Speed Classes

We have had some questions about our speed classes.

Captain Crunch endorses all of these.

Free Class with the Team.
Every Wednesday, we do speed work, based on workouts designed by two different USATF coaches.  It's ran by your team mate, Miki, but the workouts are all designed by a pro.  Classes start at 6:45 and ends at 7:45.  Meet at the 90th Street entrance on the East Drive, AKA Engineer's Gate Gazebo.  Class details will be posted on this blog every week.  In coming weeks, we'll start throwing in track workouts at the East River Park running track, so stay tuned!!

Via Coach Alem.
You can always get a personal coaching session with him.  For questions about his rates and methods, we recommend that you contact him directly at alem-at-coachalemk-dot-com.  His website is here.

Speed & Form Classes with Urban Athletics.
Speed classes with UA is open to all levels and they have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  You can do just Tuesday or Thursday for $175 or do twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays for $225.  Each sessions runs for 10 weeks.  For details, visit their website.  Currently, Veggie Rachana, Rabbi, and Xena are enrolled in this class (or so I'm told).  You might want to ask them for their input.

Jack Rabbit Sports:  Targeted Training for Faster Finish
Miki endorses and takes classes with Jack Rabbit Faster Finish religiously for over 3 years and counting.  Next session starts on September 5 and runs for 10 weeks.  At $95 a session, it's relatively inexpensive way to get your speed on.


This week's Team Agony Speed Class (For July 31):
Since we have a BIG Team race this weekend, we won't be doing much in terms of distance, but we'll do one of our favorites.  400m repeats using the NYCM finish line.

We'll start at the "400m to go" sign and will finish at the NYCM finish line.  You'll run up the little "Tavern on the Hill" hill, then recover back down to the 400m to go sign.  However, we're not just going out hard for all the repeats.  We're going to concentrate on pacing.  In any distance race, getting the correct pace is the key to a strong race.  You go out too fast and you burn out before you reach the finish line.  You go out too slow, and you feel like you've cheated yourself (and end up with a bad time).  Getting the right effort according to the intended distance is the smart way to race. 

Group 1:  You will do 8 repeats.  Each repeat must be faster than the one before by 2-5 seconds.  Something like this.  You want to start at something a little slower than your marathon pace and work yourself up to a fast, hard, maximum effort pace.

Group 2:  You will do 5-7 repeats. 

Official Start!

We had a very hot weekend here in NYC, but many Agonites took to Central Park on Saturday for various lengths of Long Runs.  Then it was off to Queens on Sunday for a Queens 10K race.  Seen were G-Man, Bobby, and Mr. Caine! 

This week marks the official start week of Agony's FREE speed work class on Wednesday nights!  Class will start at 6:45pm sharp and will end at 7:45 sharp - since we all need to go home and eat dinner and do normal life stuffs.  Please be at Engineer's Gate (90th Street Gazebo) by 6:45.

We think that we should have some type of baseline every 8 weeks so this week, we'll kick off the series with a TT.  Yep. TIME TRIAL.

Here's how it'll go down.

We'll divide into two groups. 
If your normal 10K pace is 8:00 per mile or faster, you're in Group A. 
If your normal 10K pace is 8:00 per mile or slower, you're in Group B.

Starting Point is the East Side stone structure on the Upper Reservoir Loop. 
This that stone water gate thing that's got water fountains. 

Group A:  3 X Upper Reservoir Loop
First loop as warm up - get your legs going, acclimate to the weather.
Second loop at Half Marathon Pace. 
Last loop is Time Trial.  Record (or at least remember) your last loop time.

Group B:  2 X Upper Reservoir Loop
From start to the stone water gate structure on the West Side, warm up. 
From the West Side structure back to start at Half Marathon Pace.
Second full loop:  Time Trial. - record your last loop time for future use!

We'll do some dynamic stretching to the starting point.

You'll get about a minute break between each loops.

If you don't know what your pace is, here is a handy "by feel" way to figure it out. 
We like to use a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being sitting on a chaise and having a hottie feeding you grapes and 10 being a point you're about to throw up.

Warm Up:  Level 4 to 5.  Easy.  Comfortable.  Happy.  You can chat normally and tell jokes.
Marathon Pace:  Level 6 to 7.  Somewhat hard but definitely something you can manage for HOURS.
Half Marathon Pace:  Level 7 to 8.  Hard, sustainable, yet uncomfortable.  You don't like it, but you can maintain for a few hours.
10K Pace:  Level 8.  Uncomfortable and not much sustainable beyond 50 minutes.
5K Pace:  Level 9.  Extremely hard. Uncomfortabe and not at all sustainable beyond 30 mintues.
Sprint:  Level 10.  Uncomfortable and unsustainable.  Beyond a quarter mile, you'll throw up.

See you all there!

New Blog, New Ideas, New Everything

We're at a new home, and we'll be posting new ideas and new programs about the team here soon!