Learnings from One of the World's Top Triathlon Coaches, Reto Braendli

Hey there!

We’ve just released a new episode of the Human Endurance Podcast.

This time we sat down with Reto Braendli, a Swiss triathlon coach who works with some of the sport’s most impressive talent: Sara Svensk (8th place Kona 2024), Anne Reischmann (multiple Ironman champion), and Imogen Simmonds (top 10 T100 2024). We wanted to understand how he approaches coaching at the highest level and what separates successful elite training from the noise.

Below are more insights he shared with us during this conversation. Enjoy!

Understanding the Person Behind the Athlete

One of the most interesting parts of our conversation was how Reto approaches individualization.

“My job is to understand the person behind the athlete, how they work, how their strength and weakness profile looks like, and then finding together with them the right intervention to have success.”

He gave us a perfect example with Sara Svensk, who comes from a track and field background. Those old patterns from her running days would surface during track sessions—the pressure, the specific times, the mental weight of it all.

“We then switched those sessions back from the track to the road without having specific lap time, so we could switch the mental aspect from that.”

Same physiological stimulus. Different mental environment. Better results.

It’s not about following a template. It’s about understanding what makes each athlete tick and what holds them back.

There Are No Shortcuts

When we asked about training for long-distance triathlon, Reto’s answer was direct:

“In endurance sport, it’s about the work from year to year being consistent and there is no shortcut. The huge workout is just solid basic work. And that can be pretty boring as we know who grew up in this sport. But it also just gives you this kind of foundation, which then you can transfer into solid performance.”

This long-term thinking showed up when Sara had a foot injury in July before her October Kona race. Instead of panicking or trying to cram in volume, they leaned into her cycling base. The aerobic foundation she’d built over years allowed her to adapt and still perform at an elite level.

The Fueling Debate: More Isn’t Always Better

We talked a lot about nutrition, and Reto had some strong opinions on current trends.

On the high-carb fueling trend: “I don’t like the trend right now who is extremely on the high carb side because we have no evidence that when it comes to fueling more than 90 to 120 grams per hour is working.”

He made an important distinction most people miss: consumption doesn’t equal absorption.

“When you consume 100 grams of carbs, how much of those carbs is your body possible to absorb? So how much of those carbs get delivered into the cellular system in the end where it gets transferred to performance? Maybe you bring in a 100/hr, but your body only tolerates 60/hr. So what happened with the rest?”

But he’s equally critical of the low-carb extreme, especially for high-volume athletes:

“I also don’t like the low carb process at all. Especially if you train quite a high volume, this can be super dangerous.”

His approach? Match fueling to the actual demands of the session and the athlete’s training load. It’s tricky, but with some experimentation, tracking symptoms, and hopefully with a lab to support, it can be done.

Body Composition: Beyond Just Weight

Reto uses body composition analysis not for aesthetics or weight loss, but as an injury prevention tool.

He tracks fat mass, lean muscle mass, and bone density regularly, looking for patterns that might signal problems before they become injuries.

“We don’t have to track that every month, which makes no sense at all, but just having on and off season data is very valuable.”

He looks for muscular imbalances that could cause issues:

“If we have different muscle mass in your legs, this can have a huge impact on hips, on performance and then on injuries. So we see that before it gets a problem.”

And here’s something fascinating: professional athletes’ visceral fat actually increases during heavy training blocks.

“With athletes, high performance athletes, you can see that sometimes visceral fat is increasing during the season because they have to consume so much energy—the gels and all that. It’s not a healthy nutrition anymore if you have to consume 4,000, 5,000 calories a day for several weeks.”

Performance nutrition isn’t always health nutrition. That’s the reality at the elite level.

Indoor vs. Outdoor: Taking the Best of Both

We asked about the indoor versus outdoor cycling debate, and Reto’s answer was refreshingly practical.

“I wouldn’t call one thing good and the other one bad.”

If you live in a city and need 30 minutes just to get out to safe roads, indoor training makes perfect sense for quality work. If you have easy access to great outdoor routes, use them.

“At the end of the day, you have to perform outside. So if you’re going to the race, you have the crosswinds, you have the downhills, you have the transition zone where you have to ride the bike with one hand. It doesn’t help you if you’re just riding indoor.”

His approach: use indoor for high-intensity sessions (safer, more controlled), use outdoor for race-specific skills and longer endurance rides when possible.

Take the best of both worlds.

Reto’s Advice: Love What You Do

We asked Reto what message he’d leave for our listeners.

“You need to love what you do, and it has to come deep from your heart. It doesn’t matter if you’re a pro athlete or an age group athlete or just what we as an example, three times going, walking for 30 minutes in the fresh air and feeling much better.” - Reto Braendli

He continued: “If it comes from deep inside and you have fun by what you’re doing, you appreciate what you can, what you’re able to do, this is the most important.”

“And if you losing this passion, all the details, you may know about nutrition and body composition and training, it doesn’t help at all anymore. So I think that’s the most important. And having this fire inside as long as possible, that’s most important.”

Foundation. Consistency. Patience. Passion.

Not exactly click-worthy, but it’s what works at the highest level.

Listen to the Full Episode

This newsletter covers the main themes, but there’s a lot more in the full conversation:

• How Sarah achieved top 5 run split in Kona with 4h of running per week
• How Reto approached coaching Anne to race Kona while pregnant
• The truth about cadence and low-cadence strength work
• Why communication matters more than data in remote coaching
• Imogen Simmonds’ case and navigating difficult situations as a coach
• Specific strategies for building aerobic base

🎧 Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

📺 Watch on YouTube

Connect with Reto

Instagram: @reto.braendli

Connect with us

Instagram: @justbrunathings, @endurance_fabi

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