Friday, February 19, 2010

Staying Motivated


Richmond - Snow has cancelled the last two YMCA training days for the Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10k.

Can you imagine what goes through the minds of the people who've never run or walked a race like this being told their training is cancelled? People who depend on their trainers to make them ready to take on 6.2 miles?

That happened to Helena Marchi, a nurse at Henrico Doctor's Hospital Forest Campus. She finally got the courage to try something like the Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10k. And then the snow came.

"Well, I knew I had been way out of shape for too long", says Helena. She didn't really think much about running in the 10k until she heard about the YMCA training program. It's a 10-week program for walkers, beginners, intermediate runners and experts. They meet as a group at their "home" YMCA every Saturday morning leading up to the race on March 27th.

"I went to the orientation meeting and everybody is so friendly and supportive", says Helena. Her training was going great until the snow cancelled Saturday morning group-training for two weeks in a row.

Richmond YMCA Head Training Coach Laura Turner Reid says she sympathizes with Helena and other beginners. "They came out for two weeks, had a couple good training runs, then they completely lost their momentum. And so one of the things we're trying to do is keep them positive, keep them motivated."

The trainers are using the snow as a metaphor. In life you're going to run into delays wether it be work or family. The bottom line, they say, is stay motivated and keep moving.

"One of the goals of the program is just overall fitness", says Laura. "We encourage cross training and strength training for participants. What we're really trying to do is introduce overall fitness. A lot of people are really changing their lives."

The trainers are staying in touch with their trainees through emails and phone calls. They also meet some of them during the week at their home YMCA. That's why the snow isn't slowing Helena down. She says she's keeping in touch with the trainers and others in her group. She stays in shape by using workout videos, borrowing a friend's treadmill, and doing just about anything else to keep moving and elevate her heart rate, including shoveling the snow that's kept her from training on Saturdays.

Laura loves to see the effort Helena and others in her group are giving so that they'll be ready for the race. "I get to see people like Helena come back to me next year signed up for intermediates and telling me, 'This program has changed my life, I have all these new goals, I have this new self esteem.'"

"Of course, everybody wants to lose weight", says Helena, "but my goal is not to just stop after this one 10k and say 'Okay, I did that'. So I'm gonna keep going. That's my goal, to not stop."

If you've been waiting to sign up for the 10k there are only 6,000 spots left. The race is limited to 35,000 participants.


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