An inevitable question came up after a few months of working at PTSportsPRO. It was posed by Nicolas Reuben at the Michigan Titanium event in 2024. “What if we took someone with zero experience in multi-sport and got them to compete in the ultimate triathlon distance, the 140.6, at this event in 1 year?”
We would use the resources at PTSportsPRO to assess & train this individual and use the partnerships we have in our community to see if this could be done! Nick agreed to be our test-subject. And so our journey began…
He met with Exercise Physiologist, Todd Buckingham, Ph.D, at our Performance Lab a few weeks later and got a full body DEXA scan done to better understand his baseline. At 6ft 4in., he weighed in at 270 pounds. He then met with Physical Therapist/Coach, Dave DaPrato, DPT, to design a training plan that would account for his lack of experience in multi-sport. His coach would also keep him accountable each week for completing his workouts. He needed to understand his nutrition needs, so he met with Registered Dietitian, Alyssa Koopman, MS, RDN to help him dial in his nutrition & training/race fueling strategies.
We had a great meeting with Tris4Health to share this vision. They are supporting Nick through many of their races as part of the partnership we have with PTSportsPRO.
We then reached out to Erin Kring who agreed to take him on as Swim Coach. She had a tall order to take someone who could not get his face in the water to preparing him to swim 2.4 miles in 1 year. We were blessed with a bike to fit his 6ft 4in frame from Tarra DaPrato that was owned and raced by Brett “Hans” Folkert until his passing in 2016. This bike was fitted to Nick and serviced by KC Kleymeer at Biked. The run part seemed to be the easiest to get prepared for but when you consider things like cadence, pacing, intervals training, tempo runs & long runs in different zones, it has taken a good coach to prepare him competently.
With his training program, Nick has completed the following events:
Dirty Mitten 10mi bike
Turkey Trot 5k
Resolution Run 4mi
GroundHog Marathon 13.1mi
Irish Jig 5k
Amway River Bank Run 25K
Bear Lake Olympic DU
Grand Rapids TRI Supersprint
Grand Rapids TRI 70.3
Brian Diemer 5k
Gran Fondo 80mi bike
With each event, Nick gets faster & stronger. He has lost over 60 pounds of weight through his training & racing. His swim, bike & run times have gotten faster! We can’t wait to see the rest of this journey unfold. Join us at Michigan Titanium on August 10, 2025 to race alongside Nick and support a great event. We are excited to make our testing & training resources available to YOU! Think of the possibilities!
This is why “when it comes to TREATING YOU LIKE A PRO, we know exactly how!”
PTSportsPRO is blessed to partner with Tris4Health in this monthly newsletter production.
To learn more and to schedule an appointment, check out our website at: https://ptsportspro.com/.