Sometimes I wonder what’s kept me in this demanding sport
for over 25years. Lots of people have come and gone over that time. I’ve seen
hundreds come through our club in the last 18yrs. People come into the sport,
tick the boxes that are important to them, and they move onto something else.
I would say what has kept me interested, and kept the
passion strong is probably several things. One has to be the sunrises, I love
seeing all the sunrises that so many people sleep through. Training is almost
always an early morning activity.
Another motivator …

It’s much easier to hold ground than to try and win ground.
Looking at a military point of view, it’s far less work to defend a position than
it is to take possession of an enemy held position.
In our sport a similar battle plan can be applied to an
Ironman race. If you swim well, transition fast, then ride well, you set your
competitors the task of taking your position away from you. While it’s very
necessary to have a strong run, if your competitors are so far down the road,
it may become an unrealistic …

When you’re on the right track, everything seems to fall
into place. If we come up against obstacle after obstacle, we are very likely
on the wrong path in life.
Whether you believe in this stuff or not if you start observing how things either fall into place, or never seem to be easy. You’ll soon see a pattern developing.
The other day I saw the news report of the girl who was
bungy jumping in Africa, and her bungy cord snapped. She fell head first
another 30-50m before hitting the water so hard that she …

Be scared, it makes you do things more carefully. An Ironman
triathlon is a ridiculous thing to do. Was a human designed to do events as
long as this? In conditions like we often experience.
Being a little scared is not a bad thing. The most
courageous people in the world have faced their fear, but have still done
whatever they had to do. Being scared is OK, it’s normal. A soldier faced with
the very likely prospect of death or serious injury, lives with a heightened
awareness. He moves very carefully, quickly when needed, but he …

On Saturday night the 3rd of December I watched
Bear Grylls in his survival show eating maggots he’d found in a dead animal to
survive in an alpine area. I couldn’t imagine myself eating maggots but in a
life or death situation who knows what we’d do?
I don’t often have the opportunity to watch his show, I find
it a bit far fetched. Here’s Bear out there surviving with a full film crew
behind the scenes. But it was the night before the West Australian Ironman and
I had time to kill. If I wasn’t racing …

One month
ago a mate died, most of us who knew him were shocked to hear he was even sick.
I’d known him for twenty years, both competing in the same age group. He worked
as a doctor, he was a great athlete, World Champion at least three times.
Even though
we only met at races, it’s been hard to not think about him often, it’s just a
bit close to home. It makes us appreciate life even more. I always have lived a
life of appreciation, but this event has caused me to live it a …

There’s no point in practicing bad habits. I often see
athletes out running when I’m on my way to the pool or out for a ride. Two
hours later I see the same athletes still running. Or should I say plodding
along, dragging their tired bodies along with the most inefficient form you
could imagine.

What they’re doing is practicing exactly what they’ll do on
race day as soon as they get tired. They unconsciously tell their body, this is
the way we run when we’re tired.

There’s a much better way. Simply never run with bad form.
Never …

Sandy and I had the dirtiest training bikes in the club, they were a disgrace. They creaked when we climbed, they barely stopped us when we braked. They needed help.
I usually service them myself, I owned a bike shop for ten years and did thousands of bike repairs. But I have a habit of overcommitting myself, and not having enough time to do all I plan to do.
Anna came to train with the Cycos, one day she asked if her partner Jimmy could come on a weekend ride with us. …

So often athletes training for long course races get so used to being tired, they no longer know what it feels like to be fresh. When I had a bike shop I’d sometimes have guys come into the shop who are training themselves for the Ironman. Often they’d have a look in their face like they had watched 48hrs of TV straight. Or like they had just driven down from Mt Isa with a broken windscreen.
There’s a belief out there that more is better, when it comes to Ironman training. …

Running is the most basic of all human movements. Swimming and cycling are skills that have to be learned. Humans have been running down their meals since before we began measuring time.
It’s such a natural movement it should just happen while we travel from A to B. Triathletes are great at complicating things. Analysis – paralysis is an easy affliction to catch. We have heart rate monitors, GPS watches and pedometers measuring every step we take.
In long distance endurance races controlling what goes on in your head can be the difference …