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No TMBC - 6 to 8 Yasso 800s, 400m jogs

Fellow Endorphin Junkies

Tomorrow will be cool and breezy, with Temps from the upper-50s to the Mid 60s, some humidity, little wind, and a chance of rain if you run real early, but tapering off - a good day to run but not the best, wear a windbreaker and remember to hydrate despite the milder temps! A few of us will be at Yorktown at 8 AM tomorrow, and last week we had some TMBC members before and after the 8 AM workout, so I expect we might see some of you tomorrow at Yorktown, while others will head to McLean or even Falls Church HS for track work since W&L apparently is closed for the time being and requires climbing fences to use. We are in the process of discussing conditions for restarting TMBC and hope to have practices open to some by the end of April – we will let you know when we know.

April 15, 2021 – NO OFFICIAL TMBC – BUT ON THE TRACK ON YOUR OWN: Yasso 800s – 6 to 8 Yasso 800s - at a pace where your expected marathon time in hours and minutes is your 800 pace in minutes and seconds, with 400m easy jogs between each 800 in the exact same time as your 800, not faster or slower

To reiterate how to calculate your 800 time take the hours and minutes of your expected (hoped for) marathon time – in my case three hours and 50 minutes (Dream on!) and convert that to an 800 time of three minutes and 50 seconds, followed by a slow 400m jog in three minutes fifty seconds. It is VERY easy to jog that 400m too fast – but don't do it! Much more critical to run ALL of the 800s at the same pace/time, even as you tire, and fully recover if possible, on that exact same time on the slow 400. Yasso 800s are a favorite of Coach Ed and Coach Big Guy, developed by the legendary Coach Bowman from Oregon who coached Steve Prefontaine – and one of the best workouts you can do for the marathon!

Here is the Coach Rich Club Report:

Greetings Thursday Faithful. A couple of results to report this week and a reminder. I report on all news and results that I can find for our Thursday crew. If I follow you on Strava I will see your runs. I also review club races and other local events but if I am not following you on Strava I would still like to report on your results so just send me a short note with the info via email. Feel free to also give me a quote or some other interesting tidbit about your event or performance. As a reminder, my email address is rich@dcroadrunners.org

At the races last weekend, Kate Scott ran her first solo virtual race, Cherry Blossom 10M. She ran it on the Mt. Vernon Trail from the airport to Alexandria and back. Kate's time was a real nice 1:16:53. She said it was mentally tough going it alone, but she got it done. Well done Kate and congrats!

Ze Dagher was back at it for another EX2 Backyard Burn Series race. This week at Lake Fairfax and the 5M event. He reported that this race had everything: river crossings, hills, roots, rocks and dreaded downhills. Time doesn't matter too much in that kind of terrain but Ze was tough as always with a 46:52 which still got him 11th out of 100 overall. There are great pics of him on his Strava entry. Congrats Ze!

Happy Running!

Coach Big Guy will be out doing the workout at YHS tomorrow, and we are hoping Coach Rich will join the Big Guy, Iron Man, Jill and new Studette Lauren at Yorktown tomorrow!

NO TMBC – Sprint Medley Ladders

Fellow Endorphin Junkies

Tomorrow will again be very nice, with Temps from the low 50s to low 70s, with little humidity or wind – perhaps just a touch warm for those of us who have yet to acclimate to this crazy thing called "Spring." As I often observe, "we wait all winter for days such as this, so enjoy it while you can!" Again, track access is uncertain, although some hardy souls seem to be able to get into W&L no matter what – Yorktown is open and is an easier, non-climbing destination, and McLean and Falls Church High Schools are reportedly open, although I have not checked them (Mark B has checked McLean though!).

April 8, 2021 – NO OFFICIAL TMBC – BUT ON THE TRACK ON YOUR OWN: Sprint Medley Ladders – 200m/400m/600m/800m/1200m all in 10k Pace, then down at 5k Pace 800m/600m/400m/200m, all with 400m easy jogs except 200m easy jogs after the first 200m and between the last 400 and the final 200m

There are a lot of intervals to run (nine), and a lot of jogs in between, so if you want to shorten the workout, just skip the 1200m. You do NOT want to go out fast, as the benefit to this sort of workout is increasing your speed, cadence and pushing past your lactate threshold on the back end of the workout. At these short to medium distances, correct sprint for is the key. 8 to 12 degree lean, lifting knees higher, core still, no crossover with your arms, and do not clench your fists. Make sure you are up on your toes, and increase speed by increasing cadence, which counter-intuitively may involve shortening your stride.

And now the Coach Rich Club Report!

Greetings Thursday morning track fans who I hope are also baseball fans as the season is off and running ... HeHeHe

I hope you all are again enjoying some amazing running weather (except for the allergies of course). Speaking of great weather, 2 separate races happened on Saturday morning with the temps right at 32' and absolutely no wind and lots of sunshine. Kind of good for running fast if you like cold weather.

Andrew Simpson loves it cold for racing and he threw down a BQ plus 10 minutes at the Salisbury (MD) Marathon. His time was 3:12:37. Here is what he had to say, "real life racing is really fun!!!". Yes indeed, racing is starting to return. The race had good precautions in place and a great plan for drinks and cliff bars along the way. Huge congrats Andrew!

Paul Ryan does not like it that cold for racing, but he pulled on some warm gear and went and got his fastest 5K of the year with a 22:31 at the PVTC Easter Classic 5K. This race was held on the Bluemont course and Paul had good competition to push and pull him along. He ran each mile faster than the one before. He was of course 1st 70-79. Paul will be running some AAU track 3K and mile races later this spring and also hopes to quickly get back under 22 for 5K. Well done and congrats Paul.

Happy running!

Coach Big Guy will be out doing the workout at YHS tomorrow, but Coach Rich is taking it slow on the comeback trail!