World championship; a milestone for every endurance coach in the world! Setting up an endurance coaching plan for your athlete(s) requires deep knowledge, attention to every detail, and data collection; then, there’s continuous monitoring and testing — among other things.
Before getting to the endurance coaching skills a trainer should have, let’s examine the difference between elite and recreational athletes.
The difference between elite and recreational athletes
There are several key physiological and training variables that correlate with elite endurance performance. To name a few, VO2max, running economy, AT, and anthropometry; along with an array of training characteristics that distinguish the elite from the non-elite endurance athletes (Lorenz et al, 2013). Furthermore, elite running athletes have usually completed 500 hours of training, whereas elite triathletes approximately 1000 hours, per training macrocycle.
From a mental scope, a professional athlete is completely dedicated to their training; in contrast to a hobbyist, who trains for wellness or mere entertainment, trying to squeeze workouts with everyday obligations.
Next, we’ll clarify how endurance coaching for the world championship is a totally different practice.
Endurance coaching skills of successful coaches
Can every endurance coach prepare an elite athlete? The answer is, of course, no. Coaches of this level must combine a strong scientific background, experience, and full commitment to the defined endurance coaching plan. The cliché ‘on the road to success, there are no shortcuts’ can fit somewhere; but, in such a coach’s mindset, it will find the perfect place.
Other important disciplines, a successful endurance coaching trainer must have, are leadership and influence. Usually, elite athletes tend to have harsh personalities. Oftentimes, refusing to be coached by someone who cannot inspire them; even more so, if the coach doesn’t have the capacity to lead. As a result, they’re constantly put to the test by the athlete; which means, this coach must constantly prove that they are the perfect endurance coaching trainer (for the athlete).
Of course, the ideal endurance coaching skill-set doesn’t stop here! Now, attention to detail may be more of a soft skill. Nevertheless, it’s an ability every coach — who wants to succeed — should develop. In order to ‘deliver the goods’ at this level of training, every single detail matters. Thus, a top endurance coaching trainer should also never stop monitoring the below paramount factors:
- progress
- level of fatigue
- internal load
- evaluations
- technique
- quality of workouts
Finally, another essential skill a successful coach must have is the scientific knowledge to quickly adapt to any new situation.
The power of planning
Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’, is commonly used by coaches, nowadays. And, when talking about endurance coaching for the world championship, this quote makes perfect sense.
The coach should create the big picture (macrocycle), which can last up to 4 years (e.g. for Olympic preparation). The macrocycle is for athletes what a flight plan is for pilots, or a business plan for corporates; simply put, you cannot achieve your goal without it.
Generally speaking, a coach should first take into consideration the races in which the athlete intends to participate; and then, depending on every race’s significance, she/he should start creating the macrocycle. Due to the nature of training at a high level, there is no possibility of success without planning and monitoring.
Your endurance coaching tool
A sound endurance coaching training software is a must-have tool for the modern coach; especially, one that can store all the training data, such as heart rate, thresholds, peaks, personal best, etc. for later analysis. If done the old-fashioned way — with spreadsheets and papers, monitoring fatigue and progress is a complex, time-consuming process.
Truth be told, time is of the essence, and you need time to focus on your athlete; anything else is a distraction that must be avoided. That’s why we strongly recommend that you invest ASAP in time-efficient coaching software that will help you plan and monitor.
Endogusto for the win!
The good news is that Endogusto is here to work things out for you! We’re not just talking about an easy-to-use tool that will collect all valuable data for you; but also, a science-smart tool that will help you classify and analyze them without a hitch. What’s more, with its macrocycle creation feature, designing a science-based macrocycle will be a cakewalk.
Last but not least, coaching at such a high level, demands every workout planned on a precise intensity distribution. Well, guess what; Endogusto offers you everything you need to create automatically — or manually if you like — the desired distribution. Not bad huh?