#6 - On Coaches

Anytime you're trying to improve a skill or performance or meet a performance goal, having the help or mentoring of a more experienced person should help you achieve your ends faster. That being said, the majority of the runners I know are self-coached. I assume this is because they, like me, are complete amateurs, and their running already cuts into their schedule and budget enough that it's difficult to justify hiring a coach. That being said, if you can afford to do it, you should hire a coach. I've never worked under a running coach but I assume my slow progress I've made self-coaching would speed up considerably under the tutelage of a qualified professional. I also spend a ton of time designing my own training, and then second guessing said training. A coach takes this stress off.

If you don't have the wherewithal to hire a coach, here are the best resources I've tapped into for my own "coaching" practice.

1. Ready to Run by Kelly Starrett.
This is where I would start from if you're new to running, or have a lot of injury issues and general bad habits. Starrett knows how to keep a body healthy; the steps he lays out in this book cleaned up a lot of my injury issues, introduced me to zero drop shoes, and got me over the hump that kept me from running the marathon I'd been dreaming of for years.

2. The Weekly Word - Podcast by Chris Hauth
If Starrett's book is what got me started, Hauth's podcast is my ongoing treasure trove of "professional" development. If you can't hire a coach, studying this podcast is the next best thing.

3. 80/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Faster by Training Slower by Matt Fitzgerald
This book dovetails nicely with the Chris Hauth podcast. It's a good Zone 2 primer for beginners. I"m sure there are some aspects of this that Hauth would disagree with, but it did really help me get started with Zone 2 training, including plans up to marathon distance for two different skill levels.

4. Training Essentials for Ultrarunning by Jason Koop
Be forewarned, you won't find any specific training plans in Koops' book. I bought it thinking there would be based on the description I read. This annoyed me at first, but Koop has very valid reasons for not including them. Beyond that, this book covers almost everything you need to know to plan for running ultra's, including goal setting, nutrition and hydration, pacing, a great introduction to RPE, and some sound training philosophy. Koop's training methods differ from Hauth's in some ways, but at the end of the day I think they're both working off similar principles, they just time them differently. This is an essential reference that I find myself highlighting and rereading frequently.

Training - 5.5 miles, recovery pace.