Athlete Feedback

Online coaching relies on communication. As a coach, it is really helpful to me to plan your training and review your progress if you, the athlete, provide regular feedback on your training sessions.

I can see the data that appears in TrainingPeaks. I can see what sort of pace you ran, or the effort you put into your bike, but I cannot tell how the session felt for you.

A Few Examples …

Here are a few recent athlete comments in TrainingPeaks after their sessions …

Athlete One

“Great that, really tried to pace those efforts so the effort increased on each set of 3 and maintain each individual effort within each set the same. Think I managed too, meaning holding that top end consistently on the last 3×2 was Grrrrrrrr and very sweaty”

This was a bike session consisting of 9 x 2 minute efforts, increasing effort every 3 x 2 minutes. From the comments, I can see the focus that went into the session and I can see that the last set of 3 x 2′ were challenging. This may influence my decision on next week’s bike interval session – whether I should ask for more power from the athlete next time, or instead extend the interval length to 3 minutes.

Athlete Two

“Fitness wise that was fine. Strength wise that was tough. My thighs were burning towards the end.”

This was a set of 15 x 1 minute efforts on the bike, where I was asking the athlete to push a big gear at low cadence. The session is designed to be a muscular effort and shouldn’t leave the athlete breathless. I can see from the comment that we achieved the desired result.

Athlete Three

“I felt pretty smooth and that I did keep high elbows – swimming with paddles helped to remember to have a longer glide I think. Thinking about the forearm pull makes me swim a bit wider – feels like that. Having said all that I had not much pace in me yesterday. Could be missing a few sessions, could be a stomach pain, so found it all a bit hard”

This athlete has been focusing on the catch during recent swim sessions. This comment reassures me that the guidance is being taken on board and there is a real focus on this during the swim. It also tells me how this athlete found the session – the swim times alone wouldn’t have given me this information.

Athlete Four

“Great session, the catch is feeling more and more natural but my arms do fatigue.”

Another athlete working on the catch in the swim, and making great progress. I can see from this comment that the higher pace that she now swims at involves more power, which means we may need to look at developing some strength during our swim sessions.

Athlete Five

“I felt really good here and relaxed adjusted my pace to feel comfortable, I’d say this was my best run , no pain anywhere and felt strong , Outside is more enjoyable than the treadmill.”

This athlete has had some problems with his run, where everything feels hard. This comment tells me he has had a little breakthrough. Again, data alone would not have given me this detail.

Valuable Information

As you can see, these comments are really useful and paint a picture of the training session, how the athlete felt, any problems they encountered and give me a sense of where the athlete is. When athletes are consistent with their session feedback, a story develops. The athlete and the coach can look back and see the progress, see which bits worked and when, see how athletes felt on particular sessions and in particular training blocks. Really valuable.

The lesson from this lesson? Be consistent with your post-training feedback.