"If you can’t beat them, outlast them!" 41 consecutive years in triathlon with Mark Kleanthous

Simon Ward, The High Performance Human Triathlon Podcast

Since we started the podcast, I've introduced many of the UK triathlon legends, ranging from our Olympic champions to coaches who helped them there, and the folks who were around right at the start of triathlon in the UK.

Today's guest, Mark Kleanthous, competed in UK triathlons since the very first event in June 1983. And he has kept on going for 41 consecutive years.

Completing an impressive 535 triathlons in more than 20 countries, including finishing the Hawaii Ironman World Championships, as well as 48 Iron distance, double Iron, and 1 x triple Iron triathlon.

Mark has also finished 71 marathons under 3 hours.

Over the last 41 triathlon seasons Mark has calculated that he's covered more than 12,000 miles swimming, 198,000 miles cycling, and has run more than 61,000 miles (totalling 271,000 miles) in training and racing. That's more than 11 times the distance around the world, or more than the distance to the moon!

In this conversation we chat about:

• Keeping calm under stress, and problem solving
• How he still gets satisfaction from each event
• Why pacing gets better with age
• The secret to Mark’s athletic resilience and longevity
• Mark the Innovator - homemade elastic laces & aero water bottles

To find out more about Mark K please visit the following channels:

Triathlon Coaching website

Ironmate- Triathlon information website

Instagram: openwaterswimcoaching & ironmate_coaching

Twitter X: @ironmatemark

Face Book Mark Kleanthous

LinkedIn Mark Kleanthous

Some videos you might be interested in watching:

Mark's highest elevation and coldest triathlon: Ironman Lake Tahoe 2013, bike had 9,000 feet of climbing

30 Years of Triathlon t-shirts.

How to smash your ironman transitions.

Research Papers

Mark took part in various studies during Ironman Sweden for ultra endurance athlete and scientist Beat Knechtle

Changes in body composition in triathletes during an ironman event.

Nutrition & diets for endurance triathletes.

The Age-Related Performance Decline in Ironman 70.3

Mark's 3 favourite books

Gold in the Water by P.H.Mullen. Two friends and swimmers who train to compete in the 2000 Olympic games.

Training Essentials for Ultra Running by Jason Koop- Everyone from first timers to elite can benefit from this evidenced based book on going long.

Gold Rush Michael Johnson. His honest and open insight on how to be the best and beat the rest”.

To contact Beth regarding Life Coaching, please email her at [e-mail].

To leave a review of the podcast on Apple podcasts CLICK HERE.

Sports Nutrition questions - if you have a sports nutrition question that you would like answered on the podcast, please email it to me via [e-mail].

Join our SWAT/High Performance Human tribe using this link, with a happiness guarantee! You can watch a brief video about the group by going to our website here, and join our SWAT High Performance Human tribe here.

Purchase a copy of my High Performance Human e-book featuring more than 30 top tips on how to upgrade your life.

If you would like to help offset the cost of our podcast production, we would be so grateful. Please click here to support the HPH podcast. Thank you!

Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes. Links to all of Simon's social media channels can be found here. For any questions please email [e-mail].