How Alyssa McElheny is Using COROS to Reach Her Next Level

Alyssa McElheny's rise to the top of competitive fitness racing has been remarkable. Just months after entering the sport, she became a world champion. Now, with COROS supporting her training, Alyssa and her coach are using performance data to identify opportunities for improvement as she prepares for 2027.

"For me, it's the accumulation of so many years of hard work," Alyssa explains. "I've spent only a few months in the sport, but decades building my fitness and athleticism to where it is now."

In 2025, Alyssa ran a 2:34 marathon in Indianapolis, qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Around that time, a member of her Monday night running club in Grand Rapids, Michigan, convinced her to enter a mixed doubles fitness race in Dallas.

She was hooked immediately.

"The community and race atmosphere almost instantly sold me on the sport," she recalls.

Her running background provided a strong foundation, while the demands of functional fitness racing presented new challenges. Working with coach Joe Cebulski at 8th Day Gym, Alyssa quickly developed the skills necessary to compete at the highest level.

By 2026, she was a world champion.

"I'm trying to come at it from a place of training like I've never won and competing like I've never lost."

That mindset is shaping her next chapter, with COROS providing the insights to help guide her continued development.

Alyssa and Joe began working together in December 2025. As her experience has grown, their training approach has become increasingly precise.

"We're getting a lot more specific with data and with movement patterns," Alyssa explains. "Now that I've been in the sport for almost nine months, we're able to get a little bit more picky with my training."

Using the COROS PACE 4, Heart Rate Monitor, POD 2, and Training Hub, they analyze three key areas of performance:

• Internal Load: Heart rate and physiological response helps them understand how Alyssa's body handles demanding efforts and recovers between them.
• External Load: Pace, cadence, stride length, and ground contact time provide insight into running mechanics and efficiency.
• Athlete Feedback: Alyssa uses the microphone on her PACE 4 to record post-workout observations, adding personal context to the data.

Together, these insights help Joe assess fatigue, adaptation, and training demands over time.

"By comparing these objective and subjective measures over time, we can quantify efficiency, fatigue, and adaptation, better understand individual training response, and continually refine training load and periodization," Joe explains. "This data is invaluable."

At her 2026 race in Beijing, Alyssa entered with a deliberate strategy: manage her effort through the early stations, use running segments to recover, and increase intensity later in the race.

"The plan was to use the runs as recovery, especially early on," she explains.

Her COROS heart rate data confirmed that the opening stages were going according to plan.

Then came the sled push.

A particularly difficult lane forced Alyssa into a higher effort than anticipated, sending her heart rate above her intended range.

"During sled push, my heart rate spiked much higher than I would've liked it to. I'm able to see this very clearly in my COROS data from the race."

The impact continued beyond the station.

"It's clear to see from this data that it was hard for me to bring my heart rate back down after this event. This followed me through the rest of the race."

For Alyssa and Joe, this data provides a valuable opportunity to evaluate race execution. They can identify precisely where the physiological response changed, examine how long it took to recover, and use those findings to inform future training.

At the world championship level, understanding these moments can help athletes prepare for the smallest margins that influence performance.

At 8th Day Gym, Alyssa's training combines structured classes with individual sessions supervised by Joe.

Each session begins with a clear objective. Joe provides feedback on technique and movement throughout the workout, followed by a review of performance data afterward.

"Afterwards, we usually spend some time debriefing the workout and diving into the data," Alyssa says.

They frequently repeat benchmark workouts and race simulations, allowing them to compare physiological responses across similar efforts.

Heart rate recovery is particularly important.

"We often repeat workouts and simulate the race at our gym relatively often. When looking at the data from these sessions, heart rate recovery is super important to me."

By comparing these sessions in COROS Training Hub, Alyssa and Joe can investigate changes in efficiency, recovery, and overall performance as her training progresses.

As Alyssa prepares for 2027, she's placing greater emphasis on the habits that support consistent training.

Sleep, nutrition, and recovery are central to that approach.

"Sleep is definitely number one for me. Making sure that eight hours a night is prioritized would be my biggest, easiest recommendation."

With COROS, Alyssa can track sleep patterns alongside training data, helping her and Joe better understand how recovery habits relate to performance.

"I'm looking forward to doing the little things better. I hope that I'll be able to see these habits bear out in data trends recorded by my COROS wearables."

Alyssa's first world championship was the result of dedication and resilience, backed by years of consistent conditioning.

Her next chapter is focused on refining that process.

With Joe's coaching expertise and COROS providing deeper visibility into training and recovery, Alyssa is building a clearer understanding of her performance and where she can continue to improve.

"My aim is to continue to become the best version of myself as an athlete possible. I want to leave no stone unturned when it comes to my performance and recovery."

Her advice to athletes pursuing their own goals reflects the same philosophy.

"Consistency is the most important piece. Consistent work, consistent sleep, consistent nutrition, and consistent data."