Anyone had any success coaching them self?

I ran all my PRs self-coached. They aren't particularly distinguished though.

If you go back in time more than 30 or so years you'll see that loads of guys were self coached. Shorter, Bacheler, Ron Hill, Ron Clarke, Derek Clayton were all self coached. My old club had three sub 2:20 marathon runners, one at 2:16, and probably a dozen more under 2:45. We had no coach.

I ran all my PRs self coached and while they aren't particularly distinguished they are much faster than times achieved either coached by a real coach or the plans any coach wrote in a book.

Thanks, this really gives me confidence now. Are there any books that you would recommend me reading that could give me more knowledge on coaching myself?

there is no reason to use a coach

I ran for a few years in college then got injured and quit the sport. After a few years, I decided to make a comeback and trained myself into the best shape of my life. Unfortunately, I then got too greedy and started running 90-100 miles/week when my body wasn't ready for it and I wound up getting hurt again and burnt out.

Plenty of World-class distance runners have been self-coached for at least part of their careers so it certainly can be done but you need to be very self-disciplined. It doesn't take much knowledge to draw up a training plan but a coach can be a great motivator and they can also tell you when to back off if you're pushing too hard in training.

Nobody knows when to push and when to back off more than the runner themselves.

I think most of us wind up self coached if we continue running.

I did do one full year of being self coached as a full time runner a couple years after college. And then went back to my college coach for my last year of full time running.

My first season out of college (coached by John Cook), I brought my 1500 PR down to 3:42.9 from 3:52.4 the previous season. My 800 PR was 1:49.7.

Outdoor season the year after, I trained with Centrowitz/Gags Enclave group.

I got into great shape but only ran 1:50.5/3:46.3.

More mental as I had a personal issue and then didn't like being pulled from the Penn 1500. I ended my racing season mid-May.

I decided to coach myself and train by myself for one year.

I basically just follwed my logs from previous years and tweaked a few things. I didn't have any issues staying focused or doing the planned workouts. Running on my own didn't detract much from my practice splits and my tempo runs were improved as I was just fitter than before.

I was determined to do this.

I wound up running 1:50.5/3:45.1.

Decent.

I went back to Cook for one year.

Got really fit. And had some serious horses to train with like Julious Achon (1:44/3:35 that year for Achon).

I battled a pain in my heal all year and had trouble getting sharp.

Finally, after backing off a lot in mileage and intensity, I managed a 3:42.1.

3 hard years of traing to drop just .8s in just one race.

But you can't say I didn't try to find out my limits.

You can have success coaching yourself, but there's a lot more personal responsibility in self-coaching. If you have a coach, you can't just change your training because you want to, but if you don't it's much easier to modulate.

This is a good and bad thing. It is far easier to slack off without a coach, and you'll have to make all your training decisions yourself. With a coach, neither of these happen. If you're self-driven, you can blossom with or without a coach; if you're not, you'll have a much harder time directing your training than with.

If you don't have a training group....good luck, things will be tough.

I self coached myself in college, kinda followed the plan of my club the first 2 years, then junior year through graduation I completely wrote my own training plans. Not incredibly distinguished, but got down to mid 25 for the 8k and ran a sub 2:40 marathon.

If you're self coaching for cross country, the most important thing I can say is read Running with the Buffaloes. There is more coaching wisdom in there than you can think.

I'm also a lydiard disciple myself. I take the summer to do base, running hard when I feel good and having easy days, and then doing stride outs 2-3x per week. From there just do a simple progression of strength to speed and include your long run on the weekend. Usually throughout the season I would do 10-12 400's just to keep in tap with speed. Otherwise it's simpler than you think, you learn what works and what doesn't. Get creative as well, it's fun to create your own workouts.

I've had some success coaching myself over the past year, running PRs at every distance I've attempted. While I'd attribute that to getting older and maturing physically, I'm not getting worse by being self coached. If you have training logs from the past you should look at what has worked for you and try and implement a mix of things. One great thing about coaching yourself is to be able to listen to how your body feels on a particular day and adjusting accordingly. However, since you won't have that coaching presence there it can be very tempting to hop from one workout plan to another without any real form of consistency. Pick something and stick with it while still listening to your body and you'll see improvements.

I have been self-coached since I graduated from college and have improved quite a bit in every single event. I base my training on Daniels' Running Formula; I highly recommend picking that up. I've found that after a few years, I discovered what worked best for me, and what my weaknesses were, so I tweaked Daniels' plans to work better for me. As long as you are motivated enough to do the workouts on your own, or are able to find people to run them with you, you'll be fine.

Here's this for a start:

http://www.active.com/running/articles/self-coaching-tips-from-olympian-frank-shorter

DomiN8 wrote:

Im going to community college right after I graduate high school for 2 years then possibly transfer to a 4 year university and run for them; but In the meantime I still plan on competing as unattached in xc and track meets by myself. Im just unsure of myself because fellow team mates tell me I will only get myself injured or will not improve at all like they would. Anyone had any success at this at all?

Coaches are overrated. The more famous ones happen to "coach" the most talented athletes.