How do they work then?
Do you train with them?
How do they assess you and everything to do with you and the bike?
Basically how do they know what to do with you?

You’re at least a hundred years old! What’s a coach going to teach you? 😆

You don’t need a coach just to hold the bike steady while you get on,do you?

Not interested in one , like you said ‘you don’t need an accountant to tell you how poor you are’ I train along the lines of if I’m too slow I need to work harder.

Just curious.

Classic STW response: it depends on the coach and client.

Some have training groups to train with, others are all done by email/phone and only meet face to face once a year.

Some do full physiological testing at rest and on the bike, others might get you to do a test which is more specific- eg how fast you do a certain ride/loop and repeat it at full pace once every 3 months as a marker.

In general the more that they know about you the better the training will suit you.

I use a reward/punishment schedule.If I go fast,I reward myself with a nice pie,and if I’m too slow,I punish myself by inflicting one of those horrible pies on my poor stomach.

I use a reward/punishment schedule.If I go fast,I reward myself with a nice pie,and if I’m too slow,I punish myself by inflicting one of those horrible pies on my poor stomach

Kinky S&M

Steak and mushroom

Lab test
Power meter data uploaded after every ride
Regular email/phone contact with my bloody good coach

alwillis. That’s what I thought, does it work? See to me it seems like a coach is to far detached to be dictating how you should ride on a weekly basis. Sort of do this for three months and see me, ‘ah that didn’t work’. Try this instead for the next three months and see me.

What sort of level is that LeeW?

It works for some people, but maybe not as well as a local coach would. Only ever experienced the local stuff first hand though so I’m guessing really

Depends where your shortcomings are surely. If you are technically not that good get a coach. If you are short of discipline and motivation get a coach. Lots of reasons to get a coach.

I once sat in on part of the selection process/coaching for the Oxford boat race crew run by this chap

as far as I could tell his method was shouting continual insults very loudly from about 1 inch from the athletes ear, seems to work going by his record 😕