The Braveheart Highland Games: Catching up with Lesley Paterson and Simon Marshall

March 17, 2020

World champion triathlete Lesley Paterson and performance psychologist Simon Marshall, PhD are the forces behind Braveheart Coaching and the authors of The Brave Athlete. I managed to pin them down for an interview after participating in the last event of their 5th annual Braveheart Highland Games Triathlon Camp, recently held in San Diego, California. Their following for this event has been growing in popularity and appeals to athletes from all over the world and of all ability levels.

On this podcast, Lesley and Simon give us the insider’s view of organizing a weekend training camp for triathletes. They fill us in on their latest creative endeavours, including screenwriting and their new podcast with XTERRA. We also talk about fun and adventuring, and how to prevent rewarding experiences from becoming predictable.

Here’s the outline of this interview with Lesley Paterson and Simon Marshall: 

[00:00:00] Previous podcast with Lesley: Off Road Triathlon World Champion Lesley Paterson on FMT and Solving Mental Conundrums; Previous podcasts with Simon: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

[00:00:11] Braveheart Highland Games Triathlon Camp.

[00:08:07] The investigative health hustle.

[00:13:22] Brad Stulberg, author of Peak Performance and The Passion Paradox. 

[00:15:40] Writing screenplays.

[00:20:47] Article: Chinese Researcher Who Created Gene-Edited Babies Sentenced To 3 Years In Prison.

[00:21:23] The role of cheating in sport.

[00:23:38] Recommended films: Jo Jo Rabbit, Parasite, Leave No Trace.

[00:26:02] New podcast projects with XTERRA.

[00:29:36] The rise of Tough Mudder and obstacle course racing.

[00:29:45] Dr. Mark Falcous at University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand; studying the warriorization of sport.

[00:31:32] Article: Why Do Rich People Love Endurance Sports?

[00:33:01] Article: Kids’ Gaming Obsession Isn’t Really About the Games.

[00:35:21] Paula Reid - adventure psychologist.

[00:37:13] The fun scale in adventuring.

[00:40:03] Mood change during exercise; Study: Magnan, Renee E., Bethany M. Kwan, and Angela D. Bryan. "Effects of current physical activity on affective response to exercise: Physical and social–cognitive mechanisms." Psychology & health 28.4 (2013): 418-433.

[00:41:56] The deficit model of happiness.

[00:43:40] Hedonic adaptation.

[00:45:35] Preventing hedonic adaptation.

[00:47:59] XTERRA Podcast Powered by Braveheart.