Confessions of a Coach 16:

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Well, there's not a lot to write about when it's all going good :) I've probably mentioned this before? But, I've been truly blown away by my Runwell Group. The runners who have followed their schedules, have improved so much! They are STRONG! I want to run, and I want to run strong. It's absolutely normal as human beings to want to get better, stronger, and faster.

I wish I could take the credit, but these guys are the ones who have to trust the process, show up for the "Wednesday Night Killer Speed Workouts", the Hill Workouts every Monday night, and let's not forget our Long Run on Saturdays, which I often have us run through the beautiful hilly neighborhoods of Lakewood. Week by Week, they just keep doing the work! And week by week, they are getting stronger! I had to blend my training with their training. It was too hard for me to try and keep my training as well as the Runwell Training going. So, I combined both schedules. In an around about way, I moved them up to an advanced schedule :) The more 1 mile repeats and Yasso's I throw at them, the more they want. INSANE RUNNERS! In fact, a few times I would say, "Well, the schedule calls for 8 Yasso's, but we can stop at 6". They wouldn't have anything to do with that! If I pull off this crazy goal or heck if I pull off a big PR, I will have to give the credit to my runners, for keeping me Honest!
So, I've been knocking out my 18 miler - EVERY WEEK. It's crazy, but it's become easy to do. I've been doing my long run with my group. I've haven't had a chance to run a race yet. The DRC Half Marathon is coming up. Again, my goal is to run it without my "Darth Vader" (that's what I call my Garmin) and not to stop and give other runners dirty looks - find my pace, listen to my body, and push from there.

The count down is on! We have The DRC Half 11-1, 30K on 11-15, and then The White Rock Marathon on 12-13!

Confessions of a Coach 15 - "It's about time!"

Thank goodness, I've finally had a few good weeks of running! Darth Vader has met his match! LOL I'm slowly, but surely, letting go of the GARMIN - aka, "Darth Vader". Now, I only have distance showing on all my Garmin screens. My next big detox from the watch, (hmm) is to run a race, (hmm, cough-cough) without a Watch. Just thinking about it makes me start shaking! LOL I've already got the race picked out and have only told a few of my friends. Anyway, I'm coming back around to enjoying my runs again! Guess what? I think I am becoming stronger and faster! When we did speed training the other night, that's 6-Yasso's, I had given a long speech about not going too fast. I was worried, at this stage of the game, that we could over do it. We smoked our Yasso's. We couldn't slow down a bit! It's was funny. We kicked some butt! My first one was 3:11. I said, "Dang Nikki slow down or you will not make it to six". The next one was 3:16. I thought, "I shouldn't and can't run this fast". The next at 3:21, "What is wrong with me", I said, "You better slow down girl". My fourth was 3:20. I told myself, "Dang it, I'm too fast". The 5th Yasso at 3:22. I kept saying, "Run like the Indians run, but slow down Nikki, your not an Indian". My last was 3:31. For all six Yasso's - we didn't/couldn't slow down. It was funny. There was a lot of swearing going on, but it was because we were running faster than we ever had before! Well, maybe I'm getting faster. I guess we will see in few weeks, when we do Yasso's again.
The book, "Born to Run", has really saved me! You must read it! I've been eating like a "poor person"; beans, rice, corn tortillas, hummus, fruit, salads, and fruits. No meat or chicken, however, I'm not giving up my fish. I love fish! I'm telling you, it's been filling me up! The weight has started to drop a little. I'm resting and sleeping more. In the book, it mentions that we run our long runs too fast and speed work too slow. My last long run, I ran 3 miles with Bryan and then 15 miles with Jhovany. It was Jhovany's first time to do 15 miles! Go Jhovany! The weather was perfect. I had us loop the lake first, then we hit the Lakewood Hills for the last six miles! I never once worried about the pace I was running. My job for the run was to get Jhovany to 15 miles. We did stop at a water/Gatorade stop on the way back. You know, it's funny how good everything will taste after 13 + miles. :) Both of us were like, "Wow, this Gatorade taste really Awesome!" I normally like to push my last few miles. I knew if I left Jhovany, he would walk. :) At one point he told me, "Shhhh"! LOL So the whole way, I focused on my form, trying to run like the "Indian Tribe" depicted in the book. I was taking in the awesome view of the Lakewood Neighbor and wonderful White Rock Lake. I was totally in the moment of running. The end result was I felt great after the run and wanted to run some more. Instead, I went for a bike ride on a Trail! It was crazy fun - I fell twice. Yippee! After that, I was finished. An 18 mile run, the bike ride, and big lunch - I was Done. I was like, "Where's my the bed?" Just a Month ago, I wouldn't have done that for fear of hurting myself. Now, I'm like - "I'm going to keep training, but I'm going to have fun while I do it." It's so easy to get caught up in all the Goal Times. I'm GUILTY as Charged! That really has taken a lot of joy out of for me. I let myself get stressed to the point that my hard training was going in reverse! Okay, I must confess - I have not totally let go of the Watch. Right now, I'm doing some Control Watch Maintenance :)
and for now it seems to be working!

Confessions of a Coach-14 "Coming up for Air":

*Sean-William* Elite Runner:)

Confessions of a Coach-14 "Coming up for Air":

Well, Well, Well - I have now successfully run out of gas on two of my last goal races! LOL. The Reality of the second race, "TDF 10k", was that I had only gotten 3.5 hours of sleep the night before. My daughter and son in-law had some business to take care of on Friday night, so I stayed up with my sweet grand babies. As I crawled into my bed, at 1:30 AM, I was thinking this is not going to be good :) When my alarm went off at 5:00 AM, the first thought that went through my head was "there is no way I'm going to the race today....NO Way!" At 5:30 AM, I found myself heading out the front door :) All the Runwell Runners were racing today, all with hopes of having a good run. And what a "Good Run" our Runwell Runners had! Now that's exciting news and such a good feeling to see your training pay off.

Well - after months of whining, crying, complaining, mental and physical breakdowns, I'm seeing some light at the end of tunnel. Nope, I'm not any faster, stronger or thinner! But I am starting to adjust my attitude! Steve came out last week and spoke about "Mental Fitness for Runners". He had a lot of really good information. I felt like his whole talk was just for me. The one thing that stuck in my head was this..."you can have a goal, but don't be attached to the goal." Jeez...I've been missing out. I've been so OBSESSED with my training and THE WATCH, that I forgot to have fun! Running was turning into chore. I was dreading my runs and most importantly - I've been missing out on enjoying what my training participants are doing. My running group all did amazing at the "TDF 10k/20k". Everyone ran a smart a race, looked strong and had fun...except me of course. That following Wednesday night was hill work. The same group were blasting up the hill several times, making comments like "this is good", "great workout" and I even heard one them say, "hey lets do another repeat"!?! WOW! As I drove a way that night, I was hit with an amazing feeling of how proud I am of my group and what wonderful runners they have become. Another little awakening I had was...I need to take lessons from my training participants. They are training hard, loving it, and running smart races.They are not worrying about the outcome of the what the clock will say, but instead, they are listening to their body and pushing from there. They are having Fun! :)

For our next Saturday long run, I changed all my screens on my Garmin to just show distance only. I can go back later and check the splits. But while I'm running, I don't want to worry with pace, average pace or any damn thing to do with time! Guess what? - I had a blast! It's been months since I've had so much fun running! We ran a hard course, taking on a lot of hills in Lakewood, and we were laughing and enjoying the awesome weather. The last few miles we pressed the pace. I mean we ran it hard and fast. It was a great - great long run! Best run I've had in a long time! So, I'm not throwing out my goal - just trying not to let it control me. From here on, I'm going to train like my training participants - because you know what? ...they got it down!