I finished the two-day coaching course and immediately asked if the giant book came in digital form.
The answer was no.
The Road Runners Club of America course was in Poughkeepsie, which made it an easy weekend for me to fit around time at the house. Class ran from eight to five on Saturday and Sunday.
We covered physiology, heat, altitude, periodized training, sports psychology, the business of coaching and how to build programs for different kinds of runners. There were lectures, small groups, presentations and role playing. We also had an overnight assignment to build a training plan from a case study.
Nobody ran during class.
That detail felt slightly strange for a room full of runners. The whole point was to stop doing the workout long enough to understand how to design one for somebody else.
I had been moving in this direction for a while. My own training had become more self-directed. I was planning the week around people I ran with, setting the mileage and key sessions, then using my coach to pressure-test the plan and review the data.
I wanted to understand more than what worked for me.
PPTC was full of runners with very different goals, schedules, bodies and experience. Coaching meant learning how to work with that difference, not handing everybody the same hard week I happened to enjoy.
The course was only the classroom portion. Certification also required a 100-question test with at least an 85, plus current hands-on CPR and First Aid certificates. I started arranging the CPR class before the month was over.
My first practical problem was the manual. I was building programs on an iPad and did not want to carry a giant book every time I needed a reference.
I emailed the program director and asked for the digital version.
He thanked me for the suggestion. The RRCA did not have one.
The giant book stayed.