Why do people have coaches for years on end?

If I wanted to seriously get back into racing, I'd get a coach for at least a year. For one, it would probably take me at least a year just to get back to some level of a baseline to race again. I am definitely the type of person who needs consistent structure to stay motivated and focused. I am far too lazy to count on my own motivations.
 
Steve Vai said:
For $25 a month I’ll send you a daily text saying you’re fat and slow. That’s all anyone actually needs 😂
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If I repeat that to myself daily can I publicly say that you are my coach? No effort required on your side, just confirm when asked...I know, it's not small ask!
 
Personally never had a coach. I like to think I have a fair amount of intrinsic motivation to workout. And I enjoy reading and listening to podcasts about training and testing the waters to see how it works for me. Would I be faster with a coach? Almost certainly but I'm not getting paid to do this and the ratio of disposable income to level of seriousness just isn't there for me.

I'd be interested in seeing a poll of how many people on the forum that race at least once a year have; never hired a coach, hired a coach in the past, currently work with a coach
 
Hair Face said:
Personally never had a coach. I like to think I have a fair amount of intrinsic motivation to workout. And I enjoy reading and listening to podcasts about training and testing the waters to see how it works for me. Would I be faster with a coach? Almost certainly but I'm not getting paid to do this and the ratio of disposable income to level of seriousness just isn't there for me.

I'd be interested in seeing a poll of how many people on the forum that race at least once a year have; never hired a coach, hired a coach in the past, currently work with a coach
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Same for me, except I really don't follow any training advise from podcasts. My base miles over the winter is loosely following The Time Crunched Cyclist plan from Chris Carmichael while continuing with a fitness plan I've been following since Jan '22.

Racing since 2008 and I've never hired a coach.
 
Hair Face said:
And I enjoy reading and listening to podcasts about training and testing the waters to see how it works for me.
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Yeah, this is where I get 90% of my information. Empirical Cycling podcast has been my latest go to. Definitely a bit dry at times but some awesome deep dives into very niche topics.
 
(admittedly did not read all of the above so apologies if this has already been said)

I wrote a Google Gemini bot that gives me a training plan. I'unno if it's as good as a person but it gives me the accountability and detailed plan that's been mentioned here. Daily pings at 5AM telling me what to do and for how long, responds to feedback (e.g. I'm too sore, or I skipped the 3-hr zone 2 because I had a surprise day off and it was 78 degrees outside so I did a MTB hammerfest instead - it adjusts the plan on the fly).

Willing to share my prompt if anyone is interested.

I, for one, welcome our new Robot Overlords
 
zmartene said:
(admittedly did not read all of the above so apologies if this has already been said)

I wrote a Google Gemini bot that gives me a training plan. I'unno if it's as good as a person but it gives me the accountability and detailed plan that's been mentioned here. Daily pings at 5AM telling me what to do and for how long, responds to feedback (e.g. I'm too sore, or I skipped the 3-hr zone 2 because I had a surprise day off and it was 78 degrees outside so I did a MTB hammerfest instead - it adjusts the plan on the fly).

Willing to share my prompt if anyone is interested.

I, for one, welcome our new Robot Overlords
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Definitely interested not sure if it will be for anything beyond academic. But certainly interested
 
shrpshtr325 said:
Definitely interested not sure if it will be for anything beyond academic. But certainly interested
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Check the intervals.icu forum. They’re talking about a bunch of different ai training tools and prompts. A lot of people are just trying to sell theirs, but there’s still good content to check out.

forum.intervals.icu

Intervals.icu Forum

A place for Intervals.icu users to discuss features, training etc.
forum.intervals.icu forum.intervals.icu
 
Pearl said:
the thing with ai is its just telling you what it finds on the internet through past research, nothing new, amirite? i bet thats good enough to get you 95% of the way.

i always feel that with ai you can make it convince or tell you what you want it to say to you
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AI sycophancy

If you have been been logging into AI, your algorithm is already skewed unless you specifically have trained it not to be.
 
Pearl said:
I rode a singlespeed for 5 days a week and gained 30w on my ftp
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This. Just muscle tension all the time low heart rate will build a foundation for anyone. You don’t need a coach to tell you how to build the foundation you just need to dedicate time things people neglect in a lot of coaches. Don’t even tell how important it is is lifting if you lift two or three times a week and ride your bike as much as you can, you’re going to get massively better. . And to @Pearl ’s previous post why can I have Coach hold you accountable but not yourself I’ve seen people get obnoxiously strong with swift workouts, Garmin workouts, swift racing alone. So ask yourself what does the coach really do? One thing I think that is very important. Is that if you do decide on a coach that that Coach better make you have power PR’s every single time you ride with effort.
 
I, for one, also welcome our new robot overlords.

I mean FFS. Do you think that YOU are so special that you don't fall into the 95%? Also, to be clear, you need to be full-on dedicated to use that 95% anyway. Like 8 hours of sleep, no drinking, no refined sugars, live like a saint (that doesn't live in a Belgian monastery which brews beer).

And then ask yourself this. What are the chances that a coach is going to even know how to close the gap on that 5%? It is highly probable that the 5% will be Gene Pool-related anyway.
 
Pearl said:
the thing with ai is its just telling you what it finds on the internet through past research, nothing new, amirite? i bet thats good enough to get you 95% of the way.

i always feel that with ai you can make it convince or tell you what you want it to say to you
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AI can definitely do what you want to do but basically try to feed it as much unbiased information and let him know your goals
 
Norm said:
I, for one, also welcome our new robot overlords.

I mean FFS. Do you think that YOU are so special that you don't fall into the 95%? Also, to be clear, you need to be full-on dedicated to use that 95% anyway. Like 8 hours of sleep, no drinking, no refined sugars, live like a saint (that doesn't live in a Belgian monastery which brews beer).

And then ask yourself this. What are the chances that a coach is going to even know how to close the gap on that 5%? It is highly probable that the 5% will be Gene Pool-related anyway.
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I guess what I’m saying is that at some point nothing can make you faster.
 
Pearl said:
I guess what I’m saying is that at some point nothing can make you faster.
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There’s always something that can make you faster / better, isn’t there? Maybe it’s just a mindset.

I’m not really sure what we’re talking about here. I’m guessing Dave had someone very specific in mind when he posted this and was looking for people to agree with his POV
 
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