Get Coached by NZ Olympian Tony Dodds

Coached is a heart rate training programme that helps you to optimize, track and enjoy your training.

Tony Dodds will be joining the Coached team.

Tony Dodds to coach runners and triathletes with Coached

Coached was founded by Ben Pulham, 36, a former professional triathlete from New Zealand. Now, Ben’s friend and former team mate, Tony Dodds, who is currently representing New Zealand in triathlon and has taken part in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, will be coaching runners and triathletes through the Coached platform.

For his personal best timings, Tony can swim 1,500m in slightly over 16 minutes. He can bike 40km in about 50 minutes and can run 10km off the bike in approximately half an hour.

Tony was impressed with Coached

Runners and triathletes are generally training too hard, say Ben and Tony.

According to Ben, Tony was quite impressed with the Coached platform. Ben said, “I think he was quite impressed. I am biased, but I believe that Coached is a good platform. He was impressed with the flexibility and the community side of things. He is also aligned with the philosophy and is passionate about the fact that age group athletes are just hammering themselves. That is the number one thing that I see too. Almost everyone I talk to and measure in our lab is training too hard. There are exceptions to that, but it is rare. Not enough people are building up their aerobic base.”

Ben continued, “They are instead taking the quick fix by injecting intensity before they are ready. That gives a short term quick benefit but it plateaus very quickly and it is also very high risk. That is why a lot of age group athletes end up injured.”

No pain, no gain

Ben feels that this mentality is down to society’s “no pain, no gain” attitude. He explained, “We have been fed ‘no pain, no gain’ all the time. Fitness magazines have a high intensity approach to working out that burns lots of calories in a short time. It’s the same as the ‘sex sells’ attitude. Going out for a low intensity jog is not sexy training but it is efficient when you tap on the aerobic function that comes with it.”

There is a ‘no pain, no gain’ mentality amongst today’s athletes.

So Tony will then bring his experience as a professional to support Coached athletes and give them insights into the process of what it takes to perform at the highest level.

Said Tony, “As a professional athlete, I am passionate about optimising my training to get the most of myself and am fortunate to be surrounded by a team of good people planning my training, addressing my aches and pains and supporting me in pursuit of my goals. Coached provides high quality training programmes, education and the support needed to reach your potential.”

Tony’s viewpoint aligns with that of Coached

Why bring Tony on board with the Coached platform?

We all last met Dodds in February when he had conducted a clinic with Coached.

Said Ben about Tony, “Tony is a guy whom I have known since a long time ago. We were both fortunate to be coached by a guy called John Hellemans. Tony was a young fella getting into training and I was an old dude on my way out. We spent a couple of years together training as a group with Kris Gemmell and Nicky Samuels.”

Added Ben, “Now Tony is at a similar point to where I was when we were training together. He is reaching 30 and starting to think about what he wants to do after he winds up his racing career. We were recently reconnected and I showed him what we were doing and talked to him about his training. Everything was still very much aligned and I suggested to him to do stuff for our members. I liked the idea that he is still racing and that he is competitive at the highest level of the sport. I like that he can offer a different perspective to me and some insights into his preparation and how he goes about getting ready and coming into races, about how he approaches racing and his goals. That will give Coached members a nice introduction into that world, which not everyone gets to see.”

Key differences between Tony and age group athletes but core ideas are similar

Though Ben does admit that there are some key differences between elite athlete and recreational athletes who do not make money from training and racing, he stresses that the core idea is still the same.

The core ideas behind the training of elite triathletes and age groupers are similar.

Explained Ben, “Whether you are the best in the world or a working athlete wanting to improve, the way that you approach your preparation and how you look at what to do to achieve your goals is the same. His output is obviously higher and he does not work a 9am-5pm job or worry about a lot of other life stresses that age group athletes have to face. But his process is similar and that is what I want him to share. I am coming in to offer advice with a coach’s hat on. He can also look at the training journey and whether you are a complete beginner or an experienced athlete, and so on.”

Tony will be a mentor at Coached

At Coached, Tony’s role will mainly be that of a mentor. Explained Ben, “He’s still travelling the world but he will be answering questions, doing season planning and providing insights into his world and the challenges he has, and the way that he approaches things. He’ll also be giving me insight into what they are doing at the top level so that we can refine our programmes to make sure that we take the latest that they are doing, test it in our lab and adjust it to suit ordinary people.”

Added Ben, “In fact we have been working on the new running programmes and these will be released soon. Then we’ll start on the new triathlon programmes. Tony has helped me to test the programmes to see that they are coming out as we had intended them to.”

With Tony on board, age groupers will be able to train similarly to the elites.

New running and triathlon programmes developed with Tony

Ben revealed that for the new programmes, they will be more goal-focused. He explained, “I feel that each session now has a purpose, but afterwards it will be even more focused. I have changed the load-recovery balance too, so easier weeks will be slightly easier and harder weeks will be slightly harder. There will also be some race-specific intensity work after we have built up the base.”

Coached has expansion plans into New Zealand

As well, Tony will also be helping Coached with expansion plans into New Zealand. Said Ben, “He will be doing a lot of business development work there, that I am now doing in Singapore. He will partner with events and will do connect for those events and provide support. He’ll also be conducting coaching clinics too. In fact I hope to get him back to Singapore to do another clinic again.”