Nutrition coaching spots are limited and are first come first served. Template-only spots are not limited. If you’re interested in nutrition coaching and there’s a specific coach you would like to work with, we suggest signing up ASAP to secure your spot with your desired coach. If you don’t have a coach preference, there is less urgency. We have no way of knowing if or how soon nutrition coaching spots will sell out.

The April 19th to May 24th sign up period is to give you plenty of time to plan and prepare before you start sometime between May 6th and May 27th. You will choose your fun run or race date and your coach will start you 3 or 4 months out from that date depending on which option you signed up for. Upon signing up, you immediately gain access to all Black Iron resources and ebooks as well as the Black Iron Mighty Network (which is where the community aspect of Summer Run Club is going down). We suggest reviewing as much material as you can before you start so that you get the most out of your coaching experience.

If you’re interested in doing template-only, you can purchase a 3 or 4-month template anytime during the 3-week sign-up period and you will start it 3 or 4 months out from your race or run. The template is entirely self-guided, but you are welcome to ask template questions in the Mighty Network if you need assistance.

Coaching Summer Run Club is optional for our team, not mandatory. If you don’t see the nutrition coach you want listed as an option, it’s either because this coach is already full or chose not to coach Summer Run Club. When you sign up, the coaches you see are the coaches available. If you don’t have a preference, you can choose “no preference” and our team will pair you with the best nutrition coach based on what you put on the application. If you are currently a BIN client and your coach is not listed, you may ask your coach if they are willing to coach you through this, but she/he may politely decline, in which case you will need to change coaches if you want to do Summer Run Club.

Current Nutrition Clients: Current clients will go through the normal sign-up process. Your payment will then be processed within 24 hours of your application to your default payment on file with us. If you wish to update your payment method beforehand, you may do so by logging into your online portal and going to your account page, on your account page in the billing section there is an area to update your payment method, here is the direct link to that page, client account page. After you update your payment, please submit your application. Any paid time left on your current subscription will be added to the end of Summer Run Club. No prorates or credits from any recent subscription payments will be applied to the cost of Summer Run Club.

If you purchased a year of Lifestyle Nutrition Coaching (with or without training) during our 2023 Black Friday sale, you can opt in to participate by purchasing the running template only option, as your nutrition coaching is paid in full for the year.

Returning Nutrition Clients: When you sign up your account will be automatically restored, and you will then need to log into your account, enter your current payment details, then submit payment. If you wish to reset your account and start fresh (which we highly suggest doing if you haven’t been a client for longer than 3 months), please message your coach and request an account reset.

You can either temporarily cancel your subscription with Black Iron Training for the duration of BISRC or you can keep it if you want and continue using whatever program you are on for lifting. Keep in mind that you’ll be aiming to run either 4 or 5 days a week during Summer Run Club, which is why we suggest and provide a free supplemental 2x per week lifting program. We only suggest staying on your BIT subscription lifting if you know you can handle lifting more than 2x per week simultaneously with this running frequency. You know if you can do this because you are already doing it now or you have done it in the recent past.

If you purchased a year of Lifestyle Nutrition Coaching (with or without training) during our 2023 Black Friday sale, you can opt in to participate by purchasing the running template only option, as your nutrition coaching is paid in full for the year.

You have access to your Black Iron Training program from January 1 to December 31. If you want to do Summer Run Club, you are purchasing a separate product. As mentioned above, you can continue to do BIT lifting workouts instead of the free lifting program provided with Summer Run Club.

Yes! For the template, once you are done going through it the first time you can go back to each week, delete all the feedback you provided during that first run-through, update the intake information with your current information, and you will be ready to go through it again. For example, if you progress from 1hr/week to 2-3hr/week the first time you run through the template, you would just go back to the intake page, put in your updated running volume and threshold pace, and it will be all set for your new level of fitness. Once you start running more than 5 hours a week, the template will no longer improve your running fitness.

For the lifting program, the TrainHeroic access code you receive does not expire, so you can go through the lifting program as many time as you would like.

While the templates currently come in 4 or 5 runs per week, they may still be used if you want to run 3 times per week. We recommend simply skipping the “Day One” workout on the 4x/week templates. The template will still progress your running based on your feedback of the remaining 3 days.

Completely fine. Purchase the template-only option and begin either 13 or 17 weeks before your scheduled race/run. You can still email chris@blackironnutrition if you need assistance with the template.

Then you miss a week of training or a few runs. This is not a big deal and it can happen due to work, life, getting sick, travel, etc. What matters most is that you don’t make a habit out of missing too many runs and keep on keeping on. Consistency trumps all, so as long as you are consistently getting your runs in for the most part, skipping a few won’t matter much in the big picture. On the template, each workout has a dropdown menu where you can note if you missed a particular session. When you mark a session as missed, the template will know not to progress that workout in the following week so that you can pick up where you left off.

If you find you are skipping runs by choice and not out of necessity, let your coach(es) know what’s going on and head over to the Mighty Network to get extra support from the team and community. We are here to help you succeed.

If training is going better or not as well as you thought it would and you feel strongly about changing distances in either direction, we support you. If you are on the 5k/10k/Half template, you can easily change your distance on the first page of the template, as long as it’s done before the pre-competition phase (final 4-5 weeks). If you want to change distance to or from the 26.2 template, you can reach out to chris@blackironnutrition.com. If doing custom programming and run coaching, you can talk to your running coach about changing distances. If you change your distance, be sure to let your nutrition coach know immediately so they can adjust your nutrition accordingly if necessary.

If you don’t have a watch that can track your runs, you have a few options. You can purchase one within your budget if you think you’ll keep using it after Summer Run Club is over. A watch tracks a lot more than just running (like health metrics, etc) and many people find they use their watch more than anything they own. If you are in the market for a GPS watch, the team and community can help you choose one that fits your budget and needs. If purchasing a watch is not in your budget, you can use the free version of Strava to track your outdoor runs. Strava can’t track your heart rate, so you will need to go off of feel when it comes to effort (which is totally fine!). The app will track distance, time, pace, and more for you.

If accurate HR data is important to you, it’s a good idea. Wrist watch monitors use optical sensors to read and calculate heart rate. While this method is quite precise, it becomes unreliable during training and workouts. Ambient light, movement, moisture, sweat, thick skin and tattoos can all affect the accuracy of an optical sensor reading during training.

Chest and arm straps, on the other hand, use small electrode pads to collect signals from the heart. This type of HR measurement – called electrocardiography, or ECG – is entirely unaffected by ambient light and is in turn far more accurate than wrist data (99% to be exact). Your Apple, Garmin or Coros watch may have an ECG reading feature depending on the model, however in order to use it you must hold completely still with your finger to the crown, creating a closed loop. Meaning this feature is meant for monitoring heart health and not meant to be used during training or movement.

Traditionally, running programs implement deload weeks every four weeks or so in order for an athlete to recover properly throughout a training cycle. While deloads are important, a one-size-fits-all approach is not optimal. For some runners, four weeks might be too late or too early. The template collects your recovery data in real-time, and will reduce training volume when you really need it, instead of doing it arbitrarily every X weeks.

Your threshold pace is an important measure of running fitness. This is the pace at which your body starts to switch over from predominantly aerobic energy production to an increasing reliance on anaerobic energy. For most runners, this is the pace you can run a 60-minute race at. There are a few ways you can estimate your threshold pace. It does not have to be exact when you start the template, so please give it your best guess using one of the following methods so that the template can be used to its fullest extent.

Running Watch – If you’ve already been running with a running/GPS watch, there’s a good chance your watch can provide this info. If you want a more updated and accurate measure, many watches also offer a built-in Functional Threshold Pace Test that you can complete. Here are a few watch brands that provide your threshold pace and where to find it:

Coros Instructions – EvoLab: Updated Pace Zones – COROS Help Center

Garmin Instructions – Lactate Threshold | Garmin Technology (video bottom of the page)

By Feel – You can estimate your threshold pace through subjective effort. Your threshold pace should be a pace that you can say a 3-4word sentence without gasping for breath.

Heart Rate – If you are a newer runner, and your running watch is new or doesn’t have enough data to give you an estimate, heart rate can be a good place to start. For most runners, your threshold pace will be between 80-90% of your maximum heart rate. So one way to estimate your threshold pace is to look at the pace that keeps your heart rate in that range. If you do not know your maximum heart rate, you can roughly estimate it by subtracting your age from 220.

As your threshold pace improves during the program, make sure you are updating your threshold pace on the “Intake” tab of the template so that your future pace prescriptions are more appropriate for your evolving fitness levels!

If you trail run, you already know that altitude, terrain type, steepness/grade, conditions, weather and more can all affect your pace on trail making it very difficult to use paces to train – especially if you are a newer runner. When trail running, do not use the provided paces on the template unless you are running on mostly flat, hard packed easy trails. Instead, you will need to use a combination of HR and perceived effort to achieve the programmed effort. If you need any assistance with this, you can use the Mighty Network to access the running coaching team for help/advice.

These are brief running efforts that are done at a speed a little slower than a sprint. Ensure you are completing these on flat ground or a slight uphill. You can experiment with specific speeds and it doesn’t have to be perfect, as long as they are considerably faster than your easy pace, you are meeting the intent of the workout: The main purpose is to practice the technique of running faster, while also conditioning your joints to the demands of fast running so that when we are doing more fast running in later weeks, you are prepared!

The Summer Run Club package is discounted, so you’d end up spending more if you purchased the template separately. You’d also miss out on a lot of perks and freebies, like the Pavement to Peaks ebook and entry into our giveaways.

Another benefit to joining Summer Run Club is that we’ve created specific check in questions for participating clients so your nutrition coach gets additional feedback from you each week to help you progress toward your running goal!

We would definitely recommend joining the club as a whole if you are a current nutrition client so you don’t miss out on everything it has to offer. When you apply on our website, just make sure to select your current coach, that way you can continue to work with them!