Meet Coach Neal
Neal joined our team several weeks ago and has been conniving a plan to turn us all into runners. I’m pretty darned convinced that he can and to our benefit. Meet Coach Neal and learn why he is so passionate about running.
What do you do?
My career has me sitting behind a computer all day long as part of a team responsible for keeping a major company up and running. It’s a great job, but that’s all I want to say about that. As a runner, I strive to be the best runner I can be while helping, motivating, and inspiring others. I have people say things to me like, “I can’t believe you’ve run 100 miles at a time, that makes me feel like such a whimp.” But that’s not why I do it! If my running 100 miles motivates or inspires someone else to run around the block, or if I can use my thousands of miles of racing experience to help someone run a more effiicient 800m or a faster 5K, then I have done my job.
How long have you been running?
I ran track in middle school (way back then we called it “Junior High”) but that was only short distance. Then I quit running for a few years, until the college “freshman fifteen” caught up with me, and I found myself getting fat. I got into “jogging” as a way to get fit. Soon I found myself really getting into it. Thats’ when I became a true runner. I moved up to Washington DC for an internship, and there I discovered the joy of road racing. I ran my first 5 mile race that year, then less than a year later I was running my first marathon, the 1990 Marine Corps Marathon — 20 years ago this year.
Where is your favorite place to run?
I do most of my running these days in and around downtown Roanoke on my lunch hour, or on the mountain trails surrounding our great city. My favorite place to run is either smack dab in the middle of downtown (hill repeats on the MLK footbridge just a few blocks from Brickhouse), or on the trails of Mill Mountain, less than 2 miles from downtown. I do most of my long runs on the Appalachian Trail somewhere between Catawba and Daleville, or on some of the other nearby mountains.
Why do you run?
It keeps me from losing my mind. Seriously. I’ve had a few injuries and health issues over the past decade that have forced me to stop running for short periods of time. Those have been tough times. People who know me will tell you, running is my drug. It keeps me healthy. It gives me something to talk about. It keeps me happy. It gives me an excuse when part of me just wants a couple hot dogs with fries. I also really get a thrill from helping others with running. Occasionally I have people tell me that one of my books has motivated them to become ultrarunners. Sure, that makes me happy. But when I learn that someone ran their first mile because of something I said, wrote, or did? That makes my day! That keeps me going.
5K Challenge Update!
The Kickoff Meeting for the 5k Challenge is scheduled for this Friday @ 7:30pm sharp at Brickhouse CrossFit on Market St. We hope that everyone can join us for this casual introduction to Neal and the 5k Challenge!
If you can’t make it but you’d like to participate in the Challenge please comment below and let us know you plan to get involved. We’ll make sure you get all the details you need to get started! We need to have a firm count by Friday.
The Challenge fee of $100 will be collected Friday evening or you can make arrangements to pay this week during one of your classes.
And…if you are ready join the challenge go ahead and register with the BHC team right now! Brickhouse CrossFit Jingle Bell Run Team
Here are some more details straight from Coach Neal:
For most of the runners, I suspect we will start with a 4 week base building period. This will involve 3-4 runs per week. Training days are negotiable (we’ll do what works best for the most folks) and attendance is not necessary as long as everyone is running. I’ll be checking in with everyone a couple times per week to monitor progress.
Once we get into the countdown training, there will be three training runs per
week. It would be ideal if we could meet in person for these. Mon, Thu, Sat is also ideal. For these we would most likely want to meet along the greenway somewhere so we can do measured repeats. Again, attendance is not required, but highly recommended if for no other reason than to allow us to get to know each other and to allow me to closely monitor everyone’s progress.
As for this first Saturday, that will just be a group run… a chance for
me to get to know anyone who attends, talk more about running, and see
where we all stand.
Today @ Brickhouse – Kettlebell Swings
WOD: For time
- 50 KB Swings
- 50 seconds hollow hold
- 40 KB Swings
- 40 seconds hollow hold
- 30 KB Swings
- 30 seconds hollow hold
- 20 KB Swings
- 20 seconds hollow hold
- 10 KB Swings
- 10 seconds hollow hold
3. September 2010
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