The Value of a Running Coach
Pop quiz: Can you get value out of a running coach no matter who you are and what’s going on in your life right now, no matter what your level of expertise in running is?
Answer: Yes!
Growing up, I had numerous soccer coaches who coached me, from five years old to eighteen years old. They taught me the fundamentals of the sport, fostered my growth, and supported me through the challenges. After years and years of showing up to practices and games, my skill and fitness levels increased drastically. Similarly, if you ran track or cross country in school, you most likely had a running coach to hone your fitness, help prevent injury, and enable you to be the best runner and athlete you could be.
In my post high school life, I’m no longer getting the benefits of attending soccer practice and going to games since I’m not on a team. Without the soccer team structure to provide me with a means of getting physical movement in, running became one of the activities that keeps me in shape and helps me feel able to live the active life that I love to live.
While many people run to achieve big goals like running a PR (personal record) in races, many runners focus on running for the physical and mental benefits that they see as a result.
However, it can be challenging to:
Get into running if you are a first time runner
Know how to increase training load while balancing injury prevention
Hold yourself accountable for consistency
Provide self encouragement and motivation when it gets tough
Whether you are working towards a race goal, wanting to get into running for the first time and don’t know where to start, or having a hard time staying consistent, a running coach can help. While each coach has their own methods, a coach typically builds and maintains a training plan, uniquely tailored to your lifestyle and goals. They balance training load increases and injury prevention, and provide motivation and encouragement along the way.
You can work with a running coach for a short duration to gain enough knowledge and experience to more confidently run on your own, or build a long term coaching relationship to see long term gains as a result of a partnership.
The investment in a running coach is well worth it, both in the short term and long term. You are investing in your health and wellbeing by allowing yourself the support of someone who can make sure you are getting the most that you can out of your running.
How a running coach helps me:
Even with my own coaching practice, I work with a running coach too. After running very consistently throughout 2023 and running in the Carlsbad Half Marathon in January 2024, I needed a break. So, running took a backseat in my life. Come early 2025, I missed feeling in shape and knew that prioritizing running again would benefit me physically and mentally (especially after a blood test that showed elevated cholesterol which was definitely a kick in the butt to get going). After such a long break however, it was hard for me to consistently get back into the routine, despite my prior running experience.
I started working with a running coach and immediately noticed a difference:
I saw lots of progress with my aerobic capacity, speed, and strength.
I had new motivation and an excitement to get my runs and workouts done.
My mental energy only needed to be spent on getting the workout done that I was instructed to do, rather than also having to figure out what the workout plan was.
I was now paying for a service so I was determined to get my money’s worth.
Somebody was now holding me accountable; it suddenly wasn’t so easy to say “I’ll do it tomorrow” for days on end.
There’s a perception that you need to be an experienced runner to work with a coach. But no matter where you are in your running journey, especially if you are at the beginning, there’s a coach who is ready to help you become the best athlete and the best version of yourself.