Unbroken Protocol Blog
The knowledge
behind the protocol.
Deep-dives into recovery science, performance psychology, and the frameworks that separate athletes who last from athletes who burn out.
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Most recent
The Only Swim Test Worth Doing.
Most triathletes swim one pace for years because they have never measured anything. Two efforts, one number, and every set you do afterwards has a target.
Read the piece →
Five Minutes Before the Gun, Do This
A race morning protocol built on breathing, not positive thinking. Five minutes that change the start line from chaos to clarity.
You Missed a Session. Now What?
What to do when you skip a session, and why chasing perfection guarantees more missed sessions than illness or fatigue ever will.
Two weeks without water is not two weeks without swimming
You cannot get to a pool for a fortnight. You can still train the patterns that make you faster in the water.
Training for an Ironman From Your Spare Room
Almost all of it can be done indoors, and for a working parent that is not a compromise. There is one part that cannot, and it is not the one you would guess.
New here
Start with these
Six pieces that explain how the whole system fits together. One for each part of the sport.
Athlete Recovery: What Actually Helps You Adapt
Cold plunge, sauna, contrast, breathwork, yoga. Some of it shifts your nervous system, some of it is another training stress wearing recovery's clothes.
Read the piece →
Why Your Legs Sink.
Almost every athlete I meet tries to fix sinking legs by kicking harder. It is the one response guaranteed to make it worse. Here is what actually holds you up.
Your Easy Runs Are Not Easy.
Recreational runners spend about half their volume genuinely easy. Elites spend eighty percent. I have never met an athlete who ran too slowly.
TSS, CTL, ATL and TSB Explained for Triathletes
Four acronyms describing one simple idea. Fitness is what you built, fatigue is what you carry, form is the difference. What the numbers actually mean.
Two Sessions a Week Is Enough.
The reason most endurance athletes do no strength work is that the programmes they are given assume they have four hours. Here is what two honest sessions look like.
Your First Triathlon.
Nobody warns you about the body marking, the cold, or the fact that everybody looks like they know what they are doing. They do not. Here is the honest version.
Weekday email
A piece every weekday, at half six.
One article each weekday morning, in your inbox before the day starts. Separate from the Sunday Brief, so you can take one without the other.
One confirmation email. Stop them any time and keep the Sunday Brief.
Collection
The Ironman Series
Forty pieces on the questions people actually ask before a first full distance. Time, money, fear, fuelling and whether any of it is worth it.
Five Minutes Before the Gun, Do This
A race morning protocol built on breathing, not positive thinking. Five minutes that change the start line from chaos to clarity.
Read the piece →
You Missed a Session. Now What?
What to do when you skip a session, and why chasing perfection guarantees more missed sessions than illness or fatigue ever will.
Two weeks without water is not two weeks without swimming
You cannot get to a pool for a fortnight. You can still train the patterns that make you faster in the water.
Training for an Ironman From Your Spare Room
Almost all of it can be done indoors, and for a working parent that is not a compromise. There is one part that cannot, and it is not the one you would guess.
A Plan Tells You What to Do. It Cannot Tell You When.
Training plans have never been better, and athletes on beautiful plans still break in month three. What the calendar cannot see, and the missing instrument that decides when the hard day should land.
Three Sports, One Body, One Week
The instinct is to divide your time evenly between the three disciplines. That is close to the worst possible allocation, and here is what to do instead.
The Only Swim Test Worth Doing.
Most triathletes swim one pace for years because they have never measured anything. Two efforts, one number, and every set you do afterwards has a target.
Deliberate Practice: Swim Drills That Transfer
Doing a drill five hundred times changes nothing if nothing is being corrected. What separates practice that changes a stroke from practice that rehearses it.
Environment Design for Consistent Training
The gap between deciding to train and starting is where most sessions die. Friction is the variable you can actually change, and it costs nothing.
Stack It on Something You Already Do.
Sessions attached to a time get eaten by the day. Sessions attached to an existing habit survive it. How to pick the anchor, and why the order matters.
Athlete Identity: Every Session Is a Vote
You do not become an athlete by deciding to be one. You accumulate evidence, and the short sessions on bad days count for more than the good ones.
Marginal Gains in Triathlon: What Is Worth 1%?
Marginal gains work, but not everything marketed as one is a gain. What genuinely compounds in endurance, what is rounding error, and how to tell them apart.
Why I Do Not Recommend Running Streaks.
Never missing is a fragile way to be consistent. Why streaks usually end in an injury rather than a decision, and the rule to use instead.
Your Body Keeps One Stress Account.
Why life stress shows up in your HRV, why some athletes cannot rest, and why consistency comes from alignment rather than discipline.
Training Systems vs Goals: What Creates Consistency?
Everyone on the start line wanted to finish, so the goal was never what separated them. What a system is, and how to build one in four questions.
Why Endurance Training Plateaus Before It Works
There is a lag between doing the training and seeing the result, and almost everyone quits inside it. How long each adaptation really takes.
Inside an Unbroken Strength and Conditioning Session
We lift, we do mobility, and then we lie on the floor in the dark and meditate. The last part is the reason the first part works, and it is the part nobody expects.
Do Carbon Plates Actually Work?
The economy benefit is real and it is not free. Where the load goes when the shoe takes it off your legs, and why the run off the bike is the risk.
Most Swim Drills Do Nothing.
A drill is only useful if it changes the stroke you swim afterwards. Most of the ones people spend their Tuesdays on do not, and here is how to tell which is which.
How to Prepare Your Body for a 140.6 Ironman
Your aerobic system will be ready months before your body is. Four structures decide whether you finish comfortably, and only one of them is trained by swimming, cycling or running.
Two Sessions a Week Is Enough.
The reason most endurance athletes do no strength work is that the programmes they are given assume they have four hours. Here is what two honest sessions look like.
What a Wetsuit Does to Your Stroke.
It lifts your hips, cuts your drag, and quietly takes your shoulders away. Why the swimmer it helps most is the one who needs it least.
Posterior Chain Strength for Endurance Athletes
Glutes, hamstrings, calves. The muscles that actually propel you are the ones that switch off when you sit down for a living, and nobody notices until mile twenty.
Why Tendons Adapt Slower Than Muscle
The injury that arrives in month three is not bad luck. It is the predictable result of muscle adapting faster than the tissue that has to transmit the force.
Is It Worth It?
Around three thousand pounds and five hundred hours taken from everything else in your life. An honest attempt at the question, including the case against.
Running Strides: Four Minutes That Improve Economy
Six twenty-second efforts at the end of an easy run cost almost nothing to recover from and change your mechanics more than most interval sessions do.
Four Minutes You Can Have for Free.
I watched an athlete lose three and a half minutes in transition at a race he finished eleven seconds off a podium. Nobody trains the cheapest time.
Deadlines and Long Rides in the Same Month
Every eight-month block contains at least one period where work becomes impossible. The protocol for surviving it without losing the block.
Your First Triathlon.
Nobody warns you about the body marking, the cold, or the fact that everybody looks like they know what they are doing. They do not. Here is the honest version.
Strength Training During Triathlon Race Season
Athletes who lifted all winter quietly drop it as volume climbs, and by August they are fast and fragile. What the interference effect actually says.
Triathlon Brick Sessions: Types, Purpose and Timing
Most athletes do one kind of brick, a long ride with a short jog tacked on, and call it done. There are five, and they train completely different things.
Your Easy Runs Are Not Easy.
Recreational runners spend about half their volume genuinely easy. Elites spend eighty percent. I have never met an athlete who ran too slowly.
Free Ironman Training Resources: What Actually Works
You can absolutely prepare for a full distance using free material. Here is what free does well, the two places it will let you down, and how to cover them.
The Achilles Does Not Warn You Politely.
It does not scream like a muscle. It whispers for six weeks and then stops you completely. What the morning stiffness means and how to load your way out.
Power Is Output. Heart Rate Is Price.
Two riders finish the same three hours at the same average watts and one is wrecked. Why you need both numbers, and what the gap between them tells you.
Athlete Recovery: What Actually Helps You Adapt
Cold plunge, sauna, contrast, breathwork, yoga. Some of it shifts your nervous system, some of it is another training stress wearing recovery's clothes.
TSS, CTL, ATL and TSB Explained for Triathletes
Four acronyms describing one simple idea. Fitness is what you built, fatigue is what you carry, form is the difference. What the numbers actually mean.
What Age Is Too Old to Start?
Someone raced their fourteenth full distance at the World Championship at seventy-one. The age question is real, but it is a question about recovery, not capability.
Swimming Breathing Technique and CO2 Tolerance
The athlete out of breath after 50 metres usually has plenty of oxygen. What they have is too much carbon dioxide, and it is a habit not a fitness problem.
Why Your Legs Sink.
Almost every athlete I meet tries to fix sinking legs by kicking harder. It is the one response guaranteed to make it worse. Here is what actually holds you up.
Discipline
The Swim
Catch, body position, CSS and the open water.
Two weeks without water is not two weeks without swimming
You cannot get to a pool for a fortnight. You can still train the patterns that make you faster in the water.
Read the piece →
The Only Swim Test Worth Doing.
Most triathletes swim one pace for years because they have never measured anything. Two efforts, one number, and every set you do afterwards has a target.
Deliberate Practice: Swim Drills That Transfer
Doing a drill five hundred times changes nothing if nothing is being corrected. What separates practice that changes a stroke from practice that rehearses it.
Most Swim Drills Do Nothing.
A drill is only useful if it changes the stroke you swim afterwards. Most of the ones people spend their Tuesdays on do not, and here is how to tell which is which.
Discipline
The Bike
Power, position, FTP and the hours that decide the run.
Training for an Ironman From Your Spare Room
Almost all of it can be done indoors, and for a working parent that is not a compromise. There is one part that cannot, and it is not the one you would guess.
Read the piece →
Marginal Gains in Triathlon: What Is Worth 1%?
Marginal gains work, but not everything marketed as one is a gain. What genuinely compounds in endurance, what is rounding error, and how to tell them apart.
Power Is Output. Heart Rate Is Price.
Two riders finish the same three hours at the same average watts and one is wrecked. Why you need both numbers, and what the gap between them tells you.
TSS, CTL, ATL and TSB Explained for Triathletes
Four acronyms describing one simple idea. Fitness is what you built, fatigue is what you carry, form is the difference. What the numbers actually mean.
Discipline
The Run
Economy, gait, durability and pace that lasts.
Why I Do Not Recommend Running Streaks.
Never missing is a fragile way to be consistent. Why streaks usually end in an injury rather than a decision, and the rule to use instead.
Read the piece →
Do Carbon Plates Actually Work?
The economy benefit is real and it is not free. Where the load goes when the shoe takes it off your legs, and why the run off the bike is the risk.
Running Strides: Four Minutes That Improve Economy
Six twenty-second efforts at the end of an easy run cost almost nothing to recover from and change your mechanics more than most interval sessions do.
Your Easy Runs Are Not Easy.
Recreational runners spend about half their volume genuinely easy. Elites spend eighty percent. I have never met an athlete who ran too slowly.
Discipline
Triathlon
Bricks, transitions, race week and the whole day.
A Plan Tells You What to Do. It Cannot Tell You When.
Training plans have never been better, and athletes on beautiful plans still break in month three. What the calendar cannot see, and the missing instrument that decides when the hard day should land.
Read the piece →
Three Sports, One Body, One Week
The instinct is to divide your time evenly between the three disciplines. That is close to the worst possible allocation, and here is what to do instead.
Stack It on Something You Already Do.
Sessions attached to a time get eaten by the day. Sessions attached to an existing habit survive it. How to pick the anchor, and why the order matters.
Training Systems vs Goals: What Creates Consistency?
Everyone on the start line wanted to finish, so the goal was never what separated them. What a system is, and how to build one in four questions.
Discipline
Strength & Conditioning
Posterior chain, tendons and staying in one piece.
Inside an Unbroken Strength and Conditioning Session
We lift, we do mobility, and then we lie on the floor in the dark and meditate. The last part is the reason the first part works, and it is the part nobody expects.
Read the piece →
How to Prepare Your Body for a 140.6 Ironman
Your aerobic system will be ready months before your body is. Four structures decide whether you finish comfortably, and only one of them is trained by swimming, cycling or running.
Two Sessions a Week Is Enough.
The reason most endurance athletes do no strength work is that the programmes they are given assume they have four hours. Here is what two honest sessions look like.
Posterior Chain Strength for Endurance Athletes
Glutes, hamstrings, calves. The muscles that actually propel you are the ones that switch off when you sit down for a living, and nobody notices until mile twenty.
Discipline
The Mind
Nervous system, sleep, motivation and the head you race with.
You Missed a Session. Now What?
What to do when you skip a session, and why chasing perfection guarantees more missed sessions than illness or fatigue ever will.
Read the piece →
Five Minutes Before the Gun, Do This
A race morning protocol built on breathing, not positive thinking. Five minutes that change the start line from chaos to clarity.
Environment Design for Consistent Training
The gap between deciding to train and starting is where most sessions die. Friction is the variable you can actually change, and it costs nothing.
Athlete Identity: Every Session Is a Vote
You do not become an athlete by deciding to be one. You accumulate evidence, and the short sessions on bad days count for more than the good ones.
Archive
Everything, newest first
All 143 pieces. Keep scrolling, more loads as you go.
IRONMAN Copenhagen Bike Pacing: The Aero Discipline TestHow to pace Copenhagen's flat two-loop bike course without turning the final run into damage control.
IRONMAN Copenhagen Race Week: Start, Transitions and LogisticsA practical Copenhagen race-week guide covering the separate transitions, lagoon start, city movement and final checks.
IRONMAN Kalmar Bike Strategy: Pace the Wind, Not the ProfileHow to prepare for Kalmar's exposed Öland bridge and island roads without wasting the run on a flat-course power chase.
IRONMAN Kalmar Race Week: Course, Start and Athlete BriefingA calm race-week plan for Kalmar covering the sea swim, central transition, Öland bridge and final official checks.
How Much Harder Is a Full IRONMAN Than a 70.3?The distance doubles, but the preparation, fuelling, durability and recovery cost rise by much more than two.
How Long Should an IRONMAN Training Plan Be?Why 20 weeks is not a universal answer and how to choose a build length from durability, experience and real-life recovery capacity.
How to Choose Your First European IRONMANChoose a first full-distance race by swim confidence, bike demands, weather, travel friction and the preparation your life can sustain.
Triathlon Clubs in London: How to Choose the Right OneA practical guide to choosing a London triathlon club by coaching, location, culture, session structure and recovery support.
IRONMAN Pacing by Finish Time: Build the Day BackwardsUse realistic swim, bike, transition and run ranges to create an Ironman pacing plan that survives the final ten kilometres.
IRONMAN Recovery Timeline: What to Do After the FinishA practical recovery timeline for the first 72 hours, first two weeks and return to structured training after an Ironman.
IRONMAN Copenhagen Swim: Conditions, Sighting and PreparationPrepare for Copenhagen's 3.8 km lagoon swim with a controlled-start plan, sighting practice and evidence-led equipment decisions.
IRONMAN Copenhagen Weather, Nutrition and Clothing StrategyUse Copenhagen's historical temperature, rain and wind context to build a flexible fuelling and clothing plan rather than betting on one forecast.
IRONMAN Copenhagen Training Timeline: From Base to Race WeekBuild a Copenhagen-specific training runway around swim confidence, sustained aero durability, controlled pacing and a four-lap marathon.
IRONMAN Kalmar Training and Pacing PlanPrepare for Kalmar with wind-stable riding, open-water confidence, nutrition under exposure and disciplined early run pacing.
IRONMAN Kalmar Swim Preparation for Open Water and ContactA practical plan for preparing for Kalmar's open-water swim, including cold entry, sighting, contact and race-morning control.
IRONMAN Barcelona Bike and Run Pacing StrategyHow to use Barcelona's fast coastal profile without over-riding the bike or letting early marathon pace consume the final hour.
IRONMAN 70.3 Tallinn Training GuidePrepare for Tallinn's freshwater swim, fast bike demands and compact 21.1 km run with a specific, recoverable training block.
IRONMAN Frankfurt Course Preparation: Heat, Hills and RestraintPrepare for Frankfurt's lake start, rolling bike course and exposed city marathon with heat-aware pacing and disciplined climbing.
IRONMAN Copenhagen vs Kalmar: Which Race Fits You?Compare Copenhagen and Kalmar by swim setting, bike exposure, logistics, atmosphere and the preparation each race demands.
IRONMAN Nutrition by Body Size and Race DurationBuild carbohydrate, fluid and sodium ranges from individual tolerance, body size, conditions and expected race duration without copying another athlete's numbers.
Flat vs Hilly IRONMAN Courses: Which Is Actually Easier?Compare flat and hilly Ironman courses by power variability, aero durability, handling, muscle load and the terrain available in training.
IRONMAN World Championship Qualification ExplainedUnderstand slots, age groups, roll-downs, field strength and why a qualification benchmark is a range rather than a guaranteed time.
European IRONMAN Calendar and Race Comparison GuideChoose a European Ironman by season, swim environment, bike profile, climate, travel friction and the training runway available to you.
Beginner Triathlon Support in London: What You Actually NeedA beginner's guide to finding swim confidence, coherent training, suitable sessions and a supportive triathlon community in London.
Recovery-Led vs Volume-Led Triathlon CoachingCompare coaching systems that organise training around adaptation and readiness with systems that prioritise completing a fixed volume target.
Five Minutes Before the Gun, Do This
A race morning protocol built on breathing, not positive thinking. Five minutes that change the start line from chaos to clarity.
You Missed a Session. Now What?
What to do when you skip a session, and why chasing perfection guarantees more missed sessions than illness or fatigue ever will.
Two weeks without water is not two weeks without swimming
You cannot get to a pool for a fortnight. You can still train the patterns that make you faster in the water.
Training for an Ironman From Your Spare Room
Almost all of it can be done indoors, and for a working parent that is not a compromise. There is one part that cannot, and it is not the one you would guess.
A Plan Tells You What to Do. It Cannot Tell You When.
Training plans have never been better, and athletes on beautiful plans still break in month three. What the calendar cannot see, and the missing instrument that decides when the hard day should land.
Three Sports, One Body, One Week
The instinct is to divide your time evenly between the three disciplines. That is close to the worst possible allocation, and here is what to do instead.
The Only Swim Test Worth Doing.
Most triathletes swim one pace for years because they have never measured anything. Two efforts, one number, and every set you do afterwards has a target.
Deliberate Practice: Swim Drills That Transfer
Doing a drill five hundred times changes nothing if nothing is being corrected. What separates practice that changes a stroke from practice that rehearses it.
Environment Design for Consistent Training
The gap between deciding to train and starting is where most sessions die. Friction is the variable you can actually change, and it costs nothing.
Stack It on Something You Already Do.
Sessions attached to a time get eaten by the day. Sessions attached to an existing habit survive it. How to pick the anchor, and why the order matters.
Athlete Identity: Every Session Is a Vote
You do not become an athlete by deciding to be one. You accumulate evidence, and the short sessions on bad days count for more than the good ones.
Marginal Gains in Triathlon: What Is Worth 1%?
Marginal gains work, but not everything marketed as one is a gain. What genuinely compounds in endurance, what is rounding error, and how to tell them apart.
Why I Do Not Recommend Running Streaks.
Never missing is a fragile way to be consistent. Why streaks usually end in an injury rather than a decision, and the rule to use instead.
Your Body Keeps One Stress Account.
Why life stress shows up in your HRV, why some athletes cannot rest, and why consistency comes from alignment rather than discipline.
Training Systems vs Goals: What Creates Consistency?
Everyone on the start line wanted to finish, so the goal was never what separated them. What a system is, and how to build one in four questions.
Why Endurance Training Plateaus Before It Works
There is a lag between doing the training and seeing the result, and almost everyone quits inside it. How long each adaptation really takes.
Inside an Unbroken Strength and Conditioning Session
We lift, we do mobility, and then we lie on the floor in the dark and meditate. The last part is the reason the first part works, and it is the part nobody expects.
Do Carbon Plates Actually Work?
The economy benefit is real and it is not free. Where the load goes when the shoe takes it off your legs, and why the run off the bike is the risk.
Most Swim Drills Do Nothing.
A drill is only useful if it changes the stroke you swim afterwards. Most of the ones people spend their Tuesdays on do not, and here is how to tell which is which.
How to Prepare Your Body for a 140.6 Ironman
Your aerobic system will be ready months before your body is. Four structures decide whether you finish comfortably, and only one of them is trained by swimming, cycling or running.
Two Sessions a Week Is Enough.
The reason most endurance athletes do no strength work is that the programmes they are given assume they have four hours. Here is what two honest sessions look like.
What a Wetsuit Does to Your Stroke.
It lifts your hips, cuts your drag, and quietly takes your shoulders away. Why the swimmer it helps most is the one who needs it least.
Posterior Chain Strength for Endurance Athletes
Glutes, hamstrings, calves. The muscles that actually propel you are the ones that switch off when you sit down for a living, and nobody notices until mile twenty.
Why Tendons Adapt Slower Than Muscle
The injury that arrives in month three is not bad luck. It is the predictable result of muscle adapting faster than the tissue that has to transmit the force.
Is It Worth It?
Around three thousand pounds and five hundred hours taken from everything else in your life. An honest attempt at the question, including the case against.
Running Strides: Four Minutes That Improve Economy
Six twenty-second efforts at the end of an easy run cost almost nothing to recover from and change your mechanics more than most interval sessions do.
Four Minutes You Can Have for Free.
I watched an athlete lose three and a half minutes in transition at a race he finished eleven seconds off a podium. Nobody trains the cheapest time.
Deadlines and Long Rides in the Same Month
Every eight-month block contains at least one period where work becomes impossible. The protocol for surviving it without losing the block.
Your First Triathlon.
Nobody warns you about the body marking, the cold, or the fact that everybody looks like they know what they are doing. They do not. Here is the honest version.
Strength Training During Triathlon Race Season
Athletes who lifted all winter quietly drop it as volume climbs, and by August they are fast and fragile. What the interference effect actually says.
Triathlon Brick Sessions: Types, Purpose and Timing
Most athletes do one kind of brick, a long ride with a short jog tacked on, and call it done. There are five, and they train completely different things.
Your Easy Runs Are Not Easy.
Recreational runners spend about half their volume genuinely easy. Elites spend eighty percent. I have never met an athlete who ran too slowly.
Free Ironman Training Resources: What Actually Works
You can absolutely prepare for a full distance using free material. Here is what free does well, the two places it will let you down, and how to cover them.
The Achilles Does Not Warn You Politely.
It does not scream like a muscle. It whispers for six weeks and then stops you completely. What the morning stiffness means and how to load your way out.
Power Is Output. Heart Rate Is Price.
Two riders finish the same three hours at the same average watts and one is wrecked. Why you need both numbers, and what the gap between them tells you.
Athlete Recovery: What Actually Helps You Adapt
Cold plunge, sauna, contrast, breathwork, yoga. Some of it shifts your nervous system, some of it is another training stress wearing recovery's clothes.
TSS, CTL, ATL and TSB Explained for Triathletes
Four acronyms describing one simple idea. Fitness is what you built, fatigue is what you carry, form is the difference. What the numbers actually mean.
What Age Is Too Old to Start?
Someone raced their fourteenth full distance at the World Championship at seventy-one. The age question is real, but it is a question about recovery, not capability.
Swimming Breathing Technique and CO2 Tolerance
The athlete out of breath after 50 metres usually has plenty of oxygen. What they have is too much carbon dioxide, and it is a habit not a fitness problem.
Why Your Legs Sink.
Almost every athlete I meet tries to fix sinking legs by kicking harder. It is the one response guaranteed to make it worse. Here is what actually holds you up.
Motivation Will Not Get You There
Eight months is far longer than motivation lasts. What actually carries people through the middle of a block is much less inspiring and much more reliable.
Ninety Minutes, Nothing to Show For It.
Most triathletes swim one pace for years and call it training. What a set is for, and why the rest interval decides the adaptation more than the distance.
Ironman Race-Day Nutrition Without Stomach Problems
The single most common reason people have a bad day. What to eat, how much, when, and the mistake that ruins more races than under-eating does.
Heat Acclimatisation for Triathletes in Cold Countries
Heat is the cheapest adaptation available to a British triathlete. What it actually changes, two protocols that fit around normal training, and how fast it fades.
Getting Back on After a Crash.
What impact does to the nervous system, why the fear that arrives afterwards is not weakness, and a graded return to riding that respects both.
Staying in One Piece for Eight Months
Somewhere between 37 and 91 percent of triathletes pick up an overuse injury in a season. Most of them are created in the same eight-week window.
The Goldilocks Zone of Endurance Training
Motivation is not a personality trait, it is a difficulty setting. The narrow band where training holds your attention, and how to find it.
Running Economy and Ankle Stiffness
Zone 2 builds the engine. Economy decides what the engine costs you. Why ankle stiffness is the cheapest speed in endurance running, and how gait work actually pays.
You Are Not Undisciplined.
Willpower is not what gets people out of the door at five in the morning. Clarity is. The three levels every athlete moves through.
Choosing a First Ironman Plan
There is no best plan. There is a plan that matches your available hours and your starting point, and four things it has to contain.
Ten Days of Silence.
I sat still for ten days without speaking, reading or writing. The physical part was easy. What surfaced when there was nothing left to distract me was not.
Triathlon Pacing Across the Swim, Bike and Run
The run split is written on the bike, and the bike is written in the first four hundred metres. By the time you feel the mistake, you made it an hour ago.
Why a Consistent Group Ride Builds Better Athletes
Nobody has ever wanted to be there at six thirty in February. That is precisely why it works. What a weekly ride in Regents Park taught me about consistency.
Starting When You Are Not an Athlete
Everyone in this sport started somewhere, and the successful beginnings look almost nothing like the plans people download. The first twelve weeks matter most.
The Aero Position That Cost Me the Run.
I bought twenty watts of aerodynamics and paid four minutes of running for them. What I learned about hip angle, and the test I now make every athlete do.
Race Week Is Where People Unravel.
Eleven months of good work, then seven days of panic. Almost everything that goes wrong in race week is somebody trying to help themselves.
Half Ironman vs Full Ironman Training: What Changes?
The distance doubles. The training does not, and the parts that change are not the ones people prepare for.
FTP Is Not a Personality Trait.
I have watched athletes tie their self worth to one number on a screen. What FTP actually governs, what it cannot tell you, and how I use it.
What Your Long Run Is Actually Training.
Most people treat it as a distance to survive. It is a durability session, and how you fuel and pace it decides whether you get adaptation or just fatigue.
Running Cadence and Injury Risk: The 5% Change
Raising your cadence slightly is the closest thing running has to a free lunch. It shortens the stride, moves the foot underneath you, and unloads the knee.
Should You Do a Sprint First?
Yes, and not for the reason people assume. A sprint teaches you almost nothing about endurance and almost everything about racing.
Your Catch Costs More Than Your Engine.
Swimming is the one discipline where more work can make you slower. High elbow catch, front quadrant timing, a two-beat kick, and where your air actually goes.
Core Training for Endurance Athletes: Not Just Abs
Nobody has ever run faster because of a stronger six pack. What endurance athletes actually need is a trunk that refuses to move while the limbs do the work.
Eating Enough Without Spending a Fortune
Heavy training weeks demand a lot of food, and the standard advice is expensive. What actually matters, what does not, and how to do it cheaply.
Plyometrics for Endurance Athletes Without Injury
The highest-value stimulus for tendon stiffness is also the fastest way to injure yourself. The difference is dose, surface, and what day of the week you do it on.
Cycling Cadence for Triathlon: Spin or Grind?
Cadence is usually argued about as a cycling question. In a triathlon it is a decision about what state your legs arrive at T2 in, which makes it a running question.
Your Job Is Training Load
A hard week at work and a hard week of training draw on the same account. Most athletes only track one of them, which is why month five arrives as a surprise.
Pedalling Technique: Fixing the Dead Spot
There is a point near the top of every revolution where you produce almost nothing. You cannot pull through it, but you can shorten it, and it is worth watts.
Do You Need to Quit Your Job to Train for an Ironman?
Some people genuinely consider it. Here is what actually happens to the training of people who suddenly have unlimited time, and why it rarely goes the way they imagined.
Fuelling, Sprint to Full Distance.
A sprint needs almost nothing. A full distance needs a plan you have rehearsed for months. Most fuelling disasters are a gut that was never trained to absorb.
The Return to Run Nobody Does Properly.
Almost every re-injury I see happens in the fortnight after somebody feels better. Criteria rather than calendar, and a progression that is slower than you want.
Recovery When Your Job Does Not Care
Recovery is not ice baths and massage guns. For someone with a demanding job it is four specific things, and only one of them costs money.
Open-Water Sighting Without Ruining Your Stroke
Every time you lift your head, your hips drop. Do it every six strokes for 1500 metres and you have swum much of the race with your legs hanging down.
The First Ninety Seconds.
The panic people feel at the start of an open water swim is not fear and it is not a lack of fitness. It is a reflex, and you can train it out before race day.
The Four Things You Actually Need
Triathlon is very good at selling you things. Here is the genuine minimum, the handful of upgrades worth having, and the money most people waste.
RED-S in Endurance Athletes: Signs and Prevention
Under-fuelling is the most common cause of stubborn injury I see, and it almost never gets named, because every symptom has a more comfortable explanation.
The Off Season Is Not Time Off.
What you do in the eight weeks after your last race decides more about next season than anything you do in spring. Most people either stop entirely or never stop.
Doing This on a Normal Salary
Triathlon has an expensive reputation and it earns it. It also has a genuine budget version, and the difference between them is about four decisions.
Heel Strike vs Forefoot: What Actually Causes Injury?
Most recreational runners land heel first and most of them are fine. What actually matters is where the foot lands relative to your hip, not which part touches down.
How to Train for an Ironman With a Family
Every article about training around a family gives you a timetable. The timetable is the easy part. What it costs the other adult in the house is the part nobody writes down.
Four Ways to Test FTP.
Twenty minute, ramp, eight minute, or the full hour. They give different numbers for the same rider, and the one I use is not the most accurate.
Training Around a Job That Owns You.
Ten hours a week, done consistently, beats fifteen hours done for three weeks and then abandoned. The plan has to fit the life you have rather than the one you want.
Best Time of Day to Train for Triathlon
The physiology says late afternoon. The evidence from actual working parents says something completely different, and the physiology loses.
IT Band Syndrome: Why Foam Rolling Is Not the Fix
It is connective tissue anchored to bone at both ends. You are not lengthening it with a roller, and the pain at your knee usually starts at your hip.
Long-Ride Training: Durability, Fuelling and Purpose
Four hours at one unvarying easy pace, eating nothing, is a way to spend a Sunday. It is not a session. Here is what the long ride is supposed to be building.
The 80/20 Rule, and Why Most People Get It Backwards
Eighty percent easy, twenty percent hard. Almost everyone who tries this fails at the same point, and it is not the twenty percent.
The Pull Buoy Is Hiding Something.
If you are markedly faster with a pull buoy than without one, that gap is your body position problem, measured. Most people treat it as a fitness result.
Sweet Spot Training for Time-Poor Triathletes
Just below threshold, hard enough to drive real adaptation, easy enough to recover from and repeat. For a time-poor athlete it is the best return on the bike.
Training for an Ironman Without a Coach
Most people do not. But the argument that coaches are unnecessary and the argument that they are transformative are both right, about different things.
Learning to Swim as an Adult Triathlete
Adults do not learn to swim the way children do, and being fit and strong actively works against you in the water. The order you fix things in matters.
Minimum Training Needed to Finish an Ironman
People finish full-distance races on six or seven hours a week. Here is the genuine floor, what has to be in it, and what it costs you.
Sleep Architecture for Athletes: Deep Sleep and REM
Deep sleep rebuilds tissue. REM consolidates the motor learning you did this morning. Miss either and you trained without collecting what you trained for.
You Run on One Leg at a Time.
Squat with both legs and the strong side quietly carries the weak one. You will never find that out until it fails at kilometre thirty of a race.
What Is a Good First Ironman Finish Time?
The honest distribution of first-time finish times, why the number you have in your head is probably too fast, and the only time goal worth setting.
Ironman DNF Rates: How Many Athletes Actually Finish?
Fewer than you fear on race day, and far more than anyone counts in the eight months before it. The failures that matter happen long before the start line.
The Real DNF Numbers
Around eight percent of starters do not finish a full distance. The variation between races is far more interesting than the average, and it is almost entirely weather.
Why Athletes Do Not Finish an Ironman
It is almost never fitness. Two things end most Ironman days, and both are entirely fixable in training.
The Hardest Part Is Not Where You Think
Everyone braces for the swim or the marathon. Ask finishers and they name a different place entirely, and it is the same place almost every time.
How Much Does an Ironman Really Cost?
Entry, bike, wetsuit, travel, pool, food and the things nobody warns you about. The honest total, and the version that costs a third of it.
There Is No Easy Ironman, But Some Are Kinder
What actually makes a first Ironman course forgiving. Elevation is only the fourth most important thing on the list.
Can You Do an Ironman With No Racing Experience?
You do not need a racing background to finish an Ironman. You do need to have solved four specific problems before race morning, and none of them are fitness.
There Is No Ironman Body
Walk any full-distance finish line and the range of shapes crossing it will surprise you. What body composition actually predicts, and what it does not.
Do You Need to Be Skinny to Do an Ironman?
No. And the pursuit of race weight ruins more seasons than it improves, because of a mechanism most athletes have never had explained to them.
Can You Do an Ironman With a Full-Time Job?
Yes, and thousands of people do it every year. The question is not whether the training fits in your week. It is whether the recovery does.
How Many Hours a Week Does Ironman Training Take?
Ten hours a week is the number everyone repeats. It is an average across months, not a weekly constant, and it is not the number that matters most.
Ironman Training Schedule for a 9-to-5 Job
The actual weekly structure I give athletes who work office hours. Where the sessions go, why the order matters, and the two-a-day trap that ends most blocks.
What Kind of Job Actually Lets You Train for an Ironman?
It is not about how many hours you work. Three things predict whether a job and an Ironman can coexist, and hours is only one of them.
Ironman Training on a Body That Already Works
Builders, nurses, warehouse staff and anyone on their feet all day. Your job is training volume you did not log, and it has to come out of the plan somewhere.
HRV Training for Triathletes: How to Use Heart Rate Variability to Train Smarter
What heart rate variability actually measures, how to read your morning HRV, and how to use it to decide whether to train hard or recover today.
Nervous System Recovery for Endurance Athletes: Why Muscle Recovery Isn't Enough
Most endurance athletes recover their muscles and neglect their nervous system. What nervous system recovery means, and how to actually do it.
Online Triathlon Coaching UK: What to Look For (and What to Avoid)
What separates real online triathlon coaching from a PDF plan and a WhatsApp group. A no-nonsense guide for UK triathletes choosing a coach.
The Performance Identity Trap: Why Triathletes Can't Rest
How elite athletes become psychologically addicted to training volume, mistaking compulsion for discipline. Discover the R.A.C.E. framework for genuine recovery.
Motivation Is a Lie. You Need a System That Survives Real Life.
A framework for time-constrained athletes managing family, work, and training. Your week should be designed for disruption, not perfection.
Zone 2 Won't Save Your Knees.
Why aerobically fit triathletes still get injured. Cardiovascular capacity and structural robustness are different things, and only one protects your knees.
You're Not Lazy, Your Brain Was Hijacked
Dopamine dysregulation across sugar, gaming, pornography and social media, and how to reclaim your attention from systems designed to take it.
The Biggest Mistake: Treating ADHD Like a Character Flaw Instead of a System That Needs Design
ADHD is executive function disruption, not a moral failing. Time blindness, rejection sensitivity, and emotional dysregulation need design solutions, not discipline.
Social Media's Biggest Lie: Comparing Your Chapter 1 to Everyone's Chapter 20
Social comparison hijacks threat-detection. Fifty daily comparisons means fifty nervous system activations. Build performance on internal experience instead.
The Biggest Mistake I've Made: Treating Caffeine Like Recovery Instead of Debt
How caffeine masks the signals your body needs you to hear. The hidden cost of borrowing energy from tomorrow to perform today.
That is all of it. 143 pieces and counting.
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Everything in these articles points back to the R.A.C.E. Framework. The book puts it all together in one place.
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