Trainer's Program stage #1: the First Steps to Succeed in CTS Alumni Challenge 2008

The last night's post CTS Alumni Challenge 2008 was received well. In 24hrs I've got 3 excited fellows join me, and a couple who still hesitate. We are not in rush. We've still got a good few months to start training, but by the end of the year everybody should be in it, because 20kms is not like the final exams that you prepare for over-night. I guarantee that late comers are determined to have the biggest pain. But for now, even the wreckiest is not too late to start in the next few weeks.

However, to help the folks yet hesitating, I thought to drop some ideas to get over the biggest obstacle - your head. There are just a few simple steps to take and you are determined to be successful among the successful.

#1. Admit it! Admit that running is a sport for the retarded.
Jogging is not a smart sport like curling or golf, but a dumb way of refuse to journey with faster and easier methods which have been around for centuries. Or what else do you imagine our ancestors, who only dreamed of the infrastructures surrounding us, think of us running on concrete roads, with cars and trams passing by on left and right. Jogging is about having a pair of shoes to prevent injuries, and decent clothes to prevent policemen to collect you, and from there on just about keeping on running. Very simple sport for very simple people.

#2. Trick the fool. Once you're past of admitting the silliness of your new hobby, you can turn it over to your advantage. See, every one of us has in built-in refusal for prolonged stress, what jogging essentially is. This is the very reason we do have cars, planes, trams and trains these days. But now that you have been caught fool enough to think of running, you can use little tricks to make you run like crazy.

One of the tricks that I've used is to take the area we're living and think of a place that I normally only go by car - like grocery store, beautiful sight near by, or else where I'd naturally go by car. Then, I just tie my shoes and start running and walking keeping the heart rate decent, and I keep doing it as long as it takes to get me there. Downloading Google Earth and using the ruler tool, helps to prevent your little run-out turning to a day trips.

It sounds silly, but silly we are. Things like that make jogging rewarding. Once you get to the site, it makes you go like "wow, I didn't know one can run here." and then you just run back all exited and check up on Google Earth for your next track. You can also keep customizing your track every time, (...and before you notice you know your neighborhood like never before; and not only that, you are also being known at your neighborhood like never before... ...here goes the runner...)

#3. Get that Heart Rate Monitoring Device. I'm a big believer in those little devices, for a simple reason that anything that keeps me from thinking my poor condition, tiredness, the pain in the legs, and how dead I'll be in few meters more, is good. Observing your heart rate while running keeps you focused on the only thing that really matters, and it pays back in the end of the run as you feel good - not like dying like I we've used to do after running. The devices cost from 50€ on, and decent shoes likewise, and both will pay back. When basically that's all the cost there is, we are not talking about an expensive hobby.

That's all for the Trainer's Program Stage #1, and basically all that I have to share about the sport. I do have in my mind a couple of lads that I'd wish to see in Brussels next year, who for a reason or another did sign in yet. (you know who you are...)

cheers.
Antti