Training Services
Ultramarathon Training & Coaching – Run Far
Train for your finish line, not your start line.
The Run Far program helps you reach your goals with ultramarathon running. It covers all the bases when it comes to preparing for and finishing an ultramarathon. The foundation of the program is resistance training and aerobic training. Parts of the program that you won’t find elsewhere are mindset coaching, race-specific discussions, and a debrief following each race.
Resistance training and aerobic training are the foundation of any program designed to help someone reach their finish line. Brenda does not believe in “cookie cutter” programs because they don’t serve you in the way that you need – your program is created from scratch to fit you. The program is designed to meet you where you are at right now, as well as take into account your experience with running and racing, acute or chronic injuries, physical limitations, time commitments outside of weekly training, and your specific race goals. Both the resistance and aerobic training are tailored to meet the demands of your goal race. Resistance training also prevents the occurrence of injuries that runners typically experience.
Because Brenda offers both resistance training and aerobic training as a package, your overall training load can be balanced and adjusted as the season progresses. Leading into and during the race season, you will focus on running. Once the race season is done, you will focus on strength development and injury prevention. Brenda has a weekly check-in with you and adjusts your program as needed to maximize your progression while preventing overtraining.
Mindset coaching is included as an essential part of the Run Far program. One of the first things that can derail someone from achieving their goal is their brain. If you don’t have the mental strength or mindset tools to tackle the challenge, it doesn’t matter how strong and capable your body is, your brain will convince you to stop. Brenda uses a proven coaching method to teach strategies and help you develop tools that can help you achieve your goals, particularly the goals that scare you. Using her experience of competing in ultramarathons for more than a decade and coaching athletes for over seven years, she brainstorms solutions with you and gives you the tools to help you reach your finish line.
Race-specific discussions take place leading up to a race. Topics of discussion include hydration and nutrition, logistics of the race, and race strategies specific to that event. These discussions help prepare you for race day, so that you arrive at the start line feeling confident in all aspects of your planning and preparation. If you need help that is outside Brenda’s scope of practice, she will refer you to someone within her trusted network.
The debrief following each race is the final piece of the puzzle. In this session, Brenda will go through your race in detail with you, discussing everything that happened. The focus of this session is to pull out lessons learned and carry them forward to the next race. This is how you fine tune your knowledge and skills so that you progress in your racing, achieving whatever goals you set for yourself.
Mindset COACHING – Train the Brain
When things get tough, will you keep going?
The Train the Brain program addresses one of the most common points of failure that runners encounter during a race: their brain. “If the brain ain’t working, the game ain’t working.”
It is human nature to seek safety and comfort, but this is not what you will find in an ultramarathon. In an ultramarathon you will be uncomfortable, you will be tired, and you may enter the Pain Cave. You may even shed some tears. Do you have the mental strength and resilience to keep going when your brain is telling you to stop because you are uncomfortable, tired, hurting, and irrationally emotional?
Racing is as much mental as it is physical, sometimes more so. Training your brain to do difficult things is just as important as it is to train your body; however, mindset training is frequently neglected.
Train the Brain uses a structured 8-week approach to teach the runner how to use their brain to their advantage. It takes a deeper dive into the topics than in Run Far. Train the Brain begins with foundational exercises and each week builds on the previous one. You are expected to do the homework each week. This program can uncover things about yourself that you weren’t aware of. It will help you overcome the hurdles you face in races, including things that may have repeatedly prevented you from reaching your goals.
The bonus of completing this program is that it doesn’t just apply to races. The knowledge you gain, the strategies you learn, and the tools you develop will serve you in any challenge you face in life, whether that’s on the trail or elsewhere in your life.