ENDURANCE EXCHANGE RECAP

What is the Endurance Exchange conference?..."USA Triathlon and TBI are introducing the Endurance Exchange conference in an effort to grow, inspire and support the triathlon community by collaboratively hosting the nation’s largest experiential triathlon summit where everyone within the multisport community can learn; share best practices, trends and innovations; network; and celebrate. Endurance Exchange replaces the TBI Annual Conference, which was initially scheduled in Tempe for the same dates. It also comprises two former USA Triathlon-hosted industry events, the USA Triathlon Race Director Summit and the Art and Science of Triathlon International Coaching Symposium."

Some notes from the lectures that I attended (there were 2-4 different lectures simultaneously in different rooms at the magnificent Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University) 

Mental Health & Performance

• How often to talk about mental health? Much as physical health
• Mental health is important for how you coach someone
• Issues typically start age 18-25 but they are also lowest treated
• Sleep is the greatest indicator of mental health
• Sleep is a precursor...not a symptom
• You can't get better at handling poor sleep..you actually get WORSE at judging how sleep deprived you are
• If you wouldn't say it to someone else then don't say it to yourself
• Trauma = anything that you consider traumatic
• You can't train out of trauma
• Chronic injuries count as trauma
• Compassion is the single greatest interruptor of suicide
• Despite all the technology available, there is still value in subjective assessment
• You don't need to be mentally ill to see a mental health professional: its about making you a better you
• Biggest competition for his practice is new technology
• Don't pathologize condition - Recalls coach saying to athlete "You're kinda f-ed up..you should go see someone"
• Assume that every athlete is gonna lie
• Include mental health into intake: "of the last 7 nights, how many times have you woken up well rested"
• Single greatest predictor of success in sport is relationship to coach
• Debriefs with professional athletes can be several pages long
• Helplessness is the single greatest predictor of suicide 
• Common barriers to getting help: cost, availability
• Can't train out of trauma

​Generating media for events

• Media – press release; sent out same time as blast communications; media pulling stuff from social media; Important to get the full story out there
• Right before events – media advisory; who what where when
• How to extend media reach – morning shows
• Pitching your event – focus on local athletes (human interest stories)
• Community benefit – kids, are there any reporters who are doing the event
• Visitors bureau; Business section of the news
• Media drops – reach out to producers; leverage their social media reach -> tell the stakeholders what reach they had that they didn’t have to pay for

 
Race director priorities

• Traditional press releases – did not generate type of ongoing media attention you can get (If people didn’t already know about it they probably wont follow up)
• Shift culture of community -> what is your messaging that you’re trying to achieve?
• Attract and retain sponsors
• Publications and outlets -> business focused newspaper
• Main outlets probably a little tougher to get into
• Content to produce conversation about what you are doing throughout the year
• What is your story? Human interest, expert advice, local news tie in; education; event preview; interviews; staged photos/shoots; live action; sponsor highlight
• Human interest – everyone has a motivation that will touch people
• Expert advice – pique interest
• Who can sell the story – race director, athlete, first time participant, spectator, sponsor, expert coach, volunteer -à example: educate public on rules of the road
• Elected official – how great it is that you are bringing this to your town
• Integrating sponsors – educational, live shot, sponsor backdrop, event setup, clinics etc (employee-athlete for example)
• What are news outlets looking for? Is it local, can I shoot it all today; what is the SOUND of the story; what are the digital components of the story; can I turn this story into additional pieces? How are they going to engage their audience
• Who to contact? Assignments desk and digital manager
• TV coverage – planting the seed; you need to keep control – these are the three things I need said before I walk off the set
• Facilitating good coverage – doing the legwork – make it easy for them! Making as easy as possible makes it successful as possible
• Live coverage – news side and sales side…and they don’t mix. News director can make it all happen; knows the gaps in programming; Sales side needs to think they can make money off it
• Why are you getting media??? Pick the why and focus on those
• Identifying and organizing your assets – photos, quotes, etc
• Go straight the reporters (“circumvent the system”)
• Media challenge
• Sometimes being in a small market is better because you are more important

 
 
Coaching an athlete thru injury

• Olympic Training Center – all inclusive; all services
• Management plan – involve as many people in the team as possible
• Huge variation on types of injuries
• Poor data collection – results all over the place
• 70% overuse (overuse combined w/ biomechanical issues)
• Most are mild to moderate
• Lower leg most common
• Running injuries most likely to cause time off and need to see medical (based on athlete perception)
• Risk factors – based on suspicion but not confirmed by research
• Age and risk factor – longer the athlete spends in the sport is risk factor but age is not
• Duration alone is not highly corresponding to injury risk
• Race distance – no good correlation (some ok studies here)
• Training vs competition – see different injuries but no difference in rate
• Best predictor of injury. – prior injury (why – based on persistent deficit) – reinjury can be same place or different region
• Beginner and elite most likely to be injured
• Inappropriate training increase – vague but usually means 10% jumps (running times and hill repeats on bike seem to be most connected)
• Different responses to injuries – stages of grief – can go thru in any order, repeat stages ,skip stages
• Feel loss of identity; ones who connect identity to sport most at risk
• Getting injured at low intensity can be deflating
• Fear of never getting better
• Pro level – financial loss
• What works – primary social support (family, friends, coach) and secondary (med staff, etc)
• Diagnosis helps – giving athlete certainty (but is that pathologizing)
• Athletes with faith in medical plan have been shown to recover faster
• Coaches can have influence on all factors
• Reassurance – hard to see light at end of the tunnel; very few injuries that athletes cant come back from 100pct
• Structure – can be more stressful to forget about training
• Very few injuries require total rest – some surgeries will put athlete on the bike same day
• Not what CANT you do, but what CAN you do (focus on the rehab plan)
• Medical working with coaches to find whats appropriate
• Triathlon is great bc you have built in cross training
• Every time you add variable back to training it is normal to feel soreness
• 72 hour rule – if its sore but resolves in 72 hours, then it’s a sign of proper tissue loading
• Number 1 we want from warmup is compliance – don’t sweat the details (focus on big rocks – tissue warming, address deficits)
• Recovery should not be a burden – if it is, it isn’t recovery
• Periodize recovery – set your recovery for end of hard day or early next day. Too much routine can lead to habituation
• What does full recovery look like for this particular individual? Take baseline
• Case study – “no warning” of repeated injury (but happening after PRs, smashing workouts)
• “Feel like hips are off” …
• A coach is only as good as the team of experts he surrounds himself with
• Weekly check w/ PT – better to spend money on prevention, see how much money spent on equipment
• Sports psychologist is part of medical team
• Number one role in coaching is do no harm; if you aren’t reigning them in then you are doing harm as a coach
  
• Good question – what if the athlete is getting bad info from a non-sports medicine physician (“what if my insurance says I have to see this person”???) – Physical therapist good to have as first stop after primary care
• How to deal w/ asthma being limiting factor? By the time they get to OTC have it figured out

Jesse Thomas: Lessons from life in pro triathlon

• Lot of good from purusing triathlon – goals, healthy eating
• Bad side of tri – OCD, extreme behavior
• You know youre becoming a good triathlete when your wife hates you and your boss doesn’t like you
• Before you do anything in tri, you should decide what your traithlife should be. Passion and purpose – huge part of success
• When you are doing things you feel purposeful about, you attract support of others.
• You wont have all the answers
• Build your team – best investment you can make is a good coach
• More meaningful to share success
• Set goals…fail at a lot of them – And don’t take it personally
• The price of setting a goal is that failure can and will exist
• Any goal worth setting has a legitimate chance of failure
• Failure is an opportunity
• Balance only exists in the long term – short term there are incredible phases of unbalance
• How are you balancing your own desires and the needs of the group in your own life
• Define your own world class performance. Doesn’t make sense to compare your triathlife to anyone elses

 
Jessee Frank: Aerodynamics

• Practice shrugging – cheapest way to get more aero
• Body is 80pct of aerodynamic drag
• Get the head out of the way
• Can improve aerodynamics by making shrugging feel easier
• Higher arm position reducing exposure of cylinder
• Head position is easiest way if you cant shrug
• Elbows together test – guide for arm pad width
• Movement on the bike
• Head-shrug-elbow-movement
• Wider elbows can sometimes help head drop
• You can change positions based on course; give riders confidence that they can be successful with multiple positions

 
Brand awareness panel

• Consumers relying more on people they trust
• You have audience that brands crave – relationship, third party validation
• Be familiar with the product – do your homework – make sure good fit
• Content marketing  - more important to be consistent; doesn’t matter how big you are
• If you can create authority, gives brands something of value to pair with
• AZ Cardinals- many ways to keep the content going thru the week
• Confirming a commerce tie in – Are you offering them an opportunity for sale?
• Trigger marketing (ie, free toppings per touchdown at Cardinals games)
• Expand window of engagement – athletes journey begins at point of registration and ends to the celebration of the finish; Can apply to coaching too
• Needs are spiked when you register for a race…ie, mail a sample of honey stinger which will be on the course at race day
• Coaching standpoint – be the influencer; be an extension of the event. Carry the dialogue all the way thru event life cycle
• In kind deals – will it reduce operating costs of the organization?
• Reach (promotional support) – can be far greater than any cash value; can create strategic messaging
• Era of gold-silver-bronze etc sponsorships should be in rearview mirror
• Influencers growing as opposed to traditional marketing
• Brands need to be careful bc hard to measure influencer program
• Recruiting is all fun and games but like herding cats in application
• Always bring it back to what is the sponsor trying to reach
• Sponsorship is only one tool in toolbox
• Consultative approach – also gets feedback when you get a “no”
• You can become expert on how to complete a course well – coach way to get involved

 
Coaching panel

• When to bring in other people? – PT on staff, dietician, personal trainer, accountant. Set up people that were experts. Know your limitations, what are you good at, where are your limitations.
• Who we are and what do we want to be? Hire people who share values. Hiring that first assistant coach was the toughest. Have the infrastructure in place
• Create raving fans – collaborating with local clubs, and hoping the athletes connect so the whole experience is a home run.
• Business hygiene – make decisions about dissolution when everyone is happy
• Need the same setup regardless of whether 5 athletes or 100 athletes
• Create goals for your business, just like a training plan
• What you want your business to be versus what you want you to be
• The second something fails stop doing it
• Building a community – using a sense of team to fill the one-on-one roster
• Combined community among different coaches = mission is education to drive the philosophy
• Team allowed to expand reach; bring more people in. Gets out there as leaders in community not necessarily direct client conversions
• Communication and chemistry are most important for healthy relationship with clients – its all from the heart, mode of communication doesn’t matter as much
• Not just sending messages out; really engaging with them
• Bringing yourself through the tools to the athlete
• As coaches it is important for retention, you have to talk to them
• Number one thing people say for why they leave prior coach is not enough communication
• If you cant keep up with all your athletes, you either are coaching too many people or you aren’t charging enough
• Trained professionals – we aren’t hobbyist; value your services
• Coaching rates been more receptive in northeast versus south
• One rate makes life easier
• If you have a tiered program make sure the services are different
• SM – decide who your audience is
• SM – keep it frequent and engaging; decide what sets you apart
• Is social media serving you or your brand
• Important to have relevance on SM; when it stopped being relevant then bring in someone else
• What goes into developing a brand? Decide what are you about. Then build your brand about it
• You do you. Don’t worry about anyone else. Brand is just an extension of that. Be unapologetic  about it
• Don’t be afraid to change over time
• Find a niche. Usually your niche is your peers
• Everything you do in public is your brand
• Be authentic
• Don’t constantly try to sell yourself
• Showcasing your athletes not about how awesome you are
• Setting boundaries – also a way to model that to athletes for balance in their own lives
• Coaching can be whatever you want it to be
• Interact with other businesses not only complementary businesses
• Take better care of the people you already have

 
 
Tomorrows coach

• Peloton proves people want expert instruction conveniently delivered and individualized attention (Zwift cant do that yet)
• Technology is moving faster than can be utilized
• We’re in a place where we can measure but don’t know what to do with it
• Don’t get sucked into the latest and greatest – don’t push it onto your athletes until you can know how to use it
• Team Sky – insisted on RPE until up to one month before big race
• We make it too complex sometimes
• Make sure tech has a real impact on performance
• Fear of turning coaching into a commodity (cut and paste coaching)
• Number one reason for leaving prior coach = lack of communication
• Forget trying to get more program design clients; go horizontal
• What 10 unique things do you know about your current clients individually?
• If you don’t know your clients you have no right to call yourself a coach
• Apple watch is the fisher price of cardiology tech; lots of false positives
• The next step is not always going longer; sell people on sprints as way to get faster in prep for going longer
• Bike fitting as expansion of business
• Treat your current clients as if they were your best prospect
• Make every single one of your clients an ambassador for your brand
• Train to the individual, not to the calendar

 
Keynote

• Vehicle industry – crime to humanity for no improvement in 135 years
• Less than 20% of energy goes to wheels in the car
• Leadership optimized but not innovating – irresponsible to their employees and society
• Average American spends $386 per month per person per car
• Figure out how to get peas taste like something people want to eat
• Prophets are lonely people
• If most people think you are crazy for what youre pursuing you may be onto something – go into ignore mode on all the other inputs
• Change comes slowly until it goes fast and surprises everyone
• Overnight success takes a long time – many fail because they run out of money not because the idea was bad
• History says most prophets die before their predictions are true
• Many prophets are killed by the establishment
• Stay on target – stick to first princples
• New markets are filled with poorly thought out business models
• The competitive landscape consolidates suddenly. Wont see it until they crack (analogy to running shoulder to shoulder in a race) – don’t look at the press, etc
• Analogy to trying to reach the finish line in a race
• Every single triathlete should start a really hard business – you’re teaching them how
• Why do we race – tells us where our mental limits are but also expands your limits
• You’re instilling into people “you have no idea what I can take”
• Seven years to go from beginning to most of money coming in
• Pursuing endurance sports is a great mental proxy for entrepreneurship in new markets
• Theres no assurance that youre going to make the finish line without blowing up
• Leave something on the table
• Finishing strong requires balance – triathlon is a complete proxy for business
• Part of your brain responsible for judgment doesn’t know context
• We all have the same 24 hours – its all in how you allocate it. It isn’t static. Dynamic and conscious
• Coach pros like executive and executives like pros
• Ability to ignore the crowd when needed and use them whenever possible
• Your metrics aren’t perfect in a new market- balance of metrics and intuition
• Learning to trust intuition as athlete translated to business
• Recovery for companies is as important for athletes – also related to managing their cash
• The second we cross the finish line we sign up for another race

 
Fueling

• 4% dehydration – point at which impairment is more consistent
• Goal – prevent significant hypohydration (>2%) while avoiding body mass gain
• Individualize drinking strategy – sweat loss
• Why does sweating rate vary so much? Many factors – ex intensity, body size, ambient temp/solar/humid/wind (most important factors)
• Endurance athletes – highest sweat and sodium loss beside football
• Sodium balance improves CV function and performance during cycling in the heat
• Sweat testing – forearm best site to predict whole body sweat concentration
• Cognitive – body comp- energy availability – digestion/absorption/substrate utiliation – athlete health
• Improve rate of CHO oxidation
• Exercise commencing or recovery during low carb availability can enhance adaptation
• Ways to deplete CHO – 2x per day workout, no sports drinks, fasted, low carb recovery, sleep low/train low (deplete with late night session, then do another fasted session first thing AM)
• Low carb switches on protein sooner; high carb resulted in protein not even looking like you did exercise 
• Train smart, compete high.
• Fuel for the work required; adjust day by day
• Calorie restriction could be factor not CHO deplenion
• Lack of knowledge isn’t the problem; its getting people to do what we wanted them today
• When it comes to nutrition what matters most is what goes into athletes mouth
• Knowledge + delivery = performance

 
Marketing analytics

• What is analytics – data driven decision making
• People want to take a long time to make the perfect answer – instead, make fast decisions that fail fast
• Coffee example – 100 deg coffee + 40 deg coffee -> average 70 deg which is ridiculous
• Learn more = educational call to action (versus sign up)
• Don’t have to be complex, hard to understand
• Lowest hanging fruit is the message and how it is visually prepared (more important than the platform) – Don’t blame the platform, it is usually a messaging issue
• Biggest mistake sports marketers make is marketing only to their core (ie, NFL get women involved)
• 80cents of the American dollar is controlled by women
• Provide education before asking for call to action
• Mass marketing – then segmentation – now 1 to 1 marketing 
• Sight sound motion creates emotion
• From an ad value, facebook is most valuable
• Video editing of social media content is a specialized skill; there’s a shortage
• Stub hub example – comparing of add on fees versus all in pricing which is what people want..customers still went with competitors who were adding on fees because the sticker price was lower
• Second order effects – its not just one person, its all the people they are influencing
• Average American consumer sees 5000 ads per month
• Amount of times someone needs to see your content is 15x per month
• You can’t compete with the big companies in marketing
• Lookalike audience – bring in your audience and then facebook brings in more people like your audience
• Lookalike audience for triathlon – crossfitters, orange theory people, etc
• Facebook isn’t converting as well as prior years for small biz because big businesses are bidding for facebook space
• Takes 3-7 times for someone to convert
• How to minimize the number of decisions someone has to make
• You need to hit your own fans at least 7x per month
• Jab Jab Right Hook
• Google analytics, Facebook pixels, google tag manager
• Create, communicate, deliver value
• Managing the customer relationship – customers are always changing; stay in touch with them to see how they change
• Page speed insights
• Make site optimize for mobile – high res can slow down speed