Fred Doucette's Half-Iron and Ironman Focused Group! -CLOSED! (Page 22)

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Hey Neil - always been self coached up until 3 months ago. I decided to go "all in" when I signed up for IMLP. My coach and I communicate daily via email, and I can call him when ever I want (he calls me at least a couple of times a week, so I rarely call him). We meet face to face whenever it seems we need to, but that is usually for some sort of one-on-one instruction like swimming or strength workouts every other week or so. I travel a good bit for work, and often with little or no notice, so for my personal situation one important factor in choosing a plan/coach was the personalization and contact aspect. I give my coach what I think my schedule will be for a week or so, and he lays out my training plan for each day. If my work schedule changes, I just call him up, and we adjust the week on the fly.

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I used MA based coach for 4 years. I didn't see him specifically to train or have him coach me. The last year I worked with him, they offered group coaching option 3x a year with all their athletes invited to come. I did see him from time to time at expos or races if they had a tent. It was fully personalized and he did my plan every 4 weeks. No training peaks so our contact was mostly via email and phone calls once in awhile.

Second coach I used was in OR...never met him. Fully personalized plan that he did weekly. I emailed him my power files weekly and some running data as he requested. We mostly emailed, texted sometimes and chatted as needed usually before and after big races.  He was more numbers oriented and was really good at race execution.

Third coach I used last year and will use this year lives in Canada and I haven't ever met him. We chat as needed and email often. He does my plan weekly after reviewing my training the previous week on training peaks so fully personalized. I upload my Garmin and power files plus comments on all my workouts for him to review.

From looking around and chatting with others, working with local coach limits your choices. If they do group workouts that you can attend can be good to have them see you, but if you work one on one with them it can add significantly to the cost as you are getting more time from them. Also so folks use what I'd consider more trainers from the gym that have done tris but really don't understand the science behind the training. Some folks pay for individual coaching but coach gives everyone the same plan...why pay a lot for that. For me the ability to have my coach see how the workouts went, review the data, allows them to adjust my training to response to the training load. I wouldn't go back to the coaching model that I did first 4 years with coach not seeing what I actually did or how it went and doing 4 week blocks means lots can change in those 4 weeks so plan may sort of get stale or off.

There are other factors to consider...do you agree with their training views (lots of options..high intensity vs. long aerobic as we have discussed) , do you get along personality wise, how is the contact made and how quickly do they respond, will they change your plan as needed if stuff comes up, how much of their time will you get, things like that...

Last year I had a coach write a monthly training plan for me.  I didn't have the contact with him that I wanted and it was more of a personalized training plan vs. actual coaching. I also felt that he really didn't know where I was at in my training and more then once I had to redirect him. Overall I wasn't happy with it.  This year I have hired a coach. While he lives locally, I have not met him yet and our correspondance is mostly through Training Peaks and occasionally other e-mail. I have spoken to him numerous times. He does my plan on a weekly basis and I feel much better about this experience then the previous one. I like having the feedback and am motivated by the encouragement that he gives me.  He has called me after the two races I have done since we started working together and it is nice to have someone who is interested.  I guess what I am saying is the personalized attention and support is really important to me.  He has done IMAZ three times so that will be a huge benefit to me as I train for that race this year. 

Happy Friday everyone!  Great to have you James! KathyG I'm pulling for you with the running!

I think it's great most of you have coaches... Of course I'd love that but just never looked into it and have "self coached" myself with all marathons so just picked up Be Iron Fit and decided to go with it.  I did my first tri for charity, Team in Training, and had a beyond wonderful team coach for that (olympic) named Scott Willet. He has a great group here in NYC that does IMLP but I didn't think I'd be able to make it to any of the group practices because of my job and kids so I didn't try to join (I think it is really hard to get into the group anyway!!..... NYC is full of type A people so a lot of ironwannabes... the other day I was thinking to myself "I wonder how many people on this little island of manhattan are trying to be ironmen this year!!")

so Kathy asked what training we did today so I'll share (even though it is long winded):

Got up at 6 and did 1 hour indoor cycling with intervals, 3.8 mile run on treadmill .  Shower, get dressed run to my office.  Run like a bat out of he** out of office , race walk 1.5 miles to pool which is near my kids school.  Swim 30 minutes.  Throw my clothes on fast as you can, run to get kids from school.  Moms at school comment on goggle marks on my face.  Take kids to soccer.  Home, hanging with kids, pulled out yoga mat to do 15 minutes of core, planks, abs, arm weights.  Phew!  Now drinking glass of wine because I ain't doing no training tomorrow! (keeping Saturday as rest day while I can for kid stuff... have already "negotiated" with the husband that I'm going to need Saturday for long rides later in the year).   I'll tell you, this ironman thing takes above all, FOCUS.  Kate

Kate, I am from the east coast and used to live in NYC.  Where do you ride outside there? Central Park mostly?  (I haven't been there in many years and when I was, biking was the farthest thing from my mind)

Kate - now THAT is GREAT training report, how in the world do you log it all?!! I will tell you one thing, you are gonna FLY through T1 & T2 at IMLP with that kind of training!Awesome!

James, welcome to the group. Thanks for sharing your story with us.

I swam before and after work today. Normally I wouldn't swim twice in one day but the pool is closed tomorrow for a swim meet. So I switched a few workouts around for the weekend.

Anyone have anything exciting on the agenda for the weekend?

Welcome James, I'm looking forward to learning from your input to the group!

Rusty, I particularly like seeing the logs of folks who are  slightly to far beyond my ability level as it helps me to appreciate and understand better what various disciplines require (I can't see your logs currently, though)

I have only been coached in competitive swimming while younger, but over a period of 10+ years; since I started tri's a few years ago I have been 'self coached' as well, so I guess you could say BT is my coach.  I've thought about enlisting the help of a coach, but the internal debate always ends with the conclusion that I should first: 1. lose weight, 2. increase the frequency & longer weekend workouts, and 3. Improve my flexibility.  These are all areas a coach can help me with, I know, but I also feel that if I'm going to commit to going 70.3 or longer I should also be able to commit to a regimen that addresses these areas.  Of course now that I've voiced it aloud in this group setting, I also welcome feedback, what are your thoughts?

I was headed to workout this afternoon when work called, and the next 90 minutes were phone calls instead of running and swimming; I'm going to set my alarm to get up early and do it tomorrow instead...

Edited by StMaas 2011-01-07 7:30 PM

Just did a nice 1 hour run tonight. My running is finally starting to get there. Nothing like most of you but it is coming more easily. The speed will come and I'm not really stressing about that. This year is all about pushing myself to get stronger and faster. I know if I train efficiently that I will race faster than last year. On race day, I'm only competing against myself.

I don't have a coach and haven't really thought too much about it. As I progress in this sport and attempt my 1st IM, I will probably join a group or hire a coach. I think for some of you that attempting a full IM or trying to be very competitive, I can see the benefit if outside coaching.

I have a 2 hour ride tomorrow and a 1:30 run / :45 min swim on Sunday. Any suggestions for a taper week before my 1/2 marathon?

Todd

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Did my 3min power test last night and upped the wattage - along with having done the same on my 20min test a couple of days ago.  That moves my CP to 239 and watts/kg to 3.44.  When I started Jorge's program in November my first tests had me at a CP of 213 and watts/kg at 3.07. 

So to date, I'm really happy with the progress.  I know the first handful of watts will come the easiest, but with the goal of getting up to 3.7-3.9 watts/kg, at least I'm on my way.

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Hey everybody have a great day of training!  If you’re off recover well. 
 
I'll be heading to the Y for a swim and TM run.

Impressive improvement....26 watt increase is huge.

Rewarding to know your work is paying dividends.

Congrats! I just posted a gain as well, 259 to 268 W. Though, as you pointed out in the Cycling Program thread, I may have sandbagged my 20 min test...oops

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Nice improvement Joe - I want your watts!!  I really do think based on those HR numbers that you could have pushed a bit more for that second test.  Your HR was quite a bit lower than the first test and with higher power.  Guess you'll just need to wait and see with the next test.