Track season.

Happy Autumn, everyone. The track season has begun. This means that it is especially important that we pay attention to the rules of the track. Many have forgotten and now walk on the track as if they're walking drunk through Disneyland. Being careless on the track will get you hurt if not killed. Imagine a 180 pound sprinter smashes into any of you at full stride. Your head will fly off of your neck and your body will shatter. Just ask a football player about how pleasant those collisions are. They train for that, we don't. God help you if you get hit by one of the thrown objects.

Let's review:
Stay on the outermost (unobstructed) lanes when running. If walking to or from class, stay completely off the track. Use the outer perimeter. Stay away from the throwing areas, especially the practice sand-pit that is usually behind us that people mindlessly walk through. Thank you much!

Locations for this week:
Monday: Track
Wednesday: Track
Friday: Wilson Plaza

Here's Something to keep you busy:

Tabata Bottom-to-Bottom squats. - (20 seconds ON :: 10 seconds OFF) x 8
Basically reverse squats. You start and finish each squat at the bottom position. When you're ON, you're basically pinging the top of the squat as fast as you can and then dropping back down as fast as you can. You rest at the bottom. 5 burpee penalty if you find yourself not at the bottom for any reason at any point during the rest periods. Assess the burpees immediately after finishing the 8th (final) round.

Optional: If you hit the track this week. Do some 50M or 100M or 200M repeat. Whatever you can hold without deviating. Do 6 - 10 of those sprints with a good recovery between each effort.

- If you want to get into the lactic threshold a little more, then shorten the Recovery::Work to about 1::1. For big power output, go 3::1.
*So if 100M takes you 20 seconds and you're trying to stay in the lactic threshold, recover no more than 20 seconds before your next effort. If you're going for all out power than recover for up to 60 seconds or more if needed.

Enjoy!

** Update**
Demetria brought up a good question. Heartrate.. I'll try to find more info about target heart-rates, but for now, I'd like you all to think of them as RELATIVE speed limits. Realative to YOU and only YOU. The figures that are used in those charts are very broad and generalized. Thus, "target zones" don't apply to everyone equally.

I would suggest using "percieved exertion" instead. Practice that in a warm-up. Start with what you think is about 50% exertion. Then build it up gradually and note how it feels and what your heart-rate is (if you're wearing a monitor). Try to keep detailed logs of this and you will see the correlation better. Thus, when you're trying to stay in a certain "zone", you'll have a better idea of where YOU need to be based on YOUR exertion potential. And, as you get more conditioned and your heart rate potentials and your VO2max changes, thus will your RPE (rate of percieved exertion)/heart rate chart. What was once 95% will now become 85%. Imagine running a marathon or a 5K at 95% rather that 85%.. What might your time look like?

Also, you can use your monitor as an indicator that something is wrong. If you feel like you're at 100% and your heart rate is what was once 75%, then you know something is wrong and you should rest. Or if you feel like you're going 85% and your heart rate is where you once had your 100%, then something may have changed as well.

Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of monitors as they create artifical ceiling which people will then use as speed limits. I've always just tried to push as hard as I can and perform the task at hand, whether it is 100 meters or a 10k, most efficiently. Don't forget, you're always competing with yourself to become a little better (whatever that means to you) than you were yesterday. try to use the monitor as an indicator of where you are rather than where you can't be.