Walk-to-Run Trainees:

Wow! We had 33 participants at the orientation last Saturday. That's on top of some folks who told me in advance that they couldn't make that date, and other folks who have contacted me since Saturday, asking about joining the program.

All told, we may have close to 50 people joining this year's program, and that's great.

Why? Because the larger any group of runners is (and, yes, you are a group of runners-in-training), the more likely it is that you can find someone to run with - someone who runs at your pace. It's always easier on a Saturday morning to get one's bum out of bed, if one knows that there is someone else expecting you to show up and go for a run.

But more about running groups and pacing in future installments. First, some housecleaning and administrative matters, plus some advice on finding a pair of running shoes.

(1) Corrected Training Calendar

There were a few errors on the Training Calendar first posted on the web site. The attached spreadsheet | PDF corrects these oversights:

A) Our group training workouts are always on Saturdays through April 24, the last meeting of the program;

B) The final modality for our workouts over the last three weeks is 1 (one) minute walking, 4 (four) minutes running;

c) The weekday workouts should be the same distance and modality as the preceding Saturday.

If you have any questions about the training calendar, please let me know.

(2) Venue/Time for group training on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2010:

Washington Convention Center at 9:45 AM at the indoor track of NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo (http://www.nbcwashington.com/brchannel/health-expo-2010.html)

At 9:45 AM we will gather, and at 10 AM we will start our walk around the 1/8 Mile indoor track. Sixteen (16) laps of that track will give us the two (2) mile walk we have scheduled for that day.

If you missed our walk last Saturday, we'll let you slide with a single mile (8 laps). But please be prepared for three (3) miles on Saturday, January 23, with the rest of the group!

Please try to arrive at the Convention Center by 9:30, to give yourselves time to find your way to the meeting point and to prepare for the training walk.

***If you get turned around and can't find our group at the track, please call my cell phone, 703-371-5171.

(3) Program Registration:

If you've already registered for our training program, thank you!

If you haven't yet registered, please do so, as soon as you can. And you can register online:

http://www.active.com/framed/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1810501

Not only does the registration fee benefit MCC's charities, but we need to have a record of who you are before our insurers will even *think* of covering our little training program. Whatever your background, if you can walk, we welcome you to our program.

(4) Questionnaire

Attached to this email is a questionnaire for new trainees of MCC.

If you completed and submitted the questionnaire already, thank you.

If you haven't, please complete it as much as possible (and as soon as possible) If you have no running experience whatsoever, don't worry about questions probing that, but please complete as much as you can.

The questionnaire will tell me your exercise background, and any other details I need to know to keep you building strength and endurance, while minimizing risk of injury over the next four months.

(5) Contact phone number for Saturday mornings:

Most of you gave us at least one phone number at registration. If that number is not the best number at which to reach you early on a Saturday morning, please provide me an alternate number. I will use that number only in the event we have to cancel a Saturday training walk or run due to weather. Thank you.

(6) Assistant Coach:

I would like to formally introduce Humaira Qureshi, our Assistant Coach for our Walk to Run Program this season. Humaira is an RRCA Certified Running Coach, a veteran of races of many distances, and a spinner of many yarns, keeping her running partners well entertained during the course of a workout. She will be walking and running with us on Saturdays, starting soon.

(7) Midweek workouts:

Our midweek workouts will always be no longer than the workout of the preceding Saturday. For example, since we walked one mile last Saturday, each of the midweek workouts this week should have been a one mile walk. Next week (Jan. 17-22), you should try to walk two (2) miles at least twice, midweek.

You should do at least two (2) midweek workouts, so that your Saturday mileage is no more than 33% of your total mileage for the week. More about the reason for this, later.

You could do a third or fourth midweek workout if you have time, but please remember to give yourself a rest, or easy day, after each workout. It is during the rest, or easy, days that your body recovers from that workout, and actually becomes stronger than it was before. Without an adequate recovery from a workout, the body gains no long-term benefit from it, and repeated workout stress without recovery is a sure road to injury and fatigue.

(8) Running Shoe Purchase:

If you have not already purchased a new pair of running shoes in the past few months, you probably need to acquire a pair prior to Washington's Birthday Weekend (Feb. 12-15, 2010).

As a reminder:

*Running or walking shoes lose their shock-absorbing qualities after 300 to 500 miles, which, if you wear the shoes for 1 hour a day, is about five to six months.

*When you buy a pair of running shoes, try to go in the evening when your feet have swelled to their largest size of the day, and plan to spend about an hour trying on, and walking/running in, a variety of shoes.

*Based on talking with you, seeing how you walk or run and/or looking at an old pair of your shoes, the salesperson at a specialty running store should be able to figure out what type of shoe works best for you. He or she will bring out several different manufacturers' versions of that type for you to compare and contrast.

*The shoe should be snug at the heel and ankle (no movement of the heel or ankle within the shoe), but give plenty of room for your toes to "play the piano" inside the shoe. Pick one that feels the most comfortable to you while walking and running.

Attached is a list of local specialty running stores, where I would recommend you purchase your next pair of running shoes.

After your first pair, you could look to running expos and mail order to get your next pair. But beware of shelf-life in shoes, as the PVA midsole materials can degrade over time, even without use.

Also, shoe models change from year to year, and your feet will change the more you run. So I would recommend even the most experienced runner to get professionally fitted for shoes at least once a year.

For more information that you could possibly ever use about running shoes, please cf.:

http://www.runnersworld.com/topic-ext/0,7121,s6-240-319-0-0,00.html

and

http://www.therunningadvisor.com/running_shoes.html

(9) Walk to Run Newsletter

My goal is to send you an email newsletter like this one each week, outlining the training runs for the following week, as well as other relevant topics on running.

If you ever have a question about any topic in the newsletter (or in our training program), please let me know. My email is steitzj@georgetown.edu, my office phone is 202-687-2509, and my cell phone is 703-371-5171. If I cannot talk at the time you call, PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE.

I hope your midweek workouts are going well, and I will see you Saturday at the Expo!

Coach John

John H. Steitz
RRCA Certified Running Coach
USATF Level 1 Certified Track and Field Coach
Marathon Charity Cooperation
703-371-5171
www.mc-coop.org/walktorun