By Coach Chad Carpenter
For many there is a mental reflex whenever the topic of getting a coach comes up. often, people may think, “I’m not trying to be a pro, so I don’t need a coach” or “I will get a coach when I am fast or competitive enough”. Maybe you think that you just don’t have enough time before your race, and you might as well stick to what you are doing. Getting faster or being competitive is such a small slice of what a coach can truly bring to your life, and we can still provide immense help even in the days leading up to a race. Below are five not-so obvious reasons why you should be getting a coach now.
1. SOMEBODY DOES THE BORING, TIME CONSUMING WORK FOR YOU
Building a real training plan that maximizes an athlete’s growth takes time and continuous iteration. Sure, plenty of free training plans are available when you search online, but none of those were written to fit your lifestyle, work demands, family time, and current fitness level. Planning your own workouts takes a lot of time to do correctly, and it comes with the risk of composing a poor plan due to lack of experience. Add the hours of planning to the hours of actual training, and you will end up with zero free time (and possibly a very upset spouse or partner that you do not spend enough time with). When you hire a coach, you are getting a ‘training assistant’ that composes the workouts for you, plans out the entire season, and makes the necessary changes to it when life comes up. You save countless hours of effort by not worrying about the planning which gives you more time and energy in executing your personal training plan as well as enjoying your life outside of sport.
2. PROVIDE STRUCTURE TO YOUR LIFE
For most of us, the only real structure we have from day to day is when we go to work and when we don’t. I like to sort-of joke that my days are basically structured by finding ways to distract myself in between meals. Outside of those time constraints, we generally make it up as we go. Some of us are good at that, and some of us are generally bad at it. What you thought was going to be a productive weekend when you eventually got around to working out, turned into not making up your mind on doing a long bike ride or trail run. Instead, you looked for an inspirational movie that led to a 6-hour Netflix binge and no workout. With a coach, your entire workouts are already planned and structured into your life so that you do not have to figure it out as you go. Adding the structure of daily workouts will not only make you more organized but also more consistent in your training. We often bring the better parts of ourselves to the structure in our life. While your job may get a lot of the better parts of you, you deserve bringing it to yourself and your training.
3. IMMERSE YOURSELF WITHIN A COMMUNITY
When you hire a coach, you are getting more than a single individual’s attention and effort. Your coach will likely work with a team of coaches as well as work with other athletes. This instantly gives you a network of people to work with, learn from, and have fun with. The coach can provide group workout sessions to enable the social nature of us all as well as athlete happy hours that help us meeting new people and make new friends. Additionally, with the network of the coach, you are almost guaranteed to get the assistance you need for your own training needs. For example, I have an athlete that enjoys using TRX as part of his training regime, but I have zero experience using a TRX system. With only one quick email to another Playtri coaching, and we have supplied the athlete with some great TRX workouts that have been geared towards triathletes. You don’t just get a single coach, you gain a network.
4. ACCELERATE YOUR EDUCATION
You can read journal articles, books, and online magazines all day about the best ‘this or that’ for triathlon training. The resources area quite endless, and as with most subjects, you need to be able to filter out the useful information with the bad, misleading information. With a coach, you get a veteran who has been there, done that, and got the t-shirt (too many race t-shirts, actually). Not only do we provide a training plan, but we provide a dedicated and reliable source of information. We can provide suggestions on what the best gear is and why, how to set yourself up for success in getting improved sleep, and even give you easy to follow rules of thumb for pre/post workout nutrition and race day strategies. I originally got my first coach because I wanted to learn, but I got so tired of filtering through all the overwhelming data and strategies, nor did I have the time for it. Now, I personally enjoy forwarding on quick reads, articles, and good books to my athletes who I know love reading about it but are too time crunched to find what they need.
5. ACCOUNTABILITY AND FEEDBACK
For many of us, it is clear on who are the ‘first marshmallow’ kids, and who are the ‘second marshmallow’ kids[1]. Some of us want or need accountability to be consistent. This does not have to be any dictator-level overwatching, big-brother accountability, but just a casual check-in about how a workout went or maybe what the plans are for the next training session. A coach can provide these short, frequent communication channels that enables a sense of accountability. We also provide feedback to your efforts and progress. For newbies and veterans alike, determining what is hard and what is easy is not always straightforward. Sometimes, we lose good form or pick up bad habits. Coaches not only provide a framework for structure and difficulty but can give insights to how well you executed and how we can correct our form. Overtime, you begin to calibrate your own personal perceived effort and form based on the frequent feedback.
When it comes down to it, coaches provide so much more than a training plan for the fast and competitive. We are here to make the life of any athlete more efficient and productive. With us, you gain a network of coaches and group knowledge that will progress you towards your goals. Through feedback and accountability, you remain consistent throughout your training, and consistency is a key element in having both a successful and enjoyable triathlon career.
Coach Chad is a Playtri Level 2 Coach and an IRONMAN World Championship qualifier. Learn more about Coach Chad at www.playtri.com/chad-carpenter.
[1] If you are unfamiliar with the term, I highly suggest doing a quick search about the multiple variations of psychologist Walter Mischel’s famous experiment that correlated achievement in adult life with a child’s ability to delay satisfaction for a greater return: eat one marshmallow now or wait an extended period for two marshmallows.