Cycling Coach? Yes!
Recently I received a request from a reader on finding a cycling coach. They not only inquired about the official coach of NashvilleCyclist.com, Todd Nordmeyer, but also for more information about other local coaches they could contact. Todd is booked at the moment, but there are several other cycling coaches available to meet their needs.
To help with a search there are resources online to help you find a coach and hopefully become a better cyclist. It's not necessary for your coach to live in the same town as you, but it can be helpful in order to meet or ride together periodically. Don't let the distance from your coach scare you from hiring them. It's more important that you're comfortable dealing with them and able to communicate in a way that helps you achieve your desired results. It has the potential to become a great relationship/friendship, so choose someone you can work with effectively.
I recommend hiring a coach if you're looking to improve or get to that next level that's eluding you. Any good coach is going to elevate your abilities and help you get the most out of your talent. One of the smartest and best decisions I have ever made regarding cycling was to hire a coach. There's no way I'd be achieving the results I am now without his guidance and leadership, and the good part is there's a lot of room for improvement!
Even if you aren't a racer I suggest hiring a coach. Recreational metric and century riders would stand to gain huge improvements in their weekend rides by hiring a cycling coach. Wanting to achieve your personal best at 3-State 3 Mountain, Harpeth River Ride Century and Clarksville Labor Day Century? Not just one of them, but all three? Hire a coach! Coaching isn't just for the really fast racers, but rather for everyone wanting to become a stronger cyclist.
A coach is going to provide a training plan specific to your needs based upon your strengths and weaknesses. It won't be generic, but rather very individualized. Forget about all the guesswork you've been doing hoping to prepare yourself. The plan will include a variety of drills and intervals with the sole purpose of preparing your body for racing and hard riding. Coaches will help you set goals, layout a plan to reach those goals, measure your progress, and then provide feedback throughout the season as you set out to achieve them.
An area that's helped me a lot has been with accountability. I get realistic feedback based upon my training data and race results, and nothing is sugar coated to make me feel good about myself. I'm not paying someone to pat me on the back, but rather someone to give me an honest opinion of my abilities and performance. I realize I have just as much obligation to the coach/athlete relationship as my coach does, which means for this relationship to work I need to follow through on his suggested plan. I've already tried doing it my way, and that wasn't cutting it!
Another big source of guidance will be in the area of ride or race strategy. The best training in the world won't do much good if you aren't focused on channeling your energy effectively during the event. We've all pulled some dumb moves on the bike and wasted valuable energy, but a coach is going to harness your energy and help you utilize your resources (energy!) wisely. This means your race tactics should improve as well as your ability to sniff out winning opportunities.
To search for coaches check out these links:
BicycleCoach.com - has 9 listed from Tennessee
USA Cycling coaches section - has 13 listed from Tennessee
TrainingPeaks.com - has 3 listed from Tennessee
There are other coaching resources to check out such as CarmichaelTraining System from Lance's coach Chris Carmichael, while Joel Friel offers TrainingPeaks. Friel is the author of a book nearly every bike racer has on their shelf, The Cyclist's Training Bible. Both sites offer plans you can purchase online at reasonable rates.
To help with a search there are resources online to help you find a coach and hopefully become a better cyclist. It's not necessary for your coach to live in the same town as you, but it can be helpful in order to meet or ride together periodically. Don't let the distance from your coach scare you from hiring them. It's more important that you're comfortable dealing with them and able to communicate in a way that helps you achieve your desired results. It has the potential to become a great relationship/friendship, so choose someone you can work with effectively.
I recommend hiring a coach if you're looking to improve or get to that next level that's eluding you. Any good coach is going to elevate your abilities and help you get the most out of your talent. One of the smartest and best decisions I have ever made regarding cycling was to hire a coach. There's no way I'd be achieving the results I am now without his guidance and leadership, and the good part is there's a lot of room for improvement!
Even if you aren't a racer I suggest hiring a coach. Recreational metric and century riders would stand to gain huge improvements in their weekend rides by hiring a cycling coach. Wanting to achieve your personal best at 3-State 3 Mountain, Harpeth River Ride Century and Clarksville Labor Day Century? Not just one of them, but all three? Hire a coach! Coaching isn't just for the really fast racers, but rather for everyone wanting to become a stronger cyclist.
A coach is going to provide a training plan specific to your needs based upon your strengths and weaknesses. It won't be generic, but rather very individualized. Forget about all the guesswork you've been doing hoping to prepare yourself. The plan will include a variety of drills and intervals with the sole purpose of preparing your body for racing and hard riding. Coaches will help you set goals, layout a plan to reach those goals, measure your progress, and then provide feedback throughout the season as you set out to achieve them.
An area that's helped me a lot has been with accountability. I get realistic feedback based upon my training data and race results, and nothing is sugar coated to make me feel good about myself. I'm not paying someone to pat me on the back, but rather someone to give me an honest opinion of my abilities and performance. I realize I have just as much obligation to the coach/athlete relationship as my coach does, which means for this relationship to work I need to follow through on his suggested plan. I've already tried doing it my way, and that wasn't cutting it!
Another big source of guidance will be in the area of ride or race strategy. The best training in the world won't do much good if you aren't focused on channeling your energy effectively during the event. We've all pulled some dumb moves on the bike and wasted valuable energy, but a coach is going to harness your energy and help you utilize your resources (energy!) wisely. This means your race tactics should improve as well as your ability to sniff out winning opportunities.
To search for coaches check out these links:
BicycleCoach.com - has 9 listed from Tennessee
USA Cycling coaches section - has 13 listed from Tennessee
TrainingPeaks.com - has 3 listed from Tennessee
There are other coaching resources to check out such as CarmichaelTraining System from Lance's coach Chris Carmichael, while Joel Friel offers TrainingPeaks. Friel is the author of a book nearly every bike racer has on their shelf, The Cyclist's Training Bible. Both sites offer plans you can purchase online at reasonable rates.
posted by NashvilleCyclist.com at 8/07/2006 09:05:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home