I recently had a conversation with a triathlete who will most likely be embarrassed to read this. I won’t mention any names or places. In the course of a ten minute conversation he used “negative self talk” so smoothly, so habitually, he’d given himself all the reasons why he couldn’t perform in a race.
He was totally unaware of consequences of the words coming out of his mouth. He was a nice, normal guy with no physical handicaps. He had the time to train, he had the equipment. Yet every conversation …

Do you start when something goes wrong, breaks down or wears out. It’s a far better plan to schedule regular maintenence as a preventative measure. It’s not cool to be injured, getting sympathy from those close to you, when you miss out on that important race.
Do you visit a physio when you become injured? The best way to use a physio’s talents is before you become injured. Visit a physio to have him/her screen your body for flexibility issues, strength imbalances. A good physio can identify weaknesses long before you …

This morning was the first day I felt the touch of winter. I’m sure our friends in southern states and in the northern hemisphere are laughing. But it’s all relevant. Our Brisbane bodies are used to Brisbane temperatures. When the morning temperature drops into the low teens our body struggles to cope. A percentage of our energy goes into handling the colder air going into our lungs. Just keeping warm, without the load of exercising, uses energy which we don’t need to find in warmer weather.
Another thing which plants (trees and shrubs) know, …

There are a lot of clever sayings going around like “Spend it wisely, you only have one chance to spend it”, “He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day” and something about cutting your cloth carefully to make sure it goes the distance. All of these clever sayings have more meaning when you get a bit older.
Younger athletes can smash themselves in training and bounce back to do it again the next day. Even younger athletes are dealing with a finite resource. I have found that athletes …

I’ve heard about this phenomenon for 25yrs. When I first came back from Hawaii in 86, one of my brother’s mates asked him, how I was going with “post Ironman depression”. When my brother told me, I thought “what in the hell is that?” Since then the subject has come up over the years.
Seriously, when I came back from Kona in 86, I had two businesses to run, a family to raise. I didn’t have time for “post Ironman depression”. I was too busy.
Being busy with other things in your …