Brian took on a 28 day challenge to run a Personal Best Half Marathon. Brian works for Runner's World and we have partnered with them to bring Runcoach to people like you. Utilizing our program, He saw his fitness and confidence build as race day approached. He ran 1:20, over 2minutes faster than his previous PR, and shared his experience with us. 

Major milestone:
Running my 13.1 mile PR at the Rehoboth Half Marathon on December 8, 2018. 

What is the secret to your success?
Focus. Focus. Focus!I had been signed up for this race with the idea that it could be a PR type of race. Flat and supposedly fast. While I had been doing a lot of my standard training and logging my usual mileage, I felt really stagnant as a runner. I decided to see what I could do by truly focusing on increasing my speed for this distance with about a month out from the race. Though not ideal to overall training, I was hoping that all of my base training could be converted in a short amount of time. With Runcoach's algorithm seeing my recent runs and race times, it legitimately grabbed my training by the collar and gave me a few slaps in the faces. My speed workouts were longer and more challenging. An extra tempo session was throw into the middle of my training weeks to up my mileage, and my long runs stayed the same but felt more demanding because of the work I was doing during the week. In the end, hitting these workouts--or at least 90% of them--got my physically and mentally primed for my race. And I ran a 1:20:41 to take fifth place in the half. It was about two minutes off my half marathon PR... and I could have kept running after the race! 

What is the biggest obstacle to reaching your goals and how do you get over it?
Seeing the schedule of workouts, and how it differed from my general training week, seemed daunting at first. But once I forced myself to get through the first week, I found that as long as I started any workout, I had the ability to finish it feeling strong. 

What is the most rewarding part of training?
Being able to bounce training feedback off the Runcoach staff to see where I could be doing something better. It always felt better when I wasn't sure about something to hear that I was way ahead of (the short) schedule and indicating that I was on a good track. 

What advice would you give to other members of the Runcoach community?
Don't fear new workouts. They may seem intimidating, but they will break up the monotony of regular training and give you the assurance that you can run farther and faster than you thought possible. 

What feedback would you offer on the Runcoach experience?
Maybe some longer explanation in daily emails on what a specific workout will provide to the runner. What is it building, what is the benefit, etc.

• I have been racing for 15 years, and I think anyone who has been in the sport knows that frustration is part of success. It is never entirely smooth, and when things start going consistently wrong, it is an opportunity for change. Neal shares his story of how things were not working and he kept getting side cramps while racing. He started working with us and, together, we were able to get him back on his feet, running strong, and with new found confidence! Congrats on your sub 2 hour half marathon Neal, and thank you for showing us that change is a good thing!
  
  Major milestone:
• Ran the Rock and Roll Humana Half Marathon under 2 hours, finished at 1:58:52.
• What is the secret to your success?
  Staying with my Runcoach training and talking with the coaches.
• What is the biggest obstacle to reaching your goals and how do you get over it?
  I had cramped on my previous two half marathons so I asked one of the coaches what to do. I was really nervous about cramping again but she told me to try Skratch labs hydration and it worked really well for me. I didn’t cramp and had negative splits throughout the race.
• What is the most rewarding part of training?
  Getting stronger each week and feeling more confident that I could reach my goal.
• What advice would you give to other members of the Runcoach community?
  Stay with the training and utilize the coaches if you have any issues.
• Anything else you would like to share?
  I’m excited to start training for my first marathon in 2019.
• What feedback would you offer on the Runcoach experience?
  The combination of running and cross training with rest in between helped me to reach my goal, I’m excited about my training for 2019.

• At Runcoach, we provide training paces for every single run, and the number one thing we find is that a lot of people run too fast on their recovery days.  This leads to fatigue, illness, and higher risk of injury. As a pro runner, the best thing I do is run very slow and easy on my recovery days. Andrew started relaxing and enjoying his easy miles, getting faster by understanding that the hard days should be hard, and the easy days should be easy helped him qualify for Boston and crush his goals.
• 
  Major milestone:
• Setting an all time PR and qualifying for Boston for the first time fifteen years after I ran my first marathon!
• What is the secret to your success?
  I've been running marathons since I was 19 back in 2003. Still, I'd never qualified for Boston and thought my training had plateaued. The Runcoach program helped me gradually add weekly mileage in a sustainable way that helped keep me injury free. The speed and tempo sessions throughout the program helped me sustain my ability to run at a race pace onto of the mileage I was building.
  
• What is the biggest obstacle to reaching your goals and how do you get over it?
  I'd used other training programs and had injuries that disrupted my training (plantar fasciitis). Runcoach helped in that many of the runs were slightly slower than I thought I need. The steady accumulation of miles ended up being much more meaningful than the focus I had on just pace alone.
  
• What is the most rewarding part of training?
  I set not one but two personal records this year- 3:14 at the San Francisco Marathon then 3:02 at California International. There's no feeling like maintaining and even increasing your pace in the last six miles of the marathon.
• What advice would you give to other members of the Runcoach community?
  Other running communities such as Strava helped me find people with similar running goals so I could follow their training and ask them questions as I went through the program.
• Anything else you would like to share?
  I considered five or six other training programs before I settled on Runcoach. I have a wife and a young daughter (18 months) who also have very busy schedules! In addition to liking the training itself, I really liked that if my weekly schedule had to change, I could make a few quick adjustments in the app and get a new training calendar generated (as opposed to editing dozens of upcoming sessions in iCalendar).
• What feedback would you offer on the Runcoach experience?
  I really like the app. It does seem to double upload many of my Strava runs, however, so I have to delete them. Annoying!

Joseph ran his first 26.2 mile race at the Columbus Marathon this fall. He loved the feeling of setting a goal, working hard, and achieving it! We are thrilled to have been a part of his first marathon and believe his message on being consistent in training helps all of us who are reaching for our goals.

Major milestone:
Completing my first marathon!

What is the secret to your success?
Consistency, Runcoach app, and the support of friends and family.

What is the most rewarding part of training?
The most rewarding part for me was seeing how each week I was hitting new distances and new times.

What advice would you give to other members of the Runcoach community?
Stay consistent with your training, don't let a bad training day ruin other days, and just keep going.

What feedback would you offer on the Runcoach experience?
The app was great for my training, It helped keep me consistent and really helped me stay on track towards my goal. The speed and threshold workouts were great.