Chrissie Wellington leaves her coach Simon Lessing

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Good ol' Pablo

LOL! Paulo, not Pablo!

yeah, I know, but I love it when people derisively call him pablo over there. 

Oh, I didn't think of that, I just thought they got it wrong! Apologies.

nm

Edited by wavedog 2009-08-10 9:15 PM

Not sure I remember the last time I saw Dan and Jordan disagree over fundamentals.

Edited by slobgob 2009-08-11 4:10 AM

Breaking the traditional mold over there, the conversation on the merits of a quality coach is pretty compelling. Dan brings up some great points on the difference between someone who pushes out a daily schedule via e-mail vs. the interaction and in-the-field training feedback.

Endurance Concepts fits the mold on the latter.  Just this weekend they hosted a mini-training camp on the Augusta 70.3 swim, bike and run courses with 30 athletes ... and then provided feedback on the participants swim, pedaling and running technique.  The coaches look at my workout results, review the HR graph and provide daily feedback.

Unfortunately from personal experience and conversations with friends not all coaches are like that and as a result many have come to expect less from their coaches ... which in the end means less results.  Afterall, if an athlete is just getting a schedule each day via Training Peaks wouldn't it be cheaper just to buy one of the $39.95 plans already pre-loaded into the TP system?

Kudos to the "other site" for lurching uncontrolably into a substantive discussion

1. I am going to guess she coahes herself for a while; she is that good. I just hope as any elite athlete of that level she doesn't get blinded by her motivation and do more of what she needs to. Most of athletes like her need a coach to protect them from themselves.

2. about the ST thread; I don't agree with PS but I don't certainly don't agree with Slowman. Sutton is the perfect example for it; while he has technical proficiency on swimming he doesn't on bike/run and for sure he is anti-technology to the point he doesn't sweat the details. He works on his athletes engines and minds, he knows when to make them compete each other or train alone.

Most important if planning wasn't all that important he wouldn't keep a watchful eye on each fo his athletes, he knows when to turn on the racing fire when the athletes are ready and turn it off when they are not and hold them back when they need a break. Of course as a coach, the more technical skill you know the more rounded you could be to help your athletes, however IMO understanding of training principiles, physiology and psychology are way more important than any technical aspects. Those you can find help with or learn. But it is hard to find good help or learn to be a mentor, leader, teacher, etc. that's why Sutton keep on coaching champions regardless of how little he knows or cares as to whether his athletes ride a FIST position or wear an aerohelmet or run pose method or use PC or wear newtons. He will keep them away from all that noise and focus on what's important, doing the work...

I am one of the lurkers over at ST, mainly because I don't have the stones to post with the big dogs there. It sure was an interesting read to go through that thread. It is almost like it brought out all of the underlying feelings/hatred that some of the people have for each other. I should have popped some popcorn and opened a Coke -- took me half an hour to get through the entire thread.

Mike