Simon Ward, Be Battle Ready triathlon podcast - 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

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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: Simon@thetriathloncoach.com

Sign up for Simon’s weekly newsletter

Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to beth@thetriathloncoach.com 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

 

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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: Simon@thetriathloncoach.com

Sign up for Simon’s weekly newsletter

Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to beth@thetriathloncoach.com 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

 

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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: Simon@thetriathloncoach.com

Sign up for Simon’s weekly newsletter

Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to beth@thetriathloncoach.com 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: Simon@thetriathloncoach.com

Sign up for Simon’s weekly newsletter

Got an awkward question for Simon? Send it to beth@thetriathloncoach.com 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: Simon@thetriathloncoach.com

Sign up for Simon’s weekly newsletter