I was once what you might call a bit of a ‘reluctant flier’. While I didn’t quite have a B.A. Baracus-type of anxiety around it, it wasn’t my favorite means of transportation. I wouldn’t not fly, but I would definitely check to see how long the drive would have been, for places where I wanted to go. And while I typically ended up boarding a plane to get to those places, it was rare that I actually enjoyed myself on it. You see, I hated turbulence. The plane would start shaking, and maybe do that little drop-thing that it does, and my head would instantly go to that scene from Castaway, when the FedEx plane plunged into the Pacific.

Someday, 20-30 years from now, the next generation of endurance sport athletes, and non-athletes for that matter, will ask the million-dollar question: “What did you do during the COVID-19 Pandemic?”

As a triathlete, a cyclist, a runner trying to achieve your goals, you are most likely very driven. Your competitive spirit is brimming over the top and that motivates you to train. Add in your job/career and your family and it’s clear how busy your life is. Add in the context of a culture that glorifies busyness and has made exhaustion a status symbol. Burnout and even resentment toward your sport of choice is a very real possibility.

The concept of a massive over-distance day is nothing new to endurance athletes and something many do during their overload block of training for their key race (Ironman, ultra-marathon run or ultra-distance bike race like The Dirty Kanza 200). Personally, as an athlete and as a coach I am a big fan of this for multiple reasons I’ll explain here. There’s both an equal part physical training stimulus and a mental fitness stimulus. If one has never done an extreme endurance activity it’s kind of its own rite of passage if you will – the endurance athlete’s rite of passage.

Coach Tim Snow started out writing a blog post called The Butterfly Affect, which ended up turning into something much more complex, and lengthy. It turned into something that could not really be most effectively shared in a blog-type setting. But, we wanted to make sure that it was made available to you in the typical way that you access our written content. To that end, please see, below, three different links, all of which will allow you to access the writing, in three different forms.

Caffeine can be a great tool for athletes of all abilities used to enhance performance. However, when abused (or not used as a tool), it can be a detriment to your training and racing.

Rest in peace old friend…I know nothing of the man, other than what was available, to me, on Wikipedia. He was an author, and he died in 1936. I didn’t get much further than that. Having said that, he helped me to, in a single line, sum up what coaching is really all about. At least to me, and all of us at QT2 Systems, OutRival Racing, The Run Formula, and The Cycling Formula.

Winter can be depressing for many runners, cyclists and triathletes. It can often mean more time on the “dreadmill”, the indoor trainer and/or bundled up for slippery runs. I’m not going to lie I spent many years doing that- hours upon hours on the trainer in the winter, running on the dreadmill several times a week when conditions were nasty outside. However too much of this indoor training over time can eventually burn you out. If it hasn’t happened already consider yourself lucky. If you live in an area that sees a fair amount of snow there are other options you can build in to supplement your base training that will not only offset the boredom factor of indoor training and be a lot more fun, but also can build significant fitness! Wherever possible I try to build adventure into my own training and the athletes I coach.

We bought a studio! Sorry, let me rephrase…QT2 Systems, LLC bought a studio! A cycling studio. Ok, so I’m a little late with this. We bought it a year ago. It is exactly what we always wanted to do, but simply never saw as a feasible option, because the start-up costs would be such a tremendous obstacle. Well, sometimes feasibility has a way of working itself out. Somebody builds it out, exactly as you would have wanted it, creates a business around it, runs it, and then comes to a point where life simply takes them in a different direction than originally planned. That’s pretty much how we found ourselves with a studio.

Self doubt can be an athlete’s worst nightmare. It can impact your workouts, keep you up at night, and taunt you on race day. At some point, all athletes will experience some form of self doubt in their career, and it's important to learn to fight these feelings so they don't debilitate us. As I always say, mental toughness isn't something athletes are born with it's something they learn over time and something there is ALWAYS room for growth in. Below are some tips when you are experiencing self doubt.