I have a new running coach!

It’s Greg.

I’m training for the Maine Half Marathon in September, so I pulled out my copy of Run Less, Run Faster to enter in my most recent 10k time and get pace values to plug into the half marathon training plan and go.

I do love Run Less, Run Faster, but Greg suggested I at least take a look at Jack Daniels. I’d always shied away from Daniels because he’s geared towards (in my opinion) more serious runners, expects people to run higher mileage weeks, and suggests 5-6 days of running a week.

But I didn’t realize how adaptable Daniels’ plans might be to my running, because they are based on a few quality workouts a week, and then the other days are just labeled “E” for easy runs. So I can practice the philosophy of Run Less, Run Faster and do 3 running workouts a week and just swap the E on the Daniels’ plan for cross-training.

The benefit is that I get to try different workouts from Run Less, Run Faster, and different is fun. Another benefit is that Daniels is freaking amazing in terms of improving runners.

It’s the running book that Greg has used so frequently his copy is falling apart at the spine. And that’s his second copy because he bought the new version when it came out.

Anyway – back to me having a new coach.

I have a new coach.

It’s Greg.

He saw my hesitation about Daniels and correctly interpreted it as unease about having to learn a new training plan with new math and new pace values and new notations…. and he offered to do it for me. He listened to all my fears about Daniels (number of miles, number of workouts) and looked at the plan I would have done in Run Less, Run Faster, and said he’d come up with a comparable plan for me that was based on Daniels but had 3 workouts a week and took my 10k time into account.

He even plugged the workouts into Garmin Connect for me and sent them to my watch.

Now all I have to do is throw my watch on, select the workout for the day, and it’ll guide me each step of the way including target pace.

And the best part is that I don’t want to let him down, so when the babysitter shows up, I’m going to hit the road and do my best.

It’s great accountability.

I did ask if Greg had any coaching experience before I agreed to this, by the way. (As if that really matters given that the alternative was me plugging numbers into another book’s training plan.)

He in fact does. He coached himself from a 4-hour marathon down to a 3:08. I guess he’s qualified.

As long as he doesn’t expect me to run the miles and intensity he ran to get there.

Luckily… he doesn’t. He’s been watching me run since I began running. He’s been my biggest supporter, the person most interested and thrilled by my improvements, and he has had a front row seat to every training plan I’ve ever attempted and how they’ve gone. Add that he’s an experienced runner himself who has an enthusiasm for training plans, and I think I’ve really lucked out here.

I love that he’s willing to put in the time and effort to come up with a training plan for me, painstakingly put it all into Garmin Connect so it’s so easy, and that I know he’s rooting for me each run and will switch things up as I progress or if I’m having trouble.

I could see being coached by your spouse backfiring. And I think in my earliest phases of running it would have been hard to trust him before I even trusted myself. In those early days, I would have perceived advice as pressure rather than guidance, encouragement and belief in my abilities. So if you’re reading this and shaking your head, I get it. It’s about timing. Greg would have been as perfect then as he is now, but I didn’t have the confidence and resilience and faith in my running and in my ability to communicate about my running.

But now? I think it’s amazing. I think I’m so lucky. I wish I’d done it sooner. I can’t wait to run tomorrow, because I know he’ll be excited to see how I did, not that he isn’t always, but now he’s really part of it.