Phase III – Step 1 – Distance Goes Down, Speed Goes Up

Phase III – Step 1 – Distance Goes Down, Speed Goes Up

19 PAX from the Sons-of-Ballantyne and F3nation struck out from the Vine Restaurant at the Ballantyne AO for the weekly speedfest know as Swift.

The THANG:

• Who read the PREBLAST?  We stuck to pretty closely, and this is what we did –
• 0500 – 3 groups of early runners – 5 in one lead pack, 4 in a chase pack, and 1 going solo doing his own thing laying out some cones every 100m along Rushmore Dr.
• 0515 – 18 PAX (surely these aren’t all early for Bagpipe?) did follow YHC out to the warm-up towards Rushmore Dr.  Slight detour from the normal route as YHC distracted StumpHugger with mumblechatter to get him to run in the front of the group and set the 8:30/mi pace.
• Normal dynamic warm-up focusing on the exercise (toes, heels, high knees, butt kicks, B-skip, and strides), and then accelerating through the end of the 100m section.
• 600m at 1-mile race pace (or over / slower 3 sec for the interval – read the PREBLAST for details); 600m recovery
• 600m at 1-mile race pace (or over / slower 3 sec for the interval – read the PREBLAST); 600m recovery
• 400m at 1-mile race pace, 400m recovery
• 400m at 1-mile race pace, 400m recovery
• time check cuts off 1 more of the planned 400m
• 300m at 1-mile race pace (or under/faster 1 sec for the interval – read the PREBLAST for details), 300m recovery
• 300m at 1-mile race pace (or under/faster 1 sec for the interval), 300m recovery
• time check cuts off 2 more of the planned 300m
• 200m at 800m race pace a.k.a. “F-pace” or “Fast” pace (or about 4 seconds faster per 200m than the 1 mile pace, 200m recovery OYO then keep doing 200m until clock hits 0610.  Most PAX got in 3, some 4, and Frasier may have gotten in 5.

The Moleskin:

• Phase 3 of 4 of any Jack Daniels training program is the most Strenuous.  With a 1 mile time trial likely to happen during April, we’ll be spending a few weeks on Phase 3 to build a little speed.
• The workout today was geared toward getting through some tough 1 mile running as a little bit of a race simulation.  Start off making sure you are slightly below pace (we all know the worst thing to do in any race is to start too fast), get on pace, and then get below pace.  The final 200m are what the end of any short distance race will feel like, even if you aren’t really running that fast.  The hard part with any of these workouts is of course to stay healthy and run only as fast as you need to.  WIth such a huge group, it was easy for 18 of the PAX to have someone to chase, and the singular leader still heard all of the steps behind him.  While we didn’t finish the planned full workout (probably about 1000m short), no one was slacking off today.
• Notable efforts from the PAX we don’t get too often at Swift.  We only get Frasier on split-custody weeks, so we’ll count him as half a regular, and he looked smooth while leading most of the intervals (at least the ones where PAX held their speed in check and didn’t “get a wild hair” or is it “wild hare“, and also the ones where he didn’t have his hands down his shorts because his wrists were cold).
• Some of those wild hares noted included:
  • Copay – who Mighty Mite doesn’t want to see any part of in the next 100m at the SoB Olympics…let’s just say that his barely touching the ground was accurate when we did the first 200, but that he did pay for it on the subsequent rounds.
  • BodyBag and GrapeJuice – fellow soccer-armed freaks who come out only when the intervals are less than 2 minutes… though BodyBag was heard pondering the Kiawah Half-Marathon – it’s not far from Charlotte, just near Heaven.
• Regular Swift PAX chasing included a sprite Haggis, who only speeds up when HoneyBee tells him they are “under” pace and need to moderate. Honeybee was like a grandfather clock calling out the 100m coned interval splits until at one point he just says “whatever” – either he knew Haggis didn’t care anymore or he couldn’t bring his wrist up and legibly read it.
• A big pack with JRR Tolkien and OneNiner leading towards the beginning, with Bunker, Tuck, and Long Haul not far behind, and then joined up by Gumbo, who only seemed to get stronger as the morning went on.
• StrangeBrew showed up to the AO in a white sleeveless shirt with PAX kidding him he was going Metro (as they were in their dark long sleeves, hats, and gloves), but Brew knew what kind of effort he had in store.  Burn up the track along with MT, and the climate would take care of itself.

Announcements:

• Kiawah Marathon 2016 – follow link for a PreBlast to the F3 Half-marathon / Marathon event in 2016.  Already 75 PAX and friends signed up.  If you previously signed up on Bratwurst’s SignUpGenius link, your info will be transferred to this Google sign-up.  Basic info – $55 for the Kiawah 13.1 or 26.2 with the group discount.  Will be one of those best / worst times of your life when you get to race with PAX, bring the M and 2.0s along (or just hang with the guys), and hang out on the SC luxury coast (this ain’t no Myrtle).
• TimeKeeper 3rd F – starting a new video series.  No reading required, just watch a 15min video clip prior to each week and then discuss at Tuesdays 0630 at Einsteins.