Thursday Track Report: Accommodating The Season

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Written by Bwana Bwana

December 11, 2014

The last real workout of the year. Everybody who ran it was feeling limpy and gimpy from the Nittany Valley Half-Marathon. That, the gray weather, and all the office parties meant low attendance at the track. Still, all the cool people came: Judd Michael, Lance Bland, Costas Maranas, Michael Goldfine, Mike Renz, Andrew Maguire, Jaimie Wright, Adam Ilgen, David Lloyd, Sara Noss, and Marty Mazur got to the track.
 
We’ve been doing longer reps to prepare for mOUnTaiNBACK and the Half for several months. Time to start ramping up for the short stuff, like the upcoming First Night 5K and the Indoor Mile Series. Bwana teed up the indoor benchmark: NX3X300 at mile + race pace. Do a set of 3X300 with only about 80 m rest between 300s. Take about 500 meters rest between sets.Try to work the 300s hard so that the last one in each set is a strain to keep your rep times consistent. Do N = 3 or 4 sets of them, You’ll be ready come Mile time.
 
Thursday Track is winding down for the year, but there’s still one more “workout” Join the Crew next week for the annual Jingle Bell Jog / Look Back  - Look Forward. It’s about a 5 mile run from Rec Hall to the track for a per-FUNK-tory workout, then through town (with a few stops) and then up to the best view in downtown State College. Come join us. The pace is accommodating, and it’s a lot of fun!

Thursday Track Report: More Than Half Thankful

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Written by Bwana Bwana

November 20, 2014

Things are warming up, but it still feels like February outside after the arctic blast we got starting on Monday. With stiff breezes and sub-freezing temperatures, it was a bit cold for a productive outdoor workout. So Jim Myers, Tom Cali, Judd Michael, Costas Maranas, Mike Capser, Michael Goldfine, Andy Maguire, Mike Martin, Mike Renz, Dana Todd, Jim Laudermilch, newcomer Tom, Rich Harter, Adam Ilgen, David Lloyd, Sara Noss, and Marty Mazur headed for the track. Meira Minard actually did a lap on the outdoor track while waiting for the group that was tapering for the Philly Marathon as they did their customary check-in with Bwana.

Bwana had the Crew do Half of what they should be doing for their long pace workout of the week if they’re doing the Half-Marathon in two weeks. The workout is a modification of repeat 800s and by this time you should be running 8 or so of them at a consistent 10K+ race pace. Due to time constraints, Bwana prescribed 4, but those with the time were free to do more. The familiar modification is: 3-4-4-3 laps on the indoor track. Do the first two reps, 3 laps, then 4, in lane 5. These two distances bracket an 800, which is 3.5 laps in the outer lanes. Try to maintain a consistent pace going from 3 to 4 laps with a 2 lap rest between the reps. Then, for the second pair, do 4 laps then 3 (after a 2 lap rest) in lane 6, maintaining the same per-lap pace at this longer lap distance. And try to push it hard on that last 3 lapper. If you were doing the full workout, you’d give yourself a nice rest, then repeat the whole thing!

Thanksgiving will be taking the Thursday slot next week. Time to tote up the things we are grateful for. Health, good times (on the race course and off!), the fact that we don’t live in Buffalo… The Thursday Track workout on December 4 will be an easy taper for the Half. If anyone wants to get in a final track workout before the Half, I may be heading to the track early next week. That is, unless the temps get close to 60, like they just might!

Thursday Track Report: Tapering

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Written by Bwana Bwana

December 4, 2014

It was cold and cloudy, but not too windy. So those who absolutely can’t stand to run inside - Torrie Raisch, Meira Minard, and Seth the Pool Boy, stayed on the outdoor track while Tom Cali, Judd Michael, Lance Bland, Randy Jepson, Mike Casper, Costas Maranas, Dana Todd, Michael Goldfine, Andrew Maguire, Mike Renz, Mike Martin, Rich Harter, David Lloyd, Sara Noss, and Marty Mazur headed indoors.

Everybody’s tapering. Some are tapering for one last big race, the Nittany Valley Half-Marathon, coming up on Sunday. And some are “between-tapering”: resting from their Philly performances while girding for the NV Half. And some are tapering off their year and aren’t even thinking about running. Maybe upping their Christmas Party training instead, downing some cold ones instead of hitting the cold pavement. But one of our old running friends, Beth Herndon, is pretty good at keeping up both sides of her training. Beth is a former Penn State grad student who ran for PSU in grad school during her last year of NCAA eligibility. She was also a member of the NVRC and excelled in our Indoor Mile Series (2012 champ), the Draft Challenge Relay (Two-time captain and 2nd place in 2009), and won numerous local races. She also participated in our unofficial Martha Miles, which were beer miles. What’s that you say? Run a mile broken into quarters, drinking a beer before starting each quarter. Well, Beth is the new Flotrack Women’s World Champion beer miler. On Wednesday, she dominated a strong field including the world record holder, and won by over 11, smashing the World Record on the way. Congratulations, Beth! Or shall we say, Cheers!

To help the taperers, and in honor of Beth’s record, Bwana gave a 4 X 400 workout. Runners were encouraged to hit the water fountain hard before each lap, and down a good 12 ounces of water to have some idea, by rep 4, of what Beth felt like nearing the end of her record run.

Thursday Track Report: Changeable

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Written by Bwana Bwana

November 13, 2014

November is changeable, and usually about this time of year there comes a day when some people do an outdoor workout and some move to the indoor track. That day was today. Overdressed people who didn’t care about the cold wind slowing them down included Jim Myers, Bob Cornwall, Lance Bland, Andrew Maguire, and Jaimie Wright. Michael Goldfine, Judd Michael, Dana Todd, Rich Harter, Adam Ilgen, David Lloyd, Ron Cunfer, and Marty Mazur moved inside. And Tom Cali, Mike Renz, Mike Martin, and CJ Wagner made the rounds to both places, then went on a long run.

Last year’s Winter was so long and this year’s seems to want to make such an early entrance that it seemed like Bwana was just at the indoor track yesterday. Bwana opened the back door of the MSF and shouted the workout down to Jaimie, who was the first arriving outdoor runner. The workout: a downward ladder. The indoor version: 5-4-3-2 laps with 2 lap rests and increasing pace per lap as you progress down the ladder. Start at 5K+ pace and finish at slightly faster than mile race pace.

The long range forecast has highs mostly in the 30s for quite awhile. Hopefully, we’ll get a respite in a few weeks at about the time of the Half. Then it’ll be time to sharpen the blades on the snowblower!