Change is a good thing?

Obviously I'm in the Chicken in the Chair :)

Just like many of my fellow type A (psychos) athletes, I like routine--a rarely changing schedule that is easy to grab on to when stress begins to pull in all different directions.  The thought of changing anything major is usually greeted with denial, frustration and maybe even anger.  So you can imagine the decision to switch coaches was a pretty big deal and didn't happen magically over night.  After two awesome years working with my previous coach I began to wonder what it would be like to train in a group setting with my coach on location rather than scheduling occasional meet-ups with my coach at a distance.  At first there was denial--"what I'm doing is working just fine, I'm making steady progress".  Then I was frustrated, "who will I even work with if I switch? I'm not moving anywhere".  I never reached the anger point :) but it was not easy to make the final decision to switch.  I realized that if I want to reach my highest goals I needed to start running with women much faster than myself and learn to challenge myself in different ways than I have before. It was settled, I was going to take a "leap of faith" and instead of having a triathlon coach, I would only work with a running coach. I was already

swimming with a masters swimming group (swimming with swimmers), going on local group rides (riding with cyclists), so it seemed natural that in order to make big improvements in running I would need to run with runners.

After the Splash and Dash--thanks Julie for the photo!!

After about a month of training with John Reich and the women of the Sonoran Distance Project I can say I'm very happy with my decision--the training is crazy different, but I'm embracing the change and I can't wait for the rest of the season ahead.  Last weekend I had a chance to check my progress a bit--I did a local Splash and Dash and PR'd in my 5k by about 20sec after a 2000m swim! I can't wait to continue to improve and chase the heels of the talented women I am fortunate enough to run (very far) behind!




Curious what the Sonoran Distance Project is?
Click here to read about my amazing teammates or get a shirt with our cute logo!!