Wordle

Check it out:

www.wordle.net

Something for you to do: write out a list of words that describe how you feel during your best workout or race. Think back to that "perfect race" where everything came together, the feeling of flow and success.

Now visit Wordle and create your own. Tape it on your wall, stick it by your desk. Visit those words every day until they become etched in your mind.

I thought about what it takes, typed in my words and came up with this:



What is your Wordle?

Looking Ahead

The 2008 season is winding down. With races filling up quickly these days, now is the perfect time to think ahead to 2009. Perhaps you’ve signed up for a half or full Ironman, committed to running a faster marathon or want to finish your first triathlon. With big goals ahead, you might be thinking that it is time to consider a coach.

Here’s how we can help.

At Multisport Mastery we work with athletes of all ages, levels and abilities. Ranging in age from early twenties well into the sixties, we design training plans that are specific to who you are, where you are, how you are built and where you want to go.

Some of our athletes have performance-related goals; winning their age group, breaking 12 hours in an Ironman, running a marathon in under 4 hours, while other athletes simply enjoy staying fit. Either way we are excited to work with you to achieve a goal you are committed to and motivated about.

Results speak for themselves. During the 2008 season, our athletes completed everything from local triathlons, marathons, world championships, Ironmans, half-Ironmans, open water swims and much more.

We’ve had numerous top 3 age group and overall finishes, state time trial gold and silver medalists, 70.3 world championships qualifiers and all our Ironman athletes have completed their best race. As for personal bests, we’ve had many exciting breakthroughs both big and small; from taking a few seconds off of a 10K all the way up to taking over 62 minutes off of an Olympic distance triathlon.

How did we accomplish these results? By working together with each athlete to bring out their best. Simply put, our coaching staff strives to provide a level of excellence and quality coaching. Here is what we strive towards:

Accessibility
A coach is accessible in your preferred form of communication throughout the week. Frequent communication and availability is how we prefer to stay connected to each athlete.

Responsiveness
A coach responds to your questions, comments and concerns in a timely manner. We know your workouts, your progress and meaningful feedback is important to you and it is important to us too.

Thoughtfulness
A coach is thoughtful and relevant in their approach to your training. We know you have many obligations outside of sport and we will work with you to provide a plan that meets your needs.

Experience
A coach has both competitive & instructional experience to provide the most well-rounded perspective of sport. Simply put, we’ve been there, through the highs and lows, and we know what it takes.

Sensitivity
A coach understands that each athlete has unique needs, motivations and goals. We tailor our approach to meet your personality and lifestyle needs. We understand that each athlete is driven by something different.

Education
A coach pursues frequent opportunities to refresh and improve their understanding of sport. We attend seminars, write articles, read books and look to experts for continuing our knowledge of sport.

Connectedness
A coach stays connected with the sport through participation, volunteer work or involvement with youth activities. We share our joy of sport to get others connected and to promote the future of sport.

Resourceful
A coach assists athletes in furthering their own knowledge of all areas of the sport. Through articles, e-mails, tips and more we will prepare you as best we can for success.

Holistic
A coach considers each athlete as a whole – physical, nutrition, strength, mental, strategy and race specific plans. We aim to prepare you completely for your events by considering all of the parts that make the whole.

Goal-Oriented
A coach helps you set goals and then helps you reach them. When you succeed, we succeed – that is our goal. It takes a methodical approach to reach goal, we will map it out and do our best to get you there.

Relationships
A coach fosters a positive relationship with their athletes, one that is productive, communicative and friendly. We value who you are and recognize that because of you we can continue to do what we love.

Simply put, our coaching staff truly enjoys coaching. It’s more than a job – it’s what we love to do. We are prepared with years of competitive experience as an athlete and educational experience working with children and adults in both formal and informal settings. Coaching is simply an extension of our passion in working with others to become their best through education, motivation and experienced support.

Take our word for it – but also consider the words from some of our athletes below:

"I contemplated hiring a coach for months before finally making the decision to work with Elizabeth and the improvement in my fitness level has been significant. I have benefited so much from Elizabeth's knowledge about the sport and her own experience training and racing. Her achievements in triathlon have come with much sacrifice and hard work and that is what makes her a great coach. She knows what it takes to succeed and she plans quality workouts that are specifically geared to help me meet my goals. With Elizabeth's help I have learned how to train smart and I continue to push myself to new limits and achieve higher goals because I believe that I can!"

B.L. in Chicago

"I got in touch with Elizabeth just as the triathlon season was about to begin. On a weekly basis, Elizabeth meticulously plans my training schedule to make sure I am getting the best out of the available training time I have. Having a full time job, being a mom and wife I do not have a lot of spare time. Elizabeth makes sure that the time I am able to dedicate to my training is spent in a way that will help me reap the most benefits. And we have had some major success. I have been working with Elizabeth for just about 5 months and in that short period of time I have been able to improve tremendously. I set a 15-minute PR on both the Olympic and Sprint distance triathlons. Elizabeth helps me stay focused, on track and without losing sight of the "Big Picture" (the way she likes to call it). She has been able to provide inspiration, advice and motivation throughout these short 5 months that we have been working together. Her knowledge base is amazing and she is willing to share it all with her athletes. It takes a great coach to get the best out of you; and Elizabeth is definitely one of them."

D.K. in North Carolina

“Since starting coaching with Liz ten months ago, I have seen huge improvements in my training consistency and race performance. Under her guidance I achieved a 22 minute PR on my half marathon time and a whopping 62 minute PR on my Olympic distance triathlon time in 2008. But these PRs only scratch the surface. My #1 reason for hiring Liz was that she seemed to have a handle on the mental aspect of the sport. Liz made an effort immediately to get to know me, to learn my strengths and limiters. She always seems to know when to push and when to hang just under the limitations that I sometimes place on myself. She knows how to communicate so that I expect more from myself. She is realistic, encouraging, and genuinely cares about my training and racing. Not just for big events, but on a consistent and regular basis. Liz makes me feel like I am her only athlete. My confidence racing this season simply cannot be compared to last season and that is attributable to Liz's influence and coaching. Liz continues to exceed my expectations.”

S.F. in Nevada

“Unfortunately, I am too busy getting fast to write much about Liz. I am swamped with breaking through plateaus and pushing past limits. In between reading ahead about the awesome workouts she writes specifically for me, and then executing them, I have plenty to do. My schedule is very tight, so she uses my available training time so effectively that I feel she is as committed to my goals as I am. She packs quality into each and every workout, and yet understands the importance to me and my family of a well-placed rest day. It’s also hard to write testimonials when she has me so focused on my goals, both short and long term, though. Sadly, I don’t have the time to properly explain how she is leveraging her experience and knowledge to mold both my body and mind into a confident and powerful triathlete. I am too busy getting fast!”

B.J. in St. Louis

Where are you going next year? What do you hope to achieve in 2009? We are interested in working with you and helping you get there. For more information on coaching services, please contact us at multisportmastery at comcast.net

The Other 90 Percent

Congratulations to Robyn, Brandon and John for their Ironman Louisville finishes! Incredible accomplishments on a tough course and an even tougher day. Here's an inside look into how each athlete made that finish happen on race day.

Brandon came to me filled with short course speed. His last experience with long course racing left him with a lingering IT Band injury. We started with short bits of running, extended those over time being smart about the build up and following HR zones. Healthy and fit at 12 weeks before the race, the other IT Band started barking. Rather than give up, we approached running a different way. Long runs were a mixture of running, pool running and elliptical. The rest would be done in his head. Writing out a plan and visualizing a healthy, strong marathon. He had never run a marathon before and didn't know what to expect. Expect to run strong, smart and pain-free. On race day, Brandon ran a 3:42 marathon. His goal was to finish in under 12 hours and he made it happen. After a few months coaching him I started calling him Crazy (in a good way) Brandon - why? Because he would send me text messages at 3:30 am from atop his trainer to fit in longer rides before work and family. Because he would call me Saturday night while riding his bike to talk about his training. Crazy because he had this crazy passion for a goal that he would absolutely not give up no matter what was thrown his way. Crazy - on race day it paid.

John came to me late this spring to prepare for an August Ironman. His challenge - train for Ironman while balancing it with his family and busy job as a neurosurgery physician's assistant. Often his work included several nights and days on call or long weekends. We kept the schedule flexible and worked around it. When he could train, he trained smart, he practiced his plan and did everything in training he would do on race day. John had one of the most easy going, patience and laid back attitudes I have ever seen. The race was simply a day where he would put it all together. His trust in the training, easy going attitude led his straight to the finish line. In his words, he followed his pacing and nutrition plan to a "T" and it paid off. And with his focus on that, he said he never did really feel the heat.

In the weeks before Ironman, Robyn finished school, got a new job and moved. With so many sources of stress, Robyn kept herself together and did her best with training. At times this meant giving up workouts in order to simply relax or get other life things organized. The approach was simple - do what you could when you could, relax the pressure on yourself. It worked. All of these outside factors did not interfere with her finish. Along the way the hills and heat tried to take the best out of her day but Robyn kept moving forward and found herself an Ironman.

As athletes, we arrive on race day at the whim of many things - the weather, other competitors, life factors, work-related stress, sometimes even in the late miles of an Ironman - ourselves. Those that succeed with their goals, those that cross the line come to terms with the fact that while many factors may be present on race day, the only one they can control is themselves, right there, right now on race day.

These three athletes arrived on race day with a goal in mind. One wanted to finish in under 12 hours. One with an injury history wanted to make it through the marathon. The other wanted to arrive at the start line uninjured and finish the race no matter the time it took.

All 3 reached their goals.

Why? They realized that their top priority on the race course was to execute their plan at that moment on that race course. Despite weather, course topography and other obstacles along the training and racing way they responded to the race as it unfolded and persisted with their plan. They were completely present in their race day and had a plan - not only that, they knew how to follow their plan because they had practiced it over and over again.

That's what it's all about.

When I work with an athlete I realize about 10 percent of their success is because of the workouts I provided for them. The other 90 percent is entirely up to them; a belief in our work togther, a committment to their goal, a discipline for executing a race plan. Anyone can master this 90 percent - regardless of age, ability, speed or sport background. Doing the 10 percent of workouts counts but what gets you to the 100 percent finish line is the distance in between - the 90 percent - you, the one out there making decisions, the one out there doing the work, the one out there overcoming yourself.

At Multisport Mastery we want to teach you how to command that 90 percent. We give you the knowledge and tools to prepare because we know that's what it takes to get to the finish line.

Congratulations again to our Ironman Louisville finishers!