Caution Cyclists Steep Decent

So reads the large, official sign, just before Coppins Crossing, which I read on Sunday morning as I drove down the decent hill before the crossing. It has been decently steep for decades, and it about time a sign appeared, but they could have spelt it write.

Monday training at Parliament House was another warm, still, dry evening with a good turn-out. Alan, Bronwyn, Ewen, Helen, Margaret, MickC, Miranda, Neil, Rachelle, Ruth, Tim & Yelena took advantage of the last Monday of daylight saving by running three "1k" loops fast, with another loop recovery where the recovery included exercises of their choice at the stations; pushups, dips, chinups, situps. The "1k" is about 930m with a few little twists and turns, and for this week only, running into the sun at one stage.

Neil

Neil will be able to get into some serious training now that the track season is drawing to a close. He has been so busy!

I am going to use a yellow highlight for speedygeese from today on, instead of red text, because this new format uses red text for links.

Song of the week. Evermore - Hey Boys and Girls (Truth of the World pt 2)


This song has taken off and the album is seriously brilliant.

No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

Transformation by Imitation
Teaching people about transformation does absolutely nothing. And telling people to change for the better is usually a waste of time; people know they should exercise, eat well, avoid cigarettes and drugs, live peaceably with one another, and so on; but how many actually do all this? Maybe it's obvious to runners who train together, but the answer could simply be: get alongside someone who is the kind of person you would like to be, who is doing what you would like to do and achieving what you would like to achieve, and imitate them. Mind you, there are some terrible role models in the world of sport, few deserving hero worship. But if you spend your time with a group of people doing it right, you will grow to be like them.

Coming up:
End of daylight saving this Sunday 5 April
Women's and Girls' Fun Run this Sunday 5 April
Dickson training resumes Thursday 23 April
Speedygeese group dinner Monday 4 May

Speedygeese results
CCC 28/3 Winter series race 1 – Rani Road – no speedygeese ran. There were 43 finishers. I for one had no idea how to get to Rani Road from Belconnen and had no intention of finding out and going. The Crows were running rings around the Magpies at the time and I wanted to enjoy the occasion.

There are just two weeks until AMA Nationals in Adelaide. I will be heading off next week, not turning up again until the Canberra Marathon in three weeks time. Adelaide, the best little puissant town in the world. That should be puissant, of course, not pissant

Katie is one of the well-performed speedygeese off to Adelaide for the nationals. Others are Amanda, Rachelle, Ken and myself. I believe Katie, Amanda, Rachelle and Ken fine-tuned by running on the track on Sunday. Between us we could collect a medal or two in Adelaide.

Tale of two viewpoints

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I ran only 16:29 for today's 4k race. Two runners were quicker than me; Ken Gordon won gold in the short handicap with a 16:26, and Bill Taylor an M30 also ran 16.26 off the same mark as Ken (two start groups in front of me).

On the other hand my age percentage was a meritable 83.2%.

I keep on oscillating between "I am running pretty badly" through to "I am running OK for my age" (with "and I can expect to keep on getting slower", which doesn't help.).

One indicator of my "progress" is how much training I have been able to do. With a quarter of the year already gone, here are some first-quarter comparisons.
2006 1099k
2007 1343k
2008 1158k
2009 935k

I have not been feeling too good this year, and it shows in my training. All is expected to improve after Easter! To keep myself motivated, I am trying to focus on improving that age percentage.

Here are the speedygeese times today:  
Stromlo 4k
23 Geoff Moore M60 16:29 83.2%
26 Neil Boden M55 18:45 71.9%
32 Cathy Montalto W55 20:03 76.8%
53 Gary Bowen M50 22:02 58.3%
54 finishers

Stromlo 8k
16 Ruth Baussmann W55 44:14 72.0%
24 Mick Charlton M55 41:55 65.3%
26 Alan Duus M60 39:48 71.6%
29 Yili Zhu M45 37:39 66.3%
31 Christopher Lang M55 41:19 66.9%
37 Roger Pilkington M50 35:08 72.8%
42 David Baussmann M55 38:54 71.1%
44 Miranda Rawlinson W55 43:16 71.2%
48 Rod Lynch M45 31:04 81.8%
61 Bronwyn Calver W35 38:57 67.5%
62 Margaret McSpadden W60 50:33 66.2%
96 Adam Robinson M35 47:38 47.8%
99 finishers

And now for something completely different ... everything you love about coffee..

...good to the last drop.

Or for Ewen, "goof to the last drop". (This is an in joke. LL understands.)

The Eagle has landed

Eagle sneaking up on lame goose.



These are the two photos Jim White took late in the 2008 Canberra Marathon eleven months ago. Eagle is catching me. I should add that every runner you can see behind me ended up ahead of me. Not just Eagle, also the guy stretching, apparently out of it. I am not going through that much marathon pain ever again!

Thursday night speedygeese results (all hand timed)
400m
W35 Rachelle Ellis-Brownlee 71.1 70.6%

3000m
M45 Rod Lynch 10:47 77.1%
M50 Roger Pilkington 12:52 65.2%
W35 Bronwyn Calver 12:59 66.9%

One Hour Run
M50 Roger Pilkington 13343
W35 Bronwyn Calver 12672
M50 Ewen Thompson 11736
W55 Ruth Baussmann 10852
W60 Margaret McSpadden 10067

1500m “Pennington”
5 Tony Booth M70 5:57 79.8%
6 Kevin Chamberlain M60 5:25 82.1%
8 Kathy Sims W55 6:00 84.3%
9 Rod Lynch M45 5:03 78.8%
12 Ken White M55 5:30 76.3%
14 Katie Forestier W40 5:29 77.2%
15 Amanda Walker W40 5:36 73.9%
17 Rachelle Ellis-Brownlee W35 6:00 66.1%

oh look, an eagle

you have to be able to run fast, too, to do this...



relaxation re-post
Regardless of running style, all running effort should be free flowing; instinctive; relaxed; emerging from within; bubbling forth; an expression of oneself; easy. It should look easy. Liquid running is the best running. Often when one runs one’s best time, the performance looks the most effortless, not full of the tension or strain a non-runner might expect to see when a runner is at their fastest.

Relaxation is one of the keys to this effortless way of running. By relaxation I do not mean a passive, inward looking, tuned-out escapist kind of running (dissociation); I mean a conscious, aware, intentional focusing of the mind on muscle relaxation (association).

In what running events is relaxation most important? Answer - all of them. From 100 meters to marathon, the ability to relax is the key to success.

Relaxation starts in the neck and throat. A truly relaxed runner makes noises as they exhale, like a tennis player hitting a ball, or like a shot putter at the moment of release. Exhalation is the exertion phase of the running rhythm. As you exhale, you surge forward, you can hear how relaxed you are by how relaxed your throat is. As you inhale, you might ease off the surge a little; your neck is still relaxed and you may make some noise but not as much as when exhaling.

Come on, no need to be self conscious. You have overcome your worry about how you look by going out and running regardless; you can overcome how you sound as well.

Breathing out forcefully as you exert maximum effort will always result in noise if the throat is relaxed, as it should be. By the way, you breathe in and out through both the nose and mouth, never “in through the nose, out through the mouth”.

Tension in the throat spreads to shoulders, arms, the whole torso. Relaxation in the throat relaxes the body and results in better movement of the body.

As you breathe out the body lowers slightly, the arms lower slightly. As you inhale there is a slight rise in body position and the arms rise slightly too. This natural rhythm of the body is compromised if the neck, arms and shoulders are tense.

A free flowing natural rhythmical running style should be your aim. What comes naturally is the best. But you and I have been trained and conditioned from a very young age to run tense: to stick out the chest; to pin the head still; to lock the elbows into a high bent position; to run mechanically and breathe shallowly. All that must change! I will come to these things in later articles. But it all starts with the throat.

When neck, arms and shoulders are as relaxed as possible, then full and vigorous driving from the arms is possible. Legs follow arms; power, drive, and relaxation all flow from the arms to the legs. What the arms dictate the legs copy. Your legs will move with free flowing and powerful rhythms of surging and coasting only if the arms set the pattern for that. And the arms will move freely in that way only if there is conscious active relaxation starting at the throat.

...more at "links", above. But I would add now, that as you get older you need regular stretching and massage so that you can loosen up enough to relax!

Mastering our sport

The Member Services SubCommittee (MSSC) encourages all club members to attend the Annual General Meeting on 19 May.
How we proceed with the proposed transition to “Masters” will be debated.
Your participation in the meeting, and your vote, will be important.

NOTICE OF MOTION
"The Committee gives notice that the following motion is on the agenda for the AGM on 19 May 2009: That, in accordance with s34 of the Club’s constitution, this general meeting amends the constitution so that “club” means the ‘ACT Masters Athletics Incorporated’, and ‘Masters’ replaces ‘Veteran’ or ‘Veterans’ where they occur."

AGM DATE: Tuesday 19 May 2009
VENUE: Southern Cross Club Wests, Catchpole Street, Macquarie
START: 7:30 pm

Club President, and member of the speedygeese, Christopher Lang

Transitioning to The Great And Better World Of Tomorrow
A few little hiccups with the new blog design? (WHICH DOESN'T MEAN THE OLD ONE WAS BETTER!) The date might sometimes not display, and when it does it only does for the first post each day, if there is more than one post for the day. And I might replace the "J" icon. And I should add useful categories to posts now that I have decided to use categories again. Adding code for an rss feed link will be done when I get around to it. Fixing the "links" section from the menu bar. Improving the appearance of the sidebar, Resetting the "archives" section to something different, looking at how I link with google reader to other blogs. And anything else I can think of or which you might suggest that I can do to make this blog better if and when I feel like it. You can see there are a few outstanding issues, but they can wait.

The Great And Better World Of Tomorrow

song of the week: "Between The Lines" - Evermore, from their brand new album, "Truth Of The World (Welcome To The Show)". For those who don't remember Evermore, think "Light Surrounding You". This album is just as good, if not better because it is big picture stuff about sorting out truth from lies. Today's title is a quote.

marketing
1. I will freshen up this template very soon. Perhaps today, testing is nearly complete, only a couple of bugs still to fix.
So once finished, welcome to the new look, I hope you like it! Red white and black, a nice change.
2. I will get some "business cards" run off professionally sometime very soon.
3. I will resume research into a speedygeese T-shirt sometime soon.
4. I will add to this list very soon! How else can the speedygeese be promoted? Should our "image" be improved? I prefer truth to lies. Usually, buuuuut, see below.

this won't be the t-shirt design:

... the t-shirt won't have Ken's photo on it. But the t-shirt might be worn by this model, we can only hope.

viva indifference

Monday's training saw Alan, Bronwyn, Cathy, Ewen, Helen, Jodie, Joel, Mick C, Miranda, Neil, Rae, Ruth, Suzie, Tim, Yelena, Yili, with me supervising, run a 20 minute relay in teams of two which included a smaller lap recovery jog where runners couldn't "hang around" or they wouldn't get back in time. A very hard session. Some uphill attrition sprints after the relay, this time Tim was again the quickest but Joel just held him out on handicap in the final sprint.

Been thinking about how we promote the group and whether to do a bit more work marketing it. But no, I dislike mis-representation, which is what most marketing does, or would do if it needed to. And I tire of biased sports reporting in our media, particularly of the type "we are the best"/"we were hard done by"/"we deserved to win" which has its us/them mentality and under-rates the efforts of the "them". So I will continue simply to hold out for public scrutiny who we are and what we do, and people can choose whatever. We're free, but!

And I will freshen up this template some day soon. And I will get some "business cards" run off professionally. Can you think of any other simple things you and I can do to "improve our image"? (Short of plastic surgery, although in my case that is probably a very good idea.) But it's not super-important to me, whatever will be will be.

On Marketing:
"An interoffice softball game was held every year between the marketing and support staff of one company. The support staff whipped the marketing department soundly.
"To show just how the marketing department earns their keep, they posted this memo on the bulletin board after the game: 'The Marketing Department is pleased to announce that for this year's softball season, we came in 2nd place, having lost but one game all year. The Support Department, however, had a rather dismal season, as they won only one game.'"

Peter

After all, we are all stars. No proof required.

distance makes the heart grow stronger

Coming up: Monday

4:30pm jog at Parliament House

5:30pm speed work at Parliament House

Tuesday

6:15pm Summer Series #8 - Stromlo FP 5k

Wednesday

an easy run?

Thursday
Revised program for this Thursday at the track:

6.00pm 3000m

6.20pm 60m

6.30pm 1000/3000m walk

6.55pm 100m

7.10pm 1500m

7.30pm 400m

7.45pm One Hour Run

Friday

a long easy run?

Saturday

a long easy run?

Sunday

9:00am ACTMA Handicap, Stromlo FP

... but speedwork is GOOOOD too!

Jodie looking forward to getting faster this winter

running for office

And winning.
Congratulations to Anna Bligh winning the Queensland state elections yesterday, she is the first woman to win an Australian state election. And she succeeded in keeping the other mob out, decisively, against some expectations. Hurrah!

Anna has been a member of the Pat Carroll Running Group (PCRG) in Brisbane for the last four or five years. So she is well known to, and has run with, Kelley and Tesso amongst other good friends.

Spiral 7

This event is unique - handicapped so that the fastest runners start last, and each person moves out one lane on each lap. The photo is a good one because it shows three runners each in their own lane, where in theory the inside runners are un-lapping the ones outside them. Makes for an exciting finish. On this occasion though, Gary on the inside was struggling a bit to keep up with Nadine, one lap ahead of him.

Crows 2009
Competition of another kind begins next weekend with the start of the AFL season.  Go the Crows! In fact, GO Nick Gill, Brad Moran, Brent Reilly, Kurt Tippett, Scott Thompson, Jonathon Griffin, Nathan van Berlo, Myke Cook, Tyson Edwards, Jarrhan Jacky, Michael Doughty, Robert Shirley, Taylor Walker, David Mackay, Brad Symes, Phil Davis, Bernie Vince, Graham Johncock, Ivan Maric, Chris Knights, Andy Otten, Andrew McLeod, Brett Burton, Ben Rutten, Richard Douglas, Scott Stevens, Aaron Kite, James Sellar, Tom Lee, Rory Sloane, Patrick Dangerfield, Jared Petrenko, Greg Gallman, Shaun McKernan, Simon Goodwin (captain), Trent Hentschel, Tony Armstrong, Will Young, Jason Porplyzia, and Nathan Bock.

It all starts with Crows v the hated Collingwood, at the MCG, on Saturday afternoon 28 March. Live on Fox Sports. I will be watching and hoping for an excellent start to the season.

Not quite there yet

Thursday night results for the speedygeese
800m
M45 Rod Lynch 2:25.58 79.2%
M50 Ken White 2:27.70 79.4?
W40 Amanda Walker 2:40.20 73.4%
W40 Katie Forestier 2:41.55 74.0%
M70 Tony Booth 2:50.46 81.3%
W55 Kathy Sims 2:53.22 80.5%

3000m
M45 Rod Lynch 10:50.76 76.7%
W40 Katie Forestier 11:58.42 75.2%
M55 Ken White 13:02.05 67.0%
W45 Helen Larmour 13:04.98 74.0%
W40 Amanda Walker 13:07.32 67.3%
W55 Kathy Sims 13:23.07 80.4%
M70 Tony Booth 13:50.08 72.4%
W55 Ruth Baussmann 15:23.68 70.9%

Spiral 7
M45 Rod Lynch 11:15
M50 Gary Bowen 12:48
W55 Ruth Baussmann 15:17

So Tony has achieved his season's goal of an 800m record, in his last 800m. The rest of us are not (quite) there yet. 

DVDs I have seen
I just watched "Mr Bean's Holiday" for the first time. Yes, it is very funny! He finally got there, his holiday destination, at the very end.

Books I am reading
I am re-reading "Good Omens" by Pratchett & Gaiman, also "A Gift From Earth" and "Neutron Star", both by Larry Niven. Armageddon? We didn't quite get there.

Also, I was dipping into "Lore of Running" (the Bible of running in the 21st century), fourth edition, by Tim Noakes, and after reading a segment on Ron Clarke, saw a reference to “Lenton”. So I checked the reference list, and sure enough, it’s our own Brian. See http://www.humankinetics.com/references/Noakes.pdf for the reference list, search on “Lenton”! There are a few references there.

One Hour Run
The rescheduled one hour run is set for this Thursday. There will still be a 3000m at the start of the program, and the one hour at the end.

4 x 1500m relay
There is likely to be a 4 x 1500m relay the following Thursday, the last night of track. Talk is it will be last event when a 3000m was scheduled, and it will be combined with a 2 x 3000m relay option instead of just a 3000m. If so, it looks like a good fun way to finish off the track season.

The start of Tony's 800m

Tony Booth, lane six, getting off to a good start. Former M70 record holder Merv Collins is in lane 7. Merv broke his own M80 record. Race winner Amanda Walker is in lane 1 and runner-up Katie is in lane 5. They both ran pbs. Kathy in lane 2 is rapidly improving and ran a fast time again.

Tony straight after his record breaking run

An elated Tony talking to Geoff and Kathy. Geoff himself is on the verge of breaking the M60 800m record, having just missed it in his most recent race.

Teamwork AND rivalry

Thursday night track
Amanda and Katie continued their teamwork/rivalry in the 800m again last night, with both W40s running pbs. We were certain Amanda had broken 2:40 but the time given her was 2:40.20, with Katie just behind that. Amanda led aggressively from the start, with a first lap of around 77 seconds or faster.

Meanwhile Tony Booth broke the ACT M70 record, held before then by Merv Collins, and Merv in the same race as Amanda, Katie and Tony, set a new M80 record.

Perfect conditions later in the evening saw Katie back up, as she does so well, and run 11:58 for the 3000m.

Amanda

Amanda will have another chance to break 2:40 in the AMA Nationals in Adelaide at Easter.

What is the secret to successful 800m running?
Here it is - very simple really - race as many 800m races as you can through the season. It is the experience of racing them that improves you more than anything else. Another tip - don't bust a gut in the first few races. Instead, work up to fast times through the season. And another - think like a sprinter, in training, in approach to racing, in stretching, in warm-up, and especially in attacking the last 200m of the race. And yet another - if you really want to do well in 800m, be prepared to specialise in that event.

And it is good to train with others who also race 800s. You invariably improve together at the same rate!

I think having those 4x800m relay records to attack has helped as well.

Finally, finally, finally; is there the aspect of being able to enjoy the pain of the 800m? It is something special, that pain. Not for the faint-hearted.

Twenty Years Ago Today

... well not today, and not twenty years either. I was playing some old Beatles songs - by no means the oldest - and noticed the date ...Strawberry Fields Forever, and Penny Lane, recorded with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1966, that's 43 years ago!

Are we there yet?
...  I will never ask that question again. We are already 43 years past the best of it!

song of the week
... which made me want to go back to some old songs for my song of the week. With "No Line on the Horizon" on repeat in my playlist, I thought an old U2 song would be appropriate. U2 have always excelled.

With Or Without You.
... and if you don't have U2's "Live in Boston" DVD, you should! The best track on the DVD is an amazing rendition of "With or Without You", my song of the week this week. What a great live version, a must see!



Twenty-two.
"With or Without You" was first recorded in 1987 on the "Joshua Tree" album, still rated amongst the best albums ever.
... but that's 22 years ago!

Summer Series #7 – Lake Ginninderra 7.1k – Tuesday 17 March
35. Thea Zimpel 32:39
52. Adam Robinson 36:28
56. Caroline Campbell W65 40:06
62. Margaret McSpadden W60 42:00
63. Geoff Moore M60 42:02
66 finishers

See How She Runs

After a huge St Patrick's day breakfast, followed by a race up Mt Ainslie at lunch time, Caroline still ran really well in the 7.1k race later on the same day. Not too bad for someone born 67 years ago!

That's me in six year's time. Time will fly and so will I. Running on Athletic Fields Forever.

Lloydy! Lloydy!

YouTube now has the video of the great 5000m race in full, with the original commentary. Not that the NZ commentator has anything to say, but Monner's "Lloydy! Lloydy!" in the background is a classic. At least three of the runners - Ngugi, Pat Carroll, and Andrew Lloyd himself, were Canberra based. Maybe Ondeiki was here at some stage too. I remember when I saw this race live I was cheering for Ngugi, that is, until the finish!

Part 1


Part 2


Vale Ian Mackenzie
ACT Cross Country Club runner Ian Mackenzie collapsed and died while on a run with the "Tuesday Group" yesterday morning. Ian was about 59 years old and has been part of the running scene, both track and distance running, for many many years.

sometimes I wonder if I should dismount

21 Corporate Things to Do With a Dead Horse: "Tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. In business, however, it seems that we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following":
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Saying things like "This is the way we always have ridden this horse."
4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
5. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
6. Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.
7. Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
8. Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
9. Comparing the state of dead horses in today's environment.
10. Change the requirements declaring that "This horse is not dead."
11. Hire contractors to ride the dead horse.
12. Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
13. Declaring that "No horse is too dead to beat."
14. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
15. Do a Cost Analysis Study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
16. Purchase a product to make dead horses run faster.
17. Declare the horse is "better, faster and cheaper" dead.
18. Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
19. Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
20. Say this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
21. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.
- found at http://www.runningforums.com/. But I think they in turn stole it from http://blog.peoplecomm.org/article/riding-a-death-horse

Monday training saw a few people away and busy with a variety of activities; recovering from 6 foot track, returning from the Coldplay concert, busy at the cricket, away on a holiday, or perhaps just "resting"; but we who were here participated in a really great new session; twenty minutes of relays on a new course which proved to be so good we will repeat the session, or similar, again next week. Make the most of daylight saving! Join us! You will really enjoy it!
Present were Alan, Caroline, Christopher, me, Joel, Neil, Rae, Rohan, Yelena & Yili.
After the relay we ran some attrition hill sprints: the last three standing placed 1. Joel, 2. Rohan, and 3. Christopher.

Watching runners from my office

CJ - wishing you a quick recovery from the six foot track; next run, Canberra marathon!

Entries for the Canberra Marathon close this Friday! Anyone who hasn't yet entered (and wants to, of course!) should enter now at http://www.canberramarathon.com.au/

AACT track is finished but ACTMA track is still going.

Plans: I don't really want to run fast this week, but I do want to get the target distance under my belt. Last week I only did half of what I wanted to do, Thursday's 5000m was not all that good so there was little point in easing back, and I didn't train at Stromlo due to tiredness/laziness. This week I will try for 90 - 100k and try to do every planned session. Here is my schedule:
Monday 16 March - 4:30pm easy run at Parliament House, 5:30pm normal training at Parliament House.
Tuesday 17 - easy run. There is a Summer Series race at 6:15pm at Lake Ginninderra, I may be there.
Wednesday 18 - another easy run.
Thursday 19 - I will probably run in the 5000m race at ACTMA track.
Friday 20 - gym work followed by a long run.
Saturday 21 - 9:00am 200m intervals at Stromlo.
Sunday 22 - 8:00am long run at Stromlo.

Finding form

20 Feb 800m championships - 2:50.1
14 March 800m 2:48.6
14 March 3000m ~12:39, an 8 second pb

Coming ACTMA track events:
Thursday 19 March
6:00pm spiral 7
6:30pm long hurdles
6:45pm 1500m walk
7:00pm 100m
7:15pm 800m
7:30pm 200m Daniels handicap
7:50pm 3000m/5000m
Thursday 26 March will be the rescheduled one hour run. Let's hope storms hit us again!
Thursday 2 April, the final competition night, instead of a 3000m there will be a 4x1500m relay combined with a 2x3000m relay.

More famous runners

Rachelle, Roger, Helen, Maria

six foot track results

.... the ones of interest, that is. What a run by Vanessa to be first woman!!
1 Sleep TRAIN 3:15:18
2 Andrew LEE 3:23:51
3 Alex MATTHEWS 3:24:46
4 Don WALLACE 3:27:05
5 Matthew ROBBIE 3:31:36
6 Tim COCHRANE 3:33:01
7 Anthony SCOTT 3:39:47
8 David OSMOND 3:40:06
9 Tony FATTORINI 3:41:00
10 Andrew TUCKEY 3:42:14
11 David HOSKING 3:47:11
12 Martin FRYER 3:47:35
 
22 Vanessa HAVERD 3:57:51
24 Rob WALTER 3:59:48
25 Trevor JACOBS 4:00:40
28 Jackie FAIRWEATHER 4:02:27
47 Peter JOHNSON 4:12:42
49 Fleur FLANERY 4:13:27
52 James MINTO 4:16:50
57 Andy HOGG 4:19:20
95 Andrew LLOYD 4:38:37
151 Elizabeth BENNETT 4:51:16
155 Kerrie BREMNER 4:52:27
211 Carol BAIRD 5:01:59
248 Pam MUSTON 5:08:58
250 Steven APPLEBY 5:09:39
314 Michael CORLIS 5:21:20
316 Elle KNIGHT 5:21:49
345 Roger PILKINGTON 5:25:41
424 Cathy NEWMAN 5:37:49
596 John KENNEDY 6:05:45
614 Catherine MONTALTO 6:08:04
685 Ewen THOMPSON 6:23:23
745 Nick MESHER 6:37:54
773 Diana SCHNEIDER 6:45:22
dns Maryann BUSTEED

I included Andrew Lloyd because as far as I am concerned, he is the biggest running legend of all time. It would have to be the same Andrew Lloyd; the age group is 50+ which is right. I posted about him this year on 10 January, here. The video of the 5000m race in which he excelled is below. Or at least, the last 200m of that race. Worth watching again and again. EDIT: Since typing this I have removed the video from this post because the real thing is to be published on Wednesday 18 March....i.e., the full race with the original commentary

Six foot track results via http://multisportaustralia.racetectiming.com/default.aspx.

six foot this morning

Geoff Barker has done brilliantly in previous six foot track runs but doesn't appear to have made the cut this year...

Pity - the pink shorts will be missed.

Those who are running - and it starts around 8am today - include the evergreen Trevor Jacobs who is a legend in this particular run. Others we will be watching include Vanessa Haverd, Jackie Fairweather, Elle Knight, Rob Walter, Elizabeth Bennett, Steve Appleby, John Kennedy, Pam Muston, Mick Corlis, Kerrie Bremner, Carol Baird, Mary Ann Busteed, and Martin Fryer. And of course the speedygeese who are running: Ewen Thompson, Cathy Newman, Roger Pilkington, and Cathy Montalto.

Meanwhile back in Geelong:

The start of the M60+ 8k cross country

4k into the cross country, and
The finish of the cross country (I was second)

The cross country M60 medallists
The start of the 5000m track (I led briefly)
The 5000m track medallists (I was second)

The finish of the 5000m track (lapping another runner)

I am only five foot six

But good luck anyway to all those going to the six foot track. I hope you all do really well. It shouldn't be hot this year, but do take care if it is slippery in the wet.

Here are the speedygeese results from last night's 5000m race.
M50 Roger Pilkington 19:47.89 72.9%
W40 Katie Forestier 20:07.57 76.5%
M60 Geoff Moore 20:23.97 76.9%
M60 Kevin Chamberlain 22:04.72 72.3%
W40 Amanda Walker 22:09.59 68.2%
W35 Bronwyn Calver 22:12.13 67.1%
W55 Kathy Sims 22:37.33 81.1%
W35 Rachelle Ellis-Brownlee 22:39.68 64.6%
M70 Tony Booth 23:53.87 72.1%
These were on the website last night. I am very impressed!

The stand-out run was probably Kathy Sims, who struck form last week with an excellent 1500m run in Perth, and has followed that up with another excellent run here in the 5k. Katie's run was impressive, especially her first few laps which were an outright sprint; it is her quickest time at [Canberra's] altitude. Bronwyn ran a pb and is looking good as first reserve in the next W35 4x1500m relay record attempt. Roger improves dramatically every run, very dramatically in this one. Kevin & I picked up M60 silver and gold respectively when the M60 leader, whom I was not going to catch, detoured to the toilets halfway through the race and ended up third. LOL!

I ran a minute slower than I did in the same race last year. But 60 seconds in 12 months for 12.5 laps is only 0.01 seconds per lap per day. So I haven't slowed down that much really.

Kathy Sims

Roger Pilkington

Everything is glocal

"The fundamental interconnectedness of all things" (Douglas Adams).
According to Bob Roberts Jr, writing in "Glocalization", nothing local is purely local and nothing global is purely global. Glocal means everything is becoming decentralised. Glocalisation puts everyone centre stage. Decentralisation means every person in every domain of society connects with domains and people glocally. It’s about globalisation. People have become global beings. It’s way over there and here at the same time. That is why it’s glocal.

In a goldfish bowl with our heads in the sand
Masters Athletics is glocal. We are in a goldfish bowl. We could swim around and around in circles looking only at each other and pretend it is only local and not realise that the whole world can look in and see us. Or we could look up and out at the larger reality. Masters sport has been decentralised across the globe and we need to be part of it. To think only locally is a huge mistake. To cater only for our existing club members' needs and not see the bigger picture is death. We need to open our eyes and come alive and enter the brave new world of Masters Sport.

So bring it on. The important thing is that we (the ACTVAC) become known as "Masters". We are nearly there, just three more steps: change our website, our uniform, and our banner! Then unless I have forgotten something, everything in the public arena will be fixed.

We are on view

Rod Lynch

Source of photo effects
http://photofunia.com/

what I am reading
This week, several books
Glocalization, by Bob Roberts Jr
All the Myriad Ways, by Larry Niven
Convergent Series, by Larry Niven
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams

shattered glass

Miranda

DVDs I am watching: 'allo 'allo series 9. Only four more episodes to go and I find out how it all ends!

Track this Thursday: 5k championship at 7:40pm

Women’s 6k Jogalong 1 March (at Stromlo Forest Park)
112. Thea Zimpel 27:36
114. Miranda Rawlinson W55 33:09
134. Helen Larmour W45 28:07
143. Cathy Montalto W55 32:09
162. Yelena Pearson 36:19
178 finishers

Summer Series 10 March - Acton Ferry Terminal 5k
27. Thea Zimpel 21:58
34. Yili Zhu M45 22:46
45. Neil Boden M55 24:46
52. Rae Palmer W60 25:34
53. Cathy Montalto W55 25:40
54. Roger Pilkington M50
57. Ruth Baussmann W55
69 finishers

song of the week: "White as Snow", from "No line on the Horizon", by U2:

Fair's fair

• "If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed" – Mark Twain.
(I hope Friar doesn't mind me using quotes)
(Mark Twain had nothing to say about those who read blogs)

Some recent race results
• Weston Park 5k 3 March
39. Thea Zimpel 21:36
41. Yili Zhu M45 22:13
54. Roger Pilkington M50 23:47
55. Neil Boden M55 23:50
63. Mick Charlton M55 24:33
71. Cathy Montalto W55 26:05
91. Margaret McSpadden W60 29:14
94 finishers

• Weston Creek Half Marathon 8 March
60 Geoff Moore 1:34:33 M60
63 RUN FATBOY RUN 1:35:46 first relay team
(FMF Amanda Walker, Ken White, Katie Forestier)
67 Michelle Wells 1:37:23 W35
98 Mick Horan 1:41:39 M45
119 Bronwyn Calver 1:44:05 W35
123 Roger Pilkington 1:44:25 M50
134 Kelley Flood 1:45:36 W45
163 Rae Palmer 1:49:58 W60
172 Alan Duus 1:51:29 M60
212 Ruth Baussmann 2:00:17 W55
267 finishers (individuals + teams)

Fair's fair - having given Apple a serve a couple of days ago, I thought I had better redress the balance. I would be blind, deaf and dumb if I thought Microsoft products were perfect. Although my chief difficulty is with a Symantec product, Norton 2009.

I have an HP-Pavilion desktop with an Intel Pentium processor running Vista, with Outlook 2007 for emails etc and Norton Antivirus 2009 for security. I have Internet Explorer 7 but prefer not to use it, my main internet browser is Opera.

As an aside, while Opera is a nice Browser it doesn't have all the functionality I need, and sometimes I have to use IE7. The Opera deficiencies include -
(1) select all and copy doesn't pick up pictures, links, tables: just text. Affects me when I want to email my blog contents, or want to copy a link, etc.
(2) there is no option to open html in word for editing. Affects me when I want to update ACTVAC news.
(3) copying spreadsheets removes some blank lines. Affects me when I load results to the ACTVAC database
(4) "not secure enough" for Symantec to do a subscription renewal. Which is probably just a bit of missing Symantec functionality.

However I find Opera superior in a few areas, which is why I use it.
For example
(1) backing up my blog
(2) speed dial

I want to sleep
Now to the pain. My wife and I both use this PC. Recently it failed to start up and continued to do so about 25% of the time. Recovery takes half an hour and involves a tricky restore/repair process. and then, once the PC successfully restarts, Norton tells me I am not protected. Ignoring Norton's first suggestion to "fix", I can then "run a tool" to fix it, which usually goes ahead without me later having to re-download virus definitions etc. But not always.

That's not the real problem! The solution to the restart problem was to use "sleep" mode instead of shutting down. But when my Norton licence expired last week I installed Norton 2009. Unfortunately Norton 2009 has a bug: described perfectly here which in summary is: Norton 2009 causes Outlook 2007 to fail after you switch users. Also there is some suspicion that sleep mode itself might contribute to the problem, but that's not proven and might be a red herring. Restarting the PC will get Outlook working again, but I don't actually want to restart in case the restart problem occurs again! I want to sleep. Plus just having to restart is a pain in itself.

The discussion in the pages at and following the above link haven't led to a conclusion yet, but the discussion is current and on-going. Help might be on its way, hopefully in the form of a Norton update.

Meanwhile I could uninstall Norton and install another product in its place. But that's a bit extreme; it would make more sense to use an alternative to Outlook, if that works, something I haven't thought through yet. Netspeed webmail is of course the temporary solution when Outlook doesn't work, I always use webmail when I am interstate, but I need to download emails to my PC at some stage as webmail has only limited capacity. And I like Outlook.

Or I could buy Jenny a laptop...

Who said computers are easy to use? Well, I did. What should I do next? Any suggestions?

Anyway, computers lie:

twenty six letters and a handful of punctuation marks

Plans this week include another attempt at a fast 5k. I have got under 20 minutes only once since turning 60... and then not by much.
I don't imagine I will do more than 80k in total this week.

Monday 9 March jog - recover from yesterday's half marathon. Note - there is no training scheduled at Parliament House today.
Tuesday 10 jog. Note - there is a Summer Series race at 6:15pm at the Acton Ferry Terminal.
Wednesday 11 jog.
Thursday 12 race ACTMA 5k track championships.
Friday 13 lots of stretching, a light jog, and then a massage.
Saturday 14 9:00am 200m intervals at Stromlo.
Sunday 15 8:00am long run at Stromlo.

I had planned to run the half marathon at a steady pace and that is what I did - a pleasant tempo run at 4:30 per km all the way. I found that a lot easier than racing it! I enjoyed the course and the company of a large field. My ~94.30 was 8 minutes faster than last year when I ran with Charlie, but for some reason felt easier. And, no sign of the hamstring problem that had plagued me mid-week.

News updates
• Canberra marathon entry deadline 20 March, and you enter by slow mail.

• CJ invites anyone who would like a fitness assessment to contact her. Check it out at http://froggie61.blogspot.com/2009/03/those-lazy-hazy-days-ofautumn.html

• Sydney 2009 World Masters Games: “I would like to invite you to attend the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games Information Session to be held in the Hopman Room, West Belconnen Leagues Club, Hardwick Crescent, on Thursday 12 March at 6.30pm. Join fellow sport participants and representatives of local sporting associations to learn more about how you can become involved in the world’s largest multi-sport event. Places are limited - book now !!! RSVP: Monday 9 March. Please advise if more than one person will be (including their name and email address). Kind Regards, Rod Dowler, Group Manager Marketing, Sydney 2009 World Masters Games Organising Committee.” Information Session enquiries: info@2009worldmasters.com.

I said, hands on HIPS!

Darn cat

Sony wins by a mile

Sony 2gb MP3

I have had an old Mp3 player that lasted me for five years and I felt it was time to upgrade to something newer, lighter, and more contemporary. I bought an iPod shuffle. Big mistake.

(a) I fell in hate with iTunes almost immediately. Not a very advanced bit of software, too restrictive, a pain to convert files into its format, bugs in the area of folder navigation, and if you use it to download files you cannot use the downloads outside of iTunes/iPod. (iTunes is the only music database an iPod can talk to.)

(b) The iPod had the look and feel of a kid's toy.

(c) The iPod broke after three uses and my PC could no longer recognise it. It was dead; deader than dead.

So I went and bought a brand new Sony walkman, the one pictured above. Hurrah! So much easier to use than any iPod, a one year guarantee through JB Hi Fi who I know can be trusted, and some nice features which are exactly what I wanted. And I can load/unload it easily from any data store (except iTunes of course).

And another thing; having used my son's Apple Mac for a week when we were visiting Brisbane last year, and not real impressed with that, I don't think any Apple product will ever be found in my home.

My conclusion is that the iPod is popular only because of clever marketing; not because of quality, that’s for sure.

At least, after all this, I have the choice of several sets of nice earphones now.

heat death of the universe

“The heat death of the universe”, by Erik Max Francis
I dropped a porcelain plate on the hardwood floor
I felt silly as I watched it fall
Not quick enough to snatch the plate
But quick enough to watch it fall
And so down it went . . . and crashed on the floor
Shattering into a thousand lost fragments
A silly thing to do
Disorder wins again

There's a masked figure lurking in the shadows
Neither male nor female
Neither human nor inhuman
Who watches over everything we do
Keeps tabs over the whole game
Tallies each little broken plate
And every little flow of heat
Who grins an evil grin . . . and grows stronger

The decision was made; no way to back down
She regretted it, of course
But we all have to live with our mistakes
There's no going back to a state of higher order
You can't climb that wall
The clock ticks, the chances run slim
And every mistake runs the meter a little higher
Eventually there's no room left to move

Sooner or later, we'll have to band together
All creatures from all walks of life
From all corners of the globe and from all globes
To fight a final battle
Against the greatest enemy of all
And its name is
Entropy

Entropy
The heat death of the universe is probably untrue. It is now theorised that, even though entropy does increase, it won’t reach a maximum after all, because maximum possible entropy increases more. Whatever that means. Phew, that’s a relief! It will still be pretty chaotic down the tracks. But nothing like the poem implies.

Order
Life equates to organisation and order. To go with the entropy flow, that's death. Does that mean, in order to facilitate life, we need to simplify things? And to limit what we process by filtering out most of the external world? Interesting thoughts. I read and write and run and plan and think and work and learn so as to stay alive. Perhaps the scientists do too. Once we know it all, we die.

Turn it up, Captain
With the new U2 album being so brilliant, I am re-hearing their older ones. Great music and more deep thoughts. "All of this... all of this can be yours. Just give me what I want and no one gets hurt".

So to run the marathon or not?
I keep changing my mind, one way then the other. Keeps the universe guessing, But here just for you Katy "I hate toast" is my suggestion for your signage for 2009.

I cannot provide the pictured pretty pair but I am sure you will think of some suitable alternative. Could there be a record field if word gets out?

Looks like a plan. Sorry entropy, it's not your turn yet.

“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.” - G.K. Chesterton

You can add 30kms to your average weekly distance this winter, with ease!

Wednesday night at the track - speedygeese results
Spiral 6
1 Gary Bowen M50 9:56
8 Ruth Baussmann W55 12:35
14 Miranda Rawlinson W55 36 12:10
15 Geoff Barker M60 12:50
16 Rod Lynch M45 9:30
17 Margaret McSpadden W60 13:56
19 Bronwyn Calver W35 11:01
22 Roger Pilkington M50 11:16

800m
M55 Ken White 2:33.09 79.2%
M45 Rod Lynch 2:33.10 75.3
W40 Amanda Walker 2:44.34 71.5
W40 Katie Forestier 2:44.84 72.6
W35 Rachelle Ellis-Brownlee 2:51.55 66.0
M70 Tony Booth 2:53.09 80.0
M50 Roger Pilkington 2:58.93 65.0

3000m
M45 Rod Lynch 11:09.28 74.6%
W40 Katie Forestier 12:04.37 74.6
M60 Geoff Moore 12:28.95 73.0
W35 Bronwyn Calver 12:58.10 66.9
W45 Kelley Flood 13:01.12 73.4
M45 Mick Horan 13:01.16 63.9
M70 Tony Booth 13:41.19 73.2
M60 Geoff Barker 14:45.49 64.0

Sixteen weeks build-up
Q: Dear coach, I have been running 60 kms a week and want to build up to 90 kms a week. How should I go about it?
A: There are many principles to follow:
>>easy weeks should follow the hardest weeks,
>>days should be sequenced short & fast then long then short & easy,
>>one day's rest a week is advisable,
>>when building distance don't build in more speed
>>never increase distance by more than 10% from one week to the next
and so on.
A way of building up which fulfils all the principles and established a new base which can then be maintained is to plan a sixteen week program which looks like this:
week 1 65k
week 2 70k
week 3 65k
week 4 70k
week 5 75k
week 6 70k
week 7 75k
week 8 80k
week 9 75k
week 10 80k
week 11 85k
week 12 80k
week 13 85k
week 14 90k
week 15 85k
week 16 90k

Then the 90k week can be held, and a new focus on improving speed can be introduced at that point.

Question 2: how to structure the week?
A2: Here is a pattern for a 90k week:
Monday 10k including the interval training you have been doing
Tuesday am 8k steady, pm 12k steady
Wednesday 8k jog
Thursday am 8k steady, pm 14k including a tempo run or race
Friday rest
Saturday 22k good tempo
Sunday 8k easy

Q3: what to do in the weeks between 60k to 90k?
A3: Each intermediate week is just a subset of the 90k week. When increasing your weekly distance by 5k, it is a good idea when possible to add the 5k to just one of the days to bring it up towards the 90k week target for that day, and leave the other six days unchanged.

Q4: What about other training?
A4: well, I like to add gym work, and other cross training, to my shortest days, and leave the longest days to focus just on the run. But that's up to you. Don't wear yourself out though!

Q5: Why 90k?
A5: Because 90k is my rule of thumb bare minimum weekly distance for running a marathon. But guess what, times for all distances from 1500m and up will improve dramatically when you can run 90km per week!

This build-up is so conservative, anyone who now averages a 60km week currently can do it this winter, and voila! by next track season a 90km week is second nature. Good luck, you can do it! And whatever your current weekly distance is, you can be running 30km per week more in four months time than you do now!

[singing] "you take the slow road and I'll take the low road..." 

Deep in lack of thought

A strong wind at the track last night kept pbs to a minimum: Katie (3k near 12 minutes, 800), Bronwyn (spiral 6 pb, 3k), Amanda (800), Rachelle (800), Ken (800), Tony (800 near ACT record), Ruth (spiral 6 and 2000m walk!), Gary (I think) all had strong runs. I didn't; I am flat after last week's efforts. As was Mick H, it cannot be a coincidence after we both flattened ourselves in Geelong. Kelley made a rare appearance and ran the 3000m, I can only remember her running once before at track, that time in a 4x1500m relay. So it may have been her first track 3000, and it was just under 13 minutes.

What I am reading: more good escapism; Neil Gaiman's recent book of short stories "Fragile Things".

What I am writing: Has anyone seen my thinking cap? I will have to put it on for an April Vetrunner article. Last night it was suggested I could recycle older articles for Vetrunner and for the blog. Good idea! A bit of repetition/revision wouldn't hurt. As far as new things go, I am deep in lack of thought. Do not disturb!

Two Garys

Lee & Bowen. They could almost be twins. And both have lost a lot of weight. Ours is the one with the green gear, of course.

Simon says play dead

Photos of North Curtin handicap by John Kennedy

Kelley, Maria, Carol, Rachelle

CJ, Debbie, Sue. Happy Birthday CJ!

Stop me if you have heard it

Parliament House Training Monday 2 March: present were Alan, Bronwyn, Ewen, me, Helen, Jodie, Joel, Margaret, Mick C, Miranda, Neil, Rachelle, Rae, Rohan, Suzie & Yelena. We ran six intervals with plenty of rest between them. Intervals were about 200, 300, 400+, 400+, 300, 200.

I have cancelled Parliament House training on Canberra Day next Monday 9 March because there is just too much on and people may like a rest and a real holiday that day. There is the Weston Creek Half Marathon on Sunday 8th (on-line entries close tomorrow, the 4th) and there is the ACT Masters 5000m track championships on Thursday 12th.

Reminder – there is no ACT Masters track on Thursday 5 March, it has been brought forward to Wednesday 4 March owing to a very big soccer match at the main stadium on Thursday.

Track Program for Wednesday 4 March
6:00pm spiral 6
6:30pm 800/2000 walk
6:50pm 60m
7:10pm 800m
7:30pm 100m (Daniels)
7:50pm 3000m/5000m

Song of the week: It's the whole album, "No Line on the Horizon", by U2, just released, their first album for six years. It's sensational. Magnificent. It's the real thing. Even better than the real thing. Have you heard it?

Mick Horan's triathlon result from Saturday: I have been keeping an eye on the AMG website, triathlon results have just been published. No Mick Horan in the results; they only listed the age group place getters. So I can tell you he didn't come in 1, 2, or 3.

“Stop me if you’ve heard it”. A little old lady is walking down the street dragging two large plastic garbage bags behind her. One of the bags rips, and every once in a while a $20 note falls out onto the footpath. Noticing this, a policeman stops her, and says, ‘Ma’am, there are $20 notes falling out of your bag.’
‘Oh, really? Darn!’ says the little old lady. ‘I’d better go back, and see if I can find them. Thanks for telling me…’
‘Well, now, not so fast,’ says the cop. ‘How did you get all that money?’ ‘You didn’t steal it, did you?’ ‘Oh, no’, says the little old lady. ‘You see, my back yard is right next to the football stadium parking lot. On game days, a lot of fans come and pee through the fence into my flower garden. So, I stand behind the fence with my hedge clippers. Each time some guy sticks his thing through the fence, I say, ‘$20 or off it comes.’
‘Well, that seems only fair.’ laughs the cop. OK? Good luck! Oh, by the way, what’s in the other bag?’
’Well, you know’, says the little old lady, ‘not everybody pays.’

Amanda, Peter, Rod, Carol. Amanda is running so fast the others look like they are walking.

stretch every day

Today I resume targeting 100km weeks, this for four weeks. On the right you will see a countdown to Easter Sunday the day of the AMA 5k. There are less than six weeks left so I won't have much training time between now and then. Plan A is to simply jog more and race as best I can during the six weeks. If I get the chance to practise running faster than my established 4 minutes per km I will do so.

My plans are to go through a stretch routine every day, and to total 100k of running this week.
Monday 2 March 4:30pm jog; Parliament House training is on.
Tuesday 3 jog.
Wednesday 4 race at ACTMA track, the 5k if I can.
Thursday 5 jog.
Friday 6 jog.
Saturday 7 jog.
Sunday 8 run the Weston Creek Half Marathon at a steady pace.

The Stromlo Running Festival was fantastic. Let's all get involved next year, it will become much, much bigger as the word spreads.

I watched Yelena run her first 6k jogalong, also at Stromlo as part of the running festival. It's a great venue which if used regularly for the Jogalong the women would get to like. I will publish results in a few weeks time when they appear on the CCC website.

On a related topic, we are finding that if we change something, 30% will grumble. Yet change is the dynamic which brings health and life. We are finding that if we admit mistakes, we will be called "inconsistent" or worse, "unreliable". Yet fear of mistakes stands in the way of progress, creativity, innovation. I say, have a go, and learn as you go. That's how "life" works.

Let's stretch ourselves every day by trying new things. Like supporting and attending innovations like the running festival. Like supporting our change to "Masters" and using the opportunity to invite new people to become involved. Like getting a group together to come over to the AMA Nationals in Adelaide so we can support and encourage each other there.

Also, invite me to join your running group or event. Don't think that I just have my plan that I must follow each week without fail. I like doing new things.

Katie on her home course

Chasing John. John will be 60 soon. 60 is the new 40.

I want sprinkles

healthy intelligent training
Arthur Lydiard has been one of my main inspirations in the last 40 years as far as training methods go. There is a great article / interview about the Lydiard system of training, and about a new book bringing Lydiard up to date,  here - http://www.flotrack.org/articles/view/767-keith-livingstone-healthy-intelligent-training.

An excerpt from the article: "Too many personal trainers and 'sports scientists' with ponytails and compression tights have been assiduously chipping away at the edges of Lydiardism, peddling their compromised versions, till all we get is meaningless articles in popular running mags for the masses warning people of the dangers of good old-fashioned, decent mileage. What a load of cobblers! Next thing we’ll have these guys shortening the marathon distance to avoid the dangers of glycogen depletion!"

Another excerpt "sausage running" - so called "because it was based on long intervals of constant running over whatever terrain came up, with short recoveries. ... Like a string of sausages."

I would like to get hold of the book one day.


Less than intelligent cake decoration:

Probably not that healthy either.