The High Performance Human
I'm Simon Ward, Health, Wellness and Performance Coach. This newsletter is for athletes in their late 50s and beyond — the ones who aren't slowing down, but training smarter. Whether you're chasing finish lines or just want to keep doing the sports you love for years to come, we'll explore the best strategies for performance, recovery, longevity, and living well for longer.
What Finishing an Ironman 56 Seconds Too Late Taught Me About Success
Imagine training for months, perhaps years, with one goal in mind. You swim 3.8 kilometres, cycle 180 kilometres, run a full marathon. And then you miss the Ironman cutoff by 56 seconds. Most people would call that a failure. I want to offer you a different perspective. The athlete in this story chose Ironman Wales, one of the toughest Ironman events in the world. He knew it would challenge him to the core. He pushed through every hour of that race, crossed the line with nothing left, and...
The Athlete Who Trains 15-16 Hours a Week Is Probably Losing to the One Who Trains 10
I want to describe an athlete you might recognise. They are putting in 12, 14, sometimes 20 hours a week. They have the goal, they have the commitment, and they have convinced themselves that volume is the price of entry. On paper the logic holds: more training equals more fitness equals better results. Except it is not working. Times are going backwards. Niggles are becoming injuries. Motivation is starting to crack. And nobody has sat them down and told them the truth. So here it is....
Be Battle Ready - Training harder isn't always the answer
Hi Reader Over the last two weeks I've been talking about reading your race properly and auditing the basics before you touch the training plan. This week I want to challenge something that's almost hardwired into endurance athletes - the belief that when performance stalls, the answer is more. More miles. More intensity. More sacrifice. More discipline. I understand it. I've been there myself. There's something psychologically satisfying about doubling down when things aren't going to plan....
Cheats or Casualties? The Uncomfortable Truth Behind Sport's Doping Scandals
Most of us have a clear image of the doper. Calculating. Cynical. Willing to cheat for personal gain. It is a comfortable image because it keeps the moral lines clean. But the more you dig into the actual stories behind the headlines, the less comfortable that picture becomes. James Witts, author of 'Dope - How Drugs Changed Sport' James Witts has been writing about endurance sport for over two decades. His new book, Dope, examines the current state of performance-enhancing drugs in sport,...
Why Your FTP Is Not the Problem — And What Actually Decides a Gravel Ultra
There is a type of athlete who has ticked every box in triathlon. They have done the Iron Man, they know how to suffer, and they are not afraid of a big day out. At some point they discover gravel racing or ultra mountain biking, and they assume their fitness will carry them through. It does not. At least, not in the way they expect. Dave Schell has been coaching endurance athletes for fifteen years. These days he works predominantly with gravel and mountain bike athletes targeting events...
Be Battle Ready Podcast - Your FTP Won't Save You at Mile 150 — With Dave Schell
Hi Reader, Most athletes I know who've made the move from triathlon to gravel will tell you the same thing. They thought their fitness would carry them. It didn't — at least not in the way they expected. Dave Schell has spent 15 years coaching cyclists through some of the most demanding events on the calendar, ultra-distance gravel and mountain bike events like Unbound 200, Leadville or the Glorious Gravel events in the UK. Before that he spent seven years at Training Peaks as coach education...
Be Battle Ready - Your race just told you something. Did you hear it?
Hi Reader If you've raced recently - or you've got a warm-up event coming up in the next few weeks - I want to share something that might change how you think about it. Most athletes finish a race and immediately sort it into one of two piles. Either it went well, or it didn't. Then they get back to training. What they miss is that the race just gave them a level of information that no training session can replicate. How your body managed sustained effort under real pressure. Where your...
Why Your Hyrox Nutrition Plan Is Probably Behind Your Training
There is a pattern that repeats itself almost every time a triathlete turns up to their first Hyrox event. They have trained hard. They have the running base, the gym confidence, and probably a decent understanding of how to fuel a long endurance effort. What they have not done is rethink any of that for a sport that asks something quite different of the body. Hyrox is not a long, steady-state effort. It is a sequence of high-intensity, repeated anaerobic bouts punctuated by running. The...
Carbon Shoes: Faster Isn’t Always Better
The modern running shoe has changed endurance sport completely. World records are falling. Marathon times that once looked impossible are now becoming normal. Recovery between sessions appears faster, and almost every serious runner now owns some version of a carbon-plated “super shoe”. But there is another side to the story that very few people are talking about. As part of the podcast this week, I spoke with runner and physiotherapist Andy Smith about the impact these shoes are having, not...
Health First: Why More Athletes Over 50 Need to Change the Way They Train
For years, the endurance world sold us a simple message. Train more. Push harder. Be disciplined. Sacrifice now and enjoy the rewards later. And for many athletes, especially those chasing Ironman goals, that approach worked… at least for a while. But there comes a point where the pursuit of performance starts to come at the expense of health. The problem is that many athletes do not realise it until something forces them to stop and take a proper look. That was exactly the journey former...
I'm Simon Ward, Health, Wellness and Performance Coach. This newsletter is for athletes in their late 50s and beyond — the ones who aren't slowing down, but training smarter. Whether you're chasing finish lines or just want to keep doing the sports you love for years to come, we'll explore the best strategies for performance, recovery, longevity, and living well for longer.