Thursday Part Two

Thursday (see two posts down) was also the day Team Moore won the Adler series, with Gary surprising everyone but himself by going into the lead in the very last race of the series, and Katie doing exactly the same in the women's. Also Vicki took out the Daniels series the previous week, must have been that extra training at Aranda. And Margaret the Moore series. All the awards - many we don't know the results of yet - will be presented next week, after which I will make a full report!
(Proud coach! Hem, hem.)

Lessons From Geese #3

Fact #3: When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies to the point position.

Lesson #3: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent on each other's skills, capabilities, and unique arrangements of gifts, talents, or resources.

Application #3: Can I step aside from organising training sessions from time to time and let others take a turn? Can I encourage some of you who train with me to register as "contributors" to this blog and write posts every now and then? I hope so.

Thursday

Thursday was the day I spoke to many who had been to the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, and I wondered why I hadn’t even thought about going down there myself and being part of the most awesome sporting spectacular Australia has ever seen.
Thursday was the day I felt sick with severe stomach ache for the second day in a row, making me wonder whether this, as well as the sore achilles, was going to be too much for me to run the marathon in a week’s time. But another few days should fix that! I am very glad my goal this week was “run as I feel” cause I sure don’t feel like running.
Thursday was the day I watched the Pennington 1500m race, won deservedly and by a huge margin by John Morton. Good on Maria for finishing fourth over all.
Thursday was the day I saw more than one member of my training group excel themselves in pace judgment as they ran excellent even splits in the same 1500m. Extraordinary effort guys. You CAN teach an old dog new tricks!
Thursday was the day I saw Tony run an extra lap for the spiral 8 because he forgot to move out on one of the laps; which is really funny because it was Tony himself who originated the spiral handicap concept. And he chose the longest spiral race for this brain explosion.
Not a bad day in all but I am feeling very nervous about next week!
Postscript. Heh, certain people are doing the iron man this weekend AND the marathon next. How do you do that?

Lessons From Geese #2

Fact #2: When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.

Lesson #2: If we have as much sense as a goose, we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

Pennington finale tonight

Come along tonight - the second-last Vets track, the last with daylight saving. Not that you will notice with the overcast and damp conditions. Just what we need! Gentle rain! And it is a lot cooler too, perfect for long distance running. Can Colin win the Pennington for the third successive year? Can Maria sneak up into the top three?

Here's tonight's program
6.00 3000M, Weight (Lower Throwing Field)
6.15 200m (B)
6.30 1200/2000m Walk (Last Pointscore)
6.45 Long Jump (QA)
7.00 1500M (P), Javelin, Shot
7.15 High Jump
7.30 100m
7.45 Javelin, Shot, 200m Hurdles, Triple Jump
8.00 4x200m Relay
8.15 8 Lap Spiral (Adler)

Lessons From Geese #1

Fact #1: As each goose flaps its wings it creates an uplift for the birds that follow. By flying in a V formation, the whole flock adds 71 percent greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

Lesson #1: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

Application #1: And you thought running was an individual sport? My observation over the years has been that when we work together, training and racing, with shared goals, much more is achieved than if we work separately.

Running the Jurassic Marathon

It is getting closer, I have that feeling of impending danger.

It's a beautiful day

The weather is great this time of year. Days which are still, cool early, fine and sunny later.

It's funny, both my PC and the cat have adjusted for the end of daylight saving. Yesterday the PC changed its time by an hour automatically (one week early, for Queensland & WA readers who don't have to keep track of such complexities) and Riki the cat is sleeping an extra hour, head firmly tucked under tail and paws. Daylight saving actually ends next Sunday, the day of the Women and Girls Fun Run.

My progress

last week’s target 100 km, achieved 95 km
this week’s target whatever I feel like
weight 64 kg, weight loss -0.5 kg, total weight loss 3 kg
quote of the week What you don't have you don't need it now
song of the week "Beautiful Day" by U2, also by Sanctus Real on a new album, In the Name of Love - Artists United for Africa

The heart is a bloom

Shoots up through the stony ground

There's no room

No space to rent in this town

You're out of luck

And the reason that you had to care

The traffic is stuck

And you're not moving anywhere

You thought you'd found a friend

To take you out of this place

Someone you could lend a hand

In return for grace

It's a beautiful day

Sky falls, you feel like

It's a beautiful day

Don't let it get away

You're on the road

But you've got no destination

You're in the mud

In the maze of her imagination

You love this town

Even if that doesn't ring true

You've been all over

And it's been all over you

It's a beautiful day

Don't let it get away

It's a beautiful day

Touch me

Take me to that other place

Teach me

I know I'm not a hopeless case

See the world in green and blue

See China right in front of you

See the canyons broken by cloud

See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out

See the Bedouin fires at night

See the oil fields at first light

And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth

After the flood all the colors came out

It was a beautiful day

Don't let it get away

Beautiful day

Touch me

Take me to that other place

Reach me

I know I'm not a hopeless case

What you don't have you don't need it now

What you don't know you can feel it somehow

What you don't have you don't need it now

Don't need it now

Was a beautiful day

I ran a good Vets Handicap race yesterday - parts of the run were quite fast, and even though I backed off and jogged down some steeper bits I am pleased with the run. The good thing though is that the constant variety of niggles I have been experiencing went away for the race, which means that by the time the marathon comes along and with good management I should be niggle free.

Oh, and a funny thing. I got to the start line and pulled off my track suit to discover I had left my singlet in the car. So I ran topless. I probably ran better for having no singlet, but I just hope there were no photographers around.

I still plan to run long this week but I will monitor it day by day this week and ease right back next week for the big one.

Kowen Forest Veterans Handicap

Team Moore results - long course 7.5k
9 Charlie McCormack W40 36:44
14 Tony Booth M65 36:51
24 Geoff Moore M55 32:37
29 Mick Charlton M50 38:50
30 Christopher Lang M55 40:11
31 Jill Brown W55 44:06
39 Rod Lynch M45 31:09
43 John Alcock M60 38:06
63 Alan Duus M60 38:19
75 Roger Pilkington M45 35:08
85 Neville Madden M50 37:48
86 Geoff Barker M60 40:35
93 Peter Hogan M55 41:09

Team Moore results - short course 3.5k
10 Charmaine Knobel W50 17:52
12 Katie Forestier W40 15:23 - bronze medal
14 Sarah Pau W30 17:23
21 Gary Bowen M45 14:48
27 Ken Gordon M40 14:38
35 Cathy Montalto W50 18:08
39 Michael Roche M60 22:10

When the drums stop

The handicap is over, now for the marathon.

Yay! I survived the Kowen Forest Vets race. I will be OK for the marathon now. The big run was from Katie who won the bronze medal in the Frylink race, she just keeps improving!

Anaerobic set

A description of the anaerobic set we did at Aranda the last two weeks - a 20 second sprint, a 15-20 second jog/stride, and repeat. Then wait until 80 seconds are up and repeat by ten.

Lights will guide you home

One of my friends from the ABS died last week after a long illness, his funeral is tomorrow. John Paice was a participant and organiser at the Lake Ginninderra monthly handicap run. He had many friends in the wider community, as well as family.

...by Karmin

This one's for Toby & Joel

A man (call him Horace) went on a safari in darkest Africa with a bunch of other people and some native guides. They traveled on foot, going deep into the jungle where they could hear the screeching of birds and howling of wild cats and other fierce wild animals.

After a few days of travel, Horace came to notice that there was a constant drumming noise in the background. He asked the leader of the guides what the drumming was. He got no answer, just a stony silence. The drumming continued all day and all night for the next several days. In fact, as they traveled deeper into the jungle the drumming got even louder. Horace tried again to find out what the drumming meant by asking the other native guides, but he still got no answer.

Finally one morning, after days of marching to this drumming (which by now was sounding quite ominous), the drums suddenly stopped. The native guides screamed and ran into the jungle to hide in the undergrowth. The leader remained behind with his charges, but he was trembling with fear. Horace asked "What is wrong? Why have the drums stopped?"

The native guide replied "Very bad."

"What?" asked Horace, who was expecting the worst. The guide answered "When drum stops, very bad - next comes bass solo!"

Even Pace

Children, and novice runners, have not learned about even pace. "But, the best way to race is to go flat out all the way, isn't it?" No.

Running is far more than just putting one foot in front of the other as fast as possible and slowing down when you get tired. Or, expecting with training that you will be able to go flat out all the way when you get enough fitness together.

Now I have a dislike of a mechanical, same-pace-all-the-way kind of run. I think real running is racing along enjoying surging, easing back, striding out, playing with tempo and pace.

So when I talk about even pace I really should call it good pace judgment. It is the knowledge of what your pace is, especially early in a long race. It is the ability to go out and run at a predetermined pace, and be spot on to the second. It is a feel for how fast you are going and a sense of how your body is responding to that.

The first thing a novice who plans to race and wants to improve times, needs to learn is good pace judgment. The second thing to learn, which must be added to good pace judgment, is the ability to surge. And with it, the fitness to be able to recover from the surges and continue on at an even pace still.

Very few middle and long distance runners in the Commonwealth Games who won heats or finals went fast early and slower later. An exception was the 400m, but that is a sprint at that level and a very different event from the longer ones.

So what are we going to do about it? All our interval training has been about learning good pace judgment. But as a training group we haven't been too good converting that experience to races. So I will be doing more monitoring of intermediate splits in future races and time trials. Secondly, we need to learn to surge. So I will be racking my brains for some fun ways of doing that around the tracks at Parliament House and on the oval at Dickson.

We have finished training at Aranda for the time being. Dickson starts on Thursday 20 April. Be there!

Start at YOUR optimum pace!

What Team Moore?

Other than the Daniels and Relay results mentioned below, here are the track times from Thursday for Team Moore.

I should add, I have just this week culled the Team Moore list to exclude people who have not trained with us in 2006.

This means some who trained with us loyally for years, and have not reappeared recently, have been removed; also missing are others who have come out a few times and promise they will be back.

Still, there are 50 names on the new list!

I should also add, I only list events I coach! So no walks, throws, jumps. (Athletics is really four sports, not one! A very strange mixture.)

3000m early
M40 Colin Farlow 10:15.57
M45 Amalendu Edelsten 9:55.23
M45 Roger Pilkington 11:11.08

3000m late
M45 Roger Pilkington 12:12.55
M55 Mick Saunders 12:54.56
W40 Katie Forestier 12:12.39

200m
M55 Mick Saunders 33.38
W45 Vicki Matthews 30.49
W55 Maureen Rossiter 32.59

What's It To Be?

Sixteen days to go.

What Relay Happened

Our speedy W40s set an awesome 4 x 1500 record at the track in Canberra last night. Here are their splits

Charlie 5:43 {84, 91, 97, 71}
Helen 5:45 {85, 95, 97, 68}
Gabe 6:01 {89, 97, 101, 74}
Katie 5:39 {84, 93, 95, 67}

Final time 23:08.08 - an ACT and Australian record.

Vicki Victorious

The final race in the Daniels Series left Vicki in front of the women's field. In the men's, Craig Edwards came through to snatch the win, with his .5 second win over John Burns earning him the extra points he needed to pass John.

Still More Moore

Still three Moore 3000m races to go and in the women's results the fat lady is singing with Margaret McSpadden having the series sewn up although Rosemary Parker is theoretically able to catch her. In the men's the fat lady is warming up and stretching; Michael Leahey should win from Paul Considine with only Colin Farlow a threat - that is, if Colin can improve by a minute in his last two 3000s. He might be more interested in the Pennington 1500m this Thursday.

Funny Man

An alleged Peter Ellet from Scullin wrote an alleged letter to the Canberra Times, published on Tuesday, which I reproduce here for the benefit of my *international* audience.

"No wonder there are so many empty drink containers littering the streets when our elite athletes set such a bad example.

"I am sick and tired of seeing long distance runners snatching at drinks, guzzling it (sic) down like pigs (spilling most in the process), then carelessly throwing the container on the ground for someone else to pick up.

"If they want a drink during the race, they should stop running, ask politely, then drop the container in the nearest rubbish bin."

So probably the two most important components of my marathon preparation have been a waste of time - with the realisation that I won't win, all the practicing I have done raising both hands in a victory salute over the finish line - and now with this letter, practicing grabbing a drink off the drink table at speed without knocking over any of the other drinks.

Good on this guy for exposing once and for all how nasty we runners are because we rubbish our city.

I do wonder however if Mr Ellet has ever gone out and observed the post-marathon cleanup gangs removing not only the cups, sponges etc left by the runners, but also the other rubbish that was there at the start such as KFC containers, chocolate wrappers and other debris discarded by the non-athletic, sedentary, obese members of our wonderful community.

Lauren's run 2006

Stop Press - Lauren ran the ninth fastest time in the semis of the 400 hurdles. She just missed making the final.

Can't wait for 2007, 2008, ...

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
Love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

--Mary Oliver

In case you missed it.

** Have you tried the new puzzle? ("Page Down" to the end).

** I didn't know there were "mountain running" form guides (just click on an event to start navigating around), which include marathon and half marathon, as well as lunch time, cross country, and the now defunct Vets form guides.

** A cutting from a Canberra Times earlier this year. Michelle is of course and esteemed member of Team Moore.

Twenty Days

There is a feast of swimming and lawn bowls in Melbourne. There is running as well. I’d like to see that.

My progress

last week’s target 110 km, achieved 110 km

this week’s target 100 km

weight 63.5 kg, weight loss 1 kg, total weight loss 3.5 kg

quote of the week "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars". - Les Brown
song of the week Belter, Powderfinger

You go
I feel like dropping bombs between your eyes
But not today

Too slow
I feel like sinking arrows in your mind
You're all the same

You don't have to reveal it
You get trouble concede
You don't have to reveal it

Are you feeling right
Are you feeling right
A defeated sight
Are you feeling right

You go
Soaking up your public appetite
The war you wage

Too slow
I tell you once again you're not my type
You're all the same

Something come along gonna make a change

You don't have to reveal it
You get trouble concede
You don't have to reveal it

Are you feeling right
Are you feeling right
A defeated sight
Are you feeling right

My plan

I am still recovering from the half marathon. I might run the Vets handicap on Sunday as the only fast effort between the half and the full marathon. Or I might just jog it.

Twenty days to the marathon

and i feel like a ....

Question – what is the best way of attaching helium balloons to oneself when leading a paced group in the marathon?

From Dave Mackenzie

Urgent call for Officials and Volunteers for AMA Nationals - Easter. With only a month to go we have an urgent need for officials and volunteers to make our Nationals a success. As of now I have about 60 names on the list. To service the 400 to 500 expected competitors requires about three times 60. The meet runs Easter Friday to Monday about 8 to 5 each day. Assistance for any or all of the time would be appreciated. Many competitors will assist when not competing but this must be supplemented by large numbers of our own members coming to the party. We need help in all areas except starters and announcers. Needs range widely across all skills and experience from qualified event judges to runners for the starting lists, to implement retrieval, to distribution of lunches to volunteers, so on and so forth. Whatever happens we'll find something useful for you to do. Please contact Dave Mackenzie at 6288 5891 or 6288 1844 (latter phone on fax) or by emailing to Chris Lang at vicepresident@actvac.com giving some idea of your preferred activity and available time and your T-shirt size. We'd like to ensure that our visitors enjoy a well-run competition worthy of ACTVAC.