Smartest distance coach you ever had.

Overall my coach has just believed in me. Coming in to college I had a 19:05 5km PR (I am a woman) and within two years I ran 16:45. That never would have happened without him believing in me, encouraging me to put in the miles, letting me take mental breaks when need be, and, when I was smart enough, he even let me have my own input in workouts. I eventually transferred and I haven't gotten much better but I do believe if I had stayed, I would have run even faster times. Having a coach that believes in you and trusts you makes a world of difference

Definitely my current coach - I've only had 2 before but the difference between him and the others is crazy.

He's gotten very good results and also maintained a constant progression from almost all of his athletes. Good qualities include: attentiveness, knowledgeable and very available, which my old coach wasn't. He focuses on individualisation based on prior training and results, instead of giving every athlete the same workout (which happens way too often ...), and mileage is moderate but consistently increasing. There's also a good balance of tempo, over-distance work and speed. I haven't raced since running with him in 5 months, but from workouts I'd say I'm at least 20s faster over 5k (mid 14s runner before the new coach).

I’ll call her Coach A

She designed personalized intensity workouts

She designed excellent strength training sessions

She was always positive

I was better than my previous high school coach because he was a sprint-based coach.

My college coaches just really were never there for the distance runners. They concentrated on the sprinters. I remember a 10 X 400 workout in 65 seconds each. I did 8 of them at 65 but then tailed off at 67, 70 on the last two. I think I should have been done on the 9th one for sure. But that coach was only an assistant, and only there on Tuesdays and Thursdays for interval work.

I needed more miles. At the end of the season, I could barely cover 5 miles because I had not done those kinds of workouts!

The volunteer coach for my high school team was a bioengineering major who went on to do an MD/PhD dual degree and I’m pretty sure is now a CT surgeon who designs prosthetic heart parts. Definitely the smartest coach I’ve had.

Coach Z made me take an off day. This wasn’t for physiological benefits but psychological. Taught me to do things for fun besides running. Made me realize there is a world outside of training. I also am an introvert, am scared of talking to people. He would make me do 1-3 mile shakeouts in the evening BUT I couldn’t do them alone. The only people who do those 1-3 miles? Social groups, pub runs, etc. He helped me make friends when moving across the country.

Coach Z has coached me to many first time distances and PRs, but he also taught me how to find people and joys in life I wouldn’t have discovered otherwise

The assistant high school coach was a former 4:04 miler back in the 60's. Prior to becoming a teacher he was in the Marines. He was tough and demanded a lot. Should have listened more to him but we were just dumb high school kids who thought we knew it all. We did take 4th in State XC though.