In running, the athletes who succeed over time aren’t the ones chasing the latest trends or switching to the flavour of the week coach. They’re the ones who commit to their training, to their coach, and to the process. There’s no magic formula in this sport. A good coach has experience, coaching certification and hands-on experience – turning runners into successful athletes. Together with the coach’s knowledge and experience, an athlete’s progress comes from patience, consistency, and trust – built over years, not weeks and months.
Are You a Coaching Candidate? Be Honest with Yourself
Before signing up with a coach, and before changing coaches, you need to be clear on two important points. The first is how serious you are about what it is that you want to achieve. Your coach needs to know up-front whether you are looking for simple accountability and a variety of running training to keep your runs interesting or whether you are are chasing a specific and tangible goal, such as a marathon PB. This will inform your coach about the kind of coaching you require and whether a light touch or a strict enforcer approach is necessary. If the reason for wanting to move is due to a miscommunication of your needs as an athlete, then have the conversation before pulling the plug.
The second point to consider is about the training itself. Are you ready to do the training that your coach prescribes? If the answer is that you want to move sessions around to suit your current running schedule – perhaps fitting in with your running groups – then have this conversation with your coach up-front and see if certain runs can be accommodated within the coach’s planning. The idea of having a coach to push you and to expand your ability means that you are likely to train differently to the way you currently train. So don’t go in expecting the new process to be identical to the way you’ve always done it. Else, what is the point?
Coaching Is a Relationship, Not a Quick Fix
A running coach isn’t just there to hand you a training plan. A good coach learns how you respond to training stress, how you recover, what motivates you, and where your limits lie. Tracking athletes’s training and performance is vital and with a combination of technology, knowledge and intuition, a coach can carefully navigate data and create a workable plan. That takes time, sometimes years, to fully understand an athlete. With coach-hopping, the frequent changes break that continuity and force the process to start again from zero.
The best athlete-coach relationships are built on trust, communication, and time. Each season adds another layer of understanding, and with it comes the ability to refine, adjust, and target specific improvements. Switching coaches every year (or after one bad race) denies both athlete and coach the opportunity to build something meaningful. Open conversations are necessary to ensure you are on the same page. Remember – all the wearable gadgets can create beautiful graphs of your progress, however, they cannot show how you are feeling psychologically, emotionally or even physically. Feeling is about more than the numbers.
Consistency Beats Complexity
There’s a misconception that the key to better performance is a new approach — a new coach, new sessions, or a new “secret” method. But the truth is far simpler: there’s no magic formula. The runners who perform the best are almost always those who’ve been the most consistent in their training over many years.
Consistency, even when it feels repetitive or “boring”, is what builds athletic performance. The more consistent the athlete, the easier it is for both the athlete and coach to monitor progress and make meaningful adjustments. Repeating similar sessions under stable conditions allows patterns to emerge. You can see whether you’re improving, stagnating, or overreaching, and adjust accordingly. In my own coaching I have found that the more similar and repetitive the training is, the more comfortably an athlete will execute training. The consistency also allows for planning one’s life around a training schedule.
In contrast, with coach-hopping, you are constantly changing training styles, coach personality, or workouts introduces too many variables. With every change, you lose the ability to accurately measure what’s working. Overly-varied sessions might feel exciting, but they make long-term tracking almost impossible. Progress becomes guesswork instead of a measurable journey.
A Bad Race Doesn’t Mean a Bad Coach
Every runner has bad days. A disappointing race doesn’t mean your coach has failed you – it’s simply part of the process. A coach who’s worked with you for a while can identify whether that poor result came from fatigue, pacing, nutrition, or stress. They can make informed changes based on your training history and how you’ve responded in the past.
A new coach, however, starts without that context. They might make changes that fix what isn’t broken or shift focus away from what actually works for you. Long-term trust allows your coach to respond to setbacks intelligently rather than reactively.
The Power of the Long Game
Running development is a slow burn. Fitness, durability, and race sharpness are built gradually over years of smart, steady work. The compounding effect of consistent training, guided by a coach who knows you well, is far more powerful than any short-term plan or trendy method.
This long-term consistency also helps protect against injury and burnout. When your training history is stable, your coach can manage your workload with precision, ensuring steady progression without overdoing it.
Trust the Process
Avoid coach-hopping at all costs! The athlete who sticks with one coach and stays consistent is far more likely to succeed than the athlete who keeps chasing novelty. Progress in running doesn’t come from constant change, it comes from doing the right things repeatedly, monitoring the results, and making small, informed adjustments.
So, before you jump to a new coach or new plan, take a step back. Ask yourself whether you’ve truly given your current process enough time to work. The best results often come when you stay the course, trust your coach, and embrace the “boring” (and sometimes hard) work that builds greatness.
At A-Team Coaching, we believe in long-term athlete development. Our coaching approach blends data, experience, and consistency to help runners improve year after year. There’s no magic formula – just smart, structured training and trust in the process.
Visit a-teamcoaching.com to learn how we can help you build your best running self over time.