It’s a battle many runners face—balancing structured training with the pure joy of running freely. You’ve got a long weekend ahead, perfect for tackling some hills or making progress on a long-distance trail project. But it’s also marathon season, and your plan says you need to do a structured 4 × 5 km session. What do you do?

Do You Want to Win?

If your goal is chasing that PB or to meet a specific race target, then sticking to a plan is likely the one that seems to make the most sense. Training plans are designed to get you to race day in peak condition with the most specific training leading up to the race and the entire season of training leading up to it. Deviating too much could mean missing out on progress. Discipline often trumps spontaneity in performance-focused training. Look at the people at the top of their field, there’s nothing but pure dedication there, if it’s all in, for the elite, top of the world level even going out on dates is wasted energy.

Do You Just Want to Run?

For so many, running isn’t about structured goals or results—it’s about freedom, adventure, and the joy of moving through the landscape. Sometimes it’s just about the daily escape. The meditation moment in your day.

If doing exactly what you want, when you want and how you want to do it is your thing. Then stick at it. The joy that the sport brings you is often worth a 1000 good results and PBs. A coach just isn’t for you and that’s okay.

Finding the Balance..

It however, doesn’t have to be one or the other.

A good training plan should fit your motivations, not fight against them. A good training plan should allow you to get every single good moment from sport as you can and get stronger and faster at the same time. Some days it’ll be motivation to do well to get out of the door and most days it’ll be for the sheer joy of it.

It’s often also possible to align your goals with what you enjoy doing – maybe that mid summer marathon shouldn’t be the goal if all you want to do is spend time in the mountains – find an exciting trail or sky race that suits you. Be you and follow your goals, not someone else’s.

At the end of the day, the best training is the one you’ll stick to. Getting a 1:1 coach sets you up well for getting the rigidity, while allowing for you to be you. I will always assess and weigh up what you want to do as well as what you need to do to reach your goals and still love running at the end of it. Together we will reach your goals but we will make space for all the good stuff along the way too.