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

Simon Ward
  • 4.5 (23)
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The Be Battle Ready triathlon podcast is where everyday athletes, adventurers, and seekers of strength come to forge resilience - in body, mind, and spirit. Hosted by coach Simon Ward, each episode explores the true pillars of endurance: purposeful training, nourishing nutrition, restorative sleep, a resilient mindset, and the art of recovery. It’s designed especially for those in their 40s, 50s and beyond who refuse to rust - men and women who know that age is no excuse to stop sharpening the blade. Whether you’re preparing for your next Ironman, rebuilding after setback, or simply training for the demands of life itself, this show will help you stay Battle Ready: strong, adaptable, and unbreakable. Expect conversations with world-class coaches, scientists, and everyday warriors - those who walk the path of longevity and high performance - sharing wisdom, tactics, and stories from the front line of endurance. 👉 Subscribe now and step inside the ranks of the Battle Ready Society -  where strength is forged, and rust never wins.

  1. 2h ago

    Just Because You Exercise Doesn't Mean You're Healthy, With Debbie Potts

    Seven years ago Debbie Potts came on this podcast to talk about what happened when her body finally said enough. A five-time Kona qualifier, she had been doing 20-hour training weeks on one meal a day, working 12-hour days, running on high cortisol and calling it fitness. The diagnosis was HPA axis syndrome. The recovery took years. Seven years on, Debbie is a health practitioner, author and coach based in San Diego, and she has built an entire philosophy around what she learned. She calls it the holistic method - eight elements of health that go well beyond the training plan. This conversation picks up where we left off, and covers the bigger picture questions that most athletes never think to ask until something goes wrong. IN THIS EPISODE WE COVER: Why just exercising is not enough and what the other 85% of the health pie chart looks like The body as a communication system - what chronic stress is actually telling your body and why it stops trying to build and repair The go-go years, the slow-go years and the no-go years - how to visualise your future self and reverse engineer from there Debbie's eight elements of holistic health and why happiness, community and joy are as important as sleep and nutrition The blue zones - what people living well into their 90s actually have in common The vagus nerve, HRV and why they tell you far more than just whether you recovered from yesterday's session What Debbie's own daily routine looks like - and she genuinely walks the talk KILLER QUOTE "We should be striving to thrive as we age - not struggle. And so much of that comes down to the choices we make today, in middle age, before the labels start arriving."   CONNECT with Debbie Debbie Potts is a health practitioner, coach, author and podcast host based in San Diego, California. She specialises in helping masters athletes thrive as they age through functional testing and her holistic method. Website: https://debbiepotts.net/ Podcast: The Debbie Potts show Book: Life Is Not a Race, it’s a journey by Debbie Potts The Holistic Method Workbook: [PLACEHOLDER] Previous Be Battle Ready episodes with Debbie Potts Episode 1 - Dealing with HPA Axis syndrome Episode 2 - Recovering from Chronic Fatigue   LINKS & RESOURCES Mentioned in the episode: Outlive by Peter Attia Blue Zones documentary 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: 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!

  2. Sep 9

    The Physical Pension: The Investment You Cannot Afford to Miss - With Simon and Beth Ward

    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: 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!

  3. Sep 2

    Why Winter Training Falls Apart and What to Do About It — With Simon and Beth Ward

    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: 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!

  4. Aug 26

    The Principles of Great Coaching: What Six Triathlon Legends Have in Common

    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: 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!

  5. Aug 19

    The Long Way Round: Georgia Hamblett on RED-S, Aquabike and Starting Again

    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!

  6. Aug 12

    Six Athletes. Seven Lessons. One Question. — With Simon and Beth Ward

    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

  7. Aug 5

    The Physical Pension: Strength, Longevity and the Only Secret That Actually Exists, With Dan John

    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: 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!

  8. Jul 29

    Recovery-Centred Training: Your Questions Answered — With Simon and Beth Ward

    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: 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!

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4.5
out of 5
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About

The Be Battle Ready triathlon podcast is where everyday athletes, adventurers, and seekers of strength come to forge resilience - in body, mind, and spirit. Hosted by coach Simon Ward, each episode explores the true pillars of endurance: purposeful training, nourishing nutrition, restorative sleep, a resilient mindset, and the art of recovery. It’s designed especially for those in their 40s, 50s and beyond who refuse to rust - men and women who know that age is no excuse to stop sharpening the blade. Whether you’re preparing for your next Ironman, rebuilding after setback, or simply training for the demands of life itself, this show will help you stay Battle Ready: strong, adaptable, and unbreakable. Expect conversations with world-class coaches, scientists, and everyday warriors - those who walk the path of longevity and high performance - sharing wisdom, tactics, and stories from the front line of endurance. 👉 Subscribe now and step inside the ranks of the Battle Ready Society -  where strength is forged, and rust never wins.

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