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Written by Bwana Bwana

June 4, 2015

May and June must have switched roles. A couple of weeks ago we were having a dry spell and a heat wave, but it was drab, drippy, and mild as Jim Myers, Tom Cali, Judd and Davis Michael, Lance Bland, Ken Davis, Marty Klanchar, Frank Zaffino, Andy Maguire, Alex Wouden, Seth Senior, Mike Renz, Mike Martin, Mike Zimmerman, CJ Wagner, Kevin Becker, Jeff Welsh, Adam Ilgen, David Lloyd, and Marty Mazur headed for the track.

Today was the inaugural day of the Pennsylvania Special Olympics, so bus loads of Special Olympians and their families were filing in. Dave Eggler and the officiating crew were getting set up. Athletes were warming up. Could a bunch of not-so-special runners do a quick workout without drawing attention? Bwana called for 2 miles of “Indians”. Thats where a group of runners form a line and run at tempo pace and, in turn, the last person in line runs to the front. The workout simulates a race where much of it is run hard, but situations arise where you have to give a little extra, pass someone, then melt back to pace without the person you’re passing noticing your exertion level. Mixing paces is hard, but it happens all the time in a race! Why “specialize” at one race pace, when you know in the real deal you’ll be switching gears all the time! Two lines formed, the fast group doing two straight miles at about a 6:30-ish pace, and the slower group doing two one-mile sets at sub-8.

There are a lot of races coming up in the next 6 weeks, capping off with Arts Fest. You don’t think you’ll be changing gears as you run the hills of the Crack O’ Dawn, or the Arts Fest 10K? Guess again!