Self-coached cyclists don't fail because they're not motivated. They fail because they keep making the same five fixable mistakes over and over again. We see these patterns constantly — through emails, through socials, and inside our Not Done Yet coaching community, where we work with riders across Ireland, the UK, and the US. Here's what they are, and how to fix them fast.
Mistake 1: Using AI for Coaching
This one doesn't have a half-measure fix. The fix is: don't use AI coaching for your training.
As a cyclist, there are things you know, things you don't know, and a third category — stuff you don't even know you don't know. That third category is where AI coaching falls apart.
A real example: somebody goes to an AI and says they're experiencing bad cramps on long climbs and they think it's caused by low sodium levels. The AI goes deep on sodium, magnesium, potassium, electrolytes, heat management. You go further down that rabbit hole with each prompt.
But the reality? You weren't cramping because of electrolyte imbalance. You were cramping because you went way above your limit. You flooded yourself with lactate because you weren't adequately prepared for the intensity. Any human coach would zoom out and see that immediately. AI follows your bad prompt with a bad conversation and then you apply bad information to your training.
The other critical problem: AI can't provide accountability. You're never going to feel compelled to do your 90-minute session at 7pm because your AI coach will be disappointed. But a human coach? You don't want to disappoint them — whether they're a local coach down the road in Dublin or someone checking your files from across the Irish Sea in London. That emotional pull is one of the most powerful forces in training consistency.
Mistake 2: Overestimating What You Can Get Done in a Week
Professor Seiler has emphasised this every time he's been on the podcast: consistency in sessions is what determines your long-term success. And how do you undermine consistency? By overloading your week.
When you look at your calendar and see four hours available on Saturday morning, putting a four-hour ride in leaves you zero minutes for admin. And admin is everything: food prep, kit, bike maintenance, uploading data, charging devices. The plan is built to fail.
The fix: build your training week at about 75% of your available time. If you have four hours, schedule a three-hour ride. Leave room for life. A consistently completed 80% plan will always outperform an ambitious 100% plan that collapses every other week.
Mistake 3: Obsessing Over FTP While Ignoring Race Specificity
Here's a perspective check: Matthew van der Poel doesn't have the highest watts per kilogram in the World Tour peloton. Maybe not even top 30 or 40. Yet he won Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, and was in the final of Flanders.
How? He focuses on the demands of his events.
Most self-coached cyclists drill into FTP because it's the number everyone talks about. But for most amateur events — criteriums, club races, sportives — the demands aren't a straight 60-minute threshold effort. They're repeated surges, short climbs, attacks, and course management.
The fix: look at your target event and identify what it actually demands. Two-minute climb repeats? Practice two-minute efforts. Sprint finishes? Train your sprint. A three-hour gran fondo with a 15-minute climax? Build around that specific demand, not just your FTP.
Mistake 4: Missing the Five Pillars
When you're self-coached, you focus almost exclusively on training. Maybe training plus nutrition. But rarely in a joined-up system.
The framework for getting faster isn't just training. It's five pillars: structured training, nutrition to support that training, strength and conditioning, recovery, and community. If you're missing any of those pillars, you're leaving performance on the table.
Inside our Not Done Yet coaching community, one of the coached riders put a couple hundred watts onto his sprint largely through gym work at the right times. That's a massive gain from a pillar that most self-coached cyclists completely ignore.
The fix: audit yourself honestly. Which of the five pillars are you strong on? Which are you ignoring? The weakest pillar is almost always where the biggest gains are hiding. Our guide on how to get faster at cycling covers all 12 evidence-based methods across these pillars.
Mistake 5: Being Too Reactive to Data
Everyone's wearing wearables. HRV scores, readiness numbers, sleep metrics — there's more information available than ever. But self-coached athletes are too reactive to it.
They look at one morning's HRV reading and decide whether to train hard or back off. That's using a snapshot to make a decision that should be informed by trends. One glass of wine tanks your HRV. Does that mean you can't train today? Of course not.
Joe Friel's morning check-in questions are far more valuable than any single metric. Ask yourself: How's my appetite? What's my enthusiasm to train? How did I sleep? How do my muscles and joints feel? What's my overall mood?
The fix: use data as one input among many, not the sole decision-maker. Build a morning check-in habit using Joe Friel's questions. Look at HRV trends over 7-14 days, not single readings. And above all, listen to your body.
Key Takeaways
- Don't use AI for coaching — it follows bad prompts with bad conversations and can't provide accountability
- Build your training week at 75% of available time — leave room for admin and life
- Focus on event-specific demands, not just FTP — van der Poel proves this at the highest level
- Address all five pillars (training, nutrition, S&C, recovery, community), not just training
- Use data as one input among many — listen to your body first, then check the numbers
- Consistency beats intensity — a reliably completed moderate plan outperforms an ambitious one that collapses
- If you're self-coaching, consider whether a coach might be the better investment
- Polarised training is the simplest effective distribution to implement on your own
- Use our FTP Zone Calculator so you're at least training in the right zones
- Wondering if structured coaching could break through your plateau? See how it works