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Holistic Coaching - Welcome to Mountain Endurance Team

Writer's picture: Sarah GromanSarah Groman

An endurance coach is a powerful tool, but is one player in the progress and well-being of the athlete.

What do we mean when we say that we take a holistic coaching approach with our athletes? Mountain Endurance Team isn’t just about the athletes and coaches as separate entities. Rather it emphasizes the interconnectedness of all aspects of athlete-coach relationship, breaking the boundaries of what an endurance coach can do alone. By having a team of coaches, each with their own unique contribution to the success and well-being of the athlete, we can better guide the athlete through their training process. 


Our holistic approach demonstrates that the athlete is more than just a body with legs. It’s a body with over two hundred bones, six hundred muscles, nine hundred ligaments, a digestive system, a gut, a brain, emotions, and a personality. We understand the connections between each of these aspects, and how they impact one another to create the athlete that is you. 


Given the level of training demands, the endurance athlete is incredibly susceptible to low energy availability (LEA), knowingly and unknowingly, consciously and naively. Evidence indicates that, while short-term exposure (a few days to weeks) to LEA might not consistently have a noticeable impact on measurable training and performance aspects like strength, power, or endurance output, long-term exposure (months to years), however, can start to accrue a wide-spread negative impact on all systems of the body: musculoskeletal (muscle and bone breakdown), digestive (food intolerances, constipation, gastritis), endocrine (hormone imbalances), cardiovascular (reduced aerobic capacity), immune (slower recovery time, increased risk of illness), and neurological (increased cortisol, reduced processing and reaction time, mental and emotional stress). Our holistic coaching approach at MET considers each system of each individual when designing the athlete’s unique training program. 


An endurance coach is a powerful tool, but is one player in the progress and well-being of the athlete. Because of this, Mountain Endurance Team has taken strides by partnering with a strength and conditioning coach, a physical therapist, a registered sports dietician, and a sports psychologist. This partnership allows the endurance coach to not only better focus on the endurance programming, but also be able to adjust the athletes training by collaborating with another discipline.  



MET is offering an amazing unique coaching opportunity for its athletes. However, the athletes need to understand that they are the ones who need to decide how much they are willing to care for their bodies. Being a mature athlete means “grown-ass training” to quote David Roche. Grown-ass training means taking the initiative to ensure that all aspects of your training and recovery are in check. This goes beyond just the well-laid out endurance training plan. While this creates a potentially higher initial cost (both in money and time), we strongly encourage the athlete to consider the benefits, and how this might actually save the athlete a lot of unnecessary cost and time in the long-run. 


Strength and conditioning programming not only prevents burnout from endurance but also builds power and strength, aspects of running that often are not thought of as pillars of performance in endurance running. 


Being able to consult with a physical therapist and a dietitian without having to wait or self-diagnose an injury or pain, or perpetually just guess and blindly experiment with nutritional issues may greatly reduce the number of unnecessary medical appointments. Please understand that physicians are very good at what they do, but they receive very little to no education regarding the musculoskeletal system or nutritional intervention during their training.


And we think it goes without saying the importance of any athlete’s mental health. You don’t operate the body without the mind. Mental and emotional stress can impact performance in so many ways. While we are not officially partnered with a sports psychologist, we have connections to refer our athletes to so they can make their mental health just as much of a priority as their mental health. 


Below is an illustrated example of what holistically taking care of an athlete looks like:


Betty (fake name) is training for a 50k. She is 35, and has done a few 50k’s in the past. This particular race is supposed to be more challenging with higher altitudes and a greater elevation profile. She has been running consistently for the last 8-9 years, and outside of running occasionally does light yoga and resistance band training. She eats well, though she doesn’t track intake (total energy or micros). As she adjusts her endurance training to match the course profile, she notices that she starts to feel more fatigued, and that she is experiencing aches and pains in her legs she has not experienced before. Additionally she notices some new on and off digestive issues on her longer runs that she can’t entirely identify. She has tried adding some stretches she saw on youtube, and added one or two supplements that were reported to help with muscle pains. After trial and error she noticed things were not improving, and she started to feel anxious about her lack of progress, and both her menstrual and sleep cycles were also becoming more disrupted.


We are trying to reduce the nutritional guesswork, the self-diagnosis mistakes, and the barriers to strength, redefining what it means to train as an endurance athlete.

As we hope you can see, there is more to address with this athlete than just her endurance programming alone. Initially, we would recommend her consulting with a sports psychologist (to whom she revealed that she is also going through relationship troubles), as well as our dietician, (who was able to help her realize she was underfueling altogether), physical therapist, (who, based on her complaints, was able to encourage her to obtain an x-ray which showed a stress fracture in her right tibia, and potential for one in her left - a common injury in athletes who are under-fueled), and later a strength and conditioning coach (who helped get her on a regimented program to help her legs handle the increased elevation demands once her nutrition and injuries were stabilized). 


Outside of the athlete meeting with each coach, each coach also communicates to make sure the athlete is good to go. Our endurance coach works with our dietitian to ensure proper fueling during specific training periods. Both endurance and strength and conditioning coaches use the training peaks platform, so the athlete’s total training log and stats are viewable to all parties. This also allows a greater chance of a coach seeing if it looks like the athlete is at risk of overtraining during that week. Our physical therapist and endurance coaches will discuss and collaborate on return to run protocols or other modifications to training if the athlete is experiencing pain or an injury. If our physical therapist thinks that the athlete’s injury may have to do with underfueling, she will ask to consult with our dietician. 


While we do not mandate that our athletes do so, we strongly encourage all of them to utilize the unique accessibility to licensed professionals who can directly and confidently address each aspect of the athlete’s health. We are trying to reduce the nutritional guesswork, the self-diagnosis mistakes, and the barriers to strength, redefining what it means to train as an endurance athlete. With this kind of unique access, many athletes may only need a few single sessions to work through things. While this cost looks high up front, compare that cost of co-pays for an MRI and multiple doctors appointments, trial and error of multiple supplements without change, and the stress of too much conflicting online information. 


We love seeing our athletes attain their goals, whether it be placing, getting a PR, or just crossing the finish line before the cutoff. We also know that goals can be achieved with the athlete feeling confident and strong, or like they were trudging through a struggle-fest the whole time. Our top priority as a coaching team is to ensure the athlete is pursuing their goals with their own well-being as their first priority. 


If there is any aspect of your training that has you stymied, you’re hitting a physical or mental block, this is the team you want to be with when those things happen. We have the resources ready for you to go. 


We're here for you to keep going,


MET Coaches

(Anna Mae, Margaret, Dana, Megan, & Sarah)





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