Just saw a post in the most overrated products thread regarding this. Do some people seriously pay/charge this much?
I assume it is US dollars as well.
Depends on the coach. $500 is on the high level but not the top price. One on one coaching is pricey specially from a GOOD coach. isn’t it crazy, some people pay $1500 for a race wheel and $170 for newtons too 
You can have arguably the world’s best tri coach for 1k a month.
well, the first half of your boastful posts seems to suggest that the training > than the nice new bike, so the former.
I would say only a few coaches in the world could demand that sum and more. Unless you are a pro (and have some arrangement), Olympic bound, or financially secure you could do better by earning less income and taking more time off from work to train.
S
a few years ago when i was racing itu i did. i actually think it was worth it. i was with col stewarts group is australia. He would watch over just about every workout, follow us in his car for run and bike sessions. i learned more in those months then in the whole time i raced in the states with a coach i saw very infrequently.
That’s the kind of coach I need
jaretj
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cadence cycling has monthly packages you can buy, and one of them is $750 for the month. I almost had to change my shorts when I saw that! I can’t believe people would really pay someone that much just to tell them what to do. Granted, it would be great to have, but not at that price
cadence cycling has monthly packages you can buy, and one of them is $750 for the month.
This price includes more than just a written weekly training program. Btw, check out the price for an apartment in Manhattan…
I guess it all depends on how much you make and how committed you are to the sport.
I pay 50$/month for gym membership + 50$/month for triathlon club membership. Add to that another 100$/month for a personal trainer at the gym. If I decided to focus on just triathlons I could get a 200$/month coach without any change in my budget. Now 500$ is quite a bit more but I imagine that some people with more money to spend than me and more dedication to the sport can see this as a wise investment.
As for equipment I don’t see why someone slow should decide not to get a P3C with zipp wheels and a power meter. Money is made to be spent, either now or later. You can give it away when you die but you can’t take it with you.
cadence cycling has monthly packages you can buy, and one of them is $750 for the month.
This price includes more than just a written weekly training program. Btw, check out the price for an apartment in Manhattan…
If the coach wants to live on something other than a subsistence wage, or just be doing a bit of coaching on the side of their primary income source, if you do the sums you’ll find it’s quite reasonable.
It woiuldn’t be hard to come up with a long list of “dumb” ways people spend $500/month, which seems like a lot of $$ but for some people is a drop in the bucket.
For example, many people pay more than this for their auto loan so they can drive a flash new car. For a dedicated triathlete, I would think you would get more value at the end of the month by having a great coach and driving a used car.
(I of course have no coach and a beater…)
I spend more than that each month on hookers and blow.
j/k
Brett
" I spend more than that each month on hookers and blow."
I would assume that people who can afford a $500/month coach are doing that in addition to the hookers and blow.
if you were really serious about competing at your highest potential and had the money to buy the best equipment, too, why would you not pay for a top quality coach? there are coaches who write a generic program for up to 100 clients and limit email and phone contact (if any at all) charging $75-100 per month. there are also coaches who limit themselves to only 8-10 clients and charge $500 per month and up. these coaches offer their clients customized training plans, unlimited contact, frequent feedback, analysis of the clients’ workout data and advice on how to use and improve their equipment. races are carefully planned for and strategy is discussed. these coaches at this level often make a point of being at the a races for advice and council. now, does this make sense for you? maybe not, but you should be able to see the difference in service levels and why they can, and do, charge more. my rates are significantly lower on the basic level, but as i offer more service to the client my monthly fee does goes up, but not quite that high. this is only natural, as the time that i invest in the clients’ training goes up as well.
this forum talks constantly about the highest quality bike equipment, astronomically priced wheels and accessories, travelling to expensive races, the benefits of power meters, hrms , and gps units, but then balks at the idea of paying for the one thing that can improve their performance more than any high tech gizmo on the market…smart, individually planned, focused training. compare to a gym membership plus a personal trainer…you pay a monthly fee for membership. then you pay $50+ per session with a trainer. then add extras like masters swimming, spin classes, yoga, etc…all at extra cost. triathlon coaches are actually pretty inexpensive when compared to other sports like tennis, golf, gymnastics, and on and on.
I’ve seen some cycling coaches that have packages costing $1200-2000/month.
a few years ago when i was racing itu i did. i actually think it was worth it. i was with col stewarts group is australia. He would watch over just about every workout, follow us in his car for run and bike sessions. i learned more in those months then in the whole time i raced in the states with a coach i saw very infrequently.
in most other sports, that would be the standard definition of coaching - it’s interesting that it’s rarely raised here in discussions of triathlon coaching, and when it is, it’s largely ignored.
"there are also coaches who limit themselves to only 8-10 clients and charge $500 per month and up. these coaches offer their clients customized training plans, unlimited contact, frequent feedback, analysis of the clients’ workout data and advice on how to use and improve their equipment. races are carefully planned for and strategy is discussed. "
I offer all of the above and only charge $95/month and many of my clients are locals, so we have more one on one time, w/ no additional charge. I would just feel guilty charging more. This sport is expensive enough and if you price yourself out of the market you can not help anyone. However, I would also like to go full time. So I can see where the higher fees are necessary and warranted for some.
S
Thought I’d drop this in here and go for a run with my dogs
This an excerpt from the Endurance Nation Coaching Manifesto
I’ve been at about $350/mo with a full coaching roster for years. However, I’m now only taking local athletes, where I can add value by leading training rides, teaching them while we run/train together, etc.
Why Build Endurance Nation?
Just as you want to be successful in your career, a good coach wants to be successful in his/hers. After the first couple years of full-time coaching, becoming or remaining a successful coach is less about what you (the athlete) think of as coaching and more about being a successful business person. Being a good technician only gets you so far, usually to an income cap. To grow above that ceiling, the coach must evolve as a business person or face stagnation. Rich and I have chosen to evolve by changing the game to include athletes; to build a community, not to sell high priced widgets. There is surely a space for one-on-one (1:1) coaching, but it’s not in our future. Here’s why.
Premium 1:1 Coaching is a Business Model, Not a Coaching Method
This ceiling is largely a function of the business track that most coaches follow: a person (we’ll call him Bob), usually the local fast guy but sometimes also the local smart guy, is approached by local athletes to “help me with my training.†Money and training schedules exchange hands and over time and usually through word of mouth, more and more athletes seek Bob’s services. Bob reaches his first fork in the coaching road—raise : raise his fees or take on more athletes. After an initial period of “I’m- not- worthy†self-doubt, Bob gets over it and raises his fees. More people want to work with Bob at his new, higher fees and Bob reaches the next critical fork in the coaching road: scaleable or unscaleable. Recognizing this fork, when it happens, however, requires a good deal of strategic thinking, and in our experience, most coaches are too busy thinking tactically (what do I need to get TODAY to eat tomorrow) to take the elevator up to the second floor, look down and make strategic decisions.
As such, the coach is usually led down this road: Raise fees but still more people come.
Hire associate coaches to provide coaching services to athletes attracted by the brand.These associates in turn raise their fees.Before long the brand has a squad of X athletes demanding local services: swim, bike, run workouts, training camps, and maybe an actual physical location to perform training and other high-end services.
But the core of this coaching business is providing 1:1 coaching services for a premium fee. In our evolution, we realized that **1:1 triathlon coaching is a business model first, a coaching method second. ** In other words, did Coach Bob Incorporated make a conscious decision to offer expensive 1:1 coaching because it felt it was the best coaching method available? Or was Coach Bob Incorporated led down the path toward this tier of service by making a tactical decision at a fork in the coaching road, choosing the high end 1:1 coaching model as default business model? Our experience dictates that it’s the latter.
The Future of Coaching
Like other service-based industries, endurance coaching will eventually consolidate into two segments: expensive access to elite coaches and low-cost access to generic templates and very basic information. There are already coaches out there who offer 1:1 coaching @ $1500/month (that’s $18,000 a year). As you well know, there are also countless magazine articles and templates out there for free. The assumption inherent in this comparison is that the high-dollar, premium coaching is a “better service†because it costs more. You believe this because you are working with a “professional,†and because you have access to their attention and input.
The the media, industry, and culture founded on the 1:1 coaching model have conspired to tell you that you are special and unique, and that you need a custom solution different from everyone else out there. Yes, you are special, but not as special as these people (and your mom) have lead you to believe. We are all human beings, subject to the same laws of physics, physiology, and, as age group athletes, similar time constraints. As such, through our experience with well over 1000 athletes, we’ve learned that a library of training plans can provide a 95% solution for almost any athlete. The remaining 5% is the exception, not the rule. We’ve learned we can address these exceptions by: Creating learning tools to help you become a better self-coached athlete so you can figure out on your own what you need: the Wiki, podcasts, videos, articles, etc.Making ourselves available to you to help you when you get stuck, via forums, conference calls, webchats, and other highly efficient tools.
And so the role of the coach in a 1:1 relationship is to perform items #1 and #2 in a 1:1 environment. The very nature of this business model means that your coach has little time to learn, reflect, innovate and bring all of this to you — s/he is too busy reading emails, checking files, working a full-time job somewhere else, etc. The true power of the Endurance Nation model is that your membership enables us to provide you with more outstanding information and resources; we are not limited by the number of people in the house; in fact, we are incentivized by it.
But before we finish, this is a short list of support products we’ve provide to ALL of our 300+ athletes, none paying more than $15/wk, in the four months since our founding in November, 2007: ENForum, with over 10,000 posts.Podcast, Planning Your Triathlon SeasonWebinar, The Basic Training WeekVirtual Training Camp: MLKWebinar, Epic Training WeekendsWebinar Series: Training and Racing with Power, 3 x 90′ sessions with expert panelists.The Endurance Nation Beginner Triathlete Project17 podcasts recorded for our ENGroups Off-Season athletes, one for each week.20 podcasts recorded for ENGroups Ironman program, one for each week.16 podcasts, HIM, on due end of January.35 videos uploaded.Plenty more on the way…
So ask yourself: what has your $$$ coach done for you lately? Is it worth a 500-1000% markup on this list above? And remember, we are not over-night startups in this business. With 13+ years in the business between us, we’ve both been at $350+ per month, with full coaching rosters, for years. We’ve made a business decision to go a different route, reserving our 1:1 services for local athletes who we can create value for with our physical presence and leadership.----------