Smart Coaching, Flexible Planning & Guaranteed Results
How Steel City Endurance is Different…
Science backed principals of endurance training provide the fulcrum of our athlete’s success. Head Coach & Founder Suzanne Atkinson, MD has taken over 30 years of teaching & coaching experience, blended it with a masterful understanding of physiology, and infused it with her ability to connect with people on a one to one basis. The results are a training plan that reflects your individual needs and response to previous efforts, adequate time to recovery between workouts and races and still spend time on other pursuits, and increased speed in your planned races.
Our Core Values
- Continuous Incremental Improvement in Sport, Attitude, Nutrition
- Open Communication
- Non-judgemental Approach: There is no “fail” on team SCE
- First Move Well, then Move Often
- Technique, Efficiency & Consistency yield Performance
Our Approach to Your Success
Steel City Endurance Coaching helps you perform to your potential. At Steel City Endurance our priority is making sure that we understand and listen to your needs and your endurance performance goals, and then help craft the training plan, accountability and support that helps you reach them.
My Personal Guarantee
I guarantee that you will see results within your first 30 days, or else your first month is free! If you follow your custom training plan for the first month and do not feel fitter, faster, smoother, more efficient or do not feel you are getting the service you expect from Steel City Endurance, your first month is free.
Suzanne Atkinson, MD
HEAD COACH & FOUNDER
Suzanne Atkinson, MD is a world-class triathlon & endurance coach with over 30 years of experience coaching. She has worked with age group elite & professional triathletes in addition to designing beginning training groups for first time triathletes.
Her teaching career includes working as a wilderness instructor for Outward Bound School, Mountaineering & Rock Climbing fitness director and teacheing medical students & residents at the University if Pittsburgh Medical School.
Suzanne brings motivational skills, technical instruction and an understanding of physiology to each individual athlete’s training. She has helped both first-time triathletes as well as world champions accomplish their dreams.
Training with Coach Suzanne and Steel City Endurance has greatly improved my confidence and enjoyment of open water swimming, and by improving my efficiency has enabled me to save energy for the bike and run in triathlons. During the best if the US race (Leon's race), it was a turbulent start with the best of the us and faster men/women all together.
Due to the work on swim efficiency I was able to hold a place just behind the lead swimmers. I remember feeling like everyone around me was expending a lot of effort, while I felt pretty comfortable. I feel like the effort saved by not working extra hard to stay right there at the lead payed off with a strong bike and run.
Want to Swim Like an Olympian? Then Avoid the “Crossover Effect”
Photo removed at request of copyright holder, Associated Press. Image used according to Fair Use Doctrine. You can learn something from 100m sprinter Simone Manuel or distance specialist Katie Ledecky, regardless of which one of these remarkable women is your...
Testing My Limits at the Duathlon National Championships
Duathlon National Championships - Bend, Oregon. Tested the limits big-time. Beautiful city, challenging course, great competition, wonderful time meeting up with old friends and making new ones, and an absolutely fantastic job by USAT, Tim Yount, and the Duathlon Team...
What I learned about Swimming from Muhammed Ali
Last weekend I participated as a guest coach with Dinah Mistillis of Discovery Aquatics to help teach a two - day swim clinic. Dinah asked me to lead a 15 minute talk that was a condensed version of my "Every Day Skills for World Champions" talk that I gave in...
Monitoring Your Injury During Recovery–Tips from Halle Frederiksen
It is important to monitor your progress through an injury so as to know where you stand. This is made much easier once you start monitoring yourself while healthy so that you have something to compare it to. When you are injured, monitor how you feel every day. In...
Kirsten Sass Team USA, Duathlon World Championships 2016
Good luck to Kirsten Sass, Steel City Endurance athelte coached by Suzanne Atkinson in this weekends Duathlon World Championships in Aviles, Spain. Kirsten earned her spot in Team USA by winning last years sprint and standardized Duathlon National championships on...
4 Keys for Open Water Swimming this Spring
Open Water Swimming & Spring Triathlon Season is here! The first local triathlons are coming up soon and our local club membership kickoff is right around the corner. This summer two local to the Pittsburgh and Eastern Ohio area lakes will have organized open...
I utilized Anne-Marie as a coach to increase my 5k and half marathon time as well as to complete a 70.3 distance triathlon. I met all my goals with great success and I largely attribute that success to Anne Marie’s coaching. We seamlessly work together from two different parts of the country. Anne-Marie was incredibly informative, responsive, flexible and offered amazing guidance along the way. I highly recommend her as a coach.
Contact Us For Coaching
About The Head Coach
Steel City Endurance Head Coach & Founder is Suzanne Atkinson, MD. Suzanne relentlessly pursues ongoing experience in direct mentoring relationships with elite coaches and soaks up training information from primary sources, journal articles, and university level education. She has experience not only in 1 on 1 coaching for swimming, cycling & running, but has also coached triathlon and swimming camps in Cabo Rojo, Puerto rico; Kona, Hawaii; Boulder, CO & London UK.
Certifications imply a standard has been met by a national organization. While they are not a guarantee of coaching ability or knowledge, the maintenance and achievement of certification shows ongoing pursuit of continuing education, experience with athletes and a commitment to the sport.
Suzanne has achieved a Level 2 USA Triathlon Certification with Elite Mentoring Experience, qualified for USAT Level 3 Certification in 2016, as well as USA Cycling Level 2. She achieved the high distinction of Master Coach during her time with Total Immersion where she also helped lead and develop coaching education for new trainees
In addition to her endurance coaching experience & credentials, Suzanne is a Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physician, has masters level coursework in Exercise Physiology, is am a former Outward Bound instructor with experience teaching expedition skills, whitewater kayaking, rockclimbing & mountaineering.
