From Ice Hockey Dreams to Endurance Success: Colin's Journey of Transformation

Welcome to this episode of The Business of Endurance, where we dive deep into the extraordinary journey of Colin Cook—a man who has transformed his life from the grips of addiction to becoming an elite triathlete, a Sub 9 Ironman finisher, and coach to some of the sport's best. Colin’s story is one of redemption, resilience, and relentless pursuit of excellence, and in today’s conversation, he opens up about these battles. From overcoming personal demons to building a thriving business and competing at Kona many times, Colin shares the lessons he’s learned about grit, mindset, and balancing life’s demands. You’ll hear powerful insights into leveraging tech & AI in endurance sports, maximizing recovery, and how to shift from destructive habits to life-changing passions. Whether you're chasing your first marathon or balancing family, career, and athletic goals, this episode will inspire and equip you to push boundaries, endure challenges, and live your most fulfilling life.

Highlights:
 - Introduction and Early Sporting Life
 - Transition from Ice Hockey to Endurance Sports
 - Struggles with Addiction
 - Turning Point: Embracing Endurance Sports
 - Balancing Family, Coaching, and Training
 - Ironman Journey and Achievements
 - Winter Training Opportunities
 - Using Wearables for Sleep and HRV
 - Recovery Techniques and Gadgets
 - AI in Endurance Sports
 - Balancing Life and Triathlon
 - Future Goals and Reflections

Links:
Connect with Colin Cook on Instagram.

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Episode Transcript

Colin Cook (00:04):
I remember when I knew what he was doing, I told
myself I would never do that.
That was not going to be thepath and seeing what it had done
to him at that stage, I justhad no intentions and swore to
myself that I wouldn't do it.
I do remember the first time Iused and thinking of him.

Charlie Reading (00:22):
Welcome to another episode of the Business
of Endurance, where we dive intothe extraordinary journey of
Colin Cook, a man who hastransformed his life from the
grips of addiction to becomingan elite triathlete, a sub-nine
Ironman finisher and coach ofsome of the sport's best.
Colin's story is one ofredemption, resilience and

(00:44):
relentless pursuit of excellence, and in today's conversation,
he opens up about his battles,particularly with both alcohol
and drugs, from overcoming thesepersonal demons to building a
thriving business and competingat Kona many, many times.
Colin shares the lessons he'slearned about grit, mindset and

(01:06):
balancing life's demands.
You'll hear powerful insightsinto leveraging both tech and AI
in both endurance, sports andbusiness, maximizing recovery
and how to shift fromdestructive habits to
life-changing passions.
So, whether you're chasing yourfirst marathon or balancing

(01:26):
family life with your businessand your athletic goals, this
episode will inspire and equipyou to push boundaries, endure
challenges and live your mostfulfilling life.
This really is an inspiringstory, so I know you're going to
love this episode with ColinCook.
So, colin, welcome to theBusiness of Endurance podcast.

(01:59):
I know we've got a real treatin chatting to you today.
This is going to be afascinating conversation and
inspiring conversation, I know,but I like to take things right
back to the start, and myunderstanding is that your
sporting youth was more aroundice hockey, or probably what you
term hockey rather than icehockey, but in the UK we would
need to call it ice hockeyaround that sport in particular.

(02:20):
So tell us about what yoursporting youth looked like and
the level that you got to withinthe world of ice hockey.

Colin Cook (02:27):
Yeah, for starters.
Charlie, claire, thank you somuch for having me on here.
Really appreciate theopportunity and hope that
everybody enjoys here.
But yeah, kicking it back towhen I was a kid here, hockey
was definitely my primarypassion but I really did just
love all things sports.
And not to start off bleakly,when I compare my childhood to
the way my kids are coming upthese days, where you don't just
go outside and play with theneighbors and do whatever sport

(02:49):
is out there, it seems likethose days are more challenging
to come by now.
But I was out doing everything.
I played baseball, I playedbasketball, obviously, hockey,
but soccer, I guess when I wasreally young and just love
sports and competing.
I think.

Charlie Reading (03:03):
And where did that journey in ice hockey take
you Tell us a bit about whatyour aspirations in that sport.
What level did you get to?

Colin Cook (03:10):
Yeah, so, hands down , my goal for most of my life
was to play in the NHL and I wasnot successful with that, but I
did make it to the collegiatelevel.
So I played NCAA Division I fora few years and it really was
very transcending for me.
I played on a very elite-levelteam, Starting in fifth grade.
I was traveling.
I was going to Canada andthings for tournaments during

(03:32):
the summer, playing in theJunior World Championships when
I was in eighth grade, playingon a high-level private prep
school when I was in high school, and trips to Europe to play
all across the board.
It really helped me alsopersonality-wise.
I grew up in a small town inMassachusetts but I think a lot
of small-town kids get to knowtheir surrounding area and don't

(03:53):
get to see as much of otherstates, never mind the world,
and get to meet other people.
I think my comfort andpersonality really developed
significantly being thrown intothose environments all the time
and really enjoying that.

Charlie Reading (04:04):
And so obviously, we're going to come
on to endurance sport over thecourse of this conversation,
because that's why we're allhere.
What do you think you learnfrom your foundation in ice
hockey that you later to,whether that's mindset, whether
that's discipline.
What did you apply from theworld of ice hockey into the
world of endurance sport, andalso, how did it help you
physically, if at all?

Colin Cook (04:25):
Yeah, having that mindset of wanting to be the
best and trying to be aprofessional hockey player, I
think, was always something thatpushed me into trying to be the
best that I can be.
Contrary to that, mygrandfather played semi-pro
baseball and so he decided thatmy dad was going to be a pro
baseball player when he wasgrowing up.
So by the time, I believe, mydad was going to be a pro
baseball player when he wasgrowing up.
So by the time, I believe mydad was 11, he never played a

(04:48):
sport again until he was 30years old.
So my dad took the completeopposite approach with me.
So everything had to comepurely from me.
There was absolutely no pushand honestly, when I look back,
I feel like I wish maybe therewas a little bit more push, and
they were.
Obviously my parents wereextremely supportive, both my
brother and I.
Wish maybe there was a littlebit more push, and they were.

(05:09):
Obviously my parents wereextremely supportive, both my
brother and I.
My brother was a prettycompetitive dirt bike racer, so
a lot of times on the weekendsone of us was taking us to the
rink and the other one wastaking us off to the racetrack.
That was the tremendouscommitment from them, but the
drive and the passion reallyalways came from me.
And as we look at kids sportsnow today and you see these kids
going specific very early onand we're learning, really that
may not necessarily be the bestpath, but I always had my

(05:30):
parents saying you sure you wantto go play on that team during
the summer, you don't want totake it off, or something.
I was just heck.
No, there's no way I want tostop playing.
I just absolutely love everymoment I had on the ice and it
was just all complete pleasurefor me.

Claire Fudge (05:45):
From playing ice hockey.
How do you think that hasshaped you as an endurance
athlete?
What can you take from playingin a team sport and applying
that to what is a veryindividual sport actually in the
world of triathlon or endurance?

Colin Cook (05:58):
Yeah, I think there's a couple ways to look at
this and how it's impactedthings.
The funny thing I've realizedthat's interesting is especially
as I was a goalie in hockey.
So ultimately I'm trying toobviously not let in any goals,
and the goal was to try to havetime go by as quick as possible,
right, because you didn't wantto let in any goals and so by
the time the game was over, youdidn't let any in.

(06:19):
That was what you wanted.
Obviously, I look at triathlonor endurance sports, and it's
the same thing.
You want to be done as quick asyou possibly can.
I've often thought about howmaybe that applies to the sport.
But one thing that isinteresting and it transcends
just ice hockey and goes intojust competitive athletes excuse
me, specifically collegiateathletes and kids that have
played hockey or a sport theirentire life and then you find

(06:43):
yourself finishing, whether itis high school or college or
wherever your kind of careerends.
I had a tremendously difficulttime with that and when you've
been playing sport for let'scall it at least 15, 18 years
and now all of a sudden it'sjust completely gone and you
lose that structure, that canreally be very it certainly was
very difficult for me, and I'mcertainly.

(07:04):
I know that I'm not alone inpeople that struggle with the
challenges of trying to move onwhen you've had those structured
practices and the team and thatenvironment for your entire
life and, like I said, it's justall of a sudden gone.
I think that my not to getahead of ourselves but my drug
use and things like that werereally centered around being
lost and ultimately, where I hadthis goal to make it to NHL,

(07:25):
and I failed at that, and so Ifound myself really struggling
to figure out what is next forme and really being satisfied
with where my life was headed.

Charlie Reading (07:34):
Tell us a little bit about that next stage
.
So at what point did you decideyour hockey career is over?
And then how did that evolveinto the problems with drugs and
alcohol?
That was the next chapter ofyour life, as far as I can see
when I'm boxing it out yeah, thewriting was definitely on the
wall even, I could say, in highschool.

Colin Cook (07:54):
You could tell by that point, I think, that I
certainly did not give up on it,but that I was not at the
caliber of of a lot of theNHLers and what their trajectory
looked like in order to get tothe NHL.
So I think the writing was onthe wall there early on and, to
be fair and transparent, mypartying started towards the end
of high school but wascertainly my main focus, I would

(08:15):
say, over sport, even incollege.
And I was, as I mentioned, agoalie, and I was actually the
third string goalie when I wasplaying at the Division I level
and both the goalies in front ofme were better than me.
So it wasn't a position where Ifelt like I was being treated
unfairly, but it also opened upthe opportunity where I knew I
probably wasn't going to playFriday or Saturday night.

(08:36):
So it opened up my ability toreally let loose and do some
things probably shouldn't havebeen doing, especially at that
caliber of hockey, but I wasdoing that and I think that when
the hockey completely closedthere, it just made me feel very
lost and just didn't have thedirection or the desire to
really find where I wanted to benext.

Claire Fudge (08:57):
It's really interesting to hear about that
structure around sport and asathletes ourselves here, we
certainly have that routine andwe love that structure.
I also see some similaritiesand actually there's some
research behind addiction andalso how athletes are.
So that's really interesting.
We'll come on to that, but tellus a bit more about, if you may
, about the addiction to drugsand alcohol, like you talked

(09:19):
about this slippery slope, likehow it started, like how did
that become from partying towhere it was before you got into
endurance sport?

Colin Cook (09:28):
I guess I would wake up every Sunday in particular,
usually.
So I'd still consider myself anaddict, but I wasn't a daily
and cocaine was my primarilydrug.
I would go a few days withoutconsuming and then ultimately
I'd feel terrible.
I mentioned Sunday morningsbecause I would party all week.
You know, start usually startusually Thursday night, party
very hard.
I usually go to to bed at two,three in the afternoon on Sunday

(09:50):
because I was so exhausted.
I'd work.
On Monday, I'd get home fromwork five, five, I'd go to bed

(10:10):
and I'd start to come around andby Wednesday I'd feel like, oh
okay, I feel all right, and thenI just do it all over again on
Thursday.
I can't tell you how many timesI must have told myself, on
that Sunday morning inparticular, that I'm never going
to do this again.
This is the last time I've hadit, I'm done with this.
And then again, as the weekwould progress, I would somehow
figure out a way to justifygoing in and just doing it all

(10:33):
over again.

Claire Fudge (10:33):
From where you were like.
What was the deciding factor ofyou suddenly making that big
change Like it must have beenextremely difficult.
So what happened?

Colin Cook (10:41):
Yeah.
So I do like to say that myendurance career started about 3
am, you know, a Saturday nightslash Sunday morning actually,
at my brother's house, very highand intoxicated, and I told my
buddies and my brother that Iwas going to run the Boston
Marathon that coming year andthey all laughed at me and said,
yeah, sure, colin, why don'tyou have another one here?

(11:03):
And we'll keep talking aboutthat, I guess.
To go back on where I felt likeI was lost, there was
definitely those times when Iknew I was better than what I
was doing and that I was capableof more and that I needed to
get myself into a bettersituation.
And so, by saying that, evenduring those days, I like to be
a man of my word and do what Isaid.
And so I just started trainingvery simple, like an online

(11:26):
marathon training plan where Iwas running, I think, three or
four times a week.
But the shift that made in meand the passion and the focus
and really the purpose that thatgave me, was just a complete
shift for me.
To be fair, I did not coldturkey, just totally stopped
drinking and partying and evento this day, I still struggle a
little bit with feeling like Iwas letting my friends down and

(11:47):
things like that that I wasn'tpartying with, and so forth.
So there was definitely atransition period with it, for
sure, but I felt so much betterand my saying now is I like to
wake up a little bit sore, aheck of a lot better than
hungover, and so that just keptprogressing, and it was.
I did run the Boston Marathon.
That was back in 2009.
And actually I think it was amonth or two before the race, I

(12:10):
was looking at what would be thenext thing in found triathlon
as potential opportunity to dothat, and so I started swimming
and biking a little bit and Iwas just completely fell in love
nearly instantly.
Where that again, getting thatstructure and doing different
things every day.
I just absolutely loved it andreally haven't looked back from
there.

Charlie Reading (12:30):
So that leads us on to kind of a good segue in
the sense of there's clearly.
I often describe myself ashaving an addictive personality,
and fortunately I'm nowaddicted to something that's
good for me as opposed tosomething that's bad.
Would you say the same thing?
And also, how did you end upconsuming?

(12:52):
I know your dad used drugs andyour brother used drugs at
different stages.
Was that sort of how you endedup down that path, or was it
just totally?

Colin Cook (12:56):
unrelated.
Yeah, so I guess my brother andI actually when I was in high
school, we absolutely hated eachother.
He started consuming drugsbefore I did and so really the
only time he would be at ourhouse, for the most part when he
was hungover and miserable, sohe really wasn't that much
pleasure to be around.
I remember hearing that mybrother was primarily using
cocaine and he ended up going toheroin and worse things than in

(13:19):
my opinion.
But I remember when I knew whathe was doing I told myself I
would never do that.
That was not going to be thepath and seeing what it had done
to him at that stage I just hadno intentions and swore to
myself that I wouldn't do it.
I do remember the first time Iused and thinking of him I was
intoxicated Alcohol.
Not to make this all aboutsubstance abuse, but alcohol is
a gateway drug when you startmaking poor decisions.

(13:41):
Once it got a hold of me,definitely it was something I
was drawn to and had a verydifficult time stopping.
But yeah, his use and myfather's use definitely were
what I thought motivators to notdo it.
I told myself that those werethings that were going to
prevent me from doing it, butthey didn't.

Charlie Reading (13:56):
Do you think it had the opposite effect?
Did it normalize it, or was itnothing to do with it?

Colin Cook (14:00):
That's a good question.
I'm not sure on that one.
I was still, for the most part,living with my parents
throughout this stage andoutside of when I was at college
for school, and I think theywere relatively accepting of me
doing it, which that can go twodifferent ways as a parent.
Right, if you go too strong,then maybe that just pushed the
person off into the wrongdirection.
Or obviously you want to bethere and they were always there

(14:22):
for me when I was ready tochange.
But I think it was accepted andsomething that was just my
brother and I were doing andthey, you know, were very, again
, loving of us but didn't reallydo much to try to stop us.

Claire Fudge (14:34):
It's really interesting.
Like you, having grown up inthat environment and then where
you are now as well, I talked alittle bit or mentioned a little
bit about actually my interestin addiction in terms of from an
exercise perspective and Iwonder, as a coach, but also as
an athlete yourself, do you seeany relationship in either
mindset or patterns like whatathletes do in terms of this

(14:59):
addictive nature and endurancesport?

Colin Cook (15:02):
completely.
Yeah, so I didn't answerCharlie's question directly on
that as well either, but Iwholeheartedly believe that
triathlon is just anotheraddiction.
It just happens to be a lothealthier one and it is making
sure that I'm keeping thatbalance.
Especially now as a father offour and other businesses and
things that I'm involved with, Ihave to make sure that I find
that balance and to be fullytransparent again.

(15:24):
This year I had a reallysuccessful year and I think I
felt a pretty good balance, butI was definitely pushing the
envelope there as my big raceswere approaching and, I think,
driven to succeed and I want tobe successful but really, at the
end of the day, it is aboutthat lifestyle and hopefully
being a good role model to mykids for first and foremost, and
also to my community.

Claire Fudge (15:44):
There's two parts to balance there, isn't there?
One from a family perspective,but one from an athlete
perspective?
How do you help your athleteswith balance when you see them
maybe going down that more kindof exercise addiction, if we
term it that?

Colin Cook (15:59):
It's a great question and I think to me what
really makes true coaching or,as a coach, what you can really
do to help an athlete.
Sometimes I'm just a glorifiedbabysitter because you're just
giving people workouts to do andif they follow those, that's
going to help them.
But when you're in regularcommunication with your athletes
you can start to gauge whenthings may be going astray.
And if you're just following aplan you don't really have

(16:22):
anybody overseeing things, thenI think that gets lost and
there's nobody there to keep youin check on that.
I guess kind of twofold.
I always put myself in theathlete's shoes, so when I'm
writing the workouts orsomething like that, I obviously
know their circumstances aredifferent than mine, but I
always like to keep that athletementality and if it's
ultimately not something I woulddo, then I'm not going to give
it to them.
But at the same time I thinkthat it can be difficult,

(16:45):
especially when you'recompetitive or you're really in
the midst of things and it's achallenging part of your journey
to whatever race line you'regetting to.
We need that outside reflectionand somebody to be able to give
you that guidance that you maynot be able to see yourself.
Definitely really try to staykeen and communicate regularly
with my clients to help preventthat.

Charlie Reading (17:05):
I think it's really interesting, and you
talking about that made me thinkback to what you said about
what your grandfather did toyour father and then your
father's approach to you.
So this balance is also interms of how hard you push.
So, now that you're a parent,how hard are you pushing your
children towards?

Colin Cook (17:23):
sport Very minimally , I guess I should say.
My daughter is six now.
She's just turned seven.
She has not done a triathlonbut my other three have done
triathlons and certainly givethem the opportunities to do
that and we'd love to see themdoing that.
But currently there's reallyminimal youth programs,
especially around me and in thisarea.
My second child is prettyseverely autistic.
Sports aren't really somethingthat he's doing much of these

(17:45):
days.
Hopefully that'll change atsome point here.
But my first and my third childthey play flag football when
they're out on their bikes justhaving fun and if they show any
interest in a sport or doingsome kind of event like we did a
turkey trot here in the Statesand in Thanksgiving a couple of
days ago I'm going to encouragethose things and support them as
best I can.
But I really wish they wereswimmers right now and part of a

(18:07):
swim team.
But my oldest did do that for,I think, a season but he wasn't
enjoying it so we pulled theplug on that.
I'd say that I'm going toleverage what I know as a
competitive athlete growing upand make sure they know what it
takes to get to that level sothat if they want to really be
there.
Actually, my seven-year-oldwants to be an NFL player at
this point and I try to remindhim of these kids.

(18:28):
There's a serious amount ofwork that has to go into doing
that, so I'm not going to makehim do that by any means.
But if he wants to get where hewants to be, he's going to have
to put in the work.
I think I hopefully am findinga happy medium there Brilliant.

Charlie Reading (18:41):
You want to nurture them towards stuff, but
ultimately if they're notmotivated to do it, there's no
point in enforcing the issue forsure.
I want to dive into more ofyour sort of transition from the
Boston Marathon into doingIronmans, and you've achieved
huge amounts in the world ofIronman.
What's your highlight of yourIronman and triathlon journeys

(19:01):
so far?

Colin Cook (19:03):
There's definitely a few out there, but I would have
to say, so far being theoverall amateur winner at
Ironman Lake Placid this pastseason and going under nine
hours on that course, it's gotto be up there for sure.

Claire Fudge (19:13):
And I guess when you did your Ironman event.
Tell us a little bit about that, because you've done, obviously
, multiple Ironman events, nowmultiple world championships.
We were just talking about Konabefore we came on today.
Tell us a little bit about yourfirst Ironman event.
What made you go back?

Colin Cook (19:30):
Yeah, great question .
So first Ironman or fullIronman was Ironman Arizona back
in 2010.
I think that my goal thereobviously was just to finish,
but I did get hit by a car aboutsix weeks before the race.
I had some labral tear that gotdeveloped Actually I think it
was already there but gotdistinguished and determined
officially at that accident.

(19:51):
So there was definitely somequestion of whether I could
achieve it or not.
But I will say, even by thatpoint I already had Kona
aspirations on my mind.
I knew it wasn't realistic,that I was probably going to
qualify at that race, but therewas the drive and the
inspiration to keep going.
And I guess actually it'sinteresting, I would say maybe
the last few races I haven'tfelt this way.

(20:12):
But almost during every IronmanI've done, I've said all right,
this is going to be the lastone.
And during it, at some point,right when you start questioning
things and you have your doubtsin your mind, and right after
the race with the soreness andthings, but always within a few
days I'm back and I've gone awayfrom.
I used to tell my wife that,all right, I think this is going
to be the last one, no moreIronman.
And I've stopped saying thatbecause I just enjoy the journey

(20:35):
and what I think it reallyhelps, and I guess what she will
also agree with that I needthis kind of training in my life
to keep that structure and keepme on point.

Charlie Reading (20:43):
I'm noticing that you said exactly the same
thing about your drug andalcohol of.

Colin Cook (20:48):
this will be the last time I do this, then on
Thursday you said it, charlie,but you're absolutely right,
hence agreeing that it is indeedan addiction here.

Charlie Reading (20:57):
Yes, I think there's.
The proof is in the pudding.
I think we're all nodding ourhead going yes, that's me too.
So you've obviously done a lotof Ironmans.
So for me and I was, havingjust done Kona as well I was
looking forward to the next yeargoing am I going to, am I not
going to?
And the thing that I concludedwas, as soon as it became about
the time, it became lessinteresting when it was about

(21:17):
the experience in the adventurequalifying.
Firstly, would you agree withthat?

Colin Cook (21:26):
And secondly, yeah, great questions.
So I think that answer hasactually changed for me over
time.
I qualified for Kona for thefirst time back in 2012.
And I do remember everybodytelling me that, okay,
congratulations, you qualified,now just go to Kona and just
enjoy it.
And I did do that, had anincredible trip, but went over a

(21:47):
little over 11 hours on thatfirst trip to the island.
And I think that it's importantto have yes, goal number one has
to be completing the event.
I think for everybody right,that's got to be the priority
one here.
But to me, and I think forhighly motivated people, if you
keep it that ambiguous or youdon't give any more detailed
goals, that when you're out onthe lava fields at mile 16, when

(22:10):
you need to find that extragear, that you need to dig deep
to continue to push yourself,it's a lot harder to do that.
Because unless you're I guessyou're pushing up against the 17
hour cutoff or something likethat, then maybe that's going to
motivate you to get your buttin gear.
But if you don't have somethingdriving you with a little bit
more granular goal, I think thatit can make it tough when
you're already pushing yourlimits and so forth.

(22:31):
So I think that it can make ittough when you're already
pushing your limits and so forth.
So I think that has changedquite a bit over where.
That's how I was thinking ofthings and approach things back
then, and I think you alwayshave to keep that grander scheme
and make sure that you'recontent and happy with whatever
happens on that day.
Specifically when it comes toracing, and for most of my
people, especially the higherlevel people, it's having some

(22:51):
more detailed goals within that.

Claire Fudge (22:53):
I think you know your experience as an athlete
and then being able to coach isreally important.
You talked actually aboutcoaching right at the very
beginning in terms of actuallybeing there for your athletes
and being able to reallyunderstand them.
So how do you use yourexperience as an athlete to
really coach your athletes?

Colin Cook (23:11):
So I guess I'll start that by saying I do think
it's very helpful to be a strongor competitive athlete, but
just because you're a fastathlete or successful athlete
doesn't mean you're going to bea good coach, right?
So there's a big differentiatorthere.
But I certainly practice what Ipreach and I like to lead by
example.
For sure, to me it is reallygetting in my athlete shoes and

(23:31):
figuring out, all right, what isreally going to be best for
that person to help them besuccessful and not to get too
much into the weeds of that.
I think that for most people andI do focus primarily on
competitive, higher-levelathletes that are doing Ironman
or half Ironman distances buttypically have families on
full-time jobs and all thethings that come along with that

(23:51):
, and so finding that balance,like you talked about we hit on
a little bit earlier is reallyessential, right, because I
certainly don't have any magicworkouts or special workouts
that are going to get people towhere they need to be.
It's that consistent workloadand being healthy and remaining
there.
But you have to be bothphysically and mentally able to
absorb that and be able to dothat.

(24:12):
If you're not able to do that,you may have some short-term
success or get to some shortergoals, but again transitioning
to where really, to me it's allabout that lifestyle and
hopefully having success alongthe way.
You really need to make sureyou're finding that balance.

Claire Fudge (24:26):
Balance seems to be the key word coming out of
this.
I'm interested to know how doyou measure balance?
Do you use any particulartechnology?
Does that help you to be ableto coach an athlete, to really
give them evidence as to wherethey are and help them with that
balance?

Colin Cook (24:42):
Yeah.
So I guess I'll answer that formyself as an athlete first, and
I'll say that while I'm tryingto maintain relative balance
among what I really consider tobe the three aspects of my life
that's my family, work and thenthat's me as an athlete there's
going to be shifts in time whereone is a little bit skewed or

(25:03):
is taking up more than others.
For example, after nowcompleting Kona a little over a
month ago, I have been doingnext to no training.
I've been keeping movement andthings like that, but I am
really focused on giving backsome of the time that maybe I
was taking away.
I do think, relatively speaking, I keep my volume on the lower
end side compared to a lot ofthe guys I'm competing against,
but making sure that I'm doingextra things with the family and

(25:26):
enjoying the holidays and those.
For me it does sway a littlebit and it's going to be
different throughout the yearand where it pertains to my
races, but when I think about myathletes, I guess I do think of
it in a similar fashion.
But it's also really makingsure that you're focused on some
kind of short term goals, and Ithink that a lot of people can,
especially during the winter,and what I actually refer to as

(25:49):
the committed season as opposedto the off season, is a real
good opportunity to improve onthings, but you don't
necessarily have to go crazywith the volume in order to do
that.

Charlie Reading (25:58):
And is it also about so do you get your athlete
doing, encouraging them to doother sports or other activities
, or are you just trying to say,dial it down and spend more
time eating breakfast or havingcoffee in the cafe with your
mates?
What's your approach?

Colin Cook (26:14):
I think it depends on the person there.
I would say in general, yes, Iam a huge fan especially during
the winter here of crosstraining, but even during the
season, whether that's mountainbiking or cross-country skiing,
you know anything thatsomebody's in.
Actually I have a.
I do have a client now that'sjust starting to learn to play
hockey.
We're dealing with the adulthockey of 11 5050 pm games and

(26:35):
things like that and how muchthat's impacting his sleep and
the rest of his training.
But yeah, it's definitely doingthose things.
We need the specificity of swim, biking and running as
certainly as our races approach,but we can get a lot of gains
out of doing different thingsand especially during the winter
, I think it's a tremendousopportunity to do that.

Charlie Reading (26:54):
And you mentioned sleep.
There I heard that you use anaura ring from another podcast.
I was listening to you on asClaire and I do, so how do you
use that with your athletes?
And is it just sleep, or areyou dialing into things like
heart rate variability?
And, if so, how are you usingthat with your athletes?

Colin Cook (27:13):
Yeah, great question .
So I'll start with sleep.
But you know I'm certainly notconvinced that everybody needs
eight hours of sleep or ninehours of sleep or whatever it
may be.
I think everybody's differentthere and you need to figure out
what your body responds best toright Using something like an
O-ring to be able to do thatQuick tangent there.
If we dive into gadgets, makingsure you have a reliable data
source Glad to hear you guys areon the Oura Ring board.

(27:34):
I think there's some otheroptions out there that are
risk-based, which I'm not a fanof just because I don't think
they're a reliable source.
And if you're going to makethat much rely, that much for
your training and your lifebased around that data, you
better make damn sure that it'sactually accurate data.
That's priority one to me andmaking sure that we're finding

(27:54):
what works for that person.
But 100% using really primarilyHRV.
On top of that, sleep, yes, wecan look at the sleep scores and
things with aura and thereadiness.
Hrv is a tremendous resource andI've found to be invaluable
over the years and it'ssomething certainly again as me
as an athlete and also as acoach I'm looking at and I've
been amazed over the years thatthere's been times when I've

(28:15):
gotten indicators that, hey,maybe you should slow down a
little bit.
Or even clients has said andthey overlooked that or they
disregarded say, ah, I'm fine.
And then, sure enough, a day ortwo later they're sick or
something bad happens thataffects their training as a
whole.
I think that usually you'rebetter off going slightly easier
or toning it back and ensuringthat you're able to continue, as
opposed to pushing a little bittoo hard, and I think a lot of

(28:38):
people end up making thatmistake.

Charlie Reading (28:41):
And so if a listener is thinking about just
getting into buying aura ringsand any other gadgets around
this, and particularly withheart rate variability, could
you give them an idiot's guideas to what they should look at
to avoid overtraining andgetting injured, please?

Colin Cook (28:57):
I guess the way I like to really quickly explain
HRV heart rate variability isyou look at your heart rate and
let's say it's for simplicityhere it's 60 beats per second.
Right, that would obviouslyequate to one beat per second,
but the reality is that notevery beat is happening exactly
every second.
There's going to be some thatare 0.9 seconds, the next one's
going to be 1.1 seconds, andthere's that variability and the

(29:20):
research has shown that whenthat variability is too
significant there, that candefinitely have an impact on
your readiness to do anythingreally, but especially when it
comes to training here.
So I would just encourage youto.
You have to get a baselineright.
Everything like, just like withsleep, the HRV is completely
independent and personal to thatperson right?

(29:41):
My score versus yours, charlie,is completely irrelevant to
each other.
I think it's setting up andunderstanding what your baseline
is and then making educatedmovements and adjustments based
on that what your baseline isand then making educated
movements and adjustments basedon that.

Claire Fudge (29:59):
When you're training with HRV, what do you
suggest to them in terms ofpotentially like recovery
techniques?
If they are really pushingthemselves, they need to step
back a bit.
Tell us a little bit aboutrecovery and your ideas around
recovery.

Colin Cook (30:08):
Yeah, I guess one thing I'll mention here if it it
hasn't come out yet is I do owna wellness center here in New
Hampshire, so we do things likecryotherapy, float therapy,
light therapy, infrared saunaand different things like that.
But I always start theconversation if I ever talk
about recovery is that sleep ishands down.
You can come to me and I canoffer you some services and, yes

(30:29):
, they will help.
But if you're not sleeping well, you need to figure out and
work on that as priority one,because and it's just amazing to
me yes, you have to impress orencouraging to people that are
willing to push through sleepdeprivation.
But most of the time if I hear,oh, I only got four hours of
sleep last night, but I stillgot that workout, and I'm

(30:50):
shaking my head saying, oh, whydo we do that?
And again, that dedication andit is impressive and it is a
mindset thing at the same time.
But what's that doing to thenext day and the day after that
and the long-term issues that'sgoing to result in here, I would
say, most of the time,especially when you're working
with dedicated people likemyself, it's more trying to
figure out how to convincepeople to tone it back to make
sure that they're not overdoingit and they're not running the

(31:12):
risk of a burnout or injury.
But yeah, I'll say my favoriterecovery tool is our float
therapy.
So people that aren't familiarwith that, it's a pool of water,
typically about 10 inches ofwater, and it's got over a
thousand pounds of salt in it.
So what you do is you go inthere and you just float.
Ideally, you turn the lightsoff, you can have some
meditative music on.
But it's the one place,especially in again, we can dive

(31:38):
into gadgets here, but wheretechnology is taken away from us
and we're just able to settleand just let our minds
decompress.
And the salt is great for ourbodies and can definitely help
speed up recovery.
But it's more about that mindreset here and how valuable that
is.
I try to float at least once aweek and find it to be extremely
valuable.

Claire Fudge (31:54):
Is there any research or evidence around
floating and the chiro therapies?
If there is, tell us a littlebit about it.

Colin Cook (32:00):
There is.
There's definitely more aroundthe float therapy than there is.
There's definitely some studiesgoing on still around
cryotherapy.
It depends who you talk to, tobe perfectly honest, whether
that's beneficial to you or not.
But with the float therapy,even things like post-traumatic
stress issues and things likethat they have proven.
So they're trying to getveterans and people that have

(32:21):
had most of us have had somekind of PTSD issues in our lives
here that we need to workthrough.
But yeah, there's a lot ofcompelling stuff around that,
primarily again from our mindsand what it can do there, but
also again physically to acertain degree, just being in
that space and floating.

Claire Fudge (32:37):
As you said, you're away from gadgets, you're
away from technology, andhaving that time and space is so
important, isn't it?
What other gadgets do you usewith your athletes or technology
?
So charlie's the big tech guyhere.
You know you've talked aboutthe aura ring and other kind of
wrist wearables.
So Charlie's the big tech guyhere.
You know you've talked aboutthe Oura Ring and other kind of
wrist wearables.
What's the number one wearableor gadget do you think that

(32:58):
athletes really benefit from?

Colin Cook (33:00):
I would assume most of the listeners are probably
already doing this, but you haveto start with the watch.
I'm a Wahoo guy, so I'm wearinga Wahoo your garments, whatever
it may be To me.
It's almost comical to me whenpeople start complaining about
the price of watches.
When we say it's five, 600 USdollars or something like that
for a watch, I'm sure it's notcheap, but when you think about
if you're using that everysingle day, oftentimes multiple

(33:23):
times during a day, and theamount of data and how relevant
and helpful it is, to me, it's abargain.
But yeah, I think that if wewant to get to where we, if we
haven't decided or we haven'tfound out where we want to go,
we're never going to get there.
We have to have benchmarks andwe have to understand what it's
going to take to get to thatplace, and so having the proper

(33:44):
data is the place you got tostart there.
So to me, the number onerequirement is to have a watch
for sure, Certainly on the bike.
I'm a huge fan of power meters.
We still don't require powermeters with our clients, but I
think 98% of them do have themand we certainly encourage
everyone to have one for sure.

Charlie Reading (34:01):
Looking to the future and I don't really mind
whether you answer this from arecovery point of view or from
anything else, but where do youthink the most exciting
technology is around the worldof endurance sport?
That's coming down the pipeline.

Colin Cook (34:15):
I'll talk a little bit about Tridot, maybe for a
minute here, and HumanGo isanother one that's up and coming
here, and so I actually I usedTridot last season for my
training just because I was sointrigued by the AI elements of
that and what that could do forus, and so I really wanted to
experience it myself, and therewas a lot of talk about people

(34:35):
drinking the Kool-Aid that theTriDot people really drink the
Kool-Aid.

Charlie Reading (34:38):
You're talking to a TriDot convert.

Colin Cook (34:41):
This is great, keep going, yeah.
Where I think that AI can reallycome into play is with weather
and adjusting your trainingbased on the weather, assuming
that you're going outdoors, andthings like that, because I like
to consider myself a prettygood coach, but using myself as
an example or my coaching, if Iwas coaching one of you guys
sorry guys, I'm not going to gointo the weather app every
single day to look at yourtraining and make adjustments to

(35:02):
it, for that it's just notfeasible for me.
So when we can start to help theAI, or the AI to help us as
coaches, to be able to learnwhat adjustments we need to make
and making those adjustmentsfor us if we can be confident
with them, I think that's reallythe future.
And where I see the real valueis in AI.
I still think that there's somuch mental to triathlon

(35:24):
coaching, and having a humanbeing in your corner is
extremely valuable.
Again, obviously I'm biased asa coach saying that, but I think
that as we continue to leveragethat AI to help us as coaches,
it's really going to beimpactful for the community and,
in general, where I see a lotof value coming.

Charlie Reading (35:41):
I couldn't agree with you more.
I think that this is the so.
I've had a lot of conversationsaround AI, not just about
TriDot, but AI in business aswell and it's allowing the
humans to do more of the stuffthat they're good at, which is
the empathy, creativity andleadership, and it's allowing
the AI to do what it's better at, which is massive amounts of
data and repetitive more.

(36:02):
I've never been a triathloncoach, but how many times have
you pasted the same kind ofworkout into different athletes?
I should be spending my timetalking to the athletes as
opposed to programming acomputer.

Colin Cook (36:16):
Exactly right.
Yeah, I think again, not to gotoo far off a tangent, I think
that a platform like TriDot fornewer coaches is tremendously
valuable because they may say,oh geez, charlie, how long of a
ride should I give you thisSaturday?
Or something like that, wheremaybe more experienced coaches
may not be able to do that alittle bit more naturally.
But it really sets thatfootprint and you're 100% right.

(36:36):
I certainly like to do testingas a coach and trying to figure
out what strengths andweaknesses athletes have and
things.
But you can't skin an enduranceworkout too many different ways
, right when you just got to getin that appropriate amount of
effort, and maybe the volumecertainly changes depending on
the person.

Claire Fudge (36:51):
I think it's going to be interesting, isn't it?
Well, even the next year howquickly AI is advancing and what
we see in the world ofendurance sport as well.
To help us.
So, thinking about the morehuman side, you have recently
set up an elite triathlon team,so tell us a little bit about
your reasons for doing that andhow you create that team spirit.

Colin Cook (37:14):
Yeah, there is a new team.
We just finished up our firstseason.
It's called the Top GunsTriathlon Team.
We do actually have a fewprofessionals and kind of newer
professionals on the team, butit is primarily an age group
triathlon team and really ourgoal is, yes, we want people and
most of our folks are quitefast and do very well placement
wise, but to me the goal is totry to showcase that it is

(37:38):
possible to be very successfulon the race course while still
being, in my case, a great dadand very successful in
professional life.
I guess, going back to that word, balance right, and so finding
balance and being successfulacross the board and also trying
to show our failures.
We do encourage our athletes totalk about their failures and

(37:59):
things that don't go well.
You know, I will say I'm not ahuge social media fan and I wish
I could be a little bit morepresent on there, but it just
doesn't come all that natural tome.
But what I don't like about itis most people are only posting
about all the good things intheir lives, right, but life
isn't perfect and life isn't allgood and we have to encourage
our people to share thosechallenges they have, because we

(38:21):
all have failures and failureis what breeds success and how
we learn and those kinds ofthings.
We try to hopefully share thatside of things as well.

Claire Fudge (38:28):
But I love that idea of learning from failure
and sharing that and I think ina group environment it's always
so supportive to share yourfailures.
And obviously you do so manydifferent things.
You're a coach, you're anathlete and you've got your own
podcast.
You're a dad.
How do you balance everything?

Colin Cook (38:45):
And, if it wasn't clear, I actually have a
full-time job as well, so I'm inthe cybersecurity world as well
, so I have a full-time gigthere.
So, yeah, I do get asked quiteregularly how do you do all that
you do here?
And I think the biggest thing Ialways start out that answer
with is planning right.
I can already tell you whattime I'm going to work out
tomorrow and what things I'mdoing.

(39:06):
I live on Google Calendar andmaking sure that everything's
there and, yes, I have four orfive different Google Calendars
that I'm trying to collaborateall together to make it all work
.
But it's really about figuringout what, prioritizing what's
important to you and then makingsure that you're putting those
in the appropriate windows.
And if you do that, I think alot of people are amazed at what

(39:26):
you can do.
But I guess also I mentionedthere's three priorities in my
life when I talk about there'smy family, there's my work and
there's triathlon.
I am one at this point with thethings that I have going on.
I can tell you there's reallynot much else to my life these
days.
With the things that I havegoing on, I can tell you there's
really not much else to my lifethese days.
That's what I care about andthat's what I focus on.
I'm not doing much other things, and I'm totally good with that
, but that's also a key aspectto it, too, as well.

Charlie Reading (39:47):
What I'm sitting here thinking is we've
only mentioned, really inpassing, the fact that you not
only have you got a full-timejob doing the cybersecurity, but
you run this other business onthe recovery clinic.
I'm assuming that means thatyou've got a team, or at least a
group of people that arerunning that business for you.
So what's been the secret toyour success?

(40:09):
To have a business that issuccessful but that you're not
working in on a day-to-day basis?

Colin Cook (40:16):
Yeah, you have to be able to delegate.
That is absolutely critical.
I almost consider myself moreof an investor in peak recovery
and health center the wellnesscenter these days than a true
business owner, because, yes,I'm contributing and giving
feedback and things like that,but I'm never at this point a
recovery technician on the clockcovering our services and
things like that, and it's morejust making sure that we're

(40:37):
doing things efficiently,operationally and those kinds of
things Across the board.
Actually, we talk about whether, being the winter now and not
doing as much training, sinceKona I've been looking at what I
can do to automate tasks andthings like that, to eliminate
those things or at least reducethe amount of time that I'm
consumed by those kinds ofthings.
So I guess efficiency is a wordthat I'm also a very big fan of

(40:58):
and like to really focus on andmaking sure that I'm being as
efficient as possible.

Charlie Reading (41:03):
This is a whole other conversation, isn't it?
Because there is so muchpotential there, and obviously,
tridot is a way of using AI toaccelerate the training process,
whether it's as a coach or asan athlete, but in business.
I'm just nearly finisheddelivering a course on how
businesses can grow using thepower of AI and the chat.

(41:25):
Gpt is the most incredible tool, but it's one of many tools
that you can use.
Let's dive a little bit deeperon that.
How do you see that you'regoing to use AI in those
businesses to help grow and bemore efficient?

Colin Cook (41:41):
in those businesses to help grow and be more
efficient.
So far, to be transparent, Ican't really say I've gotten too
far along the way.
I think there is that learningcurve is when you get started
here.
Where you got to figure out andwhat is the heavy lift is
obviously at the beginning, andonce you get over that line then
it's going to be super easy.
But to me, I think it's makingsure that my calendars and all
those kinds of things are intactand automating some of the kind

(42:03):
of follow-up and things that wedo, especially when we look at
Peak Recovery and Health Centerwith new customers coming in and
then the follow-ups andeducating them about our
products and those kinds ofthings Drip email campaigns, if
you will is what I'm focused onright now with improving what
we're doing there.
But there's so much that we'vedone with that automation.
It's just, yeah, a matter ofreally figuring out the
structure and getting itactually implemented.

Charlie Reading (42:25):
That is exactly it.
It's this concept of faffoingaround, fuck about and find out.
Basically, you need a lot ofthat with this AI.
But yeah, no, awesome.
I just think it's such anincredible opportunity and
obviously I can recommend a goodcourse for you if you're
looking to expand your knowledge.
So one of the things that weasked every guest on the podcast
is about books that they foundthat they've either helped

(42:47):
themselves or they findthemselves recommending
regularly to others.
So any books that you wouldrecommend to your clients, or
any books that weretransformational in your journey
.

Colin Cook (42:57):
Still, if I have to pick one, I would go with David
Goggins'.
Can't Hurt Me, I just think thathe just shows what is possible
if we set our minds and ourintentions correctly.
I always say for those thathave listened and certainly not
to get into his story too muchyou got to take David Goggins
with a grain of salt because ifyou look at relationships and
other things, he's not maybe theideal mentor there, but he has

(43:19):
proven what we can do when weput our mind to things and how,
when we're going through thosehard things, making sure that
we're in the right mindset, it'sa game changer.
I think that it's an incrediblypowerful story and shows what
we're capable of for sure, soI'd have to go with that one.
I was going to also mention I'mcurrently.
I'm a big audio books guy, so Iam in the process of reading

(43:41):
Just Add Water by Katie Ledeckyhere, which has been really good
, and as somebody that I guessI'll call myself a decent
swimmer, but not quite where Iwant to be in the water, I'm
trying to soak in as much of theswim experience as I can.

Charlie Reading (43:54):
So this is not a book I've heard of actually,
so I love David Goggins as arecommendation.
Claire and I did an ultramarathon a couple of years ago
and as we were in the lastcouple of miles, I was quoting
david goggins.
I won't repeat that bit now,but yeah, you'll know which bit
that was.
But tell me about just addwater so it's really just.

Colin Cook (44:12):
It's the audiobook version.
Is actually katie delivering itherself, which I always like.
When obviously it's the persondelivering, it is really nice.
But it's just all about herjourney and how she's gotten to
where she is and I'm still.
What am I about halfway through?
And it's still.
It's primarily talked about herchildhood and the dedication it
took and her experiencesthroughout that.

(44:32):
The success she had is justunbelievable and at such a young
age I can't even imagine.
Having to be able to handlethat at that age is absolutely
incredible.
But it's really neat to hearher story.

Charlie Reading (44:44):
And we have a tradition on the podcast where
the last guest asks the nextguest a question without knowing
who that is.
So our last guest was JosephSpindler, who obviously coaches
Rico Brogan, who's a bigQ-Cycles guy as well, and I know
you're a fan of the Q-Cycles.
So I think Claire's gotJoseph's question.

Claire Fudge (45:04):
So Joe asks when was the last time you did
something for the first time,and what was it?

Colin Cook (45:12):
Well, let's see here , that's a tough question, isn't
it?

Charlie Reading (45:15):
That is a good one.
I'm going to give you somethinking time there, because
that's tough.

Colin Cook (45:25):
This is actually going back a little over a year
now, but I'm going to share anexperience where I really got
out of my comfort zone.
So we were actually having myoldest was having his birthday
party.
We had it here at the house andwe had a reptile guy come in
with all these snakes and otherreptiles and things like that.
And I love turtles, I lovethose reptiles, but I am
petrified of snakes and Iactually have a picture of me
with a python like a six orseven foot python around my

(45:48):
shoulders that I still can'tbelieve I did that.
I still actually.
We were talking about itrecently and it came up and it
was.
I'm not even sure I'd bewilling to do it again.
Is that really how scared I amof snakes and things?
But yeah, that's something thatwas definitely a first and I
wouldn't be surprised if it wasthe last.

Charlie Reading (46:07):
And to finish off, I'd love to know how many
times have you done Kona?
Now I just did seventh time inKona, seven times in Kona and
completed so many Ironmans goneunder nine hours.
What's next?
What are you looking to do?
What would excite you about2025?

Colin Cook (46:25):
So I was still in negotiations with the wife about
what the calendar will looklike in 2025, but I am
definitely.
I'll admit I did come up a bitshort.
So I finished 10th in my agegroup in Kona this year.
I really wanted to be in thetop five, but I think I got
eighth when it was in St George.
I guess I've done the worldchampionship eight times, but
seven in Kona, so I have notgotten Airman world championship

(46:46):
podium.
That's definitely somethingthat inspires me or something
that I'm hopefully workingtowards, but as a 42 year old
soon to be 43, I really want tocontinue.
I still just finished whatwould be my fastest year, I
would say continue.
I still just finished whatwould be my fastest year, I
would say, and continue to getfaster, and I want to redefine
and disprove a lot of that asslowing down as we age here.

(47:06):
I do recognize it's coming atsome point here, but I still
feel like I'm in my prime and Iwant to enjoy that and keep
pushing the boundaries.

Charlie Reading (47:14):
And having done St George and Kona, does that
mean you're going to do Nice, sothat you've got the sort of
trilogy there may be somemotivation to go as well.

Colin Cook (47:22):
I think it looks like a beautiful course,
beautiful venue.
Arguably for me on the EastCoast in the US it's actually
closer to me than Kona is.
Yeah, I would love to get overand complete the trifecta.
I guess I'm gonna have to usethat.
That's a good one.
I'll talk about that with mywife there.

Charlie Reading (47:35):
I always think that the Europeans consider Nice
to be easier for them and theAmericans consider that Kona
would be easier.
But how do you feel about thefact that the World Championship
now bounces between Kona andNice?

Colin Cook (47:48):
So I am actually a big fan of it and I think that
we should continue to rotate thechampionships and primarily and
that's actually more for theprofessionals than even the
amateurs the Kona course.
Don't get me wrong, spending aweek in Hawaii is you can't beat
that, and I'm not sure any ofthese other venues are going to
be able to top that.
But that type of environmentdefinitely suits certain

(48:09):
athletes better than others,right?
So if you really want to seewho a true champion is, put them
in different environments andprove that in different places.
So I think, for the sport, inthe interest of the sport, I
think there's a lot of value indoing it in different venues.

Charlie Reading (48:23):
I think it opens it out to a lot more
people as well that as a Brit,you need a pretty deep pocket to
justify the Kona trip.
It has a lot of benefits asmuch as I only wanted to do Kona
.
Now that I've done Kona, it'slike, well, now I'd quite like
to do these, but it was alwaysKona first.

Colin Cook (48:38):
It's interesting, right where it does shift.
Once you said, all right, I'vedone Kona, whereas maybe if you
were trying to qualify for nextyear you'd be like oh, and
there's no doubt, so far in StGeorge anyways, I was not in
Nice for last year's men's raceor any of the women's races, but
of field as it is in Kona, withthe exception of the

(49:01):
professionals, for the amateursit doesn't seem like everybody's
amping up and really shooting,for whether it's in Kona or Nice
that they're treating thingsdifferently.

Charlie Reading (49:10):
Although even with the professionals, we
didn't get Lucy Charlesdefending her title this year,
but I dare say she'll be back toKona to defend it next year
maybe, who knows?

Colin Cook (49:22):
Yeah, no doubt she will.
She's healthy for sure.

Charlie Reading (49:23):
Yeah, colin it's been absolutely brilliant
chatting to you.
It's an inspirational storyaround being in a very dark
place and getting yourself outof that, and I love the way that
it's endurance sport that tookyou from what could have been a
life-changing habit into adifferent life-changing habit,
but a good one.
So it's amazing.
And then to see where, by 42,the quality of the level of

(49:45):
triathlete that you are and howyou're embracing the coaching is
absolutely brilliant.
I wish you every success.
Hopefully I'll see you in these, hopefully we both get a sign
off from the missus and, yeah, Ihope the team have an amazing
year as well and we look forwardto following you with a keen
eye.

Colin Cook (50:00):
Thank you so much for having me Really enjoyed the
conversation here, so thanks somuch.

Charlie Reading (50:04):
The best place to find out about Colin is at
Instagram, where he is at ColinWesley Cook that actually, if
you go to his link tree on there, it will give you the link to
Peak Triathlon Coaching, whichis his coaching business, top
Guns Tri Team, which is theelite team, peak Recovery and
Health Centre, and some of hisother business and sporting

(50:28):
links.
So what did you make of thechat with Colin?

Claire Fudge (50:33):
It was great.

Speaker 4 (50:34):
I think it's really interesting to we talked about
mental health football, haven'twe, and had quite a few guests
on talking about their mentalhealth.
But this was just another sideto it in terms of coming from an
addiction into being anextremely competitive world
championship level athlete orcompeting at world championships

(50:55):
in ironman.
So I think it was fantastic andfascinating actually to hear
where he's been and actually howhe managed to get out of his
addiction and potentially intoanother.

Charlie Reading (51:06):
I was going to say arguably, replace it with
another, but at least one thatwas good for him, as opposed to
one that was bad for him.
I think I think it's.
I've had several conversationsover 130 plus episodes we've
done, but one that stands outwas flora, college the extreme
ironman athlete who, who alsostudies addiction or teaches
addiction at a swiss universityand studies it, I think, and so

(51:30):
where the boundary lies betweenjust enjoying an addiction is
difficult.
But what I thought was reallygood about colin was the fact
that he clearly realized, like Idid a few years ago, that I
needed to earmark certain thingsso that I yes, I'm, I can be
addicted to endurance sport, butbecause I've earmarked the
family time and the businesstime, I can actually get all of

(51:53):
them done, so the addictiondoesn't take over the rest of it
.
And other than lying on thesofa exhausted on a Saturday
afternoon when possibly youshould be engaging with your
children, it's not the same asdoesn't take over the rest of it
.
And other than lying on thesofa exhausted on a saturday
afternoon when possibly youshould be engaging with your
children, it's not the same asbeing addicted to drugs or
alcohol, is it?

Speaker 4 (52:07):
no, I think the addiction to exercise is really
interesting and I can see how myexperience also of working from
a clinical perspective ineating disorders is totally
related to an addiction as wellas you think about it.
So it's really interesting to mehow a lot of these things merge
and how an exercise addictionif someone's pullback or support
something that they're notgetting in their life or can't

(52:29):
control in their life well, Ithink it's really interesting.
I'm really interesting as anathlete myself because I can see
how easy that is to get intoovertraining.
And where does overtraining andaddiction cross over?
But I guess one of the thingsalso he was using and this comes
into the use of software andtools coaching.
He was talking about tridot,wasn't he?

(52:49):
And using tridot as a coachingtool, and I think there
definitely is a use here forreally good evidence for an
athlete showing them thatactually maybe they're doing a
bit too much.
So I think actually, when youthink about addiction, that's a
really good evidence for anathlete, showing one that
actually maybe they're doing abit too much.

Charlie Reading (53:01):
So I think actually, when you think about
addiction, that's a really goodway to actually show somebody
that potentially they're notdoing enough or doing too much
and, interestingly, as obviouslyas I'm a big Tridor advocate, I
didn't know that Colin usedTridor before we started the
interviews, but one of the bigselling points of Tridor is the
fact that they reckon that theiraverage athlete trains less

(53:22):
hours in total but gets betterresults because tridor is trying
to eliminate that over trainingproblem.
So, yeah, I think that's, Ithink that's um great and in
fact, that just actually kind ofsegued nicely into the
conversation about ai, didn't it, which I thought was brilliant.
I thought I really enjoyedchatting to him about how he was
looking at trying to learn howhe could use AI more in his

(53:45):
business, and in fact, Imentioned our AI workshop and
course.
If any of the listeners outthere are interested in that, we
have a free webinar.
It's called Unleash the Powerof AI.
I'll put the link in the shownotes, but if you go to
thetrustedteam, you can find itlisted under the online events,
because I think it's such anincredible opportunity and risk

(54:08):
to businesses.
You're either embracing AI andyou've got this incredible
opportunity to accelerate wayfaster than ever before, or
you're ignoring it and yourcompetitors are accelerating
faster than they have ever hadbefore.
So what did you make of thatpart of the conversation?

Speaker 4 (54:22):
I thought it's interesting.
Actually, it ties in from it.
You talked at the beginning ofhaving these segmented times
that you don't.
So you're not addicted toexercise, but you have time for
your business and for yourfamily and I think, actually,
the use of ai does free up time.
If you know what you're doingand I think being able to
understand and navigate that aiworld in terms of using the
right ai tool for the right job,that you can free up your time.

(54:45):
So I think that's maybe areally interesting thing that
came out of that for me in termsof, yeah, freeing up time yeah,
ultimately it's about gettingthe.

Charlie Reading (54:55):
It's freeing up the human to do what the human
does best, isn't it?
So the humans are best atempathy, leadership and
creativity.
And, in the same way that inthe industrial revolution, we
had the machines taking over thework that we previously did
with our hands, we now have AItaking over some of the work
that we did with our heads.
That just took time and wasrepetitive and boring, and yet

(55:17):
it frees us up to do the stuffthat we are best at as a human,
which actually you couldsummarize, is really what we do
with our heart.
It's all about the empathy,creativity and leadership.
So, absolutely and try it as agreat example of that it's
freeing up the coach to do theempathy piece and the leadership
piece, where because and the AIis taking over the bit that

(55:39):
it's best at, which is all ofthe kind of data and kind of
repeated building the programand multiple times if you're
trying to pick which race youwant, and all of that sort of
stuff.
So I think it's reallyfascinating.
But a great interview, reallyinteresting guy really enjoyed
chatting to Colin and, foreveryone that's listening at
home, keep on training If youwant us to keep getting amazing

(56:02):
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(56:23):
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