Coaching Anyone?

I used to run training programs for my old running club centered in the District until some incredibly offensive behavior by a clique of boorish and puerile  20-something  board members towards me and my programs caused me to leave that club behind for good.  Last year I helped the program director of the MCC, an Arlington club, coach its Walk-To-Run (WTR) training program. 

That was a little tame for me, run/walking four 15-minute miles every Saturday but I actually believe helping other people get off the couch and get moving to any degree out there is a way of giving back.  Those Alpha jerks in my former running club (one of them is now its president) used to sneer that taking groups out and actually running with them was "chaperoned running" but screw them.  As we used to refer to certain types when I was in the State Patrol, they're Adam Henrys.

On Saturday morning I dropped in on the MCC director's current WTR program and took his star pupil, who wanted to push herself, out for four miles on the Mount Vernon Trail at a 2/3 "modality" (walk two minutes, run three minutes) while the director went with the rest of the group at a 4/1 modality.  It took us 62 minutes to go the four miles and twice we had to cut back a little from our three-minute run intervals but it was a fun outing, it was good to be out there moving early on a Saturday morning. 

The program director spoke with me beforehand about being the pace-group leader of the MCC's 10K Program, a true running group, which is firing up in May, and I said I'd consider it.  I'm back! 

WTR, Week 7

Cycle Two of the MCC Walk-To-Run (WTR, or Couch to 5K) program is going well.  I am running Saturdays with John now so I only show up occasionally, like last Saturday when John was unavailable to run.

Five people total showed up, but that's five people enjoying exercise in the great outdoors that otherwise would just be zee-ing in their beds at that time.  As usual we went four miles, the northern route on the Mount Vernon Trail from the Mariners' statue to Roosevelt Island and back.

The rest of the group did a 1/4 run/walk ratio while I took star pupil S, a walker getting accustomed to running, out on a half on/half off ratio.  It was pleasant as it went fast enough (54 minutes) and S is interesting to talk with, a lawyer, liberal (I think--she's from Massachusetts) and an accountant. 

Whenever we were jogging I did all the talking but she hung in there and said she had felt challenged at the end.  And then as usual, at 9 am on Saturday the entire weekend stretched pleasurably out before me, my having already done my exercise for the day.

The steady pace wins the race

The fourth meeting of the Walk to Run 5K training program I am coaching for was held last Saturday on a beautiful temperate morning. Seven of us gathered in the parking lot of the Lady Bird Johnson Park off the George Washington Parkway in Arlington and set off for a four mile walk on the Mount Vernon Trail along the Potomac.

Northbound we walked as tons of joggers and bicyclists went by, chatting amiably and keeping hydrated. At Roosevelt Island we turned around at the midway point to return. Next week we will walk eastbound into the District over the Potomac bridges and introduce running to these non-runners, running a minute then resuming walking for five minutes.

A few months hence this ratio will be reversed and we will be running five minutes and walking one minute for recovery. Along the way everyone is supposed to do an actual 5K race, for the experience of it, at the then-achieved walk/run ratio.

It's the same program I used to return to running last year after a year layoff due to injury. It was good to be out there and coaching again as part of an organization, the Marathon Charity Cooperation (MCC), that is dedicated to inclusion and encouraging novices to participate in activity sports. (Right: Coach John, director of the MCC's Walk-To-Run 5K Program.)