Total Endurance

12/06/2026

A big weekend of racing for the Total Endurance Squad!

Massive good luck to Hamish Cooper,
John Durkin, Colin Ritchie and Andrew Stevens all racing the iconic Celtman Xtri starting at 5am tomorrow morning. All the best guys!!

Doing reps of the Cairn O' Mount at the MSBH - Ken Bryson, Anna Duncan and Ewan Fielding.

We have a good group all doing the TrYthan Sprint at Knockburn - Cat Brown, Ella Chalmers, Emma Fraser, Lybnsey Henderson, Nathan Morrice, Euan Murphy, Andy Redman, Tracy Stainer, Simone Strang.

We''ll also be at Knockburn so come say Hi if you're there!

Slightly further up North, Bobby Oag is representing at The Wick Sprint Triathlon

07/06/2026

I've always considered myself a reasonably competent swimmer for triathlon. Around 1:20/100m CSS when fit. Comfortable in open water.

Last week I tested my stroke with EO SwimBETTER force analysis paddles and spent a bit of time trying to fully understand what the data and video reveals.

The result: 47.23% propulsive efficiency.

Less than half of the force I was producing was actually moving me forward. Nearly a third was pressing water downward. Another 12% was going sideways off my right arm — three times the acceptable limit.

What made it more interesting was what the data explained about my left shoulder pain. Every time I build swim volume, my left shoulder gets sore. I'd always managed it with rest and physio and assumed it was just overuse. The force data pointed to a clear mechanical cause — an elbow dropout through the back half of my right arm pull creating a compensation pattern that's been overloading my left side for years.

One of my strongest beliefs in coaching is that swimming is massively undertested. We can't see what's happening underwater in any meaningful detail, so we default to the same drills, the same sets, the same cues — and hope they apply to each individual. Often they don't. With swimming, small tweaks can result in big improvements and we need to figure out what works best for the individual - for me, i want to rely less on my fitness / strength and test how much i can actually improve using the data.

Full post breaking down every metric, the video footage, and exactly what I'm doing to fix it — link below.

https://www.total-endurance.co.uk/blog/swim-stroke-efficiency-eo-swimbetter-analysis

06/06/2026

Big weekend of racing for the Total Endurance squad.

But first - Anna Duncan set the tone this morning at Loch Ore. 3800m open water swim. 2nd female. 9th overall. Lindsay Young was 15th overall in the Sprint Aquathlon.

Now it's over to the rest of the team. Bolton, Blenheim, Loch Ore Sprint, Chester and the Cotswold 113.

Special mention to Marcus Wollerton who lines up at Bolton 70.3 this weekend for his first ever 70.3. Since joining the team he's really improved his swim, bike and run and we look forward to seeing his hard pay off with a great race tomorrow

06/06/2026

You don't have to suck at swimming!

Most triathletes have never had proper swim coaching. A few sessions with the right coach can turn you from a complete swimming novice to a confident triathlete.

"Making me more confident to get in the water & race"

www.total-endurance.co.uk/beginnerswimlessons

31/05/2026

We missed our own Birthday! 😭

Last week, The Total Endurance Centre turned 10 years old. We genuinely forgot and only realised a few days ago.

While lots has changed in the 10 years since we opened the doors, the fundamental goal of trying to help athletes improve their fitness through swim, bike and run remains the same and our passion for it has continued to grow as the business evolves.

So while we didn't have a cake or invite you to our birthday party to celebrate with us - Happy Birthday to us, and thank you to everyone who has been part of it!

To mark the occasion you can get 10% off any service booked in June - Use code HappybirthdayTE or itsourbirthday10 when booking.

https://www.total-endurance.co.uk/

31/05/2026

Something I've been noticing more and more with athletes lately.
You ask how a session went. How a race felt. And before you've even finished the question, the answer is already negative.

"I'm just not a good swimmer."
"I was slow. I'm always slow."

No context. No data. Just an automatic move toward self-criticism and the worrying part is they genuinely believe it. They've said it so many times it's stopped feeling like an opinion and started feeling like a fact.

Here's what I've come to understand after years of coaching: the way you talk to yourself isn't just conversation. It's construction. You are literally building your reality with every word you use about yourself.

Negative self-talk doesn't just affect your mood — it limits your performance. Here's why the way you speak to yourself as an athlete matters more than you think.

22/05/2026

The Total Endurance team are racing all over this weekend.

In Lanzarote, we have Graham Jackson and Donald Macleod taking on the hilly, hot and windy conditions for the Ironman.

At the Challenge Samorin Championships, we have Brooke Gilles and Lynsey Henderson racing.

Edinburgh Half and Full Marathon - Alasdair McGill (half) and Ross Whittingham (Marathon)

Euan Murphy is racing the SXC race at Crombie Country Park.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend.

20/05/2026

The Cocker Spaniel: Why Colin has Explosive power and 24-hour stamina but no middle ground.

We recently tested Colin and here's why he's like a Spaniel. For anyone who knows Colin will likely already see the resemblances but here's how his physiology is the same.

The all day engine:
Like Colin in a 24 hour event, a Spaniel is built to 'quarter' (weave back and forth) in a field all day. They have a huge aerobic base and incredible fatigue resistance and the certainly don't quit.

The explosive punch:
Spaniels are renowned for having a strong explosive punch, when they find a bird or a rabbit they take off. Going from 0 to 100. Colin has a similar punch with a strong Glycolyitic power (VLamax of 0.6mmol/l/s) meaning even at moderate intensities, his glycolytic system is active and burning through carbohydrates.

Why the spaniel and Colin lack sustainable power:
In physiological terms, Colin's relatively strong VLamax impacts his threshold efficiency and results in his sustainable power (threshold) being pulled down by his natural explosive kick.

We've recently been doing a lot of work to lower his glycolytic power and we've already seen some of this benefit with him recently running a PB at the Garioch Half on relatively low run volume and the day after doing an 80 mile ride. We still have some work to do to take him from his current Cocker Spaniel traits to the more optimised English Setter.