Tuesday Tack Recap

Yesterday was the first really hot day of the season for us, and like we always have we survived.  Maybe a tad slower than usual, but we still survived the heat.  Now the workout on the other hand…The workout was extremely tough!  Some came to the track expecting an easier workout, only to be disappointed.  Sorry about that, but we need to continue are push to become better and that’s only going to happen with some tough workouts.  I promise you that tomorrow’s Hill Workout will be a fun one.  As for what this so called “tough workout” was and who was crazy enough to come out see below:

Joining me was:

Paul, Tim, Charlotte, Brian, Cory, Rod, Dennis, Joe, Jay, Steve, Denise, Haydee, John, and making their first appearances this season, after a month’s of marathon training, was Rich Kanak and Mike Brown, welcome back guys.

Workout:

1 mile warm-up

200 (200), 400 (200), 600 (400), 800 (400), 800 (400), 600 (400), 400 (200), 200 (200)

1 mile cool down

Drills

Thank you to everyone that came out!  I know with the heat and then the tough workout it wasn’t easy.

National Running Day!

To celebrate National Running Day on Wednesday, June 6th I would like to invite you out for a run and some water ice.  We will meet at the Rita's Water Ice in the Village Shires Shopping Center 1468 Buck Road Holland, PA 18966 at 6PM.  Try not to park in front of the store!  I will take you on a 4 mile easy run and afterwards reward you with a small water ice. 

Drink Up!

No matter how you pronounce it; wa-ter or wad-er, please drinks lots of it today!  The temperatures are expected to be in the 90's which would make tonight's workout the first extremely hot workout of the season.  Be smart and mix in plenty of water today to prevent your body failing on you tonight.  I will see you all tonight at 6PM.

Speed workout Reminder

We will be meeting at Maple Point Middle School in Langhorne, off Woodbourne Rd. across from Core Creek Park at 6PM.

Lyme Disease Awareness

It’s scary to think that a tiny insect can be a life changer, but that’s exactly what’s happened because of Lyme disease that is transmitted by a single bite from infected deer ticks.  I have a good friend that was diagnosed with Lyme disease a few years ago and also my one brother.  Most day’s they do not show signs of suffering, but on other day’s they can feel run down and extremely fatigued because of the Lyme disease. 

The main purpose of this post is to help make my runners aware of the seriousness of Lyme disease.  Last week we were running hills in Tyler Park like any other Thursday, but this time I had us running on some trails.  When we had finished and home, I noticed Jackie posted on Facebook that she had found a tick on herself.  Her finding it early is a huge preventive against Lyme disease.  Another way would be to spray yourself down with OFF or some other type of insect repellent.  If you forget to douse yourself in bug repellent be proactive about having someone check you for ticks when you get done your run or at the very least when you get home.  I will try and remember to place a can of OFF into my car for anyone that wants to spray themselves down before a run.

I would like to thank Jackie for mentioning to everyone that she found a tick and Mary for sharing the following article and also for asking me to mention the severity of Lyme disease to all my runners.

http://ldmommy.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/interesting-lyme-article/

Hill workout/Mud run

Tonight we traveled a little further up Swamp Rd. to my least favorite Tyler Park Hill "Covered Bridge."  This hill as most of you know is extremely challenging and to top it off a late afternoon thunderstorm brought in a lot of rain, making a mess of the trails that we used tonight.  When I went out yesterday to figure out tonight's course I had established a nice 1 mile warm-up on the trails.  Well, with all the hard rain that fell the trails became extremely muddy and even washed out.  Reminding me of my high school running day's when we would run in the Delhaas Woods that we called "Sloppy Silver Lake."  Those trails would have us running through water up to our knees, similar to tonight's conditions.  Now the little boy inside of me was thrilled with the sloppiness, but the coach inside of me had me concerned for the well being of the runners that came out, so I gave them two options, one being we stick to what I mapped out yesterday, and the other being we stick to the dry land and I GPS the warm-up. The Speedsters that came out tonight picked the first option, not really expecting to run through small streams like we did.  In the end we all survived, a tad muddier, but now armed with a new running story to share with others some day down the road. 

The Mud Runners:

Rod, Tim, John, Jackie, Haydee, Andrea, Brendan, Steve, "Rainbow Hunter" Kevin, and back from China Scott Craig. 

Rod was able to climb the hill tonight for the first time without walking, he had never done this before tonight, which is pretty cool and the trademark Winter Series Signs made an off season appearance tonight.  Maybe the signs pulled Rod and the rest of us to the top of the hill tonight...

Workout:

1 sloppy mile warm-up

5x600 with 600 rest

Speedsters, have a fun, but safe holiday weekend!  Those running the ODDyssey half marathon this weekend good luck and good luck to those racing in other places.  Represent!

Tuesday Recap

Sorry for the delay on this, been getting a lot in order with the Speedster program.  But, enough with the excuses, Tuesday had us again doing the best we can with a gravel track.  Not the best of surfaces to workout on, but it will due for now.  You should have noticed by now that your running about 5-8 seconds slower at this track again because of the surface, which I believe is going to make you faster in the long run.  My theory is that with the gravel restricting us, and if we're putting forth a stronger effort to offset the restriction the effort will stay with us as we convert back to the rubber surfaced track or even the roads.  This would be the equivalent of running on sand for an hour and finally reaching the boardwalk, your turnover would be quick from the sand running.  Now that I bored you, annoyed you, or at best confused you, we shall continue moving forward to who came out and what we did.

In attendance: 

Tim, Brian, Jay, Kevin, Cory, Rod, Steve, Glenn, Brendan, Charlotte, Haydee, Mary (fresh from her first 25k!), Dennis, Renee, Denise, and coming out for their first time this season the Iguchi's (Steve, Cece, and Phoebe), welcome back!

What we did:

1 mile warm-up
Group Stretch
6x600's with 400 rest
1 400 with Striders (Striding the straights & Jogging the turns)
1 mile cool down
                                 Total mileage=6

Nice job everyone!

Hill Workout Reminder:

Just a fair warning with all the rain that has just gone through the area, tonight's workout will be a slop fest.  So dress accordingly and perhaps bring a towel for your car seat after.  It's going to be so much fun...

We will be meeting tonight at the Covered Bridge parking lot off Swamp Rd. The lot sneaks up on you so be mindful of that. The entrance is exactly 1 mile (measured it yesterday) from the main entrance (the traffic light) of the Community College. We will be starting at 6PM so try and get there earlier to stretch.

Speed Workout Tonight

We will be meeting at Maple Point Middle School off Woodbourne Rd (across from Core Creek Park) at 6PM.

Terrible Thompson…

I would like to begin by saying that my grades are in and I officially rocked my first full semester of college.  As some of you know the transition from part-time to full time was not an easy one for me.  I was struggling to keep up on the work load, but as with everything that I do I pushed myself and found a way to get on track.  I went from a struggling mess to a 3.57 GPA.  And the reason I continue to share my life stories with all of you is not to brag on myself, but to continue to present you examples of perseverance and how adversity can be handled.  I want you to ask yourself this: “If a wise ass punk from a broken home and broken life can continue to beat the odds and become a better version of himself; Why can’t I?  Last night you all showed an exceptional example of perseverance when you took to "Terrible Tyler" as a group and pushed repetition after repetition and not only pushing yourselves, but each other.  I was so proud of the group last night.  Every single one of you was giving each other positive reinforcement when you would pass one another on the hill.  I was in awe; it was as if you all knew suddenly that you needed to support each other during this challenge.  That hill is extreme, and how many people looked at us as if we were crazy to be going up and down that hill several times or even stopped to ask what we were doing it for.  You guys totally rocked it last night and I couldn’t have been prouder of this group.  I was even proud of ‘Water bottle’ Rod who was trying his hardest to annoy me with his constant moving of the cones.  Rod’s actions brought on the best quote of the night which came from John O’Brien, “When it’s nice outside children will play outside.”  Have a good weekend Speedsters and if you’re running the New Sesame Place 5k Sunday I will see you there.  Those running The Pocono Marathon good luck and know that were all rooting for you.

Speedsters on the hill:

Jackie, Brendan, Jay, John, Dawn, Kami, Andrea, Paul, Glenn, Steve, Denise, Kevin and Rod

Workout:

1 mile warm-up
800 (800), 400 (400), 400 (400), 800 (800), 400 (400), 400
1 mile cool down

King of the Mountain

Track Recap & Hill Workout Reminder:

Tuesday the rains almost held off for the entire workout, ‘Almost’ being the key word in that sentence.  It rained or should I say poured for roughly three minutes, enough to disrupt the workout and force me to rush around covering all the clothing and paper stuff up.  The turnout was good (19) and the workout was tough.  But, we did have a first timer and a Speedster made their first appearance of the season.

Workout:

1 mile warm-up

600 (200), 400 (200), 300 (200), 200 (3 minute rest) 3X’s

1 mile cool down

Drills

6 miles total

Joining me was:

Cory, Pete, Tim, Dennis, Rod, Brian, Joe, Kevin, Jimbo, Charlotte, Mary, Haydee, John, Glenn, Steve, Denise, Renee (First appearance this season! Welcome Back!), and first timer Ed Chionchio

Nice job everyone!  I know that the workout was tough, but you Dug Deep and pushed through.

Hill Workout Thursday:

Oh do I ever have a workout for the ages planned this week.  We will be meeting in Tyler State Park at the Boat House at 6 PM.  I know I have mentioned to a few of you about one day running up that huge hill that overlooks the park, the hill that is opposite of the boat house.  Well, I call that hill “King of the mountain” and it is really tough and a lot of fun.  We will not be doing this hill tomorrow, but Ray and the other park employee’s where busy putting up a new fence blocking the entrance of the King of the mountain hill so I attempted it before it was blocked forever and it was a beast of a climb, but like I previously mentioned a lot of fun, so much so that I climbed it twice.  It’s a shame the park is blocking it, for I had big plans for us and this hill…

Till we run into each other again.

School is out Time to Run

Another Semester in the books, now time to really focus my attention on all of you.  I took my last final today and I am celebrating with an ice cold Samuel Adams Summer Ale.  There will be a Speed workout tomorrow and with all the rain we’re currently getting, along with all that’s predicted to fall tomorrow, I recommend that you dress as if you’re going on a trail run (throw away clothes).  Gravel tracks can really get messy when mixed with rain, so expect to be wet and muddy tomorrow.  In other words don’t wear white and if you planned on trying out those fancy new Brooks running sneakers DON’T!  If the rain is falling really good I will have a fun workout planned. 

I want to take a moment to congratulate Harris Brenner and Gregg Holst on their amazing accomplishment of completing a very intense and challenging 100 miler (as if all 100 milers were not challenging) this past weekend at Massanutten Mountain Trail.  Also a shout out to the Schaal’s, Breandan Nemic, and Andy Shapiro who completed another Ragnar Relay over the weekend to raise awareness of Autism and to honor Jeffery Schaal.  I would like to also wish the very best to the Kanak’s and Mike Brown as they travel to the Pocono’s to run the Pocono Marathon this coming weekend.  Good luck to all of you and remember you put forth the effort these past few months for this and it will show.  In another note Allyson ran for the first time in six weeks this weekend and the run went well, so if all continues to go well she will be back with us soon. 

I have setup a Yahoo Message Board for all of you to use to keep up on our workouts and to communicate with one another.  To sign-up I have added two links on the blog so sign-up.

Found this article on Runners World today and thought I would share it with all of you to show you that I’m not just being cruel…http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-267--13165-0,00.html

Till we run into each other again…

Sixers or Speedsters

Last night was the most challenging of our workouts thus far this season and we had a decent amount of runners come out and put forth a strong effort which made not going to last nights Sixers game worth it.  That was until Andre Iguodala stepped up and pulled off the unthinkable...What was I doing spending my evening with runners when I could have been watching history be made?  The answer is pretty simple actually, I'm dedicated to my runners and want them to continue to improve.  So, why would I be any where in the world when I can be with all of you.  Now, if the Sixers would just stop having these playoff games on Tuesday and Thursday nights...

Joining me up and down Agony Hill last night was:

Tim, Haydee, Steve"Gumby" Cickay, Johnny O', Kevin, Rod, Jackie, Dawn, Jimbo, Maria, Jay, Denise, Joe, and first timers Kevin Smith and Andrea Rinedoller (welcome!).

Workout:

We did a ladder up Agony: 1 mile warm-up,400 (400), 800 (800), 1200 (1200), 800 (800), 400 (400), 1 mile cool down. Total mileage: 6 1/2.

Have a great weekend and for all you that are mothers, Happy Mothers Day!  Looks like we're going to have some great weather this weekend so enjoy it and I will see you on Tuesday at Maple Point Middle at 6PM.

Track Recap/Hill Reminder

Rain, rain go away, but please don’t come back on Thursday…

Track Recap:

Last night the rain held off for us and we were able to get a decent workout in even with those sore leg muscles from running Broad Street.  We did things a little differently in hopes of shaking out all the lactic acid in those legs.  We did our usual 1 mile warm-up, followed by drills and stretching, before doing 6x400 (400) and a 1 mile cool down.

Joining me:

Tim, Kevin, Charlotte, Dennis, John, Mary, Brian, Cory, Christa, and Rod.

Hill Workout:

Tomorrow we will be meeting at Council Rock South at 6PM.  We meet in the parking lot closest to the track.  The workouts normally consist of 5-6 miles and go roughly for 1 hour.