Wednesday 30 April 2008

Coaching session & a small month of running

But more k's than February, which was easy! Tonight I had my young squad at the track and two 15 year old girls joined us to. On arrival I jogged 1 lap with Michelle (15) and on the second grabbed one of the 12 year old girls and eventually as kids arrived some jumped on and others jumped off after 3 laps, I ended up doing 10 easy laps.

Some strides on the grass with the kids and then I did some of the strengthen drills with the kids. Tonight the kids did 5x300m at varying paces, I did three of these reps at a comfortable pace coaching on the run, which the kids tell me they like.

I finished off with 2 easy laps with the fastest 2 kids and after the youngest ones left I jogged another two laps whilst watching Michelle & Melissa finish their final rep. So all up well over 6k which my achilles felt good afterwards.


Pilates at 7:30pm.

Tuesday 29 April 2008

Just coaching

No running tonight, just a coaching session for four 12/13 years old girls, 5x600m in 2m 45s (55 sec per 200m) with a 2-2.30 min break. Easy reps, with lots of talk re form, running tall, relaxed arms and shoulders.

I also grabbed a couple of Burkie's girls for some strength & core work afterwards.

Monday 28 April 2008

Short time in the gym and a run around Wyndham Park

Well I went to work early to go to the gym for 45 min or so, but I decided whilst driving in, that I would prefer to get some work done, so I only spent 25 min in the gym, 10 min on the bike and then 15 min of stretching and core work.
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Tonight I put my Garmin on one of the 'lead' kids in my group, I was interested to see how far the kids approx run in my Mon session, 5.2km. Probably 5/6 of the kids would have run that far and then a few would have been approx 1km less and then a couple of even younger ones would have been low to mid 3kms. With me jogging predominantly at the front of the pack except for a few hill repeats I would have run about 4.8km. Tonight we jogged for 6 min to warm up, stretching and then a lap at medium pace to show them exactly where I wanted them to go, 2 min break and then they were to run the lap at a pace that they could repeat after a 3 min break. A couple of the younger kids I told them to jog slowly 2 min in one direction with one of the mums and then return. The older and faster kids all ran slightly faster on their second lap, which was great and a lot better than I expected and it wasn't because they were going slow the first time. :-) Very happy with the pacing.

We then finished off with some hill work, short repeats which I did 4 of and then for the final two I watched, protecting my heel, but also coaching technique.

I was impressed tonight, when we arrived there was a light shower and when we left it started to rain, but whilst training, NO rain. But I was impressed even with the ordinary weather conditions (cold & wet) I had 11 kids and two mums tonight.
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Western Aths Committee tonight, the final preps for our 'late' Presentation Night this Saturday and also the final meeting prior to the AGM and we need to discuss that our President is moving on and we need some new blood on the Committee.
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RIP LCPL Jason Marks

Sunday 27 April 2008

You Yangs....yes me

This morning I meet Club mates at Toynes Rd and ran around the Branding Yard Trail (5.7km), I started with one of the new guys, Andrew, after 8 min I told him he should move on and catch up to the other guys and I walked for 30 sec and then jumped onto the back of a small pack with Bel & Mel and 2 others.

I stayed with them and completed the run in 28:01, the pace was ok and I wasn't worried by my achilles, just fitness. It wasn't hard, but I was aware that I was breathing harder than I normally would at this pace. Three hours later my heel feels good and I'm happy... This was my first run with adults in more than 2 months, so it was nice to have adult style conversation whilst running.


I went to dinner last night with a girl who I have been hanging out for awhile, I suppose as dinner was with her brother, nephew and their partners at her brothers house, this must mean that maybe we are more than just hanging out. And she has now met all four of my boys, so for the one or two people that haven't worked it out already...you should ask Jo.. ;-)

Friday 25 April 2008

ANZAC Day




Dawn Service, gun-fire breaky and then a day of just wondering around and doing stuff.

No running, no physical stuff at all, except walking.

Wednesday 23 April 2008

A day off from work

Sometimes you just have to enjoy being a Public Servant and flexible working hours that allow us to be reimbursed OT with time off... (flex leave). With more than 20 hours owing, I asked for today off so I could watch the Hoppers District PS XC Champs. With the first race at 12:15pm, I started the day with an important sleep in...an appointment with some hot wax (years later and it still hurts...) and then a swim. I'm not 100% sure if swimming is in the program yet, but I only swam 750m (breast stroke & free style), so I'm sure I will survive.

I then sat in a coffee shop for 60 minutes reading the paper and drinking nice coffee before going to the XC course. I met the school group and then after a few minutes it felt like a normal XC race, lots of kids spotting me and parents too. So a few bits of advise to a few kids and jogging around with many kids, which gets strange looks from some teachers (who is this guy sort of looks...understandably). But by the end of the day I was approached by 2 other schools.

The only disappointing aspect of today is that Connor could have progressed to Zones today (top 6 go through), but at the school's race a feww weeks ago he had a 'brain snap' and decided he wouldn't race and stood on the start line for 10 minutes before he decided he would become normal again. One of his friends, Jarrad, who finishes within metre of him at Little Aths over 1500m finished 3rd today in the 2k race. :-(


Today's racing was great, Mia finished 2nd in the 10 year 2k race, but was 5th last at the 400m mark, happy to see a controlled start. Claire & Alysse were in the 12 year old race (Grade 6) and finished 1st and 3rd, with Kaitlyn (who I coached up to 1 month ago) in 2nd. A couple of younger kids who raced up ages (meaning they are 8 or 9) did really well with top 10 finishes but not good enough to progress, but they have another year or two in this age group, so they were great performances!

The St Peters kids did really well, in the big picture my four sessions with the kids wouldn't have helped a lot, excluding Claire (more than 12 months), but with 6 kids progressing through and three winners, Claire, Ben & Lexie (teachers daughter), the school were very happy with finishing 2nd out of 12 competing schools.
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Training tonight was at the track, with nearly all of my kids having raced in the past two days I thought I would give them a different session. One lap of the complex (900m) and one lap of the track, then some dynamic stretching and then some leg strengthening exercises, jumping, hopping, bounding and skipping. Then a few strides on the jav run up and onto the grass. Then for a change I set up a circuit, crunches, squats, push ups, lunges, burpees & planks with 20m runs in between each station, a lap of the circuit took approx 3 minutes. Finished off with some games.
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Like this evening I nearly forgot to mention my pilates, done & dusted. Its great for core, but a NEED more cardio...oh and to eat & drink less :-|

Tuesday 22 April 2008

F.all running and too lazy to go to the gym today

Slept in and didn't get to the gym, so at my desk at 8am...

I confirmed the time and location of the Hoppers Crossing PS District XC Champs today and confirmed my attendance with Pauline. As well as the school team I have four kids at other schools representing their school, I expect all four of them to make it through and a handful of the St Peters kids.

Today the Werribee District PS Champs were being run near Presidents Park/Riverbend Park, Teagan, Natalie & Chantelle were all in the same race. Going on summer form Natalie would prob follow Teagan but both would be following Sarah C (not in my squad), but obviously the easy running on Mondays and the sharper stuff on Wed have been helping. Teagan won for the first time, Nat second and Chantelle 4th, who ran up an age so she could progress to Zones, a bit of a gamble which paid off. I got a phone call from Chantelle's dad with a description of the race, it sounded very exciting. So the formula is working and I'm sure with Zones at the end of May I can get them a lot fitter and running smarter before School Champs and then State Little Aths Champs.
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I went down to the track with my 3 boys as I thought Michelle & Michele were coming down for a track session; but both rang after 5pm and told me they couldn't make it. I watched of the young girls who have left me to go to Burkie due to friendships (fine with me, but still a little sad of course), chatted a bit with some Club mates and then took the boys home for dinner (meat balls & spagh), their mum was attending a meeting regarding Connor's upcoming Eucharist
(and here's me thinking that it was a communion, but Connor wants me to call it Eucharist)... :-)

Monday 21 April 2008

Appt at OPSMC & a coaching session at Wyndham Park with some running

3pm appointment at OPSMC, to be honest I was worried that Karen would be saying I had gone backwards, but that wasn't the case, she listened to what I had done (& yes I was 100% honest) and my explanation of how it felt etc. So up on the table, a check and some prodding and then a session of shockwave, overall she is very happy and even though I am more aware of my achilles she believes it feels better and reminded me that I am off the anti-flam tabs.

Plan for next two weeks (next appt), no change to my running schedule, all easy, all on grass/dirt, short runs only and no more than 3 in a week. But the difference is I have a heel raising/lowering regime to follow for the 2 week period.

After my appt I picked up Connor & little Teagan and made my way to Wyndham Park for my training session with the youngens. I gave all of the mums & dads my training plan & timetable for the U12 and younger kids for the next 2 months, they were impressed, a plan. Today was our first visit to Wyndham Park for 2008, many of the kids just assumed we would run the course, but thats not my intent at all. We ran along the dirt trails, crossed the river, jogged around Chrinside Oval (home of the Werribee Tigers, VFL team), with a few onlookers from the footy guys. Its funny, I take all of these trails for granted, but the kids were like wow.... With a few hills thrown in here and there, a few minutes of fartlek work and some jogging recoveries, I was able to keep 14 young kids fairly quiet tonight... :-) A couple of the kids were seperated from the main group in the second half, they are racing in PS District XC races this week, so I had them running on the flat paths whilst the others were going up and down some short sharp hills. The only concern was Stu did these too...according to my Garmin 3.5k for Stu.
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AV results are in and Wes Aths are very happy, four teams in the top 3 and heaps in the top half and best of all, I confirmed recruitment for another two ladies who are 43 min ish 10k runners today and also another guy who is a consistant 38 min runner, all three are 'spewing' they missed the first race! Results here

BIG SMILES

Sunday 20 April 2008

AV Officials, Administrator's & Club of the Year Award

No run today, I did considering going to the You Yangs for a Club run and complete the 5.6km loop, but thankfully I thought about it a bit more and decided breaky was more important and a smarter decision for my achilles.
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Today as the Western Aths Secretary and Clare (Registrar), attended the AV Awards Function in Camberwell as our Club attendees. The Awards function is predominantly to recognise the great dedicated work that the officials and administrators put in to the sport of athletics here in Victoria. There were some Certificates of Recognition for officials who have served the sport for 60, 50, 40 & 20 years. Also some guests were introduced and interviewed, Madeleine Pape, Sean Wroe & two time olympian, Ray Weinberg, which was great listening to the aspirations and preparations for their olympic games preparations and then Ray's stories of 2 OG and and third as a Team Manager and Coach. Also a 30 min show from Greg Champion, which was GREAT & VERY funny!

After the awards for the top male & female officials were handed out, they moved to the Club awards, the Administrator was given to a guy from Diamond Vally and the Club of the Year Award was given to Western Athletics!!! :-)

Very excited to receive this award in amongst 60 AV Clubs, a nice Certificate and $1000 to the CLub to be used for a project, yet to be decided. Not much more to say!

Saturday 19 April 2008

Round 1 for Werribee LAC XC & Round 1 for the AV XCR08 Series

Little Aths, C & D had their first race for the season and Declan was up first, U7 1000m race which is a combined U6, 7 & 8 boys & girls, I ran as the 'rabbit', a nice way to run 800m and then stop and give encouragement for the final part. Declan ran a PB and happily ran the entire distance. Connor ran in the second race, U9 & 10s in the 1500m, this was Connor's first in this distance, 8 boys in his age group and he finished 4th and ran really well.

The kids I coach dominated the U8, 9, 10 & 11s, but the boys in U10 & 11 age group aren't with me, excluding those boys, my squad had 1st to 5th and all ran very well.
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Round One of the AV XCR08 Series, at Jells Park, below is the map & elevation of the 3km course:




No running for me, but my job today was VERY busy (but I love it), I was the Team Manager for the Western Aths teams and to explain how different this was to previous years, last year we had our most teams; 7, this year we paid for 20 teams, 9 Open & 11 underage teams. WOW!!! One of our U14 boys was withdrawn on the day, but 19 teams hit the start line; Men Div 3, 5, 6, 7 (2 teams), U20 (2), U16 (2) and U14; Women Div 2, 3 & 4 (2), U20, U18, U16 & U14 (2). But not only lots of teams, but lots of new members, so basically a lot of confused looks... :-)

Lots of good runs, we are still waiting for official results and with so amny teams it was hard to keep up with results, but a win to our U16 men and second for U20 men & U14 women and we think a lot of the other teams finished 3-6, which is great results. Relays are hard to win, especially when some teams have the like of Craig Mottram and Lee Troop...

Check out the You Tube video that AV have posted, I have only watch a part of it and blogger doesn't like it, but Aths TV Rd One is here.

Official Results to follow....I know that Men's Div 1 was won by Geelong Region and the women's was Knox AC, Western Aths won the U16 men's... :-)

Thursday 17 April 2008

Training of the PS XC team

This morning there were 28 kids for the training session at the Wetlands, I took the 10-12 year olds and the 9 younger ones went with the PE teacher, Pauline. A bit of a buss after this mornings session, Pauline told me that because I coach one of the Grade 6 girls, Clare who is the fastest girl at the school and the kids from Tue were talking about it at school how good I was (so I'm told) and others wanted to be involved with Clare's coach. All a bit over the top, but still its always good for the ego.... :-)

Pauline wanted the kids to run the race course today, so we started off with a 750m warm up to the starting line and I then got them to do some gentle stretching, some dynamic and some static. I then took the kids around the course, we ran it in a fartlek style, changing paces and jogging on the spot allowing the slower kids to catch up, we continued this for 3k. Then a chat with all of the kids about an invite to Presidents Park on Sat and an invite for a light session after school on Monday at Wyndham Park, with their race on Wednesday.


My running, all up just over 4km's worth, probably too much, comfortable pace and I was easily setting the pace for these kids but in hindsight I can feel my achilles a bit, either because of doing too much or because I have stopped the pills etc...

Wednesday 16 April 2008

Sunglasses...

Just 20 minutes in the gym this morning, I never really got into the swing of it, so I 'cracked' it and left. I really should have stayed longer, especially as I couldn't do pilates today :-(


Tonight at the track with my squad of juniors, strengthening work, then lots of strides on the grass with lots of form correction and then finish off with 5x200m. No running for me tonight with the kids as I can feel my achilles, I'm not sure if that is because I am off the anti-flams or if I have done a tad more than I should have....but I've done f.all but maybe its just shit!
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A question, if you drive on the freeway into the sun each morning, can someone please tell me why many drivers try to use their hand to shield their eyes, why can't they just fucking wear sunglasses, its not hard and maybe then they could drive like real drivers or maybe they could use public transport and leave the roads clear for normal people..

Tuesday 15 April 2008

The ups & downs

A great start to the day, I met the PE teacher at the car park in the Glen Orden Wetlands car park and by 7:35am we had 14 kids, not bad considering they had only one days notice. The kids ranged from grade 4-6, I knew 6 of the kids, which made it easier for me, especially as the fastest girl is coached by me so most of the others were excited to have the same coach, according to the PE teacher (who is the partner of a Wes Aths runner, small world). The wetlands was chosen as this is where the Hoppers PS XC Region race is, so I got a quick brief of where the courses will be run then off we went. 1km later I stopped the group and we did some stretching before taking off again, with Pauline (teacher) as the 'tail end Charlie' (Army term). We ran for approx 500m at a steady pace and then I picked up the pace for 500m before slowing down, this was great, already I knew who was here because they could run and not because there was no competition at the school; don't get me wrong I don't mean they had to be next to me, I did take age into consideration, etc.

After a few more pace increases we all settled into a nice relaxing run. Hmmmm, I ran 4.8km according to my Garmin, the kids did a bit more than me, as I stopped to watch a few pace increases so I could watch form etc, then they slowly jogged back to me as a group. The hmmm is because I'm not suppose to be running 5k and most of the kids were surprised when I told them approx how far they had run...They were most impressed, gee I hope I didn't 'kill' anyone... (I think not, kids are very resilient).

Then home, ate breaky whilst icing a part of my body that I am kind of over mentioning.....then dropped C & D at school....then off to work, arriving at 9am, maybe all of the bad traffic had gone, 35 min.... :-)
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Today I received an email from AV, the list of teams that are competing this w/e...wow Western Aths have one more team competing than any other Club in the whole State....more than the BIG clubs of Glenhuntly, Knox, Box Hill or the combines of Ballarat City or Geelong Region, it is hard to explain how proud I was when I seen this, so much work from a group of dedicated administrators, coaches and athletes, we all have created a great friendly Club!!!
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No training tonight as I'm broken and most of my athletes I coach either trained last night, this morning, are injured, working, sick or just not interested today... I still went to the track to hand over a few Club Membership forms I had collected and gave them to Clare (Registrar).

Unofficially my coaching mentor is Burkie, I know that and others close to me probably do too, I hold Peter in such high regards! I believe that I am slightly more aggressive in my approach, but I am also sure that I have picked up some of his conservative approach to the overall training package of an athlete. So I listen & learn as much as I can from a Level 4 coach who has been in the sport for more than 50 years and more importantly is just a really nice guy and a friend! A few weeks ago over dinner we were discussing how a 13 year old boy had moved on to another coach, we discussed how both of us have predominantly females in our squads and how we think this may have been a contributing factor, strange how this has happened. But I digress, Burkie was telling me how he gets upset when athletes move on to other coaches or even more so if they quit the sport, its not a business for Peter it is his passion (my words), I wasn't able to convey any worthwhile thoughts as this hadn't happened to me yet, but I knew eventually it would. I now think I know what he meant. Changing circumstances, different priorities means I don't fit in anymore, many hours of helping/coaching and friendship sometimes seem to 'move on' without you really realising, I now understand what Burkie means.

The ups and downs of life in just one day, the highs of being asked to take on a group and the lows of thinking that you are no longer wanted as a coach.

Monday 14 April 2008

What a great trip to work....

Well when you can't run much you have to make up headings that bring a smile to my face. Like many morning sin the past month or so, I left home just after 6am and I pulled into my car park in Southbank at 6:29am, OMG, I drove the entire way at the speed limit (well maybe slightly above, but I can't say that as too many 'boys in blue' read my blog....), excluding Sundays I cannot remember doing this trip under 30 minutes. Small things amuse some people!

In the gym for 45 minutes, chest, back, arms and some core work with 10 min of punching the shit out of the big bag with light gloves.


Training tonight at Presidents Park for my group, we started just after 5pm, 18 runners tonight. I sent the two teenager girls off into the distance for 35 minutes, with the instructions of 20 min very casual pace and 15 minutes of off & on hard pace involving small hills. The younger ones jogged 800m and then we stop and do some exercises and light stretching, then for 10 min we jog, go hard, dawdle, jog, up & down hills and walk. Then we jogged along the river for 5 min before stopping near the Shaws Rd bridge and completing four hill repeats before jogging back, with a couple of the very energetic kids hammering themselves back with a competitive 800m sprint home, you just have to love how 9 year old boys MUST be the 10 & 11 year old girls!!!

Once back all of us did lunges, squats, crunches and then we finished off with a 2 min plank contest and an intro to a 20 sec oblique plank. Funnily the best front plank person was Teagan, a 10 year old, in perfect position the entire 2 min, but not the same when doing the oblique plank.

Sunday 13 April 2008

No exercise but a meeting to arrange the Wes Aths XC teams for the first race in the XCR08 Series

The boys stayed all weekend, so breaky at home, we all watched the SImpson's Movie for the thousand'th' time, then into the city so I could fix a job at work for 30 minutes, then lunch at Albert Park and then some time on the playground, chasing ducks, swans etc and wlaking around the parks before taking the boys home.

Tonight four of us met to put the final touches onto the teams for the first race of the XCR08 Series, I really wished it wasn't a relay, it would make it so much easier. But WOW, 19 teams involving 63 athletes! Four years ago we didn't have had that many members, including T&F atheltes + XC athletes.

Saturday 12 April 2008

Little Aths XC and a fun day with the boys

The day started with a fun run for WLAC, just a 1km race and registrations for the XC season, both C & D raced and then spent 30 minutes at the adventure park. This morning I spent chatting with many of the kids from my squad and a couple of other interested parents. I have also confirmed with the PE teacher of one of the local PS, they have asked me to coach their school XC team, twice a week for 2 weeks and further if the kids progress, 2 of those kids are already in my squad.
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This afternoon I spent four hours at Fed Square at the an exhibition, Games On, what a hoot of a day, playing games like Space Invaders, Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Halo and many other great games from past & present.
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This evening I went to visit Jo, most who have read my blog or her's will know that she had an accident whilst running a few days ago, but now an infection has taken hold and she wasn't sounding happy and was stuck at home, so.....I took her out for dinner with my three boys, what an experience for a single lady... :-)

Friday 11 April 2008

Its all good and those TW ppl are amazing!

No exercise today, a conference in the city and I picked up the boys for the weekend. But I am happy to report no ill effects from yesterdays activities....thankfully!

This morning I couldn't feel my achilles, but I got my voltaren gel and massaged it quite aggressively and there was no pain.. :-)
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Last night myself & Burkie sat down to try and work out the teams for the first AV Relays next Sat, we have lots of new members and those coming back, so we checked with Clare our Registrar and started picking available runners. For anyone who knows Western Aths well will be surprised or jealous of our success, it appears we will have a minimum of 10 underage teams and eight open teams (4 men & women), this will involve 52 athletes, when I first joined the Club 6 years ago we only had 40 members and that was including the T&F athletes... I can't describe how rapt the experienced campaigners are!!!
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I finally got to my desk just after 1pm and the first thing I did was check the Trailwalker website...wow Clarkey's team was winning and went on and won they did!!! 100km under 12 hours and beat 2nd by more than 1 hour!!! The Girls (Em, Jay, Michelle & Corrie) were in 78th/667 teams, what a great effort. A couple of hours later 4pm ish, they were 130th but as I type (10:11pm) they are listed as 72nd with less than 35k to go!!! Well done Girls... I have sent 2 texts, I'll send another later!

Thursday 10 April 2008

No running for a few days

The last few days I have run a few kms, a have done LOADS of lunges & squats and some other exercise, trying to get back into the swing of it. This morning I woke up with a little bit of feeling in my quads, but everything else was fine, abs & back good after pilates.

Today I played 20 minutes of indoor football (soccer), I probably shouldn't have, but I did. The Captain is away and as VC I was happy to organise, but meetings, trips away etc etc, meant we were very short and so I played the second half of the game. So I iced afterwards!!!
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Tonight Western Aths had a our registration night, many have registered already, but tonight was a success and we have 50 already registered and considering 5 years ago we didn't have 50 for an entire season, it looks really good and there are still more to come for the XCR08 Series. WOW. Five years ago we used to have 5-8 open men compete 1-3 open women and 5-10 underage athletes, this weekend we will have approx 52 running and that is with 5-8 regulars missing through injury, work or overseas races (a tri & the Boston Marathon). This is looking like the best year for Western Aths, something a few of us have been working towards for three years to have this many competing.
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Only a couple training tonight, but away from my track, but sadly Jo has rang me informing that she has had a fall....(no laughter), many stitches into her knee joint and probably no running for 7-10 days..... she will be very :-(

Wednesday 9 April 2008

Gym, coaching & pilates

I started the day in the gym, loads of light weights with minimal breaks for 30 minutes and then onto a 'fit ball' for 15 min with some weights and core work.
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Presidents Park this evening, only 9 kids (14-10 age group)this evening, we started just after 5pm, the two oldest were sent for an easy 30 min run, I asked them to run and chat and every time they hit a small hill to run hard and then cruise. The younger kids ran easy for 7 min, stretched, ran easy again, some hill work, some more easy running and then 3-4 min hard. The entire group then finished off with push ups, lunges, squats, lunges, squats, planks for 45 sec, rest, plank 45 sec. I probably ran 3k tonight on grass and dirt, but no hills for my achilles.
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Pilates tonight, probably the hardest pilates I have ever done, 12 in the class tonight but Narz really used myself and another lady as examples to others and we did extra as demo's and also were pushed to do the hardest level each time. In hindsight, I really enjoyed it!

Tuesday 8 April 2008

A circuit in the park

For the past five months I have been helping and encouraging a girl at work, an attractive 27 year unfit lady who whilst slim is not fit. She hasn't done any physical stuff since leaving school, but she has a slight build etc. Over the past few months she has been going to the gym and doing stuff, asking questions and taking on advice. About 6 weeks ago she mentioned she was struggling, bored...I suggested that she should introduce a little more cardio and to find someone to train with every so often. But it never happen as she went on holidays to Thailand, but since returning we have been discussing circuit style sessions and some aggressive walking (with short runs, of course I can't help it...).

This morning I needed to be at work to open the safe very early for a project and then myself & Tania went and did 10 minutes of fast walking outside (she normally uses the tready), then a bunch of exercises, lunges, jumping jacks, squats, planks, short dashes, crunches, push ups with walking and running to break it up. She found some of it very hard, but really enjoyed it and has never done anything like it before.
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Training at the track tonight, Clare did a light session and Michelle had her first track session for her winter preparation, 5x800 at a comfy pace, I'm hoping this might be the year that Mich makes some inroads through consistency.

This mornings lunges and maybe yesterdays trot have left 'some' feeling in my quads, OMG, how can this be, so little work....but a step in the right direction.

Monday 7 April 2008

Gym in the morn & coaching at Pres Park in the evening

This morning I arrived in the gym at 6:30, the bloody bike is STILL broken, made some strong suggestive remarks to the dude who does f.all in the office. Instead of worrying too much about it, I went into the gym hall, grabbed some light boxing training gloves and did 15 minutes on the bags (trying to stay off my toes, which is hard). I got a good sweat up and then went back into the weight/cardio room and used various machines concentrating on back (upper & lower), shoulders and deltoids. The I did a bunch of ball work, some with weights and other core based. After 45 minutes I left feeling satisfied.
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This afternoon I went to Presidents Park in Werribee, it is a big piece of grass land adjoining the river, an adventure park, skate park, baseball stadiums etc. This afternoon was the return for my younger brigade, but tonight I also tried to get some of the older teenagers too and a couple of ladies (Jo & a new lady Michele). Jo, Michele, Melissa & Aliesha went with Scott for a 40 min run, Scott moved away after 5 minutes, he was the only local so I asked him to be the 'tour guide'.

With nearly 20 kids of various ages and also abilities, we took off running in various directions, but generally in the direction of the river, once there we stopped for 5 minutes to do some basic stretches and chat about what I wanted in the river area. The river has tracks in many directions with lots of little hills etc. I had the kids running fartlek style in the river area, they had lots of fun with the sharp ups and downs, kids find hard stuff fun!!!

Once we returned after 21 minutes of running (them not me, I only did 2kms worth) and 5 minutes of walking, I gave the kids an introduction to squats, lunges & the plank.
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To leave my blog today on a positive note; today at 3pm I had a short appt with Karen at OPSMC for my shockwave therapy. In between her appts I get squeezed in, I go straight into the treatment room and we chat along the hallway, shoes & sock off and straight onto the table ready for treatment. Today for the first time in 3 weeks Karen got her thumb into my achilles, hmmmmm, its not hurting, she pushes harder and more manipulation, still doesn't hurt....WOW. She makes a comment, "this is the best I have felt this tendon feel", so a little more aggressive manipulation. Very happy, me because I can't remember work like that not hurting (prob more than 6 months) and I suppose Karen because the SW therapy is working. So I receive my SW and then into her office (so she can write the bill and we discuss the coming weeks:

Keep taking the strong tabs until Sunday night, I am allowed to run 2-3km x 2 per week on grass with my kids group (she knows I coach), next week skip the SW and also stick with the couple of runs and no tabs (be prepared for some stiffness she suggested). Return in a fortnight, another hit of SW and then re-assess. The talk of surgery has gone from 70% to 10% or less!!! VERY HAPPY.

Let me say; finally, fucking finally!

Words for Stu: caution...control...smile!

Sunday 6 April 2008

Gym, Little Aths Presentation Night

Friday morning in the gym I started on the rowing machine for 12 boring minutes whilst waiting for the one & only bike that is working to become free (can't complain too much, its not like I pay). Then onto the bike and I rode for 30 minutes at a constant 25kph before I had to hop off for someone else (20 min limit). I then did some upper & lower back work with free weights, then squats on the Smith Machine & a bunch of lunges with some hand held weights.


Sat night I was the MC for my son's Little Aths Centre which was a good night. I have my squad recommencing on Monday night so the evening gave me the opportunity to chat with the parents (making sure we are on the same wave length) and also a couple of the 13-15 years and a couple of other kids who I thought would suit my squad and also benifit from some training & coaching.


I miss running

Thursday 3 April 2008

No runs, so not many posts...

Since my last post I haven't run (of course) but I have watched a few others runs. Last Sunday I was an volunteer official for Run for the Kids, I started as a guide in the short event in the green zone, my role was to answer any question and help move the participants upto the start line when the 14.14k event had moved out of the way. Then I went to the finish line for the longer event, my first job was to write the names, numbers & time of the top 10 men & women and then help out on the finish line with the swiping paddles. All finished about 11:30am and then I went to Albert Park to meet up with my Club mates who had all ran...

Monday afternoon I had my shockwave appointment at OPSMC, not much to report, 2nd dose of SW theraphy, chatted to Karen about the WXC race (she was the sports physician for the Aust Team in Kenya and this year she is off to the OG).

A few gym sessions, pilates and a birthday, thats about it!

Yawn