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No TMBC, But Track Work 6 x 800m w/400m jog in 10k Pace

Fellow Endorphin Junkies

Tomorrow will be a welcome change from the last couple of months, with Temps much lower in the morning at 63 degrees, but still with lots of humidity at 100%, so get out early! Again, tracks are open, but no "organized" activities may take place. A couple of us will be at Yorktown at 7, and last week we had some TMBC members before and after the 7 AM workout, so I expect we might see some of you tomorrow at Yorktown, while others will head to W&L or even Falls Church for track work. Even though we are not together physically, we are all remain together in our hearts!

August 20, 2020 – NO OFFICIAL TMBC – BUT ON THE TRACK ON YOUR OWN: 6 x 800m in 10k Pace (or faster), with 400m jog

Stallions: 5:45 to 6:30 Pace

Wolf Pack: 6:30 to 7:15 Pace

Gazelles: 7:15 to 8:00 Pace

Coyotes/MTP Trainees: 8:00 to 10:00 Pace

With tomorrow mornings cooler temps, if you are feeling frisky tomorrow, you could start at 10k pace and move to 5k if the humidity allows you to push it a bit, but PLEASE watch yourself and have plenty of cool water available to hydrate at least every other interval. Form at 10k pace still matters – get up on your toes, lift your knees a bit more, and make sure your arms are involved in lifting rather than crossing over and causing you to break stride. At this point in the cycle (as in, when will it ever end?), you still want a bit of speed to build strength and to guard against injury, and focusing on your form will also protect against injury – whether on the track OR your long runs!

And now the Coach Rich News!

Greetings Thursday morning faithful. Looks like a glorious weather morning upon us for tomorrow, as far as August goes anyway! Two items to report on this week and on request to support the peeps of Beirut trying to get through the awful after-effects of the explosion.

Paul Ryan finished off his USATF Virtual Masters Track Meet with a 1st place finish in the 5K. His time was a season best 22:04. So The Admiral won the 65-69 division for 5K and placed 2nd in the mile with a 6:16 and 2nd in the 800 with a 2:56. Phenomenal work Paul, and congrats. [Coach Big Guy note – this was a NATIONAL virtual meet, so the Admiral had a NATIONAL first and two seconds – amazing! Age-Grading that mile and it was a 4:38! All three times qualify him as "All-American" for his age group. All-American for one distance is a remarkable accomplishment – but three? Wow!]

On a fun note, I ran into Melinda at the W-L track on Monday. I caught her doing running drills. What a great thing to be doing and I would strongly recommend to all of you especially if you have never done them before. It will help your stride, form and overall running economy hence making you a stronger, better and faster runner. As important, drills will help keep injuries away. Here's a link to give you a starting point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H8WLfyavWk

Lastly, most of you knowour TMBC runner Ze Dagher. He is from Lebanon and has organized a great fundraising event for this weekend that he has lined up Mike Wardian and a few other running celebs to participate in. Here is a link to all the details and how you can participate and / or support the cause of helping the people of Beirut:

Happy running!

Coach Big Guy will be out doing the workout at YHS tomorrow, but Coach Rich will probably march to a different drummer! ;-)

No TMBC, But Track Work 6 x 500m in 5k, 300m jog

Fellow Endorphin Junkies

We had a mini-TMBC reunion on Tuesday at the W&L track, with Ze, Coach Rich, Jill and the Big Guy all trying to get in some true speed work, and all admitted that conditions were awful and they could not wait for a break in the weather. Well, we did not get one! ;-)

So, tomorrow is more of the same, with Temp plus Dew point right near 150 (75 degrees and Dew point of 74) starting the day at 6 to 7 AM, and only getting worse as the day progresses, so bring lots of fluids and try to get an early workout.

Speaking of speed, we are going to do Coach Ed's 500m workout that most of us skipped to run the Club Challenge 1 Miler, and a couple of us will be at Yorktown tomorrow morning at 7 AM, but others might want to plan to be there either before or after – or at W&L or Falls Church HS - for now, let's keep the groups small, familiar, staggered in start times, and disorganized As required! ;-)

August 13, 2020 - 6 x 500m in 5k pace - with 300m jog recovery in between

• Stallions: 5:45 to 6:15 Pace
• Wolf Pack: 6:15 to 6:45 Pace
• Gazelles: 6:45 to 7:30 Pace
• Coyotes/MTP Trainees: 7:30 to 10:00 Pace

This is another speed workout guaranteed to build both strength and stamina for your fall races. These are tougher than they look, so try to finish strong - push that last 100, and make sure you focus on form so you run efficiently, effectively, and injury-free. I would ease into these by running the first couple in 8k or 10k pace, but also feel free to crush the last couple in 3k pace if you are still feeling frisky.

In club news from Coach Rich ...

Greetings Thursday faithful. A couple of nice results to report this week. Both from the over 50 crowd. Did I really write that? LOL

Paul Ryan is participating in the Virtual USATF Masters Championships and turned in a season best 800 of 2:56. At age 69 that is an age-graded 2:09. Way to go Paul!

Mark Bourgeois has spent the summer concentrating on improving his mile time. This week he ran a time trial in 6 minutes on the nose. This was a 6 second improvement and he now has his goal of sub-6 squarely in his sights. It is also an age-graded 5:05 at age 54. Great job Mark and huge congrats.

Happy running!

For this Week's Vocies from the Crew – Jill Bratsky!:

Big Guy posed four separate questions to me for this missive, and I've decided to tackle two: the transition from cycling to running, and my fascination with gloves—which, if you see my workouts on Strava, you know all about [and are wondering about like me! – Coach BG].

Before I detail the glove obsession and its origins, it's probably worth noting I have a series of degrees in an esoteric, mathematically-influenced Humanities research area that amounts to pattern recognition. The precursor to glovespotting goes back a few years, when I started noticing discarded dental picks while out riding or running and started an Instagram feed dedicated to them. (Yep, I realize this is odd, but so is flossing in public.) Then came COVID-19. In mid-March, discarded gloves started appearing, and so I started taking pictures of them. It's since expanded to other PPE, plus socks (glove substitutes?), the occasional hat, q-tip, or small kitchen utensil (a.k.a. the Bourgeoisian Holy Grail). Thus far, July 11 wins for most PPE: 6 gloves, 7 masks, and 6 socks. Many, many thanks to those who have identified the locations of other gloves in the wild for me! Keep them coming, please...

As for moving from cycling to running, I'd always done some running, mostly as a part of triathlons, and was dreadful at (and miserable while doing) it. When I moved to D.C., I was a year removed from riding RAGBRAI, and regularly put in 200+-miles/week on the bike. The combination of a cold winter and an unwelcoming cycling community pushed me towards running. I started to like it, then even though I (still) don't enjoy racing, started signing up for races. Three years later, it's become a way of life and, although I'll never be speedy, my aspirational 5k pace from late 2017 (which I was sooooo proud of then) is now my marathon pace—if we ever get to run marathons again. Although I still spend time in the saddle, it's usually via a Wahoo Kickr Core (trainer), which connects to my road bike, and Zwift. I was hit by a car last summer while riding and don't care to repeat the experience!

Coach Big Guy will be out doing the workout tomorrow, while Coach Rich will be resting before helping Admiral Paul with another assault on the Records Books Friday!