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Simon Ward, multiple award-winning triathlon coach, shares insights on how to improve your triathlon performance with a High Performance Human approach to life.
Episodes
Wednesday Jul 27, 2022
Wednesday Jul 27, 2022
Here's a challenge for you. Put on a blindfold and then ask a friend to run with you. I guarantee that you’ll find it incredibly stressful!
Now imagine swimming, biking, and running not just the two of you but with other competitors around you. Finally, imagine doing this at a pace that will allow you to break a world record or win a world championship medal.
Guiding a visually impaired triathlete doesn’t just mean having great fitness. It also requires great communication skills and the ability to build trust with your partner. Today's guest is Duncan Shea Simmonds. Duncan has been guiding for several years firstly with Haseeb Ahmed, and more recently with Iain Dawson who also joins us on today's show. Iain is a B3 visually impaired athlete and Duncan is his guide. In a few days' time they will be racing for Team England at the Para Commonwealth Games in the PTVI category. It’s super exciting for both as it's their first time competing at the Commonwealth Games. I’ve known Duncan for a long time so firstly we catch up about his triathlon career to date and some of our shared experiences, and then how he got into the guiding role. In the second half, Iain joins us for a 3-way discussion on how it all works. There’s more to it than you might think.
We talk about:
- Average age grouper to Commonwealth Games
- Skills and tactics required for guiding
- Trust and communication
If you’d like to follow Duncan on social media he tends to hang out at the following places:
Instagram @dss123
Twitter @dss123
Duncan also recommended this book by one of the triathlon legends:
Scott Tinley - "Racing the Sunset” - An athlete’s quest for life after sport
Please CLICK HERE to watch a video of Duncan and Iain swimming. You can see exactly how synchronised they are.
To download your FREE case study on how to excel at your first Ironman, please CLICK HERE
Join our SWAT/High Performance Human tribe now, with a happiness guarantee! Join SWAT/High Performance Human tribe here
Purchase a copy of my High Performance Human e-book featuring more than 30 top tips on how to upgrade your life.
If you would like to help offset the cost of our podcast production, we would be so grateful. Please click here to support the HPH podcast. Thank you!
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.
Wednesday Jul 20, 2022
Wednesday Jul 20, 2022
Several years ago, I listened to Craig Alexander (3-time Ironman World Champion) talking about who might win that year's edition of the race in Hawaii. He noted that there were 10-12 athletes who had the potential to win the event but only 4-5 who would be in the mix come the run. The remainder would have discounted themselves due to poor decision-making.
Note that he didn't say they weren’t strong enough on the bike or fast enough on the run! In this instance the poor decisions could have been: pushing too hard early on the bike, holding back too long on the run, nutrition strategy, or just poor choices leading up to the race.
These problems are not exclusive to elite athletes. We all have decisions to make throughout the day and they have a greater bearing on our life performance than we probably ever consider.
Today's guest is a member of my SWAT tribe, Pete McCarthy. Pete is Head of Human Factors at Cathay Pacific airline and we're going to chat about how they utilise science around performance (both physiological and psychological) to keep their pilots performing at their best. Working around jet lag, loss of sleep, well-being, and positive mental health as well as how to shift from a focus on negative performance to a positive environment. All of these elements affect how the flight crew makes decisions before and during a flight, especially under pressure. It's a fascinating conversation and I’m pretty sure you’ll find some nuggets in here to help improve your performance.
- How a family tragedy klick started Pete’s triathlon career
- Well-being and positive mental health
- Sleep, fatigue, and fatigue risk management and how these impact decision making
- How to shift your focus from negative to positive performance when assessing training and racing performances
- Teamwork and communication
- How decision making and problem-solving will influence your triathlon performance
To read more about Pete’s daughter please check out this article
Cardiac risk in the young could impact all of us. Please take a few minutes to visit their website to find out about the valuable work they do and how you might be able to help please go to: Cardiac Risk in the Young
To find out more about Pete please visit this page at Cranfield University https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/people/peter-mccarthy-581115
The PERMA model we chatted about https://positivepsychology.com/perma-model/
Pilot wellbeing https://skybrary.aero/sites/default/files/bookshelf/4310.pdf
https://safetydifferently.com - Stories of safety and other successes
Pete also recommends the following books:
Just Culture - Professor Sidney Dekker - (reflects my professional thinking and approach)
Any Ordinary Day - Leigh Sales - (reinforces the need to live our lives, be kind and have empathy for others)
The Art of Resilience - Ross Edgley
Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
Dare to Tri- Louise Minchen
To download your FREE case study on how to excel at your first Ironman, please CLICK HERE
Join our SWAT/High Performance Human tribe now, with a happiness guarantee! Join SWAT/High Performance Human tribe here
Purchase a copy of my High Performance Human e-book featuring more than 30 top tips on how to upgrade your life.
If you would like to help offset the cost of our podcast production, we would be so grateful. Please click here to support the HPH podcast. Thank you!
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.
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
We’ve had a few guests on the show who've chatted about Heart Rate Variability as a way of measuring fitness and recovery. Today's guest, Anna Hemmings, is Britain’s most successful female marathon kayaker with a staggering eleven World and European Championship medals, 9 of them gold. She is now a leading inspirational speaker on resilience and high performance.
By the age of 24, Anna had been World Champion 3 times and competed at the Olympic Games. In 2010 she was awarded an MBE for her services to sport. She achieved this success against all the odds. At the peak of her career, Anna was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and was told by medical experts she might never race again. She battled her way to full recovery and went on to win a further 3 world titles and compete at her second Olympic Games in Beijing 2008.
Since retiring from sport Anna has become recognised as a specialist in the field of resilience and the psychology of high performance. She is an accredited Leadership Coach and founded Beyond the Barriers high performance training consultancy. Anna has worked with CEO’s and senior leaders through to middle management, designing and delivering resilience, leadership and high performing teams programmes.
There are some fascinating crossovers with previous podcasts on breathing and stress management and you can use some of Anna’s lessons in your sporting performances as well, like managing anxiety before an open water swim.
Some of the topics discussed include:
- The value of group training for mental health
- Overtraining vs chronic fatigue and how to recognise the signs
- Recovery from chronic fatigue
- How to use a simple 2-minute breathing practice to raise your HRV
- Learning to listen to your body and understanding the connection between mind and body
- Self-compassion and resilience
If you’d like to follow Anna Hemmings she has a couple of websites:
And you also can find her on the following social media channels:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-hemmings-mbe/
Twitter: @annahemmings
The HeartMath Institute - founded in 1991, the HeartMath Institute has developed reliable, scientifically validated tools that help people reduce and avoid stress while experiencing increased peace, satisfaction, and self-security.
Join our SWAT/High Performance Human tribe now, with a happiness guarantee! Join SWAT/High Performance Human tribe here
Purchase a copy of my High Performance Human e-book featuring more than 30 top tips on how to upgrade your life.
If you would like to help offset the cost of our podcast production, we would be so grateful. Please click here to support the HPH podcast. Thank you!
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.
Wednesday Jul 06, 2022
Wednesday Jul 06, 2022
"Mr. Duffy lived a short distance from his body.” This is a line from The Dubliners, a novel by celebrated Irish author James Joyce.
What does this mean? While you train hard and try your best to look after yourself, you may not have a full awareness of how everything is interacting. The phrase ‘listen to your body’ is used a lot by me and other coaches, but how many people are doing this very well? A quick observation of life around us would indicate that most people have their focus on their mobile phones or some other gadget. The triathletes I observe tend to get information about their body from their Garmin watch.
In recent months I've spent a lot of time talking about mindfulness, recovery, and self-compassion. I speak enthusiastically about my physio and yoga teacher, Louisa (a.k.a The White Witch). Some of you may have watched my morning mobility video which I combine with a deliberate breathing practice. I've even touched on meditation. But until now, we've never actually had a meditation expert on the show. Today that changes as we welcome mindfulness and self-compassion teacher, Dr. Caroline Hoffman.
By the end of this conversation, I hope that we can persuade some of you to give meditation or mindfulness a try and experience some of the benefits that we chat about including:
- Being in the moment rather than dwelling on the past or dreaming of the future
- Mindfulness vs meditation
- The deliberate practice of breathing (again)
- 2 simple steps to getting started with mindfulness practice
- How you can live in your body and not a short distance away
- Practicing mindfulness and how it can help boost your productivity
- Being mindful on the move - how to incorporate this into your own training
To find out more about Dr. Hoffman, please visit these websites:
https://www.oxfordmindfulness.org
https://mindfulselfcompassionuk.com - Video Mindful self-compassion explained
And you can also connect with her on Twitter at Hoffman_dr
Upcoming Course - Exploring Mindfulness and Self-Compassion with Dr. Caroline Hoffman - 8-week course on Zoom, 2 hours per week, Sunday evenings 7.30pm - 9.30pm: October-November 2022 enquiries to caroline@acompassionateheart.co.uk
Dr. Hoffman also recommended the following book if you are interested in improving your breathing:
Breathing Like a Buddha - Ajahn Sucitto Amaravari Publications (available as a free eBook)
Join our SWAT/High Performance Human tribe now, with a happiness guarantee! Join SWAT/High Performance Human tribe here
Purchase a copy of my High Performance Human e-book featuring more than 30 top tips on how to upgrade your life.
If you would like to help offset the cost of our podcast production, we would be so grateful. Please click here to support the HPH podcast. Thank you!
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.
Wednesday Jun 29, 2022
Wednesday Jun 29, 2022
Imagine you're an elite triathlete, getting on the podium at Ironman 70.3 events, and then COVID comes along. You have no races to do and you feel a bit lost.
What would you do? Some elites did more gravel riding, others chased Strava KOM titles or Fastest Known Times (FKT), and others took part in the indoor race series organised by Zwift or Ironman.
Today's guest, Alice Hector, took a completely different path. She turned from the extreme endurance training of triathlon to the highly anaerobic training found in bodybuilding. She’s turned out to be just as talented, winning a major female physique competition. As a triathlete she raced at 59kg (1.78m or 5’10”), now she competes at 69kg. (You can see that transformation HERE in this Instagram post).
Alice was also joined on the podcast by her bodybuilding coach Mark Palfery who described a lot of the technical information about bodybuilding and particularly nutrition.
The transformation is amazing and we talk about all of this in our conversation as well as:
- What really caused her to make such a dramatic change in sports
- What, no cardio?!
- Training for less than 1hr per day
- The joy of gaining 10k
- Fat-shaming in triathlon to internally motivated weight loss for bodybuilding
- Preparing for a competition - avoid inflammation and just eat plain
To follow Alice you can find her on these social media channels:
Please visit the website to find out more about the Studio 1 Gym owned by Mark, and where Alice trains.
An Instagram story with videos of Alice's victory at the Miami pro-competition.
If you're interested in getting into the weeds on this subject, Mark recommends the following books:
Women's Strength Training Anatomy - Frederic Delaver
The Strength Training Anatomy Workout Volume 1- Frederic Delaver
The Strength Training Anatomy Workout - Volume 2 - Frederic Delaver
The Precontest Bible by Larry Pepe
Join our SWAT/High Performance Human tribe now, with a happiness guarantee! Join SWAT/High Performance Human tribe here
Purchase a copy of my High Performance Human e-book featuring more than 30 top tips on how to upgrade your life.
If you would like to help offset the cost of our podcast production, we would be so grateful. Please click here to support the HPH podcast. Thank you!
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.
Wednesday Jun 22, 2022
Wednesday Jun 22, 2022
In general, endurance athletes avoid lifting weights like the plague. Cyclists especially will tell you how any extra muscle will reduce their watts per kilo (w/kg) and that if they are heavier, that just makes them slower going uphill.
There are many more reasons why it's a good idea for all endurance athletes to lift regularly. One of them is that it can help to improve their Maximum Sustained Power (MSP). This is different from FTP and is probably way more important to those athletes who are riding for several hours because it refers to the sub-maximal power you can sustain for long durations.
Today's guest is Jacques DeVore, a cyclist and strength coach who wrote the book Maximum Overload for Cyclists. In his book, Jacques lays out a training regime that he claims will help cyclists go faster by improving their sustainable power and fatigue resistance. He has plenty of evidence to back this up, having worked with hundreds of endurance athletes including cyclists Dave Zabriskie.
If you’ve been skeptical about the benefits of strength training to this point, this conversation might change your mind as we discuss:
- At what point of the season should you introduce a strength routine
- Priorities for endurance athletes
- Micro dosing your strength workouts
- Thriving vs surviving on a ride
- How to be as powerful in the second half of a ride as the first
- Why Maximum Sustained Power (MSP) is more important than FTP
- Why strength training is vital for older cyclists (i.e. over 40)
To find out more about Jacques DeVore please visit these sites:
http://www.sirensandtitansfitness.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sirensandtitans/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/sirensfitness
Read more about Jacques' thoughts on strength training at his blog:
http://www.sirensandtitansfitness.com/jacques-blog
Walking Lunges - we talked extensively about this in the podcast. Check out Jacques' YouTube channel where the first video you see demonstrates this movement:
Purchase a copy of Maximum Overload for Cyclists
We ask all of our guests to recommend books that have inspired them. These are the choices from Jacques:
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettger
Join our SWAT/High Performance Human tribe now, with a happiness guarantee! Join SWAT/High Performance Human tribe here
Purchase a copy of my High Performance Human e-book featuring more than 30 top tips on how to upgrade your life.
If you would like to help offset the cost of our podcast production, we would be so grateful. Please click here to support the HPH podcast. Thank you!
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.
Wednesday Jun 15, 2022
Wednesday Jun 15, 2022
Can you believe it's been 6 long months since the Grumpy Old Coaches recorded a podcast? We're back today, and this time we're discussing some of the biggest mistakes triathletes make leading up to their ‘A’ races.
Marc, Steve, and I did a rough tally of the number of Ironman races we had completed and it came to well over 50, spanning a cumulative total of over 50 years of racing. As coaches, we’ve also amassed a similar number of years and helped thousands of athletes to hit their race day goals. BUT, there have been mistakes and disasters along the way (as well as a few funny moments).
In this podcast, we share some of the most glaring errors to provide you with a few laughs but more importantly to try and help you avoid the mistakes that we (yes coaches get things wrong as well) and others have made, including:
- What happens when you don't write a checklist
- Don't do anything new on race day
- How often do you really need to visit the expo?
- What could go wrong with ramping up your training 7 days before the event?
- Have you written a race morning timetable?
You can find more information about Steve Lumley HERE
Marc Laithwaite runs The Endurance Store, an independent running and triathlon store in West Lancashire, and B-spoke cycles (currently based in Aintree, Liverpool) which is moving to a new home in Croston, Lancashire, just down the road from The Endurance Store! Epic Events organise swim, cycle, run, and triathlon events throughout the North West.
Join our SWAT/High Performance Human tribe now, with a happiness guarantee! Join SWAT/High Performance Human tribe here
Purchase a copy of my High Performance Human e-book featuring more than 30 top tips on how to upgrade your life.
If you would like to help offset the cost of our podcast production, we would be so grateful. Please click here to support the HPH podcast. Thank you!
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.
Wednesday Jun 08, 2022
Wednesday Jun 08, 2022
This week it’s a solo cast so you just have me for the whole show. It's been a while since I did one of these and this week I have chosen to answer some awesome questions sent in by members of my tribe.
I’ll be talking about:
- The best bang for buck investment for a triathlon newbie
- How an injury-prone runner can get faster and avoid more injuries
- Sensible daily nutrition habits
- How to successfully manage life, work, and training with a busy schedule
- Strategies for improving your weakest discipline
Join our SWAT/High Performance Human tribe now, with a happiness guarantee! Join SWAT/High Performance Human tribe here
Purchase a copy of my High Performance Human e-book featuring more than 30 top tips on how to upgrade your life.
If you would like to help offset the cost of our podcast production, we would be so grateful. Please click here to support the HPH podcast. Thank you!
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.
Wednesday Jun 01, 2022
Wednesday Jun 01, 2022
Dan Bigham started out as an aerodynamicist in Formula 1 working with the Mercedes team. He mentions that he was responsible for designing wing mirrors. In recent years he's made a name for himself in cycling and triathlon, firstly creating the disruptive track cycling team you might know as HUUB Wattbike, helping cyclists and triathletes in their relentless pursuit of speed with his retail business Wattshop, and more recently having a big involvement with the sub-7 project as a bike pacer for Alistair Brownlee. On top of that he’s currently working with Ineos Grenadiers and preparing for his own tilt at the world hour record. If that's not enough, he has a book out called "Start at the End” which we will be referring to frequently. Basically he’s been a very busy lad!
Whether you geek out on how to save watts, or you just have an interest in the tech side of cycling, you'll find this a very engaging conversation as we chat about:
- Team HUUB Wattbike, 1hr record, being a disrupter
- Principles of reverse engineering
- How to use reverse engineering to improve your triathlon performance
- Best watts per pound investments for you
- Why slower riders benefit more from investment in aero
- Shaving legs or wearing aero calf guards - which is best?
- Dan’s #1 way to save watts for all riders
To find out more about Dan you can find him on these social media channels:
Website - Wattshop - Relentless Pursuit of Speed
Facebook - dan.bigham
Twitter - @Watt_shop
Instagram - wattshop
Book - ’Start at the end’ by Dan Bigham
Some cool stuff you might want to check out
Behind the scenes of Dan Bigham hour record attempt
Join our SWAT/High Performance Human tribe now, with a happiness guarantee! Join SWAT/High Performance Human tribe here
Purchase a copy of my High Performance Human e-book featuring more than 30 top tips on how to upgrade your life.
If you would like to help offset the cost of our podcast production, we would be so grateful. Please click here to support the HPH podcast. Thank you!
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.
Wednesday May 25, 2022
Wednesday May 25, 2022
If you've ever had an injury that's kept you from training and competing, you’ll know it is painful and frustrating, not to mention expensive if you have good physio support. Once you've recovered it's not just a straightforward journey back into training. There is often a gap between pain-free and returning to competition. This is the space where today's guest, Rocky Snyder, does his magic. In his book Return to Center, Rocky takes a refreshing approach to improving human performance without the drawbacks of pain and reduced mobility. This new methodology bases each programme on the individual, their posture, and their unique gait pattern. No two people have identical lives, so why should they have identical programs?
As usual, we get into a lot including:
- The perils of sitting too much
- How you spend your day and why the body adapts to the position it finds itself in most of the time
- Why pain and tightness is a lifestyle, not an ageing issue
- 'Issues in the tissues’ and why most pains in the joints comes from muscle tightness
- The multitude of benefits from breathwork and movement, especially walking
- Strength training to realign the body
- Why conventional strength training is unconventional for sport and health
To find out more about Rocky, please visit the following channels:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rocky_snyder/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rocky.snyder.77/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rocky-snyder-cscs-cafs-podcast-host-a77a091/
Website: https://www.rockysnyder.com/
Rocky also has a very well stocked YouTube channel
YouTube Channel (over 600 videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdOKlD9-wKvavzfw_WSH_aw
Rock Fit Files Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rock-fit-files/id1521946026
Zelos Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zelos-podcast/id1537401143
Rocky recommends this book "What the Foot?" by Gary Ward
Join our SWAT/High Performance Human tribe now, with a happiness guarantee! Join SWAT/High Performance Human tribe here
Purchase a copy of my High Performance Human e-book featuring more than 30 top tips on how to upgrade your life.
If you would like to help offset the cost of our podcast production, we would be so grateful. Please click here to support the HPH podcast. Thank you!
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.