I Practice What I Preach: I Escaped from Alcatraz…First
Just a quick follow-up to my last post about my return to the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon after a 15-year absence. The race was definitely a challenge with, as I noted in my last article, all three legs of the race being difficult. Particularly tough was the swim which was about ten minutes longer than […]
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I Practice What I Preach: Escape from Alcatraz Intimidation & Preparation
Last month, I was fortunate enough to receive a free entry into the iconic Escape from Alcatraz triathlon to be held on June 11th. I accepted the entry with a sense of both excitement and a bit of trepidation. I’ve done Alcatraz four times before, but the last time was in 2008, just before I […]
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Triathlon is Complex, Complicated, and Simple
Have you ever thought about how incredibly difficult it is to be a triathlete? So many factors affect how well and how fast you can swim, bike, whether in training or races. And, one small mistake or failure in any one of those many areas will result in a disappointing result with little to no […]
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I Practice What I Preach: Let Your Mind Guide Your Training
As I wrote about in a previous article, the most common means of assessing how your training is going is how your body feels. If your body feels good (e.g., rested, illness and injury free, sleeping well), keep pushing. If your body doesn’t feel good (e.g., tired, hungry, sore, sick, injured), then it’s time to […]
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I Practice What I Preach: 2023 USAT Multisport National Championships
As I noted in my last “I Practice What I Preach” post, I was feeling a fair amount of anxiety and worry in the weeks leading up to the 2023 USAT Multisport National Championships in Texas that was held less than two weeks ago. Those nerves were coming from “outcome expectations” I had created in […]
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I Practice What I Preach: Tempering Expectations
Let’s begin with an exercise: I don’t want you to think about a pink elephant. What did you do? Well, you thought of a pink elephant, of course. But don’t think about a pink elephant, don’t think about a pink elephant, don’t think about a pink elephant! Does that help you not think about a […]
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I Practice What I Preach: Listen to Your Mind
In two recent posts, I discussed the training and race situations in which you want to listen to your body and when you want to ignore your body. In this article, I’m going to share with you some ideas about listening to your mind. I’ve just finished my fifth week of a six-week high-volume, high-intensity […]
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I Practice What I Preach/Psychology of Sports Technology: My Latest FTP Test
This article offers you a “two-fer!” I will describe my own personal experience with bike fitness testing while also highlighting the psychological benefits of the technology behind it. I’ve been doing FTP testing for three years now. Since beginning to work with my coach, Dr. Greg Rhodes, the last two tests involved a more sophisticated […]
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I Practice What I Preach: Our Love/Hate Relationship with Training
It’s 5:15am. It’s cold (around 42 degrees), still dark, and I can hear the rain pummeling the roof of my house. I have a challenging swim workout planned (6×75, 5×200, 8×50 hard) at the local outdoor pool. How much do I want swim at this moment in time? Well, you can probably guess. This experience, […]
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I Practice What I Preach: Mental Marginal Gains
In my last segment of my “I Practice What I Preach” series, I explained that you don’t always want to listen to your body when you’re training and racing. The reality is that, if you did, you would slow down or stop when you started to experience high perceived effort or exertion pain. Instead, you want […]
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