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Since the last newsletter, several new clients have joined the RunnerDude's Fitness Family including...
 Jason Gann, an 8th grader at Kaiser Middle School, has been coming to RunnerDude's Fitness to help prepare him for the upcoming spring track season. Jason is a great kid and is eager to try any exercise or drill that will make him stronger and faster. He's already got plenty of speed in those young legs. He's been tearing up the hill out of the tunnel by RunnerDude's Fitness with his blazing fast 100m hill repeats.
 Katie O'Brien is a senior Broadcast Journalism major at Elon University. Katie says that like everyone, she makes excuses that she's too busy as a student to workout, but recently she's taken up running as her new "fun" hobby. She's also traveling twice a week to the RunnerDude's Fitness studio for upper-body/core and lower-body/core circuit workouts. Katie loves her work and she's spent semesters in New York and LA in news and entertainment. Now She's looking to get into a routine that she can keep up once she gets a job in May. Katie's "Let's Do This" attitude is contagious and she's awesome to work with. Keep it up Katie!  Quaadir Muhammad is a member of the current Beginning Running Group. He's doing great and has an awesome naturally brisk pace. I think Greensboro has some potential new competition in local races. Watch out 35-40-year old age group runners! Quaadir is the father or two and was born in Dillon, South Carolina. With a name that means strength, Quaadir has used his mind and determination to accomplish his life's goals. He's a former marine currenlty employed with Volvo North Amercia where he was first introduced to RunnerDude's Fitness and became very eager to get involved. Having a mindset that you can't change yourself until you are ready, his time started at that moment. With goals of wanting to get fit, lower his blood pressure, and meet new people, this was his opprotunity for change. Along with the joys of running, Quaadir is looking forward to the positive outcome and results from participating in the group program. Joining the beginning running group are Quaadir's first steps toward completing his first half-marathon. He is truly on a mission and I have no doubt will give what it takes to see the finish line.
 Don Heermans is also in the current Beginning Running Group and is doing great. Don is the Regional Long Term Care Ombudsman. He advocates for the rights of residents in long term care facilities, investigate complaints from residents, family members and concerned citizens, and provides training for Community Advisory Committee members, facility staff and the general public on topics like, Resident Rights, Sensitivity Training, and Elder Abuse & Difficult Behaviors. At age 65, Don decided running would be a great way to help him get back into shape. Great decision! He's doing well, and gradually building strength and endurance with each week's longer run and short walk increments. Go Don!  One of the coolest things about my job is seeing clients get bitten by the "running bug." I have four ladies in my current Charlotte Race Fest 10K and Half-Marathon Training Group (Susanne Brothers, Katelyn Jessup, Karen Drane, and Kim Stakias) and three ladies and a gent from my running groups at Volvo (Janet Weidner, Elizabeth Jolin, Tary Maxey, and Robert Alston) who all started with me in a Beginning Running Group, then signed up for an Intermediate Running Group and then continued on to 10K or Half-Marathon training. That's truly awesome! The other day I heard Susanne, Katelyn, and Karen, wondering how they were going to go from a long run of 7 to 8 miles when the 7 had been pretty hard for them. I quickly reminded them of how hard the first 1-minute run/5-minute walk interval was at the very first beginning running group run less than a year ago. They all three quickly laughed and said, "You're right. It's so easy to forget how far we've come." The following week, they busted out an 8-miler and did an awesome job. Sticktoitness...that's what's running is all bout. All of these runners and many more that I've worked with have realized that running is a process and if you commit yourself to it and stick with it, you can take it as far as you want. Sarah Ball was one of my very first running clients. I started with her in the summer of 2010 training her for her very first half-marathon. Her longest run before training was 4 miles. She conquered that 4-miles and went on to run her first half that year. She's since gone on to run several more half marathons and even her first full marathon. All in less than 2 years! That's awesome. Gloria Refinati is another that has truly been an inspiration. Gloria's been training with me in the studio doing personal fitness training for over a year. Last fall she joined the beginning running group. She was a little hesitant at first. In her mind she wasn't a runner. Now about 4 months later, I saw her with her running buddies at Panera Bread and she held up 4 fingers for me with a huge grin to go with it. She had done 4 miles that morning. She's definitely a runner. Her running buddies call her "Glo." Most think it's just short for Gloria, but it's really for the glow that's on her face from all that's she's achieved and continues to achieve. 
Just because it's winter, doesn't mean there aren't Dudes and Dudettes hard at work training and racin'!  Reid Bolinger completed the Goofy Challenge at Disney World in January. If you're not familiar with this race, it's actually 2 races, a half-marathon on one day followed by a full marathon the next day. Reid ran the half with his wife, Marie Underhill, and then followed it up the next day by running the full solo. Both did great. Keep in mind that this was on the heels of Reid doing his first half-IronMan in November. Reid's da man! (PS...that RunnerDude's Fitness T-shirt looks pretty good blazing through Epcot!)
 Tommiann Hill completed the Run 26.2 With Donna Marathon in Jacksonville Beach, FL on February 12th! This was a special race for Tommiann. Her mom is a breast cancer survivor and Tommiann ran the inaugural race 5 years ago. She returned this year for the big 5-year anniversary race celebration. In addition to the group race training, Tommiann comes to the studio twice a week for upper-body, lower-body, and core endurance training. Tommiann "loved every minute of it." Right Tommiann? LOL! She's awesome. She started with a 15-minute mile and ended running at 11-minute miles in her training runs. She finished right at her projected finish goal time. Go Tommiann!
 | | Ziad Running Through Fire at the Tough Mudder-Georgia! |
The same weekend that Tommiann was taking on Jacksonville, Ziad Fleihan was taking on the Tough Mudder in Georgia! This 10-miler is one heck of a race. Not only is it a 10-miler it has about 25 obstacles to complete on the route, including things like buttered monkey bars, mud, electricity, and fire! Ziad had a custom running plan to follow and he also came to the studio twice a week where we focused on upper-body and core muscular endurance as well as lower-body plyometrics and muscular endurance. Ziad is great at plyometrics, just ask him to bust out a few burpees, jumpsquats, depth jumps, and box jumps! You'll be quite impressed!  Sarah Ball and Kathryn Van Sciver trained for and just completed the Myrtle Beach Half Marathon. Myrtle Beach was a new half-marathon PR for Sarah. Kathryn completed her first half-marathon back in the fall at the North Carolina Half Marathon in High Point. Myrtle Beach is Kathryn's second half of many more to come I'm sure! She did a great job at Myrtle beach and I'm looking forward to working with her and Sara on future races!
 A group of RunnerDude Runners from the studio and from Volvo North America are hard at work training for the Charlotte Race Fest 10K and Half Marathon!
This is an especially fun group for me to work with because many of these runners started just a few short months ago in one of my Beginning Runner groups, then progressed to one of my Intermediate Running groups and are now in a race training group! Kim Stakias, Sally Marion, Tara Maxey, Murtuza Haveliwala, and Robert Alston are working hard to smash their 10K projected goal times. Kara French, Susanne Brothers, Katelyn Jessup, Karen Drane, Janet Weidner, Elizabeth Jolin, Chad Parker, Kurt Johansson, and Kevin Nowlin are working equally hard to let the Charlotte Race Fest Half Marathon know just who is the boss! You dudes and dudettes rock! Keep it up!  The Charlotte Race Fest isn't the only race for which runners are hard at work putting in lots of hard long training runs. Craig Spinale is training for Country Music Marathon, in Nashville, TN coming up in April, Gary Waldman is training hard for the Tobacco Road Half Marathon in Cary, NC in March, and Brett Sites is training for the Raleigh Rocks Half Marathon in April.
This will be Craig's first full marathon and he's already out pacing his projected training paces. You're killin' it man! Keep it up! Gary had run half and full marathons and he's using Tobacco Road to keep him fine tuned before his Richmond full Marathon training kicks-in in July. You're a rockin-and-a-rollin' Gary! Brett is new to RunnerDude's Fitness. Half-way through training on his own, Brett decided to see how running with a group would help his training. Welcome to the family, Brett!
You can join the RunnerDude's Fitness Group Race Training program for any race any time of the year! Just back up 12 weeks for a 5K or 10K, 14 weeks for a half and 18 weeks for a full and that's when you'll begin your custom program with the group. There has been a big interest in training for the SunTrust Richmond Marathon that takes place in Richmond, VA in November. Several have already signed up for the half and the full group training. The Full Marathon training begins on July 8th and the Half Marathon training begins on August 5th.
To register for the Richmond Marathon group training or for any race or to request more information about the group training program, email RunnerDude's Fitness or give us a call 288-6155. Or click here to access the printable registration form.
In January, RunnerDude's Fitness added a 10K and Half-Marathon training group as well as another Intermediate Running Group.
Many of the current race-training group members have been members of past beginning running and intermediate running groups, plus we have a few more new runners to the RunnerDude's Fitness Group Running Program.
 Everyone is working hard. The Volvo Race Training Group does a 4-mile tempo run every Wednesday at 11:45AM along the greenway starting at the Gallimore Dairy Rd/Chimney Rock Rd. intersection. Then they meet with my other RunnerDude's Fitness runners on Saturday mornings at the Country Park near the Battleground/Pisgah Church Rd. intersection for their weekly long run. Last Saturday (2/11), the Volvo Half-marathoners ran 9 miles! And the 10K runners ran 6 miles! Both groups are doing an awesome job!
The Volvo Intermediate Group Runners are experiencing all kinds of intense workouts. So far they've done tempo runs, fartleks, mona fartleks, 100m and 200m hill repeats, and a 1/2-mile staggered hill repeat workout. Soon they'll be in the heat of 200m, 400m, and 800m intervals, interval ladders, interval pyramids, and Kenyan out-n-backs.
Go Volvo Dudes and Dudettes!
I'm excited to say that March 29-April 1st, I'll be in Asheville, NC beginning my quest for Chi Running Instructor certification. There are only about 140 instructors world wide. It's quite an involved process. The training in Asheville is just a art of the the requirements. I may even call upon a few Dudes and Dudettes to act as guinea pigs in my required practice teaching. I've been an advocate of Chi Running ever since I read the book of the same name a couple of years ago. Then in January 2010, I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Asheville and interview the founder of Chi Running, Danny Dreyer over lunch for RunnerDude's Blog. (Click here to check out that interview.)
Chi Running® is the world's leader in teaching safe and effieient, natural running technique to reduce injury and improve personal performance. Chi Running's mission is to helpyou empower the runner and discover the athlete in you.
Of the 24 million people in the U.S. who run, 65% will have to stop running at least once during the year due to injury. Millions more quit or avoid running because of injury or the fear of causing long-term damage.
Studies are showing that running shoes do not prevent injury, but good biomechanics can. "Running does not hurt your body, it's the way you run." says Dreyer, the founder of ChiRunning, the revolutionary running technique that combines T'ai Chi with the power and energy of running. ChiRunning takes the pounding, pain, and potential damage out of the sport of running and makes running, safe, efficient and truly enjoyable. The ChiRunning program increases mental clarity and focus, enhances the joy of running, and turns running into a safe and effective lifelong program for health, fitness, and well-being.
Chi (pronounced chee and also spelled qi or ch'i) is energy - the life giving, vital energy that unites body, mind and spirit. A concept that has its origins in early Chinese philosophy, chi has been likened to the yogic concept of prana and could also be thought of as life force.
There are countless books, courses, and classes on how to improve golf swings, tennis games, and even cycling technique, but few teach how to run properly. The ChiRunning program fills this void by teaching people bio-mechanically correct running form that is in line with the laws of physics and with the ancient principles of movement found in T'ai Chi. The technique is based on the same principles and orientation as Yoga, Pilates, and T'ai Chi: working with core muscles; integrating mind and body; and focused on overall and long term performance and well-being.
In Chi Running and Chi Walking basic principles of T'ai Chi are employed to optimize the flow of energy in your body, to reduce the use of force for moving forward, and thereby reduce the risk of injury, while maximizing the benefits of healthy movement and healthy living. You don't need to know anything about T'ai Chi to benefit from all that Chi Running has to offer. You can, however, benefit directly from the wisdom gleaned by millions of people for millennia who have studied and practiced the flow of chi through the body.
Whether an injured runner, a beginner runner, a marathon runner, a triathlete, or someone who runs to stay fit, ChiRunning has helped thousands improve their technique, reduce injury and achieve personal goals. Conditioning your mind can be just as important as conditioning your body. ChiRunning can be a meditative practice that focuses your mind, lifts your spirits and opens the flow of chi for a lifetime of pain-free, injury-free running.
Hopefully by the summer or fall I'll have completed all the certification requirements and be offering workshops. There's an instructor in Charlotte and Raleigh, so the Triad is a prime location for for an additional instructor in the Carolinas. These workshops pull in students from all over the country.
 | | Danny Dreyer "Born to Run" |
Thanks again for all the continued support! If you know of anyone interested in personal training or in need of a running coach, be sure to send them my way. And, don't forget about the referral program. When a friend, family member, or colleague that you've referred signs up for a service or program, you receive 20% off a future service or program and your friend receives 10% off!
Thad McLaurin-Owner/Trainer
Certified Personal Trainer:ACSM, NPTI
Certified Running Coach:RRCA, USA-Track & Field
PS: Please feel free to forward this email to friends and family by using the "Forward Email" link at the bottom of this email. And, if you haven't already, be sure to join the RunnerDude's Fitness Fan Page on FaceBook.
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