Michael Lombard: From the Freight Yard to the Finish Line
tl;dr
Highlight Reel
Ironman athlete, Marine veteran, trucker turned fitness coach, host of The Lombard Trucking Show.
Background
Grew up in a working-class family in Connecticut. Served in the Marine Corps. Struggled with purpose and health after transitioning out.
Rock Bottom
Overweight, unmotivated, and stuck in a job he hated. The sudden death of a close friend pushed him to face his downward spiral.
3 Healing Modalities
Running and CrossFit
Purpose through trucking and honoring his family legacy
Sharing his story to inspire and lead others
Lesson for Others
You’re not stuck. Start small. Move your body. Find purpose. Ask what someone who loves you would want you to do—and do that.
Michael’s Story
5 min read
If you stumbled onto Michael Lombard’s Instagram today, you’d probably see a disciplined triathlete, a vocal advocate for truck driver health, and a man on a mission. You’d see medals, movement, and momentum. What you wouldn’t see is the pain that came before the all of the accolades. Or the miles it took to run his way back to himself.
Michael’s story doesn’t start at a finish line. It starts in a small town in Connecticut, the son of a blue-collar father who worked long hours grinding metal and a mother who kept the family afloat. He was a swimmer, a saxophonist, a theater kid. But under it all was a quiet anxiety and a question mark about his path. After high school, with no clear direction and a gnawing restlessness, Michael joined the Marine Corps.
His time in the military gave him structure, identity, and deep bonds. It also left him with something harder to define. After serving in Afghanistan, Michael returned home to a world that no longer fit. College felt hollow. Jobs felt like dead ends. He was stuck in a cycle of drinking, poor health, and purposelessness, chasing something he couldn’t name and numbing the ache of not knowing who he was anymore.
The turning point came in two gut punches.
The first was personal: sitting in a hot car after a brutal day at a corporate job, overweight, directionless, and devastated by the realization that he had no idea where his life was going.
The second was tragic: the sudden death of his close friend and fellow Marine, Matt Brown. That loss made the stakes real. “If I was something once,” Michael told himself, “I could be something again.”
What followed wasn’t a quick fix. It was a full-on transformation. Michael joined a CrossFit gym, lost nearly 50 pounds before his wedding, and started saying no to paths that didn’t align. He moved to Austin, Texas, and did something most wouldn’t expect. He got his commercial trucking license and hit the road.
But he didn’t leave his progress behind. Michael took an air fryer, a food scale, and a new mindset into the cab with him. He ran laps around truck stops. He made videos. He started sharing his journey online, not for followers, but for the one guy who might need to see that it’s possible.
What started as a personal comeback became a public mission to change the culture of health and fitness in the trucking industry, where the average life expectancy is just 61.
Today, Michael is the founder of the Lombard Trucking Show, a certified fitness coach, an Ironman athlete, and a driving force behind Project 61, a nonprofit advocating for better health outcomes for truckers. He’s spoken on industry panels, built community through run clubs and coaching, and represented the freight world in international triathlon races.
When asked what pulled him toward healing instead of self-destruction, Michael points to a few things: the memory of his friend Matt. His wife. The belief that he could still be someone he was proud of. And running — not just the act, but what it represents. Discipline. Forward motion. Proof that you can go further than you think.
For those at their own breaking point, Michael has one message: “You’ve got the power. You are so much bigger than what you’re facing. Think about the people who love you. Think about what they’d tell you to do. Then get after it.”
Michael’s story reminds us that the road back to ourselves isn’t always straight. But sometimes, it takes getting lost, really lost, to find a path that’s worth running down.
