It will be another hot one on Tuesday, but I think it will be cloudy so we can take a break from the Bird Sanctuary and return to the Waterfront Trail for Single File Surges, a classic cross-country team workout common in high school programs. In a couple of groups, depending on how many people we have and the range of paces, we’ll do three loops of the roughly 1-mile circuit around Stewart Park, running on the Waterfront Trail’s paved surface or on the grass next to it as desired.
After we regroup from the 10-minute warmup jog, each group will spread out into a single file with 5-10 feet between each person, running at a comfortable, easy pace. The order of runners doesn’t matter. After everyone is in position, the person at the back of the line surges to the front, passing everyone in front of them on the left and then tucking into the head of the line after passing the last person. As soon as they’re in front, they yell, “Go!” The new person at the back surges to the front, and so on. The surge pace should be quick—somewhere in the R pace to I pace range (1 mile to 5K race pace)—because each surge will be short and the intervening pace will be easy.
Bring water, and don’t worry if you need to slow down. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to sneak through the splash pad a few times without running over any small children.
As always, we meet at the Stewart Park bocce pits near the big pavilion, with the warmup starting at 6:30 PM. All are welcome, but you must be an FLRC member and sign the FLRC Training Programs waiver once for 2024.
Resources
- Administration: You must be an FLRC member and sign the 2024 waiver!
- Location: All workouts take place at Stewart Park in downtown Ithaca
- Parking: There’s lots of free parking in Stewart Park.
- Warmup: Jay Johnson’s Lunge Matrix and Leg Swings, then 10 minutes of jogging
- Cooldown: 10 minutes of jogging, then Jay Johnson’s Strength and Mobility
- Pace Calculator: Jack Daniels’ VDOT Running Calculator