The time has come for us to finally put to rest who really brings the most speed to the table in Area 51: Fast Twitch or Bagpipe (others can participate as well, see below for details). Our Speed Showdown is set for Tuesday, August 27, at JM Robinson Middle School. UPDATED: Additional event by popular demand: 4×100 relay.
Date: Tuesday, August 27, rain or shine
Time: 0515 – 0600
Location: JM Robinson Middle School Track
Address: 5925 Ballantyne Commons Parkway
Note: The track is west of the school and the athletic fields. There is a small parking lot in front of the athletic fields where you should park. If the lot is full when you arrive, you can park at the school and there is a path from the school to the fields, but please note it is about a 5 minute walk (potentially 7 minutes for SOBs – “Sons of Ballantyne”).
1) 0515: Warm-up lap and stretching (Joker)
2) 0525: Mile Race Heat #1: Thoroughbreds (For all participants who typically run a mile in <7:30) (Turkey Leg coordinating)
3) 0535: Mile Race Heat #2: Mustangs (For all participants who typically run a mile in >7:30, Haggis coordinating)
4) 0545: 4×400 Relay: Fastest 4 Fast Twitchers vs. Fastest 4 SOBs (Haze coordinating)
5) 0555: NEW: 4×100 Relay: Fast Twitch vs. SOBs – must be different runners than 4×400
6) 0600+: Cool-down, Awards Presentation and COT
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to:
Turkey Leg, scott_mastbrook@yahoo.com, 214.529.4284 or
Haggis, George@stonemanrocks.com
Looking forward to seeing you out there on Tuesday!
9 pax jumped out this morning to enjoy a solid beatdown in the dog days of summer at Area51
The Thang:
TL on QIC:
Warmup jog around field, followed by COP:
jailbreak to trail in the woods
Mosey to front of school
Quick run over to rockpile along McKee, grab a rock for various exercises
Line up on field, full-out sprint to other side
Tag over to O’Tannenbaum on QIC:
Mosey to F3 Lighthouse park
Back to parking lot for COT
Moleskin:
Gotta love these dog days of summer when you can cut the humidity with a knife. Everyone looked like they had been dunked in a pool by the end of the workout, no doubt helped by YHC’s extra pinch of running thrown in to support #BRR training.
After all this rain and lack of maintenance, our trail run through the woods feels like it is turning into a trek through a dense Brazilian jungle. In addition to getting clothes-lined by a several tree limbs, YHC seemed to clear out about a dozen spiderwebs with his head. Not a good idea to be the front-runner out there in the woods these days.
Inverted wall-walking was a great change of pace and a real #crowdpleaser, despite a few skinned knees and shins (for YHC at least).
Great to see Hairy Dog out there today – haven’t seen him much all summer. Despite almost throwing up a couple times he pushed it hard – nice job out there brother and hope to see you out again soon. Alf was out in front for most of the stations today… looking forward to his maiden Q next week at the Matrix.
Tooth Fairy came out disguised as an FNG, and somehow ended up with the new Curious handle in COT. YHC was probably a little too easy on supporting the rename – may need to revisit this one in the future. Good to see you out there and looking forward to seeing you at some of the weekday morning workouts.
Good times by all out there – pushing it hard. Thanks for letting me and O’Tannenbaum lead today.
Announcements:
As the rain started to fall, 16 brave men came out for the early workout to give those legs a test on some of Rain Tree’s finest slopes.
The Thang:
Warmup in parking lot. A couple laps with karaoke, etc, followed by brief COP:
Tempo run out of the parking lot through Rain Tree to our favorite hill on Windbluff and then partner up for some hill repeats. Note: Mapmyrun shows steep part of the hill is 10-11% grade
7 rounds completed:
Run back through Rain Tree to South Charlotte Middle.
Total mileage: 3.2 miles (including warmup laps)
Moleskin:
Announcements:
#FastTwitch will launch Tuesday morning at 0515 from South Charlotte Middle. The Area51 BRR team is in full training mode now, so be ready for some miles on the roads (hills) of Rain Tree. Bring out your headlamp, flashers, vests, and any other gear you want to tryout for your night legs.
Of course all are welcome, even if you’re not training for BRR – I’m just off vacation and so this promises to be a good one focused on the hammies, glutes, and on the lungs (as always).
The Thang: An early morning 6 mile run on Four Mile Creek and Lower McAlpine Creek greenways, roughly 8:00 pace out, and 7:30 pace in.
Moleskin:
Four men and a furry friend headed out for a six-mile run early this morning, ran into a gaggle of clipboarders and managed to return back with six men and a furry friend. After a good warmup on the way out, a few of us picked up the pace on the way back in and were able to peal Flyboy and Rock Thrill away from the RFYL crew and pull them in for the COT.
The Shore – hope you’re getting better and we’re looking forward to seeing you out there again soon!
Announcements:
17 Men of Fast Twitch headed out into the gloom for some early morning track and field…
The Thang:
Warm-up with moderate half mile around the track, mixing it up with some buttkickers, high-knees and karaoke.
4X timed interval runs on track: 4min run at tempo pace 80%, 1min walk. Divided into three groups to keep pax with similar pace together. Total distance for group one: 2.7mi
Mosey over to south end-zone for recovery and planks.
120s: goalpost-to-goalpost races. Run with partner to north end, pain station with partner, sprint back together to south end, winner recovers, loser gets 5 burpees.
Jog back up to parking lot for COT
Total distance: 4.5mi
Moleskin:
Perfect weather this morning at a crisp 72 degrees without any precipitation. Thankfully we had TR there to provide some air pollution to ensure none of us are too fresh.
Interval training helps build the speed and ultimately get faster. Relatively short intervals today of 4 min gave most a chance to get a half mile for each interval. Will be building up these toward an 8 min pace over next several weeks.
Had some questions on the tempo pace we ran for the intervals and wanted to provide a little more explanation… Hat tip to Bratwurst here who provides a great description: “T-pace / Tempo / Threshold / 15K Pace – some research calls this Lactate Threshold (LT) pace, or a hard pace that you could run for a race of up to 60 minutes. For workouts, it is a pace that should be “hard” but controlled breathing (not breathless) and a pace slightly below at which your body can still process all of the Lactic Acid buildup so you do not get sore muscles during the workout.”
To get your target pace, you can go here: http://www.runbayou.com/jackd.htm, enter a recent race result (or timed pace from our 1-mile runs) and it will provide your T-pace for various run distances. Aim for the right pace during the runs.. training faster than this risks injury. Training slower doesn’t risk injury but doesn’t advance your speed either.
Great effort out there by all the groups, especially those out front 49er, Joker, TR, and Sprague. I had trouble keeping pace with you guys today (too much beer over the 4th?).
Must have been more humid today than expected – several “weight vests” (soaked shirts) seemed to fly off near the end to lighten the load. Saw some of our female clipboarder friends turn their heads, though not sure if it was toward us or away from us at that point. I’m sure they all appreciated the expose from the Men of Fast Twitch.
Limited chatter today due to the heavy breathing being expressed by all, but was good to keep together in groups for some 2nd F where possible. Track and Field two weeks in a row, so expect some more off-campus tours in the near future. Welcome FNGs to Fast Twitch – we hope to see you back!
Announcements:
Fast Twitch Launching at 5:15am at South Charlotte Middle. Mostly track and field work this week, working on interval runs to build up speed, with a little Haze-inspired competition just for fun. Don’t forget your headlamp. See you in the gloom!
Six + a furry 4.0 joined together for a nice early morning jog in finally some crisp morning air. 3 + the furry 4.0 headed out at 5:15 for ~6 miles tempo pace, while 3 headed out at 5:30 for ~4 miles and change. Second time out for Musket (furry 4.0) who did a great job of clearing the path of the numerous frogs and critters that seem to be out in full force. Road Rash put in a good pace out in front and despite taking a pitstop for a “gutbomb” still managed to finish strong. The second group apparently got caught in the gaggle of clipboarders and then took a slight detour to explore some of the fine suburban landscape outside the greenway. Glad to continue seeing metro representation out there with Orlando setting a steady pace with the second group. Welcome to Moses FNG – 3 claps for hitting a running workout first time out and putting up a strong pace – now we just need to get him out to Fast Twitch for a real indoctrination.
Enjoyed seeing everyone out there today!
Announcements:
Two for Tuesday:
An impromptu double-down workout inspired by a delirious 49er after slipping into a runners high on the last leg of this morning’s Fast Twitch rodeo.
The Thang:
Group of four fellow BRR runners gathered off at the 4-Mile Creek Greenway (current site of Devils Turn) for a nice evening fellowship run to top off this mornings’ fun. Relatively easy run of about 4.5 miles – no hills, no sprints, no surprises. Stepped up the pace a bit at the end and beat the lightning by about 5 minutes.
Moleskin:
No, “Mall-copping” is not some kind of disease (though it does seem to be spreading) – this is F3 Lingo for the act of fartsacking after talking big game.
It was supposed to be 5 runners today, but somehow we missed Haggis. For those who missed the banter on the other back-blasts, Haggis laid out a strong challenge with “I just hope the Fast Twitch fellows are taking this as seriously as the Sons of Ballantyne. Do they even care about this epic battle…?” After stepping it up a notch and receiving an invitation for today’s double-down, Haggis threw out the rock-hard commit of “It’s on, pal”.
So we all waited at 5:45… 5:50… 5:55… but no Haggis? Looks like he Mallcopped-out on this one. Apparently he didn’t even have the stones to make it out for a friendly fellowship run. Just giving you a hard time… we all love you Haggis – and we’ll get this epic battle underway next time. Live to fight another day lad.
We were actually a little worried as we didn’t even see him at the end – we all pray that he is safe and not stuck under a Balarney Stone somewhere in Waxhaw.
Announcements:
Cheers!
16 courageous wranglers showed up for an early morning three-legged rodeo, kicking off from the gloom at South Charlotte Middle.
The Thang:
Lift off at 5:15 with lap around the parking lot mixing it up with some sprinting, high knees, butt kicks, and a round of burpees x 10. Set off on 3-leg rodeo:
Leg 1: Cowboy Run through Rain Tree
Corral down at end of parking lot to organize for the Cowboy run. As opposed to an Indian run, with a Cowboy run YHC stays out in front to lead the pax down the dark neighborhood streets while varying the pace to keep it interesting. What started out as a nicely organized 2-line cowboy run gradually spread apart into a thundering herd of PAX huffing, puffing, sweating and sprinting through the dark hilly streets of Rain Tree like the pack of thoroughbreds on the backstretch of Churchill Downs.
Corral for merkins at Raintree: 20 merkins + plank-o-rama
Cowboy run continues down Windbluff to Shallowood
Corral for burpee break: 10 burpees + plank-o-rama
Cowboy run finishes up to Providence Rd, covering 1.6 miles in total.
Leg 2: Hill from Hell
Sprint down Providence toward High Ridge, turnaround and sprint back up for total of 1 mile. (1/2 mile down, 1/2 mile back up). Meet at Church at top for round of 50 squats.
Leg 3: Tour de Arboretum
Run back down Windbluff, cut into woods, winding around pond and park, up the hill into the back lots of the Arboretum, stopping for some incline merkins at top. Window shopping tour all the way down to the ABC store in the back. Plank-o-rama. Grab some hill, sprint up for burpees x 10, back down for squats x 20. YHC realizes we’ve barely got time to get back to the stables by 6am so… jailbreak down 51 back to the South Charlotte Middle.
Total Distance of all 3 legs: 4.2 – 4.4 miles depending on how far you went down Providence Road.
Circle up for Mary: Flutter Kicks x 20, LBCs x 21.
Moleskin:
Great mix of runners out there today from thoroughbreds to clydesdales. We had a bit more distance today than usual, but kept it interesting by mixing in the recovery breaks to allow the clydesdales to stay with the pack while keeping the thoroughbreds honest with a little extra downpainment as a reward for being out in front. Mixing it up with the shorter sprints, moderate runs across varied terrain and “recovery burpees” helps to stretch the lungs and build cardiovascular endurance.
Not too much chatter from the pax amid all the winded huffing, though I could swear I heard some snorting and neighing in the middle of the herd on the Cowboy Run. Joker, 49er and Road Rash took the hill by storm churning out a breakneck pace both down and up #speeddemons. Brew busted out the red cape at the end and I swore he was ready to fly away like superman after COT.
Despite the option to do rounds of squats/merkins instead of the hill, all pax opted to run the Hill from Hell, and kept up a solid pace to boot. Really enjoyed leading the group today who all put in a tremendous effort – thanks for coming out!
Announcements: