Training Log Archive: O-ing

Event: Sydney Sprint #5
 

Cumberland Hospital. Good course, lots of twists and turns in among lots of buildings. No route choice, but that wasn't the point. 10th, 2 minutes behind Shannon Jones.
Running a lot better than previous weeks, again very hot.

Sprint series 5 - Splits

Lane Cove, 3 laps, last one with Ezy. It wasn't, he burned me off on the last hill.

Lane Cove. Still coughing a bit.

Watsons Bay

At Hotel. A little heavier level, more realistic distance. About 100 rpm.

At the hotel. About 105 rpm, didn't let it go below 100. Took 1km off the distance - the windtrainer overestimates speed.
R knee a bit better these days, probably could have run today if I'd finished work early enough and it wasn't 37 here.

C • I would have run in 37 if i... 1

Balmain. Took it easy. 500m to shake out the cold issues, OK after that for 20 minutes or so and then the heat started to take its toll (33). Time loss:
#25 overshot to wrong oval
#24 took a while to read the code from 20m away at the top of the cliff
#30 similar, but this time ran below unmapped cliff then back up the steps
At #29, failed to spot that it would have been worth going 20-15-26-16, instead of straight back to 16
#16 got stung by wasp while doing circuits of the substation
To finish, could have got #9 for no extra score - it would have put me over the next minute, but no more.

Commute

Event: Sydney Sprint Series #4
 

Its been a good time for fools to get their come-uppance: first the French soccer team, then Kevin Rudd and now Brian Cowen, leader of the ould sod. Thanks John Drennan of the Sunday Independent:

John Drennan: Party's over as Cowen crashes out of Neverland

On Wednesday morning it was clear that the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen was still 'elated' after the Tuesday night before. He was so 'elated' the normally dour Taoiseach beat the opposition up after an unfortunate intervention by Enda Kenny, who suggested the Labour motion of no confidence was "ill-timed and ill-judged".

As he chortled about how he entirely agreed with Enda and noted, "I tell you one thing lads, it's worth coming in here to see you", Cowen's 'elation' reached dangerous levels.

The danger level rose even higher as an even more 'elated' Taoiseach began to re-shuffle his Cabinet after midnight. Sadly, for Mr Cowen, the hangover kicked in on Thursday morning and is not going to go away for some time.

In truth, even before the man got the job that he never wanted, we all suspected it was always going to end in tears. But even though there was always more than a small element of the prodigal son surrounding Mr Cowen, no-one could expect this child-like Falstaff would squander so much of his inheritance.

Astonishingly, the second shortest-lived Taoiseach in the country, dissipated an initial 54 per cent popularity rating in addition to his popularity within Fianna Fail, his support within the Cabinet, the support of his coalition partners, his support amongst party members and the second-biggest government majority since the war.

And of course, the worst example of his squandermania is that his self-indulgent arrogant laziness and terrible character flaws destroyed the country he loved so eloquently . . . well, within the warm confines of the pub at least.

It all meant that by the end, like so many others who suffer from his fatal flaw, the Prince Hal of the bar lobby was reduced to the political status of being dressed in rags begging for spare political change.

In fairness, at least it ended with a little bit of dignity as Mr Cowen for once put the country above the party for, by staying on as Taoiseach but resigning as leader of Fianna Fail, he may at least ensure that the critical Finance Bill is passed.

After that, for Fianna Fail it will be the abyss, for nothing can rescue it now.
Ultimately, cute Micheal Martin of the eternally furrowed brow and the capacity to agree with the three sides of every argument will probably take over, but even he will not save the party for it is the Fianna Fail brand, not just the leader, that is toxic.

The party might once have been associated with success, ceol agus craic, the Galway races, the GAA, foaming pints of Guinness and Bertie 'and the way he might wink at you'.

Now, however, it is associated with ghost estates, derelict high streets, shattered dreams, fear, despair, the mocking laughter of Jay Leno about a 'drunken moron', un-employment, homelessness, and mass emigration.

At the zenith of the Celtic Tiger, we used to marvel how it was that Ireland experienced over one short decade the sort of social, economic and psychological changes it normally takes a country 40 years to secure.

And then, in two ill-starred years, Mr Cowen and the worst, most spineless cabinet in the history of the State plunged us back to the 1950s.

The worst feature of it all wasn't down to bad luck or communications, for Mr Cowen was the lazy author of his long-drawn out political suicide note.
We looked for inspiration and direction, and instead all we received from Mr Cowen was a cold sense of absence.

Truly he was the Taoiseach who, rather like King James during the battle of the Boyne, fled from the theatre of conflict to the safety of a caravan before the battle was over.

Such was his appetite for self-destruction that his resignation will have come as a relief to his TDs. The extent of his Pearse-like death wish was so severe that many suspected Cowen would, like Cu Chulainn with his back strapped to a rock, fight to the death until party, country and everything else turned to rubble.

Some indeed wondered if his desire to stay on was the modern equivalent of a despairing scorched-earth policy where the country would be levelled as a punishment for its failure to live up to the ideals of Fianna Fail.

But, at the end, though he simply realised his position was unsustainable. By yesterday, Cowen had lost the confidence of his party to such an extent that a growing number of back-bench TDs were prepared to vote against the Government, abstain or go 'missing' when it came to the Labour party's no-confidence motion next Wednesday.

He might have been laughing at the Labour no-confidence motion on Wednesday but in a fast-moving political landscape that was utterly unsuited to the Taoiseach's stately style of political warfare it had turned into 'a sword of Damocles that was hanging over Cowen's head'.

Threats by TDs that if Cowen didn't go "a lot of fellows will tell him they are going to have a Dessie O'Malley-standing-by-the-Republic-moment" was indicative of how much Cowen has lost the centre ground of the party.

He did it all by himself too, for the shockwave that spread through Fianna Fail on Thursday was epitomised by one TD's claim that he "knew how Hitler and the generals felt when the bomb went off in the bunker and fellows were wandering around dazed looking for missing arms and legs".

By Saturday, in spite of his self-imposed Trappist exile, even Mr Cowen must have known he had lost the support of an eclectic combination of younger, pragmatic deputies and older loyalists.

Apart from the damage done to his relationship with the Greens the 'resignations' of the Fianna Fail ministers damaged Mr Cowen's authority in another critical way -- for their departure stripped away Cowen's political authority in the party to such an extent he was a man alone who had no big beasts left to defend him.

He had stripped himself of just about everything else, for as party grandees such as Ray MacSharry and old friends like Willie O'Dea sadly abandoned Mr Cowen's standard, he resembled a latter-day Lear -- naked on a blasted heath bewailing the loss of his kingdom.

In truth, strange as it might appear, the children's author J M Barrie provides us with a more apposite analogy. Brian Cowen was the modern equivalent of Peter Pan, the child who never grew up.

Our tragedy is that the man who never left the Never Never land of the Fifties and Ber Cowen's pub in Clara was put in charge of a party and a country which, like Peter Pan, has never fully grown up.

This week, as Fianna Fail prepares to face its own electoral sword of Damocles, would be a good time for us to start.

Sydney Park. Sub-par run, partly explained by heat (34 degrees), the 100k cycling I did on the w/e and the remains of this cold. Running better than last week, but not good enough to trouble Michael Burton (17:10) or many others.

Sprint #4, Sydney Park - Splits

Bobbin Head. Good cycling weather. Had some help from various disorganised groups, pairs and singles. Caught up to one 3-person group on Bobbin Head Hill, two with fluoro yellow shirts and sandshoes, the other with one of those helmets with the fabric cover. Needless to say when I went past they hopped on my wheel and a few 100m later tried the re-pass. Quite successfully too, but I wasn't going to let them drop me. That hurt. 13.29 for the climb.

Still coughing stuff but definitely over the worst.

Event: Super Long World Champs III
 

Akuna Bay. Hot and slow. Garmin lost the track on me. Took off 5 minutes for traffic lights which is probably an underestimate.

Event: Sydney Sprint Series #3
 

Macquarie Uni. Disappointing run in a super field - cold affected. Good course. Breathing not good, couldn't find any zip at all, so just went through the motions. No real mistakes. A bit surprised that left to #3 was slower - Matthew Hill went right and gained 20 seconds on me there (but he was running faster anyway). Again, not sure of the best way to #8 - I went right, but I think left probably shaded it. Went the wrong way out of #9 - looked like a dead end but I could probably have got through according to the map (lost 15 seconds - actually lost 5 seconds going into #9 as well).
Biggest time loss and slowest split (26th) was no. 14 - an easy up hill run. That just shows how badly I was going.
14th, 5:18 behind Osterbo, 3:43 behind joshyB and 1:17 behind Michael Burton.

Macquarie Uni - Splits

To Bobbin Head. Wet in the National Park. Cold got worse - bad night with throat. However, bar a little productive coughing, no real effect on breathing.

Note: major casualty was my Mr. Splits watch (Casio 30 splits). The rain steamed it up and it hasn't recovered (Thursday). I've had this watch since about 1992 and the guy who used to repair it - Bernard Bloch, watchmaker, who Casio used to send all their repairs to - retired a couple of years ago. OMG I might have to buy a new watch??

C • That's tragic! 2

Lane Cove. Cheese Sauce, pathetic training run. Have a cold since Thursday - mild chesty cough now, no effect on running. Knees terrible though. Quite hot and humid.

Parsley Bay, Vaucluse. Took it a bit easy, still feeling Monday's efforts. Surprisingly, knees not really sore during or after. I have been taking voltaren with meals, so maybe thats it. However, they are still not the best platform to run on. Struggled on the hills - let Paula go ahead at 2 so I wouldn't have her breathing down my neck, or worse, go steaming past.
Ran past one without seeing it (-0:30). Lost 1:10 on #18, which was on an unmapped feature (goal post), when it should have been on the mapped feature (sewer cap). Successfully went through the bush on 12-13, which was fun. Near the end, spent a while (-1:10) searching for #29 and then abandoned #8 for fear of running out of time.

Bicentennial Park, Homebush. Good course set by Shingo. Got quite a few of the choices wrong and misread 13-14-5 that were in a straight line as 13-14-15, so took a wrong turn and had to double back (-0:15 and 1 place).
Running quite well given the dodgy knees. They weren't the solid platform I'm used too but held up OK during the race. The left one was actually sore at times during the race, but it was the right one that was sore after. Iced + voltaren. At least I know this one won't snap - its still got the kevlar wire in there from 1998.
7th behind joshyB (15:26) and Andy Hill (16:33). Undy ran well for 4th (17:50). Quite consistent with 11 top 10 splits out of 19. Suffered towards the end after the effort of trying to erase the 15 second mistake at #15 and probably lost another 10 seconds each on the hills to 16 and 17.

http://www.bigfootorienteers.com/RouteGadget/
http://www.bigfootorienteers.com/gfolder/summerspr...

Sprint - Splits

Bobbin Head and return. Right knee sore before, during and after.

Fingal

Little Beach. with snorkel, saw lots of little fish.

Fingal Bay. Both knees dodgy, right knee sore after.

Shoal Bay.

Nelson Bay-Anna Bay. On the Reiker - flat pedals. 60 psi tyre pressure.

Fingal Bay. Got lost at the start, but came out at the Fingal Bay Sports Club.

Nelson Bay-Salamander. On the old Reiker.

Fingal bay.

Greenwich baths.