Every day is not "Race day"

Sunday, June 22, 2014 · Mike Davis

Good morning and Happy Summer! After some crazy weeks I am settling in to a week of vacation, hopefully I can get back to my routine of writing regularly. Having spent most of June on the road most of my routine has been thrown off and I feel quite disheveled and to be honest; I feel out of shape! Between my calf and back I haven't been able to run or strength train regularly and I can feel that both physically and mentally. I have not had the best first half to 2014 and I am hoping that the second half brings better health and a return to my typical routine. Just before heading off on vacation I met with Sue, a wonderful women the who is looking for a running coach. Within 30 minutes of our 90 minute consultation, she had no doubt that NFLR was exactly what she was looking for. This women is in amazing shape thanks to her profession as a fitness instructor/ nutritionist as well as somehow finding the time to be a runner. Despite her vast experience and fairly decent results, she has found it difficult to run as she use too or maintain good running health. Like most consultations I let the individual tell me about what they typically do for workouts and in her case I was impressed with the discipline she has as far as getting out there. However, like most that we encounter, Sue had very little running structure or understanding of how best to train. Her desire to run a certain pace is quite evident, but her problem is that she wants to run her goal pace every time she put's on her running shoes! Every run is "race day"! Thankfully Sue grasped my lengthy explanation of why her approach was working against her and almost instantly I could feel the "trust" that I write about so often. Sue's aggressive approach to her running was kind of funny because of her profession, but I could easily see her inner fire. I am excited that NFLR will be working with Sue as she is truly a super nice women that has a strong passion. Those attributes together make working with someone great! We usually have great luck with all those that we work with in that they are not only disciplined, but also great people in general. Welcome to NFLR Sue! Every days is "Race day", is not all that rare with runners. Most feel they need to run most if not all their runs the same pace as they run their races and only changing pace based on the length of a particular race. This strategy is not one that is really successful for race results or healthy running. Each run should have a purpose and that purpose should not be to run a race every time your shoes are on! Sue mentioned that she has gone to a few organized track workouts and found that she was always trying to catch the runner in front of her thinking that was the way to get faster. While that may seem logical in that she can use others to challenge her, however trying to improve by chasing someone isn't really much of a process and to improve both physically and mentally, having a track plan that is designed for an individual is far more effective. Running race pace for a long run may have some logic and can be part of a good training plan, but using that strategy every long run will only wear your legs down and make it difficult the next time out. I like to tell people that the run you are doing is preparation for your next run and "race pace" can work against that. All of our training plans are designed to have a plan for the individual runner and the plan is always part of a process. Well everyone is waking up so time for me to be social. Have a great Sunday and a great week! Mike