This is a subject which I have covered many times in newsletter articles. I have to revisit it about every six months. Usually when we get a few new squad members who “just don’t get it”.
Endurance training is best done at a pace which stimulates the development of the athlete’s “fat burning system”. This pace is fairly easy. Lots of hours at 50-70%HR. Training at this pace usually means that when the workout is over, the athlete can take the kids/dog for a walk. Mow the lawn or vacuum the …

I remember sitting in the audience when Paula Newby-Fraser made her acceptance speech. Suprised to hear that she had to give herself a “talking to” half way through the Hawaii Ironman run. She was leading at the time.
She told the audience, she stopped, thought she could not go on. She was leading by a good margin. She said to herself, “Paula, pull yourself together, you can do it”. She went on to win.
Paula is the athlete with the greatest number of victories in the Hawaii Ironman. If Paula has patches …

For years I’ve been politely suggesting to athletes in my squad, that they run 401m when we’re running 400m efforts on the track. Not 398m, as a lot like to do, slowing down over the last few metres. Same thing in the pool, I want 50m, not 48m and a walk into the end.

Without doubt, toughness is one of the greatest assetts an Ironman triathlete can hold.
But I have known guys who were so tough a cat couldn’t scratch them and they only ever put in mediocre Ironman races. Because they were dumb. They were uncoachable. If they were a working dog on a rural property, their owner would have shot them. Toughness without self control is as useful as an ashtray on a motor cycle.

For you and I to have the most productive relationship we have to be working in the same direction.
Of all the athletes who I have coached over the years, about 75% were truly working with me. I feel I have been lucky to have that many who have connected. Because with any squad there are folks who come along for a while because their mates do. And they really don’t know what they’re searching for, I guess they think they might find it here.
When I was a young landscape contractor, …

When I was a young guy about 17 I trained at an inner city gym. I wanted to build up my skinny body. There were several “muscle heads” in the gym who spent lots of time looking at themselves in the mirror and they only talked to each other.
There was one guy who stood out from the crowd. He was older than a lot of them, tanned athletic looking (muscular but not huge, he looked like a well built triathlete does now) The coolest thing about him in my eyes was …

Minnie
 A lot of our current squad members know Minnie as a cheeky/funny girl who loves her training and always has a joke to share. Most don’t know Minnie’s story.
When she was a little girl she walked in calipers until she was five years old to straighten her legs (like Forrest Gump)
I met her when I started coaching her boyfriend. He asked me to write her a program. I hesitated at the time. They had moved up from Sydney and the group Minnie had done some running with had her injured …

In a recent interview with Greg Bennett, he stated he spent as much time on body maintenance, massage, stretching etc as he spent training.
I’ve always advocated preventative maintenance, rather than repairs. I guess that attitude comes from having owned earthmoving equipment and trucks in a past life. With expensive equipment maintenance is almost a religion.
Some of my athletes have assumed I am anti-physiotherapy. The truth is I am very pro physiotherapists. But instead of using them the way many athletes do. Waiting until something goes wrong, an injury, and then calling a …

Alex
My wife used to think I was wasting time posting on Transitions. In fact she thinks I’m wasting time any time I’m not out there sweating in the hot Queensland sun. I think I’ve spoiled her. My average day starts at 4.30am to either be out training at 5am or at the pool coaching at 5.30am. After I have coached the squad I train myself, usually swim or sometimes swim and then intervals on the windtrainer.
After that start to the day I either write training programs or articles for the …

It’s unusual for a teenager to have a well developed self image. There are exceptions, often these kids are the sports champions who have grown up being good at something.   Every win builds their confidence and they expect to win, which makes it more likely that next time they race they will win.
In triathlon many of us have come into this sport without any real success in any of the sports involved. And many of us have had rather humbling experiences in our first few attempts.
Most of us really don’t know …