Mother’s Day + RRCA

Happy Mother’s Day!

We went to early church with my mom this morning at the church that she grew up going to. I know she has lots of good memories there with her mom and dad, so I was really glad that we got to go with her today.

All my mom asked for was a card and a walk. I stepped it up a notch and got her some flowers, 2 cards (one from me and one from the cat (naturally)) and took her for a walk! It was such a beautiful day!

We had lunch at my grandmother’s and after that I met with my very first running “client.” EEK! I am so excited to start coaching. Her goal is to run her first full marathon this fall and I can’t wait to help her get there!

We finished off the evening at Chill with my favorite running buddies!

In my last post, I gave you some of the “why” behind my decision to start coaching. It’s something I have been thinking about for a while. Last summer, I thought about attending an RRCA (Road Runners Club of America) class, but there weren’t any nearby and the ones that were relatively close were all full. I signed up to get an email when the new classes for 2016 were announced.

I don’t remember exactly when I got the email this year, but I know that it was during tax season and I just sort of mentally put that on my post-tax season to do list. I don’t know how this happens, but somehow it seems like things get even busier after tax season. I don’t know if this is just phantom busyness that I create for myself or if it is because I have more time for extra-curricular activities and so I just start doing more things. It’s probably some combination of the two.

Regardless, the point is that I didn’t get around to actually looking at the RRCA class listings until about two weeks ago. Once I looked at them, I realized that there were only two open classes the rest of the summer. I didn’t realize that they filled up so fast! One of the open classes was in Columbia South Carolina. A quick map check estimated the trip to be a little under 8 hours, so I decided to go for it. I signed up Monday and the class was Saturday and Sunday of that same week. So spontaneous!

I had mentioned wanting to become a certified coach to my friend Ashley and when she found out I was going to the class, she wanted to come too. I was so thankful to have a buddy!

Since we would be missing our usual long run Saturday morning, we decided to get that out of the way Friday morning before we left for SC. We did 18 miles Friday morning, put on our compression tights and hit the road. The drive wasn’t too bad, but we were definitely super stiff by the end of the day.

Class was from 8 to 5 Saturday and Sunday. The first day we learned about different types of runners and their training needs, physiology, building a periodized program and nutrition. The class was very informative and I felt like I learned a lot and also got a good refresher on some things that I knew, but didn’t fully understand the reasoning behind.

We were too tired to run Saturday morning before class and after sitting all day, we were more than ready to stretch our legs out. Daniel helped us find a really cool running trail in the area. He wasn’t with us, but he was able to go on Strava and map out a route for us. It was a wonderful route right along the water!

We were able to get in a nice and easy 6 mile recovery run. We enjoyed the route so much that we decided to go back Sunday morning before class.

We had a little bit of technical difficulty finding the starting point of the trail that morning, because we parked on the opposite side. We knew we were in the right general vicinity. We parked beside a guard gate and the security guard came out to ask us what we were doing. We told her that we were looking for the running trail. She told us that she didn’t know about any running trail in the area and that she wasn’t going to watch the car if we left it there. We were a little confused (and concerned) and then she told us that if we drove across the parking lot (less than 100 yards away), there was a walking trail. Aha! Yes, that would indeed be what we were looking for. Thank you kindly.

I carried my phone and my stun gun (I need to tell y’all about some new safety devices that I got recently) and we were perfectly fine. The trail had been packed with runners, walkers and cyclists Saturday afternoon, but Sunday morning at 6 a.m. was a different story. We only saw one or two people the entire time we were out.

The second day of class we learned about the business of coaching, sports psychology, writing training programs and common running injuries. I really enjoyed this day! We broke off into small groups and designed a marathon training plan for a 52 year old male runner who wanted to drop 10 minutes from his marathon time and qualify for Boston. I’d like to think that he achieved his goal 🙂

We got out of class at 5 p.m. Sunday evening and decided to drive all the way back that night. We debated stopping along the way, but ultimately decided that it would be best (and cheaper) to just get on home. Thankfully I didn’t have to work the next day because I was worn out!

Now we just have to get CPR and first aid certified and pass the RRCA exam to be “official” coaches. I’m hoping to get all of that done in two weeks when we get back from Ragnar.