CTFR 10k pace judgment

A time predictor might help you with your pacing in the Canberra Times 10k.

According to the time predictor my 90:50 half the other day equates to a 40.45 10k.

So I wouldn't expect to break 40 (yet).

In the CTFR I find I lose about 30 seconds between the 3k and 6k marks. (Because, not being especially fit, I slow dramatically up hills at present.)

To run 40.45, my pacing plan is therefore to hold myself back to about 4:00 per km from the start to the 3km mark, 4.10 per k to the 6k mark, and close to 4.00 per km to the finish.

If that's not too scientific for you, you too could have a go at working out your best pace based on your times for other runs.

3000 5000 10000 1/2Mar Marathon
9.45 16.40 34.30 77.00 2:41.30
10.00 17.05 35.20 78.50 2:45.20
10.15 17.30 36.10 80.40 2:49.10
10.30 17.55 37.00 82.30 2:53.00
10.45 18.20 37.50 84.20 2:56.50
11.00 18.45 38.40 86.10 3:00.40
11.15 19.10 39.30 88.00 3:04.30
11.30 19.35 40.20 89.50 3:08.20
11.45 20.00 41.10 91.40 3:12.10
12.00 20.25 42.00 93.30 3:16.00
12.15 20.50 42.50 95.20 3:19.50
12.30 21.15 43.40 97.10 3:23.40
12.45 21.40 44.30 99.00 3:27.30
13.00 22.05 45.20 100.50 3:31.20
13.15 22.30 46.10 102.40 3:35.10
13.30 22.55 47.00 104.30 3:39.00
13.45 23.20 47.50 106.20 3:42.40
14.00 23.45 48.40 108.10 3:46.30
14.15 24.10 49.30 110.00 3:50.20
14.30 24.35 50.20 111.50 3:54.10
14.45 25.00 51.10 113.40 3:58.00
15.00 25.25 52.00 115.30 4:01.50
15.15 25.50 52.50 117.20 4:05.40
15.30 26.15 53.40 119.10 4:09.30
15.45 26.40 54.30 121.00 4:13.20
16.00 27.05 55.20 122.50 4:17.10

prolific medallist

Gary "Griffin" Bowen with yet another Frylink series medal.

Gary ran a big pb in the Vets half marathon, including a 10k pb under 43 minutes on the way.
But in training on Monday, the next day after the race, he was still up there with the best of them (well, up with Chinup Charlie anyway). Whereas some of us could hardly move. So I say he is Team Moore's secret weapon for the CTFR - coming straight from a ball to the run, he won't have had time to sober up - so he could run really well! Go go green shoes!

Strewth's new weblog

Strewth's new running and training weblog is http://baussmann2.blogspot.com/. I have changed my permanent links accordingly.

Canberra Times Fun Run Team

The Team Moore entries have been sent in for the Canberra Times Fun Run on 18 September.
Your Team Moore team is Ewen Thompson; Katie Forestier; Geoff Moore; Gary Bowen; Ken White; John Stoney; Maria O'Reilly.

Hold the mail! Late addition - Jenny Langton. First four to count so watch her! She may sneak in a finishing sprint and can that girl run! (See photo further down)

Half Marathon Results

Team Moore results from today's Half Marathon.

A beautiful Canberra day saw a start among the newly planted Floriade flower beds, and great runs by Maria winning the W50s in brilliant fashion, David taking 2 minutes off his pb, Cathy making it look easy, Gary right on his 1:35 target, and speedygeoff running way faster than current form suggested.

And it looks as if Floriade will be blooming early this year.

M45 8 Gary Bowen 1:35:04
M50 1 Michael Leahy 1:22:45
M50 2 David Webster 1:24:29
M50 5 Ken White 1:45:28
M50 6 Mick Charlton 1:51:26
M55 2 Bob Harlow 1:29:58
M55 3 Geoff Moore 1:30:48
M55 6 John Kennedy 1:33:49
M55 9 Ken Eynon 1:41:15
M55 10 John Alcock 1:44:44
M55 13 Alan Duus 1:48:20
M55 14 Peter Hogan 1:48:40
M60 3 Geoff Barker 1:44:50

W40 5 Cathy Newman 1:45:08
W50 1 Maria O'Reilly 1:37:23
W55 4 Margaret McSpadden 1:57:13

p.s. full Australian Cross Country results at http://www.coolrunning.com.au/results/2005/2005nationalxcchamps.shtml

... and that's your blooming lot.

AIS 1500s

Thursday night saw a few good 1500 time trials run by the training group. I challenged those who were over 6 minutes last time to try and run evenly under 6 this time. Evenly we didn't get; but under 6 we did.
Jenny Langton ran 5:35
Charlie McCormack 5:43 (6:02 last time)
Bob Harlow 5:44
Katie Forestier 5:59 (6:06 last time)
Neil Boden 6:08
Annemarie Calnan 6:10 (6:29 last time)
Peter Hogan 6:14 (6:16 last time)
Peter McDonald 6:27 (6:06 last time)


click to expand

3000 metre challenge initiative

At about this time of year, when the first signs of spring appear, be they wattle blooms or bees or blowflies, I have usually had enough of winter running and start to anticipate all the pleasures of Canberra summer - especially those Thursdays at Bruce Athletics track, with sunlight until 8:30pm, watching or competing in races over 400, 800, 1500, 3000, 5000; and dinners at Zeffirelli every couple of weeks after most customers have left.

This summer there will be a new initiative on Thursday nights. The competition subcommittee is still in the process of completing the program, but the decision has been taken, I believe, to have a new award for the 3000m event, starting from day one of the season, 20th October.

The 3000m is a good event to focus on in the track season, because
(1) It is short enough to race regularly because recovery is quicker than for a 5000 or a 10000, i.e. racing it each Thursday should not compromise one's day to day training.
(2) Even a runner in marathon training can successfully race 3000s and improve their time, on marathon training alone.
(3) 800s particularly, and 1500s, because of the faster pace of these races, can sometimes cause injury problems for Veteran runners who train over long distances moving down to race on the hard surface at the AIS.
(4) For runners whose specialty is the 400/800/1500, the 3000 is a good distance to move up to as a runner should find it a lot easier to maintain a good pace over that distance than over longer distances, which tend to become a jog and which therefore can produce loss of leg-speed for the shorter races. In other words, a middle distance runner should be able to move up to 3000 and gain endurance without losing their middle distance speed.
(5) The gap between 1500 and 5000 is too big; 3000 bridges the gap nicely.
(6) One's 3000 time can be easily reduced with specific focused training.
(7) I like the 3000 because I still hold the Australian M35 record, set in 1984!

The plan is to have a 3000 metre event at 6pm; the first event each Thursday night. It will not be combined with the 5000. (Any 5000 will be at the end of the night). Even if a steeple is programmed, a flat 3000 will still be run. This means that in a twenty week program there will be twenty opportunities to run 3000s. A ranking list will be kept of the average best eight times of the twenty. At the end of the season the best male and female who have completed at least eight runs will receive a trophy.

So let's get our long winter races out of the way and start thinking about the 3000.

Downhill form

Maria and Jenny in full flight

Feeling Good.

I am passing this on to you because it definitely worked for me and we all could use more calm in our lives. By following the simple advice I heard on a Dr. Phil show, I have finally found inner peace.
Dr. Phil proclaimed the way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and left unfinished.
So I looked around my house to see things I had started and hadn't finished; and, before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of merlot, a bottle of white wine, a bottle of port, a bottle of Baileys, a bottle of Kahlua, a king-size packet of Tim Tams, the remainder of both Prozac and Valium prescriptions, the rest of the cheesecake, a family size Cadbury block and a box of chocolates. Also the rest of the tube of toothpaste.
You have no idea how good I feel.

North Lyneham Photo

The North Lyneham photo that has "innocently" graced this weblog for the last six months is a little strange!
Did anyone happen to notice?
Why is it strange?
To find out, let's see which Team Moore members are in the photo.
From the left - Cathy Newman, Colin Farlow, Roy Jones, Ruth Baussmann, Alan Duus, Christopher Lang, Tony Booth, Margaret McSpadden, Michael Leahey, yours truly, Rae Palmer, *someone* behind Rae, Jenny Langton, Charmaine Knobel, Ken White, and Gabrielle Brown.
So who is the *someone* behind Rae? The answer is - it's yours truly - again - cloned - very speedy indeed to be able to move faster than a digital camera.
And Maria O'Reilly was there when the photo was taken, but she has been erased.

Cutting and splicing by Ewen Thompson - who was there too, but behind the camera.

Q: Do we want to return to North Lyneham this summer? Or would we rather stay at Parliament House?
North Lyneham might be less attractive this year because of road works, are they going ahead this summer?
Parliament House might have finished its building works; also there are more running venues available there in daylight saving time than there have been in winter in the dark. Maybe the grass will regrow this spring?

Urambi Hills Race Report

Y O Y did I ever run at Urambi Hills? I have only ever run that race once before, but it was on the old course, and even though I swore I was never going to run it again, I changed my mind because the course had been made "easier".

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Some of the kms I "ran" in over 6 minutes. The uphills are too steep. The downhills are too steep. There is no flat.

What didn't help was having a rotten sore throat, but still, that doesn't explain everything. And the trouble with handicaps, or any seeded run for that matter, is you just cannot decide to "jog along" with your mates once you have started.

HOWEVER others in Team Moore did well - Col Farlow got a rare backmarker's medal in the long course, and Gary "Griffin" Bowen got a medal in the short course, AGAIN, with Katie getting fourth place for the third time. (One to go, Kt?).

Results 7.0K
9 Colin Farlow M40 28:51 (bronze medal)
13 David Webster M50 30:18
18 Charmaine Knobel W50 36:44
27 Margaret McSpadden W55 41:51
30 John Kennedy M55 31:45
32 Geoff Barker M60 38:41
39 Christopher Lang M50 38:32
45 Alan Duus M55 37:48
65 Peter McDonald M50 39:26
67 Carolyne Kramar W40 40:17
68 Peter Hogan M55 37:58
69 Cory Collins W65 50:30
77 Jill Brown W55 46:37
78 Graeme Small M60 43:58
79 Roy Jones M60 45:25
83 Ewen Thompson M45 43:57
84 Geoff Moore M55 41:03

3.5K
3 Gary Bowen M45 15:12 (bronze medal)
4 Katie Forestier W35 15:51
6 Sarah Pau W30 18:15
27 Kerry Boden W45 22:32
31 Neil Boden M50 19:45

Earth to Parliament House

I thought I'd write a short post about last night's training (as Geoff had a very slack excuse for not turning up). I'm able to comment because I jogged around at the back of the pack with a dodgy hamstring. At the left is a photograph from space showing where we ran. It's quite an old photo as it shows a road in front of our house where any demonstrator is free to drive up and park.

There was a good crowd of friendly demonstrators there last night. We all were careful to say "G'day Mate" to all the guards who watched our progress with interest. Colin supervised training and OH&S issues were a priority. He told us not to hurdle the barriers (like Lauren would) into the big hole in the footpath. He advised us to jog slowly past this obstacle single file in the gutter. He also warned us about the odd pothole caused by errant tractors.

We were to run the 'U' of Parliament House on the sandy footpath 'sprinting' half of each straight and 'jogging' the other half to recover. We ran two laps (2 Ewes?) and here are the results... Leading at all times was Colin (how could he supervise from there?) followed by Jenny! (looking very determined and purposeful). Then came Richard followed by Trevor. From here my memory is a bit blurry but I think it was Katie and Kevin, then David, then a bunch of marsupials with Cathy, Ken and Neil fairly prominent.

Towards the back was Maureen, Mike and a jet-lagged Ruth. After we finished the hard stuff we jogged another 1.7k to warm down!

"Modern Training Methods"

By Steve Bennett. Steve wrote this article a while ago and since Buster's Bronze Medal people may be talking more about his training methods.

For over the past 50 years there has been a great effort put in by a multitude of experts to develop & present information to do with the training of athletes for better performance. There have been many theories that have been tested by numerous coaches & athletes that have been accepted as facts. Other ideas have failed or have been replaced by new improved ones. This is the nature of Science and by carefully learning from it we can develop better ways of training athletes.

The challenge is to know what to keep & what to leave behind. In recent years we have seen the emergence of the popularity of Pilates & Swiss Ball training for example. Large amounts of money have been made because people could market something different. In the last few decades with endurance running we saw the emergence of the Long Slow Distance approach and more recently the focus on much lower volume training at a higher intensity. With my own squad of athletes we have varied the balance of the ingredients over the years.

Australian Track & Field has had a disappointing few years since the Sydney Olympics . When Benita Johnson won the World Cross Country Championships in 2004 our athletes & coaches were thrilled and surprised. Then we were blown away by Craig Mottram’s 12:55 over 5000m. The interesting thing is that both Craig & Benita are in the same squad coached by Nic Bideau. The program they have followed is nothing surprising but it may be against the modern Australian or American train of thought. Benita often does around 160-170km a week with a long run of 1:45-2:00, a threshold run of 45min, a track session that includes abut 10km of reps mostly at 5-10km pace & her normal days routine is a 70min run in the morning & a 30min recovery run in the afternoon. Most of her training is at a heart rate which is at 70% of VO2max and Anaerobic Threshold runs are also done at the right intensity. The heart rates for both are determined from Laboratory Treadmill testing. Her strength training is quite simple. Craig’s program is similar to Benita but he often does 200-210km a week. Their coach emphasizes the importance of having the athlete not train too intensely in any session. There is a clear need for the athletes to fulfil the training sessions goals & not exceed the required intensity.

What is striking about both Benita & Craig’s breakthrough is that they are doing something that smells of the past but it is as if everyone else has moved onto a modern program of smaller volume & greater intensity with minimal success. This concept of volume versus intensity is one I have debated with many people & given great thought. A common program in Australia over the past few years has been a much lower volume (70-90km per week) but with a much higher lactic intensity all year. But the effects of this program has been to produce rapid initial improvement followed by unpredictable stagnation. Having seen some of the athletes experience many difficulties with the negative effects of the intensity I decided to quiz many of our more successful coaches including Norm Osborne (coach of Mike Hillardt 3:33) , Rick Mitchell (Moscow 400m Silver Medallist), Marg Crowley 4:01 & many others. Norm’s Middle Distance programs had 2 medium runs per week of 60min and a long run of at least 90min , he approached intensity with caution early in the year and built toward a more intense program which started to peak in intensity 12 weeks out from the first key race. His male athletes did close to 160km a week & many of his athletes had great longevity. I then did some more research on the Lydiard program & can see an abundance of evidence to suggest that his program & ones like it produce, in athletes who can biomechanically cope with the high volumes, long & successful careers.

I believe the best way forward for endurance athletes is to aim to do both the volume, at the right intensity to build a great base, while at the same time do activities on & off the track that will optimize the athletes efficiency & speed capabilities. This is where we return this discussion to Pilates & Swiss Ball. I believe that any type of mid torso work done well is beneficial & its even better if this work is integrated into their form drills & weight training as much as possible. Pilates & Swiss Ball activities have their place in any athletes training, however it is possible for athletes to have needs that are beyond what they offer. The athletes in my squad train at certain stages to improve their levels of strength in a range of mid-torso exercises eg hanging leg lifts, weighted crunches etc. At other stages they bounce medicine balls off walls to increase power & at other stages they do high reps of abdominal exercises (especially lower abdominals). It is all about how much time & adaptation resources an athlete is able to spend on all their activities. There is only so much time in the week & if they are doing hard running training then physical & mental recovery time is precious.

My current squad of mostly 1500m Middle Distance athletes are doing a program that resembles the main points of the Lydiard approach . Integrated into it is modern speed drills & mid torso training with a controlled approach to intensity, like Benita Johnson & Craig Mottram. Our program this year consists of 5-6 months base, 6 weeks hills/race pace phase, 9 weeks intense early comp and then the main race season. In the base period we are doing around 22km a week near Anaerobic Threshold (out of 100-125km a week). The athletes are staying fresh & eager to start increasing the volume of faster race pace work soon. We still have 5 months until the first important races & usually the athletes would be in much better race shape very early but they are usually under more pressure in training to see steady gains in more specific training. This year the group is more relaxed knowing that at this stage they are building a base & only need to feel ready for the upcoming period of intense work.

Young athletes should be encouraged to do a great variety of conditioning & strengthening training. Simulate the play of past generations & toughen them up. We need to develop a good training work ethic based out of a love of training in their early stages of involvement in this sport.

We need to never cast aside what has been proven to work with many athletes in the past while at the same time we need to refine the use of new strategies, especially ones that help in the implementation of tried & true methods of training.
regards
Steve Bennett

35 years

I am having a day off tomorrow. Jenny and I have will have been married for 35 years - to each other! We will go somewhere for the day.

Meanwhile back on 22 08 1970 at Ainslie -



It seems just like yesterday

AIS Achievements

We have been training at the AIS on Thursday evenings for some weeks now and I thought it was time to publish the results of the time trials we have run.
Where available I have included lap splits.

Angelo Cataldo
1500 6:33 100, 105, 107, 81
Annemarie Calnan
1500 6:29 100, 108, 107, 74
2k 8.45 98, 107, 111, 109, 100
Bob Harlow
1000 3:44
800 2.58
2k 7.44 92, 91, 93, 94, 94
Carolyne Kramar
1500 6:24 95, 105, 105, 79
600 2:24
800 3.21
Cathy Newman
1500 6:11 96, 101, 101, 73
Charlie McCormack
1500 6:02 95, 102, 101, 64
1000 3:42
Charmaine Knobel
500 1:53
Colin Farlow
400 63.5
500 82
600 1.38
Geoff Barker
1000 4:28
800 3.45
Jenny Langton
400 73
500 94
800 2.37
2k 7.37 89, 94, 93, 94, 87
John Stoney
1500 6:12 95, 102, 102, 73
1000 3:40
2k 8.15 95, 101, 101, 101, 97
Karl Strode-Penny
800 2.24
Kathy Sims
2k 8.24 97, 105, 102, 102, 98
Katie Forestier
1500 6:06 90, 103, 102, 71
800 2.57
Ken Eynon
1000 4:01
800 3.04
Ken Gordon
400 61.0
500 82
800 2.26
Ken White
400 72.3
500 94
Kevin Matthews
500 93
800 2.37
Maria O'Reilly
400 77.0
500 1:40
800 2.52
Matt Hardy
400 66.0
500 94
800 2.45
600 1.52
Michael Rutter
400 70
Paula Wilson
800 3.00
Peter Hogan
1500 6:16 94 103, 100, 79
1000 3:51
800 3.21
2k 8.44 96, 105, 108, 110, 105
Peter McDonald
1500 6.06 97, 104, 99, 66
Roy Jones
1500 6:52 106, 115, 110, 81
Thea Zimpel
800 2.59
Tony Bond
800 2.39
600 1.40
Trevor Cobbold
2k 8.03 93, 100, 98, 99, 93
Vicki Matthews
400 85
800 3.27
600 2.11

Many Notices

Veterans Half Marathon. Entries close soon. I planned to pace 100 minute runners, but I have had only one taker, and unfortunately the organisers didn't promote this offer, so I think I will just start in group three now and run as fast as I can. Unless I get more takers; deadline this Sunday because that's when my entry form goes in.
There are three starts, the first at 8am for runners who will take more than 120 minutes for the 21.1km, second at 8.30am for runners who will take over 100 minutes, and third at 9am for all runners who will finish the course in under 100 minutes. By the way I regard this start system as silly and illogical; firstly a twenty minute gap for people thirty minutes apart makes no sense, compounded secondly by the fact that many runners "cheat" by entering a slower group than they should, compounded thirdly by the fact that honest runners realise their rivals are in the wrong group so they start in the wrong group as well to make a race of it. I am sure that a forty minute gap for people thirty minutes apart would be more logical, but still unfair. And fourthly whatever system you use, the contenders for many of the age groups will be split between different starts. The only fair system is to split on age groups, e.g. have men 60+ and all women start 30 minutes earlier than the rest. This would also help the results processing quite a bit!

Canberra Times Fun Run - a reminder that this race starts at 9:45am this year. I am collecting team entries, up to half marathon day only. The Moore the Merrier. So far I only have three, that's not enough!

The Australian Masters Championships are in Canberra, Easter 2006. Organisers are urgently required!

The IT needs survey invites your input. Details were in the last Vetrunner. Only a week or so to respond.

I am still adding names to the C2S results (below) as times become known. So please continue to pass on to me any that are missing. Thank you to those who have done that already.

That should be enough reminders for now. Here's a drawing of a Team Moore member - I think. Which one?


Go Go Warrior Girl

City To Surf results

Team Moore results from the City to Surf.
David Webster 55.05
Richard Faulks 55.26
Bob Harlow 56.50
John Kennedy 61.31
Carolyne Kramar 64.17
Ewen Thompson 66.35
Charlie McCormack 68.47
John Stoney 68.49
Cathy Newman 69.03
Charmaine Knobel 71.56
Cathy Montalto 72.08
Annemarie Calnan 72.35
Thea Zimpel 74.40
Rae Palmer 74.46
Peter Hogan 75.11
Pamela Faulks 76.15
Roy Jones 77.11
Gabrielle Brown 77.46
Margaret McSpadden 80.42
Also of note
Ron Vines 61.45 (added because I am giving him some training advice)
Diana Schneider 82.45 (added because she reads my weblog!)
There may be names missing. Please inform me & I will update this post.
A good friend Scott McTaggart of Canberra was 6th in 42.45.

The City to Surf results have been posted at http://city2surf.sunherald.com.au/results.asp
Enter any name and if they finished it will come up with Time and Place.

Form Principle #10

“Be content with your unique style.”

Ultimately style is individual. Yours is instantly recognisable – if someone who knows you, sees you in the distance running, they will recognise you straight away. (I recognise the runner but I don’t always remember the name! That’s my right brain working well, my left brain lagging behind).

Just as we all have different styles, we all have our own strengths and weaknesses. I say develop your strengths. We can still work on some less strong areas, but let’s turn our real strengths to our advantage.

Develop your natural style - run like you could run as a child – if your style has become restricted and limited through injury, illness, accident, or age, develop ways of overcoming these limits through exercises which strengthen, stretch, mobilise, and return you to the way you were born to run. Such limits aside, you will find that small changes in style are possible but not big ones. Your silhouette will still look like you. “Know Yourself” – realise what it is about your style which is good and develop those strengths you have.

Are we contradicting principle 9? Maybe, but to tell the truth, running style is a very individual thing.

Form Principle #10 - Be content with your unique style.

Form Principle #9

“Run with others who have a good style”

This comes from the simple observation that people who train together all the time often have a similar running style. I don’t think it’s because birds of a feather flock together. Rather I believe that we tend to copy others’ styles. Some do this more than others; there is one particular runner I can think of whose habit was to run just behind other runners in training and copy their cadence and rhythm and arm action and style. I think in general this is a good thing, particularly for novice runners. In time you develop your own style, but it seems to me that a creative person would take the time initially to try out a whole lot of new things before deciding what to take on board more permanently. Copying various styles on the run to see if they work for you is easier than reading this stuff and trying to implement it from words alone.

Just another advantage of joining a successful running group like Team Moore!

Form Principle #9 - Run with others who have a good style.

City 2 Surf Results

I have about ten of the results from the C2S for our training group but am missing a few. You might like to email me today with your time & anyone else's you know. I will post tomorrow what I have got.