Your Coach Marjaana has over 30 years of experience in sports, as an athlete, coach, and sports science. You are in good hands. She believes in science-based exercise programming. Training doesn't have to be complicated. "Keeping It Simple, Student" was a note hanging on the door at the university she went to.  This is a guiding principle and she follows sound principles based on exercise physiology. She also understands a busy lifestyle, having three small children, and a busy professional spouse. She has been an ex-pat since 1998, and has lived in 6 countries on 4 continents, and counting. Flexibility and communication are the grounding principles in any coaching relationship. 

Marjaana was born and raised in Northern Finland, where she spent most of her free time running and skiing. She became one of the top junior female skiers in Finland, with several top 3 and top 10 placements in her junior years in both skiing and track&field. But life was not just smooth trails for her. She also experiences overtraining, plateaus, and injuries, that ultimately cost her dreams to be taken away. Being an adventurous soul, after a back injury, she left Finland and moved to Norway. She kept running and skiing for fun and health and coaching other people while studying Sports Science (MSc). 

While raising a family and moving around the globe (mostly in tropical climates with no chance of skiing), she felt an increasing inner drive to challenge herself. In 2010, while pushing a stroller at Ipanema Beach in Rio, she saw triathletes train open water swimming and running. She thought, that I MUST try. Two more kids and 5 years later, she got her chance in Olympic distance triathlon in her new hometown St. John's in Newfoundland. Balmy, windy weather was no match for her and she cruised to a win in her age group. The kindle was lit up to an inferno inside her.  She had found her passion in sports again and more importantly, she found a vehicle to become more energetic, happier, and present in her life for her kids and hubby. As a mother, it is easy to fall into the trap of always putting our own needs and dreams on the back burner and forget who we really are. She was feeling lost until she tried a tri. You can read her personal blog here.

While she couldn't consistently ski, she threw herself at any chance she came across. First, she skied 50K American Birkie when her middle baby was 10 months old, 30K Newfoundland Champs when the third one was 1 year old. Babies were not an excuse for her. Two more moves, several 5, 10K, and half marathons, and 2 marathons and 70.3 Ironmans later, she became an Ironman in 2019 in Norway. All while raising 3 kids around the world with a busy professional husband who travels a lot. She says: "IT IS POSSIBLE. How bad do you want it?" 

Life has its ebbs and flows and she has also experienced her fair share of injuries. Learning from each of them, she learned more of her own body than from any success. Self-compassion is one of the cornerstones in recovery from an injury. 

As a coach, her training philosophy is: 

"To become a better athlete, you must be willing to regulate your training intensity. Most people train in the gray zone, going too hard on every single workout because it feels good and it feels like you are doing a good workout. Many people think going slow is not doing enough. Well, I have news for you: Even top athletes go very very slow. In fact, it is their bread and butter. Most workouts are done in very easy intensity, and when it is time to go hard, they go really really hard! 

Becoming a better athlete is 80% mind 20% body. Your mind has incredible power over the outcome. But the thing is, they work together, mind and body. Be really really mindful of what you allow your mind to tell your body to do. When you are feeling incredible, you will want to change the easy run into a full-on interval session. Just because it feels so good. It's natural, but you must learn to train easy, even when your mind tells you to go hard. The hard sessions will be there, and then you must be ready to go hard! If you always go harder than intended during easy workouts, your hard workouts will suffer. You end up burning your candle on both ends. Overreaching (very few people actually gets over-trained) is a real issue and always training at too high intensities is a sure way to get into that overreaching state where your fitness gains just plateus. No Pain No Gain is BS. You don't have to crush it every single day to progress. In fact, crushing it every single day will get you to plateau faster than you say SuperCompensation.

Training smart is not about over-emphasizing the hard sessions. Training smart is about working with your mind & body optimally to your individual abilities and circumstances. Training smart is to lay down a strong basis where high-intensity workouts are only one ingredient of the recipe. Think of it as hearty chicken soup. The Low Intensity is the nourishing chicken broth and the High Intensity is the spice you add.  

My programming takes science-backed principles from elite athletes, and then I modify them to all levels from complete beginners to mid-range weekend warriors to top ambitious age-group athletes. This principle works no matter which sport you are participating in from running, triathlon, or nordic skiing! The same exercise science principles (super-compensation) apply to average Joe as they do for a world champion, you just need to scale it all down to match the individual's circumstances. The overarching philosophy is that training should be fun and enjoyable, sustainable but also challenging. 

The emerging field in female-specific exercise physiology research is a hot topic right now. 

As of now, there is no clear evidence that the female cycle actually impacts performance in a female athlete. The female performance is rather multifaceted and while research may not be able to show clear tendencies in either way (positive or negative impact of the female hormone cycle), due to individual variances, I believe the best approach is to track your own cycle and symptoms to know yourself and how you react in each phase. Follow reputable educators in this area, but be really careful not to take headlines as the truth. And remember, not everyone who turns 40 years old is automatically pre-menopausal!"

Happy Customers

At 69, following the ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ philosophy, I wanted to get faster!

I was getting frustrated with my training for longer distance skate ski races, 30+k. I was putting in the hours, all with speed, but not getting the results. I was slowing down as I aged.

So I started looking for a coach, one who has ‘been there, done that, got the award’, with an education in sports training, looking for somewhat local to me.

I found Marjanna – ‘go slow, you will get faster I promise’ Rakai.

What a revelation! An organized program, lots of slow,  and accountability. Someone who had done the work knew what was needed and could create a workable plan. Even adapting to an injury of mine.

In the 2020 30k Payak race I beat my previous best time, set in 2013 by 2 minutes and 2019’s by 17 minutes!!!

As to ‘local’ I get teased when asked where my coach lives, Dubai doesn’t have a lot of snow, but the results speak for themselves. Remote coaching works!

Thank you Marjaana!

Craig MacKenzie, Whistler Canada

Just finished a 1/2 marathon in sub-zero temps with full-on snowing and managed a PB!! 16min faster than last year on the same course. Could not have done it without the coach. Thanks, MJ!!!! If you are looking to push yourself to the next level I highly recommend Sisufit.

Lisa Rakai, High River Canada

Let's Talk Pricing

You have three options. Get either a generic plan and follow that with individual tweaks,  OR contact me to design your own 12-24* week training plan OR you can opt-in for 1-on-1 coaching and get all the bells and whistles! 

*minimum of 12 weeks as I believe that is a minimum time in which you can establish good training habits, and it is a long enough cycle to gain sustainable fitness gains. Sure, shorter 4-8 week plans can increase your fitness, especially if you a novice or after a break, but you can also plateau fast if not new kind of stimulus is applied. 

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