6 inch PB finishing photo

I didnt really train last week other than a 15min basketball shootaround after church trying to hit 3 pointers, and do layups, and a 23min evening walk with Kathryn and Jacob.

So the 52 week total for the years training and racing finishes at 8914 minutes...which is 2527 minutes more than 2008. I did more meter reading in 2008, but I think 2009 is well ahead in training volume and certainly the second half of 2009 was superior quality and intensity of training than 2008 although probably only marginally so. Overall, I think my Melbourne and 6 inch results mean I finished 2009 on a note similiar to or better than 2008, after a terrible start to 2009 in the first few months with injury and work hassles dominating. The challenge in 2010 (which i wont officially start in my yearly plan until 4th January) is to hold onto the good momentum in 2009, and cope with the career, and new baby issues well, plus keep the injuries at bay, and hopefully improve my finances. Intend targeting most of the same races, with hopefully much faster times...

Spent most of the week, getting sleep deprived, eating too much, and basically coping with night shifts, christmas gatherings. I wanted to train, but it just didnt happen. Its been pretty hot lately too, but thats no excuse. I'm thinking I'll write off that week as if it didnt happen. Since we have 53 weeks this year anyway according to speedyGeoff, which seems to be correct as last week is week 52 in my yearly planner. Here is a good quote from the speedygeese coaching group about one of the athletes in the group;Likes to run when it’s not too hot. Likes to run when it’s not too cold. Biggest problem is that, in Canberra, it’s always either too hot or too cold.

So Ive decided week 53 will be a transition week between the years and week 1 on my yearly planner (in my exercise book training diary) will start on January 4th.

Money is desperately tight. My day job starts again next week, but basically I'm not feeling very inspired at the moment. Got an awesome present from my recently cashed-up lawyer brother at Christmas, which will take care of the new shoes issue which is rearing its head again, since the shoes I did City to Surf Marathon, Melbourne Marathon and 6 inch in are starting to get a bit worn and will need to be replaced in a few weeks/months...

I Felt very Scroogeish this christmas, but Kathryn, Jacob and I still enjoyed some of the magic of celebrating the birth of Jesus, although I am glad its over. I am so sick of the Santa claus rubbish which is just a tool for retailers to get us to buy more stuff, and in the end the victims are our children who are sold this lie, and come to expect large amounts of presents, until they get to be adults and then they realise what a sham it is when they have to pay for the presents.
Guess thats where I am at now, cos basically we couldnt really afford to play the shops silly santa extravagence game this year, although our respective extended families dragged us into it of course, some of them more so than others. In some ways I am glad about that cos its reminded me that Christmas time should not be about buying lots of stuff, or the myth of Santa. I dont want my kid/s to believe in myths, only truths. So theres my scroogish rant...but its all true, dont'understand why others can't see that Christmas time is better and more meaningful without lots of presents.
I like what my uncle R did with buying a card for everyone and spending the christmas money on feeding people who need it to survive in 3rd world countries, although its still missing the point a little...
All that said I am very blown away by the Athletes foot voucher from my lawyer brother, although the Jim Kidds voucher from my wife is a preferred shop of choice for me when it comes to shoes, the athletes foot voucher has to be one of the most expensive presents I have ever received by a long way. Guess I could always put my money where my mouth is and sell the shoes and sponsor 6 kids in poverty for a month, but I probably won't, too tricky and I may as well go with the flow, but I can see the potential for, or perhaps very real hypocrisy there in my actions/thoughts...Its a tangled world...

saw in the paper that David Jones was selling plastic womens shoes with an italian name for $980! as part of a $3500 outfit for 1 woman, and after Christmas with the sales the shoes were cut to $480 or something in price and the entire outfit went for $1780. So thats $500 profit margin for some shoes that probably cost $50 to make, just on the strength of the Chritmas buying frenzy/selfish lunacy. Even after Christmas they still probably have a $400 profit margin, how can people be so dum. Myers equivalent outfit went from $2500 to $1200 (before Christmas / after Christmas) Casey Dellecqua (Australian tennis star from here in WA) has things more in perspective, she is sponsored by Target. When you realise that $20 will feed a kid in Africa for a month, easily it reminds you just how much we have lost the plot in Australia/USA/Britain/France etc etc etc...

I dont really need to set goals for 2010, because I just need to work on the ones I failed to reach in 2009, I'm reminded of a 77's song called God sends quails which has lyrics like "you failed, you failed, you cant go back you cant go back, you picked the right time to fail, you failed, you failed,you sunk like Jonah to the whale, got your future in front of you, you can go on." Not sure I agree with the Percy Cerutty concept of temporary non-success, but I like the attitude that goes with it...
However in 2009 it was nice to achieve 2 goals for sure;
1-a triumphant Melbourne Marathon finish in 4hrs 11min...
2-a 9 minute 6 inch PB in 6 hrs 16min, my first race PB for 4 years!

Other highlights were
-completing the City to Surf Marathon,
-doing 3 marathons in 4 months,
-completing the Freeway bikehike 60km,
-getting back under 23minutes for the 5km twice in the last few months of the year,
-hitting 1hr 47min in the first half of the Melbourne Marathon and running with the 3hr 10 pace group for 5km, and sharing the experience with other Perth runners...,
-completing my first full Yasso session, and getting to chase Epi, Biscuitman and Clown at AK reserve a few nights earlier
-going to the Nic Bideau talk at AK reserve with Dave.
-Night run Warnbro to Mandurah with Dave.
-exploring my local rail trails.
-Getting to the Saturday hills group in Darlington.
_checking out railway tunnel,Brooking Rd hills, and 40 miler course with Rob, BB, and others.
-seeing meter reading Matts Marathon PB improve by 30 minutes in 2009.
-leading the John Gilmour 10k B race for almost 2 laps with a 1k split of 3.44 my fastest for many years, leading the Lake Joondalup 10k, the Perth marathon, and 6 inch 46km for a few hundred metres, running next to The 8 Africans and Todd Ingraham at the start of the City to Surf Marathon for 800m and getting on TV as a result, all good fun, but how can I use it to my advantage???
-seeing my brother Peter and Sister Sharon, even my Dad dabble with a little running this year.
-my brother Tim completing his first Half marathon race in USA.
-seeing Kathryn go much better in the City to Surf 4km and Melbourne 5km, and for sure seeing Jacob walk the Melbourne 5km at the age of 2 years...
-probably heaps of other things...to Thank God for...

So despite the big concerns about money, and the looming birth of our 2nd Child only a few months away which is obviously a major priority now for Kathryn and I, I am hoping to try and carry the good training and racing momentum I built in the second half of 2009 into 2010, and maybe, 2010 will be the year the PB's tumble...

In 1989, 1990 I was just starting to break into Nationals (Australian Championships) as a junior Racewalker, and thats when I started to take out state records, made the world Juniors team short-list with my 49min 53 secs 10k walk state record, and was basically unbeatable in the state at that time as a racewalker. So remembering some of the old tunes that motivated me back then, might just help to get things off to a good start in 2010...

Races October 2007 to August 2009;
City 2 Surf Marathon 4hrs 42min on 30/8/09

Lake Joondalup 10km 51min 33 on 16/8/09

Perth Marathon 4hrs 41min on 5/7/09

Perth Half Marathon 2hrs 00min on 21/6/09.

Bridges 10km 49min 54 on 5/4/09

6 Inch 45km 7hrs 00min.58 seconds on 21/12/08. 20th of 20.

Masters 5km Track 22min 35 on 27/11/08 at Coker Park.

John Gilmour 10k track 48min 16? on 31/10/08. last in A race.

Fremantle Half marathon 1hr 55min 10 on 21/9/08 284th of 446.

Perth City to Surf Half marathon 1hr 54min 48 on 31/8/08 895th of 1494?

Perth Marathon in 3 hours 55minutes 10 on 6/7/08 196th of 366. See Here

Perth Half Marathon in 1 hour 45minutes 12 on 15/6/08 262nd of 647

40 miler race DNF (46km 4 hours 48minutes 15 seconds.) on 24/3/08...

Matilda Bay run 10k 47min 47 17/2/08. (75th of 183)

Burswood Twilight 5k 23min 26 6/1/08. (31st of 77)


John Gilmour 10k Track B race; 48min 56 13th of 16 on 30/11/07.

Melbourne Marathon 4hrs 10min; on 7/10/07 (1680th of about 3000),



We are Raiders is a signature tune from St Kilda (Melbourne) based Rosannas Raiders way back in 1988, one of the first cassettes I bought as a 14 year old, found the lyrics a bit on the crazy side, but pretty cool glam metal style music...Others were Shout (I always have memories flooding back of the bus trip to Adelaide for the 1989 Australian All Schools championships when I hear Shout's In your Face album, which I listened to on my cassette walkman all the way over there repeatedly...), Whitecross, Stryper of course, and Petra... Then there was the 2am "songs to the key of life" in the early 1990's I think on RTRFM which had cool stuff like Mad at the World and scaterd few!!!...James C was a big fan around that time...and Sonshines solid rock on Tuesday nights...the good old days...then about 1990 there was Angelica (eg the the fire inside)( , Tourniquet (still probably my favourite band by a long, long way!), Deliverance(right up there too!), Betrayal, and Believer (not my fav, but still incredible,it was their Extractions album then, but later their Dimensions album (with its exquisite death metal/opera/violins mixture) possibly the forerunner of some of the Symphonic black/goth/hybrid metal styles we now see, (for example (Mary did you know-Royal Anguish), I'm keen to buy some of their stuff actually...... Also about that time Rick Rowe an awesome drummer I knew from school gave me a cassette with glam/pop metal bands Rage of Angels, and Barren Cross, plus the very mellow Kerry Livgren/AD songs on it, all good stuff...Are you ready for Thunder? is a great Rage of Angels song from the late 80's and thats what I will be asking myself (and hopefully the Fremantle Dockers will be too) in 2010...Hopefully the result will be similiar emotions to what I experienced at the finish of my 6 inch 46km PB race this year in the photo below;
Click on the photo to see more photos from the race, like my crouch start for example...