SBR Utopia ---- Permanently OPEN!! (Page 13)

I'm coached now for the first time ever. 

Most beneficial: I don't have to think about my own training much, I just execute. Planning around travel, Drill weekends, and everything else isn't something I stress over. I've been able to let go, mostly, of the doubts of doing too much or too little. 

Online: Well, I thought about local... but I'm here until June, then I head to Missouri for a few months. Plus, in my opinion, swimming is the sport that benefits the most from in-person interactions - and I don't really need that with my background. 

Locally, I do attend USMS 2-3x weekly, and a track practice once a week-ish. I benefit more from the presence of the group than of a coach.

However, I do want to get with a local coach a few times to check out my run form... but that's something I'll look into after my race in March. I know I run with super tight shoulders - I do everything with super tight shoulders - and as I look more towards speed than completion, I want to address that, and maybe other things.

I will likely take a break from coaching after my race in March, especially if I make the 2:35 goal... for a few reasons: my wallet, my sanity, and see if I can give it a go solo again.

Yes! I'm getting the "tough love", and being told not to move workouts around to play on mountain bikes on weekends, or ride randomly with friends during the week. 

I understand the importance of this for my goal race that's now 9 weeks away... but it's tough to say no to the fun stuff.

Good work.  Yes, they'll be harder, and more effective.  If they aren't hard, they aren't worth doing! 

Hmm. Interesting. So the big thing for you is having someone else create your plan. 

Never been coached.  2 years ago, I would have said I would never have a coach.  Last year I thought about what benefits it may have, but couldn't really afford it considering what else I had going on.  Now, I am strongly considering it for the future.  

What do you feel you are lacking in your current training that makes you feel this way?

I went from sprint to IM over four seasons with no coach.

I used a coach once before, Liz Waterstraat.  This was back in early 2009, just after my first IM, and my training was much different.  I was part of a large group and we'd go do what we want, when we wanted.  The coach would prescribe a 2 hour saturday ride.  Um, that got me to our starting point, because we'd ride 5-7 hours every weekend, killing ourselves.  Right when I reached an agreement with coach about doing my own thing saturdays, I got sick, taking me out of training and racing for a year.

Started racing again 2010, did OK, but flash forward to 2012 when I signed up for an IM.  Knowing my tendency of "more must be better," I told my wife if I signed up for an IM I'd get a coach to hold me back (and also train me ).   Shane was recommended, had good terms, so thought I'd give it a try.  Even though I felt like I let him down at the IM, my HIM performance showed some potential so decided to work with him going forward with new goals.

Now my training group is much smaller, and we no longer do monster rides, and I train indoors during the week so it's very focused.  I do have some leeway on the weekend other than some race specific workouts as races get closer, but I am usually able to convince a friend to do some or all of it. 

Re online, I don't even find it to be an issue.

Yes. And alter as needed.

Optimizing my peak(s) and maximizing my workouts.  I train a lot.  Volume usually isn't an issue for me...it's just structure that produces the best possible fitness on race day.  

If I do another IM, it's probably going to be coached.  I felt that I was going overboard with my training at times.

This is why I got my coach last year.  I believe in quality over quanity (although my IM run doesn't quite reflect that  :^  ).   It's hard to tell with the cumulative effect of seasons, but I am a much better cyclist now doing hard 1-1:30 efforts during the week, and doing 3-4 hours on the weekend than when I was doing 100+ most every weekend.

Very interesting everyone. Thanks for your responses. It seems everyone has a little different reason for having one.

I wonder, how do you guys measure success with a coach then? Is it just based on improvements in training and racing? Or is there another metric?

After a lot of thought, this is one thing that I would like to change if/when I do another IM.  As much as I like to ride, I would like to adjust my plan to reduce the time on the long rides but increase the intensity...hopefully achieving a similar TSS (even if it's slightly lower).  So yeah, bread and butter long rides would be 3.5-4 hours, intead of 5-6 hours.  Not only is there more quality, but you get off the bike and off your feet quicker...giving you more time to recover.

This would go for my running as well.  I really liked the volume I was able to run in prep for Kona, but being that I was running mostly easy...it just took a lot of time.  Again...cutting into recovery time.  Do that for one week and it's not so bad...do it for 16 weeks and 15-30 minutes here and there really starts to add up.

So I need to find a balance.  Could I find it on my own...probably...but it would likely be trial and error before I get it right.  IM isn't something I plan to do every year, and considering the financial investment of travel associated with IM for me, it's not something I want to leave to trial and error.

I hired a coach because I didn't want to have to think about it and also to have someone to be held accountable to.  I actually specifically chose online over a local coach.  The local coaching options I had were very limited and none of them worked with power on the bike.  That was a big thing for me.  The other factor was that I knew the coaches personally as friends and since I didn't know how coaching would work for me, I didn't want to end up in a situation where I would have to fire a friend.  Mind you, my coach is now my friend on Facebook so I may still be in that boat - LOL.

I don't feel limited in the least having an online coach.  I think it helps that I don't really need any help with my swim.  I suppose having someone who could look at my run gait would help but as I said, I have friends who are local that are coaches that would no doubt give me some help if I were to ask.  Actually, one of them offered just when I was starting with Shane.  

I think this is very possible.  I did a lot of riding in 2012 in prep for IMMT.  My yearly totals for 2012 on the bike were 50 hours higher than 2013 but without a doubt I would say I am a much stronger rider now and with a few long rides I could put down a much better IM ride than I did with the higher volume.

Improvements in training and racing for sure.  Improvements can be both in the form of speed as well as execution (of my competitors).

Setting goals and achieving them would be another metric.

I'm asking because first and foremost, I really am just curious.

Second, I sometimes think about it for myself. Our club has a coach and he runs practices on Wed and Saturday where I run with a group. But everything else is pretty much on my own. He is always available to bounce ideas off of and comes to many of my races and gives me feedback. But he't not MY coach. I don't pay him. And he is pretty busy coaching some very elite runners.

I happen to like planning my seasons/training cycles, I don't seem to have any issues with accountability and don't believe I need to reign in or that I'm trying to do too much. But the unpredictable part is that I am reasonably new to the sport (less than 3 years) and kind of feel like no matter what I do, if I train consistently and keep injuries to a minimum, I'll probably continue to improve for a while. So, using improvement might not be the best metric? So really the question is, am I training the best way that I can be? And how do I know that? Even if I had a coach, would I really know that?

Just some things I think about now and again.

They are all great questions and things to consider.  

The only thing I like about trying to plan training is guessing what my workouts will be for the next week and  visualizing where they are going down the road.  That's part of the learning experience for me.

I guess i measure it by comparing the rate of improvement over the 4 seasons I went without a coach, which was really only an improvement in ability to go longer as I was just starting ou running and cycling, but not necessarily faster.  I've made more quality of training and racing  improvements in one year with a coach than I did the first four years, if that makes sense (IMO).  Like you said though, it's hard to tell how to measure it because with consistency, you should get better theoretically every year.  I will say that a coach has me do things that mentally I though were beyond me, specifically with running pace.  My first 10K with him I looked at the plan and said "ummm, that's going to be very unlikely," and turned out he was spot on.

Like Arend, I also don't need swimming help, and get one workout per week in season, the rest he says "swim masters,"  so it's more focused on running and cycling for me and swim chips fall where they may (although that has improved as well).

The eye opener for me was last year when I was training for bike racing.  I rode a lot, and I did this really insane big week.  2-3 weeks later, I felt like superman.  But my A races were 4-5 weeks after that big week, and I was really really flat for those races.  Maybe it was just a bad day(s), but taking a closer look at my performance management chart for my power files, it made sense that I peaked too early.  So I kind of have a feel for it with cycling now.  Far from perfect, but a power meter makes it much easier to monitor my fitness on my own now that I have a better idea of what to look for.

I don't have it figured out for tris.  I felt I trained really hard for Honu and Kona in 2013, but was not really pleased with how I felt on race day.  

Yeah. Peaking is a really difficult thing as I think there are a lot of variables associated. I believe a coach has a pretty good idea of how a lot of those things play out, in general, but I think it's such a highly individual thing. I wonder if it's even something a coach can really predict or if it's just experience that helps you make those decisions?

Triathlon is a whole other animal. It's so complex. I can certainly see why those of you who would like to maximize your time spent and improve performances would want to work with a coach. I have a lot of respect for you guys for that reason alone.

I'm in no way anti-coach/coaching whatsoever, but could a portion of the above be from coming off a high-quality year of base?  If so, I wonder how much is natural progression and how much is the change in workouts based on coaching.

Matt

Violating the w/kg rule...    5' test was 383.   4.3 w/kg.   If this song were 1:12 longer it would be the perfect 5' test song.  Build up to 1:30 then BAM it's on....

Unsustainable

Repeat? And nice going!

by BAM it's on = bad azz mother and yes you are. Every block of your life, you seem to re-make yourself (including when you were ill) in a way that's entirely fresh, surprising, and inspirational. Shane ain't hurt you none this last round either

You're a great friend and a great role model. Please persist with your badazzedness.