Ernie started his triathlon career in Tempe, Arizona at Arizona State University. Ernie quickly developed a passion for the sport after realizing that you could spend all day outside, and it could be written off as "training!" Ernie grew up playing ice hockey, so he enjoyed the team aspect of the sport offered by the collegiate club team environment. This same foundation of "community" embedded within how we "do triathlon" is a huge reason why Ernie loves working within Peak Athletic Coaching.

Ernie has been racing professionally since 2018 and at many times concurrently worked a full-time, non-sport, corporate job. His personal experience of managing a non-sport career while racing at the highest level has equipped him to work with athletes to optimize their rhythms of work and training. We each only have so much time available, and to perform our best we must learn to understand stressors from all areas of life as they happen. Finding a balance of intentional family, work, and training time is a challenge that Ernie loves helping athletes to solve for their own lives.

In the world of professional sport, some would say that Ernie began triathlon later in life than most other professionals... Ernie loves to see “old dogs learn new tricks,” and continually develop their skills!

Endurance sports changed Jesse's life in so many positive ways. Jesse has claimed time and time again that the lessons he's learned through triathlon have made him a better husband, father, employee, leader, and coach. 

Personally, getting to "do triathlon" provides the stress outlet to put Jesse in the right mindset for daily life. Seeing progress over time in sports shows the power of a growth mindset and desire for excellence. In this same spirit, Jesse aims to help every individual unlock their full athletic and fitness potential. His approach to coaching builds long-lasting relationships—learning about each athlete's goals, passions, and desires and focusing on a sustainable training process.

As a husband, father of two, foster parent to additional children, and a full-time business professor, Jesse understands how the realities of life need to mesh with athletic training. He sincerely appreciates the balance necessary to juggle family, work, and training. Training and racing should be fun! Jesse's job as a coach is to help you maximize your abilities while pushing you to your athletic limits, yet ensuring the process remains enjoyable. Seeing athletes reach their potential is an incredible reward and the reason he loves to coach.

Jesse is a 5-times-and-counting IRONMAN finisher, Kona Qualifier, 70.3 WC Qualifier, and 7x marathon finisher. He also coaches cross country at Dordt University in Sioux Center, IA. Jesse spends his daytime hours as a Professor in Finance at Dordt and is working on his doctorate.

Growing up Jen was always active riding horses, mixed martial arts, and running but she was never very competitive. Jen did her first triathlon in 2006 to better her health, and she immediately fell in love with the sport. (Since then, Jen has done all distances, but 70.3 has become her favorite.)

Through triathlon, Jen learned to be competitive with herself and seek improvement through many healthy channels – strength, mobility, nutrition, and recovery. This has been important for her training and racing, but also for her longevity in the sport. Jen wants to be able to continue doing what she loves as long as possible, and she wants to help others do the same!

As a single parent during all those years of getting started in triathlon, Jen always had to work at finding the professional, parenting, and training balance. This wasn’t always easy and took plenty of trial and error. Jen wants to share her years of experience and lessons to help others do the same. She believes that with a little guidance, we can each find our unique formulas for navigating our responsibilities while becoming the best versions of ourselves.

Day to day these days, Jen helps support and mentor athletes as an assistant coach at her local bike shop, as a long-time member of the local triathlon club, and as a coach of the club’s youth team. When Jen is not swimming, biking, or running Jen is busy operating her own massage therapy business and hiking with her husband.

Once upon a time, I dined daily at Burger King and McDonalds which helped me get up to 210 lbs. After a radical cleansing of my diet, and learning how to exercise, I lost much of the weight. I eventually found triathlon and spent the next 10 years traveling and racing around the world as a professional triathlete.

Unlike other professional triathletes, I always worked full time to support my journey in the sport. For the first 3 years of my career, I was a blue-collar mechanic. Despite having a very physically demanding job, I became a provincial and national age group champion during this time. Since then, I've worked as a full-time fire fighter while managing to achieve many professional podiums. I understand the intricacies of training and racing at a very high level while working a full-time job. I now have a son, so I understand the delicate nature of balancing a full training and racing schedule with diaper changes and family responsibilities. It's a tough balance, but I am ready to help athletes achieve their goals, even if they have outside responsibilities.

Emily grew up in South Florida, began riding horses at 8 years old, and competed at the national level until college when she became a professional and began her coaching journey. During this time, her stepfather introduced her to cycling, and after a few rides, she fell in love. Emily quickly found group rides and racing, even working at her local bike shop.

As Emily hired her first coach, she knew the importance of following a structured plan to achieve her goals, as it was the recipe for her success as a coached athlete and the cornerstone of her coaching philosophy. She spent over 15 years exploring and racing many cycling disciplines, eventually branching into triathlon in 2018 where she quickly became an elite-level age grouper. Emily's nearly two decades of experience in cycling helps a single sport athlete with the knowledge of the sport and the skills required to succeed, whether targeting a crit or a hundred-plus mile race.

Emily's journey into sports as an adult though hasn’t been easy. Growing up, she would do anything to get out of P.E.... she even thought walking the mile each year was a tough task to accomplish. Learning to run and swim competitively as an adult in her mid-30s was a tough experience that forced her to dig in, research proper form, understand the importance of mobility, and learn foundational strength work to grow and prevent injury. Emily believes that her later start in triathlon helps her work with adults who may not have a strong background in each discipline, leading athletes to those “AHA” moments without failure and frustration.

Coaching across multiple sports and leveraging her professional work experience leading high-performing teams has taught Emily how to tailor her approach to everyone’s unique learning style to empower their success.  Emily enjoys working with “type A” personalities who are highly driven in their daily life and want to tackle their training and race goals with that same attitude. Emily excels at helping driven athletes find sustainable rhythms of striving for success in sports while simultaneously fitting the requirements of it into demanding work and family schedules.

By the time Vic was 15 his dreams of playing in the NBA were fading away quickly -- he couldn't even make the high school JV team. Vic’s friend, who was the captain of the cross country team, prodded him to give the cross country team a try and Vic reluctantly conceded. From then on he has been a runner. The 5k's turned into marathons when he was in college. A few years after graduation he ran his first trail race in Chattanooga, TN, and was hooked on dirt.

Since then Vic has completed eleven 100-mile races and quite a few more "shorter" ultras and marathons: the Western States 100 and the Boston Marathon have been two big highlights lately. Outside of sanctioned racing, Vic also enjoys long, self-supported efforts like running from his house in Lakewood to the top of Mt. Evans. That's about 40 miles with 9K of elevation!

Vic began coaching by helping his friends make training plans to reach their own goals, whether it be a 5k, trying to nab a Boston Qualification or finishing their first-ever hundred miler. Vic knows and loves the thrill of signing up for a race and not knowing whether he’ll be able to finish it... and then enjoying pushing his limit of "what's possible" during the training process. Helping others tackle and find success along that same journey is Vic’s goal as a coach!