Health and Fitness Director Coaches Individuals Toward a 5-K ...

Michelle Lobingier is not just a runner, but a teacher as well.

Over her professional career, the 52-year-old Director of Health and Fitness for the Harrisburg Area YMCA has helped dozens of individuals get off the couch and in shape.

Recently, along with several other instructors, she coached Highmark Blue Shield employees into their first 5-k race -- through a program Highmark created internally.

"The main things we taught were to walk, run a little and then run a little more and take it at a pace you can manage," said Lobingier, who is a certified personal trainer and group exercise instructor.

On July 18, Lobingier will also run the Harrisburg Mile. After all, teachers can have fun too, right?

"When I ran the fun run hard, I finished in 7:52," Lobingier joked recently.

She admits to having run the mile at least eight times, though inconsecutively, through the last decade. It's a part of her routine, much like teaching.

Sometimes, her coaching spurs action beyond the confines of the gym or her "Running 101" class.

"I have at least two people who did Running 101 with us who will do the Harrisburg Mile Fun Run," Lobingier said. "One of the coaches will do it in their age group. I told our class, if you can run a 5k, you can run a mile for fun. So I hope several more can participate."

The class met just once a week, but the program called for three days of exercise per week, with the onus on the individual to run on their own at least twice.

The final goal was to run the Hershey Miracle Run 5-K on June 16. Lobingier said her group started with 25 and about 15 followed through to the 5-k race.

"We met Thursdays at noon and we did whatever the workout was that day," Lobingier said of her program.

As a personal coach, she also communicated via e-mail to encourage her running students to stay on track.

Knowing that the ultimate goal was to run a 5-k outdoors, Lobingier made sure to tailor her program outdoors.

"We ran outside every time we met," she said. "My rule was: The day of the race you?ll run outside, so we?re running outside. But we got lucky with the weather. Some of the other teams, they had rainy days. Ultimately, though, the philosophy was to go out and do it the way you would be running the race."

Lobingier couldn't point to one success story.

"They were all success stories," she said. "All these people were people who hadn't done a 5-k before. There were a variety of ages and there were males and females. But everyone did great."

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Cory Mull covers running for the Patriot-News. You can e-mail him at comulles@gmail.com, or reach him on Twitter at @corymull

Source: http://blog.pennlive.com/running/2012/07/health_and_fitness_director_co.html

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