Mark Saroni

Coach Mark grew up in Dallas, Tx and was homeschooled his entire life. He played soccer for 11 years before finally succumbing to the wooing of triathlon in 2004. Mark attended the University of Texas at Tyler where he was a member of the 3-time American Southwest Conference Champion cross country team. He graduated in 2011 with a Masters in Kinesiology and a desire to learn more about performance in sport and work with athletes. As a teenager he recorded top 10 finishes at both the USAT Junior ITU National Championships and the ITU Age Group Championships 16-19 age group while also winning the SouthMidwest regional junior series title. A 3-time USAT All American and top 10 finisher in the 20-24 age group at Age Group Nationals, Mark was the #1 ranked triathlete in the SouthMidwest Region in 2011 and began competing as a professional triathlete in 2012. He has worked with everyone from two year old children to nationally ranked junior triathletes to adults in their 50’s and 60’s learning how to swim freestyle and side breathe for the first time. He loves working with athletes of any level and helping them achieve their goals.

I ran cross country and track in college where I helped my team to 3 conference championships and earned 2nd team All Conference my senior year. A 3 time USA Triathlon All American I've placed top 10 at many national championships and competed at the Age Group World Championships in 2007 and 2008 placing 8th in the 16-19 age group in '08. I now race as a professional triathlete.

Run: Initial meeting is usually at a track. I'll discuss briefly the goals, training and injury history of the athlete and upcoming races. The athlete will warm up and I will watch their stride and take video. We will then do some drills and range of motion exercise tailored for them based on my initial assessment during the warm up. Depending on the goal of the sessions we may execute an actual workout where I've designated specific training paces and markers to hit. Otherwise I will have the athlete complete a few shorter reps at race-like intensity where I will take more video then spend time discussing technique with the athlete and prescribing more suggestions for drills.

Swim: Initial assessment as above along with a warm up. Depending on the length of the session we will do 15-20 minutes of specific drills or possibly utilize the whole session. I will video the athlete and we will discuss the specifics of that athletes stroke, identifying flaws and prescribing drills to help fix them.

Strength Training: Varies greatly depending on the athlete, what even they are training for and where they are at in their training. Each session is designed specifically for the individual and aimed to target weaknesses that make them susceptible to injury.