Weekend Update

Friday morning I had planned on a two hour run while the kids were at school (I had the day off to travel to Claremont for a course, more later). When we got in the car I realized I had left the keys in the car over night in the auxillary position and the battery was dead. I tried to jump the car but got nothing so I had to remove the battery and take it to Pep Boys. They tested it, said it was no good, so I bought an new one, brought it home, and installed it, jumped the car again and got 'er goin'. By this time I had time for about 45 minutes. I got in 6 miles, then packed a bag for the weekend.

I attended a USATF level 1 coaching course at Pitzer College in Claremont. There are 3 levels of coaching certification and level 1 is the first and only certification you can get with no coaching experience. They only offer this course once a year so I jumped on the opportunity. My colleague and friend Ron also came out for the course. We had 21 hours of instruction over 3 days on track and field. The instructors included Doug Todd, the head coach at Mt. SAC and meet director of the Mt. SAC cross country invitational. Also Troy Johnson (Head Coach at Cal Poly Pomona), Jeremy Fisher (triple jump coach at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista), and Tony Veney (Head Coach at Ventura College). All were very knowledgeable and interesting speakers. I learned lots about technique and drills for jumps, throws, and sprints.

The reason I took the course, and become a certified USATF level 1 coach, is that I am planning on starting an online coaching service and website in the near future. I would design programs and offer online coaching via email for distances from 5k to ultramarathon training. I will keep you posted on the progress of this venture.

The course was LONG! Saturday was 8:00am to 9:40pm with breaks only for meals. I was able to sneak in an 8 miler on Saturday morning in 61 minutes, and today I got up early for a 16 miler in 2 hours 4 minutes. I could tell that I had been sitting for over 10 hours the day before as my legs were stiff and sluggish. Looking back at my splits I actually picked it up 10-20 seconds every mile for 14 miles and then backed off for the last 2 miles. I started with an 8:44 and ended with a 6:43. My 13.1 split was somewhere around 1:42. It felt way harder than it should have and made me a little nervous about Surf City in 3 weeks. I know I was tired and stiff from sitting the day before, but I also know that I am quite under trained this time around. I also got a small blister on the inside of my right foot near my big toe.

Plan for Surf City is still the same, go out in 1:30 and hang on for as long as possible.

We had two demonstration sessions at the Pomona-Pitzer College track. It was recently resurfaced, and you could still smell the new track, but they kept the original blue color. Here are two pictures of me running a 1500m at Pomona-Pitzer in 1999. Can you pick me out of the second picture?