Personalized Marathon Coaching
Train for your marathon with a clear purpose.
Whether you’re preparing for your first marathon, chasing a personal best or working toward a qualifying time, your training should reflect your experience, your goals and the life you’re fitting it into.
I’m Coach Rick. I provide one-to-one online marathon coaching from Nova Scotia, helping runners build consistent training and arrive at race day with a clear plan.
Make your training work for you
A marathon build involves balancing long runs, harder sessions and recovery over months of preparation. Knowing when to progress, when to adjust and when to rest can be difficult on your own.
Perhaps you’ve followed a plan before but faded late in the race. You may have reached a plateau, struggled to recover between workouts or found that your schedule makes a standard plan difficult to follow.
We start by understanding your experience and what you want to achieve. Then we build your training around your current capacity and adjust it as you progress.
Coaching for your marathon goal
What we focus on
Endurance for the full distance
Develop the capacity to sustain your effort over 42.2 kilometres, with long runs and supporting sessions suited to your experience and stage of training.
Purposeful workouts and recovery
Understand the role of each session and how it fits into the week. Your training balances endurance, intensity and recovery, with adjustments based on your response.
Pacing and fuelling practice
Use training to practise your race approach. We work on managing your effort, taking in fuel and learning what you can sustain before you reach the start line.
Training that fits your life
Build around your available time, work and other commitments. When circumstances change, we adjust the plan together.
How online coaching works
Your training is delivered through Final Surge. Each week, I review your completed workouts and feedback before planning the next week.
You can ask questions through the platform and expect a response within 24 hours. A monthly video call gives us time to discuss progress, challenges and your upcoming race.
You receive:
An individual marathon training plan.
Weekly workout review and training adjustments.
Direct communication through Final Surge.
One video call each month.
Guidance on pacing, fuelling, tapering and race execution.
Marathon experience you can draw onI’ve coached endurance athletes since 2015 and hold NAASFP Marathon Running certification, along with UESCA Ultra Running and Triathlon coaching certifications.
Athletes I’ve coached have achieved marathon personal bests and qualified for major races. My approach combines that coaching experience with an engineering background: understand the challenge, build a practical plan and use feedback to guide the next decision.
Additional physiological insight through O2Max
If you want to explore your physiology in more depth, a separate VO2max test and O2Max assessment can provide training recommendations that I incorporate into your marathon preparation.
Testing and O2Max assessment are separate services and are not included in the monthly coaching fee.
Coaching: $375 CAD per month
Includes your individual training plan, weekly reviews and adjustments, direct communication, monthly video calls and race preparation.
Minimum 3 month commitment.
Frequently Asked Questions
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No. Coaching can support a first-marathon goal as well as a performance goal. We begin with your experience and current capacity, then discuss what preparation makes sense for you.
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That depends on your current training, experience and goal. A consultation helps us assess the time available and what you need to build. Getting in touch early gives us more room to develop your preparation.
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Yes. We can build training around a qualifying-time goal and review your progress along the way. Achieving the time depends on your starting point, preparation and race-day circumstances; it cannot be guaranteed.
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No. We begin with your training history, goals and current capacity. Separate O2Max services are an option we can discuss if you want additional physiological insight.
Let’s talk about your marathon
Tell me which race you’re considering, what you want to achieve and where you need support.
A free consultation is a chance to ask questions and explore whether coaching is a good fit.