Thinking of getting a coach (Read 271 times)

 

Stay a million miles away from this guy. He's simply not a real running coach.

 

As for when you NEED a coach: hardly ever. If you're running consistent mileage year round, if you're doing the highest mileage plans out of Daniels, Pfitz, or Hudson, if your body fat is reasonably low, AND if you can't seem to improve anymore, then a high level running coach with a good understanding of exercise physiology should be able to help you come up with a training approach more suited to your needs. Such a coach will not start off by telling you what his or her approach will be. They'll listen to you first and figure out who you are as a runner. To be clear, I'm talking about the very best coaches only. I'd say over half of college coaches don't fall into this category.

 

When are coaches USEFUL:

 

- When you need motivation

 

- When life doesn't allow you to follow an exact schedule out of a book (work, travel, specific race schedule and mix of distances, injuries, etc.)

 

- When you'd rather be told what to do and trust that it will work than second guess yourself. I might get slammed for saying this, but in my experience this attitude is generally more common among women than men. Of course, men are conversely more likely to think that they know better than their coaches when they don't.

 

-When you need someone to tell you to back off! This is the most important by far. I made my biggest breakthroughs when I accepted that I would only finish about 75% of my hardest workouts. Usually it's not that I was incapable of finishing them, but that I would've been going about as deep as I could go, which isn't the objective. I got much more comfortable with pulling the plug, scheduling an additional easy day, and trying the workout again later. Of course, a coach might not always be at the track with you, but knowing when to back off isn't just about what happens int he middle of a workout. Sometimes it's about canceling workouts in advance, skipping a race, taking more easy days, etc.

 

- When your girlfriend will kill you if you talk anymore to her about running

This post rings true to me, especially the bolded part.

I'm feeling pretty good lately and have a big weekend planned.  At lunch today, I'm out running with an older runner who was very fast in his day (way better runner than I am) and I told him I might do a tempo run tomorrow.  He's like "Why? You have an XC race Saturday and then a planned long, steady run on Sunday."   I told him that I'm feeling so good right now I could easily handle another tempo tomorrow.  He came back with "Just because you CAN do that workout doesn't mean you should.  This is EXACTLY how you want to feel coming up to a race.  Antsy and thinking you could have done more work.  You don't need a tempo tomorrow."  I thought it over some more on the run and I think I'll take his advice.  Though he's not my coach it's nice to have someone knowledgable to bounce ideas off of.

 Well, I don't want to get into it too much here, because it involves my wife more than me, but I will say, the accountability factor is a big, if not the biggest reason she's looking for a coach.

Reading between the lines here, $100/mo is really cheap for a great looking and healthy wife.

 

For some reason, I laughed when I read this.

Heh, me too!  Nah, it's not that I want a better-looking wife - she looks just fine to me! - but I would like her to stay around as long as possible.  If coach = more exercise = healthier = longer life, then I'm all about that!

More later about how the meeting went.  Super nice guy, and in all the superficial ways, a stereotypical triathlete (MTA: I know that seems contradictory to some of you).  Passion is definitely cycling; in fact, he works for a local saddle manufacturer.

In other news: we have a local saddle manufacturer.

Strikes me that there's an opportunity for you both here, and maybe he recognises that by effectively not charging you. If the arrangement was on equal partner terms, you could both learn a lot.

 

Why not suggest that you want to basically keep the Hanson's pattern but need someone to monitor progress, and suggest tweaks where you should forge ahead, or rest up, according a coach's insight?

 

He has to recognise that a standalone marathon is a different beast than tri run training, and by adapting your training he will grow his portfolio and experience - and you maybe get some great insight you wouldn't otherwise have!

That's kind of where the conversation headed.  When the discussion turned from my wife to me, the main thing I expressed concern over is the reduction in mileage, and pointed to all the conventional and statistical wisdom that generally indicates more miles = faster times.  He suggested keeping the mileage roughly where it's at, but he'd like to replace some of the weekly easy miles with quality miles - not in terms of another workout, but say, adding a couple of miles to the tempo/long runs or a couple of reps in the speedwork sessions - both of which I've been doing in the later weeks with Hanson's, anyway (in addition to adding around three miles to the easy runs).  His thought is that my base is pretty solid already; replacing some of the easy miles with "quality" miles would add strength and speed.  The vast majority of my miles would still be easy.

But even with that said...I may be imagining it, but I think he may have recognized that he might not know as much about training for open marathons as I do (just as I recognize that I may not know as much about higher-intensity workouts/strength training as he does), and seemed absolutely okay with the idea of just being available to consult with exactly the kinds of things you mentioned.  So I'm leaning towards building that kind of relationship with him.  I'm also interested in getting him to look at my stride - sounds like he could do a little more for me there than just getting a LRS employee to watch me trot around the parking lot a couple times.  He has some kind of software he can run the video through and show me where there are inefficiencies and recommend exercises as appropriate.  Surely triathlon or no, an inefficient stride is an inefficient stride, no?

Might do that when we meet him to have him watch DW ride...like I say, he is obviously, primarily a cyclist (as I suspect, perhaps incorrectly,  most triathletes are), and he was definitely more in his element when we were discussing her needs.  And, he didn't bat an eye when she told him where she was in that activity, which she'd be the first to tell you is very much at the low end of the amateur range.  Really nice guy.

 

I can't help but think this is sounding more and more like snake-oil.

How so? Because of the software thing? I agree, having some kind of fancy software that may or may not help highlight inefficiencies doesn't make one an expert on running form (whether the software is legit or not). But whether he's qualified to train me for an open marathon or not, I do feel confident in his knowledge of triathlon training, which I would assume usually includes some familiarity with good stride mechanics - whether the runner has just gotten off a bike or not. Am I wrong about that?

I think at worst, he's conflating multisport training principles with open marathon training principles in ways that we've been talking about. I don't think he's trying to dupe me with snake oil, especially since he wouldn't effectively be charging me anything.

 

How so? Because of the software thing? I agree, having some kind of fancy software that may or may not help highlight inefficiencies doesn't make one an expert on running form (whether the software is legit or not). But whether he's qualified to train me for an open marathon or not, I do feel confident in his knowledge of triathlon training, which I would assume usually includes some familiarity with good stride mechanics - whether the runner has just gotten off a bike or not. Am I wrong about that?

 

I think at worst, he's conflating multisport training principles with open marathon training principles in ways that we've been talking about. I don't think he's trying to dupe me with snake oil, especially since he wouldn't effectively be charging me anything.

What is wrong with the bolded statement is that, unless you have an imbalance issue causing injury and pain, stride mechanics are about the last thing you should be focusing on to improve your marathon.  The list of runners with awful-looking form who run very fast is long.

Surely triathlon or no, an inefficient stride is an inefficient stride, no?

No.

First of all ask him define efficient vs. inefficient. Then ask him how he can know what's most efficient for every individual's unique bio-mechanics.