Coach Tim Brazier, Wanaka (2026)

12/06/2026

I have been coaching an athlete for a couple of months now. Not a professional, but someone who genuinely wants to get better, and honestly her swimming isn’t as bad as she thinks.

In her first week she came to me with a question I didn’t expect.

How do I do these sets?

They aren’t in fifty meters and I swim in a fifty meter pool. I found that really interesting, because it had never occurred to me that the length of the pool was the thing on their mind.

But it makes sense. We get so caught up in the meters and the round numbers and the long boring swims. I see the same thing across our community on Skool .coaching , my goal there is to unlock a different level of thinking when it comes to swimming in the age group levels.

So here’s my take. I could program you fifty meters on a clock all day long. But what are you really getting out of that? A set is a question, not a distance. Turn up to answer it and you leave a better swimmer than you came.

31/05/2026

Becoming a dad changed how I coach. I didn’t expect that, but it did.

Early on, I thought coaching was about holding the line. Set the bar, stay steady, don’t flinch when someone wants you to lower it. That’s real, but it turns out it’s only the first part.

The bigger job, the one that takes longer to see, is slowly working myself out of one.

I notice it with my kid at the playground. The instinct is to hover. Catch them, step in the second something looks risky. But every time I do, their world gets a bit smaller. The harder thing is to stand back far enough that they find out what they can actually do.

Coaching’s the same. Early on I give a lot, the why behind every session, tight structure, the calls made for them. But if I’m still making every call four years in, I haven’t coached them. I’ve trained them to wait for me. And the thing they need most at 30km, when I’m nowhere near them, is the one thing I never let them practise: deciding for themselves.

There’s decades of research that says this in fancier language. Take away someone’s sense of choice and their motivation falls off, they persist less, enjoy it less. Give it back and you get an athlete who’s more durable, races better, and genuinely wants to be there. Control gets you obedience. It doesn’t get you someone who can think on a bad day.

So I measure the job differently now. Not by how much they need me. By how little.

Funny how it works. Coaching taught me to hold the line. Parenting taught me when to drop it.

22/05/2026

Three weeks ago we opened the doors on something a bit different.

I’ll be honest, the dates are already a blur. First of May, I think? Either way, three weeks into our .coaching Skool program and it’s been a real change of pace for me.

For years my coaching has lived in one place. One athlete, one plan, a lot of back and forth. What we’ve been trying to do with Cartel is find a way to take some of those same principles and make them reach further. More accessible, without watering down the thinking behind them.

So far that’s looked like six coaching calls, a lot of curious questions, more than a few swim drill conversations, and plenty of learning on the fly.

Here’s the thing I keep coming back to. Learning is hard. There are always growing pains, and they show up most when you ask people to start thinking for themselves and making their own decisions. That can feel daunting. A bit uncomfortable. But it’s also where the good stuff happens.

Watching this first group, our OGs, start to back themselves has been the best part of these three weeks.

If you’re curious, and you’re after something that sits between one on one coaching and just grabbing a plan off the shelf, come find us on Skool the link is at the top of my page.

19/05/2026

Power is the work done. Heart rate is the bill.

A simple way I explain training data to my athletes.

Power is what you’re actually doing. The watts, the output, the work on the road. It’s objective. 250 watts is 250 watts whether you slept eight hours or three, whether it’s 12 degrees or 35, whether you’re fresh or three weeks into a build.

Heart rate is what it’s costing you to do it.

And the cost changes constantly. Same 250 watts on a cool morning after a good night’s sleep might sit you at 140 bpm. Same 250 watts on a hot day, after a hard week, with two coffees in you, might pull you up to 160. Same work. Very different bill.

This is why I tell my athletes to read both numbers, not just one. If you only look at power, you’ll smash a session that your body couldn’t afford and call it a win.

If you only look at heart rate, you’ll back off when the work was actually fine and the bill was just temporarily inflated by heat or caffeine or stress.

The skill is reading them together.

Power normal, heart rate normal. You’re in a good spot, the work is landing where it should.

Power normal, heart rate higher than usual. The body is paying more for the same work. Something is going on. Sleep, heat, life load, illness creeping in. Worth backing off and investigating.

Power down, heart rate down. You’re flat. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a signal.

Power down, heart rate up. This is the one to watch. You’re paying more and getting less. The body is waving a flag.

Most athletes train on one number. The good ones learn to read the conversation between the two.

The work is what you did. The cost is what it took. Pay attention to both.

We talk about this more on the .coaching podcast, the link is in our coaching page highlights

14/05/2026

I had this exact conversation with an athlete last week.

“Tim, do I really need to lift? I’d rather just ride more.”

I get it. When you’ve only got so many hours, swapping a gym session for another bike ride feels like the obvious move. More bike, better cyclist. Right?

Not quite.

This is one of my favourite studies to point athletes at.

Rønnestad took 23 well-trained cyclists and split them in two for 12 weeks. Both groups rode the same. One group also lifted twice a week. Heavy. Half squat, single-leg press, hip flexion, toe raise. 3x4–10RM. The other group skipped the gym and added 1.5 hours of riding instead.

After 3 hours in Zone 2, here’s what happened to the lifters:

→ 7% more power in a 5-min TT (the endurance-only group? 0%)
→ Heart rate 7% lower at the same effort
→ 14% less blood lactate
→ Lower oxygen cost

Translation. At hour 3 of your race, when everyone else is unravelling, you’re still riding strong. That’s durability. And durability is what wins long-course racing.

This is why every athlete I coach lifts in the prep phase. Not to get bigger. Not to look a certain way. To stay strong when it matters. Hour 3, 4, 5 of your race when the wheels usually fall off.

Two sessions a week. That’s the whole ask.

The athletes who do it race like a different person in the back half. Every time.

📚 Rønnestad et al. 2011

04/05/2026

Last week in Noosa with the Cartel Coaching team.

Late nights on laptops. Way too many browser tabs. Many, many strong coffees were consumed.

I was also voluntold I’d be spending some time in front of the camera. Not exactly my natural habitat. But you do the things for what you’re passionate about.

What we’ve built with Cartel Coaching is something I genuinely believe in. Structured coaching for age-group triathletes who are serious about improving but don’t need someone holding their hand every step of the way. That’s the gap we’re filling.

This has been a long time coming. Em, Cal and I have been working on this for months, and what we’ve put together is something I’m proud of. The plans, the coaching framework, the community we’re building on Skool. It’s good.

The team is ready. Now we just need the athletes.
coaching

27/04/2026

ATHLETE UPDATE

Checked in with this weekend.

Post ankle injury, the work she’s put into her rehab has been nothing short of excellent. No shortcuts, no rushing the process. Just consistency and trust.

Working closely with we’ve been building strength and capacity in the right order. That’s what proper return-to-sport looks like.

Stoked for Em. This is a key step in the build toward LA.

19/04/2026

Got out on the boat with the family this weekend. It reminded me how lucky I am that this is even a thing for us.

I grew up with parents who lived for the outdoors. The Hauraki Gulf, every island they could find, three boys in tow.

They didn’t just talk about an active life, they built one and took us along for the ride. I’m genuinely grateful for that. It shaped everything about how I see movement, adventure, and what a full life actually looks like.

That’s carried through into how I coach. Performance matters, but so does having a life worth being fit for.

Oh, and the fish were biting. 🎣

10/04/2026

After eight years with the Fitter coaching, I’ve made the decision to step into my next chapter.

Working alongside Bevan McKinnon has been a huge part of that journey —
from coaching, to co-hosting Fitter Radio, to countless conversations about how athletes actually improve.

He’s one of the sharpest coaches in the sport, and I’ve learnt a huge amount from him.

Fitter has played a massive role in shaping how I coach today, and I’m genuinely proud of what we’ve built there.

Importantly — I’ll still be on Fitter Radio, and that continues as normal.

—

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been sitting with an idea:

That high performance coaching — the thinking, the understanding, the why — shouldn’t be reserved for a small group of athletes.

At the same time, I’ve never been more committed to the athletes I coach one-on-one, and that work remains a huge part of what I do.

But there’s a clear gap for athletes who want to go deeper than a generic plan —
to understand their training, not just complete it.

—

That’s what I’m building next.

A coaching and education environment that brings together structure, understanding, and community.
coaching and it’s people is the right fit for this job.

16/03/2026

I’m lucky enough to spend my life around Sport.

Triathlon. Multisport. Snowsports.
Trails, pools, mountains and start lines.

What I’ve learned over the years is that performance rarely comes down to one session, one metric, or one race.

It’s built slowly — through consistency, curiosity, and a willingness to keep showing up when things aren’t perfect.

I coach athletes across a range of sports and levels.
First timers chasing their first finish line.
Age-groupers pushing for podiums.
Elite athletes trying to find the next small edge.

But the common thread is always the same:

People who love being outside, love the process, and want to see what they’re capable of.

This page is a window into that world —
the training, the learning, the adventures and the people who make endurance sport so rewarding.

Thanks for being here.

Coach Tim Brazier

12/06/2026

31/05/2026

22/05/2026

19/05/2026

14/05/2026

04/05/2026

27/04/2026

19/04/2026

10/04/2026

16/03/2026

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