My FIT Coach

I have been so fortunate to have had an amazing endurance coach for nearly all of my life. No kidding, I hired this guy back in 1985 when we were climbing trees and playing soccer in the back yard, not knowing the path would materialize quite like it has... When we were kids, my older brother Jared would bring me everywhere with him. Tagging along for football games, bike rides, caddying and eventually college parties at a too young age. Even then, he was setting the example that he was a leader and was going to forge his own path. Jared created his niche and became a Triathlon coach well before the sport had the legs it does today.

Showing initiative and utilizing his education in Kinesiology, Jared built a successful career on the foundation of bringing anyone and everyone to the finish line, achieving more from themselves than they would have ever expected. Elite athletes, stay at home moms, full time working folks with a drive to push themselves all found great success with his training programs and constant nurturing throughout their journey.

Setting big goals through multi-sport is an awesome process that can be daunting if you are doing it alone. There is an extensive amount of resources on the Internet, more endurance coaches than you can shake a stick at and plenty of elite athletes sharing their training regimes and knowledge. In addition to my brother, I find myself aligning with athletes and theories with a similar focus towards improving efforts in sport and in life.

One athlete in particular that I have been following closely and trying to learn from his training and mental toughness is USA Olympian Ryan Hall. His journey as a runner and the success he has had is amazing. I had the great fortune to race with him in Boston 2010 for the marathon. Actually, he started 4000 runners ahead of me and blistered to the fastest ever American time at Boston of 2:08 and a 4th place finish.  Trying to always learn from these successful athletes and people, it is fun when they supply great information to have a look into their lives. This cool training video shows his final tempo run before the 2011 Boston Marathon. My coach/brothers' first response for me, "shave 55 minutes off of your time and you are right there with him!"

http://video.competitor.com/2011/04/running/training-day-with-ryan-hall/

I thought his preparation for this key workout was time consuming, but great.  This preparation is necessary when so much focus is needed for big workouts. I also though the amount of sport nutrition powder in his kitchen was hysterical. The video is one example of resources on the Internet for anyone to use to educate and prepare themselves for their own fitness journey. Use this and other new forms of social media to provide yourself with information from other athletes and their journey.

I talk to my brother daily.  Now we guide each other through our journey in sport. He still provides me with key running and cycling workouts and theories. But more importantly, we are there for each other with moral support. Not many people can still tolerate hearing about our past and upcoming fitness schemes!

www.triendurance.com