As I got closer I realized that I knew this person. It was Holly, and she had been a member of my beginner 5K group the previous spring. We stopped and chatted for a bit, and she told me how she’d been running consistently since the program had ended. She had even put screws into the soles of her shoes to allow her to continue running on the icy sidewalks. It made my day.

At another 5K this Spring I was about a half mile from the finish line and a runner coming in the opposite direction called out my name and waved. It was another graduate of the 2013 5K group. I didn’t see her after the race, but in a Facebook posting to our group page she indicated that it was the first time she managed to get her average pace under 10:00/mile in a 5K. Last year she also announced to us at one point that she had run 100 times since the end of our program. Amazing.

Last week I was driving my daughter home from school and we passed a runner on the sidewalk. Yet another 5K program graduate! I hadn’t seen her since the program ended, but my co-coach Erin indicated that she had heard she was also now a regular runner.

And on Saturday this past weekend our 2014 5K Yes I Can! group ran their end-of-program race. Eleven new runners ran, and eleven new runners finished. More will run races on their own since they couldn’t make it this weekend (we had over 20 runners in the group this Spring). Thinking back to just a few months ago when running even a few minutes was a struggle for many of them, their progress has been amazing. The group this year had an incredible energy, and they’ve requested that we continue our Thursday group run through the summer. Some have even started looking at longer races for the Fall. I can’t begin to explain how happy this makes me!

Before last Spring I had never coached runners of any kind. I can now say that it’s quite possibly the most enjoyable job I have ever had. Running changed my life, and to be able share that gift with others has been incredibly rewarding. It’s even gotten me to consider writing another book on running for beginner’s, something I never thought I’d do!

If you have ever considered getting involved in coaching, I urge you to do it – start a 5K program through your town rec department (that’s how we started ours), or volunteer to help training groups at a local running store. You’ll have a blast, and you’ll help give people a nudge along a path to fitness. It’s well worth the time and effort.

I’ve never worked with a coach myself, and in the past I’ve never even been particularly fond of formal training plans that you might find in a book or magazine. Given my time constraints and running style, I tend to just run by feel on a given day, and long runs and the occasional speed session were the extent of my quality workouts. However, I know a number of people who claim to have benefited from the structured oversight of training that a coach can provide, and I saw an opportunity for a new experiment (something I’m always on the lookout for!).

Over the past 3 years as a blogger I’ve come to know a number of runners who do on-line coaching. I’ve known one in particular, Caleb Masland, since the early days of dailymile.com, and we ran on a Ragnar Relay team together in January. Caleb is one of the most impressive runners I know, and has won numerous races at distances ranging up to the 50K. Caleb also coaches a number of my friends, so he was a natural choice – I shot him an email and asked if he’d be willing to coach our little crew from NH in preparation for the Smuttynose Half Marathon in late September. Caleb is slowly building his coaching stable (he has about 25 members of Team Wicked Bonkproof right now), and is hoping to grow his team and make coaching a more formal business going forward – he agreed to help us out, and I agreed to write about the experience.

I’m now about 4 weeks into training under Caleb’s tutelage. Overall, the experience has been fantastic! One of my fears about working with a coach is that I would feel compelled to get in a workout even if my body was telling me it needed a break. What I have found is that Caleb does a great job of building easy days and rest/XC days into his weekly programs, and provides the flexibility to shift workouts around as needed. His weekly programs (at least for me) are built around 3 quality runs per week (usually two speed/hill workouts and a long run), with 2-3 easy runs mixed in. He also includes strength routines, which I have been omitting so far since I do Taekwondo twice per week and don’t want to overload my legs (Taekwondo is a killer workout – great cross-training for running).

One of the things I have really enjoyed about working with Caleb is the variety of speedwork that he includes. Speedwork is something I really enjoy, but for me historically consisted of mostly 200-400m repeats and tempo runs. Caleb now has me doing long intervals (which are tough!), hill sprints, and strides (usually as part of a warmup) – these are challenging workouts, but in a good way.

As far as improving my fitness, running a few races will be the true test, but I ran more miles in July than in any other month recorded in my log back to 2007 (170+ miles), and I’ve dropped about 8 pounds of bodyweight since early June, so I’m certainly feeling more fit (intense speedwork really seems to burn fat off my body quickly). Caleb has pushed my limits and training beyond what I would have done myself for a half-marathon, and it will be very interesting to see the results. I’ve also learned a lot about coaching so far by being coached, and this has gotten me thinking a lot about the future…

If you’re looking for a running coach, I highly recommend giving Caleb Masland a look. He’s building a website right now, but can be found on dailymile, Facebook, and Twitter. He’s a great guy, and would be more than happy to chat about options if you are interested.