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Written by Bwana Bwana

April 30, 2015

A drab but warm day, so much better than last month’s swan song. Judd Michael, Lance Bland, Mike Casper, Michael Goldfine, Charlie Vassey, Michael Zimmerman, Kevin Becker, Jeff Welsh, Alex Wouden, Rich Harter, Adam Ilgen, David Lloyd, and Marty Mazur headed to the track for the last workout before the start of the Best Month of the Year.

Yes, it’s hard to beat April, and some of the Fall months aren’t too bad. But May…Is…Great! Not only is the running weather wonderful, but the trees and flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, college girls are walking around without their Ugg boots and North Face jackets over flannel pajama bottoms, and the fun holiday race season is about to hit. Oh, and pretty soon we get the town back! What’s not to like? Well, maybe Spring Gobbler season, if you’re not a hunter. Makes the woods a little dicey. Maybe cleaning the gutters. (Who likes to get up on a ladder?) And maybe Thursday Track. But speaking of ladders, Bwana decided to egg May forward by giving a nice, relatively easy workout: The Whitman’s Sampler, a downward ladder of 1K-800-600-400-200. Start at 5K race pace on the 1K. Maybe a little faster. Give yourself a lap’s rest between reps (except after the 400: cut that in half). Then do the next rep at a better pace if you can manage it. The 1K is as hard as you make it, but the 800 may be the hardest rep on the ladder. You’re still pretty high up, but that 1K you’re still recovering from is making you a little dizzy! By the 600, you’re at that “Even if I fall from here, I’m still OK” height, and the rest just gets easier.

Speaking of cleaning the gutters, Bwana promised that he’d mention Mike Weyandt, the jerk, in his third paragraph. There. That’s what you get for using the list serve to publicly recruit people away from Thursday Track…Just like Meira used to do, back when she used to be a jerk.