Coaching
Every runner is told to follow a training plan. Very few runners are told that the plan they are following was written for someone else. Here is what personalised running training actually means, and why it produces better results.
The Problem
Generic training plans fail runners at a predictable rate. This is not because they are badly designed. Many of them are well-structured and physiologically sound. They fail because they were not written for you.
A generic marathon plan is built around a hypothetical runner. This hypothetical runner recovers at an average rate, has an average work schedule, sleeps an average number of hours, has no particular injury history, and responds to training stress in a predictable, average way. The plan assumes all of this without ever asking.
You are not that runner. Your recovery might be faster or slower than average. Your work week might be unpredictable. You might have a right hamstring that has given you trouble three times in the past two years. You might absorb volume extremely well but struggle with back-to-back hard sessions. All of these things matter enormously for how your training should be structured, and a generic plan has no way of accounting for any of them.
"The plan that gets you to the finish line is the one written for how you actually are, not for how an average runner is supposed to be."
What It Actually Means
Your training history is the most important input into a personalised plan. How many miles per week have you been running recently? Have you run a marathon before, and if so, how did your body respond to the training load? Do you have a history of a particular injury type? Are you returning from a break or building from a solid base?
A coach uses this information to calibrate your starting point accurately. A runner who has been consistently training at 40 miles per week and a runner who has been doing 15 miles per week both targeting the same marathon time need fundamentally different training structures, even if they both receive the label beginner.
Training stress and life stress are not separate. They add up. A runner with a high-pressure job, young children, and irregular sleep is working with a smaller recovery budget than a runner with a stable work schedule and eight hours of sleep a night. A personalised plan accounts for this explicitly, building in appropriate recovery where the data and the athlete's own feedback suggest it is needed.
This is one of the most commonly overlooked aspects of training design. Physiological stress and psychological stress both draw on the same recovery resources. A plan that ignores the latter will eventually overload the former.
Not all marathon goals are the same, even when the target time is identical. A runner chasing a London Marathon good-for-age qualifier needs different preparation from a runner doing their first marathon and targeting a comfortable finish. The pacing strategy, the long run structure, the amount of marathon-pace work in training, all of these are shaped by the precise nature of your goal.
A personalised plan is also built backwards from your race date, ensuring you peak at the right time. A generic plan assumes you are starting it at the right moment. Many runners begin a plan at the wrong stage of their development for that plan, which almost always produces a suboptimal outcome.
What Research Shows
The research on individualised versus standardised training consistently shows that runners respond very differently to the same training stimulus. What produces significant improvement in one athlete may cause overtraining or injury in another, even when both athletes have similar fitness markers at the start.
This phenomenon is well-documented in exercise science and is referred to as inter-individual response variability. Put simply, people are different, and their bodies respond differently to training stress. Generic plans cannot accommodate this. Personalised coaching, by definition, does.
The practical implication is that a plan calibrated to your individual response is not just a nicety. For many runners, it is the difference between making progress and breaking down.
At JM Coaching, every training programme starts with a detailed questionnaire. We ask about your recent training, your PBs, your injury history, your goals, your lifestyle, and how many days a week you can realistically commit to running. From there, your coach analyses the information and builds a programme designed specifically for you.
The programme is delivered weekly, not as a full block in advance. This is deliberate. Weekly delivery means your coach can review how you responded to last week's training before writing this week's. If you had a poor week, the plan adjusts. If you had a breakthrough week, the plan progresses. This is what makes coached training fundamentally different from following a fixed plan.
Common Questions
A bespoke one-off plan built around your goals, schedule, and running history is available without a coaching subscription. This is a good option for experienced runners who mainly need a well-structured blueprint. For runners who need ongoing adaptation, full coaching is a better fit.
A generic plan is written for a hypothetical runner at a given fitness level. A personalised plan is written for you specifically, taking into account your training history, injury background, available training days, lifestyle stress, and your precise goal. It also adapts over time as your fitness develops.
At JM Coaching, onboarding involves a detailed questionnaire and, for Silver and Gold athletes, a kick-off call with your coach. Your first three weeks of training are shared before your coaching formally begins, giving you a chance to review and ask questions.
A coach needs to understand your recent training history, PBs at relevant distances, injury history, available training days, typical weekly schedule, goal race and target time, and any lifestyle factors such as shift work or frequent travel that affect your training.
Yes, and arguably more so than for experienced runners. Beginners have the most to gain from training that is calibrated correctly from the start, because they have no established baseline and are at the highest risk of overloading too quickly.
Summary
Personalised running training works because running is individual. Your body, your history, your life, and your goals are all unique, and a training programme that accounts for all of them will always outperform one that ignores them. Generic plans have their place, but for runners who are serious about their goals and want to maximise what they get from their training time, personalised coaching is the clearest path forward.
To learn more about how JM Coaching builds personalised programmes, the services page explains the process in detail, including the onboarding questionnaire and what to expect in your first three weeks.
Founder of JM Coaching, 2:08:45 marathon runner and Great Britain international. Coaching runners of all abilities since 2013. Read his full profile.
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