Is it an election year already…

Tonight was week 2 of the Yasso’s tonight we did 5x800’s at our goal marathon finishing times.  We had 33 runners coming out on a mild evening to run 800’s.  Tonight was also the first night of our 50/50 drawing for the end of season party.  The winner was Shirley Blumenstock, congratulations Shirley.  We will continue these drawings for a few more weeks.  No rule breakers tonight!  Everyone looked good out there tonight nice work all.  We had a special guest tonight, making his very first Speed workout appearance was our very own BCRR President Fred Gropper.  He was out shaking hands and kissing babies.  Thanks for coming out Fred; it was nice to see you.

Who else:

Allyson, myself, Scott (thanks for the help), Tom, Eric T, Charlotte, Paul, Kami, Dan, Jay (thanks for the help), Steve C, Sharon, Shirley, Harris (P + H =BFF), Maria, Jack, Carolyn, Greg V, Dennis, Vee, Jackie, Gregg, John (thanks for the help), Mary, Olivia, Breandan, Shawn, Mike B, and Rich (thanks for the help) .

Workout:

1 mile warm-up

Stretch

5x800 (400)

1 mile cool down

Drills

Greg and Emily you and your family are in our thoughts and our prayers.  You both have done so much for your BCRR family over the years; please let us do something for your family now. 

Maggie, we also hope that you get better soon.  You’re a Super Star!

CT

Speed Workout Reminder!

Tomorrow we will be at CRS @ 6PM for week 2 of the Yasso's.  We also will have our first 50/50 raffle.  $1 a chance.  See you tomorrow!

CT

50/50's For End of Season Party

We will be having 50/50 raffles every Tuesday to raise money for the End of Season Party in hopes of raising enough funds to put on a great party at the Brenner's on Saturday, September 24.  Tickets will be sold for a dollar each.  If you're a Speedster and did not receive the Evite for the party please contact me at wi1ennium@hotmail.com and I will send the evite to you.

A needle in a hay stack or in my case a key in Tyler State Park

Today was an interesting run to put it mildly.  Because of freaking Irene first forcing us off the beach early and into Tyler for our long run a day early.  We had planned to do a 20 mile run on Sunday in preparation for the Chicago marathon.  The run was good as far as a 20 mile training run can be I guess, until I reached into my unzipped pocket to find it empty.  I had lost my car key!  There was no way I would be able to find it.  We had run the 5.3 loop twice and the "Thompson 5 mile loop" twice.  I looked around where I setup the table for water and 100 yards either way to no avail.  Mike Brown (thanks Brownie) gave Allyson and I a ride back home, where we waited for Allyson's dad to arrive with a spare house key.  I thankfully have a spare for my car.  So, if your in Tyler running and happen upon a lone Nissan key (black) it's mine and I would love to be reunited. 

CT

The Good, the bad, and the earthquake…

At this point in the season my patience has run thin and it was tested tonight, more of that later.  I’m extremely dedicated to this track program, so much so that I convinced my wife to break from the beautiful beach to head back home for a few hours to be at the track for the workout tonight.  I didn’t do it for me (or my perfect attendance), but for all of you.  I heard many appreciative responses tonight, so I know you all were grateful.  On our way home we were sitting at a traffic light and Allyson’s car started to shake.  I turned to her and said what’s up with your car it feels like it’s going to stall.  I looked at the temperature gauge and it wasn’t running hot, I was clueless that we had just felt an aftershock.  This seems to be happening more and more in this area; it’s pretty strange since I didn’t think we sat on a fault plane.  The earthquake must have affected people’s brains tonight too.  I had a few runners forget the lane rules and multiple runners take it upon themselves to do different workouts.  Why come out to a planned workout just to do your version of it and on top of that sign in?  Again, this goes back to my patience being just about shot at this point into the season.  Tonight was supposed to be a very important workout.  Tonight was the base of Yasso’s and it’s important to establish your Yasso pace, so that you can build off of that week one base.  By tweaking it in your own way you’re starting with a faulty foundation. 

Tonight wasn’t all bad and shaky, we did have great weather, a good turnout, and Gatorade brought by Cory a big THANK YOU goes out to Cory for that nice surprise. 

Who:

Allyson, myself, Harris, Jay, Emily (Welcome Back), Steve C, Cece, Andy, Paul, Cory (thanks again), Kami, Dan, Megan Schaal (1^st Timer! Welcome!), Tom, Eric L, Matt, Vee, Renee, Rich, Mary, Jimbo, Jack, Dennis, Charlotte, Jackie, Breandan, Suzi, Olivia, Greg, Sharon, Carolyn, Shawn, and Maggie.

Workout:

1^st week of Yasso’s!

1 mile warm-up

Stretch

4x800 at marathon finish time (400 Rest)

1 mile cool down

Drills

Back to the beach tomorrow!  Phillies on the radio, cold Corona’s, and toes in the sand, going to be priceless.

CT

Another Runner helping Runners

Allyson and I some how keep running into trouble when we go away, maybe we should just stay home...
We're in OCNJ for the week on a well deserved vacation (we have not been on vacation since February).  We met up with fellow Speedster Jay Ricco on our first day.  Jay has a place down here and as any beach goer knows you can't get into your rental's until 2:00 (In at 2 out by 11).   Jay had offered to store our refrigerated stuff until we got into our place.  So we took him up on the offer and hung with Jay and his buddy Bob at the beach for the first day.  We all had a good time relaxing on the beach, listening to Oldies on the radio, and playing several competitive games of bean bag toss (practicing for next year's Track Meet).  We hung with Jay on the beach until about 6:30 at that time we went our separate ways.  Allyson and I were eager to get unpacked and settled in to our rental.  We get the car unloaded and head up to the room only to find that the 2 keys that we were given won't open the door.  I tried over and over, we double checked that we had the correct address and room, we called the landlord several times (no answer), we went down stairs to the office which was closed. So, hungry, tired, and frustrated we had two choices pack up and go home or call Jay Ricco and inconvenience him.  We called Jay and feeling bad for us or just not thinking straight told us to come stay with him for the night.  We took him up on the offer and had a place to stay until we could resolve this bad key's situation.

The landlord eventually called us in the middle of the night explaining he had a phone issue and that he was sorry that the keys didn't work.  It had turned out that over the winter they changed the locks and they sent us the old keys. Who does that?  In any case we're in our rental and very grateful for Jay and his generosity.  Jay could have easily said sorry I have no room for you guys, I wish I could help, but no Jay put on his Super Hero Cape and saved our vacation.  That ride home would have sucked.  Allyson and I were not in the greatest mindset when this all happened.  Jay we have a case of Michelob Ultra coming your way

CT

Speed Workout Reminder!

YASSO's, YASSO's, YASSO's, YASSO's

We're now in our last six weeks and that means, no more Blue & Orange, no more Timed Miles ( I know your saddened), & no more slacking off.  It's time to get down to business.  If you're running a marathon this fall you're going to want to incorporate these next 6 weeks.  It's so important that we will be driving back from the beach (that we're staying for the entire week) just so we don't miss week one.  Week one you need to establish your pace.  I will have a pace chart for those not running a marathon.  Those that are running a fall marathon you will want to have a finish time in mind (Boston Qualified time?, PR?) this is the time that you will want to run your 800's (Yasso's) in.  For example if I want to run a 3:00 marathon finish time I need to run my 800's in 3 minutes. 

We will be at Council Rock South Tuesday at 6PM.  I hope to see you there.

CT

Taken it easy…

This past Tuesday we did a run over of the Warwick XC 5k Course in preparations for Wednesday night’s race.  We also had “Photo Day” for the second year in a row.  I actually think we had more show up in last year’s photo, but that’s okay.  With the workout being as easy as it was I really got nothing to talk about?  I do have a reminder that we will begin Yasso’s next week.  If you’re doing a fall marathon you do not want to miss the next 6 weeks which is also our last 6 weeks.  I will get into what the Yasso’s are all about later, for those that are not familiar with the workout.

Who came out?

Eric T, CT, Allyson, Dan, Kami, Jack, Dawn, Jay, Maria, Charlotte, Greg V, Tom, Andy, Matt, Cory, Carolyn, John, Mark, Vee, Olivia, Paul, Jimbo, Dennis, Mike B, Harris, Carla, Suzi, Denise, and Mike G. (29)

DIG DEEP!

CT

This is the only woman shirt that I could find. Let me know what you think.

Speed Workout Reminder!

From T&F to XC.  We will once again be running over the XC course to get ready for The 5th Annual Warwick XC 5k.  Show up at 6PM at CRS on Tuesday as usual warm-up and stretch before we head out to run the course.  Come out Wednesday to show your support for Mike Gross by competing or volunteering in the Warwick 5k.  Also I would like to take advantage of tomorrow's light workout to make it Photo Day.  I would like to get a group picture of all the Speedster's preferably in Speedster Wear tomorrow after the run.

See everyone tomorrow!

CT

Track Recap-Orange Team Perspective

I just want to thank Chris for putting the track meet together.  He did the majority of the planning and getting everything ready.  I was just the “ear” for all his plans and worries.  The officials and volunteers were above and beyond helpful.  We were so lucky to have such knowledgeable track people.  The meet could not have run smoothly without you all.

 I also want to thank each and every Orange Team member.  From the start of all this, we were well represented at the races and track practices.  Chris always commented how the Orange Team stayed after to work on relay handoffs, warmed up together and just seemed to be one.   He was impressed at how our chairs were set up in a circle on Saturday.   Without your dedication and spirit, we would not have won.  I wish we could keep our team together. 

So here is my recap of the track meet…..

Chris and I are 2 very competitive people, so there were lots and lots of smack talk all season long about who had the better team (obviously ME).  There were also MANY arguments about his “rules and regulations” between Chris, myself and Pete.  One of the very first heated discussions took place in the beginning of May at the Brenner’s bbq and I think every long Sunday run after that.  Eventually, Pete and I conceded on the issues.

After we had the track meet rules set in place (things were still questionable) and the date of the track meet secure, we set out to see who could actually attend.  This is where the Orange team had some problems.  Our track team went from 28 people down to 19.  No one could commit 100%!  Once we had a good idea (so we thought – it changed 10 times after that), I set out to do the roster.  I failed miserably trying to put one together and gave the job to my 2 very tactful co-captains, Pete and Tom.  I think all the years with their R2C Bucktones captains, Fred and Mark, paid off.  They both strategized and put together our winning roster. 

So the roster was set, rules kept changing and then we find out one of our best sprinters is hurt and can’t make it.  Pete and Tom went to work, and then we find out someone else decided to go on vacation and can’t make it, back to strategizing they went (these changes made things difficult because our main strategy was to have more relays than the Blue Team).  But all I can say is that, thankfully these people weren’t on that Blue Team with Chris the Track Czar! 

Finally, a week before the track meet and everything is finalized (so we thought).  They put together our final roster, and I went to work on the heat and lane assignments. We figured if we lose one more person, we were doomed.  Thursday, August 11, I get an email from our best runner, Greg Yerkes, saying he’s hurt and unsure if he can run, but will let me know for sure on Friday.  And yes, I did let Chris in on all this, and yes he was snickering away!  More roster changes, I felt bad, our runners thought they were running one thing and the next day a whole other event.  For example, Rich Kanak almost went from the 100 meter dash to the 1600, and I think we changed Mark Eiler’s events 5 times! 

Finally, the day of the track meet, I prayed everyone would be there and no more changes.  We all wore our Orange shirts, and Emily even dug out her pumpkin earrings to wear!  Greg couldn’t run and I put him in charge of keeping score and letting us know.  After the first few events, we were down, by a lot, and we were very worried.  I remember going back to our tent and seeing Pete and Tom and the majority of the Orange Team huddled around our table trying to figure out where we’ll make up points, just another example of team camaraderie.  The meet went on people fell during the Dizzy Izzy, Glenn cramped up (he probably didn’t drink enough purple Gatorade!) and Pete and Tom’s strategies worked and the rest is history. 

The 1^st WINNING Orange Team….

Pete Lederer

Tom Beerbower

Joe Haughey

Eric Tobias

Steve Igouchi

Brendan Nemec

Paul Snyder

John O’Brien

Jim Larson

Rich Kanak

Glenn Cohen

Eric Stern

Tim Damiani

Mark Eiler

Greg Yerkes

Renee Harnishfeger

Charolette Buglio

Maggie Kanak

Cece Igouchi

Emily Grace

Allyson Thompson

I do want to acknowledge some Orange Team members:

Pete and Tom-Thank you guys for working on the ever changing roster.  No way could I have put it together.

Greg Yerkes-Thank you for taking care of calculating the points and of course winning the Bean Bag toss.

Emily Grace-Thank you for working the concession stand and bringing the ORANGE CRUSH soda to the after party! 

Rich and Maggie Kanak-Thank you guys for coming early and packing your truck with equipment and coolers and helping us clean up and unload everything back in our house.  And thanks for filling up the water balloons, not an easy task! 

Eric Tobias-Thank you for being a good sport and doing the Dizzy Izzy and the very next event.  I didn’t realize how hard the Dizzy Izzy would be. 

Eric Tobias, Steve Igouchi and Brendan Nemec-Thank you guys for stepping up to the plate and running in 3 relays, the 3 of you did awesome.  You guys were the main reason we won, having those extra relays. 

THE REST OF THE ORANGE TEAM-Thank you guys for coming out to the races, track practices and your awesome job on Saturday.