I have a coach!

..or, I suppose I will when I give him a check on Tuesday.

I emailed the Running Republic of Boulder shortly after the Rock n Roll Half to inquire about joining, and coach Darren de Reuck invited me to come out to a few workouts to see if it was a fit. Today he asked if I wanted to officially join. I said yes, and the coaching started immediately! As in, he asked what races I had planned coming up. I told him I had a few marathons in January. “A few??” He asked if I could switch to the half in Disney. I said I was already registered for the half.. AND the full. But I told him I was his after that. Then I mentioned I was also registered for Leadville (just the marathon, not the 100). He asked if I had to do it… And then, as a good coach SHOULD do, he said “So do you want to get fast, or do you want to mess around? Do you want to run a three hour marathon”? I said I wanted to get fast, to which he replied “good answer”. I said “I know – I’ve run a bunch of marathons and only shaved off 9 minutes.” He said “I can tell you why” and I laughed and said “I know – the first half of that sentence is the reason why!”

So… here goes. Coaching, yikes! But I said I wanted to see what I can do, and he definitely has the expertise to take me as far as I want to go.

In training today (warmup, 15min steady, then 6x(2.5min, 1:30 RI), 4x(:30, :60 RI)), Darren’s wife Colleen lead my group, and after the workout I heard her tell Darren I had some serious speed. Wow, yeah, I’m going to let that one definitely boost the ole ego. An Olympian says I have speed???

I’ll officially meet with Darren in January to set my goals for 2012, but in the meantime I’m part of this great new group that will help push me through these icky winter months. I’m already feeling much more confident and strong already! Is a 3 hour marathon really possible? I dunno about that – but I’d love to break 3:10. But, if I train with a bunch of fast people, who knows?

In the 4×30, I was the fastest overall in the first sprint, in the second (uphill) I was in the top 3. In the next sprint on a narrow sidewalk I actually somehow kicked/stepped on a gal right in front of me (she was one of the people I blew by the first sprint – she’s a 2:59 marathoner)… I held back on the last sprint.

At the very least I know my 3:29 from 2006 needs to fall, especially given all the improvement I’ve seen in other distances this year! I feel like 3:20 is definitely within reach and there is more improvement to be had beyond that with good training.

Part of Today’s Workout:
6×2.5min paces: 6:22, 6:39, 6:48, 6:28, 6:28, 6:15
4x30sec paces: 4:38, 5:02, 4:56, 5:49. I felt bad after kicking some girl on the 3rd so I held back, AND the last one was uphill