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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 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.
Wednesday Dec 08, 2021
Wednesday Dec 08, 2021
During the last few years, I’ve been making changes to my lifestyle with the sole aim of feeling great for as much of the time as possible. I’ve made a few wrong turns on the way but that's fine. You might call it a failure, I call it feedback! Recently I’ve been interested in the concept of Ancestral Health and it turns out that one of our previous guests has a very strong interest in this as well.
Dr. Tommy Wood (prior guest on the show in Nov 2020 discussing How to Optimise Human performance) was previously the President of the Physicians for Ancestral Health and as you will hear, tries to live his life by sticking to some simple principles. If you're as curious as I am about how to improve your lifestyle then this podcast will be a good place to start. In this episode, Dr. Wood covers these topics:
- Defines the concept of Ancestral Health
- The roles of Diet, Movement, Circadian Biology, Stress Management
- How Ancestral Health differs from Paleo
- Why socialised healthcare systems are important in society
- Giving yourself the opportunity to get more sleep
- Just move more!!
- Everybody should lift weights
- Tommy talks us through his daily routine - habits, exercise, food, rest
- We get into low carb, keto, and appropriate dietary choices for endurance athletes
- Thoughts on the benefits of wearing a constant glucose monitor (CGM)
- Getting started with improving your lifestyle - what is the easiest thing for you to do?
Tommy has such a depth of varied knowledge, I’m pretty certain you would like to follow him. Here are the best places:
Website - https://www.drragnar.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/drtommywood/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/drragnar
We also talked about these topics:
Rob Wolf one of the originals in the paleo space
Primal Play - why workout when you can play out?
Julian Abel - Compassionate Communities
Tommy also mentioned protein cereals. There are a couple that he likes:
Some of Tommy’s blog posts:
Lift stuff: Add mass to your body and years to your life
Walking: The simple path to feeling sexier and living longer
Sit less and prioritise movement for long term fitness
The fast way to long health: Move really quickly
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 01, 2021
Wednesday Dec 01, 2021
Finally, after 4 years of trying, our calendars have aligned and we have Jonny Brownlee as a guest on the podcast! The life of a professional triathlete is busy and that offers limited opportunities to meet up. The pandemic hasn’t helped but finally, I've pinned down the younger Brownlee and I popped round to his house to catch up on everything. Starting with that Olympic Gold medal in Tokyo just a few months ago and trawling right back through the memories to the day when Jonny joined the North of England talent ID programme back in the mid-2000s.
That's roughly 15 years of catching up so please pay attention as we cover a lot of topics including:
- A short quiz to get Jonny warmed up and help you get to know him a bit better
- Olympic medals and the importance of taking the time to reflect on key moments in your life
- Why Jonny never wanted to touch Alistair’s Gold medal before he had his own
- Coping with COVID - not much difference to the rest of us (really!)
- Local fell races and the joy of running without gadgets
- The 4-year streak (never off the podium) and then the doldrums (rarely on the podium)
- Why there is such a thing as good luck and bad luck
- That moment in Cozumel and why it had a long-lasting effect on Jonny’s fitness
- The debut 70.3 in Portugal and when the wheels fall off in the last 5k of the run
- The Paris Olympics in 2024 - yes or no?
To find out more about Jonny you can follow him on social media at the following links:
Instagram - jonnybrownleetri
Facebook - Jonathan.brownlee.1238
Twitter - @jonny.brownlee
Brownlee Foundation Website
Brownlee fitness Website
Other links
Jonny finally gets that Olympic Gold medal (short video)
Emily Sande - 'Read all about it’- Jonny's favourite tune which brings back some good memories for him
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 Nov 24, 2021
Wednesday Nov 24, 2021
This week Simon returns with the final of his 3-week solo cast series outlining how he would set up an athlete's training programme following the High Performance Human principles.
In this episode, he turns his attention to the basic principles around swim, bike, and run training and why this is a crucial period if you want to get the most from your race-specific training in 2022.
Specific topics covered include:
- To know the best route you have to know where you are headed
- Make the cake before you put the icing on
- How much training should you be doing?
- Finding your sweet spot
- Quit trying to swim faster and focus on reducing drag
- The bike - no such thing as junk miles
- Running by feel and building a resilient frame
- Consistency vs intensity
You can find all of Simon’s social media links HERE
Links to some of the topics mentioned in this episode
Link to Podcast 1 (Sleep, Recovery & Nutrition)
Link to Podcast 2 (Mobility & Strength)
Other topics Simon referred to in the show:
Shane Benzie podcast - ‘Better movement equals better running'
Shane Benzie book "The lost art of running”
Daniel Schade podcast “Could you ride faster with a better saddle?"
Blog post on intensity vs consistency
Stephen Seiler Twitter post about Hierarchy of Endurance Training Needs
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.