My first Vlog!! (Cut short though...)

Picked up my second pair of Air Pegasus 26

Here are my second pair of Air Pegasus 26. Picked these up from Phidippides at Ansley. Special thanks to Susan and Greg. Really love these shoes; put 575 miles on my first pair and look forward to putting a lot on these. Only ran 3.72 miles today but it was a great run at Piedmont and I hope to be out again tomorrow. They feel new and familiar and that is the best part of it. In any case I created a video review however due to the file size was unable to upload it. Now I just to get signed up for some races in the near future. Also proud to say that I have covered over 1000 miles now since August of last year and with today's run hit 700 on the Nike+ program. Happy Memorial Day folks!

Pegasus OFFICIALLY retired!

Picked up the Structure Triax yesterday from Phiddipides here in Atlanta and went out to put some miles on them. So far so good, I got the White/grey/yellow version in a size 14. Nice solid build, stiffer than Pegasus but so far so good. Find that the shoes feel very comfortable on packed dirt and sand as compared to the road. It will certainly take a lot for any shoe to outdo the Pegasus for me but so far the Structure Triax are off to a nice start. I think that as time wears on they will break in nicely. I will only put about 400 miles on them and any other shoes going forth from this point. As of the end of yesterday I have covered roughly 989.4 miles and will hit the thousand mile milestone on today’s run! I am definitely excited about that!

Reflections on the RRCA Coaching Certification at Davidson

Good to be back in Atlanta after two days in North Carolina. I must say first off that I thoroughly enjoyed and learned quite a bit from the RRCA Coaching Certification course. Janet Hamilton and Mike Broderick did a fine job presenting the materials and allowing me to soak up plenty of information in the process. Took the four hour plus drive from Atlanta to Davidson and stayed at a Days Inn one exit south of the class. After not being able to sign up for the Atlanta course I signed up for the next close one which happened to be North Carolina. Fleet Feet and its owner Marc Harris were the sponsors and I got to meet him myself as he was in the course with me. Great group, there were about thirty of us, ranging from volunteer coaches, trainers to running store personnel, etc. Many people had different goals ranging from furthering education to career development. As for me I was looking to garner both as I move forward with my endeavor of becoming a trainer and eventual coach. The exercises that we did on day two really opened my eyes to the benefits of proper coaching and planning that go into a training plan rather than simply spitting some numbers into a template and utilizing that. A couple of points were hard for me but that is part of the learning process and I look forward to studying up more in my free time and grasping said points. Physiology over everything was the key to instituting a winning workout program for a client; that plus a good insurance plan to protect you from liability also. One point is that the course is designed for basic level coaching and that at the college or competing level it would be hard to implement some of the material. That in no way implies that the materials are not relevant even at those levels. I was also able to discover more resources that I look forward to utilizing in the future including certifications, sites and answers to questions I had. The only thing that I would recommend for updating in the future is the images in the handouts. The material itself was very well presented but the images simply did not look like anything from the past fifteen years. Besides that I must say that I enjoyed, learned and met people who perhaps one day I can network with as I make my way towards my goal. I have thirty days to complete the 100 question online exam and will then move forward to get my Personal Trainer certification.

Surprise Surprise!!

Well, what is there to say? I have been an active participant now on the Nike+ program since January and it was only recently that I really started noticing something: noticeably crazy distances covered by other runners. I did not pay much attention to it at first and even gave people the benefit of the doubt but after analyzing some of the runs I saw first hand certain inconsistencies and possible cheating. One person in particular I initially thought may have been a whole running team but in the end probably not. A recent look at a twenty mile run covered by said individual showed a pace of roughly 7:30 per mile over the twenty mile run. On the surface that could be excused as ‘fast runner,’ but when I looked at the run bar it was flat the whole way through. It was as if there was no break whatsoever and it baffled me due to the fact that even at my fastest I have to build up speed and work up to a point. This coupled with the fact that you get an occasional obstacle in the form of a stray animal, overdue water break or sheer fatigue leading to a spike or dip in the run bar illustrated that unless this individual is a professional athlete they are in fact a cheater. It is saddening because the vast majority of people are out there putting in the work and the miles and working hard on the challenges only to be overtaken by someone who apparently runs fifty miles before work. I hope that Nike and Apple can somehow combat this but where there is a will there is a way and cheating, I am sure, will continue. In any case I will keep my sensor calibrated properly and know that I have accomplished every mile on my iPhone, even the ones lost to human and technical error. Keep running folks!

Road Runners Club of America this weekend

Looking forward to traveling to North Carolina this weekend to take part in the RRCA Coaching Certification Program. This will be undoubtedly the next step to me achieving my dream of becoming a Running Coach and trainer in the future. The two day event will be held in Charlotte, close to Davidson College. More than anything I am very excited about the opportunity and will detail everything in an upcoming blog. Thanks!