Frodeno Going Mental

For six years, Mark Allen was often in the lead late at the IRONMAN Hawaii, and he fell apart every time. He came to believe the island had it out for him. Then he won it six times. In this episode of FRODENO GOING MENTAL, Jan sits down with Mark Allen in Kona. They talk about the pickup truck that hit him on a ride and took away his reason to race, the 1989 moment his mind went quiet, the shaman whose image returned to him then, and why, at 68, he takes his coffee outside before he picks up his phone. Both came to triathlon from surf lifesaving, and Jan asks how a swimmer who calls himself very average built the engine to win. They talk about what the island tried to teach him: give everything you have, even on the days you only have 60% of it. Enjoy this episode!

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For Kat Matthews, the mindset is just about removing the barriers. What's left, in her words, is to get a bit fitter. In this episode of Going Mental, Jan Frodeno sits down with Kat three weeks out from Kona to find out how she got there. She explains the load bucket she uses to decide when to back off a session, why she started calling consistency boring, and what changed when she handed her coaching to her husband. They get into Cautious Carol, the part of her she would have to let go of to race past her limit, and why going mental, for her, means waking up in the night six weeks before a race, wondering if she should have tied her shoelaces differently. A conversation about what's left once the mindset work is done. Enjoy this episode!

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Molly Seidel calls her Olympic medal the coolest experience of her life. She also says it didn't fix anything. She poured everything she was into it and came out the other side the same person. In this episode of Frodeno Going Mental, Jan Frodeno sits down with Molly Seidel— in town for UTMB and to talk about blowing up at mile 55 of Western States and finishing anyway, why she left the marathon before it broke her again, the coach whose real job is to pull the reins rather than push, why she gaslights herself on every descent, and what a year of pretending to be retired taught her. A conversation about why she keeps going back out when she already knows the medal won't be the answer.

Enjoy this episode!

Video credits: Maurten. Footage taken from the film "Molly Seidel — take the show off the road | a Maurten film": https://youtu.be/pTUbgCsFsMo

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What does it take to try the same trick 500 times — knowing that the next one could still go wrong?

Fabio Wibmer has built a career doing things on a bike that most of us wouldn't even attempt on two feet. His videos have reached hundreds of millions of people, but behind the viral clips is an obsessive process of repetition, visualization and calculated risk.

In this episode of Going Mental, Jan Frodeno sits down with Fabio to understand what actually happens before he commits to a trick where there is no room for error.

Fabio talks about fear, why visualization can make a stunt feel like he's already done it and the moment when he has to switch off doubt and go all in.

They also get into his "trial and error" philosophy, growing up in a tiny Austrian village, being inspired by Danny MacAskill, dealing with perfectionism and the pressure of creating for an algorithm that constantly demands more.

And Fabio explains why, despite more than a billion views and increasingly ambitious projects, the feeling he's chasing is still the same one he had as a kid jumping his first homemade ramp.

Enjoy this episode!

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Produced by Podstars by OMR.

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Kilian Jornet has spent decades pushing the limits of human endurance. But what happens when you actually reach them?

In this episode of Going Mental, Jan Frodeno sits down with Kilian Jornet for a rare deep dive into the mind behind some of the most extreme performances in endurance sport.

Kilian explains what happened when he pushed himself so far on Everest that his brain stopped forming memories and why he believes the ultimate limit of human performance is one we never actually want to reach.

They talk about fear, pain, risk, ego and the psychology of pushing beyond what your brain tells you is possible. Kilian also opens up about the times he knew he had gone too far in the mountains, his current battle with injury, and how his approach to training has changed as he gets older.

Enjoy this episode!

Ryzon – performance apparel from Cologne, made in Europe, worn by Jan at the UTMB. Ryzon stands for highly functional sportswear with a clear, timeless design. Save 10% on the entire Ryzon collection with the code TRAILRUN10 (valid until 31.10.2026):

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Tomorrow People eyewear: high-performance sports sunglasses, 3D-printed, Carl Zeiss lenses and made in Germany. Built for cycling, running, trail and triathlon – with a precise fit, premium lenses and a clean, design. Save 10% with the code GoingMental:

https://wearetomorrowpeople.com/discount/GoingMental

Produced by Podstars by OMR.

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For the first time on Frodeno Going Mental, there’s no guest. Just Jan Frodeno, a camera and 19 conversations worth looking back on.

In this first solo episode, Jan revisits some of the moments from Season One that stayed with him long after the cameras stopped rolling.

He reflects on how Alistair Brownlee once shattered his confidence and ultimately forced him to rebuild himself as an athlete. He explores what Demi Vollering taught him about daring to lose, why letting go of embarrassment can make you a better competitor and why his conversation about the Enhanced Games challenged some of his deepest beliefs about performance, shortcuts and what makes achievement meaningful.

Jan also returns to Brad Stulberg’s idea of the “identity house” and why building a life beyond one single pursuit might actually help you go further in the thing that matters most.

From Olympic medals and sports psychology to failure, resilience, identity and the uncomfortable question of whether winning is ever really enough, this is Jan looking back at Season One and at what changed his own thinking along the way.

No guest. No interview. Just Jan, going mental.

Enjoy this episode!

Produced by Podstars by OMR.

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In this episode of Going Mental, Olympic champion and Ironman legend Jan Frodeno sits down with Max Martin, CEO of the Enhanced Games, for one of the most controversial conversations in modern sport.

Together they explore whether the current anti-doping system is outdated, why Enhanced Games believes athletes should have the freedom to compete using medically supervised performance enhancement, and whether science should redefine what's possible in elite competition.

Jan challenges Max on athlete safety, ethics, fairness, longevity, recovery, sponsorship, financial incentives and the true meaning of pushing human performance. The discussion goes far beyond doping, touching on recovery, testosterone, peptides, longevity medicine, the Olympics, World Athletics, personal responsibility and the future of professional sport.

Whether you agree or disagree, this conversation forces one important question: What does it really mean to compete at the highest level?

Enjoy this episode!

Produced by Podstars by OMR

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Ultra running is often romanticized, but elite trail runner and physicist Francesco Puppi looks at 100-mile races through the lens of pure logic. Fresh off an incredible podium finish at the Western States 100, Francesco joins Jan Frodeno to strip away the sugar-coated heroism of endurance sports and reveal what it truly takes to survive the pain cave. From the psychological negotiation with extreme physical agony to the bittersweet reality of being handed two world titles months late due to doping cheaters, this conversation exposes the raw mindset needed to conquer the extreme limits of performance. Discover why real mental strength isn't about pushing harder, it's about having the patience to hold back.

Produced by Podstars by OMR

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Sam Laidlow has just rewritten triathlon history.

Fresh off his record-breaking victory at DATEV Challenge Roth, the French triathlon superstar joins Jan Frodeno for an exclusive conversation on Going Mental.

Recorded less than 24 hours after becoming the fastest athlete ever over the full-distance triathlon, Sam opens up about the mindset behind his historic performance, the relentless pursuit of greatness, dealing with pressure, building an elite team, confidence, setbacks and why questioning conventional wisdom became his greatest competitive advantage.

With Challenge Roth once again at the center of the triathlon world, this conversation offers a rare look inside the mind of the athlete who has just delivered one of the greatest performances the sport has ever witnessed.

Enjoy this episode!

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In this episode of Going Mental, Jan Frodeno sits down with one of triathlon’s most iconic and polarizing figures: Chris “Macca” McCormack — 2x Ironman World Champion, 6x Triathlete of the Year, and one of the sport’s greatest storytellers.

From the fierce Kona battles against Norman Stadler and Faris Al-Sultan to the psychological warfare, self-doubt and relentless determination that defined his career, Macca opens up like never before.

Together, Jan and Macca explore the mindset behind elite performance, handling failure on the biggest stage and why the mental battle is often harder than the physical one. They also dive into athlete identity, retirement, fatherhood, entrepreneurship, and what happens when competitive obsession meets real life.

This is a conversation about resilience, vulnerability and the mindset that turns champions into legends.

Enjoy this episode!

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