I have a friend in need of a coaching intervention
I have a co-worker (one of the people that got me started in triathlon actually) who is pretty talented and could do very well in her AG if her natural ability was trained and coached properly. I have been extolling the virtues of EN ever since I joined last fall and was hoping she would sign up because she's tackling her first IM at IMTX. We have the same job and all so I know the EN way works for folks like us that don't have unlimited time to train. Her weakest area is biking which is something EN does really, really well.
She decided to hire a personal coach. Fine. I'm sure she's paying him two or three times what we pay here but whatever.
She sent me a copy of her 16 week training plan about two months ago. I'm no coach but I know excessive when I see it. Her first week was almost as long as the longest week in the EN Advanced IM plan. Her longest week was 23 hours. There were four or five weeks over 20 hours. Her plan has 7 long runs of 2.5 hours or more. Two or three over three hours, with the longest run of 3.5 hours. There are two workouts called "Crazy Bricks" where he wants her to ride for 3 hours, run for 2 hours and then hop back on the bike for another 3 hours. I don't know about you guys but I'm not hopping back on the bike after biking and running for 5 hours already. I told her that in my opinion it was way too much and she'll need to be careful to not burnout or get injured. She asked about what our plans entailed and I told her. She seemed a bit skeptical of her coaches plan but apparently not enough to get rid of him.
Fast forward to the last couple of weeks. She did a HIM two weeks ago and finished over 7 hours which included a 4 hour bike and nearly 2.5 hour run. She would normally do those distances in about 3:10 hours and 1:50 without any focused training. We both did the Kemah International this past weekend. She got slower and I improved 16 minutes over last year. She used to whip my ass at these races. She told me before the race that she had been up since 3 AM because her coach wanted her to workout BEFORE the race. Not a warmup but an actual workout. She biked for 45 minutes and ran for 30 minutes. I can understand wanting to get in some additional work after the Oly race if you're training for an IM but why not later in the day AFTER the damn race? I told her she was nuts to follow this guy. She defends him to a point by regurgitating whatever his experience and resume is but I know she has doubts in her mind.
She sent me a series of text messages yesterday that certainly seemed like she was questioning her training. How do you convince someone they're going down the wrong path? She's clearly overtrained and fatigued already.
Comments
You don't convince her since no one likes to be told they are doing things wrong. The best advice is let her see your results and your training hours and maybe she will see the light.
Over the years I've seen this situation more times than I can count. Invite her to create a free 5-day trial so she can see for herself, ask the members about their experiences with us, etc. I'm happy to duel coaching resumes with her coach. Not to sound like a dick, but y'all probably have clowns in the real world who do, and get paid for, your jobs. People who are just bad at their jobs at best, negligent at worst. This situation is my version in my world and it's pure negligence.
Bob - I think the only thing I would ask her right now is how her training plan factors in recovery to help solidify training gains, and if she thinks she's getting enough if it. Socratic method, just ask, and let her think about it. After the race, if her performance is not up to her expectations, she may be primed for an EN exposure.
Attraction, not promotion.
As to the 'crazy' bricks - I don't quite see the point of that workout. If you are shelled after the 1st 3 hour ride and 2 hour run, I'm not sure what training value you get out of another 3 hour ride.
So question about this plan. Seems like she already has the plan, why does she still need the coach? Hope he charged in advance because otherwise it isn't a good business model. Then again, neither is running your clients into the ground.....
Not to compare her coach with Rich and Patrick but you could make the same claim here. I could just print out my IM, HIM and Oly EN plans and say "Adios!" but we stay around for other reasons. Presumably she's getting advice and other tidbits from her coach. Not that I'd put much stock in his advice but she must for some reason.
I recruited her pretty hard. I'm still not sure why she went the direction she did. Maybe she didn't fully trust my judgment since I've been in the sport for three or four years and she has been doing it for a decade. Nevertheless, I'm a sponge to this stuff when it comes to training, gear, execution, etc. so I've learned and processed a shit ton of info over the last couple of years.
I have a feeling she'll be miserable with her current training and look to switch it up after IMTX so there's still hope.
Kinda funny yet very serious in me trying to make a full IM.
thanks for restating my doughts, fears, etc. I know that I am not just another person, besides the starter of this blog, having IM fears.
Thanks coaches and EN friends mostly for the words of encouragement, your faith in your technique and setup. it really helps.
That's one of my favorite excuses I hear from folks about not leaving their high dollar coach: "I don't know how I'd fire them...they are local to me and I'd hate for them to be upset or have it be awkward."
It occurs to me that it should be awkward for the coach who got you to pay 4x the EN price for bad advice, poor plans, and crazy ideas...but few individuals seem to feel that way!