Nikki

It would be nearly impossible for me to write about one without often mentioning the other, so I am sort of combining these two runners into one entry... but Nancy will definitely get her own.  The reason for this is that Nikki and Nancy were running partners and trained for this, a first marathon for both, together.  However, there are vast differences in these two.  Both as women and as runners.  They differed in the way they selected their goals for the marathon and in the way they mentally approached training.  This is the my experience with coaching them  on both an individual basis, as well as together.

Nikki


I met Nikki for the first time about a year ago.  I had heard her name many times from Nancy, who I know through the school our kids attend.  I knew the two of them ran together in the early mornings.  They had trained for a few half marathons together.  I started seeing Nikki more frequently when Sarah began teaching TRX classes and Nikki attended them with Nancy.  One morning last spring, following a TRX class, Nikki, Nancy and I were chatting after class and Nikki said "I don't understand how we can be pushing ourselves the way we are, but don't seem to be getting faster.  How do you become a faster runner?"  Mind you, this was before my course through the RRCA.  Before I learned about conditioning the aerobic energy system.  Before I learned that paying attention to heart rate had much to do with it.  I think my response had something to do with doing more speed work, getting on the track, doing repeats (all of which are true with the exception of the MORE speed work piece).

I approached Nikki after I had decided to coach a group over the summer.  Nikki had done several half marathons that she and Nancy had trained for together.  Something told me that Nikki would make a great marathoner.  I knew if I could get Nancy on board, or vice versa, she would most likely follow.  What I didn't know at the time was just how much of a commitment this would be on top of an already busy fall schedule for her.  Nikki is an athletic trainer for Fairfield High School.  Fall brings about football, soccer and cross country.  Nikki's sister was also engaged to be married and the wedding fell the weekend before the Columbus Marathon.  She had two small Children, 4 and 1 (now 5 and 2 I think) and had to juggle her hectic work schedule along with her husband's to keep things running as smoothly as possible for the kids. Training for this was going to require a serious time commitment.  The only time she had was early morning... VERY early morning.  The advantage?  Nikki had time off in the summer and could base build while the seas were still calm on the home and work front.  I also didn't have to preach to Nikki the benefits of cross training or strength training given the nature of what she does for a living (of course I preached anyway, as ya'll may have figured).  Fortunately, she liked TRX and that became her (all of our) primary means of strength training.

Nikki jumped into training, purchased a Garmin, wore a HR monitor and began to build a solid base.  I should say that one thing I asked of all the runners was to set 3 goals for this marathon:  a primary (or realistic) goal, a "BEST DAY EVER" goal and a fall back goal.  My hope for each of the first timers was that a finish would be the primary goal and then they'd set their sights on a time as a best day ever.  Not the case with any of them, actually.  They all had time goals for their primary, but all three had finish as their fall back.  Fair enough... I decided to go with that.  I knew without question they could all get their fall back, therefore reaching at least one of their goals.  One of the things that made me pursue Nikki as someone to coach was also the very thing that made me a bit crazy (bear with me here, Nikki).  She is very goal oriented and driven.  She expects a lot from herself and expects that if she does the work, the results will simply happen.  For Nikki, training was serious business.  When I got Nikki's questionnaire back, I saw her primary goal as one that would be achievable for her.  Her half marathon times indicated her goal was not out of reach and that she was quite capable of getting that.  The problem... Nancy's primary goal was an hour different.  Now, at first, I didn't see a problem with this.  Until I started getting their paperwork back and noticing that if one had 4 miles and the other had 3 for a particular day, the one with 3 ran 4.  Nikki asked me one day why Nancy had a certain mileage and she had a different mileage.  My answer... They were two different athletes.  Two different runners.  Nancy started training with turf toe.  I needed to make sure I wasn't overloading Nancy and had to make sure her toe was ok to start dumping higher mileage on her.  But this did tell me that these two women were in this together and their schedules should be pretty darn close, if not exact.  So I had to figure out a way to individualize their plans but keep them together.  Not easy with two vastly different time goals.  I assured them that running the long runs together were not a problem.  For the long run, the goal was to go the distance.  If they were hitting their weekly paces and HR ranges, it was not a problem for them to run together.  So I began giving Nancy pace ranges for her "best day ever".  That closed the gap a little and made their time goals 1/2 hour different, rather than an hour.  After several weeks, I stopped putting paces on their schedules and would just put "easy".  For the tempo and track runs, I would give them paces based on their time goal.  When Nikki would hit the track, she ran her goal paces ranges and Nancy would do hers.  Realizing she was getting in her pace runs, I began not to worry about Nikki hitting her goal time.

A little over halfway through training, Nikki sent me an e-mail.  The 5 days a week of high mileage training was simply overloading her already crazy home and work schedule.  She had considered pulling out of training.  Her husband convinced to to continue given how much she'd already put in.  She and I talked about revising her schedule to decrease her running days to three.  She wanted to know if that was possible.  I believed given Nikki's base building over the summer, that yes, she could run Columbus on 3 days of running.  I told her they would consist of a long run, a speed day and a medium long day.  I did tell her that she may have to readjust her goal and set her mind on a finish, rather than a time.  I knew she could train on three days a week, I just didn't have the experience or knowledge to guess how closely she could reach her goal with her schedule adjusted.

As the marathon grew closer, it seemed to me that Nikki grew more apprehensive about this particular training principal...slower paces, higher mileage training.  Like myself, she had a very hard time with the concept of "How do you KNOW you can run this pace for this long if you've never done it."  Well to be honest, I didn't.  I mean really, I had no expertise with this type of training at all. I traditionally did high intensity training in the past.  If a run wasn't a certain "pace" it was a waste in my book.  I gave no credence to rest and recovery runs at all.  However, I am still without my Boston goal, therefore, I was going to trust the science behind the training.  I made it pretty clear in the beginning that I had no idea if it would work.  They were agreeing to test this out for me so I could start building some evidence that yes, indeed this worked.  This was clearly an experiment.  But I did know that you could build speed and endurance separately and and decrease the likelihood of injury if you weren't pushing the pace all the time.

In the end, it's hard to tell if Nikki would have met her goal.  She was unsure if she was going to race the marathon for her own time, or run it with Nancy, whom she'd trained with for 20 weeks.  On race, she ran with Nancy.  The two of them ended up running together for 20 or 21 miles.  I was standing right by the 26 mile marker when I spotted two pink shirts coming up the road.  It was Nikki and Kristie (another girl who trained with them, coached by Suttan).  Nikki looked strong and when she looked up, she was smiling.  I snapped a quick picture, cheered for them and then watched them turn the corner to finish.

So to sum up my experience coaching Nikki, I will say it wasn't easy.  I do NOT mean that in a bad way at all.  It was extremely beneficial for me as a coach.  Nikki is a lot like me when it comes to training. She likes to push hard and reap the benefit of that hard work.  Slowing down was not easy and I am very grateful she gave it a chance.  I remember being horribly pissed about the amount of time and energy I'd put in to training for it not to come together time and time again, be it not running fast enough or getting hurt in the process.  Nikki challenged me often on "why this" and "why that" and as I look back on the course of training these five runners, I thank God she did.  What she forced me to do was research, read, go over what I'd learned and finally, know what the heck I was talking about.  For me as a coach, I learned a ton more simply because Nikki was part of my group.  I wanted to give her the right answers.  The good news is that in the course of digging deeper into this type of training, I have found myself realizing that for me personally, I will have a greater chance of success meeting my Boston goal next year training this way.  I don't think Nikki will continue training this way (in fact I know she won't... Nancy told me).  There are so many other training principles out there.  All of them work.  Some of them work better than others.  Some increase the chance of injury.  Some of them work for one type of runner but not another.  Everyone adapts differently to different types of training and people also enjoy training in different ways.  Find what you love and what works for you and just RUN!

BTW, Nikki... when I told you earlier to "bear with me" because of your personality when it came to training, it was because even though I am supposed to be running this ultra to "finish", and yes, ultimately I will be thrilled with a finish, I have a time goal.  A lofty one at that.  I know what I'm capable of and I want that time.  Can't help it.  Hard wired like you.