Has anyone else mastered the art of self-coaching?

Will your e-book make a marathon seem like it's all downhill?

post some of your log in here so we can start ripping on it now

I feel like I can coach myself better than any coach I've had can, which has made my running very frustrating. Whenever I train on my own, I run really well. I never run as well when coached by someone else. Maybe I have communication problems or something because I'll try and tell them what I've had success with in the past and what has made me tired etc but they never seem to listen. I've read many books on training and have experimented with different training and feel like I know what works best for me. The only problem is that no one else knows. :P

Arthurford wrote: I've read many books on training and have experimented with different training and feel like I know what works best for me.

Isn't that basically "the art of self-coaching": learn what approaches have worked for others, then try some of them and see what works for you?

Dont you think its more demanding to be discliplined and motivated without the support and guidance of a coach to push you harder? Also companionship and someone to prevent boredom of training continually alone?

Just personal observations

i love self coaching. i feel like i can coach myself better than anyone else can.

I've had 10 coaches and now self-coach because no-one wants to touch me. Has anyone had more than 10?

Alan Culpepper might be the best example in the context of those who we are familiar with.

From 1976 to 1990, I ran a PR1500m every single year. Self coached. Discuss.

Of course, we are all influenced by others. Coe was my guiding light for many of those years.

If you write a book about self coaching, won't it actually defeat the purpose? :)

I've been self-coaching for 3 years now. It's been interesting. I feel like I have a good handle on base training and strength work, but I struggle with trusting my own judgement on periodization and tapering.

Quote from Lydiard:

___________________________________________________________

"I'm always telling young athletes; "If you look back last year at your performances and one day you went out, the previous year, you ran your best time of the year; everything went right. If you knew WHY you ran so well that day and this year you can put your training together, so on the day of the Japanese Championships or the Olympics or the big race you are training for, you can produce your top form; then you know something about training. But until you can do that, you don't know anything about training. You are just a good athlete who, one day, would run a good race but you don't know when.

___________________________________________________________

I've had several races where I completely blew away my expectations and felt awesome and ran really, really well. The problem is in duplicating that. A lot of times for me this occurs in the "middle" of my season, when I'm still maintaining peak mileage and running "strength" workouts. I'll just show up to a race with no real expectations, and then, bam! - a new pr. And it's very possible that I won't match the performance later on in the season when I am trying to peak.

What I do know is that when I get too caught up in workouts - doing intervals with limited recovery, running against the clock, pushing tempos too hard - my racing performances usually suffer.

I am essentially self-coached these days. When first beginning I began under an experienced coach (and still do) pretty much set my own schedule and request his advice or suggestions on it. Studying at uni for the 5 years then working shifts the last 12 months isn't really conducive to working with a coach each day.

It isn't really rocket science doing base training/endurance building - I do 1 long run of 2-2:30, 1 medium-long run of 1:25-1:45, one or maximum two hill reps/tempo/long intervals and plenty of easy running rounding out the week. Fortunately there are several runners of similar ability to train with depending on work schedules, but a lot of training alone too.

It can be hard sometimes to force yourself out the door or push through the last rep or two but generally things work out. I think it's much mroe enjoyable having more input into your program rather than being told "do this, do that".