Blood cancers such as leukemia, Hodgkin’s or non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, or myeloma kill someone every 10 minutes in the United States. That staggering and offensive fact is enough to make even the most faithful among us cower in a defeatist’s slouch. But legions of endurance athletes — and endurance athletes in the making — are banding together to compile an even more impressive set of statistics.
Team In Training
®, affectionately and appropriately known as TNT, is taking a shock-and-awe approach to the war on cancer, putting legs, feet, and hearts to work on finding new reasons to hope. Founded in 1988 as a fitness/fundraising extension of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, TNT and its exclusive roster of training professionals have helped nearly half a million people cross the tape in marathons, half marathons, century rides, triathlons, and hikes. And somewhere along the way, they helped to funnel $1 billion toward blood cancer research and patient services.
It’s a synergistic blend of bold athleticism and selfless philanthropy that is changing — and saving — lives every day.
James Sheremeta, now a masters-level runner, boasts an astonishing list of personal bests that includes a 4:20 mile, a 2:26:07 marathon, and a win at the 2009 OC 5K. When asked what it means to run for TNT, as opposed to for oneself, he replied, “To put it in a nutshell, you’re training and doing something amazing for yourself while doing something that makes a huge difference and really matters to a great many others.”
Sheremeta and his counterparts — TNT employs more than 1,700 elite coaches nationwide — provide participants with unprecedented access to the latest training, nutrition, strategy, and motivational resources available, all in a laid-back team setting.
So for those who haven’t been able to find the moxie to bash out those 26.2 miles, TNT dangles an enticing carrot. Because when you are pounding the pavement, sweating through that purple jersey, every step you take is progress toward a cure — forward movement in the pushback against a relentless and devastating set of diseases. And that beats a medal and a participation certificate any day.
Website: www.teamintraining.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/myteamintraining
Q: What made you decide to participate in TNT as a coach?
James: I married my wife about 10 years ago and she was already a head TNT coach. I just started helping her with her teams. I’ve been a professional coach for over two decades and became official in 2003 with the Virginia Beach half marathon.
Q: What kind of specific coaching do you do for TNT?
James: As a personal coach, I specialize in everything from the mile all the way up to the marathon. I’ve won hundreds of races in my career, but my specialty is in the medium-distance races.
Q: What kind of commitment does it take to be a TNT coach?
James: I’m sure that this is a unique experience for each coach. For me, I put everything into my coaching and what I do. It’s 24/7 for me. I’m always planning something, working on schedules, answering training questions. It’s a constant process, day in and day out. It’s like with anything else — the more success you want to have, the more time you’ll put into it.
Q: Tell me about the broad spectrum of athletes you work with.
James: It runs the spectrum, but the majority of athletes are new participants who are coming in with little-to-no actual running or marathon experience. But that’s the beauty of the program, because it focuses on safely taking the person from point A to point B, getting them across the finish line safely. Then you’ve got a large contingency of participants who come back, so they are just working on improving. Then there are a few in the upper range who are elite runners.
Q: How do you turn someone from a working mom or dad into a marathon finisher?
James: It’s a huge undertaking, so the primary focus is acclimating in the beginning. You don’t want to rush, adding mileage too quickly, so we’re very careful with the training load in the first 3–4 weeks. The first thing is just learning and developing that mileage base. Saturday sessions are the long runs. We also have a myriad of clinics in the first 5–6 weeks that cover injury prevention, proper shoes, warm-up, and cool-down. Then it’s all about being patient and consistent with their training on the weekdays, and then ramping up the mileage on the weekends. For that we do a cyclical process, where we increase the mileage for two weeks, then back off so their bodies can synthesize and recuperate. This way, people don’t end up with overuse injuries.
Q: Is it difficult getting people to invest the time necessary to safely complete a marathon or half marathon?
James: It’s really not that much. People come in with this misconception that the weekday training will be a huge undertaking. We divide participants into A, B, and C — beginner, intermediate, and advanced — by experience and pace. We outline everything that they should be doing so there’s no guessing. Time commitment is kind of a hard thing to pinpoint, because of pacing, but assignments during the week are very manageable and take about an hour a day to complete. We also increase non-impact cross-training — like a 45- to 60-minute session on the elliptical, or something like that — and we have a day off, which people are always happy to see.
Q: And what happens when life gets in the way?
James: As coaches, we make modifications to their schedules if they have injuries or other extenuating circumstances. A lot of variables come into play.
Q: What kind of nutrition education do you provide for inexperienced or first-time runners?
James: We constantly cover it because it’s so critical. We want them to develop a protocol that becomes second nature by race day. Basically, we say to try to get 8 oz of fluid every 20 minutes, then a PowerBar
® Energy Gel approximately every 45 minutes. Then we get into more specific fueling aspects as distances increase. We have a certified dietitian who comes in, and we’ll do a nutrition lecture.
Q: As an elite athlete yourself, how much of a difference can nutrition and hydration make in a race?
James: If you’re not following a good program, it’ll impact performance and, worst-case scenario, your overall health and well-being. It’s something you have to practice constantly — before, during, and after workouts. Even if you practice perfect nutrition on race day, and haven’t practiced it all the way up to the starting line, it’s not going to make that much of a difference. We tell them to approach it like their training — practice it so that it becomes second nature and it’ll be easier on race day.
Q: What upcoming TNT events are you training people for right now?
James: Right now they’re getting ready for the San Diego Rock‘n’Roll Marathon and Half Marathon on June 6 and the Seattle Rock‘n’Roll event on June 26.
Q: People enter races every day. What would you say to someone who isn’t as familiar with TNT and what you guys do? What’s your recruiting message?
James: If you want to look at it from an athlete’s perspective, it’s better to have professional and experienced coaches and mentors who guide you through the fundraising process. You get the constant feedback from the coach, program, and mentor. It’s awesome to have the group dynamic and the ease of training that comes with running with a group. If, for example, you’re going to peak at 20 miles for a long run, it’s a lot more fun to do it with a big group of people as opposed to doing it on your own.
Not only are you doing it for yourself, you’re doing it for others. And that makes a great, powerful package when you put it all together. The group becomes much stronger than the individual, and the individual excels when in the group. To learn how to train properly for a marathon or half marathon, you can get a book. But when you run into problems, you don’t have any dialogue to address them. It’s tougher if you’re trying to do it on your own. And when it comes to cancer, most people think they’re unaffected. But once you start asking around, it’s amazing how many people you really know who have been affected. And that adds even more significance to the cause.
James Sheremeta’s Team Elite profile can be found by clicking here: http://www.powerbar.com/profileInfo/TNTPowerBarAthlete.aspx
If you’re interested in learning about PowerBar
® Team Elite™ athletes or how you can join the ranks, click on the
Team Elite link at PowerBar.com.
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