We always hear the coolest things from our athletes, either via the private Team forums or Twitter. Wherever these folks are in their training, they are seeing results and enjoying their well-balanced lives to boot. It just doesn’t get any better than waking up and reading emails like these. Thanks for sharing folks!

The EN Leadership Team

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“Hey, I just want to say ‘work WORKS’! I just returned from the Mardi Gras 1/2 marathon and set a PR by 6 minutes. Thanks RnP for a tough Out Season plan that actually works. I’ve never been emotional crossing a finish at any race but I was emotional this past Sunday. I was in a very serious bike accident last summer that required both knee and face surgery and the Mardi Gras 1/2 was my first race since the accident. When I started the October OS, I was basically starting from scratch, not having trained since before June. Imagine my shock to beat my pre-accident best by 6 minutes! I couldn’t believe it. As for the race itself, great weather (50ish at start), great city, and great on-course support. And not a bad way to cap off 20 weeks of OS hell. The only negatives were that the roads were not in the best of shape (you could feel every rut) and no pace groups. But if you have your own pacing device, no worries. I went conservative at the begining and then turned it up after mile 3. By mile 9, I was passing a lot of folks. Patience and discipline really are the key.” — Amy B.
“As you know I am very new to EN and I have never found so much support (in one place). Because we have this woman’s thread we can go to it any time of day or night, any day of the week. We often have “issues” (as do men) that we need answers to right away and this is the place. There is no judgement, there are no dumb questions and people come out of the woodwork to reach and and give multiple solutions or suggestions for the initial “thread”. I have found that I have been able to share and ask questions that I wouldn’t have the nerve to do in retail stores and other TRI environment. There is ALWAYS an answer to your question here. Women being vulnerable with one another allows other women who may have been “holding onto something”to go ahead and put it out there. If this forum doesn’t know the answer or the women think it is better asked in another forum they will be told “where to go” in a very respectful manner. These women genuinely care about each other, it becomes a family, and you begin to feel as if you have sisters, mothers, or whatever… that you never had in your “real life”. Again, it is not JUST about training, the EN family help each other with their psychological, mental, physical and even spiritual issues. It has been a godsend for me.”
“My sincere thanks go out to RnP!  EN ROCKS! I did a very shortened OS last year, so didn’t see a ton of improvement.  I couldn’t believe how great I felt this past Saturday at the “Johnny’s”! I used this 5 miler as my end of the OS vdot, although a week early, I wanted to get it in with a race.  It was cold and windy and pretty strong headwinds on the way back.  This is the 1st race I’ve worn my garmin for and I’ve only been training with it since christmas.  What a difference training and racing with pace!

I started off and, of course, everyone took off…I kept watching the garmin and kept telling myself…slow down now, and kept hearing RnP in my head “pace yourself when you start!”  Felt fabulous the first 2 miles.  This is when I noticed I was starting to pass people.

So, mile 3, I start passing A LOT of people, still holding my pace.  The last mile I kicked it in and didn’t let it drop below 9:00/mi pace.  I came in at 46:10, 5 minutes faster than last year!  Woo hoo!  My vdot only went up one, but I was so pumped!  Literally!!!  I felt great the whole time!”  — Dana Sharp

“I didn’t follow the 3/7/3 to the letter, but it made me negative split.  Ridiculously packed the first 5 miles, which really slowed things down.  Therefore, I had to crank it the last five miles.  Last mile was a 7:29.  I think this is a PR for me at this distance.  Haven’t run 13 miles since September.  Speed work works.” — Clint Fletcher

“You may want to look into Endurance Nation. In addition to people using their plans, there is a online team off about 400 members that complete ironman distance races with low volume training plans. The plans focus on return on investment and how to best use the limited amount of time many age groups have to train. The team and forums are there to support each other and help tailor the plan to your life.

I have a full-time job, am married and have have a baby daughter, and set a two hour ironman PR last year after putting in less training volume than I did for my previous PR (2 years before on the same course). To be fair this was a combination of learing to use a power meter, more effective training, better race execution and losing some weight…all four of which EN helped with.” — Matt Ancona, 1st AG Ironman® Wisconsin 2009

“10K PR…42:47…that would be a 2:13 improvement over my previous best and a 3:00 improvement over my time in the Thanksgiving race! I guess I can go on spring break now!” — Bill McKinney