Programming

Well I've been working around the clock for the past week developing an online version of AVI's relationship development report. It was needed for a workshop in Dubai conducted by Jim Warner of OnCourse International.

Sprint training suffered as a result, however, I kept up my regular jogging. In fact Stephanie and I managed our longest and best jog (despite a lingering calf muscle strain from the last sprint training session -- the physio was right, you do need to keep the blood flowing through strains to heal them quickly) this year last Monday.

I've also been updating my main website adding links to some videos at the the presentations page.

Races

Last Saturday, I wore my new spikes for the first time in a sprint race since injuring my hamstring a few weeks ago in training. However, the spikes made no difference to my time, 11:25 sec -- exactly the same as the previous week.

I was really pleased with how I felt & went in the 800m -- best time this year: 3:29 min -- I'll keep working to get below 3 min.

Training

This morning training involved:

• 6 x practice starts
• 6 x 80m sprints with a 80%, slow, 100% pattern
• 1 x 300m sprint

I used my running spikes during the 60m sessions for the first time since straining my hamstring. No repeat of the previous problem.

Bingles, sunnies, & races

It was an interesting week last week. On Monday night I managed to have a bingle in my car on the way to run at QE II Stadium. Fortunately my car was still drivable (just a dent in the bonnet).

As I continued on to the Stadium I realised I'd left my prescription sunglasses on the top of my car when I got out to survey the damage. There was no time to go back and look for them as would have missed my race.

Ran the 800m in 3min 30sec! That was 20sec better than a week before -- very pleased.

On the was back home I stopped where I'd had the bingle & went looking, with a flashlight, for my glasses. Found the lenses first then the frame. Bit hard to see with the flashlight, but the lenses looked OK -- which was astounding given the number of vehicles which must have run over them -- it's a very busy highway. No so lucky with fame. It really did look like many vehicles had run over it.

Next day, off to the optometrist with the frame and lenses. They were as surprised as I was that the lenses were intact. They had them fitted to a new frame within an hour. I now have a set of sunnies better than before as the lenses kept falling out of the old frame.

Next to get the car fixed. My insurance company advised me I will have to fork out $400 as that is the basic excess on my policy. My son rings around and tells me a new bonnet costs $135 and that there are plenty in stock. So I give the insurance company the flick and Jason and I have the new bonnet fitted before the end of the day (about 30 mins work).

On Saturday I had three races at QE II: 3000m, 60m and 300m. The picture below shows me running the 3000m race. I completed it in 16 min 44 sec -- 4 mins faster than a couple of weeks ago.

The picture below is the start of the 60m. My time was 11:25 sec. It was the first time I've ever run this distance in a race so have nothing to compare it with.

The last race of the day was 300m. I finished that in 60:26 sec. Again, I've never run in a race of this distance before so have nothing to compare the result with.

Value Descriptors

I was up until midnight last night updating the Value Descriptors in the online database so I decided to skip sprint training which started at 7am this morning. I'll do an 8k jog thisarvo instead.

I've spent the morning re-organizing the Blogs page at www.minessence.net -- time for breakfast!!

Training

This morning it was 6 X practise sprint starts, 6 X 150m, 6 X 100m, then 6 X 60m (walking back to the start before each sprint).

Tonight is a 35min jog,

800 metres

Today was my first 800m race since the 70s (it was called an 880 then!). My time was 3:52. The first lap was fast but then I "died" but was still able to sprint the last 60m. With more training I believe I'm still capable of a sum 3min.

I also purchased this 1.5k discus from the Club for $2.00. Plan to have some fun with it, and get some extra exercise, at home.

Competation Starts

Track competition started Saturday Sept, 20. I just went along to observe -- still nursing a hamstring strain from training two weeks before.

Rather than give up training altogether, I took up bike riding while the hamstring was repairing. My physio said it would take 10 days to heal and he was spot on.

Last Saturday Stephanie & I ran the QMA (Queensland Masters' Athletics) 3000m event at QEII. I was rather slow, my hamstring was niggling, but I was able to run the full distance.

Monday night, Stephanie & I jogged for 45mins with an 100m sprint at the end -- no sign of my hamstring playing up!

Today I re-commenced sprint training with the QMA. We did:

• 6 X practise starts
• 6 X 30m at 75% leading into 30m at 90% (total 60m)
• 6 X 20m at 90% leading into 30m at 90% then 20m at 89% then flat out for the remainder (total 100m)

Looking forward to the competition this Saturday -- I'll enter into the 60m sprint and perhaps the 800m.

Track training so far

The first Saturday, we sprinted 30m then walked back, next 40m walked back and so on adding 10m each time until we reached 100m

The second Saturday, we:

1. Practised starts running only 10m after each start;
2. Did six by 100m sprints (walking back to the start after each one). Each sprint was started slow and accelerated to full speed by the end. This was then repeated with three by 50m sprints.

Last Saturday, we:

1. Relocated from QE II stadium to Queensland University's track because our track was in use for a meet.
2. Practised starts running only 10m after each start;
3. Sprinted 120m twice, 110m twice, and so on until we reached 60m. We walked back to the start & had a standing recovery after each sprint.

I wonder what we will do next Saturday.

Track Training

As of three weeks ago I am back doing track training for the first time since the 1970's. My first involvement in athletics was running the cross-country at high school in 1963. I enjoyed the experience so much I've been running cross-countries, with Queensland Athletics, ever since.

The cross-country season is only in winter. In summer, because of the heat, athletes focus on track events which involve much shorter distances than cross-country races.

I had a grueling workout at the track two weeks ago. After the warm ups they said change into your spikes... I didn't have any so I decided to buy a new pair. As I still have my spikes from 1963 I took a comparison photo for a laugh:

There are two main differences between the old and new spikes: the old ones had fixed spikes 1.5cm long and were made from real leather. The new ones have removable spikes of 5mm to 7mm length and the shoes are definitely not leather -- thought they are very light.

Clear Air Turbulence!

I've been flying regularly since 1963. Today leaving Brisbane bound for Sydney, we struck the worst case of clear air turbulence I've ever experienced. It was an interesting experience.

Rose of a Thousand Blooms

Dad called this the "Rose of a Thousand Blooms". We always had it growing at our place and it certainly lived up to its name. Sandra was adamant a spray of this was to be placed on her coffin at her funeral. The family were in panic this week because none could be found with flowers -- only buds. Miraculously one bud opened just in time for the Tuesday service. I now have that cutting, shown here, and plan strike it and plant it in memory of Sandra.

First Grandchild

This month we celebrated the birth of our first grandchild, Robert Luke Chippendale. The photo is of myself and wife Susan holding Robert for the first time.

What a Week!

What are the probabilities of three people you know all dying within a week without there being any connection between each person? Perhaps this is the week I should have bought a lottery ticket. The past few days unfolded thus:

1. I get a call Thursday afternoon from Gisella to tell me our friend Roger (age 65 - 4 years older than me) is in hospital and not expected to live through the night. I drop everything I am doing (preparing for a workshop in Canberra) and rush over to take Gisella to see Roger. The hospital won't let us take our dog Starkey even though Roger loves Starkey. Gisella decides to take one of the balls Roger gave Starkey (they used to love playing ball together so much). When we arrive at the hospital Roger is too sick to talk to us. We are sure he knows we are there and pleased to know it. Gisella places Starkey's ball in his hand. He clutches on to it. Saturday we get word Roger has died. Wednesday Gisella has to attend an information session for a new job she is interested in and has to leave early for Roger's funeral. I can't attend because I am in Canberra running a workshop.
2. I call Wednesday night to find out how Roger's funeral went. Gisella informs me another person we know (aged in his thirties) had died at the weekend from an asthma attack! The funeral is set for Friday just before her job interview with the same people she had an information session with before Rogers funeral.
3. Friday night I arrive home from Canberra. My wife (Susan) picks me up from the Airport. The first thing she says is, "Your cousin Sandra has died." Sandra is the same age (3 days difference) as myself. I have always been very fond of Sandra. This is a real shock. At least next week I'm not running a workshop so will be able to attend Sandra's funeral.

What a week!

Creating God

As I watched the science program, Human Version 2, on TV this evening, I realised it is possible to create 'God' without having even a minutest fraction of the intelligence of God. What a fascinating concept! If you are wondering what I'm on about, post a comment and ask.

New Book

I'm busy writing my new book, Everyone a Leader: Celebrating Diversity Through Values. Every time I've written a book I've created it on a different technical platform.

I've decided the time is right to create this one, and subsequent books, using XML Copy Editor. I will use Ventura Publisher 10 to format/layout the book when I've finished writing it.

The advantage of writing the master text in XML is that the master XML document can be used to generate a virtually unlimited assortment of formats: eBook, hard-copy book, PDF document, XHTML (web pages) -- Ventura Publisher is designed to take XML and add the formatting in any way required.

Cross Country Season Starts

Saturday 15th was the first set of races for this year's cross-country season. I elected to run in the 3k. I was pleasantly surprised to run 20 sec. faster than my expected time. It was a great day.

Trip to Tassie

Mum's sister, Beryl, died recently (aged 84). I travelled to Launceston, Tasmania for the funeral. It was a sad occasion, however, it was also a time for a celebration of Beryl's life with her family. While there, I went walking and jogging with members of Beryl's family (my cousins) in a lovely gorge see photos below:

My cousin's Wayne and Cathy cooked us all marvelous meals while I was at their place. Cathy runs her own catering business. As I love cooking myself it's not surprising that we started sharing recipes. This experience has prompted me to start my own favourite recipes blog: http://paul-chippendales-favourite-recipies.blogspot.com/

Interesting two weeks!

My 87 year old mum's computer's hard drive decided to pack it in. I've spent the past two weeks, in my spare time, recovering the data for her and getting a new computer/hard drive combination up and running with the data from the old drive intact.

Then would you believe, in the middle of a Skype/GoTomeeting session today, the hard drive of my laptop crashed. I do back up regularly, some of it only once a week though. I've booked the hard drive into a data recovery centre to see if they can recover anything.

In the meantime I've spent all afternoon, and a few more days to go, installing new software on my new main computer which runs Vista. Some of the old software simply won't run on vista and I found out there's no Vista driver in existence for one $3,500 colour laser printers! What do I do, scrap a perfectly good printer just because vista and it won't talk? The solution is to get one of my old computers working with XP and use it as a printer server on our network - now getting XP computers and Vista computers talking on a network is another story.

I decided to go for a jog with Stephanie, she brought her female flatmate too for the first time. We had a great jog in the forest until it was too dark to see. Now it's back to updating the new computer. Oh well, plenty of time to type into the blogs while software is installing.

Happy New Year

I've finally surfaced from several week's of programming for a breather!

At last, the new web technologies exist to enable me to do what I've wanted to do on the web for years - i.e. score and produce in PDF format, all the existing AVI reports on the web so people can instantly process and print them.

I'll open the bottle of bubbly (Moet) Karynne gave me at the Learning Centre opening, when the full AVI (the Values-Based Leadership Report - all 70 pages) is available on the web.