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Week 4 - March 6th thru 12th

House Keeping Notes

1. Saturday Group Training for the Spring – 7:30 am
2. Weekly Schedule POSTED on the front page of the Website during Base Training
3. Schedules will be password protected after Week 4 of Base
4. Champion Mindset Book Release with Joanna Zeiger – Friday March 10th @ 5:30 pm - Flatirons Running Store 

Long Run Schedule for Spring Marathons:

Mar 19th – 18 miles

Mar 26th – 21 miles

Apr 2nd – 15 miles

Apr 9th – 10 miles

Apr 17th - BOSTON

Monday 6th              Cross Train Day

                               Lift Weights/Pilates (Mat or Reformer)/Yoga – 45 to 60 minutes

Tuesday 7th              Easy/Light Run 45 minutes

                               Include 6 x 30 sec light strides/60 sec easy within run

                               do Light Strides after 20 minutes of Running

                               Marathoners – 50 minutes

Wednesday 8th         Fartlek/Progression Workout 

                               Meet @ East Boulder Rec – 6:30 am

                               Meet @ Potts Field – 5:30 pm    

                               Warm Up 10-15 min/Stretch/4 x 30 sec strides

                               4 min progress with 2 min easy

                               (increase pace each min…start @ half marathon…end @ 10 km)

                               4 x 90 sec @ 10 km effort with 60 sec easy

                               take 2 min easy after fourth 90 sec

                               4 min progress with 2 min easy

                               (increase pace each min…start @ half marathon…end @ 10 km)

                               4 x 90 sec @ 10 km effort with 60 sec easy

                               take 2 min easy after fourth 90 sec

                               marathoners…end 5 min @ marathon effort  

                               Cool Down 5-10 minutes

Thursday 9th            Easy Recovery Run 45 minutes

                               Marathoners – 55 minutes 

                               Plyo’s Class @ CAC-Flatirons – 6:00 pm

Friday 10th               Cross Training Day

                               Lift Weights/Pilates (Mat or Reformer)/Yoga – 45 to 60 minutes

Saturday 11th           Tempo Workout from Tom Watson Park @ 7:30 am

                               Warm Up 10-15 min/Stretch/4 x 30 sec strides

                               10 min @ marathon pace with 3 min active rest

                               5 min @ half marathon pace with 2 min active rest

                               10 min @ marathon pace with 3 min active rest

                               5 min @ half marathon pace

                               active rest = walk/slow run recovery

                               marathoners – finish off with 10 min @ marathon pace

                               Cool Down 5-10 minutes

Sunday 12th             Easy Long Run – 75 minutes

                               Marathoners – 15 miles

                               Relaxed Pace/Hydrate on the Run

                               Easy 5 min Walk Cool Down

Easy/Light/Recovery Run - Conversational Pace/Relaxed Effort

Long Run – 60-90 sec Slower than your Marathon Goal Pace

Tempo/Sustained - Run between 70-80% Effort of Max

Fartlek – Playing with Fast/Slow Speed

Hills - Work on Good Form (drive with arms/relax the shoulders/get up on toes/quick

          turnover/mid-foot strike on the downs/look 5-10 feet in front of yourself)

Meeting Places

East Boulder Rec - follow Baseline east to 55th St. Take a right on 55th and follow the road until the sharp left turn and go past the first parking lot and tennis courts towards the Rec Center. Park on the West Side of the Rec Center Parking Lot close to the tennis courts.

Potts Field – CU Outdoor Track between Foothills Parkway and 30th off of Colorado Avenue

Tom Watson Park - follow the Diagonal Highway to 63rd Street. Go north on 63rd for about a half mile and look for the sign saying Tom Watson Park on your right. Parking Lot is opposite Coot Lake on east side of 63rd Street. DO NOT park @ Coot Lake.

Coach's Notes

The Chicken and the Egg...CONFIDENCE can seem like a mysterious phenomenon. Some days you wake and feel confident; the next day you may feel apprehensive. The same can be true with your running...one day you feel you could run forever and the next may feel like you carrying “mama” and “papa” bear on your back.

1. What allows you to feel confident running?
2. Do you need to see good results first?

Maybe you haven't given this a lot of thought but I believe this is a huge factor in building ones confidence. Of these two illustrations, which one best describes how you relate to confidence:

1) PERFORMANCE -- yields -- CONFIDENCE

2) CONFIDENCE -- yields -- PERFORMANCE

If you picked option 1, you are in the majority. Most people believe performance leads to feeling confident. The way most runners relate to confidence is that it is fleeting, elusive or completely dependent upon results. In other words, you believe you are only as good as your last workout or race. This approach works well as long as you are running great, but doesn’t when you are not.  If you picked option 2, you have an advantage. This approach is a completely different way of relating to confidence, whereby your state of self-assurance is what leads to optimal performance. You are capable of creating a confident state of being and bringing it to workouts and then races.

If you have experienced feeling confident at any time in the past, that feeling is now part of you and can be re-created. Confidence is a state of being--a combination of your thoughts, feelings and how these physically manifest themselves -- that exists within you and is something you can tap into. So, what can you do to have a more consistent and reliable state of confidence? It all starts with awareness of what you currently believe about yourself.                                                                             

* what are your stories about your running or your chances of success                                  

* what are you saying to yourself that undermines your confidence

Words are Powerful! Even the words that never come out of your mouth but make up your self-talk or the running monologue in your head create your reality. This internal chatter is almost always in action and it shapes the way you perceive your world, yourself and your potential. The mind is always judging and assessing the events of our lives and if you think this isn't true, you haven't really been paying attention to your own internal monologue and how it's running you! And if you aren't aware of how your mind is impacting your perception of reality or your everyday world, you don't have much control over deciding how it's working for or against you. When you notice yourself in a negative state you can make it easier to generate a feeling of confidence just by changing your posture. Pick up your head, relax the shoulders and get some deep breathes in and consciously think positive thoughts.

You have a choice about your state of being, and confidence is just one of many states that you could choose. By knowing that you have the ability to generate a state of confidence, you can now start to work on developing that as a skill to use during races. Armed with this knowledge and ability, you can bring a feeling of confidence to the start line and build a positive experience in which the more confident you feel the faster you will run and the faster you run the more confident you'll feel. This can become a positive cycle that leads to optimal performance. 

Make some positive affirmations for yourself and when you start feeling tired in a workout or race…say those affirmations in your head or aloud and get back on the “positive train”.