Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Teamless Relays

Remember the awkward moments in elementary school standing in a line hoping to be picked for a team. Unless you were a jock or training to be a cage fighter, you weren't selected right away and hoped you wouldn't be the last person.  Then you didn't want to be the slowest person on the team.  

Oh the joy of teams.
That's why you need to do Teamless Relays.

At track last night I had an opportunity to run the workout and we did Teamless Relays running 400's (one lap) and then I threw in a twist.  Purple batons were handed out to a couple people and they started running their 400. The others waited in line and the first person that came in, handed off to the next person in line. Each person in line, would take the baton from the next person coming in. The recovery time was while you waited in line until it was your turn to run again.  The recovery time was dependent on how many people were running and how many batons were in use. More baton, less recovery. We had about a 2 minute recovery.
The twist to the relay was the silver baton, which meant running an 800 (two laps). It was fun watching the people try and figure out where the silver baton was and if they were going to be the person to get it. At one point I had it, didn't realize it until 1/2 way through my first lap.  I slowed my pace down so I wouldn't burn out on the second lap.

One funny thing, the batons are newly purchased from an Amazon seller and are metal and this was the first time being used.  The purple came off on everyone's hands leaving them looking bruised. Even the next day with a couple washings, my hand still has purple on it.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the workout and suggested next time the workout includes 400's, the teamless relay should be run.  It made the 400's not as monotonous and the workout go quicker. This is great to do with any size group, any age and any skill level. There are other distances you can run too with the relays. If you're interested in seeing some of the other workouts, let me know.

Happy Running!

15 comments:

GISrunner said...

What a great idea! I'm a lone runner, but that sounds like so much fun to do that in a group workout. I did just recently learn there's a running group about 15 miles away in the closest town. I'm a little hesitant about going since I'm slow & still use run:walk intervals, but I am considering it.

misszippy said...

That sounds like a great workout and a fun way to mix it up.

It's funny--I was just asking my 4th grader the other day if they still do team captains to pick teams in PE. Nope, the teacher counts off the kids and divide them up that way. I guess that's progress!

Anonymous said...

That sounds like fun. Although I would assume I would always have the silver baton because I am a lone runner except for my long runs.

Adrienne said...

That sounds fun. Anything to change it up is great.

Ewa said...

I love this idea and will pass it on to moms who want to energize their kids. We have sports activities in our homeschool groups, this would be a good one to do.

Zaneta @ Runner's Luck said...

what a wonderful idea and FUN workout! :D I wish we did something like that back in high school track lol

Unknown said...

What a great idea! That sounds like so much fun! :)

Andrew Opala said...

sounds like fun -

I'd be interested in hearing about other relays

Lindsay said...

i love this idea!! going to suggest it to the hs xc team :)

Kerrie said...

What a fun way to do a workout!

The Green Girl said...

Wow, what a great idea.

That sucks that the colors bled the very first day.

Johann said...

That sounds like fun but hard work at the same time. Definitely a great idea! I remember those team picking times at school so well.

Chris K said...

When I read stuff like this, it makes me wish I had a group to run with. Love the Napolean Dynamite reference. When I was in h.s. I didn't have nunchuku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills :-)

The Boring Runner said...

This one tastes like the cow got into an onion patch. Yesssssssssss.

That sounds really fun. But, I'm not sure I like the idea of a random 800 in there!!!

Unknown said...

That's a great idea! FUN FUN FUN!!
Thanks for it! ~ chaco sandals ~