Athlete Onboarding, Welcome!

Your program starts here. Please do not skip anything, so we can begin dialing in your program.

BEFORE WE BUILD YOUR PROGRAM — READ THIS.

Welcome to the team. This page walks you through everything you need to complete before your first training week begins. It takes about 15-20 minutes and only needs to be done once.

There are five steps on this page and each one plays a role in building your program. Step 1 covers your waivers and health forms — the legal and medical foundation that protects both you and Metabolic Running and allows us to coach you safely. Step 2 is your lifestyle questionnaire — the information we use to build a program around your real life, not a generic template. From there the remaining steps get you set up with the tools, Strava, and Trainerize so everything is connected before day one.

Work through the steps in order and you'll be ready to train. If anything is unclear or you have questions at any point, we are availble at anytime via phone, email, social or our app once integrated!

Let's get started.

Step 1 | Waivers & Health Forms

Complete this before anything else. This form covers your health history, injury background, and the waivers required before coaching begins. It takes approximately 10 minutes. Your program cannot be designed until this is submitted.

Step 2 | Lifestyle Questionnaire

Complete this before anything else. This form covers your health history, injury background, and the waivers required before coaching begins. It takes approximately 10 minutes. Your program cannot be designed until this is submitted.

Step 3 | Required tools

These tools integrate directly with your training app and allow us to track your progress in real time. Please have everything set up before your first training week begins. We are here to happily assist you and there are how-to-video in the Base Camp video library to help with setup.

Full Build Athletes

  1. A GPS fitness watch — Garmin, Apple Watch, Coros, or equivalent

  2. A kitchen digital food scale — essential for accurate nutrition tracking

  3. A smart body weight scale — must sync to Apple Health or Google Health

  4. A Strava account — free or premium, connect to Dan on Strava

  1. A GPS fitness watch — Garmin, Apple Watch, Coros, or equivalent

  2. A Strava account — free or premium, connect to Dan on Strava

Race Ready Athletes

Step 4 | Connect on Strava

Strava is how we build community, stay accountable, and track your running data week to week. As your coach, Strava gives us a real-time view of your training metrics — pace, heart rate, elevation, and effort. It also connects you to every other Metabolic Running athlete so you can follow each other's progress, give kudos, and stay motivated between sessions. It's free and takes less than 2 minutes to set up.

Heres what to do:

1. Download the Strava app — available on iOS and Android, or at strava.com
2. Create a free account if you don't already have one
3. Connect your GPS watch to Strava — your watch brand will have instructions for this in settings

Join the Metabolic Running Racing Team on Strava

Step 5 | Download Trainerize

Trainerize is where your program lives. Every workout, every progression, every note from your coach — it's all in one place and updated weekly.

Once you complete your onboarding forms you will receive an email invitation from Metabolic Running to join Trainerize. Accept it right away — getting familiar with the platform before your program is loaded makes week one much smoother.

When you receive your invitation:

  1. Click the invitation link in the email from Trainerize

  2. Download the Trainerize app — available on iOS and Android

  3. Create your login and complete your profile

  4. Connect your fitness watch and any health apps you use

  5. Set up nutrition tracking — use the built-in meal tracker or connect MyFitnessPal. Check your app for an exclusive 25% discount on a MyFitnessPal annual membership

The faster you get set up, the better your Week 1 program will be. Every day your tools are connected before your start date gives us real data — resting heart rate, HRV, sleep, and baseline fitness metrics — that allows us to dial in your first week of training with precision instead of starting from scratch.

YOU'RE IN — HERE'S WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

You've completed every step. Here's what the next few days look like before your program begins.


Program Design
As soon as your forms are submitted and your tools are connected, we get to work. Your intake data, health history, lifestyle, and real-time metrics all go into building a program built specifically around you — not a template, not a generic plan.

Pre-Program Call
The week before your Day 1 we will schedule a call to walk through everything together. We'll cover your fuel plan, your training structure for the first block, and answer any questions before you take your first step. You'll know exactly what to expect before it starts.

Ongoing Communication
From Day 1 forward we are in constant communication. Every week your program is reviewed and adjusted based on how your body is responding — load, recovery, nutrition, and performance. In cases where something needs immediate attention, we adjust daily. Nothing gets ignored and nothing stays the same longer than it should.
This is what real coaching looks like. Welcome to the team.