Thursday Track Report: He's Not Fibbing!
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- Written by Bwana Bwana
November 17, 2011
The track workout season is winding down, but it's still not too bad weather for long pace workouts and tempo runs. Nonetheless, turnout was on the light side, with only a dozen runners making a showing. Jim Myers, John Domico, Judd Michael, Lance Bland, Bob Cornwall, Mike Casper, Andrew Webb, Michael Goldfine, Adam Smith, Andy Maguire, Dean Capone, and Marty Mazur headed to the track under drab skies with temperatures in the mid-30s. Marty Klanchar came down with the crew but his hamstring is still not ready for the track, so he continued on a longer street run.
Bwana is in the midst of his Half-Marathon training regimen, so he has been doing increasing numbers of 800s. Last week it was 5X800. h=His idea was to run NX800, with N at least 6, with short (200m) rest at slightly faster than race pace. Most of the rest of the crew was, surprisingly, OK with that. Bwana filled out the equation with N=7. Domico is obviously training to put his mark on the Half. He wasn't doing 800s, but whatever he was doing, he was still doing them as Bwana left the track.
Two more track workouts until the Half. That means two more chances for some of the prodigals to do some crash training. Is there such a thing for a half-marathon? Maybe they'll be relying on mOUnTaiNBACK residuals. Bwana will be there next week to pace some of the laggards through more 800s. What's the next term in the sequence: 5X800, 7X800, ?X800? If you said 9, well, that would be too easy. It's a Fibonacci sequence, so…12!
Thursday Track Report: Post-Armageddon
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- Written by Bwana Bwana
November 10, 2011
Well, it was actually Mid-Armageddon on a cold, cloudy, breezy day as Tom Cali, Judd Michael, Lance Bland, Randy Jepson, Tom Hilands, Michael Goldfine, Marv Hall, Jon Thurley, Mike Renz, Adam Smith, Andy Maguire, Mike Casper, Dana Todd, Jim Laudermilch, Kirk Rager, Rich Harter, Dave DeGroote, and Marty Mazur headed past a gauntlet of media and dazed Penn Staters. The fall-out of the Sandusky scandal was still unfolding. Meira Minard also made a mystery appearance at the track, though without her red box of tricks, nor even her running gear. Oh, and Janet Jonson favored us with an appearance by her mittens.
Bwana decided to give the trackers something to get their minds off of it, for at least a half an hour or so. The workout was NX800 at 5K-10K pace with short (200 m) rest. Unlike last week's workout of 400s, the Crew hewed closer to the time benchmark. I think it was the "twice the run with the same rest" part of the whole thing. Bwana did 5X800. Others may have done another or two.
Over the next couple of weeks, Bwana will be doing workouts to help him get ready for the Nittany Valley Half. Probably lots of 800s and longer. Hopefully, the rest of you also have this, the last race of the 2011 Series, on your calendars. But unless you want the Spiral of Death to be your personal Armageddon, you'll need to come to the track!
Thursday Track Report: Buncha Eedjits
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- Written by Bwana Bwana
October 27, 2011
Bwana drove to the track today and parked up near the MSF, thinking that if no one (or only intelligent people) showed up, he'd head into the MSF for some indoor miles. After all, it was breezy, rainy, and cold. But when he looked down at the track, he saw a few idiots warming up. Bwana jogged over to see who it was and by the time he got to the track, thought "Hey, this ain't so bad" (i.e. "Hey, I'm an idiot, too.") The group was soon joined by more idiots, and by 12:25 Jim Myers, John Domico, Lance Bland, Randy Jepson, Jim Moore, Meira Minard, Andy Maguire, Michael Goldfine, Rob Shaver, Frank Zaffino, Rich Harter, Dana Todd, Kirk Rager, Jim Laudermilch, and Marty Mazur were running around the track in the rain.
After the "warm-up", Bwana gave the workout: 3X1000 at whatever pace your barely thawed muscles could take. Most of the crew did not push the pace too hard, having done some hard miles in Sunday's Tussey relay. But Kirk Rager impressed us, seeming to suffer no ill-effects from running 50 miles just four days earlier.
Bwana hardly blames the no-shows today. And, in fact, the turnout was pretty good given the conditions and the very recently completed race. But there is still a lot to train for this year! Tara's Give 'Em Five 5 Miler is in just 10 days. And the Nittany Valley Half is but 5 weeks in the future. Time for all serious runners to get their NX800s in, where N should be an increasingly bigger number as the weeks approach December.
Thursday Track Report: Packed In Real Tight
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- Written by Bwana Bwana
November 3, 2011
Pleasant Indian Summer weather was back, with temperatures in the mid 50s, as Jim Myers, Lance Bland, Judd Michael, Randy Jepson, Costas Maranas, Mark Fedkin, Greg Luna, Esther Prins, Mike Casper, newcomers Pat Singletary and Scott Falkner, Andy Maguire, Michael Goldfine, Adam Smith, Rob Shaver, Mike Renz, Dave DeGroote, John Wilcock, Andy Arndt, Rich Harter, Kirk Rager, Rob Peterson, and Marty Mazur headed for the track.
Bwana was on a compressed schedule and, eyeing Costas's compression socks, decided on a compressed workout: 6X400 at a little better than 5K pace, but with short rests (200m, jogging). Apparently, most of the crew thought that the rests were too long, because the pace was a good deal faster than most peoples' 5K paces. Bwana hasn't run a 5K at a sub-6 minute mile pace in, well, ever. And he was bringing up the rear! But despite that, the front group was packed pretty tight. Maybe next time, Bwana will roll out the workout the Tuesday evening group was doing: 12X400 with 100m rests at 5K pace. That'll slow 'em down!
Bwana had a lot going on after lunch, but still made it to the track. But he's sure others had much more going on, which must be why they missed the workout. Marv Hall and Bob Jones were trying to find their way out of the labyrinth of trails in the compressed patch of woods in Pine Hall. Meira Minard was still pulling out all the things that were stuffed in her NVRC Inbox. John Domico and Tom Cali were still trying to do the opposite to one of her other boxes. Bwana says you’d all better get training, otherwise the Nittany Half is gonna box you in the ears!
Thursday Track Report: As Recommended
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- Written by Bwana Bwana
October 20, 2011
It was a blustery day, with stiff breezes down the backstretch and sprinkles on to as Tom Cali, John Domico, Jim Moore, Randy Jepson, John Pringle, Michael Goldfine, Meira Minard, Paula Jech, Martha Nelson, George Lesieutre, Mike Renz, Rich Harter, Dana Todd, Dave DeGroote, Rob Peterson and Marty Mazur headed for the track for their last pre-mOUnTaiNBACK tune up.
Bwana asked multi-time NCAA Division I Gym coach Randy Jepson what kind of workout he'd recommend for top athletes just three days before the big meet. He said, "Well, probably some ring exercises, with biceps taped, of course, and maybe a light pummel horse routine with an iPod for 'package protection', finishing with half an hour in the whirlpool with Mary Lou Retton. But for you guys, I'd say jog back to Rec Hall, take 2 ibuprofen and an iron pill, and sleep till Sunday." Bwana took Randy's recommendation under advisement and gave a light 6X200 accelerations workout. Somehow, everybody got through it.
Bwana wishes that all the DCR teams (and all others) do well, but not as well as the Pythons of the Holy Trail. He knows hard work pays off, and also that the Pythons are the best Falkner team in the DCR. Don't forget to come to the DCR Happy Hour at Zeno's on Friday, 4-7 PM. And give generously to the Bob Perks Fund!