Welcome to the thirteenth week of our program.
1) We meet again on Saturday, April 4, at 9AM, in the parking lot for Columbia Island Marina, in LBJ Park.
Since I must be away Saturday morning, Coach Humaira [571-338-0874] will be leading Saturday's run, in my place.
If any of our newer trainees are having difficulty finding our meeting location, please call Humaira, not me - I won't be anywhere near the Marina!
Our posted training distance for this Saturday [found at http://www.marathoncharitypartners.org/walktorun/calendar.doc] is the same 3.5 miles we ran last week. Please study the route map:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2672077
The only tricky parts are along Memorial Drive (the road that runs west from Memorial Bridge up to Arlington Memorial Cemetery). At some point after Memorial Circle, you will need to cross Memorial Drive to get to the other side. Use common sense, and look out both directions for traffic. But in our 1/4 mile run along Memorial Drive, there should be plenty of openings to cross the road.
The reason we need to cross, is that our remaining route up to Iwo Jima is the one and only trail diverging from the right-hand (North) sidewalk of Memorial Drive. Cross over the curving 270 degree highway off-ramp, and you will see the trail, almost as a sidewalk to that off-ramp. We will follow that trail up to the base of the Iwo Jima hill, before turning around.
On the way back, please make sure to cross back to the South side of Memorial Drive, so you can make your way back to the Marina parking lot.
As we have been doing throughout March, our modality will be 2 minutes walking, 3 minutes running. This is our last week of 2:3 intervals. Next Saturday, April 11, we progress to our final mode, 4 minutes of running to 1 minute of walking.
But if you are just joining us, or are re-joining us after a period of inactivity, please see Humaira before beginning your run. She may proscribe a shorter route, that will still build your fitness, but with less risk of injury.
2) Expo for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler and 5K - this Saturday!
I will be able to get back in town to pick up my race packet for the Cherry Blossom 5K. For anyone interested in getting my take on the assembled vendors and race ads, I can meet folks just outside the Main Entrance to the Expo at 4 PM. Please call me if you want to link up - 703-371-5171.
The Expo is located at the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, N.W. in Washington D.C., right across the street from the Judiciary Square Metro Station.
cf: http://www.nbm.org/plan-visit/accessibility-directions/
and
http://www.cherryblossom.org/expo/expo.htm
Please call me if you get turned around, 703-371-5171.
The Expo is open to the general public, so if your own target race doesn't have a big fancy expo, come on down and take a look. Admission is free, and the best deals are on running clothing and socks. But if you just get excited about your own race, that's good too!
3) Cherry Blossom 5K
Coach Humaira, Laura, Rajashree and I will be running the 5K version of Cherry Blossom at 8:40 AM on Sunday morning. Wish us luck!
4) Kudos to Stephen Woo!
Our own Stephen Woo completed the W&OD 5K last Saturday in a time of 26 minutes and 1.4 seconds, for an average time of 8 minutes, 24 seconds per mile. Way to go Stephen!
When you see Stephen on our training runs, please congratulate him, and ask him how his race went.
After each of you finish your target race, I invite you continue with the Saturday training runs as we increase the mileage to 4 miles and wind up with next steps at the end of this month.
5) Your Running Buddy
A running buddy is someone you can run with, because he or she runs at about the same pace as you. If you take walk breaks, he or she can follow the same walk/run interval pattern.
A spouse, fiancée, girlfriend/boyfriend, parent, sibling, son/daughter or your best friend is not necessarily your running buddy. If the person you want to run with runs at a different pace, the naturally slower person runs a serious risk of injury if he or she tries to keep up with the faster person. If your intended running buddy runs at the same pace as you, great! But be honest in your evaluation.
[Last year, I coached a trainee who ran/walked with her Dad, who was battling knee problems. She did great in training up to about 3 miles. But then, her Dad was sidelined by his knees, and she started running with her younger - and much faster - sister, who had been running for years. The older sister lasted about 3 weeks in this arrangement, before she suffered an overuse injury. You may always *want* to run faster, but your body may have other ideas.]
The way to tell if you're running to keep up with your running buddy is the talk test, as we discussed earlier. If you can keep up a conversation with your running buddy, and neither of you is panting, gasping out one-word answers, then you have a compatible pace.
And keeping up a conversation is a great way to pass the miles on your run. Running with someone is also safer than running alone, and you can keep an eye on each other in case of injury, dehydration, or any other situation. And it's a lot cheaper than therapy! Bonus points if your running buddy lives close to you.
You may have more than one running buddy, or even buddies at different paces. If you're training for distance, your midweek runs may be run at a faster pace than your Saturday long run. There may be someone who can run with you for a few miles, whereas others who need to get in longer mileage for their own distance training, and would welcome a call whenever you want to run long.
Whenever you run with someone, please remember the pace you're *supposed* to be running for that training session, and if you or the other person wind up panting, or are obviously hurting, both of you should slow down. And never exceed your previous long mileage by more than 10% - even if your running buddy wants to go longer.
Have fun running with your buddy, but please remember the rules of the road or the trail. If a section along the side of the road, or along a trail, is not wide enough for two people side-by-side, head through it single file. Camaraderie, yes, but safety first.
And if a trail is crowded with other users (or there are swift bikes out and about), please make sure your running pair or group doesn't stray to the left of the center line, lest you collide with a bike or another runner.
And even on a quiet trail, don't always run on the same side of someone. The act of turning your head to one side to talk to the person running next to you can subtly change your footstrike. Change sides periodically, so you don't put a crimp in your stride, or invite an injury-causing mis-step.
Some people prefer to run alone, to clear their head, or retreat from the demands of daily life. Others view running as a social activity. If you fall in the latter category, you live a region with many runners, and through training programs past or present, running clubs, running stores, or mutual friends, can all lead to running buddies.
[More about additional groups to run with this Summer in a future newsletter.]
If I don't see you down at the Expo, I will see you NEXT weekend down at Columbia Island Marina. Coach Humaira will lead you this Saturday down at the Marina, but if have any questions before then, please write back, or call me at 703-371-5171.
Happy Trails!
Coach John
John H. Steitz
RRCA Certified Running Coach
USATF Level 1 Certified Track and Field Coach
Arlington Cooperation Foundation
703-371-5171
http://www.marathoncharitypartners.org/walktorun/