My Coaching Philosophy

The uncomfortable truth is that there are no shortcuts to success in this sport. As a beginner, you’ll make gains across every distance and set new PRs weekly or monthly. That part is exciting but it doesn’t last. Once you’ve moved past the beginner phase, progress comes down to smart periodization and year-over-year development. You can’t be improving everything all the time. What does that really mean? You have to compare your fitness at similar points in your training cycles for example, comparing your fitness in the middle of a marathon build now to where you were mid-build for the last marathon. To compare our levels from build to build, we have to institute a measurable, repeatable structure into our yearly plan with intention. In fact, most runners could benefit from more focus within their training. This kind of structured approach helps avoid burnout, reduces injury risk, and gives you a clearer division between building fitness and recovering. It’s also why I believe having a coach can make a big difference if you’re looking to maximize long-term progress. Personally, I believe most athletes can truly peak twice a year. After those peaks, you need to intentionally let go of some fitness, allow your body to recover, and plan for the next build. That was the shift that helped me break out of a year-and-a-half-long plateau and hit new levels. It’s hard to pull back in the moment, but it’s one of the most important things you can do for continued growth.

That brings me to my second point: good training is boring. I read a great piece on Substack the other day by Abigail Lock that really hit this home. The beauty of this sport is in the repetition and the monotony. It gives you space to think, breathe, and connect with your body. That’s why I’m an advocate for running outside without headphones or distractions. In my opinion, this is what makes running so unique it’s slow, meditative, and forces you to sit with your thoughts. While I’m just as guilty as anyone of being glued to a screen, running brings a sense of stillness and rhythm to my life, allowing me to cultivate patience and presence that extend well beyond the trail. In addition to this, learning to embrace the deliberate structure of training even when it feels repetitive or uninspiring, is where real mastery begins. Instead of ‘thinking kung-fu’ you learn to ‘feel kung-fu’.

Influences from Great Coaches

What can we learn from the past? What have the great coaches prescribed? I have chosen a few prominent coaches and distilled their philosophy down into a few key points (unfair, I know) emphasizing the elements that I use in my own training. I will likely write articles detailing individual portions of their philosophy, but this is the down and dirty version.

I will start with one of the most well-known coaches of all time, the kiwi Arthur Lydiard. Lydiard was famous for his emphasis on high aerobic volume and the incorporation of a dedicated hill phase. What I take away most from his system is that hill phase, including short hill sprints, hill springing, and hill bounding. These elements have since been used by many other coaches, including Renato Canova and the lesser-known but brilliant John Kellogg. The goal is to reinforce neuromuscular pathways for efficient running, reduce ground contact time, and improve running economy. These hill workouts also help build strength in the hips and develop the requisite tendon stiffness to handle high mileage and harder intervals later in a training block. In ultramarathon training, I like to introduce these early in the cycle, typically in the base phase, to help set the stage for more specific high-intensity hill work later. The idea is to first build maximum power and efficiency into a runner’s stride, then extend the duration over which they can express that power.

Renato Canova is possibly the greatest living marathon coach, and for brevity’s sake I will point you to this article written by John Davis on his philosophy for the marathon. He recaps his book Marathon training – A Scientific approach far more eloquently than I ever could. Canova emphasizes long, fast runs at around 90 percent of marathon pace, lactate threshold work to improve both production and clearance of lactate, and hill repeats for VO2 max development. The long runs at 90 percent of marathon pace are especially interesting. For elite athletes, it coincides with the intensity at which they oxidize the most fat. For us mortals this occurs at a lower intensity, near the top of zone 2. Sustained efforts at this level help boost maximum fat oxidation, which becomes a major factor in performance at marathon and ultramarathon distances. Canova also focuses on improving lactate clearance through alternating intervals slightly above and below threshold, a concept known in cycling as over-unders. Honestly, I’m surprised more runners don’t utilize these, as they really help improve aerobic efficiency. His general principle is to embarrass the body just enough to provoke adaptation, a theme I think a lot of great training shares. 

What are the common themes in training philosophy from the aforementioned coaches as well as others such as Jack Daniels, Steve Magness, and Jason Koop? All of these coaches emphasize aerobic development through high volumes of strong aerobic running. There’s no way around it, volume is king for distance events. They also tend to drive adaptation by accumulating volume just below LT1 or LT2. I like to call this “pushing zones up from below.” You can typically accumulate more volume this way, and it’s far less taxing than spending time above the thresholds. Another commonality is that they prescribe extended VO2 max is used sparingly. It’s usually reserved for four- to eight-week blocks because the benefits come on quickly but plateau just as fast. If overused, it can even become detrimental to aerobic efficiency. What is used on a near year-round basis however, are short strides and sprints to reinforce the neuromuscular component of fast running without taking a lactate bath. This leads me to another key point. When peaking for a race each of these coaches limit the ‘specific block’ at 4-8 weeks. The specific block is the portion of training that prepares you for the specific demands of the event you are training for. Longer times spent in this specific phase leave unrealized gains on the table from less specific work, and therefore it is best to keep these phases relatively short. The last and possibly most important idea is what I call the “funnel effect.” This approach emphasizes the least specific components of training furthest from the race and gradually narrows toward event-specific work as race day approaches.There is plenty of overlap between these approaches and modern ultramarathon training. However, as I wrote about in my previous article due to extreme durations, durability becomes a primary concern in ultramarathon running. Ultrarunners generally can get away with higher volume training due to the forgiving surface, surface variability, and low-intensity nature that comprises the bulk of their training. I will cover how I apply all of these principles to ultramarathon training in the next section.

Translating this into my own coaching

How do these principles apply to ultramarathon training? My framework utilizes elements from each of these coaching philosophies. As my athlete, you’ll train using a blend of Lydiard’s hill workouts and high aerobic mileage, Canova’s fast long runs and lactate cycling workouts, and Jason Koop’s back-to-back long runs. My approach is continually informed by emerging research and the practices of top endurance athletes including high-carbohydrate fueling strategies, heat adaptation protocols, durability-focused training, and the use of several metrics to optimize your weekly training load.

The training progression is structured into three key phases. My framework utilizes a general phase lasting 8–24 weeks, a transition phase of 6–10 weeks, and a specific phase of 4–8 weeks, depending on your background, goals, and race demands. While I apply the funnel approach training less race-specific intensities the further away from the goal and gradually moving toward race specificity; ultramarathon training requires a slightly different application. Rather than emphasizing 100-mile pace in the specific phase, we’ll focus on raising your aerobic threshold (LT1) through uphill tempo runs and moderate long runs on event-specific terrain. My framework also includes occasional long “time on feet” efforts to dial in race nutrition and gear, though these sessions are used sparingly and become less critical the more experienced an athlete is.

Conclusion

In summary, the core of my coaching philosophy is rooted in the timeless principles passed down from some of the most respected coaches in endurance sport. It centers around high-volume for aerobic development, strategic periodization, targeted intensity, and respect for the process. These ideas have stood the test of time not because they are flashy, but because they work. However, honoring the past doesn’t mean staying stagnant and I strongly believe in evolving those principles with new science and modern coaching practices. If this resonates with you, I’d love to have you along for the journey. Whether you’re chasing a PR, building your first training block, or just trying to run with more intention, I would love to help support you in that process. I’ll continue sharing insights, training strategies, and lessons that I have learned because I believe progress is made through shared knowledge, open dialogue, and the exchange of ideas. If you’re looking for more support, coaching, or just want to be part of a community that values smart training and steady progress, I invite you to join me. Let’s learn, train, and grow together.

Thanks!

Skylar