Friday's Quick Intervals

Good morning and Happy Valentines Day! Well another beautiful snowy New Hampshire moment! If you watch the "Big Bang Theory" (and you should), you will recognize this often used line by Sheldon: "Was that sarcasm?" My response would be a resounding YES! Not a fan of the white stuff any more and am very tired of dealing with it. That said, I feel for all those that suffering far greater than I! Yesterday Kathy and I were up and running before the snow begin to fall and I must say it was a great morning to run! Though not in peak running shape, I'm feeling great both during and after my runs. As I said on a previous blog, the effort I'm putting in to reshape my running along with improving my functional balance/ strength are truly making a difference. The preparation I put in to help each client also pays big dividends for my own running. Part of the personal coaching we do at NFLR includes a gait analysis and our process of evaluating our clients gait never ends, so at the same time I use that information to evaluate my progress. Sorry, no discounts for using my clients for my personal gain! Met with the great folks at Portsmouth Runners Alley this week and we finalized the Market Square beginners 10K training group plans. One major change this year will be the schedule, instead of Tuesday's and Thursday's at 6pm, we will meet Tuesday's at 6pm and Saturday morning at 8am. This should be of great benefit to the runners as they will have a better structure with their long runs. In the past the training plan was set up a bit awkward because we tried to schedule the long run for the week on Thursday's when we met and that is definitely not a typical plan. Now we can create a typical training plan with the long run for the week being on Saturday. Should be a great training group and this year we will be adding a third coach to our team as well. Nicole Spirito will be joining our team and bringing an amazing amount of enthusiasm and joy to the training group. Nicole is a spirit like non other and a smile that will turn any bad run into a great one! This will be the best Portsmouth training group yet! Pass on the word to friends that are looking to train for a 10K! So what is your first race going to be this spring? The Children's Museum 5K in Dover NH? Perhaps the St. Patties 5 miler in Portsmouth NH? For me, I am targeting the Dover NH Red's Shoe Barn 5 mile race in April. Definitely one of my favorites and I love running in my town. I know lots of you are ready to run 13.1 in little over a week as the Half at the Hamptons, half marathon and that's always a fun race. Okay, not always, I remember returning from Iraq and a group of us prepared (though I wasn't physically here training with the group) and ran in weather that might have been the worst I have ever run in. We all finished and none of us will probably ever forget that particular day! Well I am headed out to snow blow my neighbors driveway and then back in to workout. Sounds like the perfect start to this great day. I really can't complain as I am off today and don't have to be out driving in this mess. Stay warm and safe! Mike