Simon Ward, Be Battle Ready - The podcast for strength, resilience, and longevity

Simon Ward and Jack Maitland

This week I am speaking with another guest who is firmly rooted in the history of British Triathlon.  Jack Maitland has been involved in endurance sport for over 40 years from a junior competitor to an elite athlete and then onto an elite coach.

This conversation takes us on a journey of one man's life and the impact he has had on the sport of triathlon including:

• Representing Scotland at 3 different international sports
• An early example of polarised training
• How fell running training could help you to become a more powerful cyclist
• How a trip to Nepal for a marathon ended up in a lifelong passion for Yoga
• How Jack and I started working together
• Developing the best triathlon performance centre in the world
• Coaching the first GB athletes to win olympic triathlon medals 
• How a less interventionist coaching style can often get the best results

 

To contact Jack and find out more about triathlon coaching or yoga email him via jack@thetriathloncoach.com.

 

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

Simon Ward and Iain Hamilton

In this week's podcast and ahead of this weekend Outlaw Full I managed to grab a precious few minutes with the Outlaw race director and One Step Beyond owner, Iain Hamilton.

Iain is part of the DNA of UK triathlon with his involvement in the sport stretching right back to the late 1980’s when he raced as a junior. In this chat we cover a wide range of subjects such as:

• Reminiscing about the very beginnings of triathlon in the UK
• Iain’s involvement with one of the very first UK triathlon shows, Total Fitness Nottingham
• Starting One Step Beyond as a college project at 17 years of age
• The beginning of the Outlaw
• Race Day nightmares faced by a race director
• How long does it really take to organise the race route for the Outlaw?
• How social media has changed the face of event management
• Why the Outlaw events have the best volunteers in UK triathlon
• Iain gazes into his crystal ball to try and predict the future for triathlon events in the UK

If you are going to be an athlete or a spectator at this weekend's event, please feel free to come and say hello at the event.  Simon and Iain will be hosting the race briefings on Saturday, and Simon will also be part of your race day commentary team.

 

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

Simon Ward and Tim Heming

Our roving triathlon reporter is back this week as Simon chats with Tim Heming about what's been happening in the triathlon world recently.  In this week's conversation Simon and Tim chat about:

• Staying safe when riding on the road after a spate of high profile bike crashes 
• The ‘Horse on the Course” incident at the Windsor triathlon
• Drafting at ironman Austria, Suzie Cheetham’s response, and what Ironman did next
• The forthcoming European Championships in Glasgow
• Frodeno versus Lange showdown in Frankfurt and whether it has any bearing on Kona
• WTS calendar 2019

If you have any subjects that you’d like Tim or I to discuss in our next chat, please post them on the Facebook page, simon.ward1.

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

Simon Ward Answers Nutrition Questions

In this episode of TheTriathlonCoach SWATcast, your host Simon Ward answers more listener questions.  This week the discussion is centred around nutrition, a topic that promotes even more chatter than swimming. Nutrition is recognised by most triathletes as being an important part of their performance and yet it remains an under utilised ‘training tool’.  In this show Simon covers a whole range of topics including:

•  The critical importance of planning and preparation for your everyday nutrition
• Why day to day nutrition is waaaay more important than race day nutrition
• 10 simple to follow Clean Eating rules
• How to lose weight while training hard
• Judging portion sizes without using scales
• Some suggestions for sports nutrition cook books
• Nutrition before, during, and after training
• How to manipulate your nutrition for different durations of triathlon events

These are the 2 downloads mentioned in the show:

Download the Portion Size guide here… https://www.simonwardtriathloncoach.com/portion-size-guide/

Download the 10 Clean eating Rules here…. https://www.simonwardtriathloncoach.com/10-clean-eating-rules/

These are the books I referred to:

Feed Zone Portables - Lim & Thomas

Feed Zone Cookbook - Lim & Thomas

Sports Nutrition Guidebook - Nancy Clarke

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

Simon Ward and Dave Schell

TrainingPeaks is the premier online training diary in the world, and it's the one I have chosen to use for the last 10 years both for my own personal training calendar and analysis, and also for those athletes that I work with. Currently I have over 500 people signed up to TrainingPeaks who are linked with me. If used properly, this platform can be used to analyse and then prepare a much more accurate training programme whether you are an athlete or a coach.

That's why it gives me great pleasure to share my conversation with today's guest, Dave Schell from TrainingPeaks.  During our chat Dave explains:

• How he went to from being a TrainingPeaks customer to being their Coach Education Manager
• How TSS really works
• Why the Performance Management Chart (PMC) is such a great analysis tool
• What TSS, CTL, ATL & TSB stand for and how the scores are calculated
• The ideal Training Stress balance score that you should have before your A races
• How to use individual PMC’s for each sport to predict training load during a taper
• The optimal weekly TSS and target CTL scores https://help.trainingpeaks.com/hc/en-us/articles/230904648-Suggested-Weekly-TSS-and-Target-CTL
• How to calculate TSS for strength training (which you can read more about here—>>>http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2016/02/the-weightlifting-pmc-part-1.html
• When and How TrainingPeaks can save coaches a ton of time in their weekly programme preparation

To access the TSB/form chart mentioned in this episode, please go to http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2015/12/managing-training-using-tsb.html.

To find out more about TrainingPeaks or Dave Schell please email dave@trainingpeaks.com.  To access the TrainingPeaks blog for a mountain of awesome posts go to https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/.  If you are an athlete, find out more about how you can use TrainingPeaks at https://www.trainingpeaks.com/athlete-features/.  If you are a coach find out more about how you can use TrainingPeaks at https://www.trainingpeaks.com/coach-features/.

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

Simon Ward and Sam Dickinson

Following on from the huge triathlon success of the Brownlee brothers, there is a new wave of triathletes eager to continue flying the flag for British Triathlon.  Many of them are based at the High Performance Centre in Leeds including today's guest, Sam Dickinson.

At 20 years old Sam is one of the brightest prospects in the UK, and a member of the World Class Performance Pathway group. In today's podcast we talk about:

• How having a multi-sport background was an advantage as a young triathlete
• Making the decision to be a full time athlete at the age of 18
• Training with your idols
• Being part of the most successful triathlon centre in the world
• Dealing with injuries as a young athlete
• A typical week of training at the Leeds High Performance Centre

To find out more about Sam Dickinson find him on Instagram at samdickotri or on Twitter at samdickotri.

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

Simon Ward and Karl Alexander

Karl Alexander is one of the UK’s top age group triathletes. He is a 2-time winner of Outlaw Half and is also a brand ambassador for the very popular Erdinger Triathlon Team.

If you have ever raced any of the Outlaw events, or an event supported by Erdinger, then it's likely that Karl will have served you with a post race recovery Erdinger.  In this episode we discuss:

• Dealing with an injury that stops you from being a triathlete
• When an injury lay off can be a blessing
• How Kona ambitions were put on hold because of family priorities
• Karl’s thoughts about being a brand ambassador
• Understanding your body and longevity in the sport
• Serving beer on Saturday and racing on Sunday

You can follow Karl on Instagram at Karl.alexander1, or on Twitter @karlralexander.  Karl doesn’t have his own website but you can read all about his adventures on Tri247.com.

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

Simon Ward and Kit Walker (bonus)

Kit Walker - BONUS edition

I recently interviewed Kit Walker about his life as a professional triathlete. During that interview I completely failed to ask Kit about his first professional victory at Outlaw in 2016, and his repeat victory in 2017 when he set a course record. It's a much shorter episode than normal as we only focus on these two races and we talk about:

• The point in the race when Kit knew he was going to win
• How to keep going when you are in the lead and having a bad spell
• Winning his first professional race
• Returning to a race as reigning champion, and the pressure that comes with it
• Pacing strategies and breaking the Outlaw course record

To find out more about Kit Walker you can follow him on Twitter @kit_walker_tri, on Instagram at kit_walker_tri, Facebook at KWTriathlon, or his website at https://kitwalkertriathlon.com/.

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

Simon Ward and Josh Sprague

I love the idea that you can turn a hobby into a business. Why wouldn’t I? It's exactly what I have done! My guest today has done similar, turning his hobby for adventure racing and mountain biking into a business called Orange Mud. It's not your typical triathlon podcast, but if you’ve ever wanted to turn your hobby into a business this is a podcast you must listen to. Oh, and Josh is a real fun guy as well.

Josh Sprague founded the company in 2012 making hydration packs that he could use in events, and has since turned it into a fast expanding apparel company. 

In today's conversation Josh and I discuss boat load of topics including:

• Why his business is called Orange Mud
• Making ‘life’ work for you
• The $25,000 hand-made product that started the company
• Working full time and running a business
• The Orange Mud ambassador programme and how they came to have over 300 ambassadors
• Being a “lifestyle entrepreneur”

 

To find out more about OrangeMud (or to check out their product lines) visit their UK website OrangeMud.co.uk  or if you are in the US then visit OrangeMud.com.  You can find Josh on Instagram #orangemud, Twitter @orangemud, and Facebook @orangemud.

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

Simon Ward and Amy Kilpin

Have you ever tried to get sponsorship to help your triathlon participation?  Maybe you qualified for a GB age group place and tried to get help from some local companies to ease your financial burden?  If you have, then today's guest will have some familiar stories for you.

Amy Kilpin calls herself an average age group triathlete and yet she has managed to gather together a group of very impressive sponsors (which you can see if you visit her web page here…..http://amykilpin.co.uk/).

In today's conversation Amy shares her secrets for success as a ‘brand ambassador’ including:

• How to open the conversation with potential sponsors
• The importance of finding a different angle for brands
• Why social media is critical to your success
• Amy's top 3 tips to help in your search for sponsors
• When writing to sponsors which bits of information are NOT relevant?
• Brand loyalty and why it is important for you and your sponsor
• What you must do to provide value to your sponsors

To find out more about Amy you can visit her website http://amykilpin.co.uk/.  You can also find her on 

Twitter @akilpin

Facebook amy.kilpin

Instagram akilpin

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