Background:

Karen lives in Massachusetts, with her husband and two children. She enjoys the challenge of coaching athletes of all levels, pursuing her own athletic goals, and managing an active family. She has over 25 years of experience in a variety of endurance sports.

Coaching and Athletic Highlights:

Triathlon

• Ironman USA 7th in division.
• USAT All-American.
• Competed at USAT Age Group Nationals, ITU World Championship in Olympic Distance as well as Ironman 70.3 World Championship.
• Founding member and Coach of AIMTriTeam
• Associate of Peaks Coaching Group
• Camp Coach: USA Triathlon Junior Regional Camp, Gotta Tri! Junior Tri Clinic, PCG Power Training Camp

Speed Skating (Ice)

• Competed for 8 years in both long and short track events.
• Won numerous races and awards, including 2nd place in National Marathon Speed Skating Championships.

Cycling

• Former Nationally-ranked Category 2 cyclist.
• Competed in 3 National Championships.
• Thirty 1st place finishes and over fifty top 5 placings.
• Highlights include 1st place Fitchburg/Longsjo Classic, and medallist at Masters National Cycling Championships.

Coaching Philosophy:

Karen’s philosophy is based on her experiences both in Life, Racing and Coaching. She believes in a holistic approach where sport is balanced with family, work, and relaxation. Karen explains, “It’s very important to know what your priorities are, and base your training/racing around those priorities”.

Karen explains, “Every athlete is unique and deserves a training program that starts at their current ability and evolves as their fitness improves”. She believes the best way to do this is through building a strong athlete/coach relationship based on mutual trust and good communication. Karen works best with athletes who are willing to meticulously log and/or download their workouts. “I love it when I know exactly what my athletes do (or don’t do) for every workout. It enables me to really dial into what they need in order to succeed at whatever goals they have set for themselves.” She believes, the more you put in (communications/relationship), the more you get out (better programming)!

She draws her strong analytic skills from her former Engineering/Software Systems Career. This experience, enhances her ability to see trends, anomalies, training habits, and other important information from training device downloads.

Client Testimonials:

“Karen is the perfect coach for me. She provides well thought out annual, monthly, weekly, daily plan, with the ability to make adjustments if needed. If I was doing things well, she told me, if I was not she was kindly but brutally honest. She also took the time and interest to ‘get inside my head’ to see what made me tick. She drove me to the edge, but never over the edge. She brought out the very best she could, and had an uncanny ability to keep me motivated to do better. It got to the point where I never wanted to disappoint myself or Karen. Karen had a very real personal interest in my success, while maintaining the professional distance all great coaches have.”

I have to say that Karen’s guidance and training has directly contributed to my success this year…. Masters CT State Criterium Championship, 3rd in the Masters CT State Road Race Championship, and a number of top finishes in Criteriums, won the 10K CT Senior Games with the 2nd fastest time of all age participates. I am 65 years old.

I have been using Karen Mackin as my tri coach for 1 ½ years and under her guidance, I have gained confidence and improved my times in all three sports. Karen has helped me prepare for numerous sprint and Olympic distance triathlons as well as for time trials and multi-day cycling events. Her detailed training plans, frequent analysis of my Power files, emails and phone calls, and nutritional advice were extremely helpful as I trained to complete Ride the Rockies 2008. With her coaching expertise, I was able to successfully complete my first multi-day cycling event. Karen’s experience as a triathlete and her energetic coaching style are both motivational and encouraging. She makes you want to work hard to achieve your goals. I continue to learn new ways to train and new skills & strategies that will help me achieve my goals; whether it is in cycling, running, swimming, or strength. Thanks, Karen!