December 8, 2020
Essential Lessons From Three-Time Olympic Triathlete, Andrea Hewitt
Three-Time Olympic triathlete, Andrea Hewitt, shares advice with Coached athletes on our weekly Community Call.
It’s been a long time since I spent any significant time with Andrea Hewitt. In 2006 and 2007, we spent almost every day together training, shooting the shit and seeing the world.
I retired at the end of 2007 and moved to Singapore to start coaching. Andrea continued on to three Olympic Games and a bunch of other races and victories. She’s still going.
We’ve seen each other several times since then and chat on Whatsapp. Lucky for me, Andrea is a giving person, so when I asked if she’d like to join us on one of our weekly community zoom calls, to answer questions of our athletes, she said “ok”.
Above you’ll find a recording of that call and below are some essential takeaways that Andrea shared.
Have A Plan
“I like to follow a plan. I think that’s what motivates me. I go to my coach and have a plan, know what I have to do each week, and I don’t like not doing it, so I think that’s why I finish every training session.”
Preparation Is Essential
“I prepare myself. I know a couple of weeks before a race what training I have planned so it’s about hitting those key sessions, resting, doing the easy stuff easy, and then getting all organised for the race and not leaving anything to the last minute.”
Don’t Quit
“I’ve never been one to give up, so from the start of my career, I always just… I never thought about winning either, at any stage, I just kept going. I was there to race so when I race I finish a race. It’s only in very hard circumstances when I am injured or when I crash. A lot of the times, I have crashed and got back up, but if there has been something when I haven’t been able to finish, that’s the only thing that stops me really.”
Get Back Up
“At the long-distance world champs, I crashed on the bike and broke my collarbone. I didn’t know it during the race, I just got back up, ran the 20km and finished third.”
Enjoy The Process
“I just enjoy it. All my friends train as well, so I just ask what they’re doing and that’s how we meet up.”
Cut Race Times, Not Corners.
Racing at your potential and enjoying training is easy when you’re following the right programme.
Consistency Matters
“I was called Miss Consistency because I got 25 top 10’s in a row, so it must have been over three years. In every single world championships series race that I did, I was in the top 10. I think that’s just through preparation, just from knowing that, from planning, knowing what training I had coming up; planning the whole year out, what races I was gonna do that season and not really having any hiccups, just getting on with it.”
Remove Expectations
“I started triathlon not having any expectations. Now, I think it’s the same thing. I go into a race with no expectations; I just do what I can do.”
Take It At Your Own Pace
“Take it at your own pace. Don’t do too much, too soon, especially if you’re overweight. Especially running, that’s when injuries happen.”
Don’t Stress
“Some people bring their stress from their lives into triathlon, and it should be really destressing, I think. It’s like you’re free. You’re going out, and you shouldn’t be thinking about work, you should just be thinking about breathing, thinking about your training and not thinking about other things.”
Ben Pulham