Here’s the Best Thing You Can Do For Your Training (besides personal coaching)

By Chris Carmichael,
Founder and Head Coach of CTS

Interest in fitness, health, and performance is greater than ever, and people want information and instruction they can trust. I have dedicated my life’s work to helping people achieve their goals and reach their full potential, and one of the biggest lessons I have learned is that coaches and training programs need to meet athletes where they are. Everybody is an athlete, and we each stand somewhere along a spectrum that includes novices, enthusiasts, athletes returning after an injury or layoff, amateur competitors, and elite racers. Your needs and goals evolve over time and with changes to your personal and professional phases of life, and it is a challenge to find a training resource that will stay relevant and deliver value as your level of engagement and experience changes.

One-on-one coaching is the gold standard for personal, professional, and athletic development. It is the service I founded CTS to deliver, and 20 years later it remains the backbone of the brand. Done right, coaching requires a lot of commitment from both the coach and athlete, which is why it will always be a premium service. Across the industry, every attempt to commodify personal coaching has failed, as it should. The problem is, that leaves a lot of athletes out in the cold, left to sift through mountains of misinformation and contradictory advice.

To provide people up and down the athlete spectrum access to trusted, professional guidance, I am proud to announce the new TrainRight Membership–a low-cost monthly subscription that makes effective training and essential elements of personal coaching accessible to athletes who aren’t ready or can’t invest in full-service one-on-one coaching.

About the TrainRight Membership

CTS has always provided free training content through blogs, newsletters, videos, and podcasts, and we will continue doing so. More than 100,000 people have also purchased books and DVDs created by CTS Coaches. The TrainRight Membership is an interactive and community-building product that bridges the gap between these valuable but impersonal entry points and the deeply personal coach-athlete relationship that is the hallmark of CTS Coaching.

Continuity is a key element of the TrainRight Membership. Everything we do, from free content to personal coaching, is based on the same CTS Coaching Philosophy. One of the strengths of CTS is that our coaches speak the same training language. They each have their own personalities, styles, and preferences, yet the same core beliefs on coaching, training, nutrition, and sports science. As a result, athletes can engage with any CTS product or service–and move between them–without having to learn new terminology, intensity zones, and training methods.

Why the TrainRight Membership is Worth Your Time

Before I get to the laundry list of features, you probably want to know if the TrainRight Membership is going to help you any more than reading books and blogs and grabbing static training plans that are available everywhere. How is this going to make you a better, faster, stronger athlete? We’ve spent a long time testing this product with groups of athletes, and some of the effective use cases include:

• Climbing Breakthrough
  Increasing sustainable power or pace only addresses the physiological component of performance. The ability to ride or run uphill more effectively is governed by your aerobic engine, muscular endurance, mental fortitude, technique, and strategy. The same is true for any specific aspect of your sport, which is why static training plans will always deliver limited results. We’ve added the ability to modify your plan, a huge library of proven workouts, and access to coaches and other athletes for guidance.
• Finding the Balance
  Over the past several months, athletes have been isolated from their training and event communities, and have had to adjust how they integrate exercise into family and career priorities. These challenges have always been present, they’ve just been brought into greater focus by the pandemic. You are not alone, nor do you have to figure it out by yourself. The TrainRight Membership community is there when you need ideas for a challenge you can’t solve, a safe and supportive place to vent to like-minded peers, or opportunities to give and receive kudos for accomplishments your coworkers and kids don’t understand.
• Accountability
  It is easy to stay motivated when the weather is warm and the days are long. As we head into the fall and winter it can be harder to muster the motivation to stay on track. The cancellation of events and group rides will make it harder to maintain the social connections we all value within the endurance community. We know athletes thrive when they have accountability, and we know how to create it with a training plan, the ability to modify it so it stays relevant to your reality, scheduled access to live sessions with coaches, and ongoing connections to peers through forums and online clubs.

What’s Included in the TrainRight Membership

We are rolling out the TrainRight Membership with the following features to start with:

• Unlimited Premium CTS Training Plans:
  Select from a wide variety of science-based cycling, running, and strength training plans that include structured workouts and are compatible with your favorite training devices and apps.
• CTS Workout Library:
  Build or modify your own training plan with access to more than 800 CTS Workouts. This is the same library CTS Coaches use to build custom plans for their athletes.
• Premium TrainingPeaks Account:
  To get the most out of CTS Training Plans and Workouts, a Premium TrainingPeaks account is included in a TrainRight Membership. Purchased separately, this is a $19.95/month subscription on its own. And because CTS has been a longtime partner with TrainingPeaks, transitioning to a full-service coaching package at any time is completely seamless.
• Monthly Live Zoom CTS Coach Q&A Calls
  My coaches are what truly sets CTS apart from everyone else. Of everything we’ve accomplished over the past 20 years, I’m most proud of our record for developing the best professional coaches in the industry. Many CTS Coaches have been with me for 10+ years, some for more than 15, and several who moved on are now in leadership positions with the world’s top labs, teams, and organizations. The TrainRight Membership is the first time we’ve made direct access to CTS Coaches available outside of one-on-one coaching or CTS Camps. And if you can’t make a live call, all of the Q&A sessions get recorded and uploaded to the membership site so you can go back and watch previous videos.
• Private TrainRight Membership Forum
  Another way to access CTS Coaches is through the private TrainRight Membership Forum. Ask questions about your training, nutrition, recovery, active lifestyle, and more. This community resource is a great way for you to shorten their own learning curve and share the knowledge and experience you have gained throughout your sporting life.
• TrainRight Membership Strava Clubs
  Join the TrainRight Membership Strava Cycling or Running Clubs to connect with athletes in your area–or wherever you’re traveling–and fuel your motivation to achieve your goals.
• Access to Exclusive Deals on Top Products
  The TrainRight Membership includes access to deep discounts on products from many of the top brands in endurance and outdoor sports. I carefully select and vet the brands CTS has relationships with, and only products CTS Coaches trust and use ourselves are added to the CTS Athlete Perks program.
• Month-to-Month, No Contract, No Cancellation Fees
  We’re keeping it simple at $24.99/month.

Why Now?

The pandemic disrupted all aspects of life, work, and sport. While it created a lot of challenges, it also provided the opportunity to break out of established practices and create something new. Sales of our one-on-one coaching services have remained strong in 2020, and we are optimistic about the 2021 CTS Camp and Bucket List Calendar. At the same time, the shake-up and response to the pandemic showed me there is a need for high-quality information and service for athletes outside of one-on-one coaching, and more importantly, there are now effective and affordable ways to deliver it.

Twenty years in, the long-range vision for CTS–developed and shared by the entire coaching staff–is to change lives, and ultimately the world through the power of movement, healthy habits, knowledge, and inspiration. The TrainRight Membership is part of that vision, by increasing access to more of CTS to more athletes worldwide.

>> Learn More About The TrainRight Membership