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

Most people are diligently paying into a financial pension every month. But what about the physical one? This week Simon and Beth sit down to unpack one of the core concepts behind the Battle Ready philosophy. The physical pension. The idea that the decisions you make today about how you sleep, move, eat and recover determine what you have available to you at 60, 70 and beyond. Not just as an athlete, but as a human being who wants to actually enjoy the life they have worked hard to build. This is not a performance conversation. It is a longevity conversation. And it applies to everyone. IN THIS EPISODE WE COVER: Where the physical pension concept came from and why the financial analogy works so well The five key deposits every athlete should be making, starting now Why it is never too late to start, including the story of a 105-year-old French cyclist who improved his aerobic capacity at 102 What the withdrawals look like and how they accumulate silently over years What a well-funded physical pension actually looks like in practice How the Battle Ready philosophy and SWAT Inner Circle are built entirely around making these deposits consistently   KILLER QUOTE "The best time to have started would've been 20 years ago. But the second-best time is today."   LINKS & RESOURCES Mentioned in the episode: Dan John episode: The Physical Pension: Strength, Longevity and the Only Secret That Exists Fast After 50 by Joe Friel: Fast After 50 FREE Download👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 Find out why some triathletes keep improving into their 60s while others plateau in their 50s. Why Some Triathletes Keep Improving Into Their 60s   If what you heard today resonates and you want a training structure built around these principles, with individuality, recovery, strength and the long game at its centre, that is exactly what SWAT Inner Circle is designed around. New members join at £65 a month. No minimum term, cancel any time. Details at simonward.co.uk/swat-inner-circle   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 Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to [email protected] and you might just hear it on a future episode!

Consistency is the word every great coach comes back to eventually. Not volume, not intensity, not the latest methodology. Consistency. But saying it and doing it are very different things. Particularly through winter, when the race season is over, the mornings are dark, and the motivation that carried you through summer starts to feel a long way away. This week Simon and Beth do a proper deep dive into what consistency actually means in practice, and specifically what habits and actions protect it through the winter months. IN THIS EPISODE WE COVER: Why the single biggest threat to consistency is not motivation or weather, but injury and illness, and what to do about it Why recovery should be planned before training, not fitted around it How to identify the weekly training load you can actually sustain across many months, not just the maximum you can tolerate for a few weeks The recovery day question: do you actually need complete rest or can active recovery do the same job? How to plan and protect recovery weeks before the training blocks start, not as a reaction to exhaustion A simple three-question morning protocol for managing the grey areas when you are not clearly well but not clearly ill Four winter-specific habits that protect your immune system and keep you showing up through the darker months KILLER QUOTE "Consistent imperfect training through winter is worth far more than sporadic perfect training. The promise of consistency is not glamorous. It does not make for exciting social media content. But it works. Every time." LINKS & RESOURCES Some podcasts you might find useful to go along with this one WHOOP Project PR Study Train Less, Recover More Recovery Based Training, Your Questions Answered Christine Clubbs episode: What your Garmin Can’t Tell You   FREE Download👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 Find out why some triathletes keep improving into their 60s while others plateau in their 50s. Why Some Triathletes Keep Improving Into Their 60s   If what you heard today resonates and you want a training structure built around these principles, with individuality, recovery, strength and the long game at its centre, that is exactly what SWAT Inner Circle is designed around. New members join at £65 a month. No minimum term, cancel any time. Details at simonward.co.uk/swat-inner-circle   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 Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to [email protected] and you might just hear it on a future episode!

Over the years I've been lucky enough to sit down with some genuinely exceptional coaches. People who between them have coached athletes from absolute beginners all the way through to Olympic champions and Ironman world record holders. When I went back and listened to those conversations recently, something struck me. They were all saying the same things. Different words, different experiences, different athletes, different levels of the sport. But the core principles kept coming up again and again. This episode pulls those threads together. Six coaches. Eight principles. And one idea that runs underneath all of them.   THE SIX COACHES Joe Friel - author of the Triathlete's Training Bible and Fast After 50, one of the most widely respected voices in endurance coaching. Chris Jones - head coach for British Triathlon at the Sydney Olympics and one of the most influential coaches the sport has produced in the UK. David Tilbury-Davis - professional triathlon coach who has worked with elite athletes across the world. Mark Allen - six-time Ironman world champion and one of the most thoughtful people about training and performance I have ever spoken to. Jack Maitland - builder of the Leeds Triathlon Centre and coach to the Brownlee brothers from the beginning of their careers. Jim Vance - American coach with extensive experience across both elite and age-group athletes.   8 KEY PRINCIPLES Individuality is the first principle. There is no plan. There is only a person and a plan that fits them. Simplicity beats complexity. A few principles applied consistently will always outperform a complicated programme executed badly. Consistency is the most important variable. Not volume, not intensity, not methodology. Recovery is where adaptation happens. Compromise recovery and you compromise everything the training was supposed to produce. Strength and mobility are non-negotiable. It is the platform that makes consistent training possible. The athlete's life context is part of the programme. Training stress and life stress draw from the same budget. Honesty and self-awareness are coaching tools. You cannot manage what you do not honestly understand. The long game is the only game. Health first, performance built on top of that, longevity as the goal.   KILLER QUOTE "None of these coaches described exceptional talent as the primary ingredient. All of them described wisdom, patience, honesty and consistency as the things that determine how far an athlete goes and how long they last."   LINKS & RESOURCES Original episodes with each coach: Chris Jones David Tilbury-Davis: Developing a Performance Mindset Mark Allen: Fit Soul, Fit Body Jack Maitland: How to create an Olympic Champion Part 1 - Part 2 Jim Vance; Start line Mindset Joe Friel; Fast After 50   FREE Download👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 Find out why some triathletes keep improving into their 60s while others plateau in their 50s. Why Some Triathletes Keep Improving Into Their 60s   If what you heard today resonates and you want a training structure built around these principles, with individuality, recovery, strength and the long game at its centre, that is exactly what SWAT Inner Circle is designed around. New members join at £65 a month. No minimum term, cancel any time. Details at simonward.co.uk/swat-inner-circle   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 Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to [email protected] and you might just hear it on a future episode!

Georgia Hamblett found this podcast driving between park runs in Northern Ireland, working her way through all 36 of them as a personal challenge. She was in the middle of a placement year away from university, a deliberate change of scene at a time when she needed one, and the long drives gave her time to think about the kind of athlete she wanted to become. Georgia is a competitive age-group aquabike athlete and sports journalist writing for Aquabike.World. Her journey to the European Age Group Aquabike Championships in Spain, which she made alone, 12 hours of travel, bike box and all, has not been straightforward. She has navigated an eating disorder, RED-S, a labral hip tear, and the transition from triathlon to aquabike as a way of staying competitive while protecting her long-term health. This is a very honest conversation about subjects that don't get discussed enough in endurance sport. Georgia talks about them with clarity, humour and a refreshing absence of self-pity. Her story is still being written and it is well worth following. IN THIS EPISODE WE TALK ABOUT: How Georgia found the podcast driving between parkruns in Northern Ireland and why the timing changed how she heard it Her experience of disordered eating, why it started, and what finally shifted RED-S, the labral hip tear, and the cumulative impact of training before she was ready How working with coach Nat Lawrence helped her build a sustainable approach to training and fuelling The transition to aquabike, the European Championships in Spain, and what she is building through her writing at Aquabike.World   KILLER QUOTE "Even though it's been quite a wibbly wobbly journey, I absolutely love it. I wouldn't change it for the world now. Because I personally know how hard I found it to get through those things, it gives me a lot of self belief that I'll achieve some of my other goals too." CONNECT with Georgia Georgia Hamblett is an age-group aquabike athlete and sports journalist based in the UK. Instagram: @georgias_tris_and_tribulations , Aquabike.World Writing: Aquabike.World LinkedIn: Georgia Hamblett   Georgia’s book recommendation: Unbroken by Katarina Johnson-Thompson   🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES Mentioned in the episode: Previous Be Battle Ready episode with Nat Lawrence: Spinning Plates - The Amazing Life of Outlaw champion Natalie Lawrence   If you or someone you know is navigating disordered eating or RED-S, please seek support from a professional who understands athletes. In the UK, Beat is the leading eating disorder charity and can help signpost specialist support. RED-S Project -where athletes of all ages, genders, sports and abilities come together to prevent and overcome Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. If today's episode has made you think about building a training approach that works around your whole life, your health included, that is exactly what SWAT Inner Circle is built around. New members join at £65 a month. No minimum term, cancel any time. Details at simonward.co.uk/swat-inner-circle   FREE Download👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 Find out why some triathletes keep improving into their 60s while others decline in their 50s. simon-ward.kit.com/keepimproving 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 Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to [email protected] and you might just hear it on a future episode!

Over the past few months I've had six remarkable guests on this podcast. On the surface their stories couldn't be more different, but the same themes kept coming up again and again across all of them. Six of them. Jamie Bedwell, a professional triathlete who had his career ended by a rare arterial condition and turned down surgery to protect something more important. Christine Clubbs, a GB age-grouper who has spent two and a half years tracking the human side of training with nothing more than a notebook and a pen. Justin Robbins, a long-time triathlete who discovered he was fit but not healthy, and made a really interesting change in his approach. Sue Reynolds, a two-time age-group world champion who pushed herself to the edge of overtraining syndrome chasing an extraordinary question. Jane Hansom, Ironman world champion, who walked away from the sport she'd dominated and built something completely new. And Nick Parkes, a masters open water swimmer who suffered a cardiac arrest mid-race with absolutely no warning and survived to tell the story. This episode is about what all six of them have in common.   7 KEY LESSONS Identity is not your sport. When the sport can't give you what it once did, you need something else to stand on. The body sends signals we routinely ignore. Fit people are particularly bad at this — partly because fitness masks the moment of reckoning. Consistency and discipline are the foundation. Not talent. Not volume. Consistent effort over long periods. Self-knowledge is a performance tool. Honest self-assessment beats data every time. Letting go of a goal is not the same as giving up. Every guest who did this ended up in a better place. Get checked. Fitness does not make you invincible. Nick Parkes is the proof. Community makes individual sports possible. Every journey in this episode was made possible by other people. THE ONE QUESTION What are you actually doing this for? KILLER QUOTE "When the sport couldn't give them what it once did, they had something else to stand on. That's the thing that made the difference."   LINKS & RESOURCES Jamie Bedwell: When the sport you love can no longer love you back - Christine Clubbs: What your Garmin can’t tell you Justin Robbins: Fit but not healthy. The wake up call that changed everything Sue Reynolds: What would happen if an AG triathlete trained like an Olympian? Jane Hansom: From 20 year break to Ironman World Champion Nick Parkes: The day my heart stopped mid-race Book recommendation -  Simon Sinek: Start with Why How great leaders inspire everyone to take action.   If the answer to that question is that you want to keep performing well, stay healthy and be genuinely durable into your 50s, 60s and beyond, that is exactly what SWAT Inner Circle is built around. New members join at £65 a month. No minimum term, cancel any time. Details at simonward.co.uk/swat-inner-circle   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

Originally recorded May 2024. This episode is from the Be Battle Ready archive and is well worth a second listen. Dan John is one of the most respected strength coaches in the world. A former All-American discus thrower, a prolific author with close to 20 books to his name, and someone who has been coaching athletes across multiple sports for over four decades. He has a rare gift. The ability to take genuinely complex ideas and distil them into something so simple you wonder why you ever made it complicated in the first place. This conversation covers the difference between health, longevity, fitness and performance, and why most athletes confuse them. We get into why the basics consistently applied over years are the only secret that actually exists, what strength and mobility work should look like for endurance athletes over 50, what equipment you actually need, and a phrase that came up in the conversation that I think every person over 40 should sit with. The physical pension. 5 KEY POINTS Health, longevity, fitness and performance are four different things. Most athletes chase fitness and performance while neglecting health and longevity. Get the order wrong and the whole house eventually falls down. Fitness is simply the ability to do a task. Nothing more. Stop comparing yourself to people doing different tasks. The best couch carrier in the world isn't automatically fitter than the best Ironman athlete. They're just fit for different things. The only secret is consistency over time. Five days a week, 52 weeks a year. One to five workouts will be brilliant, one in five will be embarrassing, and three out of five will be ordinary. Multiply that by 10 years and the ordinary ones quietly do all the work. Strength work becomes non-negotiable after 50. The 35 to 55 window is when you build the strength reserves that stay with you for the rest of your life. Future you will be very glad you did. The physical pension is real. Regular deposits into your physical health now, while you can, build the pot you'll draw on in your 60s, 70s and beyond. Every consistent week compounds. 3 TAKEAWAYS Mobility before strength. If you're limited in range of movement, getting stronger within that limited range won't give you much return. Fix the mobility first, then build strength through the full range. Focus on movements, not muscles. Squats, hinges, pushes, pulls and loaded carries work the biggest number of muscles in one hit and build the kind of functional strength that transfers to sport and life. Ask yourself: will future me be happy with this decision? If you're 45 and making training, nutrition and lifestyle choices, run them through that filter first. KILLER QUOTE "It's hard to sell a secret when there's no secret. You do the basics right, you recover well, and you repeat the next day. That's it."   CONNECT with Dan Dan John is a strength coach, author and educator based in the United States. He has coached athletes from high school level through to Olympic standard across multiple sports. To find out more about Dan John, please visit these channels: Website - Dan John University Sign up for Dan’s weekly newsletter “Wandering Weights”  Easy Strength with Dan John & Pavel Tsatsouline Check out Dan John’s other books HERE Dan is a prolific writer. Check out his articles and blogs    Dan John talks about the physical pension — putting regular deposits into your physical health now so future you has something to draw on. That's exactly the philosophy behind SWAT Inner Circle. Structured training plans from Sprint to Ironman, strength and mobility built in, recovery centred, and designed for the age you are now, not the age you were. New members join at £65 a month. No minimum term, cancel any time. Details at simonward.co.uk/swat-inner-circle   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 Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to [email protected] and you might just hear it on a future episode!

Last week Beth and I made the case for building your training plan around recovery rather than volume. Not everyone was convinced and that's exactly what we were hoping for. This week we’re back to work through the most common challenges and questions that came in. From why the pros train 30 hours a week to whether recovery-centred training is just an excuse to be lazy, this episode tackles the pushback head on and gives honest, practical answers to the questions every serious endurance athlete will recognise.   If you haven't listened to last week's episode yet, it's worth doing that first. The link is in the show notes. 5 KEY POINTS Volume works up to the point you can recover from it. The pros train 30 hours a week because their entire life is structured around absorbing it. Match your volume to your recovery capacity, not theirs. You still need long sessions for long races. The question is how many and how often, given what you can actually recover from. Fewer long sessions done well beats grinding through all of them on accumulated fatigue. Following a plan blindly isn't discipline. It's blind optimism. Making a daily judgment call, acting on the honest answer and overcoming your ego to do it - that takes more discipline, not less. A good plan is a starting point, not a rigid prescription. Good coaching builds in flexibility to adapt when life happens - because no coach can predict a sick child or a difficult week at work. Panic training in the final weeks rarely works. Athletes who cram volume onto a foundation they haven't built usually end up injured or ill. Consistency is always a better bet than a hero block. 3 TAKEAWAYS Check your actual training data before planning your next block. Look at what you genuinely averaged over the last three months. That number, without ego, is probably closer to your real training capacity than anything on a plan. If your goal isn't achievable this year, it might just be set a year too early. Stay healthy, stay consistent, and build on it next season. A happy, healthy finish line is always a win. Arriving fresh and consistent will beat arriving exhausted from a plan you couldn't absorb every single time.   KILLER QUOTE "How much training can you actually recover from, and how much can you consistently complete? If you can answer that honestly, without any part of your ego being involved, you'll probably get to the right answer."   LINKS & RESOURCES Mentioned in the episode: Previous episode — Train Less, Recover More Sue Reynolds episode — What Would Happen If an Age-Group Triathlete Trained Like an Olympian?: WHOOP Project PR Study Tim Gabbett research — The training—injury prevention paradox: should athletes be training smarter and harder? https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/50/5/273   Want a training structure built around what you can actually recover from rather than a generic plan? That is exactly what SWAT is designed for. CLICK HERE TO START YOUR MISSION   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 Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to [email protected] and you might just hear it on a future episode!

Most athletes ask the wrong question. Instead of "how much training do I need to do?" the question that will actually change your performance is "how much training can I recover from?" In this episode Simon is joined by Beth for a conversation that challenges one of the most deeply held assumptions in endurance sport — that more training equals better performance. They dig into why recovery should underpin every training plan, what the evidence actually says about training volume versus training smarter, and the practical steps any athlete can take this week to shift their approach. This one is for anyone who is consistently tired, consistently below where they expect to be, and wondering why the training isn't working. 5 KEY POINTS Training breaks you down, recovery builds you back up. The fitness gain happens during recovery, not the session itself. Compromise recovery and you compromise the adaptation. The WHOOP Project PR study showed runners on a dynamic recovery-based plan improved their 5k time by the same amount as those on a fixed plan, but trained up to 80 minutes less per week and reported 30% fewer injuries. Consistency compounds. Ten hours a week for twelve weeks beats fifteen hours followed by injury and two weeks off. After 50 this matters even more, fitness drops faster and takes longer to rebuild. Stress is stress. Training, work and life all draw from the same budget. Putting them in separate silos and ignoring the total load is a recipe for breakdown. The most important data source is still the one between your ears. Devices confirm what your body is already telling you. Learn to listen first. 3 TAKEAWAYS Set your sleep target before your training target. Around 95% of daily growth hormone is produced during deep sleep. Cutting sleep to fit in a session is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Make easy days genuinely easy. If it felt like training, it wasn't recovery. Train to your number, not the plan's number. Ask honestly how much your body can absorb today — and respond to that answer, not the spreadsheet.   KILLER QUOTE "Recovery isn't something you do when you aren't able to train. Recovery is the element that makes the training worthwhile." LINKS & RESOURCES Mentioned in the episode: WHOOP Project PR Study -  the recovery-based training study referenced throughout this episode. Christine Clubbs episode - Be Battle Ready podcast - What your Garmin can’t tell you Sue Reynolds episode - Be Battle Ready podcast - What happens if an age group athlete trains like an Olympian. Want a training structure built around what you can actually absorb rather than a generic plan? CLICK HERE TO START YOUR MISSION If this conversation has resonated and you want a training structure built around your whole life, not just your performance targets, that is exactly what SWAT is designed for. CLICK HERE TO START YOUR MISSION   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 Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to [email protected] and you might just hear it on a future episode!

Three years ago Jamie Bedwell and his wife Abi were on this podcast as newly licensed professional triathletes with the world opening up before them. This week Jamie is back, riding solo, and the story has taken a turn nobody planned for. Three years of gradual deterioration. Chronic back pain, loss of power in the left leg, pins and needles that left him feeling, in his own words, more like a pirate with a wooden leg than a semi-decent triathlete. Every race ended the same way. Every solution fell short. Until earlier this year, when he finally got a diagnosis: flow limitation of the iliac artery, FLIA, a condition where the main artery feeding blood to the leg kinks under the repeated stress of cycling and running. There was a surgery. There was a one in five chance of it going wrong. There was a man in the waiting room who had been back eight times. And there was a surgeon who asked Jamie a simple question: why would you risk so much just to compete in triathlon? Jamie didn't need the six weeks he was given to decide. He said no to the surgery, yes to swimming, and started figuring out what comes next. This is one of the most honest and quietly moving conversations I have had on this podcast. 5 KEY POINTS FLIA affects competitive cyclists and triathletes specifically. Millions of pedalling repetitions thicken the iliac artery over time, restricting blood flow under race conditions. Day to day there is no pain at all. The surgery carries a one in five failure rate. If it goes wrong, the athlete doesn't just lose their sport. They lose the ability to walk uphill or ride a bike with their kids. Jamie said no to protect something bigger than his career. He wanted to remain in sport for the rest of his life. The surgery put that at risk. Once he understood that, the decision was straightforward. Swimming has always been his weakest discipline. He won his first open water race on the River Arun and qualified for the national championships in Sheffield. He is just getting started. Resilience isn't about pushing through. It is about knowing what you are actually fighting for and making decisions that protect it. 3 TAKEAWAYS Know what you are protecting. Jamie turned down surgery not because he gave up on sport but because he refused to risk losing it permanently. Discipline and love will take you further than a fixed goal. Jamie doesn't know where swimming will take him. He just knows those two things are enough. Identity is bigger than the sport. Jamie is applying for ordination, building a community of Christian athletes with Abi, and becoming, in his own words, a more gentle and humble person.   KILLER QUOTE "I'm so grateful there is such a thing called sport. Whether you're going to Park Run or competing at the highest level — sport gives every single person the opportunity to test themselves. And I'm grateful I still have that opportunity."   CONNECT with Jamie Jamie Bedwell is a former professional triathlete and competitive open water swimmer. He and Abi run an email list sharing their journey in sport and faith. Join Jamie and Abi's email list:   [email protected] for regular updates on their progress   Instagram -  Fuelledbyfaithajb Jamie and Abi are sponsored by Raceskin Wetsuits Jamie's favourite book: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - A Powerful WWII Survival Story of Endurance in the Pacific War If you haven’t listened to the previous Be Battle Ready podcast with James & Abi, you can find it here: Husband and wife racing duo   If this conversation has resonated and you want a training structure built around your whole life, not just your performance targets, that is exactly what SWAT is designed for. CLICK HERE TO START YOUR MISSION   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 Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to [email protected] and you might just hear it on a future episode!

The highs, the crash, and what overtraining syndrome taught one age-group world champion about ambition, recovery and knowing when to stop. Sue Reynolds was a guest on this podcast three years ago. At that point she had lost over 150 pounds, taken up triathlon in her fifties, and become a world age-group aqua bike and mixed relay champion. Her first book, The Athlete Inside, told that story. But Sue didn't stop there. She wanted to answer a question most age-group athletes never dare ask seriously: what would happen if an ordinary amateur trained with the same expectations, the same daily habits, and the same meticulous standards as an Olympic-level athlete? That question took her to the World Triathlon Championships in Pontevedra in 2023, where she led the swim - alone, three minutes clear, asking an official which way to run because she had never been at the front before. It eventually took her somewhere she hadn't planned to go at all. Her new book, Across The Line, covers all of it. This conversation is one of the most honest I have had on this podcast about ambition, identity, the invisible damage of overtraining, and what it actually means to know your limits. 5 KEY POINTS Meticulous preparation is where races are won before the start gun. Studying the currents, dropping leaves in the water on race morning, switching pontoon position at the last minute. The details are where elite performance actually lives. Overtraining syndrome is not just tiredness. Unlike overreaching, which resolves with rest, OTS means the body can no longer adapt no matter how much recovery you give it. Sue calls it what it really is: under-recovery syndrome. ‘Edited honesty’ is one of the most dangerous habits in endurance sport. Sue never asked for recovery. She dropped hints, pointed at data, said she felt like a walrus. But she never said the words and that gap is where things went wrong. An invisible injury is still an injury. OTS left Sue looking completely fine while being unable to function. Nobody could see it. Some days she could barely believe it herself. Periodised commitment beats single-minded obsession. Research shows athletes with interests outside their sport sustain performance better over time. Sue learned this the hard way, at considerable cost.   3 TAKEAWAYS Ask for recovery before you need it. Don't drop hints. Don't hope your coach spots it in the data. Say the words out loud. Saying yes when you should say no is not toughness. It is the thing that ends careers and breaks bodies. Fitness gives you options. Sue's goal is simply to get fit by 2027 and see what becomes possible. Not a specific race. Not a podium. Just options.   KILLER QUOTE "I could have said I need a rest at any point. Why didn't I say that? I took a deep dive into all the cultural messages about sucking it up. We put people who push through on a pedestal. And I had bought into all of it."   CONNECT with Sue Sue Reynolds is a two-time age-group world champion, author and student of high performance. All author proceeds from Across The Line go to the USA Triathlon Foundation to support athletes with disabilities.   Website: suereynolds.net Instagram:  https://instagram.com/sue.reynolds/ Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/suereynoldstriathlon/ Across The Line - Sue Reynolds - A case study of world-class performance that examines elite coaching, ambition, and the systems that make and break athletes. The Athlete Inside - The inspiring true story of one woman's transformation from 335 pounds to world-class triathlete in just four years.   Sue also recommended the following book by Brad Stulberg: The Way of Excellence: A Guide to Greatness and Deep Satisfaction in a Chaotic World  Mentioned in the episode: Podcast #1 with Sue Reynolds (Oct 2023) - From 150k to World Aquabike Champion in 4 years   If this conversation has made you think differently about your own cardiovascular health, or you're someone juggling a demanding career with serious training and want a structure that looks at your whole picture, not just your swim, bike and run numbers, that's exactly what SWAT is built around. CLICK HERE TO START YOUR MISSION 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 Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to [email protected] and you might just hear it on a future episode!

What standard GP testing misses, and why it matters more for athletes. Several months ago I wrote a LinkedIn post about my own decision to start taking statins, after several years of resisting that path. Katherine Caris-Harris, a performance nutritionist and fellow triathlete, reached out afterwards. She felt there were gaps in the conversation, and she was right. Katherine is a degree-qualified nutritionist who works with what she calls corporate athletes, driven, high-performing people who often push themselves too hard across every area of life. In this episode we dig into the limitations of standard GP cholesterol testing, why LDL alone is a poor predictor of cardiovascular risk, the role of insulin resistance and thyroid function in driving cholesterol up, what the actual numbers needed to treat for statins really look like, and why cholesterol itself is essential, not the villain it's often made out to be. This isn't an anti-medication conversation. Katherine isn't here to tell you what to do. It's about giving you the fuller picture so you can make an informed decision for yourself, whatever that ends up being. 5 KEY POINTS LDL alone is a poor predictor of risk. Standard GP testing estimates LDL using a crude calculation, and doesn't account for particle size or how easily those particles are damaged by inflammation. Better markers exist, but aren't routinely offered. ApoB and Lipoprotein(a) give a far more accurate picture of cardiovascular risk than standard LDL testing, but most GPs don't test for them due to cost. The number needed to treat varies hugely. For primary prevention in a low risk group, you may need to treat 100 to 200 people with statins to prevent one cardiovascular event. That context rarely makes it into the conversation. Insulin resistance can quietly drive cholesterol up. Even lean, fit endurance athletes can develop elevated blood sugar and insulin resistance through excessive use of gels, energy drinks and fasted training. Cholesterol is essential, not the enemy. It's required for hormone production, cell repair, brain health and vitamin D synthesis. The real driver of arterial damage is oxidative stress and inflammation. 3 TAKEAWAYS Get tested properly before deciding. Standard GP panels are a useful starting point but rarely tell the full story, particularly for athletes. Context matters more than a single number. Genetics, insulin resistance, thyroid function and inflammation all contribute to your real cardiovascular risk. Make your decision from a position of knowledge, not fear. Whatever you choose to do, do it with the fuller picture in front of you.   KILLER QUOTE "You wouldn't ignore your FTP test results. So why would you ignore what's actually happening under the hood with your cardiovascular health?" CONNECT with Katherine Katherine Caris-Harris is a performance and functional nutritionist working with driven, high-performing clients juggling demanding careers with serious training. She is also a long-time age-group triathlete. 🌐 Website: kchnutrition.co.uk 💼 LinkedIn: Katherine Caris-Harris   LINKS & RESOURCES BMJ (British Medical Journal) podcast on Statins for Primary Prevention - How good is the Evidence? Podcast with Cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra on ’The Shocking Truths about Cholesterol, Statins and Heart Disease CoQ10  - why you should be taking it and which brand to choose   Katherine also recommended the following book: Integrative Sport & Exercise Nutrition - How to view the body holistically. “Need to enjoy science to read it!”   Join us in SWAT If this conversation has made you think differently about your own cardiovascular health, or you're someone juggling a demanding career with serious training and want a structure that looks at your whole picture, not just your swim, bike and run numbers, that's exactly what SWAT is built around. CLICK HERE TO START YOUR MISSION     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 Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to [email protected] and you might just hear it on a future episode!

Phil Burt has fitted Chris Froome, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy and Geraint Thomas. He designs saddles for Physique, runs his own clinic in Manchester, and has spent two decades at the sharp end of bike fitting in elite sport. He also wrote a LinkedIn post recently that got a lot of people talking — and that's where this episode starts. Phil's argument: FTP is overrated. Not useless, but overrated. From there we get into why 165mm cranks are worth serious consideration for a lot of riders, why a bag full of expensive saddles is almost never the answer to the problem people think it is, and why after five or six hours in the saddle your position matters far more than your power numbers. We finish by talking about MyVeloFit, the app Phil has developed with a Canadian tech team that lets you access his expertise from anywhere in the world, without leaving your house. If you ride a bike for any serious amount of time, this one is worth your full attention.   5 KEY POINTS FTP is the engine but the chassis matters too. The right position, crank length and body robustness matter far more than power numbers beyond the five-hour mark. Asymmetry is normal and usually not a problem. British Cycling never worried about anything less than a 45/55 power split — trying to make people symmetrical often makes them worse. Saddles are almost never the actual problem. Phil's first question is always about the position the saddle sits in, not the saddle itself. Stance width is the next frontier. There is a 30cm difference in natural stance width across the human population, yet every bike uses the same pedal spacing. Comfort is performance in long distance events. After five hours anything suboptimal in your setup becomes a battle you don't need. 3 TAKEAWAYS Get the foundations right before chasing numbers. Bike fit, crank length and contact points are the platform everything else is built on. You don't know what you don't know. Even if nothing feels wrong, a bike fit can confirm that — which is just as valuable as finding a problem. Expert advice no longer requires geography or a big budget. MyVeloFit puts Phil's expertise within reach of anyone, anywhere in the world. KILLER QUOTE "After five hours there's a lot of fight going on already. Anything that's suboptimal in your setup, we just make more optimal. You don't want to be fighting anything you don't have to fight."   CONNECT with Phil Phil Burt is one of the world's leading bike fitting experts, former head physiotherapist and bike fitter for British Cycling and Team Sky, and saddle designer for Physique. He runs his own clinic at the Manchester Institute of Performance in Manchester. Website: philburtinnovation.com LinkedIn: Phil Burt   LINKS & RESOURCES Mentioned in the episode: MyVeloFit —  Optimise your bike fit with Phil Burt and access Phil's expertise from anywhere in the world. CLICK HERE Phil Burt Innovation Clinic — in-person bike fitting in Manchester with full biomechanical analysis, saddle pressure mapping and motion tracking.   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!

Christine Clubbs started running at 40, accidentally fell into triathlon, and has since gone on to represent Great Britain as an age-grouper. She is also one of the most thoughtful self-experimenters I've had on the podcast. For the last two and a half years Christine has been tracking a remarkable range of data, but not in the way you might expect. No Whoop, no Oura ring, no algorithm telling her how recovered she is. Just a notebook, a pen, and an honest monthly reflection system covering motivation, mood, sleep, stress, training load, nutrition and how she actually feels about her racing. What makes this conversation genuinely interesting is that Christine's personal perception data often tells a completely different story to her Garmin and Training Peaks numbers. Learning to sit with that tension, and to trust her own read of what's going on, has made her a better, more consistent and more self-aware athlete. This one will make you think differently about the data you're collecting and the data you might be ignoring. 5 KEY POINTS Perception and performance data often contradict each other. Both tell you something important and neither should be ignored. Tracking the human side of training reveals patterns wearables miss. Motivation dips and mood shifts show up in a notebook long before they show up as a poor HRV score. Simple beats sophisticated. High, medium or low. Good, okay or rubbish. Christine's deliberately unsophisticated system is exactly why she's stuck with it for two and a half years. Reflect before you look at the results. Writing down your honest perception of a race before checking the data means the numbers don't overwrite your own experience of what happened. Tracking evolves over time. What matters to record changes as habits form and patterns emerge. The goal isn't a permanent system, it's a living one. 3 TAKEAWAYS Start before you're ready. Pick a few things that matter, buy a notebook you like, and begin. There's no right or wrong, only the system you'll actually maintain. Don't let the data become the verdict. Your perception of how you performed and what you learned is where the real value sits. Self-knowledge transfers beyond sport. Knowing when to push and when to back off is a skill that works everywhere. KILLER QUOTE "My perception and the stats are sometimes absolutely polar opposite to each other. That difference is exactly what I wanted to understand."   LINKS & RESOURCES Mentioned in the episode: Christine had 2 favourite books which she recommended. One we have had before The Chimp Paradox - Dr Steve Peters - The Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness The Brave Athlete: Calm the F**k Down And Rise To The Occasion - Lesley Patterson & Dr Simon Marshall - The Brave Athlete solves the 13 most common mental conundrums athletes face in their everyday training and in races.   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!

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!

We called them cheats. The reality is far more complicated. There have been plenty of books written about drugs in sport. Confessions, memoirs, exposés. But this one is different. James Witts is a sports journalist and former editor of 220 Triathlon Magazine — someone I've known for well over a decade. His new book, Dope, isn't a first-person account of falling from grace. It's a proper state-of-play analysis of where the battle between dopers and anti-dopers actually stands in 2025 and 2026. Who's winning? How are athletes sidestepping detection? And what's driving people to dope in the first place — because it's rarely as simple as wanting to win.   We talk about Colin Chartier, David Millar, Team Sky, TUEs, blood bags, the Enhanced Games, AI, and why this issue reaches much further than elite sport. Including age-group athletes who will go to extraordinary lengths just to qualify for Kona. This is a nuanced conversation that will change how you see this subject.   5 KEY POINTS Doping is rarely just about winning — identity, imposter syndrome, financial pressure and team dynamics all play a significant role. TUEs are widely exploited — therapeutic use exemptions are legitimate in principle but have become a well-documented route to legal performance enhancement. The Enhanced Games raises an uncomfortable question — if records aren't broken when athletes can openly dope, what does that say about clean sport? Social media is a direct pipeline for dangerous substances — young athletes are being targeted by adverts for drugs like DNP, linked to over 30 deaths in the UK alone. AI cuts both ways — it could help create novel undetectable drugs, but also help anti-doping agencies crunch data faster than ever before. 3 TAKEAWAYS Look beyond the headlines — calling athletes cheats and moving on ignores the complex web of pressure and identity that leads many there. The line is rarely clear — from TUEs to grey-area supplements, the boundary between legal and illegal is often deliberately blurred. This isn't just an elite problem — age-group athletes and recreational competitors operate in the same ecosystem, with more similar pressures than we'd like to think.   KILLER QUOTE  "It's so damning if someone is found to have taken a prohibited substance — it almost feels worse than murder. At least with murder there's a sense of rehabilitation."   CONNECT with James James Witts is a sports journalist and author specialising in cycling and endurance sport. His new book Dope is available now from Waterstones and all major booksellers. X/Twitter: @jameswitts LinkedIn: James Witts Buy the book: Dope - available at Amazon, Waterstones and all major booksellers   James's favourite book: Racing Through the Dark by David Millar   LINKS & RESOURCES Mentioned in the episode: WADA Prohibited List 2026 Enhanced Games   Other blogs, Videos etc you might want to check out Honest Sport Substack - Edmund Wilson Icarus documentary - If you haven’t seen this you must. Film maker and amateur cyclist Bryan Fogel sets out to investigate the furtive world of illegal doping in sports and ends up revealing the biggest international sports scandal in living memory. The hidden cost of doping sanctions on Kenyan athletes   FREE Download👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 A simple checklist to see if you’re actually on track 3–6 months out. Ironman Sanity Checklist   Want help building durable training? Inside the SWAT Inner Circle you’ll find structured training plans, strength programmes and regular coaching insights designed to help endurance athletes train consistently without breaking down. £30 per month. CLICK HERE TO START YOUR MISSION   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!

If you've ever wondered whether your endurance base could carry you into gravel or mountain bike racing — or whether your FTP is really the thing holding you back — this episode is a timely reality check. Dave Schell is the founder of Kaizen Endurance, based in Boulder, Colorado, and has spent 15 years coaching cyclists and endurance athletes through some of the most demanding events on the calendar — Unbound 200, Leadville, ultra-distance gravel and mountain bike. Before that, he spent seven years at Training Peaks as coach education manager, so he understands both the science and the real-world application better than most. We talk about why FTP is overrated as a race predictor, why skill and technique will give you more free speed than another training block, how to actually prepare your body for eight to ten hours in the saddle, the mental game of ultra-distance events, and why consistency remains the most unsexy and most powerful tool any athlete has. There's a lot in here that applies well beyond gravel.   5 KEY POINTS FTP is overrated for long events — after eight hours everyone regresses to the same sustainable pace. Durability and fat oxidation decide the result. Skill delivers free speed — technique improvements will outperform another fitness block for most athletes, most of the time. Race your race bike — training on the road and racing gravel leaves your body unprepared for the physical demands, regardless of fitness level. Recovery is where adaptation happens — most athletes need permission to rest, not encouragement to go harder. Consistency is the only secret — the work never changes, you just keep doing it week after week. 3 TAKEAWAYS Sign up for something that scares you — if there's no real possibility of failure, you'll wing it. The fear is what gets you out the door. Context beats data — RPE and athlete feedback tell you more than power numbers alone. Data without context is just noise. Extreme moderation wins — train at the right load, not the highest load. The athletes who stay consistent are the ones who progress. KILLER QUOTE 👉 "My job is facilitating consistency — because over 15 years of coaching, consistency is the biggest secret. Whatever helps you be consistent, that's what leads to progress."   CONNECT with Dave Dave Schell is the founder of Kaizen Endurance, coaching cyclists and endurance athletes for ultra-distance gravel and mountain bike events. Website: kaizenendurance.coach Instagram Substack Podcast   Dave's favourite book: Endurance by Alex Hutchinson - Alex was a guest on the show talking about this book. You can listen to that episode HERE   LINKS & RESOURCES Mentioned in the episode: Tim Gabbett research papers - Should athletes be training harder & smarter Acute vs Chronic Workload ratio   Dave also mentioned Goodhart’s Law - “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure” - worth considering for any athlete   FREE Download👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 A simple checklist to see if you’re actually on track 3–6 months out. Ironman Sanity Checklist   Want help building durable training? Inside the SWAT Inner Circle you’ll find structured training plans, strength programmes and regular coaching insights designed to help endurance athletes train consistently without breaking down. £30 per month. CLICK HERE TO START YOUR MISSION   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!

Thinking about adding HYROX to your training? Or already racing and wondering why your nutrition isn't translating into performance? Dr Kelsie Johnson is a nutrition and performance coach who works with hybrid athletes: people combining serious strength work with endurance sport. With a PhD in nutrition and muscle mass, experience as an S&C coach at Aston Villa Women's, and a background in triathlon and HYROX herself, Kelsie brings both the science and the real-world application. In this episode we dig into what hybrid training actually looks like in practice, why carbohydrate periodisation is the biggest gap she sees in athletes, how to fuel for a HYROX race depending on your start time, and why doing both triathlon and HYROX in the same block is a recipe for burnout. If you've been guessing with your nutrition and hoping for the best — this one's for you. 5 KEY POINTS Don't run HYROX and triathlon simultaneously — use HYROX as your off-season focus instead. Carbs, not protein, are the missing link — most athletes have protein nailed but aren't periodizing their carbohydrate intake around session demands. HYROX is 60–70% running at high intensity — fuelling during the race is non-negotiable, even if it only lasts 60 minutes. The interference effect is real — strength and endurance adaptations compete, so session sequencing matters. Race start times vary wildly — practise your fuelling strategy for different scenarios long before race week. 3 TAKEAWAYS Match your carbs to the session — fuel for the work you're actually doing, not out of habit. Rehearse race day nutrition in training — know your timing, your meals and how you'll carry fuel during the race. A healthy athlete is a fast athlete — under-fuelling is one of the fastest routes to injury and inconsistency. KILLER QUOTE 👉 "If you're putting this much time, effort and money into your training — get the nutrition right. The improvement you'll see is going to be second to none."   CONNECT with Kelsie Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kelsiejohnson_/ https://www.instagram.com/nxpcoaching/ LINKS & RESOURCES Mentioned in the episode: Carbohydrate periodisation  Fuel for the work required ⁠Interference Effect https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5407958/ ⁠Females and underfueling: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/17/23/3773 Kelsie’s favourite book : There Is No Wall - Allie Bailey   FREE Download👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 A simple checklist to see if you’re actually on track 3–6 months out. Ironman Sanity Checklist   Want help building durable training? Inside the SWAT Inner Circle you’ll find structured training plans, strength programmes and regular coaching insights designed to help endurance athletes train consistently without breaking down. £30 per month. CLICK HERE TO START YOUR MISSION   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!

Carbon-plated running shoes have completely changed endurance sport. World records are tumbling. Recovery between sessions seems quicker. And for many runners and triathletes, they feel almost impossible to ignore. But are they coming with a hidden cost? In this episode, I’m joined by physio and sub-30-minute 10k runner Andy Smith to explore what these shoes are actually doing biomechanically, why we may now be seeing different injury patterns in runners and triathletes, and how to use carbon-plated shoes without breaking yourself in the process. This is a practical conversation about performance, durability, strength, and why “faster” isn’t always as simple as it looks.   5 KEY POINTS 1. Carbon shoes change running mechanics - They reduce load on the calf and Achilles… but shift stress further up the chain. 2. Injury patterns may be changing - Andy is seeing more bone stress injuries in areas like the femur and pelvis. 3. Faster recovery can be deceptive - The shoes may allow athletes to handle more training volume… before the body is ready. 4. Strength is now non-negotiable - Foot, calf, hip, pelvis and core strength all become even more important. 5. Most athletes transition too aggressively - Andy recommends gradually building into carbon shoes rather than using them for every run.   3 TAKEAWAYS 1. Don’t let the shoes do the work - The stronger you are, the more benefit you’ll get from them. 2. Protect your weak links - Hip stability, calf strength and foot control matter more than ever. 3. Build gradually - Introduce carbon shoes slowly and strategically.   KILLER QUOTE 👉 “The shoes don’t reduce injury risk… they just change where the load goes.”   CONNECT with Andy Andy works at my favourite physio Clinic Coachhouse Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Clinic - West Park, Leeds This is his bio page - https://cspc.co.uk/member/andy-smith/   Andy’s favourite book is The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho.  an unforgettable novel about the essential wisdom of listening to our heart and, above all, following our dreams.   🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES Mentioned in the episode: It’s the shoes - great article by former podcast guest Alex Hutchinson   Research from Tim Gabbett The training—injury prevention paradox: should athletes be training smarter and harder? Load management: What it is and what it is not FREE Download👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 A simple checklist to see if you’re actually on track 3–6 months out. Ironman Sanity Checklist   Want help building durable training? Inside the SWAT Inner Circle you’ll find structured training plans, strength programmes and regular coaching insights designed to help endurance athletes train consistently without breaking down. £30 per month. CLICK HERE TO START YOUR MISSION   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!

What happens when everything looks right on the outside… but something isn’t quite right underneath? In this episode, I’m joined by Justin Robbins, a former Ironman athlete and coach who was training consistently, performing well, and doing all the things we’d typically associate with good health. But a routine blood test told a very different story. What followed was a complete rethink of how he approaches training, health, and life. This is an honest conversation about identity, balance, and what really matters if you want to stay fit for the long term.   5 KEY POINTS 1. Fitness doesn’t equal health - You can train hard and still be metabolically unhealthy. 2. Identity can become a trap - When your identity is tied to performance, it’s hard to step back. 3. More isn’t always better - High training volume doesn’t guarantee better outcomes. 4. Awareness creates change - It often takes a wake-up call to reassess what you’re doing. 5. Health is a long-term game - Short-term performance should never come at the expense of longevity.   3 TAKEAWAYS 1. Ask better questions - Don’t assume your current approach is working. 2. Look beneath the surface - Feeling fit isn’t the same as being healthy. 3. Think long term - Train in a way that supports your future self.   KILLER QUOTE “I was training 15 to 16 hours a week… and still got told I was pre-diabetic.”   🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES Connect with Justin HERE on Instagram  LinkedIn    Justin's favourite book: Be useful - Arnold Schwarzenegger (surprisingly inspiring) Justin mentioned getting a full blood panel via an online lab. This is the link: https://healf.com/zone   FREE Download👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 A simple checklist to see if you’re actually on track 3–6 months out. Ironman Sanity Checklist   Want help building durable training? Inside the SWAT Inner Circle you’ll find structured training plans, strength programmes and regular coaching insights designed to help endurance athletes train consistently without breaking down. £30 per month. CLICK HERE TO START YOUR MISSION   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!

What happens when you step away from sport for nearly 20 years… and then come back? In this episode, I’m joined by Jane Hansom, who did exactly that. From a long break after university to running a sub-3 marathon, winning her age group at Kona, and building a successful marketing business alongside her training, Jane’s story is a powerful reminder that it’s never too late to start. We talk about consistency, mindset, coaching, and how the lessons from endurance sport translate directly into business and life.   5 KEY POINTS 1. It’s never too late to start - Progress doesn’t depend on your past. 2. Consistency wins - Show up. Do the work. Repeat. 3. Coaching is about people - The best coaches adapt to the individual. 4. Mindset transfers - What works in sport works in life. 5. Details matter - Small things make a big difference.   3 TAKEAWAYS 1. Be clear on your goal - Know exactly what you’re aiming for. 2. Do the work, then trust it - Confidence comes from preparation. 3. Find your people - Support makes everything easier.   KILLER QUOTE “There wasn’t a single day in that entire year that I pressed snooze.”   🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES Nevis to St Kitts Cross Channel Swim - https://www.nevistostkittscrosschannelswim.com/ UltraSwim 33.3 (Caribbean Edition) - https://ultraswim333.com/ Listen to our recent podcast about the Nevis cross channel swim - https://simonward.podbean.com/e/nevis-to-st-kitts-swim-why-i-finally-decided-to-take-statins/   FREE Download👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 A simple checklist to see if you’re actually on track 3–6 months out. Ironman Sanity Checklist   Want help building durable training? Inside the SWAT Inner Circle you’ll find structured training plans, strength programmes and regular coaching insights designed to help endurance athletes train consistently without breaking down. £30 per month. CLICK HERE TO START YOUR MISSION   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!