Coaching is mostly
listening, then
patience and
a little craft.
I’ve coached elite and everyday athletes for twenty-four years. This is where I write, record, and think aloud about the inner game of endurance sport.
There is no trick. Training is simple, honest work, done over many years, with attention paid to what’s going on between the ears.
The body does what it’s asked.
Progression comes from consistency, patience, and a plan that fits your life, not someone else’s. We build the engine slowly, honestly, and with enough play to make it worth the effort.
The mind decides what’s possible.
Most of the ceiling people hit isn’t fitness, it’s attention, story, and fear. We work on those the same way we work on threshold: with reps, care, and honest review.
The life carries it all.
Sleep, relationships, work, food, time alone. If the life isn’t holding up, the training won’t either. Some of our best sessions are conversations.
“The three can’t really be separated. Train the body, starve the mind and the training stops working. Every plan I write is for all three at once.”
From a coaching notebook, 2019
A minute, before you keep reading.
Four in. Hold four. Four out. Hold four. We call it box breathing; athletes I coach call it, quieting the noise. Do one round and carry on.
“The athletes who last aren’t the most talented. They’re the ones who learn to enjoy being uncomfortable, and to be kind to themselves about it.” Notebook, May
Things I’ve been thinking about.
The Roaring Heads, long conversations, mostly about the inner game.
Tim Reed on rebuilding after the win.
A few ways we might work together.
I take on a small number of people at a time. It’s better that way, for them, and for me.
1:1 Coaching
Full coaching for triathletes, beginner through professional. Daily plan, weekly calls, and all the conversations you’d expect over a season.
Athlete Review Session
A single, focused hour to look at where you are, where you want to go, and what’s quietly in the way. Good for a reset between blocks.
Mental Performance
For athletes, coaches, and people outside sport, drawing on hypnotherapy and strategic psychotherapy to work on pressure, attention, and fear.
A letter, every couple of weeks.
Slow writing on training, psychology, and the things I’m quietly working on. Five hundred or so kind people read it. No spam, unsubscribe any time.