My last Chapter was penned on ANZAC Day. So now with the date clocking over to June 9, clearly a lot of water has flowed under the bridge.
The main event over the past month has been the Federal Budget. And no, clearly I wasn’t involved in either preparing it – that’s Federal Treasury’s job – or selling it – that’s Joe Hockey’s job – my role has been to write and talk about it and analyse the measures for clients. It is a busy time. Because you have to devote some time before the Budget to get your spreadsheets, reports and presentations in shape. Then you have to compile the new versions of the charts, reports and presentations on the day of the Budget, including the inevitable midnight session. And then you go on the road and provide your views on what it all means.
It’s a busy time. Have I said this already? Yes, I think I have.
Many business areas believe it’s the best time to get in front of clients because that is the time of the year that finance and economics are high up in people’s consciousness. Once you get into June, especially late in the month, people are less interested – more focussed on financial year-end, their personal accounts or budgets. And indeed some are turning their attention to holidays, with school holidays kicking in late June. Not only is the weather warming up in Europe or the US, there are also an array of local options, be it snow, northern Queensland sun, or tropical options like Fiji and Bali.
But as I say, a busy time. My economist and I covered 31 presentations in 25 days, trekking across all states and territories except Tasmania (that’s later!) as well as writing the usual reports on economic developments over the period.
The Big Excuse?
Now this suggests that I’m setting the scene for a big excuse in terms of training. Well, surprisingly, I’ve actually done OK. Not great, mind you, but OK.
Around five weights sessions; around five sessions on the jogging trampoline; around three longer runs of 30-40 minutes; two “rowing” type sessions with weights on a multi gym; three sprint sessions and one session of 10x100m hill sprints.
In fact some of the travel can be beneficial, especially when it comes to weights sessions. The important thing when arriving at your hotel in the evening before a breakfast presentation is to hit the gym as soon as you arrive. On arriving at you hotel, if you instead say “I’ll just send this email, or just do a quick piece of work” inevitably you’ll get caught. Same as putting off the gym until after dinner…you’ll get too comfortable and put it off altogether. Weight sessions are clearly good for staying generally fit, but it’s not the same as the hard running sessions that you need to get your times down.
Now clearly, in terms of getting my time down for 400/800m or even running competitively against my peers, I’m probably still struggling. But I’m still in the game. Generally healthy and feeling OK. The only disappointment is that I would hoped to have progressed a little more, but it’s still hard work to get over 30min of running or running quick repetitions of 300 or 400m.
Still, as you may have noticed, I am doing the faster track work. And I’m injury free – that has to count for something! No heel pain! The Alfredson’s heel drops have worked a treat. And the broader weight sessions are seemingly preventing muscle imbalances or soreness.
The 400m track runs have been around 80 seconds in a session with a mix of around 5-7 runs. The 200m reps have been around 34secs, run in trainers, not super hard. Interesting that 100m and 200m rep times have been OK and then times blow out when I move to 300m and 400m. It really shows the task in front of me. For a competitive 400m I need to be able run 13-14sec per 100m and for 800m, run 16-17 secs.
It really does highlight the abilities, commitment and training of those 50-something athletes that are running 400m times of 50-55secs and 800m times of 2.00-2.10 minutes!
But as I said right at the beginning, it is important to have a goal. And the goal hasn’t changed. It may be getting a little further away…but it is a case of chipping away, day by day.
And then there is the over-riding goal of staying fit, injury free (or relatively injury free!) and keeping the weight down. That is still on track despite the normal challenges of work and home duties.
Craigjamesoz 