12 PAX headed off from the Vine Parking lot at 0515 on Tuesday into a mosey over to the very familiar Bull Ring. 2 PAX surprised us there to round out our merry band this morning. 1 PAX was REALLY late.
The THANG:
- Preblast was “Slack-blasted” only – apologies for those looking to https://f3southcharlotte.com/category/swift/ for instructions.
- 0500 – 5 or 6 PAX were moving in full head to toe clothing. Temps must be low.
- 0515 – 12 PAX leave the parking lot on a mosey over to the Bull Ring’s putting green. 2 more PAX find us there.
- 0525 – Warm-up exercises of Penguins, Giraffes, Hyenas, Donkeys, A-skip for distance, A-skip for height, B-skips
- 0535ish – go over final workout instructions and start 3 rounds of:
- 200m at Repetition Pace (a.k.a. 1 mile race pace, find yours at http://runsmartproject.com/calculator), 200m recovery
- 200m at Repetition Pace, 200m recovery
- 600m at Repetition Pace (or 2:00 max), 600m recovery and regroup the pack
- 0605 – finish round 3 and head back to Vine on a long mosey
- 0615 – COT with Bagpipe
The Moleskin:
- Last month for distance-based intervals, PAX took on 3200m of intervals in the form of 8 x 400m. So, with only 3000m this week (3x(200+200+600)), it should be easier, right? Wrong! If you aren’t using the 200m intervals to relax and get the speed right, it’s not impossible to do 1 round of the 600m at the same speed, but you’ll suffer on the next round. YHC found that to be true and needed additional recovery (i.e. bending over, gasping for air, nearly dry heaves, walking around for a bit) after the 600m #2 & #3. So, next time, YHC will need to be better about looking at the watch for the opening intervals instead of just going with the flow of the PAX or how you feel.
- We’re losing the Six – where did the Six go? It’s not that they were left behind, but that there was very little separation from front to back today. PAX were in a tight group this morning and it was easy to get in 3 rounds in because it didn’t take long to regroup.
- Citgo was rocking some :35 second 200m intervals and let it go with a couple of 1:54 600m intervals. Both hovering below 5:00/mi pace.
- Haggis, back from a run last week where he got so frustrated with his shoes, he discarded them and ran in his socks on the roads of the British Isles, was happy to have shoes on and mad enough to not let Bunker take the inside lane (we saw that move around him Haggis, but we’ll withold the DQ until the official time trial).
- Bunker, Depth Charge, Enron, and Woodson formed the Peloton today and had very good consistency in the 5:20-5:30/mi pace range. They are definitely the benchmark for PAX who put in the work week after week and show continual gains. Enron is looking for a trail race that you have to qualify for instead of the Boston Marathon – pretty sure that means he just volunteered to be the first F3 PAX from Charlotte (perhaps anywhere) to attempt the Barkley “Marathons”.
- Erector & Meatloaf were close together in the 6:00-6:20/mi pace range for the intervals, and both opted for the full 600 every time.
- Das Boot – starting to have an on-time record approaching Bratwurst and Gumbo territory, he’ll need to learn that the 0500 start time is so that you’re never late (for the 0515 start time). Showing off some speed in the 200s with 6:00/mi paces!
- Cheddar – full key ring jingling today while tapering for the Smoky Mountain Relay this weekend, he never hit the Lap button, but a detailed look into Strava showed he wasn’t taking it easy. Good luck Cheddar!
- Wait a freakin’ second??? Was this workout not hard enough for Frasier, Thin Mint, and Mario, so that they had to sneak in an extra round while the rest of the PAX were moseying back to the Vine? Check it here. Sure does seem like it. Hats off to them. And not exactly slow either. Apparently, it was Thin Mint’s idea – Frasier took the bait and Mario never met a challenge he could pass up.
- And how did we know all of this today – all 14 PAX were on Strava! Now, if Fredo would have been there, and he should have been after asking about the last 3 workouts, we might not have had perfect Strava attendance (unless I’m missing Fredo tracking on Strava), but it’s great to see the PAX there use Strava as a tool to look back at workouts, track consistency, know improvement, and have goals within a workout instead of just “running by feel” – which apparently Woodson “felt” 🙁 an extra something this morning – don’t know how it came out…
- Late breaking news…Gumbo was really late…
Announcements:
- Next week at Swift = form drills for running really fast, including starts, and intervals of 200m or less. Great workout for practicing your run form, getting to 100% exertion with the right amount of recovery, and getting in 4-5miles.
- Timekeeper agenda for next 6-8 weeks is the discussion of the book “Extreme Ownership”. Book chapters 2 (No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders) and 3 (Believe) will be lead by Thin Mint and Citgo.
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