About Us
About Me
Hi I am David Rodgers, an extremely young 69 years old.
I am an athletics coach specialising in endurance running, an events promoter, club team manager, and various committees member, but gradually delegating roles, mentoring coaches and going to just coaching only.
I competed from age 11, but only currently just jogging and walking. But gradually getting fitter so as to do more with my granddaughter's and run with group warm ups.
I presently live in Sale, Cheshire, near Manchester UK.
A UKA Level 3 Endurance Performance Coach. Specializing in marathons, road and cross country racing, but also all track middle distance events and fells, hills and trails.
So my coaching is covering all endurance events and surfaces ie Cross country, road racing, fells, hills and trails, and distances from 800 metres on track up to Ultra-marathons on trail & road.
I was half way through level 4, when the courses were discontinued by the NGB and changed to another format. But I continue to educate myself whilst refreshing and reinforcing existing skills and knowledge.
What's Best About the Training Group Sessions and this training & racing website
Motivation, knowledge, skills development, lifestyle, progression, goals, performance, achievement.
We can show you the best way for you, to progress your fitness.
Train to improve, or target a race, and achieve your goals.
Whilst also realizing your potential and thoroughly enjoying and sharing your whole running experience.
We can show you what will work best for you, point out the pitfalls and their prevention, explain the best practice, show you that with foundation building, patience, consistency and progression, your dreams become reality.
The Training Group runs and sessions help you to learn all the various types of training methods, why you are doing them, what they deliver for you and how to apply them most effectively to your circumstances.
Seasonal training, also event specific training, whether for 5K, 10K, Half Marathons, Marathons, Ultras, off-road, cross-country, fells trails
Eventually being able to think for yourself, and to apply the right decision-making process and smart training development, particularly when life throws in obstacles and setbacks.
I run because I love to.
But there was a period where I allowed myself to give my time to others and work, without allowing the time to look after myself regularly, therefore I became unfit, physically out of shape, over weight and I have not raced in over 17 years.
My family has a history of Osteoarthritis and in recent years, I began to show signs of the effects of this myself. Initially in my back and hips then later in my knees, although just on the medial side whilst the Cruciate ligaments were fine and also the, lateral sides, but eventually the diseased cartilage was eaten away and became bone to bone, causing a bowing of my legs.
I could put up with pain as I have high tolerance, but the swelling when I was active was limiting my ability to work and play, whilst effecting my lifestyle.
March 2007 I had a total knee joint replacement of my left knee and then my right knee two days after Christmas 2007, both are so far very successful.
I was nearly 17 stone at one time, but lost some weight before the operations and also performed some pre-hab exercising to strengthen legs.
The Osteoarthritis is not caused by running, in fact running gives you a certain amount of protection. But I played football, cricket, rugby etc and have had a couple of occupations that certainly accelerated the disease, which definitely takes hold if you have had a sports injury or impact that maybe was not fully sorted and most certainly runners are down the list of other sports people suffering from OA.
To shorten the story to bring it up to date, I wrote a plan to regain fitness, re-learn how to walk and run with prosthetic knees, whilst building core strength and overall conditioning and gradually reducing weight, high blood pressure and bad cholesterol levels.
Not particularly very fit presently, so run just for the pure fun and exhilaration of it.
Running came naturally to me as a child, and in some ways I was born to run.
One of my earliest recollections are of as a six year old in the summer months, going out of the back door at 6am and just running all day, going home from the adjoining fields and park, returning home at meal times, but having my older siblings having to chase me at night to take me home to sleep.
Running just came naturally to me, I wasn’t asked to do it, it was just me, it was what my body and mind wanted to do, it was effortless.
Ok enough for now, I will elude more to my development and influences, positive and negative, along the way. And hope to chronicle my personal progression to a reasonable fitness for my age, whilst embarking on a few races, probably trail, whilst uploading photo’s old and new, and passing on useful info and links.
Cheers
Dave
My New Blog
http://runningwisedr.blogspot.co.uk/
My Old Blog