Last year, Sage and I were coming down from Maroon Peak, a class three fourteener outside Aspen, when we crossed paths with two hikers who were clearly struggling. It turned out they were supposed to be doing the Four Pass Loop, one of the most iconic and well-traveled routes in Colorado, but they’d taken a wrong turn and ended up climbing Maroon Peak instead.
If you don’t know Maroon Peak, it’s extremely steep, even before you hit the actual class three section, and it’s the kind of terrain where it’s very easy to lose your footing and slide. Not seriously exposed exactly, but steep and loose enough that a mistake there has real consequences.
These two had big backpacks on, clearly geared up for a multi-day loop, not a technical peak, and they were struggling badly just trying to move upward. We stopped and turned them around, and stayed with them for a bit as they headed back down. Going down with them was scarier than watching them try to go up because we could tell they were terrified of slipping and getting seriously hurt.
There was no sign at the junction where the couple made the wrong turn, so Sage and I reached out to the people who manage that trail system and asked if they could add one. The trail up Maroon Peak actually looks like the more obvious route, even though the Four Pass Loop is one of the best-known loops in the whole state. The response we got was that other people had made the same mistake and had even needed to be rescued, but that people need to be more prepared. They should know better.
I can understand that instinct after living in the mountains for years, but here’s the thing. Not everyone grows up in Colorado. Not everyone has someone in their life who taught them how to read a mountain, what to pack, what questions to even ask before heading out. When you’re new to something, you genuinely don’t know what you don’t know, and that’s not a character flaw, it’s just where you’re starting from.
I first came to Colorado soon after I graduated from college. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and most of my trail running experience came from Cuyahoga Valley National Park, where the trail systems were clearly marked, there were usually plenty of people around, and most routes even had water fountains. When I got to Colorado, I knew nothing, and I made a ton of mistakes. I could look back now and think about how stupid I was, but really, I wasn’t stupid, I just had no clue what I was getting into or what I needed to learn to be safe. It took getting to know more experienced people and making some mistakes of my own to learn how to safely navigate the mountains.
We post beautiful photos and videos from these trails, and they really are beautiful and freeing. But actually being out there, especially somewhere remote and technical, can be intimidating and disorienting, particularly if nobody’s ever shown you the ropes.
Even experienced road runners can feel like beginners when they start tackling mountains. Balancing training volume, speed work, and significant vertical gain requires a different approach than training on flatter terrain. If you’re new to trail running, there’s also a learning curve with things like using poles effectively, figuring out how to run uphill efficiently, and becoming more comfortable and confident on technical descents. That can be a really fun part of trail running. There’s always something new to learn and get better.
This is exactly what our coaches at Higher Running are here for. We help people feel genuinely prepared, whether that means understanding mountain safety and navigation, learning to move confidently on technical terrain, or figuring out how to train effectively for the unique demands of mountain running.
We’re not here to judge anyone for where they’re starting from. We just want people to actually enjoy their time in the mountains, because happy people out there tend to become people who want to protect these places too. That’s better for them, and it’s better for the world.
For advanced runners, sometimes your easy pace getting slower can actually be a sign that things are going right.
If you’re a newer runner slowly building your mileage, maybe adding in a touch of speed here and there, you’ll probably see your easy pace getting faster over time. That’s normal, and it’s a good sign your aerobic system is developing.
But no matter who you are, I don’t want you to care about your easy-day pace too much, because here’s what I actually see in well-trained athletes:
Often, their easy paces stay the same. And sometimes they get slower the deeper they get into specific training for a race.
I coach a lot of sub-three-hour marathoners, some even down to 2:30. They have no problem running 9+ minute miles for an easy run the day after a key workout, even though that’s significantly slower than their marathon pace. And it doesn’t rattle them one bit.
I see the same thing with my ultra runners and mountain runners. Big long runs and all that eccentric loading from downhill running can leave a lot of residual fatigue in the legs. When we get deep into their most race-specific training weeks, their easy paces often get slower. And being okay with that is part of what allows them to keep their key runs high quality.
Cumulative training stress from repeated long runs and key workouts leaves you with some combination of glycogen depletion, muscle damage, and residual fatigue that hasn’t fully resolved. When you’re carrying that fatigue, the same pace can feel harder and your heart rate can be higher. So the same easy effort will often simply produce a slower pace.
Your aerobic engine isn’t getting worse. Your legs are just carrying the bill from the work you’re doing.
The days after key workouts or long runs, the goal is simply to maintain or build volume while getting in some truly easy miles that aren’t going to interfere with your recovery from those key runs. That’s it. That’s the whole job of an easy run in that window.
I want your confidence to come from your key runs, and from your ability to handle more of that work over time as you gradually progress. Not from how fast your easy pace is.
If your key workouts are consistently getting slower and it’s not because of something obvious like warmer temperatures, then there’s some problem-solving that needs to happen.
But if you’re deep into a hard training block, your legs are tired, and your easy pace is the same or slower than it was six weeks ago? That’s a normal part of training.
Some call this training…
We call this doing what you love.
You might think hiring a coach is just about getting a better training plan, but we think it’s about a lot more than that.
It’s about helping athletes find alignment between what brings them joy, what’s best for their bodies and health, and how running fits into the rest of their lives. And that’s not sacrificing performance, it’s enhancing it.
An athlete can only push harder for so long when they should be resting, or chase goals that don’t actually bring them joy. But an athlete who loves what they’re doing, feels good in their body, and stays focused on the journey is an athlete who can perform well and keep running for years to come.
You can absolutely have a coach who provides an excellent training plan, thoughtful feedback, and high-quality information while also caring about your joy and love for the sport.
We don’t just coach you. We help running become part of a lifestyle built around happiness and health.
If you are reading this, you may be a remarkably busy person in your day-to-day life yet are persevering with your running goals! I want to commend you for your efforts and to let you know we are here to support you in your journey whether it be with training tips, articles, or customized training. Now, let us tuck in.
Examples of schedules or situations that require adjustments:
· Long workdays: 12-hour shifts or 48 hours on / 96 hours off
· Athletes who need more recovery time
· Folks who travel frequently or have long commutes
· Mental fatigue from long bouts of screen time or concentration
· Jet lag
· Weekend commitments
· Illness and weather
There are many runners out there who can have a stable “workout Wednesday” and “long run Sunday” but for folks who work a variable schedule (shift work) or have children who participate in weekend extracurricular activities, this may not be possible week in and week out. I work 12-hour shifts with one week being the “long work week” and the next week being the “short work week.” I adapt the strategy of holding what I have on the long work week and then extend the workout durations a bit on the short work weeks. Factory type work and first responders often have shifts structured this way. The key is not forcing workouts as soon as a day off comes because these longer shifts often bring shorter sleep sessions and that needs to be restored before productive training can safely happen. For example, if the last day of my long work week is Sunday, I have an easy run Monday with strides and I try to take a little nap during the day to help speed up recovery and then Tuesday, I work out!
My Week 1 (long work week) with rest days taken as needed:
· Monday – very easy (shift)
· Tuesday – easy again (shift)
· Wednesday – workout (modest goals since I am tired from two shifts)
· Thursday – easy long run
· Friday – easy (shift)
· Saturday – easy (shift)
· Sunday – easy with light fartlek (shift)
My Week 2 (short work week) with rest days taken as needed:
· Monday – easy (I am tired from the long work week, try for a nap)
· Tuesday – workout
· Wednesday – easy (shift)
· Thursday – easy (shift)
· Friday – easy with strides (again nap to recover from the low sleep)
· Saturday – long run with workout OR workout
· Sunday – easy OR easy long run if I worked out or raced on Saturday
The takeaway, be patient during those long work weeks. Just maintain and then use the shorter work weeks to push for those bigger sessions.
Examples from my athletes:
One of my athletes does most of her long runs on a Friday and that can leave her feeling a bit lonely. Her friend, often, can join her for part of the run and what we do to give her social time that fills her cup while building in the quality tempo is to split the long run into sections. She will cruise for 45-60min with her friend and after her friend splits off, she will grab her drink/gel and then settle into her tempo efforts. Often, of our long runs for half marathons and marathons involve considerable amount of tempo on tired legs so this is a perfect fit.
Another one of my athletes had a crazy June! She had to work in the office during the day while also working security detail for the FIFA world cup soccer matches. We absolutely had to structure very carefully. 16+ hour workdays into the early hours of the morning is brutal, hard stop!
Recovery needs can also extend/change our training week. It is perfectly fine to stretch a traditional seven-day block into a ten-day block to allow an extra day between hard sessions. Remember, recovery is part of the training process, and adaptations will have a greater impact on our goals.
Our main goal is to keep you happy and healthy during your training. If you get sick for a week, we monitor and pivot your training. If we find a way to optimize your training week to week, we will discuss and implement the changes.
When Michaela and I first started working together in January 2023, she just wanted to BQ again. Now we’re looking at an OTQ.
Photo: @jameswilsonshoots
Michaela came to me after 9 years of running and 13 marathons with a PR of 3:27. She was dedicated, she loved the sport, and she was ready to really believe in and invest in herself.
When I looked at the data from previous half marathons, speed workouts and the long runs she was doing for her past marathons, I quickly realized she already had the speed to run way faster than 3:27. Speed wasn’t the problem. The problem was that she couldn’t utilize the speed she had for a full marathon yet.
Often the instinct when you want to get faster is to keep doing faster intervals. More time at faster paces. But for Michaela, that would have been a waste of time. She didn’t need more of that short distance speed yet. She needed to learn how to sustain the speed she already had.
So while we did touch on some of that 5k-10k type speed, we made her threshold and marathon paced runs the priority. We made some of the threshold runs longer and I also gave her a variety of threshold workouts instead of doing the same one every week. We put a big emphasis on long runs with a lot of miles around what I thought her marathon pace should be based on some of her past interval and threshold runs.
There were never any big jumps in the length of those workouts. Just a gradual progression over a couple of months. But if you look at where she started versus where she finished, those small steps led to a huge change in the amount of work she could handle. By the end of that first cycle, she could handle a 15 mile progression run, broken up, starting above marathon pace and ending the last mile a touch faster, without feeling destroyed after. During these runs practicing exact race day fueling was also super important, not just for finishing the long run strong, but also for feeling better afterwards.
She went into her first Boston that April hoping to run around 3:19. She ran just under 3:02.
Photo: @jameswilsonshoots
She’s not running sub-2:40 now because we just kept doing the same thing that worked for that Boston build. If you’re reading this thinking, I already focused on my threshold and my long runs and it stopped working, that’s because you have to know when to change things up.
Over time we’ve changed what Michaela’s focus needed to be. There have been periods where we built her mileage. Periods where she focused on hills. Periods where she did 5k and 10k type training. Each block addressed something different because what she needed kept evolving as she got better.
That’s what long term development actually looks like. It’s not one magic training cycle. It’s a smart, evolving plan that keeps identifying the next thing to work on and then actually doing that thing instead of just doing more of everything.
If you’re reading this and something about Michaela’s story sounds familiar, like you feel that you have way more in you but aren’t sure what you need to change, it might be that you’re not focusing on the right type of speed workouts for you.
That’s something we address from day one in the Breakthrough Lab. The program comes with four training plans. Two are built for runners who have the stamina but need more speed. Two are built for runners who have the speed but need more stamina, which is exactly where Michaela was. From there, the course walks you through how to adjust the plan further based on your specific needs, and both Sage and I are in the community chat every week to help you figure things out. There’s also a monthly live call where you can bring your questions and your training data directly to us.
If you want to learn more, you can check out the Breakthrough Lab here or reach out to me directly at sandi.higherrunning@gmail.com. I’m happy to answer any questions.
Good coaching isn’t just about having a lot of running knowledge. It’s about the ability to use all your knowledge and figure out how to apply it just right for each individual you are coaching. And most importantly, great coaching is about having genuine care for your athletes and their total well-being, not just their running results. That’s really the heart of it. If a coach is driven by a flexible job, rushing through work so they can do other things, a big audience/ego, and trying to make “easy money”, they’re going to be a crappy coach. And some will get away with it. But if genuine care is at the heart of everything a coach does, it’s going to make for some damn good coaching. Not only will athletes keep growing year after year, they’ll be able to honestly say that the coaching relationship had a positive, meaningful impact on their entire lives.
I started coaching all the way back in 2014. There have been a few instances in my life where I felt all I had to do was take a step forward and a path would magically appear. To me, it’s been a sign that I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing at that moment. That’s precisely how getting into coaching played out. I had a wonderful woman ask me to help her train for the Leadville 100 mile trail run and I knew coaching was what I was meant to do.
Learning about all things running, from physiology to mental performance to all kinds of training philosophies, is both a passion and an obsession. Even after taking numerous courses and reading hundreds of books, I still start most days by drinking coffee, eating breakfast, and reading about running. While I’m not always learning anything new material-wise, I often appreciate the refresher, a different way of saying something, and the opportunity to think analytically and creatively. Then there are also many days where I listen to a running podcast or go to bed reading about running, though at times I need a break to gain clarity about my own thoughts.
In today’s world, anyone can have knowledge. Not everyone knows what to do with it. When I consider everything I know about running, my mind often goes to the training principles that have stood the test of time. Gradual progression, lots of easy running, recovery to allow for adaptations, different training intensities throughout the year, the importance of a certain volume to be able to better withstand higher intensities, etc. But there are still countless ways to apply these things. While often I use the “least specific to most specific” approach for well-trained athletes (they’ve already developed a good aerobic base), even when people are training for the same races and aiming for around the same time, their training could look very different. And knowing how to adjust training and manipulate workouts for individual needs is still something that is often lacking in running books.
What I’m about to say may seem like an abrupt change and a little controversial to some, but bear with me, I’ll tie it back together. I genuinely love my athletes. Not the same way I love my family, and yes, they are paying me, but I love them. Some of my athletes I’ve been coaching for over a decade. I know what their kids are up to, I’ve seen a few go through tragic losses, they’ve trusted me with worries, and I’ve gotten to see them through their most joyous moments of running and life as well. I don’t take any of that lightly and my athletes know it. And I truly believe that when an athlete knows they’re cared for and that I genuinely care about their health, well-being and happiness, they are in a position to train and perform to the best of their abilities in whatever stage of life they are in.
Everything I’ve shared above is something I know every Higher Running coach can relate to. I’ll be the first to admit I have high standards when it comes to coaching, but because every single coach here genuinely cares about people and has a true passion for coaching, they appreciate the standard of coaching we expect here at Higher Running. Each coach also has a small athlete roster, so that level of care can always be maintained. And I believe that’s why all of our coaches have many athletes they’ve worked with for years and why we often fill up, even in an era where there are hundreds of run coaches and companies to choose from. Higher Running was founded on passion for running and genuine care for people, and that will forever be our compass.
For some runners, more volume can be very beneficial. For others, the main limiter is threshold fitness or raw speed. It comes down to knowing what’s holding you back. If your 5k-10k PRs are better than your marathon PR (i.e. you’re an 18 min 5k runner or faster) things that might help are more long runs with marathon paced work, a mileage increase, and/or more threshold runs.
Here are some threshold workout examples:
2 x 3 miles (2-3 min easy) at threshold pace (~6:42-6:34 min/mile, 4:10-4:05min/km)
10-12 x 3 min (1 min easy) at ~4-8s faster than threshold pace
2miles -2 miles -2 miles -1 mile (2-3 min easy) at threshold pace, or do a progression starting a little over threshold pace and ending the mile a little under.
However, before you start marathon training or in the first phase of training for a marathon, you’ll want to focus on faster, shorter workouts. This could be everything from 12 second to 1 minute hill reps, to 200s, and 3-4 min intervals at VO2 max pace. Then even as you get more into marathon specific training, you can still add in more touches of speed without running yourself into the ground.
These are some specific ideas:
8 x 30s (1 min easy) or 5-6 x 1 min fast (1 min easy) after the end of a threshold run
10 x 800m (1-1.5 min easy) at ~10k pace
But what if you’re already in your final 8 weeks of marathon training?
If you’re in your final 8 weeks, the goal shifts. You’re not trying to close the gap, you’re building fitness and getting comfortable at sub-3 pace.This could look like 4 x 3-4 miles at current marathon fitness pace builds the endurance and strength to hold your pace on race day. Or, 10 x 1 mile at 6:52/mi (4:16/km) gets you touches of sub-3 pace in your long runs without overdoing it, while still supporting your current marathon fitness.
