By: Jean Gillis
Here at Peaks Coaching Group, our tag line is “your shortcut to fast”. As you’ve probably seen from the Peaks’ athletes that top the podium, this is true Peaks Coaching Group can make you faster. That said, Peaks’ can also be your shortcut to whatever other goal you may have; it doesn’t have to be speed. We often highlight our athletes who are winning races, and we celebrate their successes, however, in the coming months, we’re going to highlight the stories of some of our athletes who are accomplishing great things outside of winning races.
What are YOUR Goals?
Maybe your goal doesn’t involve striving for the podium, or even getting faster, perhaps you just want to get into a more consistent training schedule to be in a place to set bigger goals, or maybe you’d like to do a charity century ride, or your first mountain bike race. Whatever your goal is, we want you to know that a Peaks coach would be excited to support you in getting there!
How PCG can help you achieve YOUR goals.
What your coach will provide you goes beyond technical training knowledge. Yes, they will take the thinking out of the training for you, so you only have to focus on doing the workouts, but they’ll also help you stick with training despite what life might throw at you.
I have a 60 year old athlete who started dreaming of doing Ironman Lake Placid over thirty years ago, and who started training for it in the fall of 2019. Due to the race cancellation in 2020, and her needing a shoulder surgery in 2021, she wasn’t able to reach her finish line until 2022; but she did it!
How WE Accomplished HER GOALS.
During COVID times, we set non race specific goals, and I modified her training to work with what was available to her. Post surgery, I kept her in a consistent training schedule focusing on indoor cycling, core/lower body strength, healing meditations, yoga, and walking. As she neared race day, she started to have some knee pain, so I modified her cycling, run and strength workouts, adding more recovery time, a combination of road running and elliptical, and less cycling on hills. With these modifications, she was able to race without knee pain.
If she were training for the Ironman on her own, the setbacks she experienced may have caused her to throw in the towel, and miss out on accomplishing her long held dream. A coach will help you to stay consistent, modify your schedule for life demands or illness, modify workouts for injuries, give you the appropriate amount of challenge at the right time, and help you reach whatever goal you can dream up! This is what my athlete had to say:
“Jean’s coaching and program first and foremost helped me achieve my long-held goal of completing an Ironman. Jean is caring, attentive, and her coaching is comprehensive. She cares about her athletes as people who have competing interests and activities in their lives. She helped me understand the importance of specific training as we went along, cared about how I was doing in all aspects of my life, and guided me safely to Ironman despite a few major and some minor setbacks along the way.”
PCG Associate Coach Jean Gillis
Coach Jean is a USAT Level 1 Coach, an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, IIN Holistic Health Coach, and a Senior ChiRunning/ChiWalking Instructor. Her main coaching focuses are triathlon, running (trail and road), and the swimbike.
Jean loves to support athletes in maximizing their potential in sport and achieving their goals, which can ultimately help their performance in life. For her, no two training plans are a like. She enjoys getting to know her athletes, and developes personalized plans that will fit their goals, fitness, experience, and lifestyle. She sees the coach/athlete relationship as a collaboration, while she provides the guidance, support and technical knowledge. The athlete provides feedback, verbal, and physical, which enables her to adapt the training program to her athltes’ unique circumstances; and keep it fun!