coach searching. help

Good points, thanks, bryan. 

Interestingly, I notice that very few runners (save the most elite) use coaches. Any reason for this? (In contrast, I've met many triathletes of all levels who use coaches.) Is it because of the intimidating logistics of S/B/R? 

Finding someone who you think will work with you to make your goals possible and make attaining those goals fit into your life.  When you are talking/emailing people in addition to your time/triathlon goals also let that person know your work hours and how much time you have to devote to this.   I, personally, do not think speed equates knowledge.   Bela Karolyi is the best gymnastics coach on the planet yet he has never done gymanstics.   Experience and knowledge of the sport do count............good luck

Shane and Suzanne both make great points. As an elite athlete it is very important to choose the right coach. For beginners or even intermediate type athletes any type of training stimulus is going to produce and adaptation. As a rule the more "out of shape" an athlete is (in a manner of speaking) the easier it will be to produce a result. For an elite athlete a high level of fitness is generally a given an the improvements are not as drastic (as a percentage of overall fitness). What has to happen with elites is a continuous variation of training stimulus to keep the body off balance and continually produce physiological adaptations. By keeping a training program the same the body will eventually adapt and stagnate which leads to very small (if any adaptations) and in some cases regression.

IMO experience with elite and/or professional level athletes should be high on your list of requirements for choosing a coach.

I also agree with the statement that whether your coach is "fast" or not has absolutely no bearing on what type of coach he/she is or their level of experience.

for me, the main thing I looked for was:
-someone who has done what I wanted to do. 

as stated, this is not required, but it was something on my short list.

also, I was so new when I looked for my coach (still am new), I had only been in the game for about 6 months, and really wasnt sure what to look for, so seeking someone out that had accomplished what I wanted made my search a little easier.

I think what you are doing before you go on your search is very smart. 

I'm please with who I have, but if I had to do it over again, some other things I would look for:

-willingness to work with me one-one on my limiters (ie, swim with me, bike with me, run with me....)
-intimate knowledge of nutrition, and can tell me in detail the pluses and minues of what I eat.  Willing to review my food log, and tell me how what I ate plays a role and how it effects my performance.
-takes on "outside the box" approach every once and a while, hitting me with something I don't expect
-has a set benchmark for performance improvement, explains what that process is
-provides testimonials of atheltes
-somone who always follows up on what they say (this is hard to qualify before working with someone, though testimonials could help with this)

this is what I can think of quickly.....It sounds like you ahve started the process the right way....

good luck

As someone who has stuck to running and nothing more, I think there's a number of reasons, but the obvious one is that running is pretty basic.  I also think that most people who run either: A) feel that coaches are for elite-level athletes, or B) already had a coach at one point in time and don't see a need now.

Personally, I fall into the latter category.  I ran in HS, so I have that experience.  I also tend to study things I am interested in, so I went out and read as much as I could.

I also think there are fewer people who advertise as "running coaches", save for ones associated with a team or a club.  Most of the running coaches I know are involved in some group, and tend to focus on that.  I think the reason for that is that there is a significant difference in mindset between the triathlon community and the running community.  It's not good or bad, it's just different.

I wasn't bagging on you Brian (or anyone else for that matter), we just had a situation where one of our coaches was being considered against another coach by an athlete. The athlete was "well Coach A (our coach) is this and that and has placed here and there and Coach B won his/her AG at a big race and yadda yadda" Notice no where in there is there anything about who has what certifications or which one has been coaching longer or anything like that. IMO some athletes looking for coaches make too much of where they placed or what kind of athlete they are and miss the point about what makes a good coach. Believe me I know plenty of elite/pro athletes that are super fast, but lack severely in the knowledge and skills of coaching. Likewise does anyone think Joe Friel is going to go out and do a sub 10 Ironman, yet he is widely regarded as one of the best endurance coaches in the world.