Telling people what they don’t want to hear

Part of being a good coach, in my view, involves telling people no. I write personalised training plans for runners, I provide week-by-week coaching, and I’ve coached runners in person. And sometimes I’m asked to make things happen that I just don’t think are possible.

A few weeks ago I was asked to write a marathon training plan based on just two runs a week, and I said no. I’m sure people have run a marathon off of such a training regime, but for me, it’s not enough. And I wouldn’t put my name to something that I thought was bad advice bordering on the unsafe. So I declined.

I’ve also been asked to help someone reduce their mile time by 30 seconds over a time period of two weeks for a mile race they were doing. Again, I said no because I don’t think this is a realistic time frame for such a task, and to agree to help would be to encourage unrealistic expectations.

These are two quite extreme examples, but I think we’re all guilty of looking for the answers we want to hear rather than what we know to be true. We set ourselves big goals without  giving ourselves enough time to achieve them and without being able to put in the necessary training. We base our goals on what we think sounds good and what other people are achieving rather than where we are right now and what we can achieve with the time and tools we have available.

If you don’t want to run more than twice a week, that’s ok. Run twice a week and enjoy it. Nobody is here to tell you that you have to run four, five, six times a week if you don’t want to. But think about what you want out of running and be realistic about what you’re willing or able to put in to get that.

This year will be the first year in a while that I don’t run a marathon. Last year I qualified for Boston Marathon, but this year my running looks pretty different to that. I took my own advice – the advice I didn’t want to hear – and pulled out of a couple of races this spring.

My miles are much slower this year and my runs much shorter, that’s just the way life is right now. But I’m still running because I still enjoy it. I don’t feel the need to achieve certain mile splits or run certain races to call myself a runner and neither should you.

from Lazy Girl Running http://ift.tt/2wFm2k5