How much should I pay for a good local coach. What is the normal price you pay? I just want to get the best bang for my buck.
How much time do you want the coach to spend on you?
How good do you need the coach to be?
Looking at your old data will take a lot of time. Determining how your body reacts to training will take a lot of analysis. Following you as you train might cost a lot. Might cost a lot. Might produce benefits.
Setting up an annual plan based on some book will not take much time. Might not benefit you much either.
everyday I bicycle past a bunch of high school kids out running. Their coach is in hte area. I expect that the cost of their coaching is insignificant. I expect they don’t get much personal coaching either. (I was climbing a hill at 300w. several of them ran faster than I was bicycling.)
where do you live. For example, cost of coaching in NY will differ than say Florida.
Go to the search function and you’ll find a ton of info on this subject.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=3799436 Is one example, but it takes about 30 posts before it starts to get informative.
If you want quality, knowledge and experience expect to pay for it. There is no reason to stay local unless you have some overriding issue. Coaching remote is the norm given that good coaches live all over the world as do athletes.
I live in the Midwest.
I pay $100.00/ month for my coach.
This is what that $100.00 gets me-
-Month long training schedules based on the races I select at the beginning of the year. This schedule is made around my work schedule which is a weird 7 week rotating schedule. In all honesty, just making me a plan out of my constantly changing work schedule is worth $100.00/month to me
- Unlimited communication via email or phone with my coach. She would even let me come see her in person but It is too far to drive on a normal basis.
- I get unlimited changes to my schedule if something comes up (Work, Family matters, etc)
- She will look at my diet and make reccomendations.
- I get swim lessons with her and run lessons with the companies running coach for only $10.00. They call them “group lessons”, but it is really only about 3-5 people
and I get a ton of help from it. - She will give me free pedal scans and power threshold scans on her computrainer.
- She will make me a stretching plan as well as a strength training plan if I want it. I don’t use this as I am lucky enough to have a g/f that is an NCAA Strength and Conditioning coach.
- And most important, I get someone that hold me accountable and pushes me.
I have looked at alot of the popular online coaches and feel like I am getting alot for my money. I was self coached for my first couple years of tri. This last year was my first full season with a coach and we improved my HIM time by 25 mins putting me right at 5hrs. That was the same course, same conditions. It would have been faster but i sprained my ankle on a taper run 9 days before the race. Not sure where you are, but if you are in Charlotte, NC let me know. Hope this helps.
The midwest is a big place. Don’t value local over experience and knowledge.
You should get a schedule based on the time you have available to train on average and what you have available for the next week. You should get frequent feedback–at least as often as once/week or as often as you provide feedback.
I was paying $300+ per month for my coach. Certainly had better results than when I was self directed.
My first year with a coach due to my first full ironman in September and I pay $250 a month. The race is nine months away and yet, I’m working harder than I ever did on my own. Weekly feedback. Weekly adjustment of workouts. No results to speak of yet. First Oly is April 7.
Bang for the buck is the right way to look at it. A GOOD personal coach (that is taking new athletes) can be the best, but expect $250+/month. The cookie cutter online programs are better than nothing and cheap $50-100/month. What you might be interested is something in between - check out www.youtri.com for that. Really depends on your budget
I’m in Iowa and using Zoom Performance and am in their “distance” program at $195/mo. Great coaching with daily workouts sent down through Training Peaks. While I could read all the books and likely plan out my own path eventually in doing an Ironman, this takes the guess-work out of it for me, and allows me to just spend the time getting it done. Here is a link, and if you look under the various coaches, all their pricing is shown. My coach has been amazing to work with, and really helped me to focus toward my goals. http://getzoomperformance.com/page.php?pageID=24
Evening,
As I was cruising the internet this eve, looking for a tri coach for my wife I stumbled upon Slowtwitch and its wealth of knowledge and then I found the arena on coaches and I found your post to be most intriguing since we only live about 90 minutes or less from Charlotte. Could you give me a little info on your coach? Name, email, phone perhaps? How much experience does your coach have, what type of experience? My wife is currently at a 5:33 HIM and around an hour or so for sprint tris, where might or what might do you think your coach co expand upon? She has never had coaching, only her second full season of tris and only a few years away from weighing in at 200 pounds where now she is at 135-140! Currently she is dealing with an it band issue and rehabbing it and as though things are going great with the rehab she has discovered that on her own is no longer a real option, that to get better she needs a coach, period. Perhaps you could shed a little light, perhaps your coach?
Thanks,
Micah Wise
I pay $100.00/ month for my coach.
This is what that $100.00 gets me-
-Month long training schedules based on the races I select at the beginning of the year. This schedule is made around my work schedule which is a weird 7 week rotating schedule. In all honesty, just making me a plan out of my constantly changing work schedule is worth $100.00/month to me
- Unlimited communication via email or phone with my coach. She would even let me come see her in person but It is too far to drive on a normal basis.
- I get unlimited changes to my schedule if something comes up (Work, Family matters, etc)
- She will look at my diet and make reccomendations.
- I get swim lessons with her and run lessons with the companies running coach for only $10.00. They call them “group lessons”, but it is really only about 3-5 people
and I get a ton of help from it. - She will give me free pedal scans and power threshold scans on her computrainer.
- She will make me a stretching plan as well as a strength training plan if I want it. I don’t use this as I am lucky enough to have a g/f that is an NCAA Strength and Conditioning coach.
- And most important, I get someone that hold me accountable and pushes me.
I have looked at alot of the popular online coaches and feel like I am getting alot for my money. I was self coached for my first couple years of tri. This last year was my first full season with a coach and we improved my HIM time by 25 mins putting me right at 5hrs. That was the same course, same conditions. It would have been faster but i sprained my ankle on a taper run 9 days before the race. Not sure where you are, but if you are in Charlotte, NC let me know. Hope this helps.
Sounds like you’re getting everything one would expect from an online coach. At $100/month that is a steal on her time too.
Maybe you should give her the courtesy of a plug - and name her 
Just my .2 cents.
Yes please enlighten us bmsumpter!
$100/month is crazy cheap. She’d need 30 athletes to make $36k/year (before taxes/costs), and with 30 athletes that doesn’t leave her much time to actually do all of services below. Let’s say each athlete takes 2hrs/time per week, that’s a 60 hour work week @ $12.50/hour.
It doesn’t add up to me, but if it’s true then Gawd bless 'er
It’s definitely not a get-rich business, that’s for sure. I paid $150/month and had a great deal on it. However, it seemed excessive after a while to spend $150/month out of a family budget for gains in a hobby I’m never going to make any money from and one in which the difference between 3rd place and 30th place really means nothing in the scheme of things. In the scheme of things I determined that the $150/month is much better spent toward doing something to create better memories (cycling vacations! family trips!) and continue beefing up my children’s college savings. And that seems to be working since my 4.5 year old son has much more money in college savings than I had when I left for college.
But for those with the cash to burn or for whom it’s a priority to get every edge they can, coaching is a fantastic way to go. It’ll take an athlete farther than any gear upgrades possibly could. I was far fitter and less stressed out about what to do to train. But it also didn’t make me any smarter on race day, just better prepared physically.
$100/month is crazy cheap. She’d need 30 athletes to make $36k/year (before taxes/costs), and with 30 athletes that doesn’t leave her much time to actually do all of services below. Let’s say each athlete takes 2hrs/time per week, that’s a 60 hour work week @ $12.50/hour.
It doesn’t add up to me, but if it’s true then Gawd bless 'er
And most important, I get someone that holds me accountable
I’ve never quite understood this part. You need someone to motivate you to do a hobby that you are already spending thousands of dollars a year on?
I think that when I get to the point that I feel I need to pay someone to make me do triathlons, I’m hanging it up.
We have different price points depending on the level of attention needed. But at the same time, none of the coaches necessarily hold firm to those “restrictions”. We work in an office 9-5 everyday and so athletes honestly have access through email / skype / phone. I have Level 1 athletes (weekly power review, 1 call per/month, etc) that I will honestly talk to 3-4x per month outside of just review.
We require Multisport athletes to go to higher levels, but they also get more attention to detail for a 3 discipline sport that requires lots of adjustments based on time / injury / etc.
It’s a business of customer service. Many coaches don’t understand that. It’s not a way to get rich, you have to offer above and beyond services. I really don’t understand how anyone can coach for $100/mo and not do it full time.
I get the same as bmsumpter…my coach charges $100/month. She is WAY underpriced , and I tell her that she should charge more.
She has coached hundreds of IM finishes, as well as ultrarunners, road and bike racers. She coaches all levels, and she has gotten me to Kona 8 of the last 10 years, and has a couple of other Kona qualifiers. Despite coaching me for 10 years, she is still coming up with new ways to make me suffer!
She has ~60 clients, mainly in the Phoenix area, but also does some online coaching. She works hard, but really loves it, and has a talent for pushing me to my limit.
I’m gonna give her a plug
Cheryl Miller http://www.getfittraining.net/
Paul Bakerman
60 clients? I can only imagine how personalized and highly customized those 60 plans are.