Barry Zellmer

Background

I started my endurance career as a 9-year-old watching the Summer Olympics in South Eastern Wisconsin. I watched Frank Shorter win the Gold and went out and ran 5 miles. This begin a love affair with distance running  and it was my sport all the way into high school.

Like many Masters Cyclists I discovered cycling watching CBS Sports coverage of the Tour de France in the early 80s. My sports hero was always Eric Heiden and he inspired me to race. I raced into the late 80’s and was in love with the training, and as I would learn later in life, find a way to be at one with the training and completely present in the moment.

Unfortunately for me, life went for a ride with alcohol and light substance abuse, a 20-year battle that I often never showed up to fight. In 2008, I starting fighting and I became sober.  I remembered my love of the bike 16 years after I left it along with a lot of personal wasted time. I began to ride again and remember the feeling of freedom, hard work and going places. Like all people with an addiction, I dove all in with my new addiction and eventually I found some success at Cyclocross. The biggest thing I learned from my "trial and error" training method?   Listen to the Coach. Constant overtraining, thinking I knew it all from the Internet, "bro-science" would put me in deep holes of non-functional over-reaching which turned into over-training syndrome. I started to research training and found a love for the knowledge, especially Hunter and Dr. Coggan's book, "Training and Racing with a Power Meter".  Just before Covid in 2019, I moved to Fletcher, NC. obtained my USAC Coaching License and began my coaching journey. 

Coaching Philosophy

I coach by power and heartrate. When you need to use power, you use power. When you need heartrate, you use heartrate. A lot of time you use both. I can coach you through a race program or I can get you to lose weight, and gain what you need to rock group rides. What I love is getting you to show the discipline and the real athlete in you. Let’s figure out what you want to achieve and if you are committed, I and Peaks Coaching Group will get you there.  In my other career, I would say to my sales team, “If the bare minimum you have today is 75%, I’ll give you the 125%”. I am an adjective: Intense. We will have fun and you will learn why you’re doing something so it makes sense when you’re doing it.

Athlete Testimonials

Barry is a fantastic coach! Top notch!
I am a female masters athlete trying to come back after major surgeries. Barry brought me back to a higher level of fitness than I had b4 my surgeries. He motivated me, educated me, (understanding why I was doing a specific workout and the benefits of said workout, kept me mentally motivated). I had ALOT of adversity during this time. Barry gave me the support I needed to stay on my bike when life was impossible. He always goes the extra mile for his clients. Excellent Coach.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- Laura Fisher

Barry is a great coach that is 110% dedicated to helping you be successful achieving your goals and will spend as much time as it takes to help you get there!  He lives and breathes health and fitness and practices what he preaches.  He won't sugar-coat things and will tell you straight, no excuses. He is great at understanding issues people are dealing with, as he has worked through a lot of the same things. He truly understands when to push hard and when to back it down and recover.  I would highly recommend Barry as a coach whether you are a novice, experienced athlete or elite level competitor.  Barry has a unique understanding of diet, health and fitness. He can tailor a program to help you meet or exceed your goals. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- Andrew Bussen

The first thing I noticed about Barry when I met him was how much energy he brings to coaching.  Barry lives and breathes cycling, and he will be just as excited as you when those power numbers start bumping up. Having a coach this enthusiastic in your corner really helps with training motivation.   Overall, Barry tailors your training plan to fit you, your lifestyle, your available time, your commitments and your goals. He will push you, but within the bounds he knows are sustainable. While you will definitely see short term gains, he is also long term focused and will make sure your training remains a positive experience as time goes on.   Most importantly, Barry gets you results. After a long plateau in my fitness, I saw a 17 watt FTP increase in just 4 weeks of training. Beyond this, I've set all time PR's all along my power curve, and have certainly achieved my goal of being able to ride harder and faster for longer.   If you want to take your cycling fitness to the next level, I would highly recommend working with Barry.   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- Max Malinowski

Barry is an amazing coach and I've rate him 5 out of 5 stars.

What makes Barry's coaching so good is that he listens to me as his athlete. Through his coaching, I achieved two major endurance goals that I would never been able to achieve on my own. The first was a multi day event for BikeMs with over 180 miles in two days with the first day being a century. While I have ridden centuries before, this is the first one where I felt strong enough to complete the multi day event. Then three weeks later, I completed my first Triple Bypass - 118 miles with 10,800 ft of elevation gain in under nine hours. After both events, I felt amazingly good and my family was shocked that I got around like I had just walked around the block.

I have four kids, major work responsibilities and a dog. Barry helped me balance my crazy life while achieving goals that were important to me. This is my first coaching experience and it was a great one for me.

Barry does you, Peaks Coaching and himself great credit. Cannot say enough good things about Barry. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- Alan McKellar