Feisty Triathlon · Feisty Triathlon podcast

The Mental Training Tips & Advice Triathletes Need

·57 min·3 clips

The episode opens with a warm welcome and the familiar Feisty back and forth. Kelly O'Meara, Joanne Murphy, and Katie Zafaris introduce Dr. Erin Ayala, who joins as the resident feisty sports psychologist and the host of the brand new Feisty Women's Performance Podcast. Katie comes in with a stack of mental training questions for Erin, and nobody bothers pretending otherwise. Before the sports talk really settles, Erin is asked how she is doing in Minneapolis. She speaks plainly about living through unrest and about how strange it is to be the psychologist who is expected to have everything together. From there, the conversation lands on a bigger point: athletes and coaches are still shaped by what they absorb through the news cycle and social media, even when they are not directly in the middle of it. Erin frames that as a nervous system issue, not a weakness. The show then slides into training life banter. Indoor training comes up fast, because everybody has an opinion about treadmills and trainers. Erin admits she is a trainer queen and once spent four hours on the bike in one stretch. The group jokes through the usual location confusion between Wisconsin, Minneapolis, and Dublin, because of course they do. Katie mentions a treadmill that stops at 99 minutes, which feels both absurd and completely on brand. The conversation keeps its loose, overlapping rhythm while still circling the real question underneath it all: how do triathletes keep their heads usable when life is messy. That question gives the episode its shape. The advice is less about perfect mental habits and more about noticing what athletes are carrying before they try to force another workout or another answer. By the end, the chat is already pointing toward a follow up focused on race season and race day planning, along with goal setting. Erin is invited back for a more structured look at that side of the sport. Kelly jokes that maybe she and Joanne will actually have races on the calendar by then. The episode closes by plugging Erin’s relaunch of the Feisty Women's Performance Podcast, which keeps the same focus on women's health and performance, sleep, pregnancy, training, and coaching. It is very much a Feisty conversation: candid, a little chaotic, useful when it counts, and willing to let the human part come first.

As heard by us

Mental prep, indoor training, and race planning, with a clear view of the stress athletes carry.

Feisty Triathlon turns a mental-training check-in into something grounded and practical. Dr. Erin Ayala joins the regular crew to answer Katie Zafaris' questions, and the discussion starts with what athletes can carry into training: social media noise, news-cycle stress, and the…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For the race brain that needs to calm down and get to work.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Feisty Triathlon