I have just watched an interview with Simon Evans, Australian Rally Champion.
It’s amazing what we can pick up from different sports and the people who excell at them. Most of the books which I read are biographies of successful people. The common thread, whether the person is a business leader of a champion sportsman, is consistant performance throughout their event/life.
In Simon’s interview he told how he was good at what he did. He was agressive, fast, a risk taker. He would fairly regularly find himself on the wrong side of …

It’s just two weeks since we were running down Alii Dve in Kona. Running with no shirt, drinking water at the bubblers residents have installed to quench the thirst of the passing parade of walkers and joggers. There’s no other place I’d rather be in October.
I’ve race the Hawaii Ironman eleven times. I’ve had some great races and stood on the stage at the presentations, and like everyone who races in Kona, I’ve had a few forgettable experiences out there, where I’ve grovelled home throwing up and just managing to not …

We’re surrounded by fake things. We get so used to fake, we hardly recognise real anymore. My recent trip to Hawaii has reminded me of how much around us is not real.
A walk down the cereal/breakfast food aisle in the supermarket is a wake up call. Rows and rows of “food items” which bear no resemblance to the food they once were. In one corner we found the American version of muesli, granola. In the whole aisle amoungst the tons of junk we found something which would be nutritious enough …

When I write a training program for an athlete, what they want is a better performance in their next race. Their target race or a series of races over the next season. That’s easy to achieve.
What I’m aiming at is when they have been with me for a season, a couple of seasons or in some cases many years, I want them to be healthier, happier people than when they came into contact with me. It’s one of the rewards of being a coach, the ability to influence people …

 
As you travel through life, the further you go, the less you “sugar coat” the facts. If there’s something to be said, you usually say it, without worrying too much about what people will think. After all, you won’t have too much control over how people react anyway.
 
Over the last couple of years I’ve lost a couple of athletes because I told them the truth. The few who may dislike the flavor of truth so much that they want “to shoot the messenger”, have most likely been protected from the …

Can you imagine yourself standing on the podium accepting your prize, looking out over the hundreds of people in the audience?
Some of us are aiming at finishing a certain race respectably, some are aiming at winning their category in that race. Some dream of qualifying for Hawaii. Some squad members will realise the dream of racing in Hawaii for the first time in four weeks. Some of our Hawaii squad dream of either winning or at least placing in their categories in Hawaii in four weeks.
Whatever of those goals is …

We have all felt the pressure to perform at some time. Most of the time we put that pressure on ourselves. Often the pressure we put on ourselves is as a result of our own high standards. If we consistently perform to a high standard in other areas of our lives, we naturally expect to give our best on race day. A glance around our squad will show that they’re all overachievers.
 
The other day I had a phone conversation with one of our Hawaii qualifiers. She’ll be racing in Kona …

The other day I answered this question as well as I could. As I wrote the answer, I thought, how often have I answered this same question? I thought, how many others are asking the same question? 
 
Hi AL
 
This may be a dumb-arse question and please let me know if it is, but is there any way of training your body or supplements that can help to maximise your oxygen uptake into the muscles of the body?
 
Cheers S—–

Hi S—- 

 
Once a big endurance base is built specific VO2 Max training can be …

Last year I was injured in a bike fall. It took months before I was able to run properly. I could swim and bike but the pain in my hip and groin prevented any run training for twenty-two weeks. This meant I missed both Australian Ironman qualifying races. I had entered both. I now have two very expensive t-shirts. What made this most annoying was the fact that I entered a new age group in June and was looking forward to racing in Hawaii in the first year of my new …

The other day I heard an interesting interview with Mark Winterbottom, racing car driver with the V8 Supercar Series.
He made the statement that seemed to fit with any sport. He had just won a 400km race by holding his concentration and skills at as close to 100% as possible for the whole race. He said that there are times when it’s possible to go over the level which he calls 100%. That level is the level at which the engine can actually give more than is safe, it’s at this …