06/03 Saturday Routes

There is a 6-mile route and a 3-mile route again this weekend. We will meet in front of the YMCA (no meeting this week). Be sure to do some stretching while waiting for everyone. Both groups will go the same direction again, but the 3-mile group will turnaround at the "frog statue" near the playground. The 6-mile group will run a full loop around Sunset Park and then return to the Y after going back through Battle Park. The map gives you a general idea of the route, and the distance should be accurate for this route.

• Want to run 4 miles? If you want to make the 3-mile route a four instead, stay on the paved trail towards Chicos. When you are beside the skate park, you will see a yellow 2 painted on the trail. Turn around and return to the YMCA
• Want to run 4.8 miles? If you want to push up to a 4.8 mile route, do the loop around Sunset and return directly to the YMCA

The reason I am giving you options for different distances is some of you are still trying to figure out which plan is right for you. In some cases, 3 miles is not a big enough challenge for you, and in other cases 6 miles is a bit too long right now. At this point, you should be able to comfortably finish your long runs. Remember, your running is not about speed right now.

Written directions are available in the right navigation, and the map is listed under "Sunset + Battle Park."

Email #2 from Don Garber

For those of you who have just joined in the last week or so, I send out a weekly message to the entire training team. Some administrative. Some motivational. Some about training. Several Items for you this week

Which Schedule Do You Run:
I have had multiple inquiries from people who are on the fence between the Novice Schedule and the Intermediate Schedule. Which Schedule should they run? There are several levels in answering this question.

• First, I usually recommend that if you are close to being able to trying the intermediate schedule, to give it a try for a couple of weeks. My logic here is that you can always drop back to the Novice Schedule if the Intermediate is too taxing, but it is almost impossible to jump from the Novice Schedule to the Intermediate Schedule after we have been running a month or two.
• Second, you need to look at your time commitments and see what works best for you. The intermediate schedule has one more day per week of running and has longer runs. Make sure your training level meets your commitment level.
• And, third, where are you in your training. The intermediate schedule has more miles. It requires more work. With the added miles, you will be somewhat more prepared for the race. But it also carries the risks that come with more miles. The more you pile on the miles, the more chances you have for injury. So if your body is not ready for these miles, running intermediate could cause issues.

So think about where you are in your training. And which schedule you should be training. Talk you your coach or to me and let's make sure you are in the right place for you.

Checking in / Checking out:
We have assigned you to teams. Part of this is so we can make sure everyone safely finishes the run. Part of what we do is have you check in before the run and then when you finish the run, we ask you to check out on the roster (and a lot of coaches may ask for more information such as how long it took you to do the run).

Be sure you check out. As coaches, one of our responsibilities is to make sure everyone is back before we leave. If you haven't checked out, we can't be sure you finished. As the routes get longer, we will start going back out on the course looking for you. So get in the habit of checking in and checking out.

Keeping your Training Log:
In the book we handed out (and the electronic version), there is space for you to record daily your training runs. The book even has examples of how to do this. Get in the habit of recording your runs. This will help you to understand your training. There will be good days. There will be bad days. If you keep a log, you will be able to reflect on these good/bad days and hopefully learn how to make more of them good. If will also help us as coaches if we need to help you tweak your training.

Weekday Runs:
From looking at the message board, there appears to be quite a bit of activity toward runs other than your long weekend run. Michael has space on the web site to put groups that are running together so others may join.

So if you have a group that is starting to form and want me to add it to the message board, just send me the following and it will add it......Day of week, Level of Training (i.e. Novice or Intermediate..how far will you be running), where you will meet, when you will meet and a contact person, including how to contact (email/phone).

Have a good week. See you this weekend. - Don Garber, Head Coach

Runner returns to training team

Thought you may find this story interesting. It is about Kathy Ivins from Richmond Virginia. She is a 50-year-old commercial real estate broker and has has signed up for the Marathon Training Team. To read her story, click on the Richmond Times-Dispatch logo above. I am not positive, but I think this will be a continuing series. Enjoy!

Hydration Systems

Great run today everyone! As you can tell the summer weather has arrived and with it has come thirsty runners. I will begin today preaching the importance of staying hydrated during a run. To put it bluntly, you will never make it through the summer unless you drink on your runs. The summer in North Carolina is brutal. Even if you run early or late, the heat will make three mile runs feel like 13. To combat the heat you need to drink. If you think you will be tougher because you don't drink, you will end up sick or injured.

On our long runs we will have fluids available in strategic locations. If you do not mind carrying a bottle in your hand, you can stop reading now. If however you want your hands free during runs, there are several options available to runners.

• Multi Bottle Belts: Lots of little bottles evenly distributed around your waiste (Fuel Belt is the most common)
• Single Bottle: One large bottle that fits in the small of your back (Lots of options)
• Fluid Bladders: A bladder device with a long drinking straw (Camel Back is the most common)

All options have advantages disadvantages. Check them out online, and ask other runners about theirs. Whichever you decide, choose something.

• Fuel Belt --- Amphipod --- Road Runner Sports --- Camel Back

These products can purchase directly through the links above, through sites like Road Runner Sports, or at local stores like Raleigh Running Outfitters.

Shoes, Clothes & Hydration

Shoes: The most important thing you can do to stay healthy and to enjoy your running is to train in a proper pair of shoes. If you are only running three miles around the neighborhood, you might be able to, for the short term, survive in any shoes. However, as you increase your mileage, you will be increasing the stress on your body.

Everyone has different feet and different way their feet strike the ground. Shoes are now made to help compensate for each of the three types of feet.

How to get the best shoes? Go to a professional. In this terms, it is a shoe store that specializes in running footwear. They are trained to diagnose different foot patterns and wear patterns on your shoes. They are trained to get you into a shoe that will help to prevent the most common injuries.

When you go to the running store, be sure to take your current pair of shoes. It will help is analyzing your feet. How long your shoes will last is unique to each person. The general rule of thumb is 300 to 500 miles.

Clothing: Three words sum up clothing. Cotton is Bad. When you run, (in summer or winter) your comfort will be enhanced by the removal of moisture from your skin. (a term called wicking). Cotton absorbs moisture. Cotton keep the moisture on your skin.

A few years ago, fabrics (mainly polyester based fabrics) were developed that do a very good job of wicking the moisture from your skin and letting it evaporate. There are many names for this fabric, the most common being Dri-fit.

It is most important to make sure you have the wicking fabrics in your socks. Second in importance would be your shirt (and sports bra for the ladies).

Dehydration: When body fluid is lost through sweating and not replaced, you dehydrate. When dehydrated, body cells work inefficiently, sweating decreases, heart rate and body temperature increase, and less blood is available to circulate oxygen and glucose through the body. This is true in summer and winter.

DRINK, DRINK, DRINK! Drink water before, during, and after running, as well as throughout the day. Sports drinks work great, but stick to water during the day to stay away from unnecessary calories! The American College of Sports Medicine recommends drinking 16-18 oz. of fluid two hours before exercise. If you don’t urinate within an hour, drink another eight oz. Then, drink 8-16 oz. five-fifteen minutes prior to your run. During your run, drink every 5-10 minutes(you should consume 6-12 oz. every 15-20 minutes). Don’t wait until you’re thirsty! For those of you carrying a water bottle, it should be empty 45 minutes into your run. After your run, start drinking immediately to help replace lost fluids and bring down your body temperature. Aim for at least 16 oz. for every 30 minutes of running.

Good judgment is the result of experience and experience is the result of bad judgment. - Anonymous

Note: The above information is provided by Coach Don Garber.

05/27 Saturday Routes

There is a 6-mile route and a 3-mile route this weekend. After handing out the notebooks and a short meeting, we will leave from the YMCA and head towards Martin Luther King Park on the trails. Both groups will go the same direction, but the 3-mile group will turnaround near the baseball fields, and the 6-mile group will run two laps around the MLK park. The map gives you a general idea of the route, but the distance is not accurate (it is hard to map a route on trails).

For a map click on MLK Out & Back to the right. For written directions, refer to the email, or click on Written Routes. See everyone on Saturday at 8:00 a.m.

Wednesday Running Groups

As you will see from your plans, Wednesday runs will get increasing longer as you progress with your training. These are great days to run with someone else. Based on your feedback, below are the times each of you said you may be interested in running. Take a look at the contact list, and email some others and try to plan some runs together. It does not only have to be Wednesdays.

• Morning: Ursula, Matt, Elaine, Misty, Patti, Jeff, Tracy H, Kinnie, Michael F, Ryan
• Noon: Frank, Kinnie, Carol, Andy, Tracy H, Michael F
• After Work: Tracy P, Patti, Jeff, Ryan, Michael F
• After Dinner: Michael F, Larry, Ryan
• TBD: Dave, Angela, Mike B, Arthur

The best thing to do is send an email to the people in one of the groups above a day or two before you plan to run. Pick a time, and pick a place. Ask them to reply-to-all on the email if they can run that week.
Don't feel like you have to run from the YMCA. Pick someone's house, or start at the Harris Teeter. The Harris Teeter has bathrooms and water fountains, plus I already have a few routes posted online. If you have a good route you want to share, let me know and I can put it on our website.

Email #1 from Don Garber

Administrative: Shoe / Clothing clinic----your clinic will June 6th at the YMCA. For those of you who cannot make it, I will post the handout on the website later in the week

Routes-- The routes will generally be posted by Wednesday on the website.... We will not have mass quantities of these at the runs, so review the route and print yourself a copy before coming out on the weekend. Check out the website as it also has a message board where you can ask general questions and a lot of other good features.

Weekday runs... Over the next few weeks, talk to your teammates and find out when they run during the week. If you have several people who want to start running at specific times, let me know and I can post it on a separate page on the website. Look for more details later.

Book / Training Schedule... make sure to get it this weekend. Also, if you want an electronic version of the schedule, just let me know and I can forward it to you.

Training: Over the next several weeks, the first thing you should be concentrating on is to develop consistency. Nothing is more important that developing consistent, repeatable training habits. I call it "making it a part of your life". Making sure you get those runs in during the week. Not letting life derail you. Make an appointment with yourself to train. Put it on your calendar if you must. If you develop the habits when you are only running 30 or 40 minutes on Wednesday then the habits will stay with you when you need to be spending more time running later. If you get in the habit of missing runs now, it will be hard to change later.

Consistency. Discipline. Dedication... The things that get you to and thru the marathon. Have a good week. Be at your group run next weekend.

Don Garber -Head Coach

Note: Don sends weekly emails that I will share with our team. I will remove the information that is only relevent to those in Richmond to save space and avoid confusion

Shoe Clinic on June 6th

Our shoe clinic is scheduled for Tuesday, June 6th at 7:00 p.m. This might be one of the most important meetings we have. Jim Micheels from Raleigh Running Outfitters will be in Rocky speaking at the YMCA. He will discuss shoes, running apparel, and hydration options. It is critical to start your training with the right gear, so please make every attempt to be there.

Week 1 Updates

Good afternoon everyone. I hope you all had a good weekend. For those of you not able to attend the weekend run, we had perfect weather and a great run.

ENTRY FORMS:
Frank is sending the first batch of completed applications to the Sports Backers now. If you have not turned your application in, we need it ASAP so we get the entire team enrolled.

TRAINING NOTEBOOKS:
I am emailing Don Garber everyone's name and training plan today. I should have your notebooks next Saturday. In the interim, here is your week one training plan:

Novice Plan: Mon Rest, Tues 3, Wed 3, Thurs 3, Fri Rest, Sat 3, Sun X-Train
Intermediate Plan: Mon X-Train, Tues 3, Wed 4, Thurs 3, Fri Rest, Sat 6, Sun 4

NEXT WEEKEND:
We will meet at 8:00 a.m. again at the YMCA next Saturday. We will meet in the child room on the way to the racquetball courts again before we hit the roads. After that we will move the start time up to 7:30 a.m. The runs will start getting longer, and the days hotter. I will email out the routes for Saturday by Wednesday with both a map and written directions.

I know this is a holiday weekend, but if you are able, please plan to join us. The weekend runs are the biggest part of the entire training team. Working with your team-mates will help push you through the training, and ultimately to complete your marathon. If you know you cannot attend, please let me know so we will know the head count of who to look for.

WEEKDAY GROUPS:
When I email out this weeks routes, I will also share the feedback from everyone regarding the weekday running groups. As a reminder these groups are optional, but it helps pass the time and motivate to being running with others. The weekday runs of course are not optional if you want to do well, so start of "on the right foot" and stick as close to the plan as possible.

Runner Safety

This information will be in your training notebooks, and we discussed it today in our prerun meeting, but it is worth repeating:

• Always carry identification with you;
• Always run facing traffic. When running in a group, do not take over a lane of traffic-keep to the side;
• When running in a group, look out for one another. Point out oncoming traffic, potholes and debris to fellow runners;
• At night, wear a reflective vest and/or other reflective gear;
• Don’t run with headphones;
• Be alert for cars. At an intersection, look at the driver of the car. Make sure the driver acknowledges you before you pass or else give the vehicle the right-of-way;
• Always stretch after running. It is also a good idea to stretch five minutes into a run;
• Drink plenty of water. Even in cold weather you should be drinking plenty of fluid;
• If anything hurts, STOP. For recovery, think RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation); and
• Make sure that you have good shoes that properly fit.

Here are a few of my own. . .

• "Don't be a Lemming" - In other words just because your buddy sprints across the street doesn't mean you should.
• It is better to walk a few minutes and still finish the run, then to run yourself into an injury. Take breaks if they are needed. Especially in the heat.
• Consider getting a Road ID. This is a $20 investment that could save your life. It is an ID that velcros to your show laces. It contains any information that you find important. I am not positive, but the code PCAC241 might get you a 10% discout.

Looking for Doctors & Specialists:

In an effort to try to enhance our training program, we are looking for people who would be willing to speak for 45 minutes to an hour one night for our training team. In particular we are looking for Sports Medicine, Orthopedic, Physical Therapist, and Nutritionist.

We would welcome an topic they would like to discuss as long as it is beneficial to our audience (runners). That being said, we would like to mirror the Richmond Sports Backers as much as possible. They will have the following sessions:

• Shoes/Clothing
• Injury Prevention
• Running Form
• Nutrition
• Strength Training
• Social Outing
• Mental Fitness and Race Prep

Frank is already working on a speaker for Shoes and Clothing. The Social Outing we obviously do not need a speaker for, and I hope to have Don Garber come to Rocky Mount to speak on Race Preparation and Mental Fitness. You should also know that we will be given the handouts for all of the Richmond clinics. Our clinics do not have to be the same as the Richmond group, but it is certainly a good guide. Let us know any names as soon as possible, or even better ask them if they would be interested. Thanks!

May 20th. First Weekend Run!

Your 25 week marathon training program is about to begin!

The first official week on the training plan begins 05/22/06. That is next Monday. We will have our first group run this coming Saturday from the Harrison Family YMCA. We will meet in the main lobby at 8:00 a.m. Look for people wearing "short shorts" and tank tops, and you will see us.

Because the official plan starts after the weekend, and we have some information to go over before the run, we will all run the same three mile route (Novice and Intermediate) on Saturday. If you wish to add some more miles at the end that is fine.

In the weeks to follow, we will have two routes planned, but would like everyone to try the intermediate route if possible. Once you know how your body is responding to the miles you can make a decision as to which plan you prefer.

We will discuss the following topics before we leave for the run:

• Introductions
• Training Notebooks
• Team Websites
• Signing In and Signing Out
• "Supported" Weekend Runs
• Runner Safety
• This Weekend's Route

We should be finished by around 9:00 a.m. with the meeting and the run. Please bookmark this page. I will use this site to store all emails sent, clinic handouts, weekend routes, etc. This site is intended for team members only. Looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday. Please let me know if you cannot attend.

Host Hotel Discounts

Omni is the host hotel for the Richmond Marathon. Every year they fill up fast. They are three blocks from the start and 30 steps from the finish. Your packet pickup and the race expo is also in the Omni. A two night minimum stay is required. Call 1-804-344-7000 for reservations.

For online reservations, visit http://www.omnihotels.com/. Under "Rates & Availability", select the Omni Richmond and click on "More Options". Enter 695425 in the Group Code field to access the special participant rate. For a complete list of hotels, visit the official website of the race: http://www.richmondmarathon.com/travel.htm

Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon Discounts

The Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon is the largest half in the US. It also happens to fall on the weekend we are scheduled for a half marathon race on our plan. There are other race options that weekend as well, but if you are interested in this one, use the coupon code BOARDWALK when signing up for $10 off. The official website is http://www.rnrhalf.com/.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Rocky Mount Training Team blog. This page will be updated shortly with running routes and information about our training schedule. Our first weekend run is schedule for 05/20 at the Harrison Family YMCA at 8:00 a.m.

We hope to see everyone there. Be sure to tell your running friends about our training team. As long as they are already running roughly the same miles as the training team, we will accept more team members through the second week of June.