Morning People: Laura Philipp

At 24, Laura Philipp had some cycling experience, having ridden 60 kilometres a day to get to and from high school, and some running experience from jogging with the family dog. But deciding to take on the challenge of triathlon training without being able to swim was fantastically ambitious. (“I knew how to, like, not drown, but I basically had to learn from scratch.”) Now 37, she’s the 2024 Ironman world champion and the cofounder of Kick-Ass Sports. We asked Philipp about how visualization, listening to her body and simply being prepared make her mornings run smoothly. “No matter how bad your previous day was, a new day is a chance to start over again.”

At her home outside of Heidelberg, Germany, Laura Philipp does as much as she can in the evening to start her day with a clean slate. That involves everything from making sure there’s no dishes in the sink to cutting fruit for her breakfast before she goes to bed.

Philipp is a huge believer in listening to her inner rhythms, working with them and not against them. (Videos on her YouTube channel cover topics like what it means to train with your menstrual cycle in mind.) And paying attention to her circadian rhythm means not setting an alarm and letting her body wake up naturally. (Just because she identifies as a morning person doesn’t mean she necessarily wants her day to start at 5 a.m., she says.)

Up around 7 or 8, she heads to her (clean-from-the-night-before) kitchen and drinks her AG1 in coconut water. Then she assembles the breakfast she’d prepped the evening before: oats with fruit, fresh nut butter she makes herself, cinnamon whey protein and yogurt. “From a metabolic standpoint, if I skip breakfast in the morning, I’m pretty sure that would set me up for a pretty bad day. I feel like paying attention to treating your body well sets you up for a good day.”

On an ideal morning, if their schedules align, she eats breakfast with her husband and trainer Philipp Seipp. “We can sit there together, have a conversation, have our dog there, and then just have this nice moment before we start.”

But while routines are crucial, so is flexibility, she says. A recent race in San Francisco taught her the importance of that when her pre-swim routine of a warm-up jog and strides couldn’t take place. “We had to start from a ferry and we had to enter it three hours before the race started,” she says. “All of the competitors were in a super-small room. And that was a big challenge, to still try to find some things to get me ready in a completely different environment and still perform well. That was really cool.”

This flexibility, she says, is key when it comes to eating, too, especially as someone who has to travel a lot. “It would probably be toxic in a way if you’re too connected or too strict about what you eat.” She keeps as many things as she can consistent, like travelling with a little rice cooker that lets her prep healthy foods (where she makes everything from oats to noodles and veggies).

Another recent key tweak to her routine has been to completely do the opposite of what she thought you were “supposed” to do before a race. “Often as an athlete you think you need to push yourself to be super pumped and ready,” she says. “I had to learn that for me personally, I really need to exhale more to give a signal to my nervous system, and that from a relaxed standpoint I can perform the best.” The tweak has made a big difference with her swim, she says, where it pays to be loose, not tight.

Pre-race, Philipp focuses on picturing herself succeeding: “You stand super tall just before the gun goes and try to visualize what you want to achieve on the day,” she says. “And you tell yourself, ‘I’m here, I’m strong and I can actually do this.’”

Laura Philipp's First Principles

• Work with yourself, not against yourself
• Stay flexible
• Visualize what you want — and keep standing tall