Thinking about getting a coach – worth it?

Training
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Hey folks,

I’ve been toying with the idea of working with a real human coach. Mostly just to shake things up a bit and have someone to bounce ideas off of about my training.

Ideally, I’d want:

  • A training plan that actually explains the “why,” not just a list of exercises

  • A quick weekly check-in (15–30 mins)

  • Some flexibility if life gets messy and I need adjustments

  • Jump from 4.25 W/kg to 5 W/kg

  • On point fitness for my marathon races (Ötztaler for example)

Anyone here gone down that road? Online coaching counts too. Curious about your experiences, what to look out for, and if you’ve got any recommendations.

Since the whole thing is a major financial investment (2000 Eur/Year), I’m finding it difficult to make a quick decision.

Thanks

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That’s what a coach can do, although keep in mind that I am not sure whether this is compatible with your budget. (AFAIK cheaper quality coaching services run about $170–200 per month).

I’d temper my expectations if I were you. That’s a massive jump and requires a lot of work and that your current life is compatible with it. E. g. I peaked at 4.7 W/kg (348 W at 74 kg), but with then two young kids, I don’t think I could have pushed harder. After two moves within one year to different countries (one move between continents), I peaked at only 4.4 W/kg (328 W) this year.

This point is equivocal, you can do this with any training plan that targets this kind of events, be it TR, a CoachCat training plan (adapted by their CoachCat LLM), whatnot. I hear a lot of people claim “you cannot do ultra events, XCMs, etc. with, say, TR’s plans.” IMHO this is not a distinguishing factor when it comes to choosing a coach over self-coaching with the help of a service like TR.

2.000 €/year gives you access to a quality, entry-level coach. Make sure to scale your expectations accordingly.

IMHO the most important point you haven’t mentioned is that the coach must be a good fit for you. Like a therapist, you need to have the right chemistry, your personalities need to mesh and you need to trust their approach. If you don’t trust your coach, it is a waste for both of you.

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I actually made my best gains when I coached my self with TR and had motivation but a lot will depend on you and the coach.

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Cut off an arm? :slight_smile:

Seriously, coaches seem to work well for those without good auto-regulation. Like people that burn themselves out and don’t know how to step back and take a rest every now and then.

I kind of wish I had got a good coach 7 or 8 years ago when I started riding more seriously again and doing group rides in a big bike club. I think it would have fast tracked my knowledge quicker. Instead, I spent the last 8 years making training science my hobby. I feel like I finally have a good understanding of training and can train myself but it took a while.

I don’t think you will get weekly meetings and coach that teaches and explains everything for 2000 per year. That seems to be more like a $500-600/month type of service from what I’ve seen posted.

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It’s been well worth it for me, and I thought I was doing pretty well self-coaching. I thought the difference was going to be how hard she was pushing me compared to what I had done to myself, but looking back (via intervals.icu), the biggest difference seems to be my new lack of cumulative fatigue.

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This sounds great!

It‘s much easier to let go or ease the training when someone with experience tells you that „it‘s ok“ to do so. It‘s hard to tune in the efforts and needs a lot of learning (at least in the beginning I needed it).

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No one can really answer your “is it worth it?” question for you. Totally depends on the athlete, your level of knowledge, what else you do in terms of self-coaching, etc. Others have explained well what a coach will do for you in terms of “fire-and-forget” training, but the biggest thing I think is the “retainer” on a second set of eyes on your training, making those adjustments for you.

When I self-coached, far and away the biggest stressor for me was adjusting when life got in the way. Laying out the training plan in the first place was easy. But knowing what to prioritize, being OK with backing off if life so dictated… those were hard for me. Training with a coach overseeing things was WAY less stressful for me.

That said, my best seasons were also self-coached. So… there are no guarantees and it’s a very personal choice both (1) to get a coach; and (2) which coach.

For reference, at the price point you’re looking at, you are unlikely to get weekly personal check-ins. Personally, I never found the need for them as an athlete, and I don’t currently do weekly calls with any of my athletes. As an athlete, I usually found even monthly check-ins unnecessary on a year-round basis.

As a coach, I do face-to-face check ins/calls on an “as-needed” basis. I have yet to turn down an athlete’s request for a call/meeting, and I would say most of my athletes have face-to-face check ins 3-4 times per year. Note that we have regular check-ins via messenger, training peaks, email, text, etc. Sometimes this is on a daily basis. Other times not just because there’s not much going on that really needs to be discussed.

All that to say that depending on which coach/service you look into, you may not get the on-demand adjustments and weekly calls you want at $200 or less. At that price point, I adjust plans as frequently as needed but the weekly call would be a hard no from me. You’d be more likely to get one or two monthly adjustments and a monthly call from one of the bigger coaching services, if you can even get your foot in the door at that price.

Last, hiring a coach may or may not get you to 5W/kg. I think that’s OK to have as a goal, but there’s a lot that goes into that (volume/training time availability first and foremost) that are going to be outside a coach’s control. So you have to really ask yourself is a fitness jump like that realistic?

Remember when evaluating coaches, they’re evaluating you, too, and they have every right to say “thanks but no thanks” to bringing you on. Make sure what you’re asking for and your expectations are realistic.

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It’s definitely both a personal and a financial decision.

TR has gotten very good in terms of prescribing workouts. Sometimes blending the outdoor rides, especially when unstructured, can be tricky, but otherwise it does very well. Even if you go the route of wanting to prescribe yourself the efforts, the huge workout library with progression level scoring makes this very easy and effective. AI FTP has been a game changer.

To me the benefits of a coach are beyond just prescribing the workouts. It is having someone to talk to and help you work through challenges on and off the bike that could be impacting your training. In addition, I talk to my coach about gear choices as they have (or are) competing in similar, and at times the same, events and have a lot of info depth knowledge of the courses and my abilities. I also plan my race schedule with my coach. For newer racers, a coach that can help with “race-craft” and strategy is hugely helpful. Some coaches will also help you to incorporate other workouts off the bike, such as strength training. This is an area that TR is weak in. A month of coaching commonly costs more than an entire year of TR, so this is where the financial aspects must also be considered.

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Agreed. TR will only focus on improving your fitness with on-the-bike workouts. Technical skills (especially for offroad riding and descending), nutrition strategies, pacing, all of those are invaluable abilities, too, but TR won’t address those, you have to add those in yourself. Ditto for strength training.

A coach can really help here relieving some of the anxiety that “cutting training hours” (on the bike for fitness) can cause.

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