Build One Brick at a Time

Anyone who knows me or is coached by me knows my philosophy is rooted in lifestyle and consistency. Life is going to ebb and flow. Your goals will, too. We need to build something that can move with that.

There will be seasons when you have more time and energy to give to training, and seasons when your capacity looks different. The question is how we keep building through those changes in a way you can sustain.

When I start working with an athlete, I want to understand their history, where they are right now, and how training fits into their life. What have they experienced? What do they enjoy? What demands are they managing outside the sport?

We have to respect and honor that starting point. It gives us somewhere honest to build from.

Then we ask: What do we need to do today to keep building one brick on top of the other?

Sometimes that means adding to what an athlete can handle. Sometimes it means repeating the basics, finding a manageable rhythm, or allowing room for recovery. Each of those can help us take the next step.

This is also why I’m careful about putting a performance target out there too early.

First, a target can start driving decisions before the athlete is ready. A pace or finish time begins to dictate what they think they should do and how they feel about themselves. They start measuring today against where they think they should already be. We get ahead of where we actually are, and the work in front of us can start to feel like it isn’t enough.

Second, that target can become a cap. An athlete decides what they think is possible, reaches it, and has already put a ceiling on their potential.

Who knows where you might end up if you keep building?

Goals can give us direction. I also want us to leave room for what we haven’t discovered yet.

Part of my job as a coach is to hold that bigger picture. Athletes are living the day to day, feeling what is right in front of them. I can help provide guardrails while looking at development over years. That perspective helps us make decisions that support both the athlete’s current life and their opportunity to keep growing.

That matters especially when someone is starting again.

One athlete came to me after a year away from training and racing. She had experienced burnout, changes in her body, and a knee injury. What she missed was bigger than race results. She missed her friendships, the daily structure, and the purpose and confidence training had given her.

She needed someone who would see her as a whole person and meet her where she was.

That was our starting point. Her history mattered, and so did the person she was now. We needed to respect both as we looked at how training could fit into her life again.

Even when a new athlete has obvious talent, I’m careful about making talent the focus. I want them to enjoy doing the sport before results become the reason they do it. Results have so many variables. Enjoying the daily experience gives us something to keep coming back to through all the different seasons of being an athlete.

One of my first questions is simple: “Did you have fun?”

When the answer is, “Yes, that was great. I had a really good time,” we have something to build on.

Start where you are. Find the enjoyment. Keep showing up in a way your life can support. Put the next brick down, and leave room to discover how far you can go.