Inflammation for Triathletes: Friend, Foe, and How To Use It
It all begins with an idea.
What inflammation actually is
I used to think the answer was more.
More sessions. More grind. More proof.
In my football years, I chased “more” so hard I broke myself mentally and physically. I couldn’t understand why I kept stalling: weeks of momentum, then a crash. That’s when I started looking for the thing behind the setbacks. The word I kept finding was inflammation.
I didn’t treat it like a buzzword. I treated it like a puzzle: breathwork, cold exposure, yoga, better fuelling, real sleep, and later Strength & Conditioning to make my tissues harder to break. The more I respected inflammation, the more I could show up. Simple as that.
Below is the story, with short “useful bits” dropped in where it helps.
When grind culture met biology
I remember a block where I stacked hard days because I “felt good.” A week later: dead legs, flat mood, sleep trashed. I wasn’t lazy. I was inflamed.
Useful bit what inflammation actually is :
It’s your body’s repair signal after stress.
Acute (short-lived after sessions) = the good stuff that triggers adaptation.
Chronic (low-grade, ongoing) = background noise from too much load, poor fuelling, bad sleep, high life stress.
Goal isn’t “zero.” Goal is the right spike, fully resolved.
The shift: train for availability, not optics
When I stopped worshipping heroic weeks and started working towards uninterrupted months, everything moved. I built a body that could take the work, not just a calendar that looked impressive.
Useful bit the principle I use now:
Stimulus → Resolve → Adapt.
Apply stress, feed and rest, come back stronger. Repeat. If resolution never happens, the signal turns toxic.
What I actually changed (and kept)
I tried everything. Here’s what stuck and why.
Carbs around work.
If I starved sessions, I paid for it later elevated cortisol, grumpy nervous system, poor sleep.
Simple rule: carbs before/after key sessions; protein daily at ~1.6–2.2 g/kg.Sleep like it’s training.
Same window. Dim light. 2 minutes of slow nasal breathing before bed.
If sleep slips, load slips. Non-negotiable.Cold exposure used, not worshipped.
Helpful after races or when I need to be fresh within 24 hours.
Not right after key strength work if I want the adaptation.Yoga/mobility for downshifting, not circus tricks.
Ten quiet minutes beats a flashy hour once a fortnight.Strength & Conditioning for durability.
Not bodybuilding. Just a stronger chassis tendons, trunk, calves, shoulders so swim/bike/run doesn’t rattle me to pieces.Breathwork as a brake pedal.
Inhale 4 / exhale 6–8 for 10–12 breaths post-session. State changes fast. Recovery starts sooner.
How I plan a normal week now (structure, not heroics)
Mon easy technique swim + mobility
Tue bike intervals (fuel properly) + short easy brick (if kids allows)
Wed S&C + a few strides
Thu S&C (quality, not crippling) + easy spin
Fri easy swim / breathwork
Sat long ride (steady, fuel during)
Sun Rest
Useful bit polarise enough: hard days hard, easy days easy. Don’t stack all three key sessions back-to-back. Heat, hills, wind, poor sleep = hidden load; adjust.
How I spot trouble early (so it doesn’t become injury)
Morning HR up 5–10 bpm from normal for 3+ days
HRV suppressed vs baseline
Soreness hanging past 48 hours or migrating niggles
Pace/power down at the same “easy” heart rate
Broken sleep, low mood, short fuse
Two or more? I back off and feed up. No drama. That’s not weakness it’s how you keep the long game alive.
Why this matters in races
Swim chaos: calm the exhale, find feet, let the spike pass.
Bike headwind: hold effort, not speed. Weather isn’t a verdict.
Run wall: shrink the world to one minute posture, cadence, breath.
These are inflammation moments too: your system screaming for you to react. You don’t. You respond.
Bottom line I wish I’d learned sooner
Inflammation isn’t the villain. It’s the message. If you learn to create a clean signal and let it resolve, you’ll train more, break less, and race steadier. That’s how I got out of the crash-and-burn loop—from football obsession to an open, sustainable triathlon life built on calm + consistency.
Want help applying this?
Book a Recovery & S&C Audit. We’ll map your week, clean up the stress/fuel/sleep cycle, and set up in-house S&C so your body stops leaking energy.
Book your intro session → 20-min consult + first session (London or online).
Strength and Conditioning for Triathletes: A Simple, Complete Guide
It all begins with an idea.
You don’t win races in the gym. You win them because your body doesn’t fall apart when it counts. That’s the point of S&C: make the machine harder to break, easier to drive, and cheaper to run.
The real reasons (no exercises, just truth)
1) Durability beats talent.
Most seasons derail from the same story: calf/achilles, hip, shoulder, lower back. S&C toughens the tissues that carry your volume. Fewer breakdowns = more uninterrupted weeks = better racing. Consistency is the superpower. S&C protects it.
2) Free speed through economy.
Strength isn’t about looking big; it’s about wasting less energy. Better stiffness, posture, and force direction mean each step and stroke leaks less. Same pace, lower heart rate. That’s “free speed.” It stacks quietly over months.
3) Power when the race bites.
Everyone feels fine at mile two. S&C keeps your form together when glycogen is low, wind’s up, and you’re trying to pass in the final kilometre. It’s about holding the output you already own, not magically creating watts in a mirror.
4) Aero and streamline that last.
You can buy a fast bike. You can’t buy a spine that holds aero without collapsing or shoulders that keep pulling clean water in the last set. S&C is posture insurance.
5) Smart inflammation, not chaos.
Training is controlled damage so you adapt stronger. S&C provides a clean, predictable dose of stress your body can use. Skip it, and you end up with messy, random stress from poor mechanics and overuse. One builds resilience; the other builds physio bills.
6) Time and energy math.
Two short sessions a week can prevent two long weeks off. If you’re “too busy” for S&C, you’re one niggle away from being forced into it by injury—minus your choice.
7) Confidence under fatigue.
Knowing your body won’t fold changes how you race. You take the gap, you hold the wheel, you commit to the last kilometre. Confidence isn’t mindset posters; it’s evidence from training that your chassis won’t crack.
8) Aging like an athlete, not a passenger.
Past 30, you lose muscle and tendon quality if you don’t fight for it. S&C is that fight. Keep the tissue, keep the sport.
What it isn’t
Not bodybuilding. You won’t “bulk” on tri volume and sensible strength work. You’ll get denser, more efficient.
Not chasing soreness. DOMS is a sign the session was dumb for your week, not that it worked.
Not optional “accessory” work. It’s the scaffolding that lets your swim-bike-run do its job.
Common excuses (and the answer)
“I don’t have time.” Then you don’t have time for injury either. Pick your pain.
“I tried and it ruined my run.” That’s programming and timing, not S&C itself. Fix the plan, keep the benefit.
“I’m already strong from hills.” Hills build grit, not joint integrity or shoulder health. Different jobs.
The quiet wins you’ll notice
Easy pace, lower HR.
Holding aero without fidgeting.
Calves/achilles stop whispering on every build.
Swim sets don’t unravel your shoulders at the end.
You finish sessions feeling stable, not fragile.
How you’ll know it’s working (no gadgets required)
You string together 8–12 clean weeks.
Long rides don’t wreck your back.
Bricks stop feeling like survival.
Race effort holds together when the course turns ugly.
Bottom line
Endurance is the engine. S&C is the frame and transmission. Skip the frame, the engine rattles itself to pieces. Do the unsexy work and you’ll get the thing everyone wants: more finish-line speed with less drama.
Try it in your body - in-house S&C at Unbroken
We run in-house Strength & Conditioning built for triathletes.
Book in and see what many already experience: fewer niggles, steadier form under fatigue, and “free speed” from better economy.
Book your intro session → 20-minute consult + first session.
100 Days in Silence
It all begins with an idea.
A decade of retreats, a century of silence: what I learnt
Over the last decade, I kept going back to meditation retreats ten days here, ten days there until I’d passed 100 days in silence. No phone, no talking, just breath and body. It didn’t make me holy. It made me honest.
I used to live in all-or-nothing. Football was my first altar. I threw everything at it. When it didn’t give me back the future I’d built in my head, I slid into depression. If I wasn’t that, I was nothing. That’s the trap.
Vipassana handed me one clean blade: everything arises and passes. Sensations, thoughts, pride, panic. You don’t have to like it. You just have to see it, and not flinch. That single truth cracked my binary thinking and opened my life up again enough that I could wander into triathlon and Strength & Conditioning without feeling like I’d “failed” at my first love.
Here’s what stuck.
Lesson 1: Feelings aren’t orders
On the cushion: pins-and-needles, heat, boredom.
In sport: lactic, headwind, a bad day.
Both are signals, not commands. When I learned to label a sensation instead of obey it tight chest, hot quads, urge to stop it moved. Always does.
Triathlon map: when the swim goes feral or the run bites, I don’t negotiate with doom. One long exhale, hold my line, let the wave pass. It does.
Lesson 2: Impermanence is a pace plan
Pain peaks, fades. Highs do too. That means I don’t have to catastrophise lows or chase highs. I can race in windows this hill, this minute, this buoy to that buoy. Do the window well. Reset. Repeat.
Result: fewer blow-ups, more even days.
Lesson 3: Acceptance isn’t quitting
Acceptance is contact with reality: this is what’s here. From there, act.
Injury? Modify or stop.
Honest fatigue? Back off 3–5% and finish clean.
Race discomfort? Breathe, tidy posture, carry on.
It’s precision, not passivity.
Lesson 4: Identity down, behaviours up
I used to need to be the footballer. Heavy costume. Now I care about doing the thing showing up, training well, recovering well, being useful to others. Triathlon and S&C suit that: multiple levers, long runway, fewer cliffs.
Lesson 5: Calm makes you fast
Silence trained my nervous system. Long exhale, relaxed face, soft grip. When the body is loud, I make the chassis quiet. That’s free economy especially in the last third when most people fight themselves.
Three small practices that changed everything
Name it (not judge it): “pressure in chest,” “buzzing calves.” Story drops, options appear.
Breathe longer out than in: 4 in / 6–8 out for 10 breaths. State changes fast.
Choose one lever: cadence, posture, or breath. Change one thing, wait a minute, reassess.
Want to calm your mind?
If you want to calm your mind, book a meditation session to explore the mental blocks behind the all-or-nothing swings. We’ll use simple Vipassana-style drills (breath, body scan, equanimity under stress) you can apply in training, racing, and life.
Book a meditation session → 20-min consult + first session (in-person London or online).
Everything is impermanent. That used to scare me. Now it’s the reason I can keep moving sport to sport, season to season without breaking myself on the way.
Be Happy 😊
Cold and Heat Exposure: the shift I see every time
It all begins with an idea.
Part 1 of the Unbroken Recovery Series
I did not like cold or heat work at first. It felt gimmicky. I was the guy who believed the answer was more sessions, not more recovery.
Then I tried it after a heavy block. Two minutes in cool water. Later that evening a short, easy sauna. My head went quiet. Sleep landed faster. The next day my legs felt different. Not softer. Cleaner.
I see the same arc with athletes I coach. They say no. They try it once. Then the messages start coming in.
“I feel calm.”
“My body feels different.”
“Sleep was deeper.”
“I woke up ready to train.”
Same pattern across ages and levels. Skeptical at first. Convinced by how it feels.
What I noticed in my own training
Cold helped me downshift after stacked days. Heat helped me relax and loosen up on easy days. Used at the right time, both gave me something I could not fake with willpower. I felt ready to train again without needing to grind through fog.
What I notice in the squad
Athletes are more present at the start of sessions. Less fidgeting. Fewer complaints about heavy legs after long rides. Sleep notes improve. Morning mood settles. When stress is high, these small wins stop a wobble from turning into a week off.
What this is and what it is not
Cold and heat are tools, not trophies. They work best when they support the main job. Fuel well. Sleep on purpose. Keep strength work honest. Then use cold or heat to help the body land and reset. That is the Unbroken focus. Keep showing up after the event.
How we fold it in without making it a circus
After a race or a stacked day, a short cool exposure to help the system settle.
On easy or off days, a short sauna to relax and breathe.
Skip cold right after heavy strength if you want the full training effect.
Keep it short, keep it consistent, and listen to your body.
Why your scepticism helps
You do not have to believe me. Try it for two weeks. Short and simple. Track how you sleep, how you feel at session start, and whether your legs come back sooner. If it does nothing, stop. If it shifts your state, keep it.
The Unbroken standard
We train for availability, not optics. Cold and heat help us manage the space between sessions so we can stack clean weeks. That is how you keep moving past the event.
Want this set up around your real week
Book a Recovery and S&C Audit. We will fold cold and heat into your schedule, dial in fuel and sleep, and protect your availability so you keep training, not rehabbing.