Summer Fun!

Saturday, July 06, 2013 · Mike Davis

July is in full gear and everyone is out battling the heat! I was up at 6AM and out running trying to get some miles in. It was hot! This past week was far from a vacation week for me and NFLR. Monday the 10K training group had their first track workout and that was a lot of fun. Tuesday I was out at the track with Ashley overseeing her continued growth as a runner. Wednesday afternoon I had my first workout with a young high school girl that has signed on to work with me in hopes of becoming even faster. A couple hours later I was out running with the 10K group as they battled through 90 degree weather to run 52 minutes. So while many were on vacation this past week, NFLR was busy helping runners of all levels get it done! Ashley continues to impress me as we attempt to develop her feel for running. As I said, Tuesday night we were out at the track and working on two things. The first and most important at this point being strengthening her speed efficiency. The second was the continued development of her 'feel' for her pace. Because we are only a few weeks out from her marathon getting her stronger is definitely the most important goal at hand, but improving her feel should pay dividends both in her forth coming marathon and definitely her future running. Her workout was amazing to say the least. My direction was for her to run at 70 percent effort for each 1200 meter interval but only I knew what was the estimated time that 70 percent would equate to. On my Ipad I typed in 5:10 as the pace I wanted to see her near, but again she only knew she had to run 70 percent of her max effort. Her first 1200 after a mile warm up was done at 5:02. I didn't tell her the time, but only that she was to maintain that pace. After an 800 recovery run, her next 1200 was at 4:58, again an 800 recovery run and the next 1200 was at 5:05. Three runs all with in 12 seconds of my goal time. After another 800 recovery she again was near the 5:10 goal so I decided it was time to increase the level of difficulty. Instead of an 800 recovery between 1200s I cut the recover down to 400 meters. Now she was a little tired and would have less time to recover so the challenge would be to maintain that pace under great stress. She ran 3 more 1200s that were all around 4:55 with the final one being 4:49. I certainly did not want her to push faster and it was kind of funny because she was right on every time she came by me at the 800 meter mark, but she unknowingly pushed that final 400 each time and her overall time was quite faster than my goal. Ashley's ability to feel her pace is improving every time we work on it and it's nothing short of amazing! I didn't tell her one time to speed up or slow down and she just figured it out and the proof was in the splits. It wasn't to the next day that she was able to see her times and I'm pretty sure she was pleased with herself. As I said right now we are focused on her July 26th marathon so the fact that she ran 7 1200 meters at a strong clip is the most important takeaway of the night, but her growth as a runner will be huge moving forward. This past week I also started working with a young lady who runs on her high school cross country team and while being one of the better runners she wants to be even better. For me it is a great opportunity to use my experience to work with a whole different athlete. Training a young person for their cross country season is much the same as training someone like Ashley yet has some vastly different dynamics. This young lady will be running 6 days a week with multiple quality workouts that I would never use with a distance runner. Our first night was Wednesday and it was more of an evaluation night for me as I wanted to see what I had to work with. She is obviously a talented runner but because she last ran competitively; she is not quite in competitive shape. I have no doubt over the next 2 months she will get in top running shape and it will be fun to watch her progress. Her attitude is great so I am really excited to work with her. The challenge will be the hot weather and how hard to push? Stay tuned for the updates! The week ahead will be more 10K training group, nights at the track with my high school girl and some one on one with a couple other clients. Also next weekend my partner (and daughter) should be getting her RRCA coaching certification. Hopefully she will take an increased role in the coaching aspect at NFLR. For me, I am working on strengthening my hips as they appear to be weak along with a genetic abnormality that I'm working to address. Not such a great thing for a runner, but not something I can't overcome. Hope you had a great week and that you have an even better one ahead! Stop by and have a cup of coffee with me and a run!