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Coach/Athlete Consulting
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Looking to work a bit outside the box with coaching for the remainder of the year.

I have previously worked with a couple of local coaches and had good success, probably my most success so I definitely believe in coaches and see the value. However, I love to write my programs, manage my load, etc and see what I can produce.

I did an online coaching program and it was good, but definitely not the same as a local coach.

The coaching I want is out of my price financially for what I can budget monthly right now, and honestly what I value for what I am putting into the sport currently. I am invested, but nearly to the degree I have been previously. That said I want to see my work and effort go forward competitively within myself then just participating in races.

I don't want to be 100% on my own, so getting a collaboration is something I am interested in. I would like to write my workouts, and plan but still get some objective feedback, consulting more or less.

Has anyone had a coach consult on their plan before? How was the experience, level of communication, price, what could I/were your expectations, etc?

Just getting some feelers out there.
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [CU427] [ In reply to ]
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I have some thoughts on this that may help you. PM me to discuss this further if interested.
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [Russ Brandt] [ In reply to ]
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PM sent, thanks!
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [CU427] [ In reply to ]
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Brian Stover (Desert Dude), I believe does consulting with people. I couldn't recommend enough. Good luck.

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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [CU427] [ In reply to ]
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I will give you a honest opinion on this as a coach perspective.


I don't do consulting like this anymore as the true is...athletes wont get the proper learning/value by consulting about there own program and it simply end up been a case of making compromise between a athlete wanting to write workout and a coach vision.

what i tell those athletes is....sign up with a coach that you highly regard and want to learn from. Work for 6 months with that coach and do the rest of the year alone. The 6 months relationship will teach you a lot more than a monthly consultation on how to adapt and change your program.

A coach should definitely teach you something and provide a lot more than a training program. use that knowledge...

Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [jonnyo] [ In reply to ]
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jonnyo wrote:
I will give you a honest opinion on this as a coach perspective.


I don't do consulting like this anymore as the true is...athletes wont get the proper learning/value by consulting about there own program and it simply end up been a case of making compromise between a athlete wanting to write workout and a coach vision.

what i tell those athletes is....sign up with a coach that you highly regard and want to learn from. Work for 6 months with that coach and do the rest of the year alone. The 6 months relationship will teach you a lot more than a monthly consultation on how to adapt and change your program.

A coach should definitely teach you something and provide a lot more than a training program. use that knowledge...

Thanks Jonnyo for the honest feedback and I agree completely.

However, and maybe I should have stressed this point a bit more in my OP.

For the next 1-2 years triathlon is taking a back seat in terms of goals and performance. I will still race, I will still do my best, but I would put it at maybe 4th priority. So putting the financial investment into a coach for a performance standard that I really do not have right now is of no value to me currently.

This is the window of time that I want to experiment a bit, try some new ideas out, but do it collaboratively to keep me honest, and without doing veering off course too much. Hopefully that makes sense to you.
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [CU427] [ In reply to ]
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Come up with a plan, post it up here, pick out the wheat from the chaff.

Saved yourself on consulting fees.

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Facebook Page: Sweat7
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [CU427] [ In reply to ]
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I've done this a few times with athletes who are up and coming coaches. They write the plan, I alter it. It is a mess. Three out of three times the athletes said screw it, and paid more to be coached normally.

You'd be better off to have someone write you a plan (aka: Coach you) and then you critique their plan. And the coach explains why they made their decisions. You take notes.
Then go off in a year or so and try to coach yourself.

Or.....Write your own plan. Take notes. Don't spend any money. Then get a coach, with a book of notes on yourself, when you're ready to get more serious.

Good luck.
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [salmonsteve] [ In reply to ]
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salmonsteve wrote:

Come up with a plan, post it up here, pick out the wheat from the chaff.

Saved yourself on consulting fees.

This could work.
But it's really hard to put out enough info about yourself for strangers to give meaningful feedback.
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [oprfcc] [ In reply to ]
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oprfcc wrote:
salmonsteve wrote:

Come up with a plan, post it up here, pick out the wheat from the chaff.

Saved yourself on consulting fees.


This could work.
But it's really hard to put out enough info about yourself for strangers to give meaningful feedback.


Any more so than a 30 minute consultation once per month?

http://www.sweat7.com
Facebook Page: Sweat7
Twitter: @sweat7coaching
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [CU427] [ In reply to ]
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The only way I can really see something like that working is to log everything to do with training for a few months, including training sessions, moods, injuries & minor niggles, sleep patterns, race results with splits, etc etc., and then give the complete log to someone you trust for review. The idea being to get that person to review for a couple of hours (or whatever you agree between yourselves) and provide feedback on "what should I do differently". The more time they can spend, the better the feedback, and greater the cost.

You would have to have an established relationship with the coach first, so you know what data to collect, and how to summarize and package the data for them so that they can focus on what is important.

Even then, I'm not sure if you will really get a lot of value out of this approach.

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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [JasoninHalifax] [ In reply to ]
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JasoninHalifax wrote:
The only way I can really see something like that working is to log everything to do with training for a few months, including training sessions, moods, injuries & minor niggles, sleep patterns, race results with splits, etc etc., and then give the complete log to someone you trust for review. The idea being to get that person to review for a couple of hours (or whatever you agree between yourselves) and provide feedback on "what should I do differently". The more time they can spend, the better the feedback, and greater the cost.

You would have to have an established relationship with the coach first, so you know what data to collect, and how to summarize and package the data for them so that they can focus on what is important.

Even then, I'm not sure if you will really get a lot of value out of this approach.

Yeah this is a hobby for me, not a second job. My whole goal with triathlon is to not take it too seriously, which is part of the reason why I don't want to be coached and rather at most have a consult. A coaching relationship that is of value to be athlete and coach is too much money and time then I am willing to invest in right now or have the desire to.

I think it will//can work fine, you just need to be in good alignment with what to expect and what you want along with the level of feedback. I am not training for the olympics, I am a hobby athlete looking to have some fun with my training while my life's priorities are invested elsewhere.

I am more or less looking at about 30 minutes of contact per month, nothing more.

Basically what I am looking for from a consult is most likely an email exchange or quick monthly phone call.

Coach: What is your intention behind this month? What are you trying to get out of this block of training?

Me: I give answer in about 5-10 sentences.

Coach: Cool, I would consider these points to factor in, data looks good, push yourself more/hold back here. Be aware of this.
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [CU427] [ In reply to ]
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In your last reply, you said "30 minutes a month" but then also mention a possible response from the coach "data looks good". How do you expect anyone to consume data about your workouts, while also talking with you, and also giving you guidance within a 30 minute constraint? That doesn't sound realistic to be honest.
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [CU427] [ In reply to ]
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30 min consultation is not going to work
I guess the only half serious way for you to make that work is to ask one of your ex local coaches WHO KNOW YOU
if they can help you .
But you have to be more reaistic about your time estimates a coach has to spend on you.
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [CU427] [ In reply to ]
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I have a "consulting" type relationship but its after working with him for 2 years where I basically did what he told me to. Now I build my overall plan and specific workouts and my "coach" takes a look at it once a week, providing me feedback and/or changing workouts he doesn't like with a quick note stating why. We talk on the phone 3 - 4 times a month, mostly to go over the bigger picture view and is the progress in line with the long term goal. We text almost daily when getting close to race days.

I do have him work specific weeks for me if I have gotten myself into trouble (overly fatigued, injured or specific race prep) or I am just not sure what to do for some reason.

The arrangement works ok but only because we have worked together for a decent amount of time (over 2 years) and I am a bit of a numbers geek so I spend a lot of time myself learning and working through things. I cannot imagine this being of much value in 30 minutes a week, especially if you don't invest a lot of time yourself in reading, studying and evaluating workout results.
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [daswafford] [ In reply to ]
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daswafford wrote:
In your last reply, you said "30 minutes a month" but then also mention a possible response from the coach "data looks good". How do you expect anyone to consume data about your workouts, while also talking with you, and also giving you guidance within a 30 minute constraint? That doesn't sound realistic to be honest.


I do not want to be too invested in this process and I do not want to take too much time from the coach.

To be honest overlooking 2-3 key sessions per week and viewing the data should not take more than maybe 15 minutes total. I am not expecting nor am I wanting detailed responses. Look at the trends/total. See if I on overdoing it a bit much, undergoing it, or on track. Look over the following block of training, check the boxes.

I guess I'll search out the potential coaches directly I wanted to get in contact with instead, outside of the one rec given here. I was hoping to get some recommendations of potential coaches here, which can't been given.
Last edited by: CU427: May 27, 17 5:51
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [CBJFan] [ In reply to ]
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CBJFan wrote:
I have a "consulting" type relationship but its after working with him for 2 years where I basically did what he told me to. Now I build my overall plan and specific workouts and my "coach" takes a look at it once a week, providing me feedback and/or changing workouts he doesn't like with a quick note stating why. We talk on the phone 3 - 4 times a month, mostly to go over the bigger picture view and is the progress in line with the long term goal. We text almost daily when getting close to race days.

I do have him work specific weeks for me if I have gotten myself into trouble (overly fatigued, injured or specific race prep) or I am just not sure what to do for some reason.

The arrangement works ok but only because we have worked together for a decent amount of time (over 2 years) and I am a bit of a numbers geek so I spend a lot of time myself learning and working through things. I cannot imagine this being of much value in 30 minutes a week, especially if you don't invest a lot of time yourself in reading, studying and evaluating workout results.

This is my ideal scenario to work with one of my previous coaches. However, they are both at the cap of their athlete limit and not accepting more athletes, so they simply do not have the time for me, nor do I want to take the time from their athletes.
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [CU427] [ In reply to ]
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I do not want to be too invested in this process and I do not want to take too much time from the coach.

If you are not going to be invested in the process, why would a coach be either? If you want to write your own plans you need to understand when to implement strength, speed, distance, periodization, recovery etc. If you are only putting in some effort in the process and are not that committed do not expect a coach to be that committed either. The good coaches are highly invested in an athlete and put a lot of thought in getting the most out of an athlete in training and racing.
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Re: Coach/Athlete Consulting [CU427] [ In reply to ]
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It looks like you are hearing from both coaches and athletes that what you are asking is a little difficult. Though you may have heard form some offline about effective ways for it to happen.

The big limiter is that the coach needs to have a sense of you as an athlete and where you are going. That takes time, that's what setup fees are for, that's why the first month with a new coach involves lots of communicating on basics and so on. It will be difficult to replicate that in a cost-effective way.

When you hire a business consultant, there are usually hours spent n your office with you and the other people in the department getting to understand what you do and how you do it.

In the end, make sure you are absolutely clear on what you expect and make the sure the coach is clear on what he will deliver.
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