From Excuse to Motivation

Thanks to a comment on my previous post, I’m going to elaborate a bit about the excuse list and its ties to motivation.
The list was created over the years by groups I coach - specifically High Performance Running Club and RxRunning & Racing Club. And the last portion of excuses dates much further back to [...]

The Myth of “I don’t have the time”

The National Sporting Goods Association did a survey of inactive people (less than 25 days a year fitness activity) and active people (more than 150 days a year of fitness activity). The number one complaint of the inactive people was that they lacked sufficient time to workout. I know as a coach of both experienced and novice athletes, [...]

The Gift - A Runner’s Story - Review

This is Paul Maurer’s first novel. He’s obviously a runner and I actually loved this book. Wait, did I just say that about a novel? Not two weeks ago Christina, one of my Tempe runners, lent me this novel on running. One - I really don’t like novels and two, I really don’t like novels. By the [...]

Faith in your Training Take II

In my first post on this topic I posed that belief in your training program and your coach is an essential element to success. If that “coach” is you then you have to believe in how you apply all the information you have found. If you coach others, it’s critical to build confidence in your [...]

What one Thing have You Done?

What one thing have you done today to move closer your goals for this year? 
Well?
If you don’t have an answer, then get off the computer and do something! Come back to this when you’re done. 
Motivation can easily be squashed by huge tasks, long term goals or the avalanche of to-dos. It becomes so daunting we become frozen [...]

Run Like a Girl: DVD Review

Run Like a Girl is a 2005, 38-minute short film written by Charlotte Richardson (Lettis). I am so thankful that my brother Jim introduced me to this film a couple years ago. You see, back in the 70s, Charlotte Lettis was a premier road runner in New England and the US. We were in many races [...]

USATF National Podium Education Project - 2007

As promised, this is the first of posts on topics from the USATF National Podium Education Project held in Las Vegas, December 2007. In upcoming posts, I will distill some key learning points on various topics and how it applies to you.
Let me first state the intent of the Podium Education Project is to promote [...]

Stress and the Athlete

This is the time of year that stress seems to take its toll on everyone. So, before it gets the best of you, let’s review some of the basics on stress and its effects on you as an athlete.
What is stress?
It is the subjective interpretation of an event by a person. Therefore, in order to [...]

Coaches’ Continuing Education

I admit it, I just love learning, going to courses, seminars, reading, talking to and interviewing athletes and coaches. I’m just never satisfied that I have enough information. I also like to test what I already know. Running itself may be very simple (put one foot in front of the other rapidly). But, getting that to happen in [...]

Shhh, Listen: Your Body is Talking to You.

[This article was originally written in the Fall of 2006]
With just a few heartbeats, my life changed forever. But it was those heartbeats that also saved my life. As I sat hooked up to electrodes, I thought nothing of the routine nuclear stress test that was supposed to rule out any possible heart issues following [...]