Coach's Update

Break workouts, Knight entry

Hello, UO Running Club — Friday, March 22, 2024

You made it through winter term! Enjoy your break and come back to Eugene ready for more running and more spring weather! The 70 degree day can’t be far off.

— Spring term we will continue on our 3pm schedule (Mon., Wed., Thur., and Fri.), plus our track Tuesdays at 6pm inside Hayward Field.

— Sample workouts for spring break are below.

— Eugene Marathon? Half? ‘Just five weeks away!

— Races this weekend! Owen Serricchio runs 5000m at the Oregon Preview tonight. Ayano Toyose will run the 400m Saturday and Brock Nelson will do the 400m hurdles. There are guys racing on the track tomorrow at Willamette too (Carter Phillips, Miles Freightman, Patrik Balazs and maybe Tyler Davis).

— Entry info for our first April meet is below. Please take a look at it.

TRAINING GUIDELINES FOR SPRING BREAK

If you plan to race during spring term, two hard days plus a long run during spring break would be good! My first choices would be:

a) Cruise intervals -- 4-6 x 4:00 (lactate threshold) with just one minute of jogging between...do this off the track, on a soft surface if possible, or pavement if that’s all you have. When you’ve finished and recovered for five minutes, stride 4-6 x twenty seconds with about a minute’s rest.

b) Track workout...distance runners do more reps, middle distance runners do fewer, faster:

--Drills (listed below...but you should remember), 2 x 150m (relaxed stride)
--1-3 x 800m (negative split...second lap faster than first) with 400m jog-walk
--3-4 x 400m (cutdowns...each one faster than the previous) with 200-300 jog-walk
--3-4 x 200m (you decide...cutdowns? accelerations? float-fast-float?) with 200m jog-walk

c) Hilly run or hill reps, preferably not on pavement...20-30 minutes including recoveries, plus warm-up and cool-down.

d) Minute runs...12-16 x 1:00 (maybe 5km race pace) with just 30 seconds of jogging...do this on a soft surface if you can. Distance runners aim at 16, MDR’s aim at 12. (Sprinters try for 4-5 with two minutes rest.)

If you want a pure distance track workout, do 4-5 x 1000m (5000m date pace) with 400m jog.

Other days could be relaxed, fun, aerobic runs or alternative training. Don’t go crazy with mileage, but do one long run, if you can.

Sprinters, piece together some sets from Michael Donawa. If not, here are some suggestions:

a) jog 8-10 minutes, drills, hurdle rollovers if the ground is dry. --4 x 50m (relaxed stride, but each a little faster) walk back to the start.
--4 x 30m buildup to high speed, hold high speed for 30m, then ease out for 30m+. Walk 2:00 or more between reps. (These are “speed zones”.)
--4 x 20-step accelerations from tall, leaning, falling start. Walk back.
--Optional: “Turnabouts” 5 x 50m (fast and relaxed) with just 30m slow-down, then turn around, jog back and go again immediately. This is a speed endurance set...it’s hard! [haven’t done this]
--jog 5:00, stretch

b) jog -6-8 minutes, stretch.
—Drills, including hurdle drills against wall or post. Remember those?
--Hurdle rollovers.
--5 x 50m with leaning-falling start...powerful, walk back
--5-8 x 100m on-the-minute...go as hard as you dare...this is an endurance set.
--20 lunges, alternating legs
--repeat any part of this workout if you wish.
--jog 5:00, stretch

c) jog 8-10 minutes, drills, hurdle rollovers, scorpions,
--3 x 50m relaxed, walk back
--4-6 x 200m (fast and relaxed) with 200m walk-jog
--jog 5:00, stretch
--4:00 of consecutive abs, planks, and “swim”

Drills:
child skip,
child skip with big arms,
side run,
three-step reach,
A skip,
B skip/paw,
carioca/grapevine,
three-step reach,
butt kicks, ankling, straight-leg run
eggbeater arms,
leg swings facing wall/fence,
leg swings next to wall.

‘Most important, have fun!

FIRST TRACK MEET SPRING TERM: KNIGHT

The John Knight Twilight track meet at Western Oregon U. in Monmouth is the first Friday of spring term, April 5. We’ll take one or two vans depending on how many people reserve a seat.

There are TWO deadlines:

Reserve a seat in the van (leaving early afternoon Friday) by Monday, April 1, at 9am.
b) Enter an event by Tuesday evening, April 2.

For both, contact me at heino@uoregon.edu or text me at 541-954-0263.

There is a $600 entry fee for our team, so your fee will be $10 cash on meet day.

The Knight meet has all the standard events including steeple, 4 x 100 relay, 4 x 400 relay.
Sometimes they run the 800m before the 1500m. 5000m, no 3000m.

$50 TO BE IN UO RUNNING CLUB FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR

85 people have already paid their fee for Club. How about you?

Your first week of Club attendance is free. After that it’s $50 for the rest of the school year. What a bargain! Here’s how you pay:

— Bring $50 cash to any workout, or
— Bring a check for $50 made out to “UO Running Club”, or
— Go online to this link, click on “relaunch”, then scroll down to Running Club:

https://ecommerce.uoregon.edu/order_form/emucs-club-sports-member-dues — Go online to our website, uorunning.com. In the upper right corner click on “donate”, then “electronic donation”. We are the Club Sports Running Fund. If you donate this way, please let me know. I don’t have easy access to who donates this way.

Thank you, one and all!

EUGENE HALF-MARATHON, MARATHON, 5KM

Who are Flapjack and Flapjill? It’s a secret!

The biggest road races of the year in Eugene are on Saturday, April 27 (5km), and Sunday, April 28 (Eugene Marathon and Half-Marathon). They all finish in Hayward Field! Here’s the link:

https://www.eugenemarathon.com/

In the 5km race, if you beat Flapjack (men) or Flapjill (women), you win a year’s supply of Krusteaz pancake mix...

TRACK SEASON 2024

These are all meets which at least some of our athletes might have access to.
We will NOT attend all of them.

Fri-Sat, March 22-23 | UO Preview | Hayward Field
                [maybe open to our fastest…begin spring break]

Sat., March 23 | Willamette Invitational | Salem
                [start of spring break…must provide own transportation]]

Fri, Apr 5 | John Knight Twilight | Western Oregon | Monmouth
                [open to many]

Sat, Apr 13 | Lane Invitational | LCC | Eugene
                [open to many]

Fri-Sat, Apr 26-27 | OSU High Performance | Corvallis
                [our fastest runners might qualify]

Fri, May 3 | Oregon Twilight | Hayward Field
                [our fastest runners might qualify]

Sat, May 4 | Portland Twilight | Lewis & Clark
                [many of our runners might qualify]

Sat, May 11 | Portland Distance Carnival | Lewis & Clark

ONLINE SIGN-UP FOR NEWCOMERS

For the 2023-24 school year, all Club members, both returning and new, must sign up before actually running with the group. If you signed up during fall term ‘23, that covers you for the whole school year.

Here’s the link:

https://uoregon.campuslabs.com/engage/submitter/form/start/597205


Tom Heinonen

coach


clubsports

Who we are. What we do!

UO Running Club gives students the chance to get together to run, train and race. Most of our sessions are steady runs. A couple of days each week we offer harder training sessions (intervals, repetitions, hills, tempo runs, cruise intervals).

The club is coached by Tom Heinonen, a member of the US Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame who coached the University of Oregon women for nearly three decades. In his time coaching the women, he transformed the team from a young program into an NCAA powerhouse. He retired in 2003 and has been coaching the Running Club since.

In 2021 Bob Williams has begun to coach with the Club too, after many years coaching in Portland.

In the Fall we compete in collegiate cross country races throughout Oregon.

In the Spring, we enter in collegiate track meets. Several of our runners earn the opportunity to race at Hayward Field each spring. There are road races throughout the year. We have a wide range of talent and commitment levels, from recreational runners to Club record breakers.

Club members receive an e-mailed workout schedule for the following week every Sunday.

All running sessions are optional. To join, just show up to one of the practices or contact one of us.

The Running Club is a great way to get together with students and to enjoy running!

RunningWarehouse


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'Starting a Running Club?
'Building Your Club?

Read this, a document written by our Club leaders!

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Ticket Jones is a proud sponsor of the University of Oregon RunningClub. We handle a variety of sporting event tickets including the NCAA Final Four, NHL Hockey, and the Pro Bowl. Our packages such as Broadway theatre performances and concerts can be ordered world-wide. Domestic events center around football games, (college football and NFL), US Open Tennis tournaments, and College Bowl games. Internationally we focus on soccer matches. Local favorite teams include the Boston Celtics, New England Patriots, and the Boston Red Sox. Tour packages are available for MLB Baseball, exciting PBR and NFR rodeo events, Grandslam Tennis, NASCAR and all Washington Wizards basketball games.