Why a running coach
pays off:
- Training for a
goal running event is a considerable investment in time and money. You've spent numerous training hours and
considerable funds for race fees, shoes, and clothing. Why chance your performance
to random training methods? A good coach helps runners their best on the day
that matters.
- Saves time. Let a coach do the planning and thinking for you,
allowing precious additional time for family, work, or for other activities.
Coaches provide individualized workouts and explain why they will help. All you
need to do is follow the coaches training plan.
- Injury
prevention. A good coach
provides a progressive training plan based on scientific advice. A good
training plan helps avoid overuse injury by introducing safe, gradual increases
in training stimulus.
- A coach provides support
and encouragement. When a runner
feels uncertain in training, a good coach listens and offers the options to
help the runner/athlete make the best choice for
themselves.
Lloyd Thomas offers
coaching services for runners. Link to list of services.
From the Road Runners
Club of America:
Ten reasons why you
need a running coach:
1. MOTIVATION: Getting
started is important for beginners; keeping going is a necessity for even
experienced runners. A good coach can provide the necessary jump-start in the
first case and continuous pushing in the latter. Reporting on a regular basis
to a coach/mentor--even only once weekly or by mail or phone--can provide an
important keystone to any training plan. "Your `average' athletes aren't
as highly motivated as Olympians," explains Robert Vaughan. "They
work 9-to-5 jobs and can't be expected to train twice daily, or get a massage
four times a week. But given their limited time, a good coach still can
motivate them to achieve their best."
2. SYSTEM:
"Good coaches are like chefs," claims Gary Goettelmann, a coach in
Santa Clara, California. "They have a methodology and a system. A
disciplined athlete who follows his coach's system is bound to improve."
Often, the details in any system are secondary to its mere existence. Jack
Daniels claims you could use eight different systems to train the same athlete
and achieve the same results. He says, "Having confidence in the system is
more important than the actual system itself."
3. PLANNING:
"Proper planning can help sharpen a person's goals," says Atlanta's
Mary Reed. "A person who would like to break 40 minutes for 10-K and three
hours for a marathon may fail at both goals because they're too diverse."
A coach can help pick goals that are realistic and design training plans to
achieve those goals, both long- and short-term." Goettelmann adds:
"This frees the athlete to concentrate on the activity rather than the
planning of it. That provides better focus."
4. ADVICE: Once a
runner has been working for several years with a coach, the training plan
becomes obvious: long runs on Sunday, intervals on Wednesday, rest Friday before
the race. But even dedicated runners need advice. Benji Durden worked with 2:26
marathoner Kim Jones for nearly a decade. "I don't do as much coaching as
I did at beginning," says Durden. "I've gone from being a coach to
being an adviser. Kim developed to the point where she didn't rely on me for
every decision." Jones concurs, adding: "Every athlete needs someone
there to guide them with those decisions." One key role for coaches
advising elite athletes is that of picking races, particularly knowing when to
say no in this era of run for the money. But average athletes need similar help
to avoid over-racing.
5. INJURY
PREVENTION: A coach who carefully monitors an athlete's progress can recognize
when the athlete begins to show signs of the fatigue from overtraining that
often precedes any injury. A coach standing beside the track during a hard
interval workout can call halt, whereas an uncoached athlete might plunge
ahead. If and when injuries do occur, a coach can chart a course of
rehabilitation and call upon the best medical advice to affect a cure.
According to John Babington: "A coach's most important role may be
preventing overtraining, which leads to injury, which puts you out of
commission."
6. PLATEAU BUSTING:
Sooner or later, all runners reach the point when they fail to improve. How to
get off a plateau is a common problem. "When I was self-coached, I felt I
got stuck at one level," says Lynn Jennings. "I had accomplished all
I could do alone." Jennings' first world championship in cross-country
came after she began working again with Babington. The same advantage is
available to average runners who find a coach. "New runners only do what's
fun," explains Reed. "If speed is fun, they train only on the track.
If distance is fun, they never do any speed work." A good coach can
suggest different types of training that may allow the plateaued runner to
climb upward to a new level of performance.
7. CHECK LIST: A
good coach keeps an athlete on course by making certain the athlete follows the
system and plan, as above. According to David Martin: "A coach who is
doing his job remembers where the athlete is heading. He will have a check list
of what's important about different phases of the training plan. So when it comes
time to do a specific workout, the coach can remind the athlete what they are
trying to achieve. This frees the athlete to concentrate on the actual training
itself."
8. FEEDBACK: Most
runners have a hard time evaluating their own training. Keeping a diary helps,
but still is no substitute for a good coach. "Runners tend to doubt their
training," confesses Jennings. "If they are worried that they haven't
quite done enough they think, `Gee, I better do more.' Having a coach
circumvents that, because a coach is an unbiased observer. A coach can look at
your workload and evaluate it more objectively than the athlete. That's
positive, because a coach can say your mileage looks pretty high, time to do
faster work. Or too much speed, you need more of a mileage base."
9. CHEERLEADER:
Runners' muscles run on glycogen, but their minds often run on praise. They
need encouragement. According to Gordon Bakoulis: "A coach can be
emotionally helpful particularly when you have a bad race. The coach can offer
a pat on the back, for starters, then later after you've digested your
disappointment, the two of you can sit down and analyze: why the bad
race?" She adds with a smile: "When you've had a good race, it's also
nice to have someone to celebrate with."
10. FUN: Finally, a
coach can make training fun by varying what the athlete does--even where they
run. The coaching environment offers an opportunity to interact with other
runners working with that same coach. "Athletes do need coaches,"
says David Martin, "but how do you define athlete? Even the everyday
jogger, whose only goal is to have fun, can benefit from a coach." For
those who run for enjoyment, that may be the best reason to seek coaching help.
Contact Lloyd to receive
a questionnaire and start the runnerŐs consultation process. Call
440-590-1805, or email: runwithlloyd@gmail.com,
to set-up a consult and goal-setting meeting.
© Lloyd Thomas 2008. All rights
reserved.