Coach's Corner

I checked in with Jeff Galloway, and we reviewed my last two weeks worth of workouts. I mentioned my chest pain, and a realistic weight loss schedule that wouldn't cause me to get slower by not getting enough nutrition or through the loss of lean muscle mass.

Jeff's first concern was my chest pain:

Vince,

You need to get the chest pains checked out immediately. This may not be related to cardiovascular problems but you need to find out.

Most men can lose about half a pound to a pound a week with no major problems. I suggest using a website such as www.fitday.com to help you.

Except for the mile repeats, you are on track. I will delay advice until I hear back from you concerning the medical check up. I suggest no hard running at all--just jog for short distances until you get the OK from the doctor.

Jeff

I then updated Jeff on my ECG (EKG) Stress Test and the results.

Vince,

Thanks for your note, and the blog. You did the right thing. The stress test misses about 15% of cardiac problems, I'm told,so you must still be vigilant.

You are definitely over trained right now. Try to run very easily on your weekday runs, and take rest days from exercise between runs. Don't do any drills or fast running on the Tues and Thurs runs. Before long runs and mile repeats, you need to rest as much as you can.

We want running to relieve stress--not produce it.

Jeff

After a query from me about the "why and how" I could be overtrained, Jeff added the following.

Vince,

Assuming that your chest pains are not cardiovascular in nature, your responsibilities of caregiver, being on your feet for long hours, long and stressful days--all of this leads to the inability of the body to recover between weekend workouts. If you take it easy on the weekday runs, and enjoy them, you can concentrate on the quality during the weekend sessions.

So I'm saying that you would not lose any conditioning by running easy on Tues and Thurs. By allowing for some recovery, you may get a stress release, and a rebound of the recovery systems.

Jeff

Of course I got Jeff's e-mails AFTER going out for my 10K yesterday. Probably pushed it a little in the second half.

What was ironic of course was that on the Tuesday night lecture part of our most recent Marathon Clinic, the topic - on which yours truly spoke - was on the dangers of over-training! And of the benefits of using a heart rate monitor to KEEP from overtraining!

And Seymour handed out my rather infamous "Vince's Top Ten Running Mistakes", the top three of which are Pacing, Pacing and Pacing.

As I have always said; I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer...

So, I will follow Jeff's instructions to the "T" and take the next week much easier.

And I can't express in words how fortunate and appreciative I am to have Jeff Galloway in my corner as an E-Coach at this particular time in my life.