Saturday Training June 26, 2010: Peacock Flats, again!

ByHURT Hawaii

Aloha Athletes,

Even I am beginning to wonder why we post these training run notices. Same o' same-o'

I hear from Cheryl that the plan is to run up at Peacock again. If I was a newcomer to the islands or wanting to get involved with HURT, I would start to think this is the only place the group runs with the occasional trail race thrown in somewhere else.

So for you regulars, the plan is to start from the parking lot behind the control tower at Dillingham Airfield at 7:00 a.m. Don and Vernon are planning to start at 8:30 a.m.

I've heard a rumor that there might be some furlough Friday shenanigans going on up there as well. Something like Marian starting from the base of long road at 4:30 a.m. and others meeting her at 7:00 over at the control tower.

If you are a newcomer to the islands or wanting to get involved with HURT, please don't feel intimidated by the distances or constant runs up at Peacock. It is a beautiful place to run and train and you can always just go the distance you feel comfortable with. Meeting other runners is a great way to learn and improve your own knowledge about trail running.

I recently put together a training plan for two women to get ready for Triple Trek (50K HURT Trail Series Run on Sept 5). I was curious to see if the basic rule of increasing your mileage and/or your time by no more than 10% a week would get a runner up to the distance required to have a successful attempt at Triple Trek. This was also based on having an existing fitness level of 10 mile or 2 hour runs. On paper it works. In fact, I even extended it out to the Peacock 54 in October. Again, on paper it works. Only time will tell if this training plan works for the participants. They are both experienced athletes so I think they will be fine.

So, if you are a newcomer, don't be intimidated by the distances and training that some of the more experienced runners are doing. Also there are a lot of other trails to run here on Oahu. Go explore, get out there and run for the love of running.

Aloha, Bob