Hi fans of 30 Something Mother Runner! I’m Samantha from Running and Cupcakes. I am pleased to be writing for you today while Jess is enjoying the Cape, time with her family, and her sister’s wedding.
I recently became a National Academy of Sports Medicine Personal Trainer and today I want to talk to you about the benefits of working with a personal trainer – especially for runners.
Honestly the #1 benefit that comes to my mind when I think “Why should people work with a personal trainer?” is ACCOUNTABILITY. You obviously don’t want to pay for something you’re not going to use. When you hire a personal trainer, you are being held accountable; you are responsible for showing up to your sessions and putting in the work.
However, I don’t really feel that is the best benefit. A personal trainer can assess your strengths and weaknesses and target the areas that need the most work – then work with you to improve your weaknesses, better your strengths, and help you achieve all of your goals.
Take me for example – before I started studying for the NASM exam, I ran, I did yoga, and I did occasional light weight workouts in the comfort of my home. When I started studying NASM materials, I said “I need to be in personal trainer shape if I’m going to train people!”
In January I started adding in upper body strength training twice a week, core work twice a week, and an hour long hot yoga class once a week – in addition to my runs. In no time I started getting faster, I started to build better endurance – I shaved 42 minutes off of my marathon PR (yet the half marathon still eludes me – I’m convinced that distance just doesn’t like me).
Another example – today I ran 4 miles at an 8:39 average pace, with my best mile being 8:16. It was hard, but it wasn’t all out hard, and I could’ve gone longer if I wanted to (I also ran 5 miles yesterday). Last year on this very day – I ran 3 miles at a 9:22 pace, and was shocked, excited, and pleased (after 4 days off of my legs).
I know I can attribute a lot of these improvements to the piles of miles I’ve run in the past year (including training for and running 3 marathons) – however, what it truly boils down to is strength. I didn’t start seeing true improvements in my speed and endurance until I started really strength training.
If you are a runner who feels “stuck” – perhaps your endurance isn’t improving, or your pace isn’t picking up, I think you should give a personal trainer a try. Like I said – I can assess your strengths and weaknesses and give you the workout plan necessary to get you on track, get you faster, stronger, with better endurance.
I have recently started my own business, RunCupcake Fitness. If you are interested in workout plans or private training sessions please contact me – runcupcake@gmail.com. I’m also offering online training programs, check out my Personal Training Services page!
Huge thanks to Jess for letting me take over her space for a day!
Wait. How did I miss your new biz????
CONGRATS!!!
It’s actually a guest post from Samantha! 🙂
Hi Samantha, the other thing I would add is that it’s a lot more motivating to work with a coach– and that’s a big part of what a personal trainer is, a coach who you can ‘show off’ your progress to and who can encourage you. I’ve very motivated by wanting to show improvement week over week in my skating lessons, and the one period of time that I worked with a personal trainer I was the same way.