Friday's Quick Intervals

Friday, August 22, 2014 · Mike Davis

Good morning! It is most definitely Friday and that means we sip coffee over some quick intervals. I have my cup and am ready to roll! Last night down in Rye they ran the Saunders 10K. This race is part of the Seacoast Series as well as a local favorite because of the beautiful scenic course along the Atlantic ocean. For myself and my wife it brings to end another 10K Intermediate training group and that is definitely bittersweet. This group has been lots of fun and just about every runner ran a personal record! Of course I am extremely proud of each and every runner, but I am also a proud papa of my daughter who ran in this group and crossed the line under 59 minutes! What a thrill to see your child put in the effort and get to the great results. Truth be told I am somewhat of a proud papa to all my runners! Nice job. Went to see my doctor on Wednesday about my back and almost 2 hours later I walked out of a physical therapist office (located in the same building) having received a treatment called "dry needling". While I went in for my back, my doctor decided to bring over a PT guy and talk about my back and my problematic hip. I ended up walking over to his office where he evaluated me and suggested that I give him 8 sessions of working on my hip and using this fairly new treatment. Basically he inserted (and left in) empty needles around my hip and then hooked them up to some wires and ran electrical current through my muscles and tissue. Ouch! Yes, it was a little painful at times and also a weird feeling as the current pulsated my muscles. The PT guy claims this will help what he believes to be tedinopathy by manipulating my muscles to become active again. He was far more detailed in his explanation, but all that matters to me is that he believes he can help with my hip issues and improve my running. If he makes any improvement I will be happy, even if it means having a 20 inch needle going into my leg. Be sure to come back and follow this treatment and the results. As I have mentioned a few times, we started the Runners Alley Half marathon training group last week. This group is on the smaller side and while that's fine with me, I have to wonder why the numbers are down? A gentlemen told me a few years ago that while running is booming in New Hampshire, there is still a limit as to how much it could actually continue to grow. It will be very interesting to watch over the coming years to see if the number of runners continue to increase or start to level off. The seacoast obviously draws from multiple states so that's of great benefit, but New Hampshire is only so big and somewhat spread out. Many organizations are getting into the competition as well so no doubt training groups will feel some effect. I saw lots of 603 shirts last night at Saunders and that seems to be a popular option for running. Interesting. Over the next few weeks I am going to spend some time looking at some of the new data and information out there on the effects of running and hopefully give y'all some insight on the findings. Very exciting information at first glance but as my old boss would say; "The devil is in the details!" As a running coach that cares about every last detail and how they effect my runners, I want to know the details. More to come! I have run races in San Diego, Germany, Iraq, Myrtle Beach SC and of course around New England, but the idea of running a destination race has always been appealing to me. Wouldn't it be fun to get a group together to train then go run in some fun place. They have packages for destination races all over the world and while they may be fun, I would really like to train a group and go somewhere that the entire group could go. Any thoughts? My wife would say a race in Texas and that would be fun. We could all where cowboy hats! Something to add to NFLR and see if we could offer something. Would love to hear from y'all on this. One of our favorite NFLR clients ran a triathlon last weekend and came away happy with his results. Art's hard work and determination continue to amaze me and working with this guy is awesome! Now we are going to focus solely on a half marathon and I am excited to see the results of that single focus. Art will always primarily be a tri athlete and I think that is great, so our challenge is to help him be a strong runner while also maintaining his other disciplines. Is a tri in your future? This morning I am going out for an easy few miles as the PT guy wasn't to keen on me doing much more so soon after the first treatment. Oh yeah, I am also in my second week of using a standing workstation as well. My legs are a bit sore from the constant standing so that is taking some time to adjust to as well. I don't stand 100 percent of the time so I can hopefully adjust gradually. So I have lots of stuff going on and much to share as I progress. Looking forward to running this morning just to be out there. Time to finish my last sip and get moving. Hope you have a great Friday and thanks for sharing your coffee with me! Mike