ONCE A TRIATHLETE
Memoir · $9.99
A memoir of addiction and the price of the name Will Power. Fifty-eight triathlons, four Ironmans, seventeen years sober in five pieces — the real story behind the man who named himself after a quality he didn't have.
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FROM THE BLOG
NO ONE LEFT TO BATTLE: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOUR TRAINING GROUP SCATTERS
You rack your bike at six in the morning and look down the row for the people you came here to beat — and they are not there. A chapter from Once a Triathlete on the four ways a training cohort disappears, the three answers men give when they will not come back, and the question that follows: if the friendship survives the sport, what exactly was the sport for?
6 min read →
I NAMED MYSELF AFTER A QUALITY I DIDN'T HAVE
Will Power is not my real name. I gave it to myself in the spring of 2007, on a charity training ride, doing arithmetic about a hundred-mile bike ride I was not sure I could finish — before I had done a single triathlon. The origin of the name this whole site is built on, from Once a Triathlete.
6 min read →
LISTEN
EPISODE 1
THE NEEDLE I DIDN'T TAKE
Before the Ironmans, before the name, there was a parked car in Brooklyn and a needle passed without a word. Opens the memoir Once a Triathlete with the one thing Will Power ever said no to — and the ordinary, unheroic reason he said it. Get your free personalized protocol at https://www.willpowerprotocols.com/protocol More episodes and show notes at https://www.willpowerprotocols.com/podcast
EPISODE 8
LAKE PLACID, 2008
Fifteen hours and fifty-five minutes in the rain, over 200 DNFs on the course, and a name made up on a bicycle that stopped being private the moment several thousand strangers started shouting it. The chapter of Once a Triathlete where the finish line and the very next race both happen in the same week. Get your free personalized protocol at https://www.willpowerprotocols.com/protocol More episodes and show notes at https://www.willpowerprotocols.com/podcast
EPISODE 13
TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE
Five years, one race. A weight thirty-two pounds past where he started in 2007. The chapter of Once a Triathlete that states the book's real thesis plainly: the comeback was never the cure, it was the symptom — and while it was running, the actual problem kept growing underneath it. Get your free personalized protocol at https://www.willpowerprotocols.com/protocol More episodes and show notes at https://www.willpowerprotocols.com/podcast
EPISODE 17
THE TROPHY
His daughters used to hand him their own plastic soccer trophies because they'd noticed he didn't have one. Thirty-five years and 300 finish lines later, at fifty-seven, he finally won a race outright — and immediately tried to talk himself out of what it meant. The chapter of Once a Triathlete about the one place the sport was always going to reward him. Get your free personalized protocol at https://www.willpowerprotocols.com/protocol More episodes and show notes at https://www.willpowerprotocols.com/podcast
EPISODE 21
NO ONE LEFT TO BATTLE
A transition area at six in the morning, looking down the row for men who aren't coming back. Three answers he heard wrong for years, and the same "battle" language he taught a generation of training partners now being used on him. The closing chapter of Once a Triathlete's arc — and the question it leaves him with at sixty. Get your free personalized protocol at https://www.willpowerprotocols.com/protocol More episodes and show notes at https://www.willpowerprotocols.com/podcast
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Medical disclaimer. This book and its companion content are for educational purposes only and are not medical advice. Consult your physician before making changes to your supplement, training, or nutrition regimen.