Started in the fall of 2007 with a couple dozen athletes who followed us to EN from our days as Crucible Fitness and Performance Training Systems, TeamEN has grown to over 500 athletes. While over half of the squad has been with us for two to four years, a large number of new athletes have joined us in the last eight weeks.

Starting a new season is an opportunity to revisit the core values of our community. To remind the vets of how we got here and to get everyone–especially the new members of the squad–on the same page.

Everyone knows how Endurance Nation trains and how we are changing the triathlon game with our free training rallys and resources. What most folks don’t know is that the true power of EN lies in our community — 500 athletes connecting daily to get workouts done, share resources & information, and inspire one another to be better. The vibe is amazing and supportive; almost weekly we hear stories of Team members traveling to meet up with one another. Sometimes I wonder how much of our Team is actually a family…but I digress.

Without further ado, here are the TeamEN Community Standards…

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TeamEN Community Standards

We are a Team of athletes coached under a set unified coaching methods developed by Rich Strauss and Patrick McCrann. If you have not already done so, please take the OutSeason and Long Course Virtual Seminars, and read the EN Long Course Training Manual to learn more about this system.

But this wiki post isn’t about that, it’s about the Team — the most powerful, and valuable aspect of Endurance Nation. What follows is our Manifesto, our Guiding Principles, a bulleted list of “stuff” to get everyone on the same page. Read it, learn it, live it.

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The following is meant to impart a sense of how things “work” here inside EN. EN is often the first online community that many of our members have ever been a part of while others have deep experience via other tri sites and social networks. We ask that you approach EN as a new entity, and take the time to read and observe the following principles.

#1 – You are now part of a Team. This means that you are connected to hundreds of athletes around the globe, each on their own tri journey but all working, on some level, together to improve their fitness, knowledge, and ability to participate in our great sport. In many ways Team EN is more like a closely-knit family that is open to anyone else who wants to join. As you become part of our family, we ask that you take the time to observe how things flow here, how we work, how we interact with one another. Now everything you do and say/write is put in front of everyone else on the Team. If you treat everyone here as you wish to be treated, we’ll all be much better off.

#2 – You Are Officially No Longer Special. Young, old, fast, slow, fat, skinny…we don’t care. You’re not special. We will always treat you the same and have the same expectations of you as we have with anyone else. Think you are fast and deserving of special treatment or respect? RnP, and many others in here are fast too and we sez you’re not…and you don’t.

If you’re a first timer and/or slow, or just an out-of-shape pair of tri coaches…that’s fine. But we are not going to speak slowly to you or explain things in crayon for you like other spaces in the tri world will. We expect you to invest yourself in the resources we have created for you, ultimately bringing you several years up the learning curve while you get smarter (and faster).

We, as coaches, will share with you our experiences and give you exactly as much of ourselves as we do the slowest member.  And we expect the same from all of you, regardless your real-world or perceived speed.  This level playing field is one of the biggest reasons EN has become the vibrant and amazing community it is today.

#3 – The Role of Trust. Becoming a part of an online community requires trust. After all, these are people you have never met and we are using the imperfect medium of typing/words to convey complex information, feelings, and emotion. The best way to develop this trust is to be as open and honest in all of your dealings inside the EN Haus as possible. Do the right thing, always. If you give your teammates no reason to question your integrity and give 100% every time you are here, you’ll be all set.

#4 – Knowledge, not Speed, Equals Respect. No one here is accorded special treatment or respect because they are a fast athlete. We, the Team, respect athletes who have absorbed the EN coaching principles and use their experience to help their teammates, of all abilities.

At the top of the TeamEN pyramid are the Wicked Smart Members (WSMs). These members have been nominated by their peers as members whose advice, training knowledge and willingness to help others are equal to, and in many cases better than Rich or Patrick regardless of their times in races.

The simple fact is that if a WSM answers a question, it is 100% as good and useful as anything the coaches themselves would say. Period, full stop. No need to double check, or re-ask, as most of the other members know when a WSM has touched a question it’s effectively solved. Rich and Patrick would eagerly throw these folks into a Coaching Knowledge Cage Match with 99% of the tri coaches out there.

Conclusion – All of the above might seem like a lot, but it’s really not.

The easiest way to accomplish all of the above is to be the best possible role model by Leading From the Front. Nuture and respect your teammates. Treat others fairly. Give when you are able and take when you are not. At the end of the day, how you conduct yourself inside EN is just as important as what you say or write, what your vDOT or FTP is, or how fast you did (or didn’t go) on race day.

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Interested in joining our Team and unique community of long course triathletes? Become a Team Member.