Run The Rock March 2019

This is a short recap of my latest race, the 13.5 kilometre event at Run The Rock.

I had this race marked on my schedule for the year, since I missed out in 2017 due to some ankle problems. Having recurring blister issues meant a lot of time off during the two weeks before it, but with four days of rest I thought I was just ready to go, and drove up to Hanging Rock on the morning to register on the day.

• Location: Hanging Rock, Woodend - 90 minutes
• Distance - 13.5 kilometres
• Result: 54:56 @ 4:04/km - 6th of 548

It's a bit of a long drive, but the later start at about 9:30am was reasonable. Even so, it was still freezing cold while waiting for the race to begin at that time.

I had a large blister band-aid on the side of my foot which didn't feel uncomfortable during a quick warm up. Early in the race everything was going well too, I had a rough idea of the many hills on the course so purposely went out a bit slow, probably too slow and a bit outside the top ten.

Once reaching the off road section there was a couple of uphill sections, then one really steep downhill section which I was quite careful with. The scenery seemed good from what I caught of it during the off-road section, but I was too focused on the race most of the time. Having a lot of half marathon runners doing a second lap made the race a bit less lonely too.

At about the six kilometre mark there was the long uphill section which I was well aware of, but just misjudged when it was going to end, however I still managed to move up a couple of positions.

By about ten kilometres I started to feel a bit of soreness on the outside of my foot, but it got even worse soon after and I was lucky to just make it through to the finish without having to slow down.

After the finish I thought I might stay around a check out the place, but my foot was too sore so I just went straight back to the car. Taking off the band-aid also removed the top two layers of skin, which made the pain much worse immediately - I'm not sure if the skin got ripped off due to the band-aid or it was already that damaged.

Besides the injury problems it was a fun race and worth coming back again for a better result.

2019 Goals

About time to get this done, since it only takes about 15 minutes.

• Blog
• 50 posts
• Car
• Seems more possible this year, long overdue
• Fitness
• Bike
• Once a month to start with
• Run
• 5km - try to get 18:00
• 10km - try to get 37:30, didn't get close last year
• 21km - try to get a PB and do two races
• Total Distance - beat PB
• Parkrun - 10 new events
• Travel - 1 international event at least, and 2 interstate
• Triathlon - Seems more likely for summer 2020 at the earliest
• Weight
• Get to 70kg
• Food
• Not sure, whatever helps maintain 70kg
• Holiday
• Try to use up about 4 weeks leave, one small and one larger international holiday
• House
• A bit more possible this year, needs more thought
• Money
• Shares
• Already made 15% since last year was so bad
• 25% and invest extra
• Profit on investment loan
• Super
• Hard to calculate due to contributions, maybe 20%
• Might be worth adding a bit extra
• Music
• 5 events given the lack of options
• Reading
• 5 books
• Sport
• Only special event is the Australia vs USA basketball
• Study
• New Mule exam
• Google Cloud exam maybe
• To Do List
• Get all the 2018 items off the list
• Video Games
• Install Nintendo Switch and Xbox One
• Finish at least 5 games
• Work
• Try to get a promotion

2018 Review

This is the 2018 review, really just a quick summary.
A bit sooner than March last year, actually had it done a couple of weeks ago.

• Blog (80%)
• 41 posts
• Not much more than holiday and monthly reports
• Increased from the previous 2 years but missed 50
• Car (0%)
• Actually had to drive to work for the first time, but not very far
• Still haven't had any major issues with the car, just getting old
• Fitness (30%)
• Bike (0%)
• Still have no strategy for how to include cycling alongside running
• Run (60%)
• No major injuries was the best result
• The smaller goals were:
• Made new PB for 5 kilometres
• Missed new PB for 10 kilometres but not far off
• Missed total distance, 3065 kilometres was just 50 kilometres short!
• 2 new events in Singapore and Townsville
• 10 new parkruns exactly, will be hard to match
• 2018 running review
• Triathlon (0%)
• No cycling or swimming
• Weight (10%)
• Went nowhere all year
• Follows a pattern each week and then ends up at the same place
• Food (0%)
• No major changes to diet, probably too much bread
• Holiday (30%)
• Neither of the previously planned trips to Hawaii and SE Asia
• Not much adventure, but saved up a bit of extra leave for 2019 at least
• 10 days in Malaysia and Singapore
• 5 days in Townsville
• 4 days in Canberra and NSW
• House (0%)
• No change, but prices finally starting to move in the right direction
• Money (10%)
• Shares
• Lost money
• Goals were ambitious but on target near the middle of the year
• My total is up $7000 but only because I invested much more than that
• Super
• Made a depressing $8000 gain
• Music (75%)
• 7 events not a bad result given the options:
• January - Foo Fighters + Weezer
• February - Grouplove
• March - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
• March - Grizzly Bear
• July - Franz Ferdinand + MGMT
• September - Wolf Alice
• December - The Grates
• Reading (0%)
• Less opportunity when driving to work
• Haven't read a book in more than a year
• Sport (50%)
• Got Foxtel, don't watch heaps but useful for recording some things
• Went to just a few AFL games but the grand final was worth it
• Went to NBL Melbourne vs Sydney in both states, Sydney lost both times
• Study (100%)
• Passed 3 exams easily
• To Do List (25%)
• Just a whole bunch of things I rarely get around to doing, need a better process or target dates
• TV
• Not a goal but I usually list some of my favourites for the year:
• Black Mirror
• Fear The Walking Dead
• Survivor
• The Challenge
• Video games (20%)
• Only planned to finish one game, not much of a goal
• Finished Final Fantasy XII-2 at last, not bad once I got to spend regular time on it
• Finished Bioshock Infinite also
• Got a Nintendo Switch but not set up, same as Xbox One
• Work (50%)
• Happy enough with the work but no good situations for career progress

2018 Running Review

Not a bad year in running. Didn't get to do a lot of new events or break many records, but was able to run consistently for most of the year.

• 2017
• 2016
• 2015

The totals:

• 3065.56 kilometres
• best 3120.94 kilometres
• last 2192.18 kilometres
• 232 hours
• best 235 hours
• last 168 hours

The major events for the year were:

• January
• Rosebud Australia Day Run - 10 km - 39:45 @ 4:00/km
• April
• Sri Chinmoy Williamstown - 10 km - 38:47 @ 3:54/km
• Werribee Mansion - 10 km - 39:07 @ 3:55/km
• May
• Star Wars Run Singapore - 10 km - 42:22 @ 4:21/km (heat)
• July
• Sri Chinmoy Princes Park - 10 km - 38:50 @ 3:54/km
• August
• Townsville Running Festival - 10 km - 39:57 @ 3:56/km
• Shepparton Running Festival - 10 km - 38:32 @ 3:53/km
• September
• Harvest Run - 13.5 km - 53:53 @ 4:02/km (hills)
• October
• Lara Fun Run - 10 km - 38:30 @ 3:49/km
• November
• Bendigo Bank Fun Run - 10 km - 39:06 @ 3:55/km
• December
• Sri Chinmoy Cherry Lake - 10.5 km - 41:20 @ 3:52/km

The events were generally a bit better then last year when I was stuck above 4:00/km. Did not progress much during the year though except for Lara Fun Run, otherwise always about 3:55/km.

The other category of events are the parkruns:

• 47 events
• best 48 events
• 18:16 at Lilydale Lake
• best 18:15 at Jells (hills but possibly less than 5 kilometres)

The new parkrun events for the year were:

• January
• Gungahlin
• Tuggeranong
• February
• Gardiners Creek
• March
• Ballarat
• April
• Lalor
• May
• Taman Pudu Ulu (Malaysia)
• August
• Aplins Weir (Townsville)
• Warragul
• December
• Cobram
• Newport Lakes

I unofficially got a new parkrun PB but just missed 50 events, and went to exactly 10 new events.

These are the yearly and all time records:

• 2018
• 5 km - Lillydale Lake parkrun - 18:15 @ 3:40/km
• 10 km - Lara Fun Run - 38:30 @ 3:49/km
• 21.1 km - none
• All Time
• 10 km - Sri Chinmoy Albert Park 2014 - 38:00 @ 3:48/km (no watch)
• 21.1 km - Melbourne Marathon 2015 - 1:23:23 @ 3:56/km

NSW Part II 2018

Part one was NSW and Canberra 2017-18.
This is part two which is VIC, NSW and Canberra from December 2018.

December 21
December 22
December 23
December 24
December 25

Sri Chinmoy Cherry Lake December 2018

I haven't done a running specific post in a long time, some have been combined into short holiday reports though.
I think the last specific one was Run For The Kids 2015.

This months race wasn't anything major, but I'll have a go at writing a short review on any new races.

• Location: Cherry Lake, Altona - 40 minutes
• Distance: 10.5 kilometres - actually 10.7 kilometres
• Result: 41:20 @ 3:51/km - 8th of 128

An easy location to drive to, except I parked in the first available car park which was about 500 metres walk each way to sign up, so most of my warm up time was used for that.

I decided to wear Nike Lunarglide instead of the lighter Nike Lunar Flyknit since those are a smaller size 12.5 and I wasn't sure how they'd go over the distance. So instead the Lunarglide are a medium weight but a bit worn with about 600 kilometres already run.

Just had time for a two kilometre warm up then straight into the race. All three race distances started at the same time and without a turnaround point so you don't know your position for sure.

I took a safe approach to the start like usual, just went out around 3:50/km to avoid a blow up later. Like usual though I struggled through the middle of the race even without running to the limit. Got a quick drink at 7 kilometres only because it was a warm day, and had a better third lap to finish with an alright time, but hardly better than midweek training sessions.

The course was pretty standard, three laps around a big lake but all on a concrete footpath surface unfortunately. The only other issue was lots of swarms of small bugs on one part of the course.

Ran another lap and a half for a cool down, since I didn't finish high enough for any medals.

NSW Part II 2018, December 25

Off to Gungahlin for the Christmas parkrun. I've done this once before, as the second event on 2018 new years day, but missed out of the top 10 so wanted to give it another go. I was just hoping for anywhere in the top 10 but still had really sore legs during the previous two days since running around Bathurst.

Didn't feel much better during the warm up so was considering not running. Somehow settled down a little while waiting for the run to start, so was able to participate. Dropped down to 11th after a kilometre, was going to give up but just waited a bit longer. Got lucky when a couple of people slowed down, 19:04 was good enough for 8th this time!

Back to hotel to checkout, and get ready for the long drive home.

Stopped in Gundagai after 2 hours for early lunch. Drove a bit more and swapped over before the border, still feeling comfortable.

Rested for a bit but took over driving for the last two hours. My back was so tight and painful the rest of the way, glad to finally make it home in the afternoon.

NSW Part II 2018, December 24

More driving again in the morning, through the south west suburbs of Sydney towards ACT. The road conditions seem quite different and lower quality, lots of patchwork pieces of cement.

Reached a country town at Bowral after a couple of hours, but still cars and people everywhere. Went to the Bradman cricket museum, $20 for entry. They had a lot of older cricket stuff, didn't have time to read all of the accompanying information:

• Australia vs England test matches
• Beginning years of cricket
• Bradman
• World Series Cricket

There wasn't too much about modern One Day and Twenty 20 competitions, and no good magnets in the shop.

Had lunch while in Bowral then drove on to Goulburn to see The Big Merino.

Driving again to the final stop for the day, Canberra the home of motorways and ring roads. Even had just enough time to visit another Nike Outlet in Fyshwick on the way in. This time I got one pair of newer Zoom Fly shoes and some shorts and socks.

Drive to the hotel, it had 'budget' in the hotel name and it was really compact. Drive to the city centre, it was very quiet on Christmas Eve, some places were still open for dinner at least. Drive back to the hotel, seems to be a 15 minute drive to get anywhere in Canberra, but lots of empty roads and room for expansion.

NSW Part II 2018, December 23

Another early start to go for a run around Mount Panorama. I had been sick all week and wasn't breathing well today, and that was before starting up the hill.

The run was so much harder than I expected, almost down to walking speed on the way up and the corners never seem to end. It wasn't possible to run flat out on the downhill either as it was too steep and may have been quite dangerous. I was originally planning two slow laps but went a bit too hard on the first one so left it at that.

Due to time constraints could not spend more time to visit the Motor Racing Museum once it opened unfortunately.

Back to the hotel to checkout and drive for an hour to Lithgow or Bowenfels. Stopped to view The Big Miner's Lamp, you can only see the back of it from the parking lot so wasn't too exciting.

Kept driving to Penrith in (very) far west Sydney, although still heavy traffic somehow. Stopped for lunch in some park then drove on to Parramatta. The motorway was probably supposed to be 110 km/h but was 80 km/h the whole way due to minimal roadworks that weren't actually in progress on the day, so basically like every other roadworks you have to slow down for.

Always have time for a quick stop at the Nike Outlet in Auburn. They have individual queue lines so of course got stuck behind a woman who took like fifteen minutes at the counter, seem to be doing a double and triple check of every item on the receipt and debating the prices. Didn't have many size 13 in the store, so just got one pair of older model Zoom Vomero and some Lunarglide that I can probably wear around at work.

Expected to have quite a bit of spare time but just made it before the 2:45pm start of the NBL game at Sydney Olympic Park. It was the only event for the day, but all of the stupid street parking is one hour which is totally useless. Finally found a spot with a normal ticket machine, almost cost as much as the match tickets.

Just made it to the seats with about ten minutes to spare. The seats were in a corner on the second level, pretty good views actually. Sydney were leading after the first quarter, but just stopped scoring in the last quarter and lost once again.

A much better experience than watching a game in Melbourne, not as loud, less annoying music, no kids with clappers or thunder sticks.

Stopped at a burger place in Parramatta, also ordered the potato scallops, Jason had never heard the term before.

Had good quality wifi for once and was able to watch Match Of The Day on the laptop!

NSW Part II 2018, December 22

Had a small breakfast and a quick ten minute drive to parkrun. So better than the Melbourne suburban parkruns in that regard, but you only have the choice of one parkrun here...

Ran a bit of the course early to get an idea of the area for about one kilometre out and back again. At the official start several guys ran ahead early, but I was into third before too long. I was close enough to be able to follow the person is second and had no chance of getting lost, although the course was pretty well marked anyway.

I ran a quick last kilometre but remained in third for a time of 19:22. A good trail course although the surface was a bit rock hard in places, not too technical.

Back to the hotel to checkout and apply some more bandaging. A quick detour to The Big Strawberry 10 kilometres west of Cobram, didn't get any strawberries but did get a magnet.

Driving again into NSW, started getting a bit fatigued and a sore back again after about two hours, but made it through to Narrandera for a lunch break in the hot sun.

Drove another hour to Barellan, just a small detour and a stop to see the The Big Tennis Racquet, definitely the best big thing on the trip. The GPS started going through the back roads, I made it as far as Barmedman before needing a break from driving.

More back roads through Grenfell until finally back on the main road at Cowra. A bit of a strange route, the speed was still 100 km/h but all of the places along the way seemed to be ghost towns, no signs of any people or traffic on the roads.

Finally made it to Bathurst, the hotel has closed much earlier than advertised but was able to get a key from the after hours safe.

Got some dinner then a drive around the Mount Panorama circuit. Only really one place to stop around the circuit if you followed the rules, at Skyline. The track was quite steep which was to be expected but also not nearly as smooth as I expected.

Was just able to get the Steigen athletics race working on YouTube with the hotel wifi - had a women's 5km and men's 10km.