I
was driving home watching the time. We
were supposed to go to Akron to have dinner with Heidi and her boyfriend, which
left me with about 45 minutes for a short workout and a shower. As I pulled in the garage, my cell phone
vibrated. I looked at the caller ID to
see it was Megan Thomas, a runner I had coached almost 25 years earlier when
she ran for Chagrin Falls High School.
“Did
I catch you at a bad time?” she asked.
I
knew why she was calling and that it would take some time, which meant I
wouldn’t be working out, but I can never say ‘no’ to a former runner calling
for advice.
“Not
a problem, Megan. Let’s talk triathlons
for 7 to 14-year olds,” I said.
She
was working with a group of volunteers to help children between the ages of 7
and 14 compete in a triathlon. It was a very
short one, something like a couple of hundred yards of swimming, followed by a
short bike and run. I suppose the
objective was just to introduce kids to a different kind of sport and maybe
pique their interest in something good for them.
“It
HAS to be fun if they’re going to stick with it…especially at the younger
ages. It can’t seem like training…that
would ruin it for them,” I said and she agreed.
Megan
knows my intensity for training first-hand, but understood my methods and was probably
why she was calling me. Yes,
goal-setting and the proper mind set were critical ingredients to success at
the higher levels of competition; participation and fun were all that mattered
when trying to get someone interested.
We went over some things I suggested for kids who were older and
actually becoming competitive, but even those things were very limited in
intensity.
“Play
ultimate Frisbee to get them racing around.
Don’t let them know you’re trying to build their sprint muscles. Any kind of track workouts…your bread and
butter…would be boring and maybe harmful to their long-term interest in the sport,”
I said.
We
wrapped up the call though I assured her I was available any time for more
questions or ideas. I had run myself out
of time for a workout of my own, though it was still a good use of ‘fitness’
time.
We
met Heidi and Mike in Akron at Larry’s Bar and Grill where I had another
burger. Mike was interested in
purchasing a cyclo-cross bike, something about which I know very little. I had heard Mike was averse to riding with a
helmet and was going to grill him on it…it a nice way, of course.
“Once
upon a time I thought I didn’t need to ride with a helmet either. I was at Euclid Bike getting a tune-up on my
bike and got to talking to the owner who I’d come to know pretty well. He said ‘John…the ground is hard and your
head is soft…wear a helmet,’. I’ve had
one on ever since and I assure you I’d be eating dinner through a straw right
now if I hadn’t had one on for the several crashes I’ve taken over the years,”
I said.
And
it’s true. I told him and Heidi that
whenever I see someone riding without a helmet today, they look so
out-of-place. Helmets finally are the
norm and it seems like its only adults coming late to the sport, or kids in
their teens that think they’re unfashionable or unnecessary. I could see that Mike was not one of those.
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