Thought I’d do a quick follow up.
Spoke to a few coaches and went with Jon (LabMonkey/Palmares) in the end. Seemed like a good fit. Been a good experience. Going since Nov but the first month was a bit of a write off thanks to being wiped out by some bug.
He’s had me doing things I wouldn’t otherwise have been doing and he’s had to put up with a fair bit of questioning/whinging as some of it tested my faith a bit. It’s been quite a commitment in terms of time and sticking to the plan, some of it’s been hard, and at times I’ve felt bloody awful. And juggling it all around two small kids and a busy job has been tricky. But it all feels like it’s coming together very nicely now that it’s time to go racing. And I enjoy riding my bike so it’s not so bad!
Main benefit for me over, say, some plan off the internet, is that I have a lot more confidence in what I’m doing which for me is essential if I’m going to stick with it (chopped and changed approach too much in the past.) Being able to have a good dialogue adapt to what’s going on has been great. Reckon race results are going to show good improvements too 🙂
Edit… just to add, I am a pretty average rider, but if I’m going to go to the efforts of putting in what for me is a lot of training I want to make sure I’m getting the most out of it and not be wasting my time! I’d recommend it to anyone in a similar situation.