Monday, August 19, 2013

I Want to be Your Coach

I sit here with lots of experience as an athlete and a coach. As an athlete I have finished 8 different Ironman races run the Catalina Marathon twice the Berlin Marathon and a couple races beyond the marathon. Anyone I have coached has set personal records every time out. Qualifying for Boston, breaking 3:30 for the marathon, doing a first triathlon, and running western states. But all of that coaching was done for free and I certainly don't feel qualified to charge for my services. It's easy to write a training program for someone. It's easy to give advice that gets someone to the finish line. It's really hard to look at an athlete and individualize the coaching based on what works best for that athlete. Running and triathlon are individual sports and there are as many ways to coach as there are individuals. There is no one plan that works for all.

Why am I talking about this. We had friends over for dinner the other night who are performance trainers/coaches. They have years of training and years of experience doing what they do. It would be knock on them if I hung out my coaching shingle.

Case in point. My one coaching failure is my wife. When I coached her she got injured and had poor results. Since I stopped and she started doing her  own thing, all she does is set records. Do you know what works for her?  Running the same pace every run and running often. How would I figure that out?

So when you search for a coach don't just talk to the coach. Ask talk to successes and to failures and find out if you would fit based on what you hear.

Now if you need help with your running injury, running form or running shoes, hit me up. I have a wealth of experience there.

No comments: