Email from Coach Don

Before the message, it was good to come down and get to know some of you this weekend. It looks like you have a good group and you training is going well. Just need to get Michael out of those Hokie running clothes....As always, just let me know if you ever have questions...

OK, most of you are doing one of the half marathons this weekend. Here is a excerpt from one of my handouts about the concept of racing....

Why Race? Your ultimate goal is to finish the marathon. That is your goal race. Much as you practice doing increasingly long runs, you should practice preparing for and actually running a race.

Benefits of Racing

• Experience. If you have not done many races, you may not know the subtleties that are involved in running a race. How do I sign up? How early do I get to the race? How do I get my number and chip? How do I put on my number and chip? Where in the line up of runners should I start? How fast should I start? (one of the biggest pitfalls of new runners is to start out way too fast with the surge at the start of a race). And many other similar, basic questions. By doing races, you can get used to racing.
• Training Benefit. When you race you will generally get a better workout that you will with your weekend group run. With mile markers and time splits, you will push yourself to run harder. This will improve your running ability quicker than any other training method.
• Interim Report Card. By racing, you can get feedback on how your training is going. You can see how you improve from race to race. Or you can use the information to help you judge the correct pace you should use in a longer race.

Racing vs. Running. There are two ways to approach a race. I call them Racing and Running. If you are really trying to Race a race for you best possible time, you will need to taper (rest) in the days leading up to the race and will probably need recovery time after the race. You are going much more for the Training Benefit and the Report Card. If you are just Running a race, you are out there for the Experience. You are doing the race to enjoy the running and the atmosphere. There are times to do Racing and there are times to do Running.

For those of you who are racing, that is great. Just remember the first paragraph. Your goal is the marathon. So don't put so much into the half marathon that you lose mental focus and training focus on the marathon.

Should you race or run. This is, as always, a personal decision. My suggestions...if you are on the novice team or have only been racing for six months or so, you should definitely look at this as a run. If you are an intermediate that has done lots of half marathons, you will probably be racing no matter what I say. For the rest of you, I would offer the advice I offer on most longer races. Always make the decision on race day. If you wake up and it is 80 and humid, treat it as a run because no matter what you want to do, the weather is not going to allow you to run a fast race. If it is 55 and clear, you may want to go for it.

For the newer runner. We try to take care of you on our training runs. But races are different animals. There are no SAG wagons. There are water stops. With water. No PowerAde. No gummy bears. No Cliff shots. And there is food, etc at the end of the race. Just be prepared for the differences.

Team Spirit. Let's all try to wear our new T shirts to the races. (Not to run in but for before/ after. After all, they are cotton) This will help you know who is on the team but not on your smaller team.

For those of you doing Rock N Roll, check the message board as those going down usually select a place to meet before the race. I'll see those of you doing Procrastinator's and Battlefield. Good luck to those of you going to Virginia Beach.

Pictures from 08/28

Here are some photos from last weekend. Special thanks to Ursula for taking some great pictures during the run. You can really tell from these pictures what a beautiful area we get to run through. Some of these are a little blurry, but that is just because you were all moving so fast. This is more then I normally upload, but there were so many great options I could not narrow them down. I even added a few captions below.








Pic1 - Team Photo (including new members David and Nancy)
Pic2 - John and Joe setting the pace
Pic3 - Russ, Larry, and Don running down a "hill"
Pic4 - Jeff and his "Angels"
Pic5 - Look out Frank, Carol is on your tail
Pic6 - Climbing another big "hill"
Pic7 - Andy, Larry, and Don still looking strong
Pic8 - Authur holding the directions that got him lost
Pic9 - Get a room you two!
Pic10 - I thought this was supposed to be hard
Pic11 - Joe clowning around with Tracy
Pic12 - These three look like they have not even started
Pic13 - Elaine. . . that's cheating if you use a car
Pic14 - Speed deamon John
Pic15 - I am not a crook
Pic16 - That took no time at all
Pic17 - David makes his first day look easy
Pic18 - "Fashion Andy" makes green and yellow work
Pic19 - Don and Tracy finishing the big 16 miler
Pic20 - A team that starts together, finishes together
Pic21 - Happy feet

YMCA Bricks

If you have not seen it yet, we now have two bricks at the Rocky Mount YMCA. There is one on either side of the main entrance. Each brick is on the side closest to the road. Be sure to check them out. Thank you to everyone who contributed. This is a great way to thank the YMCA for allowing us to use their rooms for meetings, and helping us promote the team.

Some Updates

Good afternoon all. Hope your day is going well. A few updates.

Thursday Night Hills: I am not able to run tonight because of 2nd grade Open House. Tracy P. had asked me if anyone was running hills. I expect that she is offering to run hills are her house again (correct me if I am wrong Tracy). If you did not join us before, this worked out very well and we all had a good workout. If you are interested email Tracy.

Speed workouts: Some of you have asked about speed workouts. The "calendar" version of your training schedule shows this starting today, but this actually does not begin until after Labor Day. Once it begins, this will replace Hill workouts. Don will be sharing more information with us shortly. If anyone has access to a track, please let me know.

Friday Night: Don Garber and Joe Zielinski will be here Friday night. We are going out for dinner (maybe Mama's or Mario's). Would anyone like to join us? I need an answer to this ASAP so I will know if I need to reserve a big table. (I already know that Dave, Frank, and Kinnie are out)

Also, I have two pull-outs for Don and Joe, but if anyone has a more comfortable sleeping option they could offer that would be helpful.

Saturday Run: We will run at 6:30 a.m. from the Harris Teeter. It is too dark at 6:00 now to take a chance with 21 runners on the road. Don and Joe will both join us. Don will be bringing our team t-shirts (the technical race shirts come later). If you have any questions about your running, this will be a good time to ask.

Many of you are running a half marathon next weekend. Use this weekend as a "dress rehearsal". Think about what you will wear, what you eat, when you go to bed, how much your drink (water, not beer). Don't try to "race" our weekend run, but this is a good weekend to see what works as far as preparations.

I will email out the routes no later then tomorrow morning. See you all on Saturday!

Her Sports Running Club

I thought the women on our team might be interested in learning about the Her Sports Running Club. Her Sports is a great magazine designed for women athletes. Some of you may not think of yourself as an athlete, but I can assure you that everyone on our training team is.

Her Sports is not just about running. It is about Cycling, Triathlons, Health, Fitness, Climbing, Hiking, etc. You name it, and the magazine covers it. You can read about elite athletes, and grandmother marathoners all in one issue.

For $49.95, you get six issues of the magazine, a Her Sports running singlet, a running hat, and a pair of socks. You would spend $50 bucks just for the clothing alone. I thought this was a good deal, and wanted to pass it along. If you want to see an old issue, ask Ursula, she has several.

World's Strongest Dad

I think many of you have heard about "Team Hoyt." If not, it is a father son duo that is truley amazing. Below is a story by Rick Reilly (Sports Illustrated) about the two. There is also a link to a video of the two competing in an Iron Man. If you do not at least get a lump in your throat, you are not human. Enjoy!

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs. "He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution.''

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way,'' Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain.''

"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that.''

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad,'' he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

"No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon? ''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

"No question about it,'' Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century.''

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago."

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. "The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, "is that my dad would sit in the chair and I would push him once.''

Video Link

Congrats Jeff and Patti!

Jeff and Patti both had a great race in Chicago. I expect this is old news by now, but they finished 2:00:16 and 2:00:24 respectively. I managed to dig up a few photos from their race that I thought I would share. Do you see that look on Patti's face at the finish line? You can all expect to have the same look two weeks from now! (Sorry Patti, I could not resist. . . you know I love ya!)