Expect to win.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Most of my professional adult life has been spent in the pursuit of helping others recognize what it is they hope to achieve, mapping a strategy to achieve it and then encouraging their efforts – making adjustments in the strategy, as needed. As a high school runner, I believe I lacked the one ingredient that could have made me a decent runner – good coaching. I didn’t realize what I’d been missing until I had my first course in the psychology of sports when pursuing my Master’s degree in exercise physiology. I came to realized that helping the athlete to believe in themselves and the program they were following was even more important than the technical aspects of the program itself. I understood, in retrospect, that if any coach had taken the time to pull me aside and show a little interest in why I was running and what it would take to be really competitive, I would have succeeded. I know this now because I became that coach for myself when I was 36 years old and ran times I had not achieved previously, winning one race, setting all my pr’s and always placing in my age group.

I was also inspired to help others set and achieve their goals – anyone from the overweight, completely out-of-shape never, having ever exercised individual to the highly conditioned athlete trying to tweak their program to get to the next level. My true soft spot, though, was for the high school distance runner who, like me, was not getting the most from themselves and only needed the individual attention to give themselves the confidence and the edge to move on to levels necessary to compete as one of the best in the state.

“Expect to win,” is my mantra. No one does it by accident. Toe the line and look around you. Know that everyone else in the race is saying to themselves “well – I guess I’m running for second now” and when you can put that idea in their head – well – they will be running for second. This feeling cannot be achieved unless the runner has done the base training required during the off-season and then followed a rigorous in-season program with the goal of peaking the runner correctly and at the right time. If these things are done though, I assure you anyone can be a really competitive high school runner – or a hell of a lot better at whatever they’re trying to achieve athletically, regardless of age, sport or activity. It is simply a formula that works. I know because I’ve done it with thousands of people for the last 20 years – including me and right now.

I’m bringing this up now – for those of you who know me well – because of my frustration with coaching and programs that fail their runners and do not allow them to reach the levels they should attain. I hate to watch talent squandered – as I did at the District Track Championships in Mentor today. I hate to see kids that, with a little more coaching and an understanding of what it takes, would be running just that little bit faster it takes to reach the state meet.

I didn’t have much time for my own run before the meet and I didn’t want to wait until after since it would likely run late and then I’d blow it off. I had about a half hour and made the most of it. It was muggy and warmer – summer’s almost here, but I felt good on my second straight week of 6 days of running. The legs felt good throughout and if I’d had more time, I know I could have had another hour run. Tomorrow – the bike I hoped, but the forecast says rain. Maybe another rest day.

Run duration: 33 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 140.

Calories burned during workout: 550.