Last two runs of the year

30 December 14.5k at 5:42 per km





31 December 14k at 5:56 per km





Total # kms for 2015 2347k.

speedygeese training and a return to the gym

On Sunday I ran long (17k) at Stromlo Forest Park by myself. Kathy and Geoff Sims were arriving as I left.

On Monday Thommo and I ran 8k early, accompanied by visitors from WA Kevin and Sandra.
After that, at the main session with interval 600s, 400m recovery, were Ben, Caroline, Christopher, Colin, Garry. Me, Isaac, Jen, Peter, Thommo, and Ruth. So pleased to have a goof turnout despite the holiday season. Training for 2016 continues next Monday!

See where I run:
On Tuesday 29 December I returned to the gym after a long absence with injury, and did a one hour circuit, before going on a training run of 6k in 30:22. I have to be happy with that!

speedygeese race results

Saturday 12 December T3X Novice triathlon
18 Bron Sparkes 39:58
71 finishers

Saturday 12 December Canberra Summer Marathon
6 Peter Thomson 3:34:32
17 Roger Pilkington 4:36:05
23 finishers

Saturday 26 December 5k Ginninderra Parkrun #191
9 Jen Bright 19:54 W40
12 Isaac Muscat 20:17 M11 **New PB**
38 Thea Zimpel 25:58 W30
97 finishers

Saturday 26 December 5k Tuggeranong Parkrun #148
7 David Clarke 20:03 M55
9 Kevin Johnston 20:16 M55
15 Peter Thomson 20:50 M55
19 Sandra Stockman 21:31 W50
23 Bronwyn Calver 22:33 W45
29 Pieta Smith 23:37 W40
164 finishers

Saturday 26 December 5k Gungahlin Parkrun #114
33 Janene Kingston 23:00 W50
130 finishers

Sunday 27 December San Diego Holiday Half Marathon
644 Warrick Howieson 1:49.37
2570 finishers
"Ran in the holiday half today, a half marathon from (some small shopping center in S.D.) to the Beach fairly small event, about 2000 people I would guess.
"Had to pick up my number the day before at "road runner sports" a local runners shop. Got my number, a T-shirt and a bunch of other stuff in a bag, including gloves and a space blanket.
"Big running shop, but I didn't have time to browse.
"Race start was 7:30 on Sunday. There was a drone flying over the start, taking video.
"Ran well for the first few km... I was happy leaving everything in km and just ignoring the mile signs. I sat just behind the 1:50 pacers thinking I would just see how it all went.
"The first 4km or so we're on the road, then we switched to a bike path.
"Note to self. Double knot shoelaces. Had to stop. It was about 10 km when I caught the 1:50 group again, I was feeling good, so I passed them and kept on down the road
"Tried some jelly belly sport beans this time ( picked them up in the factory earlier in the trip)
"They seemed to sit well so I'll try them for the marathon (is it permitted to puke in the princesses palace at Disney?)
"Ran past a golf course and some horse stables (could smell them coming)
"About 2 km to go there was a turn off the bike path to soak up an extra 200 meters or so, I actually thought I was further ahead of the 1:50 group. So I decided to hot foot it too the finish
"Finished in 1:48:5? But felt good. The medal was huge...
"Small finish area, but we'll stocked with water fruit and other freebies
"Overall a beautiful cool morning and a nice hit out for the Disney full in 2 weeks"

Song of the Year: O Praise the Name (Anástasis)

"O Praise the Name (Anástasis)" was a single released at Easter time, and later appeared on the Hillsong Worship album "OPEN HEAVEN / River Wild", which reached #1 on the ARIA charts later this year. 2015's best new song, by far.

At https://youtu.be/7o-mfbvTshw

Stromlo run

I managed a longer run this morning. 17k. The hamstring still isn't quite 100%, but this was the run where, at last attempt, I had to go back after 1k when the injury occurred.



The elevation of this run.

best cartoon of the year

Safe travels, everybody

I hope Santa gets to your home tonight

speedygeese training

A bit hard to describe, but on Monday at Parliament House after I ran early and the group completed the warmup jog, we formed teams of two and ran for ten minutes at the SW corner relays (2 laps of 120m with 1 lap recovery). Then from the oval we formed teams of three and ran for twenty minutes more relays (240m laps with same recovery) Although two of the faster runners were running continuously!

Participating were Alex, Andy, Caroline, Colin, Dave, Diana, Ewen, me, Jen, Peter, Pieta & Ruth.


Indeed.

speedygeese race results

Tuesday 15 December AMRA Black Mountain Run-Up 2.6k
8 Peter Burke 16.11
19 Helen Way 21.27
22 Caroline Campbell 23.09.

Thursday 17 December ACTVAC track
2000m Turkey Run
M55 Roger Pilkington 9:00.46
M55 David Clarke 9:26.25
W65 Ruth Baussmann 10:44.90

3000m
M55 Ewen Thompson 13:56.04 64.3%
W65 Ruth Baussmann 16:39.90 72.7

5000m
M65 Geoff Moore 22:14.31 75.1%
W40 Jennifer Bright 22:14.95 67.4
M55 David Clarke 22:14.97 68.7
M55 Roger Pilkington 23:52.11 64.0
They were being kind to me.

Saturday 19 December 5k Ginninderra Parkrun #190
40 Bron Sparkes 24:27 W35
70 Thea Zimpel 27:36 W30
148 finishers

Saturday 19 December 5k Tuggeranong Parkrun #147
8 David Clarke 20:08 M55
22 Bronwyn Calver 22:12 W45
40 Pieta Smith 23:57 W40
63 Peter Thomson 25:06 M55
82 Ewen Thompson 26:38 M55
273 finishers

Saturday 19 December 5k Gungahlin Parkrun #113
16 Jen Bright 19:54 W40
19 Isaac Muscat 20:42 M11
45 Janene Kingston 24:35 W50
151 Nadine Morrison 43:11 W45
152 Brett Morrison 43:13 M45
169 finishers

Sunday 20 December Tour de Ridges 10k
12 Ewen Thompson 58 58.38
18 David Clarke 57 1.02.19
24 Kevin Chamberlain 69 1.08.19
36 finishers

Sunday 20 December Tour de Ridges 15k
64 Caroline Campbell 73 1.51.15
89 finishers

Sunday 20 December Tour de Ridges 21k
37 Peter Burke 43 1.51.21
71 Jen Bright 40 2.03.57
80 Peter Thomson 55 2.04.51
105 Janene Kingston 51 2.20.45
118 Leonie Doyle 46 2.29.25
130 William Arthur 65 2.40.02
139 finishers

Bronwyn at Tuggeranong




Janene at Gungahlin


Pieta at Tuggeranong

Best new albums of 2015 #1 - Foals, What Went Down

Album of the Year #1, What Went Down



Song of the week: Snake Oil, from "What Went Down", by Foals
From https://youtu.be/cV_7HLZFilI . A live version.

Major events

I have updated my major events tab (above) for the new year.
AMRA races have not yet been included as the dates have not been finalised.
Let me know of any relevant races and running festivals I can add.

Jan 9-16 Running week

Feb 28 Color Run

Mar 5-6 CBR100

Mar 6 Womens Fun Run

Mar 12 Six Foot Track

Mar 26 World Half Mar

Apr 2 Relay For Life

Apr 9-10 Running Fest

Apr 16-19 AMA Champs

Golf course 10k

I didn't attend parkrun today, seeing as I'd raced Thursday night and I do not want to re-injure this left hamstring, which is healing nicely but not quite there yet. So I tried out new loops at the Belconnnen Golf course, to see what the western side is like, where I haven't recently been running. The run was not fully satisfactory though; parts of it had good shade, parts of it didn't.

warming up

Today's run, another new course from home.



Today my one hour run took me one hour.



Tomorrow - parkrun, if I can get up in time. It's warming up, the early run will be good.



Mostly running pics. Some run. Some have even more fun than that.









After last night's 5k track run - the first this season (22:14) - and today's 10k, it will be a jogette in the park tomorrow.

Ginninderra Creek

I had some dental work at Kippax yesterday so didn't run early; it was warm at 11:30am and after seeing the dentist I ran only 5k. This was from Kippax and along the Ginninderra Creek corridor in search of shade, heading towards Macgregor. I often run around this area but not this exact course.

A couple of observations.

Suburban Macgregor. Living looks pleasant at the western end of the suburb. There is a house for sale fairly close to the creek near where I turned. I wouldn't mind living there!

Vertigo. Up until a year ago I had terrible vertigo. I would avoid footbridges for example. However I ran across the footbridge at Macgregor Primary, where in the last 30 years I would not have set one foot on it. My vertigo has 100% disappeared. This bodes well for returning to try out mountain running again!

Global warming. Summer heat is going to be terrible in 2015-16. I must drink more water. It has not been my habit to drink plain water. This must change. And drinking plenty of water instead of sweet drinks may help reduce the amount of dental work needed in the future, which can only be good.

My 5k run on 16 December

How we trained in the last week

It has been hot, dry, earlier than usual this summer, and we cut back our Monday training session as a result. The Sunday mornings haven't been too bad. One annoying thing is the number of flies, pesky little things. I guess it means we are reluctant to stand around between efforts. One encouraging thing is the number of people participating in our various running activities each day. There is no shortage of people in Canberra staying fit and healthy by getting out and about and moving.

On Sunday 6th December at Stromlo Andrew, Dave, Thommo and I had an easy session, some ran km intervals. Sunday 13th at Stromlo Bron, Dave and I ran for an hour. Monday 14th at Parliament House Ewen and I ran 6k early in the shade mostly, then running 8 x Rose Garden 200m on 3 minutes were Alex, Andy, Caroline, Colin, Dave, Diana, Isaac, Jen, Pieta and Ruth.

I ended up totalling 17k on Monday this week, then 10k on Tuesday 15th at a good pace, Here is a pic of my Tuesday run's altitude to show that when I run from home there are some small hill options. It also shows one of the many benefits of training in Canberra: we are well above sea level. No sea breeze though.



Home is at 600m; the highest point is the south end of Hawker.

speedygeese race results for the last 7 days

Thursday 10 December ACTVAC track
1000m
M50 Colin Farlow 3:11.19
M55 David Clarke 3:31.20
M55 Ewen Thompson 4:08.97
W70 Caroline Campbell 4:47.88
W65 Ruth Baussmann 4:58.66

3000m
M55 David Clarke 13:33.62
M55 Roger Pilkington 14:13.54
M55 Ewen Thompson 14:13.95

5000m
W45 Bronwyn Calver 22:54.20

Friday 11 December Customs 5k
The Christmas run included Caroline, Thommo and Ewen.
Bronwyn ended up the leading pointscorer and passed the prize on to Caroline who was next highest.

Saturday 12 December 5k Ginninderra Parkrun #189
39 Geoff Moore 23:21 M65-69
64 Thea Zimpel 25:51 W30-34
83 Ruth Baussmann 27:47 W65-69 **New PB**
177 finishers

Saturday 12 December 5k Tuggeranong Parkrun #146
8 Jen Bright 19:18 W40 **New PB**
16 David Clarke 20:23 M55
32 Bronwyn Calver 22:35 W45
48 Ewen Thompson 24:00 M55
210 finishers

Saturday 12 December 5k Gungahlin Parkrun #112
38 Gary Bowen 23:31 M55
45 Julia Anderson 24:17 W45
57 William Arthur 26:21 M65
154 finishers

Saturday 12 December Bron was the first female in the novice triathlon.


Bron running in the previous week's Ginninderra parkrun.

Best new albums of 2015 #2 - Mumford & Sons, Wilder Mind

Album of the Year #2, Wilder Mind



Song of the week: Tompkins Square Park, from "Wilder Mind", by Mumford & Sons
From https://youtu.be/oHzc_DLHztA . A live version; they sound as good live as in the studio.



“no flame burns forever”…

parkrun perfection

There were some good times in the parkruns yesterday.
At Tuggeranong parkrun Jen ran a PB of 19:18



And in Ginninderra Ruth ran a PB of 27:47 (photos to come)

While at Gungahlin Julia had an excellent come-back run of 24:17.

Meanwhile in the unreal world...

The white man in that photo

I remember watching the 200m final at the 1968 Olympics, on television, and also seeing the medal presentation, and applauding the brilliant Peter Norman for his performance and for his stand on racism. What happened afterwards is very sad.

Read all about it at http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/the-white-man-in-that-photo/

anatomy of the relay race

Relay running: a discussion on how you might prepare to run relays.
I wrote this for "Vetrunner".

Relays are a great way to end a program of otherwise individual events. I say “end” because ideally you’d run all your “important” events first, before getting everybody together to run relays. It is a pity there are not more team competitions in track and field in Canberra, but participation in relays goes some way towards building a little team spirit. Inviting others to join relay teams is a good way to boost attendance and to keep people involved and interested in the sport for longer.

There are also age group records up for grabs, for those who want to organise teams in advance and, dare I say it, arrange for some practise sessions before race day.

Not everyone is familiar with what relays are all about, so let’s start with these thoughts.

1. You will need to familiarise yourself with the track markings. There is a 20 metre take-over zone, preceded by a 10 metre acceleration zone. The baton is exchanged anywhere within the take-over zone.
2. The 4x100m and 4x200m employ a non-visual baton change. The 4x400m and longer relays employ a visual baton change. A visual change is when the outgoing runner looks back.
3. With the non-visual baton change, runners 1 and 3 have the baton in the right hand, while runners 2 and 4 have it in the left.
4. With the visual baton change, runners take the baton in the left hand, then they switch it to their right.
5. The outgoing runner does not “feel” for the baton, but lets the incoming runner sweep it into their hand.
6. There are two effective baton passing methods: up-sweep, or down-sweep. Decide which of these you will use.
7. Finally, in practise for the short relays, check marks ought to be used. A runner needs to know exactly when to take off as the incoming runner approaches.

So to get it all right, it seems obvious that practise is required. There are many relays on our track program. It would be advantageous if relay runners got in touch with each other, regularly, and worked through these techniques. How about a relay training evening to kick things off?

You may need to know the criteria for a valid relay team, for record purposes. Teams must consist of four currently registered members, while up to two may come down one age group and be part of the team. So for example, a W50 team may comprise (4 x W50), or (3 x W50 + 1 x W55), or (2 x W50 + 2 x W55). No other combination is allowed.
It would be interesting to review the current Australian records and see if any of them fall outside these criteria.


Caroline and Ruth at our Christmas function this week.

grandad joke

speedygeese dinner and awards

On Monday instead of training we had our speedygeese dinner at Two Sisters where 40 of us outnumbered the 30 other patrons.

The most prestigious and highly valued Caramello Koala awards went to our runners of the year for 2015.

Speedygosling of the year: Isaac. An amazing 5k improvement. 19:30 his latest time. At only just 11 years old he has some sort of potential.


Isaac and Jen 

Speedygander of the year: Dave Clarke, who ran an unbroken a string of 12 sub 20 5ks this year.


Dave

Speedygoose of the year:  a tie between Susan, who ran a 45 minute PB when she went to New York for this year's marathon,


Susan

and Pieta, who improved her 5k PB by over 5 minutes during the year.


Pieta

There were many other great performances from our training group in 2015. We are enjoying good numbers and lots of enthusiasm, therefore it all bodes well for 2016.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Training resumes next week and continues every Monday into the new year and beyond!

speedygeese race results

Tuesday 1 December YCRC Spring Series #5 Stromlo Forest Park 5k
18. Peter Thomson M55 22:54
32. David Clarke M55 24:46
35. Geoff Moore M65 25:56
39. Vanessa Palmer W45 28:06
48. Mick Charlton M60 32:02
49 finishers

Tuesday 1 December AMRA Mt Ainslie Run-Up 2.2k
2 Stuart Doyle M 12.45
4 Louise Sharp F 13.39
16 Caroline Campbell F 24.22
17 finishers

Thursday 3 December ACTVAC track
Higgins 800m handicap
5. M50 Colin Farlow
6. W60 Kathy Sims
8. W70 Caroline Campbell
17. W65 Ruth Baussmann
18. W40 Helen Northey
20. M55 Roger Pilkington

Spiral 7
1 Caroline Campbell W70 15:24
6 Ruth Baussmann W65 15:46
10 David Clarke M55 11:39
12 Roger Pilkington M55 14:11
13 finishers

Friday 4 December Customs 5k
Bronwyn Calver 22:28
Peter Thomson 23:42
Ewen Thompson 25:11
Bill Arthur 28:03
Caroline Campbell 32:45
21 finishers

Saturday 5 December 5k Ginninderra Parkrun #188
6 Louise Sharp 18:44 W30 **New PB**
37 Janene Kingston 23:06 W50
42 Geoff Moore 23:29 M65
45 Bron Sparkes 23:43 W35 **New PB**
101 Ruth Baussmann 28:14 W65
102 Miranda Rawlinson 28:17 W60 **New PB **
136 Lola Sparkes ~33:30 **first timer**
172 finishers

Saturday 5 December 5k Tuggeranong Parkrun #145
12 Jen Bright 19:27 W40 **New PB**
14 Isaac Muscat 19:30 M11 **New PB**
21 David Clarke 20:47 M55
25 Peter Thomson 21:12 M55
36 Bronwyn Calver 22:05 W45
63 Ewen Thompson 24:12 M55
241 finishers

Saturday 5 December 5k Gungahlin Parkrun #111
39 Gary Bowen 24:01 M55
65 William Arthur 26:57 M65
101 Amanda Cook 31:39 W35
136 finishers

Sunday 6 December YCRC 6k Women’s Jogalong
Kathy Sims W60 28:56
Thea Zimpel W30 32:52
Caroline Campbell W70 36:44
Nadine Morrison W45 37:44
78 finishers

Sunday 6 December YCRC 3k Women’s Jogalong
Laura Muscat 18:19 **first timer**


Colin, Louise, Stuart, Gregg and Janene at last night's speedygeese dinner. More about that, tomorrow.

Best new albums of 2015 #3 - Drones, Muse

Album of the Year #3, Drones



Song of the week: Reapers, from "Drones", by Muse
From https://youtu.be/gcNEC9NaJuE



An amazing video clip.

Sheer persistence

Leanne ran with the "speedyducks" before she moved to Melbourne. She got married yesterday!!


Sharkie (friend of Bron) running the Ginninderra parkrun 12 months after having his leg torn off in a water skiing accident! (It was then re-attached)


Thea winning the silver medal at the Jogalong!

Starting back on the comeback trail again, again.

I ran 23:29 this morning taking it easy at Ginninderra Parkrun. The splits were 5:02, 4:36, 4:40, 4:44, 4:28. This is after a month (November) of virtually nothing with a hamstring injury. All's well.

Here is the cool-down run I did after, to bring the day's total to 15k and the week (with one day to go) 62k.



And here is the good run I did starting at 11:00am yesterday: 70:30 for an easy 12k



Things are looking up.
I expect to be back in the gym in another week. Or two.