From elite triathlete to CrossFit world record holder with Jess Towl

20 years ago Jack Maitland and I were asked by British Triathlon to run one of the Regional Talent ID Programmes in the North of England. The brief was to find talented young boys and girls who were good swimmers and runners and who might turn out to be exceptional triathletes. We didn’t do too badly with the two brothers (c’mon, you know who they are!!). Also in that squad was a young lady called Jess Towl. Jess was in the squad for 3-4 years and then left to train in Australia. On returning she joined the performance squad in Loughborough. Things didn’t quite work out as planned so she left to teach swimming and turned herself into a very successful CrossFit Games competitor. As a triathlete, Jess didn't have the physique or the strength for CrossFit and, as she explains, it was a long and arduous, but very rewarding, journey. She now works in Dubai as a coach to both CrossFit athletes and Triathletes. We talk about the differences in training between the two sports,  learning to perform olympic lifts, having a performance mindset, owning a CrossFit world record and how she is rebuilding herself after a catastrophic shoulder injury.

 

Enjoy the show! Who knows, you might find inspiration to change sports or just to start lifting weights for your triathlon performance. Some of the topics we cover include:

• Being part of the same triathlon talent ID programme as Jonny & Alistair Brownlee (3:00)
• Swimming or weightlifting - it starts with technique, technique, technique - (24:00)
• The benefits of a performance mindset when moving to a new sport (25:30)
• Different approaches to nutrition between triathlon & CrossFit (27:00)
• Owning a CrossFit world record (39:30)
• Double unders (41:00)
• To be good at CrossFit you need to be good at recovery (56:00)
• When weightlifting goes wrong - dealing with a bad shoulder injury (59:00)
• Skydiving and the Happy Hormone cocktail (1:03)
• Sleep trackers, gadgets and why you need to learn how to judge your own effort levels (1:21:00)

 

To find out more about Jess you can find her on Instagram at jesstowl

 

Jes coaches Triathletes and Crossfitters at InnerFight in Dubai. You can find out more about them here:

InnerFight.com

You can find her personal page HERE

 

Jess also likes to follow these Instagram channels and podcasts:

Wod_science - latest research on endurance training / weightlifting / nutrition 

drjamesdinic - General Health / Nutrition 

 

Podcasts:

InnerFight Endurance Podcast - All things Triathlon 

The Mind Muscle Project 

The Diary of a CEO 

 

Books: 

Chatter by Ethan Kross

Jess says, "Not usually the type of book I would go for but it is about how you speak to yourself in your head and how that affects your life / body. It really made me stop and think and gave me some great information on how I can make my performances in sport and my general day to day living better just by being conscious of how I am speaking to myself."

 

To contact Beth regarding Life Coaching, please email her at Info@BethanyWardLifeCoaching.uk.

 

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Sports Nutrition questions - if you have a sports nutrition question that you would like answered on the podcast, please email it to me via Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.

 

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Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes. Links to all of Simon's social media channels can be found here.  For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.