Week of July 26, 2005 - August 1, 2005

Shea Stadium 5K - Important
July 28, 2005

There is no 7 train service between Times Square and Queensboro Plaza this weekend. To get to Shea Stadium for the New York Mets Run to Home Plate 5K, take the N to Queensboro Plaza or the E, F, G or R to Jackson Hegihts/Roosevelt Avenue, and transfer to the 7 at those stops. This shouldn't delay you too much, but you should still allow a little extra time for your commute.

The race is already sold out, but it may be possible to get last minute registrations. if you haven't registered yet, please email Alan Ruben at aruben@montran.com.

Non-Models Wanted
July 28, 2005

hi there,

we are a london based casting company, currently searching for women to appear in the new dove photographic campaign. We will be scouting in New York from Monday 28th - 31st July. however, any interested women are able to contact us by e.mail. at this stage all we need is a snapshot & a covering note telling us a bit about yourself. e.mail pics to: hm@heathermarchcasting.com. and cc to careykickbox@yahoo.co.uk - we can perhaps then potentially meet some of you when we arrive in new york.

dove do not use any models or actresses in their ads, only 'real' women. you may have seen the previous ads, not just the ones with the women in white underwear but also the 'campaign for real beauty' which featured women of all ages and backgrounds including a lady of 96. (remember the huge billboard in times square?). we are looking for the next group of women to appear in the "manifesto" campaign (fully clothed in case you're wondering!)

all we need are women who are fun, outgoing & happy in themselves.

the shoot will take place in london with famous celebrity photographer, rankin. any chosen models will be flown to the uk to take part. all travel & hotel costs wil be covered & you will receive a fee for the shoot & additional monies, according to usage.

shoot dates: w/c 15th august 2005. 1-2 day shoot per model.

we are particularly looking for the following:

• girls with gaps in their teeth
• women with cropped hair
• curvy women
• older ladies (75+)
• women with smaller breasts (a cup)
• women who look "hotter" in their 40's than their 20's
• women from a latin or afro/caribbean background

absolutely no actresses or models please - dancers welcome.

if you are interested, please contact us as soon as possible. also, it would be great if you could forward this mail to all the women in your address book. we can also consider women based in countries other than uk & usa - so if you know somebody fantastic - get them to give us a call !

if have any queries please don't hesitate to contact me, all details shown below.

— heather march
casting director.

heather march casting
unit 225 the aberdeen centre
22-24 highbury grove
london
n5 2ea

tel: 0044 20 7704 6464
fax: 0044 20 7704 6085

Did She Even Watch Television Before She Got This Job?
July 27, 2005

One of the biggest perks of writing for this site — other than the throngs of women throwing themselves at us — is that it gives us a chance to vent about the stupidity we encounter in the world in general, and in the New York Times television criticism in specific. But sometimes other people do the venting for us. In the case of Alessandra Stanley's thoughts about the history of sitcoms we can thank Daniel Radosh for debunking Stanley's claim that shows like "Friends" and "Roseanne" were not influenced by earlier programs. Now, if Stanley would just start reading this criticism and learning from it, she might not give us so much to complain about.

Blame It On the Weather
July 27, 2005

It's always nice when someone takes the time to research the conventional wisdom, and see if it's actually correct. In this case, we're not terribly shocked to learn that people who live in moderate climates exercise more than people in hot areas." The Times reports:

Climate May Strongly Influence Exercise Habits

People who do not exercise enough may have a new explanation in the weather. A new study finds that people in cool, dry climates spend more time exercising than those who live where it is hot and humid.

Using data from a telephone survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers correlated information about exercise with weather reports from 255 weather stations in the United States and Puerto Rico to figure out what percentage of people in each region met the C.D.C. exercise recommendations - 30 minutes of moderate physical activity 5 to 7 days a week or 20 minutes of vigorous physical activity 3 to 7 days a week.

The study appears in the July-August issue of The American Journal of Health Behavior.

Montana, Utah, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Vermont were the top five states for percentage of residents meeting the requirements. People in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, North Carolina, Kentucky and Mississippi exercised the least. Counties in the top 25 percent in meeting the recommendations had the highest percentage of days with dry moderate conditions, while those in the bottom 25 percent had the highest percentage of days with moist tropical conditions. Regional differences were substantial.

Dr. Ray M. Merrill, the lead author of the study and an associate professor at Brigham Young University, acknowledged that conditions other than weather might have influenced the results.

"The presence of indoor fitness facilities, exercise equipment, air-conditioning and so on likely does influence the results somewhat," Dr. Merrill said.

But, he added, "The study showed that regardless of our modern indoor fitness facilities, climate still explains a great deal of variation in physical activity."

We'd like to point out that, despite all the heat and humidity, a whole lot of CPTC runners still showed up at the track last night.

Week of July 19, 2005 - July 25, 2005

Talking Softball
July 25, 2005

Our annual post-Club Championships softball game will take place at 11:00 am on Saturday, August 20th. Food and drinks will be provided. We will be playing against the Front Runners, since our game scheduled against them last year was rained out.

Yes, It's a Really Bad Analogy. But Also: Best. Movie Idea. Ever.
July 25, 2005

Of course, everyone already knew what "hot coffee" meant and what C.J. - the protagonist of the best-selling video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - and his date were up to in the other room. The fact that you couldn't actually see into the room was one of the few moments of coyness in an otherwise explicit game, rather like the fireworks over the Riviera in "To Catch a Thief," if Cary Grant and Grace Kelly had shot up most of a doped-up, gang-ridden Southern France to get there.

— The New York Times, July 22, 2005

High on the Hogg
July 25, 200

t should not escape notice that Sorrell Booke (a.k.a. Boss Hogg) was trained at the finest institution in the world.  No, not Hogwarts, but Columbia.

— John Scherrer

Yes, Runners Are Geeks
July 20, 2005

Overheard at the Run Hit Wonder Concert:

"All of Joan Jett's songs so far have been pretty slow."

"Yes, but age-graded they're just as fast as the originals."

Yee-Haw
July 20, 2005

Ben Jones, who spent four years as a congressman from Georgia, but is better known as "Cooter" on the Dukes of Hazzard, doesn't want people to see the new movie based on the TV show. As he explains on his website, "Cooter's Place": "the 'Dukes' movie is a sleazy insult to all of us who have cared about the 'Dukes of Hazzard' for so long." He adds:

Sure it bothers me that they wanted nothing to do with the cast of our show, but what bothers me much more is the profanity laced script with blatant sexual situations that mocks the good clean family values of our series. Now, anybody who knows me knows that I'm not a prude. But this kind of toilet humor has no place in Hazzard County. Rather than honoring our legendary show, they have chosen to degrade it.

For those who don't remember the Dukes of Hazzard, it concerned the adventures of a family of cousins and their obese uncle who drove around in a car with the Confederate Flag painted on the roof outwitting the even more obese county commissioner and his dimwitted sheriffs. Its most lasting contribution to American culture is denim shorts that are shorter and tighter than most track outfits. Really, adding profanity and sleaze — not to mention Jessica Simpson's legs — just makes the movie a little more honest.

The show also featured a cool theme song — sung by Waylon Jennings, who narrated the episodes — and two talented character actors — Sorrell Booke as Boss Hogg and Denver Pyle as Uncle Jesse — whose earlier careers have now been completely overlooked because of their association with the show. But on the whole it was still pretty dumb.

Week of July 12, 2005 - July 18, 2005

Shawangunks Group Run
July 18, 2005

Due to popular demand there will be another CPTC group run near New Paltz this Sunday. The running here is arguably the best in the whole North-East, taking place on wide, soft-surface carriageway trails with breathtaking views, lakes and cliffs.

Meet Sid Howard's van at 8:00am at the NE corner of Broadway and 178th Street. RSVP Sid Howard at (212) 693-0770 or (908) 209-8219.

If you have your own transport, RSVP Alan Ruben at aruben@montran.com for directions. We will be meeting at 10:00am in the Awosting Parking Lot (Minnewaska State Park). Feel free to bring food or drink for a post-run picnic.

Club Champs Photos
July 18, 2005

We've been sent a few that we'll post soon, but there are so many to see already at the Westchester Track Club site (about 45 photos) and on Sue Pearsall's site, separated into Day 1 and Day 2 (close to 500 photos).

Toby Times Two
July 18, 2005

Toby Tanser has new new articles in Metro Sports: an interview with Anthony Famiglietti and a guide to fall marathons outside of New York City.

Triathlon Training
July 18, 2005

Greetings everyone,

We hope you are in the midst of your racing season, staying uninjured and motivated. This message is intended to those of you who are interested in straying away from your primary sport to challenge yourself next year to a different racing experience ­ AN IRONMAN.

We are inviting a very limited number of athletes to join our TriLife IronTeam2006. The training program had been successfully proven over the years and is specifically designed to prepare athletes to complete their first or the fastest ironman distance triathlon ­ Ironman USA Lake Placid 2006. Our group includes both local NYC triathletes, and remote participants who will complete their training in other states. The 2004 TriLife team had 100% completion rate at Ironman Lake Placid. We expect no less of our IronTeam2005 athletes who toe the start line in just a few weeks.

The 2006 TriLife IronTeam will begin training in the fall of 2005. Your periodized program will progress from a Pre-Base and Base Training Phases in the fall and winter. Our belief in your holistic development as an endurance athlete has these initial phases focus on 3 basic and essential elements of IM success: general cardiovascular and muscular conditioning, a strong core and efficiency in motion. In the Spring, you will develop your swimming, cycling and running endurance in the progressively longer training sessions of the Build Phase. All that will be left is your Peak and Taper Phases, and you will be ready for your first Ironman finish line in July 2006.

The TriLife program requires an initial interviewing process and athlete assessment period. If qualified, you will join other athletes for regular weekly coached sessions while receiving your monthly and weekly training plans, articles and updates by e-mail. We anticipate that most participants will take full advantage of team/group training dynamics, but respect that some will choose training solo.

Don’t delay. Spaces in IronTeam2006 and IMLP are limited. Online registration for IM Lake Placid 2006 begins July 24th, and is expected to close within 24 hours.

If you are interested, please contact TriLife Lead Coaches, Ross Galitsky or Scott Willett. We will send you a more detailed description of the TriLife training program, our coaching philosophy, how to register for IMLP and our training program, and the fee structure.

We hope you will accept the Ironman challenge and allow us to help you make the training fun and fulfilling and make the training fun and fulfilling by joining the TriLife IronTeam2006.

TriLife Coaching
Ross Galitsky - triathloncoach@gmail.com
Scott Willett - tricoach@gmail.com

Going Away Party
July 17, 2005

From Adam Newman:

I'm planning a little going away party on Thursday at my place to
take advantage of the great outdoors one more time before i blow town.
All of you are welcome. I'll have beer/wine/munchies/etc., so there's no need to bring anything.

Adam Newman
421 East 84th St., Apt 4R
(between 1st & york)
212 249-3179 home
646 339-3179 cell

July 21, 2005
7:00 pm - ??

Club Championships Recap
July 17, 2005

From our correspondent at the race:

The USATF Championships at Icahn Stadium this weekend turned out to be a great moment for CPTC, with a lot of outstanding performances and terrific teammate support.

Here's the skinny.

The women won $500 in American cash money dollars by taking fourth overall out of 29 scoring teams; this despite having no field team and minimal representation in the sprints. Basically, it all came down to some iron performances, including those of Kate Irvin and Allison McCabe, who each did their own pentathlon: running the 1500 and 800 (Kate 2nd and 4th, Allison 7th and 7th) in punishing heat and humidity Friday night and then coming back for three relays (all of which scored) on Saturday. Coach Devon also more than chipped in on the relays: running a season best in 800 (2:25), and then knocking out two great 400s.

But the Hands Down Gutsiest Performance of the Day award goes to Alberta Anderson; taking on the steeplechase for the first time, she badly sprained her ankle on a barrier on the first lap -- but continued on to finish fourth in the event.

The men, meanwhile, finished sixth out of 37 scoring teams, again with a lot of amazing runs. Atilla Sabahoglu knocked everybody out on Friday night with a PR run of 14:44.02 in the 5K, including an explosive final lap in which he went from third to second place, completely torching his competitor. But Atilla wasn't done; on Saturday he took third place in the steeplechase — nosing out places four and five — then wound up the day by anchoring the DMR in the 4:20s. Unreal. Meanwhile, Kobie Fuller knocked out a 48.02 in open 400, then cranked out three relay performances and Jeff Williams did two 1:52s in the 800 — open and relay — then turned around and did another 400 relay leg.

Lots of hard running all around, including Armondo Oliveira gutting out back spasms to anchor the CPTC B team's 4 X 800 meter relay — and holding off Westchester and Phily in process, even though no club could have two relay teams score in the same event. (Armondo told us this was the rule beforehand, and the results show he was right).

Throughout both days, the CP cheering section in the stands kept pumping up our runners (with special thanks to Frank Morton for keeping split times). The atmosphere of camaraderie was terrific and the women's money will just about pay Devon's bill for beer at the post-race party.

Final note: Analyzing the team results while we (note the use of the royal 'we' per CPTC Web site style) procrastinate/wait for the laundry to be done, the big lesson is this: let's all start jumping and throwing heavy objects around. The CPTC women were just three points out of third on the track alone, but our nearest competitor scored 17 points in the field. On the men's side, the difference was even more dramatic. The men were fourth on the track alone — two points out of third — but no field events meant no cash money. Amazingly, overall winners Shore AC from New Jersey scored more than 90 points of their winning 140 in the field.

Also, Allison and Atlla move up the the Women's 800m and Men's 5000m Best Times Lists.

Next NYRR Team Scoring Race
July 14, 2005

The New York Mets Run to Home Plate 5K, Saturday, July 30th is LIMITED to the first 2,500 entrants. This is the ideal summer distance for everyone and a great tune-up for the Club Championships 5M on Saturday, August 20th. Please register immediately to avoid being shut out.

Philadelphia Distance Run — Immediate Action Needed
July 14, 2005

We would like to field several five-person teams for this year's Philadelphia Distance Run scheduled for Sunday, September 18. This well-organized race, on a fast flat course, is one of the premier half-marathons in the country and is an excellent tune-up for a fall marathon.

Jim McQuade will be doing the organizing, so if you would like to run the Philly Distance Run with CPTC, contact Jim at jmcquade@orrick.com ASAP. Please indicate your race-day age. Team entries must be submitted together, and the on-time registration deadline is August 15. Once we have a final list of CPTC entrants, he will make up five-person teams. If you plan to run as part of a CPTC team, please do not register for the race independently.

When considering doing this race please bear in mind that there is a half-marathon NYRR team scoring race two weeks later — Grete's Gallop on October 2nd — and it is generally not a good idea to run two half-marathon races so close together.

One More New Member
July 14, 2005

The list of new members should have included Tyson Smith, and a recruitment point for Kevin Arlyck.

Welcome New Members
July 12, 2005

A big orange welcome to Alberta Anderson, Stephanie Jackson, Joseph Kennedy, Atilla Sabahoglu, Brian Schaffer, Philip Stafford and Jeff Williams. Recruitment points go to
Sean Fortune, Michael Rennock and John Roberts. Honorable mention points go to Sid Howard (3), Devon Martin (4) and Tony Ruiz

Week of July 5, 2005 - July 11, 2005

Eye Care
July 11, 2005

I'm looking for a member with any professional background or experience in retinal ophthalmologic eye care. I have a retinal tear, and will endure a second opinion before surgery this Thursday or Friday (July 14/15th). If you have any expertise, or have had a vitrectomy like I will have soon to correct the retinal damage, please contact me, as I am a little scared and apprehensive. I appreciate your kind wishes and prayers...

Best wishes to the club

— Kelly A. Karavites
Kara127@aol.com

Apologies
July 11, 2005

We really do try to keep this site up to date, and we always feel bad when we leave you with nothign to read for a day or more. But we have a good excuse this time. See, last year we started helping out with the Manhattan Island Foundation, which organizes all those fun swim races in the Hudson River. We figured we'd have enough free time to handle both this site and our new volunteer work, and we did until late last week, when we had to devote all of our free time to last minute preparations for Saturday's Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. (We got off pretty easy; some of our colleagues spent about 96 hours straight working on the race, with little or no sleep during that time.) As a result, we posted very little last week and nothing over the weekend.

That's all done now, and we'll be back to a more regular schedule of updates in a few days. In the meantime, we've got lots of emails from you guys, and we'll be dealing with them soon.

Sid Howard and Asteria Claure
July 7, 2005

It's still close to impossible to catch Sid Howard on the track, but he has been caught off ot it. Sid and Asteria Claure tied the knot early today. Best wishes to both of them. Keep the jog alive!

Weight Grading
July 7, 2005

We suspect nobody other than Noah Perlis really cares about this, but a professor at the University of Dayton has worked out a formula to adjust 5K times for age and weight. You can read about it, and download an Excel sheet with the data here. Or you can just use the formula:

59.31*(W)^1.03/((((((59.31*W^1.03/T)^(1/1.01))*1000/W+(A-25)*0.26))*W)/1000)^1.01)*(65/W)^(1/3)

Where A=Age (must be over 25), W=weight in kilograms (must be over 64.85 kg), and T=time in seconds. If we get bored, we'll rewrite that equation. Until then, just go to the professor's site. Link via Toby's Site.

Le Tour
July 7, 2005

We haven't been watching the Tour de France, but OLN Fires Phil Liggett: Failed to Meet Contractual Obligation to Mention Lance Armstrong Three Times Per Minute, Sources Say makes it sound like the coverage is about what we expected. Thanks to Kevin Arlyck for the link.

Track & Field Championshps
July 6, 2005

While this is the Central Park Track Club, we suspect that some of our members have at one time or another competed in field events. Those members may want to sign up for some events at next weekend's Club Track & Field Championshps at Icann Stadium. With points being awarded to the top 8 in each event, you may be able to score a point for the team simply by showing up for a field event.

Best Times
July 6, 2005

Results from the final Tuesday Night at the Races meet are now posted, including new best times from Andrea Haver (1500m), Kate Irvin (400m) and Atilla Sabahoglu (3000m).

National Club Track & Field Championships
July 5, 2005

Reminder: The deadline for entries to the USATF club relays on July 15-16 is coming up. The deadline (before a big extra fee) is July 8. Hopefully, there will be a large number of entries coming in this week (it will be almost like an internal CPTC track meet if there they don't start getting more entries soon) . See the list of athletes and the events entered here.

Frank Morton pointed out that most of the entries are from CPTC, but there really aren't that many yet. Also, the website states that if clubs have a least 20 athletes competing, there is a $5 entry fee rebate per athlete. (There are 12 CPTC members signed up so far).

This is one of the very few times that the steeplechase is being contested locally, so members may want to take advantage of it. It's a guaranteed PR if you haven't run it before! At present there are no women entered in the 400m or steeplechase, only two men in the men's steeplechase, and only two women (Kate Irvin and Devon Martin) in the 800m.

For instructions on signing up, see the Important Notices section on the CPTC homepage.

Race Winner
July 5, 2005

Congrats to Jim McQuade, who won the Jim Fixx 5K in Siest Key, FL, today. It's his first win ever, and CPTC's 13th of the year.