Hansons Coaching Services

Recently, I had a new athlete sign up for coaching and we have them complete a training profile. One of the questions is “what are…

I remember in high school everyone had had these team shirts with “motivational” quotes. My favorite was “Runners have no offseason!” Soooo tough! Looking at…

So, I am cruising the social media and lately, I’ve been seeing a lot about the 80/20 rule in running. As I write this, fall…

I have made the summer of 2022 the summer of reinforcing heat and humidity adjustments with my athletes. It has had some pretty solid success…

If you have followed me for any length of time, you know that I am a big proponent of even to negative splits. When we…

If you have followed my writing for any length, you will know that you won’t find me prescribing workouts by heart rate any time soon.…

Consistency is king/queen when it comes to development. What do you think is more important. A) doing two really good workouts over a 30 day…

There’s the old adage, “easy days easy, hard days hard” and we see that is the case with the majority of the elite to competitive…

A few weeks ago, someone in our Facebook group brought up the idea of using an infrared sauna for recovery. I hadn’t thought much about…

One of the biggest complaints I get from athletes following the book (link), is that there is no taper. They say that because they are…

I recently made a comment on my Strava log that I was making a conscious effort to make my easy days a little bit faster. This prompted a question from one of my followers who essentially asked what the benefits of running faster on their easy days would be. So… it depends, right? That’s the […]

It was 2008 and I was on the starting line of the New York City Marathon. I had just completed the best training segment of my entire life. Yet, here I was petrified, staring at the world’s best runners (Olympic medalists, world record holders, and past champions). Needless to say, I underperformed and left incredibly […]

During this time of uncertainty, it can be tough to have a plan. Many of us have been training a little aimlessly, myself included. It’s been hard to have a plan when there isn’t a definite end point to that plan. So, today, I want to give you the 30,000 foot view of training and […]

How many of you have run a marathon only to find yourself with a head cold or sick within the few days following the race? Yeah, me too! The truth is, we know that hard training and racing makes us more vulnerable to sickness. Right now, training hard with a suppressed immune system could spell […]

It is interesting how our experiences shape our philosophy over time. My earliest example was when I started running cross country in high school. I ran track in junior high but wasn’t bothered with cross country. My coach, Mike Noll, was very pace-oriented with an emphasis on negative splits and since it was really my […]

The definition of commitment is “the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc.” Whether it is running your first marathon with the goal of just making it to the finish line or a world-class racer in the Olympic Games, having a commitment level that matches required. Taking on something that’s outside […]

Last week we discussed recovery repeats for speed workouts. If you missed that post, you can see HERE. This week I want to discuss the next group of repeats in the marathon training- the strength repeats. Traditionally, these are done at 10 seconds faster marathon pace per mile. You will see this written as MP-10. […]

Last week I wrote about big data and what it told us about training for the mid-packer. I also chimed in about how I felt the HMM style of marathon training fit in. The reality is the vast majority of people under train for the marathon. When I say under train, I am referring to […]

Ok, so I have to admit that I was awfully intrigued with Amby Burfoot’s new article for Podium Runner. I was very curious to see what insights there’d be into the world of marathon training for recreational runners, or as they were called mid packers. And then someone asked if I’d share my thoughts on […]

How many times have you set your time goal, thought it looked kinda scary, but still doable? Yeah, me too. Now, how about when you started the training plan and that first workout at your new race pace was staring back at you? Knees shake, sweat build, and a “Oh crap, that’s fast” blurts out. […]