member spotlight
Renee finishing the Steamtown Marathon have a shot . Renee understood that qualifying may not happen in the next marathon , but she had the courage and dedication to do anything it would take . I hadn ’ t even looked at her race times , but her attitude convinced me she could do it .
[ RENEE ]
Our first conversation was the day after I ran the Marine Corps 26.2 . I asked Jen to tell me the truth . “ Am I back to square one with my running ?” She said , “ No , you had a bad race , and you were not properly trained .” She told me I was doing way too much , and if I was serious about getting faster , something would have to give . My goal was to run the Boston Marathon , and I would do whatever she told me to do to obtain that goal . It was nonnegotiable . What she said next floored me : she told me I was over training , and that if I was serious about getting faster , I would have to take a step back before I could move forward . Jen said I should wait until next fall to target a marathon and that we would not start working together until the summer . That was a full 12 months away !
[ COACH JEN ]
Before we officially started working together , I advised Renee to train for and run a half marathon in the spring . This was to give me an idea about where she was time-wise and also to keep her base miles up so we would not be starting from scratch in the summer . One red flag that came up in our preliminary discussions was injury . It seemed that before each big race , Renee would get hurt and either have to take time off or end up in physical therapy . Keeping her injury-free was the number one priority . I knew her plan would have to have balance in order to make training gains while also having time to recover . I believe when it comes to training for anything , one size does not fit all . Every plan needs to be adapted to the individual and their lifestyle for it to be successful .
[ RENEE ]
We decided I would run the Steamtown Marathon on October 9 , 2016 in Scranton Pennsylvania . Jen told me I would start working with her sixteen weeks before the race , but I wanted to get a jump start by taking her running classes before we started working one on one . I signed up for the speed and pacing class she teaches over the winter . This was a great class and taught me so much , especially about how to pace myself when trying to
Before I would run with no agenda . I would just run . This time every run I did had a purpose and meaning .
run fast . I then joined the HAC Running Club in April knowing that Jen would be coaching the team .
I also knew the only way I would get faster was to run with people who were faster than me . That is when I asked Kelly Horowitz if she would do training runs with me . Kelly is an amazingly fast runner and I knew she could help me . Andrea Bradley , another HAC trainer , and I ran a few races together prior to my goal marathon . I knew we were similar in pace and could really push each other . Running with Kelly and Andrea helped give me the confidence I needed to complete the fast-paced runs . It was so much easier to workout with the support of a friend .
The time finally came to work with Jen . I was beyond excited . She created a six-day workout schedule over a period of sixteen weeks . Three days I would run , and the other days I would swim , train with Dina , and continue to take Dina ’ s Boxfit and Accelerated FIT class . Unbelievably , the three planned runs Jen had me do were my hardest workouts . This training schedule was all new to me and completely out of my comfort zone . Before I would run with no agenda . I would just run . This time every run I did had a purpose and meaning . At the end of each week , I had to send her a detailed training log of all of my workouts .
Training to cross the finish line at 3:45 was the hardest thing I had ever done minus having kids ! Jen told me that this was going to be very hard but that I was capable of doing it . She was always there to reassure me . There were several runs over the summer that I was not hitting my goal pace because of the heat . I would call her and tell her I did not make the time , which was very discouraging for me because I knew I should be able
8 HACHEALTHCLUB . COM