In todays Friday Fat Black Pete and chew the fat on developing mental fortitude and how attitude and how you train can help you develop the mental toughness needed to reach your potential.

What We Cover:

• Session examples
• 5 keys to Mental Strength
• Where mental strength is developed in training
• Where athletes let themselves down
• Focus
• What Pete learnt in Cairns Ironman - so bloody important to further successes
• Race and Training reflections - why they're super important

Episode Sponsor:

Challenge Gold Coast is set to become one of those must do bucket list races on the Australian calendar. It’s a spectacular course – nice creek swim, undulating and challenging bike course through Currumbin and Tallebudgera Valleys (with King of the Mountain ‘The Beast’ section timed separately) and run with stunning water views along Currumbin creek, Currumbin and Tugun beaches. Entries are selling fast and will likely close off in the next week or two. Don't miss out on this inaugural Challenge race.

Sign up here before it's too late: http://www.challenge-goldcoast.com.au/

Success Quote:

• "Courage doesn't mean you don't get afraid. Courage means you don't let fear stop you." -- Bethany Hamilton

Show Links:

• Six elements of mental toughness

This weeks FFB Pete and I get to chew the fat with super successful coach Sergio Borges who not only has 128 Kona qualifiers to his name but isn't afraid to think and coach outside the box which obviously resonates with Pete and I.

Sergio has dedicated the last 19 years to studying the ART and science of triathlon training. During this time, he has competed in hundreds of races of all distances including 21 Ironman races around the world (9:38 PR), over 60 half ironmans (4:12 PR), qualifying for the Hawaii Ironman World Championships seven times (so far). Sergio has also been nominated as "All American" by USA Triathlon, 9 times. After over 10 years of investment banking, he decided to apply his expertise to personal triathlon coaching. Sergio is a certified Level III USA Triathlon coach, Level II ITU Triathlon Coach, Level II USA cycling coach, coached the USA Elite, Junior Elite and U23 team at the World Duathlon in Switzerland in 2003 and the U23 Tri national team in 2004. Also has worked with USAT at the Collegiate National Camps, Recruitment Camps, lecturing at the Coaching Level I and II Clinics and writes for 3 sport magazines. Sergio was involved in the FIRST ever Paratriathlon Camp organized by CAF, is the founder of the JCC Triathlon Master Program and the Kids XTeam Triathlon Club.

In 2004 he developed his own method – Inverted Training Periodisation and have since perfect it making Ironman Champions, Top 3 in 70.3 Races and many AG podiums around the World. Sergio combines his vast experience coaching athletes of all ages and abilities with a fundamental belief in the need for an individualised and realistic training plan for each athlete achieve his or her goal -- from staying healthy to becoming a champion!

What We Cover:

• The periodisation model truly needed for triathletes and it's not to whats typically focused on
• Load Consistency
• Why fitness cannot and should not be rushed
• What you have to bring to the table
•  Why neuromuscular efficiency is key to long course success
• What really needs to be focused on first
• What NEEDS to come before you add volume
• The truth about swimming and its importance in half and full iron distance racing
• Basically we chew the fat on so much more to help you be your best

Links:

Inverted Periodisation
Sergio Borges X Training on Facebook
http://www.sdxtraining.com/new/
Endurance Movie with Haile Gebrselassie

Episode #32 of the Friday Fat Black has to be one of our best and longest yet. Pete and I get the pleasure of speaking with Greg Muller of Pure-Athlete. Greg completely blows us away with his knowledge on what's truly important to get the performances you desire.

What We Cover:

• Major learnings and lessons of Performance from the military
• One of the biggest disciplines you need to acquire to ensure success
• The true foundations of Performance
• Preparation underpins everything
• Standards for Performance
• How being too strict can make performance fall away
• Why having the fundamentals are paramount
• Hyperbolic Discounting, what it is and why it matters
• How thoughts and belief systems affect performance
• The most important question we have to ask and continually ask
• Biochemical Individuality
• The two different mindsets and which one you need to have for success in sport and life
• Praxis - The integration of belief and behaviour
• The importance of critical thinking
• The two things that illicit change
• The laws of learning
• The 'tapes' we play in our head
• The Totem Pole
  • Thoughts, Breathing, Hydration, Emotions, Nutrition, Bodycare and Exercise
• Justifications - the question to really ask ourselves
• The simple breathing formula to check stress levels
• Pure Athlete products, what and why they came about
• Recovery and it's importance - especially relaxing the mind
• What counts
• And so much more

Links:

http://www.pure-athlete.com/

TriSpecific FFB listener 20% discount code: pureaust and since the payments are in euro, don't worry Greg will look after you with some bonus products. 

Pure Athlete Recovery and the Totem Pole

Book Recommendations:
Power Versus Force

Your Body's Many Cries For Water

Water Logged

You can connect with Greg via info@pure-athlete.com

Today's Friday Fat Black comes to your from Far North Queensland (FNQ) as athletes gear up for Ironman this weekend. Pete and I cover some great tips for those racing and even if you're not racing these tips are going to help you. We discuss goals, attitudes, choices, mental states and how rushing performance on race day can ultimately kill your performance.

What we cover:

• Racing Ironman
• Head Stuff, mental agility
• Were the head goes the body follows
• Are focusing on goals and outcomes hurting your performance
• Self Sabotage
• Choices
• Attitudes
• Rushing Performance
• TriSpecific's Pillars to Triathlon Success
• The #NewTarmac from Specialized and Kristian trip to the Dandenongs to ride it

Links:

• Specialized's Tarmac Rider-First Engineered™
• TS Pillars to Triathlon Success Report
• James Clear
  • jamesclear.com/marginal-gains
  • jamesclear.com/goals-systems

In episode 30 of the Friday Fat Black, Pete and I get to speak with TS and recent sub 10 hour athlete and ALL BLACKS Strength & Conditioning Coach Nicholas Gill on all things recovery. Nic understands that his athletes need to be able to work hard, recover quickly so that they adapt quickly and can get stuck back into more work. Thus creating optimal performance.

It's through this work and with multitudes of other elite athletes that Nic has a great handle on the recovery methods to use. He has also written numerous papers and peered revied journals on the subjects of compression and cold therapy.

What we cover:

• The all important recovery strategies

• The recovery KING

• What your days should start with

• Compression, the what, the how, the when, the type and the ALL BLACKS policy on them.

• Can compression garments actually hinder performance?

• When most injuries happen

• The mental side of recovery methods

• Can recovery be enhanced too much and affect the stress we want and need on the body to improve?

• Cold Baths - do they really work?

• Strategies for time poor athletes

• The 5 key things that need to be covered for optimal tissue health

• The backbone of performance … and what kills it

• Some simple things to do when your tired and to not let recovery go out the window

• Salt Baths … why?

Links:

Nicholas Gill (All Blacks S&C Coach)

Pure-Athlete

Sports Pump / Graduated Compression boots

Trigger Point Tools

Resets

Dont have a bath … how about these options

kids pools

Ants pants blow up baths

http://www.icoolsport.com/

https://www.optomo.com.au/product/inflatable-ice-bath-solo/

https://www.optomo.com.au/product/inflatable-ice-bath-team/

In todays podcast Pete and I get to interview successful age grouper, businessman and family man Ricky Jeffs of the erdigroup and Urban Hotel group.

Ricky has been involved in triathlon since 1985 and has done 15 Ironmans while running a very successful and busy business. In this episode Ricky gives us some amazing insights on both business and in Ironman. There are so many great things in this podcast you'll have to listen again and again so you can implement and thus help with your own life success. One of my favourites was getting inspired from best practice.

We Cover:

• What it takes to get more out of your race day and your sport
• What's really important
• The value of patience, working hard and being realistic with your life circumstances
• Choices
• The Schedule
• Motivation
• Goals
• That Anything is Possible in Life
• How to be ready when the stars align and what you have to do when the opportunities present themselves
• How to get stuff done in a busy life
• The benefits of a good team
• Why having a mentor is key
• A little mind hack to improve your brain!
• And so much more #moreawesome stuff.

Links:

Les Erdi Biography "Whatever It Is, This Is What It Is" 
This is the book I picked up "stole" from Urban Brisbane and if you're interested in success in life and business then get yourself a copy.

Jack Welch Book "Winning"

Urban Hotel

In todays Friday Fat Black Pete and I dive into the importance of being realistic about the goals and expectations you set yourself.

Personally I hate the saying "you have to be realistic" or "realistically, I can only ....", to me that is being  mired in mediocrity. I love Big Hairy Audacious Goals and while you could look at some not being 'realistic' right now - if you are willing to commit (you do know there is an enormous difference in being interested or being committed don't you) and give it the time, patience and dedication needed, backed with a never give up on your dreams attitude then almost anything is truly possible.

We Cover:

- How goals and expectations are a doubled edged sword

- Breaking goals into two parts: Process and Move you forward goals

- Focus and concentration

- The NEED to look at things from a neutral perspective: What are the 'facts' right now.

- Why you shouldn't judge your self worth on a workout or result

- The expectations you should start with

- Race day, how we focus on the wrong things which push us away from the goals we want.

- Life circumstances

- When to take your goals and expectations with you and when to leave the behind

- Why you choke or make stupid avoidable mistakes in a race

- and so much more

Links:

Goal Setting

Visioning

Understanding Your Why

The mindset needed to reach your goals

In todays episode of the Friday Fat Black, Pete and I talk go deep into the understanding differences in training on gender and body types and why it's important to understand.

We cover:

• Why understanding the differences on gender and body type matter
• How different body types react differently to training
• The 3 nails that athletes (namely male ones) hammer into the preverbal coffin.
• Why program structure matters
• Why guys bodies breakdown more then our female counterparts
• How we create an 'insurance policy' that allows us to train hard consistently
• Understanding that every type of training has a form of catholic and anabolic response and why they're both important in our sport
• Understand the distinct hormonal shift that occurs in training for Ironman and how to mitigate the negative effects
• What contributes to anabolic states and how they help us athletically and health wise
• What contributes to catabolic states and how they break us down
• Stress and important stress reduction techniques
• And so much more

Links:

Breathing Podcast

Resets

In this weeks FFB podcast Pete and I get the pleasure of interviewing a good friend of mine and respiration specialist and practicing Anaesthetist, coach and pretty hand athlete Andrew Sellars.

Andrew and I have know each other for about 8 years

We cover:

• The untapped potential of breathing
• Simple effective cost free techniques to improve your breathing efficiency
• The problems with breathing tools like the power lung / power breathe
• Cramping in swim
• Why breath training should be a high priority
• Understanding respiration rate and patterning
• How your respiratory system is limting your performance
• Breathing coordination
• Where real core stability comes from
• and so much more.

Links:

Find out more about Andrew
http://www.balancepointracing.com/

Bio Harness
http://www.zephyranywhere.com/products/bioharness-3/

Spiro-Tiger
- USA/Canada
- Aus/Nz
- Europe

Fact-Canada / Forum re Spiro Tiger

On todays episode of the Friday Fat Black Pete and I talk go deep in carbohydrate loading and why it's a joke and unfortunately the joke ends up on you the athlete.

Here’s what we cover:

• Why we're passionate about this topic and the basis of this rant
• The two mistakes athletes make which become show stoppers
• My story about carbo-loading
• Why feeling hungry does not mean you're lacing in energy and that racing 'hungry' is ok
• Why athletes bonk / hit the wall
• How much storage do we actually have
• Your true energy needs in taper
• Can you increase CHO energy stores in race week. Fact or Fiction?
• The long term implications and consequences of long term fuelling habits of most triathletes
• The only two places the fuel i.e. CHO can go once your muscles and liver are full
• Carbohydrate intolerance
• Weight gain in race - it's not just water
• Our bodies infinite ability to store fat bought about by carbs
• How not to feel heavy, lethargic and sick on race morning
• The two biggest mistakes athletes make in the race itself
• The true reasons nutrition companies tell you to CHO load and how much cals you 'need' per hour to prevent the dreaded bonk
• The disconnect on what all carbohydrate sources actually are
• Changing what you do week-in-week-out in race week and it's effects
• Is more better?
• What about athletes that are fat adapted and topping off muscle and liver glycogen stores
• N=1 and what that means
• Racing IM Australia next and you're still a carb dependent athlete? - what you can do next week not to negatively impact your race performance
• And so much more

On todays episode of the Friday Fat Black Pete and I talk about a whole load of different topics. 

Here's what we cover:

• Learn about the benefits of Video analysis and how we're implementing it with our coached athletes and even some of our Blueprint athletes.
• Breathing and using a Turbine
• Injury beliefs - where run injuries maybe actually coming from
• Injury prevention tips 
• Thoughts on tri shoes for the Ironman bike v road bike shoes
• #ALLERGICTOAVERAGE CAPS
• Exciting meetings I had a couple of weeks back with Specialized, Trigger Point and Craig Percival 
• More on swim mistakes
• TriSpecific Camps (July is looking locked in ... details coming)
• One of the biggest killers of performance and the psychological ramifications
• FOCUS 
• Visioning, how it works and use the whiteboard
• And more

Friday Fat Black Episode 23 - Swimming with Craig Percival

In this FFB, Pete and I get the pleasure of speaking with Craig Percival about swimming, the common mistakes and some very simple tips to help you get out of the water faster and in better shape. 

I've know Craig for a number of years through Aquashop and being around Iornman expos but wanted to get him on our podcast after seeing some success his had with athletes and especially in the swim discipline. 

I'm talking wholesale changes in swim times and this is what perked my ears up.  

Craig is not only a very good swimmer himself (now holds the 10k swim record at Ultraman Canada including days 1 and 2) but also a very good coach too. 

It's a cracking episode.

Enjoy.

We'd love it if you are getting enjoyment and great advice from our podcasts if you could give us a 5-Star rating and review on iTunes we'd be forever grateful. 

In this weeks Friday Fat Black Episode Pete and I go through a bit of a debrief of Ironman Melbourne. 

The good, the bad, the ugly. 

What were the good things we saw? 

What were the avoidable mistakes athletes were making? 

A bit of a fun FFB this week with some good tips you can take to the bank. 

Enjoy

We'd love it if you are getting enjoyment and great advice from our podcast if you could give us a 5-Star rating and review on iTunes we'd be forever grateful. 

Pete and I get the pleasure to speak to Chris 'Chicken' Chapman owner behind "The Running Company" specialised running stores around Australia.

Chris brings a wealth of knowledge to the table and we discuss the differences in running for Ironman triathlon and straight running. 

The intricacies of shoes choice and athlete and how to ensure you get the right shoe for you. 

We look at common mistakes and a whole lot more. 

Kudos to Chris for recording this with us the morning after racing Ironman Melbourne. 

Friday Fat Black Episode 20 - Why Repetition Works

In todays episode Pete and I go through the 6 main reasons why repetition is SO important to realising your potential in Ironman. 

We tie it in with some game changing sessions thoughts.

Enjoy. 

Friday Fat Black Episode 19 - Mojo and Ironman Melbourne Race Week

Lost your mojo? Pete and I talk about mojo and the steps to get it back.

We go through race week and race day to give you some solid tips to be your best. 

In this weeks Friday Fat Black, Pete and I go into the art of the Ironman taper and continue on with mistakes we see in the lead up to the race and in race week itself. 

Today Pete and I go into talking the real starting point on fitness that most athletes neglect. Why?Because it's not really that sexy or could be considered boring. But it keeps you injury free and consistent which is the backbone of ultimate performance. 

We also touch on 3 areas you need to be looking if you have any sort of lower leg injury.

And finally we cover some listener QNA. 

It's a ripper of a podcast. 

Enjoy

Friday Fat Black Episode 16 - Belief

Today Pete and I talk about Belief. The mind is powerful when used in the right way and will help you make huge gains in training, racing and life. 

Enjoy.

Friday Fat Black Episode 15 - The Critical Focuses Leading into Ironman Melbourne

This week Pete and go into depths in discussing all those critical aspects you need to have dialled in over this next 5 weeks leading into Ironman Melbourne. 

Or any race really. 

We cover consistency, sleep, nutrition, hydration, recovery protocols and removal of stressors.

Again we cover all things that will improve your Ironman triathlon game.