Recently I tagged LWCoaching in an Instagram post, which she then shared on her Instagram story, this has prompted a few people to ask if I work with a coach. The short answer to that is no. I’m self-coached but I have consulted with a couple of coaches over the past two years on various topics and I have been using some canned training plans from LW Coaching to help guide me in preparing for certain events. Shortly after we had our first kid I started to realize the time crunch of life with kids was real. If I wanted to be able to keep competing in bike races close to the levels I wanted to I was going to have to make some adjustments to the way I rode.

I have been an endurance type athlete most of my life. While I did play hockey for a long time even in that I was the guy who played over half the game most of the time. When it came to bike riding I gravitated towards longer events and events that you could do well in just by gutting it out and getting to the finish line. I always kind of joked that the higher the dropout rate the better I did. After a while I realized that approach only got me so far though. I wanted to be more competitive and work towards something.

In December 2016/January 2017 after a lot of discussion/persuasion Katie agreed that I could sign up for the Breck Epic that year. This was going to include a lot of firsts for me. My first stage race, my first race at altitude, and really my first time legitimately racing out west. I was extremely excited when I got to hit that button to confirm my registration. Very soon after that I realized that I had no idea how to prepare for this kind of event. In the months after Lizzie was born I was able to get a good bit of riding in but it wasn’t really focused. There were very few rides over 2 hours and I really just kind of rode as hard as I could whenever I could.

This is when I really started looking around at how I could try and be ready for an event like this without drastically increasing my time on the bike. My eyes were opened to the huge field of cycling coaches and how seemingly common it was for people to work with a coach. As I looked around websites, forums, blogs I came to the conclusion that personalized coaching probably wasn’t in my budget and wasn’t sure if I wanted to put that kind of pressure on something that I ultimately do for fun. After a lot of digging around I settled on some training plans from Lynda Wallenfels of LW Coaching. This was a way for me to dip my toe into the structure of coaching without the big investment.

Following a plan like that and having some structure made a world of difference for me. I went out to Breckenridge and came within a few minutes of the overall Single Speed podium against a few guys who are really pretty incredible athletes. Athletes who spend a lot more time on their bikes than I can. Since then I have used some more plans from LWCoaching for other events and have taken some of the principles I learned from following those plans to create my own training schedules. I have also recently had a quick consult with Lynda to help me work through some adjustments with a crazy life schedule in the next few weeks. This kind of opened my eyes to how valuable it would be to work with an expert more often.

As I mentioned in my 2018 wrap up, Last season I sat down to talk with a friend and CTS coach when I felt like I was plateauing a little bit. He had some really good insight into pacing, fueling, and skills. Things that don’t necessarily take more time in training but make a big difference in how you’re race goes. I’ve spent some time working on those things and it has made a difference for me. What I figured out is that as I’ve gotten more fit I wasn’t keeping up with my fueling needs. I also have a bad habit of starting races too fast which I’ll continue to work on.

It’s worth noting that I haven’t ever really trained with a power meter. Since starting with the structured plans I’ve been using heart rate as my guide. This has some limitations and I’ve recently had my interest piqued in looking at using a power meter (I’m also a pretty big nerd and love numbers so there is another draw). When I started doing research I quickly learned that power meters are expensive so I’m holding on that for right now. Not to mention, there are times when I struggle with the fact that I do all of this for fun it’s not like I’m going to go out and win these events so what does it matter if I do it 5 minutes faster.  I think what it comes down to is that it’s one thing in life that is almost easy, if you put in the work you’ll get to see noticeable improvement. There aren’t many things you can clearly say that about.

Along with the power meter I’ve considered working with a coach more but for similar reasons to the power meter I haven’t made the leap yet. As I mentioned above though I’m realizing how valuable that could be.

For what it’s worth, I chose the LW Coaching plans largely because of the fact she had some single speed specific information and a number of bikepacking plans. Ultimately I didn’t use that information but knowing she had some single speed background was enough to push me in that direction. LW Coaching has a whole host of 12 week training plans for all kinds of events, even off season plans, even plans just to help you lose weight. They have a variety of levels of true coaching as well. There is also has a forum on her website for folks who have paid for plans where you can post questions and generally get well thought out answers. I’ve used a couple of the plans now and have had some good success with them.