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Biography
Luis Vargas is a co-founder of MarkAllenOnline along with The Grip himself. Luis met Mark in 1990 in Boulder, Colorado and has a lot of incredible (if not painful) memories of training with him. Luis has a broad background in the world of athletics that started early in his life. He was born in Ibague Colombia, but moved to San Juan Puerto Rico when he was 12 years old where he ran cross country, swam, and participated in varsity soccer and volleyball during high school. In 1978 he went to the University of Miami were he combined one year of varsity swimming with three years of varsity soccer. In 1983 he earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and in 1985 a Masters of Science from Arizona State University. Like many people in the 80's Luis had watched coverage of the Ironman on television and after finishing his schooling decided to give some shorter races a try. He eventually qualified for the National Championships of the USTS series, and then progressed to half Ironman distance races, and eventually to the full Ironman distance. Luis qualified for the Ironman World Championships in Kona five times and posted a personal best in 1993 with a total time of 9:34. In 1996 Luis changed his focus from training himself to training others. "When I was young my coaches were some of the most influential people in my life. So I decided to get into coaching myself". Luis first coached boys soccer for five years with outstanding results. One of his teams went from a losing season to an undefeated and championship winning season in two years. By 2001 he was ready to come full circle and begin coaching in the sport of triathlons. That year he received his USAT coaching certification and joined forces with Mark to provide the first ever artificial intelligence triathlon coaching engine. Luis, a programmer by trade and a triathlete by passion, helped Mark bring online the knowledge, training methods, and experience Allen gained as a world-class athlete. Luis had not only the sophisticated programming expertise necessary to execute such a daunting task, but also provided an age grouper's insight to the project. Together they combined a champion's experience with the realities of family and work commitment into a joint vision that provides the best possible triathlon coaching available. Living now in Winter Park Colorado with his wife Kelly, son Camilo and daughter Sofia, Luis train and raced the Ford Ironman World Championships in 2006. You can read his blog that he still maintains were he detailed the challanges of getting back in shape after a 10 year break from the sport. You can reach Luis at questions@markallenonline.com

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