From Coach Grant

Why “Heads Up Endurance”, you may ask? Let me back up a bit. I played multiple sports growing up, but my favorite by far was ice hockey. It’s no secret that hockey is a physical sport. Get caught not paying attention and you can be on your back in a hurry. You’ve got to keep your head up. It’s common talk among hockey benches (and most contact sports) ‘HEAD UP! HEAD UP! HEAD UP!’. It’s a quicker way to say ‘you’re about to get absolutely smoked by the opposing team if you’re not careful’… but it only uses 2 syllables. “Heads Up Endurance” is both a literal and figurative take on this saying. Literally keep your head up when training. And don’t beat yourself up if you’re not executing a session to perfection; keep your head up. Be aware. Be present. Heads Up.

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I had the terrible idea back in college to run a marathon. It was one of the most painful and yet positive experiences of my life. Every mistake in the book was made: increasing volume too fast, trying to beat my best times/distances every workout, training through injuries, lacking consistency, lacking any structure, lacking discipline, poor nutrition, etc. I may as well have had ‘rookie’ plastered on my forehead on the start line. My longest run ever before my first marathon was a whopping 7 miles. There were nearly 20 miles of uncharted waters in front of me. I made it to the finish line, but it was ugly.

Fast forward a couple of years and I had learned a lot more. I convinced a few friends to join me for a marathon. They asked for help training and I was hooked on coaching then and there. I built a 16-week training program for us to follow. We all got to the finish line (relatively) unscathed. That was 4 years ago now, and I still love building training plans for friends and family. That passion is now in action through Heads Up Endurance.