All right , welcome back to the Find your Edge podcast . I am your host , coach Chris Newport , and today I'm with Coach Peter , dr Peter Ornsby actually . So welcome to the show , sir . Thank you very much for having me today . This is all about getting to know the coach , because I feel like our coaching staff is amazing and has such a diverse background . So for you , peter , how did you get into traveling ?
Speaker 230 years ago , 94, . Graduate of 94 . By the way , if you're .
Speaker 1if you can watch this on YouTube , you definitely need to , because we were just talking about who has the better gray my hair or Peter's beard ?
Speaker 2I went to Elon college now Elon university and we only had cross country in the fall . We didn't have didn't have track or anything like that . So , to do something in the spring , to keep kind of active , I started doing triathlon . Didn't have a swimming background , barely had a road bike , but was a decent runner , obviously running in college , and just started in the spring of 95 . Uh , my first race was Azalea down at UNCW back in the day . So that's kind of how it started and it was just a spring summer type thing .
Speaker 2My college roommate and I traveled all up and down North Carolina to Loggerhead Island and Top Sail and did all the local North Carolina ones back in the day and then kind of graduated to . I've done St Anthony's , I think . When I was still in college I did Eagle man like 2000 , 2001 , and then did Ironman Wisconsin in 02 as my first Ironman still in school , albeit as a Florida State graduate student for my PhD , and then took a portion of time off to finish the degree , raise two kids , was married and everything else and then got back into it full swing , I think in 12 or 13 , when I was at Weber International and we had the first ever scholarship triathlon program in the country and I was there 07 to 14 . So we had a triathlon program for three years , I think , when I was there .
Speaker 1So you , you've got this like little blended kind of thing going on , which is super cool , that you were racing for cross country , doing triathlon as a side gig , kind of thing , and then , lo and behold , you got into coaching . So when ? But not for triathlon , right ?
Speaker 2No , not , not originally . No , no , the coaching thing started in 99 when I got to Florida State and it wasn't even on the radar , not even close . Going to Florida State to go to school sports psychology do whatever I was doing , and my wife was interviewing for a job at a high school and I'm sitting in the car like a hot dog waiting for her to come out and the next thing I know that I've got the AD and the current cross country coach knocking on my window going , hey , your wife's interviewing in there . But she said you ran in college in cross country . I was like yes , like do you want to coach ? I was like sure , so that's , that's how wildest interview story I think I've ever heard .
Speaker 2It was never like I'm never , not even close . So I coached high school for three years and was still going to school , still racing myself . And then in 2000 , 2001 , I think I needed an internship for my PhD got on board with Florida State Track and Field and started volunteer coaching for them , was their lead performance enhancement consultant for a season and then kind of got on as a paid volunteer and stuff like that and that led one thing led to the next , to where I went from Florida State to UCF , to Weber , to now up here at UNC , pembroke and with Endurance Edge , like many years later .
Speaker 1So yes , so , yes , yeah , which is very exciting because you're not , so we're . So the Endurance Edge is based in Cary , north Carolina . You're about 90 minutes south of us .
Speaker 2It gives you yep , ish . We'll say ish , yes . South side of Fayetteville yep , okay , we'll say Hope Mills . We don't want to be associated with Fayetteville , even though it's a pretty cool town . We are on the south side , hope Mills , and it's closer to Pembroke , which is another 40 minutes down the road .
Speaker 1So , all of those years of training and all of those years of coaching , what would you say is your philosophy or style of coaching ?
Speaker 2I am . I don't want to say I'm laissez faire , even though it may come across if you talk to my athletes . I'm not a-faire , even though it may come across if you talk to my athletes . I'm not a in-your-face yell-scream type person at practice or anything like that . I save that for race day more encouragement as opposed to yelling during practice , because it's a waste of that Well especially with your background in sports psychology right .
Speaker 1Is that an effective method of ?
Speaker 2coaching Not for me , at least Not for me . I share a hallway with baseball and the baseball coach is four letter words all day and that's that's his motivation . And I appreciate that . I just can't do that when I'm coaching guys and girls at the same time . It doesn't work . But I think philosophy for triathlon and endurance based athletes , it's the programs there . I'm willing to answer any questions , help you do whatever , but it's I'm not going to be in your face telling you you suck if you don't finish workout , Cause I know , I know , you know we all know that life gets in the way of executing a plan to a hundred percent . And I feel I'm very flexible , having been married for 25 years , two grown , two grown buck kids and trying to balance a semi-competitive racing schedule within that . So like I get it and I'm willing to work around that . So I guess I'm not laissez-faire but I'm flexible with the needs and desires of the athletes I work with .
Speaker 1Yeah , would you like to share what race you did last year in the fall time period ? Oh , this time , this time last year , uh-huh this time last year , uh-huh this time last year , uh-huh this time last year , Uh-huh .
Speaker 2This time last year I might've been in a country called France getting ready for the Ironman World Championships .
Speaker 1I mean kind of a big deal .
Speaker 2I would have trained a little bit differently had I known or realized how much 8,000 feet of climbing actually felt like and how many times I wanted to get off that bike within the first hour and a half , two hours .
Speaker 1But that's the fun part about racing , right .
Speaker 2Yeah , well , the two hours , but great , that's the fun part about racing , right ? Yeah it , well , the . The soggy part about world championships and that kind of racing is the age group I'm in . I was the last male age group to go in the water oh so as bad of a day I had on both the bike and the run . Just from a time span perspective , I've never been in a race where they started to shut down aid stations so like the the out the back half of the run where they started to shut down aid stations .
Speaker 2So , like the the out the back half of the run where they were shutting down and cleaning out the aid station , I was like , hello , what ? Hello ? I've still got 10 K to go .
Speaker 1What an interesting experience for someone who's you're probably towards , and have been used to being the front of the pack , and now it's like , oh my gosh , now I'm towards the back . And what happens back here , even though you're not slow , but just at different rates , yeah .
Speaker 2Worlds in 23 was slow . The wife did not like 14 hours of waiting but made up for that this year at Roth with right at about 11 hours . So she was very pleased with that . But it is kind of cool , depending on how slow or where you are in transition , because you can hear the male winner or you can see Jan Frodeno coming down the finishing chute while you're going out on the run . So there's there's perks of when and where you start and your time on the course .
Speaker 1I dig
it All right . So I've been asking all our coaches this what is a memorable success story or achievement you've had with one or some of your athletes ? Cause you've got quite the coaching career . You just had one athlete had a baby , not that you , I mean you coached her through that . That's kind of a big deal .
Speaker 2She would be my second athlete to have a baby , cause I had one when I was coaching in college too , which was weird , but she came back stronger and faster . So maybe that's what a said athlete will do , I don't know . Like I've had athletes win conference titles , be all American and stuff like that , and I don't know if that's that's . While that is a success as defined by a lot of people , I get excited when the athlete comes back from a race or an event and they say , hey , I just that was a PR , that was a season , best lifetime , best , whatever , and I just I'm excited about the . Just their facial expressions and their excitement gets me excited , and so that's .
Speaker 2I could have 10 achievements in a meet or stuff like that . I think when they win team stuff , that's kind of like the big success . But I think within that you've got little successes and it could be one second , could be 10 seconds , could be a minute , could be 10 minutes . Over the course of 25 plus years I've had an All-American in the marathon when I was in AI , which he finished fourth , which was really cool , and I've had a guy finish eighth in the country for D2 cross country twice . But while those are very good and those are my recruiting points , I think it's the average kid getting better is where I like to hang my hat on the achievements and the success .
Speaker 1So it sounds like not just the big quote , unquote titles , but the like , the small steps and just continuing to move forward .
Speaker 2Yeah , because the fasties are always going to be fast and you can only have so many fasties on a team . It's really those average to a semi above average athletes that you're actually developing . So , like my four time All-American in cross , he was fast already I just was crossing my fingers that I didn't get him any slower . So that's that . But like it's those kids that come in as 17 minute 10K guys or 5K guys out of high school and they're running 15 minute 5Ks a year and a half later . Or it's the girls that are running 22 minutes 5Ks in high school and they're running 19 , 30 or faster , you know , a year and a half . Well , last year I had a girl as 21 , 22 minutes . She ran 19 , 30 indoors and was about 19 low outdoors . That's a pretty big improvement for a six to eight month span . And we were running through running . I don't say running through , we're running with injury but we managed them successfully to where she could do that .
Speaker 1So yeah , yeah . So you've talked a good amount about some of your younger athletes . How , with the endurance edge ? Generally speaking , our average age , I would say , is somewhere between late twenties and like mid sixties , probably averaging out somewhere in the forties . Ish , I'd say , how different . How would you compare those two groups of like hey , I'm coming to you and I want to do my first Ironman or I want to get faster . Do you feel like it's a different approach than cross-country kids in college ?
Speaker 2Not necessarily .
Speaker 1Okay , yeah , tell me about that .
Speaker 2I think they're all coming to you with a goal . So one person's goal at 18 to 22 is to get as fast as they can in the shortest amount of time to do whatever it is , and they may never have the ability to have the resources they have for those four years , the coaching they have and it's all they get free resources , free coaching , free shoes , free gear . Now , 20 years later , which is ish , where we are , or I am , it's the same thing . Like they're trying to maximize their fitness but still achieve goals . Now the goal may not be to win a race , win a conference title , win , whatever it may be .
Speaker 2Let me place top 10 , my age group or top . Let me get on the podium on my age group or let me this is what I have to do to get to worlds or to an age group championship , and let me do . Let me rank myself amongst people in my age group and that . So like it's the same goal . We're just working a different time frame and we may not have quite as much time to work with , because in college they're there for four years , whereas we may only have an athlete for six months to a year to two years to three years , depending on how long their interest in the sport and life takes them .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2I know I also like it because it's like I'm right there with them , so like if I've got somebody who's doing an Ironman for the first time while I don't feel I'm bragging , but I'm giving them my veteran and this didn't work for me . So don't do this because you don't want to end up like coach Orangeby on the side of the side of the road . But no , I enjoy like doing that because I really can't do that with my kids , cause I was slower in college than they are and I'm not any faster now , but I'm more resilient now than I was back then and I think that's that's I . They keep me going and I think it just kind of carries into the more adult athletes that I work with .
Speaker 1Do you think that that's a difference in training volume or intensity , or just training differently , or maybe getting better rest ? Like what would you attribute your success as a triathlete to ?
Speaker 2It's a little bit of like . I'm going to say like nutrition is probably my like weekend , like it is the I'm always working on'm a I'm a train to eat type person or eat to train or both which is all I like my pizza , I like my burgers , I like my , I like my monsters , whatever .
Speaker 2But I also like my six-hour bike rides , I like my two-hour long runs . I think for me it's just consistency . And I could go back in my training log two , three , four , five years to where my training hours have increased , not exponentially , but it's been like 60 to 90 hours each year since , like COVID . I think COVID was still a great year for everybody from a training perspective if they took advantage of it . But I can definitely look back in my training logs and say , okay , 2020 was great , 2024 is going to be probably 5% , 10% higher than that . So I think it's the consistency of what you're doing , along with rest , recovery and everything else that kind of goes into how long you can do this without getting hurt .
Speaker 1I think there is an assumption that , oh , I'm going to train for let's call it Ironman . All of a sudden you're up to the volume that you're at and then somebody gets hurt . I mean . So what I hear you saying is this takes a long time to develop . Like endurance takes a while .
Speaker 2We can . We can all coach somebody to an Ironman in in six months . Now that may just be to finish an Ironman , which is great . I think everybody that wants to do that is that . It's how competitive do you want to be , or can you be ? And I think you've got to get that first one out of the . You've got to do it . But then I also think you have to be consistent over the next couple of years , racing 70.3s and picking the right Ironman , depending on what the goal is for them , whether it's 12 hours , 14 hours , 10 hours , whatever the case may be , it's it's picking one that fits your , your lifestyle , your training needs and the time of year .
Speaker 1That's a good point , cool , all right . So are you ready for a little rapid fire ? Not rapid fire questions ? Sure , okay , we'll see how quickly you answer these . Cause the other coaches I've asked we just go off on tangents and it doesn't end up really being rapid fire . But that's okay , we're going to all ask the same questions . So what are your and we can see them . What are your bike brands ?
Speaker 2Quintana Roo is the racing bike Cool and and .
Speaker 1Oh , that one's behind the .
Speaker 2That one's behind Bucky the Beaver , so that's a specialized . Okay , so those are my two brands , quintana Roo and Specialized , as it stands right now .
Speaker 1Okay , cool . What is your favorite distance to race ? 70.3 . Okay , and what's your favorite distance to coach ?
Speaker 2I would say probably 70.3 or Ironman . I can go down to the Olympic side if needed or wanted .
Speaker 1Okay , all right . What is your current favorite discipline ? Is it swim , bike run , strength train ?
Speaker 2eating pizza . If eating pizza was a discipline , I'd be right there . I don't know . It's between the bike and the run . If you asked me 10 years ago , I'd probably say for sure the run , still learning how to race efficiently on the bike and learning how to push . Having a run background , I want to save some for the run and don't want to cook myself too much on the bike , so I'm still learning power and stuff like that on the bike to make sure it's good .
Speaker 1So you're saying you can't get this sport figured out in one race ?
Speaker 2I'm still figuring it out 30 years later . Right , what is your favorite race ? Can't get this sport figured out in one race .
Speaker 1I'm still figuring it out 30 years later . Right , what is your favorite race ?
Speaker 2oh , uh . I would say after doing roth in july , I'd say that's , that's a top three race . But I'd also say 70.3 in hawaii I think is is a favorite too . I've done that twice and I think we're going back there next year is that maui ? It's , it's on kona or it's in oh the on the big island .
Speaker 1It's on the big island .
Speaker 2It starts halfway up . It's at the Fairmont Orchid , so it starts 20 miles north .
Speaker 1I think it is west of yeah .
Speaker 2Waikoloa yeah , that's , but no , I we've enjoyed that . We've gone there twice and then we'll go back next year , so very
cool .
Speaker 1Love that pet peeve as a coach and pet peeve as an athlete . See , I told you this wasn't going to be rapid fire , but that's okay .
Speaker 2Pet peeve as a coach is really athletes that say they're going to listen but then do exactly the opposite of what you want . So like hey , don't do three workouts in one day just because you missed one the other day . And lo and behold behold , training peak shows three workouts within whatever 30 minutes of each other . And like you just , you just kill yourself for the next day and a half yeah , I always love how they're like , but it says it on my calendar .
Speaker 1I was like , yeah , and guess who has the power to make it go away ?
Speaker 2delete uh , pet peeve as an athlete ? I don't know if I have a pet peeve as an athlete . I just I wish well , I guess it is peppy . I wish athletes would just abide by the rules and not wear headphones and all this other stuff when they're not supposed to . So maybe that's the race director in me or whatever , but I just hate seeing that because you obviously didn't didn't read them or don't know USAT rules .
Speaker 1Yes , well , and if you're potentially compromising your own safety and the safety of others , it's kind of like yeah , all right , your favorite workout to program and your favorite workout to do .
Speaker 2I enjoy bricks . Okay , we talked about that on the coach's call last week and Marty's not a huge fan yeah , I , and my wife was listening to that whole conversation I like them . Now I may not do them exactly the way they're supposed to be , where it's like come back , drop the bike , get on the run . I'll take like five , 10 minutes , cause that's what transition on 70.3 or an Ironman is going to be , but I enjoy . I enjoy feeling what the legs are going to feel on that and and it's . I've been surprised at how fast , like if it's a heart rate based run , I'm like it's heart rate , but then I'm going like seven flat . I was like who would have thought I was going to go seven flat off the bike ? Yeah , I enjoy that and that's a . That's a weekly thing for me , so there's not a well this week . I'm racing this weekend , so I probably won't do anything .
Speaker 1Oh yeah , where are you racing ?
Speaker 2Age group nationals up in Atlantic . Oh , that's right .
Speaker 1Yes , ooh , good luck ahead of time . Okay , so favorite workouts bricks what do you also like to program ? Bricks ? And just so , just so if does . Somebody doesn't know what a brick is . Generally speaking , it is like a bike run combination workout , but it could kind of be any combination of workouts really yeah , I haven't tried the swim bike thing because I think they they say that's important too .
Speaker 2I just haven't , is it ?
Speaker 1logistically . Personally , I that's kind of a pain to me . I'm like I don't want to get my bike wet if I don't have to . But that's kind of a pain to me . I'm like I don't want to get my bike wet if I don't have to , but that's kind of lame of me , you know , but Hardest part is getting the wetsuit off .
Speaker 2Maybe that's what they're transitioning .
Speaker 1It could be .
Speaker 2Programming wise I don't know Like I think program I think I'm equally everything has its place . So I don't think there's a favorite thing . I think every workout has its own place within the week , but a lot of it depends on the athlete . The athlete may go . I want to run one extra day .
Speaker 2Fine , we can run five days a week or we can do three swims instead of four . So like I'm open to the athletes of how , like I know the structure of what I want , but obviously it's their plan . So just being flexible with what they want and where they want .
Speaker 1Yeah , I think that just goes to show that there's not one way to accomplish your goal . You know , I think there's a sort of perhaps a misperception or a misconception that you have to run three times and bike three times and swim three times a week and that's otherwise , you're not a good triathlete .
Speaker 2And it sounds like you're saying that's not really the case I like the structure that I use but I know it's not for everybody , um but also like , if they're , if they can't run too much anyway , then we maybe we have to do a little bit of extra swimming and biking or we have to supplement with with cross training and stuff like that . So like I'm flexible with nearly anything and everything , just knowing that there are minimums that I think we need to do per week . So I think there's a minimum that we we should be programming , but obviously it's all up to the athlete and what they can't handle in recovery . If you're working with middle age or 30 to whatever athletes is like , recovery is a huge thing and I know you guys don't like it that I'm able to do an Iron man and come back the next week and do a half iron man and do even better at the half .
Speaker 1So you guys , we . So we have weekly coaches meetings , which are great because we all get to learn from each other and share , share war stories or ask questions or learn how to just generally program differently better , coach differently better . We and when I say we , it's typically Carly and myself who are giving Peter the hardest time , because the amount of beating that this dude can take that I know I couldn't take . We razz you because we're jealous . So there's that .
Speaker 2So it was . The whole thing was at last , you know , 22, . It was 22 that I did . Ironman Maryland went 1122 , which is a PR at the time for me , and then I came back the following week and did Augusta went 4-44 , which was a PR for like I was like a 20-year PR and I was done after that . That was the end of the season . There was no , but I surprised myself .
Speaker 1You peaked at just the right time .
Speaker 2I peaked at just the right time . I peaked at just the right time and you guys were not the only ones because I had other people on Facebook going . What the hell were you thinking ? I was like I couldn't get out of it . I'd already signed up for it . Yeah .
Speaker 1Well , I will say that's a little bit of my pet peeve is like , oh , you shouldn't be doing that , or like somebody else , certainly on social media , being like thinking that they know your context , you know like , no , that's their opinion and maybe it wouldn't work for them , but if it works for you , great , and clearly it did so and you're still here .
Speaker 2I'm trying to think . I think I did the same thing last year .
Speaker 1I think I did worlds , and two weeks later it was augusta it was something like that you had a if I remember right , it was like a three week turnaround , maybe , or something else that you did . You did two Ironmans , wasn't ?
Speaker 2it . I did Placid in July and I came back and did Worlds in September . Two weeks later it was Augusta don't be jealous .
Speaker 1Just know that Peter knows himself very well . And that's okay , we will leave the razzing to us . You're welcome . So do you have a least favorite workout ?
Speaker 2Anything that involves sprints in the pool .
Speaker 1Really .
Speaker 2Yeah , I will do two 3000 , 4000 straight in the pool . But if you want me to do 25 sprints as fast as I can , no bueno . So you're made for Ironmanints . As fast as I can , no bueno .
Speaker 1So you're made for Ironman ? It was what I just heard you say .
Speaker 2I am made for like five second recoveries and I can go all day with that or continuous stuff . But if you want me to do the threshold and LT and sprints in the pool , not going to happen , it will happen . It just won't be . You won't see a pace differential .
Speaker 1Or a smile on your face .
Speaker 2Until I'm done .
Speaker 1Yes , Until you're done . Yeah , that's fair , all right , cool .
Well , peter , thank you for sharing your story and your history and hopefully your personality too . Right , because everyone deserves to have the right fit and have a good relationship with their coach . Because it is , I'm like , coaching is very personal and I think so many people are like oh yeah , I just got to plan off the internet , which is fine . I feel like everybody needs a place to start or at least have some level of structure . But if you're really going to do better , I feel like you have to have a good , you have to have that good third party to be guiding you in the right way . So if you guys want to work with coach Peter , head on over to our website , the endurance edgecom . And , peter , thank you so much for sharing and we appreciate having you on .
Speaker 2You're welcome . Thank you for having me .