In case you missed our recent live community hangout, you missed an absolute classic. The goal was simple: bring our community together with our Devo squad to peel back the curtain on what it actually takes to step into the pro ranks. We covered everything from logistical nightmares and intense psychological shifts to the tactical reality of balancing a 40-hour workweek with elite-level training miles.
Since we put this Devo group together back in January.. the team has been hitting the ground running. Here is a behind-the-scenes breakdown of the wisdom, chaos, and training philosophies shared during the session.
Meet the TTL Devo Squad
Liam Donnelly: Short-Course Specialist
Hailing from Canada, Liam is our token draft-legal, short-course athlete. While much of the TTL community is deeply rooted in the non-drafting Ironman and 70.3 circuit, Liam operates in the high-octane world of ITU World Cups and World Series racing. His singular focus for the next two years is securing an Olympic qualification slot, a journey that requires north of 30 hours of training per week.
Marley Beckett: Fast-Track Engineer
Marley is one of the freshest pros in the sport, but her trajectory has been explosive. Coming from a collegiate cross-country and track background, she did her first triathlon just over a year ago. After only two amateur races, she took her pro card. When she isn't racing middle-distance events, she works full-time as a telecom engineer, currently managing network capacity for massive events like the FIFA World Cup matches in Vancouver.
Samantha Skold: Alaskan Powerhouse
Sam represents the ultimate amateur-to-pro success story. Before turning pro, she dominated the long-course amateur scene, culminating in an Overall Age Group World Championship title at Kona. Based out of Alaska, she manages a punishing dual life as a full-time Family Health Physician Assistant, balancing intense Ironman builds with dark, freezing winters and a demanding patient schedule.
Zack Cooper: Team Captain wasn't available as he is in Switzerland
Logistical Chaos and Resiliency on the Road. We leaned into the question "when it goes south- what do you do?
Liam seems to have a strange magnetic pull for bad luck whenever he races in Mexico. Heading into his first major Olympic qualification race of the cycle, he was walking to the pool just two weeks prior when he was struck by an e-bike, breaking five ribs. Despite intense pain, he got the medical green light, loaded up on ibuprofen, and managed to secure a spectacular 8th-place finish.
The year before at that same venue, a massive hurricane completely leveled the local infrastructure and canceled all domestic flights. Stranded in Mexico City, Liam and his team flew to an adjacent town, planning an 8-hour drive, only to find chunks of the highway entirely missing.
"In almost any other country, that race is canceled immediately," Liam laughed. "But the Mexican people are amazing; they find a way. We rolled into town 24 hours before the gun, raced, and I got eighth that year, too."
The Takeaway: True race preparation isn’t just about the workouts you log; it’s about your psychological capacity to stay completely calm when the plan falls apart. The less energy you waste stressing over travel delays or unexpected hurdles, the more matches you have left to burn on race day.
The Mindset Shift: "Improving, Not Proving"
One of the most profound segments of the call revolved around the boarder-line toxic relationship athletes can develop with their data and expectations.
Liam opened up about his transition from junior to senior racing...a notorious "fork in the road" where many athletes burn out. Isolated at university and doing most of his workouts alone, he found himself compulsively refreshing TrainingPeaks, paralyzed by anxiety over upcoming workouts and self-imposed hit metrics.
It took a fundamental mental pivot to save his career: Training is about improving performance, not proving performance.
• Embrace the "B+" Workout: When you are training 20 to 30 hours a week, you cannot expect every session to be a masterpiece.
• The Magic of Consistency: The breakthrough doesn't come from one heroic Tuesday; it comes from stacking average, solid days together for a decade. Show up, get your hands dirty, tick the box, and move on immediately...whether the session felt amazing or terrible.
Sam shared a similar psychological hurdle. Coming from high-level collegiate running where she was always at the front of the pack, entering triathlon as a weaker swimmer caused severe performance anxiety. It got so bad she quit the sport entirely for three years.
What brought her back? Moving to Alaska and signing up for Ironman Alaska purely as an excuse to go for long runs outside. By entering the sport with zero expectations of placement, she fell back in love with the raw process of moving her body, and the elite results naturally followed.
The Ultimate Juggle: Making Time
How do you fit pro-level volume into a standard corporate life calendar? Marley and Sam broke down their highly structured routines.
Marley relies on a strict daily rhythm to keep her from procrastinating. She hits the pool at 5:30 AM every single weekday, logs on for her engineering job at 8:00 AM, utilizes her lunch break for a gym session or a run, and tackles her major bike workouts in the late afternoon. Interestingly, she views her corporate job as a saving grace: "It forces me to stop taking myself too seriously. If I only thought about triathlon all day, I’d lose my mind."
Sam, whose background includes a strict military academy education, structures her entire life from 4:30 AM to 10:00 PM in 15-minute increments. Because her job as a Physician Assistant requires her to see patients back-to-back all day, she has accepted her role as a high-performance "weekend hero," saving massive 3 to 6-hour training blocks exclusively for Saturday and Sunday.
"Work and family have to come first sometimes," Sam noted. "You have to develop the mental maturity to know you aren't losing all your fitness just because you missed a single swim or run session."
On the flip side, Liam acknowledged the unique physical toll of being a full-time carded athlete. While he doesn't have a clock to punch, his job is recovering from 7-hour training days. He reminded the community that buying TTL merch and supporting the team directly funds this development pathway, allowing young pros to survive the financial reality of elite sport.
Weird Rituals, Transition Hacks, and the Pop-Tart Revolution
To wrap up the hour, the community threw some excellent quick-fire questions at the panel regarding their strangest habits and race-day secrets.
The 140g Carb Secret
Liam revealed a massive dietary breakthrough passed down to him by three-time Canadian Olympian Tyler Mlachuk: Pre-race Pop-Tarts. For athletes who struggle with pre-race stomach nerves or choking down dry oatmeal at 4:00 AM, two packets of Pop-Tarts offer a massive hit of easily digestible, dense carbohydrates that can be eaten in under two minutes. It's a performance staple that has quickly become a non-negotiable for his long training days.
The Calorie Deficit Reality
When training at this volume, the athletes debunked the myth of the "perfectly clean" diet. Liam explained that during heavy blocks, he burns upwards of 6,000 to 7,000 calories a day. Because he has a naturally low appetite, eating entirely "clean" makes it physically impossible to get enough volume down. Drinking calories via dense smoothies or opting for processed, high-carb foods isn't a guilty pleasure—it’s a recovery necessity. He also logs a daily dose of potato chips to keep his sodium levels replenished after heavy sweat sessions.
Transition Innovations
When asked for their best T1 and T2 secrets, the answers were highly tactical:
• The Grab-and-Go Bag: Sam packs all her mid-race nutrition, her watch, and her sunglasses into a small, single bag within her transition box. Instead of fumbling with pockets at her bike, she grabs the bag and stuffs it while running out of the transition tent.
• DIY Command Hooks: Marley uses cycling shoes with Boa dials that lack standard heel loops for elastic bands. To execute a proper flying mount, she sticks mini plastic Command hooks to the sides of her shoes so she can anchor them horizontally to her bike frame.
What’s Next for the Team?
The summer racing block is officially in full swing. Sam is currently gearing up to head deep into the pain cave at Ironman Lake Placid in a few weeks, while Marley is hunting for a late entry into her local T100 Vancouver race or targeting the intense heat of 70.3 Northern California. Liam is keeping his head down, staying hyper-focused, and continuing his tour of the global World Cup circuit.
We are incredibly proud of our Devo squad and are looking forward to bringing you more of these interactive Power Hours. Keep an eye out for our next hangout, where we hope to get Eric and Paula back on the line for some direct face-time with the community!