No I do not. I don’t even follow a plan. Don’t even do intervals. Just swim, bike and run a lot. Weather can change everything for me, the nicer it is the longer I will go.

I'm 41 and haven't had a coach since college.

Background:

Mediocre? D3 runner turned better triathlete turned better cyclist. At 41 I have never felt better, been more fit, or more strong. But I'm smarter.

I have always been a student of the sport and will admit have made mistakes along the way. The biggest wins of my endurance career have happened just the last couple years.

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24 Hour World TT Champs-American record holder
Fat Bike Worlds - Race Director
Insta: chris.s.apex

No need for one. The wife knows everything anyways.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

I knew you didn't have a coach. How do you get in the appropriate work without planning/intervals? When you feel good do you just go harder and when you're tired you spin easy and run slower? It's obviously working, but no intervals surprised me.

Only have a swim coach. Swimming is just hard to self analysis for me.

I am about a 2:20 Olympic triathlete, 4:50 in the half ironman. In local races, I am almost always on the podium or at least top 10. (Not to brag, just since you asked about guys at the front). I go off and on with coaching as they allow me to. I personally don't think you need a coach if you've been doing it for a few years. You begin to see the pattern of what coaches do, and you can always look at what your coach gave you in the past if you forgot. This helps you make your own training.

I should note, however, that I study up and read a lot on triathlon and each of the individual sports. I may be a little more informed than some since it's just a personal interest of mine. Also, for what it's worth, I know a pro who is self-coached. For those who aren't very disciplined I suspect that paying someone and having that workout waiting for you helps hold you accountable.

I will be embarking on the whole upcoming season as a self-coached athlete. Let's see how it goes....

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Nourish - Sports Nutrition Made Easy

I do not have a coach, and neither do the majority of 30+ guys i know who are winning their AG, but i think that's mostly because we've always been talented enough not to need one haha

Most of the guys I'm racing against could do damn well anything and still be on the podium at every race, the sport for Ags just isn't deep enough talent wise yet. And to define "telent" a guy above mentioned he was a mediocre d3 runner but anyone who could make a d3 running team is probably way ahead of the average age grouper in triathlon. I was barely good enough to get on a d3 team and i'm one of the best age group tri runners in the country haha

Agree with this (Peace242000). I think doing the coaching thing is good for a year, maybe 2, just so you see what quality workouts look like and what a training regime looks like. Once you see that though you can easily train yourself.

The one exception to this would be if you're able to afford a $500+ coach. Those people attend sessions with you, they give you real-time feedback, they examine your stats and adjust your workouts as necessary, and so on and so forth. That's an entirely different kind of coaching - which would be nice if money wasn't an issue!

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Nourish - Sports Nutrition Made Easy

I don't have a coach yet I am a coach... I ran tack and xc in college so I knew the fundamentals of how to stress and adapt and all of that going into Tri. I went 4:16 in a 70.3 this year and I am not super disciplined... But I work hard. I drink beer, socialize and skip workouts I never prescribe myself. I also travel a fair amount for work so I fit in what I can when I can.

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USAT Level II- Ironman U Certified Coach

Not sure how you define tip of the spear. I've won my AG at WTC events a few times and KQ'd a couple times....so reasonably competitive for an age grouper I guess (now age 50). I think having a coach is a tremendous benefit, particularly when starting out in the sport. I have been racing for about 7 years, and had a coach for the first 4 years or so. The 2 biggest reasons I think I benefited were gaining knowledge from someone who had been around the block a few times and just as importantly is the accountability factor. It is way harder to blow off a session or mail it in when you know someone you respect is going to be reviewing the results....at least for me it was. A good coach is worth every dime

You are fast, for sure. But to say that you (and others like you) have been "talented enough to not need one" is sort of missing the forest for the trees.

To the OP: a coach is a tool. Whether you need a tool or not depends on a dizzying number of variables. Like with almost anything, there are ways to get around a job when you are "missing" a specific tool. But sometimes the job is a lot easier, more efficient, and looks better as an end product when you have the RIGHT tool.

Follow Ashley Horner's insta and copy her. Once your fitness is 100% you'll be able to go #fullsend.

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Use this link to save $5 off your USAT membership renewal:
https://membership.usatriathlon.org/...A2-BAD7-6137B629D9B7

Are you over the age of 60?

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"Good genes are not a requirement, just the obsession to beat ones brains out daily"...the Griz

No, I'm 32. Just started getting into the sport.

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Nourish - Sports Nutrition Made Easy

Those are admirable results and you're probably going to get pretty fast if you're starting off that well. "Tip of the spear" is referring to people who have no problem qualifying for the world championships like Kona or 70.3 World Championships wherever they are that year. Probably even people that have earned their pro cards, but don't accept them. Specific to men, that's probably people in the low or under 4 hour range for 70.3.

Dan Stubleski was the guy with the first response. He's a Michigan dude that's definitely tip of the spear. I was in the same race as him in Steelhead in 2016 which was the first time I saw his name. Ever after a rough and non-wetsuit swim that left everybody over 30 minutes and a hot and humid run, he still put down a 4 hour even time. I figured it was a competitive year since the following year had the 70.3 World Championship in Chattanooga (and great USA athlete interest). My age group had 9 or 10 people go under 4:30 and I wasn't one of them.

No disrespect meant with this response. Just honest feedback.

Those are good results from someone starting out; They are nowhere near the FOP.
If you look at the results from this past Age Group Nationals, a 2:20 would not have put you in the top 50.

Keep pluggin away...now you have something to shoot for.

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"Good genes are not a requirement, just the obsession to beat ones brains out daily"...the Griz

I use a coach. It is one less thing that I have to think about. All I have to do is execute the plan. We talk about goals and they make sure that I'm ready. I've had the same coaches for three years and it is well worth it.

For 3 months before an IM or Worlds.

Because I experiment for the other 9 months and she has to straighten me out, settle me down and thrash me (she's a good biker) to remind me to get used to being "chicked".

Then I eat till Christmas.

I am triathlon coach, and I still have a coach for me. Let someone look at you from aside

+1 here.
Louis :-)

I've had a coach for about a year now and it's the single best decision I've made in triathlon. I actually just got a swim coach in addition to my triathlon coach and I'm seeing that pay off as well. I was fast before I had a coach but I needed help getting to that next level.

I've never had a coach and have been racing for 16 years. I'm 51 years old and have raced Kona 7 times. I have done my reading and became an Ironman Certified Coach. Its not that hard to figure out what training you need to do. What is hard is fitting it into your schedule and a coach isn't much help figuring out when you can sneak a workout in on your lunch hour. Also no coach, no one else to blame when you come up short up at a race.

To OP, James makes a good point (in spite of calling me a tool....english humour)

As a coach of many pointy end folks and many of them successful coaches in their own right a significant aspect of what they have used me for is sparing them a large chunk of cognitive bandwidth in their busy lives.

Many great athletes hear allude to not needing a coach and that’s great. Am sure just as many great athletes would say they are relieved they don’t need to expend mental energy on the planning and prescription in spite of their ability to do so.

As with many things in endurance sport context is key and the answer is invariably...it depends.

My view is if I am doing my job right educating athletes within a few years I should have made myself redundant anyhow.

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David T-D
http://www.tilburydavis.com

from "aside"??

I like to say that I am a coach with a client base of 1 (me)

I fully agree I would be faster with one, no doubt. I've had a great coach and it works (and is a large reason why I race decently now), buuuuuuuuuuut, at this point in my life I can go fast enough w/o worrying much about "training" and more about just doing workouts with some athletes i coach and not doing what might make a little better.

But it still blows my mind how one of my friends who beat me by like 15 minutes at kona can train as simple as, short w/u then just slightly slower than best average steady pace for the duration of the workout, however long it may be.

i have never really understood the "i don't want to think, just do what i'm told" perspective on coaching. If i needed to pay someone to tell me how and when to do my hobby, is it a hobby?

For many of the tip of the spear people it might be more than just a hobby. I qualify as tip of the spear right now but hoping to qualify for my pro card in 6 days. I pretty much follow my coach blindly as I'm fairly new to the sport. I give him my input as much as I feel is justified but I know he knows better than me and has gotten good results out of me so far so no reason to get adventurous yet.

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Benjamin Deal - Professional - Instagram - TriRig - Lodi Cyclery
Deals on Wheels - Results, schedule, videos, sponsors

fair enough. and maybe my comment was more for the non-tip of the spear, but just below that.. the top 20 WTC AG ranks.

I have never had a tri coach. I had running coaches through university when I ran varsity and then a swim coach for a year when I joined a masters club. I have coached high school track and xc runners for 26 years so I am pretty confident putting together my own program. I used to be pretty close to the front overall in pretty much any distance I raced following a plan of my own design but now I'm in my 50s so I try and stay competitive in my age group.

Who needs a coach? Isn’t that what Slowtwitch is for?

For me it's about accountability. I could probably come up with workouts myself, but the fact that somebody else draws them up and checks up on the execution means I'm better motivated to actually do them properly. I used to give myself way to many days off or pulled the plug because "I wasn't feeling it". If that happens now, I still finish the workout and write in the description I wasn't feeling it.

For me, that has taken a lot of stress away, because my old way of doing things caused a lot of anxiety.

But then again, maybe my circumstances are special.

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Citizen of the world, former drunkard. Resident Traumatic Brain Injury advocate.

You forgot the time where he got 3rd at AG Nationals and won Steelhead overall the next day :)

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What's your CdA?

Tried one about 4-5 years ago.....lasted about 4 months. Couldn't meet the demands.....including taking a trainer with me when traveling....mutual decision to part ways. For some it works,but as seems here, not necessary to be FOP.

Of course it's not. That's why I specifically said "in small local races" because it wouldn't be "FOP" in nationals.

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Nourish - Sports Nutrition Made Easy

Think that assumption about length in the sport isn't so safe... There's plenty of people new to the sport with huge engines that are going to crush it as long as they can get out of the swim mid pack

That said, I use a coach with a few purposes
1) I am newer to the sport
2) I don't have the time to sit around and think about structured training, periodization, etc. It would take me 3x the time and I would get a shittier quality plan
3) It's good to have live feedback on where things are at - having a second set of eyes on numbers can help avoid making mistakes where you're biased

We'll see how long things go, but right now that's where I'm putting my budget for the sport towards. A $10k bike is pretty useless if you're not on a decent program (or just have loads of natural ability)

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Chasing PB Podcast Latest interview with Eli Hemming on Targeting a US MTR spot in Tokyo

sorry
from the side

In summary, if you want to excel as an athlete you need a coach.
You can either hire a coach or you can become your own coach.

thats prob the most important job of a coach... iam a coach and selfcoach myself and i guess 345 days a year that works well , but then a few days a year i make mistakes and a 2nd set of eyes there would be very helpful. and of course the mistakes happen when you are tired or emotional.
and yes 2d hand p4 and second hand race wheels for less than 3 k works ok
also entrance fees if you have a few results at least in europe many non branded long distance races are happy to give you a free entry

I do and honestly rely him on him for better focuced training, keeping me from over training among my learning how to swim, bike and run in a competitve sense. My first couple of years I was successful without a coach but found myself injured more than I liked.

I come from a team sports background and outside of having good genetics... swimming, biking and running is or was an emerging skill for me. At some point I may go it alone but for now appreciate the input.

I get that aspect of it.

I Self coached all last year, it got my pretty fit towards end of year but not race fit if that makes any sense. It also was somewhat of a mental drain worrying about if I was doing the right thing or not and trying to figure it out as I went. I found myself going back to old workouts I had done in past years even though my body was in different place then last year. I would not call my year of self coaching a failure but its easier for me to have a coach I communicate with and let him build my schedule.

Life is busy and hard enough if you can afford a good coach that you have good communication with and trust I think its a very good tool to have in the tool box.

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz