A number of runners in our community have become avid Strava users this winter, including many of us here at Love Training More. This got me thinking about a number of things related to coaching, training and performing and the intersection with Strava.
If you aren’t familiar with Strava, it’s a website and mobile app used to track athletic activity via GPS. It’s basically Facebook for runners (and cyclists/swimmers) where all of your posts are your training activities, synced from your GPS unit. Your friends can “kudo” (“like”) and comment on your athletic activity posts. So you record your activities, compare performances over time and can compare to other athletes as well as support your athlete friends. As a coach, it’s an easy and efficient way to look at each of my athlete’s training each week. Click here to see our club page on Strava.
When I first got started on Strava, I was entering my own data and took a pause when I got to entering the details of my first running workout. I run for a coach who I pay. All of the Halifax Road Hammers pay him. Was I going to put all my workout data on here which is basically publishing my coach’s training plan? Anyone following me on Strava could pretty much follow all the of the training that Coach Lee McCarron has carefully planned out for me. If you did it on a one week delay, you could copy it all. What to do?
I joined Strava much later than a handful of my athletes with Love Training More. I considered how I thought about my athletes posting my workouts. As the head coach at Love Training More, I fully support our athletes to post the workouts and all of their training details. Because training, coaching and performance is about so much more than just the workout instructions. Plus, my athletes hit the roads week after week and do the hard work that we assign. They should be able to post it on their Strava profiles, feel proud of it and enjoy the kudos from their friends and fellow runners. We love seeing pride in their hard training work.
Any runner can also go online at any time, right now, and download hundreds of training plans for free. I enter loose details of the workouts that I run with Halifax Road Hammers. Sure, you could copy them. But it won’t get you to the same benefit of having a coach.
So what makes having a coach so much more than just the plan, just the workouts you see on Strava?
Examples from a Real Coaching Relationship:
My own coach does way more for me than plan the workouts. There are the orders on pace and a plan to progress fitness. There’s the race strategy planning. There’s help with choosing races to begin with. There’s the adjustments on the fly for things that impact training: normal things like fatigue, life events, busy times at home with children etc. And even more than that, for me, it’s all about the relationship. From a strong/positive relationship, he knows how to deal with me: knows what to say to fire me up, to help me work hard etc. You can’t copy that from Strava.
My coach is quick to acknowledge that I work hard and that he respects the work that goes into training in the context of being a mother of two young kids who works full time. And in return, I’m motivated to work harder.
Thinking back, my coach has offered up some coaching gems, many in the form of chirps when things are going well. I imagine that he says things to me that he doesn’t say to other people because it’s all individual: what works for me isn’t going to necessarily work for my training partners.
I have this very ‘pretty’ photo from 400m to go at California International Marathon that friend Mindy snapped. I knew my coach wouldn’t like it. I didn’t want to show it to him. But then I did because what was done was done and I was proud of my 3:03:00 result and I like to have fun and some chirping is always amusing. He did not like it: “Jeez, Erin, could you hurt a little for it!?” The result: extra fuel to dig deeper next time. Strava can’t provide that fuel.
This summer, Denise and I lined up at Maritime Race Weekend 10km with orders to run a threshold-paced workout because it was a regular Saturday workout en route to our goal race of California International Marathon. It was not to be a race. Opps, we both raced it. This is rare and uncharacteristic not listening to coach on my behalf. Lee says he’s not surprised at gamer Denise but is shocked with me. The next weekend was Rum Runner’s Relay and the orders were to run my leg #4 at marathon pace for the Saturday workout. I get this text from him:
“Back to back weekends of not following my orders = silent treatment”
I am amused. Amusement ups the fun-factor with our tough sport. I go out and listen to him and run marathon pace because however amused I am, that’s a serious threat! A leadership board on Strava can’t reign you in and keep you in line like that.
This winter, us ‘Old Doll’ Road Hammers dove into indoor track racing: a totally new athletic experience for me. Hard to be awesome at something the first time you try it. I put up an 11:24 with my first 3000m race, average pace = 3:47/km. I follow this up with a Wednesday mile repeat workout of 4 x 1 mile at an average pace of 3:41/km. So faster than my 3000m race. Over twice the distance.
“Why can’t I run like that on the track?!” Lee has a few thoughts: “because you are confident on the road.” We have team beers before the Wednesday before the next 3000m race. We are talking about the upcoming race and goals and such. We circle back to my track performance and my road workouts and we are laughing about it. I am lamenting: what is my problem!? “You suck at racing on the track?” offers Lee. We all laugh. Fun is important. He’s not going to say that to anyone else but he knows that the chirping = amusement and that it will accomplish the number one goal of me getting the best out of myself. The result of this chirp: I get all fired up and set out to prove him wrong. Mission accomplished (almost): 11:04, average 3:41/km. Strava isn’t going to fire you up like that.
It’s hard to draw the line between coaching and friendship here. I don’t believe that you need to be tight friends with your coach to have success. I do believe that you need to at least like your coach.
My coach is even better when things aren’t going well. You can read back through a long personal blog post about my setbacks leading up to California International Marathon. I got through those setbacks because of his tight control on what I was doing while recovering, even while I was fighting him on some of it. We drove together to practice when I first got back to training. I wanted to run 30km for long run, he wanted me to run 24km. I listened to him speak calmly at me. I tuned him out a bit, I wasn’t getting the answer I wanted. Instead of listening, I was noting that he has a good coaching voice, reserved for serious conversations. But no matter how gentle, there’s no uncertainty in him being the boss. I ran the 24km. You can’t copy that from Strava.
A coach doesn’t need face time with athletes to get to know them. I know this from working with my athletes online with regular email communication. A defining coaching relationship moment for me came this winter when two of my athletes, with whom my relationships is online, showed up at one of my Indoor Track 3000m races to cheer and support me.
Love Training More Athletes and Coaches Weigh In:
I put the question out to some of my athletes and my coaching partners Linda and Janet:
“Why should you get a coach when you can steal/copy workouts from Strava?”
My runner, Shelley, replied with a quote:
“A coach is someone who always makes you do what you don’t want to do, so you can be who you’ve always wanted to be. There is no glory in practice, but without practice there is no glory.”
I get on board with that. Every week, I email Shelley the training plan and every week, she replies saying that she’s scared of the workout. I make her do it. She rocks it. She feels awesome. She’s a step closer to that race day glory.
Coach Linda says that establishing a relationship with a coach whether it be online or in person, is the thing that cements commitment and accountability for the runner. It’s the connection with your coach to ask questions and get feedback that keeps you motivated and running for the long term.
Coach Janet replied with a list of things that she learned from her running coaches over her career. Janet started training with her first coach when she was 12 years old. You can’t learn these things by copying a runner’s training details from Strava:
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Janet I learned about accountability and respect. My coach devoted a lot of time to training me and his other athletes. He always showed up for us. In return, he expected us to do same. I always showed up and came to workouts and races ready to give it my best effort. Excuses were kept to a minimum.
- I learned to run in all kinds of weather. After all I wasn’t going to tell my coach that I couldn’t run because it was raining or too cold.
- I learned that I would perform better when I have a coach in my corner. My coach challenged me to train at pace and race goals which I would not have gone after on my own. If my coach believed I could, then I would give it my best shot. The result was personal PB’s and success.
- I learned to be resilient. Not every race will result in a PB. After my races I would reflect on it with my coach, discussing highlights and lessons learned. After that, it was move on to the next race.
- I learned that I need a training program tailored for me. We are not all the same, so a training plan with a lot of volume may be successful for one runner, yet injure another. I’ve always had coaches who understood this and were willing to tailor a program to me.
My athlete Allana wrote her own mini-essay for us on this topic:
Why I can’t imagine not having a coach… after only 16 weeks.
About 16 weeks ago I decided to start training for my 3rd marathon, despite having said I would never do it again. Preparations for my first two marathons included loosely and sporadically following a plan printed from one of the various running sites available online. All good plans. They work and will get you to the finish line.
During my 2nd marathon training and post-marathon, I went through a series of thoughts including: I HATE marathon training; why does anyone want to run this far; this is so boring, etc. I made it quite clear to friends and family that I would NOT do it again. So, WHY, they ask, are you doing it again? Well, to be honest, it was really to determine if I actually hated it as much as I thought. Thoughts crept in: “Maybe I just didn’t train properly.” “Maybe I can learn to love it, like other people do.” This marathon would represent my deciding factor: do I love it or hate it? Should I put marathons in the past? But, how do I “do it right”? Then, my running buddy suggested getting a coach. A Coach! I didn’t think of this… I’m just an average runner. I thought coaches were only for professionals. I had to check into this.
I hired a coach.
Recently, I’ve been asked: “How did you stay so committed and on track and motivated?” and “Why get a coach when you can just steal/copy workouts off Strava?”
My Coach does these things for me:
- Creates Accountability. This is everything! I submit a weekly training log, reviewed by my coach, with feedback on every aspect, including the distance, pace, how I felt, etc. This created dialogue with my coach that helped me improve my running and helped her shape my marathon training plan.
- Prepares and maintains a living training plan that changes and grows with me (the runner). Changes to my plan came as I progressed in pace and increased distance. Adjustments were made to account for family and, yes, some injury. But, she was there to guide me through it!
- Introduces new challenges and variety into every week of the plan, preventing monotony. Consistent variety kept me keen and interested in what was coming up next.
- Encourages and pushes me to perform workouts I never thought I could do, to run at paces I previously thought were too fast for me. But she KNEW I could do it!
- Helps with nutrition for long runs and race day planning.
- Provides mental support, especially when things don’t go as planned. And, things don’t always go as planned! I had an injury pop up during taper. Who would have thought taper would be the hardest part of marathon training? But, it is! Coach gave me lots of encouragement, tips and reading materials, including many of her own experiences, to get me through this period.
At the time of writing this, my 3rd marathon is in 5 days! I am more nervous than ever! I have never been more committed to training for any race prior to this one. So, I feel the stakes are high. But, even if my marathon doesn’t go as well as I hope this weekend, the training was great – thanks to my Coach!
For me, Strava and other athlete social media sites are awesome! I love encouraging (and receiving encouragement from) my fellow runners, cyclists, triathletes. But, what works for my friends doesn’t necessarily work for me. This is why I can’t imagine not having a coach from this race forward. Being a part of team Love Training More has certainly made me Love Training More! I have the answer to my question: I actually do like this! It is hard, but not boring!
And, I will do it again… with my coach.
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At the end of the runner’s day, this isn’t a critique of Strava, don’t get that wrong. At Love Training More (and the Halifax Road Hammers), we love Strava for the role it can play in motivation, support and encouragement! Our argument is that it’s just simply not the same as running with a coach.
Happy training friends and let us know if you need a coach!
