The Eric Liddell on Turbo

The Eric Liddell on Turbo

10 PAX at #F3Swift officially launched at 0515 on Tuesday morning for a Swift favorite workout with a new twist.  Some Swifters (and some clandestine Indian Land mud runners) found the late start time too slack, and instead started at 0500 for some easy running.

The THANG:

• 0500 – HoneyBee, Bratwurst, Bunker, OneNiner hit the road early.  Wait for it, wait for it, there’s Gumbo!  And he has a friend – Heisman.
• 0515 – 1mi warm-up to the inner Bull Ring at 2nd F pace
• Drills including walking on heels, toes, high knees, butt kicks, and a regular stride to loosen things up a bit
• Start the sets of the following on the Bull Ring:
  • 200m at F-pace (800m race pace – see below for more details) w/ 400m jog recovery
  • 200m at F-pace w/ 400m jog recovery
  • 400m at F-pace w/ at least 4 minutes jog to recover
  • Repeato for 3 times total
• Mosey back to the Vine for about 0.5mile

The Moleskin:

• The “Eric Liddell” workout is a Swift staple that typically starts off a new training block with rounds of 200, 200, and 400m at the 1 mile race pace.  Today was a maddening TURBO edition for the PAX where we picked up the speed and lengthened the recovery to compensate.  That’s why we only got in 3 rounds (but about 1.5miles running REALLY fast).  While there is a goal below for the F-pace, it tends to feel like it just borders on your 99% effort pace.  Not quite 100%, but knowing that you probably could not go much faster for that distance.
• Note: F-pace is your 800m Race Pace, or 4 seconds per 200m faster than your 1 Mile Goal Pace.  Some examples:
  • 1Mile Goal,     200m Goal Split,     200m F-pace split,     400m F-pace split
  • 0:05:00,     0:00:38,     0:00:34,     0:01:07
  • 0:05:30,     0:00:41,     0:00:37,     0:01:15
  • 0:06:00,     0:00:45,     0:00:41,     0:01:22
  • 0:06:30,     0:00:49,     0:00:45,     0:01:30
  • 0:07:00,     0:00:53,     0:00:48,     0:01:37
  • 0:07:30,     0:00:56,     0:00:52,     0:01:44
  • 0:08:00,     0:01:00,     0:00:56,     0:01:52
• Serious speed on display today with HoneyBee and Mario trading turns to lead the PAX through these intervals.  Noted that it was a “moderated” Mario that didn’t blow out any individual segment, and even kept moving forward on the recovery instead of the bent over grabbing knee position that many of the PAX had after the 400m intervals.  HoneyBee didn’t have to call out splits to Haggis this time, but the presence of Haggis was still felt as HoneyBee was literally propelled a few times at the start of the interval to get a jump on the rest of the field.  The false starts are starting to accumulate, so not sure what happens on the next false start.
• A big peloton today with Bunker, Tuck, Gumbo, Heisman (2nd time at Swift), and Fire Hazard.  Looks like the high speed and short distance definitely benefits Bunker, and there will be some personal records broken at the 1 mile challenge as that translates to longer intervals.  Tuck is back at Swift after running 50% of his annual miles in a 2 week span to prepare for and dominate with the Ultra squad for the Palmetto relay.  Gumbo battling a nagging injury that hopefully isn’t worse after today.  First time YHC has seen FireHazard run since he was limited to bike support on the Balrog – doesn’t seem like he’s lost too much.  Great to have Heisman from SC out today – hopefully the clandenstine Indian Land mud runners didn’t pull the bait and switch to get you there.
• Cheddar is returning to form after an absence at Swift.  This 2 week perfect attendance streak can’t be broken now!
• There was a Tootie sighting today!  Baby sleeping through the night, check.  Getting more sleep than normal, check.  Got a Blue Ridge Relay team commitment, check.  Need to start training, check!  Today was the day.  Great to have you back!

Announcements:

• April 19, 2016 – 2nd Anniversary of the Swift workout and the 3rd running of the 1 Mile Time Trial at Community House Middle School.
• Everyone knows something about Eric Liddell already if you saw Chariots of Fire.  But that was mostly just about the runner – the “flying Scotsman”.  When YHC was recently listening to the Relevant Podcast , there’s a new movie coming out about the later years of Eric Liddell and why he was memorialized in China.  It’s called “The Last Race“, and is probably the kind of movie that will make a showing at the Ballantyne Village Theater soon.  Click the links to learn more about it, and stay tuned for something we’ll definitely have to catch for a 2nd F event.