The most popular coaching programme I currently run for racing cyclists is the 'Elite Endurance Programme'. This includes fully individualised coaching with feedback when and how you need it. Since 2020, when I first set up my coaching business, I've fine tuned this coaching programme to suit racing cyclists from category 4 to category 1. Since then I've coached riders from cat 4 to cat 1 in Ireland, Europe and the US.
This programme is for cyclists who are serious about their training and racing performance, not for recreational riders, as the approach to this programme focuses on maximising performance through all aspects of training on and off the bike. If you are a recreational rider reading this, I also run an 8 week 'Cycling Performance Programme' which is aimed at helping you adapt to consistent training with a fully individualised programme and to understand whether coaching is for you.
The Elite Endurance Programme will help you develop the qualities to perform to your best on the bike, since it is fully individualised, you receive high quality coaching that will take you to a new level of performance. How does the process work ?
Questionnaire + Consultation Call
We'll send you a coaching questionnaire prior to the call, this helps us understand some important areas around training and life on and off the bike before we hop on the call. We'll then set a suitable time for the consultation call to further discuss your key goals, background, experience and current availability for training. We'll also determine your current understanding of training related terms and educate you on how your body adapts to training and the reasoning behind your training programme. This is also a perfect time to get to know you as an athlete before we commence the coaching programme.
TrainingPeaks Set Up & Training History
Once I have you connected to my TrainingPeaks coach account, I'll then review your previous training history on TrainingPeaks to understand your training over the previous 6 months. TrainingPeaks is the main tool I use to provide training sessions and it is great for syncing directly to your Garmin, Wahoo, Zwift account or other compatible device.
Programme Design
One of the most important elements of the beginning of the coaching process is the programme design. Depending on your current level, the time of the season and recent training, we will set up a testing day where we will work on critical power tests and work on accurately setting your training zones.
Communication
This is one of the more important aspects to a coaching programme. Keeping in consistent contact with the coach is crucial to maximising the benefits from the coaching programme. Consistent communication between the athlete and the coach is the biggest difference I see between riders maximising their performance from the coaching programme and those who don't get 100% from it.
As a coach, I send consistent feedback via WhatsApp and TrainingPeaks. I use WhatsApp to send voice notes and messages on training and I ask my clients to comment after training sessions on TrainingPeaks. This is so we can look back at sessions down the road and understand how you were feeling, for example, if there was a period where comments were consistently saying 'tough session today' when it was a tempo session and it shouldn't exactly be challenging. It can help me identify periods where you may be fatigued or have other stress from work/family life. I also advise athletes to track their metrics consistently such as HRV, weight, RHR and sleep quality to mention a few important metrics.
Overall, this is an overview of the initial set-up and process on the 'Elite Performance Programme'. Are you interested in joining one of the most popular cycling coaching programmes for racing cyclists and taking your performance to a new level ? Contact me via the contact form below to set up a consultation call.
Graham O' Brien, MSc, BSc, NCSC
High Performance Coach
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