Author Archive Bratwurst

Watches did not Hack

At Swift today, we had a PreBlast (see below) that relied on precise timing and synchronization.  Otherwise it had the potential to turn into #FreeRange Free Play.  Without a proper Watch Hack for the 15 (or so) PAX , that’s pretty much what happened.

PreBlast:

.@F3Sob #F3Swift #PreBlast Timed Convergence on the Brixham Green https://t.co/FtmQpL6xiX

— Bratwurst (@bratwurst_f3) September 26, 2016

The THANG:

• 0500 – Prerun – required for those getting in 7 or more intervals today.  Seemed like light attendance, but the serious runners were there – FireHazard (bragging on Clemson dominating GT), Pebbles (with his best Gumbo impression speeding in from the rear), Hannibal (questioning what the 4&@$ 2ndF pace?, T-Pace, XL, HD, and 4H), Baracus (still wiping the sleep from his eyes), Mario, TigerRag, Frasier, and apparently HoneyBee was somewhere in the darkness (4:45 start WHAT?!).
• 0515 – Quick disclaimer and let’s mosey.
• 0519 – Just in case you didn’t know it, we’re starting an interval in a few seconds.  If you didn’t read the PreBlast, then freeplay for about 14 more minutes until many of us arrive back here at this spot.
• 5:20:07 – Mario heads off on his own because he can’t find the Pause button on his watch.
• 5:20:27 – Damascus questions WHY? and YHC hands him off to the capable care of Strange Brew.
• 5:20:47 – YHC finally gets the PAX going, forgets to start the watch, stops it, starts it, and then relies on feel for what a 6 minute interval should be.
• 5:24:57 – HoneyBee may have been spotted for the first time.  Somehow YHC thought HB was late, but he was apparently simulrunning with Gumbo 6 hours ahead of time.
• 5:26ish – 1st 6minute interval over.  1minute rest.
• 5:27ish – start 2nd 6minute interval in the reverse direction.  At the end of this interval, all PAX should have arrived back at the 5:20:07 spot.  Somewhere along the way perhaps Haggis jumps in to lay down a mile PR.
• 5:34:00 – only a few PAX including Strange Brew, Damascus, and Frasier are where they should be ready to start Interval #3 in the CCW direction.  Mario is still running somewhere out there, StumpHugger was off in the bushes, Baracus and Hannibal were still listening to the tones of Baracus’s watch.  YHC takes out the Weinke, wads it up, and discards it with his sweaty shirt.  It’s crumbled remains can be found below.
• Somewhere after the 4th Interval it was explained that if doing 5 intervals (you started on #3), run through this one.  If doing 7 intervals, you get to take this one off.  I think everyone but Mario (because he isn’t Super Mario and can’t stop time his watch yet) and Strange Brew (because he probably did the right thing) slowed to a mosey for at least 7 minutes.
• 5:55 ish – ready to start last push of intervals 6/7/8, perhaps all of the PAX are standing around, ready to cut out whatever they don’t want to do and take the Q’s suggestion too seriously to “leave one out there” and “save it for another day” by only doing 2 more intervals.
• 6:15 ish – only Frasier, Strange Brew, and YHC are left standing in the darkness after the last interval.  Everyone else had trickled back to COT at the Vine.
• 6:20 – only Frasier takes up YHC on another mile of easy running.  Cooldown.
• 8:05 ish – writing this Backblast in record time (all day work project starts in a few minutes), YHC realized that the “Timed Convergence” was perhaps too precise a machine to tackle on a Swift day.  Unless Strange Brew shows us the proper way to “Hack a Watch”.

Announcements:

• Planning a 12-13 mile Marathon Pace run on Saturday morning.  If you can’t make it, there will likely be some PAX to do it on Sunday morning.  Stay tuned to Twitter (SOB and Area51) and #Kiawah SOB Slack channel for details.

SYITG,

Bratwurst

Different Paths with same Goal

23 PAX took it upon themselves to get better at running by attending #F3Swift on Tuesday.  This is a little bit of how they did it.

PreBlast:

.@F3Sob #F3Swift #PreBlast is divergent. Read it and be aware. https://t.co/rjCJ95MBKs

— Bratwurst (@bratwurst_f3) September 19, 2016

A little wrinkle this week as it started the 12 week countdown to the Kiawah Half-Marathon and Marathon that several PAX are training for.  We could combine for one workout, but in the interest of specialization and giving some options, we split into Swift HD (High Definition, not half distance) and Swift XL.  Same concepts of warm-up, intervals, and cooldown, but different workouts.

The THANG:

• 0500 – Prerun and optional drills while waiting for the 0515 PAX to get out of their cars
• 0514 – YHC explains that if you didn’t read the PreBlast (Haggis/Tootie), then you will have exactly 6 minutes to decide if you want to run at least 7 miles over the next 60 minutes or run 400s around the Bull Ring. Let’s mosey!
• 0515 – Swift HD
  • Led by StrangeBrew, the PAX warm-up and head to the Bull Ring for some drills.
  • Intervals of 400m at Repetition Pace (1 mile race pace), 400m jog recovery
  • Reports indicate that Abacus and Cable Guy were pushing Wingman.  One Niner and Mario were again doing some sort of burpee madness as part of their recovery.  StumpHugger didn’t sit on the curb and call Uber despite his PreBlast warnings – he stayed strong and ran hard.  Tootie almost got tricked into the XL workout, but Abacus reeled him in at the last second.  JRR Tolkien had his Dead or Alive playing on his iPOD and could be seen running around and around and around.
  • Mosey back to the Vine
• 0515 – Swift XL
  • Led by Bratwurst, we headed out on a route via Ballantyne Corp Pl over the 521 bridge, past Premier, Left on Ballantyne Commons, Left on Elm, Left on Endhaven, Left on North Community House, Right on Ballantyne Commons, Right on BCP, Left on Brixham, stop at the Vine.  About a 7 mile loop.
  • Along the way, it was decided (by the plan, not by YHC), to break up the 7 miles into 12 minute Threshold Pace intervals (just under 2mi for most) with a 2minute rest / recovery to regroup the six.  Total of 4x12minutes.
  • Most PAX did start their warm-up at the proper 0500 start time for this kind of effort.  Just Haggis who didn’t get the memo and instead of starting the first interval decided to prance on his toes and heels (should have gotten those out of the way on the pre-run!).
  • Fahvra and Thin Mint looked effortless in the streetlights of Ballantyne.  No one knows what happened on Endhaven because everyone disappeared for a while in the total darkness.  The mostly full moon was no help there. Fahvra and TM also decided that heading straight back to the AO on the final interval was not the best option and instead found a way to fit in a full closing 2mile interval.
  • Wild Turkey thought it would be a great idea to drag along a FNG to the hardest 1 hour workout (YHC’s personal opinion, may be shared by others) that Swift has accomplished in the 2 years running of Swift.  The weather was not cool, the course was amongst the flattest loop in Ballantyne but still not flat with several rollers, and 12 minutes is a pretty long time.  It was Brutal, but the efforts will pay off.
  • Was glad to see that Nard Dog, General, LongHaul, and TigerRag took the bait for XL this morning.  Not sure that they are training for a marathon, but they’re more than well on their way to being ready after making it through this workout.
  • Rock Thrill was solid, and he’s been putting in the work a lot around town.  Always keeping the stride forward and pushing through the pain.
  • There were of course the usual Kiawah-training suspects with HoneyBee, Bunker, Haggis (who did catch up eventually), and even Gumbo (who gets virtual credit for doing this workout thousands of miles away on his own).  Seeing the work these guys are putting in recently is going to lead to some huge PRs in December.
• Next week on the Schedule for Swift XL is 1 mile repeats.  Swift HD has a Tempo Run, but 1 mile repeats are a great substitute, so we’ll likely be a combined Swift next week at the Brixham Green for 6minute Threshold Pace, 1 minute rest.  Repeat, repeat, repeat, ….
• Come early at 0500 to get in extra warm-up.  The only difference next week is that XL will only do 5 minutes of warm-up at 0515 and then start right into the 6min repeats.  HD will do more of the warm-up and some drills before jumping in the fun!  Pay attention to the PreBlast!

SYITG,

Bratwurst

Run right through the recovery

18 men left the Vine on Tuesday morning with one thing on the mind, “Recovery is for later.”

PreBlast AND the THANG (because we followed it to the T, for once, well, we did 6 intervals and 2 optional):

.@f3sob #F3Swift #PreBlast Hitting the road running again… https://t.co/R2ZnP0OVnt #ontoKiawah

— Bratwurst (@bratwurst_f3) September 12, 2016

The Recap:

.@F3Sob 18 PAX got in a free Speed workout at #F3Swift #sobCounts – nine of them after racing this weekend, many doing @KIGRmarathon

— Bratwurst (@bratwurst_f3) September 13, 2016

The Moleskin:

• 7 of the PAX at this workout (Gumbo, HoneyBee, Tootie, ThinMint, FireHazard, Haggis, Bratwurst) went racing in the hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains this weekend somewhere between Grayson Highlands, VA, and Asheville, NC.  Abacus was kind to drive some of the PAX around.  If you want a blow by blow recap of the race, here’s a good recap:
  • Race winners: http://www.charlotterunningclub.com/Latest-News/4248545 (and the first F3 team using the criteria that at least one of the runners, in this case “Material Girl”, attends F3 workouts).
  • First F3 Ultra team: http://f3nation.com/2016/09/13/dropping-the-mfmic-on-the-brr/
  • Columbia Teams: http://f3nation.com/2016/09/15/brr-2016-upstarts-vs-old-pros/ 
  • F3 RunForHolland: http://f3nation.com/2016/09/12/brr-team-f3-runforholland-com/
• 2 of the PAX at this workout (Mario, JRR Tolkien) took on some Spartan racing in Fort Bragg over the weekend.  Apparently, they did pretty well, but shame there isn’t photographic evidence available at my fingertips right now.
• For the PAX training for long-distance endurance in the Kiawah Half or Full Marathon, this workout marked the end of the Interval Pace (2mile race pace) phase.  To partially save the legs, we dialed back the planned workout from two weeks ago (1600, 1200, 1000) and instead went for a time-based Interval of 3minutes at Interval pace with a 2minute recovery jog.
• While it was mostly flat on North Community House, there are some intervals that were definitely in a uphill direction.  They were pretty hard just given the breathing at VO2Max that this Interval speed requires.
• If Fahvra ever gets a watch, he won’t have to sandbag on the beginning intervals with a recovering ThinMint and then leave the PAX behind on the latter half as he finds the next gear.
• Somehow Haggis snuck into the BRR over the weekend and then continued to push at Swift to give his old foe HoneyBee a run for his money, at least for a while.  Bunker stayed close on their heels.
• Mario and OneNiner (and perhaps someothers) thought 3min intervals were too short, or the recovery was too long, and could be spotted doing Burpees after each interval.  Not sure they understand that Swift is a workout where you NEVER put your hands on the ground (unless it’s to catch yourself from falling).  Abacus and CableGuy know this, and YHC is pretty sure there was no way they were taking part in that madness. #runningisplenty
• Tootie may be reversing the trend with Frehley’s Comet of making more Swift workouts AFTER the BRR, but both were seen working hard even though we went far away from home.
• The big main pack of Gumbo, Fire Hazard, OneNiner, Long Haul, JRR Tolkien (if he was actually doing the same workout, hard to tell these days), and Mario — there may have been others including UnFair and Ringer but Strava is empty and YHC’s memory is lacking — got in the requisite 6 intervals.  Some even pushed to get in the 2 extra on the way back.  Workouts keep getting longer with the Kiawah half and marathon looming.  Many options will be given to go longer each week.
• Next Tuesday will likely lead to a split Swift.  Some will be going slower speeds to go longer intervals and some will go faster speeds to go shorter.  Pay attention to details in the PreBlast.

#PreBlast – Hit the road running again…

Just a few short days after a number of PAX hit the mountains of the Blue Ridge Relay, we’ll be back at it on Tuesday morning in Ballantyne for the weekly running interval workout known at #F3Swift.  Even if it is just to stretch the legs again, we’ll be running middle distance intervals, so come join us and stay in shape for Fall season.

The THANG:

• 0500 – Early bird warm-up with Easy running.  Start from the Vine Restaurant parking lot in Ballantyne.
• 0515 – All PAX leave the Vine lot and head over to North Community House near the Met Life building.  Easy running on the way, then some extended drills to get all your BRR and Spartan body refreshed.
• 0535 – 5 rounds of the following: 3min at Interval pace, 2min jog recovery.  Interval pace is a VO2Max “Hard” interval run at a 2mile race pace – calculate your’s here based on a recent race time – http://runsmartproject.com/calculator.
• 0605 – Head back to the Vine for COT.  Optional to get in 2 more rounds on the way back by taking the “long” route.
• 0615 – COT and then optional extra cooldown
• 0630 – Optional 3rd F at the Einstein Bagels.

SYITG,

Bratwurst

Green (Brixham) with SPEED

22 men gathered on the GREEN fields of Ballantyne on Tuesday morning for a weekly dose of some SPEED.  Here’s what went down.

PreBlast: http://f3nation.com/2016/08/29/preblast-green-with-speed/

The THANG:

• 0500 – Several PAX for the optional pre-run launch from the Vine while YHC visited the Brixham Green to lay down some cones.
• 0515 – Gather rest of the PAX from the Vine for more warm-up.  Mosey toward the Brixham Green loop (https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/13457389) and drop a bottle if you want, then continue on the loop to get our bearings for the intervals to come.  After about 10min of running and 5min of warm-up drills (with the B-skip thrown in in honor of Mario, who was DR), make sure the PAX know the intervals.  Stop when the clock ticks 0610 and head back to COT.
  • 1600m (2 laps of the Green) with 5min recovery – recovery is about 1 min less than the interval run, or about half the distance.  Make sure you get in adequate recovery, and suggestions are to catch up or drop back with another PAX on recovery to at least not be on your own the WHOLE morning.  Seemed to work out decent.
  • 1200m with 4min recovery
  • 1000m with 3min recovery
  • 800 with 2min recovery
  • 400m with 1min recovery
  • start going back up with 800m, 1000m, 1200m, 1600m
• 0615 – Everyone back in the lot before Bagpipe, but not soon enough to have to look busy as if we were standing around for a while.

Moleskin:

• A lot of PAX came out for this one.  Even a FNG to F3 came to Swift, which doesn’t normally happen, but of course we welcome any guy that wants to get his run on to come to Swift.  Challenging for us all.  #IronSharpensIron
• Workout called for mix of 1600, 1200, and 1000, but YHC modified it to put it in the stepdown intervals to give some variety and shorter intervals to look forward to.  If we had to go back up all the way, would have been very difficult.  Typically, max interval distance (the running part at I-pace) should be 8K (about 5mi) OR 6% of your weekly mileage (and whichever is less).  The max intervals for distance of 8K in that fashion would have been 1600 down to 400 and then back up to 1200.  Fortunately, we didn’t have enough time!  The longest anyone got was 5.8K of intervals by making it back up to 800m, so at 5.8K total I-pace, that meets the 6% mark for a 60 mile week! Probably enough for everyone because most aren’t doing 60 mile weeks, YET…
• Haggis – back after a hiatus, good to see this PAX in recovery mode.
• Rock Thrill – Great to have this brother among us this morning.  Not often do we get his wisdom and steady attitude.
• Nard Dog – starting to really lay down the miles these days.  Comes to work every week and the speed progress is showing.  Is he picked up on a BRR (wait, YHC should know the answer to that one, yes he is – SOBs)  or Ragnar team yet?  Look out!
• FNG Hunka Bunkas, brought by Bunker, came out after only 1 week living in Charlotte.  Either he works for Bunker (refer to Flint / MT relationship), or Bunker has some dirt on him, because that has to be the fastest EH ever.
• Long Haul – got to be the best close on a 1000m interval of the morning.  Came shooting around the corner walking down the other PAX in his group.  Strong work!
• Transporter – evidently this PAX (site FNG?) knows Transportation, for he was blistering up the track today.  Strong push on the 400, almost put YHC down a lap.
• Citgo – only gets faster as the intervals roll on.  Even though he said he would be the “slow” man on a CRC BRR team, would be an absolute steal on any relay team.  Great to have around and help lead the PAX.  However, you might ask him what he’s doing in the bushes all of the time.  Seems at least once each morning he comes sprinting from some landscaping area right before we start the next interval.  Secret stash?

Announcements:

• Church on the Street – assist serving breakfast to some of the homeless community of Charlotte.  Sunday mornings.  Sign-up link: https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/9040b44a5ab23a57-church2 .  Contact @F3Strawberry for details.
• 3rdF-Timekeeper – Resumes from Summer break next Tuesday.  0630 at Einstein bagels.  Picking back up with book “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan.  Next book will be a leadership themed book called “Legacy” by James Kerr.  Intro video here: https://youtu.be/KKvzExoH2Gg
• Next Week at Swift – BRR Taper – We’ll be keeping up the Intensity, but reducing the Duration to keep the legs sharp.  Familiar 1200m Threshold Pace intervals with 2min rest between each interval.