Why Uplift?

I wanted to give a short explanation why I chose to call my coaching company Uplift Running.  There are two definitions of Uplift.  One definition is physical and one is mental.  Similarly, running and the subsequent training, is part physical and part mental. 
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Uplift : to lift up or elevate especially to cause a portion of the earth's surface to rise above adjacent areas. 

Essentially Uplift is the geological process of building mountains. Two distinct tectonic plates methodically collide against one another slowly lifting the surface to greater heights.  Proper training takes a similar approach.  You take two distinct plates of training, easy running and fast running, and you consistently collide them against one another over a long period of time to elevate your fitness relative to where you are.  Easy running is the larger, slower ‘plate’ in which you add volume increasing the mass and fast running is a smaller faster ‘plate’ that, with consistent training using various workouts, gains velocity.  As these two ‘plates’ of training collide consistently again and again fitness is built. As shown in the image below, a Training Peaks Performance Management Chart (PMC), which I use as a tool to help train runners, sure looks a lot like mountains.  As a coach I help runners consistently build bigger mountains of training taking into account races, periodization, and life, methodically colliding these two aspects of training. To do this I use adaptable schedules, Annual Training Plans, and long and short term data to decipher how to consistently build a runner’s physical capacity.  






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​Uplift : to improve the spiritual, social, or intellectual condition of. 

​I believe whole heartedly that running improves all three of these areas for a person if training and racing are done correctly. I train people with this in mind.  If the physical ‘mountains’ of training are improving, but mentally a runner’s spiritual, social, and intellectual capacities get burned out or taken away from then we are doing something wrong.  Training should uplift a person’s quality of life.  Of course, there are times when training and racing are hard, but doing hard things can be mentally enlightening too, so it is my job to help an athlete distinguish the difference between detrimentally hard training and hard positive growth.   To do this I stay in constant communication with a runner to make sure their life/training balance is in line, they feel healthy, and the goals, training, and races they are going after are in line with their capacity for training.
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Running is, at it’s core a very simple activity, but training to be the best version of your self can be full of complicated physical and mental nuance. As a coach, I’m here to hone in on some those nuances for you, so that running can still be that simple and fun process, but you can continue to make those gains and meet those goals that stretch you, uplift you, as a runner and as a person.

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