Sweet Spot Ultrarunning coaching

Dents du Midi - first ultra experience

"Erik's story appealed to me because of his enjoyment of the sport and his passion for long (mountain) adventures. You don't often come across coaches who are so focused on adventurous running in the Netherlands... As a climber myself, Erik understood what I was doing a lot besides running. The schedule he made for me every month turned out to be exactly what I needed: long and slow, lots of time on your feet , building up conservatively, but never boring. The training sessions are varied and always challenging. Erik has an integral view and builds up the schedules in such a way that my alpine climbing strengthens my running, and vice versa. That's how my injuries stayed away and my confidence in my own abilities grew every week. In monthly video sessions we had additional nice conversations about motivation, mindset, (self)confidence, and race strategy.

In my first September the time had come and I ran my first ultra the Dents du Midi with great pleasure. Along the way I felt well prepared, both physically and mentally. It went better than I could ever have imagined, which led to a great finish time and even a 2nd place at the National Championships ultra running. The most amazing thing for me was that my body could handle it and I had no pain at all afterwards.

I recommend Sweet Sport Performance because of Erik's inspiring physical and mental coaching, his fun and adventurous schedules and his proven ability to create training plans for injury-prone runners with big dreams"

Noor, Arnhem, NL

10K D+ Everesting after COVID

After long-term covid complaints, I could not manage to build up towards ultra running. I had already had several years of experience as an ultra runner and knew how to approach this. With my background as a physiotherapist, I had quite a bit of knowledge. But there is apparently a difference between knowing something and actually doing it.

Thanks to my family doctor I came into contact with Erik. Because where do you find someone with a lot of knowledge and expertise about ultra running? In Erik I had clearly found the right person. His track record as an athlete and coach speaks for itself.

Through a training platform he sets up your training schedule and you can also give feedback on each completed training. This way, it can be followed up and adjusted very closely. For the first time, I did everything the way I knew I should, but which I didn't always feel like doing. The results were not long in coming, month after month I felt progress. A fastpacking of 146km and an Everesting of 10,000 vertical meters later, I am convinced to continue training in a similar way after our collaboration. Because that is certainly one of Erik's goals, to give you the tools to continue this independently with a sustainable vision on endurance sports.

Thanks Erik

Bart, Kortenberg

CCC as busy professional & young dad

"For me, as Belgian living and working in Zurich with my family, trail running was something that came quit spontaneously due to the beautiful surroundings that were available every day. It all started very small but each year my appetite & passion for running on the trails became a bit bigger. From local 10k runs around the nearest hill for fun, to the bigger more known mountain race events in Switzerland. That all eventually led to the ambition of doing my first 100k trail run in one of the most competitive settings, the UTMB – CCC 2023!

I quickly realised, somewhat in panic, I would need to train more consistently and especially more effectively (as in comparison to the online tools I was often using). And all that needed to happen considering the already challenging work/life balance my wife and I had, which would only increase with the arrival of our second child in the spring of '23.

And this is where Erik came in… helping runners like me to achieve their ambitions in a sensible & smart way and that in combination with the needs from family/work perspective.

From the start of our collaboration in Nov'22, I felt that Erik talked with enormous knowledge and passion about trail running. Given his experience he very well understands what it takes to finish ultra trail races, but even more so how to prepare for these races considering that all this needs to happen in balance with other priorities, both professionally as privately (“real-world athlete” as Erik likes to call it).

For myself, becoming for the second time dad & starting a new function at work made it increasingly difficult to execute on the training plans Erik suggested. Which often caused me to doubt if was going to be ready for the UTMB (CCC) . Exactly at that point Erik proved to be a great coach as he was not only focusing on getting me ready physically but even more so mentally. He kept on reminding me on our goal and that he coaches athletes in the real world were not everything goes as planned. Instead of stressing out on missed training we kept on focusing on getting crucial training done and doing those as efficiently as possible with the right mindset. It was by trusting that process that I started feeling ready to tackle my biggest run to date.

Even an ankle injury only 2.5 weeks before the start couldn't stop us anymore. Initial panic made way for optimism which grew day by day as Erik and I were in frequent contact on how the injury was evolving. And after blessing from my physician days before the race, it was time to put all that work into action.

Both before and during the race Erik talked to me on the challenges ahead and kept on sharing all his experience at hand. He reminded me on simple things like; to take my time in the feeding zones, prioritize every now and again the famous bouillon soup, and most and for all to enjoy it! … And It is due to all the work that Erik and I together put towards our goal that I finished the UTMB – CCC!!

Thank you, Erik, for the gazillion times you rescheduled training for me and to not only physically prepare me for the race, but also mentally!

Henri, Zurich, Switzerland