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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 Dec 30, 2020
Wednesday Dec 30, 2020
It's our last podcast of 2020 and what a year it has been to forget. Actually that's not quite true, because on the podcast we've had some truly memorable guests this year.
- Marc surprises both of us by outlining his charitable work in 2020 (you’ll be impressed with this one)
- The real story about how race organisers were affected in 2020
- What will racing look like in 2021?
- Winners & losers - Our choices for who came out of 2020 smelling of roses and who still smells like s**t
- How the year changed us - what we've started doing, what we continued doing, and what will definitely be going out with the Christmas leftovers
- The one thing that each of us felt really sucked in 2020
- And finally…we end with each of us sharing a Christmas joke
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
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 23, 2020
Wednesday Dec 23, 2020
You can find Joel on Instagram and Twitter, both are @joelmchale. You can also go to his website, at JoelMcHale.com. If you’ve not yet watched him on Community, it’s an absolute must! You’ll find all 6 seasons on Netflix, and it’ll be some of the best laughs you’ve had all year.
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
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 16, 2020
Wednesday Dec 16, 2020
In this week’s podcast, I’m joined by a young lady who I’m certain will have a very exciting future in triathlon. Two years ago, Kat Matthews was a physiotherapist serving in the British Army and racing recreationally as a triathlete. At the end of 2019, she entered and finished her first Ironman at Busselton, West Australia finishing fourth female overall in a time of 8:53. She signed a full-time contract with the BMC-Vifit triathlon team for 2020 and like just about everyone else, it stopped there as the whole world was interrupted by the COVID pandemic.
Of course, she didn't stop training and posted some impressive results in 2020 winning some of the virtual events which took place during the summer as well as National 100mile TT Champion and IM Tallinn 70.3 before victory at Outlaw X in September where she stormed to first place, beating a strong domestic field. The best was yet to come as she then went to Ironman Florida won in 8hrs40 and in the process claiming a slot for Kona in 2021. This is a fun conversation with an up and coming athlete who has a great future as we chat about:
- Signing with BMC and the long-term goals
- Dealing with being a 1st-year pro and COVID - did it cause anxiety, or did it make life easier?
- Differences in training from AG to pro, and the potential pitfalls
- PTO and what, if any, help they have provided
- Thoughts on PTO equal numbers and prize purses between female and male athletes at Daytona
- The whole Florida experience - How WTC made it COVID safe, atmosphere, etc.
- Winning in Florida - the whole race
- What does the future hold?
To find out more about Kat, please go here to her website
https://www.katrinamatthewstri.com/
You can also follow her on
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/katr_matthews
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Katr_Matthews
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/katrina.rye
We also talked about
Kat’s racing team BMC-Vfit
Kat’s favourite book of recent times - Becoming - Michelle Obama
Recent article on the Tri247 website
Kat’s favourite song - Proud - Heather Small
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
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 09, 2020
Wednesday Dec 09, 2020
We’re on a roll right now with some amazing guests and some great learning for you all. This week is no different as my guest is Ironman Legend, Mark Allen.
Mark is a 6-time Ironman World Champion and the only male to have won both the ITU World Championships and Ironman World Championships in the same year. Back in the 80’s Mark was one of the “Big Four” with Dave Scott, Scott Tinley, and Scott Molina. Apart from not having ‘Scott’ in his name he also did a lot of other things differently.
He ritually took 2-3 month off structured training after each Kona race, followed a different nutrition path to most other athletes (who as Dave Scott explained were mostly on the fashionable at the time, high carb/low-fat diet), and he embraced the spiritual side of health and fitness, hooking up with Huichol Shaman Brant Secunda to prepare for his big races.
Since retiring in 1996 he has continued on the healthy living path. This is a key focus of our discussion today, particularly in light of the current COVID19 pandemic. We discuss many subjects, including:
- Learning patience and discipline through years of swimming
- The benefits of a simplified training environment
- Mark delivers a short physiology lesson about how the body uses fat and carbs for fuel
- Talking MAF - Mark shares his frustrations at how slow MAF running was when he first tried it. LISTEN CAREFULLY as he describes having to run almost 3mins/mile slower than his Ironman race pace!
- The huge benefits of exercising outdoors
- At 62, how does Mark Allen keep fit?
- Stress, and why you must take into account total stress load from everything in your life, not just training
- The keto diet, and why it’s generally a good idea to stay away from extremes of anything
- Mark’s tips on how to train for 2021 and protect yourself from coronavirus
To follow Mark Allen please visit his website
You can also find him on
Instagram - markallengrip
Facebook - MarkAllenCoaching
Twitter - @CoachingMark
Fit Soul, Fit Body - Mark Allen & Brant Secunda website
We also chatted about all of the following
Mark talked about a couple of books…
Firstly Fit Soul Fit Body - 9 keys to a healthier happier you
And also Art of Competition
In recent months, Mark has been writing a series of blogs and filming videos for YouTube about keeping it simple.
Shed Talks - Mark Allen’s videos on how to keep life simple
The Mark Allen Blog posts about “Keeping it simple”
We chatted briefly about that race in 1989. You know the one.
If you want to read the inside story from the two main characters, go HERE—>>1989:The Story.com
I also recorded a podcast with Mark and Dave Scott to chat purely about this subject HERE—>> Dave Scott and Mark Allen
Mark is a big fan of strength training and mentioned using Tonal - the smartest home gym
You can also watch a short video of Mark using Tonal, right HERE —>>Mark Allen's Tonal workout for Triathletes
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
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 02, 2020
Wednesday Dec 02, 2020
Boulder isn’t just a great place for triathletes to hang out. These days it seems like a large number of my guests also hang out there including today’s guest, Dina Griffin.
Dina is a sports dietician who not only addresses needs related to disease and illness but also takes a proactive approach in optimizing health to prevent disease, deficiencies, and breakdowns via personalized sports nutrition coaching, consulting, and physiology testing. I have specifically invited her onto the show to chat about nutrition for female athletes.
I first met Dina, virtually of course, when she presented this topic to a group of TrainingPeaks coaches a few weeks back and I thought, why have we never had a guest on to speak about this? So here she is and it’s another great conversation as we discuss:
- Why nutrition education is an important first step to improving your health and performance
- Key differences to female physiology in Pre, peri, and post menopause
- The differences in nutritional approach during each phase
- How and what to adjust in your nutrition programme during the low and high hormone phases of your monthly cycle
- Some training alterations you might want to consider during the same phase
- Benefits of protein and why you should probably eat more
- Lift Heavy Stuff regardless of your age (TIP: The third time this topic has come up. If you haven’t got the message yet….)
- Gut health and why focussing on this in your 30’s will help during peri-menopause
- Supplements - should you take them and if so which ones
To find out more about Dina Griffin, please visit her website https://nutritionmechanic.com/
You can also find Dina on:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nutritionmechanic/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/dina.howtongriffin
We covered several other subjects during the show and here are some of the links:
Recent podcast on Gut Health with Bella Lindeman
FitRWoman app - track your period and train smarter
WildAI - turn your menstrual cycle into an advantage
Feed Zone Portables A cookbook of on the go food for athletes
Feed Zone Cook Book Fast & favourable food for athletes
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
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 25, 2020
Wednesday Nov 25, 2020
Since COVID19 hit the world, triathletes have suffered just like everyone else. Limited opportunities to train and virtually no racing apart from virtual. The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) has been a big help to triathlon, distributing grants to help athletes survive and in recent months, bumping up the prize purse at selected races (£15k for Helvellyn and Outlaw X in the UK) for the pro athletes racing. On December 6 the PTO Challenge Daytona will air and this event will have the biggest prize purse ever offered for a professional triathlon race with £1,150,000. There will be an equal number of pro male and female starters and the prize pots are identical. In another first, the prize money will be distributed among all athletes with every starter guaranteed to take home a minimum of $2500.
In this week’s episode, I talk to 2 talented Canadian athletes who will be racing in Daytona.
Taylor Reid has five professional 70.3 victories (including three Ironman 70.3 victories) and has been on the podium fifteen times. After chasing the Olympic dream for 7 years, he had some success winning the U23 Canadian Champion in 2013. He then made the switch to long-course triathlon in 2014, focusing on the Ironman 70.3 events all around the world. The longer event, which required more endurance, suited his strengths. Alongside his triathlon career, Taylor is also a spokesperson for dyslexia, sharing his story with the world to help raise awareness about dyslexia.
Jackson Laundry is a two-time Ironman 70.3 champ (Raleigh 2018, Mont Tremblant 2019) and has eleven 70.3 podiums. He was also the winner and co-organizer of the 2020 Canadian pro tri championship, a race that he and Taylor decided to host in order to give the community something to look forward to and give fellow athletes a high level race. It was a huge success, bringing many of the top Canadian athletes together, with their own private TV crew and CBC coverage. Taylor is also the co-host of "The Real Triathlon Podcast” and has had a successful virtual race season in 2020, taking 4th place at the 2020 Zwift pro tri series, 2nd place at Ironman VR14, and winning 1 stage of the Super League e-series.
Listen in to the interesting conversation with these two enthusiastic, personable and professional triathletes trying to make their way in the world and giving back a little as they continue their journey. Hopefully you’ll appreciate this as well as we chat about:
- Life as a pro triathlete - living the dream or scraping a living
- The life of a professional triathlete during lockdown in Canada
- How COVID 19 has disrupted their training and racing plans
- PTO and the impact it’s having on professional triathlon
- An athlete turned race organizer, and getting a better appreciation of the work done by race promoters and volunteers
- Challenge Daytona
To find out more about Jackson:
Website - https://www.jacksonlaundrytri.com/
Instagram - @jacksonlaundrytri
To find out more about Taylor:
Website: - http://www.taylor-reid.com/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIj6iRJupVYsVB06igYz9zQ?view_as=subscriber
Twitter/instagram: @TC_Reid
We also talked about:
"The Real Triathlon Podcast": hosted by Jackson and two fellow pro triathletes
You can find that here - https://therealtriathlonpodcast.podbean.com/
Podcast Instagram handle is @therealtripodcast
Here is the link to the race highlights video for the Canadian Pro Triathlon Championship.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Cek3u8Jfo&t=4s
Taylor talked about his work increasing awareness of dyslexia. You can find details here
Dyslexia:
@everydaydyslexiaheroesproject
https://www.dyslexiacanada.org/
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
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 18, 2020
Wednesday Nov 18, 2020
In today’s show, another of my old coaching buddies is back to chat about what’s been happening in his coaching world during the last 6 months.
David Tilbury Davis is a triathlon coach who works with athletes who have a ”performance mindset”. Among the athletes he currently works with are Lionel Sanders, Kim Morrison, and Rasmus Svenningsson and we chat about each of them today.
I’ve known David for over 20 years during which time his journey has seen him progress from novice to one of the world’s prominent long-distance triathlon coaches via Spain, Texas, Seattle, and now Finland.
I love watching my friends develop on their own journeys and David is no different. It’s a real pleasure to welcome him back onto the show to share some of the knowledge and experience he’s gained in the last two decades. I just wish that this catch-up could have been over a beer or two at some race venue but that’ll have to wait for another time. For now, listen in as we chat about:
- The Lionel Sanders 1-hour Canadian record attempt
- Differences between riding a track bike and a TT bike (TIP: there are way more than you think)
- Training like a triathlete while aiming to break a cycling record
- Combining a cycling record attempt with setting a 5k running PB
- Rasmus Svenningsson solo sub-8 hour Ironman
- Giving athletes free rein to try something different
- David’s thoughts on the upcoming PTO Challenge Daytona Pro race
- Why polarised training for triathletes is not quite as simple as 80/20
To follow David on social media or find out a bit more about him or his athletes please use the following links
Website - Tilburydavis.com
Instagram - coachtilburs
Twitter - @tilburydavis
We covered a lot of ground in this conversation so here are the links to some of what we discussed:
Books
Dark Horse - Achieving success through the pursuit of fulfillment - Todd Rose
Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success- Steve Magness
Conscious Coaching The Art and Science of Building Buy in - Brett Bartholomew
Will It make the Boat Go faster - Ben Hunt-Davis
Lionel Sanders 1-hr record on YouTube
Some of Lionel’s training sessions for the 1-hour record
Lionel’s 5k PB attempts
And there’s more on this page HERE
David mentioned the performance profiling document he uses with new athletes. It’s based on this research paper:
Pelletier, L. G., Fortier, M. S., & Vallerand, R. J. (1995). Toward a new measure of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and motivation in sports: The Sport Motivation Scale (SMS).
We also discussed this paper with regard to polarised training for triathletes - The Polarization-Index: A Simple Calculation to Distinguish Polarized From Non-polarized Training Intensity Distributions
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
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 11, 2020
Wednesday Nov 11, 2020
My guest today is Dr. Tommy Wood. I’m so glad to have him on, and I know you are going to love this episode! Tommy has the ability to make the complex sound simple, and his depth of knowledge on a wide range of topics is amazing.
Dr. Wood is a research faculty at the University of Washington (UW) in the Department of Pediatrics. His work focuses on ways to increase resilience of, and treat injury of, the developing brain. This may not seem relevant but his knowledge of brain injuries provides some interesting comments on what we can all do if we bang our head falling from our bikes. With a Bachelor's Degree in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, a medical degree from the University of Oxford, and a PhD in physiology and neuroscience from the University of Oslo, he has a more than credible background. He also serves as President of Physicians for Ancestral Health, and is on the scientific advisory board of Hintsa Performance. Of more relevance to the conversation is that Dr. Wood has invested much time in developing easily-accessible methods with which to track human health, performance, and longevity. He has published and spoken on multiple topics surrounding functional and ancestral approaches to health, including examining the root causes of multiple sclerosis and insulin resistance. He uses his experiences in coaching and competing in rowing, CrossFit, powerlifting, and ultra-endurance racing to inform his day-to-day interaction with clients looking to achieve long-term health and performance.
I had so many questions for Dr. Wood that we spoke for quite a long time but you won’t notice the minutes tick by as we discuss:
- How to balance winter training goals of improving fitness while still maintaining an immune system resilient enough to withstand coronavirus
- Why a keto diet might work for endurance athletes, as long as you are patient
- Polarised training - a good choice for longevity
- Tommy’s "If it’s working for you, how can I argue with that?” philosophy to training and nutrition
- Nose breathing and why it’s the easiest way to make sure you keep your training intensity low
- Advice on getting better sleep (TIP: it’s what you’ve heard before but it never harms to have good advice independently confirmed)
- Lifestyle medicine advice on how to die young as old as possible
- How Omega 3 fats and creatine supplementation might help if you have a bike crash and hit your head
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
“Metabolic health and lifestyle medicine should be a cornerstone of future pandemic preparedness”
Tommy mentions Dr. Terry Wahls when we were chatting about how he helped his step-brother with MS - You can read more about Dr. Wahls HERE and also find out more about her book
The Wahls Protocol: A radical New way to treat all auto-immune conditions
If you have suffered with a head injury then Tommy mentioned a book which you might be interested in, “How to feed a brain” by Cavin Balaster
If you are interested in using creatine as a supplement then the best source is Creapure. To check the integrity of all supplements then go to Informed Sport if you are in the UK and NSFsport if you are in the USA
We talked about the benefit of sun light or bright light. A simple way to test this is to install a LuxMeter app on your phone. This is the link to the iPhone version.
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
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 04, 2020
Wednesday Nov 04, 2020
My guest today is the Chief Evangelist and co-founder of TrainingPeaks, Dirk Friel.
TrainingPeaks was formed in 2002 and is the world’s leading online training log. It allows you to plan and record your workouts, map your routes, upload data from a training watch, heart-rate monitor, or GPS, and more. From that point, if you choose, you can analyse the data and use that to inform future training plans. As a coach I have been using TrainingPeaks for over 10 years now and while there are other options, I find this one to be the most comprehensive.
You may recognise the surname Friel and that's because Dirk is the son of legendary triathlon coach, Joe Friel. As you might imagine, Dirk grew up in a very active household and from an early age found himself immersed in the sport of cycling. In his late teens he had enough talent to take a risk and try his luck in that hotbed of Northern European cycling, Belgium. This was at a time when there were very few US cyclists in Europe. The first US cycling team, 7 Eleven, had debuted a few years before and riders like Andy Hampsten and Greg Lemond were starting to make a name for themselves. Dirk eventually managed to get himself a contract with a local team and eventually a pro contract after missing out on selection for the 1992 Olympics. 10 years later, after racing pro in the growing US domestic programme, he retired and shortly after co-founded TrainingPeaks. Dirk now resides in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and daughter, and aside from his work at TrainingPeaks he pursues his passion for ski mountaineering (Ski-Mo).
As a Coach Education ambassador for TrainingPeaks, chatting with Dirk was a bit like interviewing your boss but it certainly didn't feel like that. Please enjoy listening in as we chat about:
- How does a teenage cyclist from the US find himself riding with a local team in Belgium?
- Learning to race, the hard way
- Riding with Sean Kelly and beating Bobby Julich (3rd TdF, 1998) in the State Championship
- Living the dream as a pro cyclist: (TIP – it’s not that glamorous)
- How does an ex pro-cyclist keep fit in ‘retirement’?
- The life of an entrepreneur and the goal of trying to 'replace yourself’
- Artificial Intelligence and the future of TrainingPeaks
- Responding to COVID19 - vulnerability & team building
- Endurance Coaching Summit - pivoting to a virtual summit
The Endurance Coaching Summit was originally scheduled to take place in London on Nov 18-20. Due to COVID19 restrictions this event is now a FREE conference for 2020. There are some fantastic speakers - Stephen Seiler, Gwen Jorgenson, and Stacy Sims to name but a few (see more of the speakers HERE)
To sign up for this year’s conference, please click HERE
We've teamed up with charitable partners around the world to help give back to the endurance community during this time of need. With all registration costs being waived for the 2020 Summit, we hope you will consider supporting one of these great organizations below. For every donation received, TrainingPeaks will match dollar-for-dollar up to $20,000!
To make a donation, please CLICK HERE (Simon’s note…The summit would normally cost over £200 to attend plus your travel and accommodation costs. You are saving a ton of money and getting a whole lot for FREE. How about putting just £5 of that saving to good use by making a donation? I’ve already committed my donation!!
To follow Dirk the best place is Instagram
Below are links to some of the subjects that we covered in the chat
If you don't already have a TrainingPeaks account sign up HERE for a FREE basic account.
Dirk mentioned a Ski-Mo challenge that he completed Haute Route - Chamonix to Zermatt. Read more about that HERE
Three books Dirk mentioned
The Happiness Advantage - Shawn Achor - The seven principles of positive psychology that fuel success and performance at work
Grit - Angela Duckworth - The power of passion and perseverance
Peak - Anders Ericsson - secrets from the new science of expertise
Dirk’s favourite wine - J. Lohr - Cabernet Sauvignon
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
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 Oct 28, 2020
Wednesday Oct 28, 2020
In this week’s podcast there is no guest as I go back to solocast mode and describe how to set up your winter base plan. In recent months I’ve chatted with some great endurance coaches and scientists such as Dr’s Stephen Seiler, Dan Plews, Paul Laursen, Phil Maffetone, and Alan Couzens. I’ve shared in depth discussions about MAF training , Polarised and 80/20 approaches, as well as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).
There’s a lot of cross over with some of these theories, and because training zones are not black and white, I realize that sometimes it can cause confusion. In this episode, my intention is to clarify all of this and give you my own ‘real world’ interpretation of how to put together a Winter Base Plan with the right balance of endurance, intensity, and strength whilst at the same time protecting you from the continuing threat of coronavirus by not pushing too hard over winter and overtaxing your immune system.
Listen in as I discuss:
- Recap some basic physiological principles and how they apply to your training
- Understanding your goal
- Definitions of MAF training, how to calculate your MAF HR, and some of the variables
- How polarised training (80/20) really works and why it’s an obvious choice for your winter training
- How and when to insert HIIT training into your plan
- Why I feel you should avoid “sweet spot” training during the winter
Your questions answered, including:
- MAF HR zones for athletes over 60 years of age
- Over-reaching - The fine balance between doing enough and too much
- Does MAF work for all levels of athlete experience?
To calculate your MAF HR, please go HERE
Dr. Maffetone reviewed the 180 formula and offered these insights to some of the other factors which might influence your progress HERE
To listen to previous podcasts about some of today’s subjects, please click on the links below:
Dr. Stephen Seiler Talks Polarised training, Part 1 & Part 2
Prof Paul Laursen talking HIIT
Dr. Dan Plews - Training for Ironman
Dr. Phil Maffetone - Staying consistent through the winter
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
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