Tri coach or run coach or ....?

As an aspiring tri coach I am actually going the well rounded route and getting certifications in running, cycling and eventually tri with the different parent organizations.  I'm doing that so I can work with people specifically with running or cycling if that is their only sport but also to offer triathletes a slightly different perspective than someone who focuses on just tri concepts (not that there is anything wrong with that at all!!).

What I would recommend though is if you want to pursue a coach, I would still suggest going with a coach that works with triathletes (whether that is a USAC or USATF coach that works with more tri clients or a USAT coach it really makes no difference).  Getting someone who is more familiar with the all around demands of the sport would be a more beneficial in my opinion than a single focused coach as they may prescribe training that doesn't suit your overall goals with the sport or put too much of an emphasis on one aspect and neglects the others.

I would also recommend against getting a specific sport coach and then trying to create your own schedule for the other two around theirs.  A good coach will work within your time limits and training needs and at times will push you to your limit with workouts in an effort to make progress in certain areas.  If you work out your own schedule for the other sports in a week where your sport specific load is really high from the coach, you may do something that is detrimental to the coached training or even worse, risk injury/overtraining to yourself.

Just my thoughts!

I am in exactly the same position as you.  My swim and bike are strong (cf with rest of my age group) but my running needs attention. I have made good improvements over the last few years with a tri coach but need to kick it up a notch.  I considered a run coach but after a bit of research decided that it would be too hard to balance the rest of the tri training, so if you go with a coach I'd say tri coach.

However, I have taken it into my own hands and am spending the winter focusing on running to get faster.  Probably at the expense of a bit of biking and swimming fitness but I am confident I can get that back in the Spring.  Have you considered doing this?  I am using one of the run specific plans to improve your running from Jack Daniels and they are much harder than any run training I have done before - 2 "hard" workouts a week and running 5+ days.  I swim with a masters to keep that going (2x/wk) and jump on indoor trainer when I can.  

Can't tell you if it will work yet but since you have successfully trained yourself up to now maybe worth some thought.

Good luck

Chris,

Congratulations on your performance at AZ; glad to see you go back and be successful!

As far as the coaching, as a tri coach and a run coach, I would suggest that you would be better served by working with a tri coach.  The program that I would use for a triathlete and a runner are quite different due to the balancing the total training load required by the athletes.

Good luck,

Shane

Chris,

I would recommend "one" coach -- I have had good experience with sport-specific consulting, rather than having them take a head coach role.  For triathlon, my best coaching relationships have been with triathlon coaches with sport-specific experience.  

The other two sports change the load that you can tolerate -- generally, this is under appreciated by single sport coaches.  

Hope this helps, g