If you are
Aged forty to sixty.
Old enough that what worked at twenty-five doesn't work any more. Young enough that the next decade of running can still be your best one.
RUN COACHING · HARROGATE & ONLINE
Train consistently. Without breaking down.
One-to-one running coaching for runners in their 40s, 50s and 60s. Training built around your week, your history, and the body you have today, not the one you had a decade ago.
Age range
40-60
Format
1:1
From
£50/mo
Coaching
Harrogate & online
Before we start
Tell me about your running.
The athlete information form covers your history, your current week, your injuries and what you're training for. Once it's completed I have everything I need to build a proposed plan for you to consider. No guesswork, no generic template.
About 10 minutes
Complete the athlete information form
I'll come back to you with a proposed plan for consideration.
The masters runner
The patterns that hold runners in their 40s, 50s and 60s back.
After thirty, recovery slows, life gets fuller, and what worked in your twenties stops working. Most of the runners I see arrive carrying the same four problems.
01
Boom-and-bust training
Two great weeks, a niggle, three weeks off. The fitness never compounds because consistency keeps breaking.
02
Recurring breakdown
Achilles. Calf. Knee. Hip flexor. Different name each year, same underlying causes: load applied to a body that wasn't ready to carry it.
03
The plateau
Times that used to come down don't. Effort feels the same. The plan that used to work no longer fits the runner you are now.
04
A plan that ignores your life
Generic plans don't know about the 7am meeting, the kids, the long week at work. Training that doesn't bend to your week is training you won't finish.
Coaching philosophy
Quiet work. Built to last.
Coaching for the long game. The work is patient, the gains are honest, and nothing about it relies on punishing you in training to make you faster on race day.
01 · Foundation
A real aerobic base
Most masters runners are under-built aerobically and over-stressed anaerobically. We start by fixing the foundation with patient, structured easy running that earns the right to add intensity later.
02 · Movement
Technique and economy
How you run matters more after forty than it did before. Posture, cadence and economy work pays back twice: fewer injuries, and the same pace at a lower cost.
03 · Fit
Built around you
Your training history, your week, your goals, your body. The plan adjusts when life changes. That's the point of having a coach instead of a programme.
The edge
Technique and running economy: more than an afterthought
After forty, you don't beat a younger version of yourself with volume. You beat them with better movement. Most coaching plans bolt mileage on top of inefficient mechanics and hope; we change the mechanics first.
- 01 Movement assessment A clear, honest read on what's working and what's costing you energy or wearing you down.
- 02 Drills that earn their place Short, focused work woven into the week. Nothing for show, only what changes how you run.
- 03 Strength for runners Targeted strength work to protect the hips, posterior chain and feet that take the load as you age.
- 04 Run honestly Pace discipline on easy days. Real effort on hard ones. The polarisation that masters runners need most.
Free tool
Find your training paces and heart-rate zones.
Put in a recent race or time trial and the calculator returns your easy, steady, threshold and interval paces, with the heart-rate zones that go with them. Free, no sign-up.
Two steps
Open the pace calculator
Then, if you want those numbers turned into a training week:
Book a call about your zones
Coaching plans
Three ways to work together.
Every tier is a personalised plan, written for your week and rebuilt each block. What changes is how much contact and feedback comes with it. Online across the UK, in person in Harrogate.
Steady
Online plan
Your plan, written properly and delivered block by block.
£50/mo
No minimum commitment
- 1:1 onboarding call
- Full personalised plan, delivered block by block
- Monthly check-in by message
- Pace and heart-rate zones recalibrated each block
Most chosen
Steady State
Online coaching
Weekly eyes on your training, and a plan that moves when your week does.
£65/mo
NO MINIMUM COMMITMENT
- Everything in Online Plan, plus...
- Weekly feedback on your training data
- Monthly video call
- Plan adjustments on request
- Direct messaging access between calls
Steady State Peak
1:1 Harrogate
Everything online, plus time on your feet with me in person.
£95 /mo
Harrogate & surrounding villages
- Everything in Online Coaching, plus...
- Monthly in-person session: run analysis or a run together
- Movement assessment and drill work
- Race-block periodisation and race-week plan
- Post-race review and debrief
Capacity
I coach a maximum of eight athletes at a time. That is how long a properly written plan takes, not a sales tactic.
Take the next step
Book a free 30-minute discovery call.
A direct conversation. We talk about where you are, what you want from your running over the next two to ten years, and whether the way I coach fits the way you train.
About
Coaching for the next ten years of your running.
Steady State exists for one kind of runner: the 40-to-60-year-old who wants to keep training honestly, keep racing well, and keep running for decades, not until the next injury forces a stop.
The coach
A coach, a runner, and someone who learned the hard way.
I came to running through triathlon in 2010, inspired by running faster and the challenge of completing a marathon. Alongside cycling, running became a passion. I spent five years battling injury, balancing work and family life, building toward a sub-3 marathon and got there in Manchester in 2019. But the result I'm most proud of is running my fastest 5K in seven years in December 2025, at 44, using the same approach I build my athletes' training around. Getting faster with age isn't guaranteed, but it's more achievable than most people think.
I've been coaching for 14 years, the last four working specifically with adult runners, most of them in their 40s and 50s. I founded Harrogate Tri Club in 2012 and took my Level 2 qualification because I wanted to do it properly. The thing that really shifted my thinking was a conversation in 2018 with a coach I respect. His approach, building genuine aerobic fitness before chasing pace, transformed my own training and became the foundation of how I coach. I understand this age group because I'm in it.
I still run and ride for the same reasons I always have: to be outside, to push myself, and to switch off from everything else. I have my own road and trail goals I'm still working toward. I work with runners who are doing this for the first time, returning after a long break, have a specific goal in mind or are putting in the miles but not seeing the results. If any of that sounds familiar, it's worth a conversation.
Bio
Qualifications
BSc Sport & Material Science / Level 2 Triathlon / Gym Instructors Award
APPOINTMENTS
Board Member & Trustee of Leeds Triathlon Centre / Triathlon Trust / Students' RFU / Run coach, Harrogate Tri Club
PROFESIONAL
Head of Health and Wellbeing, University of Leeds
OTHER INTERSTS
Cycling / Triathlon / Skiing / Rugby Union / Travelling / Cooking
How I coach
The work, in plain language.
No jargon, no proprietary buzzwords. Three principles do almost all the work and they're the same whether you're chasing a first half-marathon or your last fast one.
Principle one
Easy days are easy.
Most masters runners run their easy days too fast and their hard days not hard enough. We fix that first. Easy is conversational. Hard is honest. Nothing in between.
Principle two
Move well before you move fast.
How you run is more important than how much you run. Posture, cadence and the way you carry yourself through a stride can change what's possible and what stays possible as the years go on.
Principle three
Plan the week you have.
Training that doesn't bend to your week is training you won't finish. The plan adjusts when work, family or sleep get in the way. That is the plan working, not failing.
Who this is for
One audience. Specifically.
Coaching is a generalist's game until you commit. Steady State commits to the runner whose body, life and ambitions look something like this.
If you are
Building, not thrashing.
You'd rather train consistently for ten years than train brilliantly for ten weeks and miss the next six. The point is the long arc.
If you are
Tired of generic plans.
You've followed plans from books, apps and forums. You're done copying somebody else's week. You want training designed for your week, and a coach who knows when to change it.
If you are
Serious without being obsessive.
You take your running seriously. You also have a job, a family, a life. The training has to live alongside those, not push them aside.
Where
Harrogate based. Online everywhere else.
In-person sessions across Harrogate and the surrounding villages. Online coaching for everyone else in the UK and beyond, the structure of the coaching is the same.
In-person
Harrogate & the Stray
Movement assessments, drill sessions and selected long runs in person. Routes across the Stray, Pinewoods and Nidderdale, and access to Harrogate's running clubs and parkrun network when it fits your build.
Online
Anywhere you run
Onboarding and weekly calls by video. Training delivered through TrainingPeaks. Direct messaging access between calls. The coaching content is identical to the in-person version, only the location of the conversation changes.
Start with a conversation
A 30-minute call, no commitment.
If we're a fit, we'll talk about a starting plan. If we're not, I'll point you to someone better suited. Either way, you'll leave the call with a clearer view of what your training should look like.
Contact
One conversation. Then a plan.
No form to fill in, no scheduling tool to wrestle with. Email or call directly.
Direct contact
Coach
Paddy Craig
Founder & head coach · Steady State Coaching.
Email
hello@steadystatecoaching.co.uk
Best for an initial enquiry. Replies within one working day.
Phone
07411 009496
Mon to Fri · 8.00 to 18.00. Leave a voicemail if I can't pick up.
Location
Harrogate, North Yorkshire
In-person across Harrogate and the surrounding villages · online everywhere else.
Hours
Mon-Sun · Times are flexible
In person coached sessions by arrangement.
Athlete form
Athlete information form
Completing this gives me everything I need to build a proposed plan for your consideration.
Instagram
@steadystate.coaching
Behind-the-scenes from sessions, athletes, and the work.