Hi Y’all,
Week TWO recap:
Is this already the end of July? The bad news is the heat is here to stay, but the good news is when the first cool front arrives, you’re going to feel like you’re flying. You’ll be relieved to know I don’t have much to say this week.
There was a big and wonderful turnout for our first official PARR Saturday run last week. I saw lots of new, smiling faces. Who knew all of this training could be so fun?!? We love seeing pictures of your training throughout the week, so please continue to post those pictures. These postings do help motivate our members to get out to join.
Hopefully everyone has settled into their respective groups, met some great new people, but if you still feel lost or neglected, please feel free to contact me or your group leader and we’ll do our best to help.
Kaylin has done a tremendous job this year of finding guest speakers for our group. We have arranged for some great people to speak to the group. The first speaker will be David Rosenthal of Wild Pear on Friday, August 3. For this year, our speakers have asked for you to provide them with questions so they can be prepared to address them. If you have questions for David, please send them to me or Kaylin, and we’ll forward them to David.
There is a great local race, Chance for Hope, on Saturday, September 8, for you to support a great cause and to get a gauge on your training. You have the choice of a 5k or 10k. This race is very popular with our members. And if you want to move to a faster Corral in the Houston Marathon and Half Marathon, you can use this race to move. If you’re interested, please register for the race here:
https://thedriven.net/event.
SATURDAY 7/28/2018 DETAILS
We will all meet at Turner High School again. There is construction that limits access to the Turner track but we are still able to park in the front of the fenced gate. As you noticed, the parking lot is a bit of a mess with some muddy and dirt covered spots. Let’s try to park away from the fence line and try to create a rectangle, empty space for us to do the core work.
The FM and HM switch the runs from last week with the FM hitting the hills this week and the HM will be on the road. So this week the HM will be doing a timed run, while the FM folks head to Bailey Bridge to do their first Hill Workout. We will meet back at the Track for a CORE workout led by Caroline/Kaylin at around 6:50-7 a.m., finishing up around 7:15ish. BRING A MAT OR TOWEL. Your elbows and knees will hate you if you don’t.
FM: 5:45 AM – 60-minutes with 6 HILLs on Bailey Bridge + CORE. You’ll run east on Bailey toward Bailey Bridge, do your 6 HILLS and return toward Turner Parking lot. You may need to run west on Bailey road a bit to get in your 60 minutes.
HM: 6:00 AM – Easy 45 minutes run + CORE – you’ll run west on Bailey, north/up MacLean, Left/west on Magnolia and turn around at 22-23 minutes (around the recycling center). This is a great time to start getting to know people who are running your similar pace so if you’re running around someone for the first few minutes, there’s a good chance that person may be someone you will run with during the entire season. Please introduce yourself and take the opportunity to meet a potential future lifelong friend.
Walking group: 6:15 AM – 45 minutes walk, taking the same route as the HM, west on Bailey, north/up MacLean, Left/west on Magnolia and turn around at 22-23 minutes.
For the full marathoners, I asked our group to introduce ourselves to 3 people they didn’t know so let’s continue that for all the groups. Be social and meet some new members!
Water will be provided at Turner only. Please bring hydration if you need it along the course.
Daniel’s Note on Running Hills from Last Week for the FM: Running hills improves leg and heart strength, central nervous system stamina, and forces you to lift your knees (a desirable trait in running form). Running uphill reduces the impact forces on your feet and legs, but be careful while running downhill to not over stress your knees. While running uphill, your stride should be slightly shorter than on a flat surface and you should be looking directly ahead (not down). While running downhill, be sure to not overstride (try landing with your feet directly beneath your hips and let gravity carry you downhill). One way to accomplish this is to increase your cadence (# of steps per minute) while running downhill. Increasing your cadence/strides downhill will also reduce the impact on your legs.
There are a variety of ways to tackle hill workouts, but we will keep it simple for the first week. Once you get to Bailey Bridge, run uphill at Marathon Pace and then run downhill at a slower, easier pace to recover and relax your breath. Once you have reached the base of the other side of the bridge, immediately turn around and repeat going the opposite direction. Try not to stop unless necessary. One uphill counts as 1 hill. A roundtrip up, down, and back over will count as 2 hills. Continue this for the assigned workout, 6 hills for the week 1 marathoners. Once you have completed 6 hills, please run back to Turner at an easy conversational pace to complete your 60 minute workout.
HAVE YOU BEEN TO WILD PEAR?
If you missed the kick-off party, you may be unaware that all 2018-19 PARR members are receiving a $25 gift card to Wild Pear Running. We are sending David the latest list of members every few days, so stop by and redeem your gift certificate!
SHIRTS!
While you’re there, don’t forget that Wild Pear has graciously agreed to handle our shirt orders. They have one of each size in the store, so you can try on before you order. And that $25 gift certificate just happens to cover the cost of a shirt!
Hope you all have a great run on Saturday. If you have any questions, please let us know.
Laurence