This October marks the 2nd Anniversary of Otterhaus Performance Coaching. I am not one to just celebrate the general passing of time, but this milestone is a bit special, as I feel this endeavor has successfully transitioned from an experimental side project, to a legitimate business. Its a small but proud thing to be able to respond to the "what do you do for a living" with a confident "I am a coach and small business owner" vice a somewhat sheepish "I am retired military". I want to thank all the athletes who have put their faith in me over the last two years and have helped this endeavor become a success.

A few highlights from the last two years:

• Coached 20 athletes and consulted with 16 others in 15 states and 4 countries (thank you technology!).  
• Disciplines include road cycling, mountain biking, triathlon, duathlon and running. 
• Athletes have included both men and women from beginners to seasoned veterans and from juniors to masters.
• Goals have ranged from those who were looking to maintain a more healthy lifestyle and generally improving fitness, to aspiring nationally competitive elite athletes looking for a mix of mental, tactical and fitness coaching.
• In addition to overall success in performance, fitness and racing results, 9 athletes earned racing category upgrades with USA Cycling. 6 competed in national championship competition and 5 in world championship competition.
• Other highlights include: a first time triathlon finisher; first time half Ironman triathlon (70.3) finisher; first time Ironman triathlon (140.6) finisher and first time Powerman Zofingen finisher.
• 2 athletes became first time fathers and were able to continue to successfully maintain a positive balance between work, family and maintaining a healthy fitness lifestyle.

​To mark the occasion, I decided to work with a talented graphic artist (and friend of my wife), Jenny Haines, to commission an alternate company logo as something fun. Check it out and look for it featured on some items soon!  Thanks again to all I have worked with for the continued faith and support and here is to another 2 years!

I was fortunate to get the opportunity to serve as the men's and women's cycling director for the US Armed Forces Cycling Team at the World Military Games in South Korea over the last 2 weeks, and the experience was amazing. News outlets have reported different numbers, but its safe to say there were over 7,000 athletes from 100 countries competing in 25 different disciplines, the event was massive by any measure.  Below are recaps of the cycling events that were pushed out day of on social media, and a short photo journal of some of the highlights of the trip.

Men's and Women's Time Trial:
The course for both races was a 2 lap out and back on rolling terrain and with a lot of open exposure to the wind.  Melissa Talent and Shannon Gaffney placed a solid 6th and 7th respectively in the 9 deep women's TT chasing the extremely strong Russian and Brazil contingents who dominated all the of the women's cycling events.  Stefan Zavislan had a breakthrough performance finishing a strong 12th out of 26th in the men's TT, just :15 out of the top ten, with Ian Holt placing 20th.

Women's Road Race Recap:
Melissa Tallent, Shannon Gaffney and Gabriella Allong all raced great today in the 2nd ever Women's Military World Cycling Champs. Brazil and Russia dominated the race with each putting 2 riders in the winning 4 rider break that went from the gun. Melissa, Shannon & Gabby all rode strong in the main field with Shannon picking up 11th in the finale with a great lead out from Melissa and the team placing 4th in team standings. Awesome to help support the squad and hope the experience inspires them and other women to continue to work hard with an eye on future CISMs!

Men's Road Race Recap:
Results never tell the whole story in bike racing, its a cruel sport at times with huge efforts often going unrewarded. On paper our best result was 45th and we were 9th in the team comp, but Ian Holt, Dwayne Farr, Stefan Zavislan, Alex Driscoll, Jose Solis, Michael Gallagher, Sean Cahill and Jay ShalekBriski raced fantastic today against a top notch field. Our play was getting into moves which we executed extremely well with representation in every major break. Ian Holt worked to get in the most promising move of the day with 8 riders staying away for about 25k only getting caught with 2k to go. Without a strong sprinter, we didn't have many other options for a major placing and rolled in with the field or close behind. Jay ended up in a crash mid race which diminished our strength but soldiered on to the finish. Tough day but everyone left everything out there, learned from the experience and they are hungry for more.

Click or hover over the pics below for a little more insight into the trip.