Thursday Track Report: A Tweet Workout
- Details
- Written by Bwana Bwana
August 9, 2012
It was hot and steamy again, but that didn't keep the track birds, Jim Myers, Judd Michael, Lance Bland, Randy Jepson, Kevin Becker, Esther Prins, Blake Cohen, Rich Harter, Jake Clements, Joel Niemann, Jaimie Wright, and Marty Mazur, from migrating. #dedicatedtwits. Even some of the shirkers, including Tom Cali, Martha Nelson, Mike Renz, Bob Cornwall, did a fly-by. #wheresmeira.
Pre-workout, the group was all atwitter about the Captain Choosing for the DCR. Pre-Draft intelligence has at least 4 Captain positions sewn up, with the remaining 3 (or 4?) up for grabs among half a dozen contenders. Bwana didn't want to spend the whole lunch hour pecking this to death. He ruffled some feathers by giving the NX3X300 workout: N sets of 3X300 with a short rest (100m) between each 300 in the set. Most runners did N=3 without much squawking. As the Trackers did their not-so-lazy circles, Bwana caught sight of a buzzard keeping station over the track. But, despite the heat, his services were not called on. #lifeisgood.
Bwana feels like crowing. While people aren't exactly flocking to the track, It looks like track attendance is on the upswing. With the end of summer vacation season approaching, and mOUnTaiNBACK and Fall marathon training about to rev up, we may see numbers in the 20s or more again. #hopespringseternal.
Thursday Track Report: Pukeless Thursday
- Details
- Written by Bwana Bwana
August 2, 2012
The temperature was moderated my some clouds, a breeze, and lower humidity as Michael Goldfine, Judd Michael, Dana Todd, Kirk Rager, Joel Niemann, Rich Harter, Blake Cohen, Mark Dent, Kim and Colin Nelson, newcomer Jake Clements, and Marty Mazur headed for the track.
In the last few weeks, Bwana felt he had to moderate his workouts in order to ward off an appearance by EMT crews. This week, with milder conditions, Bwana was charged by Colin Nelson's mom, Kim, to "see if you can make him puke". Colin is a D3 collegiate soccer player and Kim has been trying to get him to show up at Thursday Track to get his legs turning again. Bwana gave the "Fortitude Workout": 4X(400-200) with a short (100m) rest between the hard 400 and the harder 200. Newcomer Jake showed that he'll be up with the faster group if he becomes a regular. Colin got his fast-twitch muscles going, but was not challenged to puke. The guy can run all day. Maybe he just needs to run his splits harder.
Is this the turnaround in the summer weather? Bwana's sure it will oscillate as we had toward September, but the trend will be toward more comfortable workouts. So that means more challenging workouts! mOUnTaiNBACKers will want to start thinking of two-a-days starting in just a few weeks! More challenging, but a step back from puking level. Start showing up for Pukeless Thursdays!
Thursday Track Report: Summer Schlep
- Details
- Written by Bwana Bwana
July 19, 2012
It was soupy, with a hint of later storms as Judd Michael, Ken Davis, Michael and Kelson Goldfine, Rich Harter, Mark Dent, and Marty Mazur headed for the track. Bwana put his finger in the air and sensed that there was still a little too much ozone in the air to push through a hard workout.
Kelson Goldfine, after schlepping around Europe with a back-pack, is back with Mom and Pop and prepping for her next season at Ithaca College. Bwana made sure her first day back at the track was not an embarrassment: Kelson easily outpaced Bwana, who was schlepping his carcass around the track after his own track hiatus, in the workout du jour: the Double Mini-Front Loader. That's 2X(800-200-200-200). Run the 800 at 5K+ pace, but don't go all out because you'll be running 3X200 while recovering from the 800, with only 100m rest after the 8 and between the 2s. The goal is to run your 200s hard, starting at about the pace you finished your 8 and getting faster with each one. Take a longer rest, then do it again.
Track attendance was light, as it usually is during the summer. But Mike Casper showed up to say howdy even though he's fighting an injury. Maybe he wanted to see how early training is going for the mOUnTaiNBACK. But, believe it or not, serious mOUnTaiNBACK training time (the Discovery Series) is just around the corner. That means two-a-days on Thursdays for Bwana. How about you? It can't help but help!
Thursday Track Report: Hell-ter Skelter
- Details
- Written by Bwana Bwana
July 26, 2012
It seems like the hottest day of the week wants to be Thursday every week. A hardy crew consisting of Jim Myers, Lance Bland, Kevin Becker, Sara Noss, Amy Blake, Rich Harter, Dana Todd, Kirk Rager, and Marty Mazur headed for the track under hazy skies with temperatures flirting with 90 and the dew point around 70.
It was helter-skelter in the summer swelter as Bwana called the workout (in a coat he borrowed from James Dean): three person 8X200 relays. This is a little different than recent workouts. The 200s are meant to be run *hard* since each runner gets to rest while his two teammates each complete their runs. But the rest was distressingly short with the likes of Kevin Becker doing his 200s in the low 30s, and even Jim Myers (pushing 60) pushing 37 on his half-circuits. The two gals wondered what in Hades they'd gotten themselves into, but were all-in till the end.
Mike Casper showed up with a few mOUnTaiNBACK T-shirts for the Crew to model. Unfortunately, he was a little late to catch the pre-game, when the runners were not yet soaked in sweat. By the time he showed, any shirt would have been indelibly skankified by any of the Crew who touched it. Mike will have to ask for models who don't work so hard in the July sun!
Thursday Track Report: Particle Soup
- Details
- Written by Bwana Bwana
July 5, 2012
The Higgs field was thicker than quark soup as George Lesieutre, Ken Davis, Dana Todd, Kirk Rager, Kevin Becker, Rob Peterson, and Marty Mazur headed to Penn State's Huge Hadron Collider for a smashing good time.
Bwana wanted to carry out his experiments without too many undesirable collision by-products, such as trips up the hill to the ER. So he gave out his hot-weather special: NX200 with 200 meter jogging rests and the 200s run 150m at 5K+ pace with the last 50m at full sprint. As soon as we fired up the collider, crazy things started happening. Up quarks, Down quarks, and even sideways quarks were scattered about by Bwana's bottom quark. Ken Davis provided the strangeness we lacked from Goldfine's absence. But, sadly the charm quarks were missing yet again. All the same, we were in uncharted territory when the runners hit their last 50 meters. For a yoctosecond toward the end of his last push, Bwana felt a shudder in the field and, looking back, saw the elusive, supermassive Higgs boson, flopping across the infield. It was either that or his breakfast.
Well, now that the Higgs has been found, on to the next step in validating Bwana's Theory of Everything. Bwana has it from several sources that the spritely combination of charm and bottom quarks (but no top quarks) known as the Minard Meson is closer to showing her elusive face at the collider. And she'll no doubt be trailing a posse of particles, the "Huge Hadrons", in her wake.