With the annoying Daylight Saving Time causing us to lose what remaining daylight we’ve had recently, this will be our last Tuesday evening outdoor workout for the year. On November 5, we’ll pick up in Barton Hall again, with the time changing to 7 PM after the Cornell track team finishes their practice. Mark your calendars.
For this final outdoor workout, meet at the usual spot in the Cornell Botanic Gardens at 5:30 PM with a warmup start at 5:45 PM. Given our race on Sunday and because it’s our last chance, we’ll be reprising the wonderfully chaotic Ridiculous Relay this week. If you’re a few minutes late, come and find us after the warmup jog at the top of the hill by the bell. Everyone is welcome to join the fun, even if you haven’t been able to make many of these workouts so far.
For those who haven’t had the pleasure of a Ridiculous Relay before, here’s how they work. After our warmup, everyone lines up in order of speed so I can match up the fastest and slowest runner, the next-fastest and next-slowest, and so on, and then assemble pairs of people into four-person teams. Then, one set of people from each team will start. Here’s the twist. Within each set, the runners run in opposite directions around the roughly 400m loop until they meet, exchange a baton, and then turn around and run back the way they came to the start. That way, the faster runners run farther, and the slower runners run shorter, but everyone runs for about the same amount of time. The pace should be quick—roughly mile race pace. Pace yourself because it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and run too fast early on.
Once the first set of runners both make it back to the start, they hand off the baton to their team’s second set of runners, and the first set gets to rest and cheer for everyone else. While all this is happening, the other teams’ runners are doing the same thing. Laps are run! Leads change! Batons are dropped! Chaos ensues! The winning team will get all their runners back first after all sets of runners have done 8 reps.
Everyone is welcome, though you must sign the FLRC Training Programs waiver once for 2024 and, if you come regularly, be an FLRC member. We also invite you to join us for the fourth PGXC race on Sunday, November 3 at Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua—please register! If you like the social aspects of the workouts, you’ll get that in running cross-country too—we have a great time.
Any questions? See you tomorrow!
Resources
- Administration: You must be an FLRC member and sign the 2024 waiver!
- Location: All XC workouts take place at the F. R. Newman Arboretum in the Cornell Botanic Gardens east of the Cornell Vet School
- Parking: There’s plenty of parking in the Arboretum; latecomers have to park farther from the warmup area.
- Warmup: Jay Johnson’s Lunge Matrix and Leg Swings, then 10 minutes of jogging
- Cooldown: Jogging until everyone’s done, then Jay Johnson’s Strength and Mobility
- Pace Calculator: Jack Daniels’ VDOT Running Calculator
- FLRC Calendar: (Download and import this ICS file for most calendar apps; subscribe to fingerlakesrunners@gmail.com if you use Google Calendar.)
Will be back in Ithaca for Dec 12 - Jan 12 so maybe I’ll make it one time to Barton!