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In competition, Greenfield tweaks his bike for each course so such things as access to his water bottle and sports gels is unrestricted.
Because endurance training can be so isolating, Greenfield suggests clients also participate in some group sport to maintain social connections.
©Rajah Bose
Greenfield had been accepted to a few medical schools before pursuing his master’s degree, and still thought he might go that route after he joined a surgical sales company in Post Falls. Yet almost every physician he encountered told him the same thing: Unless you want to get burned out, stay clear of the medical field. “So I got back into what I knew, what I had done for the past four years at Idaho — offering personal training and managing fitness programs,” he said. In 2007, Greenfield helped start Champion Sports Medicine in Spokane while working as a personal trainer and setting up a wellness studio on the side. He had a hectic schedule, and was spending more and more time writing for his personal website, which he'd pieced together himself. He started an online newsletter and eventually figured out how to self-publish his first book — all in an effort to promote his personal training and spread his fitness and nutrition advice to a larger audience. His turning point came the following year, when he was named Personal Trainer of the Year by the National Strength and Conditioning Association and was invited to speak at a business fitness conference in Orange County, Calif. There, he heard another speaker detail how he made more than $1 million a year by publishing an e-book. That’s all it took to energize Greenfield. Right then and there he mapped out a new business plan: He was going to teach Ironman triathletes how to train while 22
not neglecting their families, careers and other interests. Within six months, he’d developed a full product line of training materials, including an e-book and DVDs, which he launched at the 2009 Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. “I made more money in those five days than I made in a year of personal training and running a studio,” he said. “It was at that point that I began to seriously consider moving full-time into this whole dot-com business … and spending more time at home.” Greenfield cut back from 30 personal training clients to three or four. Now, he devotes most of his time to writing for his blog, developing training programs and working on his latest startup, REV Supplements. The popularity of triathlons and Ironman competitions has exploded around the globe — particularly among business executives and other people with time and money to invest in training. Greenfield knows this bodes well for his business endeavors. His research-based training plans, books and products are resonating in a fast-growing market. And he continues to expand his reach. Through all this, though, Greenfield’s long-term goal remains the same. “Ultimately, he wants to be able to write and be home with his kids,” Jessa said. “That’s his dream.”