Sunday, January 1, 2012

Coaching, structure and accountability

My recent blog post on why I've decided to not keep my USAT/L1 certification up to date does not mean that I do not value coaching. In fact, I highly value coaching and believe the right coaching relationship can both be rewarding to the coach while allowing athletes to obtain results that they most likely would not have achieved on their own (case in point, yours truly, an old fat gimpy guy that finishing an Ironman). I originally expected to mosey a bit for the beginning of this year with reengaging with my coach in the March time frame. I would do athletic stuff more for fun that for any goal or purpose.

The reality is that I felt a little lost. Another reality is that I've been gaining weight. I know what I had to do but wasn't doing it. I needed more structure. I needed accountability. I wasn't proud of how I felt but I realized that feelings actually count some times.

So I decided to reengage earlier than planned with Mike. I sent him an email to see if he actually wanted to continue with me as one of his athletes (coaching is a two way street - Mike limits the number of athletes he coaches since he wants to have enough bandwidth to focus on each individually). I explained my goals for this year (actually improve on the run, crush a couple of longer distance bike rides/races, set myself up for a strong HIM in July, and to figure out the second half of 2012 when I find out if I get into NYC26.2). He said let's start Jan 1.

Mike typically crafts my training plan a week at a time to adjust on how I am doing. He posted the first week's plan on New Year's Eve with a casual ride for Saturday. I wound up riding my mountain bike outside since the weather was sort of cooperating.

645AM New Years Day morning I had an email from him asking if I had data to upload from either the ride the day before or the run scheduled for NYD. I needed accountability and I got it. Just what I needed.

Game on.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Congrats on re-engaging the coaching relationship. I don't think everyone needs a coach, but certain personalities benefit tremendously from it.

I know that one reason I'm seriously considering coaching is because I want to reach my absolute potential and I'm convinced a coach can help me find it a lot faster then floundering on my own.

TriMOEngr said...

Sounds like this is definitely your guy. Weather was nice here yesterday too (although windy) so I was on my trusty mountain bike too! Happy New Year!

Big Clyde said...

I think this is great, Rock. You always seem motivated to me, but a coach can always help. Good for you.

joyRuN said...

That's accountability all right! Hard to skip on a workout when someone's waiting for your results afterwards :)

Happy New Year!

Unknown said...

Love that he's on you - you have goals and he'll get you there! :)

Carolina John said...

Nice call! Get the structure you need to hit the targets you want. If your targets have changed, did you think about changing your coach too?

Teamarcia said...

Coaching sounds like a smart call. I've never had one but I may be testing those waters soon.

adena said...

I saw this on twitter and yet still can't stop laughing. Maybe I need my coach to do that!

Kate Geisen said...

The game on tweet made me laugh when I saw it. It's cool that you're so aware of where you are mentally and took steps to get back on track.