I am training for what will be my two first triathlons (both sprint distance) at the end of the summer. So far I am doing pretty well, pursuing the fairly aggressive sprint tri training program for intermediates on this site. As a 21 yr old male, I was in fairly good shape even before I started training.

Mark Fulford writes: Recently I presented a talk to a group of budding athletes, with majority of this group are focused on completing their first Ironman. Some members of the group had a reasonable amount of sporting experience while others were starting from scratch.

Our bodies are amazingly adaptable and have an enormous capacity to recover. The problem with athletes is that they often do not listen to their bodies. We are trained to ignore pain and persevere; this is the nature of endurance.