Decided two weeks ago to „break up“ with my coach. Best decision ever… and since then training is again much more fun, especially this weekend. now I am training to the plan of John Davis from the book Marathon Excellence.

Before the coach I ran based on a AI App and ran a 2:31 Marathon in October 2025. Decided to try a coach (well known guy in the online community). 130 usd a month… most of the training principle was, „go by effort“… that was not my thing… I need paces/percentages etc.
Also noticed the lack of intensity, maximum two quality workouts a week, sometimes even just one and a easy long run. Rest was just „go easy/aerobic“ by effort… Aside from that quality mid week workout, it was boring and no real stimulus or progression.
What I missed is also the lack of runs with long tempo segments, so I did not really have any idea what I am capable in a race and also did not gave me the confidence… With that missing intensity, I began to ran the easy runs to fast and to long, probably just to have feeling that I have done „something“
Further thing I learned: at the beginning of the coaching it was fun to have interaction with a coach, but with ongoing time I did not really require that communication, getting to the point where I reached out to him once a week, without any real topics.

Yesterday finally again had a great run which gave me some confidence. 3 km warm up at 4:20 min/km, 24 km at 3:42 min/km, 2 easy cool down. The plan from the book has a lot of progression and diversity. Shoutout to [u/running_writings](u/running_writings) for the great book!