My Meeting with Coaches Jeff and Diane

I've been in Denver since Sunday afternoon for a conference. For those of you that have traveled for work, I think you'll agree that one of the biggest decisions to be made is where to go for dinner and drinks. So while many of my colleagues were deciding between sushi or Peruvian, I was looking forward to an evening of form analysis and form drills with my coaches Jeff and Diane.

I was still in my work clothes when I met them in the hotel lobby so I quickly changed and met them in the hotel gym. The gym at the Grand Hyatt was pretty nice. It had several treadmills, recumbent bikes, ellipticals, free weights, floor mats, etc... everything I needed to workout. Since I did a strength and core routine in the morning, I got on the treadmill for some form analysis. Diane took several minutes of video then told me to get off. We sat on the floor in the gym watching the video. I won't bore you with all the details, but there are many things I'm doing well and several things I need to work on.

Then it was time to move on to form drills. We went through a bunch of drills to teach my body what it should feel like to run naturally. When I first started the drills, I tried to run exactly like Jeff was. Jeff stopped me and said "don't run like me, run like run you." After that, I had an easier time with the drills.

After the drills we sat down and chatted mainly about about my goals for Vermont. I told Jeff and Diane that this time of year always gets in head. I've missed 2 long runs, and Passover is fast approaching. Jeff said one of the reasons for building a big base is in anticipation of the next few weeks. We did talk about a specific time goal for Vermont, I'd rather not share it right now. The most important thing Jeff and Diane left me with is that I have to believe I can accomplish the goal. Jeff and Diane are confident that I can, it's time for me to start wrapping my head around it. I'm starting to get there. I've had some very solid step-up runs recently that has boosted my confidence. But I still can't believe that my name and the time goal are being mentioned in the same sentence.

OK, I've gone on long enough. It was so nice to finally meet Jeff and Diane in person. They are so nice and easy to talk to. My time with them was much better than any meal in Denver.

Helping Others

More often than not, we get caught up in our own training, quest for a PR, BQ, etc...that we lose sight of others who are trying to take up our sport. A co-worker, I'll call him JS, of mine has been slowly getting into running. I'm not sure what his longest run is but he decided he wants to train for the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run in Washington, D.C. in April. He shared with me his training plan and asked me for comments. For a new runner, his plan was solid and if he stuck to the plan I'm confident he will finish the race.

Yesterday JS e-mails me asking me if he can join me on my morning run today. Who was I to say no? We met this morning at 7:00 a.m. and decided to run down the south end of the island and up the Battery Park City Esplanade. Since I was unsure of his pace, I asked him to lead. JS started out at a fairly brisk pace. I had no issues keeping up but I had a feeling that he may not be able to keep up that pace for the duration of the run. About half way through the run he asks if we can slow down. We finished the run at a much more comfortable pace for him.

I'm not going to share with you the details of the run, it's not important**. Today's run wasn't about my pace, how I felt, or what I did right or wrong. Today was about coaching a new runner through a 5 mile run on a cold winter morning. I'm sure I'll be running with JS again and I can't wait to see his improvement.

** I'll mention that the MotionBased feed for the run is not accurate. My Garmin did not pick up signal until we were about 2/3 of a mile in to the run.