Why Coaches Make a Difference

So yesterday I went to weight/bike class. After doing various exercises for an hour – including like 1000 lunges (well, 80 anyway), it was time for bike class.

Coach B strolled by as I was setting up Amarone – and made “an adjustment” to the trainer tension. I swear the wheel hardly budged when I tried to spin it with my hand. After some negotiation, he loosened it up a bit. I hopped on Amarone and started to pedal. There was no easy spin, no virtual flat road. At best, it was a long, gradual hill. Coach B convinced me to give it a try – and I figured if worst came to worst I would get off the bike and loosen the tension later on in class. And the challenge would be adequate penitence for my holiday indulgences.

I made it through the class, feeling at times like my thighs might explode. There is no way I would have set my bike up at such a hard level, but with Coach B’s motivation, I pushed myself further than I would have on my own. I can think of a bunch of other times when Coach G’s guidance over the past two years made a difference in what I have accomplished or tried.

But I am not guaranteeing I’ll expose Amarone to those conditions at every bike class.