Make it Hard, they’ll Be Back

Make it Hard, they’ll Be Back

18 PAX gathered at Swift on an summer-ending that had the hint of Fall in the air.  At least there were a few more shirts than previous weeks.

The THANG:

• a handful of prerunners (Picasso, Bratwurst, Mario, Woodson, OneNiner, Atlas, missing one?) at 0500 or earlier (Atlas) got in the 1.3mi loop before the rest of the crowd showed up at 0515.
• 0514 – PAX were briefed of where to meet at 0525 at the MetLife back porch.  Two paths to get there – about a mile to do so.
• 0526 – got everyone squared away and started the dynamic warm-up of toes, heels, high knees, and butt kicks ending at the intersection with N. Community House and the parking road.
• 0527 – briefing on road / bike lane / sidewalk, when to loop, watch for cars, and what the intervals were.  Impressive response on “how much recovery” and what the intervals were going to be.  Someone paid attention to the Preblast.  Intervals were 5minutes, 4, 4, 3, 3 at 2 mile race pace, a.k.a. VO2Max, or a “Hard” effort.  Recovery was 1 minute less than the interval.
• At some point Das Boot and another PAX showed up.
• 0604 – ended the 3rd 3minute interval as an out and back and then gave everyone instructions to head back to the Vine.
• 0615 – COT with Bagpipe
• 0620 – ABP sent out for PaperJam
• 0624 – Das Boot ventures out and finds PaperJam heading back to the Vine lot.

Moleskin:

• Ragnar for some PAX is coming up this weekend, but no special instructions given by the Q (not Ragnaring it…), so it was up to your own to figure out how to taper.  Heard several PAX say “this is my last day running this week”, so perhaps a few got the idea.
• With the venue and the longer recoveries, chance to mix more with different PAX and stay close together.  Definitely one of the easiest formats we use at Swift to do this with.  Long and Hard sections followed by walking / jogging recovery and 2nd F makes for a complete morning.  Apparently though, PaperJam was so focused on getting his miles in that he went solo most of the workout.  After telling us he figured out we weren’t coming back for him, he made it back to the Vine.
• Several runners on the same streets this morning.  None more awkward than the poor single woman runner that passed us as we were about to start interval #1.  It was either Frasier’s wave or Mario’s stare that had HER staring at the ground and pretending 18 guys weren’t watching her. At least the next couple of female runners with shoe lights were friendly, though we passed them so many times, it did seem they were coming in for a better look.  Most of the times though, Mario was off stretching and they missed their opportunities.
• Thanks to the PAX for signing up to Q at Swift.  Thin Mint and Woodson (virgin Swift Q) are coming up over the next 2 weeks.  If the 4th week of Sprints / Forms has you scared off, don’t worry about it – DM me and we can work out something that would fit.  Otherwise, please sign up!  Link on the #run channel in F3SouthCharlotte Slack.
• My Strava run says that I ran with 13 others this morning.  I know Frasier will upload at some point (that makes 15 total) and move me down the leaderboard, but if you aren’t on Strava, you’re missing a valuable training tool.  And if you don’t know how to use your LAP button with time-based intervals, you’re missing out on the basics of training to know effort / pace over the “working” interval.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead this week!

SYITG,

Bratwurst