Peak Performers Track Club--2008 Training Season

The Peak Performers Track Club will begin its outdoor running and conditioning program on Tuesday, April 1, 6PM, at the APU Moseley Sports Center. As soon as track conditions allow, we will move to the West High School Track — this usually occurs by the 3rd Tuesday of April. Once at West High, we will continue Tuesday 6PM workouts through spring, summer and early fall, ending the last week in September.

Seasonal membership costs $50/individual, $85/ family of 2, and $110/family of 3 or more. Members can pay with check or cash when they sign up during the first few sessions in April. New members may attend for a couple of weeks and determine whether this program is what they are looking for, before signing up and paying the 2008 fee. The club’s running coach is Chester Franz, 274- 5050, or mailto:pfranz3444@gci.net . Kim Baldwin is the club’s secretary/treasurer, 274-1061, or mailto:anchoragekim@yahoo.com . Jim Lieb is the club’s warm-up coach, 677-1336, or mailto:warriorking@gci.net .

PPTC’s training program is primarily focused on preparing runners to handle middle distances [5K to 10K] both for personal running and road racing. Secondarily the workouts prepare runners for the mid summer Bartlett All Comers track meets. In addition, many of the Club’s members run 1/2 and full marathons and also participate in x-country, triathlons and mountain races. Workouts will be individually adjusted to better meet the training objectives of these runners — and specific races also. The Club tends to have a wide range of members from casual runners primarily interested in exercise, to highly competitive athletes trying to win races. Our coach, Chester Franz, prepares workouts that can be adjusted to provide quality training no matter what your age or condition. He works hard to get everyone into training groups of about 2 to 6 in size, so no one has to run by themselves.

Newcomers, especially those who may be just starting to run and get in shape, should start out conservatively and avoid overdoing it during the first few weeks of training. You will need to be able to run 3-4 miles continuously before you start doing a FULL interval track workout. As with any system of training, you should always build up gradually.

It can be intimidating and discouraging to a newcomer to encounter ‘fast’ runners on their first few visits. The Club works to minimize the loss of newcomers and to avoid any sort of competitive atmosphere that might lead members to feel overwhelmed, feel like they don’t fit in, or feel that they can’t perform as others do. The Club emphasizes that it doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing; that you need to focus on goals that are reasonable for you. You will be provided with individual workouts that will fit your personal needs, and that you will be able to handle.

Once the club has moved to the West High track, the evening workout will follow a fairly structured time schedule. The coach’s briefing will begin at 6PM and last 5 -10 minutes. In prior years this has been followed by a voluntary warm-up session consisting of foot drills and graduated sprinting, and lasting about 10 minutes. For 2008, we will begin this warm-up session at 550PM so to allow everyone to start the evening’s track workout simultaneously, to facilitate runners finding a compatible pace group to run with. The main workout, usually consisting of a series of intervals, should take about 40 -50 minutes. Finally everyone should to do a cooldown jog for 5 -10 minutes.

It should be pointed out that while members are welcome to arrive early for workout sessions, and begin warm up jogging on their own, the actual Club workout does not begin until 6PM. While some folks are able to arrive early, others are not; for this reason the Coach’s Briefing will not begin before 6PM. One of the rules of running is that you can never warm up too much — so early comers, enjoy your opportunity to get a thorough warm-up.

Coach Chester will provide a brief summary of each week’s workout the Friday before the workout in the ‘PP&F Weekender’, an electronic newsletter that provides weekly updates on current running activities for the benefit of the local running community. PP&F stands for Peak Performers And Friends. To receive this free newsletter, send your email address to the editor at warriorking@gci.net . PPTC’s website, www.peakperformerstc.org is in the process of being activated.

Extracurricular Activities

AK 10K Classic
Peak Performers Track Club administers the Alaska 10K Classic Road Race, held the first Saturday of August. There are a number of activities and chores involve in putting this race on. All PPTC members are encouraged to help if at all possible, and make this wonderful event a shining success. The 2008 race director is Jim Lieb, 677-1336. The Alaska 10K Classic’s website is: www.10kclassic.com

Peak Performers Klondike
Independent of our seasonal training program, a group of PPTC members, since 1999, have been putting together teams to run in the Klondike International Road Relay, an 110 mile road race from Skagway to Whitehorse, held in early September each year. Anyone interested should contact Jim Lieb, team captain, 677-1336, or mailto:warriorking@gci.net