Written by Coach Chris White - One of the perks of my jobs is that I get to talk to people with different backgrounds, life stories, aspirations and approaches to life.  Recently we started a series of ‘Coach Chats' with our MEC coaches and athletes, to share these stories and experiences not only as triathletes but beyond the people that we see regularly in training or on the start line of a race.  The two most recent chats with MEC... Read more.

Written by Coach Chris White - Whether you are an elite athlete, a junior who is up and coming or an age grouper who loves to race, recovery should be a key consideration in how you go about your training.  We are all about producing consistency over a longer period of time at MEC, and that absolutely requires you to consider your recovery.  If you don't recover properly from one session, you jeapordise the next session and so on, digging... Read more.

Written by Coach Chris White - In triathlon, we are well aware that we want to avoid injury.  Thankfully this is more often than not, something that is preventable through proper programming, coaching and adequate recovery.  One of the most obvious times when adequate recovery is of importance is post race. When we are recovering from races, whether they be endurance races like Ironman distances, or shorter but far more intense races like Sprint Distance triathlons, we need to consider... Read more.

Getting ‘race ready’ starts from the moment you commit to racing.  That moment could be months or even years before race day itself, but all the actions you take from that point onwards, are what gets you ‘race ready.’  Training and improving in the disciplines of swim, bike and run allow you to get ready for the physical and mental challenge ahead, but far too often we see people overlooking those last few days of preparation, which if not handled properly, have... Read more.

Written by Coaches Chris White & Michael Harvey - You will often hear professional or successful athletes talking about visualisation as a tool in their toolkit. They imagine what their perfect race looks like, they feel the emotion of crossing the finish line, they problem solve issues that might arise during the race. But surely this can't actually help you and I become better athletes in reality. Or can it?   According to MEC Head Coach, Michael Harvey, "Visualisation is... Read more.

Written by Coach Chris White - As a collective of coaches at MEC, we are constantly discussing how we can help our athletes learn. Similar to being a teacher, we see our role as facilitating education, improvement and helping the student or athlete become more proficient in a given task. In these coaching discussions, one thing that comes up regularly is the issue of 'learning how to learn.' For me, I certainly wasn't taught how to learn at school and... Read more.

Written by Coaches Chris White & Michael Harvey - The pursuit of high performance in sport requires certain traits. The journey is of course different for each individual athlete, however there are underpinning requirements to reach each level of the performance continuum, which can be summed up when looking at the process of ‘Climbing the High Performance Mountain.’ Level 1: Introduction to the Mountain Mountains have been there for people to climb, conquer and challenge themselves forever.  The ‘mountains’ that... Read more.

Written by Coach Chris White - The definition of resilience is, "the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.”  It is a skill or attribute that is now very much recognised as valuable in workplaces, schools and sports settings all around Australia.  Developing resilience is a key part of the development of any team or individual athlete.  Whether that includes the resilience to handle pressure, the resilience to come back from injury or the resilience to dig deep and carry on... Read more.

Written by Coach Chris White With the Olympics underway in Tokyo this year, its worth remembering that many of our 70.3, long course or Ironman champions such as Daniela Ryf, Alistair Brownlee, Javier Gomez and Jan Frodeno all focused a large section of their early careers on the Olympic Distance triathlon.  Not only that, they were the best in the world at the Olympic distance.  Brownlee is a double gold medalist, Frodeno won gold in 2008, Gomez is a 5... Read more.

Written by Coach Mon Liston Mindfulness is a practice of being acutely aware of your own experience right here and now, in the moment. It’s making a relationship with our experience as it happens, however unpredictable it may be. It may seem like a new fad for many as you’ll have noticed the idea of being ‘mindful’ has been thrown around a lot in recent years. That’s mainly because it has been adopted by the newest 'wave' of psychotherapies, which... Read more.