There’s a slim possibility that even though Liverpool won’t finish in the top 4 in the league, we may yet get into next year’s Champion’s League if we manage to beat AC Milan in the final this year. Fingers crossed!
Weighed in at 87.5kg this morning – not doing enough exercise it would seem. It was pretty chilly this morning as I was leaving for work, so I’ll have to get some lightweight winter cycling gear.
Got back into the pool at lunch for a much needed swim. It was just me and one other guy, so plenty of room. Went fairly well, though I got a stitch half way through so had to sit our a few hundred metres.Wk6: S: 2900m200 FS, 30s rest200 25L/25R, 30s rest200 50K/50FS, 30s rest200 50FS/50BC4 * 400 on 6:25 1st 4 strokes BF, last 25 K 5:53, 5:57, 5:41, 5:48200 FS easy100 IM, 100 BC, 100 FS on 2:00Total: 2900m
I did another run on Friday morning last week, and had intended going for a quick run on Saturday morning and writing a post to document both of them then, but instead I went on the beers with Nathan and took the piss out of him as we watched the Queensland Reds (Nathan) get beaten by the NSW Waratahs (me) for the first time ever in the Super 12.
I also racked up a quick weights session on Friday arvo before the pub.Wk5: R: 10km – W: 1 sessionReading an article on the Guardian about the different approach to politics in the UK vs the US. After describing a speech to the Tory faithful by Michael Howard, the author continues…
“The faithful were giddy with excitement. Well, almost all of them. One loyalist with a bottle-green flying-ducks tie, was still barking over the State of the Country. ‘Are you optimistic about Thursday?’ I asked tentatively. ‘I TRY to be,’ he conceded, ‘though I was going to desert the sinking ship.’ ‘Where to?’ ‘Montenegro.’ ‘Montenegro?’ ‘Yes, Montenegro. Not many people know this, but the wine is wonderful and -’ (he whispered confidentially) ‘- they have the most beautiful women in the world. Though, of course they do tend to be a bit hairy.’”,1),(
You can almost picture him: Major So-and-so, with a greying moustache remarking how the cucumber sandwiches are “bladdy mahv-less”. Priceless ;-)
Was a bit tired after the kayaking on Sunday, so I skipped Monday’s swim and Tuesday’s weights session. Went for a 3.3km run last night and another tonight though. It’s taking me about 19mins with a fairly relaxed HR of 150.
I’m weighing in at 87.6kg at the moment, up almost a kilo from two weeks ago, which is probably a combination of eating too much crap food while in Canberra last week and the big feed in Hurricanes last night for Tom’s birthday.Wk5: R: 6.6kmMyself, Tom and Niall went over to Mosman yesterday for an ‘Intro To Kayaking’ lesson with Sydney Harbour Kayaks and had a great time. It’s an all-day course which assumes you know nothing about kayaking. You get set up with your own kayak, flotation device and paddle, then spend the morning session learning all the different types of strokes to allow you to manoeuvre your kayak – sweep strokes to turn, draw strokes to move sideways and stopping strokes (to stop obviously).
You also learn how to lean the boat over to one side which makes it easier to turn. You have to lean away from the turn, so it’s the opposite direction from biking, snowboarding or anything else, so it’s a bit counterintuitive. In fact, it’s so counterintuitive that Niall capsized twice while practising! Given that the rescue session was supposed to be in the afternoon, he claims he was just getting a head start.The three hours in the morning flew by and soon we were munching our way through a burger before preparing for the afternoon session. As previously mentioned, this was when we learned how to get ourselves back into the boat if we capsized, both with the help of another paddler and unaided. There were three different types of rescues: the T rescue is where you help another paddler to get back into their boat, the paddle rescue involves strapping a rubber sleeve to one end of your paddle, inflating it and then using it like an outrigger to get back into your boat, and the final method is the cowboy rescue, so called because you end up straddling the boat and sliding along it before dropping your arse back into the seat.All in all it was a great day. We all learned a lot and would be quite happy paddling anywhere on flat water, secure in the knowledge that we’d be able to deal with capsizing etc. We’re not ready for shooting rapids, or open ocean paddling yet though ;-)Turns out that the NSA is illegally spying on US citizens:
Between January 2004 and April 2005 the National Security Agency has received between 3,000 and 3,500 requests to reveal the names of American citizens caught in the Agency’s listening network. The NSA fulfilled every single request. According to Newsweek’s sources the identities and private conversations of more than 10,000 American, British, Canadian and Australian citizens were supplied to American officials.ArticleCommentary
Got a short 3km run in on the hotel treadmill last night. Legs are feeling a bit tired today, but I’ve a couple of days off now so that’s OK.
Wk4: R: 8kmThe rate of birth defects in Iraq is up 20% in the last two years. Glad to see the US and UK are using radioactive weapons. If you can’t find WMDs by all means bring your own. Fucking wankers!
I’m down in Canberra this week so it will be a rest week. Ran 5km at 11kmh on the treadmill in the hotel gym last night which went pretty well. Felt pretty comfortable, though it’s a bit harder than running outside as there’s no breeze to keep me cool.
On Thursday we’re off for a few drinks followed by a trip to the cinema for A Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galazy, so I’ll go for another 3km run this evening.Wk4: R: 5km
Jacqui headed off to New York for two weeks yesterday so I have the place to myself for a while. I plan on taking it easy and getting some training it.
Wne to the gym yesterday after work for my final gym session of the week. It’s definitely progressing well and I can feel the benefits already. Had a quiet night in front of the TV, then got up relatively early this morning for a run.It was pretty warm by the time I set off. The thermometer on my watch said 31C but I don’t think it was that high! I did 6 laps of the park which works out at 5km, in 27:10. I started off a bit too fast, so while I usually keep my HR around 150 on my runs, this time it finished up around 165, though I’m sure heat and dehydration played a role as well. It had dropped to 130 a minute after the end of the run, which is a decent drop and one measure of fitness. I’m just not sure where a 35bpm drop ranks on the fitness scale and whether it’s the total drop which is important, or the final HR dropped to.So, that’s another week over. I might go for a short run tomorrow morning to make up for the one I missed yesterday, or possibly a short bike ride…Wk3: S: 3100m – R: 10km – W: 3 sessionsHave just watched an excellent Four Corners documentary on global dimming. Turns out that pollution is causing clouds to reflect an increasing amount of sunlight back into space. This results in less sun hitting the ground, leading to a lowering effect on temperatures. So, in our efforts to cut pollution we are actually accelerating the rate of global warming. Talk about a catch-22.
I remember the smog over Dublin before the compulsory switch to smokeless coal and the fact that pollution causes a large increase in the rate of respiratory diseases, as well as acid rain, the bete noire of the 80s Green movement, so just upping pollution to slow global warming is not an option. The only way out of the mire is to make a concerted effort to also reduce greenhouse gas emissions in tandem with pollution.As it turns out, the original programme was an Horizon episode by the BBC. That’s one of the main things I miss about home – quality science documentaries where you actually learn something. The BBC’s science and nature stuff is top notch, and I’d hazard a guess that it’s probably the only English-language broadcaster worldwide regularly making quality documentaries. It’s an excellent example of a public utility outperforming private enterprise, which inevitably caters for the lowest common denominator. I remember when I first got cable TV, thinking that Discovery and National Geographic looked promising, but now both invariably seem to be showing “When Animals Attack”-style sensationalist rubbish. Long live the Beeb!Incidentally, another excellent BBC show is being aired here: Grumpy Old Men ;-)The new Pope’s an ex-Nazi. That’s just the sort of qualifications you’d want in god’s representative on Earth!
I got myself a Polar 720i heart-rate monitor a few months ago which allows you to download exercise files to your computer via an Infra-red (IR) link. Unfortunately the Mac is not supported and while Polar suggest you can get around this by using Virtual PC, in practice it doesn’t bloody work.
The main problem is that Polar’s USB implementation is incorrect and doesn’t conform to the USB 1.1 standard, meaning that I can’t use their USB-IR adaptor. Instead I had to get their Serial-IR adaptor, then buy a separate USB-Serial adaptor so I could give my Mac an antiquated serial port. Plug everything in correctly, follow the software installation instructions and bingo! – nothing works! Bastards.Luckily, there are two groups writing Mac-native versions of the Polar software and doing a reasonably good job. The first is iSMARTTrain, a $40 product written by a UK company, and the second is iTrain Pro, a free program written by a single Aussie.At the moment iSMARTTrain is the more fully-functional product, but iTrain Pro looks very promising and I’ll be keeping an eye on it. They could do with choosing slightly more different names though!Forgot to mention that weigh-in this week was 86.8kg @ 17.2% fat.
I got some good training in yesterday. Did weights in the morning to make up for missing the session on Monday, only to confirm that I really don’t like doing weights in the morning. It just feels wrong. Couple that with the fact that I had to step up from 1 set of 30 reps to 2 × 25 and my enthusiasm levels were even lower. Doesn’t look like I’ll have much of a choice seeing as how swimming and weights have to clash on one day a week otherwise, so might as well make it early in the week and get it over with.
Went for a run last night, and then again this morning. 3 laps of the park (2.5km) each time. Average lap time of 4:40, meaing 10.7kmh at a HR of 145.Wk3: S: 3100m – R: 5km – W: 1 sessionIllegal immigration won John Howard the 2001 Australian election. We had the Tampa Boat Crisis where Australia, in violation of maritime law, refused assistance to people rescued from international waters, we had claims, later proven false, that refugees had thrown their children into the water in a bid to have them picked up by the watching Australian Navy, and plenty of other spurious claims which all turned out to be lies post-election. The Australian public ate it up and duly re-elected Howard.
With the current election cmapaign in the UK, it had been noted that two of the key architects of John Howard’s Australian victory had been hired to help the Conservatives defeat Labour. To no-one’s great surprise immigration was made a hot-topic and the usual crap talking points surfaced. Now it appears that Tory front-benchers are asking that the immigration rhetoric be toned down amid fears that it’s not having the desired effect.At least some people see through the bullshit.Just finished my one and only swim out of the week and it went much better than last week. However, I had intended doing weights this afternoon but that will have to go on hold until tomorrow morning as I’m drained after the swim session. On Friday it was the other way around, so it looks like I won’t be able to swim and lift on the same day without one the quality of one the sessions being sufficiently compromised as to make it largely worthless. Will go for a run instead.
3 * { 50 FS/50 Catch/50 1-Arm/5 0FS 100 K 200 FS }3 * { 100 IM on 2:00 100 IM on 2:00 100 BC on 2:00}8 * 100 FS on 1:40 (1:23)4 * 50 FS easy on 1:00Total: 3100mI got the speed sensor set up on my MTB yesterday so I took it up to the park to measure my run lap. Turns out it’s 840m, so my average run speed works out at 11km/h, and I’ll have to revise the distances for last week.