Basecamp is the best money I’ve spent for training. I’ve had multiple coaches and Basecamp wins by a huge margin. Tim and his team do an incredible job.
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and please please please make sure you interview the coach before you sign up. There are some very inexperienced coaches being offered by some companies, and some pretty good ones for the same cost. Do your homework and interview a couple first.
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I’ve only had one coach, got lucky I guess as he unlocked the secret to my training and gainz, gainz, gainz at the minimum investment. Learned a LOT from him, but he couldn’t always articulate answers to some of my questions. Honestly I don’t think anyone answer some of those questions, other than to defer to basic principles and say “it depends so experiment and figure how you respond.” For various reasons I needed to take a break from coaching, but I plan to return to my coach for some specific event targeting.
That said, I’m going thru BaseCamp now. So far it has been a VERY VERY high quality program, and I would strongly recommend it if you are at all interested in better coaching yourself - with or without low-cost programming tools like TR/Join/FasCat/etc. However be prepared to invest time watching coaching videos that are produced in volume every week. It is like going to school, you need to put in the time to learn. Given my load at work and home (preparing for kids coming home for Christmas), it can be hard to make time to watch and learn. But completely worth it.
Think it would be fair to add Athletica.ai to this thread now alongside our two podcasts and Athletica’s parent company, https://hiitscience.com/ as a coaching resource. TR forum review here fyi.
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As for actual coaches, I had a very positive experience with Brian at Big Wheel Coaching.
This looks really interesting. I see now they have a winter plan. Does this get updated as we move towards spring? I only see a winter plan available
Have now completed over 50% of the 16 week program. This program is the real deal. Unbelievably high quality and 360 degree training. Most times you are drinking information from a fire hose, for example right now a lot of people are doing biomechanic optimization with MyVeloFit. If you have a chance to do JoinBaseCamp Winter Group training next year, do it. Highly recommended. HIGHLY, and I don’t all-caps much.
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I’ve been meaning to do this the last two years but haven’t been able to carve out the time to do it properly due to family, work, etc. but I’m determined to make it next year. Everything I’ve heard from people who did it has been unequivocally awesome.
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Just want to chime in that I also know 2 people who did the BaseCamp this year and speak very highly of it. I had never even heard of it before!
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I’m also doing it. Are you doing any of the Zwift group workouts on Tue / Th? I usually do the 7am PT ride
I’ve done all rides outside, except for 1 in the gym last week (didn’t bother with Zwift). If I did a Zwift ride it would be 5pm PST.
Yeah, constantly recommend it. It an amazing value for what you get
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No, its a 4 month training programs that end right before you would move into a specialty phase. Since people race so many different kinds of events, there no way to train people in a group setting as they need to do different workouts to peak for their specific event. He does create a bunch of specialty plans for different types of events that are made to seamlessly transition from basecamp, but these are training on your own. Tim does do a 2 month summer training for a build up to Rebecca’s private idaho, so a specialty gravel event training with the same coaching aspect of the winter training. Havent done it, but im sure its just as good.
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I’ve been. using the CTS plans for a while now, I like that you can choose to apply them to Training Peaks for the year then cancel the subscription (which I do from time to time) and still have your plan on the Garmin to use outside or on Zwift. They do a free trial through Strava, then the train right subscription of I think $24.99 a month which includes training peaks premium and access to all the plans.
The plans are nice and simple. Currently just moving up into Foundation MV2
Mon -off
Tues -recovery ride
Wed -Sweetspot 2 x 25
Thurs -same
Fri -off
Sat - Endurance zone 2/3 - 3 hrs or more later in season
Sun - Same - 2 hrs or more
I enjoy the freedom of using a wider range for endurance riding for going up hills although I relax and dont worry too much iif one of them is a club ride. Following a general structure works fine.
Build changes to intervals just below ftp, then vo2 and speed intervals for specialisation. Enjoy the back to back interval days in the week and relaxed riding weekends. I also do their transition plan for end of season which incorporates some strength training.
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I’ve been using high north plans for a year or so now. Great customer service in their end. I liked the plans too. However, I’m getting tired of doing so much structure at this point. I like the sounds of those Fascat weekend rides but not sure about the app. Temp/sweet spot is so much more fun on the road and I haven’t done any of it the past two years. Kind of miss the days of low volume TR then doing whatever I wanted on the weekend( which I couldn’t do now without overtraining)
can I self promote? I designed a free 8 week program I’m calling “foundational base” that by design is made to accommodate any type of volume. 2 days a week are sweet spot and the other days are left open ended for whatever endurance people feel they can add (and I provide suggestions on structuring low-mid-higher volume). I have a pdf guide and workout files for the sweet spot progression, although people are free to do their own versions of the same progressions with different rest between intervals or whatever. My pdf is a bit of a living document so if anyone has any FAQ I can add to help clarify. This is my only “canned” option at the moment and possibly will be, it’s hard to be one size fits all and I work with a couple of friends on training where we talk about the time they have available and what they feel like they can do on a particular day. anyhow, if anyone is looking into doing some base that is structured but not too restricting, feel free to give this a go
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I didn’t realize CTS had this option! I signed up for a free trial and looks similar to what I’ve been doing with my own planning. I’m very intrigued, free TP account with membership and ability to speak with coaches. Very interesting, thanks for posting this!
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You’re welcome Chef, I asked the coaches things in the forum, very helpful, think you can arrange a free consultation call too. If the Training Peaks Premium doesn’t activate, just email them and they turn it on.
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Theres nothing magic about the FC sweetspot rides. All they are is get xxx amount of time in sweetspot in xx hrs, get it however you want. Basically if your plan with intervals has 4 x20 prescribed, the fascat ride would be get 80 min of sweetspot during a 3 or 4 hrs ride. Same thing, just organic intervals. This isnt groundbreaking, people have been doing organic intervals forever
For sure. That’s the part that intrigues me,though. Coming from a more polarized approach it feels less restricting.