Where we train

Summer training – where I train and meet people.

Mondays 5:30 pm Salkauskas Crescent North Lyneham (main group training session)
Tuesdays 9:00 am Black Mountain Peninsula (long run with the Vets)
Wednesdays 5:30 pm Biffin Street Cook Oval athletic track (interval session and stretching)
Thursdays 6:30 pm AIS Athletic Track (Vets competition)
Fridays AIS pool recovery swim, various times.
Saturdays 12 noon Biffin Street Cook Oval athletic track (interval session and stretching)
Sundays various venues long run (by arrangement each week)

Cancellations? All runs always go ahead rain hail or shine with the possible exception of Thursday's comp, in which case a decision is made by 5:00pm and announced after that on ABC AM radio, 666. The usual reason given for cancelling Vets track is lightning danger, which has occurred twice now with the strange tropical weather we have experienced this summer.

Detailed results of the 4 x 1500 relay

1 M45 team 20:24 ACT record
Nigel Coldrick 5.23
Rod Lynch 4.58
Gary Bowen 5.32
John Morton 4.31

2 M50 team 20.55 ACT record
Steve Appleby 5.29
Ken White 5.05
Neville Madden 5.23
Michael Leahey 4.58

3 M55 team A 21.42 ACT record
Kevin Chamberlain 5.14
Trevor Cobbold 5.06
Geoff Sims 5.45
Garry Maher 5.37

4 M55 team B 22.59
Graham Burke 5.57
Geoff Moore 5.30
Ken Eynon 5.36
Jim White 5.56

5 Composite Team 23.41
Peter P Davies 4.37 (one lap short)
Lisa Wilson 6.27
Geoff Monro 6.41 (one extra lap)
Roger Pilkington 5.56

6 W50 25.17
Maureen Rossiter 6.48
Kathy Sims 6.03
Maria O'Reilly 6.01
Charmaine Knobel 6.25

7 M65 25.41 ACT record
Ray Bramwell 6.57
Ian Kenny 6.30
Roger Abbott 6.24
Tony Booth 5.51

8 W55 29.02 ACT record
Margaret McSpadden 7.17
Jill Brown 7.10
Alice Scott 7.46
Rae Palmer 6.49

AMA Championships - Brisbane

The AMA Track and Field Championships are in Brisbane in March this year, at Easter. (I will be going and running in at least the 5k and Cross Country). Entries close 25 February and no late entries are accepted. Forms are available at the track or you can download a form at http://www.mastersathletics.com.au/qmaa.html

Yesterday at the Track

Congratulations to all those who ran in the 1500 relays last night. The Chocolate Frog award for Exceptional Achievement this week goes to Rae Palmer for completing a rare run on the track - with the additional trauma of being fourth runner in the relay team which was last to leave the track. You deserve the reward for finishing your run with all eyes on you!

I will post individual times if/when I get them, with a fuller report.

Everyone's Form Guide

The list of Team Moore members (below) contains links to the ACTVAC Form Guide web pages, where applicable. If you open any Form Guide, clicking on an event will open that event; clicking on any other name in that event will open that person's Form Guide; and so on ad infinitum.
These are just the Vets links - the ACT Cross Country Club also publishes form guides for its races.
Some "borderline" cases have been included, some omitted. Anyone else you think should be there, any errors or omissions, please inform me!

Team Moore:
John Alcock
Jennifer Amyx (left Canberra)
Geoff Barker
Ruth Baussmann
Marion Blake
Kerry Boden
Neil Boden
Tony Bond
Tony Booth
Gabrielle Brown
Jill Brown
Annemarie Calnan
Caroline Campbell
Angelo Cataldo
Kevin Chamberlain
Mick Charlton
Mandy Chew
Trevor Cobbold
Cory Collins
Dion Devow
Alan Duus
Ken Eynon
Colin Farlow
Pam Faulks
Rod Gilchrist
Kirsten Gillespie
Ken Gordon
Clare Gunning (left Canberra)
Maria Hancock
Matthew Hardy
Fran Harris
Katrina Hill (left Canberra)
Peter Hogan
Roy Jones
Terri Jones
Charmaine Knobel
Mick Konemann (left Canberra)
Jennifer Krevatin
James Lamech
Tom Lane (left Canberra)
Chris Lang
Jenny Langton
Consie Larmour
Helen Larmour
Michael Leahey
Natalie Leslie
Bill Leydon
Alex Lloyd
Rod Lynch
Peter McDonald
James McMahon
Margaret McSpadden
Neville Madden
Kevin Matthews
Vicki Matthews
Cathy Montalto
Geoff Moore
Cathy Newman
Jim O'Donnell
Maria O’Reilly
Rae Palmer
Sarah Pau
Jill Pearson
Joel Pearson
Toby Pearson
Michael Roche
Maureen Rossiter
Deidre Russack
Michael Rutter
Alice Scott
Alison Sims (left Canberra)
Kathy Sims
Graeme Small
Kathy Southgate
Annette Sugden
Ewen Thompson
Annie van Herck (left Canberra)
Amanda Walker
David Webster
Michelle Wells
Ken White
Philippa White
Kent Williams
Lisa Wilson
Cate Winning
Mike Worsley

Cricket: comment, critique, or criticism?

Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering teach the rest to sneer;
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike.
- Alexander Pope

Listening to the cricket on television and radio recently, I could not help but notice how negative and critical the commentators have become. It's like they cannot see how well a winning team is playing, but only how bad the losing team is and everything that is wrong about them that should be fixed.

Given that we have all been brought up to be very analytical, logical, methodical, insightful, and shrewd, it is not that easy you know to unselfconsciously delight in something we like pretty well.

So hopefully my enthusiasm for writing every day, such enthusiasm just recently ignited, will continue to burn unabated for some time to come.

What really helps then is the delightful feedback about this new website, now one week old, from you the readers, not critical, not even critiquing, but some really positive responses!

Thanks guys. Keep the comments coming!

Happy 50th Birthday Maria

Congratulations to Maria O'Reilly on her 50th birthday today. Maria has long been anticipating this entry into a new age group. For the last five years while in the W45 age group she has been a consistent improver on the track and in her longer runs. First of all in shorter track distances, 400, 800 and 1500, and more recently in the longer ones. Maria ran her best short track races in March of 2003, when she completed a 400 in 70.9 seconds, and in the ACT Vets Championships ran a PB of 5:18 for the 1500 on the Saturday, then another PB 2:38 for the 800 on the Sunday.
In 2004 in her only attempt (I think) at a track 5000 she returned the good time of 20:48, then more recently, in the Pennington 3000 last November, she ran 12:10, her best time by a few seconds after consistent improvement over that distance in the last couple of years because of her increased training.
I think Maria's best event as a W50 will be the 800, but I know she likes the longer distances (don't we all?) However the W50s here in Canberra are quite competitive; and thanks to Maureen Rossiter chopping a huge slice of the 800m record last season, records will be hard to come by. But given Maria's record to date, she has an excellent chance of getting a record in one distance or another. And if all else fails, the W50 relay records will be broken for sure, with Maria joining the teams.
All the very best in your new age group Maria.

Maria on a cold Canberra winter's run

8:30 am start this Sunday

Yesterday four of us ran over the course for this Sunday's Vets monthly handicap - which reminds me that the start time has changed for January and February only, to 8:30am instead of 9:00am. The Campbell Park run is one of the better courses, being mostly good surface (although the start/finish is a bit rough and rocky) and having some shade, and the early start should help. There is always a good turnout for the first handicap run of the year. DON'T BE LATE!

February "Vetrunner" magazine

The latest Vetrunner magazine is now available on-line. Just visit http://www.actvac.com/ and go to "Publications". It can take a minute or so to download. For those who are not aware, not only is the electronic version available before the mail-out, all the photos are in glorious colour.

Wedding Of The Year (Dec 2004) !

Achilles tendonitis remedy

I have been managing a chronic achilles problem for thirty years - more or less successfully until recently (November 2004) when the injury was aggravated.

Seeing if there was any new treatment for the problem, a few weeks ago I searched the web, and talked to a few people, to discover that eccentric work on the calf muscle was being promoted as a cure for achilles tendonitis.

I was reassured when I visited Adrian my physio this week and he told me he was going to prescribe eccentric strengthening exercises, after some initial treatment.

Once Adrian gives me these exercises and I have used them for a while, I will be able to report how successful a cure the exercises are.

Meanwhile, have a read of one of many articles explaining what it's all about, and see what you think.

Rain Stops Play

“Rain Stops Play”
Not just rain of course, but thunder, lightning, and hail, meant that the Veterans track meet scheduled for last night was cancelled.

I didn’t go, because I knew they had cancelled previously, when conditions were nowhere near as bad.

In the “good old days” we ran rain hail and shine.

The difference now isn’t that we have all gone soft. I am not saying that. The difference is that we now have to pay so much to use the track, that the club stands to lose if they go ahead with a track meet and no-one comes.

The problem that has arisen now is the vicious circle – the more we cancel, the fewer people turn up on baddish days, so the more likely we are to cancel.

“What about training sessions” I hear you ask. No we "never" cancel! Four reasons. (1) I don’t want us to fall into the trap mentioned above. People will always turn up because it hasn’t been cancelled before. (2) With our training there’s no financial loss involved. I don’t ever charge! And I don’t use venues that incur charges or involve booking. (3) more often than not conditions turn out to be OK, if not excellent, for training! And (4) even if a ground is closed, there are plenty of other alternatives.

As an aside, it is probably a good thing that the track meet is cancelled every now and then – it gives us extra day to lick our wounds from all the injuries, sorenesses and other excesses.

"See you at the track"

A new (and better) way of dealing with health issues

As I plan to post a whole lot of helpful hints on this site, I thought I had better get some unhelpful hints out of the way first, see below. Thanks to Maria for sending them to me! Hey, anything you would like as a post rather than a comment you could email to me (for now).

Team Moore's chocolate frog awards for last week went to Gaby for her maiden 5000 metre run at the track in very hot conditions, and to Ewen for getting this website started. Read the comments attached to the last posting if you want to know the fate of Ewen's prize. Yum yum hey Ruth? Which brings me to -

A new (and better) way of dealing with health issues.

Q1: I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A1: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it...don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.

Q2: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A2: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q3: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A3: Not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of vegetables. Bottoms up!

Q4: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A4: Well, if you have a body and you have body fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q5: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A5: Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No Pain ...Good!

Q6: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A6: YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!!. Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q7: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A7: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

Q8: Is chocolate bad for me?
A8: Are you crazy? HELLO ....... Cocoa beans ... another vegetable!!! It's the best feel-good food around!

Q9: Is swimming good for your figure?
A9: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q10: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?
A10: Hey! 'Round' is a shape!

Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.

Up and Running

Welcome to our new interactive web site. You may start using it right away. Topics of interest will be posted regularly. We welcome comments and questions on any running related topic - the sky's the limit.

This site will feature all kinds of running writing - sharing ideas, getting feedback, announcing awards, messages about social events, ideas, hints, advice, discussions; links to other running and coaching sites of interest.

There will be information about training and racing dates, Team Moore training group results including the prestigious (weekly) Chocolate Frog and (six-monthly) Caramel Koala awards for outstanding performances.

And of course other things of interest to our group of runners - runner profiles, announcements about how we went last week, birthdays particularly new Masters age groups, hatches matches & dispatches.

New people wanting training can find out what the training group offers and contact us via the site.

And PHOTOS will be posted!

This can be whatever you want it to be! So please join in now, start by adding a comment to this post. Just try it!