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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 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.
Wednesday Jan 26, 2022
Wednesday Jan 26, 2022
Darryl Edwards is back in part 2 of our conversation about PrimalPlay.
Having laid the groundwork in Part 1 (Why working out isn’t working out that well) Darryl and I chat about his own daily habits. If you listened to part 1 you might have heard Darryl speak about how a health scare in his 30’s caused him to take a close look at how he was living his life, so we talk about:
- Darryl’s approach to sleep including sleep hygiene and sleep tracking
- Protein, hydration, and NO caffeine!
- HIT, HIRT, and PHA training
- Using your natural environment as a gym
- Sprint training and scaring joggers in the park - seriously!
- 3 top tips on how to include PrimalPlay into your own workout schedule
To find out more about Darryl you can find him in these places:
Instagram fitnbessexplorer
Twitter @primalplay
Facebook fitnessexplorer
Some of the other topics we chatted about in the show can be found here:
Darryl’s TedX talk “Why working out isn’t working out”
Find some of Darryl’s blog posts
Stand Up desks - Why Standing can be better for your health than sitting
Books by Darryl including My First Animal Moves
The film ‘300’ - Video showing some of the workouts the actors were doing
High Intensity Interval Training discussed in this podcast with Prof Paul Laursen
Peripheral Heart Action (PHA) training. An alternative to HIIT
Dr Craig Marker on HIT vs HIRT 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.
Wednesday Jan 19, 2022
Wednesday Jan 19, 2022
Do you remember the last time you really had fun working out? I don't mean the feeling of satisfaction. I’m talking about having so much fun that you don't notice the time pass. For me, I know it when I’ve been mountain biking through the mud. It reminds me of when I was little and I used to come home absolutely caked in filth. My mum would roll her eyes and then I was sent upstairs to have a bath. As adults, it feels like we have lost the art of playing.
Today's guest is Darryl Edwards who founded the company ‘Primal Play’. Primal Play is about using the natural environment and workings with small groups to create a workout. I may not be explaining it well here but you’ll get the picture when you listen to the show, and today is part 1 of a 2-part show.
In this week's episode we chat about:
- The transition from Investment Banking Technologist to movement coach
- How Darryl's own health proved to be the catalyst for making a lifestyle and work change
- Why parents are getting their children down
- The shocking truth about why limiting the freedom of children to roam is affecting their long term health
- Why working out isn’t actually working out that well
To find out more about Darryl you can find him in these places:
Instagram fitnbessexplorer
Twitter @primalplay
Facebook fitnessexplorer
Some of the other topics we chatted about in the show can be found here:
Darryl’s TedX talk “Why working out isn’t working out”
The film ‘300’ - Video showing some of the workouts the actors were doing
The Big Short film
The Big Short film
Find some of Darryl’s blog posts
Books by Darryl including My First Animal Moves
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 Jan 12, 2022
Wednesday Jan 12, 2022
You may recall that in my recent podcast with Patrick McKeown from the Oxygen Advantage we chatted about nose breathing, something I've been interested in for a while now. This topic came to my attention when listening to Phil Maffetone speak, as well as in reading Primal Endurance.
Today's guest, George Dallam, is an exercise physiologist and triathlon coach and was recommended by Patrick because of his interest in nose breathing. Please have a good listen and if you are so minded, give it a go. You may find that it improves your health and performance. I found this conversation a great learning experience and I hope you can give this a try.
In today's call, we cover the following topics:
- George explains the underpinning physiology of breathing
- Differences between oral and nose breathing
- Why nose breathing is better for your health
- How to use a neti pot to clear mucus from your nasal cavity
- Simple steps to help you get started with nose breathing
- The nose breathing paradox - it doesn’t have to slow you down
- David Rudisha breaking the world 800m record while nose breathing
To read some of George’s research papers and blog posts, please visit these links:
Website: https://www.csupueblo.edu/profile/george-dallam/index.html
Researchgate Site: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/George_Dallam
Blog: https://triathlete.science.blog/
We also talked about the following topics:
David Rudisha breaks the 800m world record while nose breathing
We got a bit sidetracked talking about barefoot running and Pose method. You can find 3 great series on running technique here on Ross Tuckers Sportsscientists.com website
My recent podcast with Patrick McKeown on Breathing
George mentioned the book Indian Running
We also talked about Born to Run
Some research papers to read:
What happens when you attempt maximal work and are not adapted to nasal breathing:
Comparison of maximal oxygen consumption with oral and nasal breathing. Australian Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 27(3), 51-55. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8599744/
What happens following adaptation:
Effect of nasal versus oral breathing on Vo2max and physiological economy in recreational runners following an extended period spent using nasally restricted breathing. International Journal of Kinesiology and Sports Science, 6 (2), 22-29. http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijkss.v.6n.2p.22
Review Paper on Effect of Nasal versus Oral Breathing During Exercise:
The Effect of Nasal Breathing Versus Oral and Oronasal Breathing During Exercise: A Review, Journal of Sports Research, Volume 7, 1, pp 1-10.https://www.consciousbreathing.com/articles/shut-your-mouth-save-your-life/
What we are doing to ourselves by breathing orally (developing EIB most obvious thing):
Airway dysfunction in elite athletes--an occupational lung disease? Allergy. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24117544/
The effect of nasal breathing acutely on EIB:
Triathlete adapts to breathing restricted to the nasal passage without loss in VO2max or VVo2max. Journal of Sport and Human Performance, http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijkss.v.6n.2p.22
Effect of the oronasal breathing route on sulfur dioxide-induced bronchoconstriction in exercising asthmatic subjects. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7091868/
Effect of nasal and oral breathing on exercise-induced asthma. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7318162/
The beneficial effect of nasal breathing on exercise-induced bronchoconstriction. . https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/677559/
Why we should all be using nasal irrigation regularly (especially if breathing nasally during exercise) and not just when getting sick:
Do saline water gargling and nasal irrigation confer protection against COVID-19? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33046408/
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 Jan 05, 2022
Wednesday Jan 05, 2022
This week I’m returning to a podcast that I recorded in March 2021 with my brother Jonathan. In the podcast, we talk about self-compassion, which is a subject that is not usually linked with endurance sports. However, if you pay close attention you'll discover that far from being something light and fluffy it's really important if you want to develop the resilience and mental toughness that will help you to thrive as a human and an athlete.
During our chat we discuss:
- Jonathan explains what self-compassion is and why it's different from self-pity and self-indulgence.
- The 3 key components of self-compassion
- How self-compassion creates healthy behaviours and has positive long term benefits
- Resilience and ‘bouncebackability’
- Self-criticism is NOT a motivator and why positive self-talk is better
- When you feel under pressure the 2 questions that you must ask yourself
- How to practice self-compassion
To find out more about Jonathan visit his website, Courageous Living Coaching
You can also find him on Instagram - courage.coach
Jonathan has a new course on 'Mindful Self Compassion' starting on January 19, 2022
You can find out more about that HERE
To find out more about Brene Brown visit her website, https://brenebrown.com
Brene Brown Ted Talks:
Brene Brown's book, Daring Greatly
To find out more about self-compassion please go 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.
Wednesday Dec 29, 2021
Wednesday Dec 29, 2021
Today's guest is David Bailey, an exercise physiologist who I originally met when he was working for the English Institute of Sport at Loughborough. From there he moved to British Cycling in Manchester and eventually to Switzerland originally working for PowerBar and then back into cycling working directly with the BMC and the Bahrain Merida cycling teams.
We will get into all of this in our conversation as well as a few rabbit holes, per usual.
Notable topics include:
- PowerBars and how they caused £500 of damage to my bike frame
- Research - lab studies vs big data - which is more relevant to you?
- The ideal cadence for cycling
- Why RPE is such a valuable skill for you as an athlete
- How to train a pro-cyclist
- Polarised vs traditional training models
- Constant glucose monitors
- Metabolomics and does it really explain why Pogacar is so good
- What really works if you want to achieve your goals
- Strength training for cyclists
To follow David Bailey you can find him in the following places:
Twitter - @BaileyDM
David’s personal website is https://www.davidbailey.ch/
Other topics mentioned in the show:
NY Times research on Strava data - race data from about 500,000 marathon and half marathon running times since 2014 supports the Nike claim that VaporFly’s are 4% faster
Dave’s book recommendations:
Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari
The Curious Mind:The secret to a bigger life - Brian Grazer & Charles Fishman
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion - Jonathan Haidt
The Fourth Turning: An American prophecy- William Strauss & Neil Howe
Some research papers you might like
- Hansen & Smith (2009) Factors Affecting Cadence Choice During Submaximal Cycling and Cadence Influence on Performance. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. Int J Sports Physiol Perform
- Stellingwerff et al. (2019) A framework for periodized nutrition for athletes. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 1:29(2):141-151
- Mujika et al., (2019) Contempary periodization of altitude training for elite endurance athletes. A narrative review. Sports Med. 49(11): 1651-1669
- Fabra et al. (2021) A comprehensive review of continuous glucose monitoring accuracy during exercise periods. Sensors. 12:21(2):497
- Bellenger et al. (2016) Monitoring Athletic Training Status Through Autonomic Heart Rate Regulation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med. 46(10):1461-1486
- Filipas et al. (2021) Effects of 16 weeks of pyramidal and polarized training intensity distributions in well-trained endurance runners. Scand J Med Sci Sports Nov 18
- Watson (2017) Sleep and athletic performance. Curr Sports Med Rep. 16(6):413-418.
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 Dec 22, 2021
Wednesday Dec 22, 2021
In this week’s podcast, the Grumpy Old Coaches are back for one last hurrah in 2021 as we enter the festive spirit with a socially distanced, cheese and wine business meeting. Simon (fuelled by red wine) and Steve (fuelled by leftover Rose) are unusually cheerful while Marc is more grumpy than usual as he has to stay sober while (literally) minding the shop. We have some serious stuff to discuss, such as:
- Constant glucose monitors
- Our thoughts on how to improve triathlon sustainability and diversity
And some fun stuff, such as:
- Some ideas on how to make Santa faster
- Simon and Steve share tales of the worst triathlon Christmas gifts they ever received
- Marc reveals a liking for Rapha kit and a typical grumpy dislike of the cost
- If you could be any triathlete at any race, who would you be and at which event
- Best fantasy and real-life Christmas gift on your wish list
- Everyone reveals a list of which races are still at the top of our bucket lists
- Some fool comes up with a madcap idea of asking the Facebook groups to nominate some challenges for us in 2022
To find out more about Steve and Marc please see the links below.
You can find more information about Steve Lumley HERE
Marc Laithwaite is a coach who also runs a running/triathlon shop - The Endurance Store. You can find more about both HERE.
Here are some other links from the show:
If you are interested in finding out more about TriKidz, please contact them here info@trikidz.co.uk
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 Dec 15, 2021
Wednesday Dec 15, 2021
I’ve spent the last few months talking about the importance of sleep and how it underpins everything we do. However, there is something even more fundamental that is equally overlooked - breathing. I’ve seen social media arguments around the subject of whether breathing exercises can improve athletic performance, and they can get quite heated. In today's podcast, my guest is Patrick McKeown, the author of the books Oxygen Advantage, Atomic Focus, and Breathing Cure. We'll be discussing why efficient breathing is fundamental to everything that we do as human beings first, and athletes second.
This was a fascinating learning experience for me and I hope that you can find at least ONE golden nugget of information that helps you to lead a healthier life and enhance your overall performance.
We cover many topics including:
- How the environment influences your breathing efficiency
- Nose breathing and why it is so important for developing aerobic fitness
- Your BOLT score and why it impacts sleep quality, recovery, HRV, stress management
- How to combine daily breathing exercises with training and or meditation
To find out more about Patrick and follow him on social media, please go to:
Website - https://oxygenadvantage.com/
Instagram - oxygenadvantage
Facebook - The Oxygen Advantage
YouTube - Oxygen Advantage
To buy a copy of Patrick’s books, please click on the links below:
We also touched on some other topics:
Videos
How to measure your breathing efficiency - Finding your BOLT score
Breathing in business - How to stay concentrated and for used under stress
Research
How breathing can help you make better decisions
The Athlete’s secret ingredient - Nasal Breathing
Triathlete Adapts to Breathing Restricted to the Nasal Passage Without loss in VO2max or vVO2max.
Nasal breathing with exercise. Effect of race and gender
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.