Another Kirk the Coach Post

I know that I have been subjecting those who care to read to a whole bunch of posts where I distinguish between my running self and my coaching self. I have done this in relation to the self talk that I soemtimes use to get me to get those runs in.

Today that distinction came into sharp contrast on a Team in Training run today. I spent nearly 3 hours on a 12.6 mile training run. That is about an hour longer than it would have taken me on a training run. The difference, I am not currently training for an event, and the girl that I was running with is. She was having a real rough day and ended up walking most of the course. I'm proud of her because she stuck it out and completed the course. I think it is a great policy that Team in Training coaches are not to go to run the races that they are coaching for. It helps us to focus on what is important, the training and preparation of the athlete.

If I had been training for an event, it would have been easy to get impatient. But, since I was there as the coach, it was much easier to stay with her and make sure that she was OK and that she was able tomake it back to the cars...

Y'all have a great day and keep an eye out for your friends.

Kirk the coach gives Kirk the runner a break

I am not going to repeat the that confusing schizophrenic post from last week. At the end of the post I implied that I was going to work harder pacing off of heart Rate this week. That was before I looked at my schedule and found an Easy Week (FINALLY). Wednesdays are my quality days, and I did not want to get out there without some sort of goal and decided to work on pacing because I have continual issues with late race or late workout fade. So I decided to do an easy paced progressive run. According to Runners World SmartCoach, my easy pace is 10-11 min/mile. The plan was to start at 30 seconds over my easy pace, drop 30 seconds per mile, and finish 30 seconds under my easy pace. The early morning conditions were not great for a quality workout (83* and 74% RH at 6:00 am), but you take what you can and do the best you can with. It worked pretty well. The mile splits were; 11:04(too fast), 10:54(ok), 10:25(ok), 10:05(ok, but feeling the heat), 9:28(good), 11;50 (cool down).

In the Team in Training World, it looks like I will be able travel with the team to the Maui Marathon in September. I will not run the marathon. I will be coaching and cheering from the sidelines.

Weekend Long Run

I had a wonderful Saturday Long Run. First off, I let the two sisters who compete against each other go. The last couple weeks, they have sucked me in and I realize at the halfway point I am out of gas. This weekend, I ran my own pace (or a bit slower) and got to hang out with several different team members. It was really nice to get to know them better.

After the run, I worked on getting stuff ready for my Daughter's fund raising yard sale (See the blog for ViolinNut). I was also able to get the the generator running for the detached garage/workshop in the back of our yard. Now I'll be able to workout/work on the little car in the evening.

Got up this morning and I have a admirable case of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. I hope it eases off before tomorrow. Anyway, I'm glad tomorrow is an easy run.

Y'all have a good day and be blessed. Stop in and see Mickey at his Blog (Days in the Life) and give him a donation for Neuroblastoma.

Sometimes the best runs come from nowhere...

First off my apologies to any of my friends from the Runners World Masters Forum. This post will look familiar.

Kirk the coach had to stay on top of Kirk the runner all morning.

The runner did not want to get out of bed this morning. The coach reminded him that he has a goal race the first weekend in September.

The runner did not want to do a tempo run this morning. The coach again reminded him about the goal race.

The runner complained that he left the Garmin charging at the office. How could he run tempo without feedback on his pace? The coach reminded him that the goal race last year did not have mile markers and it was very wet. So the runner is going to have to race just on effort. So the coach pulled out an old Polar Heart Rate Monitor and a Watch. He told the runner to try to maintain about 150 bpm after the warm up.

The runner complained that his hip was tight. The coach told him to go ahead and warm up if the hip was still tight he could take and easy run instead of the tempo. The runner shuffled off. At one mile the coach asked how the hip was. The runner said OK. So, the coach said take off.

At the end of 1 mile, the HR was 150. The coach said Good. At 1.5, the HR was 155. The coach said be careful. At 2 miles the HR had climbed to 165. The coach said slow down. At 3 miles the HR was 160. The coach said OK, ease up a bit more. At 3.5, the coach looked the other way, and the runner took off. The runner finished the 4 mile tempo with a HR of 168 and sucking air. The coach caught him and make him run a 1 mile cool down.

The total mileage was 6.1 total time 56:36

mile 1 9:56 (warm up)
mile 2 18:57 (9:00 pace)
mile 3 27:41 (8:44 pace)
mile 4 36:41 (8:59 pace)
mile 5 45:12 (8:31 pace)
mile 6 56:36 (11:24 pace) (cool down)

Now the coach tells me that today was just to see if I could pace off of a HR Monitor. Next week he is going to work me harder. I think he is just ticked about me taking off on that last tempo mile...

I guess that is enough of me typing about myself talking to myself. Go ahead and link over to Mickey's Blog (Days in the Life) and see how he and Cody are doing. There are some great pictures of Mickey, Cody, and some butterflies. Y'all have a great day!

Late check in after a Great Weekend

It has been over a week of busy days since I updated this Blog. First and foremost on my mind today is Cody. Mickey is taking him today to have a port installed instead of the tubes that he currently has. Hopefully this will give him more freedom to be a kid as the port is a lot easier to deal with. Cody will finally be able to take a bath and go swimming again.

My life has been really good. I feeling a bit under the weather this morning so I slept in and woke much more rested. Then I had a HOT lunchtime run. It is nice to run in the sunlight where everyone can see you instead of at dawn. I had a guy run me off into the grass twice on Monday.

Lets back up and catch up on my life for the past week. I took last Thursday off leading into the long weekend. I used Thursday, Friday, and part of Saturday to finish the "treehouse" for my youngest.



He is thrilled and now he will leave my middle son alone when he wants to go to his "treehouse" (on the platform in the background).

After all the assembly for the kids, I did some assembly for my Wife and Myself.



It is almost new. we picked it up cheap at a yardsale, and we are looking forward to using it.

After all that, I spent several hours in the ER with my Middle Son. He had a mysterious outbreak of hives. a steroid shot, antihistamines, and 4 days of oral steroids later, he is almost cleared up. But, I sure would like to know what set him off...

Anyway, y'all pray for Mickey and Cody, and have a great day.

A better day!

Part of the routine that I am getting into has me opening this blog, looking for comments and then scrolling down to the blog links in ht e lower right corner. This morning, Mickey's Blog (Days In the Life) had the headline "Great News" That made my morning because, I told me that Cody is doing well. I linked over there and read. Apparently, they have gotten the fungal infection under control, he is finishing up this course of chemotherapy, and they have enough antibodies in stock to continue his treatment.

On the home front, Dad got his fifth of twelve doses of Chemo yesterday. He normally gets his dose on Wednesday but, his medicine has a component that is pumped into his port over two days, and the Doctor's Office is closed for the Fourth of July. So, they started him a day early. Dad is tolerating his treatment extremely well, and I cant say enough to convey how happy I am with his progress.

If I don't post again before Friday, y'all enjoy your holiday, and remember those that sacrificed so that we could be (and remain) independent.