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!

At a Team in Training  (TNT) information session on May 5th, I signed myself up for the summer season to train for the Nike full marathon in October.

I have run with Team in Training before – back in 1999 I ran the Honolulu marathon with TNT.  Things were a bit different back then, I think I only started training in August for an early December marathon, and while I was fit I hadn’t ever run.  As a result I got a bad IT band injury, and ended up walking most of the marathon, finishing with a time of 6:30.  Since then I have run 3 ‘half marathons’ (including the Nike 1/2 marathon last year), and always wanted to run another marathon where I didn’t walk most of it!

10 yrs and 2 kids later I am ready to do this again!

I have had various levels of engagement with exercise since the kids were born.  My last job had a fabulous gym and it was only 5 miles from my home, making it reasonably easy to attend boot camps and small group training sessions.  Then I started a new job in the city in January 2009 and making time for fitness became way harder.  In order to motivate myself to actually do something, I trained for, and completed the Nike 1/2 marathon.  I completed the race in 2:39 – not quite what I had done the 2 ‘pre-kids’ 1/2 marathons in, but I completed it and was injury free (and happy!). I felt so much better getting in to fitness again, and after the half marathon was over I vowed that I would only take ‘a week or two’ off before getting in to some kind of training again.

Fast forward to April after a winter of feeling very sluggish with no exercise, and I needed to do something fast!  That’s when I thought about joining TNT. I also started personal training (which I have never done before) 2 times a week at 6am in the morning.

Already I am feeling way better, and need to do a better job of reminding myself why exercise should always be a high priority.