Do you need a running coach to be a good runner? No. 

Do you need a running coach to get faster? No.

Do you need a running coach to run a half marathon? No.

You do not need a running coach to run. Just like you do not need a trainer to go to the gym. And you do not need a nutritionist to eat food. 

Everyone can run. Ancient humans were persistence hunters. We chased our prey until the prey couldn't run anymore. We have been running since the beginning of our time on earth.

But, a running coach can help you meet your goals faster and with less chance for injury.

If you are wondering, "why hire an online running coach?" the better questions are, what are my goals, and how am I going to accomplish them?

Everyone has a set of goals. Small goals and big goals, that span over short timeframes and long ones. The key to achieving goals is that you have to come up with a plan to get there.

Does that mean you need a coach? No.

What are your goals?

You signed up for a race a year from now. 

What is your approach to the race going to be? 

• Are you going to train all year for that race? 

• Are you going to pull out a 16-week training plan leading up to the big day? 

• Are you relying on your general level of fitness to get you through? 

All valid questions that you will ask yourself in the process of deciding to sign up. 

What does success look like at this race?

• Are you looking to participate, to start smiling, and to finish smiling?

• Do you want to run 10k in under an hour? 

• Do you want to qualify for Boston? 

• Do you want to finish a hundred miler? 

• Do you want to cross the finish line knowing you got the best out of yourself?

You signed up for the race for a reason and because you want a specific outcome. What is it?

I went climbing with some friends recently, and the first question one asked was, "How do I win at this?". Well, that is a loaded question. My answer was, "Only you can answer that." 

I'm a complete newb to climbing. It's a lot of fun, and it's tough. Especially for a runner with no upper body strength (ahem, this is why I'm climbing, to get stronger). I showed up that day to complete a problem I couldn't get last time I was there. 

Now at the climbing gym, they have graded difficulty by colors — the first being white, the second yellow, etc. And I say ect. because I don't know what the rest of the colors are, but there are a LOT more than 2. I'm working on yellows. 

So, that day I showed up and climbed some of the "easiest" problems on the wall. But they were not easy for me; the one I wanted to complete was at the top of my ability level. And I didn't even make it. I got a lot farther than I had the last time I tried, and I considered that a win. 

Did I win by completing the most challenging problem on the wall? No. Did I win by placing in a competition? No. I won by my terms, and that is all that we can all do in any part of life.

How are you going to meet your goals?

Now that you understand your goals, do you have the tools to get you there?

What is your current level of capability? What is your knowledge to build on where you are? Where are the gaps? Can you learn everything you don't know?

There are books and magazines and blogs and videos on running. All the information that exists is available to everyone. There really isn't any magic to it. Put sneakers on and put one foot in front of the other. You can spend all the time you have reading and learning how to run.

Now I want to remind you that you can hire a coach. A coach is someone who has knowledge about how to become a better runner. You do not need to know it all; sometimes, you just need someone to show you the way.

People got to school to learn a skill. 

If you want to become an electrician, you go to school. After school, you apprentice with an experienced electrician until you get your ticket.

If you want to become a doctor, you go to school. After school, you complete a residency, working with experienced doctors who show you the ropes.

If you want to become a teacher, you go to school. After you finish school, you teach in a supervised classroom.

Do you see the theme here?

To learn a profession, which is to perform a set of skills, you go to school. Then you are supervised to make sure you know how to execute.

Well, a running coach has gone to school. They have studied how the body works; they have learned how the mind works. They have got a set of skills.

So, the question is. Do you want to run? Or do you want to learn how to run? The two things are very different. When you have an electrical problem in your house, do you want to be able to turn the lights on ASAP (by paying the electrician), or do you want to learn how to fix it yourself? 

What does a running coach do?

Training shouldn't be complicated. There are many different ways that will work to get you to the finish line and allow you to accomplish your goals. 

The question is which one of the 100's of ways to approach this problem is the best for you? What plan fits the best with your life, your job, your kids, and other commitments on your time. That's what a coach does, they work with you to understand what your life is like and they use their knowledge to come up with a one of plan that works just for you. 

Your training plan should take into account your running history. 

Your coach works with you to understand what you have been capable of the past, where you have gotten injured, and why and what has worked well. 

Your personalized plan doesn't start you from scratch; it starts you where you are at with your fitness right now. If you grab a plan off of the internet, you often waste weeks in the beginning, as that plan has no idea of your current capabilities, it either starts you too aggressive, and you get injured, or it starts you too soft when you could start off much more advanced. 

For example, I start in the first few weeks of my marathon training with 30k long runs. I don't need to build up to that. It would be silly for me to start at a 12k long run and build up from there, wouldn't it? But people blindly grab a plan and assume it will get the job done. It might. But it's not making the best use of your time. A coach optimizes your schedule to make the most efficient use of your training to suit your current abilities.

The funny things about plans are nothing ever goes according to plan. As with most things in life, plans are more of a guide and need to change and evolve as you progress through your training. Things happen, you might get sick, your kid might get sick, or maybe an unexpected work deadline has you pulling 60hr work weeks when you are supposed to be running 100k training weeks. What do you do? 

Unfortunately, when life puts you in high-stress situations that impact your training, it also affects your ability to make clear, competent decisions on how to best adapt to the situation. When you have a coach, all you have to do is let them know whats going on in your life, and they take care of it and make sure you are on the best, most efficient path to get you to your goal. 

Many other issues occur when you are training. Even when you are an experienced runner, unexpected things just happen. Your legs, for no reason, feel like lead weights this week. You are not sleeping as well as you used to and are not waking rested in the morning. You are finding that you are getting tired in the middle of the day and crashing at work. You don't know what to put in your 3rd drop bag. This list is never-ending. 

Everyone you talk to will have an opinion about this too. The problem with that is opinions are just that, an opinion. Most of your friends and fellow runners may have an answer for a similar situation that they had, which may have kind of worked, but in reality, your buddy most likely doesn't know the answer either. The fact is that you end up wasting time messing around with wrong information, and sometimes this leads to lost training time and prolonged injuries. But a coach has multiple different answers and knows how to apply them specifically to your situation to give you the most effective response to help you solve your problem.

Do you need a running coach?

Maybe.

Because sometimes you need personalized attention to find those few things you can fine tune to get much better results than you're already getting.

If you'd like help maximizing what you have, book a free coach consultation to connect about what you'd like to achieve next year. 

I'd love to help you create a plan that makes this year your best running year yet!