Monday, April 21, 2008

USA Fit?

Has anyone ever done any of the USA Fit training programs? There's one here in DC, and a couple friends of mine are talking about joining to try to train for a fall marathon. The timing works out pretty well for me for Chicago, but for $115, I'd like to actually hear from someone who's done it before joining.

Thanks...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey. I actually did DC Fit when I trained for the Marine Corps Marathon in 2001 and 2002 and I did half the season with them in 2003 trying to train for a 1/2 marathon before getting hurt/needing foot surgery.

I LOVED it in 2001 and 2002. LOVED IT. By the end of that though, I knew all the stuff they were teaching at seminars and I could never find people to run with. The group was mostly geared towards beginners (those running groups were HUGE) and the blue/green groups (the faster ones) were super small. Since you're faster than me, that would be my concern for you. I'm sure you can e-mail someone and see how big they expect the faster groups to be. Also, that was a long time ago and it looks like they have some new coaches. Keep me posted...that's how I got my running start and I'd love to hear how the group is now.

Joe said...

thanks, audrey. that's definitely a ringing endorsement.

i'm actually not as fast this year as i have been in years past, probably because i was injured for almost 6 months of 2007, and it's been a slow road back. i'd probably be right in the middle of the current group breakdown.

if i decide to do it, i'll let you know how it goes (if not, i'll let you know what my friends think).

Nicole said...

I did PortlandFit and it was great because there were a TON of people, lots of support, access to information and professionals and incredibly well orchestrated!

Did ChicagoFit and it was uncoordinated and very few people. Suffice it to say, not a good experience!

Basically, I think it will depend on the city, but the overall training program is very doable for any fitness level and not as time consuming as some I've seen.

Just my 2 cents :)

Joe said...

thanks nicole. every little bit of info helps. as you may have figured out, we're big on science here; all data points are valuable. :)

i emailed the organizers, they suggested i'd be in the yellow pace group.

The more I have read, and hearing from you all, I think that I'm going to probably do it. I need all the help I can get to get through my first one.

Thanks for the thoughts.

jeanne said...

I did dc fit in 2006. eh. it was a big enough group that i always had someone running at my pace. but the coaches were..um, not that informative. ok, they were just bad. gave bad running advice.

the good part was that all training runs started at the pentagon and went thru major parts of the actual marathon. but now they're out in vienna or somewhere, I hear.

So, good if you need lots of pals to train with, but take coaches advice with grain of salt. unless they now have good coaches.

oh, and also i signed up for dc fit thru agreeing to raise money for a charity--i think cure autism now. you get to set your own amount to raise, very low pressure. So I raised $80.

carry on!