Hi Reader,If youâre like most athletes, you track your heart rate on most workouts. Every interval, every long run, every Zwift session, even the ones where you swore you were âjust spinning easy.â đ
Heart rate variability, HRV, is probably already on your radar. Itâs on your watch, in your recovery score, in every wearable ad. But for most of us, thatâs where it ends: we know the acronym, maybe glance at the number after a hard block, and couldnât tell you what actually shifts it.Hereâs the...
11 days ago â˘Â 2 min read
Hi Reader,You know that moment right before the start of an event when your hands won't stop shaking and your brain is running a hundred miles an hour?Or the opposite, when you show up feeling like you left your race-day energy in the parking lot, mentally checked out, and somehow already tired?A lot of athletes seem to bounce between these two extremes and assume something is wrong with them. Nothing is.The real issue is that nobody taught us to approach pre-competition energy like a dimmer...
18 days ago â˘Â 2 min read
Hi Reader,Okay, story time! đLast month, I raced the YWCA Minneapolis Womenâs Triathlon, and placed 2nd out of 167 women in my age group. I qualified for nationals. I felt STRONG đŞ.Then the race photos dropped. And my first thought was⌠âUgh, I hate how big I look in that tri kit.â đŤ Not âwow, look at that performance.â Not âholy crap, Iâm going to nationals.â JustâŚmy body size.Iâm a sport psychologist. I literally teach people about diet culture for a living. I know better. And STILL. My...
25 days ago â˘Â 2 min read
Hi Reader,September hits different, doesnât it? Crisp mornings. New backpacks. The smell of fresh gear mixed with pumpkin spice. đAnd if youâre a sports parent? Youâre likely juggling all the things: the new schedules on the fridge, the carefully coordinated carpool arrangements, and the mental gymnastics of dinner timing around practice.Youâve invested so much, not just money, but time, energy, and heart. Those early Saturday mornings, the reorganization of your entire life around practice...
about 1 month ago â˘Â 4 min read
Hi Reader,Your athlete has trained their butt offâshown up to every practice, hit every mark, checked every box. You know theyâre ready.But standing at the start line, they look like they might throw up. (Real talk: this may also be YOUR experience as an athlete!). This is one of the most common concerns Iâve seen with endurance athletes over the past decade, though it certainly appears in other sports as well. Even Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills quarterback, has opened up to talk about how...
about 1 month ago â˘Â 2 min read
Hi Reader,Have you ever had one of those days where the workout on your training plan looks totally doable, but your body just⌠doesnât cooperate?You hit the track or the trail, and within five minutes, you know. Somethingâs off. The legs feel heavy. The pace feels impossible. Your heart rate is spiking way higher than it should.Our training plans are always built on assumptions. It assumes weâve slept well, that our stress is manageable, that last weekâs hard efforts left us ready for this...
about 2 months ago â˘Â 2 min read
Hi Reader,You know that feeling after a bad race when your entire mood just⌠crashes? When one disappointing workout can ruin your whole week? When the thought of injury doesnât just scare you, but feels like it would completely change who you are?Yeah. I see this all the time with the athletes we work with at Skadi. Iâve also experienced it myself, especially when I was deep into chasing my road racing goals after transitioning from triathlon. At the time, I knew I had a lot of power on the...
about 2 months ago â˘Â 3 min read
Hi Reader,As athletes and families start to ramp up for the fall sports season, weâve seen a lot of parents buckling up for another season of logistics: gear, equipment, travel accommodations for events on the road, meal prep, snacks, and more snacks. A number of thought leaders in the teen mental health space have been raising understandable concerns about how over-scheduled some of our teen athletes are these days (which is a topic for another day). With their incredibly busy schedules...
about 2 months ago â˘Â 3 min read
Hi Reader,Have you ever given feedback to someone (or received it yourself), only to find defensiveness on the other end? You know the response. The explanation. The justification. The âyeah, butâŚâ that shuts down the entire conversation before it even starts. Itâs frustrating, right? Especially when youâre just trying to help or spent a lot of time preparing for the conversation because you wanted it to land just right. Hereâs what Iâve learned working with athletes and coaches (and mentees...
2 months ago â˘Â 3 min read