If you’re training for a badass endurance event (Ironman, Ultra, Marathon, OCR or Hyrox to name but a few) you’re going to have bad sessions. Not just tired sessions or slightly off sessions—I’m talking about the ones where everything goes wrong. The bike interval where your power drops like a…

When injury strikes, it feels like your world is collapsing. Trust me, I get it. Having recently deferred my own Ironman—my A race for the year—I’ve been living this reality. But here’s the truth: injuries aren’t just setbacks; they’re opportunities in disguise. As endurance athletes, we’ll all face them sooner…

Tech has turned us into data junkies. Heart rate monitors, power meters, GPS trackers – we’re drowning in numbers. But here’s the real deal: sometimes your body speaks louder than any device. The Metrics Trap Most athletes – whether you’re tackling your first race or gunning for an age group…

The scenario is all too familiar: You’ve trained diligently for months. Your fitness is peak. Your equipment is dialed in. Your nutrition plan has been tested on long training days. Yet somehow, 3 hours into your Ironman or 10 miles into your marathon, your stomach revolts. Nausea sets in. Cramping…

When was the last time you truly took it easy on a run? And I mean genuinely easy – not “this feels comfortable” or “I could chat if I wanted to,” but properly, deliberately slow? The Overlooked Power of Zone 2 Zone 2 training – that deliberately slow, seemingly too…

You’ve completed multiple races, logged hundreds of training miles, maybe even tackled an ultra or an Ironman. Yet somehow, when someone calls you an “endurance athlete,” you feel like a fraud. Sound familiar? The Endurance Imposter Here’s a reality check: that elite runner you admire? They once stood where you…

When I kicked off our nutrition month challenge in my Private Facebook Group, the DB Endurance Zone, I wanted to prove something important: successful nutrition isn’t about perfection – it’s about consistency and balance. Our community members have been achieving amazing results by following these principles together. The Five Fundamentals…

As one of Team DB took on their first 100-miler of 2025 last weekend there was a lot of discussion about how you keep going during something like that. Let’s dive into one of the most powerful tools in an endurance athlete’s mental toolkit: self-talk. What you say to yourself…

Every mile isn’t measured by perfection, but by persistence. In the unforgiving world of endurance sports, a single bad run can feel like a devastating blow—a silent whisper that questions your entire athletic identity. But what if that moment of struggle wasn’t a setback, but a setup? What if each…

As endurance athletes, we pour our hearts and souls into training for our biggest races. The months of gruelling workouts, careful nutrition, and mental preparation all culminate in that one pivotal event – the “A” race we’ve been building towards. But once the finish line tape is broken and the…

Recovery is the secret weapon that many endurance athletes overlook in their quest for peak performance. While the thrill of pushing through tough workouts and logging long miles can be addictive, it’s actually during rest that your body adapts, rebuilds, and grows stronger. Think of recovery as the invisible training…

Visualization may sound like New Age mumbo-jumbo to skeptics, but the science backing its efficacy in endurance sports is hard to ignore. Far from being a mystical practice, visualization is a concrete mental technique that leverages the brain’s neuroplasticity to enhance athletic performance. When an athlete vividly imagines executing their…

RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport is a serious thing and something all endurance athletes should have a little bit of awareness of, as well as anyone who is active and looking to shed some body fat and change their body composition. Low Energy Availability (LEA) discussed in a previous…

What is LEA? LEA occurs when an individual’s energy intake is insufficient to support the body’s functions after accounting for energy expended in exercise. It’s essentially an energy deficit that can occur in both athletes and non-athletes. It’s calculated as energy intake minus exercise energy expenditure, relative to fat-free mass….

When you are looking to achieve a body composition change and loose fat the one key thing is a Calorie Deficit, which means burning more calories than you eat. When we think calorie burn, most of us will immediately think “Exercise” but thats just a small part of the puzzle….

Carb-Load Like a Pro! Whether you’re lining up for a marathon, ultra-endurance event, or all-day sufferfest, proper pre-race nutrition can be the difference between bonking at the wall and unlocking next-level performance. While pretty much all endurance athletes understand the importance of staying fuelled during an event, I find that…

Even endurance athletes with true mental grit and mental toughness will inevitably face dark moments when shit gets tough, motivation plummets and the prospect of quitting seems tempting. The ability to overcome these psychological slumps separates the middle-of-the-pack finishers from the podium contenders. While physical conditioning is paramount, having an…

As I approach a weekend with a DB Athlete undertaking another massive challenge (their second 100 mile Ultra in 6 weeks) the subject of managing your mindset during a BIG event is clearly on my mind. So… I’m sharing one of my favourite concepts, first introduced to me by ‘The…

In short, Yes!  I’m currently 44 and for the last year or so I’ve been feeling like I’m suffering from some perimenopausal symptoms. Not enough to warrant talking to my doctor about HRT but enough to make me look for some answers and find some help.  Having opened up the…

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is everywhere. Gyms run HIIT classes, people can download a HIIT timer on to their phone… it’s a really popular way of training due to its efficiency and effectiveness but unfortunately the more popular it’s gotten, the less it actually looks like an actual HIIT…

Previously I gave a little bit of insight into my Coaching Ethos and Athlete Philosophy and my 5 golden rules. I’m diving a little bit deeper in to each one in separate posts. So far I’ve discussed Rule #1 Control the Controllable, #2 Find the Positive, #3 Focus on You…

Previously I gave a little bit of insight into my Coaching Ethos and Athlete Philosophy and my 5 golden rules. I’m diving a little bit deeper in to each one in separate posts. So far I’ve discussed Rule #1 Control the Controllable, #2 Find the Positive and #3 Focus on…

Previously I gave a little bit of insight into my Coaching Ethos and Athlete Philosophy and my 5 golden rules. I’m diving a little bit deeper in to each one in separate posts. so far we have covered Rule #1 Control the Controllable and Rule #2 Find the Positive. Time…

First thing to remember: The very important rule:  If the race is important to you, nothing new on race day!  Do not be tempted to try that snack new bar in the vendor village. You have trained hard for this event so no point screwing up your chances by putting…

The Week leading up to your Race As you are heading into your race week your training phase will be Competition Phase.  During the Competition Phase your macronutrient intake will switch slightly to slowly increase your carbohydrates and fully build your glycogen stores.  During the Prep Phases you will most…

Why Eat after a workout Focusing on recovery is one of the most important and often overlooked aspects of proper sports nutrition. An effective nutrition recovery plan supplies the body with the right nutrients at the right time. Recovery is the body’s process of adapting to the previous workload and…

Why Eat before a workout The main goal of eating before a workout is to replenish your glycogen, the short-term storage form of carbohydrate.Glycogen supplies immediate energy needs and is especially crucial for morning workouts, as the liver is glycogen depleted from fuelling the nervous system during sleep. The muscles,…

Previously I gave a little bit of insight into my Coaching Ethos and Athlete Philosophy and my 5 golden rules. I’m diving a little bit deeper in to each one in separate posts. Last week was Rule #1 Control the Controllable This week it’s Rule #2 Number 2) Find the…

In a previous blog I gave a little bit of insight into my Coaching Ethos and Athlete Philosophy and my 5 golden rules. I’m going to dive a little bit deeper in to each one, starting here with Rule Number 1 Number 1) Control the Controllable Only certain things are…

My personal ethics and belief system are a mixture of Buddhism and Stoicism and this heavily influences who I am, both as an athlete and a coach. As an athlete, I hold myself accountable to same 5 rules that I apply to my coaching, and I try and instil these…

Creatine has been a popular supplement in the UK for a few years now but just recently it seems to have blown up and I get a lot of my athletes asking me “ Should I be taking it?  In short, my answer is usually YES! Male or Female… just…

Hitting this period of life, regardless of the age you go through it, can be so tough. Some women are lucky and feel very few, if any, effects. The more common story is one of weight gain, fatigue, brain fog, crazy body temperatures and frustration. There are 4 things Perimenopausal…

First up – let’s be really clear about what Menopause is.  It’s the end of a woman’s fertility and therefore, her menstrual cycle.  Menopause is one moment in time which signifies the absence of periods for 1 full year. It happens naturally with age but can also stem from surgery,…

There’s something we don’t often talk about but it can have a major effect on our training and our results and that thing is our menstrual cycle.  Do you really know what happens during your 28 day cycle? Do you understand which hormones are spiking when and what that means…

A few months ago I decided to try the bio hack that Dr Stacy Sims talks about in her book ROAR. (Side note – if you are female and care about your athletic performance, you really need to read this book!) I got pretty decent results so thought I would…

This is a question I hear a lot! Usually it means the person asking the question is only focussing on the number on the scale and that is not something I’m a huge fan of (but you can read all about that in my next blog!). Hopefully you know by…

The last in this series of three (the other two being 1:Understanding Protein and 2: Understanding Carbs) and it’s time to get to grips with fat. Fat is essential to our diet. We need to consume some fat as it contain important nutrients and essential fatty acids. Vitamins A, D,…

Following on from my last post about Protein (Understanding Protein-the basics) now lets look at the next macronutrient – Carbohydrate or Carbs. Now, Carbs get a really bad rep and a lot of fad diet trends will preach the virtues of removing carbs from your diet. The true fact is…

If you are trying to change your body composition then you need to get to grips with calorie deficit (you can read more about that here in a previous blog; Calorie Deficit ) AND balancing your macros. Calorie deficit will equal weight loss. Balancing macros will ensure fat loss. When…

I stopped drinking alcohol back at the end of 2019, purely because I wanted to see what life would be like. I didn’t have a problem with alcohol at all, I didn’t ever really drink to excess but just wanted to see if would make a difference to my life,…

PLEASE, Please stop giving your hard earned money to lazy bloody Herbalife distributors! *This was originally a facebook post but deserves a space here 🙂 Yes, learning about nutrition and how to successfully manage your diet (which just means your daily intake of food and drink) may take a little more…

I get asked by my PT clients all the time about macro’s (macronutrients; carbohydrates, protein and fats) but we don’t really talk about the micronutrients, those all important vitamins, minerals and trace elements. FACT: No matter how hard you train, you cannot out-train a bad diet. So yes, you should…

You’ve probably heard the term Calorie Deficit. It’s almost like its the new topic topic for the fitness world but it has long been know that when it comes to losing fat, it is the only real way to go.  It’s not new, it’s not even that exciting (apart from…

One of the first things I knew I had to do as part of my IM journey is lose a bit of fat and get as lean as possible. I am by no means big but by making myself as lean as possible I give myself another key for success,…