Why are we doing more tempo runs this year?

Why are we doing so much tempo this year?

One of the main purposes of tempo runs is that it teaches your body to buffer the lactic acid that builds up as you drift into the anaerobic zone. Once the level of lactic acid builds up too high you will eventually need to stop running or slow down. This happens to many of us in the third mile of a 5K.

Tempo runs runs are designed to be run right at your lactate threshold which is about 86-90% of maximum heart rate. When you do tempo runs and train at that pace your muscles adapt and overcompensate, generating two benefits. 1) the pace that lactic acid starts to build up will be faster 2) you will be able to train your body to handle higher levels of lactic acid. Ultimately you’ll be able to run at a faster pace longer.

If you do tempo runs at too fast a pace you’ll still get a training effect but it won’t be on this buffering system. To be a fast runner it’s to your advantage to maximize all of your systems.

I will have a chart available soon that will help you determine your tempo pace. Another nice advantage of tempo runs is that they don’t beat your legs up as much as intervals.

If you ever have any questions don’t be afraid to ask.

Big Hal Update

Hal is doing very well. He has already been up and walking around.
He’s got that runner’s spirit! In fact he is doing so well that he may be going home over the weekend.
Some have asked for his room info. See below:
Northwestern Hospital
Feinberg Pavilion
252 E. Huron
Rm 1631
Chicago IL 60611

Hear the sound of the distant thunder?

That's the sound of hill workouts coming your way.
As promised, Saturdays in March will focus on hill repeats. To give everyone just a little taste of what is coming join us this Saturday morning for the Ramsgate workout.

Run starts at 9:00. We are going to meet at a parking lot at aprroximately 121st & Wolf Road. At the intersection of 123rd & Wolf head north on Wolf. Go down about 1-1/2 blocks and park in the lot on the west side of the street. There are no restroom facilities.
The workout will be a tempo (some hill repeats) and another tempo.
Wonder why we're doing so many tempo runs this year? Check the blog over the weekend for an explanation of their benefits.

Try to be on time.

Fartlek Fever

Meet at the Human Race tomorrow at 6:30 for the last Wednesday night fartlek for a while.
Here is the plan 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 with 2 minute recovery between. Then a 3-4 minute active recovery.
Then a 1on 1 off x 8 - at a really quick pace.

We may be doing some of this in Crystal Tree so the directionally challenged (you know who you are - should review your maps)

Saturday is still TBA.

First guy to define and post the orgin of the word "fartlek" wins the other Skull hat.

10 The Hard way

Back to the woods..........
We are going to meet tomorrow morning at Waterfall Glen at the trail head (on Cass about 2 blocks south of I-55). We will head out the hard way - then we will tempo the last 3 miles back in. I checked out a bit of the trail and it seems to be in decent shape.

Run starts at 9:00.


See you there.

Practice Wednesday Feb 16

Meet at the Human Race this Wednesday 6:30.
The plan is to do a tempo run around Centenial Park and than we'll throw in an interval as we start our transition into our next phase of training.

Rick Miller won an age group award at the Channahon Frosty 5.


Compliments of the "Continental" we are raffling off two really nice Skull knit hats.

The first guy and the first girl to post the movies these three quotes came from will each win a hat.


"Tough Ain't enough"


"I will be watching you and if I find that you are trying to corrupt my first born child, I will bring you down, baby. I will bring you down to Chinatown."


"Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."


Negina already won for the girls. I will have 3 other questions for guys soon.

Hilly Tempo on Saturday

We will meet at 40 Acres. We will do a warm-up to the Palos Roadrunners Road Course then we will run a hilly 3 mile tempo. Afterward there will be an option to add 2-5 miles of additional mileage. Their course is marked pretty well so we should be able to get a pretty accurate distance. The run will start at 9:00.

I know this is deviating from the schedule we sent out but the snow cover on the bike trails is limiting our options.

7 weeks until the Shamrock Shuffle!


Anyone running Channahon this weekend?

Workouts Week of 2/7

Saturday's warm weather brought out a few Group 3ers that we haven't seen a while. Welcome back!

Monday - The turnouts here have been a little low but it's still an option to run with a group. When in doubt e-mail your running partners to see if they're planning to attend.

Wednesday - Meet at Tinley High School 6111 West 175th Street in the parking lot. We will run over to 1/2 mile park and do 4 halves (each one at an increasing pace). (Group 3 will do 3) These will be continuous with an active recovery. You don't want to jog super slow on your recovery - we're still working on our aerobic base. If you need to go really slow on the jog you went too fast on the interval. The world of anaerobia is coming soon. Be patient.
We'll depart the school at 6:30.

Saturday - TBA depending on the weather and condition of streets/ bike paths.

Don't forget the Channahon race is Sunday at 1:00. This is a good way to get a tempo run in.

If anyone has tried to run the trails in the forest preserve and would like to post trail conditions that would be helpful.

You Can Run in Shorts!!

It's supposed to be 50 degrees tomorrow so take advantage of the warm front and run with us tomorrow morning.

We will start at 9:00. We will meet at 151st & Harlem (Bike Path Parking Lot) and head towards Yankee Woods we will incorporate some hills and a little tempo.

Raymond Rocks Vegas

Jim Raymond ran a 3:24:41 this past weekend in the Las Vegas Marathon.

It seems he has caught the marathon bug. That's what he gets for hanging around the Meeces.

He is now in contention to take away John Spannuth's title for most marathons per year.

Congratulations Jim!

Workouts Week of Jan 31

Time to start squeezing the trigger.

We just finished our first month of training. We are halfway done with the first phase of our training. To those that have been showing up - nice job on the hard work and committment.
The workouts in February will be similar but they will start get progressively harder.
This is one of the keys to our training. As the body adapts, workouts need to get longer, more intense or more often or no further improvement or training effect will take place.
Keep this in mind as you train by yourself too. It's time to start adding in an extra mile or two or a little faster pace.

This Wednesday meet at the Human Race - the run will start at 6:30.
The workout will be Fartlek 1-2-3-2-1 x 2 with 3 minute recovery

Saturday will be at 9:00 - location to be announced.


Race Results

John Spannuth ran 1:26:05 in Endurathon 1/2 this weekend in San Antinio good for 6th overall.


Tempo Run Idea-

The Frosty Five in Channahon is a great way to get a little timed run in.
It's February 13th and it starts at 1:00. www.channahonpark.org