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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 Apr 06, 2022
Wednesday Apr 06, 2022
Recovery is something that is uppermost in my mind on most days. As a coach, I’m focussed on how to balance the training for each athlete with enough recovery for them to adapt but not so much that they start to lose fitness. If you plan your own training this should be an important consideration for you as well. It's different for each of us and our recovery requirements will change weekly (maybe daily) as our life stresses alter. How we recover can take many forms and the athletic press (whichever form that takes) is full of adverts and articles about how to maximise and even ‘hack’ recovery. In today's guest, Joel Jamieson, I think I have finally found someone who is an expert on this topic.
Joel is a strength & conditioning specialist who has a real focus on athlete recovery. He first came to my attention when I read one of his articles about specific recovery style workouts called Rebound Training. He has been working with HRV for the last 20 years and so part of our conversation will also tie in nicely with some of the other podcasts from recent months.
If like me you are in your 50s and you are concerned about whether you get enough good recovery, pay particular attention to some of our conversations later in the podcast.
Some of the topics we chat about include:
- What is recovery and how can we measure it?
- What part does HRV play in monitoring recovery?
- Are gadgets better than our subjective feel for estimating recovery?
- How to create your own specific recovery workouts
- How to recover better
For masters athletes -
- How to change your training to improve recovery
- What changes with age to slow down the recovery process and what can you do about it?
If you’d like to follow Joel Jamieson, please use the following links
Instagram coachjoeljamieson
Facebook 8weeksout
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/coach-joel-jamieson/
Website 8weeksout
Joel has also written some great articles:
How to use HRV to import your conditioning while avoiding burnout and injuries
The beginners guided to HRV & recovery
How mental stress can sabotage your fitness and what to do about it
Why doing more isn’t better and 3 ways to boost your recovery
All pain, no gain: Why the HIT training obsession has failed us all
How to train to recover faster than ever
You might also be interested in these links:
Joel explained a lot about the recovery App - Morpheus - that he has created. If you are interested in using this. Please click HERE
Joel is delivering a new conditioning programme starting in Mid April. You can find out more about that HERE
If you are a coach and have an interest in improving the strength and conditioning courses you deliver then this course could be for you: Certification course
Joel also recommended this book: “Why Zebras Don’t get Ulcers” by Robert Sapolsky.
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 Mar 30, 2022
Wednesday Mar 30, 2022
When I first went out to Kona to work it was like a dream come true. I got paid for working there and I watched the entire race live. It's like a car nut being paid to watch the British Grand Prix. As I watched the swimmers exit the water one man was way ahead of the rest and even more surprising it wasn’t one of the top pros. This was an age grouper by the name of Jan Sibbersen and from 2001 to 2004 he was the fastest man in the water at Kona. In 2018 after a layoff during which he started his wetsuit business, Sailfish, Jan made a return with the sole aim of claiming the swim record. He achieved his goal, setting a time of 46m 29s which still stands to this day. Jan is my guest today and we talk all things swimming including:
- Growing up and swimming all week and skiing all weekend (sounds good now, never mind at 15)
- Mixing it with the ‘big guns' in St Croix
- First man out of the water in Kona . . as an age grouper
- Getting called out by Jurgen Zack (then one of the world's best Ironman triathletes)
- Managing Patrick Lange through two Ironman World Championship victories
- The biggest mistakes age groupers make with their swimming
- Coming back for the Kona record in 2018
- Starting Sailfish wetsuits
- Coming to America
To follow Jan and Sailfish Wetsuits please use the following links
Website: https://www.sailfish.com/en/products/wetsuits/
Facebook: @sailfish.us
Instagram: @sailfish_us
Youtube: sailfishtriathlon This has some great OW swim tips from Jan. They are worth watching to learn from the best.
Links to some of the other topics we chatted about:
Jan Sibbersen - Road to Kona - a short video on that 2018 swim record
Jan also recommended 4 great books which I don't think have been suggested before:
Dan Millman: The Way of the peaceful warrior
Phil Knight: Shoe Dog
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi: Flow
Tim Weiner: Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Take a 30 day trial in my SWAT Inner Circle for just £1 (valid through 31 March 2022). Watch this video for more information.
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 Mar 23, 2022
Wednesday Mar 23, 2022
Sleep trackers are gaining in popularity, ranging from those that are dedicated to the task like Whoop or the Oura ring, to smartwatches that have added more functions. I have been using a Whoop for almost 5 years and it's been very influential in helping me to be more mindful of sleep and how I now make it a priority in my day. However, I was interested to find out whether other Whoop users have had similar experiences so I invited 3 of them on to the show. Lindsay Beale, Richard Folley, and Gerard Gallagher are all members of my coaching programme and their reflections were insightful and inspiring. If you've wondered whether the investment in such products matches the hype, hopefully you’ll have a better idea when you have finished listening to this week's podcast. Topics discussed include:
- The negative impact of alcohol on restorative sleep
- Understanding that HRV is just one data point
- Appreciating that sleep is a benefit and not an inconvenience
- Why your perception of recovery is just as important as the data
- Having accountability
- The impact of time zone changes and long haul travelling on sleep and HRV
- Sleep trends among business leaders
- The TOP 3 lessons from using a Whoop
- Should you invest in a Whoop?
To follow today’s guests please use the links below
Lindsay Beale on her website at lindsaybeale.com or Facebook at lindsaybealefitness
Gerard Gallagher on LinkedIn at GerardGallagher1
Richard Folley on Instagram at richfolleytri
To find out more about Whoop please go here: https://www.whoop.com/
You can find a lot of great resources about sleep, HRV, etc HERE
Whoop also have an excellent weekly podcast with some really good guests and insights into sleep and recovery topics right HERE
If you wish to invest in a Whoop, please use this code join.whoop.com/simonward to get 1-month FREE membership
Our guests also recommend the following books:
Lindsay Beale recommends The Worlds Fittest Book and The Art of Resilience - both by Ross Edgley
Gerard Gallagher recommends Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter - Greg Mckeown
Richard Folley recommends Relentless - Alistair Brownlee, as well as the Zwift Power Up podcast
Take a 30 day trial in my SWAT Inner Circle for just £1. Watch this video for more information.
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 Mar 16, 2022
Wednesday Mar 16, 2022
How cool would it be to have an accurate prediction of the bike split in your next event? Even if it’s just to make sure that your other half knows when to be ready with the camera!
This is exactly what Best Bike Split does and by all accounts, they are pretty damn accurate. Most comments and reviews I've seen refer to something equating to a 1% accuracy, which would be a minute for a standard distance tri and 3-4 minutes in an Iron-distance event. In this week's High Performance Human podcast, I’ll be speaking with Rich Harpel and Ryan Cooper who are the brains behind this software. We'll be deep-diving into how you can get the most from this awesome bit of software. Topics we chat about include:
- How to get started with BBS in less than 10 mins
- What's most important to get an accurate output
- Common mistakes and how to avoid them messing up your race day predictions
- How BBS can show you whether it’s best to boost power or lose weight
- Reverse engineering race goals to inform your training
- Using BBS for sportives and gravel racing
If you would like to subscribe to Best Bike Split then we have created a special code for listeners of the podcast. Use TRICOACH2022 at checkout to get 20% off for the life of the subscription (Expires on Dec. 31, 2022).
To follow Best Bike Split, please use the following links
Main website: https://www.bestbikesplit.com
Twitter - bestbikesplit
Facebook - bestbikesplit
Instagram - bestbikesplit
YouTube - bestbikesplit
Links to other topics we covered in the show
"Creating Your First Race Plan" video: https://youtu.be/FHvsWNVeQS
“Time analysis tool” - How to see what factors have the biggest influence on race day bike split - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qINGtd0mm94
FAQs/Support: https://support.bestbikesplit.com
Take a 30 day trial in my SWAT Inner Circle for just £1. Watch this video for more information.
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 Mar 09, 2022
Wednesday Mar 09, 2022
Podcasts and Facebook threads about swimming always seem to generate a lot of interest. This might be because becoming a faster swimmer is an enigma to most triathletes. Along with the endless search for faster times is the preponderance of information out there telling us how we can get faster. We hear about a training method that works really well for some people and we try it ourselves. After a few weeks, we haven’t really improved so we look for something else. The grass is always greener, right? But, it may not be any better. Just different grass!
This week I’m trying something new. I invited 3 accomplished triathlon coaches (all L3 BTF qualified) who have backgrounds in swim coaching. The goal is to see how much their approaches differ or match up and whether we can all find some common ground on what really works and what to avoid.
Topics covered include:
- The fundamentals we all need to get right
- Why you should practice skills NOT drills and which skills in particular
- Why kick is king!
- Toys we like, toys we don’t
- Does a polarised approach to intensity work for swimmers?
- How often should you be swimming in open water during the summer?
To follow our coaches, please use the links below.
Kate Offord
Website www.smilingtricoach.co.uk
Facebook virtual community https://www.facebook.com/groups/2937438822976147/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/smilingtricoach/
Instagram @smilingtricoach
If you are local and want to try out for the Altrincham Swim club please click HERE
Adam Gibson
Website - www.greenlightpt.co.uk
Facebook - www.facebook.com/greenlightpt
Twitter - @greenlightpt
Instagram - @greenlightpt
Carl Botten - Orpington Ojays SC and Crystal Palace Triathletes
Website :-www.thetriathlonacademy.co.uk
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thetriathlonacademy/
Here are some other links to topics in the show:
Kate’s favourite book
Peak Performance - Steve Magness/Brad Stulberg
She also recommends following these folks on Twitter
Brad Stulberg on Twitter @BStulberg
James Gibson on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jamesgibson____/
Adam & Carl's favourite book: Swimming Fastest - Ernest Maglischo
Carl also recommends this book: The Life Changing Magic of not Giving a F**k by Sarah Knight
And these swim videos by Bill Sweetenham (Former GB swim director of performance)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0zc1Mq1y4U
Take a 30 day trial in my SWAT Inner Circle for just £1. Watch this video for more information.
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 Mar 02, 2022
Wednesday Mar 02, 2022
We’ve talked about High-Intensity Interval Training quite a bit on this show and I’m a big fan. I use it regularly myself in all forms of training and I prescribe it for my athletes. I must confess that when I attempt the daddy of all HIT sessions, Tabata Intervals, I feel like my heart is going to explode. The problem for me is that if I try sticking to the exact protocol it's impossible to hold max power for even 1 bout of 20 seconds, never mind 7 more. So I end up adjusting the protocol to something more manageable. Now however I offer you an alternative. High Intensity Repeat Training (H.I.R.T.) which we are going to talk about in today's call with Craig Marker. Craig is a psychologist with a passion for strength training and kettlebells in particular. So in addition to HIRT intervals, we have lots more to talk about including:
- The origins of H.I.R.T. intervals and why you should try it
- Learning to love luxurious rest intervals
- Why too much choice leads to paralysis
- Kettlebells, greasing the groove, and frequency vs volume in strength training
- Being anti-fragile
You can follow Craig at the following places:
Website - Craigmarker.com
Twitter - @antifragileself
Links to some of the discussion topics in the show
Books
Anti-Fragile: Things that gain from Disorder Nasim Nicholas Taleb
Adapt: Why success always starts with failure Tim Harford
Becoming a Supple Leopard Dr Kelly Starrett
The One Minute Workout Martin Gibala
Easy Strength Dan John & Pavel Tsatsouline
Simple & Sinister Pavel Tsatsouline
The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less Barry Schwartz
If you would like to get hold of a list of all the books recommended by our podcast guests, please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.
Craig also referenced these research papers:
Craig wrote for StrongFirst ‘Why does exercise make us healthier'
And you can read about the research behind this here:
Vince Giuliano - Grand Unifying Theory of biology health & aging
Craig has also written these articles which you may be interested in
When Too Much Choice is Bad for your Training
Take a 30 day trial in my SWAT Inner Circle for just £1. Watch this video for more information.
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.
Train your body to learn holding heavy weights overhead
Greasing the Groove: How to make it work for you
These are a couple of kettlebell exercise videos you might find useful
Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
Today is episode 239 and this show has been alive and growing for 4 1/2 years! During that time we've had lots of amazing guests and shared some really interesting (and what I consider to be very useful) information.
Occasionally I get emails from listeners informing me that they followed the advice from a certain guest. George Dallam’s Nose Breathing podcast recently was one that generated several positive responses.
Today's guest is Mark Osborne. Mark has been a listener to most of our podcasts and a few weeks ago he emailed me to say that his journey of the last few years has largely been based around experimenting with many of the topics raised. If you are sceptical about whether some of this stuff works and how “out there" it is, you need to listen to this story of self-experimentation, many failures, lots of successes, but overall a huge leap forward in fitness and health. Some of the topics covered include:
- The importance of having an open mind and being mindful
- Being willing to adapt
- The value of self-reflection
- A holistic approach to life (being fit for life which enables sport, as opposed to being fit for the pure sake of sport)
- A better mental approach to failure
- Natural fitness is the key to performance - introducing standing and not sitting all day, natural mobility is better than stretching
- Just enjoy what you're doing
- Keep it simple
- Find what works for you and your body
- Know yourself and yearn to know more
- Good mobility is the key to a natural run technique
- You don't always need tech
Links to some of the previous podcasts that had a real influence on Mark's thinking
MAF training & reducing sugar intake - Phil Maffetone Part 1 & Part 2 -
Mobility - Louisa Holmes, Kelly Starrett
Primal Endurance Part 1 & Part 2 - Brad Kearns
Fast Over 50 - Joe Friel
Low Carb/High fat - Prof Paul Laursen
Recovery - Christie Aschwanden
Swim Technique - Karlyn Pipes
Running Technique - Shane Benzie
Influential Books
Lost Art of Running - Shane Benzie
Feet in the Clouds - Richard Askwith
Born to Run & Natural Born Heroes - Chris Macdougall
Take a 30 day trial in my SWAT Inner Circle for just £1. Watch this video for more information.
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 Feb 16, 2022
Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
Hands up all those who have participated in an ultra-distance gravel bike ride or trail running event? Perhaps you've been seriously considering one for this coming year as a bit of a change. Gravel bike riding and ultra running events have grown in popularity with triathletes especially since multisport events were so restricted in 2020 and 2021. In Yorkshire, we’ve had versions of these for many years and the granddaddy of each is the Yorkshire 3 Peaks events. The running event takes place at the end of every April, and the Cyclo-Cross race is in September. For the majority of us, these would be 4-6 hour challenges but for today's guest, Andy Peace, they go by much faster. In fact, Andy has the honour of being the ONLY person to hold the record for both at the same time and one of only two people to win both events in the same year (1996). His running record still stands to this day, some 25 years after it was set.
Andy is an unassuming down-to-earth Yorkshireman and I’m sure you’ll enjoy this conversation. Maybe you’ll even be inspired to enter one or both of these events yourself! You have to be quick off the mark though. Both fill up in a matter of hours and are heavily oversubscribed. Some of today's discussion topics include:
- Comparison of fell running culture vs triathlon
- How to train for fell races and cyclocross events
- Why is Yorkshire such a hot bed for top class fell runners
- When Andy discovered that he was quite good at duathlon
- The value of community and training with your friends
Andy doesn’t do much social media so as much as you might want to, it's difficult to follow him.
Some of the topics that we discussed today were:
Yorkshire 3 peaks running event
Tom Pidcock winning the World Cyclo-Cross Championship 2021
Tom Moses losing his handlebars in the 3 Peaks cyclocross race
We talked about this book a lot, "Feet in the Clouds”. If you want a brilliant insight into this community, this book is a must-read!
Take a 30 day trial in my SWAT Inner Circle for just £1. Watch this video for more information.
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 Feb 09, 2022
Wednesday Feb 09, 2022
Sleep is the rockstar of recovery, and in an ideal world, it would occupy about 1/3 of our life. But thus far I've only recorded 2 podcasts on the subject. It's time to put that right with today’s guest, Dr. Meeta Singh. Dr. Singh is a board registered physician and psychiatrist with a specialty in the applied science of sleep. She spends a lot of her time working with C-suite executives and elite athletes. Regardless of the individual, however, the benefits of sleep are huge and overlooked (how many times do I say that each week?). I think you’ll appreciate the articulate way in which Dr. Singh outlines these benefits and I'm confident that by the end of this podcast you’ll be looking for more ways to improve the quantity and/or quality of your sleep each night. Topics covered include:
- The stages of sleep and why each plays an important role
- Your short and long-term health and the impact of sleep (TIP: pay attention to the part about COVID)
- Your daily routine and how to change it to get better sleep
- Caffeine and why even if you can drink coffee late in the evening and fall asleep, it still affects your ability to get deep sleep
- Waking up in the middle of the night and why it's entirely normal
- Are sleep trackers accurate, valid, and worth the money?
- Advice for shift workers
To find out more about Dr. Singh you can find her in the following places:
Twitter @meetasinghmd
We also talked about these topics:
Whoop podcast - Impact of stress on sleep performance and executive functioning
If you are interested in a Whoop sleep tracker then please click on this LINK to get 1 month FREE
Take a 30 day trial in my SWAT Inner Circle for just £1. Watch this video for more information.
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 Feb 02, 2022
Wednesday Feb 02, 2022
Every time I open a Facebook chat room I see at least one thread on swim technique. Much of it is nonsense and overly focussed on elements that will have only a minor impact. You’ve heard me say many times that before you put the icing on the cake, you have to make the cake. This means working on the fundamentals. In today's podcast, I’ll be chatting with Russ Barber, swim specialist for British Triathlon who is working specifically with the high performance athletes at the Leeds Triathlon Centre.
Russ and I are going to be chatting about what is really important if you want to improve your swimming. So, if this is you, please set aside an hour and get your notebook out. It's a great conversation and, like all Yorkshiremen, Russ tells it straight. We cover:
- The 3 elements Russ looks for first when working with a new swimmer
- Swim drills you should AVOID (and why), and which ones you should continue with
- Kicking - why it's CRITICAL for a good stroke, and why it MUST be part of your workouts
- Polarised training for swimmers
- One set you must include in EVERY swim workout
- The benefits of using ankle bands
- Some tips for open water swim training
Russ doesn’t really do social media but he does a swim coach education network on:
Twitter - @Russ_SCNetwork
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SwimCoachNetwork
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-barber-265993147/
Topics we chatted about in the podcast:
Alexander Popov swimming technique
Swimming with an ankle band- why you need to keep a high cadence
Russ also recommended the following two books
'The Storyteller' - Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) - I’m currently reading this one. It’s great!
‘Relentless' - Alistair Brownlee - You can hear Al talk about writing this book in a recent podcast HERE
Take a 30 day trial in my SWAT Inner Circle for just £1. Watch this video for more information.
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.