Sports Illustrated for Women November 2002
THE BEST COACH YOU EVER TRAIN WITH MAY BE SOMEONE YOU NEVER MEET by Gretchen Reynolds.TWO YEARS AGO MOUNTAIN BIKER MICHELE BENEDETTI, 29, was regularly reaching the podium at races near her home in Hilton Head, S.C. But then she began suffering recurrent bouts of fatigue and developing mysterious infections, at first my doctor thought it was my sinuses," she says. The correct diagnosis in the spring of 2001 was devastating: She had thyroid cancer. The treatment was dire-half of her thyroid gland was removed - but relatively brief. She was off her bike for only about six months. By December of last year Benedetti was riding and feeling strong enough that she began to consider competing again. "But if I were going to race, I knew I needed structure in my training," she says. "Given what I'd been through, I decided I needed a coach who knew about comebacks."
Perhaps it was inevitable that she turned to Chris Carmichael. Four years ago Carmichael became famous as the man who guided Lance Armstrong's return to cycling after testicular cancer had spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain. Thanks in large part to the training routine developed by Carmichael, the head coach of the 1996 U.S. Olympic cycling team, Arrnstrong won the first of four consecutive Tour de France races. Carmichael's headquarters, however, are in Colorado, and Benedetti had no desire to relocate. So the two began a long-distance relationship. Today Benedetti is "coached" by a man she has never met, one of the Carmichael Training System employees, Seiji Ishii, who lives in Austin. The two exchange regular e-mails and phone calls. "We also send photos," Benedetti says. "I feel like I know Seiji well and vice versa, even though I've never actually seen him in person."
Long-distance coaching, once considered almost impossible - most coaches felt they had to be face-to-face with their charges - has become de rigueur among both professional and recreational athletes. Dozens of web sites provide coaching services to cyclists. Others cater to runners, swimmers, triathletes and more. "I have converted all of my athletes to some type of distance coaching with no problems," says Ishii, who works with cyclists, runners, triathletes and rock climbers. Alot of them like it better because they can contact the coach in a variety of ways instead of only at a certain appointment time."
For Benedetti, as for all the hopefuls who contact Carmichael Training Systems, the relationship began with a thorough questionnaire followed by a field test. "We ask about health, past training, their work life, their home life, their fears, expectations, goals," says Carmichael, who coaches pro mountain bikers Alison Dunlap and Mari Holden. "It's important to get to know someone, even if it's not in person." The field test consists of a sport-specific workout with the prospective client wearing a heart rate monitor to discern his or her overall fitness, endurance and maximum heart rate.
The program that Ishii then developed for Benedetti follows, in broad outline, the regimen used by Armstrong - as does that prescribed for even the most noncompetitive Carmichael System client. "We work with plenty of people who just want to finish a 1OK run or a charity bike event," Carmichael says. The system involves a base phase of slow build-up to a more concerted, high-mileage phase, followed by the competition and then by a transitional, low-mileage off-season regimen. The Carmichael System ranges from $29 per month for an entry-level program to $499 for the Pro Package. Benedetti is an Elite client, at $275 per month.
Ishii posts workouts for Benedetti on her personal calendar on the CTS website; his instructions include riding time, pedal cadence and a preferred heart rate. Benedetti then posts her results. Ishii analyzes her numbers and adjusts upcoming workouts accordingly. They also trade e-mails a few times per week. "He's so perceptive," Benedetti says. "He'll notice if I'm losing too much weight, or he'll ask if there's stress in my life when my heart rate is too high. I'm amazed at how well he seems to know me. It's kind of eerie."
All Carmichael coaches have reams of high-tech data to buttress their intuitions. Clients are required to work out with a heart-rate monitor; serious cyclists are encouraged to invest in a power meter, which can cost upward of $1,50O. The power meter attaches to the bike and records and graphs the total power output, or watts generated by a rider. "Watt readouts tell us a great deal about how hard someone is working," Carmichael says. Armstrong averages close to 500 watts during hard climbs in the Tour de France. A typical recreational rider would do well to sustain 200.
But Carmichael cautions that data analysis alone is not the basis of sound coaching. "The longer I do this," he says, "the more certain I am that real coaching begins where sports-science ends. There was a time when we believed that data would tell us everything. But it doesn't. I learned that from Lance. There's so much that's indefinable about the human psyche." The frontiers of coaching, he says, lie in that terrain. "The more we learn about how to use data to understand the person behind the performance, the better we all will perform."