Coach Tim Brazier

Do you choose the hills or do you avoid them?

Most runners route around them. Fair enough, they hurt. But a hill asks more of you than flat ground ever will. It loads the calves and the glutes, it lifts the heart rate without you having to chase pace, and it stresses the whole system in a way that’s honest. You can’t fake a hill.

A few things worth holding onto on the way up:

Stay tall. The moment you fold at the waist you shut your hips down and leave your calves to do all the work.

Drive the arms. Your legs follow your arms more than most people realise.

Shorten the stride, lift the cadence. Let the gradient set the effort, not the watch.

Eyes up the hill, not down at your feet.

The best part is what it gives back once you’re on the flat again. Strength you didn’t have before, and the confidence that when the course goes up, you go with it.

Cartel Coaching we lean into them.

Special thanks to our non paid actor and resident ex pro, Callum Millward

If you train with us, you’ll be in the gym.

No apologies for that one. Strength and plyometric work is programmed into your week from your base phase all the way through to race specific blocks. Not as an extra. As part of the plan.

You’re not going to get bulky. That’s not what we’re training for. We’re training for durability, because durable athletes spend less time on the sideline and more time actually enjoying the sport they signed up for.

I coach athletes at every level. People brand new to the sport, people who took up triathlon for their health, right through to athletes racing at Olympic level. The principles don’t change. Strength and durability matter the same amount regardless of where you’re starting.

Come see how we do it.

One of the most common things we see is an athlete who understands the plan completely. They know the intent. They know why the easy run is easy.

And then there’s a little voice sitting on their shoulder, and his name is Strava.

So the run goes a bit faster than it should. Or a bit longer, because 9.4km looks untidy and 10 looks better. None of it feels like a big deal in the moment. That’s the problem. It’s never one session. It’s the compounding of dozens of small deviations over a block, and by the time it shows up you’re not sure why you’re flat, or sore, or why race day didn’t reflect the work you put in.

The number you rounded up wasn’t the point of the session. The intent was.

We get into this properly on the latest episode, which is all about running injuries 🩼

And if you want the longer version of this conversation, we have it live every week with our athletes inside our Skool community every week.

Come and join us.

Elite isn’t something you’re born into. It’s how you train, and it’s there for anyone willing to put in the work

That’s where we start with every athlete, and it’s the whole idea behind Cartel.

For years I’ve coached at the elite level. Olympic triathletes, high performance athletes, the top of the sport. And I kept coming back to one thing: this knowledge shouldn’t sit with the few. The principles that take an athlete to the Games are the same ones that’ll take you to your next start line.

So we found a way to share them properly. We don’t chase someone else’s numbers. We take the science and apply it to the athlete in front of us. Your body, your sport, your life.

That’s why we’ve built different ways in.

For those chasing the big goals, there’s one to one coaching, us beside you the whole way.

And now there’s membership too, at a few different levels, so you can work off the same principles in a way that fits your life and your budget. The plans are there, the coaching calls are there, and you scale the support up as you go.

Different doors, same room. Whichever one you come through, we’re in your corner.

So here we are, doors open.

One to one with me, or membership at a level that meets you where you are. If this sounds like the support you’ve been after, you know where to find us.

A race is won long before anyone’s watching.

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