Hi guys,
Hope you’ve all had a great June.
After the sombre tone of last month’s newsletter, I’m absolutely delighted to tell you things have taken a remarkable turn for the better — more so than I ever could have imagined.
I’ve always written these newsletters with total honesty, and as many of you know, I’m usually one of the most positive people you’ll ever meet. But I won’t pretend — those first four to five weeks after the accident were a period of real pain and, at times, genuine despair. I went to some pretty dark places, and I think my writing reflected that.
I always try to write about what I’m thinking, feeling, and experiencing, in the hope that something connects with you at different points in your own journey. It’s rarely ever about me — I’m an incredibly private person — but what I wanted to capture in that last newsletter was a moment in time when I, as both a coach and a person, was at my absolute lowest.
I was determined not to let it beat me, even when finding the positives felt almost impossible. Looking back, I think I was also hoping to show that it is possible to bounce back from truly challenging situations — even when all hope feels lost. There are never any guarantees, but you have to try. I’ve seen so many others do exactly that.
By putting it out there so publicly, I was also setting myself a challenge — creating a record of where I was as a starting point, so that one day I could look back and see just how far I’d come.
It was the most emotional period I’ve ever experienced. That’s what trauma does to you. But one thing I’ve learned — and I think this genuinely comes with age and life experience — is not to be afraid of letting that emotion out. Bottling things up serves no one. Sometimes, getting it all out in the open is exactly the reset you need to move forwards.
But enough of that. It’s time to move on.
These past two weeks have been quite remarkable. The human body’s capacity to recover from serious injury is genuinely astonishing, and I say what I’m about to say in almost disbelief: I did ten hours of training last week.
There have been so many firsts. The first swim. The first bike ride. The first run. The first upper body weights session. My first day back poolside with my squads. The list has been as glorious as it has been endless. The joy you feel with each one of those small steps is beyond words. Even my facial injuries have healed far better than I expected. You accumulate so many wins to celebrate, and it becomes this intoxicating snowball of progress — going from strength to strength, day after day. Most importantly, I’m starting to feel like my old self again, with a renewed excitement about everything that lies ahead.
I think that comes from being able to do things for yourself again — being more mobile, being in less pain, stretching your wings. It’s like regaining your independence all over again. Like a brand new start, with that bubbling feeling of anticipation about what each new day might bring.
The comeback is well and truly underway. I’m swimming 2km twice a week — including some very questionable tumble turns, courtesy of limited rib cage mobility. I’ve progressed from the recumbent bike through to the upright bikes in the gym and now the Watt Bike, as I’m comfortable leaning forwards again. Interval sessions are back on the bike, I’ve completed two one-hour run-walks — which genuinely astounded me — and I’m back to both upper and lower body weights. The upper body work is light and focused on range of motion for now, but I am essentially back on a full training programme, at a lower load and intensity than before.
There is still some residual pain — mainly in my shoulder, elbow and upper back on the right side, which took the full impact. A visit to an osteopath this week helped explain the persistent back pain: the muscles through my neck, shoulder and back had become extremely tight, largely from protecting the broken ribs. It’s a case of working on that flexibility and range, but it isn’t stopping me from doing any of the above. It’s manageable, it’s improving week on week, and it’s very much just background noise now.
All in all, I feel about 80% back to myself. The positive energy I carry now far outweighs anything I felt in those dark early weeks. The transition has been extraordinary, and I’ve achieved a level of recovery well beyond my own expectations.
I even managed to take the damaged bike to the shop this week to get it repaired — something I genuinely couldn’t face doing before now. I’ve also ordered a brand new helmet, and once the bike is back, I’ll be getting straight back on it. I’m excited about that. Genuinely excited. And I’m glad to say that excitement far outweighs any anxiety that tries to creep in.
I’m also very aware of how lucky I am — both to have survived the accident and to have recovered so well. If there’s one thing a traumatic experience gives you, it’s perspective. Every single day is a blessing, and I intend to make the most of every one of them moving forwards.
There just might be life left in the old dog yet.
Coach – Julian
Race Results
Ironman Austria
- Al Jarvis
- Swim: 1:25:10
- Bike: 7:02:28
- Run: 4:59:19
- Overall time: 13:50:48
- Age Category: 50-54
A huge shout-out to Al Jarvis — slightly older brother of the legendary Tony Jarvis — who took on his first Ironman this month and delivered an absolutely incredible performance.
After many years away from competitive sport following his time in the Army, Al decided to take on this huge endurance challenge. The remarkable part, he only kicked off his training in February of this year — and didn’t even have a bike for the first couple of months.
To go from that starting point to crossing an Ironman finish line in such a short space of time is a testament to the mental and physical toughness of the man. The Army clearly left its mark in the best possible way.
Welcome to the finisher’s club, Al. What a way to start.
Warzaw 70.3 (Poland)
- David Magyar
- Swim: 39:37
- Bike: 2:53:58
- Run: 1:39:20
- Overall time: 5:27:10
- Age Category: 65-69 (4th)
He used to be known as ‘The Cuban Cigar’. He is now officially known as ‘The Cuban Missile’. What a performance from David Magyar at Warsaw 70.3. This was everything we’d planned for — disciplined, controlled, perfectly paced. Every box we wanted to tick going into this race was well and truly ticked.
The result? David found himself knocking on the door of the top three overall, while simultaneously posting the fastest run split in his age category — a stunning 1:39. And he did it at the age of 65, with the next fastest runner in his category nearly eight minutes behind him. That’s a different class of runner entirely.
The Cuban Missile has well and truly launched and there’s plenty more to come.
Alghero 70.3 (Sardinia)
- Flo Smart
- Swim: 34:23
- Bike: 2:48:57
- Run: 1:48:55
- Overall time: 5:21:04
- Age Category: 30-34
- Renata Gruda
- Swim: 36:46
- Bike: 2:46:20
- Run: 2:06:56
- Overall time: 5:42:51
- Age Category: 45-49
A massive shout-out to our ladies who took on the heat of Ironman 70.3 Alghero — and what a test it was. Two gutsy performances on a sweltering day from both Flo and Renata.
For Flo, the stars didn’t quite align on the day — but that’s racing. What she did show was exactly the kind of mettle she’s made of. When her body was fighting against her, she dug deep, held it together, and got the job done. That takes real character.
And as for Renata, told you we’d sing about this one. A brand new personal best over the 70.3 distance, on one of the most challenging courses she’s tackled at this distance. But it doesn’t stop there — she also posted her fastest ever swim and her fastest ever run on the same day. That is the result of an enormous amount of focused work across both disciplines this year.
What makes this one even more special is the journey to get here. Renata has fought back from a serious hamstring injury that kept her out of action for a very long time — and to come back and produce a performance like that is nothing short of remarkable.
Huge congratulations to you both.
Switzerland 70.3
- Hollie Strawson
- Swim: 31:29
- Bike: 2:43:18
- Run: 1:37:08
- Overall time: 4:57:45
- Age Category: 30-34
- Mike Goguen
- Swim: 43:22
- Bike: 2:56:24
- Run: 1:57:43
- Overall time: 5:47:18
- Age Category: 50-54
Switzerland 70.3 in Rapperswill is one of the tougher half-Ironman courses on the calendar, and a race that always attracts an incredibly high standard of competition.
So it was brilliant to see young gun Hollie come away with a sub-5-hour finish on such a demanding course. Another performance to be proud of.
Equally brilliant was Mike, who calls Switzerland home, putting in a personal best on home soil.
Dorney Lake Olympic Triathlon
- Deepti Tamhane
- Swim: 53:02
- Bike: 1:24:12
- Run: 1:05:29
- Overall time: 3:34:33
- Age Category: 45-49
A superb performance from Deepti at Dorney Lake Olympic Distance Triathlon — her very first triathlon.This was such a huge was a personal milestone to conquer. She had to contend with wind, a choppy open-water swim, and some very real, very serious fears about swimming in open water. She faced all of it head-on and came through that finish line with her head held high.
What makes this even more exciting is that this is just the beginning. With a half Ironman on the horizon later in the year, this was exactly the confidence boost needed — and she couldn’t have answered the call any better. The hardest first step is done and I know there is plenty more to come from this tough, durable cookie.
Training focus for the month ahead
Athlete focus for July 🎯
We’re into the heart of the season now, and July is where training and racing really start to collide. Here are some useful top tips for this month’s training.
Review your race performances honestly
Every race you do provides incredibly useful information. Use it. Look at what’s working well, what’s missing technically, where your fitness is holding up and where it’s falling short — and don’t ignore the psychological side either. How did you handle pressure? Did you execute your race plan or did nerves, fear or excitement take over? The athletes who improve fastest are the ones who review honestly and act on what they find.
Recover properly between races
This one is non-negotiable. With races coming thick and fast, it can be tempting to jump straight back into hard training to help ‘maintain fitness’ — but don’t. Take enough rest so that you’re genuinely ready to go again before you do. Rushing back too quickly is one of the most common mistakes I see at this time of year, and it almost always catches up with you. The goal is to arrive at your next race fresh and sharp — not carrying the fatigue of the last one.
Take a well-earned break if you need one
This is something I want you to think carefully about, particularly if you have a big race or a key target later in the year. The triathlon season now runs well into the back end of the year — we regularly see athletes racing through September, October, November, and even December. With that in mind, it’s worth thinking about your year in two halves. If you’ve just come through a big race, make sure you take an adequate rest period before you build again towards your next goal.
Start adding the finishing touches
July is the time to really fine-tune your race performances. This means dialling in your pacing strategy, nailing your nutrition plan, making sure your kit is exactly right, and getting comfortable with any technology you’re using on race day. These are the details that separate good performances from great ones — and none of them should be left to chance.
Prepare for the heat
If you’re racing in warm conditions this summer — and many of you will be — heat preparation is not optional. Maintain your heat work in training, whether that’s training in the heat of the day (sensibly!), layering up, or using other heat adaptation strategies. Your body adapts brilliantly to heat, but only if you give it the right stimulus. Don’t show up to a hot race having done all your training in cool conditions.
Questions from the squad
Athlete asks: “Should I go all out and sprint for VO2 max short set swim sessions?”
Coach Julian says: Short answer — no. And here’s why.
This is one of the most common mistakes I see swimmers and triathletes make. The temptation when you see a short (25m, 50m, 75m etc), sharp VO2 max set is to absolutely empty the tank on the first rep and go full gas from the gun. But this can actually working against you.
Here’s a distinction I think is really important — and one that’s often overlooked: fast swimming and sprinting are two very different things. Sprinting is 100% maximum effort. Everything you’ve got, all at once. And while that has its place, it’s not what VO2 max sets are asking of you. What you’re actually looking for here is that 90% effort — and that difference matters enormously. At that intensity, you can still swim with very good technique. You’re fast, you’re working hard, but you’re in control. The moment you tip into a full sprint, technique is usually the first thing to go.
VO2 max swimming sets are about sustained, repeatable quality — not one heroic effort followed by a slow, dying collapse through the remaining reps. The goal is to elevate your heart rate into that upper aerobic zone and keep it there across the full set. That’s where the real physiological adaptation happens.
When you cap your effort at 90%, you’ll find it significantly easier to hold a consistent pace with better technique all the way through — rep after rep. That consistency is the whole point. If you go all out on rep one, what typically follows is a steady deterioration in both pace and form — and deteriorating technique at high intensity is not only ineffective, it’s a fast track to bad habits and potential injury.
There’s also a bigger picture consideration that too many triathletes ignore. Going to 100% on these efforts doesn’t just affect the session itself — it accumulates a level of fatigue that can be hugely detrimental to everything else around it. It will impact what you have to do later that same day, and it will knock on into the following day’s training too. If you’re doing these sessions in the evening, be aware that truly maximal efforts can also seriously disrupt your sleep — and poor sleep is one of the fastest ways to undermine your training week.
This is something I come back to again and again with my athletes: the goal of hard training is to apply a stimulus that makes you better — not to destroy yourself. The most important thing is finding that balance across the week. Harder efforts absolutely have their place, but they should leave you tired in a productive way, not wiped out and struggling to recover. So many triathletes are guilty of chasing the heroic session — the one that leaves them completely floored — when actually the athlete who trains consistently, intelligently, and with balance across the week will always come out on top in the long run.
The smarter approach is to build into the set. Your first rep should feel controlled and strong — not maximal. By the midpoint of the set, you should be working very hard. By the final reps, you should be digging deep but still holding your form together. That’s a well-executed VO2 max set. Think of it less as a sprint and more as a series of high-quality efforts that accumulate into something really powerful.
Swim fast — but swim smart.
Athlete asks: “I’m thinking of buying a new TT bike. What should I look for in a good bike fitter and a bike to buy?”
Coach Julian says: This is such a great question — and it’s where so many triathletes get it badly wrong.
The single most important factor when investing in a TT bike — or any bike for that matter — is that it fits your unique body geometry first and foremost. It’s not how the bike looks. It’s not the brand. It’s whether it fits you. Full stop.
I see it time and time again: triathletes fall in love with a particular brand, convinced it’s the right bike for them, when more often than not it simply isn’t. They buy it anyway, and then the problems start — the bike can’t be adjusted the way it needs to be, injury niggles creep in, and suddenly that dream purchase becomes a very expensive headache. If you’re going to invest serious money, you need a bike that fits you like a glove.
Start with a reputable bike fitter.
A good bike fitter will take the dimensions of your body on a rig and feed that data into software that can calculate which bike brands and frame sizes actually work for your proportions. This matters more than most people realise — we are all so different proportionally, and every bike brand has its own tolerances for adjustment. That range of adjustment is a hugely important factor when deciding on a frame.
It’s also worth understanding that bike geometry and sizing is not consistent across brands. You might be a 52 in one brand and a 54 in another. This is exactly why getting properly measured is so crucial before you spend a penny.
One more thing on bike fitters — don’t let anyone push a particular brand onto you because of a commercial relationship they have with that brand. Any fitter worth their salt should present you with a range of options across different brands based on your fit profile and your budget. The final choice is yours.
The holy grail? An experienced bike fitter who is also a good physiotherapist.
If you can find someone who combines both disciplines, you have something genuinely rare and incredibly valuable. Someone who understands your body and your physiology first will always have a better idea of how to position you on a bike in the most comfortable and biomechanically sound way possible. It’s worth seeking out.
A practical consideration that often gets overlooked — travelability.
Some bike brands are significantly easier to disassemble and pack for travel than others. If you race abroad — and as a triathlete, chances are you will — this is worth factoring into your decision. Ask your bike fitter which frames tend to be more travel-friendly. It’s a small detail that can save you a lot of frustration down the line.
When you’ve done all of that, your final choice should tick three boxes — in this order:
- It fits you really well
- It’s within your budget
- It looks good
Yes, looks come third. I know that’s hard to hear, but trust me on this one.
Buying a new time trial bike is one of the most exciting moments in a triathlete’s journey — but my strongest advice is this: don’t rush it. It’s far too easy to get swept up in the excitement and make a decision you end up regretting. Get the process right, find the bike that truly works for you, and when you finally clip in and ride it for the first time? That feeling is something else entirely.
Athlete asks: “Something I’ve noticed in my training — I know everyone has different heart rate zones, but I’d say mine gets up to the 150s/160s very easily, i.e. with fairly little effort. Then there seems to be a slower scaling after that. I’d say it’s most noticeable in cycling. Is this normal?”
Coach Julian says: That’s actually something that can be quite common, and it isn’t necessarily a sign that anything is wrong. Heart rate is very individual, and comparing your numbers with someone else’s doesn’t tell us very much — what matters is what those numbers mean for you.
What you’re describing — a fairly quick rise into the 150s/160s, followed by a slower increase after that — can simply be how your physiology responds. Heart rate doesn’t always increase in a straight line with effort, and some athletes sit at relatively higher heart rates during aerobic work than others.
As you’ve noticed it more on the bike, it’s also worth remembering that heart rate and power don’t always rise together. As you get closer to threshold, your power can continue to increase while your heart rate climbs more gradually.
The most important thing is how that heart rate feels. If you’re riding in the 150s with controlled breathing, you can still hold a conversation, and it feels sustainable, then that’s likely around your aerobic intensity — regardless of what a generic zone chart says.
That’s why I always encourage using feel alongside the data. Heart rate is there to inform your pacing, not override what your body is telling you. If the effort feels controlled and sustainable, trust that — and trust that consistent, well-paced training over time will always serve you better than chasing a number on a screen.
Fuel for the mind
Sometimes the best training happens away from the bike, the run, or the pool — in the stories that stretch what we think is possible and remind us why we do this in the first place. Here are 2 tennis documentaries that really struck a chord with me this month:
🎬 Chris & Martina: The Final Set — Now on Netflix
I don’t say this lightly, but this is probably one of the best sporting documentaries I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. If you thought the Rafa documentary was good — and it was — this one is even better.
Chris & Martina: The Final Set tells the story of two of the greatest athletes in the history of sport: Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Two women who couldn’t have been more different — the all-American girl from Florida and the girl who defected from communist Czechoslovakia — and yet who shared one of the most extraordinary rivalries sport has ever produced. They played each other an almost incomprehensible 80 times between 1973 and 1988, and between them, they held the world number one ranking almost continuously from 1975 to 1987.
But this documentary is so much more than tennis. It has everything — fierce rivalry, complex friendship, raw emotion, and ultimately a story of two people who became each other’s greatest support. What I had absolutely no idea about was the illness both of them faced later in life, and seeing how they showed up for one another through that is quite extraordinary.
Directed by two-time Emmy Award winner Rebecca Gitlitz, this is a masterclass in storytelling. What an insight into two remarkable human beings who just happen to also be sporting legends.
I remember watching their rivalry as a youngster, and while I was probably always a Chrissy fan at heart, I massively admired the athleticism, ability, and sheer force of character that was Martina — so different from Chrissy, yet equally captivating. It was that period that really made me fall in love with tennis, watching two extraordinary athletes push each other to places neither could have reached alone.
Clear your evening and watch it. You won’t regret it — but make sure you have a box of tissues handy, because this one will stir your emotions like no other.
🎬 RAFA (Netflix) – If you haven’t already, I cannot recommend this series highly enough. RAFA is a four-part Netflix documentary that follows Rafael Nadal through the final chapter of one of the greatest sporting careers of all time — and it is quite extraordinary viewing.
What strikes you isn’t the trophies or the records. It’s the man behind them. Nadal spent much of his career battling his own body, and the series is brutally honest about the physical suffering he endured — how close his career came to an abrupt end multiple times due to a rare, degenerative foot condition, navigating it all through constant pain, strong painkillers, and sheer, relentless will.
As athletes, we talk a lot about mental strength, determination, and resilience. This documentary is the living definition of all three. Watch it, and I guarantee you’ll look at your own training and your own challenges very differently.
Team out & about this month
Great to see ‘The Pocket Rocket’ getting into the Hawaii spirit already, you’d never believe this was the UK. Looking lean & mean Vickster, now enough of the cocktails…get back on that bike!
Always great to see a first-time Ironman athlete finisher taking his post-Ironman event celebrations seriously with his son. Inspiring the next generation. Hopefully not in the drinking sense though.
Just a spot of raving in between training sessions (quite literally) for these two triathlon love birds
The big smiles say it all. Swim Trek holiday in Greece. Don’t mind if we do.
Another SwimTrek holiday kicks off in Greece for my squad swimmers — or is it a secret booze cruise? Always wonderful to see the lovely Peter out there, slapping on the baby oil and giving Cuban David a serious run for his money in the tan stakes.
You know you might be getting a little triathlon-obsessed when you start buying pasta in these shapes… and then texting it to your coach. No names mentioned.
Welcome to the world, little Alfie Pollard. You couldn’t have better genes to kick off your cycling or triathlon career. I’m sure your Father will continue the ‘sportwashing’ as well to keep you on track. Huge congrats to Pip & Angus!