Bio
about coach diana
The early Days
Having grown up in the foothills of Utah the mountains run deep through my veins. One of the first riding sessions I can remember goes back to when I was 4 years old. My older brother decided I had been riding with training wheels long enough and it was time to ditch those babies. He took them off and taught me how to ride my pink and purple Huffy in our long driveway. A week or so later he took me down a steep and busy road, (like good brothers do). We soon turned off the pavement and I found myself riding on a dirt road. It was out on that deeply rutted, dusty road that I fell in love with the new challenge that dirt brought!
Fast forward several years to when I entered my first mountain bike race. I was 15 years old, and standing on the starting line in Soldier Hollow, Utah with a heavy, no-name bike that really had no business being in a cross country mountain bike race. The race directors had to make a last minute call the morning of the race and placed me in the boys category because they did not have a category for me as a 15 year old female (you can see how much the sport has grown for female athletes over the years. I pedaled my way into 5th place that day. I enjoyed the race, and was happy with how I had done, but I also realized that racing up and down steep technical terrain at high altitude was a lot harder than any of the other rides I had previously done on the trails close to home. I knew I would need to put in some work.
Soon after my first mountain bike race I met a friend in school whose family was immersed in the world of Ironmans. I found myself asking them more and more questions about triathlons until I got brave enough to ask my 16 year old self, “I swim, I bike, I run- why couldn't I do a triathlon?” So, I started training, and entered a few local triathlons. I found myself on top of the podium for most of them. Having raced my first couple triathlons on a mountain bike, (‘cause that was all I had at the time), I started looking for any jobs I could find in order to save up enough money to buy a road bike. I desperately wanted to bring my ride times down, and be more efficient. I found myself always looking for ways to get better and push myself harder with each ride.
I raced triathlons all during high school as often as I could afford them. Once I graduated high school I continued racing while attending college. Not long after I found an awesome guy, got married, and a few years later we started a family. I would train in between having kids and everything else that life brought on at that time. I did pretty well in my category, and then one day I realized I wanted more out of a triathlon. I remember thinking to myself, “I love triathlons, but there’s got to be something out there that’s more challenging!” Enter the Xterra. A triathlon that had swimming, mountain biking, and trail running- this was exactly what I was craving!
Shortly after having my third baby in 2014, I started seriously training for the Xterra, which would take place almost exactly a year after her birth in September of 2015. I put in so much time and effort into training for this race, and I was determined to do well. I started researching ways to improve and be more efficient in all three disciplines. Race day came and I raced my heart out! I missed the podium by seconds, and swore vengeance on that mountain! I was determined to figure out what I needed to do to get faster, stronger, and build my endurance, so I could stand on that podium next year!
My dream of standing on the Xterra podium that next year got temporarily delayed with the birth of my fourth baby that summer of 2016, no regrets. I stayed active mountain biking, swimming, trail running, playing indoor soccer, running around with my other babies, and doing races like the Dirty Dash, and the Tulip Festival half marathon. It was in July of 2018, while I was training for the Xterra, the Red Bull 500 and playing co-ed rugby with my husband, that my achilles decided it had taken enough stress and tore. It was surgically repaired and I did my best afterwards to rehab it. I was able to get back to running, but it wasn’t the same, and my heel was regularly irritated, and stiff.
I continued to ride often, but for the next few years I took a break from the racing scene as I navigated what to do with my constantly irritated foot. It was in 2021 that my husband started encouraging me to focus on cross country mountain bike racing. His well intended suggestion was received with hesitation on my end- I still had the Xterra I needed to settle up with. However, after some thought, I decided to pursue his suggestion and dedicated all my spare time to training solely for cross country racing, and set high goals for racing that season. A few weeks later on a sunny morning in July I was out training when a new trail I had never ridden before caught my eye. I pulled over to the side of the trail, grabbed a drink and hypothesized where this trail might take me. Satisfied I could find my way around this new area, I went to go clip back into my pedal, missed the pedal, and my foot hit the ground. Pain abruptly shot through the back of my heel. I instantly knew I had ruptured the same achilles tendon I had repaired just 3 years prior. I hopped off my bike and laid myself down in the dirt fighting back the nausea that the sharp pain had brought on. Devastated, I eventually pulled myself together, got back on my bike and slowly pedaled back to my car. When I got back to my car, I made the difficult phone call to my husband, trying to hold back the crushing tears as I told him what had just happened.
By the time I got home, my husband had already reached out to my previous surgeon and had an appointment set up for me to go in and see him later that morning. After the appointment, I got set up for another surgical repair of my achilles. After the second surgical repair of my achilles all was going well with my recovery until my follow up appointment with the surgeon. My surgical site looked bruised, and the surgeon wanted to keep a close eye on it. My foot started to deteriorate over the next few days. I got back in to see the surgeon, and this led to another surgery to clean out the infection that now engulfed the back of my heel. The achilles they had just repaired was gone; eaten up by necrosis and infection. Now that my foot was all cleaned out, I started down the long path of recovery.
After my foot was cleaned out I needed a wound vac to help regrow tissue in the back of my heel. This took several weeks to do, and I was not able to bear weight during this time. From the time I tore my achilles in July 2021 to mid January 2022 I lived in a grey, calf-high walking boot with off-and-on weight bearing restrictions. Mostly non-weight bearing. I used a knee crutch to get around as I tried to figure out new ways to train and manage life while my foot healed. My knee crutch saved me! It kept my spirits high as I learned to adapt and do so much with it. Once all the tissue in the back of my foot was restored I went in for another surgery.
This was a big one. The surgeons put a cadaver achilles tendon in. They also had to take an artery and skin patch from my left wrist to cover my new achilles tendon. This would provide its own blood source to that area so I wouldn’t have the same issue again. This surgery was extensive and had an intense recovery process. I spent a week in the hospital with my foot elevated 24/7. Lucky for me, my room had a massive window with a clear view of the majestic Mount Timpanogos mountain range. I had the nursing staff angle my bed towards the window, and I’d watch the snow blow around the mountain side as the sun crested those tall peaks each morning. I missed being in the mountains so bad, and I couldn’t help but feel like that mountain scape was my own personal live-action Bob Ross painting created for me to enjoy each morning.
Once home, my foot needed to stay elevated most of the time. I could only put my foot down below my heart for five minutes every four hours Each week the amount of time I could put my foot down gradually increased until I could start weight bearing on it again which would be about 5 weeks after the big surgery. I then had to start building up a tolerance to walking on it again. I had a few more follow up surgeries during those weeks of recovery. One for my wrist, where skin was borrowed and another to remove screws in my heel. Between my achilles and its involuntary wrist companion it took along for the journey, they have totaled me out to seven surgeries in their behalf.
While recovering I found ways to adapt to wherever I was within the recovery process, while still following doctors orders. Always keeping sight of my goals for racing, and creating new goals for recovering. When I wasn't able to put my foot down, I would lift weights on the floor with my foot elevated. When I wasn't able to put weight on my foot while I had the wound vac on, I took the pedal off my indoor bike and propped my foot on a yoga ball, and pedaled. When I was able to have my foot down long enough and put weight on it, I would pedal on my indoor trainer with my healing foot in my trusty grey walking boot on a flat pedal, and my other foot clipped in.
Once I was cleared for physical therapy in February 2022 I told the physical therapist that I was going to compete in the Intermountain-Cup Three Peaks mountain bike race in Cedar City, Utah at the end of May. He looked at me in disbelief, but agreed to help me reach my lofty goal. I put in a lot of work in physical therapy, and I raced in the sport division that May. I missed 1st place by a tire length. I continued that season to compete in the subsequent Intermountain-Cup races, and by the end of the season I had accrued enough points to place 2nd overall in my category even with a shortened season. This was a huge accomplishment for me, having undergone everything that those previous months had entailed.
Although those months of recovery were emotionally, mentally, and physically challenging, I am so grateful to have a functional foot today, and to be able to continue to do all the things that I love. The gratitude I feel for the doctors, my husband, kids, family and kind neighbors who helped me through my foot adventure is immeasurable. Today, although the mobility in my heel has lessened, it doesn’t hold me back. I know my foot's limits and try not to push them too often.
From 2022 to 2025 I’ve continued to race, and set high goals for myself to achieve. I have had hit and miss training and racing seasons during these years, as family priorities, and other commitments have needed to come first, as well as injury and illness set backs. When I’m not on my bike getting lost on a dusty trail my time is filled with mom-ing, adventuring with my husband and kids, hunting, hiking, substitute teaching, volunteering for NICA, and other youth programs, as well as many other obligations. All this time has been filled with incredible ups and downs that have been building me up to where I am now- starting a coaching business.
Regardless of the many things pulling at my time, one thing has stayed constant throughout the years- my desire to improve. It’s led me to studying the ins and outs of training correctly. It’s driven me to ask questions and seek out quality sources to learn from. It’s that same drive that has made me ask myself another question- “Why don’t you coach?” I love helping people realize what they are capable of, and helping them push their limits beyond what they originally thought they could accomplish. I love teaching people and imparting all my knowledge and experience I’ve built up over the years. I love helping people build skills and confidence on and off the bike. I understand what setbacks feel like, as well as, the triumph of putting in a hard day's work to pursue a desired result no matter the circumstances. All this and so much more has shaped who I am today. The mountains have always run deep through my veins, and so does my faith, my family, and biking. It has helped me form my business and its creed:
Faith
Family
Biking
Let's Ride!
Faith
Family
Biking
