Simon Ward: Battle Ready After 50

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Simon Ward: Battle Ready After 50

Helping men and women 50+ stay strong, fast and race-ready — without burning out or breaking down. Creator of the Battle Ready System.

27/08/2026

The best training plan I've ever seen fit on one sheet of A4.

Two key sessions had real detail. Every other day just said "45 minutes, just run, see how you feel."

That was it. From one of the best coaches in the country.

Easy days easy. Medium days steady. Hard days hard. Do that for years and you'll beat most overcomplicated plans out there.

What would your training look like stripped back to what actually matters?

19/08/2026

If I had a pound for every athlete who told me they needed to lose weight to go faster, I'd have retired by now.

Watts per kilo sounds scientific. Taken too far, it wrecks people.

Chasing a six pack. Going keto mid Ironman block. Same result every time: energy crashes, sleep goes, performance drops. And on paper, everything looks fine.

The leanest athlete isn't the most dedicated. The one who fuels the work is.

Fuel the work first.

Ever tried to under-eat your way to a PB? How did that go?

14/08/2026

New podcast episode: Six Athletes, Seven Lessons, One Question.

Beth and I sat down to look back over some of the most memorable guests from recent months. On the surface, six completely different stories. A professional triathlete whose career was ended by a rare arterial condition. A world champion who pushed herself to the edge of overtraining chasing an extraordinary question. A Masters swimmer who survived a cardiac arrest mid race. An age grouper who tracked two and a half years of training with nothing more than a notebook and a pen.

What struck me going back through those conversations was how much they actually had in common. Different sports, different setbacks, but the same handful of lessons kept surfacing again and again.

And underneath all of it, one question that ties the whole thing together. Not the surface answer you'd give at a dinner party. The real one.

We talk through all seven lessons in this episode, plus what happens when you finally sit with that one question yourself.

Link to listen in the comments.

06/08/2026

Everyone's selling you a secret. Nobody has one.
I put this to Dan John. 19 books, five decades of coaching. His answer? "It's hard to sell a secret when there's no secret."
His formula is five by 52. Five sessions a week, 52 weeks a year. Basics, recovery, repeat.
Think about it. If some hack could add 50 watts to your FTP or take an hour off your Ironman, every athlete on the planet would already know. Anything that works fast spreads fast.
There are no secrets in endurance sport. Just basics, repeated for longer than most people can be bothered.
What's the daftest secret hack you've ever been sold or told? Comments below.

30/07/2026

Sleep more NOT Train more

I see it constantly with athletes over 50. The alarm goes off at 5am for a swim after six hours of sleep, and they call it dedication.

In reality, they've robbed the recovery that makes the session worth doing. Cut sleep and you cut recovery. You're not adding training, you're subtracting adaptation.

When did you last sacrifice sleep for a session?
And did you ever properly count what it cost you?

21/07/2026

The biggest myth in triathlon?

That progress comes from piling on more hours.
I see this all the time with athletes over 50. They chase volume, dig themselves into a hole, then wonder why they arrive at race day tired instead of fit.
In reality, the athlete who trains 8 hours a week for 40 weeks will beat the one who trains 14 hours a week but breaks down every six weeks. Every time.
Consistency is the real training secret. Not heroic weeks. Repeatable ones.
Watch the video for the full story.

Volume or consistency? Comment below.

16/07/2026

Not about training today. It's about the people around it.

The partner who holds the fort, the mate who turns up in a gale, the volunteers who give up their whole day for us.
If someone made your racing possible this year, tell them properly.

I'll start. Cheers to every one of you.

14/07/2026

In the hot weather, too many people stick to their training plan which was probably designed to be done in cooler weather.. So they try to hit prescribed power or the pace.

Your cardiovascular system can’t cope with transporting blood to both the working muscles and to the skin in an attempt to call you down. So your core temperature rises. The end result is that your workload is higher and your recovery longer. If you keep repeating this over many days, you end up over reaching.

The solution to this is to cycle or run to heart rate. You may be moving a little slow slower or pushing less Watts but you will be able to recover for your next session and that will preserve your consistency.

When the weather cools down a bit, you can return to your normal method of running to pace or riding to power.

30/06/2026

Outlaw Holkham Weekend coming up.

It's my favourite event of the year - beautiful location, lot's of great events and the weather is usually excellent for racing and spectating.

Are you going to be there?

Bethany Ward, Louise Short & Lee Wallhead are looking forward to seeing you on the orange carpet.

25/06/2026

Is FTP the most overrated number in cycling?

Phil Burt thinks so. And given that he's fitted Chris Froome, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy and Geraint Thomas, it's worth hearing him out.

Phil is back on the Be Battle Ready Podcast this week and we cover a lot of ground. Why:
*FTP tells you very little about what actually matters after five hours in the saddle
*165mm cranks are worth serious consideration for anyone with a history of knee or hip issues
*the saddle is almost never the actual problem,
*comfort might be the most underrated performance variable in long distance cycling and triathlon.

I've had three bike fits with Phil over the years. The changes he suggested have made more difference to how I feel after a long gravel ride than anything else I've done. That's not a sales pitch. It's just true.

Have you ever had a proper bike fit? Did it make the difference you hoped for? Drop a comment below.

🎧 Link in the comments

Address

Leeds
BD100UH

Telephone

+447831720161

Website

https://www.simonward.co.uk/

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