We are super pumped to have former professional triathlete Leanda Cave with us today.

Leanda is a multi-time world champion, coach, an absolute legend in the sport of triathlon, and most recently, an Ultraman athlete. Leanda placed 2nd overall at Ultraman Canada, beating the first male overall by 11-minutes which means that women claimed the first two podium spots. So very, very cool.

Leanda started competing in triathlon in 1993 at the age of 14, eventually leading her to become a Junior Elite in Australia. At age 21, she returned to her home country of Great Britain, where she pursued a professional career in multisport.

In the early days of her professional career, she focused on Olympic distance draft-legal racing and, in 2001, became the European Under-23 Olympic Distance Champ. In 2002 she won a silver at the commonwealth games, silver at the European championships, and her first world title in Cancun.

Five years later, she moved into long-distance triathlon, winning her second world title at the ITU long-distance world championship. And then, in 2012 became the first woman in history to complete the double when she won the Ironman 70.3 and 140.6 World Championships just five weeks apart.

She is one of the greatest athletes to ever compete in the triathlon and BJ, and I have followed her career for a long time. So we are honored that she is sharing the mic with us, and we hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode we discuss:

- not scared of figuring things out

- seeking the path with the most obstacles

- singular focus vs having fun & enjoying life

- the mental side of Ultraman

- tricks to bring the mind back into focus

- why pursue Ultraman?

- racing for something bigger than yourself

- injury is part of the job description as an athlete

- cross training for Ultraman

- how to train an athlete through injury

- being intuitive vs fixated on data

- race day is a dance floor

- taking life too seriously

- passions of being a coach

- using training to dial in nutrition to fuel performance

- mobility, stability, and strength training

- focusing on what you can do, not what you can’t do

- the approach going into Ultraman World Championships

- fueling advice for entering into long-distance triathlons

Thank you to all patrons on Patreon for keeping this podcast commercial-free, we are grateful for you.

Namaste-

Jess