3:01.27 63.1
W55 Kathy Sims 2:59.56 76.6

3000m
M45 Roger Pilkington 14:25.33 57.7%
M55 Neil Boden 13:16.84 66.9
W35 Rachelle Ellis-Brownlee 13:25.12 63.2
W40 Amanda Walker 12:58.67 67.4

One Hour
M45 Richard Faulks 14,776 metres
M45 Roger Pilkington 13,600
M55 Geoff Moore 13,874
M60 Geoff Barker 11,518
W30 Jeni Greenland 12,826
W35 Bronwyn Calver 12,137
W60 Margaret McSpadden 10,625

Spread the Word
If you need an ACT uniform, especially if you need one for the AMA Nationals at Blacktown in March, you should contact Rosemary Parker asap to put in your order. Rosemary and Bob will be going on holidays soon and must have the orders in before they go. Speak to Rosemary now!

Jogalong results from 3 January have finally arrived and look like this ... if I get a revised version I will post it.
Emma Adams W35 26:45
Barbara Tucker W55 60:02
Amanda Walker W40 28:43
Cathy Montalto W55 61:45
Bronwyn Calver W35 59:35
Caroline Campbell W65 59:16
Rae Palmer W60 58:58

Thomas Series placegetters.


Vetrunner describes Ewen as "ever consistent"!!!!
Note - those without beards were first and second.

Feeling Free

Highlights of Thursday night track
On a cooler night, Kevin still holds the M55 800m record despite yet another very close attempt by John Lamb to break it, and as has happened before, John missed out by only a few tenths.

Bronwyn ran 3:01 in the 800m, a pb by a couple of seconds.

I ran a steady 13874m for the Hour run: I only ran the Hour because I hadn't run earlier in the day and I needed a longer run. I had no intention of running fast but my pace picked up throughout and I felt great at the end. This is nothing like I have experienced in years!

On the way to running barefoot I am wearing Frees.
These are the 7.0s I bought on Wednesday, with the idea of breaking them in for important road races this year, including the marathon.

These are the 5.0s I am wearing on the grass for my kilometre intervals, and on the track for my Vets races including the Hour run last night.

The 5.0s are so comfortable, and will remain my track racers, but on the grass the plan is to move on to barefoot running sometime soon. The 7.0s look and feel a bit more like "normal" shoes, I hope they are OK!

The One Hour Run

Today's 3000 is an extra GM 3000!

... but that decision has come through far too late for me to race it. Although, I might jog it, or jog the 800, or jog the hour, or ...

2007 Frylink age standard winners


The best old short course people.

Wednesday's Fast Tempo Run
At the weekly 6k BBQ Stakes yesterday I had my first run there this year, and Roger had his fastest run there this year. My time was ~26:30, Roger's ~27:15.

Southy's cat


But animated. Just about my favourite cat picture. Thinks: "Too many geese. I will just wait until one drops off the back of the pack..."

Half Marathon Training Group.
Details of the "Canberra Half Marathon 2008 Novice Training Group" are found here on the Cross Country Club's website.


FOOTNOTES
1. The sprint-marathon relay will be held on February 10. I plan to do a long training run that day with the relay teams. Not quite the whole marathon, but getting up there. Any other takers?

2. The Weston Creek Half Marathon is on 9 March. I plan to run it as a tempo run, say in 1:45. Would anyone like to be paced at about that time (or slower)?

3. The Vets Handicap on Thursday is an 8:30 start! And today's 3k is a GM 3000!

Gift of the Gabble

This Thursday's track program.
Edit: this has now undergone major changes, in red
6.00 1500m walk and 3000m run concurrently
6:15 sprint hurdles
6.25 200m (Daniels) 200m Scratch
6.50 800m
7.10 60m
no relay
7.20 One Hour Run
Edit: I didn't know about the 3000m unfortunately, so I have already run hard today and have a long run scheduled for tomorrow. Too bad, can't do everything.

The February Vetrunner is already available for download. Oh no the Amanda/Colin photo is there, complete with my caption! Not that I mind. Still from Vetrunner, here's one of Maria:

Thomas Age Standard Winners 2007


How do you go about winning one of these age standard awards? Hint - Maria has a birthday this week.

Gift of the Gabble
Do geese gabble? Or is that turkeys? Few runners I know are shy or fail to communicate. I think that's because they don't hide themselves behind the walls and moats of their suburban fortresses, and they don't mind public display and public expression of their personalities. Hence, even when out of breath, rarely do runners fail to gabble on.

Percy Cerutty had the gift of the gabble, he was a passionate communicator. A great quote doing the rounds from Cerutty, which I have copied from here, is “The Use of the Will”.

THE USE OF THE WILL.
I have long said, that the real use of the will is a “starter”. That is, to get us out of bed to train, rather than to conduct our training as if it was necessary to kill ourselves by continuous ill—advised effort.

Whilst I, and none better, recognise the need of serious and hard effort both in training and racing, I also realise that an over use of the will to ever-lastingly drive us along, day after day, year after year, can in time, end in nothing but staleness.

True, we must be conditioned to do certain efforts, almost routine, but the over—use of the will in exhausting and punishing “do or die” efforts is to be depreciated,

Very often, those blessed with a powerful will, a will that has been the means of lifting their efforts from the mediocre to class performance, these are the very people who find difficulty in using their will in the reverse direction, These athletes find the greatest difficulty in forcing themselves to take a rest, a holiday. to “give it away” for a week, a month, or a year.

The worse their performances become, the more they aggravate the trouble by “willing”, and by redoubled efforts strive to succeed despite Nature’s warnings and symptoms.

A reminder - Sunday's Vet's Handicap at Campbell Park starts at 8:30am.

A quick report

Track Results Thursday night
400m
M50 Ken White 64.09 79.4%
M55 Geoff Sims 64.66 81.3
W40 Katie Forestier 74.40 72.0
W55 Maureen Rossiter 77.68 79.9

1500m
M45 Mick Horan 4:42.87 83.6%
M45 Colin Farlow 4:49.24 80.3
M45 Rod Lynch 5:16.68 74.7
M45 Roger Pilkington 5:49.25 68.4
M50 Ewen Thompson 5:51.01 68.7
M55 Geoff Moore 5:24.42 80.3
M55 Geoff Sims 5:58.03 72.7
M55 Neil Boden 6:08.62 69.4
M60 Kevin Chamberlain 5:27.16 80.9
W35 Bronwyn Calver 6:29.53 62.0
W55 Kathy Sims 6:22.10 78.4

Pennington 3000m handicap
3 Rod Lynch M45 10:58 75.2%
6 Katie Forestier W40 12:05 73.7
9 Ken White M50 11:54 72.8
17 Roger Pilkington M45 12:56 64.3
20 Margaret McSpadden W60 15:55 70.6
21 Tony Booth M65 14:55 66.4
22 Rachelle Ellis-Brownlee W35 13:25 63.2
23 Geoff Barker M60 14:40 63.8
24 Bronwyn Calver W35 13:42 62.9

spiral 5
2 Kevin Chamberlain M60 8:28
4 Geoff Barker M60 9:43
6 Kathy Sims W55 9:14
7 Roger Pilkington M45 8:01
8 Ewen Thompson M50 12:22
14 Neil Boden M55 8:58
23 Katie Forestier W40 8:38
24 Bronwyn Calver W35 9:20
25 Margaret McSpadden W60 11:06
29 Tony Booth M65 10:20
32 Rachelle Ellis-Brownlee W35 9:26
34 Mick Horan M45 9:42

Congratulations to top performers, Mick and Kevin.

Monday night turned out cool and breezy for Parliament House training, where a large area was fenced off as preparations were underway for Friday's huge Australia Day Concert. We improvised an anaerobic relay - Five teams of four runners each team with two batons running E-W sprints in a continuous relay across the grass between the flagpoles. So at any given time two runners from each team were sprinting and two were recovering. The first set saw each runner have ten sprints: team membership was "random". The second time I put the fastest runners into a team, the next fastest into the next team and so on; then ran a set which finished when every runner of team coming last had completed ten sprints. Training were Alan, Amanda, Annette, Bronwyn, Cathy, Christine O, Emma, Ewen, Gary, moi, Jodie, Joel, Kathy, Ken, Margaret, Mick C, Mick H, Neil, Rachelle, Tim, Yelena. Next week I plan to have an easy session on Monday, as it is a public holiday, it is the day after many of us race the Campbell Park handicap, and it is the day before the Cross Country Club's first Summer Series race at Stromlo, a very attractive 5k on grass.

Birthdays
Charlie was 43 yesterday. Maria will be 53 Friday. And did you know that one of our friends, Terri Jones, is 70 today? No way does she look 70! What a great advertisement for Veterans Athletics!

Rabbit Explosion

Monday Monitor
My training progress
last week’s target: 80k
achieved: 80k
year 2008 total to date: 245k in 3 weeks
this week’s target: 90k
weight: 66kg ►◄
song of the week: Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, by Radiohead, from In Rainbows. I have added it to my playlist, towards the end of the side-bar.

OK progress, but I am rather surprised at the persistent 66 kilos. I am running consistently so far this year, so I just need to be patient about form and weight.

ACTA Track results from 19 January: Thea ran 5:49.57 in the 1500m. That's a pb. Rain and all. Straight from over-6 to sub-5:50.

Run, Rabbit, Run

These little fellows will be everywhere soon... now that the drought has broken.

A very great goose

“Goose, n. A bird that supplies quills for writing. These, by some occult process of nature, are penetrated and suffused with various degrees of the bird's intellectual energies and emotional character, so that when inked and drawn mechanically across paper by a person called an 'author', there results a very fair and accurate transcript of the fowl's thought and feeling. The difference in geese, as discovered by this ingenious method, is considerable: many are found to have only trivial and insignificant powers, but some are seen to be very great geese indeed.” -Ambrose Bierce

Stretches I actually do #4. A simple quad stretch: lying on stomach, knee on ground pulling the foot back towards the backside using the same-side arm, and doing the contract/relax thing. Or an easier version would be lying on the side and stretching the top leg.

ACTCCC Cross Country Club Summer Series races
Tue 29 Jan STROMLO FOREST PARK 2/5K
Tue 5 Feb WESTON PARK 2/5K
Tue 12 Feb ACTON FERRY TERMINAL 2/5K
Tue 19 Feb LAKE GINNINDERRA 2/7.1K
Tue 26 Feb NORTH CURTIN OVAL 2/5K
Tue 4 Mar MOLONGLO REACH 2/5K
Tue 11 Mar STAGE 88 2/5K
Tue 18 Mar STROMLO FOREST PARK 2/5K
Note - I have taken this information from a new website, so please check details later, I cannot vouch for their accuracy, they differ from previous information. I plan to have a go at the 29 Jan race at Stromlo as it is presumably on the grass where we train on Saturdays. Which means an easier training session the day before. It is possible that the 18 March one isn't on the grass but on the trails or roads: well, that's the rumour I am starting, who knows? But if it doesn't fit my program I will only be racing the January one.

Half Marathon
Sun 9 Mar WESTON CREEK HALF MARATHON
I think I will run this one easy, just to "run in" the shoes I will be wearing (whatever they are) in April's marathon.

I would like to thank Allrounder for telling us her cricket stats (see the Cbox). She is incredibly good. It’s great that she has shared with us her remarkable achievements. I know that people of her calibre don’t like blowing their own trumpet: but some of us in the training group would not have known that she even had a trumpet! A very great goose indeed.

Also on the Cbox

aka "Dorothy Dix". Yes I confess she's me.

Break in the Weather

Four people turned up for our first earlier start at Stromlo today; Katie, Ken, Amanda and I. The grass was damp today, so we ran on the road, and I took a while to get going, running 4.37, 4.16 and 3.48 for the kilometres, but the other three ran as quick or quicker than they have on the grass. Timing was perfect: 7:30 through 9:00 coincided with a break in the weather.

Incentive


A Game: TucogasRoom. Quite good as room escape games go.

Results: I am still waiting to see the Jogalong results from two weeks ago, and Vets track from this week. I will post them asap.

Stretches I actually do #3. Floor hamstring stretch.
Holding on to a belt or towel looped around the ankles:
1. Lying on your back, pull one leg in (knee slightly bent) and contract for ten seconds / relax for ten seconds. Repeat x 2 more times. Then swap legs.
2. Lying on your back, pull one leg in (leg straight this time) and do contract / relaxes again. In the contract step, push the heel upwards and don't let the hips rise off the floor.
3. Another set where you pull the straight leg in and slowly take it to one side of the body while keeping hips on floor. And then to the other side, before swapping legs.
At each contract step you push the leg against the belt or towel. At each relax step you should be able to draw the leg in a little further than the previous contract/relax.

Stromlo on Saturdays
We will keep meeting at 7:30am. Will the twelve people who voted for the earlier start actually turn up next time, I wonder?

Back to cool weather

...and the track
I ran a 1500m last night, surprised myself with ~5:24. It was cool but quite windy. I have decided (a) to have a break from track next week. Don't want to over-do it! (b) I should try more 1500s later on. (c) While it is cool, I will do a few runs longer than planned, starting this Sunday.
The 5:24 is about the same as my 2007 best time. And it has prompted me to add my M50 and M55 pbs to "my running" linked above.

Another beauty from http://www.philbaker.net/:
We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;
But the plural of ox became oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice;
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim.

No wonder I sometimes find writing for you gooses so hard!

I have entered the Shave Your 5K Challenge posed by Half-Fast. Two prizes - one for the most improved time wise, the other percentage-wise, from the beginning to the end of this year. If I improve at all it will be a miracle!

Adelaide High School Cross Country team, 1964.

We were the premier SA team that year, beating all other schools. OK, I am the one on the left. Dave Blewitt (second from left) was the state champion.

Tut tut

PALINDROMES are a daft fad. Most palindromes make little sense anyway. Think I'll go onward, draw no more.

Poll - change of time.
Simple solution. We meet starting this week at 7:30am at Stromlo for our interval session on the grass. If that is too early for you and you want to join in later than that, either as a one-off or on a permanent basis, let me know and I will be happy to stay a bit longer most weeks and do a bit more myself as well. However the main training group will start warming up at 7:30am. That's good for a whole lot of reasons - it gets hot very quickly; there is no shade over the grass; finishing earlier leaves more of the day to do other things; and if it is cool some of us could do a longer warm-up and train a bit later. So yes, I am happy to start at 7:30am and wait around a bit longer if others want to join us a little later. But the advertised time will now be 7:30am.

Britney-proof your kids (by James McPherson)
"In the same month that Sir Edmund Hillary died, Britney Spears was stripped of access to her two children and ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation. Hillary was a bee-keeper who dreamed of taking human endeavor to new heights. Spears was a member of the Mickey Mouse Club who dreamed of taking her career to new heights. Hillary scaled Mt Everest and thereafter dedicated his life to helping the people of Nepal. Spears scaled the music charts and thereafter dedicated her life to LAs Viper Room and other assorted nightclubs. The passing of Hillary would have been noted, if at all, by our young people, with only passing interest. Every time Spears passes out our young people pass comment. Hillary and Spears are icons of very different times. The fact that both happened to make news in the same month affords parents of teens a unique opportunity to compare and contrast Hillary’s climb and descent with Britney’s. The two stories offer valuable lessons about the difference between heroism and celebrity; achievement and fame; community service and self-indulgence."

My world is so distant from the world of these so-called celebrities, that I do not understand why anyone in Australia would take any notice of them. But apparently we do.

Last Millenium

Some of the people I coach find it HILARIOUS when I publish old photos of me. Well here's one. Have a good laugh. Can you tell who's who? It's a trophy presentation after an ACT Cross Country Championship event - must have been a "Pennington 16k" cross country championship, they had them over that distance back then (as well as the "Menzies 12k").

T Shirt

Postcard from Paris

"Lapsed runner" Helen sends her love and is enjoying her two month holiday....
La Tour Eiffel vue depuis Notre-Dame

One thing builds on another
2006 was my year of more consistent longer running weeks. And massages.
2007 was my year of the tempo runs, and of the three steps per second experiment.
2008 I plan to be my year of adding single very long runs to my routine. And regular stretching sessions and classes.
And in 2009 I might resume supplementary morning jogs as well as harder afternoon training. But you can see that, although I believe in twice a day training, I also believe it takes years to build up to it. So I am not starting it yet.

Poll
Tomorrow I will declare the poll result. In other words I will make an announcement about starting time on Saturdays.

Member Services Sub-Committee
One of my hats for the last few years is chair of the ACTVAC Member Services sub-committee. We meet monthly; we met last night. Our main focus for 2008 will be to recruit and retain younger Vets.... i.e. attract people in the 30-40 year range to join our cub and participate in its activities. Why? Because as good and as popular as our club is, we are noticing that the average membership is AGEING and not that many new members are in the younger age groups.

As a start, some of the strategies floated at our meeting were
... younger athletes featured in Vetrunner photos, especially on the front page.
... younger athletes featured on the website, again especially on the welcome page.
... current ("breaking") news updated regularly on the front page of the website
... more use of website communication, e.g. more external links to interesting relevant sites
... use of the word "Masters" to describe us, whether or not our name stays at "Vets"
... word-of-mouth promotion in government departments: identification of key younger people who can recruit others
... a presence in R4YL magazine, which is the premier grass-roots running magazine in Australia
... a free (or $1 admission) Vets Come-and-try-it day, NOT a normal competition day, where all the coaches across all disciplines are present and guide athletes through sample training sessions.

Rachelle E-B has joined our sub-committee and one or two more representatives of the younger set would be of help in our strategising.

Feedback requested
If you have any comments or any additional suggestions about how we market ourselves to younger people, please feed them through to the sub-committee any time. We are... Don, Ruth, Phill, Roger, Rachelle, Peter H and I.

We also believe that once people join the ACTVAC, the services we already offer are second to none. Still, any suggestions as to how we might change what we do so as to cater for younger people would also be welcome.

Please, please join the discussion, wherever you are, however little you might THINK you have to contribute. At stake is the future of our movement.

"Be no drone, nor Don, E-B."

"Gazelle, zag!" "Evil Tim must at summit live!"

The stretches I do #2. Rotation with hip and knee pinned.
1. Start lying on the side – hold knees down or if more flexible hold top knee down on the floor.
2. Reach other arm back behind you and aim to touch the shoulder on the floor.
3. Take a deep breath and relax then return to the start position.
Repeat until back loosens and hold the final position while taking very deep breaths for a minimum of 15 seconds.

Monday night training.
A cooler night meant we ran "zigzag relays" in teams of two. Present were Alan, Amanda, Bronwyn, Bruce (visitor), Christine 1 & 2, Christopher, Emma, Ewen, Gary, Geoff B, Geoff M, Jodie, Joel, Kathy, Katie, Ken, Mick C, Mick H, Neil, Ruth & Tim. Tim was awesomely fast! ("Smitten or in awe, I view an iron ET: Tim's.") OK, this palindrome doesn't make much sense, but Tim has competed in iron men races...

Vets program this Thursday 17th
6.00 pm 1200/2000m walk
6.20 pm 100m Boag
6.35 pm 3000m Pennington
7.00 pm 1500m
7.30 pm 400m
8.00 pm 4x200m relay
8.10 pm Spiral 5

My Track Plan A: Warmup for the 3k then wimp out and run the 1500 instead. Note - I resolve not to over-race this year! One track race is enough for a Thursday. Good news though, Thursday at this stage is forecast to be cool.

And now I am off to do an hour of stretching. It all helps I hope!

Entries being taken for AMA Nationals in Blacktown

Monday Monitor
My training progress
last week’s target: 70k
achieved: 81k
year 2008 total to date: 165k in 2 weeks
this week’s target: 80k
weight: 66kg ►◄
song of the week : You Are My Strength - from "Saviour King" by Hillsong.

AMA Nationals Easter 2008
I am in! I found the AMA nationals entry form at http://www.nswmastersathletics.org.au/, and I found the recommended accommodation at http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/160/en/hd/sydrh. Done!

The entry system is quite good: and on the website you can see a list of competitors. The list is in real-time: my name was there the moment I had registered.

The accommodation is not expensive for Sydney, and I have stayed at that hotel before so I know it is fine. Given the Sydney traffic it is a very big advantage to be staying close to the track. Particularly if you don't want to stay at the track all day every day. As I won't, and I know for sure that Jenny won't!

"Retro Perth Girl Alright" - reporter.
Aki's time in Thursday's 10k was 48:45.22.

It's getting better all the time

My running is getting better - a comfortable 14k run this morning with Colin, at right on 5 minute ks, proves it. 70 minutes total. "Did I? I did."

Speedygeese results from Thursday night track:
60 metres
M45 Rod Lynch 9.38 75.9%

200 metres
M55 Geoff Sims 27.77 85.8%
W35 Emma Adams 31.55 69.8

3000m
M45 Rod Lynch 10:54.18 75.7%
M45 Roger Pilkington 12:22.38 67.2 "Go Rog!"
M50 Ken White 11:32.30 75.1
M55 Geoff Moore 11:49.04 76.5
W35 Emma Adams 11:56.19 72.2
W40 Katie Forestier 12:04.87 73.7
W55 Kathy Sims 13:25.09 79.1

10000m
M45 Mick Horan 42:32.65 69.6%
M45 Roger Pilkington 46:19.82 64.5
M50 Ewen Thompson 45:51.74 65.6
W35 Bronwyn Calver 49:48.14 61.7
W40 Amanda Walker 47:26.59 65.5
W50 Kathy Southgate 39:51.13 87.0

Apparently no results from the 800m, so I can report that Emma ran a "blinder", but I do not know the time.

There are also no sign of last Sunday's jogalong results yet.

Computer Problem
My computer crashes (goes blank and freezes) every time I try to run a movie file, any file, on any movie player. I suspect I have a crook Codec, which I don't know a lot about so I don't know where to find them and if I do I don't know whether I can safely remove some, or if I am going to be able to remove some at all. And I have tried a system restore but get a message "unable to restore". And I have tried searching for help, in user forums and elsewhere, with no success. And I have tried uninstalling recently installed programs but the problem remains. "Help"?

Spin, Ruth? Turnips!

According to the poll just completed, new year resolutions don't drive anyone's running. We are already driven enough as it is! I have already replaced the result with a new poll about when we should meet for training Saturdays at Stromlo.

We ran at Stromlo again this morning. Spin King Mick H was there, along with Ruth back from injury, Ewen, and Amanda. And me feeling good still. My average km time of 3:41 was a new Stromlo pb.

Fly tweetybird fly!

The last game in the submachine series - Submachine: Future Loop foundation

It is not long since I published some very good stretches. This time round I will publish ones I actually do.
Stretch 1. Floor lying rotations with leg extensions.
Start by lying on the floor on your back, shoulders on the floor and arms relaxed out to the side. Bring knees in to chest and slowly roll to side until bottom leg touches floor. Extend top leg until straight and push out through the heel. Only hold the leg extension for a couple of seconds. Repeat several times. Try to keep the shoulders on the floor throughout.

And the 2008 nationals timetable.
The AMA championship program -to be run at Blacktown - is as follows.
Fri 21 March: 60, 800, 10000, Sprint Hurdles, Long Jump, Pole Vault, Shot Put, Javelin
Sat 22 March: 100, 1500, Long Hurdles, Steeples, 5k walk, High Jump, Discus, Hammer, 200 heats
Sun 23 March: 5000, 200 finals, 4 x 100 relay, Triple Jump, Weight Pentathlon, 100m handicap, 400 heats
Mon 24 March: 10k and 20k walks, 8k CC, 400 finals, Pentathlon, Weight Throw, 4 x 400, Throws handicap

The new Garmin 405 doesn't look like a big improvement on the 305. In fact it has fewer features. I won't be replacing my 305.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUCyjfyVigU

No sin, oh Tara, my marathon is ON!

33.9 degrees for 3000m race

Now I won!
Actually it was Amanda who won silver in the ACT 10k championships, second to Kathy Southgate.


And Amanda is 40. Here she is with Gary and other strange people.

Now Derek can kiss ass. I, knackered, won.
Earlier a large field battled extreme conditions - it was officially 33.9 degrees at 6pm when the race started - in the 3000m. (Who is this Derek?) And I won according to my own secret rule: no one older than me was in front of me. Although Graham Bourke (M60) was breathing down my neck at the end. I ran splits of about 3:45, 4:00, 4:00, I couldn't be bothered pushing the last couple of laps this time, it was too darn hot. I had a huge drink just before the race but it didn't help, my mouth was very dry in the first lap. At least this time I ran 90 second laps for the first three not just the first two. And I felt OK leg-wise.

No, we won.

Consistency

“If I had to pick one factor that separates good competitive runners from everyone else, it would be consistency in training." Hence my attempt to plan each week and be accountable to the plan (see Mondays!). In the old days I used to write my weekly plan on a sheet of paper and tape it to the lounge room wall, ticking off each session as I completed it. Nowadays I use a whiteboard in my study, though it becomes tempting to use an eraser to change what's on the whiteboard. Then the focus was purely on conditioning; now there is a focus on form, but conditioning is no less important. Then my paper diary was the permanent record, now all gets on public display in this blog (and is easier to locate years later!). Thinks - I could create some pre-dated posts (they wouldn't get displayed on the front page here) with archival training information taken from the old diaries.... to make sure the records are not lost.

My diaries start in 1962 (from the day in mid-March when I took up running)... Yes, why not? I should post more old photos too. If nothing else, they are good for a laugh. I could do that once my obsession with palindromes and animated gif files is past.

Lad, a smile. Mel, I'm sad. Al, ...

Too Long On The Ground

Ululate – ergo, greet a Lulu!
Friend Lulu has been advised she spends too much time on the ground. That puts me in mind of a new focus – get those feet barely touching the ground! Running on the toes (midfoot actually) and not the heels, with a very quick step, is important. We need ground-o-phobia – we are trying to fly not to plod. The quickest possible touch down and departure is what we are after. OK, the muscles around the ankle and calf need training to do that, but a quick tempo and short stride should help.

Madam, I’m Adam.
Adam Robinson ran Honolulu in 5:14ish - a sore achilles meant a lot of walking after 25k. He now has a suspected stress fracture of the shin, so won't be running for a while.

Thursday track program.
5:45pm 3000m run (GM) and walks
6:15pm Long Hurdles 200m/300m/400m
6:25pm 60m
7:00pm 800m- handicap
7:30pm 200m
8:00pm 10000m ACT Championship
8:20pm Relay 4 x 100m

Any of the Vets can run in the 10000m, opting to pay and enter the ACT open championships as well if they wish. I recommend at least the women runners enter, as the chance of getting a medal in what will be a small field will be high! But our Vets 10k championship will be later in the season.

God - to hobo - hot dog!

Barker runs marathon
Geoff Barker ran 4:18:24 in the Cadbury Marathon. Go dog! (Well, the palindrome of "Barker" would be "Rekrab"!). There is no truth in the rumour that Geoff went to the Cadbury glass-and-a-half marathon expecting it to be 21k, and discovered it was a full marathon too late to pull out.

Report on Monday night training: the first Parliament House session of 2008 saw twenty runners: Alan, Annette, Bronwyn, Carolyne, Cathy, no less than two new Christines, Colin, Ewen, Gary, me, Jodie, Joel, Katie, Kelley, Ken, two Micks, Neil and Yelena run two sets of six 190m sprints with 70m recovery. It was hot but we ran in the shade. There will be more short interval training next week again with short recovery.

Other than this anaerobic work, we are still trying to focus on fast tempo running, and on racing at even pace, i.e. starting at what feels slow, and building up the effort lap by lap to maintain consistent times. When (if!) we get the hang of this, we will switch to ATTACK! mode and see if we can learn surging!

Everyone starts too fast! It's hard to start slowly when no-one else does. But we need to start "slowly" and kill the others off in our races by surging past them, confident that their fast starts mean they will be easier to gobble up.

Oozy zoo

Monday Monitor
My training progress
last week’s target: 80k
achieved: 100k
year 2008 total to date: 84k in 1 week (6 days)
this week’s target: 70k
weight: 66kg ►◄
song of the week: Blackbird – The Beatles

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise, oh
You were only waiting for this moment to arise, oh
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

With a very hot week forecast, moderate distances are called for, hence the modest 70k target.


This morning we are off to the Canberra zoo with the Moore boys.

See you at Parliament House this afternoon, 4:30pm for a jog, 5:30pm for some intervals.

Plan no damn Madonna LP

Thursday's Track times
400 metres
M45 Mick Horan 59.70 81.8%
M45 Colin Farlow 62.46 77.1
M55 Geoff Sims 63.08 83.3

1500 metres
M45 Colin Farlow 4:56.22 78.4%
M45 Mick Horan 4:59.02 79.1
M45 Rod Lynch 5:09.05 76.6
M45 Roger Pilkington 5:30.71 72.2
M50 Gary Bowen 5:33.81 72.2
M50 Ewen Thompson 6:06.10 65.8
M60 Kevin Chamberlain 5:38.79 78.1
W40 Katie Forestier 5:34.70 75.0

1500m Steeplechase
M45 Roger Pilkington 6:16.57
M50 Gary Bowen 6:20.34

3000 metres run
M45 Rod Lynch 11:01.55 74.8%
M55 Geoff Moore 11:39.84 77.5

4 lap spiral
5 Colin Farlow M45 5:57
6 Ken White M50 6:28
8 Kathy Sims W55 7:09
9 Roger Pilkington M45 6:10
11 Katie Forestier W40 6:28
14 Neil Boden M55 7:03
15 Ewen Thompson M50 9:48
17 Geoff Barker M60 8:03
21 Gary Bowen M50 7:11

Moores Use Room

The Moore grandchildren are finally here from Brisbane - playing in our lounge room. They only have a few days before they have to return home. Meanwhile Liana's fifth birthday party out at Queanbeyan is today as well. What presents will she get - Liana, a nail! Hopefully not. Ran a good session at Stromlo this morning averaging 3:50 per km, pleasing when feeling sluggish after Thursday's race. ACTVAC track results from Thursday haven't appeared yet, let's hope they do soon as the age percentages for the 1500m and 3000m will be interesting, and are needed for the 3000m as it is a "Moore series" event. No more time to blog, it's a busy day!

Never odd or even

Last night at track no real stars in the 1500m, it was good to see Kevin returning to the track after injury, he ran a slow 5:36 but started slowly and ran each lap faster than the previous one, finishing at 5 minute pace. A good test of his recovery from injury.

In the 3000m I experimented by wearing my Nike Frees for the first time on the track. They felt really weird; the track surface seemed super soft as if I were running on feathers. My time was another season's best by 11 seconds (11:39) but the splits were strange: 3:47, 4:01. 3:51. Either I switched off in the second km, or my long Tuesday run caused some muscle fatigue, or the Frees affected my pace judgement. Whatever, I will be wearing Frees on the track from now on. It is great to run with no foot discomfort or niggles, even if they lull me into slowing down a bit until I get used to them.

Latest game Submachine 4 - another excellent game in an excellent series.

E.T. saw a sign in Rome: "morning is a waste."

Never a foot too far, even.

O, got to go!

Animated gif files in blogger

Blogger’s standard picture loading process de-animates animated gif files. This has annoyed me for a long time, ever since it stopped working when blogger changed the way they do things. But now I have found there is an easy way to keep the animation.
1. Open Google Documents.
2. Use the "Upload" and "Photos" options with an animated gif file.
3. Use the "Publish" option to save it to the web.
4. Use the "Publish to Blog" option to write it to your blog.
That’s all there is to it!

Son of Fargo
I didn't run yesterday - it was a scheduled day off - but instead went and saw Coen Brothers' "No Country For Old Men". A brilliant movie in many respects, with a very unusual ending at the height of suspense, possibly stopping then because only a couple of the established characters were still alive to keep the film going. Fantastic scenery, great acting, grippingly scary atmosphere. And that's my gruesomely-despatched movie-body-count quota filled for another year.

[Footnote - In February, gained four Academy Awards including best picture. Best supporting actor fully deserved!]

Here and There

Thought for the day - if a tempo run is a faster-than-usual training run, and if you usually do tempo runs, are they still tempo runs?

Don't nod
Tomorrow (Thursday) track program.
From Alice-
"JOINT TRACK & FIELD MEETING THIS THURSDAY 3RD AT 5.45PM
A couple of points that are different this week (and on the 10th also)
NOTE earlier start time.
• We MAY need to wear our club numbers to assist in recording. If you still have the ones from last year please bring them, otherwise we can write you out some more at the gate.
• All our members enter by the lower gate as normal and pay our normal fee (you may need to rejoin if you haven't already - memberships are overdue). You then need to go to the Commonwealth Room (the one where our photo finish people work), entering by the back door please and register for the events you plan to enter, For track you need to register for hurdles and steeples and for field events also, 15 minutes before the event.
• Our volunteers are also required to sign on to the sign-on sheets also in the Commonwealth room, the assigned job is on the sign-on sheet. Volunteers for Thursday are Terry Munro, Maria O'Reilly, Brad Osborn, Bob Parker, Shisei Oya, John Parker, Marlene Reid and Col Robbie (and anyone else who would like to help out on a meet that was so popular last year.)
• Check the program details on the website this week please - I will have copies at the gate for each of you. "

Also note that while Vetrunner says that the 5:45pm event is a walk, the website says it's a combined walk/run, and a "GM 3000m" at that. The email from Alice doesn't detail the program. Possibly because it is under AACT control and could change at the last minute. Here is the track component of the program, from the ACTVAC website:
5:45pm 1500m / 2000m/ 3000m Walk, 3000m Run (GM)
6:00pm Sprint Hurdles
6:20pm 1500m
7:00pm 100 metres- handicap (D)
7:30pm Relay 4 x 100m and 2 x 200m
7:45pm 400 metres
8:10pm 4 Lap Spiral (A)
8:25pm/8:35pm 1500m/2km/3km Low Steeplechase, 2k/3k Steeplechase High Steeplechase. Order of events to be announced by 7:30pm.

So as previously flagged, my plan A is to race the 3000m and then watch/time/assist/possibly pace the 1500m runners. If it is too hot or if the 3000m looks like being a "non-event" I will do the 1500m instead.

Do nod

Go jog

Go lay Barb's bra by a log

Now and Then

Now

Surrounded by good looking women. Or rather, on this occasion, the lucky guy is not I but Dave. Photo by Ruth's camera. At our Christmas function; note the Banana Leaf. s.

Then

Back when we could run a bit. At that time (or later?), ACT Vets Secretary (speedymoi) and President (Bryan). Note that Bryan was an M45. Must have been nigh on twenty years ago. There IS no finish line! It was a 10k; note the Nike spikes. I still have them somewhere.

Declaration of Intent
Established when I ran 29k this morning. Back to the (occasional) long run. I hope.

[Edit]
Sorry, I forgot to include a palindrome. After that dinner photo above, let's say, "Evade no one, Dave".