This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

I recently received an email from one of the runners I coach stating that a medical professional she is seeing laughed at her for having a coach. Needless to say, this didn’t go over well with her or me. It’s also an attitude I’ve seen all over the place since I’ve started "officially" coaching runners. In fact, at least three of the runners I am now coaching originally contacted me with almost apologetic tones, unsure whether I would "bother" with "middle of the pack adult-onset" runners like them.

First, my answer is yes. I absolutely love working with "middle of the pack adult-onset" runners! Second, my response to them and to the naysayers out there is why don’t these runners deserve a coach?

Some people seem to be of the mindset that only elites or those running in a school setting should have a coach. They seem to think that, if you aren’t running for a team or running for a living, a coach just doesn’t make sense. To that, I ask: why?

Why can’t someone who is new to running but not in school benefit by learning from someone with years of experience? An "adult-onset" runner hasn’t had the benefit of having a coach at the high school or collegiate level. These runners are essentially novices. They can read books and websites, which I would encourage whether or not they have a coach. However, there is a lot a coach can teach them about how to implement the multitude of philosophies and ideas and find the path that best works for them.

Why can’t someone who is not an elite have big goals and benefit from a coach in reaching toward those goals? We all can strive to do our best at whatever level we compete. Big goals are good things. Successful people set big goals. Sometimes, especially when we are new to something and aren’t experts on it, we need help in achieving our big goals. This is nothing to be ashamed of. We should be proud of setting big goals for ourselves and we should be proud that we can recognize when we need help achieving those goals and of being modest enough to go out and ask for that help but proud enough to not give up on those goals.

Most important, if you don’t believe in coaching for non-elites, that’s your choice but why do you have to pass judgement on someone else who believes otherwise? Maybe you don’t need a coach. Maybe you learned from a coach previously, maybe you think you have all the knowledge and advice you need without a coach. Good for you. If someone else makes a different decision about his or her own personal situation, what difference does it make to you?

Is this post self-serving? Sure, it probably is a little. I’m a coach of primarily "middle of the pack adult-onset" runners. I’ll be completely honest and say that the coaching service is my primary income source at HillRunner.com and allows me to do other things, like justify the time I use to write the code for this blogging platform and to write these blog posts. However, this is about much more than that. I’m terribly proud of the runners I coach. They work hard, they do what I ask them to do, they listen to my advice, ask questions and have a genuine interest in learning about running. There are many others like the runners I coach who are working with other coaches. These people benefit from coaching probably more than school age kids who don’t always listen so well and follow instructions given by authority figures. In my opinion, they should be applauded for their choice.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Note: This is another article that I’m rewriting without change into the blog. It’s been a popular article so, even though I’d write it slightly differently now, I’m going to preserve it as it was originally written.

This is a topic that I don’t think can be stressed enough. It is a very hot topic with elites. Whether they actively think about it or not, virtually all elites do it. Unfortunately, it seems like many average runners are not taking full advantage of this concept. I just wanted to take some time to explore this topic, going through each phase and explaining how I would normally implement the phases.

Before I start, I should point out that different people will use different terms for the cycles (big surprise, right?) and some may add, possibly remove, and will most likely adjust the amount of time in each phase. In fact, the length of the cycle itself can vary. In my example, I will be going on a 6 month cycle. This is very normal, as it gives a person two peaks a year. However, at times, people will go on an 8 month or 12 month cycle or some other duration. Going shorter than 6 months, though, can leave you skipping or cutting too short important components of training. Specifically, my example will be what a high school or college runner might want to do, where they will have two peaks. One in May for track and one in October or November for cross-country.

I will start with the cycle that most runners consider to be the beginning of their training season, base training. I will then progress through my phases of training in order, which are laid out in an order that tends to be the most popular. Second will be race preparation, third will be taper, fourth will be the race, then on to recovery. After recovery phase, a runner would start back at the beginning of the cycle with base training again.

Phase 1, Base: This is probably the most simple and most important phase for most race distances, especially the longer ones. Unfortunately, it is also probably the most overlooked phase. The concept is quite simple and straight forward. Run a lot of miles. Don’t worry about pace, don’t even worry about how far you are going to go tomorrow. Just run. How much? As much as you can, more than you ever have before if possible. Build up cautiously, listening to your body and backing off if it’s rebelling, but build up as high as you can. This is the time to build your aerobic endurance. As my high school coach always told the team, running is like a pyramid. The bigger the base, the higher the peak. If you don’t get an adequate base in and try to build your peak too high later, the pyramid is just going to come crashing down. Some experienced runners get away with skimping on base because they are relying on their base from previous years of running. However, even experienced runners can’t do this forever. You can’t keep going to the well without replenishing it at some point.

Keys to the phase: Weekly mileage and long runs. Yes, do your long runs here. Maybe not right away but, by the end of base phase, I would plan on having in at least one run of the longest distance I’m planning on doing. Want to do speed? Throw in a fartlek or tempo run when you’re feeling good but I wouldn’t do it more than once a week. I’d plan on doing this phase for at least 2-3 months. Between this and the next phase, especially if you are in base phase for a long time, you may want to take a down week or two. Less miles, maybe 50% of peak – play it by ear, but no more intensity. An occasional race isn’t a bad thing during this phase but I wouldn’t race very frequently and I wouldn’t treat the races in this phase with any importance.

Example: For the high school runner, this is what you do during the summer or winter off-season months. Starting after your recovery phase, simply build your miles. When I was in high school, June, July, and August would be my base building months for cross-country and late November, December, January, and into February would be base building for track.

Phase 2, Race Prep: This is where most programs you see on books and websites pick up. Unfortunately, they assume you didn’t get in a proper base phase so the books and websites have you building your mileage and long runs through here. If you are properly prepared, you will already be at your peak for mileage and long runs. At this point, the focus shifts to quality and you are just maintaining your base. Typically, this phase lasts for about 8-12 weeks.

Keys to the phase: Intensity, while maintaining the base. Keep the long runs going and keep your weekly mileage up as much as you can, although a step back in mileage is far from the end of the world. At this point, add in whatever speedwork you decide to implement. Of course, the type of speedwork depends on what the distance of your goal race would be and where you are in this phase. It’s a very good idea to start this phase with some hill repeat workouts to build strength before launching into real intense speed workouts. About a month of strength work before launching into track workouts is a great way to lay a strength basis for the big speed workouts. Experiment to find what works best. This would also be the point to have occasional races thrown into the schedule.

Example: This ties in with the season in high school. All the early season training and meets are part of this. Race prep in high school for me basically started right about the time official practices started, mid to late August in cross-country and early March in track. I would start a bit early for track, maybe in late February, but my coach would know what I was doing and would make sure it fit into the overall plan. The thing to remember when you’re in high school or college for that matter is which meets mean something. How important are those early season meets? The end of the season meets are what matter, the rest is just preparation.

Phase 3, Taper: Probably the hardest phase to get right, this is all about cutting back your training enough so you are well rested for the goal race while not cutting back so much that your legs get stale. It’s a tough balancing act.

Keys to phase: Cut back basically everything in this phase. How much? That’s a very individual thing. Some people need to cut back a lot, others find they run best when not cutting back much at all. Some people find holding volume nearly steady but doing virtually no fast stuff works, others find dropping volume significantly but keeping nearly all the intensity works. You have to find what’s right for you. How long do you taper? Well, it depends some on the individual and some on the race. The longer the race, in general, the longer the taper. For a 5k, a 7-10 day taper is plenty good. For a marathon, the standard is usually 3 weeks. I also like the idea of blowing out the pipes with one big effort in a race 2-3 weeks before the goal race.

Example: For high schoolers, this is kind of a tough phase because you are usually peaking for multiple races. You will usually have multiple mini-tapers. For me, this would start in mid-October in cross-country as we tapered for conference, then continue for the sectional race and, if we made it, continue all the way on to state.

Phase 4, Race: For a high schooler, this may be multiple races between tapers. For a marathoner, this is a one day (one morning?) phase. The one thing to remember is this isn’t every race you do. This is the goal race or races.

Keys to phase: You know, all the good stuff. Don’t go out too hard, if you’re running a long race like a marathon drink early and often, leave it all on the course.

Example: For the high schooler, this can consist of multiple races between mini-tapers. Hopefully not more than about 3-4 races and hopefully over a span of no more than 2-3 weeks. This would be your conference, state qualifiers, and state meets.

Phase 5, Recovery: If the base phase is the most overlooked phase, this is second. A lot of people launch right back into training too soon. Take some down time. Some Kenyans are well known for taking a month completely off from running after their racing seasons. You’ve been pushing hard for a long time at this point, let your body regroup. Don’t worry about your fitness, sure you’ll lose some but you’ll still come back next season stronger than you were this past season. If you don’t let your body recover, you could end up tearing yourself down so far that you can’t get in effective training next time around. Personally, I think the key to deciding on a duration for this phase is to let your mind and body decide. When the motivation to train hard is back and the body feels like it’s ready to fire things back up, that’s when the phase is over. Once that time comes, return to the top of this page and start over at phase 1.

Keys to phase: Just do what you want. If you want to run, do it for the enjoyment of running. Don’t even think about training. If you want to get away from running for a little while, this is the time to do it. Do some cross-training if you wish, do nothing but sit on the couch and watch your whole DVD collection 5 times if you wish.

Example: When I was in high school, I would take anywhere from a couple weeks to a full month either off or just easy running at the end of a season. It was always different for me because I would simply let my body decide when this phase was over.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Note: This is an article I wrote many years ago without revision. It’s become somewhat popular so I want to preserve it as it first appeared as the articles section of the site gets phased out. In the future, I may write another post discussing how my views have evolved over the years but this generally is still advice I would stand by.

No matter where a runner looks, you can’t seem to get away from the term "junk miles". Don’t run too much on your easy days, you’ll be running junk miles. Don’t go that far on your cooldown, that’s just junk miles. Don’t do that extra run, that’s just junk miles. So, what exactly are junk miles and why are they so bad?

In my opinion, the term "junk miles" is the most overused term in running. Most people will use the term to describe any amount of miles that may leave you a little tired for a workout.

So, here is my definition of "junk miles": If you are doing so many miles that you can’t get in your speed workouts at a time when your speed workouts should be the focus, you are running junk miles. Of course, this is a pretty complex definition, so I better explain further.

During base training, when you are not running hard workouts or at the very least are not focusing on the hard workouts, is there such a thing as junk miles? As long as you are keeping yourself healthy, I argue no.

What about in the final couple of months of your training (few months, whenever your focus shifts), when your focus becomes the hard workouts? I think the best way to explain this is to use an example. Let’s say you have 4 mile repeats on the plan for Tuesday and 8×800 on the plan for Thursday. Your target paces are 5:20 and 2:30 (just using rough estimates of what my paces would be). You run your 5:20 miles on Tuesday, do 5 miles on Wednesday, then come back with your 2:30 800s on Thursday. Obviously, no junk miles there. Now, let’s say you are running higher miles. You end up doing 5:25 miles on Tuesday because you are a little fatigued after your 10 miles Monday, you do 10 miles Wednesday, then do the 800s in 2:32. Are the 10 mile runs on your easy days junk miles? Some people would say yes but I say no. If you are still getting the whole workout in at the goal intensity, hitting the exact paces isn’t crucial. Your body doesn’t even know it’s running 5:25 and 2:32 instead of 5:20 and 2:30, it just knows it’s running at the intensity that you wanted to run at in the first place. You are still getting in the desired training effect, plus you are building significantly more strength on the easy days, which will help you greatly on race day. However, let’s say you step it up another notch. You do your miles Tuesday but only get through 3 of them because you are so tired. You then do 15 miles on Wednesday, then only get through 5×800 on Thursday because you are again still tired. Are you now running junk miles? The obvious answer seems to be yes. My answer is maybe. If you are in a phase where building your aerobic strength is still most important, as it would be for quite some time if training for a longer race like a marathon, no. However, if you are in the final race preparation phase or the peaking phase, yes you have.

So, there is my term of junk miles. If you are doing so many miles that you can’t get in your speed workouts at a time when your speed workouts should be the focus, you are running junk miles. However, doing the workouts a little slower than planned because you are a little tired doesn’t mean anything. As long as you get the whole workout in at the desired effort.

Now that I went through this whole explanation, I’m going to throw a wrench in it. In most cases where I see people not getting through workouts, it’s not because they are running too many miles on their easy days. It’s because they are running too fast on their easy days, what you might call junk pace. There is no harm in running your easy days very slow. You will still build the aerobic systems that the aerobic runs are designed to build and you will recover more. In fact, the longer you are out there, the more work your body will do to build those aerobic systems. So, in many ways, an 80 minute run at 10 minutes per mile can be better than a 40 minute run at 8 minutes per mile.

This article was originally posted by Ed at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

I just read an article (Runner’s World) on beating mental roadblocks in training and racing. Some of their ideas seem so silly. It is tough to just "tell yourself" to do better or to just ignore or replace negative thoughts or to "just smile." For me mental roadblocks are more than motivation. A mental roadblock needs mental toughness to overcome any and (nearly) all obstacles.

For me a mental roadblock is brought on by some sort of physical signal from my body. Signals like the beginning of a side stitch or my breathing getting out of control or even that wonderful burning sensation in the legs. This is what I want to be able to overcome and push through to the end of the race.

I have realized that I need to distract myself with more than the silly ideas like "I really want the race shirt" or "its ok if I get a (much) slower time because I made my goal so wide open" mentioned in the article. It has to be something concrete and directly related to my goal for that workout or race. I have had some success with shortening the race mentally – "catch and pass that runner in front of you – that’s all, just pass them and hold on" which seems to work best. However, what do I do when I just cannot close that gap? Get a glimpse of the runner chasing me and try to widen that gap.

I want to learn how to ignore a side stitch as painful as they sometimes feel, running through it, working to control it and not slow down. I want to learn how to continue racing when my breathing is out of control or my legs feel like they are on fire. I want to do this without slowing down but by employing a technique to minimize the issue and engaging a superior mental toughness.

After the racing season (or maybe during the season depending on Coach Hill) I would like to start having a few workouts a month that are nearly impossible to complete. Workouts that would create tears in my eyes, which will require serious effort, so that I can start to develop that mental toughness of drawing on the pain and completing the goal regardless. We shall see what Coach Hill thinks and/or puts together for me.

Either way . . . there is more running in my future!