Thursday Track Report: The End Of The Longest Month
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- Written by Bwana Bwana
February 28, 2013
I guess we COULD have run our workout on the outdoor track today. I was cold (mid 30s) but not windy as John Wilcock, Mark Lee, Ken Davis, Andy Maguire, John Iceland, Michael Goldfine, Garren Katz, Kevin Becker, Jeff Welsh, Dana Todd, Rich Harter, David Lloyd, Fred Wright and newcomer Heidi Wright, Sara Noss, Amy Blake, and Marty Mazur headed for the track. But, what the heck, why break the streak? We haven't been outdoors since before Christmas. Let the indoor season (hopefully) die with February.
There was quite variety of opinion as to what the workout should be today. The Minitab Crew was working on NX1K, but would have switched to 3-person 400 meter relays. Bwana decided to give everyone a little of what they wanted: The Indoor Whitman Sampler. That's a downward ladder: 5-4-3-2 laps with moderate rests and each rep requiring a faster per-lap speed then the last. Bwana made up for last week by actually doing the whole workout and acquitting himself well while not quitting. A couple of others did modifications: Wilcock and Lee kept doing their 1000s. Sara Noss kept going on her 5 lapper to make it a mile (just over 7 laps in lane 5) to make a buzzer beater sub-8 minute (7:38) mile by the end of February. Sara, mile race pace wasn't the point of this workout! But then she did the rest of the workout! And Kevin Becker and Jeff Welsh did a sawtooth workout by going back up the ladder after they'd gone down!
It's nice to see Thursday Track getting some traction (as opposed to track-shun) now that the light of Spring is at the end of the tunnel. We're attracting some new people. If you've ever thought about it, come on down, and bring a friend!
Bwana will be missing from the track for the next two Thursdays. Hopefully, by time he gets back we'll be outdoors until next Winter. My suggestion for next week is NX3X300, the old indoor benchmark. And if you're outdoors, well do it there! And for the following week, some group thing like Indians or Relays.
Thursday Track Report: New Faces And Old
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- Written by Bwana Bwana
February 21, 2013
Old Man Winter doesn't want to leave us. And it's bringing out some of the other Old Men who have been away from the track for awhile. Tom Cali, Judd Michael, Mark Fedkin, Ken Davis, Michael Goldfine, newcomer Garren Katz, Dana Todd, Andy Maguire, Mike Renz, Kevin Becker, Jeff Welsh, John Wilcock, newcomer Fred Wright, John Iceland, Rich Harter, David Lloyd, Ron Cunfer, Sara Noss, Marty Mazur, overwhelmingly an over-40 crowd, headed for the indoor track. But there were some new faces (Garren and Fred) and young ones (Sara and Jeff) in the mix. A sign of Spring?
Bwana brought out one of the indoor standby workouts: 3-4-4-3 laps at 5K+ pace with short rests (one lap) between each rep. The first two reps should be done at the same pace per lap, the second two, faster (if you can). It's hard to get this one right, and even an old hand like Bwana himself got it wrong today, pooping out on the downward side of the trapezoid!
Spring *will* be here, eventually. And we'll be running our workouts outside. And maybe there'll be more new faces! But until then, we'll have to deal with a few more mornings of chills, bluster, and…uggh..."wintry mix".
Thursday Track Report: An Integral Part Of Your Training
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- Written by Bwana Bwana
February 7, 2013
The days of winter are fast adding up to 90, but it still seems like Spring is infinity days away. It was drab and not so cold (30-ish), but Lance Bland, Marty Klanchar, Andy Maguire, Kevin Becker, Jeff Welsh, Dana Todd, John Wilcock, Mark Lee, Michael Goldfine, Rich Harter, David Lloyd, Ron Cunfer, Rob Peterson, Sara Noss, and Marty Mazur figured they'd get a better workout indoors.
While Bwana did his warm-up laps while waiting for the Rec Hall group, Mark Lee and John Wilcock started doing their workout. Bwana asked and found out they were doing Infinity X 400. That just didn't add up, but when you're training for a marathon as John and Mark are, that's what you do: go to the track and do 1 Boat Ton X Some Medium Distance at a repeatable pace that won't leave you hurling over the transom when the boat hits choppy seas. Bwana decided he'd have the rest of the crew do an asymptotic approximation to the infinite: N X 400 at faster than 5K race pace with about 240m rest, where N is at least 6. Bwana did 7 and felt like he could have run forever.
Well, though it feels like it, Winter won't last forever. A guy named Phil told me so. And soon it will be time for Spring 5Ks. So come to the track. Progress will seem infinitesimal at first, but it's an integral part of mathematics: if you push it to the limit, infinitesimals add up!
Thursday Track Report: Valentine's Day With No Heart
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- Written by Bwana Bwana
February 14, 2014
It was sunny with temperatures in the low 30s as Ken Davis, Andy Maguire, Michael Goldfine, Kevin Becker, Jeff Welsh, Lee Culver, John Wilcock, Mark Lee, Rich Harter, David Lloyd, Ron Cunfer, Joel Niemann, Amy Blake, Sara Noss, newcomer John Iceland, and Marty Mazur headed for the track. Despite the fact that it was Valentine's Day, it was pretty clear that everyone is falling out of love with winter and looking forward to the days when the outdoor track is clear.
As long as we're still inside, we'll put our hearts into it. Bwana gave a workout everyone LOVES: NX3X300. The 300s are done fairly hard, between your mile race pace and your 5K pace. The rest between 300s in a set is short, less than 100 meters. After a longer rest, do another sets. Bwana prescribed that his lovelorn lopers NOT do N <3.
Bwana used to reserve the third paragraph to chide the no shows. People were getting the idea that he's a heartless bastard. So Bwana has lightened up, and reserves this space merely to encourage people to come out and put their hearts into it!
Thursday Track Report: Plus Ça Change...
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- Written by Bwana Bwana
January 31, 2013
It could have been March with the change that blew in since yesterday. After a day of mild rain with temperatures near 60, it was blustery and cold, with horizontal snow as Lance Bland, Ken Davis, Dana Todd, Rich Harter, Kevin Becker, Rob Peterson, Dave DeGroote, Andy Maguire, Michael Goldfine, David Lloyd, Joel Niemann, John Sheakoski, Sara Noss, and Marty Mazur headed for the track.
With one more Indoor Mile to go and weeks before the first campus 5K, Bwana didn't want to change things up too much: 3-4-4-3 laps at a nice, stable mile race pace. The crew whipped around the track like a Spring zephyr without much wind to spare.
We'll no doubt get blown around a few more times just getting to the indoor track before we get to run outside. After all, March is still four weeks away. And a lot could change before then.