Building Confidence When There Are No Races to Prove Yourself
For many triathletes, confidence is tied almost entirely to racing. Good race = high confidence. Bad race = doubt. No races at all? Confidence quietly erodes. That’s why the off-season is such a vulnerable time mentally. There are no bib numbers, no rankings, no finish lines to confirm that you’re on the right track. Training […]
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Do You Train Better Than You Race? Here’s Why
One of the most frustrating experiences in ski racing is skiing free and fast in training, then feeling tight, skiing cautious, and finishing slow on race day. Ski racers often assume this means they are missing something technically. In most cases, they are not. The difference between training speed and race speed is rarely physical. […]
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Win the Mental Race: Why Ski Racing Is Three Races, Not One
On race day, most ski racers think they’re competing in just one race. This is partially true, but it doesn’t tell the whole story of what makes ski racing such a demanding sport. And it misses what most often determines how you perform in the race. In reality, every ski race is made up of […]
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The First Races Shouldn’t Define Your Season (Unless You Let Them)
The start of the race season is emotionally charged. Months of preparation suddenly turn into results on Live Timing. For some racers, the season begins with confidence-building performances. For others, it starts with frustration, disappointment, or even futility. In all cases, it’s far too early in the season to think too much about what those […]
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Positive Self-talk for Triathlon Training and Racing
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 […]
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Confidence is the Key to Race-day Success
For most of us, the off-season prep period is over (I had my first race a few weeks ago) and our conditioning and training regimens are becoming increasingly race specific. All that hard work since the end of the 2024 season has been devoted to increasing your strength and stamina so you can go hard […]
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Resist “Reluctance/Avoidance” Thinking (RAT) in Your Triathlon Life
Have you ever had a challenging workout coming up and you had thoughts like “This is going to be soooo hard!” or “I REALLY don’t want to do this!” (both said with trepidation and dread). Or you’re driving to a race and a thought pops into your head out of nowhere, “Maybe I’ll get a […]
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There are More Than Two Transitions in a Triathlon
You’re probably thinking, “Say what?,” Anyone who has ever done a triathlon knows there are only two transitions in a race, the well-named T1 (swim to bike) and T2 (bike to run). But clinging to that outdated belief may hold you back from being the best triathlete you can be. By embracing the fact that […]
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“Money in the Bank, Baby!”: Make Deposits in Your Triathlon Confidence Account
The off-season is an immensely important time to pursue your triathlon goals. You can get fitter in the pool, on your bike, and out running. You can improve your swim technique. You can rehab injuries. And, with the 2022 race season just around the corner (or already begun for some) you can take all of […]
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Confidence is the Key to Endurance-sport Success
Confidence is the Key to Endurance-sport Success 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 […]
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