I hired a coach. And, he’s not cheap: $1000/month with a requirement of 6-months of coaching. “Why are you telling me this, Reed?” Because I have a BIG GOAL. I have a really SCARY GOAL. And, this one is HAIRIER than…

A few weeks ago, my friend, Greg, sent me a list—103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known—created by Kevin Kelly, founding Executive Editor of Wired, with the following message: “A good list to start your day.” Little does Greg know, I’ve started my day with the list every day since then. I should probably tell him! Earlier this week…

May 7th, 2022. The Ironman World Championships in St. George, UT. Up at 3:30am. 2.4 miles of swimming in 60 degree water. 112 miles of biking with over 7000 feet of elevation change. 26.2 miles of running in 90 degree heat. 13 hours. 57 minutes. 38 seconds. To bed at 11:30pm. By my wife’s standards…

We all have a quit point. When doing things that are BIG, SCARY, and HAIRY, you’re bound to run into that point. Unfortunately, Mother Nature designed us this way. But, what if you could keep going just a little bit longer—do more than you think you can—before getting to that point? And, what if it could actually be fun. It turns out you can…

It’s time to nerd out a bit. On play research. I’m a huge proponent of play. It’s helped me tremendously. However, lately, I haven’t felt too playful. And, as a result, I’ve felt a bit stuck within my BIG, SCARY, HAIRY GOAL. Like any good nerd, I did what feels playful to me…

The Hogan Personality Assessment helps you understand three core aspects about you and your story: 1) How your personality traits and your go-to behaviors impact the way you approach your goals on a day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month basis; 2) How certain behaviors and ways of thinking may interfere with…

There are two goals within this portion of the Main Set are 1) hold consistent times throughout your P500 125s and your P200 125s despite how the distance is broken up and 2) your overall times for all of the P200 125s should be faster than your overall times for all of the P500 125s.

On Monday, I was ready to give up on my BIG, SCARY, HAIRY GOAL. Because it’s BIG. It’s SCARY. And because this one seems particularly HAIRY. Needless to say, my emotions were having their way with me and my goal on Monday. My attention was certainly “pulled this way and that.” Emotions are…

I had a graduate school professor who always reminded me, “Getting over inertia is the hardest part.” It is.  It’s easy to stay the same. It’s easy to do nothing. It’s easy to remain unchanged.  But, in the long run, that can make things really hard. The story you want to tell…

The Main Set consists of three components—The Eyes, The Body, and The Stinger—which are intended to be done without breaks between the components. The set within The Eyes are to help you focus on fast swimming with an extra focus on your wall work and your breakouts. The set within The Body is to help build…

“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… the best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. To have a good life, it is not enough to remove what is wrong with it. We also need a positive goal: otherwise why keep going?”

On Monday, I picked up 100 copies of What’s Your BIG, SCARY, HAIRY GOAL? from a printer I’ve been working with in Naples, FL since November. I sent my wife, Julie — the person who encouraged me to tell a better story when I met her in 2018 — a picture of me holding the book. “How’s it FEEL?!” she asked…

This workout is a grind. The primary purpose is to help you zero in on your 500 pacing (P500), and then aim to maintain that pacing as the fatigue builds up throughout the Main Set. In distance swimming, it’s easy to focus on…

Flow Drill: The focus here is on body undulation. You want to aim to get your whole body into the movement of the butterfly stroke. On the surface of the water, with your arms shoulder-width apart (think 1 o’clock and 11 o’clock), work to undulate your body from your fingertips to your toes. Start the undulating motion by focusing on…

The pacing for each “400” stays consistent throughout each Round of the Main Set; however, the 400 is broken up in each successive Round, with the final Round consisting of 8 X 50. The purpose of the “400” pull is to find your pacing after hard, sprint freestyle swimming. This can be especially hard as the fatigue starts to set in.

This is the primary focus on this week’s workout. Figure out your Goal Interval by taking your P500 pace (your 50 pace for your goal 500) and multiply it by two. Then, add around 5 to 7 seconds to that time. Each Round, you’ll add an additional 100 so that by the time you get to Round 5, you’ll complete 5 X 100.

This past weekend, I did something different. Something my body wasn’t used to. Something that seemed harmless at the time. My brother-in-law was showing me his new exercise room set-up. I was particularly intrigued by a contraption I had never seen before: an inversion table. This table allows you to hang upside down and can be used to promote recovery. Curious about all things fitness…

If you don’t have a sense of purpose. Or, as Robert Greene calls it, your Life’s Task. If you’re a Simon Sinek kind of person, your Just Cause and your Why. Because if you don’t have a sense of purpose when chasing after your goals—this year’s New Year’s Resolution—you’re setting yourself up for failure. In 2022, approach the New Year differently…

Download: What’s Your BIG, SCARY, HAIRY GOAL?: Start the Story You’ve Always Wanted to Tell — an ebook for $4.99.

“If I were to write a book, this would be the book that I’d write.” That’s the first line I wrote in my journal when I decided to turn a workbook I had developed for my coaching clients into a book. For years, I’d wanted to write a book. It was a story I wanted to tell…

Pretty simple here. This is just good, hard swimming. There is ample rest after each 100, so use it wisely, especially as the number of 100s increases. We often find easy sculling or double-arm backstroke to the middle of the pool and back a great way to actively recover rather than just hanging on the wall, letting your muscles seize. In an ideal world, you’ll…