Why Training More Is Making You Slower (And What To Do About It)

If you're putting in 12, 14, sometimes 20 hours a week and your times are going backwards, this episode is for you. This is a solo episode, and I want to talk about something I see constantly with athletes over 50, and it frustrates me because it's so avoidable. High volume training feels like commitment. It feels like the right thing to do. But for athletes in their late 40s, 50s and 60s, it's often the thing that's quietly breaking them down. In this episode I explain what's actually happening physiologically when you stack training stress on top of work stress, poor sleep and a less forgiving hormonal environment. I talk about what smart training looks like for this stage of life, and why the athletes I've coached who go sub 10 or earn Kona slots are almost never the ones doing the most hours. This isn't about doing less. It's about doing better. 5 KEY POINTS The body doesn't distinguish between types of stress - training load, work pressure and poor sleep all land in the same bucket, and chronic overload triggers sustained cortisol elevation that works directly against recovery and adaptation. The hormonal environment after 50 is fundamentally different - lower testosterone and growth hormone mean the margin for error is much smaller than it was in your 30s. You can no longer outwork a poor recovery strategy. Sleep is where adaptation happens - around 95% of daily growth hormone is released during deep sleep. Cut sleep to squeeze in an extra session and you're adding fatigue, not fitness. Consistency beats volume every time - 10 hours a week for 52 weeks is 520 hours. Sporadic 20-hour weeks followed by burnout or injury will never outperform steady, sustainable training across a full year. Recovery weeks are not a weakness - planned recovery weeks are a strategic tool, not an optional extra. Without them, training stress accumulates without the adaptation following. 3 TAKEAWAYS Make easy sessions genuinely easy and hard sessions genuinely hard - most athletes do everything at medium intensity, which delivers neither recovery nor adaptation. Strength and mobility are non-negotiable - schedule them first and never cancel them for an extra swim or run session. If your times are going backwards, it's not a motivation problem or a commitment problem. It's a strategy problem and strategy can be fixed. KILLER QUOTE "These athletes aren't lazy and they're definitely not lacking commitment. If anything, commitment is the problem, because they're committed to an approach that is quietly breaking them down." LINKS & RESOURCES Want help building durable training? If what I talked about today resonates and you want a training structure built around your whole life, not just your swim, bike and run numbers, SWAT is where it happens. Find out more and join SWAT here   FREE Download👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 A simple checklist to see if you’re actually on track 3–6 months out. Ironman Sanity Checklist   Connect with me HERE: https://linktr.ee/simonward You can find links for the following channels - Website, Facebook, podcast, Instagram, YouTube   Email: [email protected] Sign up for Simon’s weekly newsletter Download Simon’s Free ‘Battle Ready Lifestyle’ Infographic — https://simon-ward.kit.com/battlereadylifestyle Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to [email protected] and you might just hear it on a future episode!