Kinda jumping ahead here.....

I'd love to give some first hand current inspiration, but alas my current victories are small. I at least got in 7 sessions this week and even did a small hill workout with the kids last Thurs, but that tempered by my run on Sunday that was painful.

In my quest to provide some small insight to my fundamental beliefs on running I am going to jump ahead a few topics (specifically for a friend of mine who is currently 'winterly challenged'. I've always felt that coaches can be overrated. Not to say they aren't relevant as a bad coach can ruin you, but a good coach simply allows you find out what you need to do. My belief in that regards comes from arguably the most influential running coach of all time in Oregon's Bill Bowerman and from a lesser known runner by the name of Jack Bachelor.

If you've ever read anything on Bowerman (Kenny Moore's 'Men of Oregon' being the ultimate piece of literature), you know what Bowerman was a teacher first and coach second. Jack Bachelor )the man who the infamous Bruce Denton from 'Once a Runner' fame is based on) was also one of these types of coaches who understood that the athletes needed to make the decisions and not the coach (egs Denton's talk to Quenton Cassidy the night before the big race being a good example). Their idea that the most important running lessons learned were not in being told, but in being learned by the athlete have always stuck with me as the essential truths

Hence the topic for this post is how a good training partner/s are the best people to help you learn these lessons:

1) For those who know the legendary basketball coach john wooden's 'pry amid of success' you know that places an extreme emphasis on working as a unit. With team dynamics you can go beyond day to day sport and into the realm of life,
character, etc… as you help each other improve, go through the 'wars' and os on...

2) SUPPORT GROUP:
a) Coach: the ability to communicate to one's coach (needs, wants, concerns,). In this regards the coach acts as an authoritative facilitator, who is able to mee the needs of many. I've always felt the good coaches have a few things in common. They are kinda like a chameleon who have the ability to stay the same in basic principles/values, but also have the talent to deal with may typos of physical and mental abilities/talents. It's easy to teach one event, type of person, etc.... but it's entirely another to be able to understand how to relate to males/females, fast twitch/slow twitch and young/experienced.

3) TRAINING PARTNERS:
Training partners (as malmo put it 'Compete WITH your comrades in sweat - never AGAINST them') are of course required to get the most out training, but i also feel that some true gifts from training partners are overlooked (and IMHO more important in the grand scheme of things)

i) Quite simply they help one to enjoy the daily grind of training. Have a touhg time getting out the door...find someon who will meet you on X day at X time.

ii) When all on the same page they can help create both individual and team values, goals, purpose, accountability, security, etc....

iii) Team leader/s to galvanize a team, set expectations, goals, vision, etc... In this respects I've often seen the tone set by the main athlete/s who dictate how the group functions. For example... one of the best training partners I ever had was Jerry Ziak. Jerry, like myself, was often considered an 'independent' voice in running, but as training partners both myself and Jerry were on the exact same page. We were both competitive without letting our egos get involved, and therefore pushed each other, as opposed to killing each other off.

In the end a good loyal and dependable training partner can take one far beyond what they think they can and feed off each other. On the other side I've also seen how training partners who are venomous to each other can also destroy what should be a great training environment