I spent 330 quid from the end of 2002 to early 2004 on - coaching.
Apart from riding well on the track, my overall fitness declined ! In retrospect I expected too much from it. I imagined that the discipline of following a schedule would make me work harder, and that monitoring my heart rate and weight and feelings would allow me to build on what I did. Well, I think it was all bollox. The regime I followed was the same as another guy my coach set a training plan for, for instance in the winter of 2003-2004 I was put on less turbo and regular weights. This was because, so I was told, it would improve my strength for the track. Well, the other chap was given almost the same schedule and he was told the weights were to improve his strength in long races. Hmm.
Did the weights of the winter of 2003/2004 improve me ? No I don't think so, considering how rubbish my standing start 500M TT was in the Div. Champs.
So, an expensive lesson in what not to waste my money on. I should have known it, I never had a coach in the past. Looking at some of my blogs from 2002 it looked as if I hoped the coaching would improve me by leaps and bounds. Maybe my head was going funny even then, before all the truama I subsequently went through.
Live and learn. I've been doing a lot of that this past year or so. Is all the truama with Hazel because I wouldn't commit to leaving home ?