Archive for December 6th, 2007

What excellent fun I had this morning – my first meeting with a running coach.

Granted, I did feel a little silly hiring one at this stage of the game, but egged on by some great advice-givers on Coolrunning (one of whom recommended this particular coach), coupled with a mounting bloodlust for speed and a vision to squash as many 45-49AG babes as possible, I made the appointment.

We met at a high-school track on this sunny, 25 degree morning. It snowed last night, so the track was covered but not really slippery. I had originally wanted to do speedwork for our first meeting, but was honestly relieved that the snow interfered with that plan, since it took some of the pressure off. So we ran around the track a bunch while I badgered him with questions.

We talked about how many minutes I can expect to lose from my 5K PR, winter training & mileage, using the Broad St. 10-miler as a Spring goal, interval work, calcium and iron, stress fractures, strides, even did a short hill form-check (I bend at my waist when going up…gotta work on that). All in all a completely satisfying hour.

So now what? December will be for working on my own with a steady base diet of 40+mpw plus some tempo and strides, speed if I feel like it (which means probably none), then come January I plan on making him suffer through a speedwork session and another meeting for some hill fun, and then by February, I hope to hire him more regularly so by the advent of Spring, I can start kicking some old lady ass.

In case anyone else in the Philly area is looking for a coach, Lowell Ladd’s the man and can be found at www.2lcoaching.com. He’s a very sweet guy (though if you’re a fella, this might not be a prerequisite), easy to talk to and he knows his stuff.

So that’s the tale of me and the coach. I told him before we parted, “At the level I’m at, I feel like those people who self-print their own books by hiring a Vanity Press…you’re my Vanity Coach.” But the truth of the matter is, he’s anything but. This guy’s going to make me fast.