photo cred: Kate Lopaze
Here we are, 2nd week in to January, and you’re already thinking about those New Years Resolutions you set last week . How are you doing? Still going strong? Or are some of you starting to slide just a little?
Considering over half of the population makes a health related resolution, here’s where Coach Kelly, with StretchRun Coaching comes in to play :). I became a certified running coach for many reasons, one of which was that I hoped to help others develop the love of running as I have over the years. Another is because I know what it’s like to set a goal and work hard towards it and I want to support other’s dreams and desires to accomplish a running goal. Yet another includes helping others set a goal, stay committed to it, and see it through to completion. And therein lies why I’m writing this post now, 8 days post New Year’s Resolutions being dreamed up and written down. If you had a dream to accomplish a certain running related goal this year and are starting to question if you really meant it or not, let’s chat! We can sit down in personal or virtually, figure out the right goal for you, as well as the right path to help you succeed!
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Reasons as to why I think you should hire a Running Coach:
Keep you accountable. Short and sweet, but possibly the most effective. When you invest in yourself by hiring a running coach, you’re investing in someone else checking in with you, making sure you’re sticking to what was decided, and not allowing you to make excuses.
Set a specific and attainable goal. Let’s be honest, sometimes we just struggle with setting the right goal for our fitness level. And then when we aren’t able to achieve what we had once desired, we feel like a failure and get gun shy about future goals. Hire me as your running coach, and together we will sit down and determine the appropriate goal for your current fitness level. That could include short term goals as well as goals for the future. Whatever we decide, we will do it together to help set you up for success along the way.
Individualized and customized plans. After we determine the right goal for you, I’ll go to work creating an individual plan customized for you and your current stage of life. In our initial consult we will talk about recommended number of running days, as well as cross + strength training days, and how that fits in to you life outside of training. It’s going to take time. You have to be ready to commit to the plan. But by hiring a running coach, you have someone taking in to account your work + home life to set you up for success to help you achieve the goal set.
Modifications as needed to the plan. When you sign up for my monthly coaching, you’ll get as many emails/texts/checkins as you need. Some athletes might just need the plan and a couple of texts here and there, while others might want a daily check in per workout. That’s the great thing about a personalized running coach - you can get whatever service you desire as an athlete! And when vacations come up, or something unexpected in your job or family happens, I’m here to make modifications to your plan to keep you moving forward. Leaving town for 2 weekends (when your long runs might be scheduled)? No problem! We will adjust! Running faster and stronger than we anticipated? Great! I’ll adjust your pace goals for your future workouts. You can’t get this from your cookie cutter plans found for free or a small fee online. You’re paying for a personal coach to be there for you, and a personal coach you will get!
Workouts are prescribed for you, you just have to execute. Depending on your season of life, this may or may not be helpful, but sometimes I just need someone to tell me what to do so I don’t have to think about it. Hire me as your running coach, and I’ll be creating your workouts for every week, sending them to you virtually, and you just have to go out and execute. I will tell you what kind of workout to do, when you should be doing it, and what pace you should be running. It’s up to you to do the work, but at least you don’t have to sit down and figure out if x, y, and z is what you need for this training cycle.
And just because I think there are so many reasons why a running coach might be just what you need for this season of your life, I decided to add in a bonus 6th reason why!
Find the love of running and appreciate the journey as much as the destination. While I know this may not be an absolute if you hire me as your coach, my desire would be to help develop the actual love of running during your training. By providing a variety of workouts to help keep your training fresh and novel based on your strengths and weaknesses, I’m hoping you not only tolerate but actually enjoy the journey you are about to embark on!
This is YOUR time. Invest in yourself, I promise you won’t be disappointed!