Since the safety precautions for FLRC’s Bodyweight for Runners class garnered a perfect 5-star rating from participants, FLRC is pleased to announce that the club is restarting its popular MITHACAL MILERS training group with cross country workouts on Tuesday nights at 6 PM, starting September 15th. With my RRCA-certified coach hat on, I’ll be leading the workouts.
Workouts will focus on the 5K to 10K distance and on conditioning and skills appropriate for cross country racing—think intervals on grass and hills. All workouts will be carefully designed to keep runners spaced well apart while retaining the feeling of running with a group.
The program is free and open to all FLRC members (join here if necessary), but you must register and sign the waiver (just once, not for every session). We aren’t able to make this part of the FLRC Family Running Program, so only adults and older teens (accompanied by an adult) may participate. How fast you are isn’t important, but you should be running at least 20 miles per week and be able to handle a workout of 5 miles or more, with speed work.
Our initial meeting on September 15th will be at the Monkey Run parking area off Route 366 just outside Varna, and we’ll run on the grassy Dryden Rail Trail and in nearby fields and trails. Depending on the group size, we may be able to return to the Cornell Arboretum for future workouts.
To ensure the safety of all participants, FLRC has come up with the following requirements:
Online signup is required to manage group size (maximum of 50, per New York State regulations) and ensure data gathering in the event that contact tracing becomes necessary. Drop-ins are expressly not allowed.
During signup and at every session, participants must agree to the following statements:
I do not currently feel ill, and I will not attend any session if I do.
I am not currently running an above-normal temperature, and I will not attend any sessions if my temperature is above normal.
In the past 14 days, I have not traveled outside New York State.
In the past 14 days, to the best of my knowledge, I have not been exposed to a person who has tested positive for COVID-19.
In the past 14 days, I have not tested positive for COVID-19.
Everyone involved in the sessions, must maintain at least 6 feet of distance from all other people at all times. More distance is better, within the bounds of being able to hear coaching instructions. There is to be no physical contact of any kind.
Everyone must have a mask with them at all times and must put it on if proximity to another person drops below 6 feet for any reason. Masks do not need to be worn during exercise, but it’s entirely acceptable to wear one if it doesn’t impair breathing.
The FLRC coach will take attendance before each session in case contact tracing is required.
The FLRC coach will verbally review the safety requirements before each session.
Whoops! Yes, @EvanK, the first session will be Tuesday, September 15th. I’ll clarify that above. How many weeks we go will depend a little on the weather and how dark it gets. 6 PM won’t be feasible after the Daylight Saving Time switch. We’ll see how it goes and decide when we get there.
I’m not worried about someone like you with significant miles under your belt, even if you’re a little low on the weekly mileage at the moment. You’ll know enough not to overdo it, which may be as simple as dropping the last rep or pulling back on the effort toward the end.
That requirement is mostly trying to warn off beginners who might be running just once a week to protect them from injury caused by overtraining. It’s easier to include beginners on Barton Hall’s indoor track, but with these workouts, it might get awkward if they don’t have the conditioning to keep up when the group moves between areas.
I am also a bit below the weekly mileage, but would love to try this - however, I was wondering if you thought trail shoes are necessary? I currently run mostly on roads and haven’t done cross country for many a year but am keen to start some trail running (if only for the sake of my knees…).
Please do come and give it a try for a few weeks and see how the workouts feel. Trail shoes shouldn’t be necessary at all; we’ll be staying on grass so the worst footing we’d get is a little slipperiness is if it rains.
It’s sounding like I’ll need to have more of a range of workouts for people with different mileages—that’s no problem.
Just a quick note for the @mithacal-milers… We currently have 16 people coming, which is great, but parking may be a bit tight at Monkey Run (Google Maps link). There are some spots at the end of the road, but it’s likely that you’ll need to turn around and park carefully on the side of the road. See you tonight, and please remember to bring a mask you can carry with you to have available when we’re not running.
A quick note for anyone thinking of joining the workouts next week: as the amount of daylight wanes, we’re meeting earlier, so plan to be at the meeting spot and ready to run at 5:30 PM.
We’ve run out of daylight, given that the reversion to Eastern Standard Time on Sunday will mean it starts getting dark around 4:30, this week marked the final MITHACAL MILERS workout of the season.
We’ll be back in the future when the weather makes it reasonable to get together outside for workouts again!
