Day 4 - Good, Bad & Plain Ugly!

Chev. Track.......with Ewen observing the session!

Program: Warm-up, form drills, stretches & 4x100m strides.

8 x 400m (2 Sets of 4)

Warm-down.

Lesson 1 - Learned today : Never try to impress your coach by showing how fast you can run! He is not going to tell you that you have the makings of another Cathy Freeman, especially when you've already reached the age of 77. He is not going to tell you that fame & fortune await you both, right after your next race. It isn't, of course, but he insists on perfection nevertheless.

Lesson 2 - : No matter how tired you feel, don't let your backside hang out!

Lesson 3 - : Never incur the wrath of your coach by doing sloppy drills! I was in trouble for this & quite severely reprimanded with : "Do you want to be good or not?"

Lesson 4 - : When you think you've done a truly magnificent run, don't expect your coach to sweep you up into his arms & tell you you're the best runner he's ever coached. Be satisfied with little things like : "That's alright" or "That'll do" & just an occasional "Good".

Lesson 5 - : Don't be a smart arse & think to yourself: "Bet he's never
seen anyone run track using a digital metronome!" He has, of course, heard of these things & all you end up doing is looking very, very ugly tripping & changing pace trying to stay with the rhythm of the damned thing & running the slowest 400s of all time! Doesn't impress anyone!

Lesson 6 - learned before today - If you are ever fortunate enough to be helped with your running by someone with an unselfish & generous heart & a sharp mind & eye that sees everything & misses nothing & knows exactly what you should be doing....count yourself amongst the "Truly Blessed"! ........like I do!



At Chev. track 11:00a.m. Did the warm-up etc. while waiting for Ewen to arrive from Canberra....... he was a little directionally challenged!

Thought I'd save time & get the first set of 4x400m out of the way too, but unfortunately (no, fortunately) for me, Ewen arrived for the last 2 worst, slowest & ugliest 400s I've ever run & he's ever witnessed.....stopping dead in my 'tracks' about 50m from the finish with a lactic build up in both legs....painful & ugly. I wouldn't have been surprised had Ewen said something like : "Is this the standard you've got to show me? Is this the best you can do after months of training & after 2 hours driving from Canberra?" But he didn't; he just called it quits for 400s for the day!

.......so Plan 2 sprang into action!

The Alternative Program (devised on the spot for an idiot athlete!)

........after measuring the correct distance with one of those wheels that real runners & coaches use(!)

11 x 150m Repeats with 2:20 walk recovery.

Results: 43.9; 43.1; 43.7; 43.0; 41.7; 43.1; 42.1; 42.5; 41.8; 43.0; 44.2

The last 2 of these is where, as Ewen said, my backside started to "hang out"!

So....another break of 7 minutes this time for full recovery (& a butt tuck-in) then ......

1 extra 150m as fast as possible!

Result = 39.9!!!!!!!!!!!!! ......with backside well tucked in!

In total, the session was : 4x400 ( bad!); 12 x 150m (good!). I very much liked this distance.

Warm-down, which I suggested we skip, but no! : jog 1 lap around the fence of the oval.

By this time it was 2:00 p.m. & nothing to eat all day for me, so we called it "Lunch Break" time & went into Gilberts Cafe in Mittagong, where we had a mushroom & polenta slice served with salad...it was very good, anything would have tasted good to me by this time!

Still not finished! After driving back into Bowral, Ewen, armed with the measuring wheel, walked ( me making a lame effort to keep up), the 1500m course I had previously measured with Mr G-armin on a fairly flat stretch of road in East Bowral. The wheel was more accurate, but Mr G-armin had done a fairly good job too. Now all I have to do is covertly drop some more paint marks
on the accurate distances of this course & a few more on Chev. track where the white lines are beginning to disappear....all this done without being picked up by police for defacing public areas with unsightly graffiti!


...and so we could say "Amen" to the day!