PERSONALIZED TRIATHLON & ENDURANCE COACHING
Coaching That Goes Beyond the Training Plan
Training is only one part of becoming a better athlete. Understanding how you respond to that training, knowing when to adjust, and developing the skills to perform when it matters are equally important.
At Multisport Mastery, we provide individualized, high-touch coaching for triathletes and endurance athletes who want more than a schedule of workouts.
Individualized Coaching Starts With Understanding You
No two athletes arrive with the same background, capabilities, or circumstances.
Your training history, current fitness, available time, recovery capacity, strengths, weaknesses, and personal responsibilities all influence the type of training that will be most effective for you.
We begin by understanding those factors and identifying the adaptations required to reach your goals.
From there, we develop a training process that accounts for where you are today and where you want to go. As you progress, we continually evaluate your response and make adjustments based on what we’re learning.
The training plan provides structure. The coaching relationship provides the insight, education, and ongoing decision-making that give that structure its value.
Our goal isn’t simply to help you complete workouts. It’s to help you develop as an athlete.
What You Can Expect From Multisport Mastery Coaching
Individualized Training Programming
Your training is designed around your goals, experience, available time, and the specific demands of your sport.
We consider both the immediate objectives of your training cycle and the longer-term adaptations needed for continued improvement.
Your schedule is regularly evaluated and adjusted as your fitness develops, your circumstances change, and new information becomes available.
Daily Communication and Workout Feedback
Communication is central to how we coach.
Through TrainingPeaks and our established communication channels, we maintain an ongoing dialogue about your workouts, recovery, progress, and the demands of your life outside training.
We encourage athletes to share more than workout numbers. How a session felt, how you’re recovering, and what else is happening in your life provide important context for making effective training decisions.
Our athletes are encouraged to ask questions, share concerns, and participate actively in the coaching process.
Performance Analysis and Training Decisions
We use training data to identify patterns, evaluate progress, and understand how you’re responding to the work.
Depending on your sport and available equipment, this may include pace, power, heart rate, perceived effort, training load, and other relevant measures.
We also recognize the limitations of data. A number can tell us what happened during a workout, but it doesn’t always explain why.
By combining objective information with athlete feedback and coaching experience, we can make more informed decisions about training progression, recovery, and race preparation.
Race Preparation and Execution
Successful racing requires more than fitness.
We work with athletes to develop practical strategies for pacing, fueling, hydration, equipment, course demands, and the decisions they’ll need to make during competition.
Race preparation is integrated throughout training so that athletes have opportunities to practice these skills before race day.
After racing, we review the experience to identify what worked, what could be improved, and how those lessons can inform future preparation.
Athlete Education
We want athletes to understand the purpose behind their training.
Throughout the coaching relationship, we provide education about training principles, physiology, pacing, recovery, nutrition for performance, and the many factors that influence endurance development.
Understanding the process helps athletes recognize real progress, communicate more effectively and make better decisions when circumstances change.
An informed athlete is a more capable athlete.
Progress Across Seasons
Lasting improvement in endurance performance takes months and years of consistent training. We consider how each training cycle contributes to your aerobic fitness, durability, technical skills, strength, recovery and race execution. Individual races provide important goals and chances to evaluate progress, yet we don’t view any season in isolation. Our aim is to help athletes keep improving, adapting and enjoying endurance sport for years to come.
From Our First Conversation to Your Next Starting Line
Step 1: An Initial Conversation
Every coaching relationship begins with a conversation about your background, goals, training experience, and expectations.
We want to understand what you’re hoping to accomplish, the challenges you’re facing, and what you’re looking for in a coach.
This is also your opportunity to learn about our coaching approach and determine whether we’re the right fit.
Step 2: Athlete Assessment and Planning
Once we’ve agreed to work together, we begin with a comprehensive athlete intake.
We review your training history, current fitness, goals, schedule, relevant health considerations, equipment, and personal preferences.
This information helps us establish initial priorities and create a training program appropriate for your circumstances.
Step 3: Your Individualized Training Begins
Your training is delivered through TrainingPeaks.
Within the first week, you’ll receive your initial workouts and begin communicating with your coach about the training process.
We’ll explain the intent behind your training and establish expectations for communication, feedback, and ongoing adjustments.
Step 4: Ongoing Coaching and Development
On a daily basis, we review your workouts, monitor your response, and make decisions based on your feedback and performance.
Some adjustments are small. Others may involve changing the direction of a training cycle to address fatigue, new goals, unexpected circumstances, or emerging opportunities.
The relationship becomes more informed over time as we develop a deeper understanding of how you train, recover, and perform.
Step 5: Race Preparation, Review, and What’s Next
As an event approaches, we help you translate training into an effective race strategy.
Following competition, we review the experience and use what we’ve learned to guide your next steps.
The process continues beyond a single finish line, with each training cycle contributing to your development as an athlete.
Coaching for Athletes With Big Goals and Full Lives
We coach triathletes and endurance athletes across a wide range of experience and ability.
Our athletes include first-time competitors, experienced age-group athletes, national champions, and world championship qualifiers.
Many balance training with demanding careers, family responsibilities, travel, and other commitments.
We understand that athletic goals require time and energy, but training must also be sustainable within the broader context of your life.
Our coaching supports athletes preparing for:
- Sprint and Olympic-distance triathlon
- Ironman 70.3
- Ironman
- Running, marathon, and ultrarunning
- Road and gravel cycling
- Off-road triathlon and duathlon
- Ultracycling
- Open-water swimming
We also work with athletes who may not have an immediate race goal but want to develop their fitness, improve technical skills, or build a stronger foundation for future competition.
What matters most is a willingness to engage in the process and take responsibility for the work required to improve.
The Athlete Is More Than the Data
We believe effective coaching requires an understanding of both the science of performance and the person doing the performing.
Training data provides valuable information, but it represents only part of an athlete’s experience.
We consider your perceptions of effort, recovery, motivation, confidence, stress, and the demands of daily life alongside the numbers.
We also recognize that progress isn’t always immediate or easily measured. Some adaptations take years to develop, and some of the most valuable improvements involve greater consistency, better judgment, improved technical skills and the ability to manage challenges more effectively.
Our approach is grounded in four principles: Engage, Educate, Empower, and Excel.
These principles guide how we build coaching relationships, develop athletes, and help them pursue excellence in sport.
Experience, Attention, and a Commitment to Your Development
Multisport Mastery was founded in 2007 by Elizabeth Waterstraat and has developed into a coaching team with extensive experience across endurance disciplines and performance levels.
Our coaches bring competitive experience, professional education, and years of working with athletes toward a wide variety of goals.
We take time to understand our athletes, ask questions, and make decisions based on the complete picture rather than simply whether a workout was completed.
Our responsibility is to provide thoughtful coaching, honest feedback, and a clear direction for development.
Your responsibility is to participate in the process, communicate openly, and take ownership of your goals.
We believe the strongest results come from that shared commitment.
The Athlete Experience
“Thank you for communicating so well with me throughout this season! I’ve never experienced such depth, insight, and customization in my training plan like you’ve given me. I’m really glad I made the switch to working with you. It was hard at first and I was torn, but at the end of the day I wanted to do better for ME, and this was the best move for it. At the end of my tri season last year, I felt defeated, hopeless, and a bit resentful. At the end of this season, I am leaving excited, hopeful, and more motivated! Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me. I can’t even express how grateful and impressed I am with your coaching methods.”
Triathlete, switched to MSM coaching
“Two things that stand out the most about what I’ve enjoyed and benefitted from while working with you since 2011; 1) The first is your obvious and consistent commitment to growing and learning as a coach and as an athlete. Every year the training is a little different and no doubt reflects what you learned the previous year. I get excited to see what new kinds of things will show up on my plan; 2) The second is that you ask and expect me to take responsibility for my own athletic journey. You ask – what’s working, what’s not? Why don’t you think that workout went well? What habits are getting in your way? What do you think you need to do to make the next step forward? You’ve taught me to think about how I want to show up, what do I need to do to not make the same mistakes. I love all of that. I’ve learned so much about myself.”
Coached by Liz since 2011
“I really appreciate all your time, insight and guidance. I continue to thoroughly enjoy working together and even more so now that I am rebuilding to my 2019 pre-injury self. Your plan and comments are intuitive, simplistic and challenging (mostly mentally). In addition to the workouts, you offer so many insights through your educational writings shared weekly in Training Peaks and all the other nuggets of info.”
Rebuilding after injury
An Investment in More Than Your Next Race
Personalized coaching provides more than a training schedule. It provides ongoing guidance, analysis, education, and the perspective of an experienced coach who understands your history and goals.
We coach athletes around the world, with a home base in Naperville and the Chicago area.
The value of that relationship develops through consistent communication, informed training decisions, and the knowledge gained across months and years of training.
Our coaching is designed for athletes who value individual attention and are willing to invest in their development.
We discuss coaching options, pricing, and expectations during the introductory conversation so you can determine whether our services are the right fit.
Let's Talk About Your Goals
Whether you’re preparing for your first triathlon, pursuing a championship qualification, or looking for a more effective way to train, the first step is a conversation.
We’ll discuss your goals, training history, current challenges, and what you’re hoping to accomplish.
You’ll have the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about how we coach before deciding whether to move forward.
MORE WAYS TO WORK WITH US
Swim Coaching
Masters swimming with Naperville Waves, adult swim lessons, Swimvember, and our November Swimcation.
Bike Fitting and Repair
Professional bike fitting and bike repair in Naperville, so your bike fits you and is ready to ride.
Work With Coach Liz
Race planning for any race, one-time coaching consultations, coach mentorship, and media and speaking.
Want to see how we think about training? Start with What Shapes Our Coaching, Fix Your Swim Fast, How to Run Your Best Ironman Marathon and Five Things You’re Missing with FTP.
