Thursday Track Report: Magnificent 7...And Bwana

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Written by Bwana Bwana

April 12, 2012

Pickin’s were a little slimmer than usual. It was cloudy and mild with not much wind, but still only Jim Myers, Lance Bland, Judd Michael, Michael Goldfine, Rich Harter, Kevin Becker, Dana Todd, and Marty Mazur made the Track workout. A good part of the Crew is heading to Boston this weekend, and a few of them, including Meira and her Booty Boys, stopped by to say “Hi!”. Maybe the rest were saving themselves for one of the races this weekend.

Bwana gave out the Double Mini-Frontloader. It’s actually an easier workout than the name makes it sound: 2X(800-200-200-200) with short (100m) rests after the 800 and each successive 200. The 800 is run hard, but not 100%, and you are recovering from it as you run your 200s at about the same pace or faster. Take a longer rest between the two big sets. Everyone performed magnificently. Dana liked it so much he did a third set!

As mentioned above, quite a few of the Crew will be participating in the Boston Marathon. Most will be running with one of the NVRC Marathoners for Medicine teams, raising money for the Centre Volunteers in Medicine. Some of our runners will also be running on M4M teams in Pittsburgh and the Poconos. You can donate to the cause, either in the name of an individual marathoner or to the team effort, by visiting this page:

https://cvim.ejoinme.org/MyPages/MarathonersforMedicine/tabid/274917/Default.aspx

Read more about the M4M effort here: https://cvim.ejoinme.org/?tabid=330496

Thursday Track Report: Catching Z's

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Written by Bwana Bwana

March 29, 2012

It was what would normally be considered a nice, late March day as Jim Myers, John Domico, Judd Michael, Lance Bland, Ken Davis, George Lesieutre, Andy Maguire, Michael Goldfine, Blake Cohen, and Marty Mazur headed for the track: cloudy, windy, temperatures in the low 40s. But stacked up against the recent early Spring weather, it seemed like a return to the (mild) Winter we had since Christmas. John Wilcock and Mark Lee ran all the way from Minitab for an obligatory loop, but they knew to find us outside. It'll take a while for runners to get used to where we're running as Mother Nature see-saws her way toward summer: Bwana heard rumors that a few people, including Dana Todd and Kirk Rager, decided to make a last visit to the Indoor Track before the good weather is here for good.

Some people suggested 400s, some wanted 800s. Bwana, trying to be all things to all people, made it up on the spot. A new workout he’s never called before, a sawtooth: 400-800-400-800-400 with 200 meter rests after a 400 and 400 meter rests after an 800. The idea is to keep the pace consistent (don’t make the 4s a lot faster than the 8s) and at a little faster than 5K race pace. The short rests help guarantee people don’t get too carried away on the 4s. Of course, some Trackers were there doing the traditional mile repeats for Boston, etc. Zzzzz-Boring!

Speaking of catching z’s, several runners must still be trying to adjust to Daylight Savings Time. While Beth Vigliotti has to deal with a baby’s sleep schedule, old-timer Lee Culver needs someone to wake him up from his nap. And even younger runners get tired if they have several active kids: Frank Rodenbaugh was sawing lumber as Blake Cohen sped by his desk on the way to the Track. And there’s the growing Rec Hall that prefers to Zzzip along with Meira than to head to the track. Someone needs to get that gal a job...

Thursday Track Report: Four By Infinity Sideways

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Written by Bwana Bwana

April 5, 2012

It was dazzlingly sunny as John Domico, Lance Bland, Judd Michael, Bob Cornwall, Martha Nelson, Jon Thurley, Ken Davis, Andy Maguire, Kevin Becker, Rich Harter, Esther Prins, newcomer Amy Blake, and Marty Mazur headed for the track. Monika Houston and Meira Minard also showed up for a bit, but then headed out on a non-track run.

Amy is training for a women's half-marathon that will be held in Niagara Falls, Ontario in June. So Bwana decided to give the most boringly appropriate half-marathon workout, which also works in higher volume for people gearing up for marathons. That's NX800 with low rest. The rest was 200m this time, so runners really couldn't push much faster than 5K race pace. For a half-marathon, the trick is to work up to doing 6-10 of them in consistent times. The thing about long workouts with long intervals: when you start up that mountain, it seems like you'll never, ever finish. But they do get easier and the longer workouts become more enjoyable. We did 4 today. Some of the marathoners were following Domico's lead and doing NX 2 mile.

It was nice seeing Martha today. She is such a natural and was definitely the fastest person on the track today. Did her workout alone, and not because people didn't want to run with her. No one could keep up! I gather Mr. Cali is trying to avoid foot implosion before the marathon and is treating the soreness at Zeno's. The marathon is fast approaching. None of the Boston crew should be at next week's workout (or the one after that) except to get our well-wishes!

Have a Happy Easter, everyone for whom Easter is important.

Thursday Track Report: Recruiting Trip

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Written by Bwana Bwana

March 22, 2012

It was “summery” as John Domico, Andy Maguire, Judd Michael and newcomer Mike DiCarlo, Ken Davis, George Lesieutre, John Wilcock, Kevin Becker, Michael Goldfine, Rich Harter, Esther Prins, Dana Todd, and Marty Mazur headed for the track. Bwana has been on a Spring recruiting trip, and the weather (if not his track stars) has been cooperating. Soon after the Crew got to the track, Beth Vigliotti, her daughter Elise, and husband Olivier Rolin showed up. Beth has been running workouts with us the last couple of weeks while her husband watches little Elise roll around on the grass.

Bwana’s always looking for new recruits, and Judd seems to supply most of them. This time he brought in Mike DiCarlo, a Forest Resources grad student. But for every new recruit, we see to lose one. Beth has hopped right in with some of the faster paced, but she and her family, including budding infield star Elise, will be heading back to the Hershey area in a couple of months. Bwana didn’t help the recruiting campaign by calling out one of his more boring workouts: 3X1000. But it is a good workout for the marathoners, and for those wanting an easy “pace workout” for the Egg Hill 10 Miler this weekend.

Trying to recruit a new class is tough for Bwana with forces lined up against him. Bwana’s current nemesis, the track refusenik Meira Minard, gets bolder by the week. At first she limited her trade to Rec Hall, then started pulling people away on the run down, and now this week she sang her siren song, with her sergeant-at-arms Jon Thurley at her side, right at the track, butting in as Bwana was trying to welcome newcomers! Somebody needs to get Meira a permanent job in the school system!