I KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BECOME A BEGINNER AGAIN

I was an excited beginner, and a little naive.

Honestly, what I didn’t know was a blessing and a curse.

I already had the endurance. After years of running, half Ironmans and full Ironmans, I knew how to train hard, manage fatigue, and push through when things got uncomfortable. What I didn’t know was how different that fitness would feel once I took it off-road.

The trails humbled me. And, at first, they scared me a lot.

Descending looked terrifying. When half my brain says send it and the other half says, whoooooaaaa tiger, let’s play it safe and not break an ankle here, I mostly listened to the safe side. I tiptoed down rocky, rooty, gnarly descents, trying to figure out how people actually moved through that stuff with confidence.

Then there were the climbs.

I remember looking at some of those steep hills and thinking, I can power through that. It doesn't look that far.

Boy, was that humbling.

Thirty seconds into trying to sprint up one of those climbs, my heart rate was firmly in Zone 4 and I was moving at a record-breaking 17:00-mile pace.

My endurance hadn't disappeared. I had simply walked into a sport where endurance was only part of the equation.

And that became the fun part.

I had to learn how to climb differently. How to descend. How to use terrain instead of fight it. When to run, when to hike, how to use rate of perceived effort (RPE) instead of pace, and how strength and mobility suddenly mattered in ways they hadn't on the road.

I wasn't starting over. I was learning how to use the fitness I'd already built in a completely different environment.

That's the experience I bring to coaching.

Because I know what it's like to be an experienced endurance athlete and suddenly feel like a beginner again.

And I know how rewarding it is when the trail that once made you hesitate becomes the trail you can't wait to run. And yet, there are still trails I love to “run,” but still scare me. That’s why the challenge is so much fun.