The Athletes

Ascend Sports Conditioning Athletes Achieving Their Goals & Dreams

Kudos to Gary and his awesome coaching advice! I reached out to Gary to help me prepare for my first triathlon. I have been running for many years, and although mostly a mid-pack runner, a fairly accomplished runner. In the last few years I picked up cycling, but never to race, only for recreational and endurance rides. My swimming experience was minimal, I learned how to swim as a kid and have swum off and on since then, mostly off, but it was definitely my weak spot and although I had some lake swimming experience (from a lot of years ago as a kid), I had zero experience with a mass start swimming event. The idea of combining all these together and completing a triathlon was intriguing, but also daunting. I came to Gary with three specific concerns: 1. Get through the swim; 2. Help with transitions; 3. Don’t get injured. Gary nailed all three. He offered solid advice, perfectly geared toward my experience and non-experience in each of the events. He offered practical solutions, not just “increase your pace”, but specifics on how to do it, and when to do it. And he packaged all of it up into a very simple to understand and completely do-able package. With Gary’s advice in hand I signed up for my first tri with only the goal of completing it. The end result was not only that I finished my first tri, but that I came in 299th out of 1, 021 competitors, many of whom had tri experience. I surprised myself with how well I did, and I credit Gary’s coaching advice with much of that success. I highly recommend Gary and his coaching skill, as he has the ability to coach experienced athletes (me as a runner), middle of the pack athletes (me as a cyclist) and new-to-the-sport athletes (me as a swimmer). I never thought I could or would do a tri, and once I signed up for one I never thought I’d ever do one again, but the best compliment I can give to Gary is after completing my first tri, I can’t wait to sign up for another one. Kudos and THANKS Gary!

-Melanie Schranz, triathlete, age 39, Pennington, NJ

I couldn’t feel better about this season. I dropped about an hour off my Ironman time and was able to improve my Half Ironman time by over 20 minutes all without even a hint of injury or illness. Completing an Ironman (and then improving on the result) have been a major goal for at least the last 10 years. I would not been able to reach these goals without Coach Gary’s help.

-Mike York, two time Ironman triathlete, age 37, Watertown, MA

I came to Coach Gary so I could learn how to swim with proper form and technique. I am very impressed by the way Gary was able to break down the swimming process and effectively teach me the fundamentals. He is a very dedicated and skillful coach who finds creative, supportive and individualized ways to help even the most novice swimmer, such as myself, gain mastery over this event. Thank you so much!!

-Kristin Kraunelis, swimmer, age 37, Exeter, NH