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Michael was raised in the small farm town of Olivia, Minnesota.  In high school, he participated in track and swimming but was certainly no star athlete.  His acceptance to the United States Military Academy had little to do with his athletic accomplishments as he wasn’t recruited by, or successful in walking on, the track or swimming teams.  Mike’s later athletic accomplishments are a testament to the ability to produce results through effective long-term training.  Mike participated in intramurals and club sports at West Point and got his first taste of multi-sport in “military triathlon” – modern pentathlon’s run, swim and pistol shoot minus the fencing and equestrian competition.

Mike did his first “real” triathlon in 1984.  After several years of slow learning while being self-coached, he started becoming competitive in the mid-90s.  In 1997, he won his age-group at the World Duathlon Championship and was 2nd in his age-group at Ironman Hawaii.  He also won the first of his 6 Military National Championships.  For these results and others, he was selected by USA Triathlon, Inside Triathlon and Triathlete Magazine as Amateur of the Year.

Mike continues to actively train and race.  Highlights include winning his age-group twice at Ironman Austria (and setting a Master’s course record of 8:51:29) and medaling three times at the Military World Championships.  In addition to triathlon and duathlon, he competes in road bicycling (winning two stage races last summer), cyclo-cross, road and trail running, XC skiing and ski-randonee competitions. His newest challenge has been becoming more proficient at mountain biking. He used his endurance experience to win the 40-49 age group at the 2011 Breck Epic 3-Day stage race and achieved a number 1 national age-group ranking in off-road triathlon.

Prior to joining CTS, Mike taught physical education for two years at the US Military Academy, where he also worked with the track and triathlon teams.  Mike then commanded the Army’s World Class Athlete Program for four years. While there, he coordinated training and support for Soldiers in 13 sports, with 11 Soldiers making the US Olympic team and five Soldiers being selected as Olympic coaches.

After the Army, Mike joined CTS as the Director of Internal Coaching.  There, he recruited, trained and managed new coaches and refined the CTS coaching education program. Mike helped CTS extend its position at the forefront of coaching education, with a comprehensive and rigorous coaching certification and continuing education programs producing the best endurance and fitness coaches in the world. Gradually, largely due to his Ironman experience and success working with age-group athletes, Mike started coaching so many athletes that he decided to transition to full-time coaching.

Mike’s sport philosophies include the belief that athletes with modest latent talent can achieve great results through effective long-term training, that focusing on weaknesses while maintaining strengths is the best way to achieve significant improvement, that endurance training and physical fitness help create a very rewarding lifestyle, and that the world would be a better place if everyone attempted to pursue lifetime fitness. Mostly, Mike wants to help athletes avoid the slow learning curve of going it alone and instead achieve better results faster by benefiting from the sound training strategies and guidance an experienced coach provides.