Feisty Triathlon · Feisty Triathlon podcast

We went to Endurance Exchange. Here’s what we saw, and what it means.

·1 hr 4 min·4 clips

Shelly Lake says Natalie Grabo's Kona finish led to 50 or 60 appearances and a viral video.

1. Feisty Triathlon uses Endurance Exchange in Orlando as the frame for a conference recap centered on women, coaching, and triathlon data. 2. Kelly O'Meara hosts with Sarah Gross, while Dr. Erin Ayala, Celine Yeager, Taylor Nibb, Shelly Lake, and USAT CEO Vick Broomfeld matter because each brings either coaching, athlete, or federation perspective. 3. The episode asks what Endurance Exchange was for: women-specific coaching, athlete education, and a look at where triathlon is changing. 4. Kelly and Sarah describe a USAT pre-conference session on the science and psychology of coaching women. 5. They say the session spent about 45 minutes on why women need coaching-specific discussion on both physiology and psychology. 6. Hormonal cycles are named as the clearest physiological difference in the coaching conversation. 7. Erin Ayala also pushes the room to consider societal structures, culture, expectations, and external pressure. 8. Kelly and Sarah say the context changes across a woman's lifespan, including young kids, perimenopause, menopause, and beyond. 9. Sarah notes that coaches need a fuller picture when they work with athletes through pregnancy loss, and she cites the statistic that about 30% of women who have gone through pregnancy lose pregnancies. 10. Erin's communication framework is summarized as empathy and curiosity, with open-ended questions replacing blunt comments like “is it that time of the month?”. 11. Kelly says Celine Yeager and Erin Ayala gave examples that sounded drawn from their own lives, and the room kept nodding along. 12. Taylor Nibb's side conversation by the pool shows her reading The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt and a fiction book by Elin Hilderbrand at the same time. 13. Taylor says nonfiction is for taking notes at her kitchen counter, while fiction is for relaxing and “chill.” 14. Taylor also says she wants to race every distance except 100k, and she mentions Portland, Oregon, for the Hoka Global Athlete Summit. 15. Sarah and Kelly connect Taylor's performance goals to her habit of challenging commentators and asking questions back. 16. The Natalie Grabo segment explains why a 2024 intake goal of qualifying for Kona at Maryland and going for “being the oldest” became a bigger story than expected. 17. Shelly Lake says Natalie became the first 80-year-old woman to finish Kona, and she estimates the resulting appearances at 50 or 60. 18. Shelly describes the training as interactive, with daily check-ins, run-walking, strength training, and slower running as key tools. 19. The tone stays conversational and highly specific, with conference anecdotes, coaching jokes, and first-person reflections from Kelly and Sarah. 20. Listeners who coach women or follow long-course triathlon will get the most from this episode, while people wanting only race results may skip it.

As heard by us

A loose Orlando check-in on coaching women, older athletes, and the uncertainty around LA 28.

Kelly O'Meara and Sarah Gross keep the Orlando Endurance Exchange stop focused on coaching work that feels lived in, not packaged for a slide deck.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A special Orlando check-in from Endurance Exchange on the science and psychology of coaching women, plus what changes for older and late-start triathletes, and why the sport feels uncertain right now.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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