A training plan that you find online, even if it's an amazing plan, is not customized for your physiology, your history and goals, or your schedule. Some training plans you'll find are not even based on science!
But let's say you pay for a 'customized' training plan to meet those criteria. Most likely it has just been a stock plan for a race that has been adjusted to fit your mileage and fitness range. Hopefully the coach who made it also took into account your strengths and weaknesses based on your athletic history. Even still, training that is geared toward a specific event is most likely not helping you reach your long-term fitness goals. There is a way to do both, but it can't be done with pre-determined training.
But then – what happens when you get sick or stressed and need to miss a few days? How do you modify it and get back on track to ensure peak performance? Do you skip the long run? Do you add in a workout on a rest day? Do you run two scheduled workouts in one day?
Research shows that pre-determined training (even if it's customized) is not as effective as training that is adapted frequently.
Custom coaching builds your training from the ground up around you. It's your body, your goals, and your schedule that we build from, so everything is a custom fit. Training with me prioritizes your long-term development as an athlete, not just your next big race.
Inevitably, something will come up and derail you for a few days. Having a coach means they can rewrite your training weekly, or even daily, to ensure you're training as ideally as possible within the context of your life!
Coaching also isn't just customized training. It's daily communication, education about the sport, camaraderie, motivation and unconditional support!
Everything. There are no additional fees whatsoever. My goal is to provide anything and everything I can to help you in your running. If I can support you – I will!
We have an amazing community! This has been an extremely important part of my running and my life, and I try to help facilitate that for athletes I work with as well.
There are Miles and Mountains Facebook and Strava groups, and an Instagram hashtag. We have group chats, share photos and running/life updates. We also occasionally have group Zoom sessions about specific topics. I send out a periodic newsletter for those that aren't as active on social media.
There is also a members area on the website with team discounts, resources, and a swag shop with running singlets/shirts, casual shirts, sweatshirts, hats and even masks.
Occasionally there are group runs or meetups in areas that have multiple Miles and Mountains athletes, and it's always fun to see teammates at races!
Yes! Athletes I work with have a customized strength and mobility plan designed to maintain overall fitness, support their running, improve weaknesses and lower injury risk. Like the running training plan, these vary widely by age and athletic history, goals, training volume, available equipment and whether or not you enjoy strength training.
As a general rule, my philosophy on strength training is: consistency, simplicity and specificity. While developing pure strength via traditional lifts may be beneficial in certain circumstances, I've found that making exercises extremely specific to the unique demands of running, and emphasizing simple routines leads to much greater consistency over months and years.
That said, as we age, 'lifting heavy' becomes increasingly helpful to prevent age-related muscle mass decline. That doesn't necessarily mean traditional gym lifts, but it certainly can!
I am well-versed in biomechanics, injury prevention and treatment and overall strength and mobility. I'm in the middle of a 'Human Movement Specialist' certification to formalize what I've learned over the years.
Not only can I, it's one of my favorite parts of coaching. It's a fact of life that most runners will get a minor injury at some point. But through careful prehab and strength training, combined with mindful training structure, we can not only limit the risk, but decrease recovery time if it does happen. I am well-versed in biomechanics, injury prevention and treatment and overall strength and mobility. I'm in the middle of a 'Human Movement Specialist' certification to formalize what I've learned over the years.
In many cases, with careful and prompt adjustment and treatment, we can stop a sudden ache/pain in its tracks within a few days to a week – before it becomes an injury.
After working with hundreds of athletes, only a small handful have had injuries requiring a significant long-term reduction in running, and most of those were acute injuries from outside running. A little more common, but still rare, are things that require a refocus on prehab/rehab, while slightly reducing or even maintaining running. Still, the injury percentage of clients that I work with (and I suspect clients of most coaches) are significantly lower than the averages among runners.
A lot of runners seek out a coach when they're injured, so I can also help with a return to running protocol, depending on the injury and time away from running. Helping athletes return to what they love is a big perk of being a coach!
Definitely! If you have a modern cell phone, it has the ability to film in slow motion. I can walk you through taking a few video angles of your running, and do an analysis from those videos.
From there, feedback might include cadence and form cues, or strength and mobility training designed to correct specific imbalances that are visible.
Research doesn't really support dramatic form adjustments (like footstrike) for experienced runners, so our adjustments are always subtle, and often involve correcting strength imbalances rather than form itself.
That said, many athletes have found dramatic improvements after a few subtle form tweaks!
Yes! I am always happy to provide basic support about performance nutrition, both around running and throughout your life. If you're looking to tune-up your diet to support your health and running, I can help!
Please note that I am not a registered dietitian, and you should always seek one out if you want in-depth help or meal plans, have limitations in your diet, are trying to combine performance improvements with weight loss, or have unanswered questions. This is something more akin to medical advice than fitness advice, and it can be extremely dangerous to accept advice from someone not formally trained.
Very few running coaches are registered dietitians or nutritionists, and if someone that is not one of those two things tries to give you highly-customized nutrition advice, please run away screaming!