Own Your Shit. Advice for aspiring Athletes.

Let me ask you directly—are you truly acting like the athlete you want to become?

How about this question: If I followed you around for one week, how serious would I think you were about achieving your goals?

As an endurance athlete coach, I work with competitors across a spectrum of sports: Triathlon, Obstacle Course Racing, Hyrox, and more. Every single athlete has goals they’re striving toward. For some, it’s claiming an age category win or podium finish. For others, it’s simply completing their A-race with a performance they can be proud of.

What unites these goals? They all demand sacrifice, consistent hard work, and unwavering dedication.

The Gap Between Knowing and Doing

Most athletes have a solid understanding of what achieving their goals requires:

• Countless training hours
• Restructuring daily life to make time for training
• Precision nutrition
• Early nights and earlier mornings
• Declining social events that conflict with training
• Skipping favorite races that don’t align with the big goal

For some, this list seems overwhelming and not worth the effort. That’s why many settle for average performance—or less.

Some athletes hide behind “busy lives” and manufacture excuses to avoid doing what’s truly necessary. Others claim they want success, but their actions never align with their words.

Getting Real With Yourself

Maybe you’re not ready yet. Maybe you like the idea of being an elite athlete but aren’t willing to do what it takes.

I’ve been there. I would declare ambitious goals while:

• Neglecting proper nutrition
• Making poor food choices
• Watching my weight increase without taking action
• Claiming I was “too busy” to track macros (which takes minutes)
• Telling myself training sessions alone were enough

I wasn’t truly committed to becoming the athlete I needed to be to reach my goals. Eventually, I shed that mindset and can now honestly say I embody the person required to achieve my ambitions.

The First Step to Endurance Success

Start by getting brutally honest with yourself. Are you genuinely willing and able to do what your goals demand?

This might require a conversation with your endurance coach. You may have the willingness but lack clarity on implementing necessary changes, especially with a seemingly inflexible schedule. Yes, sacrifice is inevitable, but an experienced coach can help minimize disruption while maximizing results.

Is this process difficult? Absolutely. But living behind excuses and never reaching your potential is equally hard. Both paths present challenges—one leads to fulfillment, the other to regret.

Own Your Performance

We’ve all encountered athletes who arrive at the start line with preloaded excuses:

• “I barely slept last night”
• “I woke up with this strange pain”
• “My training got derailed by [insert excuse]”

These prepared justifications give mentally weak competitors an escape route. Their poor performance doesn’t matter because they predicted it and absolved themselves of responsibility.

Don’t be that athlete.

Complete ALL the required work—not just the parts you enjoy—and own your results, good or bad.

Remember one of my favorite mantras: No one cares. Work harder.

Once you commit to a goal as an endurance athlete, go all in and back yourself completely.

Your Next Steps

Ready to stop making excuses and start making progress? Professional endurance athlete coaching might be exactly what you need to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

Whether you’re training for your first marathon or aiming for that triathlon podium, our personalised coaching programs at Different Breed help athletes of all levels maximise their potential through structured, goal-oriented training.

#ActLikeTheAthleteYouWantToBe