Above The Whistle
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Above The Whistle
Coach Wes Johnson: Finding Balance in Sport
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In this engaging episode, Wes Johnson, head coach of Arizona's triathlon program, unpacks his journey from competitive swimming to leading aspiring triathletes. He shares the crucial balance that coaches must maintain—juggling rigorous training with the personal lives of athletes.
Wes dives into the psychological dimensions of coaching, discussing how understanding mental resilience plays a pivotal role in optimizing performance. He underscores the value of keeping training enjoyable to prevent burnout, steering conversations toward fostering an environment of vulnerability where athletes feel empowered and accepted. With insights on nutrition and sleep monitoring, Wes reveals the impact of basic health fundamentals on athletic performance.
Moreover, he reflects on his experiences coaching Paralympians, highlighting the lessons learned on grit, determination, and breaking beyond perceived limits. Wes's commitment to establishing a supportive team culture shines throughout the dialogue, prompting thought on how connectivity and trust are imperative for a team's success.
Join us as we navigate the fascinating interplay between mental toughness, support systems, and the joy of sport, all while surging forward in a world that demands resilience. Don’t forget to subscribe, share your thoughts, and leave a review for more insights from leaders in the world of coaching and athletics!
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Introduction and Host Welcome
Speaker 1You know, one of the most important kids you'll ever coach is the one that needs the program more than the program needs that kid. Welcome to Above the Whistle with your host, devin McCann. All right, welcome back to another edition of Above the Whistle. Today we have Arizona Wildcat Triathlon head coach, wes Johnson. Hey, wes, hey, thanks for jumping on today. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2Thanks for having me Looking forward to it.
Speaker 1So I want to jump into it a little bit, because you went to the University of Utah, if I remember right, I did as a swimmer. Yes, when did the transition occur from going from one discipline of just swimming and then going into triathlons and then becoming the head coach that you are?
Speaker 2now in the in the summers. But I with, uh, I started loving it so much that I kind of was just looking forward to be done with swimming so I can go all in on triathlon and um. But I, yeah, I kind of started training and racing, trying to race an elite level. It was also coaching swimming, um and then started coaching triathlon and then kind of just never really looked back from there so okay, and then um, and that kind of led you into developing and founding, uh bam, correct yeah uh, how did that all come about?
Speaker 2yeah, I, you know, I started working with athletes and I needed kind of a you know, business license to go through and all that. So I started, you know, and I still hadn't figured out how to do it all.
Speaker 2Um, and you know, as I started building clients and everything, I was like, yeah, I need a business name and start thinking through my philosophies and you, you know a lot of coaching, triathlons, just balancing all three, balancing life in fitting training into the people's lives. Um, and then, yeah, just kind of came up with that balance start multi-sport name, cause you know, coaching is, is the art and it takes a lot of. You know it's a lot of kind of art putting together a, a training program, you know, fitting into their lifestyle. And that was before I started was coaching, like professional athletes, but it's still, you know, the same same fundamentals of like balancing everything into their lives.
Speaker 2So that's kind of where that came from and then, yeah, just kind of how we had started an indoor cycling program. First was really small out of a little pole dancing studio shared half pole, dancing half half.
Speaker 2I just paid half the room for rent and just kind of started building from there and then started coaching junior athletes, um, and built a pretty good junior program and then progressed to coaching Paralympic athletes and went to Rio Games as a national team coach and then continued building and then got pretty into the elite side of coaching as well the professional side and then led to this job here. So I've been more on the professional, elite side that than anything now, and loving it that's awesome.
Speaker 1How is it different coaching? You know an amateur, um, you know athlete who, like you said, it's hard with you. Know just work-life balance. Um, you know just the responsibilities of a job, a family, things like that. To you know just work-life balance. You know just the responsibilities of a job, a family, things like that. To you know someone who's 100% in, they're dedicated, they're a professional athlete. I mean, does your changing or your philosophies change at all when coaching, or is it all the same? Fundamentals?
Speaker 2It's the same fundamentals.
Speaker 2I think, think you know, when, when you're, the difference is you're still. Everybody has different levels of, you know, durability of what? Mental and physical durability. So even elite athletes, like they, can only handle so much, you know. And then there's some athletes that just love, you know, can really handle 30 hours of training and balance everything in their lives just fine. They have less, less, you know. Some athletes need more, have more social needs than others, you know. And some athletes just like to just grind and just get the work done and they don't need as much. So it's really just depends, you know, and they don't need as much, so it really just depends.
Speaker 2Um, you know, with I'm not as much fitting their training into their lives, like like, uh, you know, a person who works full-time, you don't want to really making their life worse, you want to enhancing their life and and so that's that's you. You know much different, looks much different than a professional athlete. This is their job, their training is their job and so you know their, their. Every single minute of their day reflects their training and and does all about. Everything is balanced. So there's still still a big balance component to managing it all.
Wes Johnson's Transition to Triathlon
Speaker 2Yeah, but yeah, I think fundamentals of the coaching is still still the same. It's just a little bit more all-in mentality of a professional athlete versus you know there's a lot more give and take and and we're willing to drop a lot of sessions when needed. When it's compromising, you know, time with their kids or family, or or get you know executing well at their job. We're always going to take away training first, you know okay. Or just adapting the training, maybe bringing it a little more quality versus easy volume type stuff, just hours and hours on end in the week. We got to just get more efficient and be smarter about every hour they do have to train.
Speaker 1Yeah, you alluded to it a little bit. I mean triathlons is as much mental as it is physical. How do you develop mental resilience? You mentioned the grind. How do you coach resilience and just that ability to just plow through when it gets tough and to not let the mental side of things affect your performance?
Speaker 2You know, I think if you have the fundamentals down, a lot of times when they're, they don't have that resilience and durability sometimes because they just don't sleep enough or eat enough. And so if you have those two down, it makes it a lot easier to be resilient to handle everything else. Some people just don't, didn't grow up in a way that they prioritized getting eight plus hours of sleep and eating correctly and eating enough.
Speaker 2Yeah, because it really if you have those two down it's a lot easier for the mind to operate at the highest level. But if those two are down and there's still struggles, then then there's a lot of psychology work. Some people bring different kinds of anxieties into what they're doing fear of failure and all that. So they just kind of lock up their potential because they're always scared of failing. And so once the person really opens up and is being is willing to fail, a lot of opportunities open up because they're they're with, they're willing to fail, and that's and failing and falling down sometimes is part of the growth process, and so you know the athletes, so there's a lot of that to it um, yeah, I like the idea of failure is just merely feedback.
Speaker 2Yeah, for sure, you know I mean it is yeah, I call it like failing forward and it's like this this failure is propelling you forward. This is what's going to allow you to break through right, you know.
Speaker 1Yeah, how much technology do you guys use? I mean you, you refer to just sleep and nutrition being, you know, two of the big components of you know, if you have those kind of dialed in um yeah, I monitor that pretty.
Speaker 2Uh, we, a lot of the athletes use whoop and so I I monitor that. So we kind of will tie their training into their daily recovery, you know, uh, and make sure they're on track. And it's also, you know, some coaches say it hurts them because they see a low recovery score. They instantly think they're going to have a bad day. But you know, that's reality. I mean, I think they need to have the awareness of what allows them to be recovered and you know, so, having being it holds them accountable. Since athletes track it, I've seen much higher rates of recovery than before when they were just had zero awareness. So now they actually have the awareness.
Speaker 2And you know, the only rules I have is like, don't look at on race day because at that point it doesn't matter, right in a race. So so don't. Yeah, we just don't look at on race day. But the other days it's like, yeah, what? What allows you to to be at your best? Your body, your best recovery, your best, you know. And then then we look at all the other factors, mentally and physically, and what's going on in each session.
Speaker 1Do you share these with the group, Like if you're training you know women's team um at arizona? Is this all shared in public amongst the team?
Speaker 2um, it's up to them that there's like a group dashboard thing that they can, but they don't definitely don't need to. It's more um, it's up. You know, if they want to share, they can, they do. Um, but the most important is like that we're aligned on it and athletes aren't even required to share with me either All the NCAA stuff that there's over monitoring which takes away athlete you know um privileges and like their own rights to choose what they want to share. So it's 100% up to them. But these athletes are all so incredibly driven and just want to be held accountable and want to want to do whatever it takes.
Speaker 1So they're pretty much the accountability of that piece if you are sharing it amongst your team. I mean you almost drive like a competition who has the best recovery score and things you know for sure yeah, um have you ever dealt with an athlete and I'm sure you have that has you know they're going through some sort of mental roadblock or they're suffering from burnout because it is long hours that you're putting in? I mean, how, as a coach, do you help someone cope with? You know burnout, for example?
Speaker 2Yeah, I think you know coaching at the highest level it's crazy, they so much and that I rarely see the burnout because it's just like a very unique type of person that I, the athletes I'm working with, yeah, but they're all susceptible to it for sure, and I think I think it's that leads to the burnout is if they're not just making it fun, enjoying the process, if it becomes a chore, that's when it starts leading to burnout. So I can you know, when I see the athletes frequently in person, because I coach remote athletes as well but when I see the athletes in person, I can see body language. We can, you know, see how they're doing, can pretty much detect something instantly, because if something's off in their life, that's what will lead to the burnout. With trying to train at a level plus not sleeping enough, that leads to burnout, you know, um, but if we're, if we're keeping it fun, keeping it light, you know it's and enjoying, like your teammates and the culture's right, and you know, when you're having somebody else who on the team, who is is thriving and there's like a supportive, you know everybody's happy for each other rather than this cutthroat environment. I think that the culture leads to a lot towards avoiding burnout as well. So I think there's a lot of variables to what can lead to that, but I think, you know, what we're building is something special, in a way that there's good culture there's.
Speaker 2You know, when somebody's off one day, everybody's there to support that person. You know, and they understand. Sometimes we'll just have to pull back another day. They'll be back on track for you. I think the athletes just continue grinding, grinding, grinding, grinding and maybe on top of that, not sleeping enough, not eating enough, they just start going downhill and that's when the burnout starts. Sleeping enough, not eating enough, they just start going downhill and that's when burnout starts. Yeah, I think if everything is monitored and everything is, uh, balanced in a way that they can perform, they can train at a high level, then we rarely see burnout. So, which is which is cool? Um, I think on the amateur level it happens easier because they're burning the candle at both ends and then they're, on top of that, trying to feel like training just starts becoming a chore and then then that leads to it. So you have to just keep the joy in it, no matter what. Find ways to keep joy in what you're doing or what you're doing.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean you mentioned the culture of it, um, and I think that's that's something that's probably not talked about enough. When it is a hyper-competitive sport You're at the collegiate level and it can get a little bit cutthroat program trying to create a fun atmosphere, an atmosphere where there's love amongst all the team members and things like that, I think it can help alleviate burnout Because, like you said, I mean the stress of, you know, constantly competing and feeling like someone's trying to undermine you, and things like that I think can have a toll on your mental and emotional. You know, just facets. So what do you do to create a culture? Because they are hyperactive, hyper competitive individuals you're working with, how do you create a culture that's fun and can kind of, you know, make an atmosphere where they don't feel as stressed?
Speaker 2yeah, I think a lot of it was, you know, establishing a good foundation from for just starting from scratch, a program from scratch. You know, two years ago, when we arrived, um, we wanted just to set up the right foundation of the right group and recruiting the right people and and and that that foundation is what set us up for, you know, the next year and this year we, we just built on that. We've we spent a lot more time recruiting that next class and and bringing the right people in, and they, they're just, I think it comes down to like they're all just amazing people and they're very different, and so I think we have to make little deposits of investment every single day into the culture.
Speaker 2You can't just expect it to be good without investing in it. So doing activities or being vulnerable with each other, you know, allows more um trust and it's not like it's real. It's real culture, it's real um. You really get to know people and be vulnerable with each other, to to know to understand each other at a higher level. Yeah, um. And then I think it can.
Speaker 2You can take things a lot further when it's real. There's real emotions, real vulnerability and you're willing to put yourself out there with your teammates and trust that with them.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean it's interesting you use the word vulnerability because when you're vulnerable, it humanizes you. Yeah, like you said, it opens you up. A lot of times, people don't Everyone's struggling with something. Yeah, and when you're open about some of the things you might be going through, it allows someone else to then be able to open up to you as well and then on those emotions, on some of those issues, on those vulnerabilities, you're able to kind of bond and build a relationship off of that because you truly understand where that person's coming from and you can relate at a much deeper level.
Speaker 1Yeah, but it does. It takes you being vulnerable, um, and athletes sometimes have a hard time showing vulnerability because they view it as a weakness, right, yeah, so, um, creating a culture where you allow that um to be vulnerable and and to maybe show some of those weaknesses and they're not really weaknesses, that's just what it's viewed as and, yeah, culture right in society, for sure, but creating that um space, a safe container to allow people to to truly open up, I think is huge, definitely, um, so you started in what?
Speaker 1december 2022, correct at yeah, or january 2023 was the first day, yeah, okay, okay, um. And you won the national championship in your second year, correct? Yep, um. So you talked about like recruiting and yeah, I mean you, this was an inaugural, like this is a new program, correct, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, you go out, you get hired the first of, uh, january 2023. You start hitting the ground running and trying to build this culture. Was there a specific type of individuals you were looking for? Just certain, you know tangibles that yeah, I think.
Speaker 2I think we're looking for, you know, respectful people. You know there was already a baseline of standards, like within the sport of triathlon.
Speaker 2You know we're looking for a high caliber Olympic program that we can get athletes to the top level, so that you know olympic program that we can get athletes to the top level, so that you know a baseline is definitely required on skills and and and where they're at so far in the sport, um, but on top of that, you know and there's still a bit high a lot of athletes at that level that we look at with potential, within that group of people that we look at, we want to find, you know, respectful athletes, gritty, gritty athletes.
Speaker 2You know the sport requires a lot of grit to be able to train at the level and amount that they train. And also, you know, very driven to be able to achieve high academic standards as well. And so very gritty, respectful, high caliber um people, ideally with, with, um low ego. You know that I can be vulnerable with teammates and not and not be cut through, you know. So I think those were, those were, um, the characteristics we looked for and we pretty much nailed it. So I'd say, like I found, a good group in two years.
Speaker 1That's, that's pretty impressive yeah yeah um, walk us back a little bit to your time with the uh paralympics. Yeah, um, you know, I know you. You coached uh um, grace, norman correct and a couple other individuals. What was your time? How did you get into coaching with the Paralympian team and then what was your favorite experience with that group?
Speaker 2Yeah, I first got into it I was coaching a guy named Chris Hammer who was based out of Salt Lake. He was getting his PhD in sports psychology at the University of Utah and he reached out. He's like I went to London and track for Paralympics but I want to pursue triathlon, and so I started coaching him and started having some good results. They started inviting me to go to coach some camps at the Olympic Training Center, so I started doing that and then they invited me to start going to races.
Speaker 1So then I just kind of went all into it, and and then uh you know the re got started coaching grace Norman also.
Speaker 2So so, so then I ended up, you know, getting the position to be the national team coach for Rio, and that that was definitely the highlight for sure. That being at that event was pretty unbelievable. And then she got gold and Chris got fourth. So there's like different emotions between those two. He, she grew up doing the sports, so she, and there was probably a little. It wasn't quite as deep on the competition as the men, but so she, but she has a little more experience at that point as well. And so you know, he's now in his third games now in Paris he just got gold medal. So he's he's progressed so well, so it was cool to see him from the start, um, and then, and Grace just got gold medal again in in Paris as well, so so it's just it's cool to see them continue to race at that level.
Speaker 2And but, yeah, after you know, those four years I transitioned a little bit more to coaching on the able-bodied elite side. Just it kind of just, you know that's especially taking this job. I do still coach a vision impaired athlete that lives here, that's trying to. You know that's especially taking this job. Um, I do still coach, a vision impaired athlete that lives here, um, that's trying to, you know, be a metal contender in LA. Um, but yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 2It's something I always want to be a part of. I really enjoy it. I, I, you know, really believe that the message that they, they live their lives and how, what they teach, you know, with their limitless you know, and, and they, they just they don't have excuses to of what their disability is. They focus more on their abilities and and just thrive in that. You know, and I think I just I love working with those kinds of individuals that just can lose. I think I just I love working with those kind of individuals that just can lose, lose their limits, you know, not, not not just be more limitless, and I think I try to teach that to my elite athletes as well.
Speaker 1That you know limits on ourselves, you know, you know, yeah, I was going to say are you able to, you know, invite someone like a grace norman to come and talk to your athletes that are your current program.
Speaker 2And yeah, we've had um, we've had that, yeah, and you know when, off and on, when I coach these athletes, like sometimes they're training with them too. So so it's, it seems it works out really well yeah, I mean I.
Speaker 1I look at someone like grace, and I had the privilege to meet her a handful of years ago yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, um, and yeah, just you know a wonderful individual and and just her mindset and just you know the drive she had and things like that yeah it was really, it was just exemplary and um just extremely motivational and for sure I, I can only imagine having her come talk to you know, because we all have those moments where we kind of woe is me or you know, have a pity party for ourselves, and then you see someone like grace who you know doesn't, like you said't make excuses, it's just completely limitless and, you know, just just goes after life, um, with full abandonment.
Speaker 1It's pretty, pretty impressive and very motivating, um. So. So when you reflect back, um, have you had any you know experiences with, with an athlete that you kind of wish you you had any you know experiences with an athlete that you kind of wish you could redo? Or, you know, maybe because every athlete you know you coach them differently. Some take tough love a certain way and play with it, others you need to be a little bit more careful and perhaps coddle them bit more careful and perhaps coddle them. Have you ever had a situation where you know your coaching style, um, you know, didn't quite align with an athlete and maybe you would like to walk that back and change from, like your earlier days of coaching? Or was that just kind of intuitive with you?
Balancing Amateur vs. Professional Coaching
Speaker 2you've always had kind of the ability to no, yeah, I've definitely grown so much and just my intuitive intuition and my ability with that, um, you know, as I look back, I think all the experiences I had yeah, there's definitely several that I would probably do differently now, but I think, with how I did that, that's what allowed me to learn, to be confident in what I do now. It's just learning from all those experiences you know that I've had. So I don't know if I would change anything because I just that's how I've learned and that's been my path. Yeah, but yeah, I think, looking, there's always like little things with an athlete of like, oh yeah, next, next year, their next block, let's do this differently. So it's, I think we look at it as less of like we should have done this, but let's, let's try this differently now. Um, so it's always kind of more future focused rather than, um, you know what we've done in the past because, yeah, there's also been athletes.
Speaker 2Yeah, like, I haven't perfectly gotten along with or perfectly jived with every single athlete I've coached.
Speaker 2You know, the values don't always align, vision doesn't always align, and and so things, things don't always work out but, um, but that's. That's kind of just relationships in life, right, yeah, and so yeah, but I think that's kind of just relationships in life, right, yeah, and so yeah, but I think that's that's what's allowed me to learn is looking at working with all these different kinds of extreme personalities, of all different kinds of diversities, different different abilities, disabilities, you know, religions, races, everything in between, you know, and that's allowed me to to really think outside of the box and and, and that's what I enjoy, you know. I enjoy, you know. We just on my, my team alone, we have nine different countries, some 14 athletes, so so it's like that, but there's a lot of different cultures they're bringing in from their lives, you know, into that and and so it's. There's a different kind of challenge with everybody, but it's that's. I think that's what makes it exciting and it makes it stronger as well just the differences between us all yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1Um, trust is a big factor in coaching. Yeah, for sure. Um, how do you go ahead, and you know, especially when you have a new athlete coming on board, you know how do you go ahead and you know, especially when you have a new athlete coming on board, you know how do you go ahead and start establishing that trust and then ultimately maintaining that trust with your athletes.
Speaker 2Yeah, I think establishing the trust you know is something that's that's earned, you know, over time, I think, just with you know the career, all the work and the ups and downs of your results with we've had other years. People do come in with a little higher level of trust, like a kind of expectation, I guess, expectation to start and then it builds to to trust um, but you know they, yeah, I think it's something that is earned on both ends and it builds and, and that's, you know, when we have a freshman come in at first there's sometimes a little bit of time that takes to to build trust with that athlete, um, we've seen that with with a lot of our. You know, every time freshmen come in we see that first year that was like literally the whole team, um, so there was plenty of challenges because of that. But then now, after working with all those athletes for more than a straight year, there definitely is a higher level of trust and and that's I, I'd say with that crew it's the trust is just at a high, high level and now we're able to, you know, I think, be vulnerable, we're able to trust each other and they trust what they're doing, if they can trust what they're doing and I trust them.
Speaker 2I believe in them. We, our staff believes in them. You know, everybody around them believes in them. I think that it's endless what's possible, you know, I think when, when people feel they don't feel safe, they don't feel like their opinions are heard, they don't feel like they belong, that's, that's when there's no trust and that's when people just don't thrive. But I think if all those things are in place, that trust is there, the the you feel like you can, you're safe to be be vulnerable, I think anything is possible at that point yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1Um, how much of your role do you think is being you know, a psychologist and and working with your athletes in that realm, versus just teaching you know techniques or just different skill sets um to enhance their, their performance on the field?
Speaker 2yeah, yeah, definitely. It's like being a coach is like you almost need like a degree in psychology too, but, um, but just I, I think you learn so much just by doing. You know, year after year of working, having so many ups and downs and so many things that have happened, you start to learn, you know how to psychologically help people and and that that isn't you know they also a lot of them work with sports psychologists. Um, a lot of them, and some of them even work together on the sports side with them, you know. So, so that's that's a whole extra.
Speaker 2I think it's really valuable when they can have a neutral person that isn't coach, is a friend, that somebody that can, like you know, just target that specific that side of their lives. Um, what's holding them back psychologically? Um, you know, or what allows them to thrive and more finding that space for them. You know, or what allows them to thrive and more finding that space for them. You know that I definitely that's all encompassed, but still, even with if they, even now they have all that staff and psychologists, it still ends up being a part of it. You know, in your middle of a session and someone's struggling with something, you know how are we going to, how we have to know them. We have to know them really well of why they're going through that. How can we help them, you know, and so so yeah, it's a huge part of it, for sure.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah. Um, you mentioned balance. You know several times on a personal level, how do you balance coaching with? You know, just your family life? I mean you have young kids at home and all that. I mean, how are you able to balance your personal and work?
Speaker 2Yeah, it's definitely always been been a struggle. I don't think, you know, people talk about balance and think of that. It's like, oh, you want perfect. You know 20%, 25, 20% efforts in different areas, or 30, 30, you know that's just not how realistically, how it is like there's when we when I say balanced, I mean I might, you know, 60 might be something, 75 might be something, but, um, I think balance means something different to everybody and what allows them to be at their best.
Speaker 2But but yeah, I, I, you know, I think I I'm a very obsessive personality and I think if I didn't have four kids and family, I mean that that, honestly, that alone might even save my life. You know cause, cause I, I go so extreme and it has allowed me to to, to get to a high level, because I hold myself super accountable, high standards, but also I can be obsessive, and so I have to know and understand myself and be aware of my own limitations, to take that too far. Being super invested in my kids lives and and having that is a huge part of my life, and what it requires. Balance for me is to, you know, is balancing all that, and it's never, it's never easy. It's like you know, sometimes I'm super stressed in one area and I have to still deal with the other areas, right?
Speaker 1So it's um, but that's pretty much just a part of being an adult, right I've heard the analogy I and I love this one because, like you said, it's it's never you know, it's like 33.3, you know yeah it's just doesn't work that way, and it ebbs and flows um you know, if you look at it as a circle and you do try to divide it up, you know accordingly that doesn't mean that circle can't get bigger and allow for more capacity.
Speaker 1Yeah, you know both work and you know family and things. You're putting in the effort and you know you're truly passionate about it, the effort, and you know you're truly passionate about it. You know you can continue to expand and grow and that circle and your abilities to do all those things can continue to expand and grow as well.
Speaker 1so yeah um, so yeah, I don't think it's a finite thing, obviously, and yeah, I agree it's extremely dynamic um in season. It's definitely going to be a little bit different than your off season. Yeah, 100%. So what's next for you as far as coaching, and do you see yourself with the University of Arizona for several years? What's the next?
Speaker 2Yeah, I've really loved the setup here, the support we get from the university and, and yeah, like I definitely have a hard time seeing me going anywhere else anytime soon, I don't see how I will ever want to, but um you know it's known for.
Speaker 1I mean, it's kind of a marquee training ground for triathlon yeah, it is, it is, it's just perfect yeah, anything about it is community how does the community and, you know, environment contribute to?
Speaker 2um, it's, it's really good. Yeah, it's um, and I think it's building too. You know, when we won the national championship, they put on a celebration for us and, like you know, almost a thousand people came from the community and just if we just felt so much love it was, it was incredible. Um, on the weekends, there's these group rides, um, they're just open, you know, and free to public, and sometimes there's 200 people on it and they're like high height. Half of them are pro cyclists in the winter time, you know, and then they have like all the different levels.
Speaker 2So so it's like it's really cool, cause that's you know, learning how to cycle in a group format is is is crucial, um, so, having having high standards there, you know, but also fun and learn and meeting people from the community, and that's like every single Saturday.
Speaker 2You know, we have the option to do that. They have Tuesday ones too, which we don't often do, but there's, yeah, there's, there's tons of options and there's like all the bike shops in the area always reaching out to us to help us and support us, and so there's, there's, yeah, there's a big community part to it. We're trying to build that too. You know we're still a new program, so we're always we're meeting it. We're trying to build that too. You know we're still a new program, so, um, we're always we're meeting, we're always looking to meet people, and and there's, we have several um donors for our program that are really supportive of us as well. Just, you know, love our team and they really got to know the athletes and we've got to know them, and so it's it's, it's been really special on that side of things.
Speaker 1That's awesome.
Speaker 2Do your kids, do they you know, do any sort of triathlons. Yeah, you know, it's a fun. I try not to like force them, to try to like just introduce them to things they're right now. They're more in like basketball, soccer, those kinds of things, which I think is a good way to start, um, trying to keep them swimming enough, just just. I think it's a good life skill regardless. Yeah, um, so, trying to, you know, but give them the opportunity if they want to do that. It's there if they want to, but they're still pretty young, so so, not really getting too serious about anything, but just giving them lots of opportunities in different sports and getting to know different things.
Speaker 1Yeah, Now do you still train? Do you ever compete?
Speaker 2Not really compete. I'm getting into cycling more. It's hard to not want to be on a bike a lot living here. It's pretty amazing. So I commute a lot as much as I can to work and back home, so it's like an hour each way on the bike so it's it's kind of nice. Yeah, um, and then, yeah, I was. I like swimming. You know, I walk out of my office in the pool, 50 meter pools right there so.
Speaker 1So that's hard not to want to swim to um, just trying to still your first love is swimming out of the three disciplines.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, but I really love cycling too. But yeah, swimming is definitely something I never want to give up.
Speaker 1So yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1What's your favorite distance when it comes to triathlons?
Speaker 2I mean for me racing or for, like coaching, Both Racing I mean. I was always a for like coaching, both Racing I mean. I was always a little better at the longer ones.
Speaker 2I just my energy systems do better with not super explosive, so I always did better with you know Olympic distance or half Ironman, you know, I think Ironman, yes, if I've trained enough but haven't been able to do that a long time. So but coaching, I I also like all of it too. Coaching it's like it all. They all keep me engaged in different ways. You know I like coaching the collegiate age it's. You know, they're kind of the ones that are at that high level, professional level. They're just kind of all in and that's kind of how I, how I go into things as well, so it's so we kind of have a similar vision there and understand each other. Um, so yeah, I think that age I like, which usually is like the sprinter, olympic distance, but really I like coaching all the distances. So I just love the sport. So whatever distance that is, I enjoy it.
Speaker 1Well, that's awesome. Well, I know you have to get back at it. I know you have, you know, athletes knocking on your door. Thanks for having me. Yeah, no, just thanks.
Speaker 2so much for jumping on I know you have, you know athletes knocking on your door.
Developing Mental Resilience in Athletes
Speaker 1Thanks for having me. Yeah, no, just thanks. So much for jumping on. I know you're busy, but I appreciate you jumping on. It's always good to see you. Yeah, you too, Thank you.