The course gave me a lot of good information about coaching runners, and combining this certification with the personal training certification I earned last month should help me market myself a little better (few running coaches are also personal trainers, and vice versa). I have a number of ideas and wish I could take a few weeks off from my real job to take care of all the behind-the-scenes work of my side gig. Alas, for now I have only a website with a "Coming Soon" message, and an unpublished Facebook page.
But beyond learning a few things about coaching, I learned a few things to incorporate into my own running. Least surprising to anyone: I need to run more. So far this year I've averaged 29 miles a week (or 33 if you adjust for 3 injury weeks). You will not find many regular marathoners with a lighter workload.
But, this year I've also finished 4 marathons and a 50K, and gone past the 100K mark twice in races I didn't finish. Two of those marathons (Miracle Match and Big Sur) are decidedly difficult and I was within 10 minutes of my PR in each -- a PR, by the way, that was good enough to qualify for Boston and was earned on not many more training miles per week last year. So will adding miles really pay off?
I suppose soon we will find out. I only have one race between now and Labor Day, so there may not be much focus to my training over the next couple months. Beyond that, the start of summer in north Texas is not really the perfect time to buckle down and get serious. But where I would normally have run 3 miles, tonight I did 5. And as time and weather allow, I'll keep looking for ways to squeeze out an extra mile here or there. If it does anything for me, I'll stick with it. If not, at least it'll be an experience I can use with my clients.
Yep, I am RRCA certified too...I remember her saying that our mileage should be much higher. I average between 20 and 30. Frankly I know my body breaks down beyond 30....so I do quite well marathon training with 21-25 miles a week, with a few heavier weeks in there too. Lesson learned for me is that the more experienced of a runner the more that runner most likely is aware of their limits. It's not always more is better. Right? =) Good luck getting things up and running!
ReplyDelete