The first ‘coaches run’ was Saturday May 22nd.  Was great to see so many people out there ready to run.  It was an out and back run near Moffett Field:

Now TNT offer the ‘run/walk’ option during training.  I used to think that adding walking to your run was in some way cheating, but after hearing of several experienced runners who actually beat their personal best by using this method I figured it would be a good option to try.  When I trained for the Nike half last year I did it on my own, and followed Jeff Galloway’s training schedule.  I did intervals of 3 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking for that race.

At the first run we were able to chose which ‘run group’ to join.  These included fast runners who would run all the way, slower runners who would run all the way, and those who wanted to run/walk.  I was pleased to see that they further divided the run/walkers in to categories – those who hadn’t really run before would run a minute and walk a minute (2 miles total), and they also had an option for running 4 miles – run 4 minutes walk 1 minute.  I joined that group, and couldn’t believe how much I enjoyed the run.  It made such a difference to be able to run with other people, and already I have met some wonderful teammates.

We took it fairly easy – I had forgotten how good having a conversation with someone helps keep up a maintainable pace.  To run/walk 4 miles took about 50 minutes – stats from my Garmin:

and pace…

Another advantage of training with TNT is the great water breaks and some post-run snacks which were very appreciated.

By 9:30 we were done – what a great way to start a Saturday!