I truly see people as athletes. When mentoring or teaching other professional, endurance sports coaches, I like to explain that coaching wisdom comes from three different pipelines: continuing formal education, experience with a wide range of diverse athletes and a great deal of time with other coaches as a peer, mentor or mentee.

This past weekend we had friends in town, one of whom has over 20 years of outdoor leadership experience and is certified in everything from Wilderness First Responder and Single Pitch Instructor (American Mountain Guides Association) to an AIARE Professional Level 2 Avalanche practitioner and Advanced Swiftwater Rescue. The guy is Mr. Idaho, and there's not a minute spent with him that I'm not learning or laughing.

If you wanna be faster, you gotta go easier. Most Endurance athletes have heard this or some variant of this over the years. Recently there’s been a flood of “Zone 2“ focus being touted as a new way to train. But, of course, as with many training “fads” often pushed by influencers or celebrity coaches, they're really just long-standing practices that are re-released with new descriptions.

I'm currently in Wollongong, Australia as a Team USA Paratriathlon coach for World Triathlon Championships. We also have the Juniors, U23 and Team USA Olympic Triathlon athletes racing this weekend as well. Finally, there's a couple thousand age-groupers racing as well - a full house!

I just got back from my college reunion. It's been a while. In fact, I hadn't seen most of my friends since we graduated. While I had forgotten a lot, they all seemed to remember the great stories, shared experiences and just how young and dumb we used to be. I was met with lots of love and vowed to stay connected from here on in.

wrote this over 13 years ago, and (for the most part), it still holds up. I thought this topic might motivate some to start getting events on the calendar for 2026! And for those still racing in 2025, go get 'em!

Routine. I used to think that "routine" meant you do the same motions, processes or activities the same way every day. What would always come to my mind is an "older person" who's a slave to their routine - having to do the same thing everyday or else they would feel lost, out-of-control or even anxious. "Yuck!" I thought. "Not for me!" I'd say.

Last week we had the unfortunate passing of my wife's uncle, Tom. Although he has had a slew of health issues over the last few years, and we all knew this was the eventual outcome, it was nonetheless a challenging day and week. He passed quickly while walking his daily route, on the trail, with his wife and dog with him.

“I love that being good at this doesn’t come easy. You have to work every day, as much time as you can. Work on the things that you need to improve but also the stuff that you really like, to get better at it. You need to know what you’re capable of so you’re not always so out of control.”

I've seen or listened to my fair share of "talks", "motivational speeches" or unique documentaries by current or former athletes and found most of them interesting to some degree. But there's been a few that have "stuck" with me - one of which is:

I just got back from racing a Mountain Bike 6-Day Stage Race in Breckenridge, Colorado that started each day at 9,800' and went up. Living at 2,800', how did I choose to prepare for this event? What if it was a 1-day event? Are there "Do's and Don'ts" when preparing or training/racing at elevation?Let's get into it!

All of us enter and continue participating in endurance sports for various reasons. However, joy serves as the fundamental driving force that keeps us coming back for more.