50+ Lifelong Competitor’s First Ever Season with Coach Taylor

Michael Morrison just wrapped up a medal at the US Masters National Championship. While a lifelong athlete in nearly every cycling discipline Michael has never been coached.  Here is his first person account of the experience:

 

I just finished the National Championships in Augusta and got 3rd in the time trial. 3rd was MUCH BETTER than I ever expected. Here is a not so brief synopsis of how my training went so Taylor and other riders could have a perspective of how I (maybe other riders) perceive Taylor's coaching.

 

At the beginning of the year, I decided to focus on the USA Cycling National Time Trial Championships. I have never been much into time trialing and haven't even owned a time trial bike until February 2024 so I contacted Coach Taylor to help me out.

 

Expectations v Reality

When I initially contacted Coach Taylor, I had visions of going out everyday for 100% efforts and destroying myself. This was far from what I experienced. On occasion, I would feel I wasn't training enough because I wasn't tired. Most of Taylor's training wasn't what I consider “hard” but consistent so I had a bit of improvement each week. 

 

Specificity

The first month, Taylor had me start off doing multiple days a week on the time trial bike. At the time, I didn't realize how much the body needs to get used to the different TT position but Taylor said I'd need to spend “A LOT OF TIME ON THE TT BIKE”. Yes, I would be a bit sore after being in the time trial position for an hour and a half but nothing out of the ordinary. Distance and intensity was increased but not drastically.

 

The first local time trial event (40k) at Fiesta Island came up late February and I thought I was ready. Coach Taylor wanted me to give a big effort so we could have a bench mark. I gave a big effort and finished in just under 58 minutes and it was a terrible experience. Lots of muscle pain. Glutes hurt so bad I couldn't get off the bike, walk or drive home for at least 2 hours after the event. Adjustments were needed.

 

Taylor came over and did a bike fit which really helped. Aerodynamics and especially comfort improved. I did a few races and had some good results. A stage race at Victorville even had a TT which I won. It was also nice to see the power improvement compared to last year, especially since the season was early and hard training hadn't yet started.

 

Dialing in The Details

Next focus was the District Championships and training was stepped up. An example training session was three 20 minute time trials with a bit of rest in between. This helped get me used to how it felt at the end of the last effort. Learning to start calm and finish strong was really beneficial and I will further explain below. 

 

There were many other training sessions and all involved a power meter but more often, Coach Taylor would instruct me to go out at a “perceived effort”. E.g. “ride at 60% or 80%” (this is an Easter Egg, by the way) with a range of recommended power, e.g. 260-280. I had a hard time with this and often rode too hard. Taylor often had to remind me to go easier. 

 

District TT came and I got 2nd by 20 seconds. I was happy because the 1st place rider was previously beating me by 2 minutes, which meant more improvements.

 

Back to the National Championships

I went to ride the course the day before and it rained so hard that my computer took on water, stopped working and left me riding the TT “blind” with no power, speed or distance. I started the TT at a perceived 80% and increased the effort when I felt I was getting close to the end. Without the computer, I didn't know how much remained to the finish. I went quite hard the last few km but this may have been the most calm and relaxed TT I have ever done.

 

I warmed down thinking I got top 10 because I passed a few guys. I returned to the car, turned on the phone and saw texts saying “congratulations for 3rd place”. I thought the boys were pulling my chain so I had to check the results online and I was shocked. It said 3rd. The whole perceived effort turned out to be more important than I (and probably Taylor) expected!

 

Many more training aspects were learned, and I just wanted to share a few:

• Coach Taylor has been racing and coaching for many years. His personality is very calm. He's not one to give a hard sell with his coaching services. I was happy with his adaptability when family vacations, work and other situations came up. He quickly changed the schedule and off I went.

• Negative parts of training with a coach is that riding with all the group rides is just not possible. That would hurt performance.
• One thing I would have liked is a scheduled few days/ week off every 4 or 5 weeks. I love to train but appreciate occasional down time and sometimes felt the training was never ending. 

 

At the end of the day, I learned that training with a coach for the first time was great for my cycling performance as well as a learning experience.

 

• Michael Morrison