Slow
writing, on
the inner game.
Notes from twenty-six years in endurance sport, and a decade of clinical work on the mental side. Essays on training, attention, patience, and the quiet things that make the difference. Published when they are ready, not on a schedule.
Anaerobic Threshold
If you are afraid of threshold it’s because you aren’t intimate enough with it to understand it.
- Length
- 2
- Published
- 20 Oct 2026
Anaerobic Threshold
If you are afraid of threshold it’s because you aren’t intimate enough with it to understand it.
Ironman Truth
Can you run the pace you desire, fully loaded or not?
The Dreadmill
Relax. Lean in. Focus on the rhythm.
A Lesson from a 5 Time World champ
Your internal state does not dictate your external performance unless you capitulate to your thinking…..
Ironman - the first 10kms is danger
So you start the run at your feet, not your head…..
Turn your Pain into Performance
Decisions, not conditions, determine who the athlete is at any given moment.
Enduring Hell
The irony here is that your ability to endure is directly correlated with your ability to surrender.
You can't coach suffering
“Suffering” is the most important leg of a triathlon. The big three live within it; endurance, tolerance and resilience.
You can't outtrain doubt
It’s the silent prediction of your own failure that does the real damage…
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.
Build The Unbreakable
Stop rehearsing collapse. Rehearse build. You need to wax when everyone else wanes.
Every Second Counts
The problem is that you do nothing to promote a better moment by abandoning the one you’re in.
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.
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.
Ironman Micro Quit
It’s not just about managing fatigue under load- it’s about not losing your shit under load.
The 3-2-1 Resilience Hack
Most athletes don’t break because they’re weak. They break because they can’t tolerate feeling weak.
Giving Up
Because it’s about attitude not aptitude…
Attention
If you aren’t happy with what you’re doing, take the information and act on it.
Hope is Hopeless
That will lead you to your knowing, not your doubting...
Toxic Self Abuse
We’ve bought into the idea that we have to flog ourselves ten different ways to Sunday just to get the most from ourselves.
The Power Of One
A life organised around fear is a contracted life. You will never know how far you can go unless you are willing to go too far.
Overthinking
The only way to step into your power is to let go of who you were pretending to be.
Valour
The main problem is …We don’t actually allow ourselves to feel fear. We think it.
Blind Ambition
When reality doesn’t meet the ambition you built, that’s your moment of truth.
Settle
Force travels through its own relaxation, not its tension.
The Enemy At The Gate
The problem isn’t the bad races. It’s the script you run that says, I can’t allow imperfection.
Surrender To Victory
In the end, you surrender to victory…You bend to its measure, not yours.
The Simple Truth
Amplify speed. Simplify the process and you amplify the progress.
Deep In The Pit
What’s the lesson? You can’t trust your thoughts!
Death By A Thousand Cuts
Pain produces speed. Speed produces pain. They’re twins.
Hanging Onto Pain
So indeed, pain is temporary and suffering is optional.
The Guts to Trust Your Gut
The most dangerous thing an athlete can do is work toward fulfilling someone else’s expectations. They generally produce their worst training and racing that way.
In The Trenches
You’ve got to stop having an opinion on what happens, and start looking at your response to it.
Grind
Someone out there with half your talent is winning with twice your consistency.
Gilesys Key Run Tip
When you spread your toes while running, you’re changing both the mechanics and the neurology of your movement
Relax At Speed
The more you relax, the more you can relax. The more you can relax, the more relaxed you become.
Do You Really Wanna Get After It?
Then you begin to truly understand that the uncomfortable trials you face will also introduce you to your own strengths.
Quiet Quitting
The quitting we do when we cave in on ourselves is the most destructive. That voice of dissent in training is the same voice that leads to desperation in races.
Grace Under Pressure
Grace is flow. Grace is trust that the moment itself is carrying your development. A damaged ego will chase, push, force, overanalyse, and overwhelm itself.
The Goldilocks Zone
Chaos is an idea we are not comfortable with, but there’s no growth without it. You have to get what you don’t want so you can attract what you do want.
It's Messy, Get Over It
Perfect and tidy is a myth. You start, you suck… get over it.
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.
If you don't Mind, It don't Matter
Instead… break bread with it. Sit down with the resistance. With the suck. Have it out.
Get Real With Yourself
You’ve got to find a way to be there for all of it—not just the parts you approve of—if you want to truly know yourself.
Rack em and Stack em
Yeah, you tick the box and feel some satisfaction. But deep down you know you’re completing — not called.
It Ain't Relaxing
It’s not about the armchair. Truth is, you can suffer at the hands of your own mind anywhere.
The Discipline Habit
Is your environment fresh, with a clean slate and session variance? Or is it the same old mouldy grind?
Consistency Is King
Real talent is the ability to end this day like yesterday never happened and tomorrow isn’t coming.
Shape Shift
If you can’t regulate your emotions in training, you won’t regulate them when it matters most.
Empowered Racing
Visualise the dog in you, that grounded, instinctual energy that knows it wants to bring something deeper.
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….
The Power Of Attitude
Complaining isn’t just venting—it’s reinforcing. It’s like telling your brain, “Hey, turn this pain up to eleven!”
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!
Hard Yards-Grave Yards
Preparation is a measure of what you can absorb, not what you can get done.
Turn Worrier Into Warrior
Worrying is like worshiping the problem. Better you worship the solution and take any action you can to mitigate the issue.
Fight For Survival
The war between seeking the known and dealing with the unknown. But here’s the thing, trying to make things safe and known makes you unsafe. You’ve got to let that go.
Going Through It
The avoidance we use in our heads to escape suffering increases its intensity because your body is intelligent, it wants to be listened to.
Turn the screws
Trust your plan, not your pain!
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.
The Moment of Truth
We train in fear rather than power! Most people train to avoid failure rather than to invite success.
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.
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.
Re-accredited as a High Performance Coach
AusTriathlon has re-accredited me as a High Performance Coach, its top level and by invitation only. What that means after coaching since 2000.
Craft not Graft
Make no mistake, it’s not graft, it’s craft….The craft is to make what is hard, easy!
A Campaign of Misery
An addiction to intensity. If it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t work.
The Warriors Hat
There is a power play at work in most challenges. It’s not about overcoming anything, it’s about meeting the power and matching its energy.
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.
Wreckage
If it breaks, it breaks for a reason. Don’t do the same, do different. It’s not about being courageous either, that just confirms that you are afraid.
Real Power
You are no longer bartering your body for fitness or comprising your personal integrity for the goal. Strength comes in the quiet groundedness of self-reclamation.
Anxiety - Do it Anyway
No longer a victim, you begin to rise in the shadow of what you thought was your ultimate downfall.
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.
Defeat Is Psychological
In sport in general, we attend to our thoughts way too much, and not anywhere near enough to our body’s direct messaging.
Ride The Lightning
If you want real progress, eventually you have to be willing to ride the lightning. That's a risk and there’s no way around it.
Be Alive Now
Breathing half a breath, living half a life. Training half asleep and racing half awake.
The Extra Mile
You need your passion, your will and your lust. That’s fuel not to be fucked with.
Shocker
If you resist the feelings, emotions and the discomfort of not feeling good, you are resisting the teaching your body is giving you.
Nobody Cares
Here’s the thing, if you are going to do what you please, then you are going to have to let go of what you think pleases others.
The Next Step
Accept the schooling you get: We don’t get what we want, we get what we need.
Eighty Twenty
Anaerobic threshold is the flashy sibling of sub threshold work, but make no mistake, it’s the sub threshold work that AT takes all the credit for
Eric Lauricella, Pro Triathlete speaks about his breakthrough
With only 6 weeks to prepare for this race I trained the most I ever had. The physical and mental prep leading into this race was spot on.
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.
The Love Of The Race
If you can reach down into your guts, heart and soul and access love, you will suffer almost anything for it.
Foundational
Think of yourself as a doomsday prepper; what are you going to do when the shit hits the fan?
The Love Of Coaching
24 years of this full-time caper. What a rich journey coaching is. As the experience starts to spill out to mentoring people from…
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.
War and Peace
Not one second should be wasted on aversion, avoidance and resistance.
Stop The Chase
Everything you reject about yourself is a rejection of your experience!
No Quarter
You gotta reconnect with your refusal to make yourself a mental victim over and over again. You have to stay out of that rabbit hole.
The Heart of Danger
Better a cruel truth than a comfortable illusion. Break your heart as many times as it takes to find your true limits.
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.
Beast Mode
The aerobic oxygen carrying capacity and strength you are chasing evolves, breathes and expands in the space you create for it.
Purposeful Intent
You are going to need to re-connect and re-remember your why over and over again to make that habit an automatic action.
Get After It
Here’s the thing: that Stoic idea of challenge weakens you…I’m dead serious, the tension and resistance adds to the hurt exponentially.
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.
Busting Down The Door
The warrior you are looking for inside yourself is silently waiting for you to show up for yourself.
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.
Fight
Now is the time to fight like you are the third monkey on the ramp to Noah’s arc… and Brother, it’s starting to rain.
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.
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.
Combat
Don’t lament the results you didn’t get from the work you didn’t do. There is no glory here, it’s a…
David Bones: From Zero to Triathlete
David credits Coach Grant for transforming him from a novice to an Ironman achiever, emphasising the pivotal role of mentorship in his journey.
Give in, Don't give up
Contrary to popular athletic opinion, true development does not come from outstanding sessions or killer weeks. Your resilience embeds itself among your conflicts, when…
Dedication
As Stuart Wilde put it: Dedication is the warrior's prayer… A Fierce concentration! Its fierceness is only measured by the totality of…
Embracing the Symphony
Discover how integrating mind, body, and heart fuels exceptional athletic performance.
A Sacred Drive
Embracing life's difficulties and discomfort is true bravery. True aliveness requires accepting the inevitable challenges, heartbreaks and vulnerabilities that come with it.
Change
Racing is not a test of speed, it’s a test of what you can tolerate. Training to tolerance is an incremental development that…
Coaching: It's About Bringing Out What You Hide Within
Grant Giles redefines coaching as a transformative journey, guiding athletes to unearth their inner strengths and innovate through self-discovery
The name of the Game
A good coach is someone who makes themselves progressively unnecessary. That has always been my own focus. I work hard to make myself redundant.…
Nine Lives
I learned a lot that day about the cat with nine lives. It was Ironman Frederica Denmark. I remember it being a top field…
Seamless Transition from Today’s Plan to TrainingPeaks
The recent announcement of Today’s Plan’s closure marks a significant shift in the digital training landscape. As a dedicated high-performance triathlon…
Course Review: Ironman 70.3 Geelong - Victoria's Premier 70.3 Triathlon
When selecting your ideal half-Ironman 70.3 race, it's worth considering the Ironman 70.3 Geelong, Victoria, Australia, known for its…
Huskisson Ultimate Triathlon Course Review
The Husky triathlon presents a picturesque yet demanding course in Jervis Bay, offering athletes a perfect blend of beauty and challenge.
Clayton Fettell: A Journey Of Transformation
Clayton Farrell credits coach Grant Giles for profound life and career impact, emphasising deep connection beyond coaching.
Guts
Making it complicated is the new way it seems. As If the physical technicality of training three disciplines into one wasn’t enough, we…
Fabio's Triathlon Transformation: From Tragedy to Success
Overcoming personal tragedy, Fabio Vaz Fernandes Goncalves turned to triathlon, achieving remarkable feats including Ironman World Championships.
Mastering the Mental Game in Triathlon Training
Triathlon coach Grant Giles integrates psychological techniques into training, enhancing athletes' mental and physical strength.
David Arnold's Triathlon Transformation
David Arnold credits Coach Grant Giles for his transformation from a fitness enthusiast to a seasoned triathlete, mastering mental and physical aspects of the sport.
Campbell Wallace's Triathlon Journey: A Story of Transformation
Campbell Wallace credits his coach Grant for his extraordinary journey, breaking 5 hours in 70.3 and achieving personal growth.
Key Insights for Aspiring Pro Triathletes
Essential tips and strategies for transitioning into a professional triathlon career.
Ironman 70.3 Sunshine Coast: Australia's Premier 70.3 Triathlon Challenge
The picturesque Sunshine Coast half-Ironman in Mooloolaba, Australia boasts a scenic triathlon with varied swim conditions and a challenging bike and run that yields fast times.
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.
The Cost of Triathlon Coaching in Australian: Investing in Your Success
Explore the varying costs of triathlon coaching and understand the value and costs behind your investment in athletic growth.
For The Win
Race week is about keeping it as simple as possible. That means keeping your head out of the trough. Out of thoughts of what…
Straight Shooting
Coaching is not about bringing on success in an athlete, it’s about removing all the obstacles to it. I see my job as…
The Point Of Hesitation
The crux point that we will all come to is when we have to decide whether we are going to accept or resist. I…
True Intelligence: Gilesy’s Insight on Thought Hygiene and Inner Clarity
The essence of true intelligence, advocating for self-examination, inner clarity, and mindful expression to navigate life and sports effectively.
An Unveiling of Trust and Self-Discovery
Trust and self-reflection as critical drivers for breakthroughs and transformation in every athlete's journey.
The Grounding Power of Solidity in Triathlon
In the whirlwind of triathlon's growing fame, maintaining focus and leveraging the energy can propel athletes to peak performance.
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.
Demystifying Training Intensity Distribution for Triathletes: Finding the Right Balance
Striking the Perfect Balance Between Zones for Peak Performance.
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.
The Triathlete's Training Bible Book - Summary
Joe Friel's newest edition dives deep into triathlon training, merging art and science to guide seasoned athletes towards precision and peak performance.
Breaking Free from Athletic Prisons: A Journey Within 🏊♂️🚴♂️🏃♂️
Unlock the barriers limiting your athletic potential by embracing the present, avoiding judgment, and celebrating every step of your unique journey.
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.
Personalised Training Plans for Your Triathlon Goals
An experienced triathlon coach will fully customise your training plan based on your distinct goals, current fitness level, time commitments, and preferences through flexible online platforms and open communication.
In-person local coach or remote coaching?
The accessibility of remote coaching through video analysis and regular check-ins makes finding your ideal triathlon mentor possible, regardless of proximity, by opening up options to work with the best coaches aligned to your needs.
Finding Your Perfect Triathlon Coach
Carefully evaluating credentials, coaching approach, communication style, and overall rapport will help you select the ideal triathlon coach tailored to your unique needs and goals.
The embodied athlete
Power transfer requires an open pathway. The lightening rod that carries that energy source is your body. When athletes think of power transfer, they…
Breathe Easy
The most misunderstood aspect of physical training is the ratio of easy, moderate and hard. If you are struggling with a plateau in performance,…
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.
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.
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.
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.
Artificial intelligence
There is an enormous momentum around AI. Excitement, fear and doubt seem to be the predominant emotions that are being carried by that momentum.…
A step into the dark
There is no coming to light without the dark. There’s no coming to heaven without hell. Hell is made of our own torment.…
Get Busy Living
The conditions of life do not predetermine how we live. But trying to live life on a purely mental level predisposes us to a…
The River flows
When you really pay attention to life, you become aware that it’s all a flow. Sometimes it’s a meandering creek, sometimes it’…
Nerves
Our pre-race jitters need to be normalised, so that we are not resisting the feelings and escalating it to a level it need…
The Punisher
When we won’t face what is difficult, we make things difficult. Most of our aversion to difficulty is wrapped up in avoiding the…
Discovery
There isn’t a way. In the end, all good athletes will find out it was only ever about what was inside them. So,…
All Torque
Torque is power, transformed from intension to attention. They are two sides of the same coin made of torque. Psychological intension is made of…
Elegance
Worrying about worrying. It drives us all into a neurotic scan for an equilibrium that does not exist. But we can make the choice…
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.
Forecasting
Our ability to forecast trouble causes trouble. It’s like you have to convince yourself of all the catastrophic ways you could fail and…
Masks
We each build an image and a persona that we present to the world. Our mask as it were. Our best practice is to…
Show Up
Your racing is not about the course, the wind, the elevation or the other competitors.It’s all about you and your response. As…
The Dream
That’s how we live it. In a dream state of waiting. I’ve been waiting for something my whole life.The next goddam…
Disappearance
Fairly certain I am going to look back and regret the time I have wasted in this life of doing and stressing once all…
Normalise
Normal is a crazy idea. A projection made based on pure statistics. We are not robots and you can’t throw a blanket across…
The Moment of Truth
The true measure of strength lies in facing the truth head-on, without flinching. It's as simple as that. Your ability to…
Shackled
We follow our thoughts and those of the collective into a type of living oblivion. An oblivion devoid of any real tangible meaning. We…
Let It Die
Hanging on when we should let go is a road paved to hell. We invite suffering when we hold onto anything. Letting go is…
Toxic Positivity
Sounds paradoxical, right? How could positivity be negative? What you don’t accept in yourself goes deeper into the subconscious and comes out in…
Stay With It
In the bubbling caldron of the session, when you are really starting to taste it. That’s when the brain, starved of oxygen, starts…
Ironman Australia Reflections
It’s always a valuable experience watching an Ironman as a coach. These days I like to simply pay attention to what I observe,…
Growing Pains
Pain is the price we pay to play. The play of life. In Hindu philosophy, the word māyā refers to life’s play, the…
THE FEAR IS NEAR
It is an intimate feeling, right? The lump in your throat, the racing thoughts, elevated heart rate, increased respiration and pumping adrenaline. Often, it…
Speed Power And Flow
I grew up in surfing. I am most grateful for the lessons I got there. There were three aspects of great surfers that were…
Pain the way
Endurance sport is a painful place to put yourself. We often reference good athletes and their ability to suffer. What is rarely discussed is…
Identified
The fundamental cause of much of our suffering is the misidentification of form caused by the pure ignorance of the true nature of our…
Flowering
One hundred years from now, you, and no one you know, will be alive. Isn’t that a stunning reflection on how we should…
Observation
We are multidimensional beings that are simultaneously able to process inner and outer information at the same time. It’s nothing short of an…
Brain Training
It’s an exciting time as the advances in performance and what we know about the brain and our perception come together. The advances…
Neutral
The mind is so powerful, like a magnet, it attracts the flowing energy, regardless of what that energy contains. While ever we define ourselves…
The Beginning of the End
You can’t have a beginning without an end. When we really do get to the end of our tether, that’s where we…
A racing Mind is a Bursting Heart
What does your heart long for? This cavernous gap in between what our heart really longs for and where we find ourselves leaves us…
Trapped in Pain
I find it nearly impossible to stop my mind from slipping into nostalgia and remembrance. I’ve spent a lot of time seeing it…
Dialogues n Epilogues
Mental toughness, as it turns out, is the lack there-of. You can’t be mentally tough. If you are up in your head,…
Turning Point
Probably the most important aspect of physical training from what I have witnessed with both professional and amateur athletes is their ability to hold…
Active Rest
As a coach, I don’t do rest weeks. I don’t schedule drop off tapers either. Personally, I dose the volume, the intensity…
Spontaneity
Let go of the tow ropes that keep you anchored to safety. In the world of goals and performance, we rob ourselves blind of…
Storm Chasers
Stop trying to calm the storm, calm yourself and the storm will pass.
You Know It Ends
The movement of our mind is dynamic. It is not stable. Emotions, feelings, sense perceptions, are all in a constant state of flux. We…
Inviting Trouble
If you look for trouble, rest assured, you will find it. Scanning for danger will bring that danger to you. Seeking comfort will eventually…
Chaos
When you are suffering, stay at the bottom of that suffering until you find out who you are. Resiliency comes through the experience of…
Dark Clouds
These dark clouds keep invading our space. Collectively, we perpetuate these cycles of darkness, war and madness. This f..king genetic chain that we…
A painful Story
Anyone can play good cards, but it’s really about playing bad cards well. When the shit really hits the fan in an endurance…
Rock Bottom
The problem with getting what you want is that it breeds an expectation into you. Privilege teaches you to expect privilege. It snuffs out…
Entertaining Trouble
What do our instincts really know? This is a profound question for me as a coach. I mean, as athletes, we set scary goals.…
Weekend Racing
Big weekend of racing update. Mark jansen won the 50-54 cat at Davao 70.3 in the Philippines. He didn't have…
Motivations Shadow
The battle between motivation and apathy is real. Like anything in life, there is always light and darkness. Apathy is just a motivation shadow.…
Consider This
We are always strategising and thinking about how we are going to achieve our goals. Doubtful, worrying, anxious and fearful are the thought modes…
Power
Ultimately, we have to live with the paradox of performance. Opposite things can be simultaneously true. You can feel horrible and perform well. Conversely,…
Exercise Wheel
In my opinion, coaching is not about instructive data entry, neither is it about data analysis. Sure, they are inclusive, but that is certainly…
Fear Flows
What’s wrong with being scared shitless? Fear is only fear until you have met the challenge. Once you are present with the challenge,…
En-Courage-Ment
Courage is in the vacuum of “not knowing”. That is where we get stretched beyond what we “think” we are capable of. This is…
Superiority
Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm ~ Winston Churchill. That quote speaks to the truth that the inner fire…
Faith On Trial
As a collective, we lack trust. We fail to trust each other because we lack faith in ourselves.So yes, faith is on trial…
Excuses
This is going to sound like a shot across the bow, but it isn’t, it’s pure observation. Difficult sessions, bad weather, apathy,…
Rest
You can be completely inactive and be completely exhausted by the energy around you and, indeed, inside you. The rest is not inactivity. The…
Just Breathe
How did pressure become a badge of honour? When did the level of our anxiety become the measure of our effort? How did the…
Athletic Patience
Aristotle said: “Patience is bitter, but Its fruit is sweet.” We live in an era where patience is pretty thin. In a world of…
Racing in Hell
All races where you don’t feel your best are your greatest opportunities. The question is not about what is happening, the question is,…
En-Courage-Ment
Courage is in the vacuum of “not knowing”. That is where we get stretched beyond what we “think” we are capable of. This is…
The Perfect Prep
Waiting for the stars to align? For your big chance to shine? That perfect prep, that next big step. Yea, that lucky break.There’…
Dance On The Edge
We are always standing on a precipice. Reality is an edge. That edge is where the three rivers of life intersect; past, present and…
Destiny
It’s out there, on the periphery of your mind's eye, this goal that you hang out there. You want to believe…
Walk Away
If you are any type of athlete, in fact, if you are anyone at all wanting a higher level of performance from yourself and/…
The Love of Your Fate
Getting the hell out of your own road, that’s what this quote means. We make this profound choice to allow life to strengthen…
Handling Race Pressure
Gilesy explores the internal conflicts athletes face, emphasizing that true success stems from aligning feelings and instincts, and introduces somatic experiencing as a key method to prepare for challenges.
Focus
We lose focus for one simple reason. We are not focused. The problem is that we try to use the mind to focus. We…
Don't Tap Out
One of the most toxic performance thoughts an athlete can have is the measurement of time and distance in relationship to discomfort. The wanting…
The Race In The Pain
It’s not the pain in the race. It’s the race in the pain. We seem to think our performance level is governed…
The Name Of The Pain
We are pretty good at applying technology to the training equation, and we then feel like we are doing something proactive, and we are…
Mens Mental Health
Young men are 10 feet tall and bulletproof. A time will come though, from about 40 years of age, plus when the whole world…
Pressure
If you gain something, it is tainted by the same energy as not having it, which is the fear of losing it. It’s…
An Inconvenient Truth
No one really wants to hear from a guy that tells you that success is a slow, inconvenient process.We are a society that…
Breakthrough Now!
We have one major problem in sport with our training and preparation. We do everything based on a future that isn’t here yet.…
Loven the Pain
If it comes into your awareness, it’s coming to be integrated and absorbed, not avoided.In that crucible moment when the suck of…
Utility
There is a huge power at our disposal that we often don’t use to full effect in sport. In fact, many of us…
Conqueror or Saboteur?
There is the possibility to utterly conquer a performance. But it’s not about what you do. It’s about what you are willing…
Go On Feel
Go on, do it, trust your body. We only think we dictate to our bodies. We do no such thing. We are energetic creatures,…
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.
Race Face
There is always a lot of athlete talk about becoming one with the race. But even that hints at a separation. The truth is,…
Toughness
When we face the cold hard steel of challenge, that’s the moment of real truth. The hardest course, that deadly cross wind, that…
Fiction n Friction
Move out of the resistance to what you don’t want and accept it fully as part of the learning in this goal that you have set yourself.
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.
Lift
Lift, the state of zen and flow in sports, is created by focusing on enthusiasm, passion, and motivation, rather than allowing mental pressure, tension, and external noise to drain your energy and rob you of your best performance.
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.
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.
Reframe The Pain
Reframe your pain. Reframe the game. Stop thinking it, start allowing it.
The Mind Games
Some headspace advice for those about to race.
The Last 4 Weeks
This is the point where everyone wants to start testing how their preparation is going. A piece of advice, don't! Why? You…
The Power Of Now - Summary
Eckart Tolle's spiritual exploration offers profound insights on staying present, serving as an unparalleled manual for athletes at all levels.
The Art of War - Summary
Sun Tzu's ancient teachings emphasize clarity of mind, spiritual preparedness, and the idea that true victors win the battle even before it begins.
The Complete Enneagram - Summary
A blend of ancient symbols and modern psychology, the Enneagram offers profound self-knowledge and unique insights into human behavior.
Battlegrounds of Illusion
The battleground of sports performance and life. Sport is nothing other than a metaphor for life. Nothing is as tortured as an athletes un-…
Critical Mass
It’s so easy to be critical. We are brought up on it, but why? It occurs to me that my inner critic is…
Fragments
When we live life through projections, judgments, achievements, goals and outcomes, we live a life of fragmentation. I know this myself as I lived…
Haunted and Deluded
Don’t be deluded by imagination nor haunted or by memory, both of them are illusions created in the mind. The mind projects it’…
Precluding Opposites
Sometimes we just have to stop to learn key life lessons. I have just had such a period, painfully chaotic and wonderfully illuminating in…
The Wounded Mind
The uncomfortable, the unchartered, the unknown, the unfound, the unbound, the unlimited, all of them engender a feeling of aliveness, don’t they? The…
Functional Dysfunction
We train our bodies to function efficiently, and we train it for patterned movement. When we do that consistently we can reasonably expect that…
Motive
Attach to the process, not to the outcome. The outcome is a simple product of the process. External motivation will always eventually come up…
Mindset Setmind!
That word pretty much sums it up for me. A set of thoughts that I try to program into my mind. I set my…
The Athlete Stress Redress
I am stressed, I am anxious, I am doubtful, I am frightened, I am negative, I am frustrated. They are just some of the…
The Truth About Our Potential
Don’t ask your head to operate your heart, It can’t. There’s no reality to a life lived in thought. There’s…
Developmental
When I speak to athletes about their development, the conversation for them mostly revolves around the physical aspects, stress and recovery, physical nuisances such…
Hitting the Ground
Having it go wrong. Bad luck, injury, sickness, covid 19, but what about my goals? What about my dreams and outcomes? What about the…
The Soft Skills
Interesting that when we talk about the soft skills in coaching, it basically refers to anything that is psychological, in most coaching courses we…
Success and Failure
Failure is simply the left hand side of success’s face. Turn one way or the other but make no mistake, they are one…
The Power of Ground
Pressure to perform? Head spinning like a top? That congested, compressed, claustrophobic feeling of having no time and no space. That voice telling you…
Feeling Stuck
Often feeling stuck is a simple resistance to reality. The presentation of reality is as it is. That in of itself is not a…
Performance Anxiety
Anxiety itself is lack of one key ingredient, when it comes to any type of performance, presence. Anxiety fuels it’s tanks on ideas,…
Make Change or Stay the Same
If you make something a definition, you are going to stay in it, no matter how bad “you think” you want to change. We…
The Unforgettable Fire
Intrinsic motivation, a reason to act that comes from within. Doing something without any obvious external reward. When we really look into the nature…
What is the Goal?
As a coach of the physical, mental and yes spiritual if that word is important to you, my goal is very clear to me…
Taught to Win - Conditioned to Fail
Pressured by parents, teachers and peers to succeed from day one and god help you if you don’t. Our conditioning is a negative…
An Athletic Braille
Athletically people at times ask for something that they are not prepared for, or simply misunderstand. What does it mean to really go after…
Transforming Pain
I never considered myself talented. Yet I still got some decent results competing as a professional athlete. With experience and hindsight I can now…
Surrender As Performance Power
Endurance sport is hard! Is that not why we do it? Life is hard, is that not why we are living it? How hard…
Defeat is a state of mind
No one is ever defeated until defeat is accepted. Defeat takes many forms; competition loss is only one form of defeat. You are defeated…
Your X-Factor
If you really want to find the x-factor of the athlete in you, there’s only one rule to apply. Refuse to impersonate.
Competitiveness
We so misunderstand the meaning of this word. If we use it to mean we want to get the zenith of performance from ourselves…
Perception
We make unconscious decisions about challenges and difficulties. Things are only as hard as they seem. So my question is, how hard are you…
Mastering Huskisson Triathlon: A Comprehensive Coach's Analysis
Exploring the blend of endurance and speed, this detailed account show how specific training and mental readiness led athletes to success at Huskisson tri.
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