Kevin Crossman has thriving T3 triathlete coaching biz

By Zander Frost, Chronicle Staff Writer

T3 Coaching, the “Customized Triathlete Coaching” program founded by Kevin Crossman, has grown organically into sizable community.

“This year alone, we’ll have approximately 50 athletes that we coach,” he said. “And we have five USAT certified coaches on staff.”

Coach Crossman teaches physical education at Glens Falls Middle School, and coaches the Varsity Boys Swim Team.

He said T3 spots are in short supply. “We can only take so many athletes to make sure that we deliver the product that we can,” Coach Crossman said.

Around October or November of each year, athletes fill out a Google Form, and then go to an open house to apply.

“Then, based on all the applications, the coaching staff, we sit down and collectively choose our choose our squad for the year,” Coach Crossman said.

“It’s not a vetting process of who’s good, who’s bad. It really is — is it going to be a good fit between coach and athlete?”

Coach Crossman said he prefers to discuss pricing once he meets with a potential athlete.

Athletes train in the swimming, biking, running disciplines for at least 12 weeks, with a variety of motivations.

Some are training for the “pinnacle” — an ironman. “That tends to be Ironman Lake Placid, just because it’s the closest one to us,” Coach Crossman said, but also events around the world, like Hawaii, Germany and Africa.

Others, he said, might train for shorter, “sprint distance” triathlons.

“Some simply know that it’s important to stay fit and they love the accountability, and that somebody else is telling them what to do. We get to take away the thinking for them.”

Most of the coaching is done online.

“Not often are we doing…in-person coaching, because most of these people that we’re working with have careers, they have families,” Coach Crossman said.

Coaches write workouts, then, through tracking equipment like Garmin wristbands, they track athlete data.

“Once they complete a workout…they hit stop, and it automatically uploads it without having to do any other clicks.”

“We can track their pace, their speed, their power, their heart rate.”

When he started, Coach Crossman said he used a “Microsoft Excel sheet…writing in each cell what the workout was, and the athlete was pretty much trying to relay [results] back through text — like literally writing an email or whatever, saying, This is how I felt. And this is what my pace was.”

Now, they can track all three triathlon disciplines easily.

“For a long time, swimming, it was the one that was a little bit more difficult. But now the watches are so awesome,” Coach Crossman said. “We can see what people’s swim paces are both in a pool and in open water. We can track whether they’re swimming straight or crooked.”

Coach Crossman did his first Ironman in 2001, and moved back to Glens Falls around 2005. T3 grew organically as he helped h

That fall…I went out and got certified as a USA Triathlon coach,” Coach Crossman said. Then he picked up two or three more athletes in 2006, when “T3 officially launched.”

“From there, it has grown from those two to three athletes to now having 50 with five coaches,” he said.

Coach Crossman said they want each T3 athletes “to be a good member of our communities, we want to make sure that they play clean, we want to make sure that they volunteer, they give back to the sport,” he said.

He talks of the “Hi there, movement.”

“When our athletes are out exercising, they’re expected to be friendly and say hello to other people,” said the coach.

The community has created networking opportunities, too.

Coach Crossman said that Melanie Weber, who is also his sister-in-law, met Hillary Williams through T3, and now they’ve opened g(row) children’s store together on Exchange Street in downtown Glens Falls.

Copyright © 2022 Lone Oak Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved