News on Relays

There was some confusion when the 4 x 1500m relay teams were being assembled, as to what the rules were for team composition as far as both ACT and national records were concerned.

National records are relevant because the national 4x1500 records are very achievable by ACT teams, and an Australian record certificate is something special! And because national 4x800 records are mostly non-existent and therefore up for grabs!

With the 4x800s coming up on 15 December we need to know who we can select in the teams going for records.

But first, and this is important, it was never intended to restrict the relays to eligible teams! Everyone who would have run had it been a normal scratch race, is supposed to participate! The more teams the better, composite teams of any kind are welcome.

Also very important is that anyone "left over" and not in a team may run in the first leg, starting when the gun fires, but must not join in later. A team was disqualified because of pacing last time. It seems obvious; but these things apparently need stating.

And now the rules. The same rules apply nationally as to the ACT. To be eligible for ACT and Australian records (1) ALL runners in the relay must be current registered members of ACTVAC, and (2) The four runners must either be in the same age group, or ONE or TWO may be from the next age group up.

For example, a W40 team may either consist of four women in the W40 age group, or it may consist of three W40s and one W45, or it may consist of two W40s and two W45s. No other combination is eligible for records.

I prefer to see runners compete in their own age group when at all possible and only move down one when a team is not available in their own group. Teams should be encouraged NOT to pinch the best runners one age group up if it means taking them from another team! I suppose exceptions could be made on specific occasions when there is a particularly fast record we want to break. But that's not the case at the moment; records are achievable without doing that.

Finally, there are relays every week, often a 4x100, 4x200, or 4x400, and for these relays the same rules, spelt out above, apply.

Last Sunday at Weston Park

Geoff Barker won the handicap trophy this month.

On Sunday the final handicaps for the year were run at Weston Park, followed by Presentations and a Spit Roast, on a cold wet and muddy day. At least the wind wasn't strong.

Roger Pilkington had already won the handicap series before the event was run. So how did the handicapper let him through to second place this month? That can't be right! It must be the training he's doing now.

Those age percentages are interesting so I have included them here for the first time. I am sure the second decimal place is meaningless, they are not that accurate!

The end-of-year results for the series are not yet available; I will post them when they are, as we feature yet again. Meanwhile the full Sunday results are available on the ACTVAC website.

Race results for Team Moore members -
Weston Park 8k
4 Geoff Barker M60 39:20 71.22% - Geoff won the handicap
6 Roger Pilkington M45 33:36 73.41% - second
8 Colin Farlow M40 30:50 78.82% - fourth!
11 Jeni Greenland W30 40:33 62.41%
16 Jill Brown W55 46:25 65.88%
20 Alan Duus M55 38:39 71.11%
30 Rod Lynch M45 32:20 75.72%
33 Maria O'Reilly W50 36:36 78.82%
50 Alice Scott W60 49:35 64.33%
56 Bob Harlow M55 34:48 78.26%
57 Geoff Moore M55 36:36 73.74%
62 Peter McDonald M50 42:20 61.09%
66 Graeme Small M60 46:38 61.90%
76 Caroline Campbell W60 43:36 75.72%
83 Tony Booth M65 47:30 62.77%
86 Margaret McSpadden W55 55:52 55.89%

Weston Park 4k
6 Ken Gordon M40 15:59 74.90% - fourth!
9 Carol Baird W55 18:28 82.20%
11 Neil Boden M55 18:37 70.71%
13 Gary Bowen M45 16:48 73.99%
14 Katie Forestier W35 17:36 73.96%
17 Kerry Boden W45 23:24 59.54%
23 Cathy Montalto W50 19:48 74.44%

Woman's and Girls' triathlon

A nice picture, copied from CJ's blog, of CJ and Strewth at the triathlon yesterday, while the rest of us were running in the mud at Weston Park they were enjoying a cool swim, cycle and run.

A couple of other photos are on Strewth's blog.

Do click on the links to see their blogs for write-ups of the tri.

CJ was first in her age group and Strewth second in hers; well done!

Thursday's track results

The night featured great running by our relay runners, with three 4x1500 teams breaking ACT records - W30, W50 and W55. These would have been Australian records too, except the timing failed. A fourth team - M45 - was under the ACT record too but there was some pacing so it couldn't count.

3000m
Colin Farlow 10:13
Dale Moore 11:11
Rod Lynch 10:53
Gary Bowen 11:48
Neville Madden 12:04
Ken White 12:11
Ken Eynon 12:25
Geoff Moore 12:29
Neil Boden 13:08
Tony Booth 13:28
Charlie McCormack 12:14

10000m
Roger Pilkington 39:13.3
Mike Worsley 46:21.3
Geoff Barker 48:43.3
Tony Booth 48:44.0
Jeni Greenland 44:36.2
Charmaine Knobel 48:03.7
Carol Baird 45:55.9

4x1500m Relay
(John Morton) 4.44
Rod Lynch 5.09
Gary Bowen 5.22
(Phil White) 5.09 20.24

Neil Boden 5.58
(Jim White) 5.46
Ken Eynon 5.53
Kevin Chamberlain 5.40 23.17

Jenny Langton 5.20
(Mel Cockshut) 5.33
(Anna Danielsson) 5.25
Katie Forestier 5.49 22.07*

Charmaine Knobel 6.03
Kathy Sims 6.16
Maureen Rossiter 6.23
Maria O'Reilly 5.43 24.27*

Jill Brown 6.56
(Margaret Taylor) 7.15
Carol Baird 6.13
Alice Scott 7.38 28.02*

1500m Walk
Carol Baird 8.24
Alice Scott 10.59
Kevin Chamberlain 8.38
Geoff Barker 9.37
Rod Gilchrist 9.59
Annemarie Calnan 11.55

100m
Rod Lynch 14.7
Jenny Langton 14.6
Katie Forestier 15.9
Vicki Matthews 15.1
Maureen Rossiter 15.2
Jill Brown 16.5

200m
Michael Rutter 25.6
Ken Gordon 25.7
Dale Moore 30.6
Richard Faulks 27.3
Rod Lynch 31.9
Katie Forestier 33.1
Kerry Boden 30.1
Vicki Matthews 30.5
Pam Faulks 40.9
Maureen Rossiter 31.2

Javelin
Kevin Matthews 30.64

Long Jump
Vicki Matthews 3.55

And finally, next week's program (Thursday 1st December)
6:00pm 2000/3000m Steeple (Optional 3000m)
6:00pm Weight (LTF)
6:15pm 60m
6:30pm 1000/3000m walk
6:45pm Long Jump
7:00pm Higgins 800m Handicap (15th Annual Chris Higgins Memorial 800m Handicap)
7:00pm Javelin (1) 7:00pm Shot (1)
7:15pm High Jump
7:30pm 200m
7:45pm Long Hurdles (300m or 400m)
7:45pm Javelin (2) 7:45pm Shot (2)
7:45pm Triple Jump (QA Series)
8:00pm 4 x 400m relay
8:15pm 7 lap Spiral (Adler Series)

Rain! Hail! Rivers of water!

It is very wet today! I hope it will be alright for the handicap run! I cannot imagine how wet it will be behind the nursery at Weston Park. Let alone for the lunch afterwards. Here is a Steve Cuff photo of Neil Boden running a street mile in Canberra on another very wet day.

Kevin Chamberlain and Ken White.
it was pouring ...

ACTVAC promotion

Calling all interested ACTVAC members whose talents extend to setting up a display stand! Please talk to Roger Pilkington or myself!

Hey I'm on broadband

I don't know how I did it, but I fluked getting my broadband connection working on the second attempt! How I didn't corrupt the modem settings playing around with them I don't know...

But I haven't configured my email connection yet.... so keep using the old address for now!

update on how I am going

It's all good! So far. With two days to go this week, I am on my 60km target.

"Races" this week, all run holding back a little:
Wednesday 23rd BBQ Stakes 6k 26.54 (4.29 per km), improved from last week's 29.22
Thursday 24th 3000m track 12.29 (4.10 per km), rather pleased to be running this quick this easily. Felt sore warming up, but all OK running.
Friday 25th Customs 5k 21.05 (4.13 per km), better than last week's 22.55 (and good enough to be first over the line this week). Felt a little lethargic but ran on fairly well.

So the rate of progress continues, and more is expected if I can avoid re-injury. I am still planning not to try and stretch out at all!

I will have a jog in Sunday's Vets handicap then plan next week's 70km.

Valiant Vets

Suzanne Counsel, Cory Collins, and Anne Young warming up for the Canberra Times Fun Run earlier this year. Champions all!

Important Coming Events

There are so many news items I have summarised them in one place:

Thursday 24 November 4 x 1500 relay (also 10k); Zeffirelli afterwards
Sunday 27 November 8:30am Vets Handicap followed by BBQ. ** remember November, January and February are 8:30am starts **
Thursday 1 December Higgins 800 (also 4 x 400 relay)
Thursday 8 December Pennington 3000 re-run at 6pm, also 4 x 200 relay; Zeffirelli
Saturday 10 December Team Moore Christmas Party, from 6pm, byo bbq. Hosts– Maria & Peter, rsvp asap to moreill@daramalanc.act.edu.au
Thursday 15 December 4 x 800 relay (records up for grabs)
Thursday 22 December Christmas track night; Zeffirelli

And, the Moore 3000 age percentages for races held so far are now on the website.

Team Moore results from last Thursday

Full results are on the website.
"Bugs" now fixed (here and on the website). In fact I have now gone in and updated all the website track results to fix truncated names, truncated times, and to improve the lay-out.

800m
Colin Farlow 2:12.0
Michael Rutter 2:32.3
Rod Lynch 2:29.9
Gary Bowen 2:34.4
Roger Pilkington 2:52.1
Michael Leahey 2:29.1
Neville Madden 2:35.1
Mike Worsley 3:12.1
Geoff Barker 3:28.9
Tony Booth 3:04.1
Jenny Langton 2:29.2
Katie Forestier 2:52.3
Charlie McCormack 2:50.1
Carolyne Kramar 3:17.4
Maureen Rossiter 2:52.7
Kathy Sims 2:57.2
Charmaine Knobel 3:05.5
Carol Baird 3:15.9
Jill Brown 3:16.7
Margaret McSpadden 3:38.5

4x200m relay
(John Donovan)
Charlie McCormack
(Garry Maher)
(Rob Cole)
1:59.2

Katie Forestier
Jenny Langton
Kevin Matthews
Michael Rutter
1:58.5

Jill Brown
Kathy Sims
Maria O'Reilly
Maureen Rossiter
2:20.3

3000m Walk
Ewen Thompson 16.33
Geoff Barker 20.19
Rod Gilchrist 20.44
Lisa Wilson 17.51
Alice Scott 22.47

100m
Michael Rutter 12.0
Kevin Matthews 12.4
Richard Faulks 14.0
Katie Forestier 15.8
Maureen Rossiter 15.4
Maria O'Reilly 16.3
Jill Brown 16.7

400m
Michael Rutter 61.5
Gary Bowen 68.4
Geoff Sims 58.9
Mike Worsley 83.3
Jenny Langton 65.7
Maureen Rossiter 72.1
Maria O'Reilly 74.6
Jill Brown 82.1

Long Jump
Michael Rutter 5.41
Kevin Matthews 5.37

High Jump
Ewen Thompson 1.30

Green shoes go!

Kt's done a great job getting a W30 relay team together for the 4 x 1500 this Thursday - she's the "oldie" in the team but has lined up speedy Jenny Langton, and between them they have recruited two new members to form a great team - which will establish a new ACT record (..thinks; I must check the National record).

The new members are Mel and Anna so when you see them on Thursday, be sure to welcome them. They are speedy too.

All it takes is one keen person in each age group to round up teams. If you think you have missed the boat for the 4 x 1500s, there are still the 4 x 800s coming up soon. There are LOTs of runners in each age group who could be invited, and relays are lots of fun!

So if I find the time very soon, I will dob in individuals in each age group to do some contacting, AND I can give them a list of names....

Then they can take it from there. Good idea? Good on ya Kt.



"Training Groups. Geoff Moore, right, runs one of the club’s many training groups. His group includes some very talented runners and is he seen here with Katie Forestier at the first night of the track and field season." - Jim O'Donnell, feature article, December Vetrunner!

More photos of Moore runners

More Team Moore runners heading down from Parliament House on an over-cast wet day.

Isn't it good that the drought has broken, the dams are up to 66% full, and we no longer have water restrictions?

Graeme's "Griffin" singlet indicates he has completed at least ten Canberra Marathons....

No green shoes yet, so

Go Graeme Go!

How I'm training

My target for the last three weeks was a weekly distance of 30k, 40k and 50k. I managed to achieve only about 22k the first week, and then came good and ran the 40 and 50k the last two weeks. My proportion of fast training is a bit high - 10% to 20% is optimal, but I have run 30% of it fast-ish. My rationale is that it is not flat out, also that my fitness is reasonable, it is just injury and recovery that is holding me back. If I do "race" on the track this Thursday (in the 3k, not in the 10k or the 1500m relay!) it will be pretty slow; the track is the biggest risk of set-back so I must build effort there more patiently.

It has been an opportunity to do more gym work and exercises, but "busyness" as usual has got in the way so I have only been doing one or two gym sessions a week instead of the three or four I should be.

So the plan is to run again in the BBQ Stakes 6k, the track 3k, and the Customs 5k this week, being content to repeat the efforts of last week, while totalling 60km this week and looking forward to 70km next.

At this rate I will be fit by January.

Peak Performance

The Peak Peformance website "pponline" is one of the excellent internet resource runners have at their fingertips. They have excellent articles on all manner of things, and you can subscribe to get additional resources emailed to you.
Here is a small excerpt from an article on winners and losers, found at http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0235.htm

"Increasing aggression... Man is a tribal animal. He is used to hierarchies or 'pecking orders'. Runners, like hens, tend to settle into accepted places within a group. If you are used to being in front and winning races, you will not be happy with anything else. If you have always been at the tail-end of a bunch of good runners, you may be improving physically but you will not have experienced the feeling of being in front, dominating the race. It is a good thing to run in fast races against better people to try to extend your limits, but it is also good to run in minor races which you can win, to get that winning feeling. It has been shown that testosterone levels rise after winning a race, so the 'winning streak' may become easier to maintain as it gets longer, and I would certainly advise a carefully chosen race programme before a championship event

....and decreasing anxiety Nobody is free from big race nerves, but some people are able to master them, while others are paralysed. Part of this is due to experience. The sheer size and novelty of a big Games meeting can flood the personality with a mixture of new impressions and strange emotions so that it is difficult to concentrate on the job in hand, but these emotions diminish with experience. Being in Rome, being in the Olympic stadium, finding yourself as British Number One, may in time become routine situations. The central problem, though, remains: the fear of putting yourself under maximum pressure or, rather, the fear of failing when under maximum pressure.

No one performs well unless they are nervous. It is the high state of arousal brought on by the big occasion which produces the great performance, but we are all familiar with the anxiety-arousal curve, where over-anxiety depresses performance. David Hemery, the former Olympic gold medalist and a master of the mental game, has a technique for dealing with this. He says: 'What is the worst thing that you can imagine? How likely is that to happen?' and then asks, 'What would happen then?' and 'What would you feel about it?'

When put like this, athletes realise that even a championship race is just another race, not the end of the world nor the end of their career. If you lead the athlete through his past career, it is usually one of success, and reasons can be found for the failures. He will realise that 'cracking up' is very unlikely, and that there is always another race. People remember the races you win, not the ones you lost. Seb Coe is remembered as the man who won two Olympic titles at 1500m but how many, apart from Steve Cram, remember that he did not take part in the 1983 Championships?

The best ways of coping with this pre-race worry are:
1. Follow a routine which has been used before in the last few days. One should not make a fetish of needing to have exactly the same meals or wearing the same pair of socks, but a pattern of training, eating and sleeping which you know will get you on to the starting line fresh and rested.

2. In the last few hours, when you are tempted to worry about what other people are doing, think about the good training you have done, think about your best races, and visualise the race itself. Think through different scenarios and picture yourself winning in each one.

3. In the race itself, focus on your own performance, monitoring your tiredness and trying to run as efficiently as possible, moving into the right position as the pace changes. Try to carry out your race plans, however bad you feel, because the chances are the others are feeling just as bad. Whatever you do, you must come out of the race feeling that you have put everything into it. That way you will have no regrets.

Events at the track coming up this Thursday

The Veterans Track and Field program for this Thursday 24 November is:

6:00pm 3000m
6:00pm Hammer
6:00pm Pole Vault
6:15pm 200m
6:30pm 1500m walk
6:45pm Long Jump
7:00pm 4 x 1500m relay
7:00pm Javelin
7:00pm Discus
7:15pm High Jump
7:30pm 100m
7:45pm 200m hurdles
7:45pm Javelin
7:45pm Discus
7:50 pm 10,000m
8:00 pm 4 x 100m relay

9:00 pm or so - training group dinner at Zeffirelli Belconnen

Teams for the 4 x 1500m relay:

For record purposes (1) ALL runners in the relay must be current registered members of ACTVAC, and (2) The four runners must either be in the same age group, or ONE may be in the next age group up. Correction - or ONE or TWO may be from the next age group up. For example, a W35 team may either consist of four women in the W35 age group, or it may consist of three W35s and one W40, or it may consist of two W35s and two W40s. Having said that, I would prefer to see runners compete in their own age group and only move down one when a team is not available in their group. Teams should be encouraged NOT to pinch the best runners one age group up if it means they are taking them from another team.

So round up people in your age group and get them signed up as members if necessary!

It’s a good opportunity to encourage others to be involved.

If you cannot get a team together - everyone will get a run, in a composite team if necessary.

B.I.T.

Yes I am Back In Town - the torn calf is mended. I have experienced seven pain free days in a row. And it is feeling stronger every day.

Recent progress -
Wednesday 16th BBQ Stakes 6k 29.22 (4.54 per km)
Thursday 17th Spiral 6 lapper, ~2.5k? 11.42 (4.41 per km)
Friday 18th Customs 5k 22.55 (4.35 per km)
Now that's the kind of progress we want to see continue!

All the runs have been steady to protect the newly healed calf, and they are getting easier.

When looking up the barbecue stakes (Wednesday lunchtime running) results I discovered that Roger Pilkington ran his 659th run in the series this week. Roger! If you keep this up, you will end up looking like Doug Fry!

Photo shows Roger thinking - is there no finish line?

Pennington 3k

I am publishing the reported times for Team Moore runners in the Pennington 3k tonight, because official times might not appear for a while given that there was a mix-up with the start groups and people were sent off at very different intervals, and often in a different order, from that intended. The competition sub-committee plan to sort it all out.

Colin 10:17
Michael 10:30
Richard 10:51
Roger 11:05
Dale 11:13
Gary 12:03
Kevin 12:06 approx
Maria 12:11
Charlie 12:24
Katie 12:29
Neville 12:29
Charmaine 13:04
Carolyne 13:58
Margaret 14:46
Tony & any I may have missed, time unknown.

How we trained

Tuesday night was COLD and windy but that didn't deter six hardy souls from turning up at North Lyneham for training. The previous week we did two one km runs with a km jog between; the jog is "compulsory" on the back part of the loop because our track has been seriously dug up there, as expected, near the GDE roadworks. Even though the road itself shouldn't impinge directly on that recreational area, of course it does. What can the furious locals do? Grumble; or throw money down the drain like the Save O'Connor Ridge group did. Not much you can do about government decisions based on economic considerations alone. We even voted for the party with the right policy then after the election they back flipped. Bur enough of that...

This week we ran our 3km warmup then did two laps over the central hill, about 1400m, attempting to run the second lap faster than the first (which everyone did). Then four 100m sprints, also up hill, and we reckon we are ready for the Pennington race on Thursday (or at least Tony, Maria, Colin and Gary are; Jenny and I won't be racing it). And at the end the 3km cool down of course.

Afterwards I found a message on my mobile from CJ saying the weather was sus and she wouldn't make it - never mind, CJ (and Ruth and Carolyne) did well in the Tour de Femme on Sunday and deserve a day off.

Now I am off to South Canberra, hoping to catch up with Amanda and Ben James Farlow, just five days old, before they are discharged from hospital. If I don't see them today, they are bound to visit the track for an hour this week or next. I might even jog the BBQ stakes today if I get there on time; yesterday was the first day I have actually stretched out a little in training since the calf tear. It's not 100% but it's getting there.

Coming up this Thursday at track

Events this week are:

6:00pm Pennington 3000m
6:00pm Weight
6:15pm 100m
6:30pm 800m/2000m walk
6:45pm Long Jump
7:00pm 800m
7:00pm Shot
7:00pm Discus
7:15pm High Jump
7:30pm 400m
7:45pm Short hurdles
7:45pm Shot
7:45pm Discus
7:45pm Triple Jump
8:00pm 4 x 200m relay
8:15pm 6 lap spiral handicap

Even if you are not running the Pennington, come along and watch - it should be a great battle.

Family Album Update

Hi family members and interested friends - there are twenty nine new photos of my family on http://mooregenerations.blogspot.com/ , the irregularly updated photo album. Now you can see what all those grandchildren look like. Enjoy!

Results from Thursday night's Vets track

3000m early
Rod Lynch 11:17.7
Gary Bowen 11:58.0
Roger Pilkington 12:56.3
Ken White 12:23.8
Peter Hogan 13:05.0
Geoff Barker 13:46.8
Tony Booth 14:47.0
Charmaine Knobel 13:11.4
Margaret McSpadden 15:13.1

3000m late
Richard Faulks 11:14.0
Rod Lynch 11:26.5
Michael Leahey 11:16.2
Geoff Barker 14:19.7

5000m
Roger Pilkington 19:34.5

60m
Matthew Hardy 7.90
Michael Rutter 7.76
Ken Gordon 7.91
Kevin Matthews 7.77
Michael Roche 9.98
Vicki Matthews 9.11
Pam Faulks 11.31
Maureen Rossiter 9.60

1500m
Colin Farlow 4:41.1
Roger Pilkington 5:07.8
Rod Lynch 5:17.0
Gary Bowen 5:33.5
Michael Leahey 5:04.0
Ken White 5:44.0
Geoff Sims 5:34.0
Neil Boden 6:07.3
Tony Booth 6:29.7
Geoff Barker 6:52.8
Jenny Langton 5:06.1
Katie Forestier 5:48.1
Pam Faulks 7:30.4
Maria O'Reilly 5:46.4
Charmaine Knobel 6:19.3
Margaret McSpadden 7:16.3

These are just from our training group!

Age % scores for the first four "Geoff Moore 3000"s

Age % scores; for the statistically minded. These will go up on the ACTVAC website soon . There have been six 3000m races already; these are the first four. I post them now because they could be an indicator as to who will win the Pennington 3000? Given there is a new handicapping system being used? Check out Michael Leahey, Paul Considine, also Carol Baird, compare Colin Farlow and John Morton. On these figures I tip Maria to win the Pennington 3000m this Thursday, if the handicapping is fair as promised. (no pressure!). Michael Leahey is probably the bookies favourite.

Tony Booth 65.0, 72.2, 61.5, 73.7
Trevor Cobbold 73.1, 73.7
Ken Eynon 73.0, 61.3, 72.5
Bob Harlow 72.9
Bryan Mccarthy 62.1
Bob Parker 62.2, 62.8
Rosemary Parker 67.8, 66.4
Bryan Thomas 67.0
Alan Williams 62.3, 65.0
Anne Young 73.2
Margaret McSpadden 67.8, 69.3, 68.0
Michael Leahey 80.2, 81.1, 80.9
Paul Considine 79.7, 79.3
Jim White 68.4, 70.9
Roger Pilkington 72.4, 71.1, 66.1, 66.2
Mick Horan 67.3
Brian Mclachlan 64.6
Richard Faulks 72.1
Nigel Coldrick 67.1
Ewen Thompson 66.1, 67.1
Jamie Macgregor 55.3, 55.2
Neil Boden 63.9
Ken White 70.3
Dave McClelland 69.3, 70.9
Mike Worsley 65.9, 68.6, 68.0
Geoff Hakes 57.3
Carolyne Kramar 60.1
Hugh Ford 69.2, 70.0
Nick Blackaby 57.6
Rod Lynch 71.1, 73.2, 68.4
Damian Rutledge 70.6, 73.1
Carol Baird 79.0
Charmaine Knobel 76.0, 74.5
Annemarie Calnan 69.6, 69.7
Andrew Endall 69.9
Peter Zygadlo 75.1
Gary Bowen 70.6
James McCormack 63.2
Peter Hogan 68.1, 61.3
Katie Forestier 70.2
Charlie McCormack 71.1
Chris Edwards 56.3
John Morton 73.8
Ellen Lloyd 60.7
Geoff Barker 69.7
Colin Farlow 77.5, 78.2, 78.0
Dale Moore 62.9, 66.9, 68.2
Bryce Anderson 66.7
Richard Hilhorst 72.2, 72.0, 73.8
Amanda Chew 56.3
Adam Robinson 53.5

Stop Press: It's a boy!

Colin and Amanda's baby arrived this morning! It's a boy! No more details available yet!
Yay! A first for Team Moore, a real babe!

Amanda looked pretty good at the track last night, and we noticed she didn't go in the walk this week! Now we know why!

Congratulations guys.

Joke

Joke.
More jokes
.. if a jogger runs at the speed of sound, can he still hear his walkman?
(updated to
.. if a runner runs at the speed of light, can she still see her Garmin?)

How we ran tonight

It wasn't as humid at the track tonight as it has been recently, although the rain struck during the last race. But it was windy, which meant that there were no pbs this week. The wind was worth a second or two a lap. Some of the runs were very good though.

In the early 3000, Gary ran about 11:57, Ken White about 12.22, Peter about 13.04, and Charmaine 13.11. Roger ran 12.56 but he was just warming up for a series of events later on, culminating with a 19.30 ish 5k where he went through 3k in 11.30 ish.

In the 1500 Gary ran about 5.32, Marie 5.46, Katie 5.47, Charmaine 6.18, Colin 4.40, Michael 5.04, Jenny 5.06, Roger 5.07 and Rod 5.18.

There was a Parlauf relay, and the only splits I got were the 800s, where John Mordini ran about 2.17, Geoff Sims about 2.35, and Gary 2.36.

Of these performances, in the conditions, it was probably Jenny's 1500 which stood out.

Is treadmill training useful for the serious athlete?

Treadmill running is different from normal running. Treadmill training might even retard improvements in overground running economy. Given the choice, always do normal running in preference to treadmill running.
Read the full article here.

Thursday track

(1) Next Thursday track is one of the nights we go to Zeffirelli afterwards. Here is the program

6:00pm 3000m
6:00pm Hammer
6:00pm Pole Vault
6:15pm 60m
6:30pm 1000m/3000m walk
6:45pm Long Jump
7:00pm 1500m
7:00pm Shot
7:00pm Javelin
7:15pm High Jump
7:30pm 200m (Daniels Handicap event)
7:45pm 200m hurdles
7:45pm Shot
7:45pm Javelin
8:00pm Medley relay (200, 200, 400, 800)
8:15pm 3000/5000

Dinner at Zeffirelli Belconnen afterwards (9pm or so) for anyone interested.

(2) Results from last week for Team Moore

3000m
M40 Colin Farlow 10:18.90
M40 Dale Moore 11:47.61
M45 Gary Bowen 11:44.53
M45 Roger Pilkington 12:20.09
M45 Ewen Thompson 12:21.06
M50 Michael Leahey 10:29.81
M50 Ken White 12:11.43
M55 Trevor Cobbold 12:07.62
M55 Peter Hogan 14:42.51
M60 Mike Worsley 13:55.47
M65 Tony Booth 13:23.81
W35 Katie Forestier 12:22.84
M40 Charlie McCormack 12:26.98
W40 Carolyne Kramar 14:42.30
W45 Amanda Chew 16:31.53
W50 Charmaine Knobel 13:11.87
W55 Margaret McSpadden 15:12.70

2000m Walk
M45 Ewen Thompson 11:12.47
M55 Kevin Chamberlain 12:22.50
M60 Rod Gilchrist 13:16.74
W45 Amanda Chew 17:26.74

800m
M40 Colin Farlow 2:16.86
M40 Ken Gordon 2:29.73
M40 Michael Rutter 2:40.38
M45 Roger Pilkington 2:33.86
M45 Gary Bowen 2:36.13
M50 Michael Leahey 2:29.92
M50 Neville Madden 2:36.17
M55 Trevor Cobbold 2:37.12
M55 Alan Williams 3:50.57
M60 Mike Worsley 3:16.04
M65 Tony Booth 3:04.84
W30 Jenny Langton 2:31.92
W35 Katie Forestier 2:55.93
W40 Carolyne Kramar 3:32.82
W50 Maria O'Reilly 2:50.95
W50 Kathy Sims 3:02.86
W50 Charmaine Knobel 3:10.32
W55 Margaret McSpadden 3:47.70
W65 Cory Collins 3:59.00

4x400m Relay
M50 Nev Madden ? 4:25.15
M50 Michael Leahey ?
M50 Ken White ?
M50 (Phil White)

M40 (John Morton) 4:25.81
M45 Gary Bowen (~67)
M45 Roger Pilkington (~77)
M45 Kevin Matthews (~64)

W35 Katie Forestier (~79) 5:00.35
W40 Charlie McCormack (~74)
W50 Maria O'Reilly (~78)
W30 Jenny Langton (~69)

200m
M40 Michael Rutter 25.93
M40 Ken Gordon 27.46
M45 Kevin Matthews 25.93
M50 Neville Madden 29.12
M60 Michael Roche 33.38
W30 Jenny Langton 34.27
W45 Alex Lloyd 33.17
W50 Maureen Rossiter 30.51
W50 Maria O'Reilly 34.39
W65 Cory Collins 36.50

100m
M40 Michael Rutter 12.57
M45 Kevin Matthews 12.63
M60 Michael Roche 16.28
W45 Vicki Matthews 15.05
W50 Maureen Rossiter 15.74
W65 Cory Collins 17.43

Race Results

While we are waiting for Thursday night track results to appear - so I can extract our training group times and compare them with the previous couple of week's time - I do have the jogalong times from today to report on.

It appears the course was the correct 6k course today. With lots of kids, and another Fun Run setting up on the finishing straight, and long grass making part of the course single lane, all adding to the fun.

Charmaine ran a blinder, around 28:40, her pb was 28.53, her secret might be that she now works in the Running Shop. Helen also had a return to form, about 29.48, pleasing to see her getting under 30 mins after six months away from the jogalong in recovery mode.

Not in Team Moore but Elaine ran about 24:30 (she is in the W45 age group, girls! How would she go in a relay team?) . And one of my weblog readers Allrounder (fellow Team H member!) ran a good 28:40 too, same time as Charmaine (but not from the same start group).

Also while I am waiting for the track results, the Bega trip yesterday was not dull. Cloud in Canberra, blazing sunshine in Cooma, then thick fog across Brown Mountain (all day!) reducing driving to a crawl. I sighted no less than four dead wombats on the road (sorry Ewen!) and only once did a car appear coming out of the fog on my side of the road around a bend.
I managed somehow to avoid her though, and avoid hitting any roadkill.

Gee Bega countryside is nice.

The highlight was probably having dinner back at Cooma with a couple of friends, at my favourite Cooma restaurant, the asian one at the park next to the Woolworths Caltex petrol station. Which I should add was selling petrol for 114 cents per litre, 9 cents cheaper than Canberra with the discount. But the low traffic volumes must be because of the petrol prices; it's a good time to travel if you are rich enough.

Nice sandhills

Another photo from my holiday to Fleurieu Peninsular, south of Adelaide. This one is taken at a wild beach west of Victor Harbor. Wouldn't you like to train on sandhills like these? They also happen to be on the path of the Heysen trail. The ocean in the background is magnificent here and this whole area is a natural reserve.
.. another view of the same beach, with yours truly heading for the surf.

Sore arms!

Yes I started my gym training yesterday - good really, did more running than i thought I could do, and took it very easy on the gym work - or so I thought. My arms have come up very sore this morning! And I must add sit ups to the routine!!!!

Wednesday at CU
stepper - 20 minutes at level 8, "steady" workout, calf OK.
gym - 3 x forward chinups - 3, 3, nearly 3
3 x reverse chinups, 1, 1, approximately 1
6 x 20 hip flexor exercises
run on oval - 20 minutes shuffle, estimate 3k. Left calf is still sore when running. (As is right achilles, but that has been so for thirty years). Lovely warm day for it!

I am hoping to run (or hobble!) 30k this week, 40k next week, etc etc! My masseur was sick on Monday so I didn't get the treatment on the calf I was planning. It's rescheduled for Friday. I have been stretching and icing. (a bit).

Next race? No idea. Probably January. But I am very wary of testing myself on the hard synthetic track first up.

Track and Field program Thursday November 03

Once again last Thursday a high proportion of competitors who ran at Vets track, train with Team Moore. And there were some very good performances. An excellent response from this training group, keep up the good work.

Events this week are:
6:00pm "Geoff Moore" 3000m
6:00pm Weight
6:15pm 200
6:30pm 1200m/2000m walk
6:45pm Long Jump
7:00pm 800m
7:00pm Javelin
7:00pm Discus
7:15pm High Jump
7:30pm 100m (Boag)
7:45pm 300m/400m hurdles
7:45pm Javelin
7:45pm Discus
7:45pm Triple Jump
8:00pm 4 x 400m relay
8:15pm 5 lap spiral handicap

I will be hanging around in the general area of the gate to welcome any newcomers to the track. I wonder what the relay will bring? Will any more records be broken?

By the way, only one person turned up for the first of the new training sessions on Tuesday night at North Lyneham. (Hi Trevor!) This is somewhat surprising, as people had lobbied me very strongly to add that session to the weekly program. I have to take the effort to go out there when I am not training at all at the moment, just jogging around, so we will give it one more week before making a decision on its future. (Three people did send me apologies - thanks for that!)

On the other hand, there was a great turnout at Parliament House on Monday night, and guess what! We are finally allowed to run on the grass next to the road around the outside, and on the little slopes, and as well as that, we can see!

Dale was there again. Colin wasn't, so Dale is one up on Colin..... and Col, I bet he's counting.

Hey, I will be at the jogalong on Sunday for a change - that is, if I survive a day trip to Bega on Saturday. So if you are not at track, next time I see some of you will be at the jogalong.

Fly goose fly!

Q&A

Q: How long does it take a 60 year old man to run a 10k race on average? I need the answer to be based on the following information: He is a frequent runner, he will be running this race on the track on 24th November, and he is very tall (do long legs matter?). He also says he hopes to run the "perfect" race? So with all of this in mind could you please give me a time he would probably run this race in? I need to place a bet on this so I really need this today if possible...
A: He should be finished by now.