As I’m typing this Paul Ambrose is running down the chute on his way to his first Ironman title! The crowd, which is huge at 4th Street Live! is going crazy as they welcome him to the line. It has been quite a day for the 26-year-old who is a citizen of Great Britain. Paul […]

In less than 48 hours, over 2500 of the world’s triathlete’s will be racing in here in Louisville. With only eight official Ironman races in the continental United States each year, it’s not hard to see why people get excited about having the chance to see and/or participate in one that takes place in your […]

So in the last six posts, I’ve covered key aspects of mental training that are often neglected. I’ve just scratched the surface on this topic. The book is over 280 pages long, so obviously, if anything I’ve written has peaked your interest, go buy the book. It’s called The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training by […]

This is part 6 of 6 looking into the mental factors discussed in “The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training”. The six factors are motivation, confidence, intensity, focus, emotions, and pain. Pain can be the ultimate determinant of whether you achieve your goals. Pain offers a powerful and persistent physical warning to your body that is […]

This is part 5 of 6 looking into the mental factors discussed in “The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training”. The six factors are motivation, confidence, intensity, focus, emotions, and pain. Emotional aspects of training and racing are often more taxing than the physical ones. During the course of your racing and training you will experience […]

This is part 4 of 6 looking into the mental factors discussed in “The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training”. The six factors are motivation, confidence, intensity, focus, emotions, and pain. Focus is defined as the concentration of attention or energy on something. The “something” that we as athletes need to focus on is often misunderstood. […]

This is part 3 of 6 looking into the mental factors discussed in “The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training”. The six factors are motivation, confidence, intensity, focus, emotions, and pain. Intensity is defined as a passionate and serious attitude. Intensity is made up of two components. The first is what you feel physically, that is, […]

This is part 2 of 6 looking into the mental factors discussed in “The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training”. The six factors are motivation, confidence, intensity, focus, emotions, and pain. Confidence is defined as how strongly you believe you can perform your best and achieve your goals. Whether your confidence is high or low, once […]

This is part 1 of 6 looking into the mental factors discussed in “The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training”. The six factors are motivation, confidence, intensity, focus, emotions, and pain. Motivation, simply defined, is the ability to initiate and persist at a task. It’s pretty simple – your motivation will determine your effort in training […]

I’ve read lots of books and articles about how to physically train for a race. Everything from how to plan out your whole year of training down to how to position your foot while riding for optimal power. Something that I never gave much thought to until a few months ago was the mental aspect […]