The most common question I was asked before my first Ironman was, “What time are you shooting for?” In my naiveté, I always responded, “Well, if all goes well, under X hours” (I will keep you in suspense until the end of the article before I tell you how I did). If you answer this [...]
Episode #35-What is a Routine? of my Train Your Mind for Athletic Success podcast is the first of two episodes that explore the essential role that routines play in ensuring total physical and mental readiness for practice and competitions. Routines are one of the most important aspects of sports that you can develop to improve [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The father of a client just sent me this blog post from Siri Lindley, a former world triathlon champion. It exemplifies how complete dedication to athletic greatness can be both a essential boon to success and a cross to bear. It also provides an important juxtaposition between attempting to control and prepare for everything that [...]
Training is the practical foundation of ski racing success, meaning it’s what you do that determines whether you do or do not achieve your ski racing goals. That’s why it is the third module in my new 12-week online mental training program, which will begin on June 1st. The program provides racers, coaches, and parents [...]
In my last post, I introduced you to my Prime Performance System that is comprised of the five essential mental areas that most influence athletic performance. In that post, I described the first of the five mental areas—attitudes. In this post, I will explore the second of these mental areas, namely, obstacles, and their make-or-break [...]
Whenever I talk to racers, I ask them what aspect of our sport seems to have the greatest impact on how they ski. Almost unanimously they say the mental part. I then ask how much time they devote to their mental preparation and their answer is almost always little or no time. Despite its obvious [...]
It’s hard to believe, but there is only about a month of the race season left. After many days of training and racing this winter, the end is in sight. At this late point in the season, you will have fallen into one of three camps as far as how your season has gone. First, [...]
Last week, I introduced a common scenario among ski racers in which, after a great first run, they ski much slower the second run. I explained what caused this sudden drop in performance and how this problem could be solved so you can have as strong a second run as your first run, the outcome [...]
