"Australians young and old fail health test"

"AUSTRALIANS young and old are failing to meet national guidelines for exercise and nutrition, according to two major surveys of more than 30,000 people.

"The studies released today have painted a grim picture of a slothful, unhealthy nation of people eating poorly and exercising inadequately.

"One of the surveys, of 16,000 adult Australians, showed one in four - 25 per cent - meet physical activity guidelines, while 55 per cent eat enough fruit and 15 per cent eat enough vegetables.

"But an alarmingly small number - fewer than five per cent - met the criteria for all three guidelines ... "

...see rest of article here.


A third "Bonte" game - loose the moose! This one is only slightly tricky, you may need to know that a series of steps at the end of the game is repeated...

Yesterday at Dickson we welcomed Bronwyn, Colin, Gary, Kathy, Ken, Margaret, Matthew, Mick H, Rod, Roger, Ruth and Tim who ran an 8x220m relay followed by an 8x90m shuttle relay in teams of three.

Rumour has it that the AIS track will be ready in time for the opening of the track season in October. Which is not far away! We will be continuing our twice-a-week speed-endurance training until then.

Burley Griffin

The lake - and the athlete.


Lake Burley Griffin made a picturesque backdrop for last Sunday's Half Marathon. Here's Griffin himself, powering home. Ken took many photos, I may put some on the ACTVAC website in the near future, with Ken's permission.

The BBQ Stakes handicap
Yesterday I ran a shocker, struggling in in just under thirty minutes; only to find that Roger and Helen who started over a minute ahead of me had also run just under thirty minutes. The Half Marathon took its toll!

Coming Events

-----------------------------------------------------------
Saturday 1 September
ACTCCC Yarralumla Relays
12:45pm 1km race
1:00 pm Relays in teams of 4 x 3km legs
Alexandrina Drive, Yarralumla.
Junior and Senior Teams Pointscore event.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday 2 September
Women's and Girls' Jogalong
Weston Park Yarralumla
1.6km Mini-Jog, 3km Event, 6km Jogalong Handicap, starts at 9:00 am.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday 9th September
MS Fun Run and Walk
10:00 am start from Lake Tuggeranong College
www.ms.org
https://www.registernow.com.au/secure/Register.aspx?ID=577

speedy gosling


Thea was running really well until recently, lets hope she overcomes the injuries soon and is back to form for the Fun Run season! A bad knee has forced her into the 5k walk at the Canberra Times Fun Run. Waddle, goose, waddle!

"I only drink beer on days that end in Y"

Monday night saw Caroline, Charmaine, Christopher, Colin, Emma, Ewen, Gary, Geoff B, me, Helen, Joel, Kathy, Katie, Ken, Rachelle, Ruth, Sonia and Yelena run a set of 6 x 440m with a 330m fastish recovery, and some push-ups along the way! Milder weather helped. I need to do more push-ups. Last week it was the legs that were sore on Tuesday, this week it's the arms.

Quick debut
Half Marathon debutantes Amanda, who surprisingly avoided training the next day and sent Colin in her place, and Sonia. They both ran ~1:46.

The "I only drink beer" quote is on the guy's T-shirt. Click to enlarge, if you dare! Those girls are so determined looking. Photo by Ken.

dire straits

Monday Morning Monitor
My training progress
last week's target: 96k
achieved: 96k
year total to date: 2,673k in 34 weeks
this week’s target: 100k
weight: 66.5kg ▼

I have a hectic schedule this week, and the world athletics is on, I don't think I can fit in more than 100k. It is nice to run pain free at last... let's hope things continue that way. I think... if I just keep doing tempo runs in place of races for a few months, I should be OK in the longer term. Straits not so dire any more.

song of the week: “Brothers in Arms”, by Mark Knopfler.

There are some songs which are never out of date! Get yourself a large mug of nice warm coffee – sit back – and enjoy. Heaven! (If you have Aussie pseudo-broadband, like me, you might first like to “pause” it and let it load). And a version is on the blog playlist.


I remember taking a very young Nathan and Loani to the outdoor stadium at Bruce, and standing in the pouring rain, close to the stage, we experienced the most awesome sound and light show by Dire Straits. As can be verified by any resident of Kaleen or Giralang at the time. They were loud! They were good! They played all their hits!

They were mighty good.

Winning Women - and Gary

Saturday 8k Pinnacle

Place	Name	Time
23	Geoff Moore	45:54
26	Ewen Thompson	49:20

Sunday ACTVAC Annual Half Marathon (21.1k)

Name	Time	Trophies
Richard Faulks	1:26.00
Maria O’Reilly	1:36.28	W50 silver
Helen Larmour	1:38.47	W45 gold
Charlie McCormack	1:40.35	W40 gold
Roger Pilkington	1:42.15
Gary Bowen	1:43.12	M50 bronze
Peter McDonald	1:46.10
Geoff Barker	1:46.23
Sonia Veldhoven	1:46.41	W30 bronze
Amanda Walker	1:46.53
Charmaine Knobel	1:53.24	W55 silver
Peter Hogan	1:55.44
Bronwyn Calver	1:57.34
Geoff Moore	1:57.40
Ewen Thompson	1:57.58
Caroline Campbell	1:58.09	W65 gold
Rae Palmer	2:01.06	W60 silver
Barbara Tucker	2:49.34

Worlds in Osaka

Just a note on the World championships - what an amazing run by Kenyan Luke Kibet to win the marathon so convincingly in an incredibly strong field. And what an outstanding commentary team of David Culbert, Steve Ovett and Nic Bideau; SBS have excelled themselves. And so much more to come, starting with Benita Johnson at 10:55pm tonight. Not to be missed!

Isn't it great to have a time differential of only one hour?

http://osaka2007.iaaf.org/index.html and http://www.iaaf.org/ have everything you ever wanted. Previews, news, timetables, reports, photos, interviews, videos, podcasts, even live coverage.

Charlie Joel ("CJ") Moore

Honestly, Charlie, Joel, and CJ, I had nothing to do with choice of names! Except, perhaps, "Moore".

Lisa with Tyler Jesse, Jackson Joshua, and Charlie Joel. Taken this morning by Nathan.

A big healthy boy!

Last Gasp

At training last night were Bronwyn, Colin, Gary, Geoff B, me, Katie, Ken, Maria, Matthew, Rod and Roger - eleven runners, the fewest we have had, although it was good conditions for running, but the threat of rain may have deterred a few. Come on, it never rains! We ran 12 x 200m in teams of three.

Can we win?
This is possibly my only AFL post this year. With two weeks of the minor round left, we - the Mighty Adelaide Crows - can still win the premiership! Teams from second down are all very even, and we may just have hit form at the right end of the season. We simply have to win six more in a row and we are there! It does depend on some other results for us to make the finals, but all we need is two of the following to happen - St Kilda lose at least one of their two remaining games; Sydney both; Collingwood both; Kangaroos both. It is very likely, given the draw, that two of these possibilities do happen; so it is up to us to win. We are good enough.

Then in the finals, as long as we don't meet Geelong in the preliminaries, and we don't travel away to Perth, we can get to the Grand Final, where anything can happen.

On the way, it would be good to get an "away" final against Port Adelaide! Thus cancelling their "advantage".

So for your "game" this week, watch the Crows eliminate Brisbane in Adelaide!

Go The Crows!


Reepicheep

"Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter East."

Charlie's Day

Yesterday wasn't your usual Wednesday. We will not forget 22-08-07. It all started with an exchange of presents between Jenny and me as we wished each other a happy 37th wedding anniversary. I should have realised it was going to be an "odd" day when it turned out we had bought the same anniversary card for each other!

Before heading off for an afternoon drive with Jenny, I did drop in to the BBQ Stakes to see how my running was going. Charlie had a blinder!

Roger ran 26:08 - 20 seconds slower than last week
I ran 26:47 - 20 seconds faster than last week.
Helen ran 26:50 - the same time as last week, and
Charlie ran 26:54 - a new pb and first time under 27 minutes.

So that was good and everyone was happy. Especially Charlie.

Later that afternoon, while on our drive, Jenny and I had a series of calls from our son Nathan in Brisbane, that Lisa was in the birthing suite and "it wouldn't be long". Sure enough, at 4:34pm, their third son, and our grandchild number ten, arrived into the world. "His name is Charlie", announced Nathan. "No second name yet".

So welcome into the world, Charlie Moore. A brand new baby born yesterday. 9 lb 1 oz. Just think, he will be my age in 2066! Scary!

So, Charlie McCormack, to avoid confusion we will have to think of another name for you. I wonder what that could be?

Coming events

Saturday 25th August: ACTCCC at the Pinnacle, Springvale Drive, Hawker
12 noon - 1km
12:15pm - 4km
1:00pm - 8km
-------------------------------------------
Sunday 26th August: ACTVAC Half Marathon, from Stage 88.
3 starts as follows:
8:00 am, for those who take 2 hours or more.
8:30 am for those between 100 and 120 minutes.
9:00 am for those who take less than 100 minutes.
------------------------------------------
9 September: MS Fun Run
------------------------------------------
16 September: Canberra Times Family Fun Run
-------------------------------------------

Roger in last year's ACTCCC 12k championships. Picture taken by R4YL because the CR next to Roger is wearing a R4YL cap.

Roger, Helen & I will race again today in the weekly BBQ Stakes. (Charlie may run too). Roger jumped out last week to be a minute faster than Helen and me, so for the time being he is doing better.

like a small fish in a small pond

...that's how I felt when I saw how far back our runners were in the City to Surf last week. Nevertheless Caroline managed second in her age category, and a team which included Maria and Charlie finished second in a team category. Well done!

Any other category results I am not aware of.

But it's all good. It means there is a large sub-culture of fit and healthy people in Sydney and beyond. Pity the media in general will continue to focus on the unfit and the unhealthy. I shall try not to do that here.

Monday night training on western tracks at Parliament House was a 220m run with a 120m jog, by 12, on 2 minutes. Running were Adam, Alan, Amanda, Caroline, Christopher, Ewen, me, Helen, Joel, Katie, Ken, Maria, Peter, Rachelle, Sonia, and Yelena. It is almost light enough to run on those tracks again.

"...been a goose for years."

Monday Morning Monitor

My training progress
last week's target: 80k
achieved: 80k
year total to date: 2,577k in 33 weeks
this week’s target: 96k
weight: 67kg ▲
song of the week: “4:12”, by Switchfoot, from “Oh! Gravity”. A bright breezy track about waking up at 4:12 which goes for exactly 4:12 at 190bpm on the album. I have added a live version to the playlist (right hand column of this blog).

Well I managed to keep the discomfort of a sore hammy at bay last week so optimistically I have scheduled a little more distance this week. Will probably race BBQ Stakes on Wednesday again as a test, and have entered Sunday's Vets half marathon and plan to run easy in around 1:55 or 2 hours. (Not "jog": that would be 2 hours 10 or so!) which should help me achieving the 96k target.

Emma in Training

Emma sped around Blewitt's yesterday and left us in her wake... clearly liking early morning runs, hilly courses, and cold wind.

speedy geese @ Dunrossil Drive 4.2k

Place	Time	km rate
Women 10. Annette Sugden W40	17:26	4:09
Men 67. Geoff Moore M55	19:31	4:39
Men 70. Ewen Thompson M50	20:09	4:48

speedy geese @ Blewitts pines

7.0k

Place	Time	Age %
2 Emma Adams W35	31:39	76.0
23 Margaret McSpadden W60	41:16	72.6
28 Charlie McCormack W40	32:54	74.4
34 Helen Larmour W45	31:52	82.0
35 Maria O'Reilly W50	31:54	86.3
40 Richard Faulks M45	28:45	80.7
44 Amanda Walker W35	33:20	72.5
45 Colin Farlow M45	28:13	80.6
48 Rod Lynch M45	27:45	83.1
57 Peter McDonald M50	34:39	70.4
60 Roger Pilkington M45	31:32	73.6
66 Ewen Thompson M50	45:30	51.6
69 Tony Booth M65	37:44	75.6
75 Caroline Campbell W65	41:13	80.4
79 Alan Duus M60	36:10	71.7
80 Christopher Lang M55	38:46	64.1
83 Barbara Tucker W55	43:32	67.3
86 Charmaine Knobel W55	38:02	74.3
94 Kathy Sims W55	38:57	73.4
99 Mick Horan M45	36:51	63.0

3.5k

Place	Time	Age %
5 Rachelle Ellis-Brownlee W30	17:11	tba
16 Ken White M50	14:24	80.1
21 Katie Forestier W40	14:38	80.4
37 Gary Bowen M50	15:50	71.7
38 Geoff Moore M55	15:36	77.8

random thoughts

There were many good runs at Blewitts this morning; Gosling Emma, and brand new baby gosling Rachelle, did best. None of us were in the medals, though former geese Graeme Small and Peter Hogan managed to win a couple of them. It was interesting to compare times with last year; Amanda has improved a whole four minutes in the 7k; and Katie a whole minute in the 3.5k. The ASTs will be interesting.

Some discussion ensued about "King" and "Queen of the Mountain" outcomes. But as they are based only on handicap places, I don't think they mean much. We all know that Maria is the best mountain runner, regardless of who gets to be "Queen".

I will be checking out if we can enter CTFR teams online, before rounding up M50 team entries starting tomorrow.

Feeling mathematical?

Engaged and Engrossed

What running am I doing this weekend? I will soon be leaving for the Cross Country Club's Dunrossil Drive run today, always a good run because it is short and gets a large field; and the ACTVAC's Blewitt's Pines handicap run early tomorrow, where I will for the first time be comparing a "short course" time with last year's. I wasn't running all that well then, but I bet I cannot match it tomorrow.

...although it is the kind of day I would pefer to stay inside with someone warm and cuddly...

And on TV this weekend: two of the very best movies ever made are on SBS; Amelie tonight, and A Very Long Engagement tomorrow night. These movies are very different from each other, but both feature the acting skills of the engaging French actress Audrey Tautou.

I could very easily just veg out, stay home; watch the footy; watch Dr Who; watch these great movies. But no, the plan says I still need 31 more km this week, so running it is.

Lighting the Fire

Mid August in Canberra: the days are getting longer, but the weather is still cold enough to keep a fire going day and night. However at last night's training it was relatively mild, making it much more pleasant to be out there on the Dickson wind-plain. Training were Barbara, Charlie, Colin, Geoff B, me, Joel, Kathy, Katie, Ken, Maria, Matthew, Peter, Roger, Tony & Yelena. We ran (as a relay in teams of 4 with 2 batons each team) 400 fast with 200 jog. For 25 minutes. Mild enough that I even noticed some sweating!

Next Game
A followup to the last one, it's Bonte Room 2. As before, only slightly tricky, lighting the fire needs instructions! There are three rectangular buttons on the top right and a round one on the top left of the fire. With the top left button off press the left-most button on the top right, then the middle one. Then turn on the round button and press the button on the far right, it should stay on. Turn off the round button, press the middle button again then put the round one on again. Finally press the left-most rectangular button. (The "clue" in the game is "12321" but it's pretty obscure.) Otherwise the game is straightforward!

ACT marathon medallists including speedygeese: speedyself (150 T-shirt) and speedyGriffin (beanie, still cold after running 42.2k!)

Campbelltown Commuters

With no athletics track here in the National Capital all winter (and beyond, probably!), Garry and Kevin had practice runs on the Campbelltown track last Saturday, in preparation for the World Championships in Riccione. Kevin reports: "We were well pleased with the outcome. After a thorough warm up and stretch we ran a few run-thrus and a couple of accelerating bends runs. Then after changing into my 'FAST' spikes we ran a 300m time trial. Very pleased with 46.8 sec , over 4 seconds faster than I had been able to manage on grass. Rested for about 10 minutes and ran a 400m with Garry joining in for the last 200. I went thru the first 200 in 32.6 and although fading finished it off in 67.1 ( fastest recently on grass was 71.?)

"Next Saturday we are going up again for the Skins Winter all comers meet where I intend to run the 1500."

Please get in touch with Kevin if you are interested in travelling to Campbelltown this week. Program details are

Time	Event
10:00	Hurdles
10:00	Hammer
10:00	Pole Vault
10:25	100
10:50	400
11:00	Long Jump
11:10	1500
11:20	Shot Put
11:25	200
11:45	Steeplechase

Date	18 Aug 2007
Location	Campbelltown
Contact	Athletics NSW - 9746 1122

At the BBQ Stakes this week Roger ran ~25:49, a 61 second improvement on last week; Helen ~26:50, a 22 second improvement; I ran ~27:07, 113 seconds faster than last week. And at last I am allowed to do some gentle strengthening exercises for the hamstring.

Happy Smiling Faces

ACT women marathon medallists, including speedygeese Ruth (centre) and Maria (next to Ruth, also capless)

Final Geese Facts

All geese eat a largely vegetarian diet; Geese usually mate for life; Both parents protect the nest and young, which usually results in a higher survival rate for the young geese.

Fly Goose Fly!

Speedygeese in the City to Surf

Name	Place	Time
Richard	524	57.06
Maria	1990	65.35
Charlie	2051	65.53
Emma	2158	66.17
Ewen	3340	69.37
Adam	4658	72.27
Geoff B	4841	72.48
Thea	6097	75.07
Kathy S	6476	75.55
Charmaine	6799	76.32
Caroline	7368	77.35
Bronwyn	7404	77.40
Margaret	16273	93.02

Ewen in Sunday's City to Surf