Let’s get started.
Our goal is to help you make the most of your running in a way that is exciting, inspiring, and sustainable.
To that end, a couple of things for you to know as we begin,
1. Together, we must begin where you are.
No matter how excited or inspired you are to succeed, there are no shortcuts, only the fast track to setbacks if we increase stress too quickly. Our goal is to start with the level of training that you are used to and adjust with care.
2. Our first goal is to get aligned.
Focusing on communicating clearly and regularly will help us achieve goals and avoid accidental training overreach. By telling me how are workout went in Final Surge or sending me a message through Whatsapp I’m able to learn how you’re doing.
3. Athletes who check in more frequently get more connection.
There isn’t one best level of connection between athlete and coach, but the athletes who check in more get more. It’s simple. If you are in need, please reach out.
4. If you have a question, please ask!
My #1 fear as a coach is that an athlete will continue with hesitation without asking for clarification. Eventually, we want you to have complete knowledge and confidence to make empowered and informed decisions in training and racing. To get there, we must be willing to ask and discuss questions as they arise.
5. You also need to be willing to push back.
I can’t know if something is amiss unless you share updates on your journey. If you have questions about a workout, are afraid of paces or distances, or aren’t sure about the intent of a session, please ask! I promise I won’t take offense to the debate and discussion of the training approach. It’s all part of the learning process.
6. Toughness is for training and racing, not being coached.
The easiest way for me to overserve you as an athlete is to lack awareness of how you are doing. Whether you are experiencing slight physical pain, mental stress, or overall fatigue, understanding how you are doing is key for me to successfully program your training.
7. Running is only running.
We are living and breathing people in motion. A laundry list of inputs impacts your ability to perform as a runner. Strength, mobility, diet, fueling, sleep, work stress, family stress, life stress, and many other inputs affect your ability in a moment.
8. We’ll aim to give ourselves grace day-to-day
Some days, running is life-affirming and inspiring; other days, it’s painful and frustrating. We aim to avoid the highs being too high or the lows being too low, especially in training. This game is mostly about matching your performance with what your body is capable of on the day.
Please keep in mind
For success in running, it’s helpful to keep a few things in mind,
A — The key to running is consistency.
That’s worth repeating: The key to running is consistency. It is almost always better to do slightly less in one day if it will enable you to return for another successful training the next day. Repeating this over weeks, months, and years is the key to improvement.
B — No runner can do it all.
It’s easy to feel like other athletes can do all the miles, all the workouts, all the lifting, and all the events, but that’s rarely true. And hardly ever true for long. It’s incredibly easy to look at the people succeeding in a moment and grow jealous of them without context for their ups and downs. As runners, we look past the people struggling and fixate on those for whom everything seems to work. That attention bias can easily skew our perception of how others succeed.
C — Our path will be unique.
The training we attempt isn’t top secret or unique, but how it unfolds will be entirely our own. Our only goal is to make the best decisions with the events and information presented to us along the way. We’ll aim not to imitate others while staying open to new ideas and concepts.
D — Proper fitness takes time.
Quick wins and fast workouts are fun, but genuinely leveling up to new ability tiers takes months, seasons, or even years. We aim to appreciate this truth and settle in for sustainable, exciting, and fun running.
E — Goals only need to be meaningful to you.
With so many running events, workouts, and races available around the globe, it can be easy to get swept up in the excitement. This is terrific, but we’ll want to be careful not to settle on goals that come from outside ourselves. In my experience, this often leads to losing motivation or excitement before the event because the origin of the intent wasn’t personal.