#F3Swift – New hills, same Hard effort

#F3Swift – New hills, same Hard effort

The Kickstarter fund to get the Q a working alarm clock was successful, and 11 PAX set out into the “face chilly” air at Swift on Tuesday.  New faces and old veterans mixed for a new route to test an old workout.

Here’s the THANG:

• Route = http://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/8783507
• Warm-up 1mile to the end of the bridge over 521.  Then strides between lightpoles: At pole #1, start building speed to halfway, then 95% effort rest of the way to pole #2, mosey between #2 and #3.  Repeato by start building stride again at #3, … , until reaching Ballantyne Commons.  Regroup and stretch OYO.
• 5 Rounds of 2minute I-pace (a.k.a. 2 mile race pace / VO2max – find your personalized pace here at http://runsmartproject.com/calculator ), 1minute recovery, 1min I-pace, 30seconds recovery, 30sec I-pace, 30sec recovery.  Sometimes run 30sec on reverse course to pickup the six.  Long mosey between set 4 & 5.  Set #5 up Hwy. 521 back towards the AO.
• Because we couldn’t get back too early, join in with Bagpipe on 5 Burpees and some planking.
• Total miles = around 5.0 over the course of 60 minutes for the six.  Some at the front ran over 6 with regrouping, reverse course, etc.

Moleskin:

• We started out our rounds on the uphill from Premier westbound on Ballantyne Commons.  Warmed up quickly and hit the VO2max!  Intensity level properly set for the rest of the workout.
• Some PAX thought YHC planned each 2min to be up a hill.  Turns out 1st set was all uphill, 2nd and 3rd sets were pretty flat, 4th set had another monster hill (felt like you hit a wall), and 5th set was flat.  In all, running hard up and down hills will set you up nicely for the Mud Run and BRR.  Hill during set #4 was especially like some of the short steep hills encountered in the BRR – just as tough and forces you to change stride and reset expectations on speed – it’s all about effort at that point.
• Running down 521 isn’t as bad as one would think.  Nice wide shoulder and not too much traffic at 5am.  While YHC would like to fully use Long Haul’s 3 mile loop in Ballantyne Country Club “East”, that would have been too long on this day.  Perhaps another time.
• 2nd timer Gunny chuckled when YHC asked if he was an “experienced” runner.  YHC really meant his fitness level and mean-mean stride.  Dude was flying today at the front.
• Soft Pretzel, Long Haul, Dasher (Swift FNG), and Brisket gave chase as best they could.  They kept Gunny in their sights, reeled him in at times, and let it all go on the 30sec sections.  Dasher, EH’d to Swift by YHC, thought this was an “Ab-free workout”.  Well, it usually is… dang Bagpipers having to run the same route back to the AO ruined that mirage.
• Mr. Bean, like a proper English gentleman, apologizes for repeatedly going back to the six.  However, I dare say Excellent leadership Mr. Bean!  One note, YHC doesn’t really like Arsenal (uniforms are too tight), but a different “red” team instead.  Much more a bandwagon Manchester United fan b/c of a 2.0 that is a goalkeeper (and loves De Gea) and ManU were the first “real” football team put on “regular” cable in the US years ago.
• Some others may join Stump Hugger on his 4mile Swift warm-up next week.  He might start at 0445, for per his words “didn’t get warmed up until 521 (80% done with workout)”.
• If a BRR team needs fill-ins, just look to this list of PAX today, however, many of them are already spoken for (sound off in the comments if you are a Free Agent for the BRR).  Each man showed excellent fitness, guts, and determination, and would be a great fit for any team.
• Abacus shows the determination each week due to having to run away from a job that has him deep in IRS tax code at the moment.  Strange Brew has the best stories ranging from running at -20C (that’s probably really warm anyway) to eating weird dishes on his foreign travel.  And Cheddar, relatively new, is coming back to Swift and DT each week to continually get stronger.

Announcements:

• To get notified of impromptu runs (pre-runs, weekend runs, races, different sites like trails), follow “@F3Run51“.  Tweet your excursions and also any other good running tips or advice you find.  This past weekend, there were PAX running from the Arboretum at 0600, PAX running on the trails at Anne Springs Close greenway at 0600, and even an afternoon 1330 gathering in Piper Glen.