Hey, I know how this looks. Here I am, a professional coach, telling you all the reasons why I think you should hire one. It's not exactly disinterested science on my part. The benefit of having a coach is only part of what I want to focus on here, though. Primarily, I'd like to discuss what you should look for if you choose to hire a coach, and further, whether you need on in the first place. As a coach, I'll put my biases and self-interest upfront for you so you don't have to read between the lines.
Before you consider coaching, the first step is to define who you are as rider and what you're trying to get out of the sport. What are your goals, if you've set any in the first place? Perhaps it's best to start by simply asking yourself why you ride, something I've addressed in my articles here before. Fitness? Competition? Escape? Regardless of the level at which you participate in cycling, one thing we can all probably agree on is that riding is more enjoyable when we feel good on the bike. That might mean setting a PR up Mount Washington, breaking 5 hours for a century, or winning the Tour de France. At the same time, most of us aren't professional cyclists with unlimited time to train. We have families, rent or mortgages, jobs — real life, for the majority of cyclists. Within those parameters and at either end of the spectrum, it's clear that we're all committed, serious cyclists who want to be the best we can at what we do.
Cycle-Smart coaches work with riders at every point along that continuum. Yes, we have some top athletes, national champions, and World Cup winners. But the large portion of our athletes are amateurs and masters, for whom bike racing is perhaps their biggest passion, but not necessarily their biggest priority. Family and work come first, which means that most of these riders are trying to fit their training and racing into a very narrow and often changing time frame. This is where a coach can make a difference for a rider trying to make it to the next category, be competitive in their age group, or just use their time most effectively.
In this situation, a coach can be many things and take on many roles: consultant, time manager, psychologist, friend, and motivator. When you have limited time to train, it means that you don't always have time to read the latest training book and develop your own program. It means you don't have time to waste doing training that won't benefit you or ignores your body's response to the training you do. Just as you might pay someone to work on your car, renovate your house, or do your taxes, if you're time is valuable, it's worth it to have a professional coach planning and evaluating your training. Yes, you could do it yourself to some degree, but not with the same results, and not without a time commitment you might not be able to make.
Price is an issue as well, and again, you need to have a clear idea of what you need and how much you're willing to pay for it. It's helpful to think in terms of the amount of attention you want and can afford. Are you looking for someone to plan your training on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule? Do you want them to evaluate your training data and make changes to your workouts in that same time frame? Do you want to be able to reach them by telephone or text when needed, or is e-mail communication enough? Do they have to live close by, or be at the same races as you? When you hire a coach, you're essentially paying for expertise, access, and attention. How much you need or can afford are the main factors in choosing a level of commitment. To keep it in perspective, a year of coaching with a fair amount of feedback is normally about the same price range as a new set of wheels. Which do you think will make you faster?
When you're shopping for a coach, you should view it as somewhere between hiring an employee and a therapist. Interview them, ask direct questions, and make sure they're someone you can communicate well with. Knowledge and experience, both academic and practical, are important, but perhaps more so is the ability to communicate that knowledge and experience. I believe a good coach should be a teacher, not a boss. It's important not only that you know what workout you should be doing each day, but also why, and how it's going to benefit you in the long and short term. You want a coach you can develop a relationship with, and communication style is the primary factor in deciding if that's going to be the case. The best exercise scientist in the world might still be a bad coach without the communication skills necessary to deliver their ideas to a client, or understand who their clients are as individual people.
With all this pro-coaching rhetoric, there are still times where your time and money might be better spent on other things. If, for example, your work schedule is so demanding that you're lucky to get in two rides a week, then clearly hiring a coach is overkill. Working with a coach is a commitment for both parties, and to get the most out of the relationship you need to be able to maintain your end. That means making sure you're diligent about recording training data and uploading it daily. It means making sure that you're providing your coach with as much input as possible, so they can provide you with as much feedback as possible. If keeping up with your part of the bargain is a challenge you won't be able to meet, whether it's a minimum number of hours of training per week, uploading data, or communicating honestly what you do and how you feel, then you're throwing money away.
You might view coaching as a luxury, but in a sense, cycling in itself is a luxury. On one hand, cycling in its purest form is a simple, affordable means of transportation. When cycling becomes performance-oriented, from fast riding to racing, it becomes an expensive, luxury sport. Many of us spend a small fortune on bikes, shoes, pedals, wheels, entry fees, travel, etc., all for something that is essentially a hobby, albeit a hobby we get tremendous enjoyment and satisfaction from physically, mentally, and spiritually. If you're trying to maximize that enjoyment, doing so with the guidance of a good coach turns out to be a bargain.