Sport has always played a significant part in my life and in who I am.
From a young age, I played hockey at a high level and took it seriously — the dream was the Olympics. But as the years went by, I began to understand myself better. I realised that talent alone wasn’t enough, and that becoming a professional athlete demands a mental toughness I hadn’t yet built in myself. So the dream had to evolve.
But my love of moving my body, the challenge of sport and the desire to push myself never went away.
Not because of what there was to achieve, but because of a quiet obsession with becoming the best version of myself.
Finding endurance sport
I started venturing into endurance sport — first triathlon, then mountain biking and, eventually, the love of my sporting life: running.
I trained on my own and attempted my first Half Ironman with a book as my coach.
If only I had ChatGPT then!
I swam okay, cycled those 90 kilometres forever and ran strong.
But that first Ironman event completely blew my mind.
I wanted to be part of those exhilarating and inspiring events for as long as possible.
That’s where my incredible journey with My Conditioning Coach started, in 2017.
Learning to train, not just exercise
I was working full-time and had a busy life, and I knew that if I wanted to pursue becoming the best athlete I could be, I needed help.
I wanted to be ready — and fast — for whatever endurance event looked cool, whether it was three weeks or six months away.
With a structured and focused programme, I started improving quickly.
I loved the empowering feeling of getting to know my body: how it wants to be fuelled, rested and pushed. We identified my weaknesses and started working on them.
I also had a lot to learn.
From a training perspective, I was very old-school and, quite frankly, uninformed. I thought going further and training for longer would automatically make me better and faster.
Morné had his fair share of frustration trying to convince me that I needed to lift weights, work on mobility, foam roll and do all those other things I was convinced were taking time away from the “real” training.
Where was I supposed to find time for all of that and run and cycle for hours?!
I was also extremely weight-conscious, so I wasn’t particularly interested in anything weighing more than 2kg.
I can now confidently say that proper, sport-specific strength and conditioning and mobility have made me a much leaner, stronger endurance athlete.
Learning that recovery is part of training
But my biggest learning wasn’t physical.
From the beginning, Morné was concerned with balancing my physical output with my emotional state and overall wellbeing.
At first, I didn’t even understand how crucial that relationship was.
Morné gently guided me through it.
Over the course of more than nine years, I have had many, many lows. Each one had a major impact on how I was able to show up for myself — never mind show up for my workouts.
There were times when weeks would go by.
The old me would have drowned in shame because I wasn’t able to “just run it off” or “push through it”.
Ultimately, that would have done more damage than good.
Instead, Morné taught me patience and, perhaps more importantly, grace.
To allow myself to heal.
To understand that sometimes stepping back is exactly what you need to do to move forward.
And to come back stronger every time.
More than a performance coach
That is probably the biggest difference I have experienced with Morné.
You get so much more than a performance coach.
If you are truly invested, disciplined and committed to your own development, he pours his heart and soul into supporting you towards becoming the holistic athlete you dream of being.
And the bonus is that you become a better person through it all.
I have gained a much better understanding of myself as an athlete and of how the mental and physical sides of health are connected.
They don’t exist separately.
Together, they give me the best chance of continuous improvement.
Becoming more confident in myself
Morné’s continuous research is another part of what makes the relationship so valuable.
He doesn’t simply adopt the latest training regime and apply it to everyone. He looks at what is best for you as a unique individual.
His research into female wellness and the factors that influence female athletes has also been game-changing for me.
And then there is his unwavering positive attitude towards life and his belief in his athletes’ potential.
It is contagious.
Somewhere along this journey, I started believing more in my own abilities too.
I became a more confident athlete.
But more importantly, I became a more confident human being.
The best investment in myself
Looking back, my journey with MCC has become about so much more than preparing for races.
It started with wanting to become a better endurance athlete.
It became about understanding my body, learning how to train intelligently, knowing when to push and when to rest, and accepting that progress is not always linear.
Most importantly, it has taught me that becoming the best version of yourself isn’t simply about what you can physically achieve.
It is about understanding yourself well enough to keep moving forward — even when life doesn’t go according to plan.
This relationship has been the best investment in and for myself.
And after more than nine years, I’m still learning, still improving and still pushing towards that quiet obsession of becoming the best version of myself.