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/