The value of an outside perspective on your running
How to talk about your running goals and who to do it with.
Last week I ran a 5k race. Before and after the race I was chatting with one of the other club coaches about my goal to run a sub 20 minute 5k this summer.
The other coach asked me a couple of questions that were useful reminders that my training needs to actually start now. They asked if I was doing any interval session (not since marathon training ended) and if I’m doing any plyometrics (sometimes at circuits but not on my own).
I’ve been self-coached since forever, and I like to be in control of what training I do. But I also like to get an outside perspective sometimes from friends that I value the opinions and insights of.
When you coach yourself, it’s easy to fall into patterns. You know your own strengths and weaknesses, but you also know how to let yourself off the hook. It’s not that I don’t train hard, but I can sometimes be guilty of doing the things I like rather than the things I need.
That’s where those outside perspectives can be so useful. In just a few questions, this other coach highlighted two gaps in my current training — things I already knew, but hadn’t really acknowledged. I could have told someone else what to do in my position, but when it came to myself, I hadn’t quite joined the dots.
It reminded me that coaching — even informal chats like this — isn’t always about delivering new information. Sometimes it’s about holding up a mirror, asking the right question, or nudging someone to take action.