I have been a runner since I was in high school and I joined the indoor track team to stay in shape for field hockey. A distance runner before I even knew it, I signed up for the longest event they held indoors, the two mile race. Honestly, it was awful. Indoor tracks are so small…so many laps! Even then, when I had a designated coach, I never learned anything new about running. No methods to improve speed or run efficiently. I didn’t think I needed coaching, either. I mean, who doesn’t know how to run, right? Wrong.
After I recovered from the Boston Marathon and I’d decided to run NYC, I emailed Coach Rick Muhr a few times, asking about training and nutrition, and he offered to conduct a Transformational Running Clinic to get my training off to a good start for my next race. Of course, I jumped at the chance, considering it was his influence that turned this one-time marathoner into a may-never-stop marathoner. That morning, out on the track at Grafton High School, I truly did become a different runner altogether. He evaluated my form, worked on transitioning between running and walking, discussed nutrition, and I learned the importance of cadence in measuring the efficiency of my running. Before that day, I didn’t really know what to make of my cadence data that I got from my Garmin, but after the clinic, I knew that a high cadence that is nice and even is optimal. This graph above blows me away every time I look at it. The top image is a cadence graph from a run before the clinic, which looks like an EKG. The three images below are runs following the clinic, with high cadence in perfectly straight lines. Unreal, but the proof is in the data. In addition to the mechanics and nitty-gritty details of running, Rick helped me mentally prepare for a new marathon, talking about goals and the very different kind of training experience I had ahead of me.
So, why bring this up now, months after NYC? Because right now, runners in the Boston area have an opportunity to win a free clinic with Rick like I had this past summer. A free clinic with a coach like Rick is priceless, and not surprisingly, only 12 hours after announcing the contest, 40 of the 100 available entries have already been claimed by hopeful runners, many of whom I am sure are training of fall marathons. I cannot stress enough what a perfect way this is to kick off your training, physically and mentally.
This contest is being offered by Rick and I as part of our platform-building efforts as we prepare our book proposal for submission to agents and publishers. I know how many people are excited about this book. I hear from people every single day about what an inspiring person and amazing coach Rick is and how excited they are to read the details of his journey to honor his mother’s memory. I love it, keep it coming, because it is so heartwarming and motivating as his co-author. Agents and publishers, however, want numbers. They want proof that this book will sell, so we are collecting data on how many people subscribe to our blogs and visit our website so that we can prove it to them. One piece of data we are building up is the number of people who are subscribed to receive monthly updates from our website that will offer running tips and exclusive excerpts from the books we move forward.
Thus, our contest! Sign up for updates at www.coachrickmuhr.com and you are entered. Simple as that. The first 100 are entered, and one will be randomly chosen once we get to 100. Everyone who enters, winner or not, gets training advice and book updates on a monthly basis delivered to their inbox. Can’t really lose, quite honestly. Rick is a true wealth of knowledge and wisdom.
So sign up, spread the word about our blogs and website. Help us get people excited about what I know, for absolute certain, will be an incredible book.
(Not in the Boston area? Sign up anyways, because the information is invaluable, but if chosen, you’d have to come to Boston to claim your clinic. Rick isn’t flying to some faraway place. He has writing to do!)
The Marathon Solution 