On The Road With Jeff- April 15, 2008

Thought for the week:
There are very few activities in life that can significantly improve the quality of a person’s life. When done correctly, running and other endurance exercises can help you energize your life--every day.

Catch the energy of Springtime:
Been a bit lazy this Winter? That's OK, most runners have had some slack weeks. If you'll ease back into running with 10-30 seconds of running followed by 30-50 seconds of walking, from the beginning, your body will adapt to the running motion without getting overwhelmed. With the right run-walk-run ratio, running doesn't have to hurt. There's a “re-starting program” in my free newsletter which will appear in a few days. If you aren't signed up for the free newsletter, visit www.JeffGalloway.com.

Texas:
I like visiting Texas, and I like the people of Texas...for the most part. A few days ago I had a great series of Galloway Training kickoffs, with lots of new runners, in College Station, Waco, Temple, Houston and Austin. There's no better place to run than Town Lake in Austin, on a beautiful Spring morning. Because of the excitement about the new Rock N Roll event in San Antonio this October, it is one of our featured races in the Galloway Training Program schedules.

Waco incident—blast from the past:
It was a thrill to run on the track in Waco where Michael Johnson trained and raced. The distance runners on the Baylor track team were nice enough to slow down so that I could take a warmup loop with them. During the run, one of the local rednecks pulled ahead of us in his pickup, on a road full of gravel, and “scratched off” sending rocks in our direction. I don't know why this personality type enjoys harassing runners, but I've had numerous incidents in various areas of the country over the years. Unfortunately, one of the young runners ran up and confronted the driver who jumped out of the truck carrying a big pipe wrench. Needless to say, the pace for the rest of the run was a good bit quicker, and we survived by being quicker on our feet.

Running is alive and well in DC and Baltimore:
Karen and Bobby Levin hosted me at their Fleet Feet store in Baltimore on Saturday, April 12. We had a great turnout for the kickoff of the Fall season. Some of the veterans in this program became injured during the past year, because they did not follow the run-walk-run guidelines on long runs, which they had been told to use. You can't take too many walk breaks on long runs.

On Sunday we had one of the largest turnouts for the DC Galloway program kickoff—including a new program in Northern Virginia. My 5 hour Running School was so much fun that we stayed around talking and I had to rush to make my plane back to Atlanta.

This week:
Please join me, or tell your friends about my free clinics: St. Petersburg FL (Fri, 4-18), Sarasota (Sat morn 4-19), Daytona Beach (Sat aft 4-19), Lakeland (Sun morning run and 1pm on 4-20), and Tampa (Sun 6pm, 4-20). For more information, contact the local director on the "Training Group" page. You can also view my schedule on the "Where's Jeff” page.

My next two marathons:
April 25-27—Big Sur International Marathon. On Friday I'll be one of the hosts and presenters in a wonderful weekend at the Big Sur International Marathon expo, and will run the race with my wife Barbara. We will be doing 1-1s, enjoying the scenery. I've not found any marathon more beautiful than Big Sur. This is a well-run event with fun weekend activities.

May 17th—Ogden Marathon. I believe that this course could be one of the fastest, anywhere. There is a downhill boost for the second half unlike any that I've experienced. Barbara and I will be pacing one another again. If you are in the area, please stop by my clinics which are hosted by the Marathon committee.