Author Archive Bratwurst

#Preblast – Relive the 5minute wait ahead

Read the Backblast and check out the video from June 30th.  That’s what we’ll relive tomorrow at 0515 from the Vine Restaurant in Ballantyne.  That is all.  Oh, and meet at 0500 to get the blood flowing a little earlier.  Now, that is all.

Bull Ring of Fire

At 0515 on Tuesday, 12 PAX took to the Bull Ring at the Ballantyne Corporate Park for the weekly Speed workout known as Swift.

The THANG:

• 0500 saw Honeybee, Outback, Mr. Bean gather for some pre-running.  Bratwurst joined them mid-run after being duped into crossing a wide street and saying a very up close and personal Good Morning to a SadClown that he thought was Rock Thrill.  No EH for the SadClown this day, and Brat is fortunate the SadClown doesn’t like Pepper Spray on his Bratwurst.
• 0515 Mr. Bean and Outback peel off to get in more miles before Bagpipe.
• 0515 The PAX follow Bratwurst past the dark shadows of the 3 huge Bull statues and on to the Bull Ring for a 1mi warmup.  After 6 dynamic exercises (toes, heels, high knees, butt kicks, bounding, B-skip), the PAX assembled on to the Bull Ring to start the Speed Pyramid.
• 4x200m with 200m recovery; Regroup PAX
• 2×400 with 400m recovery; Regroup PAX
• 800m (or 3minutes) with 800m recovery; Regroup PAX
• 2×400 with 400m recovery; Regroup PAX
• 2 more Sprints (about 0:30 each) on way back to COT.

Moleskin:

• Cobains for the lack of a true Preblast posting.  At least YHC got something out there on Twitter.
• All intervals run at 1-mile Race Pace – http://runsmartproject.com/calculator. YHC clarified this again after the first 200m when most PAX turned in a 5:00/mi pace.  Adrenaline, “downhill”, the Haggis-effect, whatever it was, the goal is to run all the intervals at the same pace.  This might seem easy on the 200m, but gets pretty darn hard when trying to hold that for 1/2 mile after running 1 mile cumulatively at that pace.  In general, PAX did a good job of moderating after that to dial in what should be a very hard pace to hold for 1-3 minutes.
• YHC gave an option to the PAX to not run 800m, but to run 800m or 3minutes – whichever is shorter.  While some PAX finished the 800m under 3min, every PAX put in a Huge effort to not let the “whichever is shorter” be the decision point.  PAX were pushing right through the 3min barrier and it wasn’t even because the Bagpipe PAX were around!
• Speaking of Bagpipe PAX, today we knew that we would be sharing the Bull Ring as they were using it for Mr. Bean’s Ring of Fire.  Normally, having a crowded venue on a trail or track is a pain, but it was actually pretty fun today.  Despite mocking comments about “going metro” due to JRR Tolkien, Haggis, Honeybee, Hops, and others going shirtless, running past and giving / receiving encouragement was worth having to occasionally avoid the Bagpipe PAX sprawled out on the Bull Ring taking a rest from 100s of Merkins.
• Welcome to Swift newcomer JRR Tolkein, a Stonehenge regular, but definitely one of the Swifter PAX.
• Special recognition to Bounty Hunter who was noted to be Indian Land’s only imports today.  And he’s not even doing the BRR! – just wanting to get more endurance. Note this PAX, Swift is speedwork, but it is designed to help you run better.  Not for just trying to run a marathon, ultra, or BRR – anything including your 1st 5K, best Mud Run / Spartan Race, or improving your Run Leg on the Triathlon.
• HoneyBee has been patiently watching how Haggis closes in races, he’s starting to get the hang of it.  Blistered the 800m at a 5:18/mi pace.  Upon closer realization, it was the Strava Record that HoneyBee was going for.
• Madame Tussauds also picking up Strava PRs today.  Even though it “hurt”, he’ll get the just rewards when the hills of the BRR preview seem smaller (note, didn’t say small).
• Did Mighty Might truly intend to post at Swift but was tripped up by a quiet Alarm Clock?  We’ll never know how many PAX intend to post at Swift but need their 15 more minutes of sleep and just quietly slip in to Bagpipe.

Announcements:

• BRR Preview Camping – though there is only a 2 drink maximum, join other PAX from Area51 on an overnight trip this Friday.  Leaves at Noon Friday, returns pre-dinner Saturday.  Check with Mr. Bean (@Bean1968David) on details.

Captain Jack never delivered it

17 PAX (perhaps 1 more ghost rider) assembled on Tuesday morning at Swift to join in Captain Jack’s Wild Ride – history lesson in the Preblast.

The Thang:

• 0500 – Q doesn’t arrive for Pre-run, and all PAX who arrived early either forgot to run on their own (prerun is “show and go”) or were thankful to have the extra 2nd F.  Standing around abounded. 0.0 miles in the bank.
• 0515 – main event. Warm-up run South/West down Ballantyne Commons, up Ben Nevis (otherwise known as the “Soul Crusher”), turn LEFT into Ballantyne CC, wait for the Six to begin some dynamic warm-up. Mosey to the first low point of James Jack Ln.  1.2mi in the bank.
• Intervals of 90sec at R-pace (basically full effort) and then recover back to the start point.  Only issue is that there are no flat points on this 90 sec. Basically there are two big hills in this section – 1st one goes up, then long way down, then start 2nd hill that goes really far up
• 1st interval – up/down
• 2nd interval – up/down/tad up – a little less up by starting one light post further up the hill
• 3nd interval – same start point as 2
• 4th interval – tad up/down/more up – again a little less up by starting one light post further up the hill
• 5th interval – same as 4
• 6th interval – down/up – start at the top of the hill, finish on the monster hill. recover to the top
• 7th interval – up/down – all mosey to the bottom of the monster hill. start 90sec back towards the start to run the first two parts in reverse
• Head home 1.2mi
• Total miles between 4.3 and 6.2 depending on length of your 90sec interval
• Strava reports from Bratwurst, HoneyBee, The Mouth, Strange Brew, M. Tussauds, and Stump Hugger.

Moleskin:

• Turns out Captain James Jack rode the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence on horseback to Philadelphia, but he never delivered it. Something about being “worded so angrily that it would hurt chances of regaining peace”.  YHC will use the same excuse for the delay of this Backblast.  Didn’t want to bring up bad memories of this workout.  IT HURT like only running up a hill at full effort can.
• The 90 second interval delivers pain in a short burst, but the long recovery (up to 3min) helps to make it reasonable.  Basically a 400m workout for most PAX.
• Be thoughtful about downhills just as much as uphill.  In the BRR, they’re not an opportunity to coast, but to use gravity to your advantage.  Just like uphills, lean slightly more forward than vertical (to gravity), focus on a smaller stride with a quick 180 strides per minute turnover, but roll with gravity pulling you down the hill.
• Apparently going shirtless is known in Area51 as “going Metro”.  This is either a reference to those in Charlotte’s Luke Warm Corridor having an affinity for losing their shirts, or for liking to show off the dad-bod a little too much when swimming is not involved.  Other than driving a sports car that is mistaken for a SUV, Strange Brew may have never been mistaken for being metro sexual until baring it all (of the upper half) right from leaving the lot at 0515 (not sure the shirt even made it out of the car).  YHC realized that Brew was on to something because the heat was stifling with dead air, and tossed the shirt once in Ballantyne CC on someone’s lush green lawn that they must pay my mortgage payment in city water to keep green.  We got Hops to join the “Metro” party, but he lives close to the DMZ, so he is practically Metro anyway.
• Honey Bee continues to push it and cruises those hills with his quick turnover.  Fellow South Carolinian One-Niner continues to close the gap and was right there again.
• A large middle pack formed once again into a Peloton either to get more 2nd F or because only one of them knows how to program a watch for 90second intervals and they needed to stay close to each other.  Whatever the case, it’s hard to sort out who was and who was not in the Peloton today.
• M. Tussauds workout report shows some PRs and great 400m results, but he needs to find the Lap button on his Garmin.
• Tootie was showing off his increase in fitness today and was tearing it up.
• Kotters to Stump Hugger for posting after every kind of ailment you’ve heard about.
• Kudos to the PAX that push each other by helping to run to the top of that next hill, or for calling / tweeting their buddy to make sure they make it out at 0515 in the morning.
• Ringer got credit for posting in the list of PAX recorded by Frehley’s Comet, but YHC doesn’t recall him being there.  Perhaps every fast guy that you aren’t sure posted is just from here on out known as Ringer.

It’s a privilege to have you all follow YHC on a workout every week.  Let’s make a push in the last 6 1/2 weeks to crush the BRR!

Announcements:

• If you are recording your workout every week, figure out how to get it on Strava to set goals, compare your previous run, track mileage on shoes, and see other PAX doing the same.  It you have a Garmin watch, it’s simple.  If you just have a smartphone, it’s easy (downside is no interval recording) but it’s free.  Join the group “F3Run” on Strava and see what PAX from F3nation across the country are doing.  https://www.strava.com/clubs/f3run

Locked and Loaded at Snapchance

14 PAX avoided the #Fartsack and posted at #F3Swift on Wednesday for an aggressive beatdown. 1 more PAX joined in spirit as we traded grunts and waves on a new course that will become known as the Snapchance.

The THANG:

•  0500 – Multiple PAX mosey for 1.5mi to get a preview of the course and discover all of the hidden obstacles like camouflaged speed humps diabolically placed in the shadows.
• 0515 – The Peloton joins and we head off for 1.0mi mosey down to the new course.  4 drills done. Let’s Go.
• All Intervals at “Interval” Pace / I-pace / 2-mile Race Pace.  Goal for the recovery is to regroup, get the heart rate down by jogging or brisk walking.
  • 5min Interval, 4min recovery
  • 4min / 3min
  • 4min / 3min
  • 3min / 2min
  • 3min / 2min
  • 3min / 2min
• Mosey back to the Vine for COT and do some standing dynamic recovery stretching.

The Moleskin:

• Where is the 2/1/30 when you need it?  Normally when we do the 2/1/30, we get in around 5 rounds for a total of 17.5 minutes at I-pace.  Today, we did 22 minutes at I-pace.  That’s the equivalent to over 6 rounds.  Much longer than we have done before.
• Please bring back the 800/200!  Just think, next week when we repeat the 800m / 200m workout, you’ll be thankful that it’s not 5 minutes or 4 minutes long!  It will probably seem too short.
• YHC can’t remember all of the 0500 PAX, but you know who you are.  They’re the ones that got in 7-8 miles over 75 minutes this morning.  The rest of the PAX can be credited for somewhere between 5-6 miles over the 60 minutes.  Still strong!
• Upon returning to COT, we did some standing dynamic stretches.  After a very stressful workout, static stretching tired muscles can be sketchy because you can push them too far because it’s hard to tell if they are tired or tight.  Better to do some standing high knees, standing butt kicks, one-leg swings front-to-back, one-leg swings side-to-side, and ankle rolls.  Later in the day (or the next day) do a recovery run and some good static stretching.
• The usual Larry Birds out there with Haggis and HoneyBee, but not far behind were OneNiner and Ringer.  BRR team captains must be requiring #Swiftlike workouts these days, for new faces with Bounty Hunter and more postings from “I only run because of the BRR” Champagne and Chipotle.  The BRR is as good of an excuse as any to post.  No matter the weather or occasion, you’re always going to find Abacus, the Mouth, Tootie, Outback, and Madame Tussauds at Swift.  From the pre-workout Twitter chatter, sounded like WWL and the IL/Fort boys were going to pull in more SC PAX, but Swift will always be here to make your first post.  From the talk at COT with Bagpipe, sounds like some guys there need to crossover to Swift more often like Pebbles, Knight Rider, Mic Check, Mermaid, Dora, and others who give the Bagpipe PAX all the running they can handle.
• Rock Thrill (at first it was just some dude with a headlamp running the wrong way) joined the PAX in spirit and motivation on the course today.  Even if you do your own thing and modify, you are welcome to come out to Swift.  Whatever gets you out of the fartsack.
• When reviewing the GPS track of the Mouth and Madame Tussauds, YHC couldn’t help to think that it looked like some sort of a gun.  Because the Scottish are more well known for throwing rocks, logs, and swords, there isn’t much other weaponry to choose from.  A quick Google search only revealed the Snapchance Flintlock Pistol, so although we have the Bull Ring (not Scottish), YHC needs some help coming up with an appropriate name for this particular track at the Ballantyne Corp Park.

As always, and I don’t communicate it enough, thanks for joining this (well yesterday) morning and following me.  Actually makes running a lot more tolerable. – Bratwurst

Announcements:

• Next week is the #SummerSpeedvergence Round 2 (3rd Tuesday of summer months)!  This time will be a road trip up to Swift (or a place TBD) for a plush track to knock out the #ISI 800m/200m workout.  Clowncar schedule will be communicated ASAP.

a visit from Eric Liddell

11 PAX launched into the soupy weather at 0515 on Tuesday at the weekly loafer’s hideaway disguised as #F3Swift. Can we start calling it Wiggler-HD?

The Thang:

• Pre-run at 0500 to lay out the cones and get lost in the wilds of the Ballantyne Corp Park.
• Arrive back late at 0517 to several PAX in the Vine lot staring like they had no idea what was to come. Come on men! Are you all Bagpipers or Swifts today? Ahh, all Swifts, let’s go.
• Off to the course near the Bull Ring, down the hill of Rushmore Dr., pass the fuming Diesel generator, and stop for some warm-up drills.
• Main set was the “Eric Liddell” along Rushmore Drive with rounds of:
• 200m at R-pace (1 mile race pace found at http://runsmartproject.com/calculator), 200m jog recovery and regroup
• 200m at R-pace, 200m jog recovery and regroup
• 400m at R-pace, 400m jog recovery and regroup
• Round 2 same as the first
• Round 3 start the 400m on the downhill
• Long recovery back to the base of the hill. 30 sec hill at the same effort as before. Repeato 4x.
• Head back to COT

The Moleskin:

• Honeybee, the Mouth, and Bratwurst for the early shift. 1.5mi extra credit. Eventually we made it back to the Vine after mistaking a few parking lots, buildings, and bushes for the way back. Thankfully Honeybee reminded us, when in doubt, follow the Power Lines.
• With the Blue Ridge Relay only 8 1/2 weeks away, it’s starting to get serious. Today was about developing the strength needed to hit the hills. While not actually running up / down many hills today, speed work is important for those long grinds that will be coming.
• One-niner and Honeybee have a secret competition going on, or 19r is HB’s secret coach for those Haggis surges in the last 100m of any race. Hard to tell who took it on an impromptu AYG on 200 #4 today (right at 0:30), but it was perhaps ill-advised with a 400m looming.
• The Mouth must be too reliant on his watch for timing and needs to recalibrate the internal clock. When YHC called the 30sec hill, Mouth shot out of the cannon but quickly figured out that 30sec is kind of a long way. 1 step does not equal 1 second…or 1 yard…or even 1 meter. Still, he did cover 10.9 kilometers today. #metric
• Champagne can always be counted on for “deep” biting questions, such as questioning if this BB was ever going to happen. One more of his keen observations of the morning was that a lot of the intervals seemed to be too flat (“where’s the BRR prep in that?”). So, instead of giving the PAX the hill on the way up, we gave the PAX a jumpstart on the last 400m for the way down. On the downhills, keep good form, lean from the ankles (got to attend DevilsTurn for more on that), and don’t overstride. Though, we couldn’t let Champagne off too easy, so we did the uphills at the end to finish us off.
• Random Tootie sighting on Sunday by YHC outside Target in Blakeney. Which begs the question, when you spot a PAX in the wild, do you shout his F3 name or his Hospital name? Great to see this guy continuing to bring it at Swift and increase the mileage for the BRR this September.
• Ringer is quietly sneaking up by pushing the pace faster and faster. Don’t know what his nickname refers to, but pretty sure that he would be the silent Ringer on most BRR squads.
• WorldWideLeader and Wing Man (8.6K) are pushing themselves through all of the workouts as of late. It’s just a matter of time before Wing Man adds this strip on Rushmore Dr to the Strava segments. But YHC asks that he holds off for a while, since HoneyBee would have another Course Record with that 200m AYG in the workout today.
• Great to bring Chipotle over from Bagpipe and out to Swift. YHC is not sure that I would want to post to FightClub with Chipotle. Previously, YHC would have just danced around the ring to outlast him, but with all of this running Chippy has been doing, that would take a lot longer to outlast Chippy because he only needs to get in one shot needed to end it all.
• Teddy is definitely in the ranks of the PAX with soft names (Cindy, Bunny, Material Girl, etc.) who pretty much only wear #smokeboots. While he doesn’t get the press of the others, watch out for Teddy if you ever see him (because you won’t hear him).
• Stated in the Preblast, “Eric Liddell” is much of the inspiration for #F3Swift in general and this workout in particular. The Preblast video (Chariot’s of Fire clip) has Eric Liddell speaking to an audience and this is the inspiration for his speech:
• The Greatness of God – Isaiah 40 –
  15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
  and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
  …17 All the nations are as nothing before him,
  they are accounted by him as less than nothing and
  …21 Do you not know? Do you not hear?
  Has it not been told you from the beginning?
  Have you not understood from the foundations of the
  earth?
  22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
  and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
  who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
  and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
  23 who brings princes to nothing,
  and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
  …28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
  The Lord is the everlasting God,
  the Creator of the ends of the earth.
  He does not faint or grow weary;
  his understanding is unsearchable.
  29 He gives power to the faint,
  and to him who has no might he increases strength.
  30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
  and young men shall fall exhausted;
  31 but they who wait for the Lord
  shall renew their strength;
  they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
  they shall run and not be weary;
  they shall walk and not faint.