Coachable

Apparently, I am. 

Today, Conor sent me this week's schedule for training.  He's sending me my schedule week by week.  Which is funny, because that's what I've been doing for Sara Jane.  It's pretty much all easy running right now, and even some cross training on the bike or elliptical.

So, today, I was to run 25-30 minutes very easy.  Conor will soon find out that, if he gives me a time range, I'm pretty much always going to run the maximum time he allows.  So I ran 30 minutes.  I ran with the running group (it was Tim, Galloway, Bill, Dan, and Kathy).  I went very slowly...almost uncomfortably slow.  Luckily, the group was going slowly anyway, so I just hung on the back of them.  So I cut it short to ensure that I didn't go over my time limit.

That, my friends, is a huge deal.  I stopped running when everyone else was still going.  Without a coach, I'd just keep running as long as there were people to run with.  And then I might run some more.  I LOVE having rules.  30 minutes...no more.  It's so nice to have someone setting boundaries, particularly since that person knows what he is doing.

At first, my legs felt just okay.  They didn't hurt, but they just felt blah.  After about ten minutes, though, they felt good.  I really enjoyed this run.  It was easy and it was pure running.  No Garmin (I had it on but all I could see was elapsed time), no worrying about pace, and no worrying about distance.  I have no idea how far I went.  It's on my Garmin, but I didn't look.  And I don't even care how far it was.  I'm running by time.  So. Weird.  But I love it!

Now, onto coaching from the other side.  Sara Jane's big day is coming up.  She's running the NYC marathon in less than two weeks.  The A goal is to break 4 hours.  I know she will race her heart out and she is going to get a major PR.  If she has a great day and the weather is good, sub-4 is in the bag.  I will be spending that entire morning tracking her.  And pacing, just like I did when she was running Grandma's.  Whatever the outcome at NY, I can tell you that "coaching" her is one of the most fun things I've ever done.  And I've ended up getting a really close friend out of it.  SJ and I really mesh well, despite the fact that we have a lot of differences (she's really anti-splenda and Wal-Mart).  She's awesome and I can't wait to see what she does in NY!