Author Archive Slim Fast

Combined Pre/Back-Blast for Mountain Goat 1/27

Well, YHC over-promised and under-delivered… a behavior he would never condone… yet clearly demonstrated!  I promised a pre-blast for the Mountain Goat workout… and failed to deliver.  Boooooooo!!!

So not to slack on the work, here are both!
Pre-Blast
Join us tomorrow for a fun-filled F3 Mountain Goat!  Pre-warm-up at 0500, main event at 0515.  All running levels are welcome!

We will be doing the following:

1. Warm-up/stretching
2. Mosey to track for 800-intervals… aka Yasso 800’s, aka Sucko 800’s
3. At I-Pace, run 800m, then 400m at the same time it took you to run the 800m
4. Keep repeating until done… trying for 3-5 repetitions
5. Cool-down/stretching

See you in the morning!!

Back-Blast

9 Goats ventured into the chilly but bearable January morning for another installment of F3 Mountatin Goat at South Charlotte Middle School.  Having disclaimed, we proceeded to do what was laid out in the pre-blast (see above!!).

We finished with 5-6 miles depending on pace.  Excellent work out there by everyone!

And yes, it sucked!

Great to have JRR Tolkien join us.  He is mending a calf strain, so you are more than welcome to come out, add your fellowship and enjoy running with some mates vs. on your own!!

Great to have Goonie join us!  He has been out at least 1 time I can remember… probably more… so definitely not a site-FNG!  Goonie has a Pavlovian response when he is at SCMS… he is compelled/conditioned to do burpees or merkins or CDD’s… SOMETHING to work the upper body.  But it’s ok, brother!  That’s what we have Base Camp, Fast Twitch and Death Valley for!!  You can use Friday mornings to detox from upper body fatigue… we don’t judge!!

Benny also returned after a bit of a hiatius.  Great to have you back, and congrats on the job front!!

Insomniac, Nomad, Lois, Tweetsie and Kilowatt… ’nuff said… you guys rule the Goat!!

Yasso 800’s have been used to “predict” marathon finishes.  While debated by some, the theory was/is that if you do 10 repetitions… and as example you do 800m in 4:00, then the recovery 400m in 4:00… this would “predict” a 4:00 Hour marathon finish.  As I said, there is some debate on the accuracy of that, and many parameters can affect the actual times… but might give you an idea!

Announcements:

1.  If interested in BRR, talk to Slim Fast
2.  F3 Dads at the Charlotte Checkers on 2/25… see website/weekly email for sign-ups.  JRR Tolkien needs you to sign-up in the next 2 weeks to finalize numbers.
3.  Some crazy thing Goonie mentioned about a Savage Run.  http://f3nation.com/2017/01/27/preblast-a-savage-departure-into-the-unknown-aka-spring-mud-run/

JRR Tolkien took us out with a prayer.

Mountain Goats are Waterproof!

…. or at least water “resistant”!!  10 Goats proved that this morning!  As we arrived, the rain looked like it would win.  There was definitely mumblechatter about getting back in the cars… going back to the fartsack… all crazy-talk!  With a quick break in the “heavy stuff”… we headed to the track.  After 1 lap, it was clear that Strawberry Ln would be the better surface as the SCMS track doubles as a swimming pool after mere drizzle!

Once on Strawberry Ln, we did the following:

1.  Warm-up followed by our standard dynamic stretching
2. At I-Pace and using the road humps as distance guides, we did 200-400-600-800-600-400-200 intervals with 200 Recovery after the 200’s, and 400 Recovery after each of the other intervals.
3. I wasn’t over-prescriptive about the configuration of the intervals… everyone was on their own… Frasier, as example… very creative!
4. Everyone was finished or close to finished, so we regrouped and ran a final 200, then cool-down recovery back to the parking lot.

DONE!  6-6.5 miles covered!  Excellent morning!

Moleskine:

It looked for about 5 minutes that it was really going to suck out there this morning!  Nomad joined YHC for the warm-up jog, and it definitely started out dicey!  However, after we showed the rain who IS boss… it decided to hold off, and it actually evolved into a great morning for running!

Nice to have Frasier join us… and of course, he was well ahead of the PAX.  But always the first to rejoin the 6!

Icicle and Early Bird were also pressing the front wave!  Nice job, boys!

The Mouth, Nomad, Tutti, Insomniac, Tweetsie and Lois… you boys were pushing it hard for this start to 2017!  Always giving 100% effort!

Announcements:

1. The Mouth is doing a Polar Plunge this weekend to raise money for Special Olympics… one of my FAVORITE organizations!  I hope it is COOOOOOOOOLD!!!!  Here is a link to the site if you want to give!  https://www.youcaring.com/lakenormanspecialolympics-736396#.WHwuPolP3tE.email

2.  Time to start training for Blue Ridge Relay!  If you are interested in running, talk to Slim Fast.

1/20 Mountain Goat Pre-Blast

Join us Friday morning for F3 Mountain Goat at South Charlotte Middle School (Rain or Shine!!)  We will do a pre-warm-up at 0500, and main event starts at 0515.  ALL RUNNING LEVELS ARE WELCOME!

Tomorrow 1/20 we will do the following:

1. Warm-up/Stretching
2. At I-Pace: 200-400-600-800-600-400-200 (200 Recovery for the 200’s, and 400 Recovery for all other intervals)
3. Cool-Down

See you in the morning!  SF

It was soooooo EPIC….

…. it took a FULL WEEK to post the Back Blast!!!   Or I was too distracted to get it done… one of those!!

Anyway, 9 showed up for a promised Joe Davis Run Taper-Friendly Mountain Goat experience… and YHC did NOT bait and switch as some have egregiously accused him of with only minor anecdotal evidence… but I digress!

So basically, we proceeded to run 3.7 miles, including a couple of loops around Rounding Run, with stops at approximately .75-1.0 miles for stretching.

The idea was to keep it light, but also provide the chance to keep loose for the Joe Davis Run scheduled for the following day.

It was great to have Champagne join us… it has been a while since he was out.  He indicated he is starting to ramp up for BRR… which is what we all will be doing over the next several months.  Welcome… this will be the right place to do that!

Also great to have Huggy Bear back out!  We’ve missed you!!

Drano… solid as usual!

Now that we’ve run the Joe Davis, BEFORE the Back Blast, I can say that Early Bird, Retread, Lois, Tweetsie and Insomniac all did AWESOME in the race on Saturday!  Here are the results to prove it!

1. Early Bird – 5K 27:43
2. Retread – 10K 54:14
3. Lois – 5K 34:53
4. Tweetsie – 5K 32:22
5. Insomniac – 5K 31:06

Insomniac actually ran a 7.38K… he made the mistake of going on a short “warm-up” jog with YHC that ended up being identical to Spinal Tap trying to find the stage in Cleveland… “Hello, Cleveland!!”

Congrats to each of you guys, and the other Goats that got out and did something you might not have done in a while!  These might not be  your lifetime PB’s, but I venture to say they are your most recent PB’s… which is the right baseline to set!

Announcements:
1.  Talk to Slim Fast if you are ready to HC for 2nd Annual Mountain Goat BRR Experience… Imagine yourself, gliding through the mountains of NW North Carolina, gentle breeze in your hair… the warm kiss of mountain sunshine on your face… as you traverse the Blue Ridge Mountains… It too, is EPIC!!

Should I Stay (in bed) or Should I Snow??

…. That was the question 13 Goats unequivocally answered with “SNOW” today… or at least PRE-SNOW-MAGEDDON.  It actually didn’t feel as cold as I would have expected with the impending forecast of 2-142 inches of snow on the way.  And that is coming from a wuss that wears 2-layers and glomitts when it gets below 50!

Having disclaimed, and knowing that white out conditions could occur within the next 24 hours, we set out for Strawberry Ln for the following:

1.  Warm-up mile; dynamic stretching
2.  At I-Pace — 4:00/3:00 recovery; 3:00/2:00 recovery x2; 2:00/1:00 recovery x3; 1:00/1:00 recovery x2
3. Cool Down
4. Done!  6 miles covered (including warm-up and cool-down)  EXCELLENT JOB!

Since Joe Davis has been moved to the following week, we were able to go one more week at a more intense level.  I will admit that I was thinking 4-3-3-2-2-2-1-1 seemed like it wouldn’t be as intense… I was wrong!  I was breathing pretty heavy… and I think/hope others would agree!

The thing I like about running half the time out then back is that we finish about even and at the same spot.  In theory if everyone is running their same pace for the interval, we will all finish at the start point.  While we weren’t laser accurate, I was pretty impressed that we were all finishing within 3-5 seconds of each other.  That is pretty solid!

The Goats had to dodge a seemingly increased volume of traffic this morning!  I guess the impending Snow of Doom was causing erratic behaviors that drove everyone to suddenly have the urge to drive down Strawberry Ln.!

Great to have Chin Music join us for his V-Mtn Goat experience.  Strong running… always at the front of the pack!  You are more than welcome to ditch those losers at Joust on Fridays to spend quality VO2 time with us at the Goat!  🙂

Second week for Beaker… that makes you a regular!  Also Hairball made an appearance.  I’m not sure if that is his V-Mtn Goat… but both of these guys are just strong runners period!  Great to have you!  You are welcome back anytime!!  Thanks for joining Nomad and I for the pre-warm-up run!

Welcome back Tutti… and always good to have Joker join us!

The Mouth, Tweetsie, Lois, Insomniac, Nomad and Drano… you boys are the heartbeat of The Goat!  Solid effort from everyone!  Tweetsie and Insomniac came in on 2 wheels and had to join us down range on Strawberry.  Lois had to come without Tweetsie… something about Tweetsie threatening a drive-by fart sack in case it suddenly turned into a white out at 0515.

Early Bird showed up and said he was chilled… no offense, but if EB is sick, none of us wanted that!  However, it does show the dedication, which is EB’s trademark!  Hope you were just a little cold!!

Announcements:

1.  Joe Davis Run moved to next week due to Winter Storm.  Next week we will taper/prepare for that run.
2. Anyone interested in being on one of the Mountain Goat BRR teams let Slim Fast know.  We are potentially going to have a 12-man and 9-man team.

Hairball took us out in prayer… thanks, Brother!

So Long 2016!!

14 Goats, including 2 2.0’s courtesy of The Mouth, said So Long to 2016 with a final installment of F3 Mountain Goat.   We had several first-timers to MG… so having disclaimed, we set out to Strawberry Ln for the following:

1. Warm-up down Strawberry; dynamic stretching (heel walk, toe walk, butt-kickers, high-knees, B-Skips)
2. From the middle hump (much discussion on that which I will NOT recap so as not to legitimize the haters…), run 400m at I-R Pace towards gravel road, then recovery back to the starting point.
3. Reverse direction and run 400m at I-R Pace towards Hwy 51, then recovery back to the starting point.
4. Rinse and repeat 2 more times… 6 – 400’s total
5. Cool-down; DONE!  5 – 5.5 miles total!

Great to have a good mix of regulars and some new/non-regular faces!  As everyone should know by now, I often use Dr. Bratwurst’s Swift program for our MG workout.  This week, Swift did 400m repeats.  After reviewing the list of PAX, I was 100% sure that no one would get the same workout twice… The first person I see… Bratwurst!!  Luckily he was the only duel PAX… but apologies that he didn’t get his money’s worth!

Stump Hugger drove Brat, and as always great to see one of the early founders of Mountain Goat!  SH has been battling some nagging injuries, but he is finishing up a great year having completed a Half Marathon.  We know what that means for 2017!

Great to have Strawberry, Beaker, Heartbreaker and Alf.  I think all of you guys have been at MG at some point in time… welcome back!  You boys are welcome anytime!  Beaker used the workout as a final tune-up for the 17K Trail Run on Sunday… best of luck!

The Mouth brought his 2.0’s Phelps and Jackie Chan.  Great to have them join us during their holiday!  Excellent job out there… they will be going back to school with a slight edge over their peers that slept-in today!

Tweetsie, Nomad, Insomniac and Drano…. always great stuff!  You guys are finishing the Year strong!  It has been a pleasure running with you boys each week!

I’m excited about 2017… going to start off with a great Joe Davis run, then will feature several opportunities for the Goats to push themselves to bigger and better… including expanded BRR teams!

Happy New Year!! — Slim Fast

Announcements
1.  Final week of sign-ups for the Joe Davis Run next Saturday 1/7.  http://joedavisrun.racesonline.com/
2.  We will no longer use the F3 Area 51 Run twitter account.  Brat said to go to the SOB Slack account and go to the running channel.  Let myself or Bratwurst know if you need access.
3.   Tweetsie took us out in prayer.

Who Left The AC On???

9 Goats showed complete disregard for the coldest temperatures of the season in order to improve their running form and stamina.  Only 7 finished… more on that below.  After a rather passive disclaimer by YHC, off we went to the track for the following:

1.  Warm-up mile + stretching
2. 400m I-Pace/400m recovery/800m I-Pace/400m recovery
3. Repeato until done.  The PAX completed 2.5-3.5 sets for a total of 5-6 miles.  Excellent work!
4. DONE!

Moleskine:

Man was it cold!!!  Body parts covered were ok, but anything exposed quickly turned cold!  Additionally, as the morning progressed and daylight approached, the lovely North breeze picked-up, and the South turn into the final stretch became very noticeably cool!

Great to have Horsehead join us… I don’t think this is his first time, but definitely it has been a while.  HH was injured in the line of duty while Q-ing a workout, and since the Disclaimer doesn’t cover the one giving it, I hear he sued for $2.5Million… we are still waiting on judgment!

But seriously, great to have you, and thanks for joining me on the pre-run.  This was HH’s first post in 5 weeks, so he should be thanking me the whole weekend!

Also, great to have Chico join us for his Mtn Goat site FNG!  He lives probably a mile or less from SCMS as the crow flies, but it takes about 10 minutes to take “the long way”.  Great to have you out… please come back as much as you can!

Tweetsie, Lois, Nomad, Early Bird… same great effort as always… Stronger Every Day!

Icicle and The Mouth had to leave early.  Icicle I get because I know he gets into work early… plus he refused my extra pair of gloves… so I assume by 5:50 he couldn’t feel his hands!

I’m not sure why The Mouth had to leave… I think something about the office Christmas donut party was mentioned… so of course makes sense he should cut it short for that!  Someone might get the last Boston Crème for goodness sake!  We were blessed early with some #TWSS zingers, so all was not lost!

Guys… always an honor to lead this great group of men!  I’m impressed the numbers that showed up for a simple, but tough, workout when you could have easily slept in your warm beds…!

Announcements:

1. Joe Davis Run…. get signed up!
2. Begin thinking about BRR participation… many of you don’t have a choice… so now is the time to start planning and training.   More to come!
3. Nomad has Mtn Goat Q on 12/23.

Mountain Goat 12/9 Pre-Blast

Dress warmly… you know I will!!!  Meet at 0500 if you want a warm-up mile, then we will do the following simple program starting at 0515:

1. Warm-up + Streching… head to track
2. 400m I-Pace – 400m recovery/800m I-Pace/400m recovery
3. Cool-down + stretching

In summary… 400/800 intervals with 400m recovery between each.

Mountain Goat Pre-Blast 12/2

Join us for :30-:20-:10 intervals tomorrow.  This is how it will go down:

1. Warm-up; stretching
2. :30 jog, :20 increased pace, :10 sprint, for 5 sets, then 2:00 recovery
3. We will do that 3 times
4. Cool-down; stretching

0500 for a warm-up mile, and 0515 for main event.  All running levels welcome!

See you in the morning!   Slim Fast