Welcome To Endurance CornerStart the process of achieving your triathlon goals with our world class triathlon coaches. Through this site, we have made available a free triathlon training library as well as over 1,000 searchable articles in our database. If you want to connect with us then consider attending one of our cycling-focused triathlon camps. Feel free to contact us with your questions and feedback. Next up is our Boulder Camp in June. Break Through the Walls in Your Mind
What is more important are the breakthroughs I’ve had in my head, and those are what I’d like to share. Those moments -- like the eureka moment we all get when we solve a math problem -- really do feel as if walls have been removed in our minds, and where things that seemed so separate and incompatible suddenly become dualities, two sides of the same coin. The Battle Against Complacency
So what exactly is it? Breaking Through is Hard to Do
There is no question that breakthrough solutions (that is to say bursts of creativity) develop from at least two separate strategies. Backing a Breakthrough
So when I look at six years of (mostly) consistent training, what made the difference? What took me from being another focused age-grouper to being a faster, focused age-grouper? Bouncing Back
A lot of us tend to throw our toys out of the crib and blame it on the conditions or someone else. I think there are several things we need to do when we have a disappointment in a race. First thing is give yourself at least 24-48 hours before you make any rash decisions Your second step should be to take a step back and look at what happened! Mental and Emotional Pacing
Fast and Deep
He pointed out that we had a great day ahead -- actually, a world class day. The river was almost at its highest level due to recent storms. A few more feet, and the river would be closed. He informed us that almost the whole ride would be Class V rapids which increased the level of danger. After some debate (my partner is the cautious one operating out of the Worst Case Scenario Guidebook), we elected to take the trip. Training in Kauai
Athletes and Statins
Tackling Weaknesses for a Breakthrough
Breakthrough Training: Four Key Lessons for the Serious, Frustrated Athlete
Since my sample of athletes are fairly uniform in athletic history, the key to attaining a breakthrough performance for these athletes more often than not comes down to a few slight tweaks to the way they have been doing things. Mental Toughness Takes Many Forms
Years of training, racing and coaching have expanded my perspective of mental toughness. It definitely pays to be mentally tough when you’re 20 miles into the ironman marathon and you feel like you can’t possibly take another step. But mental toughness is needed long before the 20-mile mark, or even the starting line. It is mental toughness that helps to build real, race day fitness. Mental Rawhide
Similar to many aspects of common sense, it’s hard to really define what we mean by mental toughness. This is pretty important, since most of us hope to enhance our mental toughness and it’s hard to enhance what you cannot describe. Being Tough... When You Need to Be
Mental Toughness: A Physiologist’s Perspective
What is Mental Toughness?
I’ve come from the “slow class” at a below average high school which was nearly closed down the year I graduated to getting an honours degree in a tough subject. I’ve beaten alcoholism and stayed away even when I’ve been homeless. I’ve been attacked with knives on several occasions. I’ve worked 16-hour overnight shifts with only a 20-minute break picking orders in warehouses. I’ve spent winters without hot water and days without food. I’ve run through a heart attack in a sprint triathlon (winning my age group). And I’ve sat through a Nelly Furtado gig for a girl. I’d like to think all of that was for something -- even the pop concert was a learning experience -- but is this sort of toughness required for Kona? The Will to Win
As I get to know these individuals, I find they usually have a story with a crucible moment. Something happened to someone they love dearly or to themselves that involved making a tremendously hard choice. These are the individuals that go on to great success on their chosen path. Training Around Injury Is Different Than Training Through Injury
As a coach and chiropractor who gives advice professionally to super motivated athletes I always recommend training around an injury. I get very uncomfortable (some might say emotional) when an athlete tries to train through an injury. I am very willing to explore a healthy, motivated athlete’s limits. Likewise, I am willing to explore his or her limits as we safely train around injury. What follows is an ongoing case study. Coaching Styles
Be Tough
When people talk about being tough, they tend to think about gritting their teeth, sucking it up, pushing through the pain and displaying to themselves and those looking on that they go hard all the time. They do not rest or take it easy; surely this is the result of a strong mind that allows them to push through the pain. From my viewpoint, this couldn’t be further from the truth, nor is it what makes someone mentally tough. Workout of the Month: Swim to Bike Transition
Everyday Toughness
Leadville Mountain Bike - Prep
The Defining Moment
When I began my eight week preparation for the race, I had no idea what I was capable of doing from a time perspective but as the training unfolded, it appeared as if sub-3 might be possible. As I stood on the starting line, waiting for the gun to go off, I went over my plan: "I will run by heart rate and I will let the conditions and the terrain dictate my pace." Leadville Mountain Bike - Overview
Further or Faster - The Midseason Dilemma
Farming Fitness
Well, I’m signed up for IMC this year and appear to be stringing together some consistent training. In full disclosure, I have signed up for and cancelled out of two other ironman races in the last five years, but this one seems to be sticking. In my trip back to ironman fitness, I’m attempting to follow the advice I laid out five years ago: to train as much as I can consistently train. Mental Skills for Racing
Who's Got the Bacon?
The report received a great deal of media attention. But how much of what was reported in the news should concern you? How to Qualify - Kona Threshold Bike Fitness
Once you’ve demonstrated a deep understanding of my Principles of Pace, the next step in your development is considering how and where to apply additional effort into your event. With California 70.3 just completed, I’m going to share a case study that will help illustrate strategic hammering! Recent Threads Started by YouRecent Replies By You |


Breakthrough training is often interpreted as a sort of magic bullet. I still hope for the day when I'll wake up to find myself swimming consecutive 1:15 100s and 6-minute mile pace doesn’t take any real effort. It hasn't happened yet though.
After a failed attempt at a first draft of this article, I went back to the drawing board. In other words, I logged on to Google. When I entered the word “complacency” I got a page full of websites listing official definitions. I read through a number of them and even ventured to Urban Dictionary to see if someone had a clever offbeat definition (they did not; though it was in there). The online dictionaries all had nearly the same definitions and two words seemed to be the most common: “self-satisfaction” and “unaware(ness)” What this tells me is that complacency is essentially always an afterthought. It is not something felt in the present, but something that a person likely identified in themselves when trying to find out what went wrong.
I’ve been reading quite a bit recently on the subject of creativity, as it seems to be vogue in the literature of business, education and even neuroscience. It’s a subject that has interested me for some time and our research group at Stanford was looking at measures of enhanced creativity in patients with bipolar (manic-depressive) disease 15 years ago.
In the six years since I started ironman I cannot think of a single breakthrough training day. There have been many memorable sessions -- some for the scenery, others for the company, some where I went further than I had before and others where I worked harder -- but no individual session stands out for leading to a breakthrough in my performance. I'm not starting another article on consistency -- it is important -- but just being consistent wasn't enough.
I am pretty sure that most of us have had a disappointing race or athletic performance in our career. If you have not, consider yourself lucky!
Every year, we give our daughter and our nephews an adventure for Christmas. One year, we decided that the adventure would be white river rafting in the Gauley River. We had a hint of things to come when the guide asked to discuss the day’s adventure privately with us.
I recently returned from Hawaii and wanted to share tips in case you find yourself cycling or training for triathlon on the island of Kauai. The island is a special place with a different vibe than you’ll find on the more crowded islands.
In a
You know those sessions that cause you to just cringe in fear if anyone even mentions them? We all have them. The coach says, "Okay, today we are going to do a solo bike TT for one hour, best possible pace," or "1500m TT in the pool," and you get that shudder.
Mental toughness comes in many forms. Often, mental toughness is defined as the ability to suffer more than the competition during a race.
What subject could be more germane to a group of endurance athletes than mental toughness? After all, given the vast evidence supporting the central governor theory of fatigue, it follows that increasing mental toughness will boost performance. I propose further that we are all tough on crime, we dole out tough love and even our cleaning products are tough on stains, so c’mon: let’s all get tough.
When trying to become a successful athlete it’s not hard to drive yourself into submission thinking you need to be physically tough every minute of every day. The reality is we need to learn when to be physically tough, when to be mentally tough, and at times, when to be neither. Then again, being neither often takes a bit of mental fortitude. As a result, not being tough can be the toughest thing for a lot of us. The key to athletic success is not only deciding how to be tough, but what tough really is and in what scenario. There are a variety of ways to make yourself strong, durable, and in the process a better athlete
During my time as an athlete I have experienced a few injuries. My personal experience reminds me that pain tolerance cannot be trusted when a physician or coach is evaluating an injured athlete’s ability to safely train.
by Mike Corona
Following on from
Throughout my athletic career, there have been defining moments that will be forever marked in my mind. I had one of those occurrences recently near the end of my first sub-3-hour marathon.
“Go fast when the race is slow”