Professional triathlete Lydia Dant and Passion Fit Coach Loren Ward join together in conversation, to talk about age group life, turning pro, setting goals, having confidence and being comfortable on a bike.

You'll hear:

01:00 Rich and Helen's final thoughts before Beyond the Ultimate's Highland Ultra.

18:00 Why weekends don't exist for Loren and Lydia.

20:00 Lydia explains how she met Loren in 2018 after she had entered Ironman Wales and decided she wanted some coaching. Loren says she remembers the first time Lydia turned up to a session. 'she was really quiet and really nervous and we did an FTP test in her first session and I look back at that and I think woah, look how far! Lydia says "On my first run session, it was a 10km TT and I remember getting to 7 or 8km in and thinking 'I don't know if I can finish this."

22:50 Those nervous feelings when you turn up to a triathlon club for the first time. "I'm quite introverted really and I find it hard to make those initial conversation starters. You worry if you will be fast enough or if you will keep up, but one of my biggest worries was getting lost." "Often you have no idea what they are going to make you do, but 99% of the time, it's never as bad or as scary as you think it might be"

27:50 Loren says she didn't realise Lydia's potential from the start. "She was a strong athlete and she performed quite well, but as time went on she started getting faster than me at everything. But it wasn't just her athletic ability, the way that she went about her training was different. It was her mindset and attitude that we saw that was brilliant because that's when we knew she had both the mindset and the athletic ability.

30:00 Lydia talks about whether she set out to be a professional athlete' "I never put a glass ceiling on what I thought I might be able to achieve. It's been about a personal development piece for me and how being part of a community and group of people has totally transformed my way of thinking and my mindset."

32:00 We talk about confidence! And why the process matters rather than a metric. Loren says 'If an athlete is fast, there is sometimes a perception that they must be really confident' but if you focus on the process rather than the outcome, you can't ask for more and it can help with nervousness and anxiety and you are much more in control of that outcome.

35:00 Goal setting. "Think hard about your goals. As long as it's important to you and individualised and your reality is aligned with that goal"

38:30 Lydia talks about her love of bikes, her bike fitting business Pheonix Evolution and shares some tips about how to enjoy cycling and being comfortable. "You just have to try things and always question can you be more comfortable?"

47:00 Lydia talks about plans for her first Ironman in 2022, four years after she had first planned to do one. But this time it will be in the pro field at Ironman Lanzarote rather than as an age group athlete doing it for a challenge. "It blows my mind every morning." The first pro race was so surreal. I didn't have any mates to nudge on the elbow and say 'oh my god, that's Anne Haug.'

53:00 What was the decision process like to apply for her professional licence? Lydia describes the dilemma between getting more experience in triathlon as an age group athlete, or just going for it in the pro ranks.

55:00 If Loren and Lydia can switch off from triathlon and if so, how.

59:00 Hear all about Antony Butcher's Ride Across America and why he is doing it.

Find out more about this week's guests

Click here to track Rich and Helen at Beyond the Ultimate's Highland Ultra!

Lydia Dant Instagram

Loren Ward Instagram

Antony Butcher's Ride Across America

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