The Grit City Health Blog
Smarter Training, Better Recovery, Stronger Performance
Welcome to the Grit City Health Blog. Your go-to resource for training smarter, recovering better, and performing at your best. Whether you're an endurance athlete, a weekend warrior, or just getting started, you'll find expert insights, movement strategies, and coaching tips to keep you progressing. Explore the latest posts below!
Capacity Before Expectation: Meeting Yourself Where You Are
Capability is what you know you can do. Capacity is what you have available today. A rough round of golf became a reminder to consider the context we bring into training, work, parenting, and everyday life—and to set our expectations accordingly.
Recovery Is a Signal: How to Use Tools to Support Better Sleep (Not Replace It)
Recovery isn’t something you hack—it’s something you signal. Sleep, routines, environment, movement, and recovery tools can all help tell your body it’s time to downshift. The goal isn’t to find a gadget that replaces good sleep, but to build repeatable signals that make rest easier.
The Supported Athlete Platform: Where Real Human Coaching Meets AI Training
Training software has gotten very good. AI-driven platforms like TrainerRoad can now decide what workout you should do next based on your history and likelihood of success. But training isn’t just about choosing workouts. It’s about showing up, adapting when life gets messy, and staying oriented over the long arc of progress. This post explores how human coaching and AI training work best together.
Event Day Intentions: How to Stay Grounded When It Counts
Event days carry pressure—but they don’t have to derail your purpose. Whether you're racing to win or riding to grow, setting clear intentions can transform your experience. This post covers how to manage nerves, decide on openers, align your effort with your goals, and find meaning in every race-day moment.
Setting Your Intentions: Training, Social Pressure, and the Power of a Pre-Ride Check-In
Ever finish a ride or run feeling more mentally drained than physically tired? You’re not alone. When your brain and body compete for energy—and your intentions aren’t clear—it’s easy to lose focus, fall into comparison, and miss out on the real value of the effort. This post explores how setting clear intentions before training or group activities can reduce burnout, improve enjoyment, and support long-term progress through the Sustainable Training & Adaptability Cycle (STAC). Whether you’re chasing performance or peace of mind, it starts with knowing what you’re really showing up for.
Sharpening the Blade: Why Rest and Timing Make or Break Your Training
Your training is like sharpening a blade—each phase builds toward peak performance. But without rest, the edge never sets. Learn how to train with purpose, recover smart, and show up sharp when it counts.
Why I Don’t Always Recommend “Pushing a Workout to Saturday”
Sometimes skipping a workout is smarter than shifting it. In this post, I break down why pushing a missed session later in the week can throw off your entire training rhythm—especially when it comes to building fatigue resistance. You’ll learn when it’s okay to pivot, when it's better to delete, and why staying consistent often means letting go rather than playing catch-up. This one’s for every athlete who’s ever stared at a calendar and thought, “Maybe I’ll just do it Saturday...”
Human Mode, Athlete Mode, and Specialist Mode: Understanding Your Training Phases
Training doesn’t have to look the same all year. Human Mode, Athlete Mode, and Specialist Mode give us a way to adjust our training focus as life, goals, and priorities change—without treating every shift as falling behind.
Seek Harmony, Not Balance
Struggling to juggle training, work, and life? Instead of chasing balance, seek harmony. Learn how shifting your focus can lead to sustainable progress in training and life without burnout. Read more at Grit City Health.
Regardability: Support Without Judgment
At Grit City Health, our coaching approach is built on support, empathy, and thoughtful guidance. We intentionally use the term "Regardability" instead of the commonly heard "accountability," as it better captures our core values and coaching philosophy.
Train Smarter, Not Just Harder
For many of us, free time is precious. When we choose to dedicate some of that limited time to training, we naturally want every minute to count. But it's easy to fall into patterns of training randomly, pushing harder and longer, believing more miles, more elevation, or more gym hours automatically lead to better results. Unfortunately, this approach often leads to setbacks like injury, burnout, and frustration.
When Does Your Recovery Start?
When does recovery start? It's a question that might seem simple, but the answer can profoundly impact your training and performance. For most athletes, recovery tends to be something that happens after the hard work—after the workout, the long ride, or the tough race. But at Grit City Health, we believe your recovery starts the moment you begin planning your training block.