Warning: Those preparing for the C.R.A.S.H.-B Sprints at Brandeis the week after Super Bowl Sunday should stick to training plans. My Super Bowl routine is not a 2k prep.
The Early Days
In 1967 Green Bay Packers of the American Football League beat the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League in the first Super Bowl. The next year Green Bay beat the Oakland Raiders. I was a young lad at the time, and these early games were a statement of the National Football League’s superiority to the “upstart” American Football League. That dominance shifted with Super Bowl III when the AFL quarterback Joe Namath (Broadway Joe) of the New York Jets guaranteed a victory over the Baltimore Colts. And the Jets won. The Super Bowl was becoming more than a game.
Today
Now the game is a cultural event. Statisticians track the amount of guacamole consumed. The half-time show is a gauge of musical popularity. The television ads are anticipated and subject to instant analysis and judgment that exceeds our wildest high school nightmares. Indeed, in the early 1990s there was a subsequently debunked claim of spiking domestic violence during the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl Endurance Rituals
It was around this time that, as a long-distance runner, I began running half-marathons on Super Bowl Sunday. I lived on the west coast, and there was plenty of time to run 13 miles — either on my own or as part of the many organized half-marathons. I loved Huntington Beach’s Half-Marathon (Surf City). Run six miles up the Pacific Ocean coast; turn around and run back. Home for the game.
One day I spoke to a rower who said that he erged during the Super Bowl. He left it at that, but I began to conjure up a new ritual. I had my own Concept2 rowing machine, so I decided to I row a steady state during the game, and whenever a team scored, I would sprint from the time of the score through the commercial and resume steady state with the resumption of play. My lazy side looked forward to low-scoring games.
Sometimes I watched the game on television. Sometimes I would listen on the radio. It was my ritual, so I could make up how to accommodate the half-time show. Some years, I broke between halves. Most years I paddled (Zone 1 as opposed to my steady-state Zone 2). Super Bowl XLVII (2012) required an audible. The game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravins treated us to a power failure. I got some water and rowed a Zone 2, Zone 1 for 30 minutes.
We adjust and move on. Super Bowl LI (2017) would have presented an opportunity — an overtime game, but I had moved on — more accurately, circled back. The Super Bowl starts late in the day, so I use the Concept2 setting for Marathon or Half-Marathon early in the day. I live in western Massachusetts. The outside temperature will be close to zero. My rowing room is much warmer, but I might be tempted to stretch out to full Marathon. A great way to stay warm.
How will you work the National Day of Over-Eating into your training plan?
- Rest Day?
- Marathon or Half-Marathon?
- Long, cross-country ski workout?
- Row and Sprint?
- Row fast as you can for as long as you can?
- Ocean swim?
- Long pool swim?
Whatever you do, please share with the CrewLAB community.
With enough interest, I will work this reader response into a follow-up posting.
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