I started a new client this morning, she’s eager to get rolling. But she’s not a runner yet, had never run a mile before. This morning she did two. Slowly and carefully with me yapping in her ear the whole while about patience and perseverance.
There are a hundred training programs and a thousand coaches. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that there is only a single way to get trained up. Hang all the graphs and message boards and pie charts and “expert” references. We are all individuals and need individual attention. That is where the true essence of coaching comes in. Listening to the athlete, finding that right chord of harmony and balance that will lead to consistency.
Consistency.
That more than any other trait is the key to any distance training program. I’m not impressed by someone cranking out huge miles only to be broken before their chance to put it to good use. And yep, I’m including myself in that scenario. I ran 321.5 miles for the 29 days of February, big deal. If I don’t maintain my consistency for the next 4 months it is all for naught. The USA 25K National Championships on May 12 and Grandma’s Marathon on June 16th are the only two dates and distances on the calendar that matter at all to me. I’ve got faith in my coach to keep that tightrope taught enough to bridge my training to my racing goals.
Coaching.
I’ve got Glen van der Westhuizen steering me just as I’m guiding my new charge. What I thought impossible before the start of this year now looms real and attainable. I’m persevering and being patient and understanding that no single run or week or month will be the key to my success. It will be the accumulation of consistent, high level training, that yields the sweetest fruits of my efforts.
Courage.
Whether stepping onto the track for the first time ever, (especially with a coach with a reputation like mine) or dreaming of an age graded life time marathon pr (it’ll take a 3:13:00 for me), it takes a lot of huevos to dare to achieve. To move beyond the everyday mundacity of mindless repetition, whether that be sitting on a couch or doing the same old tired training. And it takes consistency and coaching. It takes all three of these C’s to spark and maintain the drive towards elevating the human experience as it relates to running. February, big deal, bring on June!
Thanks to my buddy the Faster Pastor, Josh Sawyer for last night’s Lenten service invitation. Josh is the associate pastor at First Christian Church of Omaha and put together a poet, a musician, a painter, and a thespian for their interpretation of Mark 11. Very interesting and entertaining, my first time inside a church in over a decade. No lightning bolts or thunder claps I’m happy to report.
Hope you can make it to Beebeetown, Iowa tomorrow night to catch one of my favorite local guitarists, Mark Weber. Worth the drive across the river!
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