Ygduf

Sue him when you get rhabdo!

Racer Ex 

There is no cookie cutter path. Good coaches stand out because the are often standing on a pile of mistakes, saving you the time of recreating what they know isn't going to work. And they can filter through a lot of assumptions and ego powered fog machines. But they aren't perfect because they are dealing with imperfect, unpredictable, and at times maddening machines. Self coaches are no less different than any coach, some good some bad.

Grumpy McTrumpy

I think "good" coaches are not all that easy to find. There are a huge number of cycling coaches all over the country now, so finding a "good" one is potentially a needle/haystack thing.

It's easy to become a USAC certified coach at level 3. I doubt you need any actual coaching experience.

Heathpack 

I would sort of agree with this, in that if you are new to the process of being coached, it is indeed hard to know where to start or what you should be looking for. And my personal experience is that USAC credentials and a graduate degree are no assurance that a coach will be good.

But I do think once you've been coached just a little- even if you were badly coached- you clue in pretty quickly to what you are looking for. In a way, having the bad coach was not an altogether negative experience for me because I learned pretty quickly what would and would not work for me. After I finished with the bad coach, I interviewed four coaches. All with very successful athletes in their roster, two with formal credentials (USAC levels 1 and 2). It was pretty obvious to me that two of those coaches would just be bad choices for me (one level 1 and one uncredentialed) and two would clearly be great. So separating the wheat from the chaff wasn't that hard in the end, even for someone with my level of inexperience.

Also worth commenting is that a "good" coach is not necessarily universally good- he or she just has to be a good fit with you. I'm a good veterinarian but am I the best veterinarian for every client? Nope. There are people who choose not to continue with me and people who I suggest might be better served by seeing someone else. It for sure is a relationship. Your coach needs to be good but you also need to be good at being coached. Like any other relationship, not all matches are made in heaven. So sometimes finding the right coach is a process and that's just the nature of it. A false start is not the end of the world.

Racer Ex 

Money and the ability to pass an online test to the best of my knowledge.

Hermes

Test, criminal background check and continuing education plus other stuff... https://www.usacycling.org/steps-to-...ng-a-coach.htm

It is interesting that they do not require a Red Cross first aid/CPR AED certification.

Doge

Is it hard to be a level 1 coach? Or should one look at the coached level or buyer be ware.

tetonrider

unfortunately, lots about 'certified coaching' (USAC included, but also many fields) is about the organization doing the certification making $$ through continuing ed requirements.

not saying the USAC stuff is not valuable, but to go beyond level 3 is about spending a bunch of money. IME, getting to level 1 is more about spending money than necessarily being great at coaching/intelligent/whatever. (full disclosure: i let my credentials lapse after seeing what it was like from the inside. i just didn't feel like the certification opened any doors that i otherwise couldn't open on my own...but it REQUIRED me to pay a bunch of money.)

there are some amazing coaches who lack formal credentials and some poor coaches who have all of them. like so much in life, it depends.

topflightpro

There is a lot of truth to this, but someone has to be pretty committed to get to level 1. It requires five years as a level 2 or two years plus 200 CEUs. That's a lot of CEUs.

That said, I know some folks with only Level 3 who are terrific coaches. And I am willing to believe there are some Level 1s who are not very good - The ones I know I have solid reputations.

Racer Ex 

Looks like they added a few things since I looked into it last. Likely the CBC was an insurance company requirement.

The media waiver is a bit specious for coaches engaged in this as a business.

Heathpack 

My terrible coach was USAC Level 1. I've actually considered reporting some of his behavior to USAC because I have lots of unprofessional stuff and some illegal stuff (harassment) very well documented in writing, email and text messages. Decided not to kick that hornets nest again.

My option is buyer beware. All coaches should be interviewed and their merits assessed. But I would personally no longer be necessarily impressed by USAC credentials, it would not sway me one way or the other.

Homebrew01

Sorry to hear.

Credentials in all areas of life seem to be given too much weight. But we have deemed it the most important measure of someone's worth.

Harlan

The wife and I are considering coaching, but also self coaching. Some questions if anyone is bored. We have the cyclist's training bible, wahoo kickrs and HRMs. We could make a plan. Maybe I need the read the book again but what are the most important facets of self coaching? I know the book covers finding your strengths and weaknesses, outlining training time, workout types. I don't recall avoiding overtraining being covered, or adequate rest. Even when to start working for the year.

Maybe I need to go even further into what systems the body needs trained what that applies to on the bike. I know aerobic and anaerobic.

Any good tips on self coaching?

Edit: this was a helpful read: https://www.cyclesportcoaching.com/Fi...ngTraining.pdf

TheKillerPenguin

Ideally you need to have enough experience to really understand your strengths and weaknesses and to also recognize when you're tired. Keeping a thorough training log helps with this because you can track trends that help identify when you're tired and how being tired expresses itself in your performance. When I trained with an HRM the way I'd keep track of progress was with a 10mi pancake flat ITT course that I'd ride like once every two weeks trying to replicate the same exact conditions. I also had a 10-12min climb I'd test on every couple of weeks as well.

Additionally you need to be able to be impartial and honest when assessing yourself. It is very easy to fall into the habit of training your strengths and ignoring your weaknesses. I find having a coach forces me out of my training comfort zone and that is a good thing for me.

There are a bunch of people on this forum that are great at self coaching. As I've gleaned lessons off my coach our relationship has become more of a collaboration than a dictatorship, but I am still pretty bad about the whole remaining impartial part. I doubt there will be a time when I race and train seriously without having a coach to call BS on me.

Edit: as far as actual plans go, from what I recall the bible has a lot of info on workouts, periodization, and breaks down block hours based upon goal hours for the year, and even those are broken down by racing category. A good rule of thumb is 3 weeks on, 1 week off. If you've got less time to train, more intervals make sense. If you're doing a lot of hours, you do less intensity to avoid overtraining. Not no intensity, just less. How many hours you can handle depends on where you are at fitness wise. Jumping right into like 20hr weeks will lead to injury or mental burnout. That might even be the case at 15hrs if you're not used to volume. A lot just depends on where you're at and it's hard to say.

I recall the bible having decent AWC guidelines, Sprint workouts, LT work, tempo, and endurance as well. Might want to look through it again unless I'm misremembering.

topflightpro

The hardest part of self-coaching for me was holding myself accountable. I know more than enough to set up my own training plan, but I like having someone holding me accountable to a plan and making sure I get my workouts done.

Some on here are better able to deal with that on their own.

Wesley36

Training and Racing With a Power Meter is also a valuable resource, it has an appendix with a number of different workouts focusing on different intensity zones.