Monday, July 15, 2013

We're MOVING!

Hey guys!

We're moving our blog to:  http://teamaodf.blogspot.com/

We'll be posting new things soon, so come check it out.  We're closing this blog in the next few months!

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Summer Is Here.

After what looked like a prolonged glorious running weather through much of June, it ended with a BOOM this past Saturday at NYRR Pride Run!  Braving crazy humidity and temperatures, 9 Agonites let it all hang loose (hello Sports Bra Season) and scored some points.  The ladies, once again, put us on the map with Ms. Iwaski coming in SECOND and LisaLisa coming in at NINTH in their respective age groups.
Ms. Iwaski was always speedy, but we don’t know what’s gotten into LisaLisa.  She had been sick most of spring with some kind of mysterious bug.  We think she has been bitten by a radioactive spider.  Either way, we still love you LisaLisa!!  We are team for everybody and everything, including mutants!!!!
Here is the team raffle tally after Pride Run:
Name
Raffle Ticket Count
Baldassari
2
Caine
3
Finn
4
Gormanly
4
Iwasaki
2
Kern
1
Laytham
1
Liriano
4
Lubin
2
Martin
5
Masi
3
Miller
1
Montagna
2
Pathak
3
Rallakis
1
Roberts
2
Silvestro
3
Tanaka
3
Wengroff Spencer
1
Yamada
3
Grand Total
50
Next Club Points race is Team Championships in August. 
Details on after party to come soon…

SPEEDWORK:
After a hot race we’re going right back into hard training.  For most of us, September 8 is so close, we need to really ramp up your speed work.  Too hot?  Who cares.
We’re doing interval tempo work this week.  It’s pretty simple. 
Start with 1M of Warm Up.  Include dynamic stretches, jumps, sprints.
As set:  1M hard pace; 0.25 Recovery.  Do 6 Sets. 
Make sure to really recover on the recoveries.  The recovery should be no faster than 9 minute miles.  You may walk if needed, but your 1M hard pace should be absolute exhaustion.  After all, you’re only running 6M at hard pace total, so you should be able to handle this perfectly fine.

Monday, June 24, 2013

July Babies

We have a lot of July babies…which means, we should technically be warm weather specialist team, but hmmm.  Maybe not so much?  Well, the Canadian doesn’t count, I suppose.
Happy Birthday to:
Hiro the Hero – 7/3.  The other half of the Canadian Ultramarathon contingent.  If you read last month’s B-day list, you’ll find out who the “other half” is…
Miss Melissa – 7/13.  She’s had some time off during winter, but she’s back now!  Watch out! 
Theresa “Theo”  – 7/24.  Our favorite woman’s woman.  She’s full of positive NRG!
Riccardo – 7/21.  A rather cryptic message from Captain Crunch: “Nezzzcardo-a friend of Putanezzzccaaa”  
Louise - 7/27/.  According to Captain Crunch, she secretly has a really long list of middle names…But does it beat Xena with her long list last names??

This weekend is a Club Points Race (Pride Run), so we expect everybody on our team to show up.  ESPECIALLY those who are feeling the Pride.  No excuses, guys and gals.  If you don’t show up, we’ll make you wear a specially customized team shirt that says, “I’m a Bad Pride Member.”  We’ll put pictures of kittens, unicorns and rainbows, and you’d be forced to wear it on a long run.  Oh, yes. We may be a broke-ass team, but we do have money for pranks and you know it!  After all it’s not that hard or expensive to build a one-of-a-kind shirt!

It’s been done before.

Speed Work:  Short Progressive Run.
Since we have a race this weekend, this week’s speed work is going to be a bit light.  Mostly to really spin out your legs and get things in motion.  We prefer the track, but if you can’t find one, you can do it on along the Great Lawn. 
If you are doing the Track:
As set:  400m @ MP, 400m @10K pace, 400m @ 5k pace.  Back to back, 3 sets.
If you are doing the Great Lawn:
As set:  Half Loop @ MP, Half Loop @ 10K pace, Half Loop @ 5K pace.  Back to back, 3 sets.
There is no “rest” period between each pace or each set.  It’s just one continuous run of appx 2.25 miles or so.  Sandwich it in with 1M of warm up, including dynamic stretching and 1M of easy cool down.  It’s not much of hard work, but that's OK.  Save your effort for race day.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Portugal Day Race

Portugal is known for it’s sardine dishes, and appropriately, they gave up canned sardines at the race.  Not exactly race food, but some Agonites said, “LOVE FISH.  I’LL TAKE IT!” 
This being a club points race for men, the following dudes got scored our Team Raffle tickets this time:  MarcoPolo, Captain Crunch, Kernel Kern, G-Man.  Sorry Melissa…last we checked, you weren’t a dude…  Here is the Raffle Ticket Tally.

Name
Raffle Ticket Count
Baldassari
2
Caine
2
Finn
3
Gormanly
3
Iwasaki
1
Kern
1
Laytham
1
Liriano
3
Lubin
2
Martin
4
Masi
3
Miller
1
Montagna
2
Pathak
3
Rallakis
1
Roberts
2
Silvestro
2
Tanaka
2
Wengroff Spencer
1
Yamada
2
Grand Total
41

Next race is at the end of the month:  PRIDE RUN.  It’s only 5M, it’s still open, and you get the best swag in town!  Oh, and it starts at 9AM, which means you might get some extra ZZZZZs.

Speed Work:  400m Tavern on the Hell Repeats.
We’ve had two pretty hard speed work so far, so this week, we’ll take it easy…well not THAT easy, though. 
On the Lower Loop, if you start from the lights at Columbus Circle entrance and head north clock wise, after about 200m or so in, you’ll see a big “400” written by the curb in the rec lane.  That’s the “400m more to go” mark for NYCM.  Your starting point is here.  Your finish point is the NYCM finish line, which is the set of crosswalk lights just past the “Tavern” - there are two set of lights here…the further one is your finish.  Since this is a slight uphill, make sure you are using hill climbing form and quick turnovers. 
Do 8 to 10 of these repeats.  This is to be done at “finishing pace”, so these should feel pretty hard and your lungs should be burning at the end of each repeat.  You get a nice full 400m recovery back down to the “400” starting point.  Agonites should be coming in between 1:35 to 1:50 per repeat. 

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Big Happy Birthday!

Everybody please wish Captain Chris Crunch a big happy birthday!!  His birthday was June 9, and he didn’t tell anyone!!

This past weekend was Mini 10K…ok, now it’s OAKLEY Mini 10K and all the Agnoite ladies were out in full force!  Agonite men now must step up to the plate and come out in full force THIS weekend at the Portugal Day Race!  They only have to run 5Ms tho.  Whimps.

Here is the Team Raffle Tally as of June 10.  A few people now have 3 chances to win the big prize!  Remember you have to run to get the raffle ticket!

NameRaffle Ticket Count
Caine2
Finn3
Gormanly3
Iwasaki1
Laytham1
Liriano3
Lubin2
Martin3
Masi2
Miller1
Montagna2
Pathak3
Rallakis1
Roberts2
Silvestro2
Tanaka2
Wengroff Spencer1
Yamada2
Grand Total36


SPEEDWORK:
This week’s speed workout is going to be simple, but hard.  Let’s shoot for 1 mile repeats, starting the Boat House to a little bit past the Engineer’s Gate.  That’s includes the Cat Hill, the weird Hill at the Obelisk, and a nice flat bit on the East Drive.  Recover easy back to Boat House.  Since Agonites are tuff bunch, we recommend at least 4 of these repeats – total of 8 miles. 

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Club News 6

Birthday Announcements.
June 6:  Victor the other half of Traveling Ultra Dudes!
June 25:  Rallakis Rallamphos.  AKA Bobby.  We have no idea how all those letters in his name got convereted to simple, “Bobby”. 

Weekly Speed Workouts:  To help lonely Agonites with some direction, we’re posting speed workouts every week to help with your weekly training.
This week, try your hand at a ladder run.  Ladder run is an interval run, where the harder parts gets longer every interval.
5 min warm up – dynamic stretching, easy jog.
2 min @5K pace, 2 min recovery
4 min @5K pace, 2 min recovery
6 min @ 5K pace, 2 min recovery
8 min @ 5K pace, 2 min recovery
10 min @5K pace, 2 min recovery
8 min @ 5K pace, 2 min recovery
6 min @ 5K pace, 2 min recovery
4 min @5K pace, 2 min recovery
2 min @5K pace, 2 min recovery
5-10 min cool down, followed by static stretching.

Summer training is heating up as we all get ready for our fall marathon/races.  Be sure to stay hydrated and be safe out there!

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Broolyn Half Update

Two Major PRs were had with LisaLisa and Rebecca coming in strong.  LisaLisa especially looked svelte and pretty!  Montagna saved up partying for his B-day and put in a really good effort too!
What a race.  We all thought this was going to be a poo-show with a record setting field.  But we Agonites prepared well and we all go there pretty early.  Jenny From The Block got up at 3AM to make her trek.  A few ladies, I’m told, were a bit hung over too.  That’s our girls!!!
We all felt a bit like the Walking Dead, slowly shuffling to the start line.  It took us so long to get to the start, we heard that some crazy Kenyan Ethiopian had finished the race before some of us even started!  (Joke)
This race was club points race, and even though we didn’t score any points, we sure had a strong turn out.  We even had a personal cheerleader in the form of the Great Maharaja!!

Name
Raffle Ticket Count
Caine
2
Finn
2
Gormanly
2
Laytham
1
Liriano
2
Lubin
2
Martin
3
Masi
2
Miller
1
Montagna
2
Pathak
2
Silvestro
1
Tanaka
1
Roberts
1
Yamada
1
Rallakis
1
Grand Total
26

Here is our Team Raffle tally as of now.  Of course Captain Crunch right now has the highest number of tickets, but I see a few twos. 

Finally, our resident Fashion Police LisaLisa is working on getting us better wicking uniforms.  LisaLisa, we hope that the new shirts aren’t…well…mouse colored.  It washes Captain Crunch’s beautifully treated soft supple skin tone out.  If you have any ideas about where we can get quality team gear, please contact LisaLisa ASAP!