IS THERE A MINIMUM COMMITMENT TIME?

No. You can pay on a month-to-month basis, and can decide to stop coaching at anytime by giving a 14-day notice.

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HOW DOES PAYMENT WORK?

Pay by bank transfer. 

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WHAT ARE THE CANCELLATION TERMS?

In short, cancellations can be made at any time after the first 31 days of active coaching and the notice period for cancelling your coaching is 14 days. 

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DO YOU OFFER DIFFERENT TIERS OR "PACKAGES" AT DIFFERENT PRICE POINTS?

I want every athlete to get the best possible coaching, so everybody gets A+ treatment. For UAE based athletes, the additional benefit is personal contact and group sessions.  Please refer to the 'Packages' page.

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OTHER COACHES CHARGES X, WHY IS YOUR PRICING DIFFERENT?

I can only speak for my services, what other coaches do and don't do isn't anything I can comment on. I can promise you, that my goal is to be the best, highest quality triathlon coach for you. What I offer is a complete, unrestricted, personalized coaching service, where I am as committed as you are to your goals and I'm here to help you achieve them. Additionally, I place a big emphasis on always improving my knowledge and continuous education, which ultimately cascades to benefiting my clients.

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CAN I GET COACHED EVEN THOUGH I AM IN A DIFFERENT TIME ZONE?
WILL THE TIME DIFFERENCE BE A DISADVANTAGE?

Yes, you can. Text-based communication (email, texts, Training Peaks comments) is of course something that is independent of time zone. For the coaching calls, I am very flexible on our working hours to make sure that we can get in these important conversations regardless of time zone differences.

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WHAT EQUIPMENT DO I NEED TO START COACHING?

This is something we can discuss on a case-by-case basis, but generally speaking: A place to swim and some basic swim gear, a bike, helmet, and bike shoes, running shoes, a GPS-watch and heart rate monitor are highly recommended, but you can get started without them if you don’t currently have them and simply purchase them as you go along (in the not-too-distant future).

 

I AM A BEGINNER TRIATHLETE – WILL I BENEFIT FROM YOUR COACHING?

If you know the basics of the three disciplines (e.g. even though you may be a slow swimmer, you know how to swim) and you are motivated to achieve a goal or improve performance, then yes, you will benefit immensely.  In fact, starting with a coach right away is an incredibly smart thing to do, because even if you were to go back to being self-coached in let’s say a year, then everything you will have learnt from your year with a coach stays with you. You will be more equipped to self-coach effectively, having had that coaching experience. You will also have a much better fitness base and triathlon proficiency, so getting a coach as a beginner is a way to truly accelerate your progress in the sport. It’s the closest thing to a “shortcut” that you can get. 

 

MY LIFE SCHEDULE IS VERY UNPREDICTABLE – DOES THIS MAKE ME AN
UNSUITABLE CANDIDATE FOR COACHING?

On the contrary. An unpredictable life schedule means that a ready-made training plan is not a good option for you, but our coaching is dynamic and built on a foundation of communication and flexibility and I coach many athletes just like you.  This is where communication is so important. I can adjust your schedule even on short notice. Just let me know and we adjust as needed. I will also help you to make your own calls on the fly if needed. Nothing is set in stone and sometimes changes on the short notice will happen. This approach will allow you to get the most out of your training despite challenging scheduling and unpredictability. 

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I HAVE READ ALL BOOKS, LISTENED TO ALL PODCASTS, READ ALL PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS.
WHY WOULD I BENEFIT FROM COACHING?

I am still using a coach today as it helps eliminate biases. As an athlete It’s important I need an objective assessment for continuous improvement. The best way to counter the negative effects of bias is to have somebody with an outside perspective help guide us take smarter decisions.  As an athlete, we can make suggestions for what we think would be a good idea to do, and the coach can objectively assess the suggestion and make a positive or negative recommendation. In other words, the deeper the athlete’s knowledge, the more the training planning process goes from being prescriptive to being collaborative.

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I AM NOT VERY FIT AT THE MOMENT, OR I AM RECOVERING FROM AN INJURY AT THE MOMENT.
SHOULD I WAIT TO START WITH COACHING?

If you can do two of the sports (e.g. swimming and cycling), even if not at full intensity yet, our recommendation is to start sooner rather than later.  You are going to benefit from getting coached right away by getting back to full fitness more quickly, with a reduced risk of injury setbacks, and making the most of your training in the disciplines that you can train. So if you are going to sign up for coaching, waiting doesn’t make any sense.  With regard to simply poor fitness at the moment (as opposed to recovering from injury), the best cure for that poor fitness is to get a good coach as soon as possible, so please just get on board!  If you are recovering from a serious injury or illness, and your current training options are very limited (e.g. you can only swim at the moment) then it might make sense to wait a little bit until you can do slightly more (e.g. swim and bike) to get more out of the coaching. 

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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I SIGN UP FOR COACHING?

Before even signing up, you will have a no-obligation discovery call with the myself you are considering. Both you and I need to be happy to proceed.  Once you signed up and ready to go, you will fill out a detailed onboarding questionnaire with information about you, your sporting background, goals, life outside of training and training constraints, and so on. Thereafter you will be added to your coach’s Training Peaks account (you will be prompted to create an account if you don’t have one) where your training plan will reside.  Continuous communication is vital during the onboarding ensuring things are going smoothly and we get everything ready to start the journey. Clear guidelines will be explained for example, type of feedback provided after each session and why this is so important. 

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IS THE COACHING LIMITED TO IMPROVING MY SWIM, BIKE AND RUN PERFORMANCE, OR DO WE WORK ON ALL ASPECTS IMPACTING PERFORMANCE (E.G. DISCUSSING TRANSITIONS, EQUIPMENT, NUTRITION AND HYDRATION, ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ETC.)?

I will support and  work on any and all aspects of improving endurance event performance. I am not just looking to improve your swim, bike and run in controlled test situations. I want you to race better and reach your peak performance by any (legal, of course) means possible. I will look at all aspects of the Sport to help you reach your potential and will leave no stone unturned to make it happen.

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WHAT IS EXPECTED FROM ME IN THE COACHING RELATIONSHIP?

First, you have to communicate with your coach. This includes writing post-workout comments, answering to questions your coach might have, and committing to having regular coaching calls.  Second, you have to do the work. No plan is better than its execution, and if you don’t actually do the work, we might as well use a random-workout-generator rather than plan things out to the best of our abilities. It’s not going to make a difference if you don’t actually follow the plan. Third, you need to be motivated. A coach can guide you, even inspire you, but lasting motivation comes from within. If you are not motivated to train and to commit to your goals, then you should not start with us.  Fourth, we expect you to take care of your health and insurances related to health and training. Taking care of your health is including, but not limited to, getting general medical check-ups on a regular basis, ensuring proper sleep and eating habits, communicating any potential health issues to me, and not doing anything that could lead to long term breaks in training, for instance training though injury-like pain or niggles. Finally, you should always conduct yourself in a sportsmanlike manner to fellow athletes, event organisers and referees, volunteers and spectators. And you should respect event rules and safety guidelines, as well as general traffic rules where applicable. 

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HOW DOES COMMUNICATION WORK IN YOUR COACHING?

We will decide together on what works best for you (e.g. what communication platform you prefer). Communication is unlimited and continuous. Whenever you have a question or suggestion for me, send  an email (or text message) and I will answer you in a timely manner. I will also communicate with you as I might need feedback (a common example is “How are you feeling?”) or to ensure things are going well and to get important information for planning upcoming training or making training adjustments as needed. Post-workout comments in Training Peaks is a vital part of the whole process. It is mandatory for you as an athlete to write comments after your workouts, because I need to know how you felt in each workout. In certain cases, you may have a question relating to the workout you did, and that may start a conversation within those post-workout comments in Training Peaks. Or, I may have feedback on how you executed the workout, which again could start a conversation in those comments. 

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WHAT TRAINING SOFTWARE/PLATFORM DO YOU USE?

I use Training Peaks. You can use a free account, or upgrade (not required) to a Premium account for additional functionality  for a cost of (at the moment of writing) $9.92 per month (paid annually). 

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HOW DOES GETTING THE TRAINING PLAN WORK? 

Your plan is delivered in a software called Training Peaks. You will have an account that is linked to Tri Connect Coaching account, so I can add workouts to your calendar. Normally, I will plan anywhere from 1-4 weeks of training at a time for you, depending on where you are in your training. The planned training will be adjusted if needed (Remember my coaching is dynamic, not static). 

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HOW WILL YOU KNOW HOW I DO IN MY WORKOUTS?

First of all, your post-workout comments are more important than any other data for me to get a good idea of how the workout went.  Secondly, we assume you use some sort of GPS-watch to track at least your runs and rides. I will inform you how you should configure this watch and your Training Peaks account so your workouts automatically get uploaded to Training Peaks. Thereafter I can review and analyse every workout that you do, and see if things like pace, power and heart rate were as planned. 

 

CAN I KEEP GOING TO MY SWIM SQUAD/GROUP RIDES OR SIMILAR WHILE BEING COACHED
OR IS IT ALL SOLO TRAINING FROM HERE?

Generally speaking, yes you can. All doors are open, and we will discuss this, how best to incorporate these workouts in your training. In some cases this could be counterproductive for your goals. But generally, there is a lot of flexibility to make room for group workouts, and in many cases I will recommend it as they can have many great benefits. 

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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I MISS THE PLANNED TRAINING SESSION?

This is bound to happen sooner or later, and is no cause for stress or panic. Simply communicate with me, and together you can decide if and how to adjust training.  These types of changes do happen and again the importance of constant communication. If needed I will make adjustments to accommodate any missed sessions or a block of sessions. For self-coached athletes, these adjustments are among the top reasons for injury as the athlete will try to make up missed sessions and the possibility for non-functional overreaching is a big possibility, but with my guidance I will see to it that it doesn’t happen. 

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I WANT TO UNDERSTAND THE WHY BEHIND MY TRAINING – CAN I DO THAT IN A COACHING RELATIONSHIP?

Yes. At the risk of sounding repetitive, our coaching is based on great communication. If you are interested in understanding why your training is planned the way it is, or the purpose of a particular workout, just ask me and they I will be more than happy to answer your questions.

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HOW LONG SHOULD I EXPECT TO BE IN A COACHING RELATIONSHIP TO SEE THE BENEFIT? 

Coaching is like the compound effect in investing – the longer you’re in it, the more it keeps on giving. This is because each season you and your coach know each other better than the season before, and you have more experience and hard data together to look back on to figure out what works well for you and what doesn’t. So in an ideal situation, you should find a great coach and then stay with that coach for many years (although not necessarily an entire career). That said, as explained in “I have a race in the near future - should I wait to start with coaching?" you can start to see some immediate benefits by working with a coach within weeks. Not in fitness, but in how you do things (both training, racing, and things outside of training and racing). In terms of fitness, although it is built over years and years rather than weeks or months, you will be able to see significant changes in 3-6 months generally. For most athletes of beginner to intermediate level, in 12 months you will be a very different athlete. For very advanced athletes, improvements are obviously smaller and more difficult to come by, but you should still be able to see improvements on these same timescales, albeit not of the same magnitude as the less advanced athletes that have more room to grow.