“You guys might not know this, but I consider myself a bit of a loner. I tend to think of myself as a one-man wolf pack. But when my sister brought Doug home, I knew he was one of my own. And my wolf pack… it grew by one. So there… there were two of us in the wolf pack… I was alone first in the pack, and then Doug joined in later. And six months ago, when Doug introduced me to you guys, I thought, “Wait a second, could it be?” And now I know for sure, I just added two more guys to my wolf pack. Four of us wolves, running around the desert together, in Las Vegas, looking for strippers and cocaine. So tonight, I make a toast! “
Tonight, Bo and I had the great opportunity to feel like we were part of the running wolf pack. We’ve never been part of a weekly running club together due to two barriers: time prioritization and intimidation.
After my experience with the Bryn Mawr running club i’ve been hesitant to join anything more than the NYRR. While the people at the BMRC were all very nice, they didn’t have formal workouts or pace groups. Therefore, I was often running alone as most of their regulars were seasoned runners training for races such as Boston or New York and keeping a pace of less than 8 minute miles. This left me feeling intimidated and dissapointed in my running ability as I would always compare myself to those around me. 
Once we moved to NYC, a running club was never a priority for us because we didn’t realize the power of the pack. We figured that it’d just be an inefficient way of getting our workout in and end up wasting our time. But, running with a group is EXACTLY the opposite as we both found out tonight. The East Side Lululemon (66th and 3rd) and West Side (Lincoln Center) stores sponsor a weekly Wednesday night running group Spring through the Fall in Central Park. Some of the benefits we discovered were as follows:
-A coached run with leaders for each pace group (7-8, 8-9, 9-10, and 10 plus minute miles) ensures that you’re running with people of your caliber and won’t feel out of place.
-Running with other people who are sometimes faster helps you to push yourself and realize your true potential. Tonight I kept a 9:30 pace for the first mile and Bo found himself keeping a 7:15 at one point!
-A coached run provides an established workout plan so you are forced to focus on intervals, speed work, or other often avoided forms of training. Tonight’s workout was 2-3 laps of the lower loop in the park. The first lap we were focusing on speed and power as we went up the hills and then recovered during the downhill portions. The second lap we focused on speed during the flat and changing our stride on the hills while using them for a recovery. Including hill workouts and speed fartleks in my weekly training should really help me improve my half marathon time!
-Everyone was so friendly and high off the positive endorphins! The people are inspiring as many of them are passionate about the sport of running whether they are Iron Women, Iron Men, triathaletes, or a beginner runner who is enjoying their first endorphine high post run. I even ran into an old friend from UGA who I hadn’t seen in 3 years and a fellow blogger- Jesse from Jesse Runs the City!!
-The run leaders ensured that everyone had finished and returned before they headed back to the stores. They wanted to make sure no one was left behind in the dark.
So, as you can see from the above, Bo and I absolutely loved our experience tonight and would recommend a local Lululemon running club to everyone! You can go to your local Lululemon store site to find out more about their community events. Most stores offer a running group once a week and a yoga class once a week free of charge.
