Too premature to get value from working with a coach?

comete

Have been browsing various sources over the past week trying to gain some insight into cost of coaching and whether I’m at a point where I would benefit from working with one.

My background: played team sports from the age of 8 or 9 til I sustained a bad injury that put me off at the tender age of 21, took up cycling in 2011, started road racing in 2012, took 2013 a bit more seriously, was plenty strong (340w ftp) but not very successful (poor race craft). Moved abroad and lived near a velodrome so started racing there, managed to podium regularly enough in the endurance events like scratch and IP, rode the Irish national scratch and IP a few times. Raced a few xc mtb races and 2 24hr xc mtb races. Moved home during covid and live beside a pier so bought a swimming wetsuit (having not swam since I was a kid), fell in with a group of lads that swim a bit, and ended up swimming between 1-3km in the sea 4 mornings a week from may til October. Dabbled in a few open water races and managed 2nd in the 3km distance of the last race I done. From October til January I swam 2 mornings a week, every week, in the local pool. Kept up the odd turbo session on the bike and weekend club run til then too, and started dabbling in a bit of running. Had a baby 2nd Jan so everything stopped for a few weeks, but by mid February I was back doing a bit of sporadic swimming, turbo and running. Since beginning of April I’m managing 1 pool swim, 3 turbo sessions and 3 runs a week. My ftp last week was 279w. Fastest 5km to date is 21min, and am fairly comfortable around 1:55/100m over 3.5km in open water (calm day). I’ve done a lot of bike racing, a handful of swim races, and no running races (unless you consider parkrun). Triathlon seemed like a logical progression, so I took out a license last week and have 3 in my sights (Westport standard in June, Ballina sprint in July and hazelwood standard in august).

Why I think I might benefit from a coach/what I hope to gain: at the minute my training feels a bit vague, I’m doing a TT training plan on TrainerRoad, I do whatever run my garmin watch suggests, and I do a coached lane swim session the local club organises once a week. I’m pretty time poor (I can justify a max of 1 hour a day midweek, and maybe 4-5 hours spread across the weekend), so having a bit of training focus and accountability might give me more value for time, but ive never done a tri so don’t really know how to channel that time properly.

What puts me off working with a coach: I’ve never done a full tri so part of me thinks I should do the 3 this season and reassess for next year. There are a couple of aspects to my training that would be fairly rigid (road race league every 2 weeks, pool swim every Thursday) that I’m worried might not fit with a coached plan. Similarly there are aspects that would need to be fairly fluid (open water swim is dependent on conditions and others being around as I wouldn’t venture off into the bay solo). I still want to do a bit of road racing, and have entered some open water swim races and a half marathon, but they’d probably all be considered supplementary.

So, long winded approach to asking whether it’s a bit premature to reach out to a coach yet. Curious to hear what experienced folk think.

peter kern

would it be premature to take driving lessons before having a driving license ....

comete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118945527#Comment_118945527

Not sure that’s a realistic comparison but I suspect you’re suggesting it’s never too early to work with a coach?

BennyMul

BennyMul

Not sure what happened to my last comment😊

Not sure there is a right or wrong answer here,

What are your long term goals?

Are you a member of a local club?

if so is there a coach there to help guide / mentor you for the first season to see if the sport is for you?

peter kern

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118945624#Comment_118945624

correct

if you are time poor and money rich its a no brainer

if you are time poor and not so money rich then you would have to ask yourself , what are my goals and is it the best investment, and then the answer could be maybe invest in swim coaching rather than tri coaching, in swimming its even more important getting it right from the start than the other 2, and while 1.55 is solid its a long way from good .

i would say if you take a coach there is 2 periods when it makes most sense to have a coach when you start something and then when you get closer to your limit, and in your case since you have a solid level in all 3, a good coach can help you fairly quickly to get to a decent level and help you to establish a training frame, which after one year you could then follow on your own . at the same time so could a good trainings partner if you were more time rich. so if the budged was an issue i would get a good coach now, develop a framework which you can follow and then when you get more time rich you then can work with a coach again, as potentially you could become a decent triathlete.