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Sunday, October 12, 2014 · Mike Davis

Good morning, What a beautiful fall weekend! Between the comfortable sunny weather and the foliage we could not have asked for a better long weekend. I am relaxing with a cup of coffee after having had breakfast in Downtown Dover at a neat place called Bagel Grounds. If you haven't tried this little hidden gem, you need to. It is just off of Central Ave behind Harvey's restaurant. A few years ago I decided to move away from mileage based training and begin using time based. Initially I revamped the Portsmouth Runners Alley Seacoast Half Marathon training program from its traditional distance based and replaced it with a time based program. As confident as I was that it was the best way to go, I was a little concerned as to how it would be received by all those that were programed to train to run certain distances each time out. Almost immediately the change was taken well by everyone and any fear I had of this training change were eliminated. Soon I was using the same training methodology on No Finish Line Running individual clients and time based training has been a NFLR staple ever since. Flash forward a few years and time based training has become a favorite of the Runners Alley training programs and runners and just the other night one runner had this to say about mileage based versus time base: "When we trained based on distance there became winners and losers, now we all finish pretty much together." I always knew that having everyone finish at the same time had many benefits, but I never gave much thought to it's success based on eliminating that dynamic. Knowing that alone makes the idea of time based training a success. I certainly can't take the credit for time based training as it was something that was taught at the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) certification course as well as the method world renown running coach Jack Daniels teaches. What we have done at No Finish Line Running is to take time based training and continuously evolved its use by determining how to utilize it to best serve each individual runner and group. Groups are a challenge because there is a wide variance so we have to continuously adjust from year to year based on the experience from the previous years. With individual runners we have to adjust more often on a week to week basis based on the particular training and what we want to focus on that week. We now have a pretty specific formula that allows us to adjust training in a way that is consistent, safe and efficient. We will most definitely continue to evolve and improve, but I am confident that our training plans are the best options for both groups and individuals that have varied goals. Time to get along. Have a great rest of your weekend! Mike