Episode 175 - How to Stay Motivated in Triathlon – Insights from Mark Allen: Part 2

How to Stay Motivated in Triathlon – Insights from Mark Allen: Part 2

Welcome back to part 2 of my conversation with the incredible Mark Allen! 

Dubbed the greatest endurance athlete of all time by ESPN, Mark is sharing the secrets behind his amazing results. Today in particular we’re focusing on mindset and motivation.

If you haven’t heard part 1 yet, I highly recommend you do that first so you don’t miss any of the wisdom he shares. 

Mindset is a big part of triathlon training and races. Whether you’re gearing up for a major workout or standing at the start line, the thoughts running through your mind greatly impact your performance.

You can listen to Part 1 here.

 

Links:

How to Stay Motivated in Triathlon – Insights from Mark Allen: Part 1

Check how well you’re doing when it comes to your nutrition with our 50 Step Checklist to Triathlon Nutrition Mastery

Start working on your nutrition now with my Triathlon Nutrition Kickstart course 

It’s for you if you’re a triathlete and you feel like you’ve got your training under control and you’re ready to layer in your nutrition. It's your warmup on the path to becoming a SUPERCHARGED triathlete – woohoo!

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Episode Transcription

Episode 175: How to Stay Motivated in Triathlon – Insights from Mark Allen: Part 2

Welcome to the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. The show designed to serve you up evidence-based sports nutrition advice from the experts. Hi, I'm your host Taryn, Accredited Practicing Dietitian, Advanced Sports Dietitian and founder of Dietitian Approved. Listen as I break down the latest evidence to give you practical, easy-to-digest strategies to train hard, recover faster and perform at your best. You have so much potential, and I want to help you unlock that with the power of nutrition. Let's get into it.

[00:00:00] Taryn: Welcome back to part two of my interview with Mark Allen. Dubbed the greatest endurance athlete of all time by ESPN. if you haven't listened to part one yet, please go back and do that first, because it was a big, gigantic, juicy conversation. And part one is the beginning. And today you are going to hear part two. So without further ado, here is. Part two of my conversation with Mark Allen to help you with motivation and mindset as a triathlete.

[00:00:49] Taryn: Can you talk about the role of mindset in that and, you know, the mental training that has to go into peak performance? I feel like you were the perfect person to ask that question because you are, the grit, the man, the greatest athlete of all time.

[00:01:08] Taryn: But mindset is such a huge part of triathlon because it's so easy to hit the snooze sometimes if it's freezing out and there's snow on the ground and you could be running hard, but it's really warm inside. So what role do you think mindset and that mental training is going to play to achieving the performance outcomes that everyone has in their mind that they want to achieve?

[00:01:28] Mark: I'd say that one of the biggest pieces when you're talking about mindset is basically dealing with fear. you have a big workout coming up and you're, you just don't know if you're going to be able to manage it. you're on the start line of a race and you're asking yourself, do I have what it's going to take today to tackle this thing called a race, this beast that I've thrown myself into?

[00:01:48] Mark: And then in the races themselves, mindset and what's going on in your head is, super impactful one direction or the other in your race. So, like in day to day life. things happen sort of slowly, like there's a time lag between the thoughts you have and often when they can manifest.

[00:02:05] Mark: So you might be going, Oh, I don't like getting up early and going to the pool. You know, and you say that again, you say it again, you say it again. And then a week later you're sick and you're like, Oh, wait a minute. I can't train. Actually, I do want to get back to the pool. I want to train, what was I thinking?

[00:02:22] Mark: Why was I complaining? And it takes three or four or five days before you get over your sickness and you get back. In a race, things can impact almost instantaneously. So, if an athlete is pulling away from you that you, you were hanging on to for a while, and you go, Oh, I can't keep up with them.

[00:02:40] Mark: They're faster than me. I didn't do the right kind of training. You know, you start whining. Everything tightens up. 

[00:02:47] Mark: You know, the impact is immediate and it does get harder to stay with them. and you think it's written in stone for the till the end of time, right?

[00:02:54] Mark: but then if you can kind of get your mind to be quiet, You know, everything, everything calms down, everything loosens back up. And then it almost becomes secondary whether you stick with that person or not. Because the primary thing that, that you're able to do and capable of doing and finding.

[00:03:12] Mark: That is important to do when your mind is quiet is that you're able to be 100 percent engaged with what you're doing right here, right now, and give everything you have in that moment. I didn't dream up this philosophy. It's something that happens sort of by accident.

[00:03:25] Mark: And in the very first triathlon I did, I came off the bike in fourth place, uh, which was pretty mind blowing. Like, this is my first triathlon ever in Olympic distance race, and there's only three guys ahead of me. I'm like, holy shit, like what, and so I started running and About a mile into it.

[00:03:44] Mark: This guy came up behind me and he passed me and I had a Mental tape that played over and over and over when I was a swimmer like when somebody got a stroke or two ahead of me Oh, they're gonna win. I can't win. They're better than me. I'm not that good Everything would tighten up and they'd make even more time on me.

[00:04:03] Mark: And so when this guy passed me The swimmer tape started to play like, Oh, now I'm in fifth place and he's going to keep pulling away and I go, Wait a minute here. Let's see about this. There's still a lot of miles to run. It's not written in stone that this person is going to just keep pulling away.

[00:04:28] Mark: And I just relaxed and my mind went quiet. And all of a sudden, you know, my stride opened back up, my breathing got deeper into my belly again, I stopped panicking, I wasn't worried about anything. All of a sudden I was just completely engaged in this thing of just running and I could just feel my body and the guy stopped pulling away.

[00:04:49] Mark: And the next thing I knew I caught back up to him. And then I went on and I passed him and I finished the race in fourth place. And the three guys that finished ahead of me were Dave Scott, who was first, second place was Scott Molina, and third place was Scott Tinley. All three guys who at one point in their career were Iron Man champions.

[00:05:10] Mark: And so on the outside everybody's like, Wow, who's this Mark Allen dude behind, you know, the three best guys in the sport? And that looked like the victory on the day, but the real victory was seeing how impactful The thoughts that I was telling myself were, had on my, on my, my racing. And so I really tried to work on that in, in all of my training.

[00:05:32] Mark: And people ask me that, the athletes I coach, like, Well, how do you get your mind to be quiet? You know, I've got like these, catch phrases that I tell my, I try to remember to tell myself in the race, you know, like, I'm running light as a feather, or whatever it is, and I said, you know, I tried that, the positive affirmations. And I said, they're good to have, that you have at least sort of experienced that mentally prior to the race. But I said, usually in the race, I can't think of one of them. Like, I can't remember them. And when I do, I don't believe myself.

[00:06:01] Mark: Like, I'm running light as a feather. I'm like, no, I'm,

[00:06:05] Mark: I feel like, I feel like an elephant right now, I can't get both feet off the ground at the same time. that's when I realized even conjuring up positive thoughts. Sort of, when we think of self confidence that takes energy.

[00:06:20] Mark: Being quiet takes no energy. And when you're quiet, you're connected to all possibility. When you're quiet, your awareness expands. When you're quiet, you're not worried about an outcome. You're able to absorb in the moment that you're in. When you're quiet, there's nothing other than commitment to giving your best.

[00:06:44] Mark: Because that's who you are and what you're doing in that moment. And you stop you stop judging what's taking place. It's no longer good or bad, it just is. And so I tried to practice that as much as I could in my training because I knew that, the other guys that I was racing against, in an Ironman, that sort of pumped up self confidence, it has a shelf life of about three hours.

[00:07:07] Mark: After that, you get worn down and all of a sudden you're like, Oh, man. What was I thinking that I could just like pump myself up and be cool the whole way through this thing? No, this is reality here. I knew that the other guys were going to have to deal with themselves just like I was.

[00:07:23] Mark: And there were going to be moments where some goal that you have feels impossible. Or that you don't have the motivation to keep going, but you somehow got to conjure up some way of keeping going. And so I would practice that as much as I could in my training, so, any point of a training session when I wanted it to be over and I started whining to myself, or it was getting too hard and I didn't think I could make that in the next two intervals, or whatever it was, I would try to just go, alright, alright.

[00:07:52] Mark: There's the quiet. And the more you practice that over and

[00:07:55] Mark: over and over, the quicker you can get there in the race when it really will have a dramatic impact on your the outcome of the day. And your experience of that day also. you know, I knew the other guys weren't doing that. So it might take them ten minutes to sort of regroup mentally when something was going on inside them.

[00:08:14] Mark: And I tried to get regrouped in about two or three seconds or two or three breaths. So that I was wasting less time whining and more time just actually racing. 

[00:08:24] Taryn: I think you can apply that to anything in life though, right? Not just sport, not just triathlon, like life is hard. Things happen and being able to have the skill to stop for a second and just be mindful and and breathe can just help alleviate so much stress. I think it's a really good skill. That man, I could definitely use that a lot more in my day to day life for sure.

[00:08:46] Mark: Yeah, it's, you know, it is a life skill. And triathlon for me was a, it was an arena where I got to explore myself and how I dealt with life and, 

[00:08:59] Mark: How I interacted and connected with life. And I could feel the times when I, Was drawing back and I didn't want to have to deal with something and, especially when it was around something where I felt a weakness.

[00:09:12] Mark: And eventually I would go, you know, if I don't deal with this, I will be forced to deal with it. And so I always tried to change by choice as opposed to being to change because you're forced to. 

[00:09:22] Mark: Because anytime you're forced to go through a big, fundamental change within yourself, if you're forced to, it's always so much harder than when you do it by choice.

[00:09:31] Taryn: gut kicking and screaming.

[00:09:33] Mark: Yeah.

[00:09:34] Taryn: Do you use those skills and some of those mindset lessons that you have in periods of burnout, or when you've got a really hard training block with lots of hours, you know, you've got your longest rides, you've got your longest runs, like one of the, some of the mindset things or motivating pieces that you would draw on when you're getting into that pointy end of training.

[00:09:55] Mark: Well, I, like a race, I knew that when I was kind of in that pointy end of training, that it was, it was for a limited time. Like, you can't keep up Ironman training all year. I had about a, An eight week really focused block of training leading into Kona that was specific for that race. And so it actually took me from January until sometime late August, early September to get in good enough shape that I could then actually handle that really big block.

[00:10:24] Mark: So one, I knew that it was limited. It wasn't like it was going to go on for months and months and months. I could wrap my head around a project. it was relatively easy in a sense. Yeah, I had to get up for the workouts and, regroup and stuff. It's just when something is kind of so big that you can't quite wrap your head around it.

[00:10:45] Mark: You can't chunk it down into a piece that you can stick in your mouth and hold there, when I had to sort of utilize that type of a tool or mindset. 

[00:10:57] Taryn: think a lot of age group triathletes do full distance training all year round. And, people don't use platforms like TriDot or they try and do their own training or don't have a coach to have that guidance and the experience to help them through that. And they do try and do training all the time, like no rest days, no periodization to training.

[00:11:16] Taryn: And I guess for me, and I know a lot of athletes that I work with. Having a, plan and understanding what is coming ahead helps you to mentally wrap your head around it to be like, okay, I've just got this next and then I can have a rest or I can have a lighter day and having the ability to, yeah, like you said, break it down into bite sized chunks that you can chew is a great strategy to get through it, knowing that it's going to end soon, you've just got to get through this bit and it'll all be over.

[00:11:44] Mark: With the reality, like you said, of a lot of people's lives, they don't have all day to train. They have to, fit it in amongst a lot of other obligations and commitments and things that have importance for them. And so, set yourself up for success with the way that your training is structured.

[00:12:00] Mark: And the biggest success, again, is going to be training consistently, not having to constantly cut back because you've overestimated what you can fit into your life. and that doesn't mean that you can't stretch yourself. when we kind of go over that edge of comfort into that uncomfortable zone, whether it's maybe a longer workout than we've done for a while, or a faster one, or a group workout, or a race that was, we're like, ooh, okay, here I am, I'm at the start line.

[00:12:25] Mark: That's when things get really cool, right? Because you know, the rubber hits the road and you really do get to kind of see what you're made of and, and find ways to work with something that's on purpose difficult. then that also helps when you're in situations that are uncomfortable that you kind of don't have any choice over. You know, I spent the whole day getting my mom connected with hospice because she's, she's 88 and she's fading and, it was a big challenge and I could feel myself a lot of times going, I don't, how am I going to make it through this day, and I just kept having to go, you're going to make it through this day, we'll put this piece together, and then this piece, and that piece, and there's, the rest of your life got completely ignored today, and that's okay.

[00:13:14] Mark: Tomorrow is another day, and this, this is a huge piece to put in place. And so, everything's intertwined, right? a lot of people who do the sport are really successful at business because they're disciplined, they're smart they can plan really well, and they can sort of keep on track.

[00:13:29] Mark: And that's some of the same skills that can help you excel in triathlon. Also, doing stuff in triathlon can be a real balance to the rest of our lives. And that's why I, talked about the lifestyle element. A lot of people nowadays, they have very sedentary jobs.

[00:13:45] Mark: And, fitness and health is not a byproduct of living like it was for our ancient ancestors. You know, we have to go to the gym. We have to get on a bike. We have to run. It's not part of chasing down prey and all that kind of stuff. And so it I think it really helps activate all of the vitality genetics that are inherent in all of our makeup.

[00:14:06] Taryn: Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I know it's been a tough day and I was like, are you sure you want to do this? And you're like, yeah, right on. So I appreciate that very much.

[00:14:15] Mark: Yeah, my pleasure.

[00:14:17] Taryn: If, somebody is having that self doubt though, and you know, there's demons to face and maybe lack of motivation is a part of that, but you've still got a race to prepare for, and you've got to front up to training if life throws you stresses and things like that.

[00:14:32] Taryn: Do you have any advice for triathletes who are experiencing that or feeling just self doubt that this isn't right or it's too much or I can't do it?

[00:14:40] Mark: Yeah, I mean, the first thing to do is to assess and ask yourself, are these feelings based on something that's real that I need to change? that lack of motivation and that I don't want to do it feeling is because it is not right for you right now. That does not mean that it won't be right for you next year or whatever.

[00:14:59] Mark: Like, I have a woman that I've coached for quite a few years now, and she's in her late 60s. And, um, body changes, just aging. She was so on top of it for four or five years. Like, just, she was the cheerleader, you know. She was out there training, and all of a sudden, she hit a wall.

[00:15:18] Mark: And she just couldn't get herself to do it. And, She thought something was really wrong with her, I think all you need is just to take some time away and one, give your body some rest, and secondly, assess and ask yourself, what might need to change in my why of why I'm doing this, and that's also important.

[00:15:40] Mark: if you feel like, you know, I'm not motivated. I'm kind of bummed. I don't want to get out and do it. Again. Is it, does it mean that I need to actually walk away from the sport for a while, do something different, change it up? Or is it just that haven't come up with a purpose or a reason for doing it that continues to motivate me, that continues to keep me inspired to get out there and be consistent with training.

[00:16:05] Mark: And maybe, maybe it's shifting from wanting to do really well in your age group to just wanting to Do it because you enjoy it, 

[00:16:15] Mark: I had to go through that. after my third Ironman victory, you know, I won six total after the third one. I had a real sort of crisis point because the first three that I won, I would say probably a lot of the bottom line motivation was, to be the best, to see if I could win it, to see if I could win it again.

[00:16:32] Mark: And, you know, after the first victory in Kona, yeah. I woke up literally every morning for the next year, pinching myself like, Was that a dream? No, my gosh, I did it. And then the second one, I had that feeling for a couple months, and after the third victory, it lasted for about a week.

[00:16:49] Taryn: No. 

[00:16:49] Mark: I'm like, OK, so how many Ironmans do I have to win to feel really good about my life forever? I could win a thousand of them, and I'm still going to wake up someday and go, Oh no, what's today about? and then I got hit by a truck. Uh, I was out cycling the last day of winter and that night after I had broken the collarbone, gone to the emergency room, I got up to go to the bathroom, and I passed out, and I smashed my head on the toilet, my blood's everywhere, I had to go back to the emergency room that night, the second time in the same day, and I It was like, my life purpose got knocked out of me and all of a sudden I'm like, Why do I want to race?

[00:17:28] Mark: Why would I want to put my body through that? Why would I ever want to go back and do the Ironman or anything with triathlon? it took a few weeks and then one day it's like the calling came back and it was like, have to go back but it's not to win. It's simply to become the best that you can be, which is still I know better than anything I've done so far, and just put that out into the world, create that energy for the world, I mean you know how that is when you're at a huge race like, like the Ironman World Championship.

[00:18:00] Mark: When you have almost 3, 000 people giving their absolute best at the same time for the same thing with the same goal to cross that finish line, it sets up an energy that's so positive, I think, for the entire planet. And so, after that, the second three that I won, yeah, I wanted to win, and that was kind of a target, but the real purpose was to just Put out the best that I could be and to try to get a little bit better each of those, those years that I was doing that.

[00:18:31] Mark: And that, that motivated me. That had meaning for me. 

[00:18:35] Mark: And a lot of top people, they don't change their why. And what motivated them last year all of a sudden isn't motivating them this year. And they, think they've just lost it. And maybe they have. Maybe they're over the hump.

[00:18:48] Mark: And it's sayonara Charlie, but It could also be that they just need to if they could come up with a different purpose, it might truly inspire them to actually be even better than they've already been. But most don't, don't their reasons over the years.

[00:19:07] Taryn: It's almost taking the pressure off of winning to just go out and have a good time and give it your all. And that still leads to the same outcome.

[00:19:15] Mark: Yeah, yeah.

[00:19:16] Taryn: that the time that you took up surfing or added surfing into your program to stay motivated to do something different? I remember reading that somewhere that you included surfing in your Ironman distance training 

[00:19:27] Mark: Yeah, this is actually 50 years of surfing for me this year. 

[00:19:30] Taryn: Wow. 

[00:19:32] Mark: I learned here in Santa Cruz when I was a kid, well, teenager, it's actually the sport that I have continued to do the longest of anything I will never be confused with Kelly Slater out in the water, let me tell you, but it's, fun because, as a triathlete, I've, I've had that experience of being the best on a day and to cross the finish line with no one in front of me and to be leading the Ironman World Championship.

[00:19:56] Mark: And every time I was in the lead of, in Hawaii and I knew without a doubt that nobody was going to catch me, I would get these chills because I just felt like I was paving the way for everybody who was behind me. And I was showing what on this day was possible. And I felt like I was being given the mantle of the entire sport to hold and to take care of.

[00:20:21] Mark: You know, in surfing, it's so not that experience for me. Like I look at the guys in the water who are better than me, which is, more than half the guys for sure. And I look at Kelly Slater and, you know, John, John Florence, and you name the big names. And I can only imagine what it must feel like to surf the way they do.

[00:20:41] Mark: but it's a sport that I love, and I knew that no matter much I love surfing or how hard I tried to be good at it, that I was never gonna be like a competitive level person. I just, something just doesn't work right for me on that level. But. I still probably love it as much as somebody who's won the world championship as a surfer, and so I've been lucky to experience all sides of sports. You know, one where I could be faster than everybody on a particular day, and another where I will never be confused with the best guy in the water. So what, you know?

[00:21:16] Taryn: Such a good breadth of experience, right? Mindset, skills, athletic performance. You've got so many lessons to share. This is why I would love to the, this be like step one of the TNA podcast with Mark Allen, but he's just coming back all the time. What are some of the most powerful lessons that you've learned about motivation that go beyond triathlon?

[00:21:37] Taryn: You have so much knowledge and expertise to tap into. What can you share?

[00:21:42] Mark: Well, one thing that I've, I have seen is that when you go big with stuff, it rarely happens in your time frame, in your timeline. Usually things take longer than you think they're going to. And they usually take more energy than you think they will. And they require you to go to more yourself that are uncomfortable than you ever thought you would have to.

[00:22:08] Mark: they require you to sort of surrender your ideal and just become a vehicle for this goal that you set out for yourself, no matter how it takes shape or how long it takes to take shape. And that a lot of people don't have the patience for that, and they're unwilling to evolve themselves as they go through the process of a journey toward a big goal.

[00:22:35] Mark: People burn out, and they go, ah, forget it, it's not that important. When maybe they were only a day away from hitting whatever it was that they were truly after. And so I, I've, a couple things, like one, I've always, I've learned that staying motivated for a long period of time requires surrender, actually just dealing with reality as opposed to fighting reality.

[00:22:57] Mark: And if you can just deal with reality as something one, you're going to move through whatever the challenges are quicker. Secondly, you're not going to quit because locked into like a process or a journey that you know you're not going to give up on. And you may not ever have the outcome that you're hoping for, but the journey along the way is going to be something that's going to transform your life forever.

[00:23:21] Mark: Triathlon was, I was good at it but I had a lot of setbacks, and I had to work really hard for, the successes that I had, but they, that, that whole journey of 15 years racing professionally, you know, it molded and transformed and changed who I am as a person, and it taught me so, so much, and so, I think that's the second piece is that when people look at what's going on as just an opportunity, to learn a little something that will also keep you motivated because you won't be asking yourself, when is this going to be over?

[00:23:57] Mark: Will I ever make it? You're going to be asking yourself, what am I learning along the way here? And when I start whining, I try to stop and tell myself, wait a minute, if I'm whining, I might miss the biggest lesson that this thing is trying to teach me. And so, you know, that's just something that I always try to do, and I tell the athletes that I, Coach, I say, there's no such thing as a good or bad race.

[00:24:23] Mark: The only bad race you have is one that you actually don't learn anything from, whether you achieve your goals or whether you fell short. it's that learning that goes along with that journey that just really makes it great and amazing. And so, surrendering to whatever the challenge is requiring of you, being patient.

[00:24:43] Mark: Knowing that it's probably not going to materialize your ideal timeline. Be willing to evolve who you are through the process of the journey, the road that you're on. Be willing to be uncomfortable. And to also not feel like you have to have the answer to everything every, the second you have a question about something.

[00:25:01] Mark: Like how am I supposed to do this? How is this going to work? What should I do? I don't know. Okay, that's okay. Keep daydreaming. Keep, coming back and asking yourself. What is right? What is right? And eventually, you'll come up with the answer that, inside, you go, Okay, this is the right thing.

[00:25:18] Mark: So, there you go. and have some fun along the way, you know. Life, people ask me when I retire, they go, Oh, what are you going to do now? What are you going to do to challenge yourself? And I go, life will present with plenty of challenges. I don't need to go out and seek any of them. They will come across my plate.

[00:25:32] Mark: I guarantee you. So, you know, have fun along the way, too.

[00:25:49] Mark: Hey, you're welcome. And yeah, anytime you want to have me on, love to chat.

[00:26:10] Mark: You're welcome.

Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. I would love to hear from you. If you have any questions or want to share with me what you've learned, email me at [email protected]. You can also spread the word by leaving me a review and taking a screenshot of you listening to the show. Don't forget to tag me on social media, @dietitian.approved, so I can give you a shout out, too. If you want to learn more about what we do, head to dietitianapproved.com. And if you want to learn more about the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program, head to dietitianapproved.com/academy. Thanks for joining me and I look forward to helping you smashed in the fourth leg - nutrition!