I have been a runner for several years and started doing triathlons in 2004, doing my first IM in Florida in November 2004. After that first IM, I was hooked. I went on to do several IMs including Arizona twice, Lake Placid, and Coeur d'Alene. After having good runs at my first 3 IMs, I started having difficulty with the marathon portion of the event and my bike times were falling off as well. In April of 2008, I talked with Curt about coaching me for IM Louisville in August of that year and my goal of improving my bike time AND being able to run the entire marathon. Curt was convinced he could help me, even though he had a lot to overcome. I had just finished IM Arizona & still had a lot of accumulated fatigue from over training. So he needed to get me rested & then ready for another IM in just 4 short months.

Curt taught me so much about training. One major area Curt focused on was my pacing. During my interval workouts, I would always go out too hard & then fall apart at the end. Curt kept drilling into me that it was all about starting slow & building. But this was a hard concept for me because I always I felt my best at the beginning of the workout, so that is when I wanted to go the fastest. Also in the past, I had completed most of my workouts at the same pace. Curt taught me the value of easy workout days & how important it was to feel good for my "key workout" days. Another area we focused on was nutrition. I knew I had to eat for long distance events, but really had never put any numbers to it. Curt spent a lot of time with me determining how many ounces of liquid to drink on the bike & run per hour & how many calories I should be consuming.

All this hard work & training for IM Louisville in 2008. I started my taper & felt like I was finally going to reach my goals. Eight days out from the event, I was doing an easy taper ride & was hit by a truck that ran a stop sign. I did not suffer any broken bones, but I had a really sore back & bruised ribs. After going to rehab every day before the event, I was convinced I could still swim & bike, but running was going to be pretty iffy with the bruised ribs. I completed IM Louisville that year, with one of the best bike times I had ever had. I was within 25 secs of my bike PR and this was a much more difficult course! The run went the way I thought it would, and I ended up walking most of it in quite a bit of pain.

Well I couldn't let an accident get the best of me. I felt like Curt & I had made great strides in my training. So I signed up for IM Louisville in 2009 to try again.

This training season, Curt worked with me to determine what combination of easy days and hard days work best for me and how much I can handle on my key workout days. He added a lot more easy bike days to build my base and reduced my long run mileage to keep me fresher for my other workouts. Since I'm a runner, I was worried about not getting in enough run miles. Curt reminded me that "my way" had not worked for the last few IMs and asked me to try it this way this one time. He also wanted me to back off on the bike leg, slowing my time by 10 - 15 mins, thereby increasing my chances for running the entire marathon.

I am happy to report that Curt's way worked! I got to IM Louisville without injury & finished under my goal time of 12 hours. I added (on purpose) about 15 mins to my bike time from last year, which allowed me to run the entire marathon, stopping only for bathroom breaks & walking only through the aid stations. I even had an IM marathon PR of 4:10:21. I was so excited. Looking back at my event, I have no regrets & am so glad that I stuck to the plan that Curt laid out for me. Curt has been a great coach. It is hard to explain how much I have learned from him over the last few months and what a difference he has made in my training. It certainly would be hard to find someone who works harder than he does as a coach!

Donna Hickey
IM Finisher, 8 times