Canovas Workout
Every year, as the team gears up for our spring races, the Harriers tackle a special and challenging workout: Canovas.
Harriers Head Coach Scott Bartucca carefully structures training with Canovas as one of the peak workouts of the cycle. Named for Italian athletics coach Renato Canova, the workout is meant to get runners used to holding slightly faster paces for longer distances. It teaches endurance, pace and patience.
Many Harries use this run to test their speed and gauge their fitness ahead of their big season goals, so runners showed up tonight ready to work.
In the early evening, Harriers gathered along the half-mile Great Lawn loop – the perfect distance for this run.
Before the start, Coach Scott gives the group pointers about both pace and avoiding pedestrians on the loop, and reminding the team “this workout is just as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one. It's long, with several intervals, and that last interval seems impossibly far away when you start.”
As the run begins, Harriers face the tough choice of how they want to get it done: go it alone, or try to hang with a fast teammate. Gavin opts for the latter, crediting Kirsten, Kirin, and Kanishk for pulling him along. “The last ‘fast’ 800 was rough," he says afterwards. "It’s always a tough workout.”
Kanishk knows running with others "always makes miles easier than running solo,” noting the hardest part of the workout is keeping up, especially with Gavin “really pushing the pace at the end.”
Today is Kimi's first go at a speed session since recovering from an ankle injury. She tackles 3 intervals and says "it was enough of an introduction to Canovas and NYC humidity!” Kimi has big goals for 2021, including a half PR and her first marathon. "Definitely helps getting back into interval sessions.”
Kimi says the thing she loves most about training with the Harriers is “the company! It's much more motivating running in a group and having a reason to show up.”
As the workout wraps up, Coach Scott sums up his feelings about the team: “One of the things I love about the Harriers -- one of many things -- is that we're a big, supportive family that represents a broad spectrum of running goals and paces. We've got folks training to run a 1:15 half, and others who want to finish their first in one piece. And nowhere is this more on display than at workouts, where everyone cheers for and supports one another, no matter what pace they're running. There are deep undercurrents of respect and love that run through this team, which lifts us all. It's special.”
The return of the Harriers evening and morning group workouts have been a beacon in a difficult year. The team is successfully navigating safely running and socializing in this new and challenging environment. And with the hard work of Canovas behind us, the team is looking forward to continuing to train (and race!) together this summer and fall.
