I've been doing Ironman and 70.3 races for 10 years - 7 Ironmans, around 18-ish 70.3s. I have qualified for Kona once and 70.3 Worlds multiple times. In any M-Dot race I will be in the top 3-10 in M35-39 depending on who shows up. For most of this time I have had a coach, who is an awesome person and who I have been very happy with.
However, I am finding that while I like my coach, it feels a bit like "overkill" at this point. I am a very internally motivated person, so having a coach isn't really a factor in training plan compliance. I very rarely have questions for my coach, and when I do it's pretty rare that I don't already know the answer. The real value for me is more just that I have a training plan that's written by someone I trust and that's based on my work and family schedule. FWIW, when training for an Ironman my average weekly volume for the 24 weeks prior to the race has been 13-14 hours, with a peak of around 20 hours. I almost never miss a workout.
That being said, there are only so many ways to swim, bike, and run a butt-ton and I know in reality that what I am getting is probably not all that different from an OTS online training plan that I can just adjust myself based on my schedule. So I am considering stopping working with a coach. My goal is to get back to Kona, and I honestly feel like spending a few hundred bucks a month on a coach isn't getting me any closer to that. We've talked about it and my coach's honest opinion is that I probably can't absorb much more training than I am already doing (while staying married and employed) and that KQ-ing at this point is more a factor of who else shows up - I have accepted that while I certainly have room to improve, I will likely never be one of those guys who can reliably KQ at every race I start.
So that leaves me with three options:
1) Ask my coach if I can just pay $300-ish for a fire-and-forget 24-week plan. My only concern with this is that it would be somehow professionally insulting to my coach.
2) Use a TrainingPeaks or TrainerRoad plan. For those who have used one of their plans to successfully KQ (or get close), which plan did you use and did you make modifications to it?
3) Write my own plan from scratch. I really do not like this option because it will suck up time that would be better spent on training and/or recovery and likely no better than an OTS plan.
What say the ST hive mind?
However, I am finding that while I like my coach, it feels a bit like "overkill" at this point. I am a very internally motivated person, so having a coach isn't really a factor in training plan compliance. I very rarely have questions for my coach, and when I do it's pretty rare that I don't already know the answer. The real value for me is more just that I have a training plan that's written by someone I trust and that's based on my work and family schedule. FWIW, when training for an Ironman my average weekly volume for the 24 weeks prior to the race has been 13-14 hours, with a peak of around 20 hours. I almost never miss a workout.
That being said, there are only so many ways to swim, bike, and run a butt-ton and I know in reality that what I am getting is probably not all that different from an OTS online training plan that I can just adjust myself based on my schedule. So I am considering stopping working with a coach. My goal is to get back to Kona, and I honestly feel like spending a few hundred bucks a month on a coach isn't getting me any closer to that. We've talked about it and my coach's honest opinion is that I probably can't absorb much more training than I am already doing (while staying married and employed) and that KQ-ing at this point is more a factor of who else shows up - I have accepted that while I certainly have room to improve, I will likely never be one of those guys who can reliably KQ at every race I start.
So that leaves me with three options:
1) Ask my coach if I can just pay $300-ish for a fire-and-forget 24-week plan. My only concern with this is that it would be somehow professionally insulting to my coach.
2) Use a TrainingPeaks or TrainerRoad plan. For those who have used one of their plans to successfully KQ (or get close), which plan did you use and did you make modifications to it?
3) Write my own plan from scratch. I really do not like this option because it will suck up time that would be better spent on training and/or recovery and likely no better than an OTS plan.
What say the ST hive mind?
Last edited by:
UrsusMaximus: Dec 1, 18 4:58