It's over, man. Let her go.

Welcome to the blog. Funny name.

Welcome to the blog, bald and spicy! I, too, love the name! I am married to a bald and...dang, I can not come up with anything. Burt, help me out a little.

Coach Cara does seem amazing, I read her bio information. How did you meet her and how exactly do you train online (she just tells you what to do and how fast to do it???) Sounds very interesting!

Best of luck with your goals, I am sure you will do great with such an amazing runner for a coach!

Just a little FYI: for your running goals, you put 2009 instead of 2010. I was confused for a minute, but I am slower than mud. I have not had to write 2010 yet, so I am sure I will do the same thing!

bald and saucy.

I asked my husband, he says bald and sexy.

Ok everyone, I updated my personal info to answer the burning baldnspicy questions. :-) My wife has also called me bald and sexy, but never bald and saucy. I'll have to ask her why not.

Kelli - the reason the dates for my goals had 2009 on them is a little coaching tip I learned from Cara. If you set your goals in the past, after you've finished the race, you always beat them! It's a little unconventional, but that's how she rolls. haha j/k!

Thanks everyone for the welcome! I'm excited to keep my blog up to date, especially the runs. This may be the perfect tool for keeping Cara up to date on my runs and progress.

I'll post again later about my relationship with Cara and how we go about the coaching.

Maybe it wasn't so much the bald and spicy that made the old lady say she doesn't accept pornographic emails as it was the @sleezeball.com part. LOL!

j/k

Nice philosophy! I like it. I am looking forward to future details....

In your picture your head looked like it had been bic'd! That is funny, I had to convince my husband to bic his head, but he has now been doing it for 12 years (so, he had the nice receding hair line at the age of 24!!!)

Burt - the email is mymail@baldnspicy.com. I use it for all the stuff that requires you to give an email to sign up. But when giving it out over the phone, it's quite funny some times. lol Oh, and BTW, I'm a very laid back person who enjoys laughing at himself, and is virtually impossible to offend, so no worries. Actually, bring it on! I'll give it right back. :-)

As for how I got in touch with Cara - my 20th high school reunion was this last year. I got back in touch with a friend (through FaceBook) who is a spin instructor. Back in August of last year, I mentioned to her I was thinking about getting more serious with my running and was wondering if she knew of any professional/elite runners or maybe coaches that would be open to fielding some of my questions since I was getting frustrated with the variety of running plans out there and knowing what I should be working on. She put me in touch with Cara and we hit it off immediately!

Since Cara is in Oregon and I'm in Pennsylvania, the only way we could do this was through email, etc. (I've never even spoken to her on the phone, now that I think about it!) It was new for her to coach an athlete remotely, but I think we've both learned a lot of tips about both coaching and being coached this way since we started in August. It's really worked out just great. She gives me my weekly schedule and I do my best to follow it, sending quick daily emails letting her know how I did. I've sent her video of me running (slow as a turtle) on the track so she could see my stride and do some analysis that way as well.

I primarily run alone, although there's a guy at work that's an elite marathoner. Very personable guy...he came in 4th in the Pittsburgh Marathon, but was the first Pennsylvanian. Anyways, he's gone on a couple of runs with me during lunch. He basically jogs, not sweating at all, while I'm struggling to keep up the 8:15 or so pace for 3-4 miles while trying to choke out a word or two of conversation so he doesn't get bored. We get back to the gym at work, he just dresses and goes back to his desk while I stretch and try and catch my breath before going to hit the showers. I told him that my goal for 2010 is to be able to make him break a sweat when he runs with me to the point he has to shower. haha

My running buddy is cool and very cool to me, but Cara is truly my inspiration. She is incredibly kind and patient. The advantage/disadvantage, depending on who's side you're on, to e-coaching is that I can send her an email any time day or night. Something pops in my head - I fire off an email. She knows that I don't expect an immediate answer and can just answer when she gets time. But it's nice to be able to do that rather than waiting until my next coaching session and probably forgetting what I was going to ask.

I think one of Cara's strongest points as a coach (aside from her skills in putting together plans, etc) is that she is incredibly motivating, just by being herself. She doesn't need to be the mean coach that intimidates you and makes you do the workouts out of fear. She's a fellow runner, and a dang good one at that! For example, when I told her I wanted to run a 2:00 in my first Half, I'm sure she thought that was completely unrealistic, which it was, but she didn't say that. She just helped me to put together a plan that would get me as close as possible to that goal. Again, I've set my goals for 2010 and I'm sure she's thinking they're quite aggressive, but she wouldn't tell me they're impossible and to come back to earth and get real. She sees the potential in people, knows that the key is hard work, but also is realistic in her expectations. I have a family and a job that have to come before running, and sometimes those things get in the way. She understands that and we work though it.

I will forever be grateful to Cara for helping me get back into the running grove, for answering all my answers, for enduring through my very long winded emails and "quick daily updates," and especially for listening to me (and believing in me) when I said I wanted to do a Half when logically my first race should have been a 5k or 10k. She's a great friend as well as a great coach!

Hmmm...now that I've written this, I think I should have been telling everyone how awful she is so I can keep her all to myself...nope, can't bring myself to do it - Cara's AWESOME!

Word count 848! You rule the world!

WOW, what a good recommendation you have given us all. I really like what you have said about her, it is everything that many of us look for in a coach or someone to get advice from. I especially like how you said she realizes you have a life outside of running, that is something that is hard for some people to grasp. There are so many of us who aspire to be better, but, for one reason or another, can not or choose not to make running our life. That does not mean we can not reach those goals, we will just do it differently (maybe more slowly than if we could train and think running 24/7).

I am sure that your aggressive goals will help you reach the ultimate goal of the BQ! You seem like a very determined guy. And a very nice guy, too!

Now, the first goal is to make that guy at work sweat, darn it. Make him wear two shirts and a sweatshirt and carry and wear w weighted vest and maybe carry a backpack. That ought to do it!

Thanks to Burt's counting, I didn't reach my goal of 1000 words on that post, so next time I'll use smaller words.

Honestly, Cara is awesome. She's firm, but kind and understanding. Sometimes I need that kick in the butt, but most times she's there for the support. I wish I could train 24/7 and be competitive, but that's not an option for me. For a while, I was really bummed, embarrassed, and somewhat depressed about my pace. I look at these guys/gals that are running sub 5:00 miles for a marathon and it's just amazing. I'd love to "break the tape," but that's just not going to happen unless I have my kids hold the tape at the end of the driveway for me at the end of a long run. I do realize the possibility of placing in my age bracket, so I keep that as a long term goal.

Thanks for the suggestions, Kelli. I'll see what I can get him to do next time. :-)

Here is another suggestion: Run in really small local races! I won a 5k (and I am NOT a short distance runner by any means, in fact my half marathon, 10k, and 5k paces are all the same) by running in a little local race. I think there were less than 100 people running the 5k. I came in 3rd overall, but I was the first woman. I am sure it is my one and only win, but it was darn cool!!!

This is a great place, there are runners of all shapes and sizes and paces and dedication levels and so on. Plus, you always have Burt for entertainment!

Have a great running week Bald&Spicy, and have your wife call me. I will see if I convince her to let you take a bic to your head.

I'm not just here for entertainment. I won a race once, too.

Sorry Burt, you are a winner, too!

Kelli - did you see the video of Coach Cara I posted on my blog last week?

No, Burt, which day?

Saturday the 2nd.

Okay, I am a little freaked out because that does look like her picture (the 3rd alter ego, anyway). Is this for real? Where do you get this stuff?

There's a host of information on the world wide web. And remember Kelli, we will be judged by what is written about us.

Hopefully no one writes anything about me, then.

Oh my goodness, I only just now read this. Since we keep in touch with emails, I wasn't TOO worried about reading each blog. Let's see, Wes, I must owe you a couple hundred bucks for all your sweet comments! ;-)

Kelli, BTW, that weird video was a spoof that I did for my office party. All the trainers were supposed to come up with a spoof "best" workout secret. Since I'm unique at Tri-D Fitness as the ONLY female trainer and the only one who specializes in running, I wanted to poke fun at those 2 facts. Everyone's videos were very funny. My mustache was fake. :-)

Very good to know it was fake, I was worried!!! I just thought Burt was pulling some random video off and calling it you until the last person, then I was thinking, "Wait, that looks like her!" I was confused, so thanks for clearing that up.

That's so funny, Kelli! Yeah, Burt probably should have put a little disclaimer about the source of the video--I noticed that he AVOIDED your question. Ehem, Burt? ;-) Anyway, if you knew me in person, it would really be all the more funny because I have a very soft, high voice (I'm very much a soprano), and I even wear makeup to marathons. I'm all girl! That's why I kinda enjoy doing the "Max" character. I did it once before for a skit, and my husband said that he never wanted to see Max again. It freaked him out.

That's funny. I did avoid the question. I wanted to see what you would say first, Coach. I'm glad you cleared up the moustache thing, too. Although I was strangely intrigued about it. Who is this enigma we call Max? (Have you seen the movie It's Pat?) hahahahahaha!!!!

Did I not send you the video earlier? I thought I would have because I felt like it was pretty funny. But maybe I didn't since you've never met me in person, and I didn't want you to think I was nuts. Actually, it's hard to "get" how funny it is until you can see how UN-Cara the mannerisms and voice are. OK, I'm kinda proud of it. ;-)

Also, when I was in high school, I used to teach stage makeup to other high schoolers, so I became pretty good at makeup.

I don't know where I got the name "Max." It just sounds to me like a name for a dude who thinks he's really tough. When my aunt saw me do that character on stage a few years ago for something different, she didn't even know it was me! Stephanie was there too for that little skit. She still talks about it! :-)

Dude!

No, I haven't seen that movie, BTW. I don't think I've heard of it.

It was based off the Saturday Night Live character Pat, where no one knew if Pat was a man or a woman.

And even though the one guy wasn't sure, that was part of the allure that attracted him to Pat. Ah, good stuff.

Ha ha ha, that IS really fitting!

I thought I had made my voice much lower, but when I heard the video, I was a bit disappointed. But it sure hurts to do that to a voice. It makes me a little bit hoarse.

That sounds potentially funny, or just very weird! :-) I used to love SNL when I was little. My sister and I used to stand in front of the mirror and do all sorts of goofy skits, pretending we were on the show. We really thought we were good, too. We were convinced we were gooood!

You pulled Max off very well!! It was all pretty funny.