intention

Another pretty swim helmet photo!

Over the past week, since I have stated my intention to coach myself... people have gone into some kind of frenzy. I have gotten dozens of emails. How do I plan to do this? What made me decide to do this? Did something happen with Coach T?

SCANDAL!

Calm the heck down. Nothing happened. Coach T is a man who is pursuing another degree, works full time, is a husband and is the father of three children under the age of 5. I felt it time to alleviate some of his stress, and apply everything I have learned. When the man finishes all that he has going on he will devote time to his coaching..... and I will be first in line. The man's one hell of a coach. And a teacher. He's taught me so much.

There once was a time when us coaches were not a dime a dozen. When athletes coached themselves. My husband has coached himself all his life. Not too bad.

Now as a coach I realize I am preaching some dangerous things. It is my philosophy however that if you want it, you can learn a lot from a coach, There may be a time... if it is something that interests you...... there may be a time when you can apply what you have learned..... to you.

For hours every single week I scrutinize power files, data files, comments.... I track daily parameters, think about seasons...... carefully piece together weeks for my athletes. I stopped doing that for me because I let my coach do it all.

This might sound odd to say...... but I miss myself. I miss tracking my own progress. I miss planning my own workouts, I miss reading my own power files.

Now why would one even need a coach? There are a lot of great reasons to hire a coach. First, coaches can alleviate the stress of planning for you. You have a busy life, we can plan and build and evolve your season for you and with you. We can be completely objective. We are a source of support, we look out for you, fill you with motivation, celebrate your accomplishments and accept your defeats. We love watching you be your best better than our own. We love your finish lines more than ours.

We cherish the relationships we develop with our athletes. We care.

I can do that for myself. I have been around long enough, I am very honest with myself and I can be very objective with myself.

And I will walk you through everything I do. Maybe you can learn something from me. I tell my athletes that I have barfed on the rocks so many times.... meaning I have made so many mistakes..... that every mistake I make is one less they will make. Quite possibly you will be able to do the same.

Maybe at some point in your life self coaching is for you too. Maybe you just enjoy working with a coach. I certainly do. It's a personal decision. But like I said before..... I miss watching my own progress. I miss tracking myself, checking in with myself and being the boss of me.

So stay aboard, this will be a fun ride, I guarantee!