Top 3 Workouts/Training Routes

[wvrunner]

I thought this might spike some interest on the board. Let's have everyone list their Top 3 workouts or training routes. I'll get it started:

1. Mile Repeats- I think you get the most bang for the bucks from these. I enoy doing them on the Canal with 2 minutes jogging recovery between. I usually do 4-6.

2. Tempo on Christie Road Loop- Start at Allegany College and hit the 7.75 mile Junkyard loop. One of the best training roads I have ever been on: hills, flats and downhills, this course has it all. A Cumberland area favorite for many years.

3. Long Run on Mason Road- Not quite the beast that the Junkyard loop is but a great place to do long runs, workouts or recovery runs.

Let's hear from the rest of the gang!

[Justin]

Good question Dennis.

My #1 are hill repeats, with my best hill, and "home course" being repeats up Sunset Drive. I'd get a warm-up around Lions Field in LaVale, then the first hill would be Braddock Rd and Sunset, then repeat down and up Sunset. It's brutal, but my ultimate judge of my fitness.

2. A workout Coach Brown called 40-20's. Very easy around a loop, 40 second hard, 20 seconds jog. 1 minute a rep. One of the best workouts you can get finished in 15-20 minutes.

3. Probably mile repeats. I personally like AC's dirt track for them. Get in a groove and hammer away.

[wvrunner]

Braddock Road AND Sunset? That's brutal Justin!

[Justin]

A tough workout for sure. I guess that's why I always ran well on hilly courses...

The first week after a lay-off in HS I'd run up Braddock and Sunset every day for the first week of training. Gets the wheels back real quick.

I still judge my fitness by running up Braddock and Sunset, but I go much slower than I once did. I haven't done Sunset repeats since college. I think the most I did at once was 8, which would probably put me in the hospital right now.

[dan]

1. Barn-burners at Mason. My tops is pre-Chicago buildup with Jaron. Out in 61:40 (10 mi out to dam) w/ miles 5-10 all under 6:00. Back for me in around 61:20 (after Jaron said we would take it easy). Turned out to be 20 in about 2:02. Jaron ran under 2 hours. What a beast of a run!

2. Frostburg to Cumberland on Highlands Trail. I've done this run so many times and have almost never felt bad (except during MMM, when it would have been the most convenient time ever to feel good...). The most effortless miles for me are usually Woodthingy Hollow down to Cumberland, where auto-pilot takes over automatically.

3. Frostburg Winter 10-Mile Loop. Depot to Crestview to Armory to FSU to Beall to Victoria. If you nail this one after a morning double, you know the fitness is there. Haven't run this one in a long time.

Good discussion!

[bevj]

I tend to be in agreement with several people on here on a few runs. Mine are, in no specific order:

The depot runs in Frostburg defenitly whipped me into shape last winter although I haven't been back since last winter to run it.

I remember a paticularly windy day last winter running 16 with Woody and Eric from the park and ride to past the dam and back. That hill by the dam is a beast in the middle of a long run!

The 20-miler I ran with Rick and Jim last spring from LaVale Lions park to Jim's brother's house on the other side of Hyndman. Some pretty good rollers on it, but one of the runs that made me feel that I was in shape and on track to run a good debut in Pittsburgh. We all know how that turned out.

[gdbrown]

I can't run these routes any more, but here are the ones I loved to run in the past:

1.) As Coach Mickey mentioned - the "Junk Yard Loop."

2.) Mason Road run at about 7:30 on a very hot summer evening.

3.) The old version of the Allegheny Trail: When I lived in Frostburg I would start at my house on west College Avenue, travel past Frost Elementary School through the stripped fields where houses now exist, pick up a trail that led down to the old railroad bed and run on the railroad bed past the tunnel. I would go out for 40 minutes and return making it an 80 minute run.

Close behind: The C&O Canal Towpath that I didn't learn to appreciate until late in my running career.

[woody]

For me I would have to go with these three:

1. The Long Christie Road loop, I think it is always a good indicator of the shape you're in at that point

2. 12 mile tempo out Mason Road: A great place to train has a little bit of everything and sometimes the only place to train when there is snow everywhere.

3. Dan's Run Loop: A great 14 mile run with everything

[wvrunner]

Brownie may recall the Mason Road course Doc Workman laid out. Legend has it that Doc started at the fire hydrant by the AC gym and walked the entire ten miles out (close to the dam in PA) with a measuring wheel.

The course was marked every half mile the whole way. If you were out on the course you almost always saw at least 3-4 other runners on a given day. If you pulled into the parking lot at AC around 4:00 p.m. you could always find a training partner for the day too.

The course was very fair once you learned the how to gauge your effort. I met many runners who served as great mentors when I was first starting up along that course. Great memories.

[Justin]

I will always remember that course from Coach Brown's house in Frostburg to the Allegany Trail because we did it one night on XC skis. What a fun time in the light of the moon. Just a great time.

I always start my AC runs from the hydrant, there's no other way to do it.

Mason Rd and the "Junk Yard Loop" are great too. The thing with me is I usually did those with other people. Its interesting to see what makes other people "tick" but I almost always tested myself in training when I was by myself. Kind of a don't show other people your cards thing for me, until it was race time.

[gdbrown]

I had forgotten about that excursion on XC skis, Justin. Thanks for reminding me of another good memory.

Regarding Coach Mickey's comments about Doc Workman measuring the course. If my memory is correct, he did walk every step as he "wheeled off" the course.

It's been years since I've been able to run that course, but I can still tell people where the mile markers were.

As Justin and Coach Mickey mentioned, all runners started at the fire hydrant by the gymnasium at AC.

Mile # 1 was around the big green sign on Willowbrook Road; Mile #2 was just past the midpoint of the hill on Shade's Lane; Mile #3 was at the bottom of Shade's Lane close to Nave's Crossroads; Mile #4 was just past the cemetery on Mason Road; Mile #5 was at the Saint Peter and Paul Picnic Grounds on Mason Road, etc.

On an unrelated note: I recently talked to the daughter of Harry Cornelius. Dan Whetzel and I plan to interview him for an oral history project we plan to do in the very near future. For those of you who don't know Harry, he was running way before the running boom of the 1970s, and he and his late wife, Mary, were volunteers in the QCS for several years. He is one of the many runners I would run into at AC. Harry is now 95 years young, and he remains very independent. I'm looking forward to the interview.

[wvrunner]

Continuing on Mason Road: Mile 6 was on the straight just past "McCagh's Mansion", Mile 7 in the turn next to Dr. Miltenberger's house and the 7.5 was about 200 yards before turning right to head into PA.

I bet if we took Brownie, Dave Rinehart and Jeff Smith out on the course they could paint the markers, no wheel necessary.

[jordan]

Someone should get smitty and The Bossman on here. Tell the tales that once was.

Top 3:

1. The canal. Can't beat it. Long runs, tempos, fartlek, or repeats. The canal has it all.

2. Christie Road loop. Hands down my favorite road loop to do in cumberland.

3. The West Virginia Run. 14 miles of hills, country road, and solitude

Top 3 workouts. This is a tough one.

1. Tempo run. I think anyone can get fit off of tempo work. Best gage of fitness for me is how long you can hold 5 min pace on a hilly course. Take to the road or trail for 7-8 miles of hard running. No better feeling.

2. In and out 8's (or 1,000's). nothing gets the heart pumping like 20 800's. 10 hard, 10 easy, non stop running. Good and fit we can sometimes start at 2:18 (hopefully going 3 min on the easy), and crank down to 2:08 maybe 2:05.

3. 5,4,3,2,1 (laps that is). rest is equal to the previous repeat time. It is nice to hammer that mile in the high 4:20's and try and gear up to a sub 60 at the end. Always a good indicator

4. HAD to put this one in
90-60-30. This fartlek workout always seemed like an "easy" workout day, but somehow ended up hurting like hell. 35-40 min of this on christie road will have you in fetal position on the couch for the rest of the day.

fantastic thread fellas.

Cold and snowing here in cuse. Can't remember a day that it hasn't snowed yet. last Monday it was -27 (with wind chill) for my morning run. needless to say, I was not pleased.

[marathondude]

1. Mile repeats - either five at 10k race pace with a 2 min jog or three at 10 seconds per mile faster than 5k race pace with a 4 min jog.
2. Hills - 10 times a hill that takes 30-40 seconds
3. Marathon moderately long run of 17 miles - 10 miles at a minute per mile slower than MP, 5 miles at MP and 2 miles slightly faster than MP.