I would keep self-coaching.

I was in your boat coaching myself through 5 ironmans for the past 5 years and some podiums at local races. This year I pr'd on the h.i.m distance but failed to deliver at im wisconsin. I decided to hire an online coach 2 weeks after im wisconsin as my goal is to put together a decent ironman race. It is hard to trust and give over the reigns but my wife encouraged me to do so as she see's how driven I am and falling short of my goals along the journey.

You might want to consider your willingness to provide a coach feedback and work with him/her actually describing how you feel workouts went compared to what was expected, how you think things are progressing, etc. I've tried to work with a couple of fairly well-known coaches and I don't enjoy the reliance on coach/client interaction that is needed in order to have the relationship be successful - even though I'm paying them I just didn't feel like emailing, texting, or calling with every question or concern I had. If you're going to sign up with a coach and not provide feedback and work with them consistently then essentially all you are getting is a copy and pasted training plan - at least that's how I've viewed it.

I’ve only been coached remotely as I was moving countries every year or so and just qualified for Kona at my 2nd Ironman finish with no background in swim bike or run (formerly overweight never played sports).

I found the biggest thing was finding a coach that I trusted enough to “Buy in”. I talked to 6 coaches before deciding on one that I felt I could really work with and hand the reigns over to. There were a couple I talked to that I knew I would just be questioning and second guessing the whole time. I don’t train at regular hours and was moving a lot so remote was the only way for some consistency.

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I have self-coached for 6 years; couch to 3 time Kona finisher.

The thing about self-coaching is that at the beginning, the fruit is so low, it's easy to pick and pretty much anything will help you improve. Now I've reached a level where I do not have the knowledge as which direction I need to go in if I want to continue improving.

So, first, I tried an online plan. I followed it religiously for the entire 16 weeks leading into a B iron-distance event and had mixed results.
The structured training improved my strength in the swim massively, leading to a 51 min swim that over cooked things. I got used to swimming at 200m interval pace and pretty much swam that pace for 3800m in a race which was a mistake. Easy enough to fix and I did that last week in Kona.

My bike on the interval/high intensity program was a complete debacle. Just didn't have the legs that I'm used to with the kind of longer distance training I did on my own.

The run was a step forward.

SO....I tried to modify this plan and keep the strength in the run and swim and bring back some of the distance training in the bike. Did not work out for me.

The online coaching has its limitations. I'm going to go with a coach I know personally and mostly do it online, but we also train in the same group once or twice a week. I think a coach has to know your psychological make-up too so that he/she can see the blindspots you cannot. The trade-off is that for the same money you could get a "more qualified" coach for online only training. For me, the personal touch seems the better way and i will see how it works out for me in trying to get back to Kona for 2020.

I've had the same online coach for five years now. He is an ex pro and product of Brett Sutton who when training with him he developed his coaching philosophy and I was lucky enough to randomly meet him in Honolulu post my first Kona with him just being on holiday. I have been to France to train with him twice (once when he was still training) and completed a 70.3 race under his watch during that time so he knows me, my mindset and capabilities well.

I think you need to go all in and have complete trust in your coach, give all the realistic feedback you can and have good communication if you are going to make it work. Together we have completed three x Kona, one world 70.3 and qualified already for next year 70.3 in New Zealand.

With my coach he sends me my training day, I complete the training sending him my data with feedback and he gives me the following days session. I know this wigs a lot of people out not having a schedule in advance but it works for the both of us, I enjoy being accountable for each session and the fact I know he is looking at everything before making each sessions decision. He has a plan in his head but changes it depending on how I feel, time I have to train or if I want to do a race or train say a long bike with a friend I give him a heads up and he factors best in. To top it off he is cheaper than any coach in my local area.

I found pretty good success with online coaching vs being self trained. Had my best results for 1 year before other life stuff got in the way.

That said, the coaching provided was very solid. Very much in tune with what I would have prescribed myself overall mixed in with some things that I wouldn't have tried that I do feel helped. I feel the coach added value to the training plan, but by no means was it something I could have never thought of. The variability helped keep me interested, and the accountability (knowing I'm paying for this) kept me on target to hit all my workouts as best I could.

I think for a lot of people, training is not complicated and self coaching is possible. But what is going to help you keep hitting those workouts? If you can self motivate, and vary up your workouts on your own to keep yourself from getting bored, you're probably going to see good results so long as your self coached plan isn't plain dumb. But we are all human, and a lot of us need additional motivation and stimulus to stay interested.

So yes, by all means can you do this by yourself. And by going to coaching, unless you're doing something blatantly wrong, I don't think you're going to see HUGE value in what they will prescribe. But human nature says you will be more likely to complete your workouts and do them to the best of your ability when you're financially invested. And coaching can provide small insight into things you may be doing wrong...which for some people can be a huge difference, but for most people, it's just accountability.

YMMV

Thanks - this is a good point, one I will keep in mind.

I've been providing online coaching since the beginning of online coaching -- potentially, I'm the longest established online coach now (as I'm not sure that Joe Friel still coaches?).

Online coaching can have it's benefits and it can have some drawbacks. FWIW, a lot of coaching at World Tour level (cycling) is now done online/remotely.

During my time I've worked with a variety of different people cyclists and triathletes, from people trying to complete an event such as a 100 mile bike ride, through to World Champions and riders at the TdF.

Online coaching works well, when the athlete and coach 'get on' in some way (i'm not suggesting you need to be buddies), respect each other, and are open with other. It requires the athlete to be willing to explain things. Data (such as power, HR, etc) is great, but it requires context (or at least works best with context). Having context to explain why things good or bad is really useful. Maybe you had a bad day at work/family/partner, or maybe you hadn't eaten well and underfuelled. These things are important.

With the online model, we still chat with people: this can be a mixture of text, phone, and video. it can depend on the athlete which mode they prefer, and of course with video you can also gain info from non-verbal queues.

Some athletes just expect a plan and don't want to know much more. Others want to understand the physiological etc aspects of the training. There's a getting to know each other period as to how you both work.

Self coaching, of course, is quite possible and for some people it's the best option. However, it can be extremely difficult to be objective about your own data and training and often people end up second guessing what they should be doing. A good coach can plan well and make the training work for the athlete to be in the best possible condition for their event(s).

You should also find a coach that fits your aspiration level. For e.g., someone who may be well-versed at getting a 1st timer to finish an event may not be any good for someone aiming for sub 10hours (and vice versa).

Additionally, there's the issue of cost -- very inexpensive coaching may not be good (at least in a one to one coaching model). A very expensive coach may not be great if you're 'just' trying to finish an event.

If you're interested in coaching you should check in with a few different coaches to get an idea of them. Almost like you're interviewing them.

HTH?
Ric

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