Ger Redmond is the North Dublin athlete who went from Mountjoy Prison to a sub-9:30 Ironman pro license without a coach — and never having swum a length of a pool before signing up for his first Ironman. His story disrupts every 'you must do X to do Y' frame in endurance training: no periodisation programme, no athletic background in the discipline, no support team. For Roadman's audience navigating mid-life pivots into endurance sport, he is one of the most useful counter-examples to the structured-coaching orthodoxy.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
01Ger Redmond went from Mountjoy Prison to a sub-9:30 Ironman pro license — without a coach. He'd never swum a length of a pool before signing up for his first Ironman.
02Story arc: 16-year-old North Dublin kid signs for Dunfermline, scores 4-3 winner off the bench in his trial, lives the dream. A family crisis call brings him home — and the dark spiral starts on that flight back.
03The mate-with-the-stolen-boots story: a teammate nailed on to sign with a Premier League team got sacked when he stole the boot room and brought trainers home for his Dublin friends. €500 boots cost him his career.
04Triathlon coaching orthodoxy says sub-9:30 takes years of structured periodisation, a coach, and the right athletic background. Ger had none of those. The story disrupts every "you must do X to do Y" frame in endurance training.
05Mentorship and role models matter more than talent identification. The kids who go pro and stay pro are the ones who had someone explain right from wrong before the wrong choice broke their dream.
Triathlon coaching culture will tell you that going sub-9:30 at an Ironman takes years of structured periodisation, a coach, a plan, and the right background. Ger Redmond had none of that. He'd never swum a length of a pool when he signed up for his first Ironman. He'd spent two years in Mountjoy Prison before that. Twelve to fourteen months after picking up the sport, he finished Ironman Lanzarote in 10:50. Two years after that, he crossed the line in Barcelona in under 9:30 and held a professional triathlon license.
Key Takeaways
The triathlon establishment laughed at him when he said he was going pro. That's worth sitting with. Here was a bloke with no coach, no structured plan, no periodisation model, riding his bike at 2am on random calendar dates because he'd told himself he would. And he went faster than most people who did everything right. That's not an argument against coaching. But it is an argument that the mental side of this sport is so catastrophically undertrained by most athletes that someone running on raw commitment and controlled anger can close a lot of the gap.
The 2am sessions are the thing I keep coming back to. He'd pick a random date, say the 15th of the month, and tell himself: 100km, whatever the weather, whatever time it is. No training rationale behind it. He was training himself to not bail when it got hard and nobody was watching. The cold showers are the same thing. Three minutes, every morning, for two years, no exceptions. He told me the voice in his head never stopped arguing against it. He got in anyway, every morning, and that was the whole thing. Most athletes spend their whole career building fitness and never build that.
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The mental side Redmond talks about, training yourself to show up when you don't want to, connects directly to the habits episode. Go listen to the three habits of highly effective cyclists. And if you want to understand what the physical ceiling looks like once the mental side is sorted, the breathing episode with Dr. Sellers is worth your time.
CLAIMS FROM THIS EPISODE
Each tagged with the strength of evidence behind it.
ANECDOTE
Ger Redmond achieved a sub-9:30 Ironman finish to earn a professional triathlon license without a coach, structured training plan, or previous swimming background — a result that contradicts mainstream triathlon coaching orthodoxy on what is required for elite times.
Source: Ger Redmond first-person account
ANECDOTE
Redmond signed for Dunfermline Athletic FC at age 16 on a Youth Training Scheme scholarship after impressing scouts in a trial where he scored two goals and assisted the winner from the bench in a 4-3 come-from-behind victory.
Source: Ger Redmond career history
ANECDOTE
A family medical crisis call from home during Redmond's first season in Scotland triggered the chain of events that led to his prison sentence — illustrating how single inflection points can divert potential elite athletes off-track.
Source: Ger Redmond personal account
ANECDOTE
Adolescent talent pathways in football are exceptionally fragile — Redmond's anecdote of a peer who lost a Premier League contract for stealing a boot room of football boots illustrates how a single adolescent decision can permanently end a professional opportunity.
Source: Ger Redmond, citing peer experience
KEY QUOTES
“i got involved in the criminal gang warfare protection until double field on the table so it was about that was holding up as well that um on these houses as well you know... you become an asset to them that's how you do it like i obviously knew them all because this is where they grew up this is the normal area so i i knew these lads as it was and all it took for me to do was to sort of offer to serve studying like i can hold stuff or i can do something you know and that's how you get in and once you're in then and you're trusted so look at they need you as much you need them”
“we were on social welfare but it was four year kids and yourself so six kids out together on south welfare living in uh deployed the area so the game that that wasn't enough and electricity and shopping and skill and birthday presents and christmas presents and you know we needed money from elsewhere we needed a different different outlet”
“what are you in for and i said oh drug offense when he said what you ain't finding those murderers but it was really like hitting you know wow like and look at the chap was looking he was fine he didn't do anything didn't didn't get smart and say but that hit me like [ __ ] like this”
Jerry redmond welcome to the road man cyclone podcast thanks for having me those things not bad my boss uh i had i think we're on episode around 160 at the moment on the roadman cyclone podcast and i've only had two dublin lads on the podcast so you're the second that's a shame i talked to some of the irish pro lots a lot but the irish pro lads have been abroad for so many years that it's like they're hardly irish anymore because they're racing in france since they're 16 and then they're closer to french speakers than they are uh irish i was going to say orange speakers but one of us probably speak irish cheer i want to talk to you about i can give a fascinating story and i know we've a mutual friend one of my training partners at the moment uh kind of put me onto you and as soon as i heard the story i was like this sounds brilliant because for me when i think about what's an interesting story straight line success never makes an interesting story if i'm like talking to someone they're like oh yeah i was a prodigy athlete and then i became a pro and then i won stages in the tour i'm like it's a pretty boring story i think we need to have success then to go to absolute short and then for it to come back again and your story is that perfect zigzag everyone knows this shit's done so talk to me about you're 16 years old and you've signed for dunfermline my background soccer as well like clayts up to league of orleans with bohemians and i was obsessed when i was a kid so i can totally get into the mindset you had as a kid and all your dreams come true signing for our own farmland so i think maybe that's a good place for us to start the story yeah yeah so we grew up in in north carolina there any of our listeners don't know garden you probably aren't watching the nails much it's not on the tourist hot spots to visit anyway we'll just say that don't go there for that like yeah even like i mean i grew up in a dysfunctional family and i found soccer wasn't it for me and i was pretty good at soccer to be fairly but i don't know whether i was actually talented at soccer or i actually found really a good out there and away from the family home which is a negative place to be at all times i wouldn't even call it a home that's been nice to be honest but um i i did find some passion in football and at the age of 16 and said i got the opportunity to scout actually tomorrow to watch me unheard of people than daniel killock megan as a professional footballer and of her skilled commanding watches was was very exciting not only for myself but dear that was playing as well today tomorrow scored 10 goals in one game we knew he was coming so i wasn't passing the ball this was my opportunity but uh he knocked down to the house after that much and then invited me over for a trial which is february i'm not even too sure what year it was to be honest with you i just wanted to be in february because we are off school um from around valentine's day and that was a week after so i remember going over that time but the week before uh i remember sitting in my house playing fifa well not even the white house my friend's house playing football those being no family i lose it was just unreal like i was actually playing with the team with these lads on vivi and then i was going over to meet them a week later you know so it was a pure dream look it was like a bubble i couldn't believe it so i got off the floor anyway um for a trial went to a place called fall kirk straight off the floor the fall kirk todd dale for the 1016s um on the bench they were losing three one come off the bench scored two and laid up the winner we won four three the rest is history yeah i was out there under 16 him that's you know six days him 12 carrick was looking to saw me popped her up teams our scouts were heard about me blasting them for him to saw me but uh obviously they wanted to sign me so went on the yts scholarship um yts is you tame system for anyone listen that's not a football fan yeah so ah okay it was unreal the dream come true he's brought around with the first two minds around the stadium showed me the ropes i was cleaning builds for all that pros i was getting lifts to the bus stop and that big cars you know white heart was the best hungry life i came from a big dysfunctional family and was still dysfunctional family when i was there so i had that worry as well your five brothers and sisters back home living with a fire it was uh very uneasy didn't know what what sort of actually he was to wake up with and it was never a positive asteroid to be on ship so you saw neil was going to be able to avoidance were you into any petty crime or anything like that before you went away to donald trump no never done anything like you know i'm not saying that's the simple things that you know just i suppose what teenagers were up to nothing major nothing nothing that you would you know um that would give me prison sentence or anything like that because i know i had a friend and he went across and you know came up with all the football circles as well and he went across brilliant he was the best out of all of us and you know while the scouts were buzzing around a few of us but he went over he was nailed on to saw him for a big english premier league team and then he came back and he ring around knocking around all the lats i'll come around to the house come around to the house i have a surprise and he like you we were kind of mucking about there was no proper criminality going on but he was into a bit of anti-social stuff but what he done when he went over to the premier league team was he robbed their boot room and he stole all the boots from the four time players and he came home with a bag of boots for all the lads and he thought it was great crack like it cost him a career as a footballer like they sacked him straight away obviously when they found out it was him and looking back it's just like 500 euro football builds or something cost him a chance at his dream awareness of that when you're a kid no you don't but that's where you need good role models in your life to uh and target about stuff like that you know and not shy away from talking to the kids about the right and wrong thing you know you need to spend time with kids no so how did that start to unravel for you done firmly because that seems like i know you're living my dream and you're probably living a lot of other kids around dublin's dream over there how did that start to come apart so i was always over there chloe betrayed as a soccer player getting paid getting wedge lips now as a soccer player i think after about six months or something i got a car from home saving fire to commit the crime back in kill luck uh pretty bad chrome fairness and i asked the coach could have got home because i was ringing back and forward for the few days after that and things went on with god so i said can i go home just to see what's what's happening and just to check to see what's happening with the kids now so we're gonna have a floyd coming from scotland to dublin flight and looking back now i didn't really know it was definitely looking out that floyd i fell into a deep dark hole that i didn't didn't know it was falling into at the time but um i went back to the house and the windows were bored with the house and the mother was in there drinking alcohol with our friends well so she taught your friends on the road you know why were the windows boarded up well the family that we died committed to crime on had put the windows through as a revenge attack type thing so they all boarded up and the miura siblings were upstairs and you know just sitting around there was no one looking after him mother had sort of given up she was already a chronic drinker as it was even my father and this is just i suppose spoiled foreign as well has your dad arrested for a crime he was locked up he was locked up so were you the oldest of the siblings well he was the oldest uh boy your sister was a year older so was it okay so you nearly stepping up to become a father figure to the rest of your siblings at that stage yeah so no choice look i mean boy backwards put it against the wall what do i do go back over and live the professional lifestyle leave all these in the [ __ ] i mean what sort of person would do that so i decided it was time to step up and put my career on hold so is that a it's not a decision you know we often hear people talk about a fork in the road but in my experience there's the fork in the road does happen but often times we nearly drift down a road convincing ourselves it's only temporary and we'll come back to our other career but then we just get further and further and deeper and deeper into something was it a case of the fork or was it a case of the drift there's a case i have no choice you have to start making hard decisions what was i supposed to do there's no way i could have left them in that in the [ __ ] like i'm walk away i couldn't i wouldn't have been able to take a football i knew you thinking of that you know so it would affect me in all sorts of ways um so the decision was made to stay um it was an easy enough decision to be honest it was a hard decision it was hard on me but it was an easy decision yeah and did you stop playing football how did you play back home i tried to play football and i was [ __ ] because with so many so many negative thoughts and i used to leave the house from girl trying and obtaining my family make sure you're all right so it used to affect me playing soccer plus then the fact that i lost the scholarship the weight yesterday would confirm that had a knock-on effect on me confidence then i got in i got involved in the criminal gang warfare protection until double field on the table so it was about that was holding up as well that um on these houses as well you know how does that work for someone listening you know when you're like i'm only a few kilometers down the road from you and it's still it's something foreign to me you know i'd have friends who've doubled in this world but for a listener listening that's no exposure to you know criminality anti-social behavior to say you got involved in a criminal gang it's not like you send cvs around and one of them comes back to you what's that look like how do you get into a criminal gang and start making money in this in this life you become an asset to them that's how you do it like i obviously knew them all because this is where they grew up this is the normal area so i i knew these lads as it was and all it took for me to do was to sort of offer to serve studying like i can hold stuff or i can do something you know and that's how you get in and once you're in then and you're trusted so look at they need you as much you need them and it becomes you can't start that type of friendship if you would call a friendship did you feel like you had another choice no not what i chose so there's no one no no darling there's not like we we we didn't we were on social welfare but it was four year kids and yourself so six kids out together on south welfare living in uh deployed the area so the game that that wasn't enough and electricity and shopping and skill and birthday presents and christmas presents and you know we needed money from elsewhere we needed a different different outlet i think that's the key isn't we're going to get down into because uh later on in the discussion because so much stuff you do around kids and trying to turn them in the right direction now is brilliant and i want to dig deep into that but i know thinking back you know white friends who were sort of dabbling in this some of them a bit deeper than others and i can remember a moment where i had that real fork in the road i was working i was in college you know i was in football circle so not many of my mates would have went to college so i was going to the outlawyer going into college and i remember being in college and one of my friends who was deeper into this world came in and he was just like how much he getting paid for this and i was like a quit an hour or something and he's breaking his bollocks laughing and he's like if you hold this bag for me for a week i'll give you a grand all you got to do is hold the bag nothing else yeah and i remember just thinking that's such an easy money to hold a bag no i don't even need to know what's in the bag hold it for a week and i remember thinking i really want to be a lawyer i want to get to law school i was like i'd be [ __ ] up with law school if one caught with this back there's no chance and that's the difference that's the it's the having an outlet having a second choice but when you're facing that situation there's no other there's no plan b but there's no choice for people in deployed areas in that sense i mean i don't know what type of family you came from that had you thinking you've got the last kill but down there in kyoto there's no one influencing that in the family yeah no one's saying to you you can be better there's no one telling you you can achieve absolutely anything doesn't matter where you come from no one's saying that everyone's saying you're a piece of [ __ ] more or less without saying and how deep from that moment where you you know you become an asset to the gangs until the moment when it's game over and they turn that key and you're inside in prison how deep do you go into this world as deep as our emotions so we got very very negative so we became an ass because we've gone around with no problem breaking people up for money but no problem if you all need money wait and i wasn't even about the money with about me and my problems but it's such a negative feeling insulted from what happened to me as a kid losing becoming a professional having to come home look at me brothers and sisters have to be faced with all that plus we are on that threat from family that we try to communicate against all this [ __ ] was put on us so i had a lot of negative inside me which which came out in a negative way towards people and then it is it is the case i imagine money is just easy to make in this game or i don't say easy to make but you're making more money than your mates will be you know if your mate's gonna often do an apprenticeship as a plumber you're probably rolling around with multiples of what he's bringing in each week and the lord of that must get quite powerful for the young kids and the materialistic side of it yeah cars like it's like dagging your car isn't it like you're looking at your other ads making all the money you're taking all the risks so eventually if you have a bit of a bit of intelligence you're going to think i'm going to believe a minute this is not way no so i started taking different risks and going down a different route about it you know and started being on the enterprise getting away from them you know so but the main thing i suppose from a criminal out there is a lot of them have this negative negativity inside them and they lash out on others to get money so it's just a it's an even empire you know it really is an evil word being involved in criminality so talk to me about the turning point is it the moment you're caught and arrested and you know you're going to do time is at the moment you're sentenced or is the moment that he turns in the cell in mount joy for night number one in prison yeah i'll tell you about my number one so uh so we got convicted i think was too kind of authority in and i was held in my mind until i was held what was the charge are you mind saying yeah it was drug drug offenses there was drugs found in the house and i got convicted on that um so before you get sentenced you have to go into a man's you know so you're going to remand for whatever a week say so the judge puts me in my mind she she convicts me she says you're being convicted and then you go into romance for a week and then you come back and she sends you right so we go into uh i'm in the refill i'm putting this land in about six o'clock in the evening because i've been in court all that and they locked the doors at about seven you know everyone's star cell gets locked so i've nowhere to go so they put me in to this one landsat with this going and i'm sitting there and there's not only one bed right fourth time throw me a couple of blankets that's the easy then your man puts on i don't know easter eggs or something really and you guys you might even have a [ __ ] it's a woman's hair and there's no [ __ ] bathroom like it's it's in the ceiling right anyway that was not leaves me with this so anyway you finish this [ __ ] i don't know and then he goes to me um what are you in for and i said oh drug offense when he said what you ain't finding those murderers but it was really like hitting you know wow like and look at the chap was looking he was fine he didn't do anything didn't didn't get smart and say but that hit me like [ __ ] like this i take it you weren't having a discussion over here who gets the bed with him no he enjoys your stuff yeah i stand on the floor on a blanket you know just [ __ ] to the next one of a very different story but it's about beds but it's not about prison so i signed for a pro team in the us uh it would have been 2014 i think and i flew i was living in toronto and i flew in from toronto to carolina for training for day one the training camp so you're meeting the whole new team it's 10 12 new reuters someone from all over the world i've raced in france and stuff before but in france everyone gets their own bet you know it's just it's not thought of that you shared a bed with another lad but in the states budgets are tighter it's hotel though if they don't have these kind of hostels and stuff so hotel rooms are more expensive so it's common that reuters shared double beds but so my manager picks me up late at the airport floyd's delayed i mean at 1am or something and he gives me a key to the room he's like you're in room number 12 and you're sharing with colton and i was like okay cool and go up to the bedroom and i go up and there's one double bed and there's a lad fast asleep in the double bed and i'm just kind of like oh what the [ __ ] so i go back down to the manager i'm like here there's only one bed in that room what's going on he's like yeah he's sharing so i'm like one in the morning getting stripped down to the boxers climbing into a bed he saw a lot that i've never met before and he's kind of rolling over and looking at me and i'm like how are you like going to one of those things it was the most awkward i didn't like you in that experience so i'm not comparing the tail but like you that noise i didn't sleep a wink because i was that homophobic that was like if my leg touches his leg here will he think that i'm coming on to him and then you know you're all forward six months and you know you're sharing a bed with three teammates and you're sleeping completely sound and it's just normal but it was so out of the normal that i just didn't sleep a wink that night so i can only imagine the poor night sleep you had but look at it it's an experience in itself and you can try and find the positives but is that a moment then that forced knowledge where you're just thinking like because there's two choices i suppose in you know my experience in law you see there's when people are faced with this and i'm not sure if this was the moment for you they either go deeper down this rabbit hole and they use prison as an apprenticeship and they learn everything they network they up their skills and they say this is the life i'm going to become an expert at my craft or they go the other way and they completely turn their back on and say this is the wake up call i needed yes so i suppose oh you taught me yourself that's it you you put yourself here you acted the hard man out there um so why you're gonna be a little weasel and hear them so we stepped it up and started trying and started getting more android you know like you just have to sort of it's very affluent you know to be honest um so i did have to talk with myself and said don't be [ __ ] weasel in here you need to man up and take this on the chain because i was threatened like i was like [ __ ] what am i gonna deal with it how many years since then sorry how many years were you sentenced to two years two years like a week in prison could change someone's life sorry a noise in prison a week in prison i'd imagine could change someone's life you get settled in and then they they actually on that trend and they'd pick and land them for you to go on there and see you in d-wing or anyway so let's put on to it i was put on the ceiling and you know you're pulling there to haul my simpson jocks so you've put in a pair of name pants you know the granddad's bald stranglers yeah yeah they're them on a prison kick then you get your kid in a few days later the family drops up but they actually had a brother underneath when he landed on the land and you probably was there he gave me your tracks your brother's not looked at but that's the thing you know um you just settle in and you just adapt here to your surroundings i'm very good at that my backs to the wall on anything and that any time you live backwards in the world are just overcoming adapt and set dogs within the environment i mean you know and how easy is it to switch your head to because you're talking about backs against the wall i have to get my head right and you're thinking that i'm interpreting that as a positive sense you're starting to get my head right and go this isn't going to happen to me again but how much can you focus on that versus how much are you in self-preservation mode don't get caught up in happening in here or don't get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time so the the last thing i think about is um the last thing you're thinking about is how how how am i going to change my life what you're thinking about was hellmann's life so that's all he started is it that tough in there how am i going to survive is it it's a toy bomb this is how we explain to people right when you're a kid around the fire in halloween foyer or something right and you travel the airsoft canyon and it blows that's what mount joy is like it's [ __ ] on edge 24 7.
It just goes off like you you're walking banana next of all you just see eruptions people punching the hell out of each other are squirrels fighting with the with with the prisoners it's constant constant people walk around blood coming down coming out of the cell someone got to get attacked and so you're trying to go into that what i've done was i tried to put myself in the environments where that that um risk was minimized like the gym or the skill because a lot of people are going to change the skill are people who don't really want hassle they just want to go around with a sense just want to learn i just want to get fit and whereas the university stick around the recreation area the pool there you snooze around you know you know the same pool there you still go it's not what you think it's [ __ ] you know it's uh it's not the crucible it's not the crucible it's not even your local pool room around it's shitty but that's where the muppets started hanging around you take their drugs to do another independence and then you know once you're with that sort of people you're looking for hassle to be honest so did you have kids at this time i had four kids at this time and did you have an awareness you talked about how your da was not a role model to you did you have an awareness at this time as to the role model you were becoming for your kids yeah so the first knowing that i got sentence not the first night it was in romance unfortunately i got sentenced in the ceiling uh and then when i was in the basement at that time oh he sat there the door struck and i cried because i had a picture of me daughter just had one picture of your daughter and i looked and i said jeez i've just done the exact same thing modified at home on me he done it on me and now i'm doing it on them like how did i go wrong and so that was already setting in that didn't see it was being planted that fortunately um but as i said it was avoiding the mode it wasn't really thinking about how it's going to change i was just thinking about how to survive i feel like this is part two we need the epic rocky decides to come out and return at the moment when did they see it come that you're thinking triathlon was that well you're in prison or was that when you get out no so 2016. i remember saying to me south 2016 before i got out and i remember saying yourself where's my life going like i remember it just flashed in front of me i went from being 16 year olds playing football with the family and i'm sitting in a cell at the age i think it was 22 probably 16 years later i mean they flashed in front of what the [ __ ] had to happen then when i got out then um i was in an out prison so i used to get out weekends we saw in russell's jail at the end at the november 26th um a couple of things happened to me a friend of mine was in amsterdam a friend of mine and he was telling me that stories about his son don campin doing little things you know to get up as a bond and i was really it was really nice and uh he died two weeks later boyfriend did from a drug overdose [ __ ] sorry i remember being in the pre in the remember being in the funeral home i was set there and his son he was about four walked up to the coffin and couldn't make sense of it the song was like you know just looking to start the playroom see a lot of people who are involved in drugs and criminal gangs at the only they say for a family well i'm doing it for a family that's how they justify in that moment which is absolute [ __ ] so this kid's looking for his dad just a player i'm not looking for anything money not looking for toys just wants his dad and i sat down and said i'm [ __ ] never ever gonna put my kids through that how service are we and no disrespect to me you know it's not just how can i see this in front of me evolving and then me go back and possibly put my kids through that avoid taking drugs drugs and i possibly put some other family and show that if i sell drugs to someone and they do that so i swore that time was done i said that's it i'm [ __ ] done with this life but i don't give a [ __ ] if i end up on the dollar and i'm going to shake my hand but nothing and i um that was it that day was the the turning point for me to change so we started to round myself with like one of the people um a friend of mine was doing an iron man i went to watch him and i thought myself jeez now i couldn't swim but he had inspired me that much him i noticed i've done it like there was out people there 65 coming across the line i was like [ __ ] hell like if they can do it um so that little thing coming behind i said you know what maybe i could try it couldn't swim never been on the road i was on a rough mountain before that's it never on the road boy never on a tt but he'd never see him until that day couldn't swim couldn't do one length of appeal and but you know what i said if i try and i get fit i'll be in a good place at least i'll be fit and healthy and i'll be in a good place in life and i'll put all that stuff behind me so i needed a new goal to get away from the old me you know because if the story ended there it's a good news story and it's a rare story because the cliche with the life that you were leading is it only ends in two ways prison are dead so the fact that you chose option c which isn't really a viable option for most people that in itself is a story but then you set your head on iron man's not enough i want to be a pro iron man talk to me about that moment because like i'm in the you know circles where i'm chatting to pro cyclists and i've been paid to ride the bike and every now and then you do see a lot coming along and he's going i'm going to be a pro and you just break your bollocks laughing you don't know what you're talking about mate you're not going to be a pro you want the soundbite that you're going to be a pro and you want to tell your mates that don't know what they're talking about that you want to be a pro but you don't want to do what's involved in being a pro because it's not glamorous it's where's that moments that you say i'm gonna be a pro and what was the response from i suppose the triathlon community um so i don't be forced to iron man and i never suffered people said they're gonna suffer especially in the marathon so you're so far you know as an endurance athlete you get to a certain point where you're going trying to push yourself get through certain things you're suffering and i didn't so far i was like what is calling them um that my mind was callous to all this [ __ ] spark is not suffering all david goggins callous mind you know like spark to me was not suffering so i went looking for suffering so i decided the book lanzarote which is one of the top story men in the world um and again i pushed his heart as a coat oh he went looking for the suffering where the [ __ ] is it um and again i didn't so far and i finished i think i've done the iron man and i think it was 10 50 or 10 something like that it was a really good time was only in this part about 12 months or so which on 10 is a very respectable time like for anyone listening because i know most listeners are out and out cyclists like 10 is serious moving anything around that i know one of our coaches is a lame doll and he had the record the irish record for the number of years i think it's been subsequently broken by brian mcchrystal but to be anywhere near 10 is a serious achievement especially for your first one yeah so when i came across and finished knowing the right i was like that boy came back to me when i was a kid and said maybe you could be pro again but that was that's what happened i remember coming across the finish line and someone going that's a really respectful time like you're only in the sparx bleeding 12 or 14 months and you're already doing the lanzarote the toughest one in the world at that time i mean there's something there you know um so we decided to sign up for barcelona in october 2018 and people laughed i tell people there's gonna be problems and they laughed they wouldn't even engage with conversation with me let's go to workshops and say yeah i'm going to be proud do you what do you want what's wrong with the bike you know they just changed the subject but uh the thing is people didn't know who i was didn't know my background didn't know all that negative energy all he had within yourself that i was now i now found a new outlet to push all the negative into a positive so what he was trying i was getting about two or three in the morning and doing five hour cycles like most days i couldn't even feel me shins knees no but i knew if i put everything into this that you know it was more achievable and i wanted to prove people wrong then after them laughing at me when they tell them it's going to become from so i love storytelling i'm fascinated by it and one of the things in storytelling is we call it the hero's two journeys so you know you being the hero in this case the hero has two journeys the first journey is that to be a pro that's the external journey but often more powerful is the second journey the hero goes on the internal journey and it's who you become in the process of striving for this goal so in your case you fully transitioned from all that negative energy that was fueling and making you successful in the criminal underworld you've taken all that and brilliantly turned it into a positive motivator to to grab that pro-life but also in the process i know for a fact you've inspired people in the local community to give them another option so when you're looking back ass 16 year olds chair when you're thinking i've no other option here only chrome it only needs one or two positive role models in a community like you to go hold on there is an option here it's not just chrome or pro soccer player there's other options here yeah that is the that was my main internal drive you can if i become proud gives me a platform you know to show people that you can do this like i didn't become professional athlete to go around going oh i'm a professional at least look at me i'm killing because i don't and i don't really okay it is killed it is kill though but i really don't and i'm not one of those that does that i hope not anyway but uh my main driving factor was this was to prove to people no matter how far down the wrong road you've gone no matter how bad of a generation you're being brought up in you know doesn't matter where you're from what your circumstances is if you want something bad enough you can have it but you gotta work hard for it talk to me about that moment in barcelona when so sub 9 30 is the time you need to achieve to get a pro license in triathlon talk to me about how clued in you were to splits and the moment you know you know what i'm going to make this is there a way of washing over you just go on holy [ __ ] yeah so i do this i actually had a rotate i puffed here for a year during the process of trying for this but i wouldn't get the operation until i had achieved my goal so i couldn't even get i couldn't even take my jacket off i couldn't even reach up with the press the text to fill somebody swim and took a knock which is my worst discipline but i became a beast on the break and run because i always found that it's only an excuse you could still be a beast and the boy come run and make up the time you lose your swing that's the beauty about triathlon so i became a really good solid listen and run i was already at eastern royalty fair but even on the day of the tour i lined up on the beach for barcelona and i just feel i've hit every session like i used to send me an iron club once or twice a month so what this is what i used to do is to pick a random day on a calendar say the 15th of april right random all the time at two in the morning the 50 there you're going to grow up do 100k whether it's raining slate or snow pissing out we're not going to robotics so every time every month they used to say a weird little little guy like that because what i've done for me was it proved me how much i wanted this i said to myself if i don't grow up and do that don't accept myself then you don't want this how much do you want it so he sent me some little jobs like that and i hit everything we didn't miss any sessions from from um the day i said i was going to become pro to the day i actually achieved it but isn't this i talk about this a lot on the podcast and i'm probably born and trying to partners all the time like we're in a society where people seem to destroy it for comfort where they want comfort and i'm saying to lads all the time we shouldn't be seeking comfort we should be seeking the opposite of comfort because it's that uncomfortable feeling every day when you get up and cold water hits your face and you're out in the elements and you're doing [ __ ] that you don't want to do but you're doing it because you said you'd do it months ago it's that uncomfort and that pushing through that zone that's the only time we achieve anything worthwhile if i look at anything i've achieved in my life it's always followed a period before that has always been very uncomfortable stuff that i didn't like down for a long period of time you're never happy when you're sitting on the couch watching netflix cheerios and eating ice cream what happens then is like [ __ ] sadness my old friend shows up and he's like oh here you go again that's the negative mindset like people have to get uncomfortable to strengthen the positive points here just two there's two minds within us one is a negative one's a positive and the negative will always put you in that safety zone or stay and don't do it no matter what it is but if you control that positive mindset and you continue to get out and train what happens is the negative [ __ ] up doesn't even want to know anymore my negative is now positive i have two positives because the little negative [ __ ] is gone so i've turned the negative [ __ ] into a positive [ __ ] there's two of them i have this schizophrenic conversation with myself every morning when i get out of bed every single morning no matter how i slept if i have a headache if i'm sick i get into a cold shower straight away three minute call shower i've done it probably for the last two years but there hasn't been a single morning that i've got up and thought oh yeah i really want to do a cold shower the other voice kicks in giving me reasons why you don't want to get into the cold shower you know it's raining outside you didn't sleep that well you have a headache you could be getting sick and then the other voice takes over and goes this isn't a [ __ ] discussion mate we're getting into the cold shower and i'm having this crazy dialogue of myself every morning i feel like that's the dialogue people have when they're trying to get their kit on her i heard david goggins the motivational speaker you referenced him on the callous mind earlier but he had something brilliant and i know you're a coach and we get into a internet but you should get your clients to do this i've had one or two of my clients doing it when they're procrastinating when they have their running kit on or their cycling kit on and they're unsure if they want to go trying or not tell them to record a voice note for themselves on their phone list and the reasons why they're unsure about gone training and then play it back for themselves and he says listen back to the reasons you're thinking about not going training and in his words you're a straight-up [ __ ] when you listen to those words i only have my my clients tune in they know i'll ring them i text them on a monday every monday i go throughout this program i'll let them know if you've missed a session you know they know they have the mindset of no excuses so what we use is hashtag no excuses that's brilliant yeah so when you hit 930 and you're stamped certified you're a pro athlete that gives you a platform and i suppose a credibility although you say it might not be that important to you getting the protein i think it gives that credibility to the whole brand the whole movement of what you're trying to do to say look if i can do this anything is possible and now you're going around speaking in schools and i was on your website i know friends where you know they're charging 10 15 000 euro for the talk and you go on to your website and it's free talks and skills talk about why you're doing them for free and what's the kind of goal behind it because i've i've come from a deployed area and you can't have money as a motorbike in fact after trying to encourage people to change their lives i just don't think that's a nice thing for me you know that's just me for me i can't have cash is a motivating factor for me to go back and give back i'm giving back because that's what i want to do and it's pure that's what i want to do i want to change people's lives i want to go in and be obedient in life and that's the reason we can't professional athlete to be able to do that it wasn't to be able to go around professional athlete it was to be able to go back into schools and say what are you talking about you're full of [ __ ] you have no excuses i've been there i've been down the wrong road for years and years and years and now unprofessionally so they've no excuses and i think if you're going to talk to talk you need to walk the walk as well my dad's involved in the local football team for the last 20 years or so and i remember chatting to him a couple of years ago and he's coming up on retirement age and you know there's plenty things he could do rather be putting up nets on a saturday sunday morning for absolutely no money i was thinking why do you still do what you do and he said each year if i can get one lad that's going down the wrong road and i can stare him back on the right road you know maybe he's not going to be a professional footballer but maybe it just gives him that awareness that there's other options out there and steering him away from that life he's like if i can get one lad across the whole club per year he's like i'll keep doing this till i die yeah so i'm all about that but i'm a social entrepreneur so i made it onto social media knowledge this year which is a group of uh a group you pitch your picture idea your social idea so where my idea is to go into into deprived areas and try and change a generation so i've come up with a project called reaching back how to change a generation where i go back into communities and talk to people who have been down by a generation who have continuing on the bad traits of their kids and their continuing on and on and on and so it's like a roundabout down there like someone needs to break the cycle so my fire was locked up before him my granddad was locked up oh he was locked up my brothers are locked up it just keeps going on and on someone needs to pull back now hang on a minute i haven't charged this this is my car now i'm going to charge this and turn it around 180 degrees and go down a different route instead of just continuing on the bad strikes that others have given you how do you ever put your son or your kids down the right route if you don't change and so it feels like you've you have someone now at the moment yeah it feels like you've broken this we'll call it family tradition but when people say family traditions they normally mean in quite a positive way but this negative family tradition if does it feel like to you you've broken it and there's no chance of going back to this hundred percent i've i've reset my whole mindset to get away from from what my father taught me but the thing is in life you know you inherit your father's bad traits regardless because it's a gene so you inherit them without even realize now there's one you can't really change that but what you can do is you can learn how to deal with that so that's what i done i learned how to deal with all the bad traits but god would have been aggressive i wouldn't have been talking about sit down have a chat [ __ ] i would try to punch the hell out of it you want me to start allowed to do a podcast no definitely not but you know i had all these bad traits and i didn't know but i didn't understand that you can inherit this so you can you can actually you know follow on someone's footsteps because the thing is if you only know one thing and that's all you know so if you're if you're father mother i used to fight proper fight when the arguments come up right you inherit that right you know that that's the way that's the way we deal with trouble that's the way they feel you think that's the only way because you don't see any other way so there's a lot of people out there that has that um but they they're not willing to to change it but there is a way of changing you know and how much it is because i know you're from a similar generation me from dublin as well and it's i talk to friends and they're starting to talk about their feelings now they're starting to talk about you know maybe the relationship i had my parents wasn't the perfect relationship to set me up for life but this isn't something that was historically spoken between lads definitely between dublin lads of our generation how much of this has been you figuring this out on your own versus lean and on counselors guidance workers sports psychologists i think counseling is the way forward like to be honest it sparks like sparks will get you fit and healthy right but the real cause of your issues will always pop the head back up right and i've seen it time time again with lads sound culture because i cultured a lot of people from kulak who had been in similar situations than me who have come to me because they know they can trust me and they know that i know what they're going through but you always see it popping his head back up because to fit this soil will only get you strong it'll only get you so far but if you don't get the root cause of the problem we're going to counseling and getting that that negativity from down the pit the stomach you don't get that out and clear it you you're just gonna it's just gonna come back and hunt you do i mean so that's how you break the cycle you think it's the counseling side a hundred percent counseling is so beneficial look like you have to and the thing is like people need to realize it's not this is not your fault but the way you've been brought up but the road you've been put on or whatever's happened in your life is not your fault i remember a moment where i went to king's inn to train as a barrister and i went in and i was the only person from north dublin in the entire kings inn and i went there and we visited mount joy on one of them it's compulsory in your final years your final weeks you go in and i remember chatting to a lot of my class coming out and he'd been private school he'd been through trinity and now we've been in the very traditional route for a lawyer and you know the public school route i went was not a traditional route to get into king's inn so i went in there and i remember coming out and i've shot i had some friends who were in there at the time we were visiting and i remember coming out and chatting to him and he said something that's just talking he's like well it boils down to choices doesn't it i chose to pursue a law skill route he chose to pursue a life of criminality and i remember thinking you have no clue i was like if your family your brothers are involved in it if it's all you know there is no choice you're a kid you there is no choice and it's breaking that cycle with people like you to give them that option c there is a choice there is a positive role model even if you can't get it in your house you can find it externally yeah but okay people like that [ __ ] [ __ ] to be honest you know it just kills me lying in this book it's easy for someone just to go he's a scumbag right they ask homework don't get me wrong with what they're doing is not the right thing it's bad and it's wrong but you need to go and have a look what goes on behind the closed like uh most of these kids that are up there have been brought up in shooting situations and one on fire all the alcoholics fired our folks off which is the norm well yeah and the mother's left in the catherine the mother's mindset is you know they just don't have a mindset they're just all they're thinking of is having a drink take some tablets to start out with the [ __ ] like the kids have no they've no cha chance in life they literally have no chance and then when you're not looked as a kid all you generate is negative because you don't know what love feels like you don't know what it's like to have a birthday or christmas really you don't get that loving factor of a home i never lived in the home until i met my wife never knew what i was going to be loved never got 30 presents never sat down with me and you know we love you kissing it and hugging you as all kids deserve to get right we do all that my kids it's only when i when i met my wife and we a loving family i realized how much [ __ ] i've been through and i've never got any of this when that happens here you generate a negative ball inside you and you don't care about people an idea that looks at you down the [ __ ] off anyone that you know you just want to steal things you just want to be a bollocks that's what happens because and then people you have people just don't know this going back [ __ ] them look then there's no one backing them up there's no one putting anything in on a preventative measure like it cost the taxpayer 360 thousand a year to jail a juvenile in norway's town 360 000 a year right there's [ __ ] not being done under veteran measures not attaining in that area like if you have three lads coming from say darn darnell to prison right to the towers helm once a year right that's nearly a million euro right if you invest into that area two or three hundred grand a year i'm trying to prevent kids going down the bad route right and you could do a tree underground you could prevent people if you could prevent one kid going down you could pay for that money turn in but do not number three measures nothing well that preventative thing for me it's because if you say it's a you know whatever it is if the pool hall if it's a badminton court or whatever it is you put in you start getting like you were identified in the jail you start getting the positive people gravitate towards that and then they'll slowly soak in people who are borderline positive well touching on that point how much of now do you believe in this because i'm a big believer in it uh you are the so many people you surround yourself with the tree or the average of the five you know some people use three some people use five how much credence do you put on that now how can you surround us have a positive people if there's nothing more negative in an area no but take now for you and triathlon how much of it is stepping away from the old friends and they'll surround yourself with negative people to try and make them positive because i know i'm in a good place so we actually go looking for people who are struggling they're going currently a big brother for a kid over there where is he i'm having more 10 below 10 below i'm a big brother to a 16 year old over there he's lost his mother and father he's so negative he doesn't even see me i drove over every friday it's time to tell him to [ __ ] off but you know i'm a good place i was trying to reach back and look look to help people you need like people need to stop pointing the finger going [ __ ] them they're negative stay away from them why are they negative for what reason you know is there a real cause from being negative can we not have a chat with them can we not try and help them you know it's so easy just to [ __ ] throw people away and say i'll leave them there muppets you know i'm not for that i'm far where is the negative person helping me help that person that's brilliant i love that uh that it's on it so what's what's up next for you uh i see for anyone that's listening most of our listeners are a podcast but this is going up on youtube as well so people will say jer has quite an elaborate neck brace contraption on at the moment you broke your neck tell you you tell the story rather than me telling her probably negative 25th of july and a half or none and came off the bike downhill into a 90 degree tour triathletes love a crash oh i'll teach you how to go around a corner someday the chase the pack is usually swimming here and stopped yeah hit the storm and even carried off on the swimming board went to county general hospital dave diagnosed with soft tissue i was i raised another race two weeks after and finished that and in heat you know in bad times three weeks after that i decided to with no rock following um only minus one point nine in the swing back in an ambulance went up to the hotel in a [ __ ] negative state thinking don't give enough right now and all this and i said he said you know what your legs are on so put your tricep back on max back up to the american part of the ironman and asked them could they finish the marathon and a marathon with a broken neck as you do we finished the mountain in three or three in anger three or three hours and three minutes in pure anger because i was pissed off best thing i ever done because it put me back in the morning frame of genoa your legs are fine you can do anything you want to do um so two a week after that then i went and got a cat scan and they told me it was a broken neck so i'm gonna i'm in a car since about ten weeks now i'm gonna cast a neck brace so when do you get that off have you picked any have you picked any targets for next season or what's the next big challenge well i'm looking to do a soap 3 on the 6th of december without neck brakes yes your legs are still working as you said i know there's going to be a bunch of people after this podcast now and they're going to be like where can we where can we follow your journey where can we follow your story where's the best place for them to do that so i'm on the instagram i lost so jerryrev and foyev on instagram would be the best place to follow him and all your coaching stuff is linked up there as well yeah so my website is linked to the instagram account on the profile and it's well worth checking out these videos up there podcasts up there that are all brilliant jared before i let you go last question i'd like to ask every guest same question i'm sure it's going to be a bizarre answer for you because you're not the typical guest i have on the podcast well through your whole you know i'll extend it to you and normally say someone's athletic life but through your whole life what's the one piece of advice it can be trained advice nutrition advice or just life advice that you wish someone had given you back in the day that you wish someone had given 16 year old jared that was coming back from dunfermline what's the piece of advice you'd whisper in his ear now well the choice i'd give to people is don't point the finger that people who are in dysfunctional lifestyles who are who are doing the wrong things in life look a bit forward i get to the real cause and do something positive to try and help them people in a more to to a more positive life it's so easy for us just to point the finger appeal but you don't know what goes goes on behind closed doors so um but there is a better life out there and it doesn't matter where you're from there's one thing for sure in life and that's it's this nothing will be handy on the plane you know if you want something you got to work hard for hard work always pays so if you want it you got to go after it that's a good message jerry redmond prison to pro legends thanks for chatting cheers
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
how did Ger Redmond go from prison to professional triathlon+
Ger Redmond used a prison sentence as a turning point, stepping back from criminality and redirecting the discipline he had developed as a young footballer into endurance sport. Structured training, mentorship, and a clear goal eventually earned him a professional triathlon contract. His story demonstrates that athletic ability, when combined with the right environment and support, can resurface even after significant setbacks.
why do young footballers from deprived backgrounds drop out of professional academies+
Family instability is one of the leading causes, as Ger Redmond's case illustrates. He left a Scottish YTS scholarship at Falkirk at sixteen to return home to Dublin during a family crisis, and without a support structure to return to, that door closed permanently. Research consistently shows that raw talent is rarely the limiting factor; access to stable role models and a functioning home environment determines whether young athletes convert early promise into long-term careers.
what is a YTS football scholarship in Scotland+
A Youth Training Scheme (YTS) football scholarship is a structured programme offered by Scottish professional clubs to promising teenage players, typically aged 16 to 18. It combines part-time education with full-time football development and has historically been a common pathway into the senior professional game. Ger Redmond held one of these scholarships at Falkirk before personal circumstances forced him to leave.
can a former prisoner become a professional athlete+
Yes, and Ger Redmond is a direct example of it. After serving a prison sentence connected to Dublin gangland, he rebuilt his life through sport and secured a professional triathlon contract. The critical factors in his case were mentorship, structured training, and a willingness to treat his athletic background as an asset rather than a closed chapter.
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