Thursday Track Report: Sidestepping Cowflops

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Written by Bwana Bwana

October 30, 2014

On Tuesday, it was nearly 80 degrees. Today, a good 25 degrees cooler. What do you want for Halloween e’en, or, as we call it around here, “Official State College Beggars’ Night Because - Football”. Lance Bland, Mike Casper, Randy Jepson, Costas Maranas, Meira Minard and her pool boy Seth, Mark and Nikita Fedkin, Michael Goldfine, CJ Wagner, Mike Martin, John Affleck, Mike Zimmerman, Dana Todd, Jim Laudermilch, Rich Harter, David Lloyd, Sara Noss, and Marty Mazur headed for the track under cloudy skies and definitely-not-short-sleeve temperatures.

Not only are the days getting shorter, but the time to the Nittany Half is shortening, too. Five Thursdays, including today, might just be enough time to ramp up some high-volume workouts. Last week was 3X1K. This time, Bwana gave a small bump up to 4X800 at 10K+ with 200m rests. Short recovery, so keep the pace steady, but not much faster than what you’ll be running on 5 weeks from Sunday.

Meirkat keeps using her charms to pull people off on runs up and down cow-patty strewn hills, over boulder fields, and the across the tarp covered swimming pools of Houserville. As if mixing it up once a week without worrying about side-stepping rattlesnakes and cowflop isn’t an actually inviting idea! Do your pace workouts any way you want, but they help!

Thursday Track Report: Topping Off

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Written by Bwana Bwana

October 16, 2014

It was the last chance to train for the mOUnTaiNBACK. Yes, despite the fact that we should be done with our training, everybody but the ultras and supras has a personal strategy for topping off their training a few days before the race. Something they use to blow the carbon off their pistons, shoot a little (hopefully not blue) smoke out their tailpipe, and rev up the engine, all hopefully without tweaking an injury. Jim Myers, Bob Cornwall, Lance Bland, Costas Maranas, Meira Minard, Esther Prins, Paula Jech, Mike Martin, Mike Zimmerman, Dana Todd, Jim Laudermilch, David Lloyd, and Marty Mazur headed for the track in mild mid-October air under partly cloudy skies.

Bwana had a 1 PM meeting, so was at the track early. After a warm-up, he ran one hard mile at what he hopes was only a little faster than his race day pace on each of his Legs. If it was a LOT faster, his team’s in trouble, but Bwana belched a trail of smoke and fumes just to get it done. Costas was working on assuring himself a calf injury by doing a few mile repeats at 6:20. When the rest of the Crew got there, Bwana gave a roll-your-own workout, and all proceeded to to just that. Meira and Esther proceeded back out the track gate for an easy 5 (Meira doesn’t want to risk injury by running on anything flat).

Even though it’s a done deal that Mark Fedkin’s team will win the DCR (despite having a boat anchor as their last pick), Bwana wishes everyone good luck and and lots of fun competing for second.

Thursday Track Report: Are You Feeling Lucky?

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Written by Bwana Bwana

October 23, 2014

No time to stop. Yes, it’s 4 days after the mOUnTaiNBACK, time to celebrate. But this is the peak of race season. Some people have 5Ks, marathons, and half-marathons to conquer before the snow flies. So, on a cloudy, breezy Fall afternoon, Bob Cornwall, Tom Cali, Lance Bland, Michael Goldfine, Andy Maguire, CJ Wagner, Mike Zimmerman, John Affleck, Meira Minard, Esther Prins, Jaimie Wright, Sara Noss, Rich Harter, Andrew Ilgen, David Lloyd, and Marty Mazur headed for the track.

With the Nittany Half just 6 weeks away, we'll be lucky to get enough training in before the Half. Bwana gave the jump start workout for half-marathon training: 3X1K at 10K+ race pace with 400m rest. Of course, everybody groaned, before, during, and after the workout. But they’ll thank Bwana, as they always do. Especially when next week’s workout builds on this!

It’s time to start laying odds as to when we have to move indoors. Last year, it was just before the Jingle Bell Run. Will we make it until Christmas? Or will it be snowing next week? Place your bets!

Thursday Track Report: Employing The Right Workout Strategy

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Written by Bwana Bwana

October 9, 2014

It was a great October day for a track workout. Sunny, cool, dry, and breezy, with a backdrop of blue skies and colorful trees. Jim Myers, Tom Cali, Bob Cornwall, Lance Bland, Costas Maranas, John Sheakoski, Meira Minard, Michael Goldfine, Rob Shaver, Paula Jech, Jim Laudermilch, Andy Maguire, Mark and Nikita Fedkin, Mike Renz, John Affleck, Rich Harter, Adam Ilgen, David Lloyd, Sara Noss, and Marty Mazur got to the track ready for a good Fall workout, the last hard workout before mOUnTaiNBACK.

As for the workout, Bwana gave away some personal information that can be used to steal his identity (if anyone would want that!): his employee badge number at the first job he had out of college: 84844. The workout was 800-400-800-400-400 at 5K+ pace with just 200 meters between each rep. That second 800 is pretty hard to do as fast as the first one, but you should try to make those last two 400s increasingly faster, and faster than that first 400.

Allison Machnicki and Torrie Raisch are training for something, but apparently the regimen doesn’t involve the track. Bwana saw them jogging on Park Avenue on his way to the track. C’mon gals! Track, two-a-days, they’re part of the secret of training for relays and long races. Sara Noss just ran a PR half-marathon. Her secret: not skimping on track, and topping it off with an evening run in the mountains!