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.

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.