Monday 18 July 2005

The night the lights went out

Posted by speedygeoff on Monday, July 18, 2005 with
"....That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia. That's the night that they hung an innocent man. Well, don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer. 'Cause the judge in the town's got bloodstains on his hands."

What a terrible song that was. Anyway tonight was the night the lights went out at Parliament House, or at least that part of the grounds where we were trying to run. Seems our training venues haven't been very successful this winter - we have abandoned Dickson for the AIS on Thursdays because of the July rains, and at Parliament House first we had sprinklers going at the fitness circuit on the west side where we started our training season; then they dug up the east side where we were doing our hill reps and simply left the piles of dirt there, and now the lights go out at 6:20pm along the flagpoles, when we are two thirds of the way through our session, trying to run by our watches. Not to mention the never ending works in progress installing bollards at great expense. I don't think much of the service we are getting from the Australian Government! Is there a conspiracy? Do they hate us? Do we look dangerous? (Well yes we do, but I think they can see we are simple runners). Are they trying to drive us away? When will we be thrown in detention?

WE CAN ENDURE IT! AND WE ARE FAST! The phase of training we are doing at present is the speed-endurance phase. On Mondays we are doing sessions like tonight's - three repeats of (20 seconds on, 40 off, 40 on, 80 off, 60 on, 120 off, 80 on, 160 off). On Thursdays at the AIS longish time trials or longer intervals. The objective is to develop staying power at speed, ie the ability to race a 10k at a faster pace! (Fair enough?). WE HANG IN THERE!

By the way I heard that Rod Lynch fell off his bicycle a few days ago and broke an elbow. Tough luck Rod - get well soon!