I find it fascinating the reasons people are drawn to this sport. Indeed the reasons people choose what they do as recreation can be telling about whats going on in their broader lives. I know it rings true for most of the triathletes I’ve ever known.
What most endurance athletes have in common is a need [...]

One of the biggest challenges I have found as a participant of various sports is following the end of the road before I turn down the side streets. What do I mean?
There are as the old saying goes many routes to the same destination. If you point north and keep driving everyone ends up somewhere [...]

Have  just read a book about Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters fame. One of the things I came away with was just how long he has been at it. School bands, travelling peniless through Europe for a decade with bands so underground I’ve never heard of them and in more recent years Nirvana and then [...]

Dont listen to your coach. Dont follow your program
Strange thing to say on a site with a coaching focus?
The best coach of you is YOU.  What do we mean? Ditch all outside help? Sack your coach? No way
what we mean is only you have the full awareness of how you body is adapting to training
when [...]

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Its this time of year people start writing their 16 colour training programs. We sit down after winter and start thinking about how to turn our training around. To “take it to a new level”.  How many “New and Improved” labels do you see when shopping for nearly anything. Its human nature to seek higher [...]

I’ve come across a lot of press releases,pro interviews and anecdotes on this topic
Story goes likes this………..hey you multisport athletes- combined time wins not who’s the fastest at each discipline- if you want to win at multisport you’ve got to train for it right so stop focusing on one sport at a time and then [...]

One of the greatest benefits of starting any race is simply to participate.
Lets look at this in contrast. On one hand sport can be uncompromising, requiring unwavering dedication and “all or nothing” if you aspire to pursue it at the highest level. This is essentially a description of a professional approach or that of an [...]

In a ride through the local suburbs this morning I observed a group of men walking slowly and frailly with their dogs. I asked my partner how old she thought they were (they didnt seem that old) and we concluded not much older than us.
So it lead to a discussion about what choices these group [...]

In response to some recent questions we thought it apt to pen a couple of basic things to keep in mind while running:
What f$%cking part of my foot am I supposed to use?
I am not sure why this topic has to be so complex. There are whole shoe companies preaching the virtues of running on [...]

When a large glassy set of swells roll into a point break surfers suddenly down tools, scramble to the beach and make the most of it when its around.
When sentiment towards a company improves they scramble to secure cheaper equity funds on the back of a rising share price
When the fish are around the trawler [...]

We have included here some useful references for starting your training with a power meter (stuff we get asked all the time). All of these are exerpts from “Training and Racing With A Power Meter , Hunter/Allen 2nd Ed”
1. Working out what your functional threshold power- here is a simple way of testing
http://www.3jc.com.au/FTPTest.jpg
2. Benchmarks for [...]

Context before Content

Lets play marketing cliché buzzword bingo …..
“the method, the way, the system, the philosophy, the secret, the patented formula, the unique principals, our proprietary systems, our proven methodology, step by step easy to follow content, world champion endorsed product, more successful athletes than..insert hyperbole, etc etc”
Everyone is looking for that special formula aren’t they? – in business [...]

We are now approaching the colder months here. Those readers in the Nth. Hemisphere will make the point that Australians dont face nearly the same challenges as they do. To a large extent this is true but there are some common considerations for all athletes in facing the change of season
It is well accepted that [...]

How you set up your training environment is critical for long term success and enjoying your sport.

Ask yourself the following questions………..

Do I drive for miles just to get to training?
Am I always tired or late to training?
Do I get to train in the best part of the day?
Am I getting social stimulation ?
Am I getting [...]

Everywhere I go there’s another cooking show on TV……….I seem to have been sucked into the vortex of both “My Kitchen Rules” and “Master Chef”…..so what have I learned?

Key Ingredient- there should be a “hero” of a dish- a nice cut of meat or fish that is cooked perfectly- there is no need to augment [...]

This one came up again today…..I received an email that started like this:
Quads smashed, everything tight, couldnt make the pace of the intervals…..should I drop Fridays session etc?
Navigating the line between fatigued and f#$%ed is tricky especially for the inexperienced athlete .
The whole idea of training hard is to force the body to adapt- this [...]

Think about this for a moment……….the vast majority of age group endurance athletes go through the last 2 hours of an event toward the bottom of their aerobic range
why? why does someone who has an aerobic range of 120-160 bpm chug around an IM marathon at 130bpm
answer- the legs have given out well before an [...]

This one is coming up a lot lately amongst people I train with/ coach. Lots of 30C+ days these last few months.
We all know the feeling of facing our “key run” session at 5pm on a Sunday and its still 33C
Do you:
-Adjust the intensity to make it through the session
-Avoid it/postpone to another cooler day
-Keep [...]

You’ve just knocked out 1hrs 45 mins run and you are half an hour from home, starting to feel a bit ragged but otherwise HR,stomach, hydration etc etc are ok
Do you :
a. Wind it down a bit and nurse yourself home OR
b. Crank it up and make it uncomfortable for the last half hour?
The decision [...]

“I have riders doing longer TTs and long training rides with a ceiling power output, in teaching them to TT well I want them to not exeed a certain figure based on their FTP”
I absolutely cringe when I read comments like this, as it goes against basic exercise training principles.
I’m all for putting caps on [...]

This is a subject that has occupied my mind a lot of late. Triathletes spend a LOT of time trying to analyse the techniques of the best, the equipment of the best, the training of the best. Why?
Its one of the things that sometimes bothers me most about some  of the coaching faternity as well
Lets [...]

One of the better interviews I have listened to for a long time was an series of interviews with the old dog coach Brett Sutton
Here’s the link to the two podcasts on IMTalk (if you can handle the raspy kiwi voice of Bevan James Eyles)
http://www.imtalk.me/home/2010/12/13/imtalk-episode-240-brett-sutton-part-1.html
http://www.imtalk.me/home/2010/12/20/imtalk-episode-241-brett-sutton-part-2.html
Our key take outs/draft notes as follows:
-Training around the world is [...]

Some of the triathlon community  have lost their home and all/part of their possessions in the QLD floods.
If you have sporting goods or clothing you are not using please post them up here and we will then try and match you with someone in need
Likewise if you know someone who is in need then let [...]

http://www.trekbikes.com/au/en/trek_life/news/article/2481/2011/01/06/trek_inks_title_sponsorship_of_worlds_best_cycling_team/
(Waterloo, WI) – Trek Bicycle announced today, along with Luxembourg-based Leopard True Racing, its co-title sponsorship of the formerly unnamed Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project, creating the LEOPARD TREK cycling team. Featuring podium regulars Frank and Andy Schleck, as well as classics king Fabian Cancellara, LEOPARD TREK will race team-issued Trek Madone and Speed Concept bicycles [...]

I was recently sent a pair of these things to try out- they are a pretty straightforward lace/lock system. Seem simple enough and they do a good job- they are elastic laces with a speed lock- not too much more I can go into- they do the job well for $5 a set!
Cleancarve have a [...]

There’s a lot of discussion about this to the point of obsession.  First and foremost individual circumstances have to be taken into account.
from what i have observed many triathletes get this part of the sport upside down ie they………..
-dont eat much before workouts
-dont eat much during workouts
-hit the food hard after the workouts
-continue to hit the [...]

There are many similarities between growing trees and training to improve your long term perfomance.
Lets talk trees for a minute………..

When you first plant a tree you need soil thats in good condition- something thats got enough nutritients and moisture in it
You’ll need to water it regularly (but not too much or all the nutrients will [...]

Endurance sport is an extensive aerobic pace workout right ? Speed doesn’t really come into to it right?  Speed work means going “lactic” right? Speed work means going to a track or veledrome donning spikes and smashing yourself right?

There will always be a debate about nomenclature and frankly I’ve got better things to waste my [...]

We all deal with time restraints. We all have to deal with boredom in our training at times. Many of us travel for work or live in “sub optimal” training environments.
I often get asked what are the “bang for buck” sessions, the ones I would do if I only had 30 mins to an hour
Interestingly [...]

FABIAN CANCELLARA CONFIRMS WITH THE LUXEMBOURG PRO CYCLING PROJECT