Coaching is always something that I wanted to do, ever since my college career finished up I wanted to provide others with the same sense of camaraderie and fitness that I enjoyed. There is nothing quite like the feeling of being hunched over gasping for breath, lead legs, fuzzy vision and a sky high heart rate, and looking at a friend who shares the same sweet misery.All with a smile and a laugh to your self thinking about how these feelings are universally communicated, without words.
Towards the end of my college career there were a lot of negative events that shaped the way I view training and coaching. Having a narrow minded coach who held fast to the old school philosophy of racking up hundreds of junk miles a week was eye opening for sure. This "training" plan consisted of a long, sometimes up to 3 mile warm-up daily, very light stretching (if any at all), no discussion regarding the up coming workout (there was nothing to say, you'll see what I mean later), ABSOLUTELY NO motivation, then a VERY long run at varying intensity. Did I mention no cross training, we would do 1 session of plyometrics per week that involved wall sits, stepups and calf raises. Once per week! There were 3 quality workouts a week, 2 interval sessions and a long run. The 2 interval sessions were erratic and spotty, quality was always sacrificed for quantity. When questioned about the intention of a workout our "coach" would respond with "this is designed to build fitness." What a load of BS! Needless to say this all came from a man who qualified for the Olympic Trials twice in the marathon and never competed at the trials due to injury. Think about this, it's very telling that a guy who trained in the manner was often injured. I guess it depends on goals. If your goals are to be a national champ, then you better be running, a lot. However, what kind of running is much more important than strictly how much. Having a few people that listen to me regarding training, I take that task very seriously. I hope that I can grow this thing I started and help others in places where my mentors failed me.
Cheers!
