PRTC Weekly: 3/12/2020 (The spring is cancelled)
Well...
First off, sorry this is late. I have no valid excuse.
There's kind of an elephant in the room right now with a worldwide pandemic goin' on and most races for the spring either already cancelled or in question.
This can be a weird, sad, and frustrating time, not just as a runner, but as a person facing a problem too big to solve on your own. I have no expertise for tackling this as a health issue, so I'll save that for another some other newsletter (maybe the CDC has one?), but I do have great expertise with existential dread. So, keep reading if you will.
I texted my coach this morning, as I sat half awake and hungover, that training seemed futile. It wasn't meant to be a complaint, but it's tough to get out the door when you have no idea when your next race is. He's a nice guy and also has way too much free time on his hands right now because they just cancelled the entire NCAA season. He gave me a call and we talked for a bit.
We talked about how a lot of short term goals were pulled out from under us in almost an instant. Still, this spring provides a rare opportunity. With no imminent races on the horizon, we have the freedom to experiment with training in ways we might not have. We can run harder some days, run unsanctioned races with friends, lift more weights, or up our mileage to the triple digits. This doesn't replace running, say Boston, for the first time, but it's something. Plus, when times get weird, I like to take Jumbo Elliott's advice to "live like a clock." This sport can anchor you.
We'll keep this newsletter going through it all and will have updates regarding races, track availability, and any stuff that seems noteworthy.
Beer of the Week: Chrysalis into Beauty-Foreign Objects
Album: The Dream is Over- PUP
-Chris Mateer
Race Results
Allentown: Luckily I forgot to include Craig Eppler last week so we have something to put here this week. Craig finished a close 2nd at the Lehigh Winter Series 5k on March 1st. From his report it was a challenging course, super windy, and he just felt bad.
Seems like an appropriate way to probably list our last race result for a little.
Results
2. Craig Eppler: 17:48
Full results here.
Question of the Week
Question:
What's your all-time favorite workout? If you would like, also include where in the training cycle you use it/what event you generally are training for.
Chris Hatler
I’ll give you a big boi workout that I love. 4 x 400, progressive pace & rest. Start at mile pace and walk down 2 seconds each rep. 3 minutes rest after the first one and add a minute after each. This baby’s a prime sharpening workout and a huge confidence booster, as the time of the last rep is pretty indicative of how fast you can close out a 1500. (Fun fact: my best finish to this one was 52.9)
Ethan Hermann
Favorite workout i can think of is probably a good old 6x1k. schenley park in pittsburgh is a public park right near my high school, and it has a crushed gravel 1k loop that is perfect for K repeats. we would jog to the park for our warmup, stretch and do drills, and then crank out Ks on the loop. it's a magical spot. and i was the third-ever person in an arbitrary school history to run a sub-3 K in the middle of a workout. all in all Ks are my favorite for sure, and doing 6 makes you appreciate a 5k just a little more while teaching you how to grind.
Greg Morgan
I have two actually. One serious and one less serious.
Less Serious: Every few years Tom (the Haverford College coach) will surprise the team with the old 8x400m at 2 mile race pace. “What’s the rest?” the boys would ask. “No rest” Tom would say. And then we would all race a 2 mile.
More Serious: Once a year about a week or so before Swat Last Chance, I do 1x800m a little faster than 1500m goal pace, then some combination of a few 400s and 200s afterwards at similar or slightly faster pace. That part is just bonus. The real goal of this workout is hitting the track on a beautiful spring day and slamming out a quick 800 as smooth and relaxed as possible. It has always been such a big confidence booster for me. Knowing that I can run fast and relaxed the first half of the race. I highly recommend this workout for anyone getting ready for a goal Mile/1500m.
Pat
My favorite workout is what I call the Manayunk Hammer. I have traditionally used it the past 3 years during build ups for the Boston Marathon when I feel like my training his been “inadequate” thus far and I need something to jump start me into preparing for the pain of a marathon. For maximum effect, it is best done on a cold/rainy Friday night when I have nothing else to look forward to but trying to inflict as much pain on my body as possible. I’ll probably do it this weekend.
Anyway, the workout starts with me leaving my house in fairmount and running moderately quick up the SRT to the far end of Manayunk. I usually aim for a pace somewhere in the 6:00-6:20 range, with the goal just to put some fatigues in the legs. Once in Manayunk, about 50 minutes into the run, I will choose the 3 longest hills and run up them 3-4 times, with the recovery being the jog down. This isn’t a quick pace, but the hills are generally long and steep enough and I progress up them to a point that I am wheezing at the top and prepared to collapse at the time I’m ready to turnaround. Jog back down and repeat.
Once I feel like my legs are adequately trashed, I will recover for however long it takes to jog back down the SRT to the falls bridge, at which point I pick my pace back up to just above marathon effort, which I will continue down the SRT until I hit a wall that I can no longer continue forward progress. I then stop and walk/jog until the boathouses, and then cool down the rest of the way home. Workout total is generally in the range of 2.5 hours of total running, and I have never actually measured the distance.
Tom Thomas
Half marathon at goal marathon pace. The key is to do this workout tired, in the midst of a lot of mileage, otherwise it would be pretty easy. But if you do it like 3-4 weeks out from a marathon before tapering, and you can handle running a half marathon at that pace on tired legs, you should be good to go once you taper and feel good, and can hopefully do it for a whole marathon.