Got Huon my mind
We meet at Fern Tree tavern, a 1970s bunker of a pub at the crossroads of all the biggest, meanest climbs in and out of Hobart. Here, lumberjack-style locals and their bitzer dogs mix with half-clad trail runners, gaitered, storm-jacketed hikers, and of course, cyclists decked in Lycra. Smoke drifts up its chimney from a huge hearth year-round. It’s never really hot enough at Fern Tree to put out the fire. It’s still the only place I’ve ever ordered tea and hot chips as a meal combo.
Fern Tree Tavern is a fitting place to start and finish any tough ride in the cool Tasmanian weather. Today I’m riding a route that Justin Morris, head coach at Mind Matters Athlete Coaching and former pro cyclist, says is one of the best in Tassie.
Mind and body
Justin has spent the last few days scouting epic routes around Hobart for his next Mind Matters Athlete Training Camp, where he’ll host 14 amateur athletes who are looking to get fit and find challenges in the Tassie hills. Today he has invited me on the ride he’s most excited about: the Huon Valley Loop. It’s the kind of route that promises to challenge the mind as much as it does the legs. Justin has built his coaching business on the principle that performance depends on mental fitness as much as physical.
‘Everything involves mental and physical integration,’ Justin says when I ask him about the Mind Matters name. ‘I’d say 95% of the training and preparation and support for athletes when I was a pro was about the physical performance: our gear, our training, strength, food. We’d have all these ducks in a row, but things still didn’t go to plan. Like there was something missing, and for me that was the attention to the mental side of it – motivation, welfare, athlete wellbeing.’
We set off early, around
