Do any of you use a coach? How has that worked out for you? How did you find her/him?
I'm starting to explore this as a possibility.
I would be really interested in this too.
an amazing likeness
A while ago I asked a pretty similar question in the general forum and got some good insights. I haven't been able to follow through for the simple reason...I can't figure out how to find a coach in my area, there's no obvious 'listing' place. There are a few that I know of by name...so if I get my act in gear, there's at least a starting point.
kathyherrick here in our group seems to getting some good coaching and it's helping her with a solid progression to her first half.
If you hop over to NaderAlfie's log and click on the PR section, then click on his 5K time progression, you get an amazing perspective of what good coaching advice and his personal desire to act on it and improve race times can do (~3 minutes of time in 2 years in the 5k!). Beyond impressive, I'd take 10% of that improvement to my half marathon PR if I coaching could help me find it.
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
Thanks for the reference link. I've reached out to a few coaches and will update with anything interesting. I did hear back from one already as a result of filling out the form on trainingpeaks.com, but I think those results will be heavily tri biased and I'd rather work with a pure running coach (it's a bad start when they ask if I work out with a power meter). I was a member of a large tri club in the past and everyone seemed to have a coach (as a lot of us were beginners) and the barrier to entry in that field seemed low.
http://www.rrca.org/find-a-coach/
A place to start anyway.
MTA: ah, I see that's already on the previously linked link.
Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and roguesWe're on the road to nowhere, let's find out where it goes
I found and hired one. Ask me in six months-we'll see how it goes!
redrunner, have you ever run with a local running group? Definitely keep us updated on how the coach thing works out for you.
I'm thinking that before I go the coach route, I might try to find a running group that does a few runs a week. I have no trouble getting all my easy runs in and I can usually motivate myself to get in a tempo run once a week. I just find it SO hard to hit the track for any sort of speedwork. I'm intimidated by it, actually. I wonder if I would benefit more from running speed work with a group OR having a coach lay it all out for me.
I want what Kathy has!!! Seems to be working so well for her
I have done some running with a group. I think there is a lot to be gained by that. What I find now, though, is it is just too 'random'-whatever the group is doing has no relation to what I'm trying to achieve. They could be running too slow, too fast, wrong kind of intervals for what I should be doing, etc. If you've ever read Joe Friel, who is the guru of tri coaches, he talks about the importance of periodization, having a plan, etc. However, he does mention something about how random training is as effective for new athletes (I hope I'm paraphrasing his thoughts correctly). If you look for a coach on training peaks, you're likely to find someone who is one of his disciples. I recommend reading him even if you're not interested in triathlons.
I also have issues going to the track, which was one of the reasons for me getting a coach-introducing faster work, smarter. The other, though, was not because I want help achieving a goal. I'm taking the opposite approach and letting the coach define the goal based upon what he thinks I should be doing and I'm not suprised the direction we're taking.
I agree what Kathy has would be perfect-a coached group of people of similar ability/experience all training for the same goal. Like HS track! This is another thing that triathletes seem to have embraced more than runners.