How to Balance Big Goals and Daily Life I’ve always had trouble sticking to daily habits and streaks rub me the wrong way, so how do I manage to train for big swims, raise two growing boys, be a present partner, get a podcast out into the world, email broadcasts weekly, and coach and teach swimmers locally and virtually? It’s a work in process; it will always be a work in process. But I think I’m starting to embrace that process. When I started my podcast, Marathon Swim Stories, in 2020 one…

LESSONS FROM THE WATER READ PREVIOUS ARTICLES WEBSITE SCHEDULE SUBSTACK Hi there, I’ve been quiet for a few weeks — heads down finishing the prep for something I’ve been building toward for months. Last week, I watched six people swim across a bay they’d never seen before. Not once, not twice, but day after day for the entire week. Complete strangers to each other, they’d been training with me since October — scattered across the country, doing laps in their local pools all winter, building…

Don’t Stop—Redirect “It’s so hard to stop lifting my elbow” is something I hear from swimmers all the time. So I ask, “What do you tell yourself when you notice you’re doing it?” The answer is almost always the same: “I tell myself to stop.” And there it is. When my kids were little, I saw this play out daily. They’d be tapping, humming, banging—doing something that made me crazy—and I’d say, kindly, “Sweetie, please stop banging the table.” They’d pause… and then a minute later, the…

I’ve been noticing something lately. In my own head, the pieces of my work feel deeply connected — my own swimming, the coaching I do, the stories I’ve gathered through my podcast, and what I write about each week. But I’ve realized that from the outside, these can look scattered across different places, serving different purposes. So I’m making a small but meaningful shift in where my longer reflections live. Starting this week, I’m publishing on Substack — where my podcast, Stories from the…

Performance versus Potential The word ‘performance’ makes me cringe. It brings me back to high school swim meets. Spending time before a race visualizing a qualifying time that would earn me a spot in the State swim meet. Then diving off the blocks and falling apart. The weeks, months, years of practice completely escaping me. Anxiety and overthinking taking over. Potential, I can get behind. Everyone has potential. With my swimmers, I cultivate curiosity, resilience, and a growth mindset….

Reflections from the water Reflections | News | Updates Winter Edition As winter settles in, I wanted to pause and reflect on what’s been unfolding at Intrepid Water over the past few months, and offer a glimpse of what’s taking shape in the season ahead. In Swimbound, my five-month virtual coaching program that culminates in an in-person open-water experience, we’re in week 15 — building confidence for longer durations, experimenting with fueling while swimming, and learning how tempo and…