I wrote the book on them. At Zorinsky at any rate. I’ve run nearly 15,000 miles around my dojo over the last 10+ years. Laid out and measured several courses, coached hundreds of athletes on it. I really do know it like the back of my hand.
I described whispering final instructions to Ben & Lee prior to the start of Saturday’s 5K. What I was telling them was how to run the exact tangents, how that could save anywhere from 6-10 seconds off their times. Those are also Prime Times to do pickups, just a slight increase in speed to fully maximize the advantage of running the Shortest Possible Route. SPR as it is known technically. That was the first thing they taught me back in the summer of 1987 in San Marcos, Texas at the TAC/RRTC Course Measurement Class.
And I’ve been running the tangents every since. While I may not have the leg speed of my youthful competitors I do have the wily veteran thing going for me. If not better, then as good as any at looking ahead and lining up each nuance of the course, calculating how to take advantage of something so few people consider. The slower you are the greater the benefit of tangents, I probably saved 10-15 seconds on Saturday. Nice trick to have in your bag.
The Lincoln Mile was held yesterday. Ryan Salem (6th, 4:45.82), Brian Wandzilak (7th, 4:48.86), Paul Wilson (13th, 4:57.29) and Bridget Easley (2nd, 5:29.96) all represented. Our Good Buddy Annie Shadle was the overall women’s winner in 5:15.48. Full resluts: http://lincolnrun.org/mile/Mile-11.txt
Our Good Mates are back home from NYC. They landed at Eppley last night and were greeted by a crowd of several thousand fans cheering their success on the big stage. At least they should have been.
Jody Green and Linda Barnhart are spending this week in Colorado getting acclimated to the rarefied air. Jody will be running the Leadville 50 Miler this weekend. She’s trained hard and done her research, I like her attitude and her chances at succeeding, you can do it Jody!
Thanks to Judy & Raina for dragging me up and down Serpent Ridge a few times this morning. I got 10 miles with 5 X that monster in the middle, whew! Great Training for BIX on July 30.
My old buddy Ryan Hall was the 2010 winner of the BIX 7. in Davenport, Iowa. The race will once again serve as the USA Men’s & Women’s National Championships for the distance. TNB will have several mates competing.
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