Berge20

Love to pick the crew’s brain trust on how I should approach returning to cycling and improving effectively/efficiently.

Long story short, I picked up cycling about a decade ago at age 30 and road a fair bit for the first few years. Nothing earth shattering and nothing training oriented, I’d just go out and ride longer distances slightly faster. Loved it. That helped me shave off a lot of weight and improved my health significantly. Fast forward to today, for unexplainable reasons really, I haven’t ridden much at all in the past 5 years. Decided to get back into it this year, but unfortunately had a bad achilles injury followed by a bad wrist injury which set me back until now this past month. I am ready though to finally get back in the saddle and do this right.

My short version question is: 1) How helpful would a cycling coach be to developing an appropriate training plan/goals/etc (vs me just piecing stuff together from the internet) and if so, 2) Where to look/what kind of cost would I be looking at?

My tentative overall cycling goals for next 12 months are generally as follows (feel free to provide comments/suggested additions):

Starting point -> Goal

Time in saddle: 5-8 -> 15-20 hours per week

FTP: 190 watts -> 250 (?)

“Feel right” cadence: 80 rpm ->90 rpm

Weight: 195 lbs -> 180 lbs

Start racing area crits for practice and fun

Ride length of Skyline Drive (beautiful/scenic route in VA) in one go next summer/fall



Appreciate any feedback or thoughts

downtube42

I think finding a regular group ride that pushes you is pretty darned effective. I've never had a coach, so YMMV.

caloso

I think that a rider who has identified goals and some familiarity with riding would benefit from a coach. How much you spend depends. I have seen $100-250/month depending on how intensive and personal it is.

rubiksoval

I definitely wouldn't waste money on a coach until after you've put in a few months (at least 6) of consistent, structured riding just to see where you're going to get on your own. If you feel stuck and with no idea what to do after that, then it may be more worthwhile.

With that said, I personally think the majority of coaches are a massive waste of money, but there are a few really good ones. They generally cost the most, though.

Cycling really isn't too difficult to figure out, especially if you combine power data with listening to how you feel. You'll note trends and the like.

Crit racing; a coach isn't going to help much with that. You need to just do them. Lots of them. And have as high a threshold as you can. And learn how to be very efficient in a pack. And figure out how to finish well. If you have good ones, you can learn a lot from group rides. But group rides are not races, and they're not a substitute for the demands of crits.

rubiksoval

Oh, and I wouldn't ride 15-20 hours a week. That's way too much for your goals and is likely to be more detrimental than not at this point, unless you just really love long rides and can deal with the decreased intensity that that will necessitate.

jpescatore

If you need the external motivation and have the money, nothing wrong with getting coaching. If you have the motivation to train on your own, take a look at Chris Carmichael and Jim Rutberg's book ""The Time Crunched Cyclist." It has good info on assessing your fitness levels and goals and then ways to put together realistic training plans that don't mean you are spending more time on the bike than you really want to.

I'm not a racer, but the past couple of years I've had bucket list rides planned (Going to the Sun Road up to Logan Pass in Glacier Park and the 2 day Seattle to Portland 206 mile ride) that were outside my comfort zone and I followed a training plan I put together from that book. (I'm 62 and still working, realistically not going to spend 10+ hours per week on the bike.)

Well, I sorta followed the plan. I don't really "train" in any structured way when I ride outdoors, and I don't have a power meter on my road bike. But my outdoor rides would be the long base type rides in the plan. I have a bike on an indoor trainer and Zwift in the basement, so did the structured workouts on there as often as I could and in the progression suggested- vs. just getting on Zwift and putting in more miles.

I did GTS Road on a rental hybrid and felt great, and did 122 miles (a new high for me) on the first day of the STP and had plenty left in the tank but hadn't been confident enough to book at hotel in Kelso at the 150 mile mark, which I could have easily and comfortably reached.

My overall mileage outdoors those years wasn't much higher than typical years, I think the training rides on the indoor bike definitely helped and continue to help.

Berge20

Thanks all. Just trying to figure it all out in a way that makes sense financially and from a realistic training perspective. Just never totally sure what a good training regimen is, but sounds like there are some good resources out there to help guide me to start and take it from there.