Running · 4 min read
London has more running coaches than ever. The choice can be overwhelming — and the wrong one can mean months of training that moves in the wrong direction. This article explains what to look for, what questions to ask, and what should come before coaching starts.
By DVOTION Team ·
A running coach's job is not primarily to provide a training plan. Plans are the output. The actual work is interpreting your physiology, matching training to your specific response, and periodising load so the right adaptations happen without the wrong kind of fatigue accumulating.
Coaches who use generic plans adjusted for target paces are providing a different service to coaches who build programming from physiological data. Both can help a runner improve. But the ceiling of what is achievable with assessment-informed, individually structured coaching is higher — particularly for runners with specific time goals or who have plateaued on standard programmes.
Generic training plans are built for an average athlete. They prescribe zones based on target race pace or estimated heart rate. The problem is that your zones are not average — your VO₂ max, your lactate thresholds, your sweat rate, your aerobic efficiency are specific to you.
A coach without your tested physiology is making educated guesses about your recovery capacity, your easy pace, and the intensity at which threshold work should sit. Those guesses might be close. Or they might mean you have been training easy runs too hard and threshold sessions too easy for your entire build — common errors that are invisible without data.
At DVOTION, all coaching programmes begin with a testing baseline. The data from that baseline is what the programme is built from.
Physiological understanding matters more than running background. A coach who has run fast themselves is useful, but what you need is someone who can interpret your data, understand how you are responding to training, and make decisions from that interpretation.
Ask for a few specific things. Documented experience with assessment-informed programming. A clear explanation of how your zones and load are set. A structured approach to periodisation. Regular, responsive communication. And a willingness to change the plan when your response says it should change, rather than running the schedule as written.
Ask specifically: how do you set training zones? How often do you update them? What do you do when a training block is not producing the expected adaptation?
Online coaching is effective for everything that concerns programming, zone management, load periodisation, and plan delivery. The quality of the plan and the coach's decisions are not diminished by distance.
In-person coaching is better for technique work, real-time feedback during key sessions, gait and movement observation, and situations where direct monitoring produces better execution.
Hybrid coaching — two in-person sessions per month alongside a full online programme — gives the most complete experience for runners who want both structured assessment-informed programming and regular in-person contact.
Before engaging a running coach, ask:
How do you determine training zones? (The answer should reference lactate testing or VO₂ data, not age-predicted formulas.)
Do you start coaching with any physiological testing? (A coach who starts from a testing baseline is making better-informed decisions than one who starts from your recent race times.)
How do you adapt the plan if I am not responding as expected? (The answer should describe a process, not just reassurance.)
What data do you use to track adaptation over time? (Retesting, not just performance feel.)
What is your approach to recovery? (Easy days are where adaptation happens. The answer tells you whether the coach understands this.)
Rates vary. DVOTION Labs bills in-person coaching monthly — £740 a month for 4 sessions, £1,400 for 8, £2,000 for 12. Endurance Coaching is £250 a month and Integrated Performance Coaching is £350 a month. Hybrid Coaching is by enquiry. All programmes begin with a testing baseline.
Yes. Testing gives the coach your actual physiology. Without it, zones and load targets are estimated, and every decision built on them inherits that uncertainty. VO₂ max and lactate testing takes one hour and gives the data that all subsequent programming is built from.
DVOTION Performance Coaching London