I’m 46 and am new at doing 70.3 races (only done 4 total over the last two seasons). Hope is to do my first marathon and soon enough my first full distance tri.
I’ve done well enough at my qualifying races to get a spot to St. George the last two years. I followed the same stock plan for all 4 of these races, but got better and better over time (likely a result more time and natural progress versus the plan making me better, but the plan didnt hurt). At st. george, I jumped from 65% in my age group in 2021 to 21% in 2022.
I want to build on this success and am setting lofty goals for myself over the next few years (top 5 at a big 70.3 event/IM event, BQ, KQ).
My main question is, can a coach improve my run and bike times substantially versus what I have been doing? Its hard for me to justify using my minimal disposable income for this cost.
For perspective, I would have needed to be 13 minutes faster at my qualifying race to finish in 5th place versus 14th.
Swim is my biggest limiter, so lots to gain there (improved 12 minutes at WC’s and was still in 75%ile of swim), but pretty sure a tri coach aint helping with that too much.
So spending some money on swim help is likely worth it.
I made big gains on bike and run this year too, (not just at WC’s) so I’m guessing that incremental gains in those disciplines will be harder to do on my own. But I also think that there is still room for big gains on bike since I am so new to it.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Also, what are typical costs for coaching? Only one i looked at (well known coaching group) was cost prohibitive. Do tri teams provide coaching?
Thanks!