What is mental toughness? We’ve all been in a training or race situation where there is a decision to make, are you going to be mentally tough and push through the pain, or are you going to give in and give up? If you’re like most people, you have probably done both. Pushed through sometimes, and given up sometimes. So what does it take to be mentally tough? Why do we want to push through the pain? Why do we want to avoid quitting on ourselves? What does it take to have the champion mindset of a Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali? This is what we’re talking about in today’s episode. Gerard gets grilled about his Ironman and cycling triumphs in his professional career, and what his strategies are for being as mentally tough as possible. We also talk about: How to train your mental toughness Can you push yourself too far (how Gerard once passed out on the bike mid race) What to do before and during a race to stay mentally strong How to have the mental edge over your competitors Talking about mental toughness is always such a fun topic and this episode was no different.  ----------------------------- We've heard some extremely valuable and rare lessons from the expert guests and pro athletes on our podcast, so we collected the very best tips and advice from all of them and put them all on 1 cheatsheet: If you want this cheatsheet of the very best lessons all in 1 spot, get the FREE podcast bonus download here: getfastpodcast.com The Get Fast Podcast is brought to you by TriVelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you, Train Smarter to Race Faster. You are joined as always by your hosts, Australian Ironman Champion and HEAD COACH of TriVelo Coaching Gerard Donnelly, and his son Jordan Donnelly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Part 1 you heard about the Ironman Athlete and Doctor, Mitch Anderson and his incredible career. Now comes the rollercoaster part of the story. What does it take physically to be able to ride at high speed for 12 hours straight? And then a year later attempt the 24 hour record? What does it take mentally? Knowing what you're doing to your body... In Part 2 Mitch dives deep into: The mindset needed to attempt this record The physical toll it took on his body (heart failure, kidney failure, insomnia to name a few) The psychological toll it took that affected him for months His battles with depression And mostly, just how f*cking hard it was! This part of the story will leave you speechless with your jaw on the floor. Mitch's raw honesty and insight made this an incredibly valuable episode, so we thank him for holding nothing back and opening up on his highest highs and lowest lows not just in his performances, but in his life.  Please note: We do discuss mental health, depression and suicide in this podcast. If you or anyone you know needs help we urge you to seek professional help, or you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14. ----------------------------- We've heard some extremely valuable and rare lessons from the expert guests and pro athletes on our podcast, so we collected the very best tips and advice from all of them and put them all on 1 cheatsheet: If you want this cheatsheet of the very best lessons all in 1 spot, get the FREE podcast bonus download here: getfastpodcast.com The Get Fast Podcast is brought to you by TriVelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you, Train Smarter to Race Faster. You are joined as always by your hosts, Australian Ironman Champion and HEAD COACH of TriVelo Coaching Gerard Donnelly, and his son Jordan Donnelly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode was so jaw dropping that we forgot we were conducting an interview and were left totally speechless. Shocking, inspiring, scary and super human are some of the words to describe this story. Think about this for a second, how long could you ride at 42km/hr for? 30mins? An hour?  Imagine trying to ride at 42km/hr for 12 hours... Or imagine holding 37km/hr for 24 hours... These are just some of the wild feats of Dr Mitch Anderson, our special guest on today's podcast. A man with a ridiculously impressive palmares: 12 and 24 hour cycling world records A stellar professional Ironman career; 30 races including 8 at Kona (best finish of 11th) Ironman WA Champion 2005 Ironman Bike course records at IM WA, IM OZ, Geelong 70.3, Strongman Japan Tour de Crawf Melbourne to Perth ride 3600km in 3 weeks And a 14 year university career resulting in degrees in Physiotherapy, Science (Physiology), Exercise Genetics, Sports Medicine and Surgical Anatomy. In this episode, we dive deep into the mindset behind some of the most insane world record attempts a human can achieve, and how Mitch went to the absolute limit of human capability. Strap yourself in because this 2-Part interview explores the mental and physical extremes of performance. Mitch's raw honesty and insight made this an incredibly valuable episode, so we thank him for holding nothing back and opening up on his highest highs and lowest lows not just in his performances, but in his life.  Please note: We do discuss mental health, depression and suicide in this podcast. If you or anyone you know needs help we urge you to seek professional help, or you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14. ----------------------------- We've heard some extremely valuable and rare lessons from the expert guests and pro athletes on our podcast, so we collected the very best tips and advice from all of them and put them all on 1 cheatsheet: If you want this cheatsheet of the very best lessons all in 1 spot, get the FREE podcast bonus download here: getfastpodcast.com The Get Fast Podcast is brought to you by TriVelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you, Train Smarter to Race Faster. You are joined as always by your hosts, Australian Ironman Champion and HEAD COACH of TriVelo Coaching Gerard Donnelly, and his son Jordan Donnelly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In today’s episode, we're talking everything running!  We love running, it's a really fun topic, and if you're a triathlete or runner, we think you'll really enjoy this episode. We covered: Why do triathletes need to run fast in long distance events? How do you go about improving your running speed? How many timer per week should a triathlete run? How to run a sub 90 Half Marathon How to race so that you always run well And finally, the golden question, How Do You Improve Your Vo2 Max? Also, we've heard some extremely valuable and rare lessons from the expert guests and pro athletes on our podcast, so we collected the very best tips and advice from all of them and put them all on 1 cheatsheet: If you want this cheatsheet of the very best lessons all in 1 spot, get the FREE podcast bonus download here: getfastpodcast.com The Get Fast Podcast is brought to you by TriVelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you, Train Smarter to Race Faster. You are joined as always by your hosts, Australian Ironman Champion and HEAD COACH of TriVelo Coaching Gerard Donnelly, and his son Jordan Donnelly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ironman athletes are a special breed, and Tim Van Berkel is one of the top Ironman athletes in the world! Tim started his pro career back in 2005, and has had multiple career Ironman and 70.3 wins, podiums and special results. Including a career best performance of 7th at the Ironman World Championships in Kona.  We sat down and had a great chat with Tim where he opened up about: His best career performances and wins How he motivates himself compared to other athletes Why his old mindset caused poor performance in the past How differently he prepares for races now after 15 years in the sport The surprising mental tactics he uses to stay calm and perform well We always love getting to chat to a pro athlete and this was no exception. We thank Tim for his time and can't wait to see him continue to perform at the top level of triathlons with hopefully some more big results to come. We've heard some extremely valuable and rare lessons from the expert guests and pro athletes on our podcast, so we collected the very best tips and advice from all of them and put them all on 1 cheatsheet: If you want this cheatsheet of the very best lessons all in 1 spot, get the FREE podcast bonus download here: getfastpodcast.com The Get Fast Podcast is brought to you by TriVelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you, Train Smarter to Race Faster. You are joined as always by your hosts, Australian Ironman Champion and HEAD COACH of TriVelo Coaching Gerard Donnelly, and his son Jordan Donnelly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you want to get our FREE Expert Secrets Cheatsheet of the very best tips and advice from the experts on our podcasts, all in 1 PDF, to help you train smarter and race faster, go to getfastpodcast.com In today's episode, we talk about the biggest mistakes Triathletes make when training for and competing in an Ironman or 70.3. These are by no means every mistake, the list of mistakes we see triathletes make is very long. But fixing THESE mistakes will give you the biggest return on your efforts. The mistakes include: How your training preparation can cost you Doing the wrong type of swim training Making a fatal mistake on the bike leg Not doing enough of a specific style of run session Where people are over-doing it in training The Get Fast Podcast is brought to you by TriVelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you, Train Smarter to Race Faster. You are joined as always by your hosts, Australian Ironman Champion and 4 x Nationals Masters Cycling Champion Gerard Donnelly, and his son Jordan Donnelly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Want to learn the best expert secrets from all our podcast guests in 1 PDF? Get our FREE podcast bonus download here: getfastpodcast.com/hayman This week we got to speak to Australian Cycling legend Mathew Hayman. Mat had an incredible career spanning 18 years, a Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist, rode on 3 of the biggest pro cycling teams, holds the record for the most Paris-Roubaix finishes (16) and every cyclist knows THAT Paris-Roubaix win from 2016. As huge fans ourselves, we could've asked Mat questions for hours, but we were grateful and impressed with the extremely valuable insight he was able to provide us from both an athlete and coaching perspective. In this episode we covered: His new role as Sport Director at Mitchelton-Scott  How the pro riders are coping right now with corona virus and what he's doing with the team Why his famous Paris-Roubaix zwift preparation from 2016 wasn't as simple as most people think Some classic insight into that famous victory How we should be tackling this period of isolated, indoor training (he would know!) And some gold nuggets on the value of focusing on your mental and physical health right now We thank Mat for his time. And if you are needing some extra motivation, go and watch this video of his Paris-Roubaix win, it truly is one of the most inspiring videos on youtube and will leave you feeling very emotional: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zxnA4asj44&t=37s The Get Fast Podcast is brought to you by TriVelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you, Train Smarter to Race Faster. You are joined as always by your hosts, Australian Ironman Champion and 4 x Nationals Masters Cycling Champion Gerard Donnelly, and his son Jordan Donnelly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s a crazy time right now, unprecedented is the word being thrown around a lot and it is the most appropriate word. No one knows what’s going to be happening because things are changing hour by hour. BUT, we’re here to talk about something we can control, and something we love doing, and that’s training, exercising, and improving ourselves. In this episode we're asking the question, how can you keep yourself motivated while training from home? We also answer the questions a lot of you have on your mind right now with regards to training: How do I get through this without going insane? What is the most important thing for me to do right now? Why is this situation such a blessing in disguise? What should I be aiming for? And the question that you should be asking: What is the BEST thing I can do for my health and fitness right now? Being able to stay focused is key for this period, and in this episode we share with you exactly our tips and strategies to get through it and come out the other side stronger. DISCLAIMER: Our viewpoint on the situation hasn't changed, your health is the number 1 priority.  We cannot control how this virus is going to impact our lives, however we are using our training as a variable that we can control and as a positive vessel to focus on. But your training should never come at the expense of your health or if it poses as a risk to others.  The Get Fast Podcast is brought to you by TriVelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you, Train Smarter to Race Faster. You are joined as always by your hosts, Australian Ironman Champion and 4 x Nationals Masters Cycling Champion Gerard Donnelly, and his son Jordan Donnelly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does the Corona Virus mean for you and your training? What should you do in this unprecedented time? Should you stop training? Train less? Train more? Is it really too much to train in a group? There are a lot of questions right now, as the world faces a huge challenge in the face of a pandemic. We recorded this emergency episode as to how we are tackling the situation, what we are advising our athletes do in regards to training and what our resident expert doctors are advising in order to stay as healthy as possible over this period. Hint: For some people, this training will be a blessing in disguise. However, health comes first! See how you can do both in the episode. IMPORTANT UPDATE: in this episode we cited a study which showed potential harm in too much high intensity activity resulting in suppressed function of the immune system. In light of this, we have recently found a different study potentially contradicting this, and indicating that high intensity activity has no negative effect on the immune system. We want to provide the most up to date and accurate information possible, and so we are aware of the contradiction in these studies, however the take home message is still the same: we don't want to risk anything that could put us at a higher risk of contracting the virus. And as always, everything in moderation. Regardless of the findings of both studies, common sense would tell us that too much high intensity activity is unnecessary. And you can listen to the episode to find out why our alternative could actually be more beneficial for you than high intensity training anyway.  The Get Fast Podcast is brought to you by TriVelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you, Train Smarter to Race Faster. You are joined as always by your hosts, Australian Ironman Champion and 4 x Nationals Masters Cycling Champion Gerard Donnelly, and his son Jordan Donnelly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our episode with Dr Harry was so popular that we had to get him back for a Q and A. We had a lot of you send in questions after trying Dr Harry's "ketogenic" advice, and in this episode he answers the most common questions and goes into further detail about everything you need to know, including: Does eating 'keto' risk your metabolism? Can you intermittent fast too much? Is higher fat consumption bad for your heart and arteries? Is dairy okay? How do you make sure you’re getting the range of nutrients, vitamins etc when limiting your diet sources? What is the best fuel for long distance events? What do you use for recovery after a 1-2 hour training session? What should you be having before and during training? So are we allowed coffee or not? And much more Listen to what Harry had to say! The Get Fast Podcast is brought to you by TriVelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you, Train Smarter to Race Faster. You are joined as always by your hosts, Australian Ironman Champion and 4 x Nationals Masters Cycling Champion Gerard Donnelly, and his son Jordan Donnelly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.