Here and there on the road!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013 · Mike Davis

This past weekend I finished up with a 10K training group that was fun as well as successful. An extremely large training group and I would say that all but a few completed the training and ran the Market Square 10K. As I said the group started out with 45 people and 35 of them crossed the finish line. Very challenging in that the group was supposed to have been a beginners group, but there were some more experienced runners to go along with many inexperienced runners. The varied levels of experience can make the training difficult as there could be up to a 15 minute separation between runners. I tended to stay in the middle of the pack trying to have contact with the lesser experienced runners, only hanging out with the faster folks on a few occasions. I enjoyed the different personalities a great deal and appreciate that people wanted to learn and have fun! One runner mentioned to me that I’m definitely a serious trainer, but that I keep it fun. I guess that is a combination that I can be happy with. I am happy to be done with the above group as now I have a couple of weeks of down time before I start up a more advanced 10K training group. I will use the time to get my running in order and regimented. I would like to get back to running four days a week so I am going to try and strength train on Monday mornings and run later in the day on Monday, and then do some track work on Tuesdays, easy running on Thursdays and a long run on Saturdays. My next group will meet on Mondays and Wednesdays so I will have to figure out the Monday challenge. A couple of my clients ran the Market Square race (along with around 100 former clients), and one of them who continues to turnaround her running fortune ran a remarkable race. Starting out at a 9:15 mile pace and finishing miles 5 and 6 at a 7:45 pace. You could not draw up a better strategy of negative splits and then go out and make it happen. A year ago this time she was questioning if she would ever run again and in over 12 months’ time, she ran a half marathon and now a picture perfect 10K! How cool is that! Another of my clients continues to get better each time out and crossed another goal off her list. Those are some of the most rewarding accomplishments for me. I have various runners of many skill levels and their goals become my goals so witnessing their success is special. Tonight in fact I met with a client who informed me that she has lost 15 pounds and down a couple of sizes! I don’t get caught up in the weight lose goal, but I am pleased when my clients see the effects of a personalized training plan. Good stuff. Hopefully we are getting closer to putting out our newsletter. My daughter is juggling grad school with creating our newsletter and I’m excited about what a newsletter will add to NFLR. Also, my daughter will be getting certified in coaching in July so I will have some help in that area as well. Having my wife certified and a daughter soon to be gives NFLR a group of coaches that can help anyone! Take care and remember I now drink my coffee black!