The Power of Human Connection in Multisport Coaching Ep 69

The secret to unlocking your full potential lies not in data or AI, but in the power of human connection! Join Coach Chris and Coach Carlie in this special edition of the Find Your Edge podcast as we explore the irreplaceable role of a coach. We promise you'll discover how personalized support can push you beyond your limits or provide the compassion you need when you're too hard on yourself. In a world obsessed with numbers, we reveal why success isn't just about hitting targets but understanding the person behind the athlete.

We explore real stories that highlight the magic of tailored guidance. From encouraging much-needed rest days to helping athletes manage their mental game, it's these nuanced insights that make all the difference. We stress the importance of feedback that goes beyond metrics, shedding light on the unseen aspects of training—like emotional well-being and physical recovery—that data alone can't capture. Tune in for a heartfelt discussion on how true coaching supports your journey toward holistic progress and the realization of your inner strength.

For those of you dreaming big for 2025, we have some fantastic plans in store to help you achieve your goals. We invite you to join us for our virtual open houses this week and next, where we’ll focus on making your triathlon dreams a reality.

We’re launching some amazing programs in 2025, including group training for Ironman and 70.3 events, a scholarship program, and our winter strength and speed training. If you’re ready for a personalized training plan designed just for you—one that’s based on proven science and supported by a real coach—then this is your chance! Save your spot at our open houses, where you can ask our coaches anything, discover how we can help you accomplish incredible things, and become part of a supportive community. Visit the

Experience the breakthrough when everything finally clicks! Train with expert coaches, fuel with incredible chef-prepared meals, and connect with athletes who love triathlon as much as you do. Join us April 22–26 at beautiful Lake Jocassee for four unforgettable days of swim, bike, run, learning, and community. Spots are almost full: Reserve yours here.

Transcript

Chris 1:32

All right, y'all welcome back to the Find your Edge podcast. This is an impromptu podcast, so I was in the middle of a meeting with Coach Carly and I was like the things that we are saying right now need to be said out loud to everyone. So here we are. This is all about what makes our coaching service better and that's not to toot our horn, but maybe a little bit it is. But at the end of the day, we're here for you and we want to help you succeed.

Chris 2:04

That is literally why I was put on this planet is that you are better than you think you are. You are stronger than you think you are. You have so much in your soul and in your body that is ready to do amazing things, and I totally believe in you, and I know Coach Carly does too. We were just talking about how human connection is so critical in our industry. As a coach, In your opinion, Carly, why should people not just choose AI or just a training plan or maybe a coach who gives them something and they never even have a conversation? What is it that you have found that makes us different?

Carlie 2:41

You can see how well I prepared that question right. No, it's great, it's great. What kind of sparked our original conversation that we're basically now recording was? We both shared examples, on both ends of the spectrum, that have happened to us in the past week and that happened to us regularly as coaches. One, from a motivational standpoint, of being there for an athlete and feeling like you need to help push them and take them out of their comfort zone when they're maybe not in the mood to do so, or maybe don't know or realize what they're capable of in the mood to do so, or maybe don't know or realize what they're capable of.

Carlie 3:22

And then the opposite end of the spectrum, where an athlete might be beating themselves up for whatever list of 100 reasons of why we get in our heads of what we're doing wrong in training, and giving them that grace and comfort of maybe this happens to everyone, maybe this is really common, and it's not just you and everyone that's going into this race is having the same thought right now.

Carlie 3:42

Or even oh, my favorite, and you guys have heard me say it a million times it's good to rest. You guys Like skipping a day of training because you are too tired. We all do it, sometimes it is all needed, sometimes it's beneficial. We all do it. Sometimes it is all needed, sometimes it's beneficial. So, again, the two ends of the spectrum of we're here when you need to be pushed, we're here when you need to give yourself grace, and then we're also just there in the middle for those middle conversations that are just like a check-in of hey, I know training peaks is green right now, but how did it look? Am I on par with what you expect or what you want? And just kind of getting that feedback that you're, you're, you're on the right track. So kind of spanning it rather than just seeing a green or seeing an orange and moving along.

Chris 4:30

Yes, cause as much as we love data and listen, we love data. I mean, you know, part of our process is putting everybody through a metabolic test in order to set their zones properly, because then a lot of data doesn't, it's not valuable if it's not correct.

Chris 4:48

Right. So we can't look at, say, like a training stress, but at the same time, training stress is related to your heart and lungs, your cardiorespiratory fitness. But if we have athletes who are frequently injured or always have that nagging little, whatever, whatever, or just don't recover, well, I'm sorry but the green tells us nothing about that. The green tells us nothing about that. That is where you have to have that feedback from a coach to say, okay, let's do this or not do that, or really work on mobility. Today, you know, like musculoskeletal overload is not something that can, at least right now, be quantified. So one of my rants on the like oh, it's green, I like to have my schedule be all green and don't I mean don't we all read that Like, this is the population that really thrives on success and like doing things well. But success is not just green.

Carlie 5:47

Yes, oh, I love that. And I and to sort of piggyback off of that I've had athletes come in with perfectly green weeks before and been like I need a day off. I'm burnt, that was my max, I have nothing left to give. And the numbers and the metrics are all perfect. They're not in over fatigue, they've got the green, they're good to go, but mentally and personally they need a day with their family or to go to the beach for a day, and that's equally as important as being consistent and seeing that progressive overload. So again, that humanness of being able to recognize, empathize and step in before we reach the point of burnout and have those conversations.

Chris 6:34

And also being someone who can encourage we can't make you to do. I mean, especially considering the breadth of our coaching staff between sports psychologists and dietitians and like people you know in the healthcare field physical therapists, right Like you might need to go see your physician, you might need to go to PT, you might need to go to therapy, you might need to go get a massage. All of those things play in to the process. Doesn't mean we can make you, but we see it and sometimes you got to have maybe slightly uncomfortable conversations about that, or or totally transparent, normal conversations, I don't, you know just having a conversation.

Chris 7:26

Yeah, absolutely, I feel like that's super important. And you made the point of like hey, listen, I see a lot of people's training plans and that's not like I coach so many people. All of the coaches meet on a weekly basis and we look at everyone's training plans. So, not to say that we're comparing you to the next person. In a way we are like we look at one person. Of course, where I was gonna throw Coach Peter under the bus because the dude can literally like nonstop train and not get injured, which you know it's fine. I mean slightly jealous, but whatever.

Carlie 8:03

It's not absolutely jealous over here but that is a unique situation.

Chris 8:11

Not everybody can train like that. If I took his training plan and gave it to some of my other athletes, they would break, but that's not something I would know unless I've gotten to know this athlete. So if we're just going off of training stress, which you know something like AI or whatever would be going off of fine. But having somebody to actually check in on you and make sure you're doing the right amount and make sure you're not getting injured, and make sure or mentally breaking because burnout is bad yeah, words of wisdom.

Chris 8:47

So I mean we're really here to like keep people in the sport, whether it be just swimming or just biking or just running or the multi-sport itself, like we've not done our job if you, if you're burned out, in my opinion she's thinking.

Carlie 9:03

I'm taking a long pause because I know there was another one it was just talking about this earlier today in in that, particularly when we're newer into triathlon whether we're brand new, it's been a year, maybe it's been two to three years, so you're still feeling kind of new, particularly if you've moved up in distance and you've entered a different type of training that you haven't done previously and seen success in where maybe you have this preset plan that you found and it's worked in the past. And now you're into this new training phase and you know I'm supposed to feel fatigued, I'm supposed to be sore sometimes. I know that I'm stretching myself and this should feel like a general level of stress or stretching in life. But where? Where's that line? And if you don't have someone to talk to about it that knows what they're doing or has experience in this, then that line is. It's a big fat line, because you don't know where the margin is there.

Carlie 10:05

And, to your point, it's not that any one of us in particular has coached millions of athletes, but collectively we all bring all of our athletes into our meetings.

Carlie 10:14

So we're looking at, you know, 50 maybe plus training plans, not every time we meet, but they're there and we've got eyes on them. So we're all experiencing all these different athletes at all times and can and can see like where these lines are drawn, as to what the expectation is for fatigue and soreness and all of that, and we help athletes find that line better. So not only do they have more confidence in their training and their experience, they're not over there wondering like am I over training? I know I'm supposed to be tired, am I tired enough? Am I too tired? Do I need a day off? And that's where we kind of come in and be like here's what we usually see with your age, your fitness, your recovery needs. This is where we find that line. Let's look at this data and show you you know where your stress score is and all of that, and help them feel like they're appropriately fatigued or training or whatever there may be questioning on that line.

Chris 11:14

But again, just helps kind of narrow in that margin for you to know that you're on the right track and not overdoing it or underdoing it, as you were saying, is sometimes I'll look at their labs to like at least from a nutritional perspective and see if we start having physiological labs that are leaning towards overreaching or overtraining. So what I hear you saying basically is more of a holistic approach, approaching the whole human rather than just like a piece of paper that is directing just your training. We're looking at the whole person, especially with reducing rates of burnout and improving recovery and helping with fueling and hydration and helping just feel good and and find training rewarding. Yeah, it's supposed to be fun, right, I know. Right, it's fun, it's healthy.

Chris 12:07

So that was our impromptu, our impromptu podcast. We did it. That is our way of working with folks. That I feel like, is a different way than your average training plan or your average coaching program is that we love the data, but we also value connection, human connection, as well as training the whole person and training you, like you have multiple coaches rather than just one, so yeah, yeah, and I'll add that I was absolutely that beginner triathlete finding the line of over fatigued following an online plan and being like, am I supposed to be this tired, supposed to hurt this much?

Carlie 12:49

and and finding the way, and it's so A it's easier with experience, but B it's so much easier once you have a coach and have that feedback to know if you're you're on the right track, yeah, and also helping people get over the plateau Cause.

Chris 13:03

Yes, can you do it on your own, 100% like, absolutely. But is it so much better with the feedback from a coach? Can you get there so much faster? Yeah, and why not Like again, we're here to bring out that awesome sauce in you. That sounded kind of weird. I apologize, but welcome to the team y'all.

Carlie 13:29

We hope you be more efficient. Yes, Get time back with your family. Keep that balance going and not feeling like you need to spend all of your free time figuring out what the heck you're doing.

Chris 13:40

Yes, super cool. All right, y'all. Thanks for listening and we will catch you next time. And don't forget that you're invited to join us for our virtual open houses this week and next week, where we'll focus on making your triathlon dreams a reality. Visit the endurance edgecom forward slash 2025 to secure your spot today, and I look forward to personally meeting all of you again. That's the endurance edgecom forward slash 2025.