If there's one thing I want for the athletes to learn after working with me (besides joy in sport), it's a razor sharp understanding of their "perceived exertion". This refers to how hard an athlete feels they are working during physical activity, based on their own assessment of effort, fatigue, and physical sensations like breathing rate and muscle fatigue.

I've been getting lots of questions recently from local athletes who I do not coach, or just see for 1v1 for technique work, centered around how much and for how long should they train leading into their big endurance event.

Racing is in full swing during the heart of summer, and I’ve been having frequent conversations with athletes about the mounting pressure of race performance expectations and their next steps.

When athletes commit to something, it often requires a great deal of grit, resolve and sometimes pure willpower. I like to use the word, tenacity. It's what gets athletes up early in the dark to start a trainer ride or get to the pool. It's required when they put on both the run shoes and the jacket because it's raining outside. And it's accessed when an athlete is deep into a 20min threshold test.

"If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together." This quote came to mind after Jennifer and I concluded our 10th annual Open Water Swim Clinic on Saturday. We had two separate groups of 30 athletes based on ability (and/or anxiousness with open water) that each spent 1.5 hours with us.

The above picture was taken many years ago (hence that young coach in the middle) a couple of days before Ironman Texas. Four of us had Swimskiins on (a light, non-buoyant one-piece worn over a triathlon kit allowed in non-wetsuit races) as we were getting ready for a practice swim.

Training and getting strong as a cyclist offers numerous benefits. It significantly improves leg strength (and upper body strength if you’re a mountain biker) and cardiovascular fitness. You have a wide range of efforts and zones to explore, making it an incredibly enjoyable experience. And you can spend extended periods on the bike, embarking on long journeys.

I’ve listened to several podcasts over the past year that delved into the human mind and its memory. In numerous discussions, the prevailing notion is that we, as humans, are not intended to retain every detail of every moment. Our “computing power” is far greater than that of a mere “life storage unit.”

Over the years, I’ve observed a common trait among exceptional coaches: their genuine joy in sharing knowledge with their peers, other coaches. While this may seem intuitive to most, it wasn’t to me in my early coaching days.

I frequently receive inquiries about the appropriate duration of a “recovery” period following significant endurance events and its characteristics. It’s evident that various individual factors may influence this, but certain commonalities apply to everyone.

When we ascend to higher elevations, the pressure decreases, making it more challenging to transfer oxygen into the bloodstream. In response, our body produces more of the hormone erythropoietin (EPO), leading to an increased production of red blood cells.

With the season in full swing for many, I thought I’d review one of the core training philosophies that has been with Team MPI since its inception: consistency, frequency, and self-awareness. I’ll use my mother-in-law, Pat, affectionately known as “Mom,” as an example.