Round and round we go

Round and round we go

Flipper texted me last night with his latest terrible Tuesday plan: 33:00 warm up, 26:00 of intervals, and 33:00 cool down. Little did he know that I had a Get Out of Jail Free card – I was signed up to Q Fast Twitch this morning. Unfortunately, I couldn’t meet him in Ballantyne at 0445 to run for 92 minutes. I had foiled his plot!

Not so easily dissuaded, Flipper came up with a “brilliant” (his word) plan – he would meet me at my house at 0500, we would run to the Arboretum and take the FT crew through his heinous workout. Since I had planned to pre-run anyway and hadn’t drafted a weinke for my Q, I took the lazy smart way out and accepted this proposal.

Flipper and I rolled up to the launch point at about 0512 and found Benny and Purple Haze waiting. I figured we’d have a light crowd since most pax think of me as more of a kettlebell-wielding knuckle dragger than a runner. Suddenly, 7 more cars pulled in and pax started circling up. There was some mumblechatter/encouragement from Joker and Purple Haze as Prohibition’s loosened up his creamy white thighs with his Stick (you’re welcome for that mental image), then 0515 struck and we headed out.

Run out 51 to Strawberry, turn left, then left on Woodfox, right on Rounding Run. Run through the intersection with Rounding Run, at which point Prohibition said “this is where we usually circle up.” Not today, pal! Keep running all the way around the loop and back to the intersection, THEN we stop.

Instructions: run around Rounding Run for 2:00 HARD, then recover back to the six for 2:20. We will do this a few times (6). The starting gun goes off and the pax take off. Flipper takes an early, substantial lead on the peloton, which consisted of YHC, Purple Haze, Enron, and Alf. We hit 2:00 on the way up that stupid hill on the far side. Wow, I hope I don’t have to run that again (spoiler alert: we did. 2 more times). Recover back to Benny, who disappears. We chase him for 2:20, then give up, turn around and run back up the hill for the next 2:00. On the next recovery, we grab Retread and then continue going clockwise around the loop and run into Benny, who is coming at us. Repeato for 4 more times. Flipper maintained his lead at the front of the pack for all of the intervals, but there was some jostling for position amongst the rest of us.

Circle back up at the intersection of Rounding Run and head back to the AO via Raintree Lane, Willow Point Road, and then cut through the giant Lego bricks to the Arboretum parking lot. Push it back to the start for an arrival at exactly 5:15. Approximate mileage of 6-7 miles.

Thanks to Flipper for taking us out in COT.

Announcements:

• If you can, please consider signing up for the blood drive on 2/19 at the Brace YMCA.
• Unsanctioned hops-based beverage mile run taking place on 3/19 at SCMS. Let Hoover know if you’re interested and make sure to bring your IPAs so you can compete in the Ductwork division.
• Please keep Bout Time and his family, particularly his 2.0 Jennings, in your prayers.

Moleskine:

• As the regulars can attest, I’m not a regular at Fast Twitch, so thank you to Benny for the invitation to lead this morning. It’s definitely intimidating to take the reins for an elite running workout like FT, but hopefully everyone got their money’s worth this morning.
• Thanks to Flipper for the assistance with the weinke. I was going to do an out and back route, but the intervals were much more interesting and kept the group together.
• Some observations from this morning’s shenanigans:

1. Flipper is in peak form and was flying.
2. At about interval 4, Joker stopped sandbagging and surged to second place, breathing down Flipper’s neck.
3. Alf, Enron, and Purple Haze were also in the lead pack and pushing hard while maintaining a nice conversation.
4. Prohibition and Ductwork were right behind them and put in a strong effort on the hills. Prohibition brought his mumblechatter game, but the intervals shut him up for a bit.
5. Hoover has made amazing progress over the past couple of years and is killing it on the runs. He’s already clocking 25+ mile weeks with BRR 7 months away. #captain
6. It was great to see Retread, who I hadn’t seen since he quit coming to my kettlebell workouts. #tear Hopefully I can get him back out there when it warms up a bit.
7. Benny, though hampered with injuries, continues to put in the work and will be killing it again once he’s 100%. Keep it up!