battlecamp

Training at Parliament House last night: We did circuits on the west side oval, 20 minutes of exercises and sprints. 15 starters, perfect conditions with the grass dry and cut short. Attending were Abi, Andrew, Andy, Christopher, Colin, Craig, Ewen, me, Jen, Lincoln, Lucia, Mick, Ruth, Warrick & Yelena. The five exercise stations were crunches, squats, push-ups, lunges, and calf raises. This is a slightly modified version of something known in Canberra as "the battlecamp circuit".

Novelty events rule, OK?
Changes have been announced for this Thursday's track program. As a result of last week's washout, we now have the 3000m Pennington event on at 6:00pm in place of a straight 3000m, and a 6 lap spiral handicap at 8:05pm in place of the 3000m/5000m. We also have a 4 x 1500m relay as per program. Interesting that novelty events are given precedence over normal events. Some will like that, others will stay away. I'm on duty and hadn't planned to race anyway. Tonight's Acton 5k will do for this week.

Song of the week: Coldplay's Princess of China

  
"once upon a time, somebody ran,..."

George

Some water in evidence here.

Graeme, Kym, Alan at the Sprint Marathon Relay

Coming Events

Week 10 of 2012:

Monday 5 March  5:30pm *Parliament House speedygeese training
Tuesday 6 March  6:15pm *Summer Series Race #6 Acton Ferry Terminal 5k
Wednesday 7 March  12:15pm BBQ Stakes 6k Woden
Thursday 8 March  6:00pm *ACTVAC track, Bruce. 3000m handicap, 4x1500m, spiral 6
Friday 9 March  12:15pm Customs 5k Commonwealth Park
Saturday 10 March  8:00am *Metro Runners Acton Ferry Terminal
Sunday 11 March  8:00am *Stromlo Forest Park speedygeese training
* = I expect to attend
I am not planning to do a 4:30pm run today, although I may still turn up early and jog around checking where it is best to train following the recent rain.
Note change of program for Thursday

Speedygeese results, Customs 5k Friday 2 March
Jen Bright 21.21
Yili Zhu 23.38
Bill Arthur 31.37

Very good numbers have been turning up to Parliament House on Mondays. Down a bit the last two Mondays because of rain, but today is fine and sunny. So we might see a larger turn-out today for the next phase of training. The more the merrier; it is just as easy for me to plan for 50 as it is to plan for 5.

More photos of the running path landslide, will Morshead Drive above it be safe do you think?

Even the national long jump champion wouldn't clear this one.

...unless they became very angry

Kelley handing over to Gary in the Sprint-Marathon relay. Many more photos of the relay are here on the ACTVAC website.

more news on a rainy day

• Lauren Boden winner women's 400h 56.01 booking her place to London.
• Our backyard rain gauge has measured over 260mm so far and the rain is still pouring down.
• We had planned to run along this path yesterday but strangely it was closed! I don't think the Boat House East 5k race will be on again for a while.

• Watch out for debary on the Cotter Road

• I haven’t run yet today, I will do a real run (i.e. outdoors) later this afternoon when the rain might have eased. The streak is up to day 64.
• The Six Foot Track next Saturday might be interesting. A real "tough mudder". Check out the Cox River in this video.

• Training at Parliament House Monday at 5:30 pm will be on come heaven or high water.

good news week. rain.

• The dams are full. The rivers are running.
• Nathan (my son) has been posted to Melbourne. Officially. Now I will have plenty of reasons to bring Jenny (my wife) down to my favourite big city. Haven't been there since the last time the Masters Games were in Geelong.
• The weather eased enough today to enjoy a long run without too much rain happening. 8:00am was the official assembly time; meeting then were Suzie, Riki (new), Zainab, Ewen, Lucia, Abi, Andy & I. Some of us ran or cycled before 8:00am; and we did varying distances after 8:00am; I totalled 28k running. I also spotted Bob & Craig at the Ferry Terminal doing some kind of random run. 
• We have put a fire on today. 3 March, that's a record!
• Bronwyn runs her downhill marathon tomorrow morning, good luck! The weather in New Plymouth could be a factor, and if they get the weather we have been having, which is almost certain, they will be water skiing down the course. The website for her marathon is http://mountaintosurf.co.nz/. Presumably results will appear there tomorrow.

I believe that Stromlo Forest Park is closed and won't reopen until Monday at the earliest. Therefore I will be running from home tomorrow morning instead of running at Stromlo. In any case Coppins Crossing on the way there is flooded and is closed indefinitely and it would have been a long detour to get there. And even if Stromlo were to be re-opened, the grass track would remain closed for the time being.

However Monday training is on whatever the weather. We could have another 50 to 100mm of rain between now and then. I won't be there at 4:30pm this Monday only. But we are definitely meeting at 5:30pm. It might be an idea to bring a change of clothes and a towel!

What my ANU friends do in their spare time.

running away from the circus

"Not the Messiah, just a naughty boy"

Cats have the right idea. Mine has been mostly inside resting for the last few days, avoiding the rain.

No longer feeling that I have both feet firmly planted on the ground

Everything changes.

Because of the rain, tonight's Track and Field program has been cancelled. The Competition Sub-Committee will consider if any events are to re-scheduled, and will advise of this next week. There were five "series" events on the program and most are likely to be rescheduled.

The rain gauge in our backyard in Holt has recorded 109mm since the rain began on Tuesday night. Today the heaviest falls are being forecast, and the rain is supposed to continue until Sunday.

After this weekend, if it doesn't rain again all March, we will still have exceeded the March average, well and truly.

This is playing havoc with my training. If it's not on my Garmin it doesn't count. Yes I have been training indoors but that doesn't count. The planned 120k week looks like being about 80k at the most. The streak continues because I have still been running at least 4k outdoors every day. So far.

North Curtin Vets Handicap

Ewen

Graeme

Alan, Carol

Nadine

Promotion to Webmaster
I am now officially the webmaster on the ACTVAC website. Not that I know everything about it yet... but if you email "webmaster" you will get me. And I put a banner up today, my first official act. This is after I put up many Sprint Marathon Relay photos yesterday, which I didn't need webmaster status to do. Looks like I will be busy. Busier. Stuart and one or two others are still available as backup. But one of the first things I want to do is recruit an assistant. Any takers? Don't rush me.

outlier

Possible cancellation
"Due to the ongoing rain, there is the possibility that the Track and Field meet will be cancelled on Thursday. Members will be notified around midday on Thursday if this is the case. Please check your email/the ACTVAC website on Thursday if these weather conditions continue". I shall post something here too on Thursday afternoon.

I am atypical
Having worked for the ABS all my life, it was amusing recently to have been selected by them in a number of surveys. One of the surveys had questions about participating in sports and the use of facilities, for example, “How many exercise sessions have you participated in in the last two weeks?” Um – twenty? “How long was each session on average?” Um – 90 minutes? They were also surveying about participating in sport and the use of facilities, and about the number of hours volunteering e.g. coaching, among other things.

Nerve gas across Canberra.

A while back; photo by Welkin31. Note the inversion layer the ACT Government tried to say wasn't there.

Runners at North Curtin.

Either of the above pictures would make a nice banner for a blog or a Facebook page.

Warburton reflections

The river running into Lake Eyre. We flew up the Warburton last October. I am told it is raining heavily and flooding that part of Northern South Australia right now. The outback will be blossoming again at this rate.

Old Geese

Goals for March and April.
I have decided to test myself out in a handful of races leading up to the Ultra on 15 April. Any other races I go in will be tempo runs or training runs. The races are

• 06 March YCRC Summer Series Acton 5k
• 18 March Weston Creek Half Marathon
• 29 March ACTVAC 5k track championships

Hopefully I can get a recent PB in at least one of these. And in April of course the goal is to run and survive the 50k.

Training at Parliament House last night. Ewen & I ran 8k early, it didn't rain, then we were joined at 5:30pm by Cookie, Andy, Bronwyn, Christopher, Craig, Helen, Tim, Warrick & Yelena, it still didn't rain. It was a perfect evening for running despite the high humidity. We ran our last anaerobic session for a while, a set of 12 x 200 with 100 float.

Stormy Canberra

Photo of the 12 hour run at Stromlo Running Festival.

Old Geese

These runners used to train regularly with the speedygeese and are still training together as far as I know. Go the Geese! Photo by John Kennedy at North Curtin. Featured are Heidi, Amanda, Ken, Katie & Gary.

Sunrise over the lake

who would live anywhere else?

weight(y) matters

If I don't watch my weight it gradually creeps up. This year I am trying keep my weight down in the low sixties, where it should be for my height.

Weekly distance
This year I am trying to average 80km per week. The first seven weeks have been exactly 100km, the eighth 80. I will probably run 120km this week and 100 for the next four, before a two week taper for the 50k race. After that I should be able to build back up to 80 or 100 again fairly quickly.

Coming Events 
I will report today or early tomorrow what time we meet on Saturdays from now on. I have asked the participants what they think and will abide by the majority decision. It's polling day! (8:00am appears to have the numbers)

Week 9 of 2012:

Monday 20 February  4:30pm *Parliament House 8k jog
Monday 27 February  5:30pm *Parliament House speedygeese training
Tuesday 28 February  12:15pm Lake Ginninderra 7k
Tuesday 28 February  6:15pm *Summer Series Race #5 Weston Park 5k
Wednesday 29 February  12:15pm BBQ Stakes 6k Woden
Thursday 1 March  6:00pm ACTVAC track Bruce 3000m handicap, 1500m, spiral 6
Friday 2 March 12:15pm Customs 5k Commonwealth Park
Saturday 3 March  8:00am *Metro Runners Acton Ferry Terminal
Sunday 4 March  8:00am *Stromlo Forest Park speedygeese training
Sunday 4 March  9:00am Weston Park Women’s 6k Jogalong
* = I expect to attend

Speedygeese running 
Vets Track 23 February
3000 m
M45 Damian Rutledge 12:12.75 66.0%

Mile
M45 Damian Rutledge 5:26.28 75.0%
W55 Maria O'Reilly 6:10.33 88.6
W60 Kathy Sims 6:24.24 89.1
M70 Tony Booth 7:01.90 75.0
M50 Ewen Thompson 7:51.11 55.8
W60 Ruth Baussmann 8:02.68 72.0

North Curtin 6.2k 26 February
1 Peter McDonald M55 34:38 60.6% **gold
11 Cathy Newman W50 33:27 66.1
12 Carol Ey W50 30:49 73.5
14 David Webster M60 27:07 79.1
18 Michelle Wells W40 26:50 74.8
21 Ewen Thompson M50 35:02 57.5
23 Ruth Baussmann W60 36:11 69.4
32 Rod Lynch M50 26:24 75.2
39 Roger Pilkington M50 28:49 69.4
42 Christopher Lang M60 34:17 62.6
45 Nadine Morrison W40 30:36 66.5
68 Margaret McSpadden W65 41:56 63.7
73 Janene Kingston W45 31:58 66.6
83 Caroline Campbell W65 38:33 74.8
86 Robert Ey M50 30:10 65.8
107 finishers

North Curtin 3k 26 February
1 Tony Booth M70 14:49 76.2% **gold
5 Brett Morrison M40 14:50 57.5
11 Amanda Walker W40 13:34 70.2
14 Graeme Patrick M55 13:28 71.6
21 Gary Bowen M50 12:28 73.4
24 Katie Forestier W45 12:02 80.3
30 Ken White M55 13:35 70.3
34 Heidi Johnston W40 12:27 76.1
44 finishers

Margaret at Aranda

Mick H

A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere

A range of songs from all their albums is what Death Cab for Cutie played last night at Enmore theatre. Great show.

Setlist:
A Lack of Color
I Will Possess Your Heart
Crooked Teeth
Why You'd Want To Live Here
Doors Unlocked and Open
Long Division
Grapevine Fires
Codes and Keys
Different Names For The Same Thing
I Will Follow You Into The Dark
Title Track
You Are a Tourist
The New Year
Company Calls
Company Calls Epilogue
Brothers On a Hotel Bed
A Movie Script Ending
Soul Meets Body
Cath...
Marching Bands of Manhattan

Encore:
Home Is a Fire
Blacking Out The Friction
St. Peter's Cathedral
Tiny Vessels
Transatlanticism



Back home in bed at 3:30am.

breaking eggs

YMCA Of Canberra Half Marathon Incorporating 43rd Annual Rex Foulkes Memorial Half Marathon Weekend Events. Coming up on 19/20th May 2012.

26th Women & Girls Fun Run Coming up on Sunday April 1, 2012 at 9am. Entry is open NOW at http://www.wgfunrun.com.au

Speedygeese training Sat 18/2 Metro runners from Acton Ferry Terminal – me, Miranda, Suzie and Anne. Sunday 19/2 at Stromlo watching the 10k and 30k runners come in – me, Ewen & Thach. Monday 20/2 Dashing a few intervals in between the raindrops – Cookie, Bronwyn, Colin, Craig, Ewen, me, Helen, Jen, Mick, Ruth, Tim & Yelena.

Results from the 2012 Stromlo Running Festival - http://www.stromlorunningfestival.com.au/results.aspx

Clarke&Dawe 16/2
,

23/2. Today is quite long.
.

Moving to other funny stories, "Woodley" is magnificent. Frank wandering the streets of Melbourne as an egg. Hilarious.

Meanwhile here in Canberra..

Sunset over the lake

enjoy your running

The Sprint Marathon Relay on 12/02/12 was great fun. Highly recommended for everyone.

My team finishing. Well, I turned up to discover I was team captain. Fine, but what I want to know is, how come there were only 8 teams? This is a brilliant event organised by Jim White, this is his exceptional contribution to the Canberra running scene. You guys I recommended it to who didn't join in, do it next year! p.s. we finished fourth. At one stage we were first, at another stage we were last. It doesn't matter. Kelley, me, Ruth, Gary, John, Stuart. Random team.

Speedygeese Results
YCRC Telopea Park 4k 14 February
24. Robert Ey M50 17:27
28. Bob Harlow M60 18:33
29. Mick Horan M50 18:34
30. Janene Kingston W45 18:50
37. Carol Ey W50 19:48
41. Ewen Thompson M50 20:45
42. Cathy Newman W50 20:54
44. Mick Charlton M60 21:21
49. Caroline Campbell W65 23:48
53 finishers

ACTVAC Track 16 February
800m
M45 Damian Rutledge 2:15.99 81.9%
W40 Heidi Johnston 2:28.27 79.3
W55 Kathy Southgate 2:41.21 84.1
W55 Maria O'Reilly 2:50.69 81.7
W45 Janene Kingston 2:55.84 70.4
M70 Tony Booth 3:07.05 77.5

2000m
M70 Tony Booth 10:56.15 61.4%

10000m
W45 Katie Forestier 42:11.51 77.4%
M60 Geoff Moore 42:17.80 79.5
W50 Helen Larmour 43:35.67 80.6
M50 Roger Pilkington 43:57.69 70.2
W50 Kelley Flood 44:49.33 77.4
M40 Craig Davis 45.00.00 63.3
W40 Bronwyn Calver 46:21.48 68.0
M50 Mick Horan 46:23.06 66.0
M50 Ewen Thompson 47:46.96 65.1
W65 Caroline Campbell 53:47.18 84.8
W60 Ruth Baussmann 55:25.53 72.2
I did taper for this 10k, well a token taper anyway. The age percentage tells the story... ran well in the conditions! And my best 10k on any course for four years!

YCRC Barrenjoey Drive 5k 21 February
22. Robert Ey M50 21:02
26. Craig Davis M40 22:07
28. Geoff Moore M60 22:29
34. Ewen Thompson M50 23:17
37. Carol Ey W50 23:44
41. Cathy Newman W50 24:32
45. Janene Kingston W45 24:51
47. Geoff Sims M60 24:58
52. Mick Charlton M60 26:08
60. Ruth Baussmann W60 28:03
62. Caroline Campbell W65 28:17
65 finishers

It's good to be back.

nine days without the internet

...  and now IT'S BACK!

Song of the week: Slow Show, by The National. Nine days without the internet at home has been a slow show indeed. It feels like 29 years since I had it last. 

this week's events

Week 8 of 2012:

Monday 20 February 4:30pm *Parliament House 8k jog
Monday 20 February 5:30pm *Parliament House speedygeese training
Tuesday 21 February 6:15pm *Summer Series Race #4 Barrenjoey Drive 5k
Wednesday 22 February 12:15pm BBQ Stakes 6k Woden
Thursday 23 February 6:00pm ACTVAC track, Bruce. Mile.
Friday 24 February 12:15pm Customs 5k Commonwealth Park
Saturday 25 February 7:00am Metro Runners Acton Ferry Terminal
Sunday 26 February 8:30am Vets Handicap North Curtin.
* = I expect to attend

The lyrics of the song about a symphony

Wooden floors, wooden floors whisper
And they creak under your sockless feet
A secret door, a door undiscovered
You knock so gently in case you're heard
A record plays a song that you've not heard
It is perfect, it is home
Everything, now everything's different
It is sweeter on your tongue

Cause you can see the road ahead in your dream
And the engine's more a sigh than a scream
And your ghosts look more like angels from there
And the coast comes like a raft of warm air

A symphony, slow music of longing
Plays in movements inside your head
There are no ghosts, no ghosts that can shake you
Like they used to, anymore
Cause you can see the road ahead in your dream
And the engine's more a sigh than a scream
And your ghosts look more like angels from there
And the coast comes like a raft of warm air

You can see the road ahead in your dream
And the engine's more a sigh than a scream
And your ghosts look more like angels from there
And the coast comes like a raft of warm air

If this is all you ever asked for
Then this is all you'll get
If this is all you ever asked for
Then this is all you'll get
If this is all you ever asked for
Then this is all you'll get
If this is all you ever asked for
Then this is all you'll get
If this is all you ever asked for
Then this is all you'll get
If this is all you ever asked for
Then this is all you'll get
If this is all you ever asked for
Then this is all you'll get
If this is all you ever asked for
Then this is all you'll get

jogette

Some mornings I have been running a jogette. This is my usual course, 2k out, 2k back from home. Chin-up bars are at the 1k/3k mark, other exercise equipment is nearby.

Parliament House training. Last night Ewen, Kym, Tim & I ran 8k early, then we were joined by Bronwyn, Cherie, Christopher briefly, Colin, Craig, Jacob, Jen, Mick, Peter, Ruth & Yelena. Usually I find it easy to alter the training session a little and try something new, but on this occasion I was a bit concerned, partly because it was a large departure from what has become more or less routine, partly because the threatening rain would have spoilt everything had it arrived, and partly because I thought I might have trouble remembering what the plan was. But of course there was no need to worry, it turned out to be an excellent session which everyone enjoyed. Firstly an exercise circuit on the Parliament House west side oval for 16 minutes which included sprints and crunches, squats, dips and lunges in ever increasing numbers, then harder than usual anaerobic sprint sets. We might not repeat the oval circuits in the near future, but we will repeat them one day.

Results Customs 5k 10 February
Yili Zhu 21:43
Gary Bowen 23:00
Miranda Rawlinson 26:47
Caroline Campbell 31:02
Bill Arthur 32.49

Song of the week - "The Symphony". Snow Patrol doing what they do best, playing in the style of Snow Patrol.

Coming Events

Week 7 of 2012:

Monday 13 February 4:30pm *Parliament House 8k jog
Monday 13 February 5:30pm *Parliament House speedygeese training
Tuesday 14 February 6:15pm Summer Series Race #3 Telopea Park 5k
Wednesday 15 February 12:15pm BBQ Stakes 6k Woden
Thursday 16 February 6:00pm *ACTVAC track, Bruce. 800m, 10,000m
Friday 17 February to Sunday 19 February Stromlo Running Festival
Friday 17 February 12:15pm Customs 5k Commonwealth Park
Saturday 18 February 7:00am *Metro Runners Acton Ferry Terminal
Sunday 19 February 8:00am *Stromlo Forest Park speedygeese training
* = I expect to attend

run further, smile more

My goal for 2013: medal at the Australian Masters Games in Geelong in October. That's next year, not this year, only 18 months to go! And the thing is, I will be in the M65 age group by then. Gives me something to look forward to once the ultra-marathon is crossed off the list. The Geelong venue for the 2013 Games was announced only yesterday. Here's a link to the website - http://www.australianmastersgames.com.au/

Speedygeese Vets track results from Thursday night 9 February.
3000m
M45 Damian Rutledge 11:31.97 69.9%
W45 Katie Forestier 11:35.83 80.4
M50 Roger Pilkington 12:03.82 71.2
M40 Craig Davis 12:13.09 65.0
W40 Amanda Walker 12:52.26 70.7
W45 Janene Kingston 13:08.47 71.8
M70 Tony Booth 15:56.43 65.4

400m
M50 Mick Horan 70.37 71.3%

Sprint-marathon relay this morning. Here's the course as plotted and re-plotted on the Garmin. Note from the google map background how dry it was four years ago!

I shall add this map to a web page on the ACTVAC website at some stage, and describe the relay event there.

Eight teams of six runners each competed this year in the sprint-marathon relay, and it was great fun as always. It's seeded, every runner completes four legs of 1k and one leg of 2k, or in the case of the slowest runner in each team six legs of 1k, and faster runners must catch up to slower runners at the end so that team members cross the finish line together. At one stage my team was in the lead; at another stage it was last, and with a great effort from my team-mates it ended up fourth. Well done Ruth Baussmann, Stuart Grey, Kelley Flood, John Alcock, and Gary Bowen!

That's a second 104k week completed...

who me?

Today it was just Laura C, Ann & me running from Acton Ferry Terminal at 7:00am; I ran 12k and the other two ran 13k, they are training for the Half Marathon in April and talking about doing a triathlon the first weekend in March (as in "I will if you will").

My easy 12k run on Friday followed an hour of intense cardio exercise in the gym, where I would have run 2k or so but will not and cannot count it. After that, the run to and from the gym in Charnwood went to the top of Spence and back, via the back of Fraser.

The altitude chard makes interesting reading; it should be symmetrical but has had a meltdown in the first 2k

This will end up being another 100k week, and so will next week provided I take it easy in the Sprint Marathon Relay tomorrow.

Oceania Masters Results: see  http://www.nzmastersathletics.org.nz/resources/oceania-results-to-end-of-day-5.pdf 

Who me?

see where I run

This run was on Wednesday 8 February; 22k, from home
.

I tend to vary my long runs from day to day; rarely the same course twice.

Oceania: from the ACTVAC facebook page:
A few results have trickled through:

Kathy Sims - Gold W60 800m (ACT record), Gold W60 5000m (ACT record)
Geoff Sims - Bronze M60 800m
Bruce Graham - Silver M50 800m, Silver M50 5000m (ACT record), Gold 8km Cross Country
Carol Masters - Gold W50 8km Cross Country.
Ann Young - Gold W75 8 km Cross Country

"Somebody might see it". Last night's Clarke and Dawe: