Fellow Endorphin Junkies
Coach Ed Posted the following message today:
"By now all should know that DCRRC has canceled until further notice all races and group workouts. I am very sorry for those counting on and training for RnR Marathon/Half, Cherry Blossom, and Boston. The first thing you need to keep in mind, apart from concern for the health of our loved ones and friends, is that NONE of this training and preparation has gone to waste as a result of these cancellations and postponements. Second, this may be a time to scale back training to a "maintenance" level -- studies show that moderate exercise boosts the immune system, but that high-level, high-stress training can compromise it, as many of us know from experience. Long runs of 6-10 miles, and more moderate speed workouts (even just using hills on a regular run) will keep you in shape and ready to return once the world returns to normal. Third, keep in touch with each other to encourage, especially as many of us will be running on our own instead of with others. We are fortunately not in a situation where we need Government permission to leave our homes and go out for a run. So, as long as you feel healthy, go out and do so."
Coach Ed always is eloquent, and we would all do well to heed his sage counsel. There will be no formal TMBC tomorrow, which is probably a good thing, as it is supposed to be pouring rain tomorrow morning. I am posting what would have been the workout below, as some of you will want a little speed work, but please heed Ed's advice. As an alternative – hill work is very helpful and all the challenging races have hills, so consider those instead of speed work, at least for a while – and you can find hills almost anywhere around here – especially in North Arlington. While Public Parks (Yorktown Track is in Greenbriar Park) are supposed to be open in Arlington and the track was this afternoon, I cannot guarantee it will be that way tomorrow – we all need to be flexible in workout and location these days.
There are not going to be any races anytime soon anywhere in the world, so maintenance running should be the order of the day. This is an excellent time to start a flexibility and strength program to complement your running, as that can be done at home, and there are a lot of on-line resources in that regard that I will post periodically – and I would love to hear from any of you if you want to recommend any on-line resources. Keith, Paul, Rich and I can all tell you that strengthening your core, and building strength while increasing flexibility, are the keys to continuing your training without injury as you age.
I also wanted to follow up on what I said last week before TMBC – we are all incredibly healthy individuals, and individually we most likely dmay not to worry about our personal health. But we must put the Safety of the "Herd" first – not our own safety. None of us might get sick, but we all know close friends or family that are at risk if they were to contract the virus from us. Seven NBA players – usually the picture of health - have tested positive, and only two have very minor symptoms – the rest of the infected players are so healthy they did not know they had the virus. We runners are similar athletes - we may have it or get it and never know, because we are strong, and then pass it on to the weak. None of us want to take that risk or to be that person.ÂÂ As strong as we are, we could still contract it and get very sick or worse. Please take all the precautions seriously. Continue to run – yes – but not so much you weaken your immune system. If you must run in a group – and we definitely do not recommend that – keep the group very small, regular people you know, and abide by the social distance rules – i.e, run six feet apart – easy for me, as I am often many hundreds of yards behind you all.
I am continuing to run, but have modified how I do it. So should you. Let's work together to beat this thing by following the rules. Mrs. BG and I love you all so much we don't want to lose any of you!
March 19, 2020 – NO TMBC – ON YOUR OWN: Ladder Workout, 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800 in 10k Pace, w/400m easy jogs in between. If you have no track, do it by minutes – you know your pace at those distances, run it – e.g., for me it would be four minutes on, three off, six minutes on, four off, 8 minutes on, four off, etc.
In Coach Rich Club news –
Nate Rathjen Picked up a half marathon race in Pennsylvania farm country before the shutdown of many races. He was14th overall and 2nd in his age-group at the 42nd Chambersburg Half Marathon a time of 1:27:05 This was a fabulous PR by 6:28! Huge congrats Nate.
I personally ask each of you to understand the severity of the current health crisis. Please take 5 minutes and read this and as it says, "do the math". We have to be vigilant to get this under control. Thank you!
https://medium.com/@Jason_Scott_Warner/the-sober-math-everyone-must-understand-about-the-pandemic-2b0145881993
Neither Coach will be at Yorktown Track tomorrow, as Coach Big Guy will be doing a hill workout and Coach Rich is on the disabled list with a stress fracture. We will see you all on the other side once the CDC gives the "All Safe" to resume.
