Perhaps the most powerful mental tool to build your confidence is positive self-talk. What you say to yourself away from triathlon, when you’re training, and during races impacts what you think, how you feel, and how you perform in training and on race day. Whatever you think more of—whether positive or negative—will determine the road [...]
Have you ever entered a race not feeling very confident about your ability to achieve your race goals that day? We’ve all been there, to be sure. And what likely happened was that your race didn’t go the way you wanted, that is to say, you were slower than you had hoped to be. The [...]
With the Covid-19-shortened season (if we can even call it a season!) now in our rearview mirror, it’s time to look ahead to 2021 in the hope upon hope that we will have a full season of races. Being the optimist that I am, I’m expecting that life and triathlon will return to some degree [...]
As every triathlete has experienced, it’s been a challenge to find races during this Covid-impacted season no matter where you live. I was able to get in a sprint race in early March before the pandemic struck and have been scouring the online triathlon calendars ever since. Each month, there were signs of hope for [...]
Motivation, simply defined, is your determination and drive to achieve your triathlon goals. To perform your best, you must want to begin the process of developing as an triathlete and you must be willing to maintain your efforts until you have achieved your goals. Motivation lies at the foundation of everything you do as an [...]
Consistency is one of the hallmarks of great triathletes, whether it’s Paula Newby-Fraser, Mark Allen, Peter Reid, Natascha Badmann, Daniela Ryf, or Jan Frodeno. They have all demonstrated the ability to perform at an incredibly high level day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, and year in [...]
This question has been a source of frustration for me and others who work in sport psychology and mental training for years. If everyone in triathlon says that the mind is so important, why does it receive so little attention or the respect it deserves? To be sure, sport psychology does have a presence in [...]
Pain is an inevitable part of endurance-sport training and racing, and at the same time, the greatest obstacle endurance athletes face as they pursue their goals. As a human being, you are wired to avoid pain at all costs. From an evolutionary perspective, when humans felt pain on the Serengeti 250,000 years ago (when we [...]
One of the most difficult aspects of the mental side of triathlon is that it can’t be seen, quantified, or measured directly. With the physical components of triathlon, you can readily see the areas in need of improvement by, for example, the amount of weight you lift or the number of reps you do in [...]
When you compete in a triathlon, you will, in fact, be competing in three “races.” I have races in quotes because not all three are actually races. The obvious race is the one that occurs against your competitors. Your goal is to beat as many of them as you can. But before you can beat [...]
