Simon Ward, The High Performance Human Triathlon Podcast

Simon Ward and Chris Jones

Today’s guest is a coach who I rate as one of the best in Britain. He has worked as a head coach in 2 different sports:  Triathlon and athletics. In 2000, he was head coach for the GB women’s triathlon team at the Sydney Olympics. From 2002-2007 he was a Performance Coach for British Triathlon, and in 2009 he became Coaching Director for Triathlon Ireland, and then as Performance Director he led the team at the 2012 London Olympics. He then swapped sports to become National Endurance Coach for Athletics Ireland, and is now Welsh Athletics National Coach.

Chris Jones and I first became acquainted back in 1995 when he called me out of the blue to discuss a strength training article that I had written for 220 Magazine. Since then Chris and I have become good friends and we can spend many hours discussing triathlon training, or general coaching philosophy over a bottle of fine red wine. This was another conversation that I really, really enjoyed and I hope you do too. Please set aside an hour to listen in as we chat about:

• How Chris learned his trade from Ray Butters, the man who is now guiding Jessica Learmonth to triathlon success
• Why great coaches have a deep fascination for their sport that goes beyond a job
• Why sometimes you just have to "scramble” to keep up
• When a good coach isn’t necessarily an expert, but has a book of contacts to draw upon and knows exactly when to do so
• The mental and physical toll of being an Olympic coach
• Knowing when to change direction:  Understanding that all coaches have a shelf life 
• Understanding what type of coach you are and finding your niche
• Learning that what derails sports performance isn’t training, it’s life

To find out more about Simon’s coaching please visit his website here.

To follow Simon on Facebook, click here.

For more information please go to www.SimonWardTriathlonCoach.com, or www.TheTriathlonCoach.com, or email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.

Simon Ward and Dan Plews

Dr. Dan Plews joins us on the podcast for a third time today to discuss the lead up to his record breaking Ironman World Championship victory in Hawaii last October.  In that race, Dan was the fastest age grouper, not just on the day, but of all time, setting a new course record of 8:24:36, besting the previous best by over 10 minutes. As always with Dan, this conversation is an amazing journey through the eyes of an elite athlete, chatting about everything he did to complete a 3 year plan.

Dan and I chat about 2 core areas - polarised training, Low Carb/High fat nutrition, and we disappear down a few rabbit holes as well.

If you want to race well in an Ironman, in Kona, or just lead an athletic life on a low carb diet, this is a must listen conversation as we talk about:

• How to ‘reverse engineer your training plan to achieve your goal
• Understanding what performance looks like
• Why everyone should have a coach
• What is the definition of a ‘low carb’ diet?
• Stress Hormones and Polarised training:  Why it’s much more than just hard and easy
• How to calculate your own maximal fat oxidation level HERE
• The ‘key’ training sessions that created an Ironman World Champion
• Dan’s top 3 tips for age group triathletes (TIP: these ’secrets’ are way more simple than you could imagine)

In the podcast Dan mentions several links:

Stephen Seiler Research on Polarised training

An article  by "The Prof”, Paul Laursen and Dr Phil Maffetone -Fit but Unhealthy

Dr Dan Plews new fitness education course Endure IQ

 

You can also follow The Plews and Prof at their website

Dan is also prominent on Twitter @theplews1 and on Instagram 'the plews’

To find out more about Simon’s coaching please visit his website here.

To follow Simon on Facebook, click here.

For more information please go to www.SimonWardTriathlonCoach.com, or www.TheTriathlonCoach.com, or email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.

Simon Ward and Dr. Livingstone

If you are in good health, training and recovery is the best. If you are ill, then training quality is poor and sometimes you can’t even train. That’s why I have invited a real life doctor to be my guest today.  Dr. Ian Livingstone is a cycling buddy of mine who has recently retired. We have spent many a cycling mile discussing health ailments and their effect on triathlon and cycling training, and often rolled our eyes at the way in which humans are willing to compromise basic health to become fitter. This truly is a huge paradox.

Dr. Livingstone will be joining me at regular intervals in future months to discuss health ailments and exercise.  In today’s episode we discuss 2 of the most basic components of health - the immune system and bone health. Surrounding these issues we discuss many subjects, including:

• Fit doesn’t necessarily mean healthy
• The influence of sleep on the Immune System
• ONCE AGAIN, sleep and recovery - why this is the key to building long term fitness
• How stress and your mental health can affect your immune system and therefore your potential for catching a cold
• Illnesses, like injuries, are not inevitable - but avoiding them might just be a case of being more mindful
• The influence of diet on the immune system and bone health
• The ’simple secrets' to successful training - balance, good sleep, healthy nutrition

In the show I mention this book - The Beautiful Cure: Harnessing Your Body's Natural Defences - Daniel Davis

If you have any questions for Dr Livingstone about your health/training related issues please email me, simon@thetriathloncoach.com

To find out more about Simon’s coaching please visit his website here.

To follow Simon on Facebook, click here.

For more information please go to www.SimonWardTriathlonCoach.com, or www.TheTriathlonCoach.com, or email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.

Simon Ward and Mike Ricci

This week my guest is a fellow coach from the USA triathlon mecca, Boulder, Colorado.  Mike Ricci has been a triathlon coach since early in the 21st century and as we have got to know each other I’ve become aware that Mike and I share some very similar views on coaching and working with athletes.  This conversation is just you eavesdropping on two coaches shooting the breeze about all things coaching, including:

• The philosophy behind Mike’s company, D3 multisport
• Why the best coaches have a good understanding of business
• Triathlon coaches don’t need to be technical experts, but they do need to know where to find them
• Different approaches to periodising training in a 12 month period
• Heart rate variability and athlete management
• The difference between high performing athletes and everyone else
• Mike speaks my language as we agree about cutting sessions short to build in mobility or strength work
• Can a coach be effective when pursuing their own racing goals?
• Exploring coaching approach within other sports to enhance athlete experience
• Why even long distance athletes need to train across the full range of energy zones

To find out more about Mike and his training group please visit https://d3multisport.com/ or their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/D3Multisport/

To find out more about Simon’s coaching please visit his website here.

To follow Simon on Facebook, click here.

For more information please go to www.SimonWardTriathlonCoach.com, or www.TheTriathlonCoach.com, or email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.

Simon Ward and Lucy Gossage

My guest today is Lucy Gossage, one of the most successful Ironwomen in the UK in recent years having now won 13 Iron distance races.  Lucy is such an enthusiastic guest and always a joy to chat with.  She ‘retired’ from Pro racing in 2018 to concentrate on full time work as an oncologist but I’m pretty certain will still see her taking part in events and finishing high up on the podium.

This is another great conversation and we chat about several subjects close to Lucy’s heart including:

• How Lucy became known as the “Everyday Pro”
• Participating in a triathlon as part of a relay time and why YOU should try it
• Making a living as a pro athlete
• Why smiling helps your race performance
• Patagonman and the fun of triathlon tourism
• How much training Lucy does every week now that she is ‘retired’
• The inspiration behind the Cancerfit.me and 5kyourway.org 

If you have cancer, are in remission, or know someone else currently in this situation and would like to know all about exercising while receiving treatment then please visit Cancerfit.me.  5kyourway.org is a community-based initiative to encourage those living with and beyond cancer, families, friends and those working in cancer services to walk, jog, run, cheer or volunteer at a local 5k Your Way parkrun event on the last Saturday of every month.

If you would like to follow Lucy she is all over social media.

Twitter - lucygoss

Instagram - @lucygossage

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/lucy.gossage

To find out more about Simon’s coaching please visit his website here.

To follow Simon on Facebook, click here.

For more information please go to www.SimonWardTriathlonCoach.com, or www.TheTriathlonCoach.com, or email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.

Simon Ward and Peter Swoboda

Veteran athletes with heart problems?  Is it inevitable?  There are a number of retired high profile triathletes who have heart problems - Dave Scott, Normann Stadler, Greg Welch and of course our own Julian Jenkinson died after suffering a cardiac event while out riding. Look through some of the triathlon and cycling Facebook groups and you will also find many threads about athletes who have had, or are still having, issues with atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter. If athletes who were once the world’s best are not immune then where does that leave the rest of us enthusiastic amateurs?

In today’s podcast, I’m going to have a go at clearing up a lot of the misinformation that surrounds the topic of training for endurance sports and associated cardiac issues.

My guest is Peter Swoboda - Consultant Cardiologist and senior lecturer at the University of Leeds.  Peter has been involved in extensive research into the relationship between fitness and the quality of heart size, and is currently engaged in a study to understand the changes to heart structure with age in veteran athletes who have a history of training at least 8-10 hours per week for many years.  If you have any concerns about your heart health or have suffered with your own cardiac issues then this conversation will answer a lot of your questions as we discuss:

• “The Broken Leg” study and what happens to your fitness with just 6 weeks of inactivity
• Why astronauts MUST row for 2 hours per day when they are in a zero gravity environment
• Can a life time of exercise lead to changes in the structure of the heart, and is it part of normal physiology?
• What type of sports pre-dispose people to Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) and other heart issues
• Rowing and cycling and why they have a different effect on the heart to running.
• Why athletes are humans first and have the same statistical likelihood of heart problems as sedentary people
• Noticeable changes in heart response to exercise and why it’s ALWAYS a good idea to get a check up
• Why exercise is a good thing for just about all humans
• Peter’s training advice for over 50’s
• Ultimately why you should not worry, the statistics are in your favour

In this podcast I mentioned the book The Haywire Heart.

To find out more about Simon’s coaching please visit his website here.

To follow Simon on Facebook, click here.

For more information please go to www.SimonWardTriathlonCoach.com, or www.TheTriathlonCoach.com, or email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.

Simon Ward and Joe Friel

On this week’s podcast, I’m really excited to be chatting with one of the world’s leading triathlon and cycling coaches.  In 1996 Joe Friel wrote the Cyclist’s Training Bible and in 1998 he followed that up with the Triathlete’s Training Bible. He also coauthored with Gordo Byrn the Iron distance training book “Going Long”, and more recently he wrote the book "Fast after 50: How to race strong for the rest of your life”. Joe has been instrumental in the development of Training Peaks as the world’s number one online training diary platform (now run by his son, Dirk Friel) and to this day travels the world sharing his coaching philosophy and inspiring the next generation of coaches, including myself.

In this conversation, I really wanted to get deep into the subject of how we should all be training once we get past 50. If you haven’t reached that age yet, that’s no excuse to bypass this conversation. I can predict with a high degree of accuracy that you will reach this age at some point so this IS of relevance to you.

In this episode you will hear Joe Friel share his thoughts on:

• Why his inspiration for writing this book was entirely selfish
• Myths of ageing and why we should ignore them
• Some of the age changes that WILL happen to you
• What we must start doing differently as we grow older
• Key to maintaining performance as we age up past 40, 50 and beyond.

I hope you enjoy this conversation. It’s a topical subject and one which I implore you to not only listen to but act upon and then share with your friends.

Find Joe on Twitter @jfriel

See all of Joe ’s books listed HERE

If you want to know the answer to a triathlon or cycling question, there is a good chance Joe has answered it for someone on his blog, right HERE

To find out more about Simon’s coaching please visit his website here.

To follow Simon on Facebook, click here.

For more information please go to www.SimonWardTriathlonCoach.com, or www.TheTriathlonCoach.com, or email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.

Legends of British Triathlon * Simon Ward and John Lunt

If you have been following closely, you will be aware that a sub niche of this podcast focusses on the Legends of British Triathlon, people and personalities who were prominent in the triathlon scene in the late ’80’s and early ’90’s and who helped to build triathlon into the successful and popular sport that it now is.

Latecomers to the sport (after 2000) may not be aware of just how significant some of these people were in building the triathlon profile in the UK, and I have taken it upon myself to share their part in this great sport that I have loved for over 30 years.  My guest today, John Lunt, was more of a recreational athlete, starting his triathlon involvement in 1984. In the early 1990’s he started promoting triathlon events in and around west London - Windsor, The Ballbuster Duathlon and the Eton Dorney series - and this is where he really had an impact on the UK triathlon scene.

 This was another great journey back in time and in this conversation you will discover:

• Why it was easier to organise events in 1990 than in 2018
• How John was the first race director in the UK to use wristbands for athletes in events after a visit to Kona in 1994
• The 220 triathlon series and the introduction of prize money in triathlon
• The long winded process for entering a race and getting your results before the digital age
• Why the Commonwealth Games in 2002 was the launch pad for the London 2012 Olympic bid
• What it was like to be the race director for the London 2012 triathlon events
• What comes after you have spent 4 1/2 years living and breathing one single event

 To find out more about John Lunt and his current project BeSpoke Events please visit their website https://www.bspokeevents.co.uk/

You can also follow them on Facebook HERE

Some of the events that John mentioned can be found here:

Dubrovnik Triathlon

Brighton and Hove Triathlon

Brighton Run2Music

To find out more about Simon’s coaching please visit his website here.

To follow Simon on Facebook, click here.

For more information please go to www.SimonWardTriathlonCoach.com, or www.TheTriathlonCoach.com, or email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com. 

Simon Ward and Derek Fitzgerald

For almost 10 years of his life, my guest on today’s show, Derek Fitzgerald, was just struggling to stay alive.  Firstly he was diagnosed with non Hodgkins Lymphoma, and after surgery and chemotherapy he was clear and in remission only to find that the chemo drugs had damaged his heart.  He was told that his heart was failing, and he spent the next 7 years slowly deteriorating until 2011 when he received a heart transplant.  Since that day he hasn’t looked back.  As you might imagine, from someone who has stared death in the face on a daily basis, Derek has been in a hurry to achieve the seemingly impossible. This is a fascinating and emotional story of one man’s survival against the odds, and after listening you will no longer believe there are limits to doing anything you put your mind to.

In this episode you will discover:

• Why after surgery to remove a tumour in his abdomen, Derek had to learn to walk again before starting chemotherapy 
• The paradox of wanting heart disease to get worse so you can make it onto the transplant list
• How a phrase from the film "Shawshank Redemption” epitomises Derek’s life
• Why Derek feels like he should "Honour the Gift”
• Organ donations and why it should be an opt-out process and not an opt-in 
• The journey from heart transplant recipient in Jan 2011 to Ironman fisher in 2013
• Becoming the first cancer survivor and heart transplant recipient to complete the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii (2015)

Derek is an inspirational person and you can find out more about him by visiting his website Recycledmanspeaks.com

You can also follow Derek on Facebook by visiting his page HERE

Derek is an ambassador for The Ironman Foundation whose mission is to create positive, tangible change in race communities through grant funding and volunteerism.

Organ Donation - In 2020 the law is changing in the UK to an opt out system. Until then, you can opt-in register to donate your organs.

Please visit this page to register your decision —>>> Organ Donations - Opt In

UK Organ Donation week 2019 - 2-8 September

To find out more about Simon’s coaching please visit his website here.

To follow Simon on Facebook, click here.

For more information please go to www.SimonWardTriathlonCoach.com, or www.TheTriathlonCoach.com, or email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com. 

 

Simon Ward, Jack Maitland, and Kirsten Steffenson

Since 2004 my guest today, Jack Maitland, has been focussed on helping the cream of British Triathlon talent to perform on a world stage.  During that time athletes in his care (The Brownlees, Non Stanford, Vicky Holland, Jessica Learmonth, Gordon Benson and more) have won Olympic gold, silver, and bronze medals, occupied 5/6 places on the GB Olympic triathlon team, won multiple world, commonwealth and European titles, and generally put the Leeds Triathlon performance centre on the map as one of the world’s leading triathlon training locations.

In 2017 Jack left his role to start working closely with Kirsten Steffenson, his partner and our other guest on today’s show. Their new venture, Sports Ashram, combines their passion for Yoga with Jack’s triathlon skills to provide a different approach to training and preparing for endurance events.

In this conversation you will discover:

• Mobility, flexibility and strength - how a weekly yoga practice can enhance all 3
• Why balance in your life will enhance athletic performance
• How mindfulness learned through yoga can be transferred into your triathlon training sessions
• Why yoga is a practice, not a performance
• The positive benefits for your sleep patterns which come from even 10 minutes of daily meditation
• Why recovery and rest must occupy the same priority in your weekly schedule as training
• How to improve your Heart Rate Variability through meditation and breathing

Find out more about Jack and Kirsten here on Facebook The Sports Ashram

Jack mentioned Dr. Alan Watkins and Complete Coherence - see the video HERE which explains this

Dr Alan Watkins - How to be brilliant every single day

The influence of Yoga on heart rate variability Yoga and heart rate variability - a comprehensive review of the literature

To listen to Simon and Jack's earlier podcast https://simonward.podbean.com/e/simon-ward-and-jack-maitland/

To find out more about Simon’s coaching please visit his website here.

To follow Simon on Facebook, click here.

For more information please go to www.SimonWardTriathlonCoach.com, or www.TheTriathlonCoach.com, or email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.