A night at the track

Wednesday, June 19, 2013 · Mike Davis

Tonight the plan was to go out to the track for a workout with Ashley. My plan was to go out an hour early and get in a track workout for myself. The plan worked perfect as I got there and was able to run my goal workout and give myself plenty of time to stretch after. The one little challenge was a pack of Boy Scouts were also at the track completing some fitness stuff they need to get some type of badge. It was a lot of fun to watch them race around the track and one little guy was trailing the pack by a bunch so I caught up with him and encouraged him to the finish. He gave my a high 5 and I went along my way. How great is that! My workout was a bunch of 400 repeats at a pretty fast pace (for me). That went well as I was able to do 6 repeats in all. For me this week is more about improving other facets of my running and less about miles. Ashley got there and once again I had her focus on two important facets of her running. One, her arm swing and two, the feel of her goal pace. Arm swing may not seem like a big deal, however arm swing is right there with posture and foot strike as a critical piece of running. Ashley has pretty much depended on her lower body to handle the load and now the goal is to get some help from a relaxed and more fluid arm swing. I videoed tape her right off without discussing her arm swing and before she proceeded I showed her the video. She was quite surprised at her lack of swing and it helped her to realize that she needed to over exaggerate her swing. The second focus was the continued feel for her pace without any tools. We have been placing a lot of focus on the feel of her pace and knowing at what percentage of her maximum effort level she was running. This is definitely a challenge and requires a lot of focus on feel and even sound (her breathing). She started out running a max effort 1200 and I timed her. Her max effort was 4:33 for the 1200 and I didn't share that with her. Instead I told her to feel 70 percent as she ran and I would tell her as she passed each 400 if she needed to increase or decrease whatever percent. I did some quick math and figured that 5:10 would be the equivalent of running at 70 percent of max effort. Her first was a bit fast at 5:03, second she was spot on 5:10, third 5:04 and her final 1200 was 5:08, darn near perfect! After she ran a 1200 cool down we did our normal 400 walk and I told her how she did and told that she either got really lucky or is starting to get the feel! We both believe it's some of both, but most likely she is learning to feel her pace. We also talked about her arm swing and the improvement after seeing herself on the video and that definitely made a difference. All and all it was a great night at the track and Ashley is making great progress in her training. It's great to work with someone so willing to improve and put in the effort that is required. Ashley definitely wants to make the most of her talent and puts in the hard work. Lots of fun for a coach, yet a scary challenge at times. I am very lucky with all of my clients in that they are willing to work at whatever I put in front of them. Makes coaching fun! Too late for coffee, but hey morning is not far away!