Entering a company team in a race is relatively straightforward. Preparing that team properly is much harder. When colleagues decide to train for a race together, we see it as a positive sign within a workplace. As coaches, we care about people’s health, including their health and physical activity at work.
Within the same team, some employees may already run four or five times a week. Others may be returning after several years away from running. Some simply want to finish their first 10K. Others already have a performance target.
The project may be collective, but the training cannot be identical for everyone.
Start by understanding the group
Before building a programme, you need to know who will actually be running.
How many people are taking part? What distance are they preparing for? How many already run regularly? Are some complete beginners? How many sessions can they realistically fit into a normal week?
This first assessment does not need to be complicated. Its main purpose is to avoid two common mistakes: giving beginners a programme that is too demanding, or giving experienced runners training that does very little for them.
From there, a few training groups can be created.
There is usually no need to design twenty completely different programmes. Three or four well-defined levels can already cover most situations.
A shared goal does not mean identical training
Two colleagues can prepare for the same race without running at the same pace or completing the same weekly volume.
A session can, for example, be organised around a shared duration of effort rather than an identical distance. Runners meet for the warm-up, start together, complete work suited to their own level and then regroup at the end.
The same principle can be applied to the weekly schedule.
A beginner might run two or three times a week while a more experienced runner trains four or five times. The key sessions remain organised around the company’s shared objective, but their content and training load change with the runner’s level.
That is how you keep the collective dynamic without ignoring individual differences.
Help the group become progressively more independent
A coach does not need to be physically present at every session for a company team to prepare properly.
In fact, permanent supervision is not always desirable.
A group that knows how to warm up, understand a session, choose an appropriate pace and adapt its training becomes much easier to sustain over time.
The coach’s role can therefore change. Rather than leading every run, the coach creates the framework within which the group can function.
A simple training toolbox might include:
- standard warm-up routines;
- pace guidelines for different levels;
- sessions that can be completed in small groups;
- short strength exercises;
- simple rules for adapting or skipping a session;
- recovery guidance;
- organisation of the final weeks before the race;
- a race-day checklist.
One or two people within the company can also act as group coordinators. Their role is not to become coaches, but to help organise meeting points and make sure information reaches everyone.
Remote coaching can still be individualised
Independence does not mean a lack of support. The programme can be built remotely and adjusted throughout the preparation period.
Participants have access to their sessions while the coach keeps an overall view of the group: consistency, progression, completed training, reported fatigue, changing goals or any particular difficulties.
This also makes it possible to support teams spread across several sites or employees whose working hours mean they cannot always train together.
The group remains connected by a shared deadline and a shared project, even when everyone cannot run in the same place at the same time. And the aim should still be to enjoy doing something together.
Be present when a coach genuinely adds value
Some sessions are much more useful when supervised directly. An initial session can be used to meet the group, observe the different levels and explain how the preparation will work. A simple speed test can sometimes be useful too — and often becomes an enjoyable, slightly competitive moment for the group.
A technical session can then focus on warm-ups, pacing or running economy. A mid-programme meeting gives the coach an opportunity to adjust the groups.
Closer to race day, another session can focus on the final weeks, race strategy and practical organisation. The goal is not to maximise the number of coached sessions. It is to choose the moments when having a coach there genuinely improves the project.
5K, 10K, half marathon or marathon: these are different projects
The chosen distance changes the preparation considerably.
A 5K or 10K can usually include relatively inexperienced runners without too much difficulty. A half marathon already requires greater consistency.
A marathon is a much more demanding project. The distance has become increasingly normalised in recent years, but it remains a serious endurance event. It requires several months of preparation, greater training volume and particular care with the progression of less experienced runners.
For a large company team, offering several race distances may therefore make more sense than asking everyone to run a marathon.
The shared objective then becomes the event itself rather than one single distance.
Start early enough
A company that waits until the final few weeks before the race misses much of what makes the project worthwhile.
The preparation itself is what allows the group to develop over time.
The first weeks are used to establish regular running and organise the different levels. Training then becomes more specific to the event. The final weeks allow runners to reduce the training load and arrive at the start line with enough freshness.
For a marathon, starting early is particularly important.
A collective race does not require a standardised programme
Preparing a company team is not about emailing the same PDF to fifty people.
The challenge is to balance three things: a shared objective, enough individualisation and an organisation that remains simple for the company.
That is exactly what we are trying to build at Oregano Athletics.
We can organise the groups, build the training programmes and provide the tools participants need to train largely independently. Most of the follow-up can be done remotely, with occasional in-person sessions when having a coach present adds real value.
Whether the project is a 5K, 10K, half marathon or marathon, the starting point remains the same: understand the group before building the training.