From Broke Grad Student to Ironman: Coach Carlie's Journey into Coaching Ep 59

If you've ever thought, I know I'd benefit from a coach, but I'm just not ready to pay for one yet, this is for you. We've created something new at the Endurance Edge called the Club Membership. It's for runners and triathletes who want a real training plan created by our expert coaches, people to train alongside, and connection to a serious and seriously fun endurance community without the cost of full coaching. You get professionally built training plans delivered through TrainingPeaks Premium, access to our virtual workouts, team socials, and athlete-led sessions. So you're never training alone, no matter where you are in the country. All of this is bundled into a low monthly rate or save nearly 50% by joining for the year and get as many training plans as you need to do awesome things. It's the smartest way to stop guessing and start training with purpose. Learn more at theenduranceedge.com/club.

All right. Welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast. I am your host, Coach Christina Fiumara Newport, and I am here today with Coach Carly. Welcome.

Hello. Hello.

We are doing a series on all of our coaches, getting to know each one of them a little bit better, because the glorious thing, in my humble opinion, of working here is that I get to pick all of these wonderful coaches' brains. Every week and kind of vice versa instead of living in a silo like I did for many, many years being like, I don't know, am I doing this right? Sure. And now I have all these amazing coaches that we can all learn from each other, which is cool. So today is all about Coach Carly and I am excited to talk to her because she is amazing and I know you guys are going to love her too. Let's jump in, shall we?

Let's do it.

All right, so how did you get into triathlon in the first place?

I, like many other triathletes, got into triathlon after being in running for a little while. Uh, I was a broke grad student and couldn't afford a gym membership and just put on a pair of sneakers and started running. Uh, and at some point I got it in my head that I wanted to do a full Ironman and I didn't know how to swim and I didn't know how to bike. but I was gonna do an Ironman. So that is, it just started from zero really and, and figured it out as I went along.

I love how we have these like harebrained ideas, like I'm broke, so I'm gonna start running and then maybe also do triathlon.

Yep. Yep. Yeah. I, uh, I'm a big, uh, set big scary goals and spend a while working on 'em type of person. So. That it's true to my character. Anyone that knows me wouldn't be surprised by that story. I, uh, I swing for the fences.

Nice. Awesome. So, and big scary goal, you did it, right?

Yeah.

And multiple times.

Yeah. Yeah.

So cool. Multiple times. Um, and what, when you got to the finish line or when you got to the end or days afterwards, week, weeks afterwards, which perhaps we'll get into that as to what you're studying at the moment, was it all that you had thought of?

Oh, that's a great question. Uh, I told you we would go off script, by the way.

I warned you, you know this.

I actually really like that question because I feel like it absolutely has— not to sound like so cliché, but Ironman absolutely changed my life. It started off as like, I want to do this ridiculous thing, like, let's go for it. And along the way found that it was impacting me in a far more profound way than I like to exercise, let's do something hard. Yeah. Um, and now I'm a multi-time Ironman. I'm getting my doctorate in sports psychology cuz it just, I'm a coach. It truly changed the trajectory of what I was passionate about and what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, which is pretty cool and crazy all at the same time.

Right? Yeah. Can you briefly touch on some of those like life-changing things that you experienced while training for Ironman or during Ironman or post-Ironman? I'm, I'm sort of leading all the leading questions as to getting her to talk about her thesis or, uh, dissertation.

So yeah. Um, the starting off with the hard-hitting one, I guess I'll say I went in, I went into triathlon. I, I got it. I had a background in exercise science. I, I have my bachelor's in exercise science. I came from a very fit, played all the sports growing up sort of background. And again, Ironman is just kind of like, hey, this seems crazy and hard and I You know, was living that life, so let's go for it. I would say it was way harder than I thought it was gonna be. It challenged me in ways that I didn't think I would be challenged. And post-Ironman really realized how introspective I had to get to push through the obstacles, to have the confidence that I could do it again. I, I taught myself how to swim. Like that's not something you do in your mid-20s, or it's not. Yeah. None of my friends were doing this with me. I was, I as the crazy one, uh, just kind of along the, the train of figuring it out as I went along. Um, and the, the mental skills that I had to develop far surpassed the physical skills that I had to develop to get there, which led me into this whole sports psychology world where I am today.

Okay. Okay. You know it's coming. So what's the dissertation? Oh yes.

Um, getting started on my dissertation now, working on post-Ironman blues. Specific to long course triathlon, but looking at that slump that many athletes go through post-Ironman, post-big race. It can happen in marathon, even half marathon when you put a lot of time into training, you dedicate a lot of space to it and then have this slump afterwards. Kind of looking at predictor variables as to why that might be happening and how we can prevent or lessen the impacts of that as coaches moving forward.

That is super fascinating because also I don't think many people talk about that. You know, they're like, oh cool, you're doing Ironman, right on. You know, train for it, train. And then you do it and you're just like, oh, you know, hey, let's go for a bike ride. You're like, how far? Um, 20 miles. Like, why?

Yeah.

Why, why bother going for a 20 miles? It's like, cuz it's fun and it's good for you and you like it. And you're like, I, I don't know, do I like it? So that is very exciting that you're studying that. Anything else you wanna say about sort of, I mean, shoot, you've been researching this enough right now about post-Ironman expectations, cuz again, nobody talks about that, which is why we are.

Yeah. I think we often spend a lot of time thinking about that finish line, right? It helps motivate us, it helps get us going, and there isn't a lot of forethought into What am I doing the month after Ironman? What am I doing 2 months after Ironman? And we end up getting home from our race and just kind of being in this weird place of, what am I doing now? I have nothing to do on a Saturday. I, I'm not going to work out for 5+ hours today. And I think just sort of preparing yourself for that phase and like have something on the calendar. It doesn't have to be a race, doesn't, you know, it can be a vacation, but something else to be looking forward to after that finish line. So you're not just sort of in this limbo of what now? Yeah.

So I know you've touched on it a little bit, but what brought you into the segue to coaching?

The irony being that I didn't have a coach training for my first Ironman or my second Ironman, but I feel like I, I found the value in it afterwards. Uh, definitely came in with the stubbornness of like, I understand exercise physiology, I'm gonna figure this out on my own. And the general brokenness being a grad student. Uh, but really finding the value in that and feeling like I had a unique perspective of didn't have a cycling background, I didn't have a swimming background, and just the nuances of, of how to help someone navigate those waters felt really appealing to me. And, uh, yeah, it's kind of my motivation behind it.

Love it. So tying into that, what is your philosophy or style of coaching? Are you the, like, um, I mean, this totally sounds like you. Are you the, like, suck it up and just do it kind of coach? Or, uh, you know, perhaps, uh, the opposite of that?

I, I would say I, I lean heavily in the opposite direction of that, but, uh, there's always a time and a place too. I think as most coaches do, try to take an individual approach to each athlete. I'll say that I often get paired with athletes that have really busy schedules and are, are looking for efficient, effective, and likely to be completed workouts. But mostly someone to, I'd say less about the what I need to be doing and more about the like having the support, having someone help build my confidence up as I do this. Um, cuz triathlon's an individual sport. A lot of people don't. Have a community coming into it and kind of finding a person to help you figure that part of it out, um, and feel a little less alone while you're on it, on the journey to particularly into long course where you're spending extra time, uh, out there oftentimes by yourself. But yeah, taking that, that approach of I wanna make sure we're scheduling things that are enjoyable so you're more likely to get them done and time efficient. And I, I personally enjoy the, the more complex case study you are, the more I enjoy it. Uh, the puzzle pieces of figuring out how to get it all in on those, those crazy schedules that people have. It's fun.

Yeah. So any memorable moments with athletes you've had so far, or various achievements either of your own or your athletes?

Yeah, I, you prepped me the, with this question and I told you before that you always have the, the highlights, right? Like I, I started coaching someone as a runner and had the privilege of being there when she crossed her first 70.3 line with no intent of ever becoming a triathlete when we first met. Um, and then, and being there to see her, A, through all of that training, but B, cross the finish line was really magical. And as coaches, we all have those, those big moments that stand out. But truly, I think my favorite moments are the, you know, the random Saturday when an athlete rode 20 miles for the first time and that just that was their Everest, right? It was like they never thought that they could do that. So I'd say my favorite ones have nothing to do with the finish line. They're the, the random surprises that kind of pop into training of, oh my God, I never thought I would do this. Yeah. And I did it on a random Tuesday.

You know what's coming up for me is when we were sagging at camp back when we were in Virginia and when Chelsea came to the top of the mountain and we were waiting at the top with drinks and snacks and she just like, collapsed into your arms in tears, and it was like the most adorable, sweetest moment. I was just like, so, you know, it's just like all the feels. I was like, yay.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I like, I just got the chills just thinking about that moment again. And those are also the moments that, as I was talking about before, and I feel like I'm sounding like this really big, sappy, emotional woman over here, and I generally—

we're allowed to have the feels. It's okay.

I'm generally not, but like, In that moment, I could tell that she was forever changed. She now knew that she could tackle things that she never thought she could before.

Totally.

And, and that's the craziness about getting into long course triathlon, even, even sprints and Olympics too. Don't like, I'm not trying to belittle them by any means, but obviously if you can't tell, I love long course triathlon. That's where my, my favorite distances lay. But yeah, those moments where it just hits you of like, oh my gosh, I can do something I never thought that I could before. And I worked really hard and I just did it. It's so cool.

It is so cool. I agree. So speaking of working with athletes, do you find that there are, that there's like a level of preparation an athlete has before getting into a coaching relationship? Or like what, when do you know that it's the right fit either both for coach and for athlete?

Yeah, that, um, I like that question cuz we've, We've had prior conversations too about how sometimes we get athletes in that, that come in for coaching and we're kind of just like, hey, I'm not sure that you're ready for a coach yet. And luckily we have this really cool team training classes that you can come and, and still get coached feedback when you're training. Um, but not necessarily quite ready for the, the one-on-one and the, um, higher contact of having a coach and, and asking to connect or find the line of like when you're ready for that can be a little bit tricky. But I feel like it's when you're ready to go beyond the little technique-specific type of stuff and ready for more of a, I need to focus on my goal setting, more big picture, long-term overview type of stuff, and have someone be there along with me is sort of when that crosses over for me. So less of a like Hey, I'm gonna do a sprint triathlon in 3 months and then I don't know, probably go do something else. Then little tidbits from a coach here and there, but not necessarily needing a full-blown connection with someone to be there along with you in those moments.

So we've already kind of touched on this a little bit, but what is, uh, I mean, you know, the, the, the athlete who climbs the mountain and like collapses into your arms in, I mean, that, you know, it doesn't happen every day in the coaching world, but what keeps you doing it? Because I mean, a lot of coaching is you're sitting behind a desk just like everybody else, you know?

Yeah. The, uh, somewhat irony of being in a health and fitness related field and sitting at a desk all day, right?

Yeah. It's, um, crazy.

I very much recognize that those big moments don't happen without the day-to-day stuff that goes on behind the desk, right? The checking in on the training plans, the communication, the messaging back and forth, and all of that is what builds to those moments. And I feel like I, I'm able to kind of look back and see like, yeah, we need, we need all of this stuff to get to these other points. And without it, the, the bigger points don't happen. Yeah.

Kind of reminds me of how athletes are like, I have to go easier. Like, yeah, I think there's a, perhaps a misconception in our fitness world at this moment of like harder is always better.

Yeah. And it's big, big fan of recovery over here. Oh, and any of my athletes that are listening to this right now are rolling their eyes like, ah, totally.

Yes. Yeah.

The easy stuff is important.

It pays off. Okay, so we're gonna have a fun little game here.

Okay.

This is rapid fire questions.

Okay. Are you ready? Mm-hmm.

What is your bike brand, or let's say bikes, brands.

I have two Cervelos in the garage right now, so I'll go with Cervelo.

Favorite distance you like to race?

70.3.

Favorite distance you like to coach?

Probably also 70.3.

Okay. Swim, bike, or run? What's your favorite right now?

Oh, bike.

Always bike. Always. Okay. Um, what's your favorite race? This is not rapid fire.

I love Lake Logan. Love it. Absolutely. I would go back to Lake Logan every year and race.

Yeah. That's, uh, I think that's Setups event. A Setups event, I think. Yeah, I think so.

Yeah.

Out in the mountains.

Out in the mountains. Freezing cold lake water. Yes. Beautiful views and super fast downhills. And then this like obnoxiously hot run, even though you're in the shade, it's, it's like Uh, it's sort of a rollercoaster ride out there, but the event's always well put on and I just love it. It's great.

What is your favorite workout that you like to program?

Oh, that I like to program? Uh-huh. I enjoy programming bike workouts that are not long rides, like more interval style bike workouts, probably because those are also my favorite workouts.

Okay. Yeah, that was, that was my next question. Okay. Least favorite workout. That you don't want to do, that you could like do?

I, I don't like lots of speed work in the pool.

Okay.

Without it.

Okay. Pet peeve when you're racing?

I don't like jerks. Like, can't we all be nice to each other? Like, like, I—

jerks in cars or jerks on bikes or just jerks in general?

I was specifically meaning jerks that are racing with you.

Okay, got it, got it. Okay.

Um, but yeah, I mean, be nice in your car too, please. Everyone, let's be safe. We're all just trying to be healthy humans. Yep.

And getting where we want to go, right? Pet peeve that an athlete does who you're coaching?

Oh, I don't know. I have great athletes. That's a trick question. I don't have any athletes that do this, but I would be annoyed if I felt like an athlete was maybe stretching the truth on how busy they are and their availability instead of being like, hey, I'm tired, or I need a break. Uh, cuz again, I very much value recovery and needing the mental space. So just like, tell me, don't pretend you have all these things going on and you don't. So I guess more communication. Yeah. But my athletes are great about it, so that summarizes it beautifully.

I don't know how rapid that was, but it was fun.

I'm— are we ever rapid?

No, no, that's all right though. So if you want to work with Carly, I would say you as an athlete would wanna work with Carly. I would say you would be getting someone who is very empathetic and also will challenge you in all the right ways of when you need it at the right time. Also, this woman's background is ridiculous. Like, this is not just like a drag and drop kind of schedule programming athlete. Like, you get well thought out workouts that are relevant to exercise physiology and to your needs. So you, if you ever are to work with Carly, you will be in very, very good, competent hands. Thank you. So you're welcome.

You make me sound so lovely.

Would I have it any other way? Yeah.

True, true. You are, you are, I would say you are now known for hiring strong coaches. We have such a great eclectic group that you're gonna fit with one of us if you come to the Endurance Edge. We've got someone for you.

Yes. All right. Any parting thoughts or like final one or two tips for folks to walk away with just in triathlon, in life, in multi-sport, in sports psychology? Uh, that was a big ask. You're welcome.

If you have a big scary goal, it's time to get moving on it. You got, you just gotta start no matter where you are.

I love it. Coach Carly, thank you.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

And if you guys wanna work with Coach Carly, come to theenduranceedge.com and we look forward to serving you in the best way possible. Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you're interested in learning more about our endurance coaching, sports and wellness nutrition, metabolic and sweat testing, triathlon training team, or our triathlon training library, be sure to check us out at theenduranceedge.com. And don't forget to follow us on social media at The Endurance Edge. Thanks again. And we'll catch you next time.