My Story
I’m a runner, cyclist, and skier—mostly in that order these days...
I live in rural Connecticut, which is where I do most of my training.
I’ve been involved in running from an early age. One of my earliest memories is being at the finish of the Boston Marathon with my mother and sister waiting for my father to come across the line. Now you might expect that to have been an inspirational moment that led me to become a lifelong athlete… but actually, hanging around waiting for my dad to finish a running race was a pretty typical way for my family to spend a weekend in those days. So when I joined the cross-country team in junior high school it wasn’t really a big deal, it just seemed like a normal thing to do.
However, in high school a friend introduced me to downhill skiing and that changed my whole perspective. I had never done a sport that was simply fun and didn’t involve grueling workouts and pain tolerance. It was quite a revelation to me at the time and needless to say my running career took a hiatus in high school.
By the time I went to college I was competing in freestyle skiing with the goal of making it onto the US Ski Team. Although that dream didn’t come true, I discovered mountain biking as a way to stay fit during the off-season. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I’m actually a lot better at the pain tolerance of endurance sports than the acrobatics and risk taking of skiing.
That was the beginning of a long journey, first in mountain bike racing and eventually shifting over to triathlon. I spent my 20’s training and racing with the goal of becoming a professional athlete. However, it eventually became clear that I couldn’t make a living from racing and I accepted that I had to get a “regular” job.
After 25’ish years in the corporate world I haven’t lost my enthusiasm for sports and fitness. What excites me now is using modern fitness tracker technology to take the guesswork out of training.
Back in “my day” we did have basic heart rate monitors, but I mainly used them to push myself to train harder and harder. I now realize that I spent my entire racing career sabotaging myself by overtraining. By mid-season each year my legs would feel chronically exhausted and my fitness would plateau. What I lacked at the time was a way to view my overall training status, including rest and recovery.
A lot has changed since then. In 2019, I realized the potential of round-the-clock biometric monitoring and algorithm-based training guidance that today’s devices have. I was so excited that I bought a Garmin Forerunner and switched from cycling back to running just to see it in action.
In my first training run I ran 2.2 miles in 17:48 (an 8:08/mile pace). Over the next year I used the feedback from my watch to make sure I kept plenty of variety in my training and a year later I was able to run a personal best 10K in 41:24 (6:39/mile pace).
This experience made a huge impression.
Knowing exactly what workout, or rest, will benefit me the most on any given day has accelerated the process of improving fitness in a way that was not possible in the past. I can’t help but wonder how different things might have been had I been able to use this approach when I was racing full time.
However, it took a lot of work to understand all the data and how to use it effectively.
I started my coaching practice to help other runners shorten this learning curve, get the most out of the powerful data their GARMIN device provides and accelerate their progression.