Training Plan...

[madisongrrl]

You sound like a smart girl. My sense is that you can probably develop your own plan as well as purchasing a "canned" training plan. I'm not an expert on either of these, but there is also some "tweaking" you can do in the training peaks software (so you might have the same challenges). However, maybe you won't second-guess a plan you get from another source.

This might sound ridiculous, but I don't want to think, I just want to do. And see what happens. No tweaking, just follow a training plan. I would guess even if the training plan is not perfect for me, I'll will see a huge payoff from it just because I put the time in. Have you used training peaks? If there is too much tweaking going on with it? Else, I might just buy a training plan.

The next step, of course, would be an online coaching commitment like CTS. Typically you'll find minimal personalization to a plan like that, but you will have a bit of interaction/accountability with a coach.

Nothing against CTS, but I think I'd hire a local coach before I spent a wad of cash on their training system.

Or, consider just hiring a local coach. There are some fabulous coaches in your area. You can start with a minimal commitment with most coaches (6 months) and see if you like it.

I might hold off on this until next year. I have a few unfinshed projects that I might need some extra cash for. I'm building up my single speed frame this winter/spring and I'll probably save up for another hard tail (since I just sold mine). It would be nice to have a HT for some of the courses around here. And, I'd also like to have money to do another NORBA event.

There are some pretty great coaches here (and female coaches too). There are also some people who are not on that list, who are not technically certified coaches or who did take all the coursework, but are not listed because they did it just to train themselves. So I already have a few people picked out.

ps -- unless USAC has changed the curriculum since I became licensed, you won't learn anything about training plan design in the club coach materials (ie level 3). They cover a bit more in the expert (level 3) and really dive in at the elite (level 1).

I'm not sure, I haven gotten into the materials yet. I would like to finish the level 3, then in the future work on level 2. The seminars you have to attend for level 2 seem to really dive into training and bike fit...two subjects which I really have a deep interest in.