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September 29, 2004
A.M. Run
I managed to get to bed close to my goal time on Tuesday night. I was hoping to get back to my room at 11 p.m. and be in bed by 11:30 to get 7 hours of sleep. As it turned out I was an hour behind. I got 6 hours of sleep and am enjoying some coffee now to help me jump-start the rest of my day. I had a nice start to the day and was so glad that I got up and ran to start my day. I really enjoy running in the beginning of the day. I never feel 100% great but I just love to be out there so early and see everyone starting their day. The air quality is different and when it is not raining, you might see the sun rising. It is nice to have an adventure at the beginning of the day.
Alison was my motivation to get up this morning. If I know I am meeting someone for a run I will show up. This morning we met at 7 a.m. and ran for about an hour. We ran along the cornfields and finished with about 20 minutes on the cross-country course. My left quad was a bit sore from my treadmill run on Tuesday night. I can't seem to figure out why my quad was not sore during the treadmill run. Perhaps it was because I was so warmed up and this morning I was not quite warmed up enough. After about 15 minutes my quad was tight but towards the end it felt better. Alison and I had a lot to talk about and I enjoyed the course. Running along the dirt roads by the cornfields is so nice because the surface is so soft. I am going to run with Alison again on Friday with Liz, which will be very exciting. I am really glad I was able to run this morning because it will make my day that much better.
Right now I have to go and give a sprinting lesson to one of the graduate students. I however, just learned that the sprinting drills that I am going to teach are very outdated. One of the graduate students, Erica Wheeler, is an Olympic athlete who was in the 2000 Sydney games throwing the javelin. Erica has been a professional athlete for the last 15 years and has been to numerous conferences and has had an enormous amount of exposure to the highest caliber of coaching. I was explaining me lesson to her about the A steps and B steps and she told me they now emphasize new drills. Unfortunately, this is the same lesson I am giving to my class on Friday. I am now worried because my understanding and my own form with these drills is pretty weak. I hope I can wing it and get away with emphasizing basic form, such as standing tall and keeping your head forward. I asked Erica to give a lesson to the class on the new technique drills so that in the future I can try something different. As a distance runner, I don't do drills that much at all. However, I do try to do strides every now and then. Yet, as a coach, I'd like to introduce the right form drills to my athletes. Ok, enough rambling, I have to practice these drills so I can teach them appropriately in a few minutes and then again on Friday!
Posted by mary at September 29, 2004 6:46 AM
Comments
Mar
nice job getting your run in nice and early
your runs via the cornfields sound so interesting
(the fields aren't private...any one can run via them?)
good luck w/the form drills...can any of the coaches you work w/help you go over them? your enthusiasm alone will make up for any short comings i think....you 'll do well mar
i'm looking forward to our run friday...the earlier the better for me!!! hopefully i can come up late thursday night and stay over...we'll see...we leave tonight...
more later
liz
Posted by: Liz at September 29, 2004 9:25 AM
Mary and Liz,
Please wish Kate and Kevin a hearty congratulations from me. Best of luck to them as they enter married life together. I envy them.
-Dave
Posted by: Dave at September 29, 2004 3:43 PM
Thanks Dave, I'll be sure to pass your wishes along.
Posted by: Mary at September 29, 2004 4:24 PM