The Founders Group
The Founders Group is a six-month group program for competitive endurance athletes over 45 who have a nagging injury that keeps coming back.
- Live ninety-minute Zoom calls with me, twice a week for the first eight weeks, then once a week for four months.
- Eight to twenty people.
- $3,500, paid once. That is the only payment you will ever make for this program.
- Starts when eight people have committed. A $250 refundable deposit holds your place.
Why I am doing this
I have been doing this work with athletes for thirty years, one on one, with teams and clubs, and at speaking engagements around the country, and all of it has been local or in pieces. This is the first time I am putting the whole of it in one place and making it available to anyone who wants it. I have seen what it does for the athletes in front of me, and I want it to reach more of them than I can treat myself. That is exciting to me. I am building this with the people in this group, and the first version of it is the one you and I make together.
Who this is for
This is a good fit for you if you are a competitive endurance athlete, you are over 45, and you have a nagging injury that keeps coming back. You want to know what is going on with it and what to do about it, and you want to do the work yourself with someone who can tell you whether you are doing it right.
What you get
I have been working with athletes one on one, in groups, with teams, and with clubs for thirty years, and I still do. This program is the result of that work. Every component of it, the tools, the techniques, the strategies, and the systems, was developed with and for athletes over those thirty years, and I use all of it in clinic today. I will help you work out what is going on with your problem and how to manage it, so you can get through it and past it and get back to your sport.
- Live sessions on Zoom, ninety minutes each. Twice a week for the first eight weeks, then once a week for four months. I am planning on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:00 to 4:30 Mountain time, and that moves only if the whole group needs it to.
- Every session is recorded, and the recordings are yours.
- Material drawn from the same stock I use in clinic: exercises with their progressions on video, soft tissue work you can do on yourself, taping, and the systems side of the problem, meaning what is going on in your body beyond the tissue that hurts, from how it repairs to what your hormones are doing.
- Everything the group receives is yours to keep permanently, whether or not this program exists in ten years.
What makes this the Founders Group
Being part of the Founders Group means you work directly with me, and with everyone else in the room, live, through conversation and question and answer. The components of the program already exist. What the founders shape is how they get delivered: where the group starts, the pace, what gets covered on a given day, and the form the material takes, whether that is video, audio, PDF checklists, or something else. The athletes who come after you will get the program in the form this group settles on, and that is the part I want your hands on.
Once the program is built out, it moves to a group format with a weekly question and answer session, and the direct access and the hand in shaping it end with this group. If working with me directly matters to you, this is the time it is available.
The first eight weeks are live and I am asking you to be there and to take part. You get nothing out of listening in silence, and neither does anyone else in the room. If you cannot commit to that, the program that follows, where you submit questions and watch the recordings on your own schedule, will suit you better. Tell me and I will let you know when it opens.
I will also ask you for feedback the whole way through, and at the end I will ask whether you are willing to let me use your results, with your say on how. That is part of what a founder does.
Questions people ask
Is this specific to my sport?
Which sport you do matters less than you might think. Runners, cyclists, swimmers, and triathletes are more alike than they are different when it comes to the body and the injuries endurance training produces, and the body is what I work on. Your training plan stays with you and your coach, and this program runs alongside it. I will not be writing training programs, and you will not find sport-specific protocols here.
What happens between calls?
There will be work between calls: questions to answer, and exercises, techniques, and tools to put into practice. How much time it takes depends on what the group is working on that week. I will tell you what I recommend, and how much of it you do is up to you.
With up to twenty people, does my problem get attention?
Questions for a session go in up to twenty-four hours before it, so I can plan the time. Most questions turn out to be shared by several people in the room, and I answer to the room. If you cannot make a call, you have the recording and you can still send me questions by email.
Who sees the recordings?
Everything said inside the sessions stays inside the group. Recordings go to the people in the group and nowhere else. If I later make something from what this group worked on, a video or an article, it will carry no names and no personal details, and I will ask before using anything that could identify you.
Can I send you my imaging or my provider's notes?
No. In this program I am not your health care provider, and I will not stand in for the ones you have. Take what you learn here to them.
Can I start in the middle of a build?
Yes. You can start this in the middle of a build or between seasons. There is plenty you can do that will not interfere with your training in any substantive way, and sooner is better than later. The only reason to wait is if you cannot commit right now.
What it costs
$3,500, paid once, in full, before we start. That is the first and last dollar you pay. If the program continues after the Founders Group, you have it for as long as it runs, with everything that gets added, at no further cost. The program that follows will be $7,500, and everyone who joins after you will pay more than you did.
A $250 deposit holds your place and comes off the total. When the eighth person commits, I charge the remaining $3,250 that day, using the payment details you gave me with the deposit, and the group sets the dates.
Until twenty-four hours before the first call, everything you have paid is refundable, for any reason. After the first call there are no refunds. The recordings and the email questions are yours either way, so if life interferes you still have the program.
Where this stands
This is the first time I have run this. I intend for the program to continue past this group, and if it does, founders get all of it for as long as it runs. If it ever stops, I will gather up everything that exists and get it to you to keep. Either way, I take this group all the way through, and you leave with everything the group received.
You will leave knowing what is going on with your problem and what to do about it. The work is the same work I use with athletes in my clinic, and in my experience it makes things better. How much better depends on your body and on what you do with it, and I will not put a number on that in advance.
This is a group program, and a group program has limits. It does not cover conditions that need a physician, and if that is your situation I will tell you on our call.
When it starts
The group starts when eight people have committed and closes at twenty. In my experience, eight is the minimum for a group like this to function well, and I want you to get the most out of it, so I will not start it smaller. Because this is the first run, I do not have a start date to give you. I will tell you where the count stands when you write, and again whenever it moves.
If someone in your club or training group has the same kind of problem, send them this page.
Tell me about yourself
Fill in the form below, or write to me at risethrive45@gmail.com and answer the same five questions. I reply to every one. If it looks like a fit, we get on a call and talk it through before either of us commits.