Why DONT you have a coach? (please vote) (Page 3)

Now I feel like I have to say more about why I did have a coach.    Each season I put together an insane race schedule:  runs from 1-13.1, duathlons, charity bike rides, triathlons of varying lengths.  I used the coach simply as a time saver, to built an appropriately periodized plan to get me from race to race.  It wasn't even about improvements or sharpening, necessarily, it was just getting from A-B.  I made sure she was up for this before getting started, it was my "main goal."  I got so much more, of course.

To answer TheClaaaw's question above, with some thought, I realize I also rely on a coach for yoga.   I could do a poor job of putting together my own yoga routines, but they would get stale quickly.  When I go to a yoga class I am led through something different each time, wiht someone who helps with form, etc.   That's worth the gym membership to me since I get more out of going to the class than I do on my own. 

It helps that my coach at $150/month was affordable to me. Also, my gym membership is quite cheap, and it's mostly for yoga now.  I don't think I could justify a membership at  a "real" yoga place, even though it's not a lot more than what I paid the triathlon coach.   As usual it comes down to priorities.

I'm dead honest when I think coaches charge too much for personalized training plans for the typical Age Grouper. 

A very experienced and efficient coach will be able to write an athlete's weekly plan literally in <15 minutes, fully effective. Doctors can figure out much more complicated medical situations in less time than that for most (not all) of their patients, and I don't see why triathlon coaching requires a higher level of time commitment, as the problems solved are not necessarily more complex. 

For most online coaches, yes, that's what it boils down to. You can say you offer more services, like motivational phone calls, swim video analysis, etc, but what they're really paying you for fundamentally is the written weekly plan.

For in-person coaching, I would expect to pay a (much) higher premium for the face time and personal service time.

I answered #2.  But it's probably closer to #1.  I don't see enough value in paying anything close to a going rate for the services a coach might offer me at this stage. 

I had to answer this question for myself this year. I am doing my first IM in June, this race is my number one priority for the first 6 months of this year. My wife is on board and we have no kids so as much time as it takes, that is what I will do. This lead me to think about hiring a coach. If I am going to dedicate so much time, I should do it correctly so I have the best first IM that I can.

However, I decided that the cost vs. effect ratio was just not there for me. No offense to the coaches here, but being coached online is an easy way to get taken advantage of. Like some posters said, what are you really getting for your money? Yes some coaches will really spend the time on you, others won't. But even then the online coach can only go off of what you tell them. They can't physically watch you run, they can't tweak run/swim technique as you are doing it. I pick things up pretty fast so I really only need to be told once to do something and I will generally do it. That lends itself much better to getting tips from people in the know than from constant watching by a coach.

I ultimately decided that if I had a coach I would want someone who could physically be there. That would mean big expense and I didn't want to put that kind of money into it. Instead I am taking full advantage of master's classes, and group rides with some very good cyclists. The owner of the LBS rides the shop rides twice a week and is a former triathlete, I bounce ideas off of him when possible. 

I decided the $85 for a gold membership and the custom plan here was enough for me. I did not want to take the time to create a plan and hope that I created it correctly so the $85 is money well spent to me. I know that if I follow the plan I will finish and do well. If I wanted to KQ or race to the best of my ability then I would hire a local coach, but for now, finishing and feeling good about my effort is enough for me. 

All of the stuff you mention should be built into the plan. That's great if a coach can offer all that on top, but ultimately, it's all about the plan. If the plan is inferior or lacking, it almost doesn't matter what extras or handholding you give - results will not be up to par and the athlete will be better served with a coach who gives a better plan, even if they lack the accessories you mention. 

Good coaches (I bet you fall into this category) can size up an AGer athlete very quickly based upon recent race results and prior training history. If they're one of your clients, you should be able to mentally formulate the training plan even faster - it should be essentially intuitively obvious since you've seen it and variations of it so many times before.

@ marcag - I agree with ALL of what you wrote.

But I consider it a coach's responsibility to work all of that into the plan (and the feedback from the plan). And it really is NOT a lot of work for an experienced coach, especially one who already knows your goals and yearly schedule. They should be able to adjust your 2 week training plan very, very quickly (if not instantly on a gut level.) 

They don't need to look at all the dots on the power file, or all the paces on the run. They can find the key features of each workout that tell them on a macro-scale what you need and what you don't very, very quickly. It should be intuitively obvious to them at the AG level.

I agree that it's hard to measuring coaching for people new to them, but I do think you can do the prescribed regular field tests (or races) as well as perceived performance to gauge how well the coach is working for you. 

And of course, even if a coach's plan gives awesome results, you might not find it compatible with your goals. I COULD train 18-22 hrs per week, at great cost to my family, work ,and quality of life, and likely get lifetime PRs and even possibly qualify for Kona, but I'd probably hate myself and triathlon so much afterwards from the burnout that I would never want to race again (or at least for a  lonnnggg time.) 

Also personality, communication style, etc., all are person-specific. But I still stand by my statement - it's ultimately all about the plan. If the plan is wrong, or inferior, or leads to injury, all the other stuff on top is really useless. The plan HAS to be good. Even if it means sacrificing the quality of the other things. A good coach will obviously bring the plan, and a lot more to the table.