The TriDoc Podcast, triathlon and health in one place · Dr. Jeff Sankoff

Ep. 188: New Year, New You: Finding Your Triathlon Why in 2026 + Sara Black

·57 min·3 clips

Jeff rejects the idea that triathlon progress must always trend upward.

1. The TriDoc Podcast’s January 9, 2026 episode focuses on finding your triathlon why in 2026 and on pelvic health with Sarah Black. 2. Jeff Sankoff hosts with Juliet Hockman in the medical mailbag and later interviews Sarah Black, whose work in physical therapy and pelvic health matters to triathletes and active women. 3. The episode asks what triathlon is for when motivation changes across jobs, injuries, family demands, and age-group years. 4. Jeff describes a coached athlete starting a new business in 2026 and worrying that finances will force her to scale back races. 5. He argues that nobody pays a mortgage on race winnings and that annual trajectories do not have to keep rising. 6. Juliet says the more interesting question is not just “what is your why” but what happens when that why changes in different chapters of life. 7. The hosts cite Facebook group feedback from Brian, Layla, Justin, and Xenia as examples of motivations shifting over time. 8. They describe reasons such as results, personal fulfillment, winning, fitness, longevity, family, and therapy. 9. Jeff links the conversation to his own shift after changing jobs from a clinical emergency physician role to fixed hours and heavier family responsibilities. 10. Juliet says athletes should choose goals they can control because they cannot control who shows up on a start line. 11. Jeff says his own why moved from chasing age-group wins to valuing training, strength, empowerment, and the feeling of being emptied after a workout. 12. Juliet describes a trajectory that included world championships, 70.3 wins, cancer, the pandemic, injury, and then rebuilding each year differently. 13. Jeff says he has been doing triathlon since 2001 and still enjoys competing even when swimming remains his least favorite discipline. 14. Juliet says some athletes discover new whys such as being a role model for children, losing 40 pounds, or improving anxiety through regular training structure. 15. Jeff says the sport has given him 20-plus years of accomplishment and a trophy case he wants to keep visible. 16. Juliet closes the mailbag by saying short, cold, wet, winter days are a normal time to doubt motivation and to ask for help from your people. 17. The mailbag section is conversational, reflective, and grounded in coaching experience rather than theory. 18. The Sarah Black interview shifts into a practical clinical format with triathlon, injury, and women’s health examples. 19. Listeners who like coaching, motivation, and women’s pelvic health in endurance sport will get the most from it. 20. Listeners looking only for race recaps or pure training data may skip it.

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