Crushing it at Kevlar

Feel the Rhythm, Feel the Rhyme

14 PAX kicked off the newest Running workout on Thursday deep in Waxhaw.  Someone coined the term “Cool Runnings”, but without the Site Q present (at the very first workout), we’re not sure if it’s going to stick as a name.  The workout on the other hand, seems to show there is a desire for some run-specific training amongst the “Cuthbertson” PAX, and it is sure to stick no matter the name.

The THANG:

• Mosey around the Middle School / High School campus to warm-up.  After about a 10 minute run (effort was directed to be as “one where you can talk to your neighbor”), we stopped in the main parking lot for some warm-up drills.
• Getting through the toe-walking and heel-walking, there were the typical comments like, “so this is what runners do” and “do you do this in your neighborhood [with neighbors watching]”?
• Then on to the 3 running form specific exercises with high knees, butt kicks, and B-skips (which apparently professional baseball players also do, so how about that for silliness…).
• Now we mosey up and across Cuthbertson Rd to the Champion Forest neighborhood.  Directions given for the workout to run the “work” intervals at a Hard effort (about 5K race effort) and the “recovery” intervals at a very easy jog (easier than the warm-up) and to circle back to the Six each time during recovery to keep the group together.
• Intervals are to be rounds of 2minutes Hard, 1minute recovery, 1minute Hard, 30second recovery, 30 seconds Hard, 30 seconds Easy.  Start the next round right away.
• Using the ΙΧΘΥΣ route (Ichthys or Fish) in Champion Forest, we got in 5 rounds total with extending a couple of recoveries and running a couple segments in reverse to keep the PAX together.  Here’s the workout record (requires a free login to see details): https://www.strava.com/activities/970374515
• Once 5 rounds were completed, regroup the PAX and head back to COT.  With a few minutes remaining, we did some cool-down dynamic stretching with standing high-knees, standing butt-kicks, and some stuff that looked like the Chorus Line.  Forgot the ankle rolls.
• Stump Hugger took us out.

The Moleskin:

• Thanks for the motivation of Legal Zoom to put this together (and then not show up), tweak the schedule, and then get some guest Qs to help kick things off.  It will be a fun few weeks introducing some run workout ideas to the PAX before they are able to get some things moving on their own.
• The Hard effort is actually a pace that Jack Daniels, PhD and running guru calls the “Interval pace” and is about the pace you would run a 2mile race in.  So some PAX, like Transporter that went out and soloed a 2mile race recently, might have a good idea of what that could be and put that into a Run Pace calculator like http://runsmartproject.com/calculator, but others will need to run a race to get more precise.  I’ve signed up to Q Commitment on 5/20, and there’s a nice open track there, so guess what we’re going to do?  That’s right, set a 1mile baseline at the Weddington HS track on 5/20 at the beginning of the Commitment workout.
• I will drop some more of the few things I know into these future backblasts, but for now, let’s just focus on staying healthy, getting plenty of rest, and trying to be honest with your effort.  There’s all kind of science behind this run stuff, but if your effort is either too intense or too easy for a given workout, you can lead yourself to injury or won’t see the potential gains.  Today’s “Hard” effort probably seemed easy through one round.  And then it always gets real after the second 2 minute interval with such short rest.  And then it never lets up.  Typically, for this effort of “Hard” / Interval Pace / 2 mile Race Pace, the Work intervals will be 2-5 minutes and then no more than an equal time recovery to 1 minute less recovery.  For example, 2 minutes Hard, 1 minute recovery.  Or 4 minutes Hard, 3 minutes recovery.  The recovery is important to actually recover.  It’s the “Work” intervals where you will get the gains, so make sure you are running recovery easy enough.  At first, it may seem based on past experiences that the recovery isn’t hard enough and should be pushing through it, but that won’t let you get to your full potential during the work interval.  And if you are running the Work intervals too hard, you may just be wasting the effort or purpose of that workout design, for there is definitely a point of diminishing returns that leads more to injury / exhaustion than improvement. There’s a definite balance.
• Had some requests for “proper run form” and here are some resources that I’ve seen recently.  There is a lot of stuff out there on the Internet, so it’s probably best to stick with the professionals and exercise sports guys versus the general “Youtubers”.
  • Running form doesn’t come naturally… – basics including Cadence, Braking Force, Pelvic Drop, Rotation, and Bounce
  • Chi running
• Next week, we’ll be running faster, but shorter intervals.  Staying on campus, so no headlamps needed and no worries about waking the neighbors (though some may hear Moneyball from a mile away).
• Most of the trash talking has already been put out there on the Cuthbertson GroupMe, so why duplicate it here?  If they wanted to expose themselves to a larger audience, they would be on Slack http://f3sclt.slack.com and take it to another level…

Announcements:

• Transporter’s mother-in-law is doing better and recovering at home.
• JRR Tolkien has a passion for Team Hoyt / The Hoyt Foundation, and has raised some money to buy some running chairs for PAX to push participants in local races.  Please look out for a Posting soon on how you can get involved, but feel free to contact him in the meantime.