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5 FEB 2026

Camp Coach David Tilbury-Davis Named in Triathlete's "12 Coaches You Need to Know."

If you don't know David Tilbury-Davis, you should, is the subtext of the recent Triathlete article about 12 coaches doing amazing work in the professional coaching space. Here's what that august publication had to say about David:

It would be a pretty special thing to get a chance to work with David, and that's what you get when you come to our Bend Spring Training Camp from May 29-June 2 of this year.

After five days of training completely tailored to you (we adjust distances, provide you with personalized training sessions depending on what you have coming up, and give you an individual video swim analysis to take with you into your summer training and racing), you will leave with your physical, intellectual, and emotional abilities boosted significantly as the summer racing season gets started.

Camps allow you to pack more training stimulus into a training block than you normally could achieve, because camps subtract the normal stressors of life like work and all of the responsibilities you normally have. Stress is the biggest obstacle to absorbing training stimulus, so you get more for your training buck when all you do is train, eat, and sleep over five magical days in a triathlon training mecca.

As the image says: we're not QUITE sold out, but spots are limited and they are going fast. See if we've still got availability below.

Get Accountable, Supercharge Your Game

As I related last week, I ended up getting called “emotional” early on in my career. No one explained to me just what that meant, other than it seemed “bad.” Last week I walked you through a race that went well, where I managed to ride the wave of my emotions to a strong performance. This week we’ll briefly touch on the other end of the spectrum, when I found myself in the lead at Ironman Canada about 5 miles into the run and…choked. I ended up walking the last twelve miles of the run and finishing DFL among the pros. I handled the aftermath poorly and…never contended for a big win again.

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We all do things we’re not proud of and that we struggle to explain. Today (and in the podcast) I’ll explain a process to get at the root of these behaviors. The root cause of behaviors we don’t like are called “shadows” in Jungian psychoanalytic circles and all over social media. Shadows are unconscious beliefs about ourselves or the world that lead us to decisions that don’t help us and leave us confused afterward: why did I lose my temper, yell at that co-worker, drink too much, or do something that might destabilize our most important relationships.

Shadows might be (but aren’t limited to)

1. A belief that you are unworthy or don’t belong
2. A belief that you don’t deserve what you’re trying to achieve
3. A belief that there is something wrong, broken, or unlovable/unlikeable in you
4. A belief that you have to achieve in order to be liked and accepted
5. A belief that you “are”…something, fill in the blank. Whenever that word “are” pops up, we need to be wary, since it’s a clear sign of fixed mindset thinking, which really doesn’t help us achieve what we want to achieve.

In my case, I had/have all of the above. And bad news first…these shadows won’t ever go away, but (good news!) I have worked on moving from being unconscious of them and wondering what was going wrong every time I “fucked up,” to seeing them, understanding them, and keeping them in front of me where I can be conscious of and keep an eye on them. If your shadow is behind you, you can’t see it, but if you stand with your back to the light they get a lot clearer. So let’s head into the shadows, folks, if you’re ready.

My big shadow, though, was that I didn’t belong in the professional field. My results, in my entire career, lingered on the cusp of belonging, with a few outliers in either direction where I either somehow got it right or got it disastrously wrong.

The emotion that resulted from this “I don’t belong” belief was fear. I was scared that I would be exposed as not belonging in this group that meant a lot to me and formed a significant part of my identity. The fear drove the thought of “I have to catch up to prove I belong here!” but instead that fear often resulted in the exact outcome I feared: I would get dropped in the swim, played catchup on the bike, and blew up on the run. Then, this the outcome reinforced my belief and the cycle continued.

At Canada in 2012 I found myself in the driver’s seat, leading the race at the 10k mark on the run, with my best competition over ten minutes back. All I had to do was to run a simple 3-hour marathon, which was well within my ability. But instead of letting the race take its time, I rushed it, trying to finish as soon as possible. I ran the first half in 2:50 marathon pace, which would have been a 7-minute IM run PR…which was unlikely, and then walked the last 12 miles. Falling to the back of the professional field and well into the age group field.

I have a permanent trigger around the word “Buddy,” because the kind Canadians on the road back to Penticton tried to comfort me with a chorus of “It’s OK, buddy.” It was like having a very polite Greek chorus chronicling my downfall...

How I found and addressed my fear shadow (and how you can, too)

Shadows can be hard to find, because they are parts of ourselves we hide, repress, or deny…especially to ourselves! It is HARD to confront the fact that you believe you’re not good enough, because what do you do then but the very difficult work of shifting that belief?

The best way to find a shadow is through the sometimes harsh light of... ➔ READ HOW TO FIND YOUR SHADOWS ON OUR FREE SUBSTACK​

As always, thanks for reading.

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Presented by Campfire Endurance Coaching

Today's newsletter is presented by Campfire Endurance Coaching.

We help endurance athletes improve their results (get FASTER), find more joy in the process of getting faster (get HAPPIER), and achieve lifelong wellbeing through sport (get HEALTHIER).

Our company has two major services:

• ​One-to-One Coaching: fully customizable, high-touch coaching built for your life and your goals. Our coaches carry a maximum of 15 athletes so you know you and your goals are always a prioity.
• ​Training Camps and Clinics: immersive multi-day and single-day events aimed at getting you the most improvement in the shortest amount of time.

If any of those sound like something you would like to take advantage of, you should consider booking a 45-minute FREE coaching and training consultation with us​