Lessons Learned From 2023

I am more hungry than ever before for the 2024 Season.

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Video by Talbot Cox
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It’s good one time I did an interview one hour I won’t name who I did it with one hour interview at the end of the interview went to the other side of the camera oh didn’t record can we do it again I did you I did I did in 12

Minutes okay well that’s let’s turn this video into that one that’s what this is going to be too all right end of the year uh basically just a recap of the season and anything you You’ learned that you haven’t already mentioned throughout the year and yeah this year

Um I was super motivated coming into this year for sure well first I had a big downturn there after Kona if you recall I retired from the Iron Man not the brand Iron Man the distance Iron Man and so I was like I’m going all in on middle distance this year

And yeah you know I’ve been doing it a long time I’ve got a lot of knowledge now I’ve got a lot of experience now but I would say the theme of this season has been and um will be um acknowledging reality you know I think I’ve fail I think I think part of

My failure to acknowledge reality is a little bit of like naivity and then a little bit of like not wanting to acknowledge reality so I train with a lot of young guys you know Trevor’s I don’t know 24 Ben’s 23 Sam’s like 27 or 28 I trained with a lot of young guys

And you know when I was younger I was like the guy who could train crazy hard and didn’t need to recover and I’ll just break you you know type stuff and that’s cool you know it’s it’s nice to be young that’s for sure you know as it as the

Time has going on definitely I’m watching you know my recovery capacity and my capacity to do I won’t say yeah stupid things I’d say stupid you don’t need to do a lot of these things that we do when we’re younger uh my my capacity to do that stuff has definitely gotten

Less the stupid stuff anyhow I have to be a lot smarter now so I think that’s going to be the overarching theme of this video is my acknowledgement that I am no longer 24 years old so the season started quite well you know training was going well I uh enrolled in the Super

League indoor Triathlon it was probably the highlight of the Season quite honestly made it to the final you know that was a beyond my expectations actually entered the lead of the final heat not the lead of the race but the lead of the final heat on the final day

Uh for like a brief second and it was a really cool experience and that race was a lot of fun man like I really enjoyed that I would do that again I don’t think it suits me in any way but I other than it being on zift but um amazing experience

They do a great job Super League does amazing work came home got right back onto the grind was feeling actually extremely confident so confident that I decided to do Miami challenge Miami or Clash Miami on like Monday of a Friday race and decided I would not taper whatsoever and

Um just roll in one day before the race no taper and I felt confident that I could win and you know that’s a little bit arrogant um that’s a little bit naive and anyhow I got I guess what I deserved in that on lap I think 16 of 18

On the bike and I was in pretty good position I was riding okay uh I crashed and hurt my knee quite badly and I’ve never dnfed to Triathlon and I didn’t intend to but unfortunately it was so painful to push against the pedals with my right leg that I figured I would do

Long-term damage if I continued and that’s my Golden Rule of the dnf is if you’re going to do long-term damage then you probably should not finish and so that is my first dnf so we went from the season high in Montreal to probably the season low in

Miami um and that was talbet and I solo mission on that one and talet and I are do not do good when we are together and we ate fast food for every single meal it’s all Tal’s fa he forces me too by the way like I tell him we got to go eat

Fresh fruit and vegetables he’s like no Pizza Hut Taco Bell we have to do it and so that’s what we ate for every meal had a horrible travel home got really sick we made videos about that was sick for like a month um you know of course like

A smart person didn’t listen to my body whatsoever trained through every second of it actually with pride that I’m training through it um because I’ve never not trained through an illness so probably prolonged that longer than it needed to go had to pull out of Oceanside which is disappointing and

Then approximately mid April started to come around um and then you know Panic trained into St George because it’s like oh damn I’m like not very fit and you know took him basically a month off of good high-intensity training uh so rolled into St George and unfortunately you know I do this taper

Set the day before the race just simp set something like 425s descend 1 to 4 450s descend 1 to 4 something like that and I descended down to like 32 seconds in yards for a 50 and I’m I was like sprinting and so I knew that this is not

Going to go well I of course you don’t let that into your mind but deep down inside I knew this was not going to go well and um you know the entire day that race never felt strong felt weak and in terms of absolute numbers other than my

First Sint George it was my worst St George so not off to a good start um you know not in great shape not feeling good not recovering um so what does one do one enters in a race the next weekend of course across the country um we made

Videos about oh it’s all nutrition related of course nutrition is extremely important for a clean Athlete Nutrition and sleep is only things you have to um recover and so um you know it’s not just nutrition though uh there’s many things that lead to not feeling good or feeling

Good or absorbing training or not absorbing training and nutrition of course is one of them but there are many things and so went to Golf Coast 70.3 the next weekend ate really good I guess performed a little bit better uh the next weekend ended up finishing second

In that one fourth in St George the week before came home you know just continuing to do things as usual not really um allowing the body time to recover properly not really doing a long period of training with which to actually improve the system kind of just in you know middling

Territory and now starting to sweat a little because it’s like oh I haven’t had a w in like coming up on a year so back to my trusty Manton bont 70.3 which I’ve have fond memories of just about every single time and of course morning of the race gets cancelled due to uh

Wildfires which who would have th it but it was certainly the right decision cuz it was uh literally Ash on everything came home grinded some more didn’t really do it you know a big concentrated block or anything just couple weeks then went to Oregon 70.3 that one went pretty good I mean

The swim is like basically no swim because the current is so strong so you know you feel Super Fresh coming out of the water getting onto the bike had a pretty good bike season best bike 360 watts and then ran okay off of it a

111 and so got the W finally and you know two weeks later was scheduled to go up against the best guys in the world Yan frino probably the last time I was ever going to get to race him Christian Blumenfeld the list goes on all many of the top guys and you know

What’s the logical thing you just had a pretty good race what’s the logical thing to do and two weeks from now you’re going to go toe to- Toe with the best guys in the world it is to come home not recover whatsoever and train insanely hard for 10 days and then give

Yourself three days of recovery after traveling across the country uh to go up against those guys so what do you expect it’s going to happen when you do that especially at 35 years old you’re not if it was 24 maybe maybe when I was 24 but

At 35 what do you think’s going to happen well you’re going to be fighting for middling positions cuz you’re in middling form you’re giving midling type uh intensity at all times and so that’s what happened came off the bike with a group of guys whom uh the top finisher

Finished seventh and I finished last of the group of guys in 11th so that was disappointing I made a video about that uh wanted to pull the Pug on the season thought that it was a bit of a cop out if I didn’t go to 70.3 worlds

Cuz I do want to win 70.3 worlds and so it’s like if you don’t go to 70.3 Worlds how can you truly say you want to win it even though I knew I wasn’t in good form writing was on the wall once again I think I got what I

Deserved uh went there was having a okay Race 2 minutes down out of the water which was certainly an improvement on Milwaukee biked up about as far as we were going to get to the as close as we were going to get to the front and then

Of course got a disqualification and so that was the theme of the Season not paying this one’s not going too good so dealt with that that was actually our most viewed video thanks for viewing not great circumstances and so you know wanted to pull the plug in Milwaukee extended it

One more race had a bad experience there what’s the logical thing to do travel across the country do a training camp back home and do two more races and so that’s what I did first time back in Windsor in a while don’t have my training stuff going on

There took a while to get back into the groove eventually got into a bit of a Groove put in about um once got there I would say about maybe 10 days training and then went to tapered into Michigan 70.3 race went okay you know had a

Pretty good swim for me I think I was maybe even in the 24s for the swim which is okay not great power did have a pretty good run tasted it a little bit trying to run Jackson down tasted it a little and then close the final 5K in a season

Best 1620 which that was a positive okay so nice pretty good performance second you know so what’s the logical thing to do here not recover whatsoever and do another race the next weekend and so that’s what I did went to austa and you know how I felt well

Exactly as one would think you would feel you know didn’t really recover didn’t give the body adequate time to recover um pretty flat pretty medium pretty mediocre and so that was how that race unfolded and then that’s when I finally woke up and I’m like guy what

Are you doing what are you doing you know when you’ve had I’ve had good performance I’ve had good 1.3s I’ve had good Iron Mans you know I’ve had good performances in my career and oh man this stuff is not it’s not enjoyable these these midling you know

330 Watts on the bike guy like you did that in literally my first 70.3 2013 I held 300 that’s 26 minutes held 330 watts in the bike and rent a 110 you’re not even doing what you did 10 years ago now it’s like what I mean what are you

Doing here so is it because you’re old and you’re uh washed up and the the career is over it may look like that looking in that’s not what it means though in my opinion what it means is it’s not the same as it was in it you

Are not the same no one is the same but you’re always changing but you’re not 24 anymore first off you’ve logged a decade of an aerobic training I’ve I’ve logged up you know tons of Iron Man tons of 1.3s thousands of hours of training you don’t you don’t have to do

St first off I did stupid things for many parts of my career just stupid training stuff just not well informed by science and by physiological reality but then to think that oh because you did good when you did the stupid things the answer here cuz it’s

Not going the way you want is to go back and do the stupid things you were doing when you were 24 literally I talked to Trevor and Sam about this in a run workout in the middle of the summer and I was like um oh I ran super well I did

This three month block I remember in 2014 when I ran quite well and I averaged like 112 kilometers a week for 12 straight weeks inside of like 12 or 13 hours of biking and 25 km of swimming for 12 straight weeks something like that and I’m telling these guys like

Well it worked then so I guess I’ll do it now and so then I’m back up running 120k weeks back to back to back you know running like cuz I’m tired um trying to go back and do something that I did when I did okay but I’m 35 now and

It’s like it’s like what do you you doing guys it’s not coaching you’re coaching yourself but like you’re not actually coaching yourself like that’s not a good coaching that’s horrible coaching I would say like you’re a different person now you’re an entirely different what you needed to do then

First off I think that was dumb then too but just because you had success this is a thing that we constantly I think do problematically which is because you do good you think that the things you did when you did good were the reasons why

You did good but the reality is like it was only probably 20% of what you were doing when you did something good that caused you to do it good the rest of it was probably fluff and certainly some of the crap I did when I had good performances was fluff and so

Anyway he likes it I’m 35 now okay I don’t a I can’t do the things I did when I was 24 all right I don’t need to do the things I was doing when I was 24 cuz some of the things I was doing was stupid and it’s

Not informed by science at all does that mean I’m washed up and I can’t perform and have a Peak Performance anymore Well here here’s a guy who had a very recently had a Peak Performance name is Yan ferino 42 he had a Peak Performance Christian knew that this was going to be

His last shot to to take the W over Yan and he didn’t he’s 42 so I’m I was 35 I’m 35 I’m going to be 36 next season if you take anything um from viewing the best guys and if you take anything from this season it is you can

Still have Peak Performance with certainty you can still have Peak Performance I promise I know it in the depth of my being in fact I would say I’m mentally and physically stronger than I’ve ever been now way stronger than 10 years ago mentally I’ve got so

Much more behind me now you know but you’re not going to be able to do it by just replicating the stupidity that you did 10 years ago even though you did good okay you did do good now you’re going to have to use coaching now you’re

Going to have to use science now you’re going to have to use wow your brain you know I don’t think you should fear Rec uh uh um training hard training hard is extremely important and it’s a great quality what you should fear is not recovering and when you’re 35 and I’ll

Be 36 next year I need more time to recover I need to do I one thing that changed this is a big overarching thing I’ve noticed that changed every season 20 14 13 14 15 16 and this is when it began to change right around 17 I would

Either finish at Iron Man Arizona or Iron Man Florida and then I would take an off season I’m talking and then I would spend months building my system up and then when I started to actually have success and reaping the rewards then I started to get invited to go do these

Races like all over the place and so I started to go do these races and not take an off season and not build my system up and so I believe I was able to ride that for a while but then I just kept doing it and doing it and if I look

Back back and I reflect I mean I haven’t spent time building my system up now in like 6 or seven years like 3 4 weeks of training and go to a race that’s not building your system up building your system up takes months at now at this

Stage if I want to build myself to something greater it takes months and months and months of up down up down mesle Cycles up and down recover absorb up and down like that’s what it takes now and then when you do go and you have a

First off for me now and this is I believe what Yan did for pretty well the entirety that I got to race him in his career and keep in mind when I got to race him and observe him in his career he was probably 34 at the beginning and

Then 42 at the end you know what I mean like he’s about where I am now that’s where he was the entire time where I was making observations and he would do four or five races a year and they were freaking Peak and if it didn’t pan out the race it didn’t

Wasn’t like oh let me enter in a race next week and to feel better about myself it was like no let me go back what happened wrong let me go back to the drawing board and go back and I need months of training to build myself up

And correct the things that I did wrong and so that’s the theme that is that’s what I learned from 20123 in summary is that I can still have Peak Performance I didn’t have a single one in 2023 but I know I can still have Peak Performance me having

Peak Performance now looks a lot different than me having a good performance in 2014 15 16 17 it’s going to take different approach but I can still happen and it starts with listening to my body and using my brain and informing my training with science

And so that’s what we will make all the videos about in 2024 so thanks for tuning in I wish you a Happy New Year I know this isn’t maybe the most uh motivating a video it should be motivating because I am crazy motivated I mean I am more motivated

Than I’ve ever being right now because it’s Do or Die Back Against The Wall I’m the coach I’m in charge you’re going to see this season my coaching on display and what do I want to do when this is all said and done I want to be a professional coach of of professional

Athletes trying to win the World title and so this is me proving that I understand what I am doing and and how who so Jerry Rodriguez who I’m working with In The Swim said to me you should coach Trevor Foley as like an exercise and so I asked Aaron about that and

She’s like you don’t have time to coach you don’t have time right now to coach like I want you to be presentent with family you already like very in in in you know in trath one when you’re not you can’t be also then coaching I said okay fair enough that that’s that’s good

But then I started to think well why don’t you coach yourself like actually as if you were coaching Trevor why don’t you coach yourself like you were coaching Trevor and you know what that that that is what I should do I should like the coaching hack comes on okay

What are you doing guy this is stupidity you’re not recovering you do an Iron Man you do Iron Man St George phenomenal performance man phenomenal you’re back there you finish second at the world Champs Christian the the Olympic Champs the only guy in front of you what do you

Do what’s the logical thing to do start doing intervals on Wednesday of the week 4 days later let’s start doing intervals again what are you doing that’s not coaching okay that’s not coaching that’s stupidity okay and so that’s now my coaching is on display in 2024 and so I’m excited I’m motivated to

Show you what I can do and I still believe I can have Peak Performance and I intend to show it