Group Practice #5
4 miles on the schedule
Start time: 7:00 AM

This week’s practice started off with our update on fundraising: Team Vegas has now raised over $35,000 this season. We’ve had some people doing some huge fundraising! Plus there are a few people that have finally gotten on the fundraising board this past week, so that’s encouraging!

Next we had a short goal-setting clinic. We handed out worksheets to everyone about creating SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achierable, Relevant & Timely). We encouraged the participants to set goals for not only the race, but for individual practices. Plus the goals we encouraged them to make weren’t all time or pace based, but instead we offered ideas like, “Finish Feeling Good” or “Thank at least 3 volunteers on the course” or “High Five a little kid”, etc. It really is important to make your race have goals that will determine “success” that reach beyond just a performance. You never know how your body will react on a specific day, so other goals can help you end the race (or training) with a smile.

The group set out on their run after that. I lead a group in a 3 minutes walk/2 minutes run pattern. I really enjoyed this one because we had a fairly good sized group clustered together. Sometimes the group gets stretched out so much, I think this option allowed them to make new friends and promote the team feeling.

After we gave some participants the opportunity to be videotaped running through the parking lot. Once we did that the group moved inside the Applebee’s where we started for a pancake breakfast fundraiser. While everyone got to much on pancakes, eggs, sausage, coffee & juice, my co-coach and I watched the videos with several participants and showed them some things they could work on. We have a lot of big heel strikers; but there were also a lot of people bending at the waist, holding their shoulders up too high or swinging their arms across their bodies… all things that will use excess energy and cause more fatigue at the end.

We also had a raffle as another fundraiser. There were 4 baskets put together: an Easter basket, a movie basket, a coffee basket and a cookie basket. My raffle ticket was picked as one of the winners, so I got a basket full of cookies baked by one of our team members. I think it’s a cute fundraising idea, she is selling 2 dozen cookies (all packaged & individually wrapped) that she bakes herself.

Every time I leave one of these all I think is, “Wow… I love coaching these groups!” Seriously, helping people accomplish such a great thing and helping people transition from walking to running makes me feel so good!

I am coaching a group of runners for the organization Team Challenge. They are fundraising for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America while training to run the 2011 Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon in July.