Dena Evans joined runcoach in July, 2008 and has a wide range of experience working with athletes of all stripes- from youth to veteran division competitors, novice to international caliber athletes.
From 1999-2005, she served on the Stanford Track & Field/ Cross Country staff. Dena earned NCAA Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year honors in 2003 as Stanford won the NCAA Division I Championship. She was named Pac-10 Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2003-04, and West Regional Coach of the Year in 2004.
From 2006-08, she worked with the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative, helping to expand the after school fitness programs for elementary school aged girls to Mountain View, East Menlo Park, and Redwood City. She has also served both the Stanford Center on Ethics and the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession as a program coordinator.
Dena graduated from Stanford in 1996.
What would happen if you ran the same pace over the same distance every day you went out to run? Many people do it, and you may have even been that person yourself at one time.
You may have also wondered why your Runcoach plan has workouts at various paces and distances on your way to your goal race. We wanted to take a few moments to explain a few objectives to changing pace within workouts and/or running intervals.
Kick is a term used to describe an emphatic finish. The final sprint is one way to talk about it, but many times, a kick can include a push that more closely resembles a tsunami rather than a crashing wave.
Whether you are running a one mile race or a marathon, sometimes a kick can help leave you with the definitive and lasting positive memory of a race that may not even have gone well otherwise. So, what are some key things to remember as you prepare to unleash yours next weekend?
Unless you are nursing a lengthy consecutive day streak, there is probably a limit to the type of weather you will endure to complete or at least attempt your scheduled run. This line is probably very personal decision point, honed over time and perhaps drawn at a different place than when you first began running.
We're 2 months into the New Year. Seems like a good time to revisit the goals we set on 1/1/15. Here's a look back at a great article by Dena Evans from 2010.
Goals seem like a good idea at the time. They motivate us to start, they provide good fodder for conversation, they keep us organized. However, if they are truly going to be accomplishments we look back on with pride, these goals must also include the risk that we might not pass the test.
Call me old school. Or maybe, I’ve been reading too much Michael Pollan. But I have had a hard time getting used to the “food-like” products marketed toward distance runners, marathoners in particular. Whatever happened to old-fashioned energy consumption? That is, what’s wrong with food and drink? Am I the only one who feels this way?
This week, I finally gave our double stroller away – my kids now weighing far too much in combination, and having long since passed the time when they found it acceptable to be belted into the stroller and pushed along the bike path or the sidewalk. As I watched it folded up and driven away in someone else’s car for someone else’s kids, I must confess to a bit of nostalgia.
Nicole is a self-described “Navy wife” living in Bremerton, Washington, where her husband is a submarine officer. Mom to 16 month old Aiden, Nicole was a teacher before the frequent moves began: “mostly Florida, Ohio, South Carolina, Connecticut to here.” Nicole recently completed the Inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle Half Marathon in June while training with Focus-N-Fly. Finishing was the goal, and a time of 2:40:51 provided optimism for future training and shrinking times.
Krista (Limbo) Davis grew up in Boston, where she ran track through high school, but always with obstacles – hurdles, a high jump bar - never just straight ahead and not over long distances if she could help it. From Boston, she went out to Colorado for college and the life of a ski bum for six years, competing as a sponsored snowboarder in the X-Cross and Half Pipe. Krista moved to California because her family was out that way and she was sick of snow. As she tells it, her second to last weekend in Colorado it snowed 30 inches on Mother’s Day and she thought, “You know what, I ‘m done. “ Krista met her husband Dale in San Diego, and his brother provided the encouragement to begin running marathons.
As it happens, Krista ran 3:19:43 for an eleven-minute personal best at Boston on April 21, then married Dale on May 1st. Just now returning to running and with Dale within earshot, she admits, only partially joking, “The wedding was planned around the marathon schedule – Boston is only once a year, but you can get married anytime.”
Karen was born and raised near the beach in the Los Angeles area, and graduated from Stanford, class of 1985. While she was on the Farm, Karen majored in Industrial Engineering, and played on the Softball team and in the band. She settled in the area right after school, and continues to live in Palo Alto with her husband and two kids, ages eight and six. Karen spends her days working in marketing at Google. She enjoys being outdoors, traveling, and obviously, running- Karen has completed 45 marathons, most recently the Paris Marathon on April 5th, 2009.
The oldest of six siblings, John was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, originally heading west to attend Santa Clara University. Enrolling with a scholarship for athletic training, he retains the ability to tape an ankle in approximately 18 seconds. John attended law school just up the road at University of San Francisco, following a two-year stint at a Jesuit-run community outreach program in Seattle. His career as an attorney has taken him through a variety of in-house counsel and corporate roles, and he presently serves as Managing Director of Silicon Prairie Partners, a venture fund based in Palo Alto. John has four kids, aged 17-30. Recently turned 56, he freely admits to exulting in an age group win at a local trail race despite finding out later that only one other person his age had entered.
