New Coaching Site with Alan Webb & Other Pros...Your Questions Answered Here (Sponsored)

We've been working hard on an updated site the past month and have incorporated the following which was direct LRC feedback this this thread and others.

1) Lowered Prices

2) Alan priced the same as everyone else

3) Added 15 min video chat session options

4) More affordable Training Plans without Video Chat sessions

5) Free 15 min Coaching inquiry sessions

6) Added more traditional "coach" among the Doyens

Do you have any other feedback? We're listening. Feel free to post it here or drop us an email (

info@rundoyen.com

)

Thanks,

Jordan

http://www.rundoyen.com/

Nothing personal, but...sorry Jordan, but most people who run have heard of the internet and can get training programs from many different sites. If you run 2:30, then you know what you're doing. If you run 4 hours, they can find that stuff on the internet.

Yes, coaching can make a difference for some runners, but eventually they get the idea and just do it on their own. I know many runners who did this.

You're only going to be successful with a low, low price and high volume, but that entails the fact that there are only so many hours in a day if people want phone chats with a coach. Good luck Jordan.

factoid33 wrote:

Nothing personal, but...sorry Jordan, but most people who run have heard of the internet and can get training programs from many different sites. If you run 2:30, then you know what you're doing. If you run 4 hours, they can find that stuff on the internet.

Yes, coaching can make a difference for some runners, but eventually they get the idea and just do it on their own. I know many runners who did this.

You're only going to be successful with a low, low price and high volume, but that entails the fact that there are only so many hours in a day if people want phone chats with a coach. Good luck Jordan.

Interesting. Thanks for your feedback. Understand it is not for everyone, and there is a lot of "free" information floating around the internet, but we are a "personal service" company. I'm not saying you're wrong, but we've already seen quite a few customers who enjoy having a coach or a level of personal guidance throughout their training. Within any sport, I think there is a reason that the top athletes have coaches, mentors, or personal advice to influence their training.

YouTube is your biggest challenge. From Sage to this guy to that guy, it's all there.

The allure of Alan Webb is only going to go so far (I'm a marketing major).

I wish you guys well, but like many who have tried before you, it's not easy and many did it LONG before YouTube had so much to offer on training.

Jim Spivey, etc...eventually the well dries up as YouTube has covered all of the bases.

Most people don't get that in-depth with super specific training and others already know what they are doing---build a base, long intervals, shorter intervals, race---rinse and repeat. Sorry, but it's the truth.

Good luck but you've got an uphill battle unless you do something very original, and even then...

Fair enough, and potentially our site is not clear enough, but like I mentioned, we are a "personal service" model. YouTube and other free online resources are "content". While there is certainly some great training material out there, YouTube does not offer the opportunity for interaction or customization through personal interactions.

As long as athletes across all sports have coaches, I'm pretty confident there will be a demand for services beyond internet research and content...but I also understand it is not for everyone, especially those who maybe already have a firm grasp on what is best for their own training.

While I am probably more similar to "factoid" than those who prefer personal coaching, I'm also well aware that there's a large segment of the running population who wants and perhaps even *needs* a personal coach, at least in order to perform their best.

I paid attention to my coach(es) and learned everything I felt I needed, then eventually put it into play myself. Even (technically- he dnf'd, iirc) beat alan once- however, I'm not the norm, and many people need a personal coach to not only motivate themselves, but also (sometimes) to hold them back a little bit and keep themselves healthy. I actually think jordan and crew can be quite successful, precisely because there *IS* indeed a market for this service. Many of us don't need this service, but the fact remains that the demand is there, and I hope they capture it. All the best fellas! (and ladies)

JordanW wrote:

Fair enough, and potentially our site is not clear enough, but like I mentioned, we are a "personal service" model. YouTube and other free online resources are "content". While there is certainly some great training material out there, YouTube does not offer the opportunity for interaction or customization through personal interactions.

As long as athletes across all sports have coaches, I'm pretty confident there will be a demand for services beyond internet research and content...but I also understand it is not for everyone, especially those who maybe already have a firm grasp on what is best for their own training.

And that was a fair and civil response by you, a rarity on this site. Best of luck to you and the others.

Hey Jordan, this seems like a great service but I was wondering what the criteria are for selection Doyens? Are you planning on adding more Doyens who have experience coaching???

Why go to a restaurant when you can cook your own meal?

I actually used this service from my high school team. The distance guys got to listen and talk to Allen web for about an hour. It was an amazing experience. The price for getting a speaker of this caliber usually is much greater. For the boys this was a significantly memorable experience.

Most importantly Alan did not sugarcoat anything. He told the boys they needed to eat right get good sleep and work in their practices. He had excellent insight even into the high school kids issues.Most of all he was able to support with the coach was doing. The boys are much more onboard after that talk than they were before. He really did change things

I did it wrote:

I actually used this service from my high school team. The distance guys got to listen and talk to Allen web for about an hour. It was an amazing experience. The price for getting a speaker of this caliber usually is much greater. For the boys this was a significantly memorable experience.

Most importantly Alan did not sugarcoat anything. He told the boys they needed to eat right get good sleep and work in their practices. He had excellent insight even into the high school kids issues.Most of all he was able to support with the coach was doing. The boys are much more onboard after that talk than they were before. He really did change things

Thanks for sharing your experience!

In fact, some of your comments are exactly what we envisioned when starting this so it's really great to hear. For runners who already have coaches (i.e. High Schoolers), we want it to feel as a supplemental resource that supports their coach's guidance rather than something that would contradict it. Glad to hear that's what Alan was able to deliver.

Like you also mentioned, Alan and some of the other "Doyens" have done paid speaking events that pay much more that what RunDoyen charges, but those obviously require a lot of time for travel, etc. We wanted to deliver a similar experience for them and customers in a more affordable way that you can also do from the comfort of your own couch.

I did it wrote:

I actually used this service from my high school team. The distance guys got to listen and talk to Allen web for about an hour. It was an amazing experience. The price for getting a speaker of this caliber usually is much greater. For the boys this was a significantly memorable experience.

Most importantly Alan did not sugarcoat anything. He told the boys they needed to eat right get good sleep and work in their practices. He had excellent insight even into the high school kids issues.Most of all he was able to support with the coach was doing. The boys are much more onboard after that talk than they were before. He really did change things

"Eat right and get good sleep, and you have to work for it. " Haha! Is it worth the money?

Some questions wrote:

Hey Jordan, this seems like a great service but I was wondering what the criteria are for selection Doyens? Are you planning on adding more Doyens who have experience coaching???

Good question. As business grows, we certainly plan on adding more Doyens with the idea of having a diversified portfolio to serve different types of runners.

Anyone interested, can certainly email us (

) and we'll keep you in consideration if you match what we're looking for as we expand.

JordanW wrote:

Some questions wrote:

Hey Jordan, this seems like a great service but I was wondering what the criteria are for selection Doyens? Are you planning on adding more Doyens who have experience coaching???

Good question. As business grows, we certainly plan on adding more Doyens with the idea of having a diversified portfolio to serve different types of runners.

Anyone interested, can certainly email us (

info@rundoyen.com

) and we'll keep you in consideration if you match what we're looking for as we expand.

Did Allan Web really have a hematocrit of 55%???!!!

Thanks a lot for your answer.

I did it wrote:

I actually used this service from my high school team. The distance guys got to listen and talk to Allen web for about an hour. It was an amazing experience. The price for getting a speaker of this caliber usually is much greater. For the boys this was a significantly memorable experience.

Most importantly Alan did not sugarcoat anything. He told the boys they needed to eat right get good sleep and work in their practices. He had excellent insight even into the high school kids issues.Most of all he was able to support with the coach was doing. The boys are much more onboard after that talk than they were before. He really did change things

Did you get some kind of group rate for this? Is this the intended use of the personalized service?

JordanW wrote:

We've been working hard on an updated site the past month and have incorporated the following which was direct LRC feedback this this thread and others.

1) Lowered Prices

2) Alan priced the same as everyone else

3) Added 15 min video chat session options

4) More affordable Training Plans without Video Chat sessions

5) Free 15 min Coaching inquiry sessions

6) Added more traditional "coach" among the Doyens

Do you have any other feedback? We're listening. Feel free to post it here or drop us an email (

info@rundoyen.com

)

Thanks,

Jordan

http://www.rundoyen.com/

Please have Mr. Allen Webb listen to this podcast:

This is a great podcast on coaching. Marcus then talks about Webb later on and he mentions Webb having a hematocrit level of 55%, which would be an "atypical" or "suspicious" or "likely doping" level on an Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) blood test.

If we take the hematocrit score and divide by 3 to get an estimate of his hemoglobin level, it would be 18.33 g/dL.

The OFF score formula used in the ABP is OFF score = Hb level x 10 - (60 x the square root of the reticulocyte score. A normal reticulocyte score is around 1% of RBCs...so an estimate of the OFF score would be 183.3 - 60 =

OFF SCORE of 123.3 for Allan Webb.

I am still waiting for the answer to my question about the 55% hematocrit level on a blood test for Mr. Allan Webb.

It turns out that here is a lot of GOSSIP going on at the LetsRun.com forum about Mr. Webb.

For example:

Have a nice day.

will you be employing a trolling doyen by any chance?

Council Crest Coaching wrote:

I did it wrote:

I actually used this service from my high school team. The distance guys got to listen and talk to Allen web for about an hour. It was an amazing experience. The price for getting a speaker of this caliber usually is much greater. For the boys this was a significantly memorable experience.

Most importantly Alan did not sugarcoat anything. He told the boys they needed to eat right get good sleep and work in their practices. He had excellent insight even into the high school kids issues.Most of all he was able to support with the coach was doing. The boys are much more onboard after that talk than they were before. He really did change things

Did you get some kind of group rate for this? Is this the intended use of the personalized service?

We don't mind if multiple people want to huddle around a computer. Pricing would just be the same: $25 for 15 min., $39 for 30 min, $68 for 1 hour.

If you were interested in projecting the session to a larger audience or something, we'd be happy to support that but would need to work through the details, which you could email us:

As someone who's tried to learn how to play guitar with just google and youtube, there definitely is a big difference between youtube and personal lessons!

I'd imagine running to be the same. There's a lot of great info out there, but you have to spend the time to find it, and then once you find it, you need to parse through all the stuff that's inaccurate and/or doesn't apply to you.

Additionally, there's stuff that you don't even KNOW is wrong! If you don't know what to search for in google or youtube, then its a losing bet right from the get go. I've tried to fix my car from just looking up youtube videos and ended up taking my car to a professional by the end of it.

A personalized lesson does cost a little money, but it saves you a BUTTLOAD of time. If nothing else, paying for just a single lesson will get you going in the right direction.

I've been lurking this thread and I do have to say that you've been completely civil to all, even trolls. I'm impressed. Hats off to you!