861K
Downloads
405
Episodes
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 Mar 18, 2020
Wednesday Mar 18, 2020
My guest for this week’s podcast is none other than Mr. Lanzarote Ironman, Kenneth Gasque. Kenneth has been an integral part of sport and particularly triathlon in Lanzarote over the last 35 years. It all started when he became one of the very first employees at the fledgling Club La Santa back in 1983 and he and his wife Anna Lis have been on this volcanic island ever since. Kenneth was a keen triathlete back then and took part in Ironman Hawaii in 1985, the days when you could simply complete the entry form to take part. He completed 3 more times with the last being 2005. He also organised and grew the “Volcano Triathlon" at Club La Santa which started in 1985 and is still running today some 35 years later. In the late 80’s there were just a handful of Ironman events worldwide with no official ‘M-dot’ race in Europe. He tried and narrowly failed to organise the first event (that honour went to Roth in Germany) but was eventually successful in bringing Ironman to Lanzarote in 1992. Where it has been ever since, making it the second oldest event at a single location (Ironman Hawaii being the longest with 42 years in Kona).
In addition to this, Kenneth created the Ocean Lava triathlon back in 2010 and now has 16 events in Europe ranging from sprint distance to 140-6 miles. In recognition for his valuable contribution to the development of the Ironman brand, Kenneth was inducted to the Ironman Hall of Fame in 2019, an honour so far only bestowed on 36 individuals with only 3 from Europe.
Kenneth Gasque is an absolute legend in the world of triathlon in Europe and this podcast conversation is a must if you have ever raced any Ironman in Europe, participated in a triathlon in Lanzarote, or visited Club La Santa. We chat about many subjects including:
- The driving force behind Kenneth’s desire to greet every single finisher at Ironman Lanzarote
- How fate intervened in the search for an Ironman Hawaii entry form in 1984
- The joy and happiness of racing in Kona
- Why all Ironman swims should still be a mass start
- Why the first female to cross the line in Lanzarote 1992 was NOT the winner
- The Kenneth Gasque ‘recipe’ for successful races. Event directors, please take note!!
- The definition of a ’win’ (TIP: it’s NOT setting a new PB)
- Creating ‘Ocean Lava'
Click here to watch a video of the very first Ironman Lanzarote in 1992
To find out more about the Ocean Lava Planet race series, please CLICK HERE
VIEW the original Letters from Ironman to Kenneth about purchasing the Ironman Europe License in 1987
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
To comment on this podcast, please visit Simon's Facebook page HERE
Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes
For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com
Tuesday Mar 17, 2020
Tuesday Mar 17, 2020
With the impending restrictions on our movements, racing, and maybe even training due to pool and facility closures, it’s occurred to me more than once that there will be people out there who will find this very difficult to deal with. In fact, I’m sure we all will in some ways because it’s totally new to just about all of us. It was mentioned to me that mental health could become a much bigger problem as we progress toward the summer, and I’m already seeing posts from athletes who are feeling anxious as they contemplate not being able to train, or from those whose races have either been cancelled or are pending cancellation.
- How to control the controllables
- Strategies for dealing with boredom
- Lateral thinking and how to apply this to your self-isolation or curfew
- Creating a community spirit to support others
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
To comment on this podcast, please visit Simon's Facebook page HERE
Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes
For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com
Wednesday Mar 11, 2020
Wednesday Mar 11, 2020
In this week’s show I’m chatting with one of the members of a 3-man team who were the first humans to circumnavigate swim the isle of Islay (one of the western isles of Scotland). Johnnie Mundell resides on the West Coast of the US and is a Brand Ambassador for Maker’s Mark whiskey. However, he has an intimate family connection with Islay, having been born and raised on the West Coast of Scotland. He was also previously a Brand Ambassador for Laphroaig, one of the well-known brands to emerge from this island.
- Paying homage to the witches of Islay
- Signing up for a swim adventure when you don’t even swim on a regular basis
- Why some of us triathletes need to get an attitude makeover
- How to fuel yourself for swimming in 8c water for days on end (without a wetsuit!)
- How the mind can push the body to do amazing things, but if you don’t have the base fitness you might suffer for a long time afterwards
- Missing your best friend’s wedding to pursue your adventures
To watch the video of this incredible adventure please CLICK HERE
You can also visit the website for GreatIslaySwim
Johnnie also mentioned SingleCaskNation as being an integral part of the adventure
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
To comment on this podcast, please visit Simon's Facebook page HERE
Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes
For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com
Wednesday Mar 04, 2020
Wednesday Mar 04, 2020
- How getting a lottery place for a popular local road race changed his life forever
- A chance meeting with a running coach at the start of his first ever run race, and learning a lesson for life
- Entering his first marathon with just 100 days to prepare
- Thinking that the Philadelphia marathon was just a short drive from Boston, not 300 miles away
- Why Bobby had to run for a charity to gain a Boston Marathon place
- How an experience with best friend John Lee had a career defining impact on his life
- The immediate emotional impact of the Boston bombing and the aftermath
- The TedX talk by Alex Sheenand 5 simple words that started him on the road to recovery
- What shaped his decision to start travelling
- Why he wouldn’t change the last few years
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
To comment on this podcast, please visit Simon's Facebook page HERE
Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes
For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com
Wednesday Feb 26, 2020
Wednesday Feb 26, 2020
The annual Training Peaks conference is recognised as having some great keynote speakers, several of whom I have managed to invite onto this show as guests (Stephen Seiler being the most recent one). This week I bring you another one of those insightful humans as I chat with Alex Hutchinson. Alex is a journalist and author. His latest book is Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. Alex is a keen runner, and in his younger years competed for the Canadian National team at middle distance with a 3:42:43 best at 1500m, and 49:20 for 10 miles. He studied at university as a physicist spending 3 years studying for his Phd in the UK, and eventually ended up as journalist. In addition to having written books, he contributes regular columns for Outside magazine and others.
This is another great discussion so please listen in as we chat about:
- Some surprising truths and myths about training for sport
- Why your brain could be holding you back in races
- Why your environment matters if you want a PB
- How to harness the pack to race faster
- Building your belief to achieve your goals
- What will influence the big endurance breakthroughs in the next few years
- The obligatory (short) chat about Nike Vaporfly
- Alex’s top 4 tips for peak performance
Just a reminder about Alex’s books
Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance
Which Comes first? Cardio or weights?
We also chatted about some research which Alex references in his book. This one is about how mental fatigue impairs physical performance, something you might want to take into account before a taper https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19131473
This research focusses on how motivational self talk can help performance https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27580154
Finally this is the research where the cyclists were shown happy or sad faces for milliseconds and how it affected performance https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4263011/
You can find Alex via his website, Alexhutchinson.net
And mostly in these social media places:
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
To comment on this podcast, please visit Simon's Facebook page HERE
Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes
For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com
Wednesday Feb 19, 2020
Wednesday Feb 19, 2020
This week I’m returning to the “Legends of British triathlon” theme as I interview Richard Hobson. When I started in triathlon back in 1987 Richard was beginning his own triathlon career (although at a significantly higher level than me) and it was interesting to watch him progress in a short period of time to the very top of the tree in the UK. Over the years I have come to know Richard much better and to this day he is a true inspiration. Still a very fit guy and busy running his training camps and holiday business in France, and along with his wife Dorte they are parents to two very talented athletic boys.
I really enjoyed this catch-up and we revisited many triathlon topics from the 80’s and 90’s including:
- How Richard made the transition from windsurfing to triathlon
- The origins of his nickname “Captain Quads”
- How to win races without having a formal triathlon coach
- Snugg wetsuits and a 30-year sponsorship
- Starting university with no swim, bike, run training experience, and leaving as a full time athlete
- Training by feel and listening to your body
- A triathlon career with no injuries
- Involvement with the first UK High Performance Triathlon centre at Bath
If you want to find out more about what Richard is up to these days or if you would like to book a holiday at his venue in France here are some links
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
To comment on this podcast, please visit Simon's Facebook page HERE
Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes
For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com
Wednesday Feb 12, 2020
Wednesday Feb 12, 2020
Some folks think it's odd that as a Tri coach, I’m willing to interview other triathlon coaches and showcase their work, somehow weakening my own position. The truth is, I'm inquisitive about how other coaches work and also about the journey to their current role. Take today's guest, Ingrid Loos-Miller. She is a triathlon coach based in Southern California and she has a training group called Fearless Endurance very similar in philosophy to my own SWAT Inner Circle.
So here we have two coaches, several thousand miles apart, who have never met and yet who have arrived at very similar points via a completely different pathway in order to help other athletes. That is fascinating to me. In today’s conversation we chat about:
- How Ingrid lost over 25kg in just over 8 months to get started on her triathlon journey, and her weight loss strategies
- Exerting power over food
- Becoming a Weight Watchers nutrition coach
- How to train to be a lifeguard
- Becoming one of the ONLY female surf lifesavers in Southern California
- Taking on IM St George at 60
- The philosophy underpinning Fearless Endurance
To find out more about Ingrid you can follow her on:
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
To comment on this podcast, please visit Simon's Facebook page HERE
Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes
For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com
Tuesday Feb 04, 2020
Tuesday Feb 04, 2020
This week we mark another first for the podcast, with our guest being a 2 star Admiral (there are only 8 in the US Navy) as our guest. Scott Jones has been a friend of mine for the last 10 years. We met in Kona 2009, introduced by a mutual friend and we hit it off straight away. Scott is the same age as me and while we have both had a long time interest in Ironman (he is a very good age grouper, having qualified for and raced in Kona several times) and triathlon coaching, Scott's career has been markedly different. He is a Navy pilot who has worked his way up through the ranks to a senior position. His flying experience also presented the opportunity to pilot commercial, long haul jets for United Airlines. Scott and I have shared many a bottle of red wine of an evening and chatted away the hours discussing many of the topics in today’s podcast. This guy has a wealth of knowledge and experience as a triathlon coach but also as a person who leads others by example. As you will hear, he is more than generous in sharing that knowledge with us. I loved catching up with Scott and I know you’ll love this conversation as much as I did as we discuss:
- Vulnerability and why it’s a strength, not a weakness
- Why daily habits like making your bed are important to create order in a chaotic world
- Advice from a long haul commercial pilot on how to combat jet lag
- The ‘Joneser’ 6F’s which he shares with his fellow naval colleagues on a regular basis, and why work is only ranked at #5
- Getting inspiration from survival, resilience and redemption
- Daily journaling and why many of the world’s most successful people share this habit
- Visualisation with the Blue Angels flying team and how Scott uses the same process when preparing for a race
- Why triathlon coaching and a 2 star admiral are complementary
- Why Scott has coaches for all aspects of his life
In our chat we discussed all of the links below which will give a little more context.
Some books we discussed
Going Long by Gordo Byrn & Joe Friel
Unbroken Laura Hillenbrand
Some videos we talked about
Admiral William McRaven - Make your bed
I also mentioned a client of mine, Gerard Gallagher, who posted his top 7 books of the decade in the LinkedIn post
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
To comment on this podcast, please visit Simon's Facebook page HERE
Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes
For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com
Wednesday Jan 29, 2020
Wednesday Jan 29, 2020
In this week’s podcast I’m taking a slightly different approach. On my recent trip to Dubai I met some of the key players in the triathlon scene in the city. I managed I managed to pin 6 of them down long enough to record short interviews about what they do within the local community. If you are travelling to Dubai shortly for the 70.3 or have considered this race for future years then you definitely want to listen to this episode as you will get a really good idea of how everything works. My 6 guests are:
- Andy Edwards - co-chair, TriDubai Triathlon club - chatting about the club, its members, some of the weekly sessions and what to do if you are in Dubai and want to join the club for some workouts
- Taif Delamie - sports therapist talks about his work at the Valiant Clinic and the value of strength work for triathletes
- Orla White - physiotherapist at RU Active talks about bike fitting
- Nick Watson explains all about Team AngelWolf and how he and his son Rio have been inspired by Team Hoyt, and Kyle and Brent Pease
- David Labouchere chats about his business Optimal Fitness and also his plans for ‘draft busting’ at the coming Dubai 70.3
- Glyn Painter, BTF L3 Tri Coach based in Dubai shares some insights about the Dubai 70.3 course
To find out more about the TriDubai Club, please visit their Facebook page HERE
You can also follow Team Angelwolf on social media - Instagram, Facebook, YouTube
You can find out more about Glyn Painters coaching business by visiting his website, Kona Coach
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
To comment on this podcast, please visit Simon's Facebook page HERE
Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes
For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
After a few weeks away from chatting with athletes, I have a real corker for you today. I met Owen Martin on his very first visit to Kona back in 2010 and I even recorded a conversation back then about how using a CompuTrainer had helped him achieve a lifetime goal. Now, 10 years later, Owen has just qualified for the Hawaii Ironman World Championships for the 11th year in a row. He is a model of consistency and in today’s episode Owen shares his thoughts on training, life, long term approach and a whole host of other topics. If you have any ambitions to get to Kona or if you just want to enjoy some longevity in the sport you must listen to this.
It’s another long chat but there are some great stories in here and important lessons including:
- The traits of elite vs average age group Ironman athletes
- Owen has all guns blazing as he takes aim at the drug cheats in his age group who regularly occupy the podium
- How to recover from Kona and jet lag and still win your age group 8 weeks later
- The importance of patience in training and racing
- The value of a coach, and why the fact that his coach cares about him matters to Owen
- Why communication and the sharing of information are critical in the coach/athlete relationship
- In Kona this year Owen’s “numbers” were the best ever and yet he underperformed. 2 months later with less impressive figures he wins his age group in Cozumel. We talk about this in-depth, as well as the importance of confidence in your fitness.
Owen is planning to do a weekly blog on Instagram about his journey to Kona 2020. You can watch his videos on Instagram at owenie53
If you are ever in Newry, N. Ireland then drop in to Owen’s cycling studio - Ventoux Cycling Studio and say hello.
You can also find out more on the Ventoux Cycling Studio Facebook Page
We also talked about Owen’s triathlon coach Alan Couzens. You can find out more about Alan HERE
To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE
To comment on this podcast, please visit Simon's Facebook page HERE
Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes
For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com