The year that is 2007

In the blink of an eye, 2007 entered and left the room. Time flew by so fast; it only felt like a few days when I last wrote one of these things. Again I would like to reflect on how 2007 treated me, on the good and the bad, the successes and the failures.

Just like 2006 I set myself a list of goals to achieve this year. If 2006 was about goal setting and getting out of my comfort zone, I'd say that 2007 was about personal and professional development. The reason I phrased it like that was because I spent most of the year having to do things necessary to further myself, which weren't necessarily related to the original goals I set earlier. It was a bit disappointing not being able to address what I wanted to do initially, but they definitely weren't setbacks. In hindsight I guess it taught me to be realistic, focus on what's really important and not to take on too many things at once.

Particularly near the end of the year, 2007 was also the time to decide on where I should be heading in the next couple of years, in terms of my life and career. I realised that I couldn't sit on my arse and wait for things to happen. The traditional Kiwi OE was something I had considered for the last year and a half. But it was only around the last 2 months of this year that I've finally resolved this, and I plan to go on my OE in mid 2008. What a really big step to take. This year made me truly realise that I'm not getting any younger, and that's probably the main reason why I've decided to go on my OE while I am still able. I'm in good health, still in my 20s, not in a relationship and financially stable. All signs point to travel.

Anyway, here's a rundown of what happened this year.

With four major sporting competitions held this year, you'd think our nation's sporting teams would, at least, bring some glory home. However, the sporting success of the nation was about as profound as my indoor cricket batting average. We meekly surrendered in the Cricket, got comprehensively outsailed in the America's Cup, pathetically choked in the Rugby, and stumbled at the final hurdle in the Netball. On the other hand, I managed to meet most of my sporting/physical goals, even though they didn't compare to the glory of winning a World Cup.

With a marathon under my belt, I participated in more running events this year, taking part in two marathons, three half marathons, and a handful of smaller races and off-road runs. The beginning of the year saw a couple of indifferent running performances, particularly in the Rotorua Marathon, which kicked my arse. I eventually finished in 5 hours 20 seconds. Two months later, I got sidelined with a knee injury. At this point, I questioned whether I would be ready in time for the Auckland marathon. But I managed to get back into training, albeit very slowly. Since I didn't have much time to prepare, I decided to mix up my training programme. I did less long runs and emphasised shorter, faster running sessions. This allowed me to set 3 personal bests in half marathon, marathon and 5 km distances. Of course the sweetest achievement was breaking 4 hours in the marathon; I finished with a time of 3 hours 51 minutes and 29 seconds. Every aspect of the marathon preparation was perfect. Having completed 3 marathons, I believe I have the experience in training and racing, and I can definitely go faster if I work at it.

On the Toastmasters front, my Toastmasters experience has grown to new levels. After over a year of being a Toastmaster I achieved my Competent Communicator award, having completed 10 speeches from the Competent Communicator manual. Immediately after that I got elected club president, so now I'm in charge of running the club and ensuring club success. In an effort to lead by example, I entered the Toastmasters Humourous Speech Contest. The speech was titled "Holidaying on the Wrong Boat", and it elicited lots of laughs from everyone in the audience. I came 1st in the Area contest and 2nd in the Division contest. The person who beat me in the Division contest advanced to the District contest, placing 2nd overall. So I was competing against some exceptional speakers, and they all did very well. But considering that most of these speakers are all experienced Toastmasters, and me being quite young and inexperienced, I'd consider that a remarkable achievement. There's still 6 months to go in my tenure as President, and my energies will be focused on achieving my Competent Leader award, ensuring the club achieves Distinguished Club status, and ensuring that the club will have a healthy membership base when my term is finished.

Work has presented me with new challenges. At the start of the year I was moved into a new and upcoming group within the organisation. This has meant a move away from product development work and more towards custom development, testing and rapid configuration of solutions for a client. In this line of work, I've managed to pick up other kinds of technical skills that I wouldn't have learned if I was a developer. And I became more familiar with the product suite. The custom development work that I've done has managed to keep my development skills in use, but only at a very narrow level. Also, the testing and configuration work I've done has opened doors for me to work as an Implementation Consultant. Yes, I know it's moving far away from the development jobs that I've started out in, but, considering that I would like to travel next year, it just seems like the natural thing to do. There are no development jobs overseas. Of course I could look for purely development work overseas, but it would save me the headaches and anxiety of job-hunting in a foreign land if I just ask for a transfer. I hope they can appropriate.

Mentally, or academically should I say, I've managed to read one book a month. I mostly read biographies as opposed to fiction. Most of the personalities behind the books were sportsmen, from triathlon to cricket, marathon to rugby. But I also read about the lives of CEOs, politicians, doctors, plane crash survivors and even a convicted drug dealer. Reading these kinds of literature gave me an insight of their lives, challenges, ordeals and what it took to be successful (the successful part obviously doesn't apply to the drug dealer though!).

In other news, I had a hand in inspiring the idea behind the most successful Christmas party Orion has ever organised. There was a competition where everyone could contribute their Christmas party idea, the best idea would be used, and the winner got a $50 wine voucher. The winner was yours truly. The party was a black tie theme. Everyone (well most) got dressed up to the nines, and it seemed that everyone had a great time. The venue, food and entertainment was first class. I even got to meet the wonderful ladies behind the Mermaids Dance Band: Amber Claire and Joe Cotton.

And I even got to be the Orion Santa at the Family Christmas Party. I thought it was great to dress up as a convincing Santa, give laughs to everyone and keep the kids happy with their presents. I guess I could make a fool of myself for 20 or so minutes.

Now to things which I have failed to do for whatever reason:

The flipside of marathon training meant less time for strength training in the gym. During marathon training, I stayed away from the circuit. When I finally got back on the circuit, I was struggling to push the weight that I used to push before. The weight for my leg exercises has dropped 40 pounds. The rest of the exercises I am now managing to push the same weight, or slightly under, but the legs are still 20 pounds less than before. There is just no way to do strength training and marathon training together. I've thought about the best way to get the best of both worlds, and if I want to continue strength training, I may need to reduce the number of times I do a marathon, be selective of the amount of racing I do in a year, or concentrate on shorter runs.

I would have liked to get my Sun Certified Java Developer certification this year. However due to other commitments and tasks I only got around to purchasing the assignment at the end of the year. I am determined to finish this by the time I go on my OE. This is a high priority and I'll report on this when I've completed it, watch this space!

And again, I didn't get around to exploring new interests and sports (well perhaps I picked up table tennis at work, but I won't report any more on that). For the past couple of years I've wanted to expand my limited cooking skills and get into DIY but these have totally fallen off the 2007 radar. Proper cooking (and I don't mean boiling eggs and cooking instant noodles) is going to be essential if I go overseas next year.

Once again relationships haven't featured at all in 2007. Because of the activities that I chose to do this year, I didn't find that special lady. I doubt that 2008 will allow me to focus on relationships since I've chosen to go overseas. I may meet someone abroad, but I know that I'm not ready to settle down just yet.

So that basically sums up what I've done this year. The goals have been a mixed bag, but it was mostly about personal and professional development, which I think is important heading into next year and when I head abroad. Hence, 2007 has been a good year. I've managed to keep fit, improve my public speaking, and do different stuff at work, which could be my ticket to working overseas.

So 2008 will bring many challenges, the biggest being the decision to travel. Right now, my mind is in a jumble deciding what I should really be doing next year, especially leading up to mid 2008. Since I wasn't able to meet as many goals as I would've liked this year, it may be difficult trying to fit everything in, with the limited time available and the current commitments that I have. I may have to cut back on my marathon aspirations for the time being, as training for a marathon takes a lot of time and commitment. At the moment, the tasks that I must do in the meantime are gaining my Sun Certified Java Developer certification (because I already purchased the assignment, I might as well do it!), and gaining more relevant experience at work, which will help me become an Implementation Consultant when I work abroad. Hopefully I can fit other stuff around these must-do tasks.

Well I'll leave it there for now. You'll definitely be hearing more from me again in future. I hope that you have gotten the most out of 2007. And I hope that in 2008 you will continue to grow and prosper, and even challenge yourself to do something you never thought of doing before. One toastmaster gave a persuasive speech a few months back, and the central message has stayed with me ever since. "If in doubt, participate". So just remember, if in doubt, participate. After all, what have you got to lose?

Best. Christmas. Party. Ever!

The highly-anticipated event of the year, the 2007 Orion Christmas party, was held last night at the newly-constructed Auckland Museum Events Centre. The venue allowed stunning 360-degree views of the city and it was a black tie affair. The details of the planning and organisation were kept secret up until a month before the event, so that really built the anticipation of whether it was going to be highly successful or truly forgettable.

This Christmas party was a particularly special one for me, as I had a hand in the original idea, which was the black tie theme. In a competition earlier on, employees were given a chance to decide the Christmas party idea, and the winner got a $50 wine voucher. There were many suggestions, and in the end, the winner was yours truly. The winning idea was having a formal or black tie corporate ball event at a nice venue with a buffet dinner and live entertainment. There were other great ideas, but for the organisers of the Christmas party, this idea really stood out.

Fast forward to yesterday, and the Christmas Party was in full swing. There were more people attending than I had expected. Earlier before, there was some opposition to the winning idea, which in my view was just plain silly. Excuses ranged from not wanting to dress up formally, to not wanting to spend money to get a suit. Some may have attended in the end, but those people who decided not to unfortunately missed out on a fantastic evening. Overall it was well attended and everyone was looking their best.

And it seemed that Orion really put a lot into the party, in taking a good idea and organising all the aspects of the event to make the Christmas party a great success. The three-course meal was delicious (if a little on the small side for a big eater like myself), and the drinks and alcohol were flowing freely. The venue was first class (only fit for a black tie event) and the live entertainment, courtesy of The Mermaids, really got everyone moving on the dance floor. The idea was mine, but without the action of the organisers to carry it out so flawlessly, it would have been just another forgettable event, like some of the Christmas parties in the past. As Thomas Jefferson once said, genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration (okay, it's not related to Christmas parties, but you know what I mean). Basically if a Christmas party is well organised (excellent choice of venue, good food, great entertainment), then it will be a great event. The Black tie idea was just the icing on the cake, to make it a bit more memorable for everyone.

And to top off a memorable party, I got a photo moment with two of the Mermaids singers, Amber Claire and Joe Cotton, both highly talented NZ singers. Initially I was only going to get a picture with Amber, but Joe decided to jump in, so that was extra cool. Afterwards I told Amber that I was a big fan of hers, and that I had both her albums. Didn't really know what else to say as I was a bit star-struck (plus the fact that we had to leave the venue quickly), but she was really sweet and gave me a quiet and polite thank-you. Woohoo! I said I was looking forward to her next album release.

I'm still buzzing from last night, couldn't get to sleep, and still feel a bit restless today, but it was truly a fantastic evening. Thank you, Orion, for using my idea, in organising the best Christmas party ever. The bar was set so high, the organisers will have a challenging task to make next year's one even better.

And setting another personal best

To cap off a great year for running, I set another personal best over 5 km. My 5 km time is now 22:03, a full minute faster than my previous best.

This comes on the back of setting a personal best in the half marathon, followed by smashing the 4-hour barrier in the marathon by 9 minutes. Initially I had some doubts that I would run faster over the 5 km distance as I'm not as strong in shorter distance running.

But I managed to run faster this time, and it must be attributed to the marathon training I've done over the last three months. I felt absolutely knackered afterwards as I was gasping heavily for oxygen, even more so after running a marathon.

22 minutes is a reasonable time, 4 minutes 24 seconds per km. But there is still room for improvement. I really want to break the 20 minute barrier! Now that would be really something. Imagine what times I could achieve in the half marathon and marathon if I could run as fast as that!

This year has been a good one for running. I've achieved all my running goals for this year, with three personal bests in three types of distances, and I feel the best is yet to come. Hopefully next year I can continue the good form, keep up the training, and watch those times come down.

Breaking the 4 hour barrier

At last, in my 3rd marathon and my second adidas Auckland Marathon, I have broken the 4-hour barrier. Looking back, it's not an easy feat to achieve in a marathon, unless you are blessed with running attributes already. On setting a personal best in a half marathon 2 weeks earlier, I was optimistic that I would break 4 hours.

Given the goal, it was close to a perfect marathon. The training was perfect, the preparation was spot on, the race day strategy was executed flawlessly. However, I cannot put my finger on a single factor that helped me break the 4-hour barrier. I will elaborate on all the critical success factors of my preparation, in particular how they differed from previous marations.

Injury
No I'm not saying that hurting your knee intentionally will help you get a personal best. The fact that I got injured made me realise that I had to take it easy, train smarter and not overtrain. When I got the injury in June, I couldn't train for two months. I finally started in August, but lost 2 months of training time. During this time I questioned my motivation to run, whether I could even break 4 hours, or set a modest personal best, or even complete the marathon. Thankfully I didn't, as when I resumed training by running 2 km very slowly, I realised just how much I missed running and how enjoyable it was to go for a run. From then on, it was like a ripple effect, I kept my training going, and going, and going.

More varied and consistent training
I utilised a 12 week training programme, and I'm glad to say that I've stuck to it religiously having only missed 4-5 training runs out of 50 or so traning sessions. In the previous Auckland Marathon, I did more training sessions, and ran more total mileage. But the running was predictable; I only ran at a given pace mostly over 6 mins/km. At times during my training, I wouldn't run for 1-2 weeks when I should've been running. This year, I was more consistent, running 4-5 weeks every week, and I incorporated more tempo work, speed work and track work into my training. I believe the shorter, faster runs made the difference in my times.

The controversial Reconditioning Programme
Possibly my biggest idea. Much like Graham Henry's controversial reconditioning programme (which unfortunately didn't help the All Blacks win the Rugby World Cup), I introduced a week of high-level running, dubbed My Reconditioning Programme, where I ran longer distances and at higher intensity. In the end I peaked at 113 km in that week alone, which is a lot more than my usual weekly mileage. I had to deviate slightly from my original programme because, due to the vastly increased workload, I was feeling so tired during the week. But somehow I managed to clock an impressive number of miles, which is amazing because I've never run this much before.

Tapering

During the tapering period, I still kept the engine going by still doing some training runs. I noted in my previous marathons that during this tapering period I'd hardly be running, maybe only two runs in the tapering period leading up to the marathon. In this tapering period, I've managed to keep the legs busy and still do a fair bit of running during this time.

Nutrition

Carbs, carbs, carbs. I ate so much carbs in the final week of the marathon that I felt bloated throughout the day. A typical day's diet would be oatmeal and a big bowl of cereal for breakfast, a big banana for morning tea, a big plate of rice, vegetables and chicken for lunch, some carbo shots or a banana or a sandwich in the afternoon, and another big plate of rice, vegetables and chicken for dinner. In addition, I managed to drink at least 4 litres of water daily. It meant that I had to go to the toilet a few more times than usual, but the extra carbohydrates in the body means extra water retention, meaning I keep precious water in the system for the marathon.

Massage

This year, I decided to do a pre-race massage 3 days out from the event. It was an interesting and pleasurable experience. The masseuse worked on my back and leg muscles, kneading out all the tight areas. I felt physically and mentally refreshed after that. Massage is an excellent way to promote recovery, and the idea was to recover from all the training I put in, so that I could put in a harder effort on race day. Lots of elite sportsmen, marathon runners included, get a pre-race massage before a big event. Getting a massage made me feel like an elite sportsman too.

Race day strategy

In terms of nutrition and hydration, I took with me 5 carbo shots on the course, and a drink bottle. The drink bottle contained energy replacement fluid, giving me additional carbohydrates. Originally I intended to throw the drink bottle away when I finished with the fluid, but I decided to keep the bottle and fill it up with water or Powerade when I passed each drinks station. The drink bottle must have a big opening so that I could pour all the fluid from the cup inside the bottle. This ensured I always had something to drink along the way, instead of fighting my way to the next drinks station. It worked very well; lots of people hate carrying bottles by hand, but I've gotten used to it now, it's like second nature to me. I took each carbo shot every 7 km into the course. Flat coca-cola was also provided in the second half of the marathon, and I drank this as well. Coke contained more simple sugar than Powerade, and simple sugar converts to energy much faster, which, in the later stages of the marathon, could only help you.

In terms of pacing, I ran very even splits throughout the marathon. I started slowly, and picked up the pace a bit, eventually settling into a smooth rhythm. After 10 km, the time was around 56 minutes, after 21 km, the time was exactly 1 hour 55 minutes. Doubling that 21 km time approximately gives my marathon finishing time. So, I was happy that I managed to run an even pace throughout the race, without having to slow down considerably. Not once did I hit the dreaded wall! I was definitely tired and feeling sore throughout the last 15 km of the race, but I tried my hardest to keep the pace going, and I didn't slow down significantly.

So, these were my critical success factors for preparing and running the Auckland Marathon. There isn't one factor that determined marathon success. I'm happy to have found a combination of factors that have worked so well for me, and I will continue to use these in future marathon training. Bring it on!

Setting a Personal Best in the Half Marathon

Last Sunday I ran the Waitakere Half Marathon. It was the second time I have run this particular event. And I set a personal best over the half marathon distance. This time I clocked 1 hour 47 minutes and 8 seconds, slashing over 7 minutes from my previous best of 1 hour 54 minutes and 52 seconds, which was also run on the very same course (and my very first half marathon time).

I've run a few half marathons in between, but could never beat my 1:54:52 time. The worst time I ever recorded in the half marathon was 2:02:08. But this time, it felt great to set a personal best for that distance and run faster overall.

I guess my personal best could be attributed to a number of things. I have done more running recently, in particular more tempo running at lactate threshold pace. If there is only one workout I can do in training for a running event (5 km, 10 km, half marathon, marathon, ultra marathon), out of all the types of running (VO2 max speed runs, tempo runs, cruise intervals, long slow distance, recovery runs) this would be it. And having run the half marathon course in training many times, I have become so familiar with the course that I know what splits I should be running at different stages of the course. I also took a week off work to do the reconditioning programme, though it's hard to say whether the reconditioning programme had any profound effect on my performance. The acid test that reconditioning was a success will be whether I meet my marathon time goal of 4 hours and under.

Back to the half marathon, I did the first 10 km in 52 minutes, and then did a negative split by running the remaining distance in 55 minutes. Basically, 5 minutes 12 seconds per km for the first 10 km, and approximately 5 minutes per km for the remainder of the run.

Hopefully, this will be a positive indication that I can meet my marathon time goal of 4 hours and under. I set that same goal last year, but failed by running 4:17:04. This time I hope to run 4:00:00 and under!

Talking it up again

Having won the Area competition in the humorous speech category, I moved on to the Division competitions in said category. And with 7 speakers competing, the winners representing each area in the division, I had very stiff competition.

With Holidaying on the Wrong Boat, I retold my speech, but introduced some new material for more humorous effect. The new material was great. It meant the speech was not exactly the same so those who have heard the speech before may get to hear newer ideas.

And it had a profound effect on the elderly ladies in the audience, in particular one of the competitors, a 60-something year old woman. She retold her speech entitled Such a Nice Young Man, and mentioned my name three times! Is it because I was Such a Nice Young Man, or I was making fun of elderly ladies? In any case, involving the audience was a great way to get laughs, and it worked for her. I also involved the audience, not once but twice, by saying pickup lines on a particular elderly lady in the audience.

Had my pickup lines been more successful I would have placed first. Unfortunately it was not to be as the judges deemed me 2nd best in the Division. To place 2nd out of the 7 top speakers in the Division is a profound achievement, and one I'll be proud of for a while. And I was still popular with the elderly ladies with 2nd place; immediately after receiving my prize I did a quick waltz on stage with the contest chairlady in front of the audience.

The winner, and deservedly so with his speech All You Can Eat, will represent the Division in the District competitions in Wellington next month. Being 2nd, I will also go down to Wellington as the backup speaker, should the winner withdraw for some reason.

But having made fun of elderly ladies in my speech, something tells me I'll be popular with those folk when I head down to Wellington...

Evaluation of my "Reconditioning Programme"

Last week I took a week off work to increase my effort in my marathon training. Earlier I had resolved to put in a lot more mileage (around 100-130 km) in the week, and a lot more intense running and recovery in the day.

Here's how it actually went, and how I felt at the end of it.

Reconditioning Programme
Monday:

• Morning: 8 x 2 km at tempo pace, 120 secs easy x 4, 90 secs easy x 2, 60 secs easy x 2
• Afternoon: Rest, or stretch
• Evening: 5 miles easy

This was a hard start to the programme. In the evening, I had trouble running 5 miles comfortably, and felt like overheating.

Tuesday:

• 3 x 30 mins at tempo pace, 5 mins easy

I felt so flat that I abandoned training at around 6 km. Did nothing the rest of the day.

Wednesday:

• Morning: 10 x 2 km at tempo pace, 60 secs easy
• Afternoon: Rest, or stretch
• Evening: 6 miles easy

Because of very bad weather, I couldn't do the morning workout at the track. Changed Wednesday's programme to be 3 x 30 mins at tempo pace, 5 mins easy, i.e. Tuesday's programme, which was done on the treadmill. Managed to get 19 km in. Decided to get rid of the evening runs.

Thursday:

• Morning: 6 x 500 m hill repititions, walk/jog downhill
• Evening: 6 miles easy

Changed this to be a 25 km slow endurance run. I felt there were too many speed/strength workouts in the week, so I needed to introduce a long slow run. Managed to get 25 km in 2 hours 45 mins.

Friday:

• 7 miles at tempo pace

Again, changed, this time to a rest day. Needed a rest day badly! Absolutely no running.

Saturday:

• 3 hour long run or 32 km

Finally, some consistency. Managed to run approximately 32 km in 3 hours 7 minutes. The first 11 km was pretty slow running, last 21 km was a lot faster running.

So in total, I managed to get in 113 km this week, much more than my usual weekly effort. I was happy to get through Saturday's long run in a good solid time (the best time I've done over 32 km in training), which will hopefully be a good indicator to marathon performance.

Unfortunately I couldn't carry out the full programme. Sometimes I felt flat on certain days, where I didn't feel like training. When the body tells you not to train, it was a indication to ease up on the effort and to let the body rest. I had to respect my body's limitations, and to carry out the full programme could have been detrimental to my training. Injuries and sickness may have crept in. Thankfully I have managed to get through unscathed and I hope it has brought benefits to my running and performance.

I have also decided to briefly mention the All Blacks quarterfinal loss against France in the Rugby World Cup. A brutal, sudden end to their campaign. Was the reconditioning programme to blame? I say no. Perhaps the best way for the All Blacks to prepare for such an important event was to get more rugby under the belt, and not to do a reconditioning programme. Reconditioning was only one part of their preparation, but there were other aspects specific to rugby as well; perhaps the All Blacks were caught short there.

So if the reconditioning programme wasn't enough for the All Blacks to bring back the Rugby World Cup, well I hope my reconditioning programme is enough for me to realise my marathon goal of 4 hours or under. We'll wait and see!

My "Reconditioning Programme"

I have been intrigued by Graham Henry's idea of the All Blacks reconditioning programme. The reconditioning program saw 22 top All Blacks miss the first seven rounds of Super 14 to work on their strength, speed and conditioning without taking the knocks of full competition. The media and fans panned this decision, claiming that professional players are paid to play rugby, not work out in the gym.

The result is a bigger, more brutal, All Black team, where the superior level of fitness, strength and speed will allow the players to lift the tempo of their game while their opponents run out of steam. In fact, the All Blacks of 2007 are radically different from the All Blacks of 2006, because of the dramatic physical advances made by the "protected 22" in their reconditioning period.

And now that the Rugby World Cup has reached the business end, these players are able to reach their full potential on the field, thanks in part to the reconditioning programme. It could be the difference to winning the Webb Ellis trophy or failing yet again. In other words, whether the reconditioning period was an absolute success or an utter waste of time.

Meanwhile, far far away from the rugby field where our nation's hopes rest on our rugby team bringing the cup back home, I have been inspired to create my own "reconditioning programme" (technically it's not a reconditioning programme like what the All Blacks have done, but I'm sticking with it for now). The reason is that I set myself a goal to complete the marathon by 4 hours. Last year, in the same marathon (and my first), I failed that by 17 minutes. And feeling rather experimental, I wanted to see what effect the reconditioning programme will have, and whether it will work for me.

I've managed to take a week of work, which is only a fraction of time compared to the All Blacks reconditioning period. This decision was planned a couple of months in advance. In preparing for my marathon, I should be peaking my training efforts around 4 weeks before the main event. This should hopefully result in me being fitter, faster, stronger (and other cool adjectives) and operate on full capacity for much longer.

In the context of the marathon, the purpose of my reconditioning programme is to allow me to supercompensate my training, increase my mileage and do harder, more intense, running sessions. Having all this available time allows me to spend more time on training and recovery, without needing to go to work, which already takes up most of my day. Who wants to go to work feeling tired from a hard running session? And if you had a bad day at work, or were forced to stay late, that would curtail some vital training time.

Below is what I'll be doing during my reconditioning period.

Reconditioning Programme
Monday:

• Morning: 8 x 2 km at tempo pace, 90 secs easy
• Afternoon: Rest, or stretch
• Evening: 5 miles easy

Tuesday:

• 3 x 30 mins at tempo pace, 5 mins easy

Wednesday:

• Morning: 10 x 2 km at tempo pace, 60 secs easy
• Afternoon: Rest, or stretch
• Evening: 6 miles easy

Thursday:

• Morning: 6 x 500 m hill repititions, walk/jog downhill
• Evening: 6 miles easy

Friday:

• 7 miles at tempo pace

Saturday:

• 3 hour long run or 32 km

Sunday:

• Rest or 5 miles easy

Done properly, I should be totalling between 100-130 km, which is nearly 2-3 times more mileage than what I typically do in a normal week. The increased mileage also poses increased injury risk, so I hope that the increased rest periods I will have (sleeping, putting my feet up, stretching, proper nutrition) will keep the injury monster at bay.

This is an exciting initiative, and I hope it will help me realise a 4 hour finishing time. If it's going to work for the All Blacks, it might work for me too. You never know, unless you try.

Promotion

Someone at work told me I was a Senior Legacy Interface Developer, according to the organisation chart. I didn't believe her, because in my last performance review at the end of last year, the job title said Junior Software Engineer. Okay, so Legacy Interface Developer is just a glorified Software Engineer that works with custom components.

But the point is, I still consider myself to be at junior level, or maybe in the lower intermediate level, if there is such a thing. So I checked out the organisation chart, and found out she wasn't bluffing! There in plain view, in the organisation chart, above my name, were the words Senior Legacy Interface Developer.

I'm definitely not complaining! I hope it's not a mistake either; it would be a horrible feeling to be "demoted" in a sense. We'll see what they say at my next performance review.

Bad sportsmanship again

Another retrospective post written on the 29th September 2007. Lightening really does strike twice in the same place. Earlier I blogged about bad sportsmanship when I was playing indoor cricket. If you haven't read the story, I'd advise you to read it first before you read on below.

Yesterday, we played the same team, and because we knew they were tough to beat we entered the game with a stronger lineup than when we previously played them. Unfortunately we lost the game while chasing a very gettable target.

But there was another controversial run-out that happened somewhere in the 3rd partnership. I wasn't keeper at the time, I was fielding on the 3-line, and before the umpire declared over, the batsman walked out of his crease. The quick-thinking keeper knocked the bails over and appealed for the decision, which was, of course, given by the umpire. This didn't go down too well with the opposition. But if they're stupid enough to walk out of their creases while the ball is still in play, and then bitch and moan about this rule or their ignorance of that rule, then frankly those guys should stop playing indoor cricket.

On to the run chase, and we didn't bat well enough to chase their gettable target. In the final over, our wicket keeper was on strike against the very same person who took a swipe at me. The dickhead proceed to bowl all sorts of fast deliveries: some wide and full outside off-stump, some full tosses, some bouncers that would have hit the batsman's head. In a nutshell, our keeper couldn't score of any of those deliveries, and to be fair he is a good batsman, but perhaps he got a bit intimated at the pace or the variety of the deliveries. Though we were playing strike three rules, there were a few extras bowled, so they never reached strike three, even though our keeper couldn't score a single run off his bat.

And as soon as that over ended, the dickhead went up to our keeper and started to mouth off at him. "That's what you get for being cheap!", in reference to that run-out on one of his teammates. No prizes for guessing what our keeper said back at him. To do those sorts of things, which is true bad sportsmanship, just reaffirms how much of a prick and a hypocrite he is.

In future, whenever we get to play this team again, I'll take great pleasure in smashing him for seven, or bowling him through his gate!

Talking it up

I've been very quiet on the blog front lately, due in part to marathon training taking up most of my free time, so this is a retrospective entry, which is actually written on the 29th September 2007.

Anyways, getting back on topic. One of the things I decided to do was to enter a speech competition through my Toastmasters club. I was nominated to represent my club in the Area competitions, which were held on Saturday 15th September 2007. The category I entered was the humorous speech category. Chris, another toastmaster from my club, also entered; he entered the table topics category, where contestants speak for 1-2 minutes on a topic they have not heard beforehand.

The table topics competition was the first category to kick off the Area competition. The question was With all the professionalism in sport these days, is sponsorship killing sportsmanship? Chris was the first speaker out of five speakers, and he actually answered the question, while the others did not; they twisted their answers to say that sponsorship is/is not killing sport. Unfortunately Chris did not win that category, nor did he place in the top three, which I thought wasn't fair on him as he did really well considering the question. The winner of the table topics category, Peter, has been a toastmaster for nearly 30 years, so he had a wealth of experience behind him. I hope to learn a lot from him on how to answer a table topics question.

Next it was my turn with the humorous speech category. This time there were only three speakers, and I was the first. I was all psyched up, and in the end I approached the stage without my notes, so I was relying on a good/quick memory to help me through my speech, titled Holidaying on the wrong boat. It was about my experience on a cruise ship, and for humorous effect I greatly exaggerated certain events that took place. The events did actually take place though, but obviously I had to exaggerate to get the audience laughing.

And laugh they did. It was a great feeling to entertain a room of strangers, getting them to laugh. And as soon as I sat down, I felt pretty good. The other two speakers were good speakers, so I had some competition on my hands.

After much waiting, I was declared the winner of the Area competition in the humorous speech category. All the judges unanimously declared me the first speaker, while the other speakers were mixed in second or third. I also learned that I was one second away from disqualification; if your speech exceeds 7 and a half minutes, you are automatically disqualified. Imagine how bad that would be to give a good speech, to thoroughly entertain the audience, and then get disqualified for overstepping ever-so-slightly!

So, myself and Peter, the winners of the Area competition in the humorous speech and table topics categories move on to the Division competition, where the winners of each Area competition face each other to decide who is the best speaker in the Division. A Division (in this case, Auckland) is composed of different areas. And having seen the quality of other speakers in the Area competitions, I have a very big hill to climb if I am to win at Division level. I will use the same speech, but obviously I will have to improve on certain areas, polish it up, and hopefully address my timing issues.

Here's hoping I can pull off another victory for my club, and win the Division competition next week.

The Running Man is Back

Well it seems my desire to run hasn't faded away. In fact it's probably stronger after my recent lay off with a knee injury. After my treatment, I got back into running a few miles, and a few days later had only realised how much I had missed it. I'm now in much better shape, my knee is still okay, and this week I managed to train on 5 consecutive days, which is something I don't remember doing before.

But there is still a long way to go if I am to complete the marathon in my goal time of 4 hours. That for me is the time to beat, and to do this I have to put in a lot of miles and stay smart about my training. The key is consistency and in the past two marathons my training was anything but consistent. For Auckland 2006, I tended to drop off in training, sometimes for more than one week without a run. For Rotorua 2007, I didn't train hard enough, sometimes only running 1-2 times a week. This time, if all goes well with my training, my preparation in terms of running effort would be similar to Auckland 2006, but I'm hoping that by being consistent I should be in better shape this year. Fingers crossed.

Another thing is to stay injury free. I'm incorporating stretches for my legs, and doing less weights. I still need to do strength exercises for legs, so I cannot discount the weights altogether. The main thing is not to work the legs too much, otherwise they won't be in good shape for running, and the leg muscles tighten up, which will lead to injuries. Injuries are the last thing that I want at this stage of my training.

So far, I've stuck religiously to my training programme, and am hoping that I can keep at it for the next 10 weeks. Here's hoping it will help me realise my goal time of 4 hours.

Do I have any more motivation?

I have suffered from knee problems lately, which has curtailed my running. But finally I now see light at the end of the tunnel, courtesy of my lovely physiotherapist. She has been a real star trying to rehabilitate my knees.

But given my 2 month layoff from running, I find that my motivation to train for the 2007 Auckland Marathon is on the wane. Am I really motivated to break 4 hours this time? Am I really prepared to put in a lot of miles this year?

I may run the whole thing again, but it looks like I may have to revise my goal time of 4 hours.

Bad sportsmanship

Tonight's indoor match was very fought, with our weaker lineup outclassing and outplaying a much tougher opposition. We made 84 runs after some limp batting in the middle, but we really bowled and fielded well in reply. Needing 31 runs in the final partnership, they only made 7 and crashed to 61.

But the game will be more remembered for the controversial run-out that happened at the end of the 13th over. I was keeping behind the stumps as the regular keeper was in the bowling attack. On his final delivery, I collected the ball. I was about to go back to my position in the field when I noticed the umpire did not call "over". Time seemed to stand still, but it was only a second later from the time I gloved the ball that the batsman started walking down the pitch. Immediately I hit the stumps to run him out, and appealed to the umpire. He was given out. I was ecstatic, as it was a crucial point in the game where a wicket could decide who wins the game.

In the next over, I was fielding in the cover area. At the start of the over, the non-striker who swapped ends between overs decided to have a swipe at me, calling the action "not good sportsmanship". What the fuck?? I was playing well within the rules. If your partner was so stupid to walk out of his crease while the ball was still in play, then he deserved to get out! I have absolutely no sympathy at people's ignorance of the rules. I felt like walking over and giving the bastard an old-fashioned knuckle sandwich after his remark, but since he had a bat in his hand, I restrained myself.

This reminded me of the time when Brendon McCullum ran out Murali after he stepped out of his crease to celebrate Sangakkara's ton. There was all sorts of vigourous comments and debate whether McCullum did the right thing, with regards to playing within the rules and playing within the spirit of the game. Like his captain, I also support McCullum for what he did. Murali has played over hundred tests, he's a vastly experienced cricketer and he knew the rules of the game. The Sri Lankans argued that it was a lost test for them, but I don't buy that argument. If Sangakkara made a double ton, and NZ lost the run chase, cricket fans and the general public would be spewing over McCullum's lack of killer instinct. I'm sure if one of our team members had a brain explosion and walked out of their crease, I would expect the opposition to do the same. In the context of the game, the opposition needed 31 runs. The batsman who took a swipe at me is a really good hitter and also very arrogant. I remembered him smashing three consecutive 7's of Glen's left-arm spin, so we had to take every opportunity to tame the partnership. Fortunately I was sharp behind the stumps. In fact I had a great game. I saved the batting at the close, giving us a much healthier target; I ran out two batsman with direct hits, and I picked up a bag of wickets.

To rub salt into the wound, he refused to shake my hand after shaking hands with my teammates. When I walked out of the playing area to shake hands with the opposition, he finally shook my hand and said "good sportsmanship". Sarcasm alert! Make up your fucking mind! If you thought I was a good sport, why don't you actually apologise for your earlier statement? Makes more sense than to say good sportmanship.

And having played his team a few times. I've observed that this person is far from displaying good sportsmanship. In fact after this game, it confirmed to me that he's a prick and a hypocrite. During the game he attempted to mankad one of our batsmen when the batsmen was clearly in his crease. And on the final ball, when the opposition had no chance to win, he hit the ball in the side net for two, but never bothered completing the run, already thinking "we've lost the game, why bother running?" Thank you very much, we ran them out again. Not really in the spirit of the game, methinks.

I'm pretty sure he called me a fuckwit in the carpark afterwards, but as I was quite far away and not wanting any further confrontations after a fiery game, I just pretended not to hear and walked to my car.

The Battle to Get Fit

I haven't been running for more than a month since I felt pain in my left knee. I did compete in the 1st race of the Leppin Off-Road series (the 14 km course) around three weeks ago, but as I took the race slowly by my standards, it's no surprise I didn't get a good time.

This prompted me to finally visit the physiotherapist in my gym. The problem is with my patella tendon in my left knee somehow being inflamed or aggravated. She did a few tests and unfortunately I have a few biomechanical problems, something runners don't want to admit.

My left ankle, which I rolled a couple of years ago while running (surprise surprise), is rather weak, which reduces the stability of my left leg. Because I also have a pronation problem, this causes the knee to roll inward, thereby placing pressure on tendons and ligaments there. Balancing on my left leg is far more difficult than on my right leg.

My ITB (illio-tibial band) is very very tight, which pulls the kneecap outwards and also contributes to mis-alignment of my knee.

Finally I have muscle imbalances. It seems my left leg is stronger than my right leg. That's an interesting observation, but not sure how this could contribute to my current problem. Generally muscle imbalances are bad. For example my quad muscles are much stronger than my hamstrings, though it is the hamstring muscles that are the dominant muscles in running, and when running huge distances I find that my hamstrings fatigue much quicker than my quads.

My very good physiotherapist gave me some rehabilitative exercises to get me back on track. And, to her credit, they seem to be helping. I'm still not out of the woods yet, it will still be some time before I can really get back into training for the Auckland Marathon. I'm also unsure whether I can break 4 hours this time. Injuries not only affect you physically, but they can affect you mentally as well. To not be able to meet your running goals because of an injury is really frustrating. At least I got injured now, instead of the day before the marathon. Now I'd feel gutted if that happened to me.

The downtime in my running has resulted in increased gym attendance. My physio recommended me not to do leg workouts as bulking up the legs would reduce leg flexibility, which may have contributed to my left knee packing up. So I have only concentrated on upper-body. I guess I can't go wrong with that. Time to get that huge chest, and bulk up my arms.

Competent Toastmaster

Been quiet on the blogging lately...

At yesterday's meeting I finally gave my 10th speech from the Competent Communicator's manual. The 10th speech is designed to "Inspire your Audience". Entitled "One Hourglass" I spoke about living a fulfilled life, using the hourglass as a metaphor. Everyone has an hourglass, some are big, some are small. When you are born, the sand starts pouring. When the sand has finished pouring, your life on earth has ended. Quite simple really.

I spent about three minutes talking about the story of Terry Fox, a boy who lost his leg to cancer, then decides to run across Canada, on one good leg and one artificial leg, to raise awareness for cancer research. Using him as an example, I talked about how we could live more fulfilled lives. In a nutshell I expounded on three points: time wasting, passion in what you do, and setting challenges.

I think it was well received by the audience; I hope I went as far as to inspire them. But the main thing is that after doing 10 speeches I finally earned my Competent Toastmaster (CTM) award, the basic award a toastmaster can achieve.

After the CTM, there are other progressive awards, which mean doing more speeches, but in a specialised field, e.g. entertainment, persuasion, public relations, humourous speeches, etc. I haven't chosen my specialties yet. The awards are Advanced Toastmaster Bronze, Advanced Toastmaster Silver and Advanced Toastmaster Gold. There are also Leadership courses to do as well. So there's no room for boredom there.

There's still a long way to go if one hopes to earn a Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) award (the one after Advanced Toastmaster Gold). But I won't think that far ahead....

Assuming the Presidency

I'm now the new president of my Toastmasters club at work. I got nominated, with no objections from other members (not sure if that's a good or bad thing). So from July onwards till June 2008, I'll become President and I will be making sweeping autocratic changes.

Yeah, right!

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing as President. A lot of good work has been done by the committee over the last year and a bit, and hopefully this good work will continue and we can start new initiatives. Hopefully we can get new members, introduce newer courses, and get all present members to do all their speeches in the competent communicator manual. At present, I've got 2 more speeches to go, but since I'm doing a speech every meeting, I'll be assured to complete all 10 speeches by the end of June.

So it's a good feeling to have a President who has completed 10 speeches and is deemed a competent communicator. Looks like I have big shoes to fill in the next club year.

Indoor Cricket Batting "Master Class"

After watching a couple of my team mates bat like a bunch of primary school kids last night, I feel compelled to write something on how you should go about batting in an indoor cricket situation. Even after giving them specific instructions on how they should appoach their innings, they still managed to sink into their old habits, which often led to losing their wickets.

While I'm not a batting expert (far from it), I can safely say I know the basics very well and I apply them very well, which has resulted in me getting reasonable scores in my partnership, and not being dismissed for the past 5 innings to date (so far). Given my current batting ability, which is still limited, I feel that I get the job done in the bigger scheme of things: getting a competitve team total. If the rest of the team do the same, we could end up with a massive score.

Here are a list of the basics, or the MUST DO's, when batting in indoor cricket. You might not agree with them; if you don't, please make a comment. Sometimes I fail to do some of the MUST DO's, but most of the time I get away with it. All of these were not followed, one way or another, in last night's match against the top ranked team.

1. Never lose your wicket. Losing your wicket costs your team 5 runs. When you lose your wicket regularly in your innings, you end up costing your team those lost runs when you could have easily scored a single or a two or even a boundary. This radically changes your team's total runs scored. Losing your wicket also puts pressure on the other batsmen in your team to make up for those lost runs. So, always protect your wicket. If there's a scoring chance, always consider first that your wicket stays intact. If you happen to lose your wicket, make bloody sure that you don't lose your wicket another time.


2. Score off every delivery. Indoor cricket is a very fast game, and the least that you should score off every delivery is a single. This ensures that you rotate the strike, keep the momentum going and build a good score. If you score a single off every ball, without losing your wicket, you will get a good score. If you can score a few boundaries or accumulate two's and three's you will get a very good score. But keeping your wicket comes first; if you fail to score off a delivery make sure your wicket is intact; there will be other deliveries to score off.


3. Get bat on every ball. As mentioned above, if you get ball on ball, you will have a very good chance of scoring, provided the ball doesn't end up in the hands of a fielder. If you get bat on ball, and the ball hits the nets you will get much needed bonus runs depending on which part of the nets the ball travels to. If you swing outside off stump and miss, you won't score, but at least you won't lose your wicket. There will be other balls for you to score off.


4. Take each ball on its merits. Not every ball is meant to be smashed to the boundary, unless they bowl a pile of shit. Every once in a while, you will get a ball that will be just too good for you, no matter how good a batsmen you are. If you are faced with a good ball, the best you can do is to try to get bat on ball and hopefully steal a single. If you are confident enough you might be able to angle the ball to the nets for a two or a three. That's a fantastic return against good bowling. Don't go for a wild slog, potentially getting yourself bowled or caught by a fielder. If you are faced with a bad ball, play the best shot you can to score maximum runs. Preferably you should attempt a boundary, but an easy two runs is okay because at least you are scoring. Bad balls very rarely lead to wickets, unless you played a poor shot in return.


5. Communicate with your partner. How many times have I seen batsmen not calling each other through for a run? Time and time again, I've seen batsmen end up on the same side of the pitch because one batsmen didn't call his partner through for the run, or the other batsmen was too slow to respond to the call. It just takes two words: 'yes' and 'no'. Call these words, loudly. Call 'yes' for the run, call 'no' to state that you're not interested in running. Do not say 'go' because it just sounds like 'no'. The most difficult scenario in making good calls is when the batsman hits straight back to the bowler. Too often, the non-striker takes off for a run, giving the on-strike batsman no chance to complete the run safely.


6. Slide your bat. A lot of run-outs happen when the batsmen fail to slide their bats over the batting crease. Batsmen will run to the other end, and just when their foot is about to cross the crease, they pop their bats down like they are hitting something with a club. This is soooooo wrong. Use the length of the bat to reach for the crease so that your bat crosses the line, instead of running as close to the crease as possible before plonking your bat over the crease. I'm not saying you run the length of the pitch sliding your bat. What I recommend is as soon as you are about 2 metres away from the crease, put your bat down before the crease, and slide the bat while you run. Your bat will reach the crease first. In tight run-outs, sliding the bat is the difference between being safely home or being given run-out by the umpire. Run-outs are also one of the most common forms of dismissal in indoor cricket, so if you don't want to be a run-out statistic, master sliding your bat.


7. Back yourself to do shots. Sometimes, especially when you are falling behind in a run-chase or the scoring has become stagnant, you will need to play some shots to increase the scoring, no matter how good the bowling is. If there is a bad ball which you feel you can smash to the boundary then by all means attempt the shot. If you are faced with a good ball, try and play a good shot in return, such as a forward push or a drive. The ball may not go to the boundary, but at least you are scoring vital runs against good bowling. However, if you cannot play the shot because you're not in position or you're not confident enough, then don't attempt to do it. This produces bad shots, and bad shots lead to losing your wicket cheaply. Be positive, move the feet, and hit the ball as hard as you can. Aim to hit down the ground. Never hit upwards unless it's a straight shot towards the back nets.


8. Be positive with your running. You should always aim to score off every delivery and the only way to do this is to complete the run. If you play a scoring shot, call for the run, run hard and run fast. If you respond to a call for a run, run hard and run fast. If you're a non-striker, try to back up one or two feet just at the point the bowler bowls the ball. Too often I've seen non-strikers still inside their crease even after the batsman on strike has hit the ball. By being one or two feet outside the crease while the ball is being delivered, you have less distance to cover for a run. Just be careful that the bowler doesn't have the opportunity to mankad you if you backup too far or too early in your run. So in a nutshell, run hard, run fast, run confidently, and call call call.


9. Take stock. Finally at the end of every over, always take stock. Encourage your batting partner to keep things ticking over. Set a small target, e.g. score ten runs in the upcoming over. This will bring out more responsibility into you and your partner's batting. Never ever avoid communication between overs. Just touching gloves in the middle of the pitch isn't enough. You should be communicating to each other, setting objectives, reminding each other to keep the score flowing and, most importantly, not losing your wicket.
   

Well I hope that next week those guys who failed miserably can apply some of these basics in their batting, and hopefully their batting will improve as a result.

Lapping The Lake

Last Friday I travelled down to Rotorua to compete in the Rotorua Marathon. It was a very tough and very slow course for all runners, and I managed to finish the marathon in a slow time of 5 hours 20 seconds. I wasn't expecting to better my previous time at Auckland, and wasn't surprised when I took 43 minutes more to finish the Rotorua course. It was basically the mother of all New Zealand marathons, with the hard roads and various hills to overcome. The course starts and finishes in the middle of Rotorua, with runners making one circuit around Lake Rotorua.

Anyway, the road trip on Friday was quick, and I got settled in Rotorua. The only thing to do on Friday was to pick up my race pack and survey the course by car. I noted that there were some difficult hill climbs and some very long straight stretches. Other than that, it seemed to be a normal kind of run. That assessment may have been too premature. So for the remainder of Friday, I just sat in bed watching TV, fuelling and stretching.

Come Saturday morning, it was raining. The runners congregated at the start line waiting for the countdown to go. I started way at the back of the queue, as I didn't want to be mown down by runners behind. It took me 3 minutes to cross the start line.

It stopped raining around the 10 km mark, and the time registered 67 mins, so I was reasonably confident at that pace that I could probably make 4 hours 30 minutes, provided I pick up some speed in the latter half of the run. At that time I started chatting with another runner who lived in the same area as me. Very nice bloke, and he has an impressive running record too. Because of injuries he finished around the 4:40 mark. I could have tagged along, but unfortunately faded when I tried keeping up.

Then near halfway, which was around the time my friend pulled in front, I started to fade. The hard roads, with the big chips and uneven surface, started hurting my feet, which subsequently hurt my ankles. Not even my running shoes could give me comfort, as I was used to pounding the smoother roads in my area. The hard road surface with the big chips was one thing I didn't pick up from my surveying of the course earlier. And I couldn't increase the pace when I wanted to. So I was consigned to the marathon shuffle where your feet seem to shuffle in a consistent motion, and your legs cannot increase the length that you stride, as if you were shackled in chains at your feet.

By the time it was 3 hours, I had covered around 27 km. I thought I was on target for 4 hours 30 minutes if I kept going at my current pace, maybe even 5-10 minutes overtime. But the pain, caused by the hard road, forced me to walk a few times. After a couple of minutes of walking, I could continue the shuffle, only to walk later on when the feet starting screaming for comfort. This continued all the way until the 42 km mark (and I also had to make 2 brief stops to the toilet), where I decided to throw everything aside and sprint 195 metres towards the finish in an attempt to get a few seconds under 5 hours. Unfortunately the legs started to cramp and I was forced to slow down, hence the reason I clocked in at 5 hours 20 seconds.

After the race, I tried moving around constantly so that I wouldn't cramp up severely. I even went for a post-race massage, which accelerates muscle recovery. I paid $10 for 10 minutes, but the lovely masseuse spent more time on me, around 30 minutes, and didn't require additional payment. She certainly did the trick, my muscles don't hurt. Unlike my last marathon, I couldn't walk properly the next day. This time, I could walk comfortably.

I'm a little disappointed that I didn't do better, even former Black Cap Roger Twose did better than me. I saw him on the course, but I was too shy to say hello. But it was a great experience, and I will certainly do Rotorua again next year in an effort to improve my time.

A Gutless Capitulation

Indeed, what a dark day for NZ Cricket. The Black Caps have been soundly beaten by Sri Lanka in their semifinal match at the Cricket World Cup. And in a not-so-unexpected twist, Fleming has quit as one-day skipper. It was quite ironic that on Anzac Day, our boys delivered a gutless performance.

This was a very very sorry effort from our boys who failed to deliver with bat and ball. Sri Lanka piled on a massive 289 runs and NZ were never in the chase. After losing the openers cheaply it seemed like we would have a close game on our hands. Alas, there was a middle order collapse, where we lost 5 wickets in 5 overs. Despite a last wicket partnership, which was probably the best partnership of the NZ innings, we lost the game by 81 runs.

This was the 5th time NZ has made the semis and we have never crossed that line to the finals before. The outcome of the Cricket World Cup really looks predictable. Australia, not having lost a game, looks set to take the title for the 3rd time, unless Murali and his fellow spinners intervene, which would be just like 1996 all over again.

As for Stephen Fleming, he has been horrible against Sri Lanka in the World Cup. He cannot seem to face Vaas or Malinga at all. So it wasn't a surprise that he has quit as captain. But I just cannot see a suitable replacement for Fleming. He's a very experienced captain, probably the best in the world, but relieving him of the captaincy should hopefully help him get more runs with the bat. Or maybe appear in more Fujitsu or Rexona ads.

The feeling of losing yet another semifinal opens up old wounds inflicted in 1992 and 1999. I just wonder how long it would take for this team to cross that line and make a final for once. With certain players already near the end of their use-by date, it doesn't bode well for the future.

Reborn

My indoor cricket playing days have started again. This time we play at a different venue, on a different day, but more or less the same players from the Dirty Hackers era and a couple of new faces. James' friend, Chicken, has moved up to Auckland, and has started a cricket team to play on Thursdays. James kindly pooled the best Dirty Hackers to play for the new team (well basically all the regular Dirty Hackers). The new venue is closer to home for all of us, which is a bonus.

Unfortunately the new team name is Hooray for Boobies, even less flattering than Dirty Hackers. Perhaps we should be called Westie Smashers instead. Anyway, our first team was pretty hopeless. We scored 146 runs, and they eventually sunk into a negative score, as we regularly took their wickets.

It's all looking good for Hooray for Boobies. We could take out the entire competition.

Countdown to Rotorua

Just another week to the Rotorua Marathon, and already I am anxious about how I will fare on a course that could be even more tougher than my first Auckland outing. I will be realistic and say that I won't better my previous best of 4 hours 17 minutes. Considering the potential toughness of the course I'll add a bit of extra buffer time. I won't be surprised if I exceed 4 hours 30 minutes. But who knows, I could do better than last time.

I have a bit of pain in both feet, in different places. The left foot is a bit tender on my outstep, mostly as a consequence of continually rolling the ankle too many times in training. The right foot is a bit uncomfortable just above the front of my ankle at the top of the foot. This happened after training yesterday when I ramped the treadmill up to around 13 km/h, which was probably very foolish to do so close to a marathon. Hopefully I'll get over the little pains and save myself for the event.

This last week will be dedicated to fuelling and tapering, so hopefully I'll get the procedure right.

Shhhhhhhhh.... Confidential Idea

A couple of months ago my cousin, who is still in school, asked me if I knew Java. I replied in the affirmative. He knew a school friend who had an idea that could potentially make a lot of money, and it involved Java. Both my cousin and I didn't know what the idea was, since the dude was not willing to share his idea, until we signed 'Confidentiality Agreements'. The only information I got was that it involved cellphones, so I gathered it involved J2ME, which I knew absolutely nothing about. I said, sure I'll meet the dude and hear his idea.

I finally met the dude. After I signed two copies of his poorly written 'Confidentiality Agreement', he demonstrated the idea. The idea was to get a cellphone to receive an infra-red signal, store the signal in the cellphone, and send the signal to any receiver. The best example of this was using your cellphone as a remote control. According to his idea, you program the cellphone with your remote control, assign a key to a particular TV channel, and you can press the assigned key on your cellphone to change the channel. The argument was that remote controls are often misplaced. Rather than looking for the misplaced remote control, use the infra-red interface available on your cellphone to change the channel. And if you misplace your phone, you can call your cellphone. The cellphone remote control can also be applied to other areas, such as switching on/off a light or an alarm system.

For the J2ME side, a mobile application that runs on the phone needs to be developed, and presumably has a nice-looking user interface and some business logic to assign different keys to a particular infra-red signal. The application can be installed on the phone.

The dude was pretty adamant that the idea hasn't been implemented. Since he didn't know any Java, he wanted me first to do a prototype to prove it can be done. As remuneration, I would receive $500 if I completed the prototype. If it sold well, I get a share of the profits.

While he thought of an amazing idea, I wasn't really convinced it was going to be successful. Infra-red capabilities of current cellphones are poor; in fact the range is around 3 feet. That would make a crappy remote control. But who knows, the range could be greater. Battery life could take a hammering, plus cellphones can be treated roughly if used as remote controls as people tend to throw remote controls around recklessly.

I'm also not keen on product convergence (combining different products functions into one product); an example of this is camera phones, which I hate. Some people love product convergence, but others just loathe it. Personally I'm just not keen on dicking around and configuring every key to change channels, volume, mute the TV or read Teletext, especially if I buy a new phone. Infra-red ports aren't available on many phone models, and to my knowledge, the Java platform is only available on certain phone models (not sure how widespread it is). So basically the product will only work on certain cellphones. And personally I don't know J2ME, so I'm not sure how big a learning curve it would be. Considering the above, a few days later I told him I would not go further with it.

Later on I googled for this idea and found literally hundreds of links talking about this idea. It seems Sony Ericsson already had some sort of patent on this idea and is already developing a new phone model to deliver this functionality. I wonder if the dude actually did his research. Oh well, it seemed like a good idea to begin with, but then they just kind of seem to lose their original 'wow' impact when you begin to think about it more.

And if you were wondering about the 'Confidentiality Agreement' that I signed, well it's pretty much useless. There were no legal witnesses, it wasn't properly done, etc. I suspect he ripped an example from the Internet. It was basically a gentlemens agreement. Not saying that I'm not.

Whenuapai Half Marathon

I ran the Whenuapai Half Marathon yesterday, and was pretty pleased with my performance, 1 hour 58 minutes.

I started at the back of the pack to reinforce that I needed to start slowly. Once I got into a groove around 5 km into the race, I started passing each runner, and I honestly cannot remember any runners passing me at any stage of the run. Passing each runner gives you a bit of positive energy which makes you stronger and faster. I certainly felt that in this race.

Though it was outside my personal best of 1 hour 54 minutes, I was certainly happy with my run. Unlike the previous half marathons I have done, the course was scenic and peaceful as we trudged through rolling green countryside. Would definitely do it again next year.

The Pursuit of Another Certification

I have decided to put myself through more punishment and do another Java certification. This time I have to complete an assignment, not study for an exam.

The assignment requires you to develop a solution, using the Java programming language, from a set of requirements. I think the practical nature of the assignment would suit me fine, even though the assignment requires you to make many assumptions. In contrast the exam is very black and white, but it requires you to learn theory and there are some trick questions, which forces you to know the theory really well. Again, I found the exam style questions comfortable.

I decided to do another certification for various reasons.

• Since I'm not doing development work per se in my job, it will keep my developer skills sharp. This could be viewed as a learning experience, because I still consider myself a newbie when it comes to programming. Often at work there are some developers who know their shit really well, but I find myself lacking or totally ignorant in the same area.
• When I leave my company and work somewhere else, or go overseas in a year or two, the certification would look good on the CV and, coupled with the experience I get from doing the assignment, it may be easier to find work.
• It would further my career greatly. At my last performance review, I shot myself in the foot saying that I would complete the assignment by the next performance review. I guess I should get started.
• I find that at the moment, I'm not using my time as judiciously as I would like. So the assignment will keep me busy during my downtime.

I've already got the ball rolling. I went to Dymocks to see if they had any books that specialised in this certification. They didn't have any in stock, so I got them to order one for me.

The next thing to do is to purchase a voucher from Sun. Traditionally my company has paid for employees to get certified. One of the development team leaders arranged for all developers to get certified, so I approached him to see if he could get the company to pay for my voucher. Unforunately he told me that since I don't work in any development team he couldn't help me. What a lame reply! Instead, I have to approach my manager to approve this purchase. I'd rather not pay $500 dollars myself.

When I did my last two Java certifications, I remember procrastinating for as long as one year before I finally got my act together. I hope it doesn't happen again this time round!

Back Upstairs

Well my experience downstairs in the dungeon was brief, the way I wanted it to go. So today I've returned upstairs.

Although I had a couple of tasks assigned to me when I was working downstairs, apparently there is a pile of important work in my original team needing to be addressed, so this was enough for me to drop my downstairs tasks and move back.

Guess you got to go where the work is at.

I'm now an Irish supporter....

...because they upset Pakistan at the Cricket World Cup. And Bangladesh just strangled the life out of India.

I captain a pool on www.superbru.com which is a sports prediction site. Superbru has tournaments like the Super 14, the Champions League and the Cricket World Cup, and I started a pool for Orion employees to join and predict the results on Cricket World Cup games. So far, most of them have chosen the results correctly.

But none of us were correct in those above games.

India vs Bangladesh, well it's a hard call, but India should have won easily considering their depth and players. Perhaps India had a bad day. They have a celebrated batting lineup (probably the best in the world on paper), probably the best players in the world against spin, but they were choked to death by the Banglas who used 3 left arm spinners and 2 pace bowlers. 199 dot balls, thats 33.1 overs of runless play. The spinners just dried up the runs; in a particularly asphyxiating passage of play, they didn't concede a single boundary for 88 deliveries, from the 19th to the 33rd over.

Pakistan vs Ireland, well that was just sensational. Ireland defied the minnow bashers and sent Pakistan tumbling out of the World Cup. I've seen Pakistan win against any side they play, but they haven't had the best preparation leading into the competition and it isn't any suprise they have had another early exit.

But against Ireland? Well, full credit to the Irish. They bowled really well to dismiss Pakistan for 132. I'm rooting for them to advance as far as the semis. If they win the World Cup, well wouldn't that be special?

The End of the Dirty Hackers

Last Monday's final had to be the most pulsating game of indoor cricket I have ever played. Desperate to win our last game, we decided to set a big target and defend it.

Unfortunately our batting was below par, with only 3 partnerships making solid scores, the other partnership failing miserably. If you're batting in a finals situation, make sure you first and foremost keep your wicket! Fortunately James and I produced the best partnership which served as the anchor of the innings.

Our bowling was gutsy and determined and couldn't have asked for a better effort in the field. With my constant shouting, cursing, and sledging, which was so loud that everyone within a one mile radius could have heard it, we managed to put great pressure on them till the point where they nearly broke down after 3 partnerships.

However their last partnership won the game for them. With only 9 runs to get in the final over, they got to within 4 runs with 2 balls still to be bowled. The 5th ball was tossed up, the batsman decided to step out and have a big swing, only to be neatly stumped. We were euphoric; to get 9 runs to win off the final ball was pretty much impossible. Unfortunately they got 8 runs (a boundary 7 was smashed off the final ball, and a cheeky single was stolen), which meant they tied the game. Because the opposition had a better run rate through the competition (around 2% higher), they were declared winners.

We were absolutely shattered. We were tired. But at least we tied the game, and at least we didn't lose by one run. (This is disregarding the fact that they won by run rate!) Both sides congratulated each other on a well fought game, which I can say turned out to be the best finals game in the whole competition.

After the game we had a few drinks, and then our team went their own separate ways. There is talk that we'll reform the team in the summer competition, but for now I'll definitely be hanging up the bat and Dirty Hackers team shirt.

Having played for over two years in the same competition, we've brought in many players who have had stints with the Dirty Hackers, played many exciting games, endured many bad losses, and improved as a playing unit. My batting has really found some good form (lately my partnerships with James have been averaging between 35-50 runs), the bowling as always still needs a lot of work (my line and length tends to be erratic), and the fielding has generally been solid, despite me not having a settled fielding position as I always tend to float around. Overall, playing indoor has brought lots of great memories.

Still haven't decided what to do with Monday's however.....

Don't mean to whine, but...

...at work I've been shifted back to my old team. The same team that I really did not want to work in.

Apparently, all development teams are under-resourced due to a big looming project deadline. Though I'm not working on said project, there is a second project to complete and the developer responsible for it is now required to work on the more urgent project. So it has been decided that I have to go back to my old team to help out, which I'm hesitant to do. It's a delicate balancing act as they juggle resources to work on many different projects.

Just when I thought I escaped my old team, I have to return back. Hopefully it's not a permanent move, as I really like my new team better!

Please! Just let me play one more game

Well, what a result!

Excuse my previous post about lamenting that last night's game could be our last and that we had little chance of winning with a severely understrength side. But all those fears were put aside as our little team of six rallied together magnificently in our last-chance semifinal game and beat a full strength side, earning our place in next weeks grand final match.

Losing the toss, we were sent in to bat. Our mission was clear; set a massive target that will be defendable with only six in the field. And we did just that.

Opening the innings with James, we set a foundation with 34 runs. No dismissals, just common-sense, no risk batting. The next two partnerships yielded 33 and 38 runs, and already we scored 105 runs after 12 overs.

It was time for the opposition to pick the unlucky two batsmen to play out the final partnership. They chose me and, to my big surprise, Wazza, who is one of our best batsmen and the one who made the 38 run partnership. I'm having a lot of good form with the bat lately. And it's a left hand right hand partnership, making it tougher on the bowlers to adjust their line. So I think the opposition made a bad choice. Going on form they probably should have chosen Glen and Olly to bat out the last overs.

In the end, their choice of batsmen blew up in their face as we score 51 runs, heaping a big total of 156 runs. Hopefully it was big enough to defend with only six bowlers.

And we did so magnificently. The opposition run chase was very inept. Always trying to play boundary shots against good balls, they only succeeded in scoring 1's, 2's or losing their wicket cheaply. And often they did lose their wicket. After 3 partnerships, their score was still in the 30's. With 120 odd to chase in the final partnership and some ultra defensive bowling from us, they never had any chance, and meekly gave up their place in the finals. It was total annihilation.

So, we made the finals (for the second time) and hopefully we can win this one! It won't be easy as the opposition are the form team of the competition. But it will be a great way to bow out of the competition, and hopefully that will motivate us to win. If we could win with only six players, against the odds, imagine how far we could go.

What to do with Monday?

Tomorrow could very well be the last indoor cricket game for the Dirty Hackers. Even though it's a semifinal game, we only have 6 players available. Unfortunately we can't call on outside ringers for help since it's a semifinal.

If it's any consolation, we are missing our two weakest players, but we will still have to work twice as hard without them. It feels so unfair to end our playing days with an understrength side.

The odds are clearly against us. Given the opposition are quite good, it just seems like we are handing the opposition a win on a silver plate, which really pisses me off.

I've been thinking about what I can do on Monday nights now that my playing days are finally at an end. Maybe I'll get back into Ceroc.

Cathay Pacific Half Marathon

Just this morning I took part in the Cathay Pacific Half Marathon, which went through Mission Bay, to The Strand, back to Orakei, Kohimarama, St Heliers and finished at Mission Bay.

Unfortunately I could only finish in 2 hours 2 minutes, more than 7 minutes outside my personal best.

There were certain factors which contributed to the slow time, such as the hotter than normal temperature, the nature of the course, the staggered starts, etc. But overall it was a good race and hopefully I can bounce back and do better next time.

Also managed to drink 3 Powerade drinks along the way.

Running back to full speed

Yesterday I did a good 10 km run in the domain. I was rather pleased with my effort, a solid time of 54 minutes 34 seconds.

The splits were interesting. 16:55 after 3 km and 33:50 after 6 km (which is exactly the same pace). So in the final 4 km, I sped up a little bit.

So far, it's the best time over 10 km, considering I've only done a couple of 10 km races. But I know I can go faster.

Pulling the pin on the Dirty Hackers

It was going to happen, but I didn't expect it to be this soon. Suddenly a team which has performed for so long and so well in the indoor cricket competition is now on the verge of playing its last games together as the current season draws to a close.

Naturally I'm in a bit of shock that we will no longer play as a team in future. Questions are running through my mind. How will I get my indoor cricket fix for the week? What will I do with my spare time? How would I keep in touch with team mates if we don't play cricket every week? Will there be a chance of a comeback? Things like that.

Because of increased work commitments, travel plans, and the difficulty of regularly fielding a team without resorting to randoms, we're considering pulling the pin. Unless we can find new blood to field a full team week after week, it's looking very grim for us.

There's been talk of some of us playing for other teams who need players. But it's just not the same. You develop a strong sense of camaraderie with your original team. We've experienced many memorable wins and losses, highs and lows, nail biters and thrashings, brilliancies and blunders. You probably won't experience the same degree with a different team of people you hardly know.

Something to motivate us: we made the semifinals for the third or forth time, but we've never won a final. If we could win this season's final in our retirement game, that would be really special. It won't be easy though; this season's teams have been very tough to beat. We're not the strongest team in the competition, but we can certainly put up a good fight.

Unfit

In a desperate attempt to get my marathon training back on track I did a 10 km run on Thursday, followed by a long 23 km run this morning.

Everything was just horrible. Far from my best. I could only manage 61 mins in the 10 km and a massive 151 mins in the long run.

The 10 km run was run in very hot conditions, I started too fast and suffered some pain in my right shin.

The long run was the first long run that I have done since the marathon ended, nearly 4 months ago. Hopefully I can quickly improve on that performance. I plodded like a tired old man during those 151 minutes. The good thing is that I got 151 minutes under my belt, when I could have stopped at 60 mins.

Those two runs have made me realise an awful truth, that I'm nowhere as fit as I was last year!

Weddings Weddings Weddings

Last week I went to a wedding of a colleague. The wedding was very beautiful, and done very well. It was a Catholic wedding, and it was an interesting insight to how different cultures and different religions conduct matrimonial ceremonies. It was also pretty long, but this kind of wedding had many facets to it, so everything had to be done in a certain order.

Last night I attended another wedding, the wedding of James and Christie. James has been a long time friend, he more or less got me interested in the beautiful game of cricket, and we play indoor cricket together every week. I first remembered meeting Christie around 5 years ago, and I knew that these guys would get married someday.

The ceremony was short and sweet. Afterwards during the photo sessions outside the church, I managed to bump into Louise Mackenzie, or Ms Mackenzie, my accounting teacher during 7th form. It was quite a surprise that she still recognised me as I had trouble recognising her at first. She no longer teaches at Massey. She described to me that I looked more grown up, so I guess that is good! She has the memory of an elephant; she recalled the time I won a scholarship and that I worked at Warehouse Stationary, events like that I don't bother to remember. The funny thing is that she admitted to me that accounting is a boring subject, there's nothing interesting about it. However it's the teaching aspect that hits her buttons. I wonder the same about the computing job that I'm doing now. It pays good money, that certainly hits my buttons. But, like Ms Mackenzie said, I'm also getting slightly bored with it.

The reception was held near the Viaduct. Good food, good wine, good company (mostly sat with indoor cricket teammates/high school mates). I managed to stay right till the end of the reception, around 1 am in the morning.

Overall I had a good time and I wish James and Christie all the best as a married couple.

Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat

Tonight's indoor cricket game was a pure example of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Here's how it unfolded.

With only 4 players present at the 5:45 pm start, it was only fair that we batted first. Our team mates arrived slightly late but we could only field a team of 7. Batting first, we didn't post a very competitive total considering the calibre of our opposition, who are probably the form team over the last 2 seasons.

The first partnership, which I batted with Captain James, gave us 19 runs. It was a remarkable recovery after having been in the negative after the first 2 overs. A couple of freak dismissals, a few poor shots and some good bowling from the opposition kept us relatively quiet, though I had a bit of fun smashing one of the slower bowlers for a 7 and a 4, even though I got out once. James had a more dismal time with the bat, but we managed to set a small foundation after a disasterous start.

Our second partnership was the best with 37 runs scored. However our third and fourth partnerships could only manage 12 and 18 runs respectively. It was tenderhook stuff; lots of bad shots and bad calling. The opposition were gracious enough to let us choose a batsman who would bat again, and James decided to do a better job of it this time, but in fact ended up once less than his previous effort. Overall we scored 86, and to be honest I thought we were done. The total was not competitive enough against the strength of this team. The only thing we could do was to bowl tight and field with utmost commitment. We treated each of our partnership scores as a mini total that we had to defend with a vice like grip.

We did have a good start, with 21 runs coming from their very strong opening partnership. If we could convincingly defend 37, we would be in with a chance. However they scored 40 runs in their second partnership, no thanks to my slightly expensive bowling. Our fielding was good, but at times it was scrappy. By being sloppy in the field we let them get easy runs. One incident was my fault as I didn't gather the ball cleanly at the top stumps. The incoming throw hit the stumps, hit my mouth on the rebound and then scurried into the back net. The opposition, sensing extra runs, capitalised on my blunder. A couple of wrong umpiring decisions didn't help things either. It was going to be a tall order defending only 12 and 18 runs later on.

With only 14 runs to get from the last partnership it was up to me to close out the final stages of the game. Of course, with only fourteen runs to get, they just need to milk singles and twos where they could. I was chosen to bowl the 13th over, and thankfully I managed to get a wicket after the batsman accidently stepped on his stumps. It was a tidy over, but they still managed to inch closer to their target. Wazza bowled the 14th, and his experience proved valuable as he 'mankaded' the non-striker when he set off for the run before the bowler bowled the ball. Wazza attempted the mankad a second time, but the non-striker was a quick learner and even started to mouth off at Wazza for his tactics. Clearly the pressure was beginning to show on the batsmen, and we were the onces who kept our cool. Once all of us had bowled our alloted overs, there were still 2 overs remaining where 2 of us had to bowl twice. This time the opposition were more cutthroat. With only 2 more overs to get what little runs they needed, they took the safest option. They opted to select our slowest bowlers: Vipal's dad and myself.

I had to bowl the 15th. And it probably wasn't in the team's best interests for me to bowl the final over, as extras, which I sometimes bowl, would instantly kill us. Ever so slowly they milked me for singles and twos, never stepping out of the crease. Always trying to flight the ball, bowl straight and mix up my pace so they were forced to play shots, but they were smart and made their shots with care. After four balls, they got to 92 I think. Suddenly in the next two deliveries, we snapped up 2 quick wickets. The first was a very close run-out, the second was a sharp catch off the nets in the cover position. I was more than ecstatic. With those 2 wickets, our tails lifted and suddenly they were on 82 runs. We were still not defeated yet, we still had a chance. 6 balls, 5 runs to win.

Vipal's dad had to bowl the final over, and he did it superbly. With only 5 runs to get, they got 6 runs after 4 balls, so now they were on 88. Then the unthinkable happened. Rather than bat out the last two balls, they decided to set off for a quick suicidal run. A quick throw at the stumps found its target and suddenly they needed runs to win off the final ball. With their score on 83, the equation was 4 runs off 1 ball.

I ran over to Captain James and quickly pointed out that they needed four runs to win off the final delivery and suggested a field change to protect the boundary. Before Vipal's dad could bowl, we called for a few seconds time to rearrange the field so that the back net was fully covered, a very defensive field. And it worked. Even before the ball was released, the batsman had to come miles down the crease and slog, but it only found the side net for a two. There was a bit of confusion as well gathered the ball. The ball was still in play, but it was not near the stumps. The opposition ran again to force a tie, but with quick hands and quick minds, we managed to run out the batsman. And it was oh so close. I thought the batsman had made it, but the umpire deliberated for a few seconds, the longest few seconds I had to wait in my life, and gave the hand signal that he was out.

We were f****** over the moon with that effort. To defend 86 runs with 7 players against top quality opposition was an unreasonable task, but we pulled off our great escape. It didn't go our way all the time, with some fielding slips and wrong umpiring decisions. The batsmen stormed out of the playing area while we huddled in celebration, but as we walked out like heroes in a battle they congratulated us on our heroic efforts.

This game just showed that indoor cricket is a funny sport. You'll never know how the result of the game will really turn out until the final ball has been delivered. The team came together and put in a stellar performance, a performance that we would be proud of for a long time.