Testimonials

I met Wendy 12 years ago. My husband found her for me when I was training for a half marathon and working towards triathlon training. At the beginning, I used Wendy intently to prepare for the Savannah Rock and Roll 1/2. Wendy’s training was thoughtful, positive, and inspiring. Over time, my goals have changed and Wendy has adapted to my goals. She can coach an Olympic triathlete and someone training to do a 5K with 20 minute mile targets. Her knowledge about training, nutrition, managing injuries, and mental preparation is I met Wendy 12 years ago. My husband found her for me when I was training for a half marathon and working towards triathlon training. At the beginning, I used Wendy intently to prepare for the Savannah Rock and Roll 1/2. Wendy’s training was thoughtful, positive, and inspiring.
Over time, my goals have changed and Wendy has adapted to my goals. She can coach an Olympic triathlete and someone training to do a 5K with 20 minute mile targets. Her knowledge about training, nutrition, managing injuries, and mental preparation is vast.
She has analysed my swim strokes, my gait, and my attitude! She has innumerable strengthening exercises.
I continue to hire Wendy as a personal coach because I am hopeful that my last four years in my 50’s are going to include a few 70.3 events and another go at a half marathon. My biggest challenge is consistency, and Wendy has stuck with me as I have weathered some severe mental roadblocks!
I could not recommend Wendy more as a personal coach no matter what your level. She is a gem.

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Payson Runner

I heard about Coach Wendy because she became the coach of SASfit in Turkey. She coached me 2016-2019, then again in 2023. It was completing my first full ironman race and based on my race performance I can say that your coaching helped me achieve this. I find you very creative as a coach. I don’t get bored training because you are changing my sessions weekly. The most beneficial for me in my experience was that you stopped me from over training thus preventing me from injury. Physically for sure I heard about Coach Wendy because she became the coach of SASfit in Turkey. She coached me 2016-2019, then again in 2023. It was completing my first full ironman race and based on my race performance I can say that your coaching helped me achieve this. I find you very creative as a coach. I don’t get bored training because you are changing my sessions weekly. The most beneficial for me in my experience was that you stopped me from over training thus preventing me from injury. Physically for sure but especially mentally you forced me to complete some training sessions that I thought I was not capable of completing that improved my belief in myself. I would recommend you to others because a full ironman preparation is a long journey and with you they would be able to complete it without getting bored. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced and how did my coaching help you overcome them? I believe intensive zone 1 / 2 training strategy helped me w my goals 8.Variety of your training sessions. I only want to give a little feedback on our communication I believe mostly because we live in different time zones sometimes I have delayed responses or some questions that are unanswered and on a second note I would love if you guided me more on the race strategy/race nutrition generally you ask about my opinion around this but I would like to here your thoughts more often.

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Tahsin 2024 Ironman Qualifier

Initially found t2coaching by doing a search on Google for “Ironman Certified Coach”. There were only several listed in my area. I contacted Wendy Mader; she interviewed me over the phone and took me on as a client for a 12-week program to prepare for a 140.6 full Ironman. AT age 63 in 2018 I attempted and completed an Olympic distance triathlon. My motivation getting into tri was to improve my fitness, general health and most impor, aka short noveltantly attempt to slow or reverse the aging process. In 2019 Initially found t2coaching by doing a search on Google for “Ironman Certified Coach”. There were only several listed in my area. I contacted Wendy Mader; she interviewed me over the phone and took me on as a client for a 12-week program to prepare for a 140.6 full Ironman. AT age 63 in 2018 I attempted and completed an Olympic distance triathlon. My motivation getting into tri was to improve my fitness, general health and most impor, aka short noveltantly attempt to slow or reverse the aging process. In 2019 I self-coached and completed Ironman Atlantic City 70.3 (half Ironman distance). I finished Atlantic City but suffered a little and made some mistakes. After completing the 70.3 I decided I really needed to complete a full Ironman. I was concerned as at this point, I was 64, I had no idea how to train, I never really researched it I just trained and ate the way I thought I needed to for the 70.3. I was never a gym rat or sports guy in school. I searched for a coach to get me through a 140.6 Ironman hopefully without hurting myself. Coach Wendy was my choice and I targeted Ironman Maryland the summer of 2020, but COVID happened, I worked with Wendy until Ironman Chattanooga fall of 2021, age 66. Wendy was an ideal coach for me. We identified my strengths, weakness and had a clear goal in mind. We tracked my workouts in Training Peaks and Wendy provided insight and suggestions after almost every scheduled workout. My biggest weakness was swimming and Wendy is very strong in this discipline of triathlon. I went from not being able to swim freestyle (I was swimming breaststroke the first 2 years I raced pre coach) to doing a 62-minute 2.4-mile open water swim after coaching. Wendy is not a cheerleader; she is straight forward and honest. She will push you hard, she will work with you, listen, suggest, and design workouts that will allow you to succeed at your goal IF you are willing to do the work. I hated open water swimming, hated long open road hilly bike rides but Coach Wendy coached me through not liking, not wanting and I did the work, well most of it. Coaching helped me to be much more disciplined with my time and my diet. I found I was sleeping much better, had more energy, less aches and pains, my disposition was brighter and at age 68 currently I only weigh a few pounds above my college weight. I can honestly say I reversed the aging clock for When I decided about a year ago to attempt my first and only full Ironman, I knew I would need a coach. Not for a plan. Not for accountability. Not to create a schedule. I knew I would need a coach to help with race nutrition and fueling. I had raced half marathons, two full marathons, and five half Ironmans. I knew how to follow a workout schedule-or so I thought. I also knew that I had winged it as far as my fueling plan went. But winging it for a 17 hour race wouldn’t cut it.

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Jay

She caught my attention while I was scrolling on social media. She offered free guidance on improving your swim time. We messaged back and forth and then she offered to set up an account for me in Training Peaks. She said she wanted to let me see how the training platform worked. Before I knew it, she had uploaded the marathon training plan I planned to use and began offering advice and suggestions about workouts as I prepared for my January marathon. The tweaks she made to the plan resulted She caught my attention while I was scrolling on social media. She offered free guidance on improving your swim time. We messaged back and forth and then she offered to set up an account for me in Training Peaks. She said she wanted to let me see how the training platform worked. Before I knew it, she had uploaded the marathon training plan I planned to use and began offering advice and suggestions about workouts as I prepared for my January marathon. The tweaks she made to the plan resulted in my running a personal best in a November half marathon-which was only supposed to be a training run for my January race. She pushed me to get out of comfort zone by telling me if I continued to race comfortably I wouldn’t know what I could actually do. I was amazed at how well I did in that race. PR number one at the age of 57. I was elated! During the months of December and January, she continued to input workouts and provide feedback through Training Peaks. She suggested a fueling plan for my training runs and the marathon. Come race day, I cut eighteen minutes off my previous marathon time. Personal best number two. I was amazed! At the end of January, we set up a zoom. We “met” for the first time. We discussed what coaching would look like and what I could expect. I also learned that we had very different personalities-which would come into play over the next eight months. I was so grateful for her assistance for the previous months that I knew I would hire her to help get me to the finish line in Maryland. Official coaching started in February as I began to prepare for the Chattanooga 70.3 in May. As training got started, the differences in our personality types had me question myself many times. It was not anything she said/did or didn’t say/do-it was all due to my self-doubt and insecurity about pretty much everything. When she would ask probing questions, I thought she was telling me I did something wrong. When she would encourage me to fit training into my life instead of my life into training, I assumed I wasn’t good enough to follow a real plan. I know now so much of that was due to me reading things into her messages and texts that were simply not there but totally due to my insecurities. The first major turning point in our coach/athlete relationship was when she showed up in Chattanooga. I had no idea she was coming and I was so glad to see her, especially out on the course several times. I feel we finally had the opportunity to make a connection that had not yet happened. Phillip took advantage of her being there to tell her he realized how “extra” I can be and I hoped that let her know that it was all me-not her. Though I later realized she had no clue how I was feeling because I never bothered to tell her. For the next three months, training vamped up. And so did my self doubt. I began to “read things into” her feedback and comments. I requested another zoom-apparently I am the only athlete she had that needed that much reassurance-and she scheduled it without hesitation. I was able to share with her my thoughts, feelings, and insecurities. I had no real confidence that I would finish IMMD before the seventeen hour cut off. She was phenomenal as I shared my heart and beared my soul-something I struggle with regularly. For the last two months, she helped me gain confidence-something I lacked in every area of my life. Once she knew how I thought and felt, she poured into me. She knew I needed encouragement. And she readily gave it. She knew I needed reassurance. And she readily gave it. She knew that when I asked questions I needed black and white answers. And she provided those. She went out of her way to make sure the last few weeks of my training were as stress free as possible. When my brother died a month before my race, she reached out as a friend and not just a coach. There was no pressure to get in workouts when it was obvious my attention needed to be on other things. She checked on me regularly and I appreciated that more than she will ever know. A couple weeks before race day we discussed my goals and a race plan. When she told me that the race should feel easy, I was so confused. I always thought racing should feel hard. We discussed the long day and how it would take a toll on my body. We discussed the run/walk intervals and setting up my watch to make sure it alerted me correctly on race day. We discussed how there would things that happen on race day that would be out of my control. She shared that mile 80 on the bike and 18 on the run would be hurdles that I would expect to have to jump over. She reminded me often of visualizing the finish line and focusing on my why. I have already shared how the race went but I want to touch on my three goals. For every race I do, I have three goals. Goal #1-a time that as long as I finish I will feel like I accomplished something. Goal #2-the time that I really want and could easily live with. Goal #3-a time that is a pretty big stretch. This time would mean everything would have to go perfectly-and if it did-I might, just might, be able to finish by this time. For IMMD… Goal #1 was 16 hours and 59 minutes Goal #2-16 hours Goal #3-15 hours And then steps in my coach. Apparently she didn’t know about me always setting three goals. She estimated that I would finish between 14 and 15 hours which I knew was totally unrealistic-though I didn’t tell her that. But she prepared me… I had a plan. I knew how to execute it. I could hear her in my head reminding me that the race should feel easy. I chuckled during the swim when the waves were so high I couldn’t see the buoys. I kept swimming when the jellyfish got me. I sang to myself on the bike. I shifted gears accordingly during the headwinds. I encouraged other athletes when I got passed or passed someone. I smiled every time my watch told me I was running too fast because I felt good. I gave myself grace for the last two miles when I realized I was going to smash all four goals and allowed myself to soak in the experience and walk. By completing this race, I have found a sense of confidence that I have never had. And for that, Wendy Mader, I will be forever grateful.

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Joanne

I love the personalized plans. The coach takes my schedule, fitness, and goals into account. Training feels manageable and effective. I love the personalized plans. The coach takes my schedule, fitness, and goals into account. Training feels manageable and effective.

Olivia Bennett Nurse

Even as an experienced athlete, the tips and adjustments from t2Coaching made a noticeable difference in my performance. Very professional and supportive. Even as an experienced athlete, the tips and adjustments from t2Coaching made a noticeable difference in my performance. Very professional and supportive.

Daniel Brooks Job Holder