Rybread Racing
est. 2015 Well- here we go! Welcome to the introduction of Rybread Racing. I wanted to start out by introducing myself for those of you that don’t know me. My name is Ryan Giuliano, and I am the founder and owner of Rybread Racing. I’m an avid triathlete/runner as well as a fierce, goal-driven competitor. Finding ways to improve on my abilities is a driving force in my life and helping others achieve the same has lead to where I am now. But before getting into what Rybread Racing represents and hopes to achieve, I wanted to give a brief background on how things got to where they are now. Background and Beginnings Sometimes, it is strange how life comes full circle, and as the saying goes, ‘'everything happens for a reason." The journey creating Rybread Racing began roughly 5 years ago. I signed up to take a USA Triathlon Level 1 coaching class shortly after graduating in 2008 from the University of Illinois with a degree in Kinesiology. Working part time and racing as a professional triathlete, I dabbled with thoughts of coaching, going into PT school, or just seeing where the pro life of racing took me. The USA Triathlon coaching class intrigued me, and I learned quite a bit, but still felt that I lacked the true experience in the sport that would be needed to successfully lead others to reach their goals. Yes, I knew what the books said and how to implement certain training ideas and structure, but I wanted to know more. I wanted to experience the training/racing/up and downs first hand. So, I put the coaching thoughts aside and continued to work part time and race professionally. Although the life of a professional triathlete wasn’t paying the bills, I still learned quite a bit in the time that I had done it. It was a time of trial and error- seeing what worked and what didn’t. In that time (2010), I had also picked up a full time position through one of my sponsors, PowerBar, as a nutrition tech rep. The job itself fit my lifestyle perfectly. I was able to still train hard and race, while at the same time met many individuals with the same passion of mine- which was to push the body’s limits and achieve goals. Whether it was to complete a certain race or set new personal bests, the individuals that I interacted with all had similar mindsets. I loved educating and helping the athletes around me find ways to improve. In 2011, I decided that I no longer enjoyed racing as a professional triathlete. The results were showing that I still had many areas to improve on and my drive to improve were diminishing daily. Simply put, the others I was competing against were just in an entire different league. Having drive and motivation are critical when trying to achieve any anything in life, not just in athletics- and it just wasn’t there any more that year. 2012 was a year that I took a step away from the sport of triathlon (still trained and raced, but not as seriously) to get a better picture on what I needed to do in order to become successful while also focusing on my career with PowerBar. With all of the mistakes that I had made since beginning the sport in 2009 (my early college years), I knew what I needed to do and started training harder than I ever did in the past while also spreading knowledge and advice to others that were once in my position. With the help of a coach, a plan, a wife that was by my side, and goals that were hard but attainable, 2013 was the year everything turned around for me. 2013 was the year I sat down and wrote out my goals from short term to long term- all with stepping stones along the way to make sure I was on track. My drive to succeed and reach the goals were at an all time high, and with dedication and patience, my body and mind responded. I started to drop times and get faster in all three disciplines of triathlon. It was also in this time that I started to help a few friends that wanted a little guidance in training. I had written and developed a few training plans for close family and friends- ranging from doing a local 5k up to gearing up for a first timer’s ironman. But it was then that I started to get more and more questions from others about how to train, what they should do, and what works/doesn’t work. With more people coming to me for advice- I decided it was time to branch out. I offered to help plan out custom training plans for a few people to delve into the coaching world a bit more and see what it was about. What I quickly noticed was that I really enjoyed interacting and seeing the progress that was being made with the individuals that I was helping. Their success gave me just as much, if not more, joy than my own races. 2013 was a great year in that I really had the light flicker in my head- helping others reach their athletic goals would be something that I would love to do full time some day. Jump forward to 2015. Through word of mouth and the others that I had been coaching for the past few years, I offered to help more athletes and was at a total of 10 individuals- all different ages, abilities, and goals. Some pure running, some pure cycling, and some pure triathlon. 5 of those athletes were going to be doing their first Ironman. One thing that I knew- in order to be a good coach, you have to put the time into it and be there for the athletes at all times. I saw how much time I needed to spend working with these athletes- whether it was writing out and planning their workout sessions, helping them make adjustments due to life in general, mental preparation for key races, questions on gear and nutrition, and the list goes on. While still working full time for PowerBar and training for Ironman racing, I did not take on any additional athletes as I knew it would draw myself thin. I was unwilling to give up time for my job, wife, training, and athletes that I was helping. There seemed to be a great balance, but deep in the back of my mind, I kept telling myself I should just go for it full time and see where the coaching takes me. It was then in August that as I said, “everything happens for a reason,” that I got a call from my then boss that the new owners of PowerBar were not going to be continuing the tech rep program. Now I’d be lying if I told you that it hit home pretty hard when hearing the news because as I said, things were going great with the balance that I had. Training was great, my job was wonderful, my athletes were improving...so hearing the news did shake things up a little bit. But after talking with my wife, I started to see it as a great opportunity. It was a time when I would be able to really do what I had been thinking about for the past few years. And to make things even better, the athletes that I was coaching had tremendous success, including a 100% finish rate for all of my first time Ironman athletes and a 3 hour 15 minute drop in time for one of my Ironman athletes!!! I was riding a high for days with with the outcomes of my athletes and soon wasn’t thinking about how sad it was losing my position with PowerBar, but how great things can be with coaching and helping athletes around me. Knowing that my job with PowerBar was to end at the end of September, I devoted the month to dialing in and preparing for Kona while tying up all the loose ends with the job. It was nice to really have a great lead in to Kona with much more time to train and recover, and it ultimately lead to my best ever athletic performance with a 38th overall place finish and 3rd in my age group. But post Kona, it was time to sort my future out and create what I had been thinking of for a long time- coaching! What’s in a name? Why Rybread Racing? First goal when starting up the coaching side of things was coming up with a name that I could work under. Jacqui and I tossed ideas back and forth ranging from just using my name- Ryan Giuliano Coaching, Giuliano Endurance, RG Multisport, to names incorporating endurance and discipline- 3d Coaching, Beyond Endurance Fitness,etc. Nothing was quite sticking. I asked friends and family day after day trying to compile as big of a list as possible. I explained to my family that I wanted something that I would be able to create a fun and quirky logo with. Something that when seen would be recognized immediately. Now I didn’t expect it to be a worldwide recognized logo like Starbucks, Apple or McDonald’s, but I wanted to create something that was sharp and presentable. After looking through a few logos of others, my older brother said, “what about Rybread Racing?” It rang a bell immediately. For those that don’t know, close family and friends have called me Rybread since I was born. Simply put- Rybread is me! My first website that was created was www.rybread.com (still exists, but not used). Not only did the name just seem to work, the logo associated with it could take many angles. From there, my brother took the idea and used his graphic design background and had ideas immediately for me. And just like that, Rybread Racing was born. From here, my goal is to help and develop athletes to reach their true potential, hit goals, and enjoy the process along the way. I look forward to sharing the knowledge that I've learned over the years and making positive changes in the lives of other around me!
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July 2016
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