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Winning the Mind Game with Performance Psychologist Alex Auerbach

Winning the Mind Game with Performance Psychologist Alex Auerbach

Plus: Global Triathlon Award winners and blue carpet snubs, and what you can do sleep better, now!

Together With

Good morning everyone!

Hope you all had a great weekend, training or otherwise. Here at home, I've been noticing a slight increase in daylight over the past week. It hasn't been much, but it does have me dreaming of warm summer evening rides and maybe even a few start lines. 😉

In this edition we've got:

The big winners from the Global Triathlon Awards 🏆
Psychological tools for blasting through performance plateaus 🧠
Plus: eight ways you can sleep better, now! 💡

Thank you for being here.

-Matt Sharpe, Canadian Olympic triathlete, current long course racer, and now, a newsletter writer.

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ONE BIG THING

Stars Shine Bright at Inaugural Global Triathlon Awards

Duffy Blummenfelt Iden win global tri awards

World Triathlon

What is it: As reported by Endurance Sportswire, this past weekend athletes, industry partners, and globally-significant race organizers met in Nice, France for the first-annual Global Triathlon Awards. It was a star-studded affair that saw attendees swap lycra for Louboutin.

An initiative of The Professional Triathletes Organization (PTO), Super League Triathlon, and World Triathlon, the GTA's had a variety of awards up for grabs. Here's a short list of winners:

Female athlete: Dame Flora Duffy
Male athlete: Gustav Iden
Rookie of the year: Chelsea Sodaro
Best swim product: FORM smart swim goggles
Best tech product: Supersapians
Lifetime Kudos - Pro Triathlete: Nicola Spirig

You can read the full list of winners here.

Why it matters: Given the size of the sport, and its global reach, it stands to reason that Triathlon would have its own version of the Oscars.

A nice twist of the GTA's is that most of the awards are nominated by the public.
The winners were then chosen by an expert panel which included Jordan Blanco, Chelsea Burns and Tim Don.

Tempo's take: After an excellent year for the sport, it was great to see champions, innovative products, and lifetime contributors of triathlon celebrated the way they should be. However, it wouldn't be an awards season without controversy as there was a 750 million dollar elephant that wasn't in the room.

The absence of any IRONMAN presence from the GTA's, whether deliberate or not, is a clear signal of a burgeoning World-Super-Organization™ alliance that could spell trouble for the IRONMAN empire's rule of the triathlon galaxy.

TOGETHER WITH

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NEWS

🦁 Nittany volunteers: On January 24th (today!) IRONMAN will be hosting a volunteer fair for the inaugural Happy Valley 70.3 scheduled for July 2nd. The fair will take place at Champs Sports Bar and Grill in State College, Pennsylvania. [statecollege.com]

🥶 Ice in their veins: This past weekend Anchorage, Alaska played host to the USA Winter Triathlon National Championships. Fairbanks' Jordan Pruszenski's finish-line heroics won her a second national title by 00:19 of a second. Eric Flanders defended his title with a much larger two-minute margin of victory. [Anchorage Daily News]

👩‍⚖️ Overturn the overturn: Shortly after taking the win at Ironman Ireland, Germany's Svenja Thoes was disqualified for taking "outside assistance." After five months, and an independent tribunal, she has had her win reinstated. [Triathlon Magazine Canada]

🥭 TriPhilippines: After pandemic disruptions and a development delay, Ironman 70.3 Davao is ready to welcome the world to an incredible part of The Philippines. The race weekend includes a professional race, GirlsRun, and IronKids event. The goal of the event is to continue to shine a spotlight on the country as a sports tourism destination. [philstar.com]

EXPERT ANALYSIS

Why Performance Psychologist Alex Auerbach Wants You to Celebrate the Small Wins

Dr. Alex Auerbach is a high-performance psychologist and executive coach who currently works with the NBA’s Toronto Raptors. He has worked with NCAA Division 1 Football programs and has consulted with professional, collegiate, and Olympic athletes.

Hey Alex! thanks for your time. Wondering if you can share some key psychological traits of high-performing athletes that you have observed.

One would be self-regulated learning. Which means being able to control and direct your thinking, feeling, and physiology, and being able to optimize your learning.
Others would include psychological flexibility, the ability to prepare and practice well.
And being an active reflector on your performances.

Ultimately, how athletes perform well is individualized. But, all the above will help you do what you do, better.

When you see athletes stuck in a performance plateau, what is your advice to help them breakthrough?

The first step is to slow down. It sounds counterintuitive, but people often think ramping up and putting on more pressure is the solution to drive their performance forward. In a slump situation, less is more.

That doesn’t mean don’t try - it just means to focus on doing less, better, without ramping up the pressure needlessly on yourself. That leads to the second step - redirect your focus.

Go back to what your strengths are and what keeps you competitive. Get back to the most fundamental units: train hare, focus on your basic skills, and doing what you can do to the best of your ability.

The final step I’d throw in is to try and find a small win once you’re refocused. Small wins build momentum and confidence. Celebrate them!

Check out the rest of the first part of our interview with Dr. Auerbach and learn,

How he became a world-leading performance psychologist.
The psychological performance parallels of elite NBA players and endurance athletes.

Read part one of our interview.

To get the best of Dr. Auerbach in your inbox, subscribe to his weekly newsletter, Perform. Or follow him on Twitter: @alexauerbachphd.

Are you an expert and want your thoughts featured in The Tempo? Fill out this form and we'll get back to you ASAP.

FAVOURITES

🙏 #ForGeorge: After a freak bike accident that resulted in a significant brain injury, it was unclear how British Paralympic medalist, George Peasgood, would ultimately recover. He recently posted an encouraging update on Instagram speaking to his ultimate goal of "get[ting] back to what I love." Sending him all the good vibes for his recovery. [George Peasgood - Instagram]

💤 Sleep tweet: Better sleep is only a Twitter thread away...Haha but maybe it is! Brad Stulberg is a fellow with the University of Michigan School of Public health, and an author specializing in peak performance and excellence. His most recent Twitter thread on sleep has eight quick tips on how to improve your sleep and perform at your best. [Brad Stulberg - Twitter]

💃 BTS at the GTA's: Live from the blue carpet! Super League Triathlon put together a fun behind-the-scenes look at the inaugural Global Triathlon Awards. Emily Young gets exclusive blue carpet interviews with Super League co-founder, Michael D'Hulst, Kristian Blummenfelt, Flora Duffy, and Paula Radcliffe. [Super League Triathlon]

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EXCLUSIVE TEMPO INTERVIEWS

Scott Tindal on eating properly for Ironman training.
How Samantha Kingsford balances XTERRA and long-course.
Always stay present: An interview with triathlete Martín Ulloa.

COMMUNITY QUESTION

Do you have a burning question about triathlon or Ironman? Want to share a racing tip? Let us know and it could be featured in the newsletter.

Are you racing this weekend? Or any epic training sessions? We'd love to hear about them. Send us your photos or a race recap, and we will feature them in next Tuesday's edition!