Hi Y’all,
WELCOME TO PARR 2015-2016!
Whether you’re a veteran to the group or a rookie…this year is setting itself up to be the BEST YET. Seriously, y’all…it’s going to F.U.N.
Lots of information to cover so I’m going to just blurt it all out. I’m never at a loss for words, so get comfy.
Saturday Deets
This Saturday, July 18, is our Season Kick-off. We will meet at Turner High School track ( 4717 Bailey Road Pearland, TX 77584 ) at 5:30AM. O’dark thirty will come often, but that sun is way too hot if we meet later. We will do a warm up on the track and then everyone will do the Magic Mile, a mile at your current fastest pace. That can be 5:00 or 50:00…IT’S YOUR PACE. We will then do a CORE workout, so bring a mat or towel. We will also be giving an intro to the season and what to expect. I’ll send an email out with that information after Saturday as well.
Why run a Magic Mile?
The Magic Mile is great for two reasons. It is the best way to determine everyone’s current fitness level and effectively group folks with similar paced people. It also helps provide training paces to help you achieve your running goals. I will send some more info on the Magic Mile after Saturday to know what to do with your info. Even if you have no interest in improving your speed, it still helps to understand where you should be training. We will do a warm up and Ric will give some instruction on how to do the mile.
Can’t be there Saturday?
No problem. And no getting out of it. Ric is insisting this year that we all do it. I don’t like to mess with him, so just get ‘r done. We’ll be meeting at the track for the next several weeks, so you can come do on any of those Saturdays. If you need to do on your own, that’s fine too. The track is the best place to do this because the GPS watches are always a little off. So if you do on your own, time your FOUR laps around the track, not when your mile notification goes off. Once you do that, just send me your time.
Groups
We have people training for both the Full and Half Marathon…and FOUR different pace groups within those groups. So I will be compiling everyone’s Magic Mile times and getting everyone placed in a group over the next several weeks. You are certainly not required to stay in your group…we all like to run with our friends, so if you want to change groups, just let me know. We just like to know who is in which group so we don’t lose track of you. We will have group leaders and they like to know who is in their groups too! If you’re a solo runner, that’s fine too…we won’t bother you (too much).
Schedules
The schedules have been posted and can be found here: https://goparr.com/schedules/ Fill your printers, my friends…IT’S TEN PAGES LONG. There are two columns Full (Left) and Half (Right). It’s overwhelming, so just focus on this week. We will be explaining as we go, so don’t let all the jargon get in the way of your training. You’ll see there are two options, in addition to the standard training plan (black ink). On any given day, you might choose to do one of the options. The first is a “Split Option” that allows you to split up your run and run morning and evening (orange ink). Ric is encouraging everyone to do this occasionally during the season. It gets you on the road a little longer and also is a good to run at different times of the day (temps/food/fatigue variation). The second option is the “Beginner Option” for those who are brand new to running or aren’t worried about speed – this is just a minutes based weekday program and long runs on Saturdays (blue ink). There will be much more discussion on the schedule…like 26 weeks worth.
Attendance
Do not worry, we do not take attendance. We don’t even require you to come to one single run. That is up to you. We just create the opportunities for you TO RUN. We will encourage the heck out of you to do so…but in the end, you need to make that decision each Saturday.
Facebook Group
If you’re on Facebook, please request to join our group for current members: https://www.facebook.com/groups/246625075376797/ If you’ve requested and didn’t get added, please reply to me and I’ll get you added. We get people that aren’t members every day requesting to join…and sometimes we miss an actual member! There’s lots of good discussion and even better coordination of weekday runs, or off-day long runs! If you are not on Facebook and want to get connected to a training group that meets during the week, let me know and I’ll get you in touch with those folks.
Weekday Therapy, I mean runs
We are all responsible for getting our weekday runs in on our own. But most of us are co-dependent and couldn’t possibly fathom running one single run alone. So for that reason, there are many groups that meet informally during the week. It’s becoming more formal and consistent, but to keep the responsibility to a minimum, we’ll say they’re still informal 🙂 Mornings and Evenings and they regularly post on the FB page. Right now, I know of these and will send out others as I learn of them:
MWF 4:30AM at PB
MWF 4:30AM at FM518 & Liberty
MTWThF 5:00AM at PB
MWF 5:15AM at PB
MW 7:30PM at Turner Track or Dawson
TTH 7:30PM at Turner Track
Wait, what’s the PB?
PB is one of our frequent starting places “Professional Building” at 2225 County Road 90 in Silverlake…so you’ll see it
Got Shirts?
WE LOVE OUR SHIRTS. Something about that orange on race day gets us all fired up. We will be taking shirt orders soon…and I’ll let you know as soon as that is ready for you to place your orders. But until then, hold tight.
Now what?
You can expect to hear from me by Friday morning each week with a plan for Saturday’s runs. So if you haven’t heard from me by Friday afternoon, please bug. Just know that we will be running early on Saturdays, that won’t change! We always try to be finished by 7:30 or 8:00AM…but as the distance gets longer that’s more difficult to do. AND…we will be meeting at Turner through the end of August for HILL WORK, so if that doesn’t get you excited, I don’t know what will 🙂
That’s all for now. We’ll be updating the website as we go and I’ll send emails with additional information as it comes up. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
See all your smiling, running faces on Saturday at 5:30AM at Turner!
Aimee Galley
Pearland Area Road Runners