I’m in my slow season right now, which is good and bad. On the one hand, I get to run less and I get to run for fun. I have more time on my hands. I’m more relaxed. It’s definitely a good thing! But… on the other hand, I’m working incredibly hard behind the scenes to stay on top of what’s next. Spring training is just around the corner which means I’ll have an influx of training plans to write. I’m also working on a big project that I hope sees the light of day come spring. If it doesn’t, it’ll be back to the drawing board, but I’m hoping with some finessing and real dedication, I can make this thing take off.
Welcome back to the Running Coaches’ Corner! Join Lora Marie, Susie, Debbie, and myself for the Running Coaches’ Corner linkup today and every Wednesday. This week I’m talking training plans.
How This Coach Writes Training Plans
One of the things I like to do during the slow season, as I alluded to above, is to flush out training plans. Every client that hires me for an individual race and personalized training gets a 100% personalized training plan. What does that mean for me? It means we talk over their goals, I look at their past training and recent running, and then I go from there.
The Building Blocks of Training Plans
I build personalized plans from the ground up. How does that work exactly? After we figure out goals and goal races, I draft a rough outline — a backbone of sorts. I learned this trick from my coach who also happens to be my mentor. It’s quite useful. I plug in long runs, weekly totals, and then fill in the blanks. And I do it old school — I write everything down on a paper calendar. Call me crazy but it’s what works for me! After I’ve gotten everything how it should be in a “perfect” world, I start creating the calendar on a training platform.
This is a very broad idea of how I go about building plans for clients, and things don’t always go as planned, and sometimes this idea doesn’t even work at all! It’s all about flexibility. Since flexibility is so important in both creating (coach) and executing (runner) training plans, I usually don’t give clients more than two weeks of training at a time. And sometimes only one week. From the planning perspective, it sure is useful to know how many miles you’ll be running four weeks into a training plan. But logistically and realistically speaking, it’s better to build a fluid plan to adjust for things like illness, vacations, or — god forbid — injury.
With a fluid plan, I can actively gauge how my athlete is doing as the weeks tick by and I can adjust workouts as necessary. There have been some times that one of my girls nailed every single workout and I needed to give her more challenging things to work on, and yet another time when someone was truly struggling and we had to back off quite a bit.
Your Plan is For You
There’s a lot that goes into creating a training plan. I know it doesn’t seem like it when you receive said plan as the athlete, but if you’re using a coach, please know how much care they put into your personalized plan. Time, effort, and real planning goes into these things. Coaches take into account your personal goals, your past experiences, and even your personality and how well you’ll do with certain workouts. It’s not just a copy/paste kind of deal.
I should also mention that you shouldn’t use someone else’s plan. Each person’s plan is written for them — for their capabilities, for their aspirations as a runner, and for their speed and strength. As a coach I can’t, in good conscience, recommend following someone else’s plan at all — but if you’re going to, make sure you’re trained up to the same distance as your friend and only use their mileage as a base, definitely not their speed work. You could end up injuring yourself if you attempt to do someone else’s speed workout or long run, and vice versa.
You Should Hire a Coach
It took me becoming a coach to see the value in having a coach myself. So I totally get it if you don’t dig the idea of having a running coach. But we’re incredibly awesome people (I swear, just ask anyone!) and we’re there to help you succeed. Almost every coach I know also has a coach themselves. There’s real value there, I promise.
Speaking of coaches… I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my coach and mentor, Coach Mark. He’s been such an inspiration and it’s been incredible to learn from him.
So what the heck are you waiting for? Go find your coach!
xo
TALK TO ME!
Have you ever written your own plan, coach or not? Were you happy with the outcome?
Coaches, do you write plans all at once or little by little over time?
Loading InLinkz ...Also linking up with Nicole, Annmarie, Jen, and Michelle today for Wild Workout Wednesday!
35 Comments
I’ve written good and bad plans for myself. I would like to think I’ve learned from each plan…for the better. I’m ready to have someone else do a plan for me. I want a coach to tell me what to do so I don’t have to think about it! Each athlete is different, but I usually write out a plan all at once and then tweak it as needed week by week.
I really enjoy having a coach for exactly that reason. I don’t want to think about it! If you’re serious about hiring a coach, email me. I’d love to work with you!
I train with a strength/endurance coach rather than a running coach. It’s been successful for me, but like you said, it’s really individualized. I’m also friends with an amazing running coach and she gives me little tidbits all the time, which I squirrel away like nuts…
I definitely see value in a strength/endurance coach. So much of running is strength based!
As I running coach myself I certainly see the value of the hiring someone else to coach me. In fact I wrote about it today too
Heading over to read right now… 🙂
I hired a runing coach this year for the NYC Marathon and it was awesome. I especially liked the personalized training plan because it helped me keep focused every week on the tasks at hand.
That’s why I like having a coach as well. My coach helps me focus on each week and each workout, plus see the big picture at the same time.
I didn’t realize so much went into training for races. Very interesting and very smart.
A lot goes into it — we have to keep our runners safe and happy. 🙂
I do write my own plans — all the time! It does seem to work for me. I’m actually quite open to working with a coach, but there’s the money thing. And finding the right fit.
I did a year with runnersconnect, at the time when it was more personalized, and it didn’t work for me. Their plans were too ambitious for me, and I told my coach that multiple times, but he kept telling me it was a confidence thing. Nope, it wasn’t, and I ended the year injured — not majorly, but just enough to have my last half of the year really suck — not necessarily due to them, but I gave it a full year and then moved on.
I definitely did like not having to think about my workouts!
It’s important to find the right fit, for sure. If you’re serious about hiring a coach, I recommend going through the initial consult with a few (they’re usually free) and really digging and asking questions that are important to you. I think you’ll be able to find your match fairly quickly. I’m happy to chat with you if you want to talk coaching. 😉
That sucks about Runners Connect. Your coach should have listened to your concerns.
Hiring a running coach was a game changer for me, I don’t think I could ever go it alone again.
It takes a lot of the guesswork out. I don’t even want to write my own plans. I’d much rather have someone else do it for me!
I’ve been a running coach for almost 10 years and I find that the paper-and-pen method you mentioned is the best ever! I follow a very similar line of thinking as you and I think one of the best tips is that the coach has to be as flexible as the runner. The principles of training are always the same but the conditions change and we have to adapt those principles to those conditions. That’s where having a coach is so helpful. Not everyone responds the same way to training and adapting to each runner’s specific needs is when success happens!
Isn’t it so much easier to see it written down and be able to erase and re-write if necessary? It’s refreshing someone else does it similarly. 🙂
I find even when I write a plan in its entirety, I end up changing it almost weekly. Life happens.
Great post! I think that’s one of the reasons it’s so important to work with a running coach because you get a plan that’s created FOR YOU.
Exactly. I’ve used cookie cutter plans before. Have they gotten me to the starting line? Absolutely. Have I performed my best? Eh… The personalized approach is far superior.
I’ve been considering getting a running coach for the last several years, but debated whether it was worth the expense since running is simply a hobby for me. It’s reassuring to get a sense for what goes into coaching from the other side, and to see how many considerations go into writing a training plan. There is definitely a lot of value in flexibility – and I think many folks forget that we are not machines who can follow every plan to the letter! Life happens, right? Thanks for sharing!
I’ve used cookie cutter plans and I’ve used a coach. I’m not setting records, I’m not BQing, but I am invested in running as best I can and snagging PRs if/when possible. So I can completely relate when you say running is a hobby for you.
I will say this, though. If someone plans on running longer than a 10K, there is major value to a running coach. A lot can happen during a half marathon (and longer distance). Coaches can help with strength training, cross training, injury prevention, sometimes nutrition, as well as overall plan building.
And life does totally happen… 🙂
This post reminded me that I want to create my own workout plan this year vs following premade plans. Thank you!
Good call! Let me know how you like it compared with a pre-made one. I would be interested to hear your experience!
I have done a variety of “planning.” I used a Hal Higdon plan for my first marathon for my first two marathons, and had great success. I used the same plan, but tweaked it here and there for my third marathon…but that race was a disaster due to a lot of unexpected events (and planned events), which really messed with my weekend running. Also, it was for a summer marathon, so training through the spring was tough (again, mainly due to the huge amount of obligations already on my calendar). I worked with a coach for my recent marathon and that went well…but race day threw me a huge curve ball (that hip/groin crap), so my finish time did not reflect what I truly was capable of doing (though I did enjoy training with a coach). Yes…all over the map on this one LOL It’s reassuring to see how much work goes into making each training plan!
I’ve used cookie cutter plans myself. Having now had a coach, though, I won’t ever use a cookie cutter plan again.
I have never hired a coach, but I know several people that have and benefited from the plans. I think it could be a great investment depending on what your goals are.
Absolutely. Even if the goals are as simple as completing a 5K or a half marathon, it’s always a wonderful investment to invest in your own training!
Great insight! I’m hoping to get my run coaching certification soon, but I’m sure I’d benefit from having someone coach me too!
I didn’t use a coach before I became certified myself. And now knowing what I know, I will never not use one again!
I used a Hal Higdon for my first ever marathon and now I am using a strength and endurance coach- and it has made a huge difference. I used to write my own plans but found that I was always putting my plans on the back burner and focusing mainly on my clients’ plans. Working with a coach helped me shave nearly an hour off my marathon time….while I am not BQ’ing yet, I hope to get there in the next 2-3 years!
I used HH as well for a couple of races. It was all good for a half, but I felt like for my first marathon I didn’t have enough mileage under my belt.
Ah, BQ dreams! Love it. You’ll get there!! 🙂
Many runners just don’t realize the difference that having a personalized plan will make in their training. As a runner, I always created my own, though my husband/coach had plenty of input. 🙂 As a coach, I love making plans for my runners. There really is both an art and a science to writing a plan that will be effective, is achievable for the athlete, and which they will enjoy.
Absolutely. It’s such a balancing act. Because if you make it effective and tough, the athlete might not even enjoy it. And then they won’t achieve the goals.
I love that you and your husband tag team. I wish my husband would at least run with me! Sadly, he claims he doesn’t like running. I call BS… he just hasn’t experienced the runner’s high yet. 😉
I have really enjoyed working with a coach and having my own personalized plan. I think we did great this year training for my first marathon and I owe it all to her, even though I had my doubts! It’s cool to learn more about that process, so thanks for sharing!
I’m so glad you had a good experience with your coach. I swear, it’s life changing isn’t it?!
[…] week on the Running Coaches’ Corner, I discussed how I write training plans and why it works for me and my clients. This week I’m going to tell you why you should […]