Peter Reid

It's a rare opportunity to get to spend some quality time with an athlete of Peter Reid's caliber and that's exactly what I got the past week in Tucson.

My first impressions of Peter is his unassuming quiet demeanor. He's calm and quiet, tall and still in really phenomenal shape.

This past week was an amazing experience getting to have a chance to listen to Peter speak about his journey and experiences through his career in triathlon in formal presentation sessions and pick his brain on the little things out while out on the bike and run.

How did Peter become the great triathlete that he was (well still is)?

He was motivated. Motivated by the alteratives in his life at that point he decided to pursue triathlon as a career (working in a factory). The underlying reason was much more personal however and took him years to figure out. Peter's underlying message about motivation was that it's personal and you need to figure out what motivates you to train, sacrifice and participate in triathlons. The most amazing story about motivation was his description of walking off the course in Kona as he passed his condo with just a few miles to go in second place and with the leader walking. He didn't know why he was putting himself through this so he quit.

He was committed. Peter was willing to make triathlon the most important thing in his life, it was his life. Peter was willing to do what it would take to improve and be the best. He talked about joining a swim team when he was first starting out since he wasn't a great swimmer. The coach was willing to accept him on the team but pointed down to the end of the pool and said you'll have to swim in that lane. That lane had 10-12 year old boys swimming in the lane, he was in his early 20's. He said the toughest part was he would have to swim in meets with the kids and he said they beat him. The next season though he was coming out of the water with the leaders. He was committed and willing to put up with some humility to improve.

He was consistent and methodical. One of the big things that I took away from listening to Peter was that he would do the little things to improve. The two big examples of this were his focus on run drills. He said he would do the drills weekly (consistent) and would focus on executing them flawlessly. Peter contributed this to him going from a guy that could only run around a 42 minute 10K in the Olympic distant triathlons to being a 2:42 marathon guy in the Ironman. The other story that stuck out in my mind was his focus on diet leading up to a race. He knew he had to eat healthy for the weeks leading up to key races and he said he would put that as a priority leading to the race cutting out the "bad" foods and things like coffee.

What I took away from my time with Peter aside from some great tips on training and racing was that you need to find your own path in triathlon (why your doing it) and to focus on the little things in your preparation and racing.

With all of his success in the sport of triathlon and his great physical abilities, in the end he is just a man on a journey to find happiness and fulfillment in life. I get the sense that he's well on continuing that journey.

Peter when you're ready to hit the water for some sailing give me a shout and I'll be happy to get you nailing your jibes.