The Lactic Report, 6.04.11 “Cassidy”
Cassidy had been through it before, every one of them had at one time or another, but it had never been quite this bad. Denton called it "breaking down.” The object, according to Denton, was to "run through" the thing, just as he maintained one should attempt to "run through" most of those other little hubcaps life rolls into your lane; everything from death in the family to cancer of the colon.
Quenton Cassidy’s method of dealing with fundamental doubts was simple: He didn’t think about them at all. These questions had been considered a long time ago, decisions were made, answers recorded, and the book closed. If it had to be re-opened every time the going got rough, he would spend more time rationalizing than training; his log would start to disclose embarrassing information, perhaps blank squares.
Quenton Cassidy knew what the mystic-runners, the joggers, the runner-poets, the Zen runners and others of their ilk were saying. But he also knew that their euphoric selves were generally nowhere to be seen on dark, rainy mornings. They primarily wanted to talk it, not do it. Cassidy very early understood that a true runner ran even when he didn’t feel like it, and raced when he was supposed to, without excuses and with nothing held back. He ran to win, would die in the process if necessary, and was unimpressed by those who disavowed such a base motivation. You are not allowed to renounce that which you never possessed hethought.
On the track, the Cassidys of the world ate such specimens alive.
~ John L. Parker, Once a Runner
Okay, the box score …
Starting Line up:
J-Delta (13)
Buck (13)
Doc (12)
KX (11)
ROTC (3)
The Workout
Ring o’ Fire: The Ring got a shot of butane this week in the form of wind-sprint intervals mixed with high reps of push-ups, burpees, flutter kicks and mountain climbers on each end of the field. Those sucking sounds were my lungs, your lungs and probably the guy on either side of you. KX toyed with the group keeping a half stride on everyone. I’ll concede your speed mah’ brutha, … it’s nice to have a pace man. Following sprints, we assumed ‘the position’ for one hand of Texas Hold Em. Again, more sucking sounds …
The Dirty Details: After working up a lather in the Ring, we dispatched two-man teams to assault the infamous ‘Lanes of Pain’. With the Ring being heavy on cardio, our Lanes were focused on upper body: Tire Flip, Dumbell Kettles, Spartan Pushups, Seated Tire Pull, etc. Yet another new station introduced, the “Dumbbell Toss”. Goal was to throw a 20lb dumbbell as far as possible, spider crawl to it, pick it up and throw it again, repeat as necessary for 60 yards. Do an active recovery set of Carolina Lockdowns and then repeat the toss/crawl/toss back to the start line. We capped it off with 5 sets of pull ups. It was an evil way to end the morning.
Random grains of sand ….
Rubber-Band Man: Sensing a few SBers had plateaued on pull-ups, we introduced the ‘Assisted Pull Up’ using a bungee cord. Said Buck after a few reps, “So this is what a pull up is supposed to feel like”.
Repairing Divots: Despite the near drought conditions here in GA and the firmness of our ‘course’, there was little roll in the fairways today. Dumbbells plug. And they leave quite a nice divot. After every team had finished, our lane looked more like a steeple-chase. Other than raw brute force, there’s no art to tossing a dumbbell. Just a 1-2, heave, ho!
Bar B-Q: A local favorite eatery “Sprayberrys” rec’d honorable mention as we tweaked (and renamed) a standard core exercise. Apparently Buck likes Brunswick stew with his ribs … which is fine by me; just lay off the white bread, ok?
Hulk-a-Mania: KX joined the 10X club a few weeks ago but refuses to submit his calf measurements to Smoke for his compression socks. Said KX, ‘I can’t send my measurements because my calves keep growing’. Seriously?
One Hot (Grand) Mama: Doc offered a string of comments relative to a popular Trace Adkins country song. I can’t remember the context or purpose for these ramblings and am quite happy to say I have no clear memory of how our convo degraded to such levels. On behalf of Doc, I apologize.
ANNOUNCEMENTS & NEWS
Calibration
Next Pull-up calibration is Week XVI. Set your goals high.
10x Teaser
Congrats to
Michigan for hitting the 10x milestone.
We now have five 10X members.
Reminder, Smoke is giving everyone a pair of compression socks on your 10x.
Check out Smoke’s website.
Mid week training. Morning runs (6:00 a.m.) are now on Mon-Wed-Fri leaving from Summergrove Golf Club; distance/pace varies (4-7 miles). This is a base builder for Blue Ridge Relay. We will slowly begin bumping up mileages in mid June. You don’t have to be on the BRR team to run with this group. Show up or contact me, KX or Buck if you want to run.
Be sure to invite a friend for next week. May our group grow in numbers and in strength.
J-Delta
