How to create a "Not To-Do List" - and why I recommend it

It's the time of year for checklists and constant reminders of those resolutions we made a few weeks ago. How's that working for you? Here's why I recommend a "Not-To-Do" List…

I understand the psychology behind resolutions, pledges and personal promises. It's great to write a list of things you're going to do more of this year, be better at, or finally get round to doing.

But it's a lot of pressure.

Us endurance athletes are already motivated, focused and pretty hard on ourselves most of the time (it's how we get all those hours of training in, even on these dark cold evenings). 

5 common mistakes when setting New Years fitness goals

It's time for setting some New Year fitness goals. Why do so many of us fail to achieve our fitness resolutions? Here are five things to avoid (and my successful alternatives!):

• Avoid: unrealistic resolutions
• Instead: make your fitness goals challenging but achievable
• The quickest way to failure is to set an impressive fitness goal which is outside the realms of possibility. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for dreaming big and challenging yourself. I encourage clients to set goals which scare them a little. But know how to recognise a goal which is beyond you (at least for now). It's far more satisfying to challenge yourself with something you know you can achieve than to be disappointed.

• Avoid: poor goal-setting strategies
• Instead: use tried-and-tested tools proven to work
• Vague goals won't cut it in sport and fitness.  Make sure your resolutions are specific and achievable, with a start and finish point. How will you measure progress? Which race, which distance, which year, in what time?  How will you know when you've achieved the goal? Do you want a podium finish, or simply to finish the race? Make your goal as specific as you can and you're more likely to achieve it.

• Avoid: bad time management 
• Instead: make smart use of your time to maximise efficiency
• Multi-sport and endurance athletes need to pack a lot into their time: training, nutrition, recovery, soft tissue work and rest. It's imperative that you make clever use of your time if you are to succeed in pursuing and achieving your fitness goal. Plan your training, your nutrition and your season. Schedule time for training, and stick to it. Plan your meals and prepare your food. Identify areas of the day or week where you waste valuable time and come up with ways to avoid or minimise it.

• Avoid: keeping it to yourself
• Instead: tell people (online and offline) about your plans
• It's been proven that the likelihood of achieving your plan grows in relation to the amount of people you tell. So let plenty of people know about your specific goal thisyear. Use Facebook, Twitter or a blog to keep people updated. Tell friends and family. You'll feel less able to side-step training plans if people know about them, and you'll be keen to give your audience regular progress updates.

• Avoid: skimping on accountability
• Instead: check in regularly with an accountability tool that motivates you
• Accountability is key to achieving goals. A coach is probably the best accountability tool you could have, but there are plenty of others to try. You could journal, blog orwrite updates on a forum. Check in with a training partner regularly to give them specific feedback. Use a mobile app or online tracker for mileage, weight-loss or other habits and goals. Whatever you choose, make sure you commit to it fully, use it frequently (daily check-ins are best) and stay accountable through good times and bad ones too!

Here's to a successful 2015! Feel free to share your goals with me: I'll help keep you accountable!

Can you beet it? Beetroot juice for endurance athletes!

What's sweet, red and boosts the performance of endurance athletes? Believe it or not… it's beetroot juice. Find out why the humble beetroot could be your new favourite sports supplement.

Beetroot is a love it or loathe it veg (I love it!) Some people really enjoy eating the sweet root, whether boiled or roasted, or as a jarred pickle. But did you know that beetroot juice is now being used by sports teams and athletes to boost endurance? The sports world has discovered the powers of beetroot, with juice harnessing all the benefits in a specific highly concentrated form.

What's the benefit of beetroot? Nature usually gives us a visual heads up about the nutrient density of fruit and vegetables. And beetroot, with its deep red colour, is no different. Sports science research now suggests that it's one of the most nutrient-dense vegetables around. But the power of beetroot is very specific. It contains extremely high levels of natural dietary nitrates which our bodies convert to nitric oxide.

It's a numbers game, but should triathletes just be chasing numbers?

Hours, miles, kilometres…. just some of the numbers triathletes track and chase on a weekly and annual basis. What's more important, quality or quantity? Let's discuss the numbers game.

These days, it's so easy to log, track and record every last detail of our training, diet, race performance, even our daily steps and sleeping hours. As type-A personalities, we love to pore over stats, crunching the numbers to fine-tune our training and performance with every passing year. 

Even before GPS watches, activity monitors, and smart phone apps, triathletes loved to chase numbers. I bet every old-school triathlete has a pile of paper training journals in the attic, charting decades of mile splits, victorious PBs, and DNFs they'd rather forget.

So why do we spend so much time and energy chasing the numbers of our sport?