We get the privilege of coaching some very amazing athletes.  Athletes who dig deep in their training to reach their goals.  Athletes who overcome adversity to cross the finish line strong.  Athletes who juggle crazy schedules in order to make their triathlon dreams come true.  This section is about the athlete(s) our coaches wish to celebrate each month for their small victories in training, during racing or maybe just in their lives.  These are the athletes who embody our 3 Ds:  Desire, Determination and Discipline.

This month, we are proud to introduce you to Jay Klein.
Jay was ready to be done with triathlon. The sport was no longer fun and he was struggling with motivation. Thankfully for Jay, he met D3 Coach Laura Marcoux and gave it one more try.  With the goal of getting back the enjoyment of training and racing, Jay has once again found his passion for the sport. 

Laura nominated Jay because, "despite his heavy weekly travel schedule, Jay fits in his workouts and gets the job done. His dedication is already paying off, and he set a new swim and run PR at 70.3 Oceanside." 
With travel nearly every week, Coach Marcoux made the workouts interesting enough to motivate Jay, and made them hotel gym friendly. An example is this workout using a stationary bike at the hotel. 60 minutes on the bike with every 15 minutes getting off the bike and doing the following set: 20 body weight squats, 10 push ups, 10 side lunges each leg, 15 rows, and plank position. Jay's post workout comment of "This was fun" let her know she was on the right track. The travel actually forced a level of creativity in the workouts that sparked Jay's motivation. 

Another key to the success was Jay's use of the post workout comments in TrainingPeaks. "Because of Jay's consistent, honest feedback, I was able to see exactly what direction to take him," say Coach Marcoux. "As the weeks went on, I started to see him get excited about milestones like running consistently without walking, negative splitting long workouts, and doing his longest training run off the bike." 

For Jay, the process has been the right mix of work and play. "When Coach Laura and I had our first meeting about working together I told her I didn't really like triathlon anymore and was stuck in my training," he recalls. "She listened to everything I said and put an awesome plan together for me. She made me work hard, but at the same time it was a lot of fun. In just four and a half months with her she got me swimming, biking, and running faster and for longer periods of time."

This year, Jay only had one race on his calendar, 70.3 Oceanside. The day went well for him, with Coach Marcoux sharing the following about his race results,  "Great day for Jay to kick off his season! Despite some GI issues on the bike, he still managed a swim PR and a run PR! It was coming down to the wire to get under three hours for the half marathon and he had to really fight those last few miles to bring it home."  
We are proud to turn the spotlight on Jay!