Training
insights.

07 Nov

Uncrackable Threshold

Six 1000s on a 1 min float and the lactate bites. You don't rise to the occasion in a race; you fall to the level of your training. Stay in your body.

2 min read → 05 Nov

You Don't Need a Bigger Engine

You might not need a bigger engine. You might need to stop wasting the energy you've already got. Less tension, less force, more economy.

2 min read → 31 Oct

Is 4 Months Enough to Train for a Triathlon?

Four months is plenty for a sprint or Olympic, and the build I suggest for a half Ironman if you've got some fitness. For a full Ironman, it depends on where you're starting.

2 min read → 30 Oct

The fright threshold

Three efforts above threshold on Halloween night. None of them planned.

1 min read → 20 Oct

Anaerobic Threshold

If you are afraid of threshold it’s because you aren’t intimate enough with it to understand it.

2 min read → 12 Oct

Ironman Truth

Can you run the pace you desire, fully loaded or not?

2 min read → 05 Oct

The Dreadmill

Relax. Lean in. Focus on the rhythm.

1 min read → 31 Aug

Turn your Pain into Performance

Decisions, not conditions, determine who the athlete is at any given moment.

2 min read → 29 Jul

You can't coach suffering

“Suffering” is the most important leg of a triathlon. The big three live within it; endurance, tolerance and resilience. 

1 min read → 13 Jul

Training Hygiene Wins races

Don’t do it for the sake of it; Be fully in it or don’t do it. If you do it half arsed you’ll race half arsed. 

2 min read → 29 Jun

Build The Unbreakable

Stop rehearsing collapse. Rehearse build. You need to wax when everyone else wanes.

1 min read → 22 Jun

Every Second Counts

The problem is that you do nothing to promote a better moment by abandoning the one you’re in.

2 min read → 11 May

Junk In-Junk Out

Real hard sessions should demand an equal response from your brain and body. Are you up to it or not? If not look at why. 

1 min read → 24 Mar

How To Not Wreck a Prep

Heres the thing: you're not making up for lost sessions, you are adding to what you are doing right now through anxiety and creating a mess of the future.

1 min read → 26 Nov

The Simple Truth

Amplify speed. Simplify the process and you amplify the progress.

1 min read → 10 Nov

Death By A Thousand Cuts

Pain produces speed. Speed produces pain. They’re twins.

1 min read → 02 Oct

Gilesys Key Run Tip

When you spread your toes while running, you’re changing both the mechanics and the neurology of your movement

1 min read → 22 Sep

Relax At Speed

The more you relax, the more you can relax. The more you can relax, the more relaxed you become.

1 min read → 15 Aug

Hold, Don't Fold

If you don’t develop durability, you’ll be like a cat with nine lives. You’ll have some good races, sure, Then wonder why your middle name is inconsistency.

1 min read → 14 Jul

Rack em and Stack em

Yeah, you tick the box and feel some satisfaction. But deep down you know you’re completing, not called.

1 min read → 01 Jul

The Discipline Habit

Is your environment fresh, with a clean slate and session variance? Or is it the same old mouldy grind?

1 min read → 13 Jun

Consistency Is King

Real talent is the ability to end this day like yesterday never happened and tomorrow isn’t coming.

1 min read → 24 Apr

From Chaos To Flow

You’ll engage reality with mechanical movement made of an external input. That’s chaos man. That’s not embodiment, that’s embrainment….

2 min read → 07 Apr

The Plan and The Pattern

We often change things that don’t need changing on an outer level and end up lost and confused. But it’s not your plan, it’s your pattern!

2 min read → 31 Mar

Hard Yards-Grave Yards

Preparation is a measure of what you can absorb, not what you can get done.

1 min read → 28 Jan

Turn the screws

Trust your plan, not your pain!

2 min read → 16 Jan

High Performance Triathlon Coaching: Breaking Free from Cookie-Cutter Training

Move beyond textbook coaching. Connect with athletes on a deeper level. Create champions by breaking free from rigid systems.

1 min read → 15 Jan

The Moment of Truth

We train in fear rather than power! Most people train to avoid failure rather than to invite success.

2 min read → 12 Jan

Stop Training, Start Listening: The Path to Ironman Success

Your body whispers what your mind resists: pushing harder isn't the answer. Mastering the art of recovery transforms good athletes into champions.

2 min read → 06 Jan

Evolve

You are creating the exact conditions you are experiencing. If you are a victim of the session, you are victimising yourself. Your body isn’t responsible for your toxic thinking.

2 min read → 03 Jan

Craft not Graft

Make no mistake, it’s not graft, it’s craft….The craft is to make what is hard, easy!

2 min read → 16 Dec

A Campaign of Misery

An addiction to intensity. If it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t work.

1 min read → 02 Dec

Bend Reality

Everything you avoid in trainings reality is going to be up in your face close and personal on race day and completed sessions do not allow for that, unless you’ve been fully in them boots n all.

2 min read → 07 Nov

Yes

The world is full of great trainers who are in a state of shock at the level of pain they experience in a race, because simply put, they aren’t ready for it.

1 min read → 14 Oct

Be Alive Now

Breathing half a breath, living half a life. Training half asleep and racing half awake. 

2 min read → 25 Sep

Shocker

If you resist the feelings, emotions and the discomfort of not feeling good, you are resisting the teaching your body is giving you. 

1 min read → 10 Sep

The Next Step

Accept the schooling you get: We don’t get what we want, we get what we need.

1 min read → 03 Sep

Eighty Twenty: The 80/20 Rule in Triathlon Training

Most of your training should feel easy. That's the 80/20 rule, and it's been around since long before it had a name. Here's what it looks like in a triathlon week.

4 min read → 20 Aug

Get It Right

Do something completely different and relax the threat, relax your body into the process and learn how to enjoy what you think is discomfort.

2 min read → 30 Jul

Foundational

Think of yourself as a doomsday prepper; what are you going to do when the shit hits the fan?

2 min read → 13 Jul

Gilesy's Tips: Anaerobic Threshold

If you don’t train it correctly, you will be dictated to by a body that is not trained to do what you are asking of it.

1 min read → 21 May

Harden Up-Soften Down

You need to soften down against the discomfort you feel in your body, relax, let yourself pour like a fluid into the hurt.

1 min read → 10 May

Beast Mode

The aerobic oxygen carrying capacity and strength you are chasing evolves, breathes and expands in the space you create for it.

2 min read → 18 Apr

The Nurture Of War

The best of you is out there on the killing fields, the dead bodies of a thousand athletes strewn all around.

2 min read → 12 Apr

Busting Down The Door

The warrior you are looking for inside yourself is silently waiting for you to show up for yourself.

2 min read → 09 Apr

Back To Basics

You gotta get in the trenches man! You have to learn how to dig in when everything is getting blown to shit.

1 min read → 27 Mar

Reverberation

The repercussions of the reverb are happening in your body and nervous system, they will continue to choose the familiar path of chaos until you learn how to choose consciously and differently.

2 min read → 21 Mar

BackBone

Dedication is an investigation, an inner inquiry and a deep listening to the embodied winds of your own soul. It’s the warriors' inner prayer that you make to yourself.

2 min read → 15 Mar

Combat

Training is a war waged with yourself, and it's the mind's resistance, not the course, that blocks flow. On meeting the rawness of racing with presence.

2 min read → 28 Feb

Give in, Don't give up

Resilience isn't built in killer weeks but in sessions where you're tired and fed up. Give in to what you're feeling, settle and don't give up.

2 min read → 23 Jan

Change

Racing is a test of what you can tolerate, not just speed. How endurance athletes can meet discomfort with acceptance and move past their mind's limits.

2 min read → 09 Jan

The name of the Game

A good coach makes themselves progressively unnecessary. Why effective triathlon coaching is mentorship that AI or a tour guide can't provide.

2 min read → 17 Dec

Seamless Transition from Today’s Plan to TrainingPeaks

Today's Plan closes on 12 March 2024. A step-by-step guide for triathletes and coaches exporting training data and setting up TrainingPeaks.

2 min read → 02 Dec

Mastering the Mental Game in Triathlon Training

Triathlon coach Grant Giles integrates psychological techniques into training, enhancing athletes' mental and physical strength.

2 min read → 26 Nov

Grant's Complete Guide to Training for a Half-Ironman 70.3 Triathlon

A Half-Ironman 70.3 is a rewarding triathlon covering 70.3 miles of swimming, cycling and running. While challenging, it offers a more approachable balance for training than a full Ironman.

12 min read → 25 Nov

How Much Does a Triathlon Coach Cost in Australia?

What a triathlon coach costs in Australia, what you're actually paying for, and how I'd judge whether a coach is worth it.

3 min read → 23 Nov

For The Win

Keep race week simple. Let go of expectations, stay out of judgment and relax into your nerves so you arrive at race day in flow.

2 min read → 23 Nov

Straight Shooting

Coaching isn't about adding something to an athlete. It's about removing the obstacles. On self-trust, and being ruthlessly yourself.

1 min read → 16 Nov

The Point Of Hesitation

Every athlete reaches the point of hesitation, where doubt speaks up. Why you need to feel it fully, accept it and then choose growth over comfort.

2 min read → 09 Oct

An Unveiling of Trust and Self-Discovery

Trust and self-reflection as critical drivers for breakthroughs and transformation in every athlete's journey.

2 min read → 22 Sep

Unlocking Athletic Pinnacle: My Holistic Journey with Triathlon Training

Discover the balance between mental fortitude and physical capability in my 13-week Ironman 70.3 program, designed for peak performance.

2 min read → 13 Sep

Demystifying Training Intensity Distribution for Triathletes: Finding the Right Balance

Striking the Perfect Balance Between Zones for Peak Performance.

2 min read → 09 Sep

Harnessing Data and Tech for Triathlon Training

Dive into how Grant integrates power, pace and heart rate metrics using platforms like TrainingPeaks to sculpt elite training regimens for triathletes.

2 min read → 08 Sep

Unraveling Periodisation: The Triathlete's Blueprint for Peak Performance

Explore periodisation's role in triathlon training, a structured roadmap ensuring athletes excel across swimming, cycling and running for race-day success.

2 min read → 05 Sep

The embodied athlete

Power transfer needs an open pathway. Why triathletes who brace and tense lose coordination, and how staying relaxed under pressure helps you hold speed.

2 min read → 05 Sep

Breathe Easy

Stuck on a plateau? Many triathletes blur easy and moderate training. Why nose breathing marks real easy, and how too much moderate work blunts your speed.

2 min read → 02 Sep

Optimising Mind & Body: 13-Week Ironman 70.3 Program

Grant Giles combines psychological strength with physiological training in his transformative 13-week Ironman 70.3 program, blending mind-body excellence.

1 min read → 31 Aug

The Art of Coaching

While coaching combines art and science, its true essence lies in fostering self-reflection and exploration in athletes, emphasising human connection over structured plans.

2 min read → 26 Aug

13-Week Ironman 70.3 Race Preparation Triathlon Training Plan

A 13-week Ironman 70.3 distance triathlon training plan used in conjunction with TrainingPeaks. This is ideal for the intermediate age group athlete.

2 min read → 21 Aug

On the front foot

Mount an attack, not a defence. If you go into a race with a survival mindset, you are on the back foot before you even start. Lets discuss.

2 min read → 25 Jul

Artificial intelligence

Will AI reshape triathlon coaching? I'm taking a wait-and-see view: coaching is a human endeavour built on your subjective experience.

2 min read → 08 Jun

Discovery

I don't want followers of my program. I want triathletes to explore their own experience in it. On coaching as discovery rather than preaching.

3 min read → 08 Jun

All Torque

Torque is intention turned into attention. Why climbers make peace with gravity, and how cutting inner talk helps you apply effort directly in training.

2 min read → 06 Jun

Go Beyond

Trust is the felt sense vehicle that carries this energy that has the capacity to take us into the twilight zone, into the state of zen or flow where we are able to let go of the concepts and allow the pain and discomfort to circulate without resistance.

2 min read → 31 May

Forecasting

Forecasting how a race could go wrong tends to programme it in. How triathletes can notice doubt early and train awareness over fear in every session.

2 min read → 25 May

Show Up

Your racing isn't about the course, the wind or other competitors: it's your response to them. On acceptance as the flow state every athlete is after.

2 min read → 11 May

Stay With It

When a hard session doesn't look the way you wanted, that gap is where adaptation happens. Why triathletes need to give up their demands on the moment.

2 min read → 29 Apr

Speed Power And Flow

Lessons from surfing for endurance athletes: speed and power matter, but flow comes first. Why relaxing into tension stops you exhausting yourself.

2 min read → 29 Apr

Pain the way

There's no outrunning or overcoming pain in endurance sport. Why the ability to suffer comes from dropping resistance and letting pain be there.

2 min read → 29 Apr

Brain Training

Neuroscience shows the brain predicts rather than perceives in real time. What that means for athletes, and how visualisation trains the feeling you want.

2 min read → 15 Apr

Turning Point

Fading in long threshold sets usually means an oxygen problem, not a threshold one. Why triathletes should build tempo and aerobic threshold power.

2 min read → 15 Apr

Active Rest

I don't schedule rest weeks or drop-off tapers. Here's why, and the injury, fatigue and malaise I see when triathletes break rhythm.

3 min read → 07 Apr

Storm Chasers

Stop trying to calm the storm, calm yourself and the storm will pass.

1 min read → 29 Mar

Inviting Trouble

Seeking comfort eventually makes you uncomfortable. Why athletes grow by moving towards discomfort rather than staying with the safe bet.

1 min read → 14 Mar

Exercise Wheel

Coaching is more than a physical prescription or data analysis. Good coaching builds your self-knowledge, because you are the path.

2 min read → 08 Mar

Superiority

In training and racing, the aim is to be superior to your former self, not to others. On the inner shift that helps you handle setbacks without judgment.

2 min read → 08 Mar

Excuses

Missing a session isn't the real problem. It's the self-berating voice afterwards that drags triathletes into form slumps and steals their enjoyment.

2 min read → 03 Mar

Rest

Rest is not inactivity: it's an empty headspace. How rumination drains athletes, particularly in race week, and why you should move fast and think slow.

3 min read → 01 Mar

Athletic Patience

Endurance sport is a long-term process. On patience, and why an athletic vision built on intuition and drive must not tip over into obsession.

3 min read → 28 Feb

The Perfect Prep

Wait for the perfect preparation and your chance goes begging. Success in sport is a measure of your capacity to handle the mess.

2 min read → 14 Feb

Don't Tap Out

Counting down the kilometres to when the pain stops can turn a race into drudgery. How triathletes can separate race facts from their thoughts about them.

2 min read → 14 Feb

The Name Of The Pain

Data on discomfort is useful, but it's a yardstick outside you. Why endurance athletes should feel into the suck first and let the numbers confirm it.

2 min read → 11 Feb

Breakthrough Now!

Training aimed at a future that isn't here yet drains quality from the session. Why being present now is how you prepare for a breakthrough on race day.

2 min read → 11 Feb

Loven the Pain

Your response to pain in training is largely conditioned. A simple practice for endurance athletes: feel rising discomfort without trying to escape it.

1 min read → 11 Feb

Go On Feel

You can't learn to trust your body by listening to your thoughts. On training by feel, tracking the energy moving through you, so you flow, not force.

3 min read → 08 Feb

Going Hard

While athletes often prioritise intense training, true progress hinges on a delicate equilibrium of effort and ease, urging a shift from brute force to flow and balance.

2 min read → 03 Feb

Rescue Today

Embrace discomfort and challenge for personal growth and development, emphasising that seeking safety and repeating old thought patterns leads to nothing but apathy.

2 min read → 29 Oct

12-Week Olympic Distance Triathlon Training Plan for Intermediate Age Group Athletes

A free 12-week Olympic distance triathlon training plan used in conjunction with TrainingPeaks. This is ideal for the intermediate age group athlete.

1 min read → 29 Oct

10-Week Ironman 70.3 / Half Distance Triathlon Training Plan for Intermediate Age Group Athletes

A free 10-week Half Ironman or 70.3 distance triathlon training plan used in conjunction with TrainingPeaks. This is ideal for the intermediate age group athlete.

1 min read → 14 Aug

Developmental

Athlete development is a matter of awareness before it is physical. How training on autopilot, the way we live, holds back progress in endurance sport.

5 min read → 14 Aug

An Athletic Braille

Ticking off a session is not the same as executing it. Why triathletes need to know what each session is for, and drop the need to be defined by results.

4 min read →