Two weekends ago I attended the Track and Field 21.5 hours certification course. Over the past week I was determined to read the material before I started with the online test. The test was 200 questions… One coach on twitter told me he did it in 3 hours… hm… the instructors had warned us that  some questions were tricky.

By Friday, coming back to the city from a ridiculous Thanksgiving OverEatingFest, I decided to tackle it anyway, I had read nothing and if I waited, I’d never get around to it. I wasn’t 100% sure about some of the topics, mostly the jumps and the throws, but jumped (ha) right into it.

They were really tricky, the wording was unstable to say the least. I had to reread a few of them outloud! 200 questions. 80% had to be right. So I’d be fine with getting just 160 right… it took me a while, NOT 3 hours. Basically big chunks of Friday, Saturday AND Sunday. I am sure you’re doubting my brains right now… I might have been a bit overparanoid with the trickiness and English not being my native language…

Then, I was done, press “Grade my Exam”, closed my eyes, and:

Congratulations on successfully completing the USA Track & Field Level 1 Coaching Education program!

ehem… that’s just 5 wrong answers in 200! Quite happy with that! These were the topics on the course and exam:

Topic Philosophy, Ethics, and Risk Management Psychology Physiology Biomechanics Training Theory Biomotor Training for the Speed and Power Events The Sprint Events The Hurdle Events The Relay Events The Jumping Events The Throwing Events The Endurance Events The Racewalking Events 

Well, there went two weekends! As for my coaching future, there’ll be some updates soon.  As for my own training, I am now really going to pour over some of the new physiology and training theory I learned (and all the interesting stuff they give us access to online!!!) and create all my workouts for the first half of next year. The decision is made: I am going to focus on the half marathon again, as I did this year. No Spring marathon for me, again. And, what I did this year worked, but that doesn’t mean it’ll work next year. Workouts will be adjusted based on goals, pace, fitness level, etc. As soon as it’s all ready, I’ll share, I promise! Here we go.

Mission Accomplished: I am a Certified Track and Field Coach! Now what?