Summer Happenings

Friday, July 10, 2015 · Mike Davis

Good morning! Happy that it’s Friday even if it was a short week for me. We got back from North Carolina Wednesday, pulling in at 6:05pm and were running hills by 6:25pm with the Dover training group. Crazy but it was certainly a great way to work out the sitting muscles. Last night Kathy and I were up at Henry Law Park for “Pilates in the Park” and that was a great workout as well. No easing back into our workouts just continue along without skipping a beat. While in North Carolina I got in 3 nice runs with my wife despite some challenging weather so I was really pleased with that. No doubt North Carolina will take some adjusting during the summer months but with some understanding of running in the heat (as I have discussed numerous times over a cup of coffee), we will continue to get our runs in. One such time we set out for a 60 minute run but because of the heat and humidity we cut the run short at the 40 minute mark and walked 15 minutes before finishing up with a 5 minute run. I was pleased with our run as it was extremely hot and the fact that we were able to get in the time we did was really great. Being smart and sensible is the only way to enjoy a challenging run unless it is all about the challenge and in that case not being smart and sensible might get you in trouble. We are getting ready to go out and run for 45 to 50 minutes this morning so I am sipping both coffee and water as I chat. Tuesday night Lew got the “NFLR Advanced 10K Training” group underway. I was pleased with the turnout and with some expected additions tomorrow morning as well we should have a nice size training group. The idea of our multiple training groups is that they will all join in together on Saturday mornings so that we have a nice amount of people to partner up. Our spring/summer group is moving along and at a great place where they can for the most part match up well with the advanced group. Later in this month we will add yet another group that will begin training for our destination race which will be the “White Mountain Half Marathon” at the end of October. That group will have multiple options as runners will be able to train for 13.1 or partner up and spilt the difference as a relay. If you think you might be interested in that group start thinking about it and maybe even reserve a room sooner than later. We stayed up there last year and had a really nice time. This weekend Meghan Churchill and Lew will trek up to Portland and attend the Road Runners Club of America running certification coaching course. RRCA is the only certification organization in the USA that offers coaching certification for distance running so this is definitely a must for NFLR coaches. Myself, Kathy and our daughter Jennifer have all been RRCA certified for some time now and once Lew and Meg complete the exam we will have the largest staff of certified coaches in the entire country. Definitely cool to have a full staff of trained running coaches but we don’t stop with RRCA certification. In fact Jennifer is studying nutrition while Kathy is working on her “American Council on Exercise” certification currently. Both Lew and I have tested and completed the book part of “North American Academy Sport Fitness Professionals” (NAASFP) running coach certification. Lew for general running coaching and me the marathon coaching. That training course is out of Canada and is just another means of learning more about working with people. The challenge now is that we have to work with a runner at no fee and have it documented for the NAASFP. We have plenty of current clients and documentation but I’m not sure that will work. Anyhow it altogether we are building a great team of NFLR coaches that will be able to help people of all levels with every part of their health and fitness. Time to get on the road. I hope you have a great weekend and are able to get on the road for a run. God Bless Mike