College Student looking for a Coach

[marquinhos]

Hey all,

I've come to realize that it's rather hard to structure my workouts in a way to optimize my performance while not neglecting my school, work, family etc. I decided I want to go one step further and hire a coach who can give me feedback and orientation on how to use my time as effectively as possible.

I'm a college student at the University of Virginia, we do have a cycling team, but currently don't have a coach. I've been riding bikes for at least 5 years, but have a background in long-distance, slow pace, mountain biking. I started riding road bikes a couple years ago and got more into it last year. I trained rather consistently (probably 8-10h a week) last fall, but a crash in early January kept me from riding for a couple weeks and from riding confidently for at least a month. I got back into it and started racing as a Category C in early march. I hit the pole a few times, but didn't win any races.

This year I started to commit some more, I have been training on average 10 hours a week, working on my endurance and speed skills - as well integrating some tempo/LT in the mix. I've been hitting the gym and doing mostly squats and core strength exercises with 5 x 15 three times a week.

I'm somewhat confident that I'm doing some of the right things, but I have a few ambitious goals that need more than just "somewhat confident" to be achieved:

1) Do B category races and win at least 1/2. Road races are about 50 miles long with climbs between 1/3 miles that are climbed 3-4 times. Criteriums are 45 minutes long. Most races seem to have breakaways with smaller sprints. While racing Cs I could usually go with the breakaways, but rarely had the legs to sprint.

2) In May/June/July I will be in Brazil and plan to race in the Junior category. Races there have a similar profile as far as distance is concerned, but all categories start together, which makes them a "race for your life" effort. Whoever can stick to the Elite's wheels has the chance to take the race without even having to sprint. Races are rather flat.

I'm looking for a coach who can help me develop a training plan that helps me achieve that goal as well as change it as I go as school and work tend to get on the way of training every now and then. I'm confident I will be able to commit 10-12 hours a week except for maybe a couple weeks spread out throughout the winter (maybe early December and late December).

I've been keeping a training log on trainingpeaks.com and I train with a HRM. I do not have a powermeter on the bike, but I do have a trainer that provides me consistent (though the readings may not be precise) readings of power.

If you guys can recommend me some coaches who you trust and who seem to fit my profile, please do so! Once again, college student (limited budget), committed to cycling, 10-12 hours a week on average (may very well have 15 hour weeks and 4-6h recovery weeks).

Thank you for your attention and sorry for the long post!
Best,
Marcos

 

[Enriss]

I'm not actually qualified to give you good advice, but in the spirit of the internet, I'll try anyway.
The most important question to ask yourself with any program is, have you been seeing any progress? If you've been setting quantifiable goals for yourself, and you've been inching closer towards them, you're doing just fine on your own.

I seriously doubt that you're seeing any gains at all though. You're putting in a lot of miles on the road for the endurance, you're hitting the gym and doing some weight training which should help in sprints, you're doing some interval work. These are all good things in my book.
There's a big BUT here though. It sounds to me like you're trying to get better at all aspects of cycling at once, which might've been possible when you first started training, but at this point you're probably fit enough that you can't get better at everything all at once.

Remember that you only get faster when you recover from stress, and the stronger you get, the harder you make it to recover.

I'm glad to hear you're not opposed to weight training. The first thing you'll hear people around here say is stop lifting, and usually I'd disagree with them. Looking at somebody writing about their 5x15 squat routine though, I might have to join in for once. On a 5x15 squat program with all the other stuff you're doing, I can't imagine how you could be seeing any progress. I'd say unless you're finding yourself capable of adding weight or reps onto the squats every week or so, drop them and get on a bike.

If you're seeing results though, like I said earlier, keep doing what you're doing.