Why Hire a Coach - By Charlie Zamastil

Why would I get a coach? I hear that question a lot, and it seems perfectly reasonable. After all, plenty of people are able to train and get fast without the aid of someone else. It doesn’t take a PhD is sports science (or PhD in philosophy who probably should have gotten a PhD in sports science) to know that by riding your bike more frequently than you currently do will make you both leaner and faster. And, generally speaking, the harder you ride, the faster these training adaptations occur and with greater vigor. Plus, coaching can be expensive. $89/month for the performance package might seem like a lot. You’re not a pro athlete. Cycling or triathlons are your hobby.

I can sympathize, and to a point, I agree. A coach is not for everyone. Just as when we all managed to drive from point A to point B before GPS on our 4G phones, your pedals will continue to turn over even if you don’t hire a coach. But, as with your navigating, they will do so slower, with more effort, and with lesser efficiency. Here are a few reasons why to get coaches and a few rejoinders to some possible objections. (Sounds like an academic paper, I know; see, now I use that philosophy degree: blogging from home, alone, in the dark ... )

First, there is the cost. That’s what I hear the most, that the cost is prohibitive. I don’t want to judge anyone here, and certainly I have my moments of highly confused priorities with regards to my spending money (why I balk at spending the extra $2 for a pound the fair trade, shade-grown, organic coffee at the grocery store once a month, but then pay $2 for a single cup at Dunkin’ is a psychological mystery). But let’s put the cost in perspective. A coaching package is the same price as a $3 latte. It’s what we pay for cable TV. It’s the difference between taking the subway to work versus commuting by subway. It’s way less than driving.


OK—so there are numerous things to compare it to, of greater and lesser importance. Obviously getting to work somehow takes precedence over monthly workouts. Maybe the routine trip to the corner store to get your coffee each day is comforting in its routine. Maybe you really can’t wait until tomorrow to watch your favorite cable shows online. It’s all about prioritizing. But before dismissing coaching out of hand due to the cost, think about how you feel when you achieve your goals. After all, that’s the coach’s primary objective, whether your goals are to win races and turn pro, or simply finish a long ride or a sprint triathlon. Would you trade a latte a day or your cable subscription for that feeling of improvement and accomplishment? I suppose that’s up to you to decide.

Secondly, there’s the question of how much a coach can really offer. This is the response usually heard from people who are already generally very fit. They’ve come so far already completely on their own. How much further can a coach really take them?


I would say the sky’s the limit, if by sky I meant your genetic makeup. That really is the limiting factor. “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them,” the bard wrote. I would say those number quite few. Nevertheless, the only way to know if one has reached their maximum potential is to do whatever it is their doing with maximum effort and efficiency. Even a generally fit person can probably go much, much faster with the proper training plan. I liken cycling to tennis. I was my high school team’s #1 player for 3 years, and qualified for the state tournament. There, I was competitive, but was truly outclassed by the 3rd round. The guy that crushed me was crushed in his next round. That guy made it to the quarters before getting shellacked by the eventual 5th-place guy. The guy that won played on the challenger circuit, where you have to win whole tournaments against guys at similar levels to get into a lottery where you may or may not get picked for a low seating at a tournament that you might see on T.V. Unlike in March Madness, the bottom seeds at Wimbledon don’t advance to the finals to play the best in the world.


My point is that no matter how good we think we are—no matter how fit we get—there are so many levels of fitness above us. Wouldn’t it be nice to see whether, with the proper training (given all limiting factors, viz., job, work, family, time to train, and of course, genetics) we see just what level we get to? I bet the guy who lost to the guy who lost to the guy would love to someday be the guy who beats the guy who lost to the guy who lost to the guy. That guy might be you, but it’ll take a coach to find out.

Now, as for specific benefits of having a coach, I can think of a few. First off, the consultation is invaluable. Discussing a training plan with someone whose job it is to create a training plans leads to a highly structured, focused, and intelligent season outline. And as the exigencies of life crop up, you need a coach who is amenable to accommodating those changes. Breakaway coaches certainly are flexible. And once you start doing the specific workouts designed just for you, you’ll come up with questions you’d never have come up with on your own. And the answers will be just a conversation away. Coaches are also there to tell you when to take a rest. The principles of training have always come down to inducing stress, then recovering. A surprisingly large number of people focus way too much on the stress and not the recovery. (We call that “triathlete syndrome.”) It’s a tough thing to figure out, and most likely something for which one needs a coach’s trained help.

Helping you to set appropriate goals is another benefit of coaching that comes to mind. True story: the same well-meaning kid has come into the shop once a summer wanting a free bike because he is, he says, going to turn pro. He has never raced, but, he says, he does a local 40-mile ride with some older guys and everyone on it says he’s really fast and should go pro. Ridiculous as this sounds, it’s really an extreme case of a characteristic of most of us: we don’t know what level we’ve reached, nor do we know what level we can reach, without someone giving us a clue.

Furthermore, having a coach provides some accountability. How often have you planned to go on a ride, only to see that it was a bit too cold, or there was a chance of rain, or the game went into extra innings and you’re too tired, or they had 2-for-1 you-call-its at the pub and you’re too “dehydrated” the next day? It’s easy to cheat yourself out of a workout. Just yesterday I started an interval session, got interrupted by a policeman telling me to get off the road, and bagged it, civil rights feeling violated. Justified in quitting? I felt like it at the time. But when I told a fellow coach the story, he asked me why I didn’t just find a new road and continue. I had no answer. No one is there to call you on it but yourself. It’s harder to cheat your coach, someone who will monitor to see whether you did your workout, and call you on it if you’re not doing what you’re supposed to.

I could go on, but I’ve probably maxed out your attention span. If you care to hear more about the benefits of coaching and features of the various coaching packages that we offer, I invite you to continue the conversation in the comments section or email me directly at Charlie@Breakawaybikes.com.