Thursday Track Report: Season For Sandbagging
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- Written by Bwana Bwana
August 15, 2013
Summer was bluffing back in July, coming on like a boss, acting all hot and heavy. But it was all bluster. It's been mild as a child the last few weeks, and now it's downright Septembery. Jim Myers, Tom Cali, Lance Bland, Judd Michael, Costas Maranas, George Lesieutre, Dana Todd, Kevin Becker, Jeff Welsh, Dean Capone, Rob Shaver, John Wilcock, Sara Noss, Torrie Raisch, Charlie Vassey, John Pringle, Lee Culver, Ron Cunfer, David Lloyd, C. J. Wagner, and Marty Mazur headed for the track under mostly sunny skies, mild (high 60s) temperatures, and a dewpoint well down in the 40s (that's low humidity for you Bellefusians). Jim Laudermilch showed up after the Crew warmed up the track for a second wave.
There are a couple of kinds of bluffing. The flipside of bluster is sandbagging. That means underselling what'cha got, and then coming back with a big wallop when the bluff takes. The risk in poker is that nobody buys it and you're left with nothing when you cash in your cards. There's a lot of sandbagging going on right now among the top contenders for a slot among the Draft Challenge Relay Captains. And there is no downside to sandbagging in the race for DCR Captain, which is why everybody does it. To give everybody else a taste of the skill needed to sandbag, Bwana gave a workout where there is a downside risk for sandbaggers: 6X1 lap with progressive staggers. Start in Lane 2 and run a lap. Don't go too fast! 5K race pace at most! Rest 200m, then move out a lane. Now you have to meet or better your time from Lane 2. Repeat until you get to Lane 7, always making or bettering your time from the previous lane. Those staggers add up! You end up running an extra 30 meters or so in the last lap than in the first, in at most the same time! The downside risk is that if you super-sandbag on Lane 1 and don't try too hard afterward, you get NO workout. But most people can't keep up the facade and bite off too big an improvement on one of the inner Lanes. Then they have to live up to that bump. And, did I mention? If you miss your mark, you get a "penalty lap".
The DCR is "officially" closed, but if you still want in, time to stop hiding your light under a bushel while sitting on it (that's called "Biblical sandbagging"). If you get your bio in before the Draft, there may be enough participants for another team,which you'll be on. The downside risk is, if there aren't enough, you sit on a sub-list. But train anyway!
Thursday Track Report: Back In The Fold
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- Written by Bwana Bwana
August 8, 2013
We're in peak vacation time right now. It was Bwana's turn last week, and Dana and several others were missing this week. Last week, the Crew carried on in Bwana's absence, and quite well, actually. His sources let him know that last week's workout was up and down a ladder totaling 4000 meters! That makes Bwana's usual 3K seem like the kiddie pool! Well, it was definitely a swim today, warm quite humid, as Tom Cali, Judd Michael, Michael Goldfine, Rob Shaver, Jake Clements, Ron Cunfer, Lee Culver, Charlie Vassey, Tony Huang, Kathy Koetje-Simin, Jeff Welsh, Kevin Becker, Sara Noss, Jim Laudermilch, David Lloyd, and Marty Mazur headed for the track.
Bwana decided to test the Crew's fortitude by giving the Fortitude Workout: NX(400-200): Run a 400 at 5K+ place, take a short 100m jogging rest, then do the 200 at 5K++ pace (that's almost a sprint). Take a slow 400 m rest and do it again. Bwana set the minimum at N=4, but some in the crew did 5 or more. After a week at the beach, Bwana felt like he did well to get through 4!
The Mt. Nittany Marathoners are putting in their last long runs this weekend and next. At the same time, Tussey mOUnTaiNBACK training season will be ramping up. There's enough out there to keep us all busy. But remember, the shorter races, like this weekend's Easter Seals 5K and 10K, and next weekend's Herbie's Hometown Loop, keep us all sharp. And Thursday Track is a great way to prepare for those. As you come off vacation, fold the Track into your week!
Thursday Track Report: Great Expectations
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- Written by Bwana Bwana
July 18, 2013
After the long, cool, rainy start to early Summer, the last couple of weeks have been unexpectedly steamy. But, whadaya expect? Arts Fest marks the beginning of the real puke part of Summer, and it didn't disappoint. In the Arts Fest races, the 5K was "doable", the 10K saw the swelter swat a few down, and the revived 10 Miler met all expectations: it was barely survivable. What wasn't expected was the light turnout at Track. It was near 90 under mostly sunny skies with high humidity as Tom Cali, Judd Michael, George Lesieutre, Mike Martin, Dana Todd, Kevin Becker, Jim Laudermilch, David Lloyd, Aisling Ryan, and Marty Mazur, 9 stalwarts in all, headed for the track.
Bwana normally likes to pamper his charges, and on a hot day usually delivers short stuff like 200s for the workout. But unexpectedly, he announced something a little longer: 6X400, though at 5K (not "5K+" pace). Trying to keep the 200m rests within a consistent time was actually tougher than running the 400s moderately hard. We had a light breeze and occasional, unexpected cloud screen to thank for respite. But despite the blessed breaths and occasional occlusions, there was some grumbling and even an unexpected profanity (who knew George swore?) Well, next week looks to be cooler and maybe we won't have to deal with so much f**king sun! (I'll bet you didn't expect that!)
There's really no reason to wuss out on Thursday Track. Bwana scales his workouts according to conditions and hasn't lost a Tracker yet! So keep your Summer training going, and your Fall race times will be good…unexpectedly!
Thursday Track Report: See You In September
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- Written by Bwana Bwana
July 25, 2013
We had about 25 people show up at the track a couple of weeks ago for no really good reason. Then last week saw numbers drop, and Bwana attributed it to the hellacious conditions of the day. But now that September has descended 6 weeks early, Bwana expected big numbers. So...Judd Michael, Bob Cornwall, George Lesieutre, Andy Maguire, Mark Fedkin, Andy Cunningham, Jeff Welsh, Kevin Becker, Dana Todd, Jim Laudermilch, Torrie Raisch, Amy Blake, Sara Noss, Aisling Ryan, David Lloyd, Joel Niemann, and Marty Mazur, just 16, showed up at the track. What's with that? Oh, yeah. Everybody's at the beach!
With cool temperatures, light breezes, and drier air, conditions were right for doing long reps. So Bwana called NX1K at 5K+ pace with "medium" rests (400m slow jog). That would have been really hard last week in 90 degree heat, but this week's weather was ideal. Most made N=3, but a few just kept going. Who knows, maybe they're still at the track! When September sneaks into July for a couple of days, you might as well take advantage of it!
Bwana will be in balmier climes next week. But Thursday Track will go on without him. By then, time will have traveled backward to August. People will be finishing off their training for September's Nittany Marathon, or starting to rev up for the mOUnTaiNBACK, and the track can be a part of that. But let's not rush October!
Thursday Track Report: Stick-To-It-Iveness
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- Written by Martin Mazur Martin Mazur
July 10, 2013
Could it be that after all the murkiness, stickiness, rain, hail, and all-around yuck we’ve been getting the last two weeks that summer has turned a corner? Of course! It’s Arts Fest week and somebody around here has made the proper sacrifices to the Arts Fest gods. It was mostly sunny with warm temperatures, bearable humidity, and a gentle breeze as Tom Cali, Bob Cornwall, Judd Michael, Lance Bland, Costas Maranas, Dean Capone, Andrew Webb, Rob Shaver, Mark Fedkin, Allison Machnicki, Jen Naymick, Andy Cunningham, Jeff Welsh, Fred Wright, Jon Thurley, Mike Martin, Dave Miller, Aisling Ryan, David Lloyd, Joel Niemann, Dana Todd, Amy Blake, and Marty Mazur headed for the track.
Bwana welcomed back Dave Miller, who was a regular at the track until an injury a few years ago. Amy Blake is returning from an injury of her own, though not as long term. It’s been a few months. Allison Machnicki also stopped by for a first time in a while. And we welcomed newcomer Aisling Ryan. Aisling is getting to be an accomplished ultramarathoner, but needs to get a little faster. It turns out that the biggest thing that’s keeping her from completing the ever-longer ultras she enters is not training or stick-to-it-iveness, but time. She often misses the time cutoffs and has to drop out after, say, “only” 80 miles of a 100 mile race.
Well, weather was improving, attendance was high, so, since things were looking up, Bwana gave an upward ladder: 200-400-600-800-1000. The rest was short: 200 after the 200 and 400, 400 after the 600 and 800. The idea here was to run *all* reps at roughly the same 5K+ race pace. That meant starting with the 200 at what seemed like a slow trot. The upward ladder is actually much harder to do right than the downward, where though you are trying to kick up the pace each rep, the distance is going down each rep as well. Here, it’s all about foresight, knowing your conditioning pace, and trying to stick to it as each rep gets longer.
Having gotten over the hump of some pretty nasty, steamy, early summer weather, can we stick to it through August? This weekend looks to be nice for visiting the Arts Fest, but the race itself might be a bit on the warm side. And early next week, things will get warmer yet (and more sticky). So stick to it.