Why you should get a coach

Hello! My name is Tim Coffey and I am 18 years. I race mountain, road, and cyclocross. In the fall I will be attending Brevard College in Brevard, NC to be on the cycling team. I am new to Team Athletic Mentors and am excited to by supported and surrounded by such awesome people.

So as I wrapped up my season last fall I started figuring out ways I could race in the winter. I made some phone calls and send some emails and ended up racing Fat Bikes for a custom bike company, which was pretty cool but it was only a 4 month deal. During this time of freezing my butt off everyday riding in northern Michigan I started to look for a team I could join. I had frequented the Team Athletic Mentors website over the years because I enjoyed reading the blogs which is ironic because I’m writing one now. Anyway, when looking for a team I kept finding myself back to the Team Athletic Mentors website. I decided to send in an application and the rest is history.

Fast forward a couple of months. It was my first day of training camp in Brevard. After talking to Terry Ritter on the phone a couple of times and texting camp details back and forth I wasn’t quite sure what the dude would be like. We were standing in the kitchen making breakfast, having conversation about the days ride, and Terry was weighting his strawberry. I looked at him and went “Terry, what are you doing” in that (I’m 18 and I know everything about everything voice). He went on to tell me about his stuff with measuring his food, tracking everything, and his masters degree in food (nutrition). I knew he had coached people in the past and as the week went on I realized this dude knows his stuff. Short after camp I asked Terry to start coaching me and it’s pretty cool.

After about a month of being coached,here are my reasons why you should get a coach:

1.Ever ride had a purpose. Something that purpose hurts and other times is all about having fun.

2.You will get faster. Doing threshold or Vo2 Max intervals may not be fun but they will make you faster.

3.You have someone to ask questions to. Having someone you can text who has been racing bikes for several years is so helpful when you need answers.

4.You’ll have someone to watch you and tell you what you’re doing well on and what you can improve on.

5.You learn to recover better off and on the bike. Either in between intervals or when you’re in street clothes you’ll take every moment you can to recover.

6.It gives you a plan. Whether it’s long-term or short-term you’ll have a plan laid out of where you want to go and how you’re going to get there.

7.It’s cool. Having someone to give you workouts is simply cool.

8.Gives you excuses. When you’re on your next fast group ride or in a practice race and someone wants you to pull you can pull the famous “sorry, coach says I have to keep my heart rate below 150 today.”

9.You open doors. “Every person you meet knows someone you don’t”. Your coach will have connections and know a lot of people in the cycling industry that you don’t. Use them and build some bridges.

All in all, you can’t go wrong with asking someone for help. Some people consider asking for help is only for the week but when that help is a coach, you will only get stronger.