I’m pleased to announce we’ve struck a coaching arrangement with Peaks Coaching. (PCG)

Peaks, specifically their president Tim Cusick who will lead the coaching staff, will prepare annual training plans for the club for members who wish to participate in the program. There will be 2 programs, one a Cat 1-3 and another Cat 4-5 for members to follow. Regardless of category, you can choose either, as they will primarily differ with respect to amount of time you have to devote to the program.

These annual programs will be built utilizing PCG “Power Periodization” principles. This season overview will be a spreadsheet design and delivered in PDF format for distribution to participating club members.

There will be an introductory webinar, which will be recorded, to review the first month of the program so that everyone can understand the workout language, setting training levels and how to use the plans.  Specific monthly training schedules for the 2 plans will be posted to Training Peaks (the 3rd week of the month for the following month) for your access and review. Each member will have a basic Training Peaks (TP) account to access this information. If you wish to get access to the premium level of TP, we are in the process of working on discounted access.

Questions regarding the training plan, training vocabulary, what to do if (sick, vacation, etc), and other questions (except for specific analysis of your training files) will be answered on the forum by Tim or another member of the Peaks coaching staff.

We will have 2 other webinars during the course of the early season in addition to the introduction webinar. The other 2, also recorded and
available to members only, will be a follow-up to ensure everyone understands the plan and is using TP effectively and then a spring “Race Season” prep with some of the racers on their staff such as Amber Neben and Scott Moninger (to be confirmed – a two time Olympian and winningest American. male cyclist respectively).

Members who wish to sign up later, or new members, can do so and get acclimated to the plan via 2 “on ramp” plans which will get them ready to begin and join one of the primary training plans.

The cost for members who wish to use the coaching service is $50 for a 3 month period (about $17 a month). We plan on running it for 9 months a year and let people take some time off of structured training for 3 months. Given our late start this year, it’ll go close to the end of the year and likely start up quite quickly.  If we get a sizeable group of members joining, we will look to reduce the cost in the future.  To sign up for the first 3 month period , Feb 15 – April 15, please sign up and pay here: https://kissenacycling.wufoo.com/forms/peaks-coaching-feb-15-through-april-15/

We did quite a bit of due diligence and really think we found a great coaching program for a vast number of the members at a terrific value. We even had Mike Garrigan participate in one of our conference calls and webex sessions to vet the program.

In addition to the above, the coaching program comes with the added benefit of 25% off any of the products in the Peaks online store as well as 10% off the first 3 months of one-on-one coaching or consulting.

Hopefully you are as excited as the board is about this opportunity. Looking forward to training together this spring.

Plans Overview

The Cat 1 – 3 plan is built around 10 – 15 hours a week in
training and features more time at higher intensity (more intervals) then the
Cat 4 – 5 plan.  This plan is meant for
the “Training Mature” athlete that has been training (10+ hours per week) and
racing for 3+ years.

The Cat 4-5 plan is built around 8-14 hours a week in
training and features less time at higher intensity (less intervals) then the
Cat 1-3 plan.  This plan is meant for the
rider that has been training (less than 10 hours) and racing for less than 3
years.

Choosing the right plan:

You have to choose the plan that works for you.  The two biggest challenges is time and “fit”. 

When it comes to time, you might not have time in your
schedule to match the training schedule. 
The reality of the plans is they are typical based around a “core” main
set of work or intervals.  If you are a
Cat 1-3 cyclist and want to do that plan, but concerned about time you should
use that plan and focus on completing the “core” of each workout, dropping out
time in Zone 2.  If the plans are too
much scheduled time, I will adjust after the first month but challenge yourself
to try to hit the plans.  The same goes
for the Cat 4-5 plan, if you don’t have the time, focus on the core main sets.

When it comes to “fit” this is personal choice but I always
challenge the athlete to “step-up”.  At
some point you have to turn up the Watts!!!

Please let me know if questions.