I met with the first of the eight runners selected by Ohio Sports and Fitness that will be running either the half or full marathon in the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon next May. I will be conducting full fitness evaluations on each participant and then designing their training programs to have them ready to achieve their goals come May 20th. All are running their selected distance for the first time and all have interesting stories to tell. I’ll be doing a feature story on them in the upcoming February edition of the magazine, but thought I’d introduce them here, as well since I believe their stories are, and will continue to be, inspirational for anyone trying to get…or stay…fit.
Carrie Flagg is a high school teacher, mother of three, and cross country coach who has already run three half marathons. Four years ago though, things were quite different. She was 70 pounds heavier than she is today and couldn’t run half a mile without stopping. She was tired of the way she felt and knew she had to do something dramatic to change and when a friend suggested she sign up for and run a local 5K, she gave it a shot. She had a goal to run a marathon before her 40th birthday and was training to complete that goal last fall when she stepped on a tree nut, rolled her ankle and ended up with a fractured foot and shelving her goal for a time. She had run her first 20 miler the week before.
Now Carrie is running again…but the mileage…after all the physical therapy…has to build slowly. Still…she needs to be able to run 26.2 in May and that means lots of miles between now and then. I gave her the full fitness evaluation…step test, body fat assessment, flexibility check, and two measurements of muscular strength and endurance – a maximum effort of push-ups and curl-ups. She did amazingly well, scoring 725 out of a possible 1,000 points (anything over 700 is elite) and is someone driven to improve. I wrote her a program of running that will work on her ability to run long…but fast, too. She’ll be doing fartleks, hill repeats, tempo runs, 1,000’s and probably some track work, as well…all things designed to work the different energy systems utilized when running competitively and to make runners faster while breaking the monotony of always running the same pace and courses.
I do the full fitness assessment to give them baselines of fitness…both to help with motivation (when they re-take the test and see how much they’ve improved) and to encourage total fitness. Running is aerobic and the cardiovascular system is critical, but running a marathon is so much more. Having the core strength to maintain good form in the waning miles helps immeasurably in completing the distance as best you can and should be a part of every runner’s regimen. Carrie, no doubt, will take to heart the information I gave her. She is driven to be better…and she’ll be 40 this June…so she needs to get the Cleveland Marathon done if she is to achieve her goal.
I began the day with my first dizzy spell since Christmas Eve…and it happened while I was sleeping, which I didn’t think was possible. I woke…sweating like I’d run 20 miles on a hot July day…and nauseous. I stumbled into the shower and by the time I was dressed, felt fine and had no further episodes throughout the day…though I elected to skip my workout. Holly and I went out to eat that night with John and his wife Teri and I had a pork chop the size of my head (which is big) and Teri’s homemade pumpkin roll for dessert. In other words…way too many calories in…way too few out. I have a couple of more days before 2012 which will be my banner training year, so I suppose I can take a couple more liberties. After that…light’s out.
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