MSM + JHC Coaching, Chicago, IL (2026)

02/04/2026

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

2026 MADISON MINI-CAMP 🏊‍♂️🚴‍♀️🏃‍♂️

📍 Madison, WI | 📅 June 27–28, 2026

Join Multisport Mastery + JHC Coaching for a focused Ironman Wisconsin course preview weekend. This mini-camp is ideal for athletes training for any 70.3, full Ironman, or those seeking a structured Wisconsin training experience.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Saturday (June 27)

• IM Wisconsin bike course overview
• Supported ride on the IM Wisconsin loop
• Optional brick run
• Post-ride social + refuel

Sunday (June 28)

• IM Wisconsin swim, transition & run course overview
• Supported open water swim at Law Park
• Long run

WHAT’S INCLUDED

• Supported swim, bike & run sessions
• Bike SAG support
• Aid station (fluids + light snacks)
• Expert course guidance and coach support
• Community and athlete networking

COST & DETAILS

• $99 : MSM + JHC coached athletes
• $119 : Non-coached athletes
• USAT membership required
• Limited to 50 athletes

HOW TO REGISTER

📧 Email: Name and USAT number to [email protected] (and request payment details)

❗ Registration closes February 15, 2026

FAQs

• Not registered for IM Wisconsin? No problem, open to all endurance athletes.
• Not required to attend every session.
• Registration fees are non-refundable.

Questions? Comment below 👇

01/08/2026

This weekend, we’re heading to the USA Triathlon Endurance Exchange to learn, connect, and share.

On Saturday, Coach and Coach .waterstraat will present:

Beyond Retention: How to Connect, Inspire, and Thrive in a Coaching Business

After 20+ years in coaching, we’ve learned that retention is not the goal - it’s the outcome of meaningful connection, clarity, and values-driven practice.

This session challenges coaches to look beyond metrics and performance outcomes and instead focus on who they are, how they show up, and what they consistently build within each coach–athlete relationship.

A thriving coaching business starts within: getting clear on your values and intentionally weaving them into everything you do - from messaging and onboarding to communication and celebration.

Over time, this approach moves you beyond retention and toward building fans: strong communities rooted in trust, shared purpose, and genuine care.

Will you be in Orlando? Let us know ⬇️

12/24/2025

12 MYTHS OF FITNESS

Myth 1️⃣2️⃣

Coaching isn’t for everyone

Says who?

Coaching is often treated like a reward: something you earn once you’re fast, serious, or competitive. But coaching is for any athlete interested in growth, learning, and sustainability.

Research consistently shows that structured, coached training outperforms self-directed training. Not because coached athletes “try harder,” but because they:

• Pace better
• Progress more appropriately
• Execute sessions more consistently

Left on their own, most athletes do too much, too soon - or not enough to improve.

Sound familiar?

We've all been there.

That gap is largest early on. Beginners are still learning what effort actually feels like, how recovery works, and how to adjust when life gets messy. Studies show greater gains in strength, aerobic fitness, and movement efficiency when less-experienced athletes are coached.

In simple terms: coaching helps people learn faster and make fewer costly mistakes.

Coaching also tackles the hardest part of fitness development for everyone: sticking with it! Across multiple studies, coached athletes (even remotely coached) show better adherence to training. And consistency is where performance is built.

Pacing improves too. Guided pacing and feedback lead to more efficient effort and better results, especially for athletes who haven’t yet learned their internal signals.

And for experienced athletes? Coaching shines a light on blind spots, habits, and untapped potential. A partnership built on trust, engagement, and care accelerates progress at every level.

Coaching amplifies: it turns effort into direction, intention into progress, and motivation into consistency. It shortens the learning curve, protects your long-term health, and helps you show up again tomorrow.

If you want to improve, stay consistent, and enjoy the process ➡️ coaching is for you!

12/23/2025

12 MYTHS OF FITNESS

Myth 1️⃣1️⃣

Confidence comes before you can achieve great things.

LIES ❌

In sport, we often hear that athletes must feel confident before they can perform well. But the research doesn’t support that as a necessary sequence!

While confidence and performance show a moderate correlation (they move together), that doesn’t mean confidence causes action. More often, they co-develop over time.

What consistently does build confidence? Experience! Along with performance attempts, repetition, feedback, and adjustments.

Decades of research grounded in self-efficacy theory show that confidence is shaped primarily by mastery experiences:

➡️ BY ACTUALLY DOING THE THING.

Confidence grows after successful actions, adjusts after setbacks, and recalibrates as athletes gain information about their capabilities.

Studies also show that confidence frequently changes in response to performance outcomes, not just before them. Athletes often become more confident after executing skills effectively and less confident after errors. It's a reciprocal, dynamic relationship, not a confidence-first rule.

How then do you build confidence?

• Skill practice with objective feedback
• Behavioral rehearsal
• Imagery paired with real ex*****on
• Self-modeling through successful performance

Is there an easier way? Not really. Confidence built in isolation, through positive self-talk alone, has limited impact. Confidence built through doing is more durable.

You also can't shortcut confidence. Overconfidence without preparation or competence can undermine performance by reducing effort, attention, and learning - the very behaviors that create progress.

The takeaway for athletes? Don’t wait to feel ready! Start acting. Let confidence emerge in real-time from preparation, ex*****on, and growth.

📸 Confidence shining through with athletes

12/22/2025

12 MYTHS OF FITNESS

Myth 🔟

"I'll sleep when I'm dead."

That's one way to look at it!

A common myth in endurance sport is that sleep is optional - something that can be sacrificed for early training sessions, work, or family commitments without consequence. This belief is particularly widespread among amateur athletes, who often assume sleep only matters at the elite level. Research consistently shows this assumption is incorrect!

Endurance performance depends not only on aerobic capacity or training volume, but also on the ability to sustain effort, regulate pacing, and tolerate fatigue. Studies demonstrate that even short-term sleep restriction impairs endurance performance, particularly time-to-exhaustion and the ability to maintain steady workloads. Importantly, these declines often occur without meaningful changes in heart rate or oxygen uptake. An athlete may appear fit while still performing worse due to inadequate sleep.

Sleep is also fundamental to recovery and adaptation. During sleep, the body supports hormonal regulation, nervous system recovery, and tissue repair processes that allow training stress to translate into improved endurance. When sleep is consistently reduced, these processes are compromised. For amateur athletes balancing training with work and daily stress, this commonly results in persistent fatigue, poor-quality sessions, and stalled progress despite consistent training.

Perceived exertion is another critical factor. Research shows that sleep loss increases feelings of effort at given intensities. For endurance athletes, this directly affects pacing and session ex*****on. Workouts feel harder than expected, intensity targets are missed, and confidence in fitness may decline - often incorrectly attributed to poor conditioning rather than insufficient recovery.

For amateur endurance athletes, sleep is not a luxury or a sign of low commitment. It is part of performance! Ignoring it undermines training adaptations and limits performance gains. Prioritizing sleep is not about doing less; it is about training more effectively.

Better sleep supports better performance! 😴

12/21/2025

12 MYTHS OF FITNESS

Myth 9️⃣

Progress is always linear.

Not even close! 🙂‍↔️

One of the most persistent misconceptions in endurance sport is that improvement should appear as a smooth, upward trend. For experienced triathletes, this expectation is not only unrealistic but physiologically incorrect. Decades of endurance training research show that adaptation unfolds in uneven, discontinuous patterns - not straight lines.

Training produces two competing effects: fitness and fatigue. Fitness accumulates slowly and is retained, while fatigue accumulates rapidly and dissipates more quickly. When training load increases, fatigue often masks fitness, causing temporary stagnation or even performance decline. These short-term regressions are not signs that training is failing; they are frequently evidence that the stimulus is sufficient.

Structured training plans intentionally exploit this non-linearity. Periodization and tapering are designed to suppress performance during overload phases and reveal adaptation later. Athletes commonly feel worse during their hardest blocks and best near key races. Consistent week-to-week improvement would more likely indicate underloading than optimal progression.

As athletes become more trained, adaptations also become subtler. Peak metrics such as maximal power, pace, or VO₂max show diminishing returns and higher variability. Meanwhile, meaningful gains occur in efficiency, durability, fatigue resistance, and fueling tolerance - qualities that determine race-day performance but do not always show up in isolated sessions. This shift often creates the false impression of stagnation.

Progress is best viewed over time. Daily and weekly fluctuations are dominated by fatigue and noise. Look across training blocks and, most clearly, after reductions in load. Submaximal efficiency markers, reduced cardiac drift in long sessions, improved late-session performance, and post-taper results are more reliable indicators of adaptation.

If you're experiencing plateaus, dips, daily variability, or even sudden breakthroughs, these are expected patterns of successful training. Linear progress is the myth; non-linear adaptation is the rule.

12/20/2025

12 MYTHS OF FITNESS

Myth 8️⃣

The Norwegian Method is for elites only.

All aboard the myth-busting 🚂!

The Norwegian Method has become a buzzword, often associated with world-class athletes and gold medals. But the method is not magic nor reserved for elites only. At its core, the approach embraces better ex*****on of the fundamentals: control, consistency, and durability - factors benefitting all athletes.

A main component is extreme respect for intensity control. Avoiding gray zone work by adhering to specific limits of heart rate, lactate, or power ensure athletes finish sessions feeling capable of repeating them again tomorrow. Consistency is the foundation of improvement at every level.

Threshold focused work is also foundational. By spending meaningful time around a clearly defined threshold, athletes build metabolic efficiency and durability. Sessions are driven less by ego or chasing exhaustion, more by patience and precision - a level of control beneficial for often stressed non-elites.

Another key? Frequency over hero sessions. Shorter, well-executed sessions done consistently outperform sporadic big days followed by illness, injury, or burnout. Sessions are repeatable, minimizing risk of overreaching. This structure exists to protect athletes, not push them.

What’s often overlooked, though, is how much joy and love of the process are essential. There’s a simplicity that creates ease. Clear structure removes emotional decision-making, especially about how hard to go. Athletes enjoy the rhythm of training, with simplicity promoting calm and confidence. That clarity is liberating, especially for non-elites juggling training with real life.

Finally, there’s a strong emphasis on long-term development. Training is less about proving or rushing fitness, it simply builds it with patience. And patience is a skill useful for every athlete.

The Norwegian Method isn’t for elites only. It's a framework for any athlete seeking to train smarter, stay healthier, and keep showing up with purpose and enjoyment for years to come.

How can you put a little more Norway into your training?

12/19/2025

12 MYTHS OF FITNESS

Myth 7️⃣

"Don’t eat for 2-3 hours before bed."

Let’s put this one to rest. 😴

Nothing magical happens to a calorie after 7 pm. Your metabolism doesn’t shut down. Your digestive system doesn’t become inefficient. Calories don’t instantly turn into body fat.

So what changes at night? Context. Evening eating is often associated with: highly palatable foods, large portions following restriction, eating driven by deprivation rather than need.

When eating before bed feels chaotic or out of control, when hunger rages, the issue isn’t time of day or discipline. It’s energy needs unmet earlier in the day. Evening hunger often starts with skipped or under-fueled meals, inadequate carbohydrates earlier in the day, long gaps between training and eating, tying to “eat clean” instead of eating enough.

By end of day, if energy needs weren’t met, the body sends strong signals: intense cravings, difficulty sleeping or staying asleep, poor recovery, and low energy the next day.

For athletes training late or carrying high training workloads, calories consumed at night should not be feared and serve an important purpose: replenishing muscle glycogen, supporting overnight protein synthesis, reducing overnight cortisol, and improving next day readiness.

Fuel availability matters during sleep - the body is in a highly active recovery state of muscle repair and adaptation. Studies show consuming protein before bed, particularly slow-digesting protein, increases overnight muscle protein synthesis without impairing fat metabolism or sleep quality.

If late eating causes sleep or digestive issues, adjusting meal composition may help. Lighter, lower-fat options (paired with adequate energy intake earlier in the day) are often better tolerated.

Ultimately, for athletes, managing appetite, recovery, and body composition isn’t about rigid rules or time restrictions. It’s about aligning fueling decisions with training load, recovery needs, and energy availability across the full 24-hour day.

Eat well and enough to feel and perform your best!

12/18/2025

12 MYTHS OF FITNESS

Myth 6️⃣

The swim doesn’t matter for overall long course performance.

"It depends."

If performance equals finish time, the data seems pretty clear. Across Ironman and 70.3 races, cycling and running are far stronger predictors of overall results than swimming.

The swim makes up roughly 10% of total race time, while the bike and run account for more than 80%. From a purely statistical standpoint, improving your bike or run explains far more of your final time than shaving seconds off the swim. For time-limited athletes, that’s why reallocating swim time to bike or run training often produces faster finishes.

But that’s only part of the story!

When performance is viewed as ex*****on, not just time, swim training starts to matter a lot more. Controlled studies show swim intensity directly affects cycling performance and overall triathlon outcomes. Swimming efficiently and at the right effort reduces early cardiovascular stress, preserves glycogen, and sets up better pacing later in the race. These benefits don’t always show up in simple swim-time correlations, but they absolutely show up on the bike and run.

Swim performance also influences where you start the bike leg. Even in non-drafting races, early positioning affects pacing, wind exposure, and mental load. Poor swim conditioning increases anxiety, navigation mistakes, and early fatigue - problems that persist and compound long after the swim is over.

Context matters too. In shorter triathlons, swimming can be a primary driver of performance. Sex-specific differences exist as well, with slower swim speeds in women associated with slower overall outcomes.
In longer races? The link between swim time and finish time tends to weaken (especially as we age).

In Ironman racing, what matters isn’t just how long each leg lasts, but how each one shapes the next. Swim training may contribute less to finish time on paper, but it meaningfully affects physiology, strategy, and energy management across the entire race. And while impact from swim training may seem small, the real benefit is in efficiency, resilience, and (most importantly) safety.

12/17/2025

12 MYTHS OF FITNESS

Myth 5️⃣

It takes 6–8 weeks to recover from an Ironman.

Unlikely!

Ironman racing creates real physiological stress, but the idea that everyone needs 6–8 weeks of downtime isn’t supported by the science.

Research consistently shows that while muscle damage and inflammation markers such as creatine kinase, myoglobin, IL-6, and hs-CRP spike immediately after racing and remain elevated for several days, this is normal.

Yet in most trained athletes, biomarkers return to baseline within 2–3 weeks. Some studies even show near-baseline values and functional readiness in 7–10 days, suggesting the system has stabilized enough for smart reloading.

But the real question is: what do we mean by recovery?

Biological recovery refers to tissue repair and inflammation control, which typically occurs in about 7–10 days.

Performance readiness is the ability to absorb training stress again and usually takes around 2–3 weeks.

Psychological recovery includes motivation, mental bandwidth, and nervous system reset, and has no fixed timeline.

Recovery is individual.

An athlete who arrived at the start overreached, finished injured, or crossed the line mentally cooked will need more recovery. Lingering pain, poor sleep, low motivation, or persistent fatigue all change the equation.

What doesn’t help is a prolonged shutdown.

Extended inactivity leads to losses in mitochondrial density, neuromuscular efficiency, and connective tissue tolerance, making the return to training more challenging.

To support faster, healthier recovery, reduce overall stress especially in the first week. Prioritize sleep, nutrition, hydration, and light movement: easy swims, gentle spins. Step away from outcomes. Reconnect effort with enjoyment. Rebalance life outside of sport.

From there, rebuild gradually and intentionally with focus on long-term goals, not just this race but the seasons ahead.

Ironman racing is hard but are adaptable. When recovery is approached actively and intelligently, it is usually measured in weeks, not months. Above all, respect the recovery needs of the individual athlete.

📸 setting a PR at IM Cozumel 6 weeks after Kona 🤩

12/16/2025

12 MYTYS OF FITNESS

Myth 4️⃣

After 40, the best performance is behind you.

Nope. 🙂‍↔️

First, the bad news. Performance does decline with age - on average. But much of that “average decline” isn’t driven by a hard biological ceiling. It reflects reduced training consistency, lower volume, interruptions from life stress. Repeated cuts to volume from work, family, illness, injury, or travel accelerate decline far more than age alone.

Now the good news. Research shows that older athletes retain substantial trainability. Both central and peripheral systems remain adaptable well into later decades. Aerobic capacity still responds to training, and vigorous endurance work slows VO2 max decline.

Beyond VO2 max, masters athletes can continue improving lactate threshold, efficiency, durability, and repeatability. These qualities often matter more than raw oxygen uptake for endurance race outcomes.

And even after 40, the most powerful variable of training doesn't change: consistency. Protect it fiercely. It may require training a little easier, but a little more. Too many masters athletes lean hard into intensity at the expense of aerobic volume.

High intensity is effective, but it’s also costly. Recovery capacity is often compromised with aging. A minimum effective dose of intensity should support consistency, not compete with it. Sleep, nutrition, and recovery habits remain essential to benefit from harder sessions.

Strength training also plays a critical supporting role - preserving muscle, power, and bone density while improving economy and injury resilience. By supporting force production, strength work enhances training tolerance and long-term durability.

Age brings wisdom and experience too. Endurance races reward patience, smart pacing, and disciplined ex*****on. Experienced athletes develop sharper body awareness, better decision-making, and greater confidence in discomfort. These skills often offset physiological changes and meaningfully improve performance.

Slowing down with age? Not necessarily! With intention and consistency you can stay fast well into your later decades.

📸 Beth who set many PRs in her new 60-64 age group this season.

12/15/2025

12 MYTHS OF FITNESS

Myth 3️⃣

Carbohydrate needs during exercise are based on body size.

Let’s break this one down.

During exercise, carbohydrate use is limited far more by gut transport and absorption than by body mass. The real bottleneck isn’t how big you are, it’s how much carbohydrate your intestine can move from the gut into circulation and actually oxidize.

That’s why fueling guidelines during exercise are typically expressed as grams per hour, not grams per kilogram of body weight.

What actually determines carbohydrate needs?

First, intensity and duration. The harder you’re working and the longer you’re out there, the greater your reliance on carbohydrate. Athletes racing at higher absolute work rates for longer durations will oxidize more carbohydrate, regardless of body size.

Second, gut tolerance and gut training. Your ability to handle higher carbohydrate intakes improves with practice. Once intestinal transporters are saturated, eating more doesn’t result in more usable energy! Regular exposure can enhance gastric emptying, intestinal absorption, and overall tolerance while reducing GI symptoms. This is highly trainable!

Third, carbohydrate type and formulation. Using multiple transportable carbohydrates, increases total absorption and oxidation. This is why blends consistently outperform one-sugar strategies at higher intakes.

While a larger athlete may sometimes benefit from higher carbohydrate intake it's not because of size alone. It’s usually because they are racing at a higher absolute workload and can absorb more.

👉🏻 The driver is work rate and absorption capacity, not the number on the scale!

A few fueling details to remember:

The intestine can adapt to higher carbohydrate intakes in as little as 1-2 weeks with consistent practice.

More carbohydrate only helps if it can be absorbed; excess intake increases GI risk.

Environmental stressors like heat, dehydration, and altitude can all reduce gut absorption.

Anchor fueling to intensity and duration first. Then individualize based on gut tolerance, carbohydrate formulation, and conditions.

Fuel for the work you do!

📸 We ❤️ a good carb load before race day!

MSM + JHC Coaching

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