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Endurance Strong is an online resource for current and future Endurance Athletes created by Endurance Coach, Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and Physical Therapist Assistant, David Kell to enhance Endurance Athletes' training and knowledge whether on the road, at the gym, while recovering from injury, or just getting started in their sport.

 

Endurance Strong has set out to finally bring together all the resources a modern Endurance Athlete needs to improve their endurance training, incorporate strength training specific to their sports, and stave off or recover from common overuse injuries. While many websites and coaches have expertise in one of those areas, leaving gaps in your training, Coach David Kell has higher expectations for Endurance Strong. David has expertise and experience in the physical therapy, strength and conditioning, endurance coaching as well as training and competing as an Endurance Athlete, and started Endurance Strong to create well rounded, informed Endurance Athletes. This means endurance training plans with proper progressions and variety to keep you motivated, strength training plans that easily blend with your endurance training, goals, and injury history, and products to help you enhance your training, injury prevention, and motivation. Endurance Strong is designed for any Endurance Athlete that wants to go Further, get Faster, or simply enjoy their sport Forever.

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Endurance Strong prides itself on not being a traditional coaching site where you pay hundreds of dollars a month to get a personal coach to make every decision for you. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with that model and is ideal for some individuals, Endurance Strong wants to give you all our knowledge, mostly for FREE, in the form of articles, videos, and podcasts which will aim to give the endurance athlete the knowledge and confidence to make a lot of coaching decisions for themselves. Don't worry we are always here for questions, advice, etc. Also we take care of the training plans as well for both your endurance and strength training so most of the decisions you will have to make are on minor adjustments to the plans to suite your individual needs and situation and these plans come with most of this guidance already. We structure things this way for a few reasons. First, most of those decisions are based on the athlete's schedule or how the athlete feels, both of which the athlete can answer best, especially with some guidance. Secondly, Endurance Strong won't be limited to the number of coaching clients it can take on as it would be in the traditional coaching model. Lastly, you the coaching client don't have to spend hundreds of dollars a month so you can redirect that money to other things like that new bike or more importantly for most, you can afford this model of coaching so you can get into Endurance Sports in the first place and make continual progress once you fall in love with them!

 

Another way Endurance Strong is different than other coaching platforms is that it is committed to helping endurance sports as a whole and it's athletes create a positive social impact. This is primarily through increasing physical activity levels through creating and supporting new Endurance Athletes and supporting charities with this aim. Our social mission also includes reducing injury rates in a susceptible population, tackling mental health issues experienced by injured athletes, and raising awareness and funds through charitable endurance events. See more here on how we are doing this.

ABOUT

Future

Future

Yes, this section should theoretically be at the end but we wanted to make sure you made it to this section as there is a lot of reading to go on this page...fascinating reading for sure, but given attention spans these days...here it is. Here is where we want you to get an idea of where this relationship is going. Endurance Strong has big goals for the future listed here and in no way does this mean you can hold us accountable for everything on this list, but it hopefully it gets you excited for the possibilities.

  • An Endurance Strong Team:

    • Special training packages, discounts​, pages to congregate, content, and other perks for those believers that want to be part of an ES Team that are also all-in on Endurance Strong.

    • Regional meet-ups / group rides/runs as any team would do.

  • Virtual group rides, runs, workouts, races and events on Zwift.

  • Virtual challenges anywhere.

  • Training Camps

    • Ride, run, swim, workout, and learn​ with other Endurance Strong faithful from around the country (or World).

  • An Endurance Strong presence at events...come meet us at events, races, conferences, etc. to talk shop, learn, share a brew (coffee or beer, depending on time of day), buy gear and much more...Feel free to invite use to your event.

  • Endurance Strong hosted races, so we can see you compete but also be an opportunity to attract new people to endurance sports (see our social impact tab). 

  • Books, webinars, courses, etc. to help you learn more about the nerdy aspects of endurance training, how to self-coach yourself better, how to be injury-proof, how to strength train for your sport, and the list could go on and on...let us know if there is any topic you want a deep dive into.

  • More customizable training plans and one-on-one coaching. Right now the focus is producing high quality training plans with enough education and information that you wouldn't need a one-on-one coach so we can focus on the rest of this list, but as we expand and bring on more coaches, adding these services would be a natural extension. 

  • A world class training facility surrounded by a well-paved, traffic-free, replica of Central Park to use for cycling and muslti-sport races, a running track, Olympic sized swimming pool, all the best strength training equipment money could by, and a team of orthopedic and sports medicine doctors, physical therapists, endurance coaches, and strength coaches...this would be an example something to not hold us 100% accountable for, but we can dream!

PHILOSOPHY

Endurance Strong's training plans and resources will:

  • Increase the quality of endurance atheletes' training

  • Be based on science and experience

  • Provide enough options and knowledge that each athlete feels they fit their training experience, strengths, weaknesses, goals, and personal schedules

  • Include enough fun and variety to keep the athlete interested and motivated, but not sacrifice their purpose

  • Are affordable to the majority of Endurance Athletes (cost shouldn’t prohibit an Endurance Athlete from getting quality coaching)

  • Create educated Endurance Athletes by teaching the reasons behind proper training

NAME

Why are we called Endurance Strong?

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The name is meant to remind current and aspiring Endurance Athletes that they can be Strong. While this includes being strong in the physical sense, it means much more than that. For starters, Endurance Athletes are often seen as too lanky and uncoordinated to do a real sport or mocked for how much they geek out about their pace per mile or how much spandex they where. So in this instance, Strong means comfortable in your own skin (or spandex) as an Endurance Athlete. In the more literal sense, Strong also means performing strength training to become not only a more well-rounded and fit Endurance Athlete, but also stronger in everyday life. No more gloating about a recent PR then throwing out your back carrying in the groceries. The Strong surname also pays tribute to two social movements linked to endurance sports that raised millions of dollars for charity in LiveStrong (TM) (think about the positive, not about the Lance stuff) and united a community in the face of tragedy in Boston Strong (TM), as Endurance Strong tries to similarly make a positive social impact.

ENDURANCE STRONG COACH

Founder & Head Coach

David Kell

In Short:

  • Masters in Exercise Science and Nutrition

  • Masters in Public Health

  • Physical Therapist Assistant with an Advanced Proficiency designation in Orthopedics

  • Level 1 USA Triathlon Coach

  • Level 3 USA Cycling Coach

  • Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

  • Certified Personal Trainer

  • Competitive Endurance Athlete

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

The Long Story

 

My start in endurance sports was in 2007 when a friend of my asked me if I wanted to do a 5K with him that weekend. It was the summer before my senior year of college and my aspirations to play college baseball or hockey had recently fizzled so I agreed to the challenge. To show how little I knew at the time about proper training, a couple days before the race I hopped on a treadmill at my local gym and jogged out the 3.1 miles to make sure I could do it. Keep in mind that, at this time, this was the first time I had run more than a couple laps of a baseball field in one bout. Despite this, I finished that ‘training’ run and the 5K that weekend, in what was by my (and my friend’s) standards a tremendously slow time. Nonetheless, I had established a PR for the 5K distance and was set out beat that PR and conquer other challenges. Essentially an Endurance Athlete was born.

 

This set me on a path that would eventually lead to many 5K’s and 10K’s, half-marathons, triathlons, cycling races of all kinds, a couple obstacle course races, an adventure race, and  my most beloved and competitive sport of Duathlon. I have seen many podiums in Duathlon, but the achievements I am proudest of are winning my age group at New England Regionals, cracking the Top 50 at the 2016 Duathlon Nationals, overall wins at local Duathlons, completing a half iron distance duathlon,  competing at the World Championships in Australia, and ranking as high as 10th in the Nation and 2nd in my Region in my age group.

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While my love for Endurance Sports and training/coaching/treating others was starting to grow, my passion for helping people be physically active and healthy was already there as my first stop after undergrad was pursuing a Masters in Public Health. My number one mission with this degree was always to get more people physically active as I saw this as a solution for many of the developed world's problems with chronic disease and growing healthcare costs. While I worked with agencies to do just that in my local community, as I got further into Endurance Sports, I needed dive deeper and deeper.

 

My obsession for Endurance Sports became so strong that I had to pursue Coaching as a career as well. I wanted to know more and more about what made an Endurance Athlete what they were, how to train, how to avoid/recover from injury, and everything else that goes into pushing one’s self to their personal limits. This passion led to me getting my Masters in Exercise Science and Nutrition (graduating with the Gold Medal of Honor for finishing first in my class), being certified as a Triathlon Coach, Cycling Coach, Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Personal Trainer, and Physical Therapist Assistant with an Advanced Proficiency designation in Orthopedics. I worked at a Trainer/Coach/Therapist at a Physical Therapy and Wellness facility, triathlon training center, Quinnipiac University’s Strength and Conditioning Department, the YMCA, for a Youth Triathlon Team, and currently at a Physical Therapy Clinic specializing in orthopedics and sports medicine.

 

I can honestly say that each of these experiences made me the well-rounded and complete athlete, coach, and clinician I am today. Through all of my education, training, and experiences as a coach and an athlete, I found myself needing to get my perspective and knowledge out to the world, not just one person at a time, but to as many people as I could. Seeing Endurance Sports from all these perspectives I wanted a different online resource and coaching platform to exist...Endurance Strong! I say this for a couple reasons. First, most websites, books, newsletters, etc. out there seem to miss the mark on one level or another. There are those that rely on the experience of well-known coaches or athletes, but fly in the face of scientific research. There are those whose advice is well-researched, but lacks the ability for practical application. There are strength coaches that think endurance athletes should train like team sport athletes or endurance coaches that don’t know the basic strength training principles. There are Physical Therapy based resources that focus purely on therapeutic exercises but not on the other needs an Endurance Athlete needs specifically.

 

My second reason is the high and ever increasing cost for quality coaching. This frustration I feel more as an athlete, as I started out as a clueless runner in need of guidance and to this day still like turning to other coaches for their input. I feel that I was in the same boat as many of endurance athletes in the fact that despite my high level of commitment to my sport, I couldn’t afford quality coaching. The price to enter races, travel to them, and get the equipment necessary for them is high and climbing higher. Adding a quality coach to the mix at their current prices is not feasible for many endurance athletes. I hope you noticed, I kept using the term ‘quality coaching’ above. This is because it is too often the case that an endurance athlete seeks out the coach offering the best deal or the price they can afford. The result of this is bad coaching or coaching that is generic and not good for that individual. 

 

Lastly, while my time as and endurance athlete and coach have been largely positive, there have been bumps in the road just like most endurance athletes have faced. Despite the knowledge of how and dedication to staving off injury, there have been several times where I have been forced to the sidelines. These experiences were tough on me. Not only is there physical pain, it is mentally tough having to give up what you love for any period of time. I have gone through the mental spiral of worrying about losing fitness, gaining weight, getting angry, getting sad, getting your hopes up when feeling better again and getting even more frustrated when an injury comes back. Overcoming these physical and mental obstacles has given me additional knowledge and experience that helps round out what Endurance Strong is and provides a lot of the passion behind it's goal of creating a positive social impact.

David Kell Anchor

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