Looking back at a great week!

Sunday, August 24, 2014 · Mike Davis

Good morning! Sunday marks the beginning of a new week, but I can't help but look back at the past week and feel a great sense of accomplishment both professionally and personally. Let's start out professionally. Thursday night was the proverbial "cherry on the cake" as each of our Runners Alley Portsmouth 10K Intermediate runners crossed the finish line with the vast majority completing a new personal record. As a running coach my ultimate goal is to help runners run strong and if successfully done the results are far more glorious than a "PR". While a "PR" is tremendously satisfying and is a great way to measure improvement in your running, the fact that each of these runners ran confidently is something special that will impact them far more than their actual results. Working with this group we used a couple different techniques that targeted pacing, turnover and threshold. Using the track helped with all three while adding a twist to the weekly long run helped with pacing and threshold. The track is an awesome tool because it is easy to measure and evaluate proximity you move around it. As a coach it is easy for me to monitor and correct in a controlled environment such as a track as I am able to observe my runners 100 percent of the time. Challenging a runner to push a little harder at each interval despite the feeling of uneasiness that comes with each increases pace helps tremendously with improving Vo2 threshold (pushing oxygen) and turning over tired legs. Both of these attributes are critical in helping runners become stronger physically, physiologically and mentally. All of our runners showed great attitude at the track and the improvements each of them gained was simply amazing. The long runs was another great tool, though mainly for pacing but it also help some with turning over tired legs. The twist that I added to our long run was to place a cone somewhere around a half to three quarters of a mile from the finish. The goal was for each runner to run at a conversational pace until they came upon the cone and then they were supposed to pick up their pace moderately to the finish. Many struggled initially as they soon found that their pace getting to the cone was in most cases faster than it should be, thus making it difficult to pick up the pace toward the end. With each passing week the realization became clearer and they all learned how to better pace themselves prior to the cone in order to finish stronger. Leg turnover also improved as they had to push some despite being fatigued at that point. The track combined with our modified long run really benefited this group in all three of the areas (physically, physiologically and mentally) that not only help in the goal of running a "PR", but for me it helps the runner to take running to a place that is more enjoyable and healthy. As I said, the past week was personally successful as well as I had a solid week of running feeling good about some of the issues that I have been battling. I mentioned last week that I got some treatment for my hip and while I'm not sure of that effect on my running, I do feel my approach is making a difference on my running both physically and mentally. Staying with easy pacing while not trying to run a certain distance helped me enjoy my runs while building up some confidence in my ability to physically run 4 times. I am up against the clock somewhat as Reach the Beach is around 3 weeks out and I was becoming a little concerned that I would be healthy physically to run. This past week I ran 50, 40, 30 and 50 minute runs and while not 100 percent fit, I felt that I am improving both physically and just as important mentally. I will not be particularly fast anytime soon, I am at least feeling like I am more capable. I am most hopeful of the new treatment as well, but that is more a long term focus, but for the immediate future I am trying to use my own coaching to prepare for some of the challenges I have over the next 3 months. So going into this week I am certainly excited about my running and will hopefully continue progressing in a methodical way that gets me where I want to be. I truly enjoy coaching runners and the great satisfaction I receive when I witness the results of their hard work is quite special. We have gotten many emails from those runners we just finished up with and the appreciation is overwhelming. The end results for me is more about the beginning that we just helped develop. These runners all feel super about themselves and their running which means they will truly run past that finish line at Saunders and continue to run and run and run! That is truly what our coaching is all about at No Finish Line Running and always will be! Have a great Sunday and an even better week! Mike