We’re back on the track this week, and to celebrate having Barton Hall entirely to ourselves, we’ll be doing a new form of Ridiculous Relay such that the workout will end up being 8 by 200m at R pace, with lots of lovely randomness and chaos guaranteed. Everyone is welcome, regardless of pace or prior experience, but you must be an FLRC member and sign a waiver once for 2022.
One important note: Since I’m opening and closing Barton for this workout, please don’t open additional doors or let non-runners in—Cornell is happy to let us run but doesn’t want Barton to be generally open.
Here’s how the relay will work. After our lunge matrix, leg swings, and 10 minutes of warmup jogging we’ll gather at the starting line and line up in order of mile pace. The first team will be composed of the person on each end of the line and the person in the middle. Once they have received their unique baton (we have snazzy new batons in different colors), the second team will form from the new person on each end and the middle. We’ll continue along those lines, making as many three-person teams as we can. If the numbers don’t work out evenly, either two people can share a spot, thus getting only 4 reps each, or we can have a two-person team that runs 12 reps each. Each team is welcome to come up with a silly name for cheering each other on.
Once teams are formed, the slower group will line up and run a 200 (one lap) at race pace. They’ll hand off to the middle group of runners using standard relay handoff methods (lining up in order as the runners come in), who will run their 200 and hand off to the faster group for their 200. In between fast laps, each runner should jog a lap or to the water fountain or whatever, paying attention to the other runners on their team so as to be sure to be back at the starting line for their next handoff. Each runner will run 8 laps, and each team is responsible for keeping track of their total laps.
If you’ve never enjoyed one of our Ridiculous Relays (which work differently outdoors, where there’s more room), don’t be intimidated. This approach is designed to create essentially random, evenly matched teams to help people make new friends, work together to run a fast team time, and ensure that everyone feels included. And we’ll demo how handoffs work before getting started to make sure everyone understands how to line up and exchange the baton.
See you Tuesday night!
Resources
- Administration: Only FLRC members can run in Barton Hall. Everyone must also sign a waiver once for 2022. Check to see if you already signed.)
- Warmup: Jay Johnson’s Lunge Matrix and Leg Swings, then 10 minutes of jogging
- Cooldown: At least 10 minutes of jogging, then Jay Johnson’s Strength and Mobility
- Pace Calculator: Jack Daniels’ VDOT Running Calculator