CYCLING COACHING

A good coach can offer so much more than effective planning of your training.  Much is made of AI and smart training plans and we agree that they can be very good for providing the framework of a great plan.  We use smart management platforms such as Pillar for exactly this.

The major limitation of a plan on its own however, is it does not help you when your life in reality diverges from what is programmed. Training plans don’t teach athletes how to manage a niggle or when to take the foot off the gas if other aspect of their life are crazy.  A training plan rarely helps an athlete improve their skills or teach them race pacing strategies. It definitely doesn’t help them put together a fuelling and hydration plan or teach them how to recover after a session.

A coach however, can do all these things and more!  They are in the trenches with you and are probably the only person that cares about your training and performance as much as you do!

We look after a very broad spectrum of athletes. From people doing their first sportive up to people pushing for world championship qualification!

It’s easy to just focus on the more elite athletes and bask in their reflective glory but so often we’ve gotten immense satisfaction out of athletes at the other end of the spectrum as they take on board our advice and really push forwards.

Another way of thinking about having a coach is that it is much the same as having a personal trainer.  We just tend to be much skinnier and be more into our data!

The primary difference between our two tiers of coaching relationship is the level of support and communication. Squad Members benefit from the on-going support of a coach who is there not only to create an awesome training plan, but to help them navigate the hurdles they meet along the way. For example, helping them retain some sort of consistency when work gets busy or steering them through returning from an injury.

No plan is ever executed perfectly. The real value of a coach is their expertise in helping you problem solve when things don’t match up to the nice sparkly plan.

Online Members do however, benefit from a tailored plan and on-going amendments communicated over WhatsApp and at any point, for a small additional fee, they can seek the help of a coach via a coach consultation. The emphasis though, is on the athlete taking responsibility for navigating the aforementioned hurdles.

We have experience of coaching athletes for all kinds of events and the short answer is, that with enough time we can help you prepare for any type of cycling event. Here are some examples of what our athletes are up to this year though:

– road and criterium racing seeking to move up categories

– cyclocross

– gravel racing such as The Gralloch, Raiders Gravel, Stone Circle, The Traka 

– granfondos such as L’Etape du Tour, Mallorca 312, Maratona dles Dolomites, Stelvio Pass Granfondo and Dragon Ride 

There are a lot of good coaches out there. The area where we really excel though, is helping busy individuals find balance between their training and the rest of life’s stressors i.e. work, relationships, family life etc.

We also think we provide more than any other coaching outfit when it comes to the extra stuff on top of training plans and great coaching advice. 

This includes things like:

• personalised strength plans for every athletes;
• live coached online training sessions;
• a library of specifically created yoga sessions;
• our extensive repository of training resources such as stretch routines, knowledge videos, training articles and so much more!

There is always a lot to get sorted when onboarding a new athlete and often a lot to teach them if they are relatively inexperienced. This all takes time and we have a lot of experience of looking after athletes in these contexts. The key point is that your coach does not expect you to know everything and they will not judge you if you ask what you perceive might be a silly question.  

One of the first things we do though is to set up an online dynamic screening. This is just a few squat movements, mobility tests and conditioning assessments.  It is not a tough session, so don’t be anxious. It just allows us to assess an athlete’s strength and mobility needs so we can build them a bespoke strength and conditioning plan.

In terms of their general training, we always seek to build an athlete’s confidence before subjecting them to any testing. So don’t worry, your first few weeks won’t involve any kind of fitness assessments.

We have two live coached online workouts that run on a weekly basis between November and April. A Tuesday evening cycling session leveraging IndieVelo and a Discord coaching feed. Both apps are free to use.

On Thursdays we have an online run session. If you have access to a smart treadmill/power pod and non-smart treadmill, you can join the group workout on Zwift. However, if you don’t have access to a such tech, you can simply join the Discord coaching feed and follow along very easily.

Not as such. However, we do require a certain amount of notice if an athlete wants to roll off at any point. The specifics depend on the coaching relationship but it is typically one or two months.

We require a notice period to enable us to manage our coaching resources and ensure athletes are spread appropriately across our coaching team.

As a general rule we only offer discounts in two scenarios:

1) Squad members have the opportunity to benefit from a discount when recommending a friend to one of our triathlon, cycling or run squad memberships.   If that friend signs up, both will enjoy a fantastic 20% off their squad member fees for 3-months!

2) Squad members can enjoy discounts for committing to a 6 or 12-month block. Currently, they receive a 15% discount for purchasing a 6-month block and a 20% discount for a 12-month block.