I’m a self-taught runner and coach. As I never wanted to join a running club I had to figure out for myself how to get my parkrun under 19-minutes, run 10K in 40 minutes and half marathons in about 1hr30. To do that I read a lot of books and explored a lot of different training methods – some worked for me, some didn’t. All of them contributed to my knowledge but more importantly I gained a thorough understanding of how to train and what’s going on.
I’ve got the qualifications from UK Athletics – I’m both a Leader and Coach in Running Fitness – but there’s no substitute for experience. I coached at a local running club – Littledown Harriers – for a year while completing the CiRF qualification. But before that I’d coached friends and work colleagues informally and spent fifteen years coaching volleyball teams. Along the way I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot of lessons on how to become a better coach.
Initially I thought coaching was just about passing on information and telling people what to do in a session but over the years I’ve learned there’s a lot more to it than that. Making it fun, enjoyable and different is just as important. Now it’s time for me to pass on my knowledge so you too can become a better runner.
Big Red Running 
Hi Hugh
I’m 64 ,I’ve been running just over 10 years,before that played Rugby,football etc.
Best times
5k 22.25.. (22.30 this year).
Park run 22.45..this year
5 mile 37 20 this year
10k 46.23..ages ago
Half.. 1.45 19 . 2015
1.47..something this year
Marathon 4.05..2016
I found the MAF method recently and over the last month, having been running religiously to it..
Giving myself 126 HR, but
I’m not totally convinced by the calculations so I’ve been experimenting between 125-130.. even then it seems really slow…
I’ve read your article and found it very informative.
Would you advocate 80/20 as part of this process? or replace MAF with easy conversational lowish HR runs backed with 20% speed work?
I run about 5 times a week
One long run on a Sunday..10 +miles, currently MAF
2 club nights.Tuesday and Thursday’s
One faster..efforts etc( which I’ve been avoiding recently because of MAF)
And in addition to club
One other easy run..currently MAF and
Park Run..currently MAF pace.
Backed up with gym core work 2 or 3 times a week.
Sorry for the ramble!
I’d appreciate your thoughts.
Thank you..
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Hi Rod – you’re running well for 64 – long may it continue. I see many younger runners failing to hit your times.
I don’t think MAF-HR of 126 will be of use to you. But I caveat that with – it depends how high your heart-rate goes on other runs. Also you’ve GOT to have a decent HR monitor for this stuff if you’re going down that route.
Your parkrun, 5-mile, 1/2M times all line up well so without detailed inspection; it’s hard to know how you should train beyond a generic 80-20.
If you’d like me to do an 1hr consultation via Skype then head over to the Contact page and we’ll sort out a date/time. We’d talk through your training and from that I’d look to identify strengths/weakness and make suggestions to improve your training regime.
Hope to hear from you, Hugh
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