Marathon training, with a virtual coach

LITTLE ROCK — Runner's World magazine has a new online training service for marathoners.

Its head trainer, Bart Yasso, ran more than 1,000 races of various kinds since he turned to endurance events in the 1970s to help beat a drug and alcohol habit. He has lost track of the number of marathons he has completed, but he has done at least one on every continent, winning some in times as fast as 2 hours 40 minutes.

He has bicycled alone across the United States twice and trained a sedentary group of recovering substance abusers to complete a 22-mile relay.

Now, as the "chief running officer" for Runner's World, he has helped develop an interactive plan designed to assist anyone training for a 26.2-mile race.

How can you complete a marathon under the tutelage of a coach who is hundreds of miles away or, more accurately, who exists only in cyberspace? Is Yasso's expertise worth the money (in this case, $130), or should you spend it on a less famous flesh-and-blood coach who can actually watch you run around a track and down a trail?

Traditionally, your options for marathon training - and for many other kinds of fitness efforts - are to follow a generic plan on your own, join a group and soak up the accumulated wisdom of veterans and instructors, or work with a personal coach.

Books and Web sites offer advice on everything from mileage and nutrition to injuries, but in training on your own for something as difficult as a marathon you are likely to make painful mistakes that could be avoided. And personal coaches are expensive.

I signed up for the Runner's World plan to help me train for the Oct. 11 Chicago Marathon. I chose the intermediate package, for runners who have completed several marathons.

It offers the same basic 16-week training program that can be found elsewhere, with a gradual buildup of weekly mileage punctuated by speedwork, rest days, cross-training and strength training.

But Yasso has augmented the plan with training techniques he has developed over the years.

You can plug in your pace for each run, the terrain, the weather, your heart rate. If you want, you can keep track of everything you eat and how many calories you expend while training.

Beyond Yasso, the Runner's World site has a couple of dozen staff members whose whole careers are built around their knowledge of running, including Amby Burfoot, winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon.

Behind them is a stable of doctors, nutritionists, exercise physiologists, physical therapists and, yes, coaches, who the Web site promises will answer questions down to the smallest detail.

Another benefit is the Web's ability to create an instant online community of people interested in the same goal. Already, the Runner's World site is filled with messages from first-timers and veterans alike, exchanging advice as they begin training for fall marathons and cheering each other on.

"I always say that the biggest running group is 'unattached,'" Yasso says. We "are trying to reach out and help people achieve their [goal], and creating this community to help people do it."

Sam Seemes, chief executive of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, said online programs offer a broad outline that may be useful, especially for beginners, but shouldn't be used as a replacement for personal attention from a coach: "Structured workouts with meaning are written around the person. And if you don't have contact with that person, you can't see how they respond physically, mentally and emotionally. You're leaving out a ton of the ingredients."