Club 10K Group Training Program

Last month saw the finish of my club's 10K Training Group Program (TKG) after twelve weeks of meeting on Saturdays for increasingly longer runs. I can't recommend participation in such group training programs highly enough, particularly if you are a newer runner.

Undoubtedly your local club has such group training programs. Check it out. Even if you're a more veteran runner, it might re-vitalize your running such as it did mine two years ago.

I want to thank the coaches of the TKG--Arnetta, Ashley, Bex, Bob, Gary, Kristin, and Not Born to Run.

Thirty-nine "paying customers" signed up on a frigid day in February on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It was so cold the ink in the pens froze and sign-up applications were merely a bunch of scratch marks on paper. As a result, for the rest of the program I had no idea who was who. It was my impression that fewer and fewer people were running and the program was a failure. (TKG circling RFK Stadium getting ready for the goal race.)

I was shocked to discover that nineteen participants ran the goal 10K race. Another participant ran a 10K race the prior week (in under an hour). Still another participant was on travel who otherwise would have run the goal race. Two more participants ran the 3K version of the goal race instead (Ashley, who finished fifth (second woman), and Bex, who finished seventeenth (fourth woman)).

Four participants ran the 10K race in under an hour, and three more finished in the sixtieth minute. That's impressive and I'm proud of 'em all. Now it's on to the 10-Mile Group Training Program (TMG) in a few weeks. (TKG in week eleven, Stanton Square in DC near Union Station.)

Running update: Last Wednesday, a travel day that started at 5 am, I ran a neighborhood mile at 4 am in 8:25, inauspiciously slow. Friday I ran an exploratory 3 miles at altitude with Bex at an 11:00 pace at Lake Tahoe.

Saturday I ran the first leg (of seven legs) of the 72.3 mile relay around the lake, 9.6 miles at an 8:18 pace. Our team came in 76th out of 97 teams that finished, 26th out of 39 teams in our division. We were in the Mixed Open, and our mix was three men and four women, whereas most MO teams had four men and three women. That's not too bad for a bunch of flatlanders, a Band of Outsiders. More on the relay later. (Grabbing water on the run from H on the support team outside Harrah's Casino at Stateline at the Lake Tahoe Relay on Saturday. H was up third and picked up nine places for us. Photo credit A.)