well im gonna do an ironman next year and im just wondering if i should coach myself or get a ‘real’ one. this year ive done 2 half ironmans coaching myself. swim aint really a prob for me (ex swimmer), but i do need to improve my cycling. run could get better, but it’s getting there.
ive been doing a fair bit of reading on diff ways to train for an ironman. do i really need someone to tell me stuff ive already read about?
If there is one thing I have learned, the real benefit of having a coach isn’t telling you what you need to know but moreso telling you what you shouldn’t do and then maintaining the objectivity an athlete doesn’t have.
It depends upon your goals. Did you do OK in both of your halfs? Are you wanting to do the absolute best possible, or compete with a certain group, or just finish intact?
Depending upon your point of view and experience with coaching yourself in the past, you can certainly pull it off by yourself…there are lots of programs out there that give a template appropriat for the goal of finishing. The problem I’ve had with actual coaching is that I have no way to connect with a coach that can actually see me training, at least partly because my hours are so unpredictable. Now that I live in the boonies, it’s even more difficult.
There’s also a problem with any templated workout program. I might have to jam three sessions into two days instead of over four days like the program says, because my hours are so variable. I’ve been fortunate so far to do OK with self-coaching, just look at as many different suggested workout programs as possible, and meld them into one of your own.
Coach yourself.
Except for swimming get a real coach for that.
If you already know how to swim then half the battle is already won. After that it is just a question of putting in enough miles to be aerobically efficient.
Having said that, a local coach you can talk with and train with can be pretty useful. I seriously question the value of some online coaches unless they have time to give you lots of feedback and even then it is hard for them to really judge your progress.
Just my opinion.
Chad
I think it depends on the person.
I didn’t have a coach for a couple of years, but was getting informal advice from someone, plus I had access to a few coaches who would answer my questions as they came up. But, I am now in the process of setting things up with a coach as I am at the point where I need the structure and feedback that a coach provides.
I also think that it’s very important to go with someone who is on the same wavelength as you (personality/style). I discussed a number of different coaches (both local and online) with someone who knows me pretty well and it was easy to narrow down the list when looking at what I didn’t want/need and one name kept rising to the top of the list when we got to what I wanted/needed.
Gordo wrote a good article on getting/using a coach. http://www.coachgordo.com/cgonline.htm
clm
I’m in the exact same boat as you in deciding on going the self-coach vs. official coach route in 2005.
I’m an ex college swimmer and will be making the transition from half-ironmans to IM distance in 2005. I am competing in the WTH this weekend after 2+ years of self coaching. I’ve gone from 293+ lbs to 185lbs (lowest is 171) right now and went from walking 1mi to a 3:35 marathon last October. This has all been self coached.
I think the discipline instilled in me from swimming has helped me get through the workouts on my own or with my training partners. I’ve had to jump up a few levels in partners to keep pushing myself.
But here is the big dilemna - I don’t know when to say when sometimes. I keep pushing myself and the objective eye of a coach, or at least a training group, is something I think I may need.
For instance I’m tapering for WTH and last weekend I did a 50mi bike with a 3mi run off the bike on Sat, then Sun I did a 12mi hilly trail run at a pretty hard effort. I felt shelled during my 4mi trail run yesterday, but after 40mi on the trainer (damn rain) I felt 200% better.
Not sure if any of this makes sense, but I think a coach is going to help you keep things objective and also help you know when to say when, so you don’t push yourself over the edge - like I’ve come so close to doing recently.
Hope that all helps
BNasty
if you have the extra $, go coach for sure. another alt is to just look up training plans on-line.
if the coach is good, you will have structured, specific workouts that will help save time and target your limiting areas. You’ll get power, speed, endurance workouts correct order.
By that same token, a poor coach can lead you into injury. random, unstructured workouts, and loss of moitvation.
You know, Graz has a point. Just because you get a coach doesn’t mean you’ll be better off, and could be worse off. “Coach” doesn’t guarantee anything.
However, if you were coached by someone with a very good rating from previous and current athletes that compete in your same basic performance “group”, you’ll have a good chance to be that it will benefit you.
hey. thanks for the advice. i’m an ex competitive swimmer and like the other person said, it has instilled a fair amount of discipline in me.
i did ok in my half ironmans. first one i did was also my first triathlon! hah. i paced myself wrong in that though and had nothing for the run. next half i did i held a lil back on the bike (i was also much fitter bikewise by this stage) and i did what i thought was a pretty good run, felt relaxed the whole way. except for my right calf cramping up whenever i tried to push myself. so i reckon i could have gone a whole lot faster if that hadnt held me back.
i train with a squad for swimming so swimming aint an issue at all. the main issue for me is getting my cycling going well and also my running. i generally train alone in both of these.
are coaches worth the money in general?
I think some people enjoy putting their training schedules together themselves. I don’t. I like having all of the planning done for me and the only thing i need to worry about is execution. I don’t like details so an online coach works for me. Plus i can email him with questions or as problems arise (which they have big time for me with a recent injury) and he alters the plan. Plus, in my case, he’s holding a training camp for IMUSA so I’ll get to train with him then.
Good luck!
For me, I can’t really Race at distances more than Olympic or International. At those distances, I can always ask myself if I am going hard enough. At the half-iron distance, I’m always asking myself if I am going TOO hard. I do OK in the standings for my AG in a half, but I’m not really able to Race this distance. The full iron distance is another animal altogether, way above the half. The half doesn’t really compare. You can fake a half and get by with it. Not so for an Ironman. Fakers will be punished severely. For me, an Ironman is just survival, not racing.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is if I were wanting to Race an Irondistance, I’d want, make that, Need, a coach’s advice. It goes back to the question of goals…so much depends upon your goals.
Duke Blue Devil, here I come anyway! Self-coached and surviving.
That’s quite the comeback. Congrat’s and good luck at WTH.
Coaching: I’ve done both and I think the decision for either was based on what the goals were and who was in the best position to get me where I wanted to go. One year it was a coach, one year it was read everything I could come across, now it’s mostly me figuring it out. As someone else suggested sometimes its more what the coach stops you from doing then anything else that proves his/her worth.
well i was just looking at hawaii ironman qualifiers from nz ironman and their times. theylook achievable for me so i think thats gonna be my goal…
fulla wrote: well i was just looking at hawaii ironman qualifiers from nz ironman and their times. theylook achievable for me so i think thats gonna be my goal…
Good for you! Now, get a coach that’s been there. Or at least get a coach that has a track record of getting people there successfully. Best wishes for you to reach your goal, that’s really exciting! Keep us up to date on how you’re doing with it.
A lot depends on how you operate. Do you need frequent contact, feedback, and tweaking, or just a skeleton outline? Are you a self-starter? Do you tend to second-guess others? Do you enjoy the challenge of putting together your own program? Do you know when to push and when to back off? Do you have other athletes in the area to train with? Maybe they share similar goals.
A coach won’t do you any good if you second-guess them or change their program. You have to buy into the program for it to work, or have the coach adjust things to suit your needs. These are all things you should discuss with any candidates. If you’re thinking of hiring a coach for possibly some big bucks then you should interview him/her like any job candidate you’re thinking of hiring.
Personally, after having two different coaches and re-hiring one of them twice, I have gotten all the paid coaching I need for now and prefer to set up my own workouts and program. In the end, what makes the biggest difference for me is motivation and local support. Sufficient sleep and a good training partner keep me training well, not the fact that I’m paying for coaching.
Hope this helps.
do your research on coaches and get one. You wouldn’t buy a bike without looking into it properly.
check the athletes they train and the results they produce should give you a fair indication.
Ultimately you have to be motivated and do the work yourself but it is the expert advice and the direction they provide that is the real value I find. I pay little heed to what other people talk about on training as their circumstances are probably very different.
using a coach can be a shock at first as they may do things very different to what you have been doing with your mates, but they are working you towards a specific race and want you firing at that time not 3 months beforehand. So you may need to check the ego at the door on some sessions and let your mates blow themselves away while you cruise along at an aerobic pace.
I find it money well spent and it is very encouraging seeing improvements along the way. Do it and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.