Coaching Cost, Duration, Age

Call Frank and discuss coach selection.

@bbarrera how often does your plan change? Do you get to talk with Isaiah every so often? Or email/text at least? This might be an important part for me given the variability of my life.

They’ve changed Hunt/levels versus when I signed up a year ago, and recommend talking with Frank about it.

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Actually I feel the major value is the customized training plans and workouts.

Following this thread with interest, hoping some more folks post their answers to the original questions @KorbenDallas posed

Also been considering adding a coach to my monthly expenditures and am curious about the market that’s out there

$99 a year

I tried that and got slower.

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I wrote “canned” meaning canned, TR, Zwift, etc, etc, etc…just an old term we used before “all the available information these days” was invented/available.

Yeah, everyone is different. Took me from an ftp of 317 to 360 while dropping from 80 to 77 kg over a course of ~6 months

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Why did I bother sending my daughter to college for an engineering degree? College turned out to be a bar with a $100,000 tab!

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Bravo dude! Can you say who is your coach is? I’d like to get some of that even if I got 1/2 the return.

They used TR…

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Coach here! Not taking new clients so … inb4 fishing for clients.

Soapbox moment: I have heard this desire before. I’ve coached masters athletes since I was 22. I was laughably bad at 22. Still bad at 24. Better by 27 or so. I’m 33 now. What made the difference? Formal education.

Academic education probably makes a bigger difference in masters coaching than it does in elite coaching or in youth coaching.

I’m quite certain there are more masters-age masters coaches who know very little about the endocrine system (among the multitude of other things that change with age) and while I’m 100% sure that it takes a wiser, smarter, or more well-educated coach to make good decisions with regard to to masters athletes they coach, I think there may actually be a bit of an inverse relationship between age of coach, and knowledge of masters athletes’ physiology.

In general, the older coaches I’ve run into have come into coaching as a second or third career and have nothing but (valuable!) experience to rely on. They’re missing some of the fundamental understanding of sport science because they didn’t get formal education in it. That becomes ever more important when you’re working with people who aren’t quite as malleable as they were 30 years ago. There’s less room for error.

TLDR: find a smart coach, not an older one.

Answers to questions directly:

  1. My rates range from $225/mo for just cycling coaching to $450/mo for triathlon + more intensive nutrition prescriptions. I have been told by many clients I should charge more. I have been left by clients because of insufficient attention paid to them, and I have agreed with their decision. Perhaps those who say I should charge more are correct… just thinking aloud and being honest here!
  2. I accept 3- to 36-month commitments and payment is all up front. Occasionally can be arm-wrestled into breaking payments up for longer-term plans.
  3. See above comments re: age.
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Do new clients really sign up for 36 months and pay in full up front??? Or is this really just existing clients extending?

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Just extending clients. New ones only 3-12mo. Sorry! Should have clarified!

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  1. $450 / month

  2. TBH if you’re already asking the minimum time, you’re not going to get the most out of it. You’re already looking for an out.

I look for a coach that I can grow and reach goals with. We are a team. I’m not looking for a quick fix and off I go.

That said, I look for coaches in all aspects of life, and the $ spent has ALWAYS, (emphatic ALWAYS) come back 10x, whether in sports or business.

I’ll have a coach for life, so minimum time just isn’t in my mindset for this one.

  1. Older does not mean better, but I’d be more concerned that they understand your walk of life at 50+, take the time to learn about you, and can verbalize how they can help you achieve your goals.

Good luck! See you in ABQ for Masters Nats?

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  1. $170/month
  2. 10 hrs / week
  3. No, but it can’t be their first gig

Me:
48 yrs old, cycling 6 yrs. Serious runner prior

End of 2018: 285w FTP 35min TTE. Mostly canned plans w/ self-directed modification. The internet is a cruel mistress.
Currently: 330 FTP 55 TTE

No, I don’t think FTP + TTE is the best or only indicator of fitness, In fact I think those metrics alone suck. Curve went up and out. Balance point improved. All subjective measures up.

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  1. validation/verification. If you are experienced enough and confident in what you’re doing, you’re fine. I wasn’t.
  2. what to look at besides power
  3. long view. who cares about six weeks, unless you’re peaking
  4. combining unstructured with structured training
  5. nutrition
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