Written by Those of you that follow me on DM have probably noticed that in the past week, my workouts have changed dramatically. You’ve seen me add strength training to my repertoire, some cross training, and doing assorted intervals and drills, instead of just going out and riding a ton of miles. The reason for that is that I’ve started working with a cycling coach.
A week and a half into the experience, I wanted to write about it. I hired a virtual coach. It’s not some computer that I feed my information into and it spits out workouts and schedules, but he’s a real live coach based out of Kentucky. Coaches out here are expensive. Pretty much $200 a month is where you start for someone just to assign you workouts and look at your data. At this stage in my development, I don’t need a coach to be with me on rides, I need someone to assign me things to do, because I sure as hell don’t know what I’m doing.
I’ll go into the two plans that Rob, my coach offers. First is month to month. Workouts are delivered via Training peaks, you get an assessment, goal setting assistance, a new plan at the end of each month, three emails a week in communication and at the end of the month, Rob looks at your completed workouts as he creates a new set for you and reviews how you did. This is only 45 a month. He also has a week to week program which is the same, except he he reviews my performance each week, and though he can deliver a new weeks workout every week, he delivers a month at a time and adjusts on the fly as necessary – he’s stated that giving people a month’s worth at a time and then modifying it if needs be actually works out better for people because they can make plans without waiting for the next set of workouts. Communication is also increased to 1 one hour call a week and an email a day. And to be honest, we don’t talk on the phone we use Skype – cell reception isn’t great. And in both plans, you have to use an HRM or power meter.
So far, I’m very happy with the experience. Rob called me when I first expressed interest, and we spent a good hour and a half just talking about what coaching was, what it was like, and we spent another hour on the phone before my first week started to make sure I understood everything. He’s always responded to my emails in less than a day and is awesome to work with. Side benefit, anytime someone wants me to do something or go somewhere I don’t want to, I just say, oh I can’t, my coach says I can’t do that, or my coach has me scheduled to do a strength workout that day.
He also coaches recreational riders, so friends such as Scott J. will find value here. It’s nice knowing that I have a professional I can turn to for advice. And the cost is great. I use the week to week plan, and it’s still half of what a local coach would charge me for the same level of service. I would recommend him to any cyclist interested in improvement. I mean the month to month plan is only $45 a month. I bet you spend that much at Starbucks in a month!
If anyone is interested, let me know, I can refer you to Rob, who truly is awesome, and will be responsible for what I hope are many successes this year.