Coffee and Chat

Wednesday, January 07, 2015 · Mike Davis

Good morning! Crazy week already! Did an interview yesterday with the Portsmouth Herald on our NFLR Coaching & Endurance Resource Center, spent 3 hours at the dentist getting yet another crown and despite single digit temps we ran hill repeats last night! All of that was in just one day. Today will be a little less crazy but after work I will be off to a business/ fun dinner with Katie and Doug Mackinnon. With the continued growth and development of NFLR my wife would probably tell you that it is seldom that my week isn’t filled with running business. I enjoy both the coaching and business side of NFLR, but I look forward to a day when I am not dividing my limited bandwidth between the military and my business. The NFLR Coaching & Endurance Resource Center open house is coming quickly and of course I wish we would have started some of the required tasks earlier. However thanks to some hard working people we will be ready January 17th to open the doors to the public and show them something very special. Lew and I stopped at the Center last night to take stock of what we need for supplies and we wondered if it looked a little too empty and it is funny because our goal is to avoid clutter so that we have plenty of room for classes. I guess we have to find a way to show all we are capable of while looking the part as well. Not sure that makes sense, but I am determined that we are not looking to be a gym though it would be easy to make it look like one. We have lots of weights and they will come to good use for our runners/ endurance athletes but I do not want people coming in and getting the wrong impression of our focus. At the same time we can’t just have 5 treadmills set up so that people have no doubt that it is a running center. What we want is a multi-dimensional resource center that provides all the essential tools for runners and endurance athletes. Treadmill was obviously the first tool we invested in, then we brought in some dumbbells (other than Lew and I), then we actually brought in a professional strength and conditioning trainer who brought in his power system. The space began to fill up with these partnerships but when we were able to secure a Pilates instructor the challenge became to set up our tools for running and strength training while leaving room for Pilate classes. While we can move equipment around as necessary we would rather not as much as possible. So the challenge is to have space but to also have enough that people realize all we will be doing. Challenging! Last night I was pleasantly surprised that our NFLR Winter Running Group had double digit number runners show up despite single digit temperatures. The workout for the night was hill repeats and while people will often bemoan a hill workout, they seem to thrive them. Last night was no different, everyone showed up ready to run hills and it went great! We did a nice mile warm up before hitting the Henry Law hill where we pretty much ran for 40 minutes before finishing with a mile cool down. I was pleasantly surprised that once we got going the cold was a non-factor and my legs felt pretty strong. Nice to have a fun group to help make a tough night a good time! After a good portion of us hung out at the Settlement sipped on some drinks and a few of us ate dinner. Great way to spend a Tuesday night and enjoy some great people. I have to work the weekend so I will miss our run from Juicy Roots in Dover, but if you want to join in Saturday, come on by and run with the gang! Lots of fun. Time to get off to work. Have a great day and stay warm! God Bless! Mike