Great meetings with the American Distance Project in the last couple of days! Scott simmons and Renato Canova have a great plan for the group and we had a great turnout of top level athletes. On the guy's side: Chris Barnicle, Fernando Cabada, Austin Baille, and Me. On the Women's side: Alicia Shay, Rene Metivier Baille, Wendy Thomas, Lindsey Scherf, and Adrian Chouinard.
I met with Jay Dicharry, top in his field of Bio Mechanical research at University of Virginia. He gave me some great advice on my form. I lean over a little too much and put too much weight on my quads which in turn wastes energy. I also need to strenghten my gluteous minimus and stretch my quads a little more so I can get a more balanced leg drive. Great advice and will be doing everything that Jay passed along to T.
Second, I was able to do a workout with Renato and Scott watching on the track. It's kind of ureal when Renato stops me to say that I need to strike more on my forefoot. He gave me some drills to do after my easy runs to help teach me the sensation of striking on my forefoot. That was so cool! Scott and Canova are going to put together a training plan that sets me up for a 1/2 marathon to qualify for the trials in the fall if I need it. Canova also gave me quite a few more things I need to change, but for this race I don't want to change too much. Sunday I have another great opportunity to meet with Scott and Canova for my new training plan and post race review.
There is also going to be an article or two and photos in Running Times Magazine. They will also have online interviews with all participatnts of the 3 day group orientation of the American Distance Project.
I'm planning on qualifying this weekend at Gary Byjorklund 1/2 Marathon and I really only need to hit 4.57 pace. I do feel that I'm in better shape than I was when I raced the 15K champs and that was at 4:58 pace, I believe. So I know I'm ready to roll and go out in 5:00-4:55 for the first mile and then start to plug away.
I will post more after the race this weekend, but I am really excited to get this rolling with my new coaches!
As Paul Harvey would say...
Goooood Day
Tommy
