Author Archive Bratwurst

Run at R-pace, Rest, Repeat

11 PAX from SoB land and surrounding country took to the ROWDY ROADS of Ballantyne Corporate Park for some RUNNING REPEATS.  Here’s how it went down.

The THANG:

• 0500 – warm-up with 5 PAX for 1.3 mile.  Make that 6 total as Gumbo just misses catching up to the group (not a surprise that he was there for the pre-RUN, but it was a SURPRISE that he was also a tad late.  We’ll chalk THIS one up to Daylight Saving Time, but we’ll have to find a new excuse if this becomes a REGULAR occurrence).
• 0515 – continue warm-up with the REST of the 11 PAX.  OneNiner or someone commented that it was at pretty “spirited” pace, but pretty sure he meant to say “RAPID”.
• 0530 – start our ROUNDS of 400m at REPETITION-pace, (a.k.a. 1 mile race goal pace), REST for 1 minute, continue until 0605.  Try for 10-12 x 400m total.  Make sure you start each 400m with a partner, so a few seconds of extra REST is fine.  Don’t need to be exact on the 1 minute rest.
• 0600 – All of the PAX complete between 10 & 12 ROUNDS.  Head back to COT the long way via Ballantyne Commons.

MOLESKIN:

• Amazing that all of the PAX completed 12x400m at their goal 1 mile pace.  Probably a similar effort to a hard 5K on a Tuesday morning.  This coming after many of the PAX did either the Balrog (HoneyBee, Gumbo, Bunker, Bratwurst-FIFO), or the Shamrock 4-miler race + Balrog (StrangeBrew) over the weekend.  Though some sore shoulders and upper body were talked about on the warm-up, it was the lower half that took the brunt of this one.  Some jelly legs for sure.
• Two directions on this course – Odd intervals were slightly downhill starting across the bridge.  Even intervals were a reverse of the same and starting on a slight uphill.  For YHC, most of the EVEN/uphill intervals were faster.  Either it’s the starting on the hill effect that makes you power up it and start more quickly, the effect of the bridge lights that put you in the spotlight and hold on through the end, or the feeling of the slight downhill of the even intervals that makes you hold up a tad.  Weird.
• Everyone seemed to have a good group today and pushed themselves to make sure of that.  Frasier and Honeybee led the PAX toward making sure that they kept the 1minute rest in effect and never looked back.  OneNiner, Gumbo, General (either a Swift FNG or Kotters), Copay, and Bunker were a solid group and BountyHunter was admirably cutting his rest short to stay with them.  StrangeBrew and a hacking WildTurkey (#allergies #notbubbleboy) powered through all of the intervals together.  WildTurkey even regaled us with stories of the first F3 days when the BallatyneHotel hill up to 521 seemed like Everest.  Now look at this guy – 6 miles is simple stuff now.
• As YHC (Palmetto 200 12-man team #taper) dropped off the rigorous pace set by Frasier (Palmetto 200 Ultra runner #notaper) and HoneyBee (who Frasier says will be “under that” for his 1mile PR), YHC latched onto BountyHunter and we turned out every 400m well under but realistic what BH “think I can do if I push it” for a 1mile race.  Another PR in the future for him.
• One of the most asked questions of the morning was, “so when is this elusive 1mi time trial”?  So, YHC will nail down a date in April.  Must first check Haggis’s race & “travel to the motherland” schedule (so he can beat HoneyBee), FastTwitch’s plans (nevermind, they barely need 24hours notice #notaplannedworkout), and the status of Community House Middle School track.  Once those are nailed down, we’ll set a date.  As of now, it’s looking like possible dates are:
  • 4/5 – 3 weeks away
  • 4/12 – 4 weeks away
  • 4/19 – 5 weeks away and 2 year Anniversary of Swift
  • Any opinions?

Mixing to Chunder on the Ring

10 PAX ventured out into the Ballantyne Corporate Park to satisfy the weekly #needforspeed at Swift on Tuesday.  Little did we know that an 11th was lurking in the shadows.

The THANG:

• 0500 – about 5 PAX hit the park for early warm-ups.
• 0515 – the rest of the crew gathered and left for the main event.  Warm-up on a familiar Bagpipe / Stonehenge route by Loch Ness, around Lance the long way, split TIAA and BofA, feed the fish at the kiddy pond, and pop out from the narrow sidewalk at the Bull Ring. 1mile in the books.
• Warm-up drills and strides
• 2x1000m at Threshold Pace, 1min Rest after each – what’s Threshold Pace? READ THE PREBLAST
• 4x200m at Repetition Pace (a.k.a. 1 mile race pace), 200m jog recovery after each with some regrouping to pick up all of the PAX
• 2x1000m at Threshold Pace, 1min Rest after each
• 3 to 4x200m at Repetition Pace, 200m recovery after each.  The last 200m was with the group headed back towards home along Brixham Hill Ave.
• Recover back to get home at 0514.  Some PAX took it upon themselves to run extra credit to get to a magic 8.0miles.  #notabaddayswork

Moleskin:

• New workout this time that will probably be a keeper. Good to mix up the relatively long (though could be made slightly longer by going for 1600m on the T-pace interval on 1min Rest) and the shortish 200m with 1mile race pace that we’re targeting.  Almost backing off a little from last week, so it was easy to push the Threshold pace intervals a little too hard.  These Middle-distance guys may have it too easy training for 1600m race if they never run an interval over 1000m.  We’ll have to change that…
• Or at least we know that the “split-ring” from starting at the putting green, running towards Brixham Hill to the ring, around the full Bull Ring, and then back down to the putting green is a near perfect 1000m.  No cones, no GPS watch necessary.  That also means the stretch from the putting green to the ring is a 100m Drag Strip.  Can’t wait to see that featured in some sort of contest.
• Though not next week, that will be 400m intervals at R-pace on 1minute rest.  Going to be fun to see who is the most consistent and doesn’t start off too fast.
• This week, the pack of OneNiner, Bunker, Gumbo, and CableGuy was quite impressive.  Never trailing each other by more than a few yards, and CableGuy had definitely come a long way to hanging with those guys.  Of course, OneNiner is going to show off the speed on the 200s, but it was Bunker that was most surprising pushing it to the limit on the short stuff.
• WingMan is sneaky and climbing up the ranks on several of his own Strava segments.  Not a bad day putting in some 2nd fastest PRs and best estimated efforts.
• WildTurkey is stealthy and staying off of the Strava stuff for now.  No one needs to see his training, or they may start asking for urine samples.  Big gains and continually grinding out there.
• It may take a while for him to get comfortable, working out the kinks, but once StumpHugger gets going, he is showing us that his mile time is dropping fast.  Can’t wait to see what he can do in April, but of course we’ll have to warm up for 45 minutes to make sure he’s ready…and not wearing his chuck taylors.
• Haggis drug HoneyBee and YHC around the ring today.  There is still no “backoff” in this PAX, and telling him such only makes him raise the middle finger (figuratively of course) a little higher.  Most notably was the 3rd 1000m when Haggis still thought we were on mile pace, YHC was trying to lamaze breathe and got so flummoxed that chunder almost spilled (dry chunders certainly a few times), but HoneyBee still stayed right in Haggis’s shadow.  These boys are supposed to be Distance runners.  Where is this speed coming from?  #askSharapova
• The 11th PAX was RockThrill.  Confused by the warm-up that snaked through the BCP, he never found us on the BullRing.  However, since he ran at least 0.25mi with the PAX back to the lot, he’s on the roll call for today. #notahounddog

Until next time,

Bratwurst

Phase III – Step 1 – Distance Goes Down, Speed Goes Up

19 PAX from the Sons-of-Ballantyne and F3nation struck out from the Vine Restaurant at the Ballantyne AO for the weekly speedfest know as Swift.

The THANG:

• Who read the PREBLAST?  We stuck to pretty closely, and this is what we did –
• 0500 – 3 groups of early runners – 5 in one lead pack, 4 in a chase pack, and 1 going solo doing his own thing laying out some cones every 100m along Rushmore Dr.
• 0515 – 18 PAX (surely these aren’t all early for Bagpipe?) did follow YHC out to the warm-up towards Rushmore Dr.  Slight detour from the normal route as YHC distracted StumpHugger with mumblechatter to get him to run in the front of the group and set the 8:30/mi pace.
• Normal dynamic warm-up focusing on the exercise (toes, heels, high knees, butt kicks, B-skip, and strides), and then accelerating through the end of the 100m section.
• 600m at 1-mile race pace (or over / slower 3 sec for the interval – read the PREBLAST for details); 600m recovery
• 600m at 1-mile race pace (or over / slower 3 sec for the interval – read the PREBLAST); 600m recovery
• 400m at 1-mile race pace, 400m recovery
• 400m at 1-mile race pace, 400m recovery
• time check cuts off 1 more of the planned 400m
• 300m at 1-mile race pace (or under/faster 1 sec for the interval – read the PREBLAST for details), 300m recovery
• 300m at 1-mile race pace (or under/faster 1 sec for the interval), 300m recovery
• time check cuts off 2 more of the planned 300m
• 200m at 800m race pace a.k.a. “F-pace” or “Fast” pace (or about 4 seconds faster per 200m than the 1 mile pace, 200m recovery OYO then keep doing 200m until clock hits 0610.  Most PAX got in 3, some 4, and Frasier may have gotten in 5.

The Moleskin:

• Phase 3 of 4 of any Jack Daniels training program is the most Strenuous.  With a 1 mile time trial likely to happen during April, we’ll be spending a few weeks on Phase 3 to build a little speed.
• The workout today was geared toward getting through some tough 1 mile running as a little bit of a race simulation.  Start off making sure you are slightly below pace (we all know the worst thing to do in any race is to start too fast), get on pace, and then get below pace.  The final 200m are what the end of any short distance race will feel like, even if you aren’t really running that fast.  The hard part with any of these workouts is of course to stay healthy and run only as fast as you need to.  WIth such a huge group, it was easy for 18 of the PAX to have someone to chase, and the singular leader still heard all of the steps behind him.  While we didn’t finish the planned full workout (probably about 1000m short), no one was slacking off today.
• Notable efforts from the PAX we don’t get too often at Swift.  We only get Frasier on split-custody weeks, so we’ll count him as half a regular, and he looked smooth while leading most of the intervals (at least the ones where PAX held their speed in check and didn’t “get a wild hair” or is it “wild hare“, and also the ones where he didn’t have his hands down his shorts because his wrists were cold).
• Some of those wild hares noted included:
  • Copay – who Mighty Mite doesn’t want to see any part of in the next 100m at the SoB Olympics…let’s just say that his barely touching the ground was accurate when we did the first 200, but that he did pay for it on the subsequent rounds.
  • BodyBag and GrapeJuice – fellow soccer-armed freaks who come out only when the intervals are less than 2 minutes… though BodyBag was heard pondering the Kiawah Half-Marathon – it’s not far from Charlotte, just near Heaven.
• Regular Swift PAX chasing included a sprite Haggis, who only speeds up when HoneyBee tells him they are “under” pace and need to moderate. Honeybee was like a grandfather clock calling out the 100m coned interval splits until at one point he just says “whatever” – either he knew Haggis didn’t care anymore or he couldn’t bring his wrist up and legibly read it.
• A big pack with JRR Tolkien and OneNiner leading towards the beginning, with Bunker, Tuck, and Long Haul not far behind, and then joined up by Gumbo, who only seemed to get stronger as the morning went on.
• StrangeBrew showed up to the AO in a white sleeveless shirt with PAX kidding him he was going Metro (as they were in their dark long sleeves, hats, and gloves), but Brew knew what kind of effort he had in store.  Burn up the track along with MT, and the climate would take care of itself.

Announcements:

• Kiawah Marathon 2016 – follow link for a PreBlast to the F3 Half-marathon / Marathon event in 2016.  Already 75 PAX and friends signed up.  If you previously signed up on Bratwurst’s SignUpGenius link, your info will be transferred to this Google sign-up.  Basic info – $55 for the Kiawah 13.1 or 26.2 with the group discount.  Will be one of those best / worst times of your life when you get to race with PAX, bring the M and 2.0s along (or just hang with the guys), and hang out on the SC luxury coast (this ain’t no Myrtle).
• TimeKeeper 3rd F – starting a new video series.  No reading required, just watch a 15min video clip prior to each week and then discuss at Tuesdays 0630 at Einsteins.

Week of Murderhorn

11 PAX shrugged off forecasts of turbulent winds, driving rain, flooding, and the PREBLAST to post at Ballantyne’s weekly SPEED workout known as F3-Swift.

The THANG:

• 0500 – several PAX left on time off on a pre-run.  Not new news here, but Bratwurst and Gumbo were late and began to follow at 0501.  All PAX back to the lot at 0512 or so.
• 0515 – pick up the rest of the PAX to head out to the planned route (check PREBLAST) for the workout of the day – 2/1/30.  At about 1 mile, do some dynamic stretching and drills along the route.  Then, start:
  • run 2 minutes hard, 1 minute recovery to regroup to the six, 1 minute hard, 30 seconds regroup to the six, 30 seconds hard, 30 seconds recovery.
  • continue to finish 5 rounds along the route.
• Timecheck at 0600 shows we have time for a long 2nd F run home.  Head home the long way past Premier to Ballantyne Corporate and Brixham Hill.  Along the way, pass the Bagpipe crew near the bridge to high five, blow snot, motivate, denigrate, and other general acknowledgements.
• Regroup once to the six along the way before pulling back into the lot.

Moleskin:

• This Backblast has been sitting in the Drafts folder for almost a week now, and am just discovering it now in preparation to write the PreBlast for tomorrow.  In lieu of the PAX list and the workout, there will unfortunately be no recalling of the shenanigans of last week.  Come write a new Chapter in Swift lore tomorrow…

#PreBlast – On the Road again

At 0515 on Tuesday morning, PAX will leave the Vine Restaurant in Ballantyne for an Interval running workout known as #F3Swift.

The THANG:

• Leave at 0500 for some extra 2nd F running.
• Leave at 0515 for the main event.
• It’s been a while since we’ve ventured far from campus.  This week we’ll push to find some ground not covered by #F3Swift before.  Good idea to bring a headlamp if you have one.
• The route will be here = https://www.strava.com/routes/4195694.  **Note, this is a 5.7mi route that we need to finish in 60minutes – which is an average of 10:30/mi.  Do-able by all of the PAX that regularly attend F3 workouts.  Even so, #nomanleftbehind.
• The workout will be Fartlek style “2 / 1 / 30” workout.  Run at Interval pace (a.k.a. 2 mile race pace / “Hard” effort / find your specific recommendation at http://runsmartproject.com/calculator) with Intervals of:
  • 2 minutes I-pace; 1 minute recovery jog to rejoin the Six
  • 1 minute I-pace; 30 second recovery jog to rejoin the Six
  • 30 seconds I-pace; 30 second recovery
  • REPEATO on the route until call is made to recover back to home.  Expect at least 5 rounds.
• RETURN to the Vine by 0615**.