It’s been five days since the California International Marathon in Sacramento and the unrefined waddle caused by my sore quads has finally started to subside. As my legs start to get back to normal, I can only think that another marathon training cycle is behind me and I will shortly start thinking about the next one. This weekend is really the end of the 2006 marathon season as I travel with some of my athletes running in the Honolulu Marathon. But, it’s here that I’ve chosen to start this new journal about marathon running.
The idea for the Running Wild blog came from runners that I’ve coached in the Team in Training program in Oregon. They had become accustomed to reading my Monday morning motivational updates and they suggested that other people might be interested in hearing what I had to say – and I think they wanted to keep in touch after they moved on to other ventures. It made sense to me to start to capture some of the nuggets of wisdom that get discovered out on the roads and trails, as I do interact with lots of runners throughout the year. As a running coach I get to work with people from very different backgrounds, from people that have never run a step to people that just want to learn how to do it better, and each of them brings something new to me and helps me refine the way that I teach marathon running.
Cruising over the Pacific Ocean now at 35,000 feet, I have a pretty good view from up here. I can look back at my own season, both in my personal running and racing and at those that I’ve coached this year. In 2005, I’ve journeyed with about 120 runners who graduated into the ranks of marathon finishers. Every one of those runners have taught me something. I’ve also had the privilege of traveling to some of the biggest races on the West Coast of USA, including the Rock N Roll Marathon, the Nike Women’s Marathon, Ironman Arizona and many others. All these runners, all that travel, mean lots of good stories to share.
What I’d like to do in this blog is start a discussion with you about what you experience as runners, what you learn on the roads and what you’d like to hear about. My first inclination is to teach and share, and to hopefully motivate and even entertain you as well.
I plan to spend some of the initial entries capturing what I’ve learned this year and then move forward along with my runners as we progress into next year. The training season that I coach under is broken into four seasons: Summer will kick-off in January and run through June and will include preparations for Rock N Roll San Diego, Mayor’s Midnight Sun in Anchorage and will likely include discussion of Boston, London and Berlin as the elites go after new world’s best performances. I will also be training for Ironman Brazil through May and will report on my progress and my travels to South American for the first time. In May, we’ll kick off our Fall season with people training for Portland and Nike Women’s as well as Chicago and New York. The final season is Winter that begins in September and prepares folks for Honolulu and PF Chang’s Rock N Roll Arizona.
In closing this chapter, I’d like to say that I hope that you enjoy and learn and have some fun with Running Wild. I love to run. I love to race. I love the marathon. I hope that comes through in what I write and I hope that you find something hear that’s useful in your marathon pursuits too.
