FRIDAY!

Friday, September 27, 2013 · Mike Davis

Good morning! Again I am up early (5AM), but this time it's for me so that I can get some much needed strength training in. I have to admit that between clients and less than great motivation I have slacked off completely with my strength training. Today will be like my first time in 3 weeks doing my strength training. Today will also be a new strength training program as I am going to incorporate some heavier weight exercises into my program. During my break from strength training I have been totally screwing off! Some recent material I have read has changed my view on how to approach strength training for runners. I don't necessarily jump on every new thing I read but if the material is in depth and uses sound reasoning I definitely give it some creed. In this case I easily see why using heavier weights to strengthen those critical running supported muscles makes perfect sense. I will write a more detailed piece for NFLR on high reps/ lite weight versus heavy weights after I have actually done it for a while. You will get to hear a first hand view from the guinea pig! This week has been crazy as far as mornings! After getting back from Massachusetts on Tuesday night I had to be up early both Wednesday and Thursday to meet with clients and both days ended with more coaching as well. What's the saying? "If you do something you love, you never have to work a day in your life!" I totally agree with that and despite some 4:45 wakeups I enjoyed every moment of it. Being out at the track when it's dark and cold is a bit crazy but watching a client as the sun starts to come up is quite cool! I am fortunate that I am a morning person but I can't say that all my clients are. Yesterday out at a dirt track with Art I asked him if he was a morning person and without even a thought he said "no!" Despite that we had some laughs and he had a great workout. Mornings often work best for those clients that hold down jobs and it also gives me some flexibility later in the day. I try to work with each client to accommodate their schedule and sometimes that can be most challenging. Today is a client free day and gives me an opportunity to get my workout in, do some NFLR work and then "Friday night date night" with my beautiful wife. I have certain rules for myself with one being that I don't schedule any coaching on date night or Sundays. This weekend our half marathon training group will be running 90 minutes so that will be a huge challenge. This group is progressing well so I'm pleased though we have had 3 people go down with injuries. Very frustrating for me to see people go down with injuries but overuse is definitely the culprit and I'm not sure how to avoid that. Most if not all have run more miles than ever before by a considerable amount and that definitely brings great risk. With group training I can't control who wants to participate, I can only try to create a plan that minimizes the risk of injury while getting them to 13.1. I will spend a lot of time after this group is over trying to figure out how to reduce the risk for this particular training. Not sure there's a good answer but if there is I will find it. Well it's time to go get it done downstairs. Hope you have a great day and an even better weekend! Thanks for having coffee with me, mine went down to fast! mike