What It Looks Like Inside the Distance Collective

By Coach Justin Roeder

I get asked some version of this all the time: what do you actually get for the money? It's a fair question. The answer changes depending on which option inside the Distance Collective we're talking about. There's the fully individualized, 1-on-1 monthly coaching relationship, and then there's the Race and Train option, which is a completely different thing. For a lot of families it's actually the better starting point. I want to walk through that one specifically because I don't think it gets explained well anywhere else.

If you'd rather just talk it through, reach out through my contact page and we can figure out which option makes sense for your runner.

Let's Be Clear About What This Isn't

The $500 Race and Train opportunity is not the same product as our monthly individualized coaching. It's not a custom TrainingPeaks plan built week to week around one athlete's injury history and race calendar. It's not daily text access to me for one on one questions. If that level of attention is what your athlete needs, that's a real conversation and I'm happy to have it. Contact me here if that sounds like the fit.

Race and Train is built for a different, and honestly larger, group of runners.

What You're Actually Getting: Over 25 Hours of Direct NCAA-Level Coaching

Here's the number that matters. Over 25 hours of on-site coaching across the season, led by me, in person, working directly with your athlete. That's not an app or a PDF training plan. That's me standing on the track or out on the course with your runner, week after week, for most of a season.

During that time, athletes get:

Structured workouts. The same quality sessions I build for individually coached athletes, run in a group setting with real-time coaching cues, pacing feedback, and correction as it's happening instead of after the fact.

Running form and gait work. Drills and cues pulled from the same gait analysis process I use with private clients, taught live so athletes feel the correction in the moment instead of just hearing about it secondhand.

Skills and mobility work. Dynamic warm-up drills, strength circuits, and mobility routines built to keep athletes durable through a full season instead of breaking down in week six.

Running education. Race strategy, pacing, recovery, nutrition basics, the mental side of competing. These aren't tacked onto the end of practice as an afterthought. They're part of the season.

Not sure if this is the right level for your athlete? Send me a message and tell me where they're at. I'll give you an honest read.

Why This Format Works

Families sometimes assume group coaching means a generic, one size fits all workout with no individual attention. That's not how I run it. Athletes are still coached as individuals inside the group. I'm watching splits, watching form, giving specific feedback to specific runners. The cost of that coaching just gets spread across the group instead of landing entirely on one family. That's what makes 25 plus hours with a former NCAA Division I coach and athlete accessible at $500 for a season, instead of what that same amount of 1-on-1 time would actually cost.

Who Race and Train Is Built For

This fits the middle school or high school runner who wants real coaching, real structure, and real accountability, but doesn't need a fully individualized monthly plan yet, or just isn't ready for one. It's for the athlete training on their own or with a school team who wants an expert in their corner multiple times a week. It's for the parent who wants their runner around someone who's actually competed at the highest levels of this sport, without jumping straight into a full individualized coaching relationship.

For a lot of the runners I work with, this is exactly where they start. Some stay here for years and get everything they need out of it. Others move into individualized coaching once their goals get more specific. Both paths are legitimate. I'd rather put a family in the right one from the start than talk them into something they don't need yet. That conversation starts on my contact page, no pressure attached.

What This Coaching Brings With It

I've spent 15 years coaching distance runners. Eight of those were at the NCAA Division I level, plus five years racing professionally. Every workout, every drill, every piece of advice an athlete gets in a Race and Train session comes from that same background. It's not a watered down version of what I teach individually coached athletes. It's the same knowledge, delivered in a group setting, at a price point built to make real coaching accessible to more families.

If 25 plus hours of hands-on coaching, form work, and race prep sounds like what your runner needs this season, let's talk about getting them into the Race and Train program. Reach out through the contact page and we'll sort out whether Race and Train or one of our individualized options is the right call for where your athlete is right now.