FastTwitch through the rain drops

FastTwitch through the rain drops

5 PAX showed at 0515 at the Arbo ABC store despite the RADAR and Forecast for heavy rain during the workout this morning.  We took to the streets and hills of Raintree to see if we could build some running strength.

The THANG

• 1mi Easy down to Rounding Run & Rounding Run.
• Dynamic warm-up exercises using the street lights as a guide to head back towards Rising Meadow – High Knees, Butt kicks, A-Skip, B-Skip, and strides.
• Start rounds of :30, :30, :60 – run 30sec Hard (9/10 effort level), recover back to start. run 30sec Hard (9/10 effort level), recover back to start. run 60sec Hard (9/10 effort level), recover back to start.
• Round 1: “Regular” meaning running up the hill, recover down.
• Round 2: “Bounding” for first 2 intervals, Sister Mary Catherine’s IC x 10 then “Regular” for the 3rd.
• Round 3: mosey back up Rounding Run to the top of the hill near the golf crossing.  “Downhill” start for all 3 intervals with PAX adding the uphill portion of Rounding Run towards Raintree Ln for the 3rd interval. Regroup at Raintree Ln.
• Round 4: mosey across Raintree Ln to the bottom of Windbluff. 60sec Squat hold then 1st interval “Regular”. 2nd interval “Backwards Run”. 3rd interval “Backwards Run” halfway then finish “regular”.
• Round 5: Squats IC x10 then 1st interval “regular”, Side Lunge ICx10 then 2nd interval “regular”, 3rd interval “regular” up opposite direction of Windbluff
• Round 6: Squat Hold 60sec then 1st interval “regular”, 2nd interval “regular”, 3rd interval start backwards run then switch to regular about halfway.  Regroup at top near Raintree Ln.
• Mosey back to COT

Moleskin

• Writing Backblasts for running workouts isn’t a thing anymore, so I don’t do them.  That’s why they’re still required for Fast Twitch…
• It was great to return to this part of Rain Tree.  It’s been a while for YHC since either a Fast Twitch or Mountain Goat workout from SCMS.  The hills are steep and well protected from traffic.  While 30sec covers most of them, a 60sec interval will get you past the top of the steep parts – hence the need to introduce some other exercises to induce maximum muscle fatigue for longer intervals.
• The 60sec squat holds (the “Al Gore”, right?) were putting YHC at the limit. Such a simple exercise, but difficult if done with the femur parallel to the ground.  Making it hard to run on fatigued legs.
• Benny’s HC on Slack Preblast made sure there would be at least One PAX attending.  YHC had no excuses not to Q, so that made 2.  Seeing Purple Haze and Airwolf pull in to the lot made it solid, and having Retread squeeze in there meant for a lively chatter.  Hearing rain on your window at 4am kept many a PAX in the fart sack today.  But YHC has never been to a F3 running workout solo.  Prepare your body with the right clothes, prepare your mind by not giving yourself an excuse, and you’ll be glad you did the workout whether it’s raining, cold, or cold & raining.  In the end, the heavy rain held off, and the shoes stayed pretty dry if you avoided the big puddles.
• Intervals run at this effort (9 out of 10) need adequate recovery – either focus on the same distance as recovery or at a minimum make it more time than the interval.  Our recovery was often almost double the time (i.e. after the 30sec interval, the recovery was 40-60sec.).
• Intervals run at this effort are hard to do with bad form.  Doing them on hills require more focus to not overstride going up or down the hill, so aim to keep a normal high cadence of 170 to 180 steps per minute, upright posture leaning forward from the hips, and proper arm movement.  If you can run fast and in control, you can learn to run more efficiently at slower speeds that are still race efforts.

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