Saturday, September 15, 2012

Run in circles

Today I showed up for "cross country training" with a local running club, the Headington Road Runners. The workout could be basically summarized as: run around a very small loop, then run in a larger loop, then run in an even larger loop, and finally run around the largest possible loop.

I loved it.

Before I went, I wasn't sure what to expect. "Cross country training" -- does that mean that we just do a distance run across a heath? The email said to bring spikes, which I thought was an excellent sign.

First, we did a group warm-up around a small circle. You can see it in the GPS track below (it's the small circle). We jogged, and did butt kicks and high knees, and short sprints, all around this circle. At first I felt a little ridiculous -- it was maybe 20m in diameter -- but then I understood the purpose, which is that everyone can warm up together, regardless of speed.

The tiny loop is the warmup; the heart-shaped is the first set; the large loop is the second.
The time trial was around the whole park, outside this picture.
I just knew this workout would look awesome on the GPS track.

The workout consisted of three 10-minute "efforts." The first was around the heart-shaped loop, which was so designed to make us run uphill twice within a very small loop. We just ran around it continuously for 10 minutes, passing and lapping other runners at will.

Then we rested for 5 minutes. This meant just standing around and listening to instructions for the next effort. The biggest difference from running at home that I have found in both this workout and the track workout I did the other day was the utter lack of non-interval running. Mile warm-up, half-mile cool down, and stand around between intervals. These people clearly do not pad their mileage like I do.

Mile 1-1.5 is the warmup, 2-3 the heart loop, 3-5 the medium loop and 5-6 the time trial loop.
I just knew this workout would look awesome on the elevation graph.

Then we ran around a bigger loop for 10 minutes. Then 5 minutes standing around. Then we did a "time trial" consisting of a loop around the entire park. My time was 9:00 for 1.43 miles (6:18).

It was simple, and I liked it. I ran hard, and I was tired afterwards. It was great cross country training; we ran through thick grass, around tight turns, through marshy spots, under trees, up and downhill, in spikes. I am definitely going back next Saturday.

1 comment:

Muddy Puddin' said...

"I ran hard, and I was tired afterwards. It was great cross country training; we ran through thick grass, around tight turns, through marshy spots, under trees, up and downhill"

That's what it's about....You just described an awesome run.