Figure out what your goals are. ... That being said, I've been riding/racing for 17 years now (I'm 31 now). ... I know what works for me, and I know what type of training I need to do to get the results I want. I'd rather put a $1,000 towards vacation at this point in my life. ... With your time/life commitments, a coach might be worth it to help you squeeze some effective training out of your schedule.
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There are a lot of variables which impact the decision. First, a "remote" coach (i.e. one who you contact via email or phone) is really a strength coach, not a tactics coach (for tactics, someone has to actually be there, see you race, and ideally ride next to you in training races). So if you have been racing for a bunch of years, and are satisfied with your fitness, that type of coaching isn't going to do much (if anything) for you.
On the other hand, I do have a "remote coach" and I figure that many cyclists spend $1000 a year on things like wheels or equipment which will not make them faster, while a coach can. If you can make up a daily training schedule from a book, and understand the logic behind the schedule, the coaching won't be that different. But, to use myself as an example, I've read Friel's book, I have graduate degrees (not meaning to be snide, meaning that I think I understand books reasonably well), and actually had raced cat3 a very long time ago before work got in the way and turned me into a runner. When I returned to cycling, I raced for one season "self-trained" (lots of miles, lots of hard group rides, and around 15 races). Then, since at that point CTS offered a discount if you had a USCF racing license, I decided to try coaching. The big difference from coaching (aside from some motivation, and a willingness to experiment with training more than I would myself) is that the coach puts in the workouts I don't want to do. In other words, most of us tend to train our strengths (I'm a good climber, so I like climbing workouts) and avoid workouts which hurt (repeats of 3- to 5-minute flat out VO2 intervals). Or we do the workouts which hurt, but maybe we schedule a few less repeats. A coach makes sure you do the workouts you need, not the ones you like. I think the investment was worth it. I also don't think of this as a "lifetime investment" - after a few seasons of coaching, once the results really plateau, you probably know enough (and have enough printed workout schedules from your coach) to wean yourself, and go back to self-coaching. But I do think it is worth it for a few years if you want to see how good a racer you can be. Unfortunately there is also the old "you get what you pay for." Last year I invested in the PowerTap wheel and upped the coaching level to one that analyzes power files - the results are even better, but the cost is higher...