TNT Coaching Disney 2011

I coached the Disney marathon and half-marathon for Team In Training (TNT) this year. Before the early-January trip to Orlando, I dyed my hair a brilliant shade of violet; Pimpin' Purple was the color name (kudos to Jenni @ Rock Paper Scissors Salon in Durham!). I thought it'd be fun, and might be a fun conversation starter with other TNT'ers and particularly with participants on course. Little did I know.

I coached / ran / walked both the Half and the Full, and loved the zone coaching plan; TNT assigned each of the 70-ish coaches a 4 mile 'zone' that they were to cover. I really think that I'm a more effective coach doing my thing in one place - where 'one place is my 4 mile zone - and having all the participants come by me. I know my run pace is such that I'd only see a small group of participants around my pace. So, I worked my zones Saturday and Sunday, and ran with whoever I could - fast and slow, those that looked like they needed it and those that looked like they didn't, from any and seemingly every chapter. I had some great conversations along the way, some mission based (Why TNT?) and some not (Running? Family? Job? etc.) - with way more participants than I can remember.

Jump forward a few hours to the victory celebration - with me still sporting the purple hair. I had a dozen (or so) participants from all over come up through the evening and thank me for running and/or walking them. "I wouldn't have made it through that part without you." "I was doing great, but thanks for running with me and talking to me." "Thanks for the encouragement." (and other similar sentiments). And this was on top of the gratitude and love I got from the utterly awesome NC crew I traveled down there with. I know it was the hair that had them remember me and that made me findable at the victory celebration, but I had no idea that there'd be this effect when I had it done. Those people taking the time to come up to me and thank me and share with me really made my coaching experience. And it guarantees I'll be doing the hair again for my next event coaching assignment. Nothing like direct feedback to have you get the difference you're making with people. I certainly got it that evening. In spades.

I love what LLS does for cancer research and for patients and their families. I love what TNT does for participants - enabling them to train for and finish their (for many, first) endurance event. And I love that I get to be involved in making this happen!

GO TEAM!

10 Miles - A vote for Intervals

Good-day, Gentle reader!

Dad had his 6 month followup at Duke this past week, and things continue to go as well as we could possibly expect. The tumor continues to shrink. Function is returning as Dad works on PT and home tasks. He's now on the right ritalin / zoloft combo to have him alert and not overly napish. We're now trying a longer, slower taper to get him off the steriods. That's the next big challenge.

Bad news for the week: my Uncle David (by marriage on my Mom's side, so no genetic double-jeopardy) was finally diagnosed positive for lymphoma this week. He's been healthy as a horse his entire life, but has been confusingly sick the past month or two. Early diagnostics were unsure, but this has come in as a pretty confident diagnosis. He's now my number two honoree for my Team In Training efforts.

Yesterday's training run was 10 miles, and (as you read last time) I ran it doing 3:1 (3 minutes of running, 1 minute of walking) and it went amazingly well. Amazingly, astoundingly well. I haven't done 10 miles in a good while (*last* Disney marathon, possibly?) and I finished yesterday's in good shape, and could have easily done another mile or two. I ran negative splits (barely) - 54 minutes for the first 5 miles, and 53:15 for the last 5. I ran pretty solid 10:45 minute miles for all 10 miles. This translates to a 4:41 marathon time, which I would be tickled pink to run. My goal had been to run it in less than 5 hours, so this 10:45 discovery is far better than I had thought. (Good marathon pace calculator.)

Now the challenge remains to keep training at this level for the next 3 and some-odd months. I can't deny how effective running intervals was yesterday, so I'll be doing that for all my long runs from now on, and, over the next few months, work the intervals longer and longer.

Fundraising continues to rock along and rock my socks off. The folks in my life have been nothing short of amazingly generous in response to my request. I'm up to $2335. If you haven't contributed to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in support of my fundraising efforts yet, please do. It's for a great cause, I promise!

8 miles - Intervals or Not

The title rang a bell as I typed it, and this post has nothing whatsoever to do with the Eminem film. Just in case you were confused.

This morning's run with the Team in Training group was 8 miles, and it thoroughly kicked my butt. (But in a good way.) I ran the first 18 minutes with my lovely TNT mentor Courtney in sight of the fast group, and it felt great. I started doing run/walk intervals after that. At the half-way point, I found myself not wanting to willingly run anymore, and dropped back into the tried-and-true 2:1 intervals I ran for Disney last year.

I stopped at the 6-mile point and talked to Coach Elaine about intervals vs. straight running. Intervals work, and worked well for me last marathon (God, that 'last marathon' thing still sounds wrong coming from me) I have some sort of story about it not being "real" running. (Okay, Galloway people... I know it's still legitimate running if you can interval a marathon, so back off already.) I'm out to run all of Disney in '08, and my body isn't adapting to the run-only training regime nearly as quickly as I'd like. Just trying to "run more" isn't cutting it as a training transition plan.

Elaine had the best idea on managing this transition, and it's one that I'd had for a while, but just hadn't really wanted to do. She said

You know you can do the distance doing intervals, so go with what works for you. If you really want to run it all, then just work on stretching your intervals. You look pretty shot for this week, but starting next week go for 3:1 intervals for a couple of weeks, then go to 4:1 once that feels comfortable. Just keep increasing the run intervals until you get to where you want to be.

Smart woman, that Elaine.

In other areas, I'm getting my fundraising letters and emails out to everyone I know. I'm sure I'm bugging some folks - that's always a possibility when asking people for money. If you're just finding this blog because of my letter or email, then leave a comment and say hi.

Early fundraising response has been amazing. A week since the first email and I'm already at $1,500, which just absolutely blows me away. I'm still getting letters out, so it can only get better from here. A big THANK-YOU! if you've contributed already. If you haven't contributed, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do so. Just go here - it's really easy. Or throw a check in the mail to me. Email if you need my postal address.