The Answer Is Blowin' In The Wind

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Written by Bwana Bwana

How many runners will take to streets when the gusts are blowin' over 40? The answer, my friend, is 32. It was super-duper windy, with freshmen skittering down Curtin and cows tipping over in the fields behind the law school as John Domico, Tom Cali, Greg Dillon, Shawn Kelly, John Sheakoski, Greg Luna, Nick Downs, Frank Zaffino, Ken Davis, Marty Klanchar, Andrew Webb, Lance Bland, Costas Maranas, Mark Fedkin, Jamie Volkert, John Wilcock, Paul Lammert, Tara Murray, Mark Lee, George Lesieutre, Michael Goldfine, Ann Skulas-Ray, Jessica Charles, Ron Cunfer, Jim, Lee Culver, Dana Todd, John Schmidt, Mark and Mary Hilliard, Jerry Steffy, and Marty Mazur headed for the track.

Right off, let me say that George Lesieutre, Paul Lammert, and Tara Murray, three of the lightest people in the group, went and ran on the outside track. Tara says they did 7X800, and considering they finished not too long after the rest of us (who did less than half their workout), they must have employed kites. It's just amazing that they weren't whipped into the next county. The "bulk" of the crew did 6X2 lap half-tandem runs (you run with a partner for 1 of your 2 laps to keep you honest) on the indoor track. Two laps is about 450 meters.

It was a huge turnout (31 people), so there aren't too many who need to endure Bwana's bluster. As a matter of fact, I think I'll blow that off today. We're looking forward all of us going to the outdoor track, the sooner the better.

Tanking

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Written by Bwana Bwana

Spring was still a long way off, so John Domico, Tom Cali, John Sheakoski, Marty Klanchar, Ken Davis, Lance Bland, George Lesieutre, Frank Zaffino, Mark Lee, Paul Lammert, Mark Traband, Bob Cornwall, Shawn Kelly, Joel Niemann, John Wilcock, Mark Fedkin, Nick Downs, Julie Grubb, Dana Todd, Mark Hilliard, Mike Casper, Jessica Charles, Lee Culver, newcomer Dave Miller, and Marty Mazur headed for the MSF track.

Bwana took Ken Davis's suggestion and called for an NX400 workout, where N was 12 for Ken and 6 for everyone else. A few of the crew did their own crazy marathon training workout: 2 Mile + 2X1 Mile + 2X 800, but at a pace about 80 seconds a mile faster than their marathon pace. Have Domico explain the rationale for this insanity if you're curious.

Big-time kudos today goes to Jessica Charles, who is showing remarkable improvement. Despite the fact that she ran her quarters 7 to 20 seconds slower than Bwana, she still inexorably gained ground on him through the workout. Her recovery was very quick. This shows that she still had a little in the tank to be able to hurry through the recovery lap. The program for next time for her will be to run the repeats even harder.

Several Trackers have a real lot left in the tank because the car doesn't leave the garage. Ron Cunfer thinks the mpg calculation can be done with a 0 in the numerator as well as the denominator. He'll need to brush up on l'Hôpital's rule. Dave Moore is draining the tank of coffee in the grad student lounge. Tara Murray thinks that listening to the high-pitched whine of Neil Young on her iPod will propel her to a sub-6 mile tomorrow. No tanks. And Greg Luna is trying to cash in on all the Yaktrak yackity-yak by making some new-fangled snow-shows with tank treads.

Facing The Music

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Written by Bwana Bwana

Despite the fact that several of tomorrow's Indoor Mile competitors didn't come, and that it was cold and windy out, a big group decided to face the music and head to the track today. Tom Cali, John Domico, Lance Bland, Ken Davis, John Sheakoski, Nick Downs, Frank Zaffino, Tom Hilands, Paul Lammert, Costas Maranas, Mark Fedkin, Mark and Mary Hilliard, Jamie Volkert, John Wilcock, Marv Hall, Michael Goldfine, Dana Todd and newcomer Jim, John Pringle, Ron Cunfer, Lee Culver, Dave Miller, Mark Lee, Jerry Steffy, and Marty Mazur all found their way to the track.

Bwana called the tune: an ascending scale of 2-3-4-5 laps. The trick was to try to keep the same pitch through the whole arpeggio. After the 5-lapper, many of the runners were wheezing like an abused squeezebox and crying like a deranged street-corner hurdy-gurdy.

On a low note, Bwana was disappointed with some of tomorrow's milers who weren't there polishing their bows for the last big race. We hope that Tara Murray can still have a major achievement with her minor investment. We hope Marty Klanchar's rest leaves him augmented for tomorrow's run, rather than with diminished stamina. As for the rest of the no-shows, all Bwana can say is that they'll be in treble next time they show up at the track!

Package Tour

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Written by Bwana Bwana

The weather was nice, which bode well for a good turnout at the track today. John Domico, Beth Herndon, John Sheakoski, Lance Bland, Marty Klanchar, Ann Skulas-Ray, Frank Zaffino, Tim Aydin, Paul Lammert, Greg Dillon, newcomer Shawn Kelly, Nick Downs, Jamie Volkert, Tom Hilands, Mark Fedkin, Andy Arndt, Tara Murray, Stephanie Serriere, Dana Todd, John Wilcock, Mark Traband, Michael Goldfine, Dave DeGroote, Mike Casper, and Marty Mazur headed to the MSF as one big unit. Studmuffin Randy Jepson and Tom Cali, the weeny, had done a workout earlier at the Rec Hall track, but Tom came along to the MSF to make it longer.

After some blush-making comments about Bwana's running tights at Rec Hall, Bwana made sure that he had on some looser gear when he started his workout. Didn't want any of the ladies getting whiplash during Bwana's priapic peregrinations. Bwana had a pretty stiff workout in mind today: the Indoor Benchmark, the low recovery NX3X300. It's a tough workout to tackle. Nobody's nuts about this one, but when you sign up as a member of the Thursday Track Crew, you take the whole package.

A few runners were missing from today's bulging turnout. Jessica Charles was trying out some wedding gowns (Vera Wang?). Judd Michael was working on another proposal. He is such a tool. John Pringle and Sherry Tirko gave Bwana the shaft again. And Greg Luna, Costas Maranas, Marv Hall, and Julie Grubb were at Herwig's for lunch today. Sausage special.