Coaching or Self Coaching

You know, this coaching thing has become a topic here in threads for me. So ima chime in again.

I believe whole heartedly that there is nothing like having a Coach. Give him your 10$-15$ a week or whatever and give him your race or goals n he/she should be able to get you there. You do however need to find a coach you click with.. If you find parts of your training is too hard, you communicate that to Him/her n they ll adjust your schedule.

I remember the first time I was asked to run 12x1k@4min. I was like, "Is this guy for real?", I got it done, took extra rest between em cause I couldn't do it. Anyway, just a story for u. (I was training in Mexico then too. Hot n humid. Man that SUCKED.)

If you aren t liking training, tell coach. If he doesn't care or put the time into you that u think u r paying for, change coach. He s paid BY YOU to coach you. Not paid BY someone to coach you. He needs to taylor TO YOU.

Again, we r talking 10-15$ a week, like 2 Starbucks coffee n u have a Pro training U.

You can train yourself. Im totally not against that. But I noticed that we "THINK" we are doing good. But we re just taking shots in the dark at info we are coming across. It s all new info so we think: "WOW, I get it. I see now." But we are just looking at these little pieces of info at a time.. A good coach has a broader view of the whole thing and puts it all together like a puzzle.

Everything should be clear for him/her n they should keep you injury free and get you as close to your goal as possible. I say as close as possible cause I'm the type that believes in having impossible goals. Sorta: "If you aim for the stars, at least you'll hit the moon."

Good luck.

Trick in training is sustainability.

I understand your disappointment. But start to selfcoach will even more send you back in trial and errors ro seek what suits you best and improve you.As you say it's of course an interesting journey to try out on your own, but the best way to find a very experienced coach who knows how to fast improve you, avoid guesses, just guaranteed knows the way to improve you fast.It really sounds you never had this kind of coach?

Story as back up on my comment.

I was at the dentist once. I started talking stocks n the market. Anyway, I said, "Things are so much better now that I got an investor do do my placements."

He replied, "No kidding, I don t try to place my own $ either... I'm a dentist. We re working on your teeth here, right?? Pay the professional to do what they do."

True story..

(Life changing story that just happened out of the blue. That was like 20years ago & here I am writing it.)

Purely online coaching is of rather limited value. Just buy a book (or spend a while reading letsrun dot com if you can screen out the garbage). Most of these coaches are copying plans out of a book anyway. Running is a physical activity that happens in the real world and successful coaching depends on a real, human relationship.

Change your coach now, I recommend this one, who has been responsible for the long-distance and middle-distance sector in Spain among other things, and I think he is not expensive.

No, purely online coaching is very effective if the coach is a very experienced successful one.

Just send me a message and we discuss how to best coach you. Welcome to magic superior online coaching. 🇸🇪🧙🏼‍♂️🇸🇪Coach J.S

I got a coach first my second marathon because my first one went so badly. He got me ready and a couple of marathon's later I reached my goal of qualifying for Boston. And then I fired him. :) The problem for me was that he would give me the program but there was never any "why". I didn't know what my runs were supposed to be accomplishing or the logic behind everything and, for me, that was frustrating.

I then got a new coach, semi-well known, but it was the same issue. So I let him go after a month and started to try and take the things that had seemed to work. I got the Daniels book and only focused on the early chapters where he really explains the objectives of his training methodology - I didn't look at any of his plans - just the ideas. I also scoured Letsrun archives for training threads and tried to learn what I could about exercise physiology.

The key things I think I learned were - Run more, run slower on slow days. And for me, focusing on Threshold work - one day a week - really payed off. So the things folks always talk about. So structure and sequence are important but for most people there is no magic plan. You can kind of rearrange the pieces as you want and you will get better. Find out what works for you.

At 62 I took 15 minutes of my Marathon time, qualified for 5 more Boston Marathons. Won my age group in a bunch of races from 5k to 1/2 marathon.

So becoming my own coach really worked for me. But it might not for someone else. But I found it really gratifying.

once you get out of school, a coach is no longer a gatekeeper to running, they are a helper and a friend. if they aren't helping, if they are hurting, or you don't get along, either hire a new coach or teach yourself.

re teach yourself, one thing i rap knucles on here about is if you are self coaching you better be disciplined and school yourself to be actually smart about running.

you're also ignoring the continuities. you suggest your marathon time suffered from injuries during training. you then talk about burn out, etc., afterwards. those 2 link up if you think about it.

in my other sport i got hurt right before a big competition. i overcame it and got there, did ok, but didn't live up to my PR earlier in the season. i gave myself some credit for competing ok but i'm never repeating that training approach again. even if it got me a PR. i almost didn't make the end goal competition, which was supposed to be the peak.

also, if you were slower self coaching before, faster but hurt with a coach, the answer isn't no coach. it's a different coach.

Lifetime runner now 67 and have been coached and self-coached, and also been a coach.

I've been a lifetime student of running and exercise physiology, and did coach a runner to an English Junior x-country vest and international meet win.

I think even if you have the knowledge, it can be difficult to self-coach, as it requires a lot of self-discipline not to drift towards training the element you enjoy and neglecting those you don't.

Personally I'd tend to overdo the race-pace reps and find some self-justification for ignoring them. It helped me achieve better balance when I was accountable to someone.

I'd say I did enjoy coaching myself as I was doing sessions that I liked, but ultimately my training became much more impressive than my racing. I turned to a coach, and had some of my best running (age-graded) in my life.

The last time around (when I turned 65), I was self-coached using the Easy Interval Method, which did enable me to do mostly rep/interval training, but without overcooking myself, and had a very good year, winning a master's championship (so perhaps, I'm gaining some wisdom).

In your situation, I think you can enter into a dialogue with the coach as to what is working and not working (for example, I did that last time I was coached, asking to move the long run of 1 hour 40 min to once every two weeks, rather than once a week, as I had trouble recovering).

If you just enjoy being self-coached and are not so worried about performance then I'd do that, otherwise, you are probably going to attain your best performances with a coach that is a good fit for you and with whom you can have a good dialogue.

I will not send you a message. You are a known scammer. Also a really bad coach. Next!

roiIaa,
Is He? I saw Him post before. That Wizard guy??
I actually heard different. I thought I saw some of His runners win stuff.
I can t remember where tho. Maybe FB. Magic Wizard something. Same Coach, No?

I tell the athletes that back in the 90's I had the worst coach possible....myself. I trained too hard, didn't achieve probably what I could have and was regularly injured.

What I learned in working with athletes now is that having a coach is important for holding you back, keeping you accountable, bringing out the best in you, and creating a solid training environment.

As good as you think you will run I don't believe it would be as good as having someone helping you along on your journey.

Good luck!

Best comment here (other than mine of course, LOL) im kidding eh. lotsa tight azzs everywhere i don t want them pulling their hair out.

Seriously tho, I got hurt too. I go WAYYY to hard as well coahc. I injured myself many times. Right after that, I even got a coach that I (fudged facts) to about my abilities like an idiot, got injured again..

It took me MANY years, but I ve now learned..

I never understood why so many mediocre runners feel the need to get a coach and spend tons of money on it.

Get a Marathon Training book (Use on Amazon for probably $1), understand the main concepts of training and structuring a running season and apply that to your own life circumstances.

It's not rocket science.

Of course the answer would be quite different, if you want to improve your Marathon time from 2:15 to 2:09.

I mostly self-coached myself after college to some solid PRs. I say mostly. I stayed in touch with my college coach and some buddies. It became pretty clear that their #1 job was to tell me, "That's too much, don't do that."

A coach can analyze your training and pick up on things you are missing.

Self coaching gives you much faster feedback and is easier to adapt to variables in your situation.

I think when people who have been running for a few years need a coach its primarily for accountability and motivation.

I agree almost completely. The "almost" is because before having a coach became so fashionable guys like Ian Thompson, Ron Hill, and Derek Clayton got under 2:10 without a coach. Shorter got first and second in two Olympic marathons without a coach (since leaving Yale.) My old club had at least six guys qualified for the 1976 Olympic Trial marathon without a coach. The guy who used to own our local running shop qualified for both the 1972 and '76 Trials without a coach. Ron Clarke set God Knows how many world records (yes, I could look this up but am just not into doing that now) without a coach. I got my marathon best from 4:34 to 2:35 without a coach. It's a sport where you put one foot in front of the other. Both of my sons have marathon bests within a minute either way of mine without a coach.

I found actual training samples from successful runners were the most useful "resources." There were a few "How They Train" books on the market then. I'd find samples that I liked and use them as a basis for what I would do. Talking to faster guys in person was equally useful. None of this is to say that having a coach can't be useful but it is to say that having a coach isn't necessary.