11/03/2021 - Other - Black Diamond Run Club at Springbrook Prairie
AO: Other
When: 11/03/2021
PAX:
Number of Pax: 14
Pax Names: Aladdin, Augustus Gloop, Ball Boy, Big Gong, Blinky, Glenn, Gordon's, Harbaugh, John Denver, Sam Walton, Serena, Sparkler, Stay Puft, Wide Right,
DR Names:
Number of FNGS: 0
FNG Names:
QIC: Ball Boy
Introduction
Pre-blast was short and sweet this week.
- Meet at an alternate location, “Springbrook Prairie”
- Be ready to move at 5am
Did the disclaimer on the run but in hindsight, should not have. Was too focused on getting the distance in and need to slow down next time.
Warm-O-Rama
WoR was whatever you wanted to do before 5am. We did a .3 mosey lap before jumping right into the run club.
The Thang
After the short warm-up mosey, split into two lines for a 1 mile Indian Run, heading north on the path from the parking lot. Typically we move at a good clip at these BDRC’s in an effort to run uncomfortably but today was a whole new level. Not sure who pushed the pace but we ended up around 630ish pace for that mile. From there, oyo run (fast) from that spot to Brook Road – turn around and come back. That was another mile.
Once everyone was back – run the mile back to the start point at the parking lot – 1 min interval as fast as you can followed by 1 minute recovery pace.
Made it back to the parking lot, looked at my water and it was *only* 5:25 and we’re already 3.3 miles in – good start.
If you’re familiar with Springbrook Prairie and the small parking lot off of Naper – Plainfield, if you head south on the path, you immediately go down a long hill. When I decided to have us meet here, I knew we were going to use this hill, a lot. It’s a bit different than the hills at other AO’s due to it’s length and constant incline. It’s pretty tough.
So our next thing was to run to the bottom of the hill which is at the tunnel that goes underneath Naper – Plainfield. Run two laps – all the way up the hill and then around the small .3 loop and back down = 1 loop. Total 1.4 miles for two loops. Once completed jump immediately into hill work only, up and down until I called stop. Each time up and down was about .4 miles and most guyes did anywhere from 4-7 I believe.
At 5:49 I gathered the group to jump back into another Indian run, heading south on the path and away from the start point. I mostly did that to mess with their heads in case they thought we were almost done. Two lines – let’s go. Ran for about 4 min out then turned us around, 4 min back.
5:57 at this point – we stop back at the tunnel that goes underneath Naper-Plainfield and while this wasn’t planned, no need to waste any time. Let’s do a couple sprint races through the tunnel. Line up next to someone – go. Wait at end for last group to arrive then go back through. Do this twice.
At this point it’s 5:59 – last item is back up the hill to our start point – RECOVER RECOVER. Sorry Mary.
Result = 7.35 miles covered and we were GASSED
Circle of Trust
Thanked everyone for coming out and for pushing the entire time. I didn’t hear anyone complain – maybe we were just out of breath but regardless it was an incredible effort.
Encouraged the guys doing 5 BD’s this week to stay strong, they were now over halfway done.
Then read two quotes from a great book called Born to Run:
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”
and
“That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they’d never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind’s first fine art, our original act of inspired creation. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle–behold, the Running Man. Distance running was revered because it was indispensable; it was the way we survived and thrived and spread across the planet. You ran to eat and to avoid being eaten; you ran to find a mate and impress her, and with her you ran off to start a new life together. You had to love running, or you wouldn’t live to love anything else. And like everyhing else we ove–everything we sentimentally call our ‘passions’ and ‘desires’ it’s really an encoded ancestral necessity. We were born to run; we were born because we run. We’re all Running People, as the Tarahumara have always known.”
Prayers were said for Bush Push son who was having his tonsils removed, Dr. Ralph’s friend battling Covid, Stay Puft’s niece Adalyn who is having some terrible health challenges and is only 8 years old
Also, there’s a blood drive from now through end of years for Glenn’s wife and Serena’s sister who was recently the beneficiary of blood given to her as she went through a health scare with the birth of their child. Sign up to give some blood.
Naked Man Moleskin
This morning was awesome. I recently crossed 500 posts and this is easily one top 5 favorites. Just a great group of guys getting together to start the day right.
For those who don’t know but may care (which is probably a very small number), I’ll share a bit of history on how BDRC’s became a thing from my perspective. During Covid, me, Fib and Muggsy would meet up weekly, sometimes twice a week, and run laps at Citadel, generally using the hill. They would often put on a vest and we’d grind through laps up and over the hill, hit the path and come back around to the base and rinse / repeat that 8 times plus jump on the path for a bit more mileage, generally getting in around 6.5 miles or so in around an hour. On one of those, someone, and I can’t remember who it was, said “we should turn this workout into a Black Diamond Run Club and have others join us and start to do longer, harder runs”. My initial thoughts were: “that might be cool for this workout” but I also didn’t think we’d be able to get very many guys out and how many different things can you really do when it comes to running?
Not long after those early, casual conversations about it, Wet Wipe reached out and asked if I would be willing to jump back into being a Site Q because this BDRC idea was becoming a thing. I’m sure Fib reached out to get it launched but wanted no part of being site q (jerk) so I reluctantly accepted. Even at this point I thought it was a fairly dumb idea and wouldn’t garner much interest.
So with that as the backdrop, BDRC’s were launched. Looking back, I couldn’t have been more wrong. There’s a core group of guys that attend most weeks and for the past several months, new guys are coming out each week, exceling and then returning. You don’t have to be training for a marathon to come to a BDRC. If you’ve ever been to a regular run club, this is a mere 15 more minutes and you may find yourself pushing yourself a bit harder but well within what you’re capable of. I’ve been more active on slack the last several months too in the BDRC preblast, not to be annoying but to try and promote the Q and continuing having new guys come out and talk smack to my boy Aladdin.
Funny story, Serena who grabbed the Site Q from me so I could Q, texted me that morning and said “not gonna do any call outs today, let’s just see who comes”. Well, that lasted until about noon. lol. We ended up with 89 comments in the thread. ha!
In terms of this workout, right or wrong, I’ve always viewed the goal of any black diamond workout to be, all about continuous movement and getting uncomfortable. Take less breaks, less downtime between “thangs” and push for 60 minutes. You should feel like you want to stop or slow down during it and be glad you didn’t when it’s over. My goals were:
- Keep the group together
- Get in at least 7 miles without just doing an out / back / full Springbrook loop which would separate the pax. Needed to vary things up.
Couple individual comments:
Aladdin – this is a man who backs up what he says. If he says he’s going to do something, he does it. I loved our exchanges in the thread and they truly fired me up heading into the workout. (and btw if you’re reading this, I’m still here and let’s see what you’ve got left in the tank next Wed)
Stay Puft – first time out at a BD RC and crushed it
Blinky – This man also ran 5-6 miles BEFORE the workout so he had a half marathon done by 6am. Unreal!
Serena – go do some EC before BDRC then you’ll get a personal comment.
and literally everyone else – you’re beasts and it’s always an honor working out and pushing forward with each of you.
Lastly, while there was some anticipation of seeing some wildlife out there, we came up empty. So if that scared you away (Mendoza), shame on you.