Weigh-in week this week saw some improvement in muscle definition and weight gain and a little build up of fat (now that wasn't planned!). The weights lifted from 10 weeks ago have been increased by about 50% (so, if I was exercising a muscle group with 20kg, am now doing so with 30kg, 3x10 reps)
Aerobically have kept on target by achieveing 45 minute aerobic runs (abt 7.5km) plus those I-can't-believe-how-knackered-I-am-at-the-end Tan runs. Will now lift the intensity of these sessions by including anaerobic running to simulate some game requirements (variable pace running including 'bursting').
Showing posts with label Pre-season. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pre-season. Show all posts
Thursday, 15 November 2007
Thursday, 8 November 2007
Not the Official, offical Tan
An improvised Tan running track was measured out to the nearest 10 metres in the Outtrim valley and surrounding hillside over the weekend, in lieu of actually running around the Tan itself. A time of 16:45 was recorded which was acceptable. One more official Tan run left, next week, to set all new world records.
Monday, 22 October 2007
Seasons change
Pre-season
The pressing of the ‘stop’ button on the stopwatch. A small pump of the fist. Two minutes lying absolutely, physically spent on the grass, under an Elm next to the running track. A time of 16:35 recorded.
My preparation leading up to last Wednesday’s assault on The Tan was about as good as I could have hoped. Short runs on Saturday and Monday, a long one on Sunday with other gym sessions spaced inbetween. Wednesday came and the temperature was pleasant without being overbearing. No breeze to speak of. I spent some time warming up and stretching. I was almost afraid to start. I knew what was going to be asked of my body to record my best time. I also knew that to miss out on a sub-17 minute time (again) was going to leave a bitter disappointment longer lasting than the physical pain of running it.
The first 1 km was about equal with previous weeks, about 4:20. Brisk but not flat out. The run up Anderson Street was also quite strong and judging by my relative placing to others, about the right pace. I passed my first marker a little over and the second marker (12:30) about right. The difference this time was I knew I was running stronger, felt fitter and had a lot to give at the end. At the 3km marker I lifted my intensity to come home. Legs pumping, gut screaming and the same thought at the same corner: "a taxi would be so much easier."
This was my best time by 26 seconds. I was proud of the achievement but without resting on my laurels, the next target is 16:29 (my boss’ best time). He has been on holidays this last two weeks. Hopefully he has drunk beer and eaten chocolates. Somehow I suspect he will come back fitter and faster than ever. Oh well. I’ll be trying.
GG
This week’s GG recommendation is Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring (SBS Wed 1030P). A part of SBS’ South Korean festival, this was an art house hit in 2003/04 by director Kim Ki-duk who is also responsible for Time and 3-Iron.
Set in a small Buddhist temple, in the middle of a river, a young monk follows the seasons of his life (hence the allegorical nature of the title). This film is beautfilly shot and is very contemplative in parts. The themes are very accessible even if some of the plot points are a little obvious : from innocence to knowledge to repentance to wisdom.
The pressing of the ‘stop’ button on the stopwatch. A small pump of the fist. Two minutes lying absolutely, physically spent on the grass, under an Elm next to the running track. A time of 16:35 recorded.
My preparation leading up to last Wednesday’s assault on The Tan was about as good as I could have hoped. Short runs on Saturday and Monday, a long one on Sunday with other gym sessions spaced inbetween. Wednesday came and the temperature was pleasant without being overbearing. No breeze to speak of. I spent some time warming up and stretching. I was almost afraid to start. I knew what was going to be asked of my body to record my best time. I also knew that to miss out on a sub-17 minute time (again) was going to leave a bitter disappointment longer lasting than the physical pain of running it.
The first 1 km was about equal with previous weeks, about 4:20. Brisk but not flat out. The run up Anderson Street was also quite strong and judging by my relative placing to others, about the right pace. I passed my first marker a little over and the second marker (12:30) about right. The difference this time was I knew I was running stronger, felt fitter and had a lot to give at the end. At the 3km marker I lifted my intensity to come home. Legs pumping, gut screaming and the same thought at the same corner: "a taxi would be so much easier."
This was my best time by 26 seconds. I was proud of the achievement but without resting on my laurels, the next target is 16:29 (my boss’ best time). He has been on holidays this last two weeks. Hopefully he has drunk beer and eaten chocolates. Somehow I suspect he will come back fitter and faster than ever. Oh well. I’ll be trying.
GG
This week’s GG recommendation is Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring (SBS Wed 1030P). A part of SBS’ South Korean festival, this was an art house hit in 2003/04 by director Kim Ki-duk who is also responsible for Time and 3-Iron.
Set in a small Buddhist temple, in the middle of a river, a young monk follows the seasons of his life (hence the allegorical nature of the title). This film is beautfilly shot and is very contemplative in parts. The themes are very accessible even if some of the plot points are a little obvious : from innocence to knowledge to repentance to wisdom.
Thursday, 11 October 2007
Dumb Fifth Graders
Pre-season running
A change in running tactic meant a slower crawl up the Anderson Street hill in last week’s circuit of The Tan that meant, with 1km to go, I was 40 seconds behind my previous time. Not having burnt all of the fuel however meant that after burners could be engaged and I finished strongly, making up 37 of the 40 seconds. This of course still meant that I was slower than last time (with a time of 17:04) and still some way (it would seem) to breaking the “magical” 17:00 barrier. My boss still ran a 16:30 ish sort of time which seems harder to crack every week I try. “Onwards and upwards !” Next week we’ll employ a new tactic, hopefully one that is FASTER.
Love/Hate
What I really hate is people who walk slowly, perambulate in front of me and add insult to injury by premeditating my walk-around by drifting from their pre-aligned path into mine. A situation where a laser guided rocket would be a great add-on to completely remove them from ever walking this earth again. By contrast, one thing that I love is breakfast, and in particular, a warm bowl of porridge (call me Goldilocks if you must), sweetened with brown sugar.
Rant
Have you seen this latest insult to low brow entertainment, masquerading as “family viewing”, ‘Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?’ ? We all accept that a quiz show is what it is and rewards general knowledge. Sale of the Last Century did that better than most for years. People enjoy it. Millionaire plays to the same kind of crowd and at least the questions get harder the longer one contestant plays. We also acknowledge the, ‘it has nothing to do with a quiz show’, versions that are game shows that ask dumb-ass questions to pass the time. The questions asked on the ‘5th Grader’ show are genuinely questions that primary aged kids might be expected to know or answer in a classroom. Now I passed grade 5 some years ago. And grade 6. And grade 7. And so on. {didn’t do so well in some other years but that is not the point – I AM SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER}. It seems that the questions asked are not especially difficult, one just has to take care how one answers. Think it through again. There’s no trick. Not like the trick questions we used to ask each other in grade 5, example, “an electric train … how much smoke, etc.” Take an example of a question I heard on Nova this week : which STAR is the closest to planet earth. Hughesy, not thinking, thought PLANET and said, “Mars”. WRONG. The Sun of course is the closest star to planet earth. See, it sounds tricky but its not really. The silly adults that appear on the show really deserve their public humiliation of being stupider than a 5th grader because they don’t know the answers ! “The largest dinosaur was called a T___ Rex.” I mean, Come On ! Get this dross off !
A change in running tactic meant a slower crawl up the Anderson Street hill in last week’s circuit of The Tan that meant, with 1km to go, I was 40 seconds behind my previous time. Not having burnt all of the fuel however meant that after burners could be engaged and I finished strongly, making up 37 of the 40 seconds. This of course still meant that I was slower than last time (with a time of 17:04) and still some way (it would seem) to breaking the “magical” 17:00 barrier. My boss still ran a 16:30 ish sort of time which seems harder to crack every week I try. “Onwards and upwards !” Next week we’ll employ a new tactic, hopefully one that is FASTER.
Love/Hate
What I really hate is people who walk slowly, perambulate in front of me and add insult to injury by premeditating my walk-around by drifting from their pre-aligned path into mine. A situation where a laser guided rocket would be a great add-on to completely remove them from ever walking this earth again. By contrast, one thing that I love is breakfast, and in particular, a warm bowl of porridge (call me Goldilocks if you must), sweetened with brown sugar.
Rant
Have you seen this latest insult to low brow entertainment, masquerading as “family viewing”, ‘Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?’ ? We all accept that a quiz show is what it is and rewards general knowledge. Sale of the Last Century did that better than most for years. People enjoy it. Millionaire plays to the same kind of crowd and at least the questions get harder the longer one contestant plays. We also acknowledge the, ‘it has nothing to do with a quiz show’, versions that are game shows that ask dumb-ass questions to pass the time. The questions asked on the ‘5th Grader’ show are genuinely questions that primary aged kids might be expected to know or answer in a classroom. Now I passed grade 5 some years ago. And grade 6. And grade 7. And so on. {didn’t do so well in some other years but that is not the point – I AM SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER}. It seems that the questions asked are not especially difficult, one just has to take care how one answers. Think it through again. There’s no trick. Not like the trick questions we used to ask each other in grade 5, example, “an electric train … how much smoke, etc.” Take an example of a question I heard on Nova this week : which STAR is the closest to planet earth. Hughesy, not thinking, thought PLANET and said, “Mars”. WRONG. The Sun of course is the closest star to planet earth. See, it sounds tricky but its not really. The silly adults that appear on the show really deserve their public humiliation of being stupider than a 5th grader because they don’t know the answers ! “The largest dinosaur was called a T___ Rex.” I mean, Come On ! Get this dross off !
Friday, 28 September 2007
Brownlow blues
There is nothing inherently wrong with a time of 17.01 around The Tan running track, a distance of 3.85 km. In fact, by all accounts, its quite a good time. And its not the fact that I ran exactly the same time two fortnight’s in a row, both times I knew I couldn’t have run any faster to lessen the time. However the ridiculously competitive spirit within me wants to make every attempt a PB and (more significantly) beat my boss who is also running the Tan regularly and is now 30 seconds ahead of me. So, I’m disappointed with that time and will be looking to beat it next attempt. Not sure if I will by 5 seconds or 50 but I will !
There was plenty wrong with the Brownlow presentation on Monday night. As you know, I am a bit of a sucker for Award shows, Oscar’s night and Brownlow night feature prominently in my annual viewing calendar. The anguish on the faces of those who really want to win (such as Scott West last year) and the round by round highlight packages form a great recap to kick start Grand Final week. But the Funniest Home Videos-like commentary framing the highlights was the first on a long list of what to hate about that coverage this year. Bruce really needs a good smack in the head for his incessant blabbering about “did you knows” and “what abouts”. We really haven’t missed him while the footy was at channel 9. Even Eddie must have been kicked after his first year calling games because he has toned down his oh-so-interesting stat talk. The player interviews were as vacuous as ever; Bruce’s “interview” with Bartel the second it was apparent he had won was cringe-worthy and gratuitous as he would be on stage in just a couple of minutes more (“We just wanted to say, well done Jimmy. Congratulations from all of us. Well done”); and Ricky Olarenshaw managed to sideline whatever female viewership was left by 11pm with his take on partner’s use of their man’s credit cards. It seems that Demetriou was given instructions to read out the votes at double pace however that seemed redudant when ch.7 filled in the “extra” time with an unfunny cross to Stephen Curry (of the Toyota grand final highlight ads) and interviews with retiring players Hird, Kouta, Riccuto and Archer via a video tape and then have them on stage to ask them the same questions in person. And finally, the red carpet show preceding the medal count was as disappointing as ever with very few dresses actually being shown. It can’t be that hard to show what every woman in town wants to watch ? Show the frocks! Show the frocks. Don’t show Garry Lyon, Sam Newman or any of the other has-been meatheads in a not-so-witty piece to camera.
And in a new segment, I would like to name some things that I hate. Celebrating this time of year, I hate the Royal Melbourne Show. The rotten, over-tired, crashing from too much sugar darlings crowd on to my train at going home time, take up all the seats, carry way too many show bags/balloons/giant stuffed animals and talk way too loudly when all I want to do is get home quickly and quietly.
I do love the Grand Final parade however. It is my one day a year when I can be a starry eyed groupie in the crowd, cheer on the footballing heroes as they drive by in the backs of the sponsor’s four wheel drives and sing along to the club songs played out by the marching bands.
There was plenty wrong with the Brownlow presentation on Monday night. As you know, I am a bit of a sucker for Award shows, Oscar’s night and Brownlow night feature prominently in my annual viewing calendar. The anguish on the faces of those who really want to win (such as Scott West last year) and the round by round highlight packages form a great recap to kick start Grand Final week. But the Funniest Home Videos-like commentary framing the highlights was the first on a long list of what to hate about that coverage this year. Bruce really needs a good smack in the head for his incessant blabbering about “did you knows” and “what abouts”. We really haven’t missed him while the footy was at channel 9. Even Eddie must have been kicked after his first year calling games because he has toned down his oh-so-interesting stat talk. The player interviews were as vacuous as ever; Bruce’s “interview” with Bartel the second it was apparent he had won was cringe-worthy and gratuitous as he would be on stage in just a couple of minutes more (“We just wanted to say, well done Jimmy. Congratulations from all of us. Well done”); and Ricky Olarenshaw managed to sideline whatever female viewership was left by 11pm with his take on partner’s use of their man’s credit cards. It seems that Demetriou was given instructions to read out the votes at double pace however that seemed redudant when ch.7 filled in the “extra” time with an unfunny cross to Stephen Curry (of the Toyota grand final highlight ads) and interviews with retiring players Hird, Kouta, Riccuto and Archer via a video tape and then have them on stage to ask them the same questions in person. And finally, the red carpet show preceding the medal count was as disappointing as ever with very few dresses actually being shown. It can’t be that hard to show what every woman in town wants to watch ? Show the frocks! Show the frocks. Don’t show Garry Lyon, Sam Newman or any of the other has-been meatheads in a not-so-witty piece to camera.
And in a new segment, I would like to name some things that I hate. Celebrating this time of year, I hate the Royal Melbourne Show. The rotten, over-tired, crashing from too much sugar darlings crowd on to my train at going home time, take up all the seats, carry way too many show bags/balloons/giant stuffed animals and talk way too loudly when all I want to do is get home quickly and quietly.
I do love the Grand Final parade however. It is my one day a year when I can be a starry eyed groupie in the crowd, cheer on the footballing heroes as they drive by in the backs of the sponsor’s four wheel drives and sing along to the club songs played out by the marching bands.
Thursday, 6 September 2007
A Bit Of A Run
Pre-season training is underway and a second run around the Tan yesterday yielded a time of 17.01, an improvement of nearly 90 seconds from two weeks ago.
If you are interested in a social kick of the footy this weekend then the first of four ABOAK (A Bit Of A Kick) ‘kick off’ on Sunday at 2pm, Ford Park, Heidelberg. Lift the aerobic, hang out with mates and kick the footy ! What more could you want ?
If you are interested in a social kick of the footy this weekend then the first of four ABOAK (A Bit Of A Kick) ‘kick off’ on Sunday at 2pm, Ford Park, Heidelberg. Lift the aerobic, hang out with mates and kick the footy ! What more could you want ?
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