#176: Kate Bevilaqua on Coaching Endurance Athletes

Kate Bevilaqua returns to Sparta Chicks Radio this week!

Kate is an endurance coach, triathlete, an Ultraman Triathlon World Champion and the first woman in history to win an Ultraman triathlon event overall. She shared her story in episode 3 of the podcast.

However one topic we didn’t explore in that conversation is that Kate is also a coach. 

In fact, the idea for this conversation came from one of her athletes who also happens to be one of our most popular podcast guests - ⁠Melissa Urie⁠!

So this episode, Kate shares her experience as a coach and we discuss, from a coach’s perspective, working with athletes towards ultra events.

Even if you aren’t training for an ultra-distance event, I have no doubt you’ll benefit from Kate’s wisdom regardless of what distance or event you are training for.  

In this conversation Kate shares:

* how to find the right coach,

* some of the biggest mistakes athletes make when setting goals or choosing races, 

* the importance of having a strong ‘why’ (and how to work out if your ‘why’ is strong enough)

* how you only need to do 85% of your program and why you shouldn’t feel guilty if you don’t or can’t tick every box on your program

* how to decide when to push through your fatigue and train versus when you should rest, 

* how to make sure you can fit your training around your life, 

* the biggest mistakes athletes make in training, and

* her advice on how to handle pre-race nerves (and yes, Kate still struggles with them too after 16 years of racing as a professional!).

* how to prevent spiralling mentally when things get tough on race day.