Mark's Testimonial

My Triathlon journey started back in 2015. Back then I couldn’t swim longer than 25 metres without getting out of breath. My cycling was alright. I came from a running background so this was my strongest out of the three. I entered my first race which was a super sprint. As soon as I finished my first race, I had to sign up for another one. This time it was a sprint race, then an Olympic distance, then 70.3 and then 140.6. I was obsessed and wanted to test myself and push myself as hard as I could.

I signed up for my first ironman in 2017. I knew I had to get help so I joined a Tri Club. This enabled me to mix with like minded people, to learn and improve. I completed my Ironman and wanted more. I then completed two further 140.6 distances and during this period, I met a lot of inspirational like-minded individuals, one of them was Paul. In some ways I saw a lot of him in me, not ability wise as Paul is a top Age grouper, but the drive and obsessive love of Triathlon brought our paths together.

There is only so much you can achieve doing it on your own. There is only so far you can go. At that time, I didn’t think I could go any further on my own and I needed a new fresh direction. A fantastic opportunity came along for me to join Paul’s coaching programme.

When you start being coached by Paul, he gets to know you not just on a professional triathlon level, but also from a personal background. I feel it is important your coach understands how you tick and what drives you to achieving your goals. For me having a coach is all about trust. Trust in your coach, and your coach having trust in you to perform and to give you the tools and platform to achieve your goals.

Paul walks the walk. He practices what he preaches. He finds a way to get the best out of you, gives you the tools to improve and perform. He pushes you when you need it, but knows when you need to back off. He is flexible in terms of adapting training sessions around life and work. Daily encouragement is always there, with good honest feedback from sessions. Paul embraces data and statistical output from your daily, weekly and monthly sessions giving you easy to understand feedback to give you the focus and ambition to succeed all your dreams.

My motto in life is Dream, Believe and Achieve. Having Paul as a friend and a coach has and will make my dreams become a reality.