endurance nation

They have a bunch of podcasts on itunes which I just started listening to- lots of good information.

I just haven't decided if I'm going to utilize any kind of coaching for the upcoming year. 

 .

For those that are with them correct me if i am wrong, but they seem to have a niche in going after the working athlete with not a ton of training time to spare. I have listened to a bunch of their podcasts and checked out the free trial on their website and they seem to preach short and hard vs miles and miles.

Both coaches definatley know there stuff and seem to have  a business model that should be very sucessful. Many clients at x vs limited clients one on one for a higher $.

Not so sold on there "we don't swim over the winter" philosophy though.

Their IM plans will give you plenty of volume, especially the advanced IM..plenty of 5-6 hour rides involved.  The short and hard stuff refers more to their offseason (they call it outseason) plans where they focus on raising FTP in winter and then add distance later on

The "we don't swim over the winter" thing has been blown way out of proportion - especially on some folks over on ST.  EN advocates not investing much (if any) time to swim training in the "outseason" since they feel the return on time invested is small compared to bike and run training, especially for folks with time limitations.  They don't say "don't swim all winter".  Their outseason ends in Jan or Feb (depending on the date of your target IM race), so you will still start swim training in winter.  

I've bought advanced IM plans from them but don't necessarily follow their plans (I borrow from multiple approaches), so I'm somewhat familiar with their philosophy.  They're developing a new coaching paradigm, which is bound to ruffle a few feathers - which is not necessarily a bad thing.

I am using their HIM season training and also access the forums - if the price doubles I doubt I will continue that.

I had a coach for my first season  which helped me navigate the whole sport.  By the end of the year I was tweaking things myself and felt ready to use a plan on its own - after the discussion on ST of ironguides vs EN I checked both out (as well as the plans here) and like the numbers geeky approach of EN.  I am doing the off season intermediate balanced plan right now - adding strength and swimming on my own (swimming 1-2x  per week with plans of increasing to 3 in January)

I like the approach of intensity vs volume - the science behind it- and you can do it by HR as well: http://www.endurancenation.us/store/resources/webinars_2008_11_hear... - that was a webinar recently that they are offering for free.

 I also like the concept of a virtual 'team'.  We have already had things like a virtual marathon relay - there is a lot of support (as there is here).

I get MUCH more feedback than I did with a 1:1 coach - Rich and Patrick are VERY responsive.  The gold membership here has some of the same features though I think EN has a bit more involvement in the virtual world.