The Escalator – What goes down, please don’t come back up…

  • When:06/27/17
  • QIC: Bratwurst
  • The PAX: Erector, Depth Charge, Bunker, ThinMint, Fahvra, Bucky, JRR Tolkien, Bratwurst, Gumbo, Birdcage, Saurkraut, Picasso, Sherlock, Bait n Switch (FNG Scott M), Chipotle, Rebar, Rock Thrill, Frasier, Buckeye, OneNiner, Fire Hazard, Abacus, Meatloaf, General, TigerRag, Haggis, Voodoo


The Escalator – What goes down, please don’t come back up…

27 PAX thought better of a cool morning in Summer than to waste it in the Fart Sack, so they descended on Swift to meet the Escalator.

The PreBlast: http://f3nation.com/2017/06/26/preblast-escalator-what-goes-down-must-come-up

The Moleskin:

  • Crazy stuff on the Strava Fly-By, which shows that 16 of 27 PAX were using a GPS-enabled fitness watch to record their efforts this morning.  If you aren’t using the LAP key on your watch during intervals (hit it each time you start and stop an interval), then you aren’t using it effectively as you could to know your effort during the “Work” interval and during the “Recovery” interval. Knowing your distance and pace overall is a tiny fraction of information that you could be getting. Having said that, PAX covered between 8.5mi (Bunker – who pre-ran the pre-run), 7.5mi (VooDoo – he was at the prerun?, Haggis – who never pre-runs but had a post-run today), 7.0mi (Fahvra – who didn’t do anything pre or post, but ran off into the distance on all intervals and still passed most on the way back), and 5.5mi (Louis C? – must be one of the new guys).
  • Partial credit goes to Tuck on coming up with this workout.  While we’ve done a descending interval workout at this speed before, we’ve never done anything that went back up.  Enron got sick thinking about it, and Tuck took vacation to avoid it.
  • If it wasn’t for the Preblast put out there yesterday, the time spent programming the watch for the workout, and knowing that PAX are asking for some structure to a workout, YHC probably wouldn’t have shown up this morning after feeling pretty poor last night and early this morning. And then stressing out on the prerun when the watch program wasn’t syncing, reinstalling apps, logging into accounts, pairing watches, all while in motion, YHC threw up in the mouth a little. Fortunately once 0515 came around, we were off.  Disclaimer forgotten.
  • Interval Pace (check the preblast for explanation) is designed to peg your Heart Rate right at or under your max.  You can’t physically exceed your max Heart Rate, so if you are working harder than max HR, it’s wasted effort in this kind of workout.  Running at your max HR with intervals will build that endurance (some fitness watches try to measure this as a VO2Max reading). However, that also means that you have to push yourself into the uncomfortable zone of getting to max HR.  Longer intervals of 3 min or more allow this, but with shorter intervals, it’s more difficult.  That’s why the recovery also comes down with the length of the interval (recovery at this speed is the same time length of the interval, or no less than 1 minute less than the interval).
  • Cobains for the longer warmup route, but impressed that everyone did the 1.3miles.  Normally, I’ll try to give a route that anyone can comfortably do in 10-11 minutes.  After all, the warm-up is all about getting moving.
  • Tons of new and recent faces out there today.  Erector, Birdcage, and Buckeye are becoming more regular, but there were newer faces of Sauerkraut, Sherlock, and Bait-n-Switch (who was a FNG today, EH’d to Bagpipe, but couldn’t find them, so he fell into the Swift group like he knew what he was doing).  Somehow, even Bucky at some point was even running with the horses – couldn’t tell if he just wanted to sprint up Bagpipe hill, or was there from the start – but as you all know he’s hard to miss with his gazelle-like strides.
  • Even if you haven’t heard of him, from him, or about him, continue to watch out for Depth Charge. While he has been out to Swift for a while now, not many PAX get 4th Overall in an incline trail challenge.  Well done!
  • Welcome to the track meet!  With Fahvra leading the way (at first, even pushing a SFN chariot), Frasier on his heels, ThinMint and Haggis chasing, and JRR TOLKIEN right there (even if it was just for one or two, HE WAS UP THERE!), there was some speed on display today.  While JRRT took a few off to show the other PAX how to push the chariot, Bunker, General, and TigerRag closed the gaps to the leaders.  Then Gumbo and FireHazard wouldn’t let themselves be passed on the “back” sections, which likely means they sandbagged or had really even efforts.  And then the other PAX were in there somewhere.
  • OneNiner sped off on Bagpipe Hill bound to capture a PR on the segment.  However close he was (2 sec off his best), OneNiner still looked impressive as several PAX including General and Haggis gave the no way, not today looks as he flew by and gave no chase.
  • Rebar, Meatloaf, Rock Thrill, Picasso, Abacus, and Chipotle also strong out there today.  This varied group is great about putting in the work and encouraging the PAX around them to get better.  I’m currently checking Cheddar’s (South Charlotte Q for the BRR) lists to make sure all of these PAX are on BRR teams.  If not, I bet SlimFast will recruit you soon!
  • Thanks again for showing up in droves today.  All it does is to put pressure on each of us to give our best for the day, which a lot is just showing up.
  • NO SWIFT NEXT WEEK ON JULY 4th!  Convergence at 0530 at the Trader Joe’s / 4 Mile Creek Greenway for a Run-focused workout from Rachel!  http://f3nation.com/2017/06/26/worlds-collide-july-4th-runvergence/

Announcements:

  • Timekeeper, the 3rd F following Swift / Bagpipe at the Einstein Bagels will be starting a summer topic – the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis on July 11th.  You can pick it up for $5 on Amazon.  The group that meets at Timekeeper, typically 5-8 guys each week, welcomes you even to drop in on the conversation, grab some coffee, sweat in the air conditioning, and connect with the PAX each week.  Look forward to seeing you there.

 

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