2011 Running Season

2011 Running Season

Entering the foray of competitive running last year, I set high standards for goals this year, and by the end I would have to say that it has been a success. I broke the PBs for the City2Surf and SMH Half Marathon comfortably with times of 1:10:45 and 1:46:36. The average pace set in both those races was 5:03 p/km.

I have to say that I’m somewhat disappointed that I didn’t extend this running further by entering into more events. I feel that I got too worked up about beating my lap times this year that I forgot to plan for the other events I planned to run such as the Blackmores Half Marathon, the Epping Queen’s Birthday Fun Run and the Run4Fun. Needless to say, this is something I wish to rectify for the 2012 season.

To ensure that my ability to run doesn’t stagnate, I have already commenced training for next year. So far, my training has had its ups and downs but I have kept in mind that the weather at the moment won’t give me any favours so the aim here is to build endurance for tougher conditions. Compared to the beginning of this year where I started training when the weather cooled down, this change will ensure that I won’t be surprised by any weather changes mid-race.

Pace will be another thing I will need to manage this year. In 2010, I undertook a longer training schedule compared to this year but came up with inferior times. Naturally this was a result of the excitement generated from running my first long distance races and forgetting to properly pace myself at the beginning of the race. This year, I was more familiar with the course so I was able to plan ahead and not waste exceeding amounts of energy in the first half of the race, thus explaining the significant cuts I made to my race times. Despite this, my pace is still being reduced as I run further. Contrary to the logic which states that you would get tired the longer you run, the best runners actually increase their pace in the second half of the race. This is something I will need to build up during training to further reduce my times. I am keeping in mind that the cuts I made between last year and this year were exceedingly high for the level of effort I put in between each season so I know I won’t be disillusioned when further reductions will be overshadowed by the most recent cuts.

Pre-match warm-ups are going to need a significant overhaul for this coming year. In both the SMH Half Marathon and the City2Surf, I got cramps in my lower legs which threatened to stop me in my tracks. My legs stiffened up and I had absolutely no chance at regaining the going pace quickly. In the Half Marathon, I could feel little niggles about 15km into the race but fortunately it only really hit me in the last 200m or so. In the City2Surf though, this happened roughly midway into the race and I had to slow down for the rest of the race or the chances of further cramps would have increased. Stretching prior to the race shouldn’t be overlooked and my water intake should be marginally increased to help solve this issue.

Furthermore, I am also considering joining a running club next year to get accustomed to new training techniques used by the elite runners. The prospect of regular races coming thick and fast is also appealing, but this must be considered well in-advance. I need to identify where I am come February/March when the running season tends to kick off. Entering into a new regime without further preparation may lead to injury and perhaps it could be a step I take after I run more than 2 competitive races per year. What I do know is that this running is something I enjoy and it’s a sport which I have knack to do relatively well in considering my fairly lax training schedules so there is certainly potential to improve here. So far I’ve had it easy so it is now time to ramp up the pressure. Let’s make 2012 a year to remember.

A Pet Hate | Obama's Week & After Bin Laden | Newcastle United | 2011 SMH Half Marathon

A Pet Hate

As you may have gathered from some of my previous posts, I am a walking and running enthusiast. Reasons include:

• fitness
• zero or low cost
• simple
• not time consuming

Considering this, I find that when people obstruct me from partaking in such activities, this annoys me - as seen in this post from the past.

Umbrellas - useful things but they can really get on my nerves. Especially those really large ones with the pointy end. Now, this dislike of such umbrellas has nothing to do with their size or shape; rather the fact that people do not think when they hold such beasts.

When you walk with those umbrellas shut, please don't carry them horizontally (parallel to the ground) nor should you start swinging your arms about. There are places where I have to go in a short amount of time, and sometimes the footpath is not of a sufficient width to allow 2 lanes of people travelling in one direction at all times. These footpaths also may be busy during peak periods such as before/after lectures & tutorials at university.

For the love of god, please don't force me to walk so far behind you as the risk of being impaled by an umbrella in the nether regions is not one I wish to take, especially if you choose to stop walking suddenly (heaven forbid).

Hold your umbrella vertically next time and think of your fellow walkers.

Obama's Week & After Bin Laden

President Obama has had a great past week. With Obama releasing his long-form birth certificate in the public domain, hopefully he has stemmed the flow of utter rubbish flowing from the mouths of 'birthers', one of which would be that ginger nut, Donald Trump.

At the White House Correspondence Dinner, Obama preceded to slag off that wank stain that is Trump (with some help from Seth Meyers of SNL) by mocking his campaign for the Republican nomination for the 2012 Presidential Election. Trump got absolutely styled on and could only muster a frozen frown during the entire night. Owned, bitch.

But now we get to Osama Bin Laden. The head honcho of the 9/11 attacks and other atrocities under Al-Qaeda. As everyone knows, an operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan saw the elimination of a man who has avoided capture for the past decade. The news of his death was widely celebrated around the world, eerily in the same style seen by Islamists in the Middle East after compromising Western targets. We should not forget that the death of OBL is not the end of terrorism. If there is retribution from Al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups, it will be quite significant considering that we have essentially given the wasp's nest a big wack thus we must increase our weariness to what is happening around us. Arguably, in the short-term, the risk of imminent attack will be high so resting on our laurels is not an option.

What now? This may have been a good week for President Obama but the implications of making his next move the wrong move will be fatal. He has had a lift this week; not using it to his advantage will be disasterous.

Anyway this is simply a rehash of what's been said over the past few days so nothing new here guys. Move along.

Newcastle United

It has been a while since I written about my beloved Newcastle United. We returned to the Premier League with the goal of staying up. It looks like with 3 games to ago, we are indeed safe. At this stage of the season, two years ago, I was preparing for the onset of relegation. It happened, and as I predicted, it rejuvinated the club towards a new path.

At this stage, I wan to ask the same question. What is the future of Newcastle United looking like over the horizon? Let's look at what has happened this season in a nutshell:

The good:

• Newcastle 6-0 Aston Villa - Our first home game of the season
• Newcastle 5-1 Sunderland - A derby day for the history books
• Newcastle 4-4 Arsenal - One of the greatest comebacks in Premier League history
• Grabbing points from all of the Sky 4
• The rise of Andy Carroll
• Signing cracking players such as the Ben Arfa and Tiote
• Staying in the top 10 for most of the season
• Nolan & his goals
• Leon Best silencing the doubters
• The form of Joey Barton
• Shane Ferguson playing in the first-team

and the bad:

• Stevenage 3-2 Newcastle - Dumped out of the FA Cup by a League Two side
• Losing winnable games convincingly against Stoke City, Bolton and West Brom
• James Perch in his first run in the starting 11
• The sale of Andy Carroll
• Ben Arfa's double leg break at the hands of Nigel De Jong at the Eastlands
• The players beginning their holidays early with awful performances at Blackpool and Liverpool (with Birmingham to come this weekend)
• Sacking of Chris Hughton
• Alan Pardew replacing Chrissy
• Stephen Ireland doing jack shit

Strikers, strikers, strikers. We have no quality strikers with the departure of Carroll and avoiding the purchase of a top class striker is inexcusable. We have too many strikers which are absolute dross and we need to get rid. This must be top priority before the season begins. If we do not replace Carroll, we will be relegated.

We must ensure that the likes of Barton and Jose Enrique sign new contracts with the club. They are some of our better performers this season and to lose either would be a big loss. The cost of replacing them with a player of similar quality will be expensive while also running the risk of not blending with a content squad. With constant media speculation suggesting that Jose Enrique is wishing to leave the club for greener pastures, we need a top class LB which can support Gutierrez in a similar mould to that current partnership on the left, if the worst case scenario occurs. One of our strengths at the moment is our ability for our full backs and wingers to overlap allowing us to push up the pitch faster. Unfortunately, this is no secret so there are time where we need to pull it back into the middle and that is where our trouble lies.

In Nolan, we have a player who can find some great positions in the box to slot away goals and he is a strong leader on the pitch. That being said, he is a poor passer, doesn't have pace, struggles to set up runs for our strikers and so on. I can't speak for the players so I don't know how much of an effect he has by leading the team but I reckon that bringing in another midfielder in place of striker would be a decent move. Presuming that Ben Arfa is back starting at the beginning of next season, we can put him up top with a free role behind a striker allowing us to exert some creativity; something we have lacked a lot especially in the past few weeks. If needs must, Ireland can come back on loan as he didn't have much of a chance to show what he has to offer this season.

Anyway, these are the biggest issues I see with the club's players and our tactics on the pitch. It's up to Pards to spend that money entrusted to him wisely and this will make or break his trust with the fans. If he spends the money well, a lot of doubt which arose before and after his appointment as manager may have dissipated but he fails, it will be difficult to see how he can get the fans on his side in the future. Pardew was clearly not a popular appointment but pre-season will give him the chance to change that, if he wants it.

2011 SMH Half Marathon

Well it's that time again. With the Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon only 8 days away, the adrenaline begins to kick in and I suddenly find that I can do anything. It's an awesome feeling lining up with thousands of other people, ready to go through an ordeal together and with that finish line comes the great relief.

The course for the Half Marathon has changed this year, with more of the city taken into consideration with the race as such converting into a one-lap race instead of a two-lap race. Running through The Rocks, Darling Harbour, Pyrmont, Circular Quay and the Royal Botanic Gardens on a frosty autumn morning is a surprising delight and thus you actually forget that you are running a distance equivalent to Epping to the Sydney CBD.

With a net time of 1:55:06 to beat, I am certainly going to be under pressure to run at my peak. Last time, the adrenaline really got to me so I went all out in the first lap but then the stress really got to me in the second as evident in my lap times. With a split time of 0:51:41 at the 10km mark and a split time of 0:57:19 at the 20km mark, I slowed down significantly for the second half of the race which is not recommended for people running at these distances. My goal for this half marathon is to maintain my pace over the entire race and I should be able to see myself cutting down my time considerably compared to if I decided to run the same way as last year.

Of course, this isn't the last race I will be entering this year. I have the City2Surf to contend with in August and the Half Marathon for the Sydney Running Festival in September so I have got my work cutout for me during the next few months. This is all in good fun so I look forward to putting myself through the physical strains to enjoy Sydney and its surrounds on those mornings - recognising what a great city we live in.

Incoming Delivery

Prestige

Prestige

I'm really looking forward to returning to university. That 2 month wait couldn't come any sooner. I have even resorted to lurking intermittently on the Bored of Studies to see if I can advise any prospective University of Sydney students. From what I have experienced over the past few weeks, I have unfortunately noticed a relatively high number of users asking whether they should base their first preference on either "prestige or course." Some users have even been offered scholarships at other universities yet hold the belief that the prestige of a university could be comparable.

It's important to make it clear that the prestige of a university MAY only sway opinions when seeking initial employment. If seeking employment after this point, employers look eagerly at what you have done in your professional career, not at what university you attended. Furthermore, this places greater impetus on students to undertake extra-curricular activities during their studies at university. Unless an employer is directly "affiliated" with a university (e.g. alumni), the only reason prestige may be taken into account is if two students are identically comparable in regards to their degree while only being differentiated by their university. Taking this into account, the effect of "prestige" can be negated by some extra effort applied to areas apart from academic achievement.

Now back to the case about these future university students. It is important for high school students to understand that choosing a university course should follow the same rules as choosing HSC courses. Choose a course which you know you will enjoy and can see its respective career prospects as appropriate to your plans. Any illusions that prestige holds much worth will only be sustained if you carry out a forgettable university career, which in most cases will put you at a disadvantage in the job market when it begins to get serious. Essentially what I'm trying to say is that prestige should not be an attractive characteristic to a university unless you see your next few years undertaking tertiary studies as a breeze. It won't be a breeze. Let me tell you that. Ensure that you choose a university and its respective course which is suitable to you. Don't waste your time. That's worth much more than prestige.

Howard | French Labour Policy

Howard

If you are not aware of the event by now, a protester threw his shoes at Former Prime Minister John Howard on Q&A on Monday night. It angers me to see that there are some people who hold such animosity to a man who has retired from politics and has stepped away from public decision-making. What justifies throwing shoes at a 71 year old man who does not hold a position of power? I find it ironic that this protester believed it would be appropriate to throw his shoes at Mr Howard while arguing against the Iraq War. Did this man think out his actions? With such actions, he destroyed any credibility in his argument and proved that aggression is a means to an end.

Don't get me wrong, I respect people which protest against the social norms as it shows courage and bravery but this man was plain stupid. Let's hope this does not happen again.

French Labour Policy

The French Government is currently in the stages of implementing a shift of the country's retirement age from 60 to 62. It is evident that this is a necessary policy which must be established in France but such is the issue of demographic change that it will have to be similarly implemented in other countries. One does not need any economic understanding to identify that problem at hand.

As previously seen in the developed economies, a decline in the birth rate commonly occurs as the standard of living in a country rises (refer to the Demographic Transition Model). Similarly, a rise in the standard of living often means that a citizen's life span begins to increase. Here lies the problem. With a decline in the number of people born and an increase in the number of people retiring, there is a growing strain on the government to provide pensions for a non-productive part of the population. The decline in the birth rate is also significant as this increases the future tax burden on the next generations coming through into employment. A greater amount in tax being paid will decrease consumption from workers, stagnating economic growth in the process (not that Europe need more of that now). You might argue that transfer payments will still support essential retail industries such as groceries but the scope of purchases made by the elderly will be narrowed.

Such a problem has also been evident in various states in the USA with state governments previously dealing out exorbitant contracts to state employees such as the police. Often these state employees have been granted an early retirement (e.g. 50 y/o) and are granted significant pension payments. I am not saying that this isn't deserved. Such services provided by the police department and fire department are essential in keeping society safe at the risk of their own lives but it is the way in which compensation has been arranged which has been wasteful. Some states such as California are facing a budget crisis and outflows of cash to the elderly who do not generate tax income themselves isn't efficient in such situations.

Therefore, isn't it logical to raise the retirement age? In days gone by, the pension was established for individuals who reached an age which in today's terms anybody can reach provided good health. Taking France as an example again, the life expectancy is 77 years for men and 84 years for women. In this case, we see that the French government must dole out pensions to one individual for roughly 20 years without them producing any economic benefit to society themselves. Also take into account public health care costs and you can see that budget will be ballooning in the near future. It seems that Peter Costello was on the right track when he said "one for Mum, one for Dad, and one for the country." Following such a policy would allow an economy to stick to the replacement rate at the minimum and allow for some consistency in the allocation of tax payments. Personally, I believe that Australia's policy of compulsory superannuation payments has significantly reduced the risk of such a crisis occurring here provided steady growth in financial markets (but that is a whole different ball game)

So is it right for French workers to complain about raising the retirement age by only two years from 60 to 62 years? If President Sarkozy submits to the demands of the protesters, I honestly see a budget crisis looming for France. Of course there are other ways in which a government can prevent a budget from crashing like cutting public services or incurring more debt but to be honest, raising the retirement age is the most cost efficient solution for the government and the people.

I hope the French come to their senses soon enough.

Wash your hands please

I've noticed a disturbing trend becoming prevalent at USYD among male students. There is an increasing tendency for guys to go to the toilet and not wash their hands. Straight in and straight out.

Guess what guys, unless you haven't heard, not washing your hands after going to the toilet is unhygienic. Who knows what could happen? You might pee on your hand or get a flick of shit on it instead. Are you guys really stupid enough to take a risk like that? If you're caught with urine or faeces on your hand, kiss your social life goodbye. Your life will never be the same.

During the mid-lecture break for ECON1002, I took the liberty to go to the Wentworth Building toilets. Quality toilets mind you, run by the union. Anyway, I whipped out my dick at the urinal to let out a good ol' golden stream. I could hear someone in a cubicle a few metres away, finishing up on his dump (I heard the toilet paper rustling). He opened the door and walked straight out. I did not have a chance to see who this unthoughtful person was but I suppose it was for the best. You don't really want to know who doesn't wash their hands, cleans their teeth every second day and showers only once week. These things are best left alone. No good can come from knowing.

Pick up your game guys, we can do better than this. You're letting the team down.

Life Checklist

• Own an Aston Martin

• Win preselection for Bennelong

• Write a resume

• Get a summer job

• Learn to solo skydive

• Watch Newcastle United at St James Park

• Go to Sweden

• Go to Langholm

• Achieve financial independence

• Have Won Jae teach me how to snowboard