Training at Parliament House last night: Major construction was happening in preparation for the Australia Day concert, but there was room on the grassy area down towards old Parliament House for us to run continuous relays, for a change, it being cool enough for a harder session. Eighteen participants meant we had six teams of three: for twelve minutes of shorter sprints we formed three fast balanced teams and three other (I won't use the "s" word!) balanced teams. And for fifteen minutes of longer sprints we reformed into six balanced teams. In a rectangle on the grass; Short intervals: alternately diagonal or up, recovery across. Long intervals: diagonal and up, recovery down and up. Taking part were Andrew, Andy, Caroline, Cathy, Colin, Craig, Ewen, me, Havilah (new), Laura (new), Lauren, Lincoln, Mick, Neil, Ruth, Warrick, Yelena & Zainab. Ewen & I ran 8k early as well. And I had run 6k in the morning, trying to get extra distance in before going away later in the week.
Song of the week: Charlie Brown, by Coldplay.
A rare bit of political commentary: With the US a long way from here, but the media covering political events there as if it were the main topic of conversation in Australia, which it isn’t, I am rather tired of hearing US politicians talk incessantly about “democracy” as if it’s the universal panacea for all the world’s ills. I am rather more impressed by the ideas expressed in the following quote, seen recently on a friend’s blog. “Democracy in the eighteenth century was not yet the article of faith that it would become in the decades following the American Revolution. It was still a technical term of political science, meaning simply rule by the people. In traditional political thinking going back to the ancient Greeks, rule by the people alone was never highly regarded, for it could easily slip into anarchy and a takeover by a tyrant. The best constitution was one that was mixed or balanced, where the people's rule was offset by the rule of the aristocracy and monarchy. Eighteenth-century intellectuals admired the English constitution so much because it seemed to have nicely mixed and balanced the three simple forms of government, monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, in the Crown, House of Lords, and House of Commons." - The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, Gordon S. Wood.
Stretch like a cat
Song of the week: Charlie Brown, by Coldplay.
A rare bit of political commentary: With the US a long way from here, but the media covering political events there as if it were the main topic of conversation in Australia, which it isn’t, I am rather tired of hearing US politicians talk incessantly about “democracy” as if it’s the universal panacea for all the world’s ills. I am rather more impressed by the ideas expressed in the following quote, seen recently on a friend’s blog. “Democracy in the eighteenth century was not yet the article of faith that it would become in the decades following the American Revolution. It was still a technical term of political science, meaning simply rule by the people. In traditional political thinking going back to the ancient Greeks, rule by the people alone was never highly regarded, for it could easily slip into anarchy and a takeover by a tyrant. The best constitution was one that was mixed or balanced, where the people's rule was offset by the rule of the aristocracy and monarchy. Eighteenth-century intellectuals admired the English constitution so much because it seemed to have nicely mixed and balanced the three simple forms of government, monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, in the Crown, House of Lords, and House of Commons." - The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, Gordon S. Wood.
Stretch like a cat
