Turning Pro and Keeping Team Spirit * Simon Ward and Elliot Smales

On this week’ss show my guest is Elliot Smales, one of the exciting breed of younger men and women developing their career as long distance triathletes.  Elliot is a Yorshireman who has based himself in Leeds, a city that has developed a deserved reputation as the centre of triathlon in the UK, Europe and maybe even the world.

Elliot was a member of the Yorkshire Triathlon academy who came to study at Leeds University and was part of the triathlon development squad. He dabbled in short course racing but at the age of 23 decided to have a go at a 70.3 event. In 2018 he turned pro and started to post some big wins including Ironman 70.3 Dun Laoghaire and 70.3 Staffs. In 2019 he also won Ironman 70.3 Sweden before deciding at the last minute to enter his first Ironman (Barcelona) just a few weeks after the 70.3 worlds in Nice, France.

Elliot has certainly packed a lot into his relatively short triathlon career so far and we cover a lot of ground in this conversation including:

• Getting started in triathlon with Sheffield Tri Club and never forgetting the club spirit, even when you are a pro triathlete
• What it really takes to race long distance triathlon
• Why even no-drafting triathlon has ‘bike packs’, and the tactics involved in racing at the highest level
• Entering an Ironman event because your clubmates were having a party afterward
• Thinking that anyone can run a sub 2:40 marathon, when your longest run of the year is just 14 miles
• The financial reality of trying to make a living as a young professional triathlete

To find out more about Elliot and his training and racing exploits you can follow him on Twitter https://twitter.com/elliot_smales and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/elliot_smales/

You can watch the Pre Race interview that Elliot did before 2019 IM Staffs 70.2 HERE

Watch Elliot riding his REAP bike in South Africa HERE

To find out more about Simon’s SWAT programme, please click HERE 

To comment on this podcast, please visit Simon's Facebook page HERE 

Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes 

For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com