A quick cup of coffee

Sunday, February 09, 2014 · Mike Davis

Good morning! This morning’s coffee will be quick as I have to get off to work at the base. The biggest downside of my life in the Air National Guard is that I have to give up one weekend a month. I won't complain as many have to sacrifice much more than that. Things are a little quiet as far as face to face client time, but behind the scenes things are as busy as ever. With a group of clients that range from establishing themselves as runners to competing at Boston for personal records, we spend a great deal of time managing each individual training plan. I can honestly say that no two of our clients has the same training plan. While this creates a lot more work for us, I believe this is what sets us apart from others in that we work with each runner according to their personal needs, goals and current running condition. My problem with internet training plans or joining a group is that each person is different and trying to help them succeed is not realistic when you use a plan that is not specific to them. No doubt I am stepping on toes here because many use such plans or even pay someone to lead them using a group strategy. Without a doubt many people accomplish certain races by following a particular training plan or by running with a group and that's cool, but the success rate is well below 30 percent on average and the injury rate is extremely high. Yes we offer group coaching/ leading at NFLR and I also am contracted to coach/lead groups throughout the year at Runners Alley, Portsmouth and this is often more challenging than any individual coaching. Thankfully I have a great deal of experience from which to draw from that has helped me to individualize group trainings. I strongly believe there's a huge difference between coaching and leading a group and while leading a group is important, helping each individual is important to me as well and that's not easy. We are not even through the middle of February and already I am looking ahead to the 10K training for the Runners Alley Market Square training group. Previously this training group used a generic training plan that essentially added distance each week until they eventually got to 6 miles and then ran the race. I now create a new training plan each year that builds off the experiences of the past years and my ever evolving knowledge. So if you are someone that enjoys the Runners Alley training groups, by all means plan to join and rest assure that we work extremely hard to help each individual succeed while be able to enjoy the group dynamics. As I said earlier what sets NFLR apart besides our many years of experience, is that we spend an inordinate amount of time evolving our personalized training plans. There is a lot of material out there and while we may not subscribe to anyone, we definitely build off of our own philosophy. What I did 5 years ago is definitely not what I do today and what I do 5 years from now will look different than what I am doing now. My goal is to continuously evolve our training utilizing not only technology and education, but also our first hand experiences with both groups and individuals. This is what truly helps NFLR to be New Hampshire's number one resource for personalized running coaches. Time to go to head off to the base, have a great Sunday and enjoy your coffee! Mike