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 […]

I’m a creature of habit. I’m sure that my wife would back me up on this. I wake up at 4:30 am every morning. I pack my gym bag and get my clothes for work together the night before. I pack my lunch and post-workout food while eating a beagle with peanut butter…then I hop […]

As in Heat, Humidity, Hills and Heart Rate. These words were the theme of my run this morning. After doing some shorter races over the last few weeks, my endurance has really taken a hit. It’s now time for me to start building back up my base (aka Aerobic Engine). The plan for today was […]

Transition area as the sun came up. Beautiful morning! My Buddy Jon and I before the race. Congrats on finishing your first Olympic Distance Triathlon Jon! Massive transition area full of bikes. Around 1200 participants!! This is the canal where the swim portion was held. It’s a very unique venue…a little dirty, but unique.  My […]

Sometimes everything just comes together perfectly. While there’s no such thing as a perfect race, this one is about as close as I’ve ever come. Looking back, there are very few things that I could have done to improve on my performance…and it shows. Started off with my standard bagel and cup of yogurt about […]

The very first triathlon I did was the Tom Sawyer race on August 2, 2008. My friend Kelly had decided to do the race (his first triathlon also) and convinced me that it would be a fun. Of course this conversation took place exactly 7 weeks from race day. So with only 7 weeks to […]