PreBlast – BRR Countdown – 6 SWIFTs to Go
It’s close enough to the BRR that an official Countdown can begin at Swift. At 0515 on Tuesday morning, we’ll start the countdown with 6 more workouts to go. Meet at the Vine at 0515 to light the fuse.
Training for the BRR has brought us a lot so far. We’ve worked a lot on Interval Pace to maximize our aerobic power (how much blood can we get to the running muscles and how much of the oxygen can we convert into every) – those have been everything from the 5/4/3/2/1/1/2/3, 800m Repeats, and 2/1/:30. We’ve worked on Repetition Pace to improve our speed and economy (how efficient is your effort & form at translating into speed) – those workouts are the Hill Repeats, 200m, 400m and occasional 600m. And Finally, we’ve worked on Threshold Pace to maximize our endurance for racing – those are the 5min/1min recovery, 10min/2min recovery, etc. And you also should have bookmarked (or downloaded) the running calculator to help you target these I, R, and T Paces from http://runsmartproject.com/calculator
I see us needing to work on a little of all 3 (I, R, and T) in the last 6 weeks before the BRR, so here’s a quick calendar. I’ll still be sending this in a PreBlast each week:
- 8/1 – Threshold Pace refresher = 6min Intervals, 1min Rest – go ahead and program your watches since we’ll be a little separated for part of the time.
- 8/8 – Hill Repeats (R-pace effort) – potpourri around Ballantyne area
- 8/15 – Threshold Pace extended = 12min Intervals, 2min Rest
- 8/22 – Repetition and Interval Pace Mixer = 4x200m R-pace with 200m jog recovery, 3x1000m I-pace with 2min jog, 2x400m R-pace with 400m jog
- 8/29 – 800m Repeats at the Track
- 9/5 – RACE WEEK – Taper workout of 4x1200m at T-pace with 2minute Rest between each.
Timeline for 8/1:
- 0500 – Pre-run at 2nd F pace.
- 0515 – Leave the Vine parking lot for 2nd F pace over to North Community House behind MetLife building. 2 options on route: #1 – through the resort hotel parking lot. #2 – through the fitness trail and past SPX.
- 0525 – Warm-up Drills
- 0530 –
- Start 6min Threshold Pace “North” on N. Community House towards I-485 bridge. 1 min rest to slightly regroup and cross over median to other side of N. Community House. WATCH FOR TRAFFIC!
- 6min Threshold Pace “South” on N. Community House towards Ballantyne Commons. 1 min rest to slightly regroup and cross over median.
- Intervals #3 & 4 will proceed same way.
- Interval #5 will be done as OUT 3, BACK 3. If you choose to, BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT CROSSING MEDIAN AND TRAFFIC! Otherwise, stay on Sidewalk.
- Interval #6 will be done on way back to COT the same way you came using Option #1 or #2.
- 0615 – Regroup at COT
Into the Mist
20 Runners parted the mist at an alternate Swift site on Tuesday, July 25th. The goal was to repeat a workout performed twice so far over the last couple of months, but this time get some precision and predictability. Pretty sure all were successful, and we had no head on collisions on a crowded track for the morning.
The THANG:
- Read the PreBlast at https://f3southcharlotte.com/2017/07/24/preblast-measure-yourself-more-exactly/
- Disclaimer in the parking lot
- Run the warm-up as a Preview of the course on the cones that followed cones marking Start, flashing cones marking Stop, and other cones marking turnaround for the recovery.
- Run Odd Interval in Lane 1 going normal direction. Recover 200m in Lane 3/4. Start next 800m in Lane 5 going opposite direction. Recover 200m in Lane 3/4.
- If you see other runners arriving at the track, let them know that Lanes 1/2 are normal direction, runners will be jogging in 3/4 both directions, and Lanes 5/6 will have running in the backwards direction.
- Don’t start another interval after 0610.
- Meet in the parking lot at 0615 for COT
The Moleskin:
- PAX accomplished the goal of running 800m intervals on the track, but how consistently they were done is up to the individual. Looking at results from Strava (must look at the Web version to see manual Laps), several PAX actually got faster as the intervals accumulated: Gumbo (dropped 10+ seconds from 1st 3 to the last 3), FireHazard (dropped about 5 seconds), OneNiner (dropped about 4 seconds).
- What everyone had to deal with the same was the ever-present humidity. Weather reports had us at 73 degrees, 94% Humidity, and a 3mph breeze. As we rolled around to the starting line around 0530, the fog / mist was getting so thick that you could actually taste it. At times, it was hard to see the other side of the track or around the corner. The slight 3mph breeze on one (short) segment on the track was welcomed, but the rest of the air felt dead and heavy as you tried to breathe it in. Thankfully, all PAX followed the directions about direction and start/stop, so there wasn’t anyone running into each other.
- Many PAX got in 8 intervals based on posting their workout results or YHC recalling who was there in some packs: Frasier, Haggis, Gumbo, Woodson, DepthCharge. Not sure about Rebar because he doesn’t post his workouts, but he was looking pretty strong out there.
- One thing to try to follow is YHC’s suggestion of running with another PAX. Even if it just means starting an interval together, so you may have to drop back to recover with someone slightly slower, or have to shorten recovery and move up to catch someone faster, it helps to push you. If about the same speed, it allows you to take turns leading the interval to get an idea for pacing, to help you workout the mental difficulty of following, or be pulled along when you don’t think you can keep up anymore. Just to have someone suffering with you is much better than suffering by yourself. #ISI
- At COT, only 3 PAX raised their hands that they were NOT participating in the Blue Ridge Relay. Someone needs to reach out to them ASAP to pick them up as a runner (not only as a driver).
- Thanks to Gumbo (voluntold) for taking us out.
PreBlast – Measure yourself more exactly
Community House MS Track Layout
This is the week to measure at Swift. Considerably easier than an all-out race, having a workout you repeat from time to time will help you to gauge your fitness level. We’ll be meeting at the Community House Middle School track. The address is 9500 Community House Rd, Charlotte, NC 28277, but you will be using the Northern Bus Lot entrance off Community House Rd to get to the track.
The THANG:
- 0500 – Arrive on site to get your bearings and some extra credit warm-up.
- 0515 – Start warm-up of approximately 10 Minutes easy running (while going over the track layout for the morning) and 5 minutes of drills.
- 0530 – Get into groups that you normally run with. Always try to start with at least one other person. The quantity of intervals you get in is not critical, for it’s the consistency of the intervals that will be key.
- ODD Interval: Use Lanes 1&2 to run 800m (2 laps of the track) at Interval Pace (a.k.a. I-pace, 2 mile race pace, VO2Max, or a “Hard” effort – find your’s here at http://runsmartproject.com/calculator). This will be run in the normal direction of the track. Refer to Picture Layout linked above for an overview.
- ODD Recovery: RECOVER IN LANES 3&4. Recover 200m around the curve, using the diamond cone formation as a turnaround point, and run back to main Start/Finish line to get to starting point for the EVEN intervals.
- EVEN Interval: Use Lanes 5&6 to run 800m at I-pace on the Outside Lanes of the track in the Opposite Direction
- Note: because the Outside lanes are a further distance, the finish point of this interval is not the same as the starting point. Finish the second lap at the flashing cones.
- EVEN Recovery: RECOVER IN LANES 3&4. Recover 200m around the curve, past the main Start/Finish area, use the diamond cone formation as a turnaround point, and run back to the main Start/Finish line to get to starting point for the ODD intervals.
- REPEATO until 0610.
- 0610 – Don’t start another interval past 0610. Gather your things, get some easy running in, and head to the parking lot.
- 0615 – COT in the Parking Lot.
- 0630ish – 3rdF Timekeeper at the Einstein Bagels.
Community House MS Track Layout
Football (the round kind) Fest
34 Dads and 2.0s came out to have fun and get some exercise at the F3Dads Saturday workout at the Ballantyne Bulls. This week was a soccer style workout that included a warm-up, some games with and without the ball, COT, and a short dads and kids scrimmage.
The THANG:
- Warm-up led by RoadRunner (2.0, Age 14) that included some of the exercises seen here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXYkaXOARr8 :
- Open the Gate, Close the Gate
- Side Lunge Groin Stretch
- Straight Leg Raise
- Duck Walk (straight front leg and sweep hands down past foot while moving forward)
- Back Quad stretch and Front Quad stretch
- Carioca
- Front and Back shuttle
- 4 corners game
- Split into three groups and use 3 of the 4 corner squares on the big grid (about 15 yards x 15 yards). When Q calls “1”, group 1 runs to the empty corner. When Q calls “2”, group 2 runs to the empty corner (which is where group 1 was). Keep going calling out 1, 2, and 3.
- Now, get the kids a soccer ball and have them dribble the ball to each corner in the same way as before. Call out numbers more quickly so that there is hopefully some confusion, having to pay attention, and having to move to quickly get out of the way.
- Water break.
- Flip the cones game
- All types of cones are scattered around the area. Dads run around trying to put the cones “face up”, and kids are coming behind them trying to flip the cones to “bottom up”
- First time through without balls. About 1 minute time length. Pretty sure Dads lost.
- Second time through the kids have balls for about 2 minutes. They must knock taller cones over with a ball, or have your ball close in possession to use your hand to flip over the smaller disc cones. Dads can do whatever they want. Pretty sure Dads win.
- Third time through Dads have the balls and have to do similar to what kids did in Round 2. Kids have to do a merkin before putting larger orange cones back up. Smaller cones can be flipped without a merkin. Too many cones to count winner.
- Fourth time through kids have the balls and Dads have to do a burpee before flipping over tall cones. Tired Dads don’t do too many burpees. Kids probably won.
- Water break.
- Get that trash out
- Kids are with their dad, and entire group splits into 2 teams. Half on one side of the field, and half on the other side.
- Objective is to get all of the trash (the balls) onto the other team’s half of the field.
- Round 1 can use hands or feet. at least two 2.0 casualties getting it to the face.
- Round 2 can use feet only. Dads request ball on the ground only, but Q doesn’t think there will be too many air balls, so still no rules. Dads, protect your kids. Q’s kid (Fearless) is in the clear open and gets wind knocked out by a Mongol sniper. Probably more casualties, and PaperJam remarks Bratwurst is nearing a record for more casualties at a F3 Dads workout.
- Round 3 can still use feet only, but it’s now Dads versus kids. It becomes obvious that some Dads don’t want to lose and are sending balls high and deep. Some line drives by the kids are stopped by dads (who aren’t supposed to be using hands, but sometimes you just gotta protect yourself). Not sure if there was payback.
- Water break
- Dribble around cone and pass relay race
- Split into 6 groups – Dads with their kids. About 5 for each line.
- First person in line dribbles with ball around cone and passes (or dribbles) back to next person in line.
- Continue until there have been 15 total turns per team. Sit down when done.
- COT and Bratwurst took us out.
- For those that wanted to stick around, we played a mixed small sided 10 minute scrimmage. Baguette showed off his moves (and is now actively being recruited for the Soccer Arms Cup), Sparky switched teams 3 times trying to get on the winning side, but the game was mostly played between the 2.0s including RoadRunner, Spark, Strad, Howie, WeaverBee, and TheJudge. Sparkles and Butterfly? were active fans sometimes jumping into the action.
Moleskin:
- We are a soccer family and have fun playing and watching each other, but we rarely get to have everyone participate. This was a fun way in the summer to get everyone involved and pre-sweat out the calories of the fast food breakfast treat that followed.
- Even if you are not inclined to soccer, it was hopefully a fun way to get some energy out. I know my kids have appreciated the past couple hours of some hard earned screen time before hitting the pool for the afternoon.
- The Q for F3Dads is open for at least the next 2 weeks. Contact HoneyBee to sign-up.
Mutiny on the McHorseArse
21 PAX made a decision to post at the Horsey McHorseArse on Monday to challenge themselves for whatever the Q had in store some hills.
The PreBlast (that was Retweeted by @F3Metro):
Make sure your running in the dark skills are in order before the BRR: Bring a headlamp. There will be hills.
— Bratwurst (@bratwurst_f3) July 9, 2017
Bratwurst thinking to himself, “Man, the parking lot is a little dim. Did any of the PAX get the memo about the Headlamp?” StoneCold, “why are you really trying to sell this headlamp idea, do we really need it?” ThinMint, “Ooh, I think I may have an extra headlamp in the car to give to a brother in need, here you go Teddy.” Frasier, “I run faster than the light, I only need 1 lumens in my headlamp.” TheMouth, “lucky I shook up my batteries before the run, that really works to help them last longer.” Other Metro PAX, “Isn’t this workout all about Mt. Charlotte, the Yucca, the flagpole, and Chester? Why do we need to deviate and/or prepare for anything other than that?”
At 0515 – Bratwurst, “follow me”. Other Metro PAX, “Wait, what’s this gravel stuff and why are we using this Greenway where we park, for the first time? It sure is nice with the streetlight, oh man, here we go under a dark bridge. Do trolls live here? Why is this paved greenway dark when all of Charlotte should be lit up with our property tax dollars?!” After crossing over a bridge into the woods the PAX were like, “Gravel, why did you drop a cone with a flashing light on it, up a hill through the woods, gravel, what??? We’re out of here! How do we get back to Chester?”
As the rest of the PAX continued at a mosey up the Boyce Hill into Boyce Park the gravel ended, and we started back down a hill, there were comments like, “are we near Independence? Why are you dropping random little orange objects along the way?” And then CRASH, a PAX bites the dust in a hole that he stepped OVER SAID CONE to dive into. Quick check on the PAX, no visible blood (yet), so get continue to the bottom of the hill and regroup. Question from the injured PAX, “What’s the shortest way back to the light and the paved surface?” … Directions given, “Head that way.”
And then we finally get to the point of the workout…Wheat had been separated from the chaff…Gideon had his army… We were left with Geraldo, Alf, Stone Cold, Teddy, Turkey Leg, Baracus, Prohibition, Fire Hazard, and Chelms (a fine escort I must say).
- We’re going to run at a hard effort back up this short steep asphalt hill, into and along the edge of the park, back down the trail to the bottom of the Boyce Hill where the flashing cone is, around the cone, and then return course (up hill, across park, down hill) to this starting point for a 1.1 mile interval. There may be cracks, roots, and small animals on the trail, but you’ll be OK. Modify if necessary.
- Recovery mosey back along the flat trail bottom to the flashing cone for about 0.5 mile interval.
- Now, run hard effort from flashing cone, on trail up the hill, into and along Boyce Park, down asphalt hill to the bottom (spin around the cone that wasn’t there — but was it ever there), now return course back up the hill (and call ahead to Frasier to go ask that cyclist who passed us going up the hill if he stole our cone…try to tire Frasier out… not possible even though Frasier did catch him), back up to and along the park, down the trail and hill, back to the flashing cone. 1.1 mile.
- Recovery mosey back along the flat trail bottom to the start of the asphalt hill for about 0.5 mile interval.
- Up the short steep asphalt hill…Keep doing this until time runs out, and meet at the flashing cone at 0610.
At 0610, only ThinMint was left at the flashing cone. Apparently, all of the other PAX didn’t need to wait, were nervous to get back to COT in time, or wanted to try and catch the pledge to the flag. Anywho, mosey a piece back to the lot to find all of the PAX tricking in, except for the unfortunate PAX that bit the dust in the dark on the hill. Turns out the mutiny Pax were apparently scared of the same fate. Instead, they went off in a search to find Chester, and FishWrap found him… but we’ll not describe how he left him.
Most of the PAX on the Boyce side of Sardis got in at least 3 intervals. Some got a half more. In all, probably 25 minutes of solid effort (and mind exercise / awareness in the dark) with ample recovery. Strava flyby = http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#1076589010?c=7zzzzzzz&z=4&t=0
At 0615 at the parking lot, the faces that were once in the dark, came back into the light. Next time, we’ll try to do a better job getting the word out for headlamps, though this is BRR season and every PAX should have one handy at all times…making sure it has good batteries. And from the start of the workout, instead of moseying and then giving directions, which is normally the case at a Bratwurst workout, we’ll give directions at the start you’ll just have to learn to trust the Q. Perhaps pair up with a PAX that has a light. Or maybe that’s just giving too much direction.
See you in the Gloom PAX,
Bratwurst
P.S. It was an honor to lead some of you, thankfully some did follow, lick your wounds and come out again, and there will be more fun on the Horsey McHorseArse.
PreBlast – Straights and curves, No corners
The first PreBlast on the new site? Perhaps, and it won’t be the last. Lesson learned from Q ing at McHorsey today. Area 51 reads the PreBlast info (Slack or Twitter). Metro, nah, just show up…
The Pax of Swift will meet at the Vine Restaurant at 0500 or 0515 depending on your appetite for warm-up. We will not be venturing far this week, and the noted arena style Brixham Green will be modified to smooth out some of the bumps. Here’s the THANG:
- 0500- extra credit warm-up
- 0515- leave the Vine parking area and head over to the Brixham Green. Site preview. Regroup at the straightaway closest to the tent at 0525.
- 0525- warm-up drills & then break into some pacing groups based on 1 mile race time. 1) 5:30 and under. 2) 6:30 and under. 3) 7:30 and under. 4) anything else. Make sure all groups have at least 2 Pax. If not, combine groups.
- 0530- start rounds of the following intervals (with equal distance rest) at your 1 mile race pace: 200meters, 200meters, 400meters. There will be cones marking start and finish of each interval. Here is a diagram:
- 0610 – head back to COT.
Thunderstruck!
26 PAX at the Wednesday Hump Day Bootcamp in Waxhaw, NC at Marvin Ridge MS/HS campus known as Dromedary were Thunderstruck! by Rockwell and his Daily Red [Beats] Pill [of music].
– Posted on behalf of Rockwell
WARM UP
- Side Straddle Hop x 25 IC
- Imperial Walker x 20 IC
- Potato Pickers x 10 IC
- Mountain Climber x 20 IC – hold it!
- Plank Jack x 20 IC
THE THANG
- Partner up – Get a lifting rock
- Curls – Partner 1 Curl / Partner 2 to the top of the lot – 3 Burpees then flap jack – 100 combined
- Tricep Press – Partner 1 Tricep Press / Partner 2 to the top of the lot – 3 Burpees then flap jack – 100 combined
- Shoulder Press – Partner 1 Shoulder Press / Partner 2 to the top of the lot – 3 Burpees then flap jack – 100 combined
- Return rocks and Mosey to the field
- Partner 1 run across field 3 jump squats / Partner 2 Carolina Dry Docks then flap jack – 100 combined
- Mosey to wall – 40 Air Press
- Partner 1 over the wall – quick lap around the fence / Partner 2 Donkey Kicks – 100 combined
- Grab some wall – 40 jabs in cadence
- Mosey to the picnic tables 20 SSH waiting for the six
- Back to main parking lot
- Box Cutter x 20
- Pistol LBC x 20
- Finish with THUNDERSTRUCK – Plank for the whole song Thunderstruck,,, Merkins every time you hear the word Thunder.
MOLESKIN
I hinted via GroupMe the day before that the 80’s playlist may make it’s return but that didn’t stop 26 fellow F3’ers from showing up and working hard. We have consistently been averaging 20+ at Dromedary. Awesome! After a quick warmup lap and some basic exercises to get the blood pumping we went to work with some motivation from Van Halen,. It was all downhill from there. The fellas of F3 continue to inspire me in more ways than you know. During the workouts you hear conversations about work, family, church, encouragement, etc… The conversations tend to change to out of breath, heavy breathing as the minutes tick by! But, as we all know this group is much more than just a bunch of guys trying to get in shape. I always enjoy the camaraderie and working out with such a great group!
Great job to everyone for pushing through during “Thunderstruck” at the end of the workout. I thought that song would NEVER end! Geez, brutal!
Thank you Shop Dawg for taking us out with the prayer!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Watchtower – July 4th. 1776 workout. Wear blue or red. 6:30 am. 1 hour workout.
- Blackhawk had a good turn out for the first workout this past Saturday. Saturday mornings 6:30-7:30. Walnut Creek Park.
The Escalator – What goes down, please don’t come back up…
27 PAX thought better of a cool morning in Summer than to waste it in the Fart Sack, so they descended on Swift to meet the Escalator.
The PreBlast: http://f3nation.com/2017/06/26/preblast-escalator-what-goes-down-must-come-up
The Moleskin:
- Crazy stuff on the Strava Fly-By, which shows that 16 of 27 PAX were using a GPS-enabled fitness watch to record their efforts this morning. If you aren’t using the LAP key on your watch during intervals (hit it each time you start and stop an interval), then you aren’t using it effectively as you could to know your effort during the “Work” interval and during the “Recovery” interval. Knowing your distance and pace overall is a tiny fraction of information that you could be getting. Having said that, PAX covered between 8.5mi (Bunker – who pre-ran the pre-run), 7.5mi (VooDoo – he was at the prerun?, Haggis – who never pre-runs but had a post-run today), 7.0mi (Fahvra – who didn’t do anything pre or post, but ran off into the distance on all intervals and still passed most on the way back), and 5.5mi (Louis C? – must be one of the new guys).
- Partial credit goes to Tuck on coming up with this workout. While we’ve done a descending interval workout at this speed before, we’ve never done anything that went back up. Enron got sick thinking about it, and Tuck took vacation to avoid it.
- If it wasn’t for the Preblast put out there yesterday, the time spent programming the watch for the workout, and knowing that PAX are asking for some structure to a workout, YHC probably wouldn’t have shown up this morning after feeling pretty poor last night and early this morning. And then stressing out on the prerun when the watch program wasn’t syncing, reinstalling apps, logging into accounts, pairing watches, all while in motion, YHC threw up in the mouth a little. Fortunately once 0515 came around, we were off. Disclaimer forgotten.
- Interval Pace (check the preblast for explanation) is designed to peg your Heart Rate right at or under your max. You can’t physically exceed your max Heart Rate, so if you are working harder than max HR, it’s wasted effort in this kind of workout. Running at your max HR with intervals will build that endurance (some fitness watches try to measure this as a VO2Max reading). However, that also means that you have to push yourself into the uncomfortable zone of getting to max HR. Longer intervals of 3 min or more allow this, but with shorter intervals, it’s more difficult. That’s why the recovery also comes down with the length of the interval (recovery at this speed is the same time length of the interval, or no less than 1 minute less than the interval).
- Cobains for the longer warmup route, but impressed that everyone did the 1.3miles. Normally, I’ll try to give a route that anyone can comfortably do in 10-11 minutes. After all, the warm-up is all about getting moving.
- Tons of new and recent faces out there today. Erector, Birdcage, and Buckeye are becoming more regular, but there were newer faces of Sauerkraut, Sherlock, and Bait-n-Switch (who was a FNG today, EH’d to Bagpipe, but couldn’t find them, so he fell into the Swift group like he knew what he was doing). Somehow, even Bucky at some point was even running with the horses – couldn’t tell if he just wanted to sprint up Bagpipe hill, or was there from the start – but as you all know he’s hard to miss with his gazelle-like strides.
- Even if you haven’t heard of him, from him, or about him, continue to watch out for Depth Charge. While he has been out to Swift for a while now, not many PAX get 4th Overall in an incline trail challenge. Well done!
- Welcome to the track meet! With Fahvra leading the way (at first, even pushing a SFN chariot), Frasier on his heels, ThinMint and Haggis chasing, and JRR TOLKIEN right there (even if it was just for one or two, HE WAS UP THERE!), there was some speed on display today. While JRRT took a few off to show the other PAX how to push the chariot, Bunker, General, and TigerRag closed the gaps to the leaders. Then Gumbo and FireHazard wouldn’t let themselves be passed on the “back” sections, which likely means they sandbagged or had really even efforts. And then the other PAX were in there somewhere.
- OneNiner sped off on Bagpipe Hill bound to capture a PR on the segment. However close he was (2 sec off his best), OneNiner still looked impressive as several PAX including General and Haggis gave the no way, not today looks as he flew by and gave no chase.
- Rebar, Meatloaf, Rock Thrill, Picasso, Abacus, and Chipotle also strong out there today. This varied group is great about putting in the work and encouraging the PAX around them to get better. I’m currently checking Cheddar’s (South Charlotte Q for the BRR) lists to make sure all of these PAX are on BRR teams. If not, I bet SlimFast will recruit you soon!
- Thanks again for showing up in droves today. All it does is to put pressure on each of us to give our best for the day, which a lot is just showing up.
- NO SWIFT NEXT WEEK ON JULY 4th! Convergence at 0530 at the Trader Joe’s / 4 Mile Creek Greenway for a Run-focused workout from Rachel! http://f3nation.com/2017/06/26/worlds-collide-july-4th-runvergence/
Announcements:
- Timekeeper, the 3rd F following Swift / Bagpipe at the Einstein Bagels will be starting a summer topic – the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis on July 11th. You can pick it up for $5 on Amazon. The group that meets at Timekeeper, typically 5-8 guys each week, welcomes you even to drop in on the conversation, grab some coffee, sweat in the air conditioning, and connect with the PAX each week. Look forward to seeing you there.
#PreBlast – Escalator: what goes down, must come up
Intervals that decline don’t really fit into the “pyramid”, for pyramids are mostly upright the last time I checked. So what should you call intervals that go down in duration, but then have to come back up? Perhaps an escalator? You decide on the PreBlast video above.
Here the THANG for Tuesday, 6/27:
- 0500 – Early option for those that want some extra miles and conversation, or those that NEED the time to warm-up adequately and make sure they show to the normal 0515 workout on time.
- 0515 – Leave from the Vine parking lot and head for the Warm-up area at the lot in front of the Synchrony building at Rushmore and Ballantyne Commons. Option 1 on route – Q will lead a 1mi + route around the Bull Ring to get there with distance about 1.3mile. Option 2 on route – upon hitting the Bull Ring, take the short way around to Rushmore with distance right at 1mile.
- 0525ish – Warm-up exercises in the parking lot in front of Synchrony.
- 0530ish – Start Interval Escalator down at VO2Max / “Interval” Pace / 2mile Race pace:
- 5 minutes I-pace / 4 minutes jog to recover group
- *Note some Intervals will be out and back halfway through.
- 4 minutes I-pace / 3 minutes jog to recover group
- 3 / 2
- 2 / 1
- 1 / 1
- Then back up until time calls us to stop.
- 1 / 1
- 2 / 1
- 3 / 2
- 4 / 3
- 5 minutes I-pace / 4 minutes jog to recover group
- 0610 – The plan is to be within a 5 minute jog of COT after finishing the final I-pace interval.
- Total of about 22 minutes at I-pace.
- 0615 – COT
PreBlast – Week for the 800s
At 0515 on Tuesday morning, we’ll launch from the Vine Restaurant for the weekly Running Interval workout known as Swift.
If this looks like a PreBlast from 4 weeks ago, it’s not. I changed some things…
How many can you do? How consistently can you do them? Will you improve over time?
“If the purpose is to hurt, then go out real fast and be as miserable as you possibly can.”
It’s that time of the season where we set baselines for the months of training ahead. In this case, it’s the BlueRidgeRelay (BRR), where most PAX will be putting forth multiple 10K type efforts over the course of a day. That’s where the Interval pace (aka 2 mile race pace, aka VO2Max pace) comes in. It’s a pace run at 97-100 percent of Maximum Heart Rate, and for more explanation see the linked video.
To do this workout, we’ll try be measured and consistent this week so we can compare to the same effort approximately every 4 weeks. Like in year’s past when we’ve had SIB come to town or went to visit there, we’ll be doing this in 800 meter segments @ Interval Pace with about a 2 minute (or 200m) active but very slow jog recovery. No need to program your watch because there will be landmarks to start/stop, but if you do, program 800m Distance Interval and 2 minute rest. Just be prepared to end your recovery early.
The THANG:
- 0500 – Extra credit run for 1.3mi from the Vine parking lot
- 0515 – Leave the Vine parking lot and mosey 2ndF pace to the Bull Ring. Use 10 minutes to get there with 2 options for route. One less than 1mi, one slightly more.
- 0525 – Commence warm-up exercises.
- 0530 – Commence rounds of 800m around the Bull Ring.
- Recovery is down to the putting green and back. Use some of the parking area to get recovery to 2min or 200m.
- On the 800m intervals, you have an option to use both directions, but the preference is the Counterclockwise direction on the inside lane against traffic. If you decide to run Clockwise and use the inside lane, the Counterclockwise runner always has the right of way, so always pass to the outside.
- 0607 – Do not start another 800m after 607am. We’ll need to head home from the Bull Ring by about 0610 to make it back to the Vine by 0615.
Some more helpful info:
- Interval [Pace] Training = https://youtu.be/7dQEwJhHWXk?t=2m40s “If the purpose is to hurt, then go out real fast and be as miserable as you possibly can.”
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Interval Pace
Intensity: Generally in the range of 95-100% of VO2max or 98-100% of HRmax. Intervals are “hard” but not all-out running by any means. Usually at a pace that you could maintain for about 10-15 minutes in a serious race. Intervals are best if they involve runs of 3 to 5 minutes each (800m and 1000m workbouts are typical), with jog recoveries of similar duration (not necessarily, equal distance); relative to the runs they follow. If a workout calls for “hard” runs, then go by feel and imagine 5k race pace, as the intensity of each run.
Purpose: Stress your aerobic power (VO2max). It takes about two minutes for you to gear up to functioning at VO2max so the ideal duration of an “Interval” is 3-5 minutes each. The reason not to go past 5-minutes is to prevent anaerobic involvement, which can result in blood-lactate build-up.
- Pace Calculator to find your Interval Pace = http://runsmartproject.com/calculator
- Pace Calculator Instructions = http://runsmartproject.com/calculator/instructions/