My aim is to be a resource for athletes who are passionate about running and triathlon. If you are novice or world-class, my goal is to give you practical and actionable info to help you improve.
As an athlete, you face highs and lows. It’s the norm! Sometimes life flows and all systems are GO! Greenlight! Time to push towards the “pointy end of sharp.” In other cases, it seems like you can’t get out of your own way. Your training and performance suffer. Or even worse, you end up sidelined from training due to pain, injury, and/or illness. As an athlete, it’s essential that we’re in harmony with our narrative and motivation to train while respecting our ecosystem.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned at this point in my professional and athletic career, it’s that life has a funny way of “periodizing” your training. If you can establish consistent training, fantastic! Other times you need to bob and weave based on what life throws at you. Stay the course, make good decisions and good things are bound to happen.
Sport has always been a part of my existence.
It’s helped propel me forward in life while also providing an escape. On the surface, most people thought I had a picturesque childhood and adolescence.
I don’t know about you, but my success in life has been predicated on sports. Hard work, showing up, and realizing it ain’t always going to be pretty. I’ll be the first to tell you that what we see on the surface is not necessarily the reality.
For me, sport was a safe haven and a rescue. Like many people, I internalized my struggles and turned to sports as a refuge. This was a double-edged sword.
I was a stellar athlete, but sports were the only thing keeping my psycho-emotional well-being together. Fragile? Yes! Maybe you can relate?
The gift from all of this was that I was forced to reflect on my situation. It dawned on me that there are a lot of moving parts. Go figure! Sure, there were the physical loads, but there was a hell of a lot more to unpack.
(Un)Fortunately, I incurred a litany of injuries during the early part of my career. Talk about an ecosystem being out of whack! I was overtraining, under-fueling, and treating sport as a coping strategy. I’d extend training sessions to avoid plugging back into reality. Going from swim practice to four hours of tennis to baseball, followed by BMXing til dusk, was the norm. Nothing like having four surgeries and a slew of injuries in a 5 year period before I started to get the memo.
Somehow, I always seemed to land myself in the hands of incredible rehab professionals. I thank my Mom for always being an advocate. What made these people special was not their clinical expertise (that was a given). It was their care and concern for me as a person outside of sport. Sure they helped me get back to athletics at a higher level. Of greater importance, they helped broaden my identity. Through enduring these injuries, I developed an unwavering trust in my body and being. I also learned a lot about myself outside of sport. This is when the magic started to happen.
Unbeknownst to me, these experiences spawned my career.
While it may sound extreme, it would be remiss of me not to share my story. I appreciate that others have gone through similar situations, if not worse. You are not alone! My struggles were the furthest thing from a curse. They were a blessing!
These days, it’s an honor and privilege to function in the capacity of a clinician, coach, and mentor. To know that I’m in a position to have an impact on others like the amazing professionals who looked after me. There’s nothing that I enjoy more than helping dedicated endurance athletes like you. I’ll strive to help you view your body as a temple while respecting the backdrop of your life. Nothing’s more empowering than taking action and ownership of your situation. Safety, trust, communication, sensibility, accountability, and self-honesty are the cornerstones of my care.
