Natalie is 49 and races triathlon.
She also balances a demanding full-time job and a busy family life.
Before coaching
Before joining Coached, Natalie had signed up for a full Ironman with no real plan to back it up.
She'd wung her way through shorter distances, which had worked well enough. But a full Ironman was different.
Her training was quite random and lacked any kind of progression.
She wanted confidence that she could complete an Ironman triathlon, and that wasn't going to come by just winging it.
That's where we came in.
The shift
With a structured plan that built progressively toward race day, something shifted.
But not overnight.
The first thing to change was purpose. Every session had a reason. Even the easy ones, especially the easy ones. Recovery became an important part of the plan.
Training was structured around her life. The plan had to be realistic or it wouldn't get done.
Early on, Natalie doubted whether it would actually be enough. The Ironman distance felt daunting. But tracking her sessions meant she could look back and see the progression. The evidence was right there.
As the months went by and sessions were ticked off, her confidence grew.
The results
Natalie finished her Ironman and since then has been focused on middle distance racing.
She's podiumed in her age group at multiple local races, and placed at Ironman 70.3 and Challenge events. She qualified for and raced the Ironman 70.3 World Championships twice!
But the bigger change was how it felt.
Her training became more consistent, her confidence grew, and she actually started enjoying it more. The community around her made it even better. Small wins mattered just as much as big ones.
The lesson
Natalie’s biggest takeaway is simple. You can do epic things, even when they are blummin hard.
