Why the Endurance Training World Needs EN

Much like you, I usually register for races via Active.com and receive their newsletters. So, like you, I received the Active Triathlete Newsletter on Jan 7th, the Active Cyclist newsletter today, Jan 10, containing the articles below:

Triathlete: Base Training Basics
Cyclist: High Intensity Training

Triathlete: the same largely anecdotal thoughts that have been recycled year after year until they have become the foundation of a "seasonal culture" within the sport of triathlon. I know...I've written stuff like this in the past, back in the day before I learned otherwise through talking to smart guys, experimenting with my training and applying those lessons to my athletes.

Cyclist: good article, challenges the cultural norms and expectations of what we are supposed to do in the off-season, or in endurance training for that matter.

The conflict: they're both published by the same organization, received by the same athletes with no context or perspective given to link the two. Neither is inserted into a comprehensive framework of coherent and consistent training advice that gives the athlete that "Ah hah!" moment, enabling them to become better self-coached athletes.

As an experienced coach who's been playing inside the traditional triathlon business sandbox, I can tell you exactly why this is: many, many websites, are in the business of selling clicks on their site, whether on ads, race registrations, etc. At the same time, coaches with decent writing skills who are thinking a little bit outside of the traditional box of attracting local athletes realize these sites get lots of traffic and submit articles for publication, exposing their thoughts, communications skills, training knowledge, and personality to large numbers of athlete. Hopefully, one or more of these athletes become coached clients, buy a training plan, attend a camp, etc.

Content host (website) needs content to attract readers and advertising dollars. Content creator (coach) needs venue to host their stuff where it can be read by lots of potential clients. Site eager to take content + many content creators submitting content = confusing hodgepodge of often conflicting advice that you, the customer, have to sift through. See example above.

How do I know this? Google Rich Strauss Triathlon and see how many articles I have out there on the net. Writing has indeed been very, very good to me.

At Endurance Nation we have made a strategic business decision to step out this sandbox by creating our own. One where we:

1. Create a vibrant network of endurance athletes. Our own team.
2. Provide quality, consistent, and coherently presenting training and racing resources to them. Resources that have been vetted by the science and refined through their application to your training: real people in the real world.
   
3. Leverage the scale of #1 and #2 to create coaching values that simply can not be matched in the current marketplace.
   
4. Do not rely on advertising dollars, click thrus, sponsorship relationships, etc. We are quickly learning that the fewer external relationships we maintain, the more focused we can be on you and your needs, adapting our model and services in an instant.
   

Endurance Nation is the brainchild of elite triathlon coaches Rich Strauss (Crucible Fitness) and Patrick McCrann ( Performance Training Systems), who have combined communities, resources and training plans to create Endurance Nation. Endurance Nation is a growing community of 380+ triathletes educating and inspiring each other, managed within the framework of a consistent coaching and training philosophy. Members can take advantage of free coaching articles and high quality - yet affordable – coaching. The EN experience is augmented by our community platform, bringing experienced teachers to the desktop of every athlete. Finally, Endurance Nation will provide opportunities for the members to meet, learn from and train with the coaches and other members, through camps and clinics, an organized EN presence at national races, and other cool events. Membership in Endurance Nation is open to athletes of all ability levels. Join us today!