Westside LA Team In Training - Summer 2009 Marathon & Half Marathon Team

Archive for the ‘training’ Category

Happy Friday! We all know that right after a marathon our appetites are out of control! The Monday of the San Diego Marathon weekend, some of us went to Hash House A Go Go. We had to take a picture of one of their entrees next to an iphone to compare the size of that thing! What did you eat after the marathon?

For those of you who are on the Westside Team, or alumni, you are no stranger to what we call, “The Alphabet Streets”. They are located right after our Venice aid station on Washington and go towards the jetty. Why are they called the Alphabet Streets? The first street is Anchorage, second is Buccaneer, third is Catamaran, and so on. Get it?

I’ve mapped it out here, and it’s about 2.25 miles round trip. This is a favorite part of some people’s Sunday runs because it’s not so busy, plus we can play games as we run through them. I remember my first TNT season, our group was trying to guess the streets. 0% success. We even tried to guess again as we went from Z-A. Umm.. not so great there either. Then people became creative of topics for this name game down the alphabet streets. I’ll list them out here, but if you have any other ideas, feel free to comment!

• food
• alcohol
• cars
• cities
• countries – just name them, or places you wish to go
• innuendos – you’d be surprised! but also be careful around those who may be offended, so ask around before you proceed
• songs – you can also get specific of genre, time periods, etc
• musical artists, bands

Bringing up certain topics like these may be icebreakers to even larger topics of conversations when you reach the beach, then San Vicente. I mean, you can only go so far asking what people do and where they live. So have fun out there! It’s 20 miles this Sunday, what are you going to talk about during all those hours?

I’m hardly in any photos, so I here’s my chance to put one on here! This pic is with John Lebardo (left), a fellow TNT alumni and current participant. Photo taken by your teammate, Rommel Calderon. Tonight’s run was a good way for us to test a faster pace, and to keep consistent when we do our laps. Check out the photos from tonight’s training, but be sure to come out next week! Same bat-time, same bat-place, Batman!

View Photos

Look at our Team Captain, Gretchen, get ready for… what? Yes, track training! Hill training is over, and we know you’ll miss them, but we must move on to the next stage.

From coach’s e-mail earlier today:
This week we will hold our first track practice on Wednesday at 7:00pm at Santa Monica High School . This is across the street from our usual Sunday practice location….just across 4th street . You can park in the same place or, if nothing has changed since last season, you can pull right into the parking lot after 6pm for free…….drive all the way to the back so you are close to the track. Cross the street at the hotel and head towards Pico. You will see a long entrance into the track as soon as you get all the way past the hotel. It will be obvious once you get there. We will take it fairly easy this week and just gauge everyone’s ability. The challenging part about track work is knowing everyone’s pace. This first practice will be about trying to determine that pace.

See you there!

If you haven’t checked your e-mail yet, Coach Chris has sent us the full schedule for the remainder of the season. You may access them through our Training page, our Downloads page, or below:

Training (FULL SCHEDULE)

• San Diego Marathon and Half Marathon – (training schedule)
• Mayor’s Marathon and Half Marathon Alaska – (training schedule)
• Seattle Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon and Half Marathon – (training schedule)

It’s awesome to see so many fundraising events planned this early in the season! There’s been so many that we can’t be at all of them. This is where you come in.

If you have an event coming up, please write us a small article on what it’s all about! Give us the details (date, location, times, websites, and flyers), and we’ll post it here on the site! Realize that you can’t rely on just Erin’s e-mails to push your event out, or just an e-vite. Try to use as many resources as you can get if you want to your event to succeed.

If your event already passed, we would like to know how it went! Send us links to photo albums, videos – all of it. Please write us a little recap of how you thought your event went. Let the readers know of what your expectations were, and also what you’ve learned coming out of it. Why should you do this? So we can all learn as a group, so our events could improve as time goes on. It’s great to learn from other people’s experiences. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel if someone else wants to do the same event!

E-mail your events & stories to: westsidelatnt [at] gmail.com

Thank you all for your support and readership so far!

This week will be our first session of Hill Training. We will meet at 7pm going forward (NO MORE 8:30 START TIMES). Being we just changed the clocks it will get dark before we are finished training . It will only get better from here but to be safe, you should bring a small flashlight to run or walk with. I like to use the small mag lites as they are easy to carry. I will have a few but try to bring one if you can. Sports Chalet sells them for $5-$10. HILL TRAINING IS FOR BOTH RUNNERS AND WALKERS!!! In case you are wondering why you should do hill training…….this is why:

• helps develop power and muscle elasticity
• improves stride frequency and length
• develops co-ordination, encouraging the proper use of arm action during the driving phase and feet in the support phase
• develops control and stabilization as well as improved speed
• promotes strength endurance
• develops maximum speed and strength
• improves lactate tolerance

IF YOU ARE DEALING WITH AN INJURY, PLEASE CHECK WITH US BEFORE SHOWING UP ON WEDNESDAY AS WE MAY ASK YOU TO SKIP THE WORKOUT.

As for the location, it is on Dewey near the Santa Monica Airport .

From the North ( Ocean Park or farther North)

• take 23rd Street South (left if heading toward the water, right if heading away from the water).
• Once you pass Ocean Park you will be heading down a steep hill. When you get to the bottom of the hill, 23rd Street will turn to the left. At this point, make a RIGHT onto Dewey. Park anywhere on Dewey or on any surface street off of Dewey.

From the South ( Rose Avenue or farther South)

• Take Walgrove North (this is also 23rd but has a different name south of the airport. Walgrove begins at Washington Blvd. Washington , Venice and Rose all cross Walgrove). If you are heading to the water, right on Walgrove, away from the water, left on Walgrove.
• After you pass Rose, Walgrove will turn to the left to go up the hill. You need to make the left onto Dewey Street . As mentioned above, park anywhere on Dewey or on any surface street off of Dewey.

If you want an address to use for Mapquest, you can use 2215 Dewey Street , Santa Monica 90405 . Mapquest says that Walgrove turns into Dewey…….this is not really how it feels when you are driving it.

Training schedules have been updated! You should have received them via e-mail, but if you didn’t, here you go!

Training (weeks 1-10)

• San Diego Marathon and Half Marathon – (training schedule)
• Mayor’s Marathon and Half Marathon Alaska – (training schedule)
• Seattle Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon and Half Marathon – (training schedule)

You can also access them later on our Training or Downloads pages.

Hill Training is just around the corner!

If you are tired of running alone during the week, the mentors have graciously put together a plan to solve the problem. Right now we have 10 options for you for Monday through Thursday. We will keep these going as long as there is interest or may shift things around as we see the general response. Please note that these are not official meetings……..just friends getting together to get in a midweek workout. There may or may not be other folks running your pace but you will be on the same course so you will never be alone. Here is what folks have planned (THANKS MENTORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

The first day of mid-week runs is this Thursday, February 26.

View the mid-week Training Schedules here