The Horsepower blog
Race reports, training philosophy and the odd rant, written by me over the years. The same voice you get when I coach you.
Four honest observations from Ironman Wales 2026 for anyone racing Tenby in 2027: gearing that suits you rather than the pros, riding to a real plan, rehearsing your fuelling for months, and respecting the recovery.
A full breakdown of how to race Ironman Wales, discipline by discipline: sighting the reversed swim, the zig zags out of North Beach, gearing and composure on the bike, Heartbreak Hill, and holding rhythm across four laps of the run.
Why I coach the female athlete as the default rather than a scaled-down version of a male plan, what the menstrual-cycle science actually says, and how I coach it honestly.
Why athletes blow up ignoring their own pacing plan, how wind, heat and fuelling change the numbers, and the psychology of holding back in the first hour of a race.
Why nailing consistency, specificity and your biggest limiter beats chasing marginal gains, and how to tell the low-hanging fruit from the clever stuff you haven't earned yet.
The case for sub-threshold aerobic work as the backbone of an endurance plan, why age-groupers ride too hard on easy days and too easy on hard days, and when intensity actually earns its place.
So after years of putting it off I finally got a job that paid enough for me to justify blowing what felt like a fortune on a race entry, my ticket to Ironman Nice 2016 was booked. I was 29 and with 30 rapidly approachin...
So since Covid-19 is trying to derail any hopes of a long race season in 2021, I thought it was worth sharing a few of my top 10 triathlon mistakes to make sure you hit the ground running when you can toe the start line.
Listening is a wonderful thing. If you do it right you can learn things, become aware of opportunities, avoid problems... the list goes on.
The knock at the door...
It's 4 days since Ironman Wales and the whole weekend is beginning to sink in.
How to deal with failure... The story of the race that never was...
Late one evening I got a text from a good mate... it read "do you fancy Everesting with me next year?"... Without really understanding what Everesting was I immediately replied "yeh sure thing".
After a solid bump back down to earth at the Alpe d’Huez triathlon last week I thought putting my thoughts into words might provide me with some means of processing it all and you with some comedy plus maybe a guide to h...
So it's 11 days until Ironman Wales and the nerves and anticipation are starting to stir...
Bar a few cross country runs, my triathlon season is all but over.
So we're 4 days until Ironman Wales... the tension, excitement and anxiety are building and at this late stage in the game there is a quiet calmness because you know nothing more can be done to improve your physical perf...
