Corporate Challenge Countdown (CCC)

Since others have done a nice job of leading up high quality workouts, I have barely had to coordinate anything so for this season.  That has been great!  Thank you.  But in an attempt to rationalize my spot in the running group, that is about to change.  Ok, that's not the reason, but I believe that we could use a group plan for the next month:

Four Tuesdays from now is the Chase Corporate Challenge.  Several TRYers will be taking part in the 'challenge' for our various companies, so lets do a training cycle building everyone up for a successful event.  We will build our interval choices and the length of our runs to (hopefully) be in an ideal spot to deliver a PR on June 19th.

My suggested training plan -

May 29th: 4 mile total run with six 1/4 mile intervals.  Mile warm-up, 1/4 on, 1/4 off six times, leaving a 1/4 mile cooldown.  Meaning 1 1/2 miles of exertion.

June 5th: 4 1/2 mile total run with four 1/2 mile intervals.  Mile warm-up, 1/2 on, 1/4 off four times, leaving a 3/4 mile cooldown.  Meaning 2 miles of exertion.

June 12th: 5 mile total run with 2 one mile intervals, followed by one 1/2 mile interval.  Mile warm-up, 1 on, 1/2 off, 1 on, 1/2 off, 1/2 on, leaving a 1/2 mile cooldown.  Meaning 2 1/2 miles of exertion.

June 19th: The Chase Corporate Challenge - 3.5 glorious miles down and back on the least scenic race course that you'll ever see.

So, this will build our total length and our miles of exertion within that total for the next 3 weeks and will give each of us a great idea on what our race pace should be for the 19th.  Each Tuesday, plan your hydration and your food as you would on race day...because we are running at a similar time to the race start time and that way we can really figure out what we need and what works for us to push our limits on late afternoon on a Tuesday night.

The suggested repeats and mileage are a mid-level plan.  As always you can add extra or take away a repeat to suit your individual needs.  Please consider aligning your training plan to this group plan - using those tweaks if needed.  I can't make you play along, but the more people that do it, the more fun it will be and the more challenging and uplifting it will be for everyone.  For anyone new to intervals, ask me or the other experienced TRYers any questions you may have about them.

For those of you who don't like our intervals because you don't like to be near the back of the pack or don't like to be last...remember what Ricky Bobby said:

If you ain't first, you're last!  So, don't worry about being the 9th or 10th person out of the 10 that show up any giving week.  Because, honestly, there is Kelly, and there are 9 losers.  So, placement among the losers is irrelevant.  And tweaking the advice I quoted last week - don't focus on where you are in the group you're running with.  Think of all the people that aren't running.  You are running faster and farther and harder than millions of people that don't run on that day.  So, please don't get hung-up on being last.  Every person on the planet (except one) has faster runners than them.  Embrace your place in the pack and work on improving your own performance against the clock.  Not against the arbitrary people that happened to show up for our training run (or in your next race).

Here's Ricky Bobby saying it much better than I ever could -

And a reminder: if you want to help out with the Liverpool Area Relay For Life, sign up (for free) through the team website.  Multiple people have said they were interested but haven't signed up.  So, I'm confused on why I have to beg people every year that plan on doing it to physically sign up?  Please sign up.  It's very hard for our team captains to coordinate things when they don't know how many people are going to show up.

Hard and Fast

I touched up last weeks entry based on some inputs from you.  Thank you for your corrections and suggestions.

This week's run: I believe my continued torturing of Escalade has cycled back to 1/4 mile intervals.  So, we'll be mixing in a handful of those within a four mile run.  The weather says it will be a bit cooler than it has been but that there is still a chance of afternoon storms.  As usual, TRY goes on unless storms directly impact our safety.  So, we'll be there and running in the rain, but would have to wait out a storm.

This weeks update:
Most of us are not beginners, but a beginner or two might read this.  And it doesn't hurt to be reminded...or to have this in mind when a beginner asks you how to best start running.  So here are five running tips for beginners.  (They are: low mileage, good sneaks, do NOT run every day, hydrate, and don't compare yourself to others.)

That last point is a good one for everyone to keep in mind.  Here is the best parts of the fifth tip that we could all use a reminder of: "There are people that are faster than you, but remember there are also people that are slower or don't run at all. Set your own goals and don't worry about others. ... make sure that the comparison motivates rather than de-motivates you. Running is such a great sport because you can truly compete with yourself."


And another reference on why interval workouts are the best type of workouts for any exercise you do.  Here is an article on the bare minimum exercise you need to get fit.  A quote: "A growing body of evidence demonstrates that high-intensity interval training can serve as an effective alternate to traditional endurance-based training, inducing similar or even superior physiological adaptations..."


And their conclusion:
So, if anybody says that when it comes to exercise you need to do a little and often, tell them where to shove it. A better maxim might be hard and fast.

A Tradition Gone Awry

I would like to blame our MG poster girl for not being in the race.  But I also have to blame Brightroom, for not stepping up and finding me another fitting representative.  So, after spending too much time attempting to find a replacement, I am giving up.

This week's run - some speed work.  Either 1/2 mile repeats with Duerr, or another interval workout that suits your needs better.  After the run, it has been suggested to head to Bangkok Thai Restaurant, since they will be closed soon for the rest of June.

Some meat for you:
A runners world article on how to correctly diagnose some commonly mistaken running ailments.

Someone also found me a write-up on a miracle cure for shin splints.  I don't suffer from them myself, so someone who does, please attempt this the next time they flare up and let me know if it actually works?

And now the fun, here are some always glamorous mid-run shots of TRYers at the Mountain Goat (I was kind and attempted to grab the nicest ones this year):

Escalade's dad going so fast in the 3K that he had to hold on to his hat.


Kelly, showing off her compression sleeves.


Katie getting back into the racing scene.

Duerr, finishing off his first goat.


Cynthia, finishing things up.

 Steve, about to do the same.

Miss "Delano" thought she could hide by having a typo in her last name.

And with just a hint of John ignoring my pleas from last summer to keep his shirt on.  Which we can find is possible here.

Sue Wait, somehow being invisible since she ran right past me and I had no idea.  (But I grabbed a mid-race shot since she had several available in that stretch and most others did not.)

And Escalade's new friend Shawn carrying the flag near the end of her return to racing.  There were a few good shots of her and her group.


In the quest for fairness...I suppose I can't leave out my photos just because I looked like a pedophile luring little kids back to my van for candy.  So here's an alternate shot that brightroom got of me streaking towards the finish line.


Some people requested my "real" photo...so here it is (non pedophile version):


And I would not be denied in my quest, here is a double dip for those traditionalists out there that thought my post was missing a couple things last week.

Hmmmm. I think someone forgot to post this week.

And that someone is me.  Oops.  But with the insightful race reports provided by Jake and Escalade, you don't really need to hear from me do you?

Final reminder for anyone joining in the Making Tracks for Celiacs event - the time is now.  Ok, not really, you can show up the day of if you want to.  But, if you know you are joining, why not sign up?

And, for anyone in the mood, I'm headed to the Chiefs (baseball) game on Wednesday night.  Let me know if you are interested in that?

Upcoming Charitable Events

These events have been on the TRY calendar for weeks and weeks now and most of you have been getting contacted about this stuff from me or from others in various forms, but I still wanted to put a summary blog entry together to make sure everyone knows when these events are and to start to get our balls rolling.  I've really enjoyed how TRY has been a part of these events and I appreciate all the help you guys and girls have given me with them over the past 2-4 years!

Making Tracks For Celiacs
Next Saturday (the 12th).  They are looking for participants and volunteers.  It's small, its delightfully disorganized (honestly, don't you get sick of the polish of Komen-like events?), and it's at a park that doesn't often get sought out -- Jamesville Beach.  It's also a perfect place to twist an ankle and spoil the rest of your summer running!  Who doesn't want to be a part of this?!!  :-)

Enough of you have experienced it at least one of the last two years, so I feel I don't need to go into detail.  For those who want details, please let me know.

The event website.
The team website.

It's free for LM employees to join in the fun - just make sure you go through me and don't sign up directly, yourself.  It's not free for non-LM employees to join -- but, of course, you could get your company to pay your way if you want to, so stop your whining.  (This "for free" option didn't just happen.  I have to put work and time into it every year.)

For those of you who can't participate but want to support the cause, please donate to your favorite participant through the team website above.  Even if, for some reason, your favorite participant isn't me.  :-/


Paige's Butterfly Run
Saturday June 2nd.  Actually, I need to get in direct contact with my centipede team members about this.  Not much to share with the rest of the group other than, please consider joining in this race.  They do a good job with it, it's a great cause, and I'm really impressed by the back story.  For Paige's parents and teachers and friends to turn her death into such an ongoing legacy (having raised well over a million dollars now) is impressive and humbling.  (I don't think I would have been able to find the strength to do it, if I were in their shoes.)  Plus, we are sort of establishing a post race tradition of chilling out long enough for The Taste of Syracuse to begin.  It's a great time to be there, because, you can actually move around.  And you can actually taste Syracuse without waiting in long lines.  And Syracuse tastes really, really good!  I think it might be the orange zest?  It's sooooo much more enjoyable than being there in the crowds at night, that I can't recommend it enough.  You are never more than two minutes away from your next "bacon bomb", and really, how can that not be a good thing?  You can always go back at night if you enjoy DATBs and TATFs. (Admittedly, I do enjoy the second of those.  A LOT.)

Something else to consider - we have plenty of TRY members - why do we only have one centipede team in this event?  Obviously, I can't "lead" up more than one (and by lead up, I mean slow down), but I fully encourage people who have seen us or heard about us doing this and have thought it seemed like fun to join in: It is fun.  It is random.  And the more, the merrier.  You don't need to be as fast as the Centipediatricians have been.  You could be faster.  You could be slower.  That division is about a different race-day experience, not about the clock.



Relay For Life.
Friday June 15th into Saturday June 16th.

Big announcement time: I am pulling the plug on the "run the entire time" concept.  I think it has (fittingly) run it's course.

But, I'm still looking for teammates.  And teammates that want to run.  But I am not going into this planning on booking the full 12 hour window.  If enough people sign up that it's obvious we could cover it, then I'll readjust accordingly.  But for now the plan is to run when people want to run - certainly at the start and after dark and to spread that out some just for the fun of it - but during the wee hours of the night, I plan to interact with the main team up the hill more as I think that will be more fun than forcing something that is starting to feel forced.  And we can stop completely and all do more with the luminary ceremony and other portions of the event, so I see this as a step forward and not a step backward.  Seriously.

I am getting more involved in event set-up this year, so if you are done early on Fridays and want to join in with me earlier in the day on the 15th, I'll be there all day.  Not sure what all is involved (setting up lights, cords, and ??), but I've heard that some retirement age people are doing most of the grunt work and I've offered to provide some "youth" and strength to them as long as they don't mind telling me exactly what to do.

The team website is up and ready for sign-ups.  Feel free to join once you know you are participating.

Race Report From Tough Mudder at Mt Pocono

Written by Escalade
(Photos added by T)

The Tough Mudder was held on April 29 at Pocono Manor in PA. Our team
consisted of about 15 people mainly from the Syracuse area but a few
were from PA. Our team was the “Syracuse Mudders” and we had some
snazzy orange shirts with all of our names on the back, so I’m told!

Terry, my friend Megan-Mack and I met the rest of the group the night
before and we had a big team dinner.

 This was a lot of fun and helped us get to know and bust on our fellow team mates before the real thing, the next day.

Overview 

The course was designed to be a bit over 12 miles that consisted of
running, climbing, and about 20-25 obstacles along the way. Some
examples of the obstacles included: jumping 20ft into water off a
plank, running 50ft in a zig zag through fire and then jumping over
fire at the end, 

crawling in mud under 18 inches of barbed wire, or
electrical wires, jumping in and going head under water into a
dumpster full of water, ice and antifreeze so that the ice did not
freeze, crawling through a muddy tunnel for about 40 ft, climbing
spider nets, climbing and jumping over 8 ft and 10 ft walls, doing
monkey bars or rings, walking a 40 ft balance beam, 

carrying a large piece of wood for at least a quarter of a mile, trying to make it over
a quarter pipe and much much more.

 Going into this event, I thought that the running portion would be on
grass or cart paths, since it was partially on a golf course. Wow was
I wrong. The running portion was through the woods, muddy streams,
dried out stream beds where there were rocks, logs, sticks, ditches,
trees, you name it, in the way. Thankfully I had two extremely good
guides who were watching my every next move.
It didn’t annoy me that I couldn’t always run or run as fast as I
wanted to, but I am very surprised that I made it through the finish
line without twisting an ankle.

Pros 

This event was a lot of fun, even though I froze half the time. My
favorite part of this whole experience was getting to know new people
(my team), and working as a team the whole way to complete the
challenges and obstacles we faced. We all had to work together and
everyone had a great attitude and would always cheer on the other team
members. Everyone was so open to and willing to help me whether it was
yelling from the end of the tunnel to let me know where the end was,
lending a hand to get up after crawling under barbed wire, getting a
boost to climb the 10 ft walls, and many other helpful things.
I couldn’t have asked for a better team, unless any of you TRYers want
to join next year! We are planning on doing the July 2013 Mudder in
Buffalo, put it on your calendar!! 

Cons

I don’t really have anything negative to say about the mudder, but for
my own personal thoughts, I now know what I need to work on for the
next time I attack this beast. I really trained hard on my running and
I need to focus more attention on sit ups, push ups, monkey bars etc.

Final Thoughts

I had a blast! Even though it is a completely insane thing to do, it
was so much fun and I am very glad that I did it. Thanks to Terry and
my snowboard guide, Megan-Mack for all their help, support, and
eyeballs that work!

[Editor's note: The platform jump is from 15 feet - but that means your head is over 20 feet above the water, so close enough.  Antifreeze can't keep ice from freezing, because, you know, ice is already frozen.  It does keep the water from turning into ice, though, meaning the ice/water combination can be at or below 32 degrees.  It seemed much worse to me than the polar plunge we did in January.  When the writer says "we are planning...", she means "she is planning".  I am still crying for my momma and praying that the mud monster doesn't come and find me.  I'm also hoping to thaw out sometime before this July.]

Race Report from Warrior Run at Labrador Mountain

Written by Jake

The event was held on Saturday 28th at Labrador Mountain in Tully NY. The venue was decent as there was a lot of space and about 35-50% of the race was viewable from the crowd at the bottom.

Overview: Ran up a trail, slid down, ran over fire and hay bales, ran back up to pretty much the top of the mountain, down through the woods, back up, then down. Total of 5k with like 3 ascents.

Pros: Lots of fun people. The first obstacle was a huge "slip and slide" of basically a gigantic tarp that they blew the snow guns on. It was about 200ft long but eventually people slid through the mud all the was to the bottom of the hill.

Cons: running up an down the ski hill about three times. Holy cow that was insane. Nobody was prepared for that. There were also a lack of real good obstacles. They were all really easy and made a lot of bottlenecks. Plus at the end there was not a complimentary beer for competitors.

Overall: it was a good experience but I'd rather do a tough muddier or warrior dash next. You could tell it was a massive rip-off of warrior dash. The top time of the day was 25 minutes, my time was 31 minutes and good for top 13 of the first two waves which I was happy about.

Final thoughts: If the hills at the boilermaker are like running up a ski hill I will be screwed.