Online Running Coach

c7runner7 wrote:

coachcommentsnicely wrote:

Having a pro coach you sounds cool, and may be nice to brag about, but outside of having Al Sal as a coach... how many Olympic athletes have Olympic qualified coaches?

Would you really trust Sam Parsons as a coach?

You need some sort of exercise science background to know what you’re really doing.

And as I mentioned above... I’ve got a philosophy. Thanks!

How many coaches have coached Olympians in general? If you get into online coaching, you’re not going to be coaching Olympians either. 99% of people have coaches who don’t coach Olympians.

As for an exercise science background, I was in exercise science, and undergrad programs are fairly rudimentary and honestly have very little to do with running training.

I’m slightly confused because you mentioned coaching for a national-class program and culture, but then said many pro runners wouldn’t make good coaches and that you need an exercise science background to really know what you’re doing. But your training philosophy or specific workouts don’t really make the difference- especially for coaching your average Joe online. Being motivating, personable, making the athlete feel you care about them, adapting training to work/life schedules, understanding their life stressors so you know how much physical stress they can actually handle/adapt to, communicating ideas on stress management, nutrition, running form, etc. in practical ways each specific person understands, etc. are all equally or more important than the physical training itself. Most coaches provide very similar training:

Marathon: Mileage, big emphasis on long runs- improving both duration and speed.. some big workouts come in long runs, then decent amount of lactate threshold work, just a little bit of VO2 max, and year-around, alactic pure speed (Strides, hill sprints etc).

*Nutrition, especially mid-race fueling and practicing it in training.

Half-marathon: Slightly less mileage, not quite as long ‘long runs’ and not really ‘big workouts’ in long runs. Lots of lactate threshold (or right around there...depends on speed of person) a little bit more VO2 but not a ton. And Pure speed.

10k: Very similar to half marathon for faster runners, but a little more VO2 work and 10k pace work running just faster than threshold and maintaining moderate levels of lactate. College/elites need some low intensity lactate tolerance and a touch of anaerobic capacity in order to have a kick (such as fairly hard 200s and 300s or cutdown 600s but with decent amounts of rest.. maybe just a couple really hard 400-600s with lots of rest) (Because lactate levels are moderately high at 9600m but you still have to run 55 seconds for last 400).

3k/5k: slightly less mileage, long runs not as big as emphasis but still need some shorter faster long runs (such as 75-85% of 5k pace up to 75 minutes as Canova describes, and going up to 2 hrs. or so every 3-4 weeks). Decent amount of lactate threshold, especially early season. Good amount of VO2 Max mid to late season (since that is basically race pace...unless you race a lot then the race counts as VO2 workout). Decent amount low-intensity lactate tolerance work early season with just a few high-intensity lactate tolerance last 4-6 weeks (a classic would be 10x400m @ mile race pace with 1 min rest. So you have to tolerate somewhat high levels of lactate at a fast pace for a relatively long duration.. Can’t do too much though). Then some change of pace workouts for race simulation. A dash of anaerobic capacity. And of course, pure speed work.

Mile: less mileage, shorter/faster long runs (really depends on type of athlete you have). Lactate threshold can come in ‘long runs’. Good amount of VO2 Max or slightly slower early season. Good amount of low intensity lactate tolerance and some anaerobic capacity (such as 5x400 really hard). Then a good amount of high-intensity lactate tolerance late season (basically race-pace work). And again, pure speed work. * I think the mile is the hardest to Coach... due to a heavier focus on the anaerobic system and lactate tolerance, you have to train that system a decent amount. But it’s easy to over-do it and overtrain and/or Peak too early. Plus every athlete is different so finding the right balance is hard.

Obviously, that was a really rough outline of training, with a lot of generalizations, But the vast majority of coaches are going to have training programs that look somewhat like that with 2-3 “harder days” per week (maybe only 1-2 when far out from a race) and maybe some speed/form stuff mixed in after easier mileage runs. I’d imagine almost any pro runner would know all of this without ever even dabbling in exercise science. Plus, tons of random LetsRun posters like me create theoretical training programs every day and very few of us are good coaches- but it’s not because of our inability to create similar training plans to that of elite coaches.

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you the tough part is adapting to the athlete, factoring in the whole complexity of their life, and connecting with them on a personal level. Some pro runners may not be good at this, and therefore aren’t good coaches, but it doesn’t have much to do with lacking knowledge in exercise science. (Although I suppose there’s a few who just know nothing about training).

Anyways, to answer your original question, literally just google ‘online coaching’ and then email some of the coaching sites to ask if you can become one of their coaches. There’s many out there and they do the marketing for you, handle all the payments, host the website, provide access to the training apps, etc. if you’d rather not do all that yourself.

There is definitely a demand for it-you’ll quickly find that out when you see the plethora of online sites and coaches. Many of them work using some sort of app such as training peaks or Final Surge (but Strava, google docs/sheets can be used for no-cost options.)

You mainly write workouts and then check in on athletes. Since the non-physical aspect of training is so important, you have to have a good system of gathering feedback from your athletes. This is where the apps come in handy and having an open line of communication where they can text you is pretty important IMO. Analyzing form via video can be helpful. Since you are a Personal Trainer, you likely have strength/core videos you can send athletes and can create customized strength/rehab plans based on deficiencies in their form or injuries if necessary. You probably have a good knowledge of nutrition so put together some material in a document, PowerPoint, or video series that you send to everybody and then follow up with individual Q/A. As a personal trainer, you are also probably fairly motivating so find a fun/unique way to motivate virtually and advertise that. People seem to want online coaches for:

1. Motivation/accountability

2. Injury Prevention (so they want guidance on ramping up mileage, some type of strength training, and form analysis)

3. They just don’t know what to do at all.

4. To Break-through a plateau (this is where a unique/superior training philosophy can help as well as advanced knowledge in nutrition or other aspects of training the athlete may be lacking in)

But a lot of people fall into the first 3 categories. So analyze your skill-set and communicate how you can address those needs when you write your bio for whatever coaching site you go with (or your own). And most importantly, just try to sound as personable as possible and not overly serious. Most people want to like their coach and feel comfortable communicating.

(There’s no way anyone read this whole thing).