It seems the secret to their performance is the meditative
mental state they’re able to get into, where they simply allow their body to
run without interference from their mind. It seems that driving ourselves hard
is not as productive as allowing our body to perform without interference.

I see that interference every day when coaching swimmers.
Analysis paralysis is alive and well in the triathlon community. People
actually try too hard to get good at what they’re trying to master. They’re
actually interfering in the natural movement of their bodies by trying too hard
to control what’s happening.

I often use the analogy of a dog chasing the ball.  The dog only sees the ball, its sole objective
is to get the ball. The dog doesn’t think about foot placement, aerodynamics
etc. All he sees is the ball and is focussed on getting it. Even if you throw
the ball across the highway, the dog will not see the oncoming cars, he’ll only
see the ball.

Now if we as endurance athletes  were able to tune out of controlling, and hold
a focus on our end goal like the dog, we could move more freely. We could avoid
some of the injuries which people suffer, caused by unnatural control of
movements.

What we need to spend a little time each workout on, is
letting it happen. Be able to switch from making it happen to letting it happen.
The Ironman race is seventy per cent mental. Yet we spend most of our training
hours swimming, cycling and running, with almost no time devoted to the mental
side of the sport.

Most of us don’t have lots of spare time to spend
meditating, many of us have difficulty in shutting down the thoughts racing
through our minds.

I suggest spending a little part of each workout just living
in the moment. Counting strokes when swimming or counting revs when cycling up
a hill, or counting steps when we run, can have the effect of bringing our mind
back into the present moment. Rather than thinking ahead of ourselves or going
over the past. Meditation does not have to mean sitting cross legged in front
of a candle.

Meditation for the Ironman can be done at race pace. It’s
simply living in the moment, monitoring simple feedback like how the ground
feels underfoot. Or feeling the breeze on your face, being aware of the
environment around you, being part of that environment. Better results will
come when we stop thinking about outcomes and start living the moment.

The skill to shut out the pain or discomfort of racing will
not come easy. It has to be practiced. We have many hours of training ahead of
us where we could practice these skills. We get to know how good technique
feels, we need to gradually take ownership of this feeling, so when we clear
our mind of thoughts, the body can keep producing perfect technique.

Last weekend we spent the weekend at Port MacQuarie for the
Australian Ironman. I had around 25 athletes racing Port and we were keen to
see them before the race and support them during it. Between Sandy and myself
we have 49 Ironman finishes, yet we still feel , and enjoy the excitement of
the event. I’d say we’re members of the “Ironman family”.

This year WTC has introduced the “legacy lottery” where
athletes who’ve done more than 12 Ironman races and have never qualified for
Hawaii are given a chance to race in Kona if they’re lucky enough to have their
number pulled out of the hat. I personally know four athletes who’ve been lucky
this year. Three of them were racing at Port. It was nice to share their
excitement, each of them raced Port with a renewed passion. They’ll have to be
careful, not to start training for Hawaii too soon. A lot of first time Hawaii
qualifiers start out too soon and become mentally tired weeks before the event.
This is often referred to as “the Kona Curse”.

Any one of us can start building up for a goal race too
early and become mentally exhausted before we even reach the race. I’ve found
that the ideal build up for a major race is 12 to 16 weeks. A lot of self-
trained athletes, value training volume over mental freshness. When you have to
race all day, you must be mentally fresh.

My approach to Ironman training is to give the athlete a
series of confidence building experiences, which challenge them at the time,
but once completed, the confidence level is raised to a higher level. So over
the period of 12-16 weeks the athlete has had a lot of fun, and built his/her
confidence and self- belief to the highest possible level.

Every workout we do is not going to produce personal bests.
In fact the further developed we become, the fewer the personal bests come
along. Often we have to put in many weeks of training to feel another surge
forward. To get through these plateaus without losing interest, we need to be
able to count small gains along the way. Keeping a daily diary or journal can
be a good way of recording little changes, satisfying workouts.

Often the greatest gain from a workout is the satisfaction
of completing it. Sometimes the satisfaction of ticking every workout off the
training program is enough to keep the flame burning.

Last Sunday we watched our mates race the Ironman course. I
can remember taking squads to the Australian Ironman in the past, where the
confidence level in the whole squad was as high as it can possibly be. This
year we managed to achieve that level of confidence again. Apart from a couple
of athletes who had suffered minor setbacks with injuries, most arrived at the
start line without injury or illness. This is what I set out to achieve.

Approximately 90% of our squad produced significant  PBs on the day, a couple doing their first
Ironman races had great days, setting respectable bench marks for future races.
One of the guys did a 1hr 49min PB on the same course. One athlete won his
category by 2hrs 28min, this year’s second place getter has beaten him in the
past.

The factors which I’ve found to most likely influence the
outcome in an Ironman race are first the consistency. The routine, day in, day
out, week in, week out ticking off each workout. Every workout in the plan has
a purpose, it may be a very small part of the overall structure, but ticking it
off assures you that, you’re one step closer to the goal. If you have faith in
the plan and do it all, you have no doubts on race day.

This brings us to the
next most important factor in influencing an outcome. Confidence. I believe my
most important task in preparing an athlete is to build his/her self- belief
and confidence.  Every major workout in
the plan has a mental component, it’s not always obvious at first, but looking
back over the workout sometimes reveals the “test”.

I’ve found that the athletes who do everything I ask of
them, throw their heart and soul into every task set I for them, without
complaining or cutting corners are the ones who move forward fastest.   The
ones who are constantly researching the web for new ideas, comparing themselves
or their workouts with other athletes, are sadly the ones who don’t advance at
the same rate.

Confidence shows in “body language”, it’s very satisfying to
see our squad members running with great technique, and holding themselves in a
way which says to the world, “I’m here to do a job, I’m here on business”. Your
competitors see that as well, we don’t have to be trained at reading body
language, we do it instinctively.

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 task to actually catch them.

The mental game is an important one. If you’ve run well,
ridden well and in many of our races there are turn around points, where our
competitors have a chance to see how far ahead we are. This is a great
opportunity to display your best body language. If when your competitor comes
toward you, you look like you’re doing it easy. Like you’re feeling no pain.
This is going to make catching you look all that much harder.

I’m asking you to change the thoughts from, running scared,
to holding onto what is rightfully yours, and refusing to give it up. Fighting
to the last drop of blood to hold onto what’s yours. That simple change of the
angle you look at the situation with, can either strengthen you or weaken
you.

I’ve heard many triathletes discount the importance of the
swim in a race. The argument put forward is that the swim is only 10% of the
total race time and it’s better to spend the training time on the other two
legs of the race. I have won an age group (and a Hawaii Ironman spot) in the
swim. When we looked back over the results, the guy who came second to me, had
a faster combined bike and run time. He had given too much away in the swim.

Improving the swim is a project which needs to be approached
systematically. The swim is very dependent on good technique. Good technique
has to be the base of all swim training. Every session should have some
technique work. If during a workout the athlete becomes tired and loses control
of his/her technique, the workout should be terminated right there. There’s no
point practicing bad technique, you’re already good at that.

An athlete can improve their swim on three sessions a week,
but it’s a long slow process. Adding two other sessions of as little as 1,000m
each can dramatically improve the rate of progress. Swimming improvement is a
frequency thing. Owning a new part of swim technique takes many episodes of
practicing it to “own it”.

These days you can’t take the Hawaii spots in any age group
if you have a weakness in any of the three sports. Weaknesses have to be
eliminated.

It’s a simple formular. Get the swim competitive. Learn to
ride at race pace for long periods of time in the aero position. Every month I
include a 100km time trial, if you’re an Ironman athlete there’s not much point
in doing a shorter time trial, once you get your time trial bike out. Over
100km you have to have aerobic efficiency to keep improving the time.

Once the swim and bike are in order, it’s a case of
defending the position you have gained. There are so many athletes in Ironman
racing who are not good at this.

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 broke her collarbone.
Then she got swept downstream through the rapids with her legs tied together.
After all that she survived. She was not meant to go. I’m sure this experience
will change her life in more ways than the obvious desire to avoid bungy
jumping.

Stuart Diver was asleep in his bed beside his wife, a
landslide crushed the building they were in, they were buried alive. Water
seeped into the cavity drowning his wife where she lay beside him. He was dug
out from under the concrete slabs days later. The only survivor, he was not
meant to go. I have lost track of him, but have an interest in the path his
life has taken since that day.

Yet there are many cases of people being killed by freak
accidents where all those around them are uninjured. It was their time. I believe
when it’s your time, you are not going to dodge that bullet. I knew a guy who
was a guest at a wedding and he choked to death on a piece of wedding cake. Now
how dangerous is eating wedding cake?

Fearing what might go wrong is no way to live a life. I have
seen an awful lot of athletes who start to jump at shadows when they’re two or
three weeks out from a major race. I believe that this fixation on what might
go wrong, can actually “attract” some of the incidents they fear. Nothing
happens that wasn’t meant to happen. Prepare for that next race as well as you
can, but don’t waste precious energy worrying about what may go wrong. Don’t
bungy jump during race week, that might be tempting things too much.

If once a course of action has been chosen, like entering a
certain race. If things keep cropping up to take you off course, like injuries,
illnesses, accidents, the course you have chosen may not be the right one for
you at that time. It’s OK to accept that maybe that’s not the way to go at this
stage. To keep fighting when it’s absolutely uphill all the way, can ruin a
good year. Accept the way it is.

When the time is right, things work out. How often have we
committed to a certain path, a journey which at first seems out of our reach,
then the funds become available. Things start working out, falling into place.
We meet just the right person to help us along that path. The right person in
the right place at the right time.

There’s an old saying, when the student is ready, the
teacher will appear. Very often we accidently run into a complete stranger who
starts talking to us. We walk away with something the stranger said resonating
in our mind. Sometimes it may take a week for us to realise that that stranger
was the messenger. What was rolling around in our mind was the next clue in
life’s puzzle.

I have met people in the most unlikely places who have gone
on to be major players in my journey. I go out every day accepting what comes
my way. If I get a compliment I accept it gratefully, if someone gets angry
with me, it doesn’t affect me at all, I’m sure it affects them far more than it’ll
ever affect me. I have found that everything is falling into place in my role
as a coach.

I was obviously destined to be a coach. If I had not had the
right experiences, met the right people at the right time, my journey would not
have lead me to where I am today. I encourage my athletes to be open to accept
the results they get, and learn from those results. Sometimes a disappointing
result can be just the necessary test for the athlete to look a little deeper,
and know if what they want is, what they need at this time in their life.

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 takes no
unnecessary risks. Some risks have to be taken, but he’ll be very careful which
ones he does take.

Fear is a part of his working life. Fear makes him very careful.
All humans feel fear. Some let it control their actions, or lack of action,
others face it and work with it.

For an athlete standing on the start line, or even before
that, packing his/her gear the day before the event. It’s OK to be a little
fearful about what we’re about to try. Fear is what you have while you’re
building confidence. After the confidence is built, the fear is beaten and
simply disappears.

When we’re about to do something for the first time, or when
we’ve trained really well for months and all the indicators suggest we’re going
to do something really special, it’s very normal to be fearful of making the
wrong decisions, or letting ourselves and our supporters down. Accept that
fear, make it “normal”, it’s what you feel before you do something significant.

Now we’ve accepted that fear is normal, we need a strategy
to make it more tolerable, to keep it in its place. We don’t want that fear to
have too much say.

Sit quietly, breathing a deep, relaxing pattern, in for a
count of three, out for a count of three. Or go for a walk alone, also being
aware of your breathing, go through the things which might be your main fears.
The breathing is an important part of the process. The worst thing you can do
when faced with a fear is to hold your breath or breathe short shallow breaths.
Relaxation can often start by mastering your breathing.

The most common fears athletes face are, letting themselves
and their supporters down, making the wrong decisions under pressure, or
breakdowns, both physical and mechanical. All of these issues can be addressed
before we get to the last days.  With
breakdowns, if everything mechanical is in the best possible shape, and checked
by someone outside the inner circle, a breakdown is uncommon. If it happens,
handle it then, no use worrying about something which rarely happens.

Worrying about the body letting you down is common. If the
body is rested, recovered from the training, this is how it should be in the
final days, then it’s very unlikely to let you down. Have the necessary
massages, stretches, good sleeps and good food over the last week and you just
about eliminate this fear.

Ask yourself why your supporters believe in you. Ask why
they expect you to do really well. It’s usually based on what you’ve done in the
past. If you’ve always fought hard, always been tough and dependable, always
made the right decisions at the right times. Then that’s why your friends,
family and supporters believe in you. Use their confidence in you, based on
your history, to wash away the fear you may be feeling.

Going through this simple check list can wash away a lot of
fear and discomfort. It’s amazing how when the facts are laid out in front of
you, how simple the answer is. Remember they’re not firing live ammo at you out
there. It’s just you doing what you love doing. You are doing this for fun and
satisfaction.

When you reach race morning, and you’re standing on the
beach waiting for the start, this is a time to be aware of your breathing. Just
make sure you breathe it all out. The breathing in will just happen, just make
sure it’s all breathed out. When the race starts, focus totally on the process
until things settle around you. Often counting two hundred strokes will get you
to a point where you can settle into a rhythm. After that, you simply do what
you do as well as you can do it.

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 little more.

How many of
us appreciate the privilege it is to train and race in the events we do. I’m
about to race my thirty-fourth Ironman race next weekend in Western Australia.
How lucky am I to have been able to continue doing these races for so long. In
February I’ll race the Hell of the West triathlon in Goondiwindi for the
twentieth consecutive time, when I first did that race I had no idea that I
would be lining up another nineteen times.

None of us
know how many more of these races we’ll be able to do. Over the years I’ve known
hundreds of guys and girls who have enjoyed racing triathlon, but have either
done what they came into the sport for and moved on, or have become injured and
are no longer able to compete. Either way they have moved on in life to have
other interests.

When we race
our next race we should all forget about times and positions for a little while
during the race, and give a thought to how lucky we are. I’m not saying slow
down or stop and smell the roses. What I’m saying is focus on the enjoyment
before, during and after the race. Look for the good parts and savour them.

Too many
people are so focussed on getting the fastest time, or winning that Kona spot,
that they miss out on enjoying the experience as much as they could. Something
I have stumbled onto is the strange way that when I’ve done a race where I
haven’t really been all that well prepared, I’ve decided to simply pace myself
and see what I get. I have produced good times, won my age group, and had no
stomach problems, no cramps, really had a great race, when I have let go of
trying.

It seems
that “trying” is not the best way to go fast over a long distance. I’ve had my
fastest bike times when my self talk was all about, loose legs and light pedal
pressure. I’ve had my fastest runs when I’ve been focussed on maintaining fast
leg turnover and good posture, but spent no time thinking about position or
time.

My goals for
next Sunday in Busselton are, to pace myself evenly all the way from the swim
start to the run finish. To smile as much as I can manage throughout the race.
To search for something to enjoy about every part of the race. I am going to
race the West Australian Ironman as though it was my last Ironman and I want to
remember it as a great experience.

It’s
probably not going to be my last, I enjoy them too much.

The typical elite level Ironman triathlete is lean, almost skinny looking. He often eats more food than a sprinter, but he burns it all up in training. The modern endurance triathlete is more muscular than a typical long distance runner. The modern Ironman triathlete needs to be stonger than a marathon runner. He has a more balanced physique than a marathoner or a Tour de France cyclist.

The modern Ironman triathlete is a developed breed, the sport is thirty years old now and athletes have developed specific needs through both training and natural selection. What we need to do well at this sport is well developed skills in three sports. As the day goes on and fatigue builds, holding good technique becomes a deciding factor in performance. Two exhausted runners, running side by side, one has practiced holding efficient technique in every training session, the other has just trained a lot. One is going to win. One of the facts of Ironman racing is that somewhere in that marathon, you are going to become exhausted. If you hold your posture and efficient running technique, you will be faster than if you don’t.

In the first leg of the race, power is far less important than technique or endurance. Long swim sets where you hold good technique right to the end are so important. Swim sessions where you never, ever practice sloppy technique, help to overlay old poor technique habits with new efficient habits. You can’t ever afford to practice sloppy technique. That’s why it’s better to swim with slower swimmers and not have to smash yourself to keep up. I often see swimmers working in too fast a lane, forgetting about technique just to stay in contact. This is short term thinking.

The bike. Last Sunday my wife and I rode around the “River Loop” twice. Spinning along at 50-70%HR, rebuilding our endurance base for the new season. We were passed by countless cyclists who treat the Sunday River Loop as their “event”. Racing around passing anyone they can, seats too high, seats too low, knees sticking out, upper bodies swaying back and forth, crunching the pedals, I’m sure they’re training for next July when they watch the Tour de France on TV.

The single most important ingredient in Ironman triathlon performance is endurance. Plain and simple endurance, is best built at low intensity. Lots of time spent under 80% heart rate. That’s conversation holding pace. If you can’t talk, it’s too hard. Now while you’re doing all these hours at below 80% heart rate, you might as well be practicing good technique. There’s not much value in having a huge endurance base if your technique is sh!thouse.

Setting goals is real important. If we start with a strong goal. Next step is to change our approach to training for it. If we change our approach to developing the most efficient technique in each discipline all at low intensity (under 80% heart rate). Then as we work on good technique, we accumulate hours. Not every waking hour, start moderately and build gradually. Never taking the eye off the purpose. Developing endurance and good technique.

Then we must test ourselves at race pace. Not every session, not every time we see another runner or cyclist up the road in front of us. Testing should be planned. Records should be kept. The best method is train, train, train, train, train TEST train, train, train, train, TEST. This is not the way lots of mediocre athletes approach the project.

A change in attitude can pay huge dividends later in the year, and later in the career. Learning to practice, rather than training can help a lot. Never losing sight of the fact that the most important assett you can take into your next Ironman race is endurance, not speed.

As we cross the cycle bridge over the river we walk alongside the railway bridge. It’s a fifty year old steel structure held together with thousands of rivets. I looked at it and thought, how many rivets could be left out, and the bridge still be strong enough to carry the heavy goods trains. It could certainly hold up is a few were missing. In fact I’m sure you could go through the bridge and remove twenty percent of the rivets without the bridge failing when a heavy train went across. But this would put more stress on the remaining rivets, more than the designers would want.

The engineers have obviously designed the bridge to hold up under much greater loads than would ever be placed on it. Engineers do that. They won’t sign off on a job which has not been done to the plan.

I started thinking about a typical Ironman preparation. In that preparation there are many small things which make a difference. A very small difference but grouped together make the athletes structure so strong that it is unbreakable under pressure. Every vitamin tablet, every hour of sleep, every stretch plays a part in creating the unbrakable athlete.

This could even be broken down to every thought having some effect on the athlete’s confidence on race day. If every doubt was washed away by a reasuring affirmation, it’s negative impact is neutralised. This is a good argument for avoiding negative people, and seeking out the company of motivated people who encourage excellence.

So back to the “rivets in the bridge” theory. How many stretching sessions could you afford to leave out? How many times could you train without refuelling well right after? How many swim sessions could you miss, before it cost you some performance on race day?

If every rivet does a small job in making the bridge unbreakable, then every fish oil capsule has a role to play in your “A” race of the season. If we had an engineer inspecting every part of our training, recovery and body maintenance program, would he sign off on the way we’ve put the job together?

Do you want to stand at the start line, feeling “unbreakable”? Or the alternative is to race with your fingers crossed, hoping nothing goes wrong. If we took twenty percent of the rivets out of the bridge, the engineer would have trouble sleeping when the big freight trains came through.

The answer to all of the above is, “I’m training my athletes to develop them to their potential”. Not training them to one race down the road.

That’s not going to happen in three months. It’s widely accepted in coaching circles, that it takes seven years to fully develop an aerobic system. It’s extremley rare for anyone to ever get to the Olympics in either swimming, cycling or running in less than ten years. That’s not ten years of watching the Tour de France on tv. That’s ten years of early mornings and cold fingers and toes.

The group of athletes who I have just trained to the Australian Ironman are only part of the way down their development trail. Some are several years down the trail and some are only two years into the journey.

Most likely some of my group have as much talent as Vernay (the winner) or Anderson (second place), the only way this talent can be released is by doing the “hard yards”. That’s buildup after buildup, not continuous slogging.

The only way we can keep the passion going is to committ to an event not too distant into the future. About 16 weeks is an ideal time. That 16 week period can then be broken down into a base building period and a sharpening, race specific period.

Once the event is reached, the performance is evaluated, the lessons learned. Then it’s time for recovery. The length of recovery depends on the length and intensity of the race.

Usually after an Ironman, I give the guys two weeks off training, to sleep in, go to the movies, have a bit of “normal life”. During that time we keep all of the dietry supplements up, this is a critical time for the immune system to be supported.

After the recovery break we go into another build phase. It’s good to find another gaol race 12 to 16 weeks away. If the next important event is 24 or 26 weeks away, it’s too far to maintain focus and another training goal can be placed about 8 weeks away. A time trial or a smaller less important event can become the object to focus on.

It’s always important to have a destination to be aiming at. Training without a goal can become meaningless and it’s just too hard to get out of bed.

The important over riding principle is that in order to reach your potential, you have to be “at it” year in, year out.

It’s good to have a race to test yourself at every year. Simply to test the progress in your development. I have used the Gold Coast marathon over several years as a test race. The overall result is not important to me as I’m simply using the race to develop as an Ironman triathlete.

Running the marathon three years in a row at set HRs has given me a real measurable performance to test my progress. The same can be done with bike time trials. Especially mountain time trials. These type of tests are far cheaper than lab tests and just as accurate.

It is very important to keep records. Times, dates etc. It’s good to see how the plan is unfolding.