Among the disguised blessings of the COVID-19 pandemic is the way it has reminded us of the important functions of sport in society. We tend to think of professional athletes as lucky guys and gals who get paid to play. And they are. But in doing what they do, these individuals also inspire everyday guys and gals like us to make healthy, positive changes.

Take Marcin Bury, for example. A 41-year-old IT engineer in Wroclaw, Poland, Marcin was inspired to take up endurance sports a couple of years ago by his countryman Jerzy Gorski, an Olympic canoeist who later overcame a drug addiction to become an ultradistance triathlon world champion.

As a tech guy, Marcin took a methodical approach to transforming himself from an overweight bicycle commuter into a competitive athlete. “The key thing in triathlon plans is to smoothly combine all workouts into one training system,” he says. “I looked for a flexible plan based on heart rate, pace, and power with easy switching between them. The second requirement was to have structured workouts with easy synchronization with sport devices and external systems. Last but not least was to have a training system which led me to achieve my ambitious goals.” Marcin found all of these things in 80/20 Endurance, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Marcin completed his first half marathon in January 2019 and his first marathon a couple of months later. He then advanced to the Level 3 Ironman 70.3 Plan, using it and subsequent plans to keep chasing goals despite the recent plague of race cancellations. Most recently, he finished 60th out of roughly 1,000 competitors in the Zwift e-Tour de Pologne virtual race series. It’s only a matter of time before Marcin is the one inspiring others to make healthy, positive changes.