The Questions Everyone Asks Me
I’m too slow - why do I need a coach?
If I had a magic wand, I’d wave away two of the most prelevant words in the running community: slow and fast. You are neither, as your running is always evolving and changing. By working with a coach, we can look at what’s working in your running, what’s a little bit of a mystery, and build your running from the inside out, mentally, physically, and emotionally. So many times our pace range becomes interwoven with our runner identity, and we have no idea of our capabilities.
Working with a coach can infuse your running with imagination and possibility again. And there’s so much in our running to learn and explore beyond “fast” and “slow.”
How does coaching with you work?
When you hire me as a coach, I join Team YOU. My plans are written for you, where you are now, and we focus on getting ALL of you to the start line happy, healthy, and ready to run. We can’t finish a race we don’t start!
After a comprehensive intake process, I write a dynamic plan that changes based on your feedback and data. While I love data, I love feedback more. I’m a big proponent of running by feel, and part of my role is teaching runners how to craft those feedback loops so they can experience a RPE 1 v a RPE 5 v a RPE Race Day.
When you hire me, you also are hiring a coach who is committed to being fired at the end of a training season. As a teacher and a coach, I am relational, but I am not into the dependency model. As such, I am very transparent in my coaching. Runners who work with me understand the WHY of their training plan - it’s important to me that runners have a deep, dynamic, ever evolving running toolbox that they are confident and competent using on day to day runs and in races. I am lucky I work with clients over and over again, and get to see the growth and evolution of their running.
Plans are written in Training Peaks and I am very available to my runners via text, phone, or in-person. No question is too small, from finding the right shoes to the right hydration strategy. I take the coaching part of working with runners seriously - and this includes coaching on the mental and emotional frameworks we need so that running becomes a sustainable, nourishing, lifelong practice for us.
I’m not flexible - I’m too embarrassed to do yoga
Yes, I hear you. As a yoga teacher with 20 years experience, if I had a dollar for every time I was asked this question ….
Yoga is a comprehensive practice! Flexibility is simply one part - the more well known one - of the yoga practice. A well-rounded yoga practice includes stability, strength, and mobility, all of which serve runners.
The yoga I teach is not Instagram-friendly because, well, it’s simple! I believe in the power of simple practices that we do with consistency that make our running sustainable and nourishing. When I teach yoga for runners, I connect the dots between running and yoga so there’s a clear why. My intention is to give you a educated and solid framework for the yoga practice so it is relatable to your running and is a value-add.
For example, if you’re training for a marathon, and have tired legs, going to a random weekend yoga class that’s got a lot of standing poses will simply empty your runner well versus put back into it. When we run - especially when we train - we want all the other things we do to make sense for the goal at hand.
Why aren’t I getting faster?
Many runners live in a small sliver of their “effort rainbow” - as I call it. We get caught in pace rut and have pace ego. When we create a full and bright effort rainbow, we realize why we need to find an all day pace for our daily runs, where intensity fits (intensity is a tool that, when used properly, can yield amazing results), and simply bring more sustainability to our running. Also, it’s important to me that runners can step back and see Let’s create a full and bright “effort rainbow” that allows you to build a strong heart/lung engine,
I hate running
Great! You never, ever have to run a step if you don’t want to! Find something else you love to do and go do it! We don’t HAVE to run, we GET to run. Just because something is great for your friend doesn’t mean it’s great for you.
I’m really bad at foam rolling
Just because we have a foam roller doesn’t mean everything needs to be rolled. And not everyone responds to foam rolling - now, if you don’t like it and need to do it - well, that’s another conversation. But let’s figure out what your body needs and come up with a plan that works for YOU.
Do I need a run coach?
Yes! Every runner can benefit from working with a run coach. First of all, your family will thank you because you now have a designated person to discuss all things running! Seriously, all runners need a person on their team who can teach, guide, educate, and support you as you reach your goals, go from a rehab to a prehab mindset, and ultimately find a sustainable and nourishing relationship with your running. Sometimes it feels like the miles run us versus us running the miles. We can make running simple and fun again to start, and then dive deeper into what your right now and over time goals are, so they support each other. Sometimes we just want to run, sometimes we want to knock off a PR.
Everything hurts and I just want to run
I get it. I am a lifelong runner who started running again in earnest my 40s and it seemed harder than ever. Then I hit menopause and running seemed impossible. I’ve been injured, I’ve had to come back from illness and injury.
All of these experiences have informed my run coaching and yoga teaching. From those experience, I built the entire Yoga for Runners program at my studio, Mala. I became a run coach because I wanted to offer runners more than just boxes with workouts in them.
I am a huge fan of prehab and learning how to customize the basic tenets of running cross-training to everyone’s unique body and goals. I am also a huge fan of brain-based training approaches, to create a realistic positive mindset, and interweaving them traditional meditation and breathing techniques so you have tools you can use to combat the negativity bias that’s hardwired into our brains.
Also: cross-training has to be something you WANT to do. There are a lot of “should’s” in the running community. However, if nothing resonates, then no matter how great your coach is or your plan is or your trainer is, if the intrinsic motivation isn’t there, you’re not going to lift that weight or go to that yoga class. There are lots of amazing and interesting ways to cross-train for running - let’s find one that works for YOU.
How is working with a coach different than using a free plan from The Internet?
Free plans abound on The Internet. Maybe one of those will work for you? What I find: investing in a coach is about investing in your running beyond the daily runs and workouts. It’s about creating a sustainable framework that excites you, motivates you, fits into your life, and nourishes your soul. When we run, we get to learn new things about ourselves every day. We need a sustainable and strong framework for that data, and we also need to make sure that framework is up to date with our lives and bodies as they are now. Most of the time, the issues and obstacles that arise with training for a race and running have very little to do with running, it’s about organizing your life to make the running and all the things that sustain the running fit, it’s about mindset, and investing in yourself over a period of time. Running is about playing the long game, and a coach can help you through the natural highs and lows of a training cycle.
I don’t want to run a marathon
Great! I love that clarity. There are one million thousand ways to be a runner, to participate in running, work with a running coach, and participate in the running community. Running a marathon isn’t required. Plus, marathon training is so intense, this is not a “should” activity - you have to WANT to run a marathon. Instead of focusing on what you don’t want to do, let’s focus on what brings you daily joy with your running and will get you out the door every day.