IncreMENTAL

I've been preaching about incremental improvement and believe that without super efforts, consistant training can gradully reap rewards, if you are patient. This doesn't suit a lot of people because they are keen to see more rapid gains and reap their rewards sooner.

I went out on my slightly changed circuit this morning feeling very slow. Last might I finished moving furniture and lugged cartons of tiles and bags of adhesive down the front yard to the house in preparation for the tiler to start this morning. I was thinking while I was running that having don the circiuit in 37:49 yeaterday, I would not be disappointed with 40 mins today considering how I felt. So I when I arrived home in a lather of sweat, the humidity already rising, I was shocked by my time of 36:49. These are the moments I enjoy because they really give me a boost.

Wednesday 28/9/2005

7.65K in 37:49 today. I changed my course slightly in order to avoid a steep down hill run which was giving my knees some grief.

Sunday 25/9/2005

Due other committments I ran from home this morning instead of going in to Park Road. I ran a circuit I haven't run for a very long time. From my home in Bellbird Park I ran out along the Augusta Parkway, Past the Brookwater Golf Course to Springfield then through to Camira and Gailes, down to the Ipswich Motorway, along to Goodna and then up the hill to Bellbird Park and home. 20K's all up in 1:50. A nice steady enjoyable run. I carried a water bottle and had a Gu at about 10K. I wasn't bothered by any Magpies I am pleased to say.

A lot of the bush areas that I run through are gradually being tken over by housing estates. Springfield is the fastest growing residential area in Australia. Though it is part of the Ipswich City, I don't think it will be long before it is classified as a city in its own right. Already it boasts a University Campus (University of Southern Queensland) and construction of a large town centre, including a high rise Office building has commenced.

Wednesday 21/9/2005

I did something radical today. I didn't wear my watch. So it was 6.8K in 'who knows what' time. I love these mornings. The weather is perfect. The magpies are behaving themselves. I just have to remember to stop running when I get back home.

Tuesday 20/9/2005

It's those incremental improvements that count. They are what I get excited about. My idea is that you don't go out there and bust your gut trying to do better and better. You allow your gradual fitness improvement to dictate your performance. So without trying to improve you find that your gradually, bit by bit, you do improve. My 30:59 today for my 6.8k circuit was eciting to me because I didn't go out saying I am going to reduce my time, i just ran the way I normally do and the improvement was there.

Well anyway as Robert Song commented, it seems to work for me (Eddie).

Monday 19/9/2005

My running buddy rang on Saturday and said she was too sick to do a long run so I opted to go to West End after all and do the 14K Championship with the club. Thinking that the race started at 6:30 I thought I would get there about 6:00 and warm up. As I was parking the car I saw a crowd at the starting line and thought Uh Oh! As I was signing in the strating gun went I had to sprint to catch up.

Gold! Gold! Gold! I won my age category (50-54). I had such a good run after a year Horribilus. 1:00:30 av 4:19 per K. I was happy with that. It must have been the sprint start.

Friday 16/9/2005

I didn't run this morning or yesterday. My knees are a bit saw and i don't want to aggravate them for my long run on Sunday. We are hoping to make 32K from Park Road . I will be missing the 14k at West End and the the 10K River Run.

Wednesday 14/9/2005

6.8K today in 31:52. Two consectutive days sub 32 mins. That's an improvement on last week. It is these sort of incremental improvements I am always looking for in my training. I find that they are good indicators of my general fitness.

Tuesday 13/09/2005

This morning when the alarm went off I almost convinced myself that another rest day would do me good, but eventually decided that I would feel much better if I just got out there on the road. I did the 6.8K circuit in 31:28 and felt good. I am resisting the tempation to increase that distance at the moment. I think I will stick with the 6.8 for a while.

On Sunday at Glasshouse, Roger Guard, the 100 Miler, handed me an entry form for the Toowoomba Marathon to be run in October. I sure am tempted.

Monday 12/9/2005

What a great weekend! on Saturday I ran 21K from Park Road. It took 1:53 but felt good all the way. On Sunday I did the 12K at Glasshouse in 1:04:38. I was very pleased with that. The highlight of the weekend was being a the finish line to see Boonarga and Mr G come in. Spud was there to greet them as well. He had run the 100 miles in 21:45 and looked as fresh as a daisy. These 100 milers are incredible people.

Lady Jove impressed me with her 50k on Saturday and then doing 12k on Sunday...and she looked like she could go out and do it again.

Friday 9/9/2005

Another beautiful run this morning. What glorious running weather. 6.8K in 32:37 today.

Tomorrow I will be doing 21K from Park Road and on Sunday the baby run (12K) at Glasshouse.
All up, it should be a good weekend.

I would love to be in Sydney this wekend. Of the my 4 marathons, Sydney is my favourite (and my fastest).

Wednesday 7/9/2005

Another pleasant run today. That means, of course, that I am not training hard enough. This is bourne out by the fact that I ran the same circuit as yesterday but in 33:45. I will just have to stop enjoying myself so much. No pain..no gain.

My son's graduation went well yesterday. I was bursting with pride.

6/9/2005

I ran from home this morning. 6.8K in 31:56. I felt really good and enjoyed the run.

A special day today. My son Anthony who is 31 years old and is a Diesel Fitter by trade is graduating from the Griffith University with a Commerce degree. Even before he had received his final results he had commenced work with Rio Tinto at their Tarong Coal mine, about 3hrs NW of Brisbane, as a Health & Safety Adviser. I am very proud of his achievement.

Monday 5/9/2005

I didn't end up doing 35k on Sunday. We cut the run short and only did 28K which suited me fine. My Grandchildren were waiting at home with presents for me, it being Father's Day and me being their stand-in Dad.

On Friday, 2/9 I did the two bridges again and this time wore my Garmin 201. It measured the distance as 6.7k and tool me 32 minutes, a slightly longer time than I did on Tuesday. So much for my gradually reducing the time.

Wednesday 31/8/2005

I went for run in my lunch break today. I did the Goodwill Bridge - Story Bridge circuit from the City Gardens. I am not sure of the distance but it took me 31:45. I am hoping to steadily improve on that over the coming weeks as I prepare for the PwC Coolnight Classic and the Endeavour 500k Relay.

Monday 29/8/2005

I had a very pleasant run with with friends yesterday. We left Park Road at 5:30 and did a 21k circuit. It took a bit longer than my half at Noosa the week before but it was time on legs. One of my friends is training to do the Victoria marathon in Canada in October, so next Sunday I am doing 35K with her. that will be a challenge for me.

Saturday 27/8/2005

I helped out at the Springfield Lakes fun run this morning. I helped Di Miller set out the course with road closure signs and witches hats. A couple of hours work. Then I helped on the water table until the last walkers went through. I went back to the start/finish area and ran over the 5k course with a couple of other helpers to fill in the time until the 2k race started. During the 2k race I helped on the finishing shute then helped a little with the packing up before I had to head home.

Mine was a very little effort compared with that of Bob and Di Miller in organising the whole event. They did a fantastic job against the odds. The local council gave them so much grief. Bob and Di have had enough so it was their last today. Thanks Bob and Di.

Tomorrow I am meeting the Park Road crew at 5:30AM. We are planning on about 21k.

One of the helpers I ran with at Springfield today was Peter Hunt, known as Wombat, (not our CR Wombat). Peter is the Captain of the Brisbane Road Runners 500k relay team. He is getting stuck into me already about training for the relayto be run in November, my 3rd this year. The relay requires team members to run their guts out for 3 to 6 k's at least 3 time a day over three days. You run your guts out because there is no way you want let your team mates down. When your team mate comes in utterly spent and tags you you just know that you have to give it all you've got.

It's a tremendous event to be part of and raises funds for the Endeavour Foundation.

Friday 26/8/2005

Yesterday I went for a run in my lunch break. I followed the course used for the Pricewaterhouse Coopers Coolnight Classic which will be coming up again in November. the run took me through the City gardens, accross the Goodwill Bridge, along Kangaroo Point, over the Story Bridge and back to the Gardens.

Approaching the Story Bridge from the south means that not only do you have the steady incline to the centre of the Bridge but you have the very long approach to the Bridge as well. This fact can take runners in a race like the PwC classic by surprise.

It was a good run and I worked up a fair old sweat.

Tomorrow I will be helping out with the Springfield Lakes fun run. 5k and 2K events to which to hope to get 2000 runners and walkers. This may be the last as the local council is making it almost impossible to meet there requirements for an event like this.

Sunday 21/8/2005

Noosa Half
I ran my third Noosa Half today. I set out to do 1:35 and was happy to achieve my goal. It was 5 minutes slower than last year but last year I had been training.

It takes me about 10k's to really get into the race. I wasn't feeling to good at first. My legs felt like lead weights. The second part of the race went well and I reeled in and passed a few of those who had passed me earlier. I had enough left in the tank to put on a bit of a sprint for the finish.

It was a great day. For those who had put in the training the conditions were perfect for PB's and they were abounding.

My results from the Noosa Half webb site: 1:35:34, placed 160 out of 774 overall and 11 out of 59 for the M50-54 category.

Sunday 14/8/2005

What a beautiful day today after the bleak cold day yesterday. It was perfect running weather this morning and I enjoyed it to the max. We ran a 10 miler at West End today and I managed 1:13:30 which I was very pleased with.

I had the pleasure of running with a lady named Julia, Jules for short, whom I had never met before. We encouraged each other along and ran a nice consistent pace, picking up a little at the end.

Hannah, who did the 10 miles as well, and I were expecting to see Clairie but she was a no show. CR Lizell ran a strong race and won the female category.