Rest Easy, Area 51 BB is now Live

#F3DevilsTurn – How is Hard Comfortable?

12 PAX launched into the gloom for the weekly Tempo run known as DevilsTurn.  1 more PAX got in on the fun at some point.

The Thang:

• Using the normal route to South Charlotte Middle School, Warm-up at 2nd F pace.
• When ready (or at the track), try to hold a Threshold Pace for at least 20 minutes.  Check the Preblast for an explanation – http://f3nation.com/2014/12/03/f3devilsturn-preblast/
• Continue T-pace run or cooldown to get back to the COT by 0610.

The Moleskin:

• Threshold Pace is comfortably hard?  How Hard is Comfortable?  Well, nothing with “Hard” in it feels very comfortable at first, but this type of training should be VERY beneficial to any Endurance running you are doing.  That’s anything from 1 mile up to Marathon.  Speed kills, but Endurance wins the race.
• Watch the video link in the post, but here is my summary from the Headline video with Jack Daniels explaining what Threshold Pace is, “The purpose of running at your Threshold Pace is to improve your endurance. It is the speed of running at which Blood Lactate (Lactic Acid) will start accumulating too fast for the body to clear it [then muscles get heavy].  If you want to improve some physiological function in your body, then you have to stress that function, but you want to stress it at the lowest intensity that stresses it.”
• A key thing is lowest intensity.  Training harder than your current fitness level will not produce any additional benefit, so that just doesn’t make sense.  Whenever you calculate using the Pace Calculator, use a recent race result and NOT a race goal.  Training at your current fitness level will produce enough benefit.  Race to test where you are, and then recalculate new training paces.  Training at a future Race Goal only leads to the possibility of injury.  The workouts in the Joe Davis 5K/10K training plans (check Preblast above) are hard enough to get through at your current fitness level.  No use pushing yourself beyond that if you won’t get any benefit.
• It’s nice to call for an extended warm-up over to the track.  After all, most of us come to F3 for Fitness and Fellowship, and the warm-up where pace doesn’t matter, allows for 15 to 20 minutes of 2nd F.  HoneyBee is always good about incorporating plenty of 2nd F in the DevilsTurn weekly plans.
• Getting into the Threshold Pace feels good for maybe a couple of laps or so.  After that, talking becomes harder, then breathing goes to max, and finally it just gets hard to continue.  Thankfully, there was a swish, swish running behind YHC over the last 10 minutes or so that pushed YHC to the end.  Turns out Frasier was the extra PAX that showed up at some point.
• What other AO has as nice of a pitstop as SCMS?  YHC almost didn’t want to come out of it today…
• Every PAX pushing themselves on the track today and then back to the AO.  Threshold pace is hard stuff, and especially hard if you are already sore and tired from other workouts in the week or have a nagging injury.  Threshold pace usually lasts at least a mile to get any benefit.  Get used to it, for it’s key in increasing Endurance.  The plan for next week could be Threshold Pace in mile increments.  Run 1 mile, rest 1 minute. Repeato up to your 5K or 10K race distance.
• Welcome to FNG “Funky Cold” Paul M. who said after returning to the states from South Africa, “My threads are fresh and I’m lookin’ def, yo, what’s up with L O C?“

Announcements:

• Joe Davis Run – ante has been upped with some sort of free entries to the 2015 Thunder Road races up for grabs.  This will be a fun race to watch and participate in.  Not like the Mud Run or BRR where you don’t run next to other PAX.  It’s still you-vs-you, but there is a high component of competition that will be pushing you at this one.
• The Charge – tomorrow at Charlotte Christian.  Tiger Rag may or may not be leading it.  Show up regardless.
• Commitment – newer Saturday bootcamp at Weddington HS at 0630.  Come to explore the huge campus and get doses of pain from Snowflake and Ice9.

#F3DevilsTurn – Preblast

DevilsTurn will be launching at 0515 on Thursday from the traditional 4 Mile Creek Greenway parking area on Bevington & Rea Rd.  We will be headed to the South Charlotte Middle School track and back.

20-40min Threshold run – Threshold pace is defined as “Comfortably Hard”.  Find yours here at the Pace Calculator at http://runsmartproject.com/calculator (instructions for the calculator at http://runsmartproject.com/calculator/instructions/).

Suggestion – warm-up 2+ miles to South Charlotte Middle School track.  Do some strides if needed.  Begin Threshold Pace run and hold it for 20 minutes or hold it longer to get back to COT at 0610.

• Note – If you decide to go longer than 20 minutes, adjust pace by 5-10 seconds per mile for every 5 minutes longer.  Example, if your Threshold-pace = 7:00/mi, then you would do a 20min T-pace run averaging 7:00/mi for the 20 minutes.  If you go for a 25min T-pace run, then slow down to 7:05-7:10/mi average.  30min T-pace = 7:10-7:15/mi.  40 min T-Pace = 7:20-7:25.  The idea is that if you were going to do a “Threshold run” for 60 minutes (by adding time / slowing down for every segment over 20 minutes), you would run the 60 minutes at your Marathon pace.

Alternative – do 3 to 4×1 mile at Threshold pace with 1 min rest in between.

The Overall Objective – We are taking on a 6 week 5K/10K training schedule that targets the Joe Davis Run.  The only difference between our 5K and 10K training will be the number of sets / repeats recommended.  All training is done at your personal pace that should be based on any recent race entered into the Pace Calculator at http://runsmartproject.com/calculator (instructions for the calculator at http://runsmartproject.com/calculator/instructions/).

You will find the complete Training Plans at the link http://goo.gl/0rSSfQ and YHC can explain them more tomorrow morning during 2nd F warmup/cooldown/COT.  On the tab “5K (Daniels reduced)” there is a plan that you can use if you are a Beginner to Intermediate runner and just targeting the 5K.  If you are an Intermediate to Advanced runner targeting the 10K or 5K, follow the schedule on tab “5K to 15K (Daniels)” that will take you through Joe Davis run and on to the Spring Mud Run. Save the spreadsheet, download it, whatever, use it as your own.