Tuesday, January 29, 2019

2018 Review

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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%)
  • 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

Saturday, January 19, 2019

2018 Running Review

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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.

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

Monday, January 14, 2019

December Review

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This is the December review, a 2018 review should be coming soon.

A bit of a mixed result for running as various general soreness and minor injuries interrupted my last chance to achieve some goals for the year. Started off the month with the 10.5km race at Sri Chinmoy Cherry Lake. Had to take a few days off training to try and recover before the short holiday break.

During the holiday break did not get to do as much running as I had first planned, but did get to do Cobram parkrun, a lap of Mount Panorama, and Gungahlin parkrun, all included in the NSW Part II 2018 report. Had to take a conservative approach to the remainder of the year too, but added a first run at Braeside Park and another new parkrun at Newport Lakes.

Frog Hollow parkrun.

No biking.

The share market ended the year down something like 10% which was about consistent with my ongoing performance. A bit closer to break even with dividends I suppose.

It's still a busy time for sports. Went to another NBL game in Sydney. Plenty of BBL, NFL, and Premier League to watch, almost too much going on.

The to do list is short of new items right now:

  • Christmas holiday - just a short trip but spent a bit of time organising

Returning to work in 2019 with an extended contract until February. Hopefully afterwards I can get a good idea for yearly holiday and running plans.

That's it for this month and year!

  • Books
    • None
  • Movies
    • None - I'm sure I've missed some through the year
  • Music
    • The Grates
      • Felt like a sauna inside The Corner Hotel on a 38 degree day
      • 9 out of 10
  • TV
    •  Struggle Street season 2
      • An interesting look into the life of those less fortunate
      • 8 out of 10
    • Tagged season 1-3
      • Not bad for a small budget show, but dragged on after season 1
      • Didn't understand the motives of the people afterwards
      • 6 out of 10
  • Video Games
    • NES
      • Faxanadu
        • Revisited after watching someone play on a stream
        • Wasn't too difficult, didn't require must save state either
    • Xbox 360
      • FF XIII - Lightning Returns
        • Only played for an hour but doesn't look very good so far
      • Grid 2
        • Change to easy difficulty just to get through the game, still really hard!
    • Xbox One
      • Forza Horizon 4
        • Bought the game, not sure which order to play these Forza games in

Tuesday, January 01, 2019

NSW Part II 2018

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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