In this impromptu episode of the Find Your Edge podcast, host Christina Fiumara Newport and Coach Carly discuss why their coaching service stands out by emphasizing human connection over purely data‑driven or AI‑only plans. The conversation begins with a promotion of the Endurance Edge Triathlon Training Camp (April 22‑26 at Lake Jocassee, SC), highlighting its small‑group format, expert coaching, nutrition, and sports‑psychology support. They then explore the limits of relying solely on training‑stress metrics, noting that green zones can mask injury risk, burnout, or personal stress. Both coaches share anecdotes about pushing athletes when needed, offering grace when they’re fatigued, and providing “middle‑ground” check‑ins. They stress a holistic approach that incorporates metabolic testing, nutritional labs, sports‑psychology, physical‑therapy, and medical referrals, arguing that a multidisciplinary team can spot issues that data alone cannot. Throughout, they champion the value of personalized feedback, emotional support, and fun, positioning their model as a more efficient, sustainable path for triathletes of all levels.
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Mm-hmm.
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I'll see you there. 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, like, 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. 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? 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 happen 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. And then the opposite end of the spectrum where an athlete might be beating themself 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, or, 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. So again, the, the, 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 like, 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.
Yes. Cuz 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 the data doesn't— it's not valuable if it's not correct, 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. 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, right? Like, this is— a population that really thrives on success and like doing things well. But success is not just green. Yes.
Oh, I love that. 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. Like they're not in over fatigue, like they're, 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, 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.
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 people in the healthcare field, physical therapists, right? 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 into 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 totally transparent, normal conversations. I don't, you know, just having a conversation.
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, we're always going to throw Coach Peter under the bus because the dude can literally, like, nonstop train and not get injured. Which is fine. I mean, slightly jealous, but whatever. It's not for me.
Absolutely jealous over here.
But that is a unique situation. 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, make sure you're not getting injured, and make sure— or mentally breaking, because burnout is bad.
Yeah.
Words of wisdom by Coach Christina Fiumara Newport Newport. 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, I'm taking a long pause cuz 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 2 to 3 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, 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. 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. 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 overtraining? 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, 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, but again, just helps kind of narrow in that margin for you to know that you are on the right track and not overdoing it or underdoing it.
As you were saying, is sometimes I'll look at their labs too, like at least from a nutritional perspective and see if we start having, um, 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, friends.
I know, right? It's fun. It's healthy. 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. 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?
Mm-hmm.
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. To have that feedback to know if you're, you're on the right track. Yeah.
And also helping people get over the plateau cuz 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.
We help you be more efficient.
Yes. Thank you.
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.
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 theenduranceedge.com/2025 to secure your spot today, and I look forward to personally meeting all of you. Again, that's theenduranceedge.com/2025. 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.
