Welcome to my fist blog delving into what it is a running coach really offers.
Do I need a running coach and what do they do?
No, not everyone will need a coach. There is a wealth of advice online, through apps and through your local UKA running club. Many runners successfully complete marathons and ultra marathons through training on their own accord. Generally, these are seasoned runners who are well motivated and may not be chasing pb’s.
Why then are there more runners today investing in a running coach? The same reason why people invest in a personal trainer or an exercise class; to achieve their fitness goals, to gain accountability and motivation to keep them on track.
What does a running coach offer?
Whether you are new to running, returning to running after injury or a seasoned ultra runner, a coach is there to personalise your training, to help you train smarter and reduce the risk of injury but also to encourage you to get the most out of your abilities.
Training plans will be personalised using your own training history data (if available) and regularly updated as you complete your training sessions. A coach will be able to calculate your own training zones to provide a balanced plan to improve running efficiency and fitness levels.
A weekly training plan would often include:
Recovery/Easy runs (zone 1+2)
Tempo run (zone 3)
Threshold training (Zone 4 &5)
Strength & conditioning
Adequate rest and recovery or cross training days
The use of training platforms such as ‘Training Peaks’ are commonly used to program your sessions which can be synced directly to your Garmin / Apple watch / Coros etc. This takes away any planning or thinking on your behalf and you can start your session by a click of a button.
Coaches are there to help you set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely) goals and will be realistic when they feel a goal needs to be adjusted as the training takes place.
Coaches provide accountability, they give feedback and encouragement and help to provided consistency in your training. It can be easy to skip sessions when there is no one monitoring your progress. Most people have busy working/home lives and can sometimes struggle to plan their training. Coaches can regularly communicate with you and are able to adjust your plans around your work/life schedule when needed and most importantly they build a working partnership with you. Without a coach it’s easy to put off a run until tomorrow or the next day. There is no greater satisfaction than completing a workout when, let’s face it, there a hundred other things that we could be doing instead (including staying on that couch!).
A big part of training for an event involves fuelling and hydrating correctly. A coach can advise and guide you on what is recommended to help you fuel correctly, hydrate properly and replenishing the right amounts of electrolytes, in particular sodium, to your system. Most runners under fuel especially for endurance events.
Race preparation is also a key part of coaching. Coaches can provide pacing strategies, advising when might be a good point to ease off or push harder depending on the terrain or point in the race. They can help prepare you to adapt to changing environments on race day and advise on kit and use of aid stations.
If you are fortunate enough to use a coach who lives near you then it would be beneficial to go on a run together. This might just be to talk through strategies, or it might be to practise running form on downhill technical sections, for example. It can simply be used to help build on your coach-athlete partnership which is something you won’t gain online or through use of an algorithm style app.