How important is an off-seasons for overall progression. For many endurance sports lunatics, shutting down the training and taking a break can be the most difficult aspect of following a well constructed training program. Yet it’s also one of the most integral parts. We get so mentally conditioned to the training we do each day that it’s easy to forget the insanity of how much training we’re putting out bodies through each day. Image Credit- @koruptvision You may have noticed in your own training that for 6-12 weeks you’re making satisfying steps forward each week before these steps get smalle ..read more

and The Trek Domane reigns supreme as the bike to have to almost do it all. The Trek Domane has only added to my love for the adventure/endurance road bike category and deepened my disinterest toward the ‘gravel’ bike category.  I’ve tried quite a few gravel bikes across several brands and as much as I wanted to I just can’t really see where a gravel bike fits in my bike line up. This is coming from a bloke who can find a reason for every other bike category. If the gravel terrain is too intense for an endurance road bike that accommodates wide tyres then it’s also going to be just as u ..read more

PREFACE: You’re welcome to skip to the shoes.. This is not the sort of blog you would read start to finish. Life is too short. Simply scroll until you find a shoe you’re curious about and then move on with your life. I’ll continually add shoes as I get to round to it and/or try new releases eventually enabling a search function so you don’t have to scroll endlessly. If you came here to witness me tear to shreds the brilliant minds behind the multitude of shoe designs out there I feel you’ll be disappointed. Like a fine French wine connoisseur, I’m not interested in trying shoes that I’m ..read more

Matthew McInerney, September 21, 2020 7:32pm Subscriber only IT IS the not-so-scenic route to Cairns you won’t find recommended on TripAdvisor by Tim Van Berkel or Tim Reed anytime soon. The duo, from northern New Sales Wales towns Lennox Heads and Ballina, respectively, have travelled just about as far as you can within Australia’s domestic borders to make the Ironman Cairns starting line ..read more

Many aspects of sport suddenly seem very trivial at a time like this. Winning, championships, debates over rules, professional prize money and pay disputes fade into nothingness when compared to  mass unemployment, overwhelmed hospitals and the horrific numbers of deaths. And yet the fundamental elements of our sports, exercising and training, takes on a new importance in mitigating what is likely to become an overwhelming mental health crisis. I’m certainly not pretending to be a self-help guru.  There are some pretty lost moments every day as I adjust to a life based around homesch ..read more

2019 kick off.. It’s a common theme for pros to dramatise the very first world pro athlete woes to make solid performances seem more remarkable and inspire the enthusiastic endurance sports fans that they can overcome any obstacles, that anything is possible and that there are, hashtag, no limits. I enjoy being the antithesis to this nonsense and let people know that we all have limits whether that be time constraints, the amount of physical talent, the reality of other responsibilities life throws your way and your personality traits. That’s not to say we aren’t all capable of achieving excel ..read more

The last 10 years of my life I’ve spent countless hours riding in the company of predominantly young to middle aged men. Given the average male allegedly thinks about sex 19 times per day the conversation occasionally turns to discussing sex in a direct or more obscure way depending on how comfortable we are with each other. What might be surprising to readers who are not so familiar with elite endurance athletes, is how often I hear guys say that they’re not interested in sex, that it’s a chore they sometimes bear for their non-training partner or they’re actually having issues maintaining an ..read more

It’s reportedly difficult to do live coverage for Ironman Cairns. That sucks for the hardcore fans out there wanting to watch such stars as Javier Gomez and Braden Currie battle it out for the Ironman Asia Pacific title but it is very beneficial for my race reporting as I can embellish as I please and noone, beyond those that raced, can argue with my version of events.  For the most part, Cairns, the Northern QLD tourist magnet, was rather generous with the conditions she delivered on race day. The heat was relatively cool (still bloody warm), the wind relatively calm (still bloody windy ..read more

Curbing The Come Down It’s been close to a perfect prep. You’ve ticked every box possible in regards to nailing your ‘A’ race. Sacrifices a plenty along the way including spending a lot less quality time with friends and family and justifying putting off life-tasks that you’ll get around to after the race. ‘You’ll make up for it once the race is over’ is the common mantra I tell myself and is the familiar theme I hear from others. The race tends to go one of two ways. Scenario 1- Really well. You’ve smashed your personal best, perhaps beat your training buddies or for the pros out there, loade ..read more

Upon reviewing 2017 I had to come to terms with the following: As much as I would love the Ironman World Championship to rotate locations like every other sport and the Ironman 70.3 World Championship, it is not going to happen  any time soon. I need to adapt to the conditions in Kona or choose a different major objective to rotate my season around. Amongst my gnome sub species and indeed even compared to the far larger common human, I have very high sweat and sodium losses. In very warm conditions I can lose 4-5kgs in a 2 hour run. A 7% drop in body weight due to fluid loss is not going ..read more