Friday Coffee and Chat

Friday, May 08, 2015 · Mike Davis

Good morning! Truly thank goodness it’s Friday! Having had to work last weekend makes getting to Friday something special for sure. Also not being able to run has truly challenged my mental wellbeing considerably. With the weekend just about here I feel like I can exhale and slow things down a little. With all the training groups moving along our schedules at NFLR is certainly crazy busy. Definitely not complaining but weekends are great for recharging. I guess I will just ramble a little today and chat about whatever comes to mind. Wednesday night we had a special Pilates night for our NFLR training group and it was truly special as we did it outside at the band shell in Dover. You could not have asked for a better night to be outside working your core, hips and other critical muscles. Thanks to our Pilates instructor Erica Rice who put on this abbreviated class that introduced Pilates to the majority of our group. I was unable to participate because of my knee but the short session was really cool. I did take some pictures that I need to post on our Facebook page. Since the venue was so great we may have to have a few more classes out there. Good news on my knee. I am feeling a lot better today and may get the go ahead next week to try running on it. Yesterday I would not have believed that I could consider running next week but after some dry needling Wednesday I feel much improved. I am not sure what I will be able to do as far as running but I will follow whatever my guy Tom tells me. After visiting numerous physical therapist in New Hampshire and even Maine, I feel like I have found the right guy. Tom is young and certainly progressive but he also understands athletes quite well. This will have been my second time working with Tom and he has gained my complete confidence. He has actually decided to focus some energy on runners in general because of the explosion of runners out there. The name of the office Tom works out of is “Portsmouth Physical Therapy,” located on the Pease Tradeport in the “Martins Point” building. Dry needling is not fun but I have found it to be quite helpful for me. “Mom’s on the Run” 5K this Sunday out at Dover high school. My wife and I ran that race a couple times and it was lots of fun. Lots of families participate on flat and fast race course. I believe Kathy may have run a PR at this race a few years ago as well. This race is also part of the “Dover Race Series,” so that increase the number of runners. Registration is still available Saturday morning at the McConnell Center and Sunday morning at 7:30 before the race. Should be a great morning to run! Looking ahead I am pretty sure I want to run the Mount Washington half marathon again this year. May even put together a NFLR training group for it, but we will see. Great race and even better location. Seems like this time a year all of you are focused on running and forgetting how important it is to maintain your strength training. I understand the challenges of getting in regular runs as well as finding time for such things as strength training or Pilates, but it is imperative to maintain full body conditioning. I would try for twice a week splitting it between Pilates and strength training. This is exactly why we offer classes for both at the Center and they are both affordable and structured for what runners need. Check out www.nofinishlinerunning.com for the schedule and then put in on your schedule. The weekend looks great weather wise and Sunday looks perfect for celebrating Mother’s Day! I am taking and looking forward to taking my mom out for lunch. Hope you have something special planned as well. No I am off to the Center to get my strength training in for the first time since I was injured. Hope you have a great Friday and an even better weekend! Thanks for having coffee with me! God Bless Mike