Well, you're probably here for reason. So, let's hear it.

I'm willing to offer coaching advice and also curious to track the improvements of others and apply them to my own training. Right now I'm experimenting with running higher miles with less intensity than I have before in preparation for the Country Music Marathon April 28th. I've been running for 18 years or so and have competed in high school, college, on the local road scene, and in a couple of trail 50k's. I also coached a high school team for three years. Over the next couple of years I'd like to chase down my old college 5k PR and run a quality marathon.

Hey what an awesome group...(with awesome voluntary instructors)... While not as kooky nor as hot as claire, i'd like to be able to get some great feedbacks from this forum. I was never a runner...played lots of basketball, soccer, badminton, but endurance was always my downfall. I've been consistently running since last June, did my, first marathon last December in 5:08, realizing how under-prepared i was but had tons of fun doing it. Now i've been able to build up to two consecutive 40m weeks, feeling slightly beat up but not bad. Current schedule is 6 days a week, with one or two tempo runs, and one moderate long runs up to 12 miles so far. Goals - The ultimate goal this year would the rematch with Honolulu Marathon on December...I'd like to be able to break 4 hrs..but will be happy with a strong finish of 4:20. I'd like to race all other distances as well. Upcoming race is a 10.8 mile race this weekend, a 10 Mile around the Kilauea Caldera (running in an active volcano, awesome) in April. I've learned a lot from RA forums and hopefully will learn more by joining this group.

Oh like I need another group in my life. And this one doesn't even offer name calling or trash-talking. Is there beer at least? Sheesh. Anyhoo. Hello my name is Mike. I ran track in high school for an extremely successful and pressure-packed program. I never ran XC though because it took me until my senior year to figure out that maybe I wasn't built for football and that running was my best sport. I ran the 800 mostly. I was a decent but not outstanding runner on a very good team. Due to a last minute decision to go to Providence, my college running career never got started. So through my 20's I ran a bit for fitness and played other sports. I always owned a pair of running shoes and knew where they were just in case. In 1999, at age 29, I decided to cross "Run a Marathon" off my list of things to do before I die. I was living in California and my buddy Kevin from college, who'd run a couple, talked me into it. I think I had about 10 weeks to "train" and I had never run more than 10 miles in my life when I signed up for Big Sur. We met on the weekends for long runs (I think we even worked up to a 20 miler) and I ran a bit during the week on my own. Not sure how many miles I ran in my biggest week but I'm sure I never cracked 40 miles. Of course I went out too fast--running the first half at low 7 pace--blew up violently and was utterly humbled by the marathon distance. The last 5 miles or so took about an hour, involved a lot of walking, retching violently and making deals with God. But I finished. My time was about 3:40 and I knew that I would try that again someday and do it right next time. And there was a spark, but not yet a fire. A year later I was back in Massachusetts--in the spring of 2000 now--and I had scarcely run a step since Big Sur. I was working for a small start-up company and it was the height of the dot.com bubble. I was working big hours, traveling like crazy, eating and drinking way too much and generally heading down the path of becoming everything I said I'd never be. One Saturday morning I woke up with a hangover. I think my wife was downstairs with our kids--a 2 y.o and a newborn at the time--letting me sleep in after a long hard week. I sat up and reached for the glass of water next to my bed and under it was my bib # from Big Sur. I was in the worst shape of my life where just a year earlier I had at least been fit enough to finish a marathon under my own power. Something snapped in my brain. I got up, put on my running shoes and went down stairs. On the way out the door I yelled to my wife, "going for a run!" She yelled back, "A RUN???" I ran about 8 miles that first day out. I couldn't walk for a couple of days but when I could, I ran again, though not as far. I did this every few days until it didn't hurt anymore. Then I started running pretty much every day--5 or 6 days a week anyway. I took my stuff to work and ran at lunch. I took my stuff on the road and ran on the road. After a couple of months of this, I decided maybe now would be a good time to check, "Run the BOSTON marathon" off my list of things to do before I die. But I needed to qualify first. I called up one of my HS track buddies, Sean, and asked him if he was in. He'd run a marathon with his wife once. He was in. We decided to run Chicago and this time I was going to train right. I found a training program on the Greater Lowell Road Runners website written by John Barbour and I followed it as best I could. A few weeks in and Sean got injured. I was on my own. I decided not to go to Chicago but to run a local marathon. I decide to run Baystate, which is actually the marathon my training program was geared for. I was so blissfully unaware of how hard it is for most people to qualify for Boston that I never really let myself worry about the magnitude of it. I just followed the plan as best I could. I think I got up to about 55 miles at my peak. I didn't do any of the tune-up races though, I just didn't have time and I was always so beat up from the miles anyway. I ran one time trial--a 5K in about 19:49 on the track and that was everything I had. I knew that didn't exactly predict a 3:10 marathon but I figured I wasn't doing any speedwork at all and I was adjusting to a new all-time mileage high every week and everything hurt all the time so maybe it would all just work out. I'll spare you the details because this is already a novel, but I needed to break 3:10 and I ran 3:09:46. I was in. And it was the greatest day of my athletic life. And now there was a fire. Over the next 4 years I made steady improvements, kept increasing my training volume and intensity, read a lot, ran more, talked to as many experienced runners as I could, raced a ton and worked out with a couple of different clubs. In 2004 I had a break out year on the roads, running PRs at every distance but the marathon before it all got too much. In the fall of 2004 I decided to stop racing for a while and a while became a long while and I let my training go to hell until about June of last year. Now I'm back running and I'm determined to run well while fitting running into the rest of my life and not the other way around. My goals now are to approach the times I was running on the roads for 5k to 1/2 marathon, break 5 minutes in the mile and run a decent marathon. I'd like to go back to Boston in April of 2008 and hopefully not have it be 85 degrees this time. I'm not sure at this point whether I'm more qualified to be a coach or to have a coach but I'm open to lending my experiences wherever I can to help people improve in the sport. Modified to add: sheesh thats a lot of words. Sorry.

I started running in the army. We were running every day and I got sick of it, so I didn't run again for a few years. But I realised that I really enjoy mountain running so I started doing that a couple of years as an alternative to hiking. I never managed to be very consistent about it though. I am interested in biking, running and swimming and I like to strength train. My aim is to slowly build to a program where I do 2-3 sessions of each of those each week. And to participate in a sprint triathlon this summer. As far as injuries are concerned, I have had my share - a small fracture on the left heel in a training accident in the army (but sometimes I can feel it), a partial ligament tear on the left knee in a skiing accident, partial tears in shoulders after falling down some stairs and grabbing on the handles in mid-air (took me 1-2 years to rehab that and I think I never fully recovered) - compared to all that, some minor ITBS and MTSS issues I have now seem like nothing! So what will be the format of this? People posting specific questions or people posting a report at the end of the week and any idle coaches taking a look and commenting?

I too would like to be one of the guinea pigs. I've been tracking my progress on RA for a couple months and reading as much as possible but never actually posting. Lurking in the shadows if you will. Anyway, I think this is exactly what i need....a little coaching. I've been running for almost a year and finished the Marine Corp Marathon last October in 4:09. I was happy to finish but a little disappointed that I fell short of my goal time of 3:45. Training went to crap the two months before the MCM due to injuries and just plain laziness. Now that I've finished the marathon and don't HAVE to run I find myself wanting to run. My biggest problem is keeping myself from doing too much too soon and getting injured. Reading the posts before mine I see a common theme....hitting the injury wall around 40 mpw. It's happened to me twice now. Nothing major that requires medical attention but enough of a signal to slow me down. Originally I was hoping to run a marathon in May and the MCM again in October but now I think the best plan is to concentrate on doing the MCM right. Like with the help of an online coach. The one immediate question I have is how do I set a goal time for my next marathon. I don't just want to say "shave 15 minutes off my first effort" because I think I can do much better than that. My training was poor the first time around and I think I've made great strides in my pace since then. I like doing speed work and also hitting the hills. The problem is keeping myself injury free. I want to set a challenging goal but not an impossible goal.

You missed a category: People signed up for the group so they can read the threads more easily and maybe learn something themselves:
Wingz Last I saw of Jake he was still logging runs but hasn't been posting over on the 2000 mile club even...

I'm mostly looking for advice, especially for running. I could do do some coaching swimming, weight training and biking. But of course I am not a certified coach.