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BikeMe Cycling Coaching Services

Either you want to reset yourself or kick of the new year. Now is the time to improve your performance and make this your best season ever. To do this, consider getting yourself a personal coach. It’s an important consideration because an effective coach can provide you with three benefits.

1.      Knowledge

2.     Inspiration

3.     Objectivity

4.     Guidance

5.     Direction

Experienced cycling coaches have a tremendous amount of knowledge. This can be helpful because competitive cycling is a complex sport. There are many variables that impact your success including the bike itself, bike fit, position on the bike, bike handling skills, year-round training regimen, diet, motivation, rest and recovery, choice of racing discipline and race selection.

A good coach can be extremely helpful when it comes to developing a training plan, improving your cycling skills, and dealing with problems such as performance plateaus.

Objectivity is another benefit of coaching. A coach can objectively diagnose problems that are impacting your performance. For example, if you are struggling during the season, you may have difficulty determining the cause of the problem, but it might be clear to your coach.

They might notice that you are not resting enough or may recognize the need for a diet modification. Even more commonly, your coach may point out that your expectations are unrealistic for your current stage of development. With their impartial perspectives, coaches can often discern issues that athletes overlook.

A coach can be a major source of inspiration. Never underestimate the tremendous psychological benefit an effective coach can provide. No matter how resolute and committed you are, eventually, you will need some inspiration.

Cycling is an exceedingly difficult sport and there are numerous obstacles every cyclist must face. These include injury, illness, difficult training and racing conditions, uncertainty, and a lack of confidence, especially when things are not going well.

A coach can help motivate you during these challenging times. They can be a source of strength, a shoulder to cry on, a sounding board and a friend. A coach will also hold you accountable. You may buy the excuses you make but a good coach never will.

So What Do I Do Now

While a coach can help you improve your cycling performance, coaching is not for everyone. For a variety of reasons, some individuals thrive in a coaching relationship while others suffer. Before you hire a coach, answer these questions and be honest with yourself:

1. Am I currently improving as an athlete?

If you are showing continuous improvement as a self-coached athlete, keep up the excellent work. You are clearly taking appropriate steps with your training. While a coach may be able to boost your performance even more, stick with what you are doing, unless you hit a plateau where you just can’t seem to improve. This will be a better time to hire a coach.

2. Am I committed to improving my performance?

Everyone wants to ride and race faster, but are you both willing and able to make the sacrifices necessary to make this happen? Will you commit to a training program that requires diverse types of training throughout the year? Are you motivated to maximize your performance and willing to traverse a potentially unexpected path to get there?

3. Do I have the time?

Competitive cycling is a very demanding sport that requires a significant amount of time to maximize your potential. Most cyclists must juggle training and racing with work and family responsibilities. This can be an exceedingly difficult juggling act. To get the best use out of a coach, you will need to have sufficient time, not only for your training but for your interactions with your coach. Do you have the time, as well as the support from family and friends, to make this happen?

4. Am I willing to listen?

This might be the most important question. Are you going to listen to your coach and follow her instructions? While an effective coaching relationship consists of two-way communication where coach and client both take responsibility for creating success, your coach will have specific tasks she wants you to complete. Are you going to listen? Will you conduct the training plan as prescribed? Will you perform the workouts as directed? Or do you like to dance to the beat of your own drummer? While there is nothing wrong with following your own path, it can limit the effectiveness of a coach relationship

7 Good Reasons to get a Coach

1. Structure For many athletes, setting up the structure of their training is the hardest step. There are many components involved in how you prepare for your event. Factors like experience, goal time, time to train and others all come into play. This also makes it confusing. When should you do a base period? How long should your build be? You can certainly work to manage all of this, but it can frustrating. One athlete wrote in that having a coach helps her, To avoid obsessing over my training. Another athlete wrote that having a coach helps since it provides, Focused effective workouts versus my rambling attempts. 2. Accountability Another popular answer, accountability, is something a coach can provide in a one-on-one manner. For some, knowing someone else is going to see if they miss or shorten a workout gets them out the door. As one athlete put it, ?I can not follow a plan without guidance and being checked. For those that need to have someone else to be accountable to, nothing is more effective than a coach. 3. Motivation Hand in hand with accountability, motivation was another popular answer. Daily training, while effective, can also be draining. From hard tempo runs to long bike rides, the training can be daunting at times. Having someone else to cheer you on and push your limits can make all the difference. I know what I need to know but find excuses, wrote one athlete. Having a coach encourage you through training, and even through the down days can keep you on track to reach your goals. The mental aspect of training can not be underestimated. When you have support you can reach higher. One comment that stood out was, Because he makes me feel like a world champion! 4. Offer Wisdom, Smarts & Race Tactics There are certainly plenty of resources available to athletes- at times it can be too much. Picking and choosing from the multitude of literature on training can be time consuming and stressful. Having someone invested in your goals to wade through that and provide a clear plan allows you to focus solely on getting the work done. One commenter wrote that their coach, Has forgotten more than I know about how to race and how to get faster. Additionally, coaches can shorten the learning curve of endurance sports training. They can, as one athlete put it, impart some of their wisdom and experience on those of us hoping to achieve what they have. Coaches also give the feedback necessary to avoid making the same mistakes repeatedly by providing unbiased comments. They give, Impartial advice and critical analysis, as one commenter wrote. 5.Reduce the Chance of Overtraining & or Injury Endurance training can be addictive, and overtraining is a real concern. Having someone else to monitor not just your daily workouts but your overall health can keep you from overdoing it. Without her I'd be doing nothing or way too much, wrote one athlete about her coach. Additionally, rest is as necessary as training in order to make fitness gains. For many athletes, taking a rest is the hardest part of training. Coaches can, reign me in and rest, as one athlete wrote. Going too hard, too often can lead to injury, something no athlete wants to experience. Having a coach pull back your training before an injury happens is highly valuable. 6. Are you Time Poor This is an area where a coach can help the most. As one athlete wrote, I know I can apply effort. Being short on time, I need someone that knows more than me to make sure I'm putting it where it counts. The majority of athletes have limited time to spend training, so ensuring that every session matters and no time is wasted is key. Having an unbiased expert create a plan that works with your schedule and directly address your strengths and weaknesses can take you to the next level without wasting your most precious resource- time. 7.To do the Thinking for Them Whether it's analyzing a run, looking at your overall season, or addressing a weakness, there is a seemingly never ending list of elements to incorporate into your plan. This can be overwhelming to many athletes. This is where the coach not only saves time but frustration as well. I don't want spend time on thinking what to do, to improve my performance, wrote in one athlete.   Many athletes wrote in citing several of the elements in the list above. That's one of the biggest benefits of all; the fact that you can gain so many advantages from one single person. We are encouraging athletes to dream bigger than ever for 2015, and as many coached athletes will agree with, working with a coach may be the smartest step you can take towards achieve those goals.

Do you want to be able to ride like you've never before,  then contact BikeMe NOW.

The body achieves what the mind believes.