Be Battle Ready Triathlon Podcast - Performance and longevity for endurance athletes over 50 | Simon Ward

Simon Butterworth came to Ironman late and has been racing it for decades. He won his age group at the 2017 Ironman World Championships in Kona and  2022 in St. George, Utah describing his own training as a "manic obsession". He lives on the south coast of Ireland, where he was brought up, and in October he crossed the finish line at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in 16 hours 41 minutes, aged 79 and a few weeks short of his 80th birthday. He is one of the very few men over 80 to have finished there. I first met Simon when I was working with CompuTrainer and he was a CompuTrainer user, and we'd come out to support him on race day. It's been a long road back to Kona. His wife Ingrid, his long-term supporter, died in 2022. His knees had been crunching on the run for years, and he had both replaced in 2024 by a surgeon who didn't tell him to stop running. I chatted with Simon a few years ago about his Ironman history, and I'll put a link to it below. In this episode, we talk about what it takes to come back from two knee replacements, bereavement and a back that gave out on race day, and why Simon thinks running on artificial knees is worth the risk for the right person. Of course, always consult with your own doctor! In this episode: Why Simon decided he needed new knees after hearing them "crunch crunch crunch" on the run at the 2022 World Championship in St. George, and how he chose a surgeon who wouldn't tell him to stop running Losing Ingrid, moving back to Ireland, and the friends who put him up for two months after surgery Changes to training approach including run/walk, 14 day training cycles and why longer recovery matters more with age The huge strength training error and what it cost him in Copenhagen Shorter cranks, a blend of diet approaches, and cutting out alcohol (with a Guinness Zero test in Kona) What he'd tell anyone considering knee replacement who still wants to run Killer quote: Regarding strength training "To put it bluntly, I’ve been stupid. I was a coach, I know exactly what I should have been doing, but I wasn’t doing it religiously.” Connect with Simon Butterworth on Facebook Simon highly recommended the following book, especially because lots of triathlon events have a sea swim The Blue Machine - Helen Czerski - All of the Earth's ocean, from the equator to the poles, is a single engine powered by sunlight - a blue machine Also mentioned: Simon's first podcast with me, covering his earlier Ironman history Will you still be competing in ironman events at 74 Bobby McGee, whose Boulder clinics introduced Simon to run-walk, and who gave him the mental trick of placing people on the run course The smartest way to run faster Karlyn Pipes, who gave both of us refresher swim lessons in Kona ; Faster Freestyle for Open Water Swimming 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   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 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!

Every October, the same thing happens. Athletes who’ve been training for decades either shut down completely and lose everything they built, or hammer through the dark months and arrive in spring injured, ill, burnt out, or a bit of all three. If you're over 50, the cost is higher, because you lose fitness faster and it takes longer to get it back. In this solo episode, I walk through exactly how I approach winter training with the athletes I coach one-to-one and inside our SWAT community. I’ll start at the end, working backwards from a specific goal, and build a winter around staying healthy, training consistently and leaving something in the tank. In this episode: Why "I want to be fitter" isn't a goal, and how to work backwards from a race, a date and a definition of success Why staying healthy and injury-free is job one, and the four habits that protect it: sleep, nutrition, alcohol and dealing with niggles early Why athletes over 50 lose fitness faster, take longer to get it back, and why health is "a hard-nosed performance strategy" Reps in reserve: why your intervals shouldn't end in failure, and why you don't need to prove anything on a Tuesday night at the track The 80/20 principle by sessions (or 90/10 by time), one true rest day a week and a planned recovery block every 10 to 14 days Why strength training at least twice a week is the hill I will die on How to choose a weekly volume you can actually sustain, using your own training history Why winter is a great time for high-intensity work, and why it belongs indoors How to find your real limiters, using a swim example, and why you may need to swim in a slower lane for a while Killer quote: "It's not about smashing yourself to bits in December. It's about building yourself up so you're harder to break when it matters." 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 Coming next week: a guest who is one of the oldest finishers ever to cross the finish line at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii, Simon Butterworth! 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 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!

Rob Sears is a visually impaired triathlete from Norfolk with between 5 and 10% of his sight left. He races in the VI para category with a guide, on a tandem, tethered in the swim. He’s also a sports therapist and an online run and triathlon coach. As a kid, his PE teacher told his parents he would “never do anything in sport.” Today sport is his hobby, his work and, in his words, everything to him. In July 2025, Rob fell down a flight of stairs at home after tripping over his dog, Hugo. He cracked his pelvis, fractured his sacrum, damaged two discs in his neck and suffered a bleed on the brain, and he had to relearn how to walk and swim. Twelve months later he was on the start line at Ironman Hamburg. Since then he’s been knocked out of races by mechanicals, given his spare inner tube to a stranger, and been invited to the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Nice because of it. He still hasn’t finished an iron-distance race, and he’s not done yet. In this episode, we talk about resilience, trust, and what it really takes to race when you can’t see the road in front of you. In this episode: Why Rob decided to do 30 things he’d never done before at 30, and how a triathlon became one of them Racing solo with very little sight, and the day at Weymouth 70.3 when he realised he had to stop Handing control to a guide, and realising he never had as much control as he thought How guided racing actually works: the tether, the stroke sync and the tandem The fall, the brain injury and the long road back to the start line The inner tube that got him to Nice, and what’s next on the road to Kona Killer quote: “I’ve had a lot of character building experience, so I feel like the character is full.” Connect with Rob: You can find Rob’s YouTube channel, Blind Focus, here: https://www.youtube.com/@BlindFocusRobSears To contact Rob on social media, view his Breakfast with Bob, and so much more please go to: https://linktr.ee/robsears Rob's favourite book is: Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl - Rob says "I love the message behind this book because it explores something I strongly believe in: we can’t always control what happens to us, but we can influence how we respond." 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!

Louise Hanley has been coaching and competing in triathlon for over two decades. She has worked with juniors, youth athletes and adults, helped build the Yorkshire triathlon community, and still races and wins in her age group. She has built a coaching business entirely on word of mouth, with no complicated systems no data obsession, and training based around a set of simple principles. What she does have is a philosophy that has stayed consistent across 23 years: keep it simple, and enjoy it. In this episode, we talk about what that actually looks like in practice, for her as an athlete and for the people she coaches. In this episode: How 20 years coaching juniors shaped the way she works with adults The athlete who went from 12:30 to 10 hours at Ironman on eight hours a week What a 16-year coaching relationship actually looks like The real barriers holding female coaches back in triathlon Menopause, training and what male coaches often miss Why she trains with no plan, no data, and no apology   Killer quote: “I’m not actually training. I’m just doing what I like doing.” Connect with Louise: You can find more details for Louise on TheTriathloncoach.com website. To contact louise directly email: [email protected] Links and resources: Louise recommended book is Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson   Alex was a guest on the podcast a while back. Check out the conversation here: The Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance   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!

Ashleigh Gentle has been at the sharp end of professional triathlon for more than two decades. Two-time Olympian, ten-time winner of the Noosa Triathlon, junior world champion, runner-up on the World Triathlon Series circuit, and now a multiple T100 and 70.3 winner since making the move to middle distance. She is also, as we record this, a few weeks away from the birth of her first child. What I wanted to explore in this conversation is not the race results but the bigger picture. What does a career that long actually teach you about how to train, how to look after yourself and how to keep going? The answers are not complicated. But they are consistent, and they are exactly what I keep telling the athletes I coach. IN THIS EPISODE WE COVER: Growing up playing multiple sports and why Ashleigh believes that gave her a robust physical foundation that has protected her throughout her career The junior and under-23 years, the lessons learned early, and the coach who shaped her approach to sustainable training A decade on the World Triathlon Series circuit, the highlights, and why she eventually made the move to middle distance How she discovered she had probably been under-fuelling her entire short course career, and what changed when she started working with Precision Fuel and Hydration Training and racing alongside husband Josh Amberger, and what that has meant for her relationship with the sport The daily habits and routines that have kept her healthy and performing at the highest level for over 15 years Strength training: the two years she stopped doing it, the chronic injuries that followed, and why she has never dropped it since What the next chapter looks like, on and off the start line   KILLER QUOTE "If I tried to do what I did 10 years ago now, I would be ruined. It's not that I'm weaker or not as capable. It's just that you've got to respect your body and what it's been through. That adds up. That counts for something."   CONNECT with Ashleigh Ashleigh Gentle is a two-time Olympian and professional triathlete based in Brisbane, Australia. Instagram: @gentle_ash   Ashleigh’s favourite books is ‘The Nightingale’ by Kristin Hannah. She also recommended ‘Too much Lip’ by Melissa Lucashenko   CONNECT with Precision Fuel and Hydration precisionfuelandhydration.com   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!