taper time. chocolate can wait six more days.

Coming Events
Week 15 of 2012:

Monday 9 April 5:30pm *Parliament House speedygeese training
Wednesday 11 April 12:15pm BBQ Stakes 6k Woden
Friday 13 April 12:15pm Customs 5k Commonwealth Park
Saturday 14 April 1:00pm – 4:00pm *Australian Running Festival 5k, 10k
Sunday 15 April 7:00am *Australian Running Festival 21.1k, 42.2k, 50k
* = I expect to attend

Canberra. It's a great city to live in. We are hosting the Australian Running Festival this coming weekend, There will be heaps of competitors and spectators. If you are not entered, come along and enjoy it anyway. And at this stage the weather forecast is perfect.

Ruth

speedyself

Ruth's challenge in Sunday's marathon is to finish before I complete the 50k. Will this happen? Yes I am expecting her to be there cheering me on when I finally cross the line. I might need oxygen and/or chocolate at that point, either would be good.

100 days

Today marks the 100th day of my running streak.

Today also marks the 64th birthday of my lovely wife Jenny.

Today is also Easter Sunday

Watching the Kangaroos piling on the score today reminds me of a game of football I saw some years ago. Near the end, the North Melbourne Kangaroos are three points down. Jason McCartney grabs the ball and just gets his foot to it to as he is flung to the ground. The ball enters the goal square and another North Melbourne forward grabs it and kicks the goal that wins the game.

The stadium erupts – everyone cheering wildly, not just Kangaroo supporters. Everyone came to the ground to see Jason play. Jason has overcome great odds just to be there, he has become everybody’s symbol of victory over adversity.

For Jason is the man who had nearly died as a result of the Bali bombings, the man who saved two others’ lives there.

When the bomb exploded he had suffered severe second degree burns to over 50% of his body. But he had regarded his burns as minor and set about saving those around him instead of worrying about himself. Later after flying back to Melbourne, it was discovered that his burns were severe, and when operated on he almost died

After extensive rehabilitation he played this one game of football, and then announced his retirement. But he went on to later give a lot more back to the sport he loved. And for once a football crowd had put aside their concept of winning, and cheered Jason’s sacrifice for the greater good.

On that occasion football was win/win but usually it is win/lose.

Life should not like football. We know that what life is really about is, everybody wins when we help others, when we give out of what we have been given, when our spirit of generosity is bigger than any selfish or self seeking spirit.

The more we look to helping others in every way we can, the more their lives benefit, and so do ours.

That is what Easter is about. The biggest sacrifice of all, resulting in the greatest victory for all. Win/win.



And... just seven more days to the 50k. I appear to be on track. Persistence seems to be paying off. Of course, motivation is important too...

never overdo weight training

Checking out possible training venues (cont):
Reid oval looks good. I shall go over there on Tuesday night to check it out under lights and talk to any users.

Dickson is available Tuesdays. So if Reid is available Thursdays we have three options to consider:
(a) Monday Parliament House and Thursday Reid, or
(b) Tuesday Dickson and Thursday Parliament House, or
(c) Tuesday Dickson and Thursday Reid.
I am now leaning towards option (c) pending further checking. And we can decide later where we train on Mondays in summer. As Joh Bjelke-Petersen famously said, "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it."

p.s. whatever we decide, we will still be at Parliament House this week, Easter Monday 5:30pm.

Bench Presses.

This bench is being pressed the wrong way.

touch and go

Checking out possible training venues:
Cook: unsuitable (no lights). 300m 8 lane track. Before sunset, dogs (and their owners) everywhere. After sunset, pitch black. Surface a bit rough.

Jamison enclosed oval: unsuitable (no lights). Would have to book, Belconnen Footy club would have priority, no track marked, only a boundary line. Very rough surface too.

Kippax: unsuitable (nowhere to run): well lit fields, good surface, but ovals fully used for Rugby training. Also a bit far to go (except for me)! Ditto I imagine for other fields in Belconnen I haven't had time to check, like Hawker or Spence.

CU: unsuitable (nowhere to run): when lit soccer training is on, when not lit too dark. Rough surface on and off the pitches. Would get very boring.

Aranda: possible. One area within the playing fields is suitable. Surface excellent, light from neighbouring training area OK, good long early run and cool-down options, But there are no line markings so we would have to set up each time. And an issue I have is that the car parking area is dark, is distant, is part of a walkway, and it cannot be seen from the training area. We would be risking break-ins. So, not recommended.

Dickson Tuesdays: yes! I have checked and we can use Dickson on Tuesdays, same arrangements we are familiar with. So, recommended.

Any other feedback? Replying today would be good. If we make Tuesdays Dickson mid-April to mid-October we will "rest" on Mondays and go to Parliament House on Thursdays. And it will be easier to fit in with the hard training or racing we do Sunday mornings. When Vets track resumes, we can revert to Mondays at Parliament House.

Dogs

wins all round

Happy Birthday Andy, 53 today.

Speedygeese at the Customs 5k on 30 March:
Miranda 26.26
Bill 28.38
Caroline 28.52.

There is a big Wiggle sale on at present. Free delivery too!

John Kennedy took some WGFR photos. [Mine were here.]
Helen

Maria

Cathy and Mary Ann

Ruth

Kym at work

See where I run: Yesterday's run, a nice easy 23.5k at the end of the day. Ran part of it early on with Andrew.

Congratulations to grand-daughter Kayleigh, winning the NSW level 8 gymnastics championships on the weekend. Her best result so far.

no end in sight

Well it made this week's Chronicle - but not every edition. Not mine in Belconnen, anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if it was only the city edition. Please click to enlarge.

Easter: a white blank page

Women's and Girls Fun Run - 500m mark


Thanks Ewen.

Training at Parliament House last night - Abi, Cathy, Ewen & I ran early - I checked out the course for the last 7.8k of the ultra - then for the main session Abi, Andy, Christopher, Colin, Craig, Mick, Neil, Ruth, Tony & Warrick ran figure 8 circuits on the western side, five on five minutes, each 700m circuit including two hills and four push-ups part way round.

For those running the marathon (or ultra, or half) on 15 April - have you noticed how rapidly the countdown timer is counting down? Scary.

Thursday Training - I am deferring this for two weeks. I am inviting people to check out any and all possible venues to see about lights, other users, surface, convenient location etc. This Thursday I will check out Cook, Jamison, Aranda, anywhere else I think of out that way. We will make an announcement in time for a 19 April start. This will allow you to get back to me after this Thursday and allow us to make a final decision the following week. We may end up having to book somewhere which means a small cost will be involved.

Song of the Week - "White Blank Page" by Mumford & Sons



Can you lie next to her
And give her your heart, your heart
As well as your body
And can you lie next to her
And confess your love, your love
As well as your folly
And can you kneel before the king
And say I'm clean, I'm clean

But tell me now, where was my fault
In loving you with my whole heart
Oh tell me now, where was my fault
In loving you with my whole heart

A white blank page and a swelling rage, rage
You did not think when you sent me to the brink, the brink
You desired my attention but denied my affections, my affections

Lead me to the truth and I will follow you with my whole life
Lead me to the truth and I will follow you with my whole life

Thursday venue undecided as yet

Speedygeese in the Women's and Girls' 5k Fun Run 1 April:
18 HELEN LARMOUR 21:56 W50 1st
21 MARIA O'REILLY 22:06 W55 2nd
28 JANENE KINGSTON 22:51 W45 2nd
89 CATHERINE MONTALTO 27:06 W55 8th
127 RUTH BAUSSMANN 28:26 W60 6th
680 finishers
Full results via http://www.wgfunrun.com.au/results.php

Coming events Week 14 of 2012:

Monday 2 April 4:30pm *Parliament House 8k jog
Monday 2 April 5:30pm *Parliament House speedygeese training
Wednesday 4 April 12:15pm BBQ Stakes 6k Woden
Thursday 5 April **speedygeese training venue & time tba (Dickson not available)**
Saturday 7 April 8:00am *Metro Runners Acton Ferry Terminal
* = I expect to attend

**We don't yet have a venue for Thursday, stay tuned. Some other group has booked Dickson each Thursday and I think we cannot use it. The Bilbys are in the same situation as us. I am taking suggestions about where we could go.

sunny run

The weather was perfect yet again for the annual women's and girls' fun run!

The leading pack at 1k

Helen

Maria

Cathy

Helen finishing

Janene finishing

Ruth finishing

quarterly report...

Running today at 8:00am: Zainab, Ewen, Ruth, Lucia, Abi, Amanda (new) and me. A great day to run the west basin circuit and beyond. This beautiful weather is predicted to continue...

Here is the run I did yesterday...

With one quarter of the year gone, I have so far run 1300k, which of course projects to 5200k for the year, well ahead of the 4200k target. Of course, the depths of winter are yet to come...

Speedygeese results, Final Vets Track Thursday 29 March
800m
M70 Tony Booth 3:06.83 77.6%

5000m Championships
W55 Maria O'Reilly 20.25
M50 Roger Pilkington 20.59
M40 Craig Davis 21.05
W50 Helen Larmour 21.20
M50 Ewen Thompson 22.14
W65 Caroline Campbell 24.58
M70 Tony Booth 27.01

Amanda ran with us today for the first time...

p.s. try these formulae. This probably only works in google chrome. (Can you create more like them?)...

sqrt(x*x+y*y)+3*cos(sqrt(x*x+y*y))+5 from -20 to 20

sqrt(x*x+y*y)+3*cos(sqrt(x*x+y*y))+5 from -40 to 4

parkrun comes to Canberra

A new running series, parkrun, will begin soon in Canberra.

"Parkrun started in the UK in 2004 when a small group of runners ran a 5k at Bushy Park – the Bushy Park time trial. The concept of free, timed, weekly 5k runs gained momentum and the first Australian parkrun was launched on the Gold Coast in April 2011. There are now parkruns in Australia in 5 locations with around 3000 runners and numerous volunteers involved. Canberra will soon be the 6th location.

"Parkrun is coming to Canberra, commencing 28 April 2012 from John Knight Park on Lake Ginninderra. We think the 5k is an attractive distance for new runners, a good hit out for mid-distance runners and a good complement to a long-distance runner’s training regime.

"Our focus is on building a community of runners and people who love running, we are not looking to divide the loyalty of your club members. Parkrun is open to everyone, is free, safe and easy to take part in. Some people run with prams, some to consolidate their Couch to 5K achievements, some as a tempo run and some run to take down the Parkrun Australia’s course record of 15:31 (!!).

"I’m seeking your assistance to get this great concept off the ground in Canberra by spreading the word to your group (and others). We’ll be running from John Knight Memorial Park each Saturday from 28 April. So come along and say hi. Here’s a link to the route http://www.strava.com/runs/5kilometers-4848750

"More information can be found at our website http://www.parkrun.com.au/home or join our facebook page ’Canberra Parkrun’."

The parkrun course

Happy Birthday Warrick, 42 today!

"Yes not Prime Minister"

March is wooshing past fast

Jill

Tony

me in green

Speedygeese at the Customs 5k Friday 23 March
Andrew Simpson 19:59
Miranda Rawlinson 27:01
Bill Arthur 29:25

Speedygeese who ran in the weekend track events
800m Championships 24 March
M50 Roger Pilkington 2:49.28 70.4%
M70 Tony Booth 3:08.09 77.1
W50 Helen Larmour 2:51.32 76.1
W55 Maria O'Reilly 2:52.14 81.0

400m Championships 25 March
M70 Tony Booth 1:22.71 75.5%

1500m Championships 25 March
M50 Roger Pilkington 5:41.56 72.4%
M70 Tony Booth 6:40.69 74.5
W55 Maria O'Reilly 5:45.67 87.8

Congratulations to Helen running a life-time pb for the 800m.

parliamentary square

This map of Monday night's training shows (a) the complete circle (square) of Parliament House that we do in our warm-up and cool-down, and (b) the many loops around the west-side oval we complete as we do our battle-camp circuit. The distance of the bigger circuit around Parliament House is 1.8k, and the distance around the oval's perimeter is 200m except that on Monday we were running around somewhat inside the perimeter.

Starting next Monday, 2 April, we finally return to doing some training on the hills around Parliament House. This will continue for five weeks.

And Thursday 5 April is the day we return to Dickson oval for training there under lights.

Nadine and Jen starting in the 8k Vets Handicap  at Stromlo Forest Park. Jen was first across the line at the finish.

head down

Happy Birthday Cherie 20 years old today.

Training at Parliament House last night: it was the last Monday before daylight saving ends, and we took advantage of the pleasant conditions to do a 20 minute battle-camp circuit, probably the last such training session until October. (See my April Vetrunner article on "strength training for distance runners".) Running early were Ewen, Miranda, Jen, Nadine & I, and running the main session were Andy, Christopher, Colin, Craig, Garry, Helen, Mick, Miranda, Ruth & Warrick. It was 20 minutes of sprints, crunches, squats, sit-ups and lunges.

Song of the week: The Shins: "Simple Song". From their new album “Port of Morrow”.



Andy starting off at the Stromlo 8k.

Head down, but Andy ran well, and only 7 days after a good half marathon.

photogenicity

Happy Wedding Anniversary Abi & Will, one year today!

Coming Events Week 13 of 2012:

Monday 26 March 4:30pm *Parliament House 8k jog
Monday 26 March 5:30pm *Parliament House speedygeese training
Tuesday 27 March 12:15pm Ginninderra 7k Handicap
Wednesday 28 March 12:15pm BBQ Stakes 6k Woden
Thursday 29 March 6:00pm *ACTVAC Track (including 5000m championships)
Friday 30 March 12:15pm Customs 5k Commonwealth Park
Saturday 31 March 8:00am *Metro Runners Acton Ferry Terminal
Saturday 31 March 1:00pm *YCRC Regatta Point 5k
Sunday 1 April 9:00am *YCRC Women’s and Grils’ 5k Fun Run
* = I expect to attend

Stromlo Forest Park

Strewth at Stromlo. I hope this photo meets her approval. They all look good to me. She is so photogenic. It is the matching gear she always wears. Must be a deliberate ploy to ensure there are always lots of photos of Strewth taken each month. Which there are.


FOOTNOTES
1. About Sunday's 8k, I didn't run all that fast, I held back. The time wasn't quick.
2. I wasn't keen to push the pace having run 37k the day before.
3. The first 4k was at marathon pace, can I keep it up for another 46k?
4. The splits for the two laps were 18 minutes and 17 minutes. I would hope to be approaching 16 minutes per 4k in June for the Cross Country Championships.
5. The apparent "high" age percentage is more to do with age than with speed.

Best running venue ever

Why do geese honk when they are flying? Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

Speedygeese results today:
Stromlo Forest Park 8k
1 Jennifer Bright W35 36:46 70.4%
5 Mick Charlton M60 43:55 64.9
13 Nadine Morrison W40 38:46 69.0
15 Christopher Lang M60 43:47 65.3
26 Ruth Baussmann W60 47:27 69.8
32 Andrew Matthews M50 36:43 71.3
42 Geoff Moore M60 35:05 82.1
47 Roger Pilkington M50 38:56 67.7
66 Rae Palmer W60 48:25 71.6
81 Caroline Campbell W65 52:07 73.7
89 finishers

Stromlo Forest Park 4k
31 Jill Pearson W50 22:32 66.4%
47 Tony Booth M70 24:09 66.3
47 finishers

A beautiful day and a fantastic venue. Best running venue ever.

Formal logic

Note that this implies you should NOT honk solely because I stopped for a pedestrian and you're behind me.

lots of Simon’s Cats

High Noon Meets in 2012.

The dates for this year’s High Noon meets have been announced. All High Noon meets are at the AIS Athletics track, commence on Sundays at 12 noon, and are over by 2:00pm. Programs of events will be available in due course. The dates are: 6 May, 20 May, 10 June, 24 June, 8 July, 22 July, 12 August, 2 September, 23 September.

The Lockyer Lake Eyre book was released yesterday. Go to the link at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-23/lockyer-lake-eyre-book-released/3908612. to see some fabulous photos from the book. Here is one of them:

And if you didn't watch the program about Lake Eyre on TV the other day, you missed something really special. I did tell you it was on.

I ran 37k this morning. Because I felt like it. Also running (various distances) from Acton Ferry Terminal were Susan, Suzie, Ruth, Zainab, Ewen, Andy, Abi, Lucia & Andrew.

grapefruit

Frank Woodley - my favourite comedian.

No running near the pool


"You cannot have Parliamentary debate without a speaker." My weekly fix of Aussie satire.

I have had a bit of a rethink about April's 50k, based on training and race times. I should be able to run under four hours and still be reasonably comfortable. There's no point in running it in five hours if I can do it in four and get it over with, is there?

waddle or fly?

C'mon speedygeese. Cooler weather is here, we can run further in training now. Also we'd better run early and get used to it, cold weather racing is on its way. No Vets track today, so an opportunity presents itself to have an easy long run.

Where I ran yesterday - out 8k following my nose, and back another 8k

The elevation chart. I gained quite a bit of height at the turn!

I turned at the Mount Rogers loop: next time I might do a lap or two as well, nice views from up there.

Later on I had a massage, the first for the year ... the masseur said I was the best he'd seen me in the nine years I have been going. Good!

More half marathon photos.

Roger

Caroline (early starter) finishing.

half marathon times

Speedygeese running the Weston Creek Half Marathon 18/3:
47 Geoff Moore 1:32.45
72 Andrew Matthews 1:39.05
100 Craig Davis 1:43.41
105 Warrick Howieson 1:44.10
116 Roger Pilkington 1:45.40
161 Katherine Sheppard 1:54.34
170 Zainab Farouk 1:57.39
178 Ruth Baussmann 2:01.41
180 Amanda Cook 2:03.32
195 Caroline Campbell 2:12.17
203 Bill Arthur 2:21.51
214 finishers (not counting relay teams)
My 5k splits: approx 21:50, 21:45, 22:30, 22:05

Cathy (running in a relay team)

speedy self

Ruth

Also Customs 5k results 16/3 Jen 21:50, Bill 29:23, Caroline 29:40

And Summer Series #8 Stromlo Forest Park 5k 20/3
27. Geoff Moore M60 21:27
30. Craig Davis M40 21:39
38. Ewen Thompson M50 22:48
39. Janene Kingston W45 23:21
42. Peter Fullagar M50 24:26
56. Ruth Baussmann W60 28:11
59. Caroline Campbell W65 28:24
65 finishers