What to Look for in a Backyard Ultra Coach

So you’ve booked your first backyard ultra (or you’ve done one, caught the bug and want to go further!) and you’re wondering whether a coach would help. Brilliant! I love that moment.

Before we go any further, a bit of honesty: I’m a backyard ultra coach, so I clearly have an interest here. I’ve tried to write the guide I’d want a friend to read, which means it includes when you don’t need a coach, the red flags to watch for, and where I might not be the right fit for you. If you finish this and decide to self-coach or go with someone else, that’s a great outcome too, as long as you’re on the start line feeling ready.

One thing that comes up time and time again on the initial enquiry call, is how to train for a backyard ultra and accountability. Athletes often come to me with a great fitness base, they’ve done an online plan or created one with AI but they realise there’s a few key things missing prevent them from realising their goals on race day – a real person to bounce ideas off, ask questions and to go to for support, whether it’s a kick up the bum or a keep up the good work.

The quick answer

A good backyard ultra coach should be properly qualified and insured, understand the format inside out (ideally from the corral, not just from a book), coach your mind as much as your legs, plan around your real life, and help you with the unglamorous stuff: fuelling every hour, camp admin, sleep and briefing your crew. They should ask you lots of questions before they take your money, and they should be honest when you don’t need them.

The 10 questions below will help you find out whether a coach ticks those boxes.

First things first: do you actually need a coach?

Honestly? Not everyone does. Lots of runners have brilliant first backyard ultras without one.

You may well be fine without a coach if:

• You’ve already run a marathon or ultra and you know how to build your own training sensibly.
• Your goal is to have a go, enjoy it and see how many yards you get (a really good goal, by the way).
• You have a supportive running club or experienced backyard friends you can learn from.
• Money is tight. A free plan, a good book and a couple of home simulations will get you a long way.

A coach is more likely to be worth it if:

• You’re coming back from injury, or you keep picking up niggles when you build mileage.
• You have a specific goal, such as running through the night, a 24-hour (100-mile) target, a PB, or qualifying for something.
• You struggle with the mental side: the voice that tells you to stop, the hard decision in the corral, or nerves before a race.
• Life is busy and you want someone else to do the planning and adjust it when work, family or illness gets in the way.
• You want accountability. Some of us just run better when someone is expecting to see our training.

What a backyard ultra coach should help you with

The format is wonderfully simple: a 4.167-mile (6.7 km) loop, called a yard, every hour on the hour, until only one runner completes a lap. That simplicity is exactly why it needs a slightly different kind of coaching from a normal ultra. Everything happens on a one-hour cycle, and the bits between laps matter as much as the running.

A good backyard coach should cover:

• Training for durability. Lots of easy time on feet, as well as speed, hills and power walks.
• Simulations. Practice yards from home so you can rehearse pacing, food, kit changes and the hourly reset.
• Pacing and the reset. How fast to run each yard, how long you want in camp, and a routine you can follow when you’re exhausted.
• Fuelling and hydration every hour. Ideally tested in training, including sweat and sodium needs.
• Night running and sleep deprivation. Light, warmth, caffeine timing and how your brain behaves at 3am.
• Mindset. In my experience the mind gives up long before the legs do. A backyard coach should be giving you real tools for that.
• Camp admin and crew. Your set-up, what goes where, and how to brief your crew (or how to manage without one).
• Problem solving. A plan for blisters, chafing, nausea and cold hands before they happen.

Over the years I have built up many tools to come back strong after a couple of ‘bad yards’, I remember clearly on one particular BYU I’d had a few back to back ‘bad yards’. My solution? A party yard! Headphones on, great music and I danced and skipped my way around the yard reminding myself that I was alive!

10 questions to ask a backyard ultra coach

Most coaches offer a free chat before you sign up. Use it! Here’s what I’d ask, and what a good answer sounds like.

1. What coaching qualifications do you hold, and are you licensed and insured?

Anyone can call themselves a running coach, so this one matters. In the UK, look for a recognised qualification such as England Athletics’ Coach in Running Fitness (CiRF), which is aimed at coaching runners in road, trail, cross country and multi-terrain events, and which insures you to coach without supervision once qualified. For ultras specifically, the UESCA Ultrarunning Coach Certification is an online course covering things like nutrition and hydration, race selection, putting together a crew and race-day execution.

UK Athletics licensed coaches also have to keep safeguarding training and a DBS check up to date, and you can check a coach’s licence yourself using the UKA coach licence checker. UK Coaching recommends coaches have appropriate qualifications, insurance, safeguarding training and a DBS check.

Good answer: a named qualification, a licence number they’re happy to share, and insurance.

Fair to say: qualifications aren’t everything. A qualified coach with no feel for the format can still get it wrong, and some excellent coaches come from other routes. But a qualification shows they’ve been taught the fundamentals and assessed on them.

2. Have you run (or crewed) a backyard ultra yourself?

You don’t have to have won a backyard to coach one well, and a fast runner isn’t automatically a good coach. But there are things you only really understand from the corral: how short the reset feels at 3am, how the bell sounds when you don’t want to go, what a tired brain does on the 30th lap of the same loop.

Good answer: real experience of the format, either racing or crewing, and an ability to explain what they learned from it, including what went wrong.

3. How will you get to know me before writing a plan?

A good coach asks a lot of questions first: your running history, injuries, work pattern, family life, sleep, what you enjoy, and what scares you about the race.

Good answer: an onboarding call or questionnaire, and some baseline sessions before the plan really kicks in.

Red flag: a plan arrives the same day you pay, without a conversation.

4. Is the plan built for me, and how often is it adjusted?

Life happens. Children get ill, work goes mad, you pick up a cold. Your plan should flex around that.

Good answer: a plan built around your week, reviewed regularly (weekly or after key sessions), and changed when life gets in the way.

5. How do you coach the mental side?

For me this is the big one. I’ve seen hundreds of backyard DNFs and, in my experience, most aren’t injury: the mind decides to stop first. Ask what tools they’ll actually give you, and how you’ll practise them in training.

Good answer: specific techniques (reframing, focus strategies, a plan for low points, how to handle the corral decision) and a way to practise them before race day.

6. Will you help with fuelling, sleep and camp admin?

In a backyard you eat and reset every hour, possibly for a day or more. A coach who only gives you runs is leaving out half the race.

Good answer: hourly fuelling practised in training, a sleep and night plan, and help with your camp set-up and crew brief.

Fair to say: a running coach isn’t a dietitian. If you have a medical condition or a history of disordered eating, they should be happy to work alongside a registered dietitian or your GP.

7. Do you build simulations into the training?

A home simulation (doing practice yards from your front door) is one of the best ways to prepare. You learn your yard times, how long your reset takes, what you want to eat and what your mind does.

Good answer: at least one planned simulation, with a debrief afterwards.

8. How and when can I contact you?

Ask what’s included: messaging, email, video calls, how quickly they reply. There’s no right answer, but it should match what you need. Some people want a quick check-in most days; others prefer a monthly call and to be left alone.

Good answer: clear expectations in writing, so nobody is disappointed.

9. What does it cost, what’s included, and how do I cancel?

Prices vary a lot (more on that below), so compare what’s actually included, not just the monthly figure. Check how long you’re committed for, how you cancel, and what happens if you get injured.

Good answer: clear prices on their website or in writing, and a rolling monthly or short commitment. Terms and conditions you can read before you sign.

10. Can I speak to someone you coach?

Testimonials on a website are nice, but a quick chat with a current athlete tells you far more about what working together is really like.

Good answer: “Of course, I’ll ask one of my athletes if they’re happy to chat.”

Red flags to watch out for

• Guarantees. Nobody can promise you a number of yards. The backyard is gloriously unpredictable; weather, sleep and your stomach all get a vote.
• No questions before the plan. If they don’t ask about your injuries, job and life, the plan isn’t really yours.
• A copy-and-paste plan. If it looks identical to everyone else’s, it probably is.
• “Just run through it.” Pain and illness should lead to a change of plan, and a referral to a physio or GP where needed, not pressure to push on.
• Long lock-in contracts with no clear way to cancel.
• Pushing products. Recommending kit or fuel they genuinely use is fine (I do it too, and I always say when I’m on a discount or affiliate link), but a coach whose advice always leads to a shop is a worry.
• No qualifications, no insurance and no safeguarding they can tell you about.
• Treating speed as the goal. Backyard is about durability and decision making. A plan full of speedwork and nothing else misses the point.

How much does a backyard ultra coach cost in the UK?

There’s no standard price. As a rough guide:

• Online marketplaces list UK running coaching from about £10 a month for a basic plan, with averages around £35. These are usually lighter-touch plans with less contact.
• A fully qualified UK coach is typically around £100 to £200 a month.
• Ultra coaching often sits at the higher end, because it tends to involve more specialist knowledge.
• One-off options (a short plan, or a few calls before a race) can be a good middle ground if monthly coaching feels like too much.

Compare what’s included, not just the price: how often the plan is updated, how much contact you get, and whether mindset, fuelling and race strategy are covered.

Ultra Mad Lizzie Coaching current site prices: £100 a month for coaching, £150 for an 8-week plan, £250 for the Backyard Ultra PB Package. (Prices correct October 2026.)

If coaching isn’t for you right now

All of these can get you to a great first backyard:

• Join a running club. Company on long runs, and often someone who has done a backyard.
• Read up. Training Essentials for Ultrarunning by Jason Koop, the coach behind the UESCA ultrarunning certification, is a really good place to start.
• Do a home simulation. I wrote about my first one in How to prepare for your first Backyard Ultra.
• Talk to people at races. The backyard community is incredibly generous. Ask crews about their set-ups, ask runners what they eat. Nearly everyone loves to help.

Where I fit (and where I might not)

I promised honesty, so here it is.

What I bring: I’m a qualified Coach in Running Fitness and a UESCA Certified Ultrarunning Coach, with a backyard PB of 50 yards, England team experience and a handful of female course records. I’ve been crewed and I’ve crewed others, including the UK team at the 2026 World Championships. Mindset is my thing: it’s how I race, and it’s a big part of how I coach. Coaching is my full time job and running is my passion… I hold multiple other qualifications too including a licence to lead in more remote areas as well as completion of short courses such as an ADHD athlete coaching certificate and sports psychology course. I am hugely passionate about my athletes’ training and racing, I particularly enjoy coaching athletes new to ultra and backyard ultra as well as seasoned athletes with big goals.

Where I might not be right for you:

• I coach online so if you want weekly in-person track sessions a local club coach may be better (although if you are a member of Hart Road Runners, I’ll see you there as that’s where I coach in person!). I am a running and ultra running coach, not a physio, dietitian or personal trainer, I’ll refer people when their questions are outside of my scope of practice.

If you’d like to chat it through, have a look at my Backyard Ultra Coach page or, if you’re already training and just want help with strategy and mindset, the Backyard Ultra PB Package. And if you’re not sure coaching is for you, the 8-week plan is a lower-commitment way to try it. No pressure either way. I’d just love to see you in the corral!

Frequently asked questions

Is a running coach worth it for a backyard ultra?

It can be, especially if you have a specific goal, a history of injury, or find the mental side hard. If you’re experienced at self-coaching and just want to have a go, a free plan and a couple of home simulations may be all you need.

Can an online coach prepare me for a backyard ultra?

Yes. Most backyard training happens on your own, and a lot of the coaching (mindset, fuelling, pacing, camp admin) works well over video calls and messaging. Make sure the coach still gets to know you properly and reviews your training regularly.

How far before my backyard ultra should I start with a coach?

The earlier the better, but a runner who already has marathon or trail experience can often prepare for a first backyard in around 12 weeks with a consistent base. If you’re newer to running or coming back from injury, allow longer.

Does my coach need to have run a backyard ultra?

It isn’t essential, but it helps a lot. The format has its own quirks (the hourly reset, camp admin, the corral decision) that are much easier to coach if you’ve lived them.

Sources

• England Athletics: Coach in Running Fitness
• UESCA: Ultrarunning Coach Certification
• UK Athletics: Safeguarding advice, including the coach licence checker
• UK Coaching: Recommended guidance on the standards for deployment
• Wikipedia: Backyard ultra
• Coach the Run: Coaches for running
• Bark: Running coaching rates
• Laura Norris Running: How much does a running coach cost?
• Run Motion: Backyard ultra training guide