Question 1

Is support with nutrition included?

Answer

Yes! I am always happy to provide basic support about performance nutrition. 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 have limitations in your diet, are trying to combine performance improvements with significant weight loss, or have unanswered questions.

Question 2

Is strength training guidance included?

Answer

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! 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.

Question 3

Is there really unlimited communication?

Answer

Absolutely! Coaching is a relationiship, and that's based on communication. No good coach is in it just for writing training plans. I'm always happy to answer questions or just chat, whether running related or not. I check training logs 6 days per week, and respond to texts and emails promptly during waking hours 7 days per week. For more in-depth discussions of past or future training or complex questions, I'm always happy to set up a chat over Zoom or the phone.

Question 4

What does the cost include?

Answer

Everything. There are no additional fees whatsoever. My goal is to provide anything and everything I can to help you in your running.

Question 5

I can't really afford it, but I think I would benefit from coaching.

Answer

I do have the ability to provide discounts for those who have the need. Please reach out! If we're a good fit, I will do what I can to make it work!

Question 6

How do payments work?

Answer

There are several options here! The most common is for payments to be recurring monthly via your payment method of choice. There are also 6-month and 12-month packages. If you'd prefer, we can also set up a customized billing to best fit your life. If you decide to pause your coaching, you retain credit for unused days, which will be used automatically when you start back up again. This is helpful in times of life stress or prolonged illness/injury. If you're having financial difficulty, always reach out to me first, and we will do whatever we can to make things work! You can read the full terms and conditions here, but if you have questions, concerns, or need something individualized to fit your life, reach out! I try to be as flexible as I possibly can.

Question 7

Can you give feedback on my running form?

Answer

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 issues. Many athletes have found dramatic improvements after a few subtle form tweaks. Research doesn't really support dramatic form adjustments (like footstrike) for experienced runners, so our adjustments are always subtle!

Question 8

How do you see my running data?

Answer

I am happy to look at whatever data you would like! Some athletes run with only a Timex; others are members of the Miles and Mountains Strava group, and I see their runs there. All athletes enter basic information in the training log about their runs, including mileage, overall time, and subjective feedback, and this guides future training. More than data, I'm interested in how things felt, and what's going on for you in running and life. Your body doesn't understand miles and pace - it understands effort over time. Life stress and environmental factors play a big role in that! Like with running in general, you get out what you put it in. The better the information you give me, the more customized your training will be! That said, I prioritize mental wellness, so if it's easier for you to run without data, we can do that! The training log is fully customized (see below) so we can cut out what isn't bringing you joy.

Question 9

How is this different from a training plan online?

Answer

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. But let's say you pay for a 'customized' training plan to meet those critera. 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?
Custom coaching builds your training plan from the ground up around you. It's your body, your goals, and your schedule that we build around, so everything is a custom fit. Inevitably, something will come up and derail you for a few days. Custom coaching rewrites your training weekly, or even daily, to ensure you're training as ideally as possible in the context of your life! Coaching also isn't just a custom training plan. It's daily communication, education about the sport, camaraderie, motivation and unconditional support!

Question 10

How does the training log work?

Answer

(Click to enlarge) It's pretty neat! It's a heavily customized and collaborative Google Sheet. Any updates either of us make are instantly visible to the other person. The blue columns are for you to fill out: on the left, if you're going to be traveling, or have other plans that will impact your training, and on the right, your actual running stats for that day, and how you felt, whether there are other things happening in your life, or if you have specific aches and pains. The green columns are for me to fill out: first what your actual training plan entails for each day, and then a place for daily feedback from me! In the center, the log calculates your planned mileage or minutes and your actual mileage/vert automatically. Note the checkboxes to keep you honest on strength and mobility! The log is highly customizable. If you know you won't use something, we can hide it, or we can add columns for other things you want to track. If you're using the metric system, we switch everything over to KM and M. If you prefer me to plan runs by time, we can do that too! Some runners meticulously track all their metrics, others run without a watch. Whatever works for you, works for me! We also have other 'tabs' of the Log for Strength and Mobility, Goals and Dreams, and an athlete resources page with links.

Question 11

How do I get started?

Answer

Go back to the Coaching page, and fill out the contact form with some background information! You and I will chat about your running history and goals, and then I'll help you get set up so we can get started! Generally this can all happen within a day or two, but you can take as much time as you need.

Question 12

Can you help with injury prevention?

Answer

For sure! 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 niggle in its tracks with only a few days of reduced training - before it becomes an injury. A lot of runners seek out a coach when they're injured, so I have a variety of 'return to running' protocols I use depending on the injury and time away from running. Helping athletes return to what they love is a big perk of being a coach!

Question 13

Are there communities and other benefits to coaching?

Answer

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 monthly newsletter for those that aren't as active on social media. New for 2021: team gear! We have running singlets/shirts, casual shirts, sweatshirts, hats and even masks. There are also ocassionally group runs set up in areas that have multiple Miles and Mountains athletes!