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Simon Brooks-Kelly · SBK Coaching

I've been exactly
where you are.
Further down, actually.

97kg, avoiding mirrors, telling myself next week would be different.

Simon Brooks-Kelly
Simon Brooks-Kelly, Founder, SBK Coaching
The Story

This isn't a success
story. It's a recovery story.

2020. Lockdown hit and fatherhood arrived in the same breath. I'd spent years being the fit one - military service, Ironman Wales finishes, always moving. Within months I was 97 kilos, avoiding family photos, telling myself the events I once did were now out of reach.

I knew how to train. I'd coached other people through exactly this. None of it mattered. I kept starting over. Monday after Monday after Monday. Two years of it.

Then in autumn 2023, my wife became pregnant with our second child. That was the moment. Not a dramatic rock bottom - just a quiet, uncomfortable realisation that I'd settled for average, and that wasn't who I wanted my daughters to grow up watching.

"Every mistake I made - every failed restart, every plan that didn't survive real life - became the foundation for the system I coach today."

2024 and 2025 became the two best years of my training life. 23kg gone. Multiple ultramarathon and half marathon PBs. HYROX London. Five ultras over 50km. Fitter and stronger than I was in my twenties - as a working dad of two.

That's not despite fatherhood. That's because of how I rebuilt around it.

The Journey

Twelve years.
One thing never changed.

Through the highs and the fall, one thing stayed constant - showing up, even when it was hard, even when it didn't look like much from the outside.

2005–2019
The Athlete Years

RAF service, football captain, cross country - my first taste of structured training and hybrid conditioning. By 2012 I'd discovered triathlon and went on to complete over 40 events in six years, including my first Ironman-distance race at Outlaw. Started coaching in person at my local running, cycling and triathlon club, became a Level 3 PT, and finished Ironman Wales three years running - 2017, 2018, 2019. This was the version of me I knew how to be.

2020–2023
The Fall

Lockdown. Fatherhood. Everything I knew about training and coaching others suddenly didn't apply to me. I lost myself and piled on the weight - 97kg, avoiding mirrors and family photos. I kept starting over. Every Monday a new attempt. Every attempt collapsing by Thursday. Two years of it.

2023–2025
The Rebuild

Autumn 2023 - my wife became pregnant with our second child, and something shifted. I rebuilt the system from scratch, this time around the life I actually had, not the one I used to have. 23kg gone. Ultramarathon and half marathon PBs smashed. HYROX London completed. Five 50km+ ultras finished. Refreshed my PT qualifications and became a UESCA-certified running coach. Fitter and stronger than in my twenties.

2026 — Now
SBK Coaching

Everything I learned - from twelve years of coaching others, and from rebuilding myself twice - became SBK Coaching. First online clients onboarded and already smashing their own goals. Currently completing my UESCA ultramarathon coaching certification, with my own biggest challenge yet on the horizon - the Lakeland 50 ultramarathon, July 2026.

Veteran — RAF Level 3 PT UESCA Running Coach UESCA Ultra Coach (in progress) 23kg Lost HYROX London Ironman Wales x3 107km Ultra 50mi Backyard Ultra 1:42 Half PB Dad of Two
The System

The FORGE Method.
Five pillars. One system.

Every SBK Coaching client goes through The FORGE Method - five pillars that cover every dimension of what it takes to get lean, get strong and cross finish lines you never thought possible after fatherhood. Not a template. Not a programme with an end date. A system built around your actual life.

F
Foundations
Forge

Hybrid training - strength and running combined — built around your actual week, your goals and your life. Progressive, purposeful, always moving forward.

O
Accountability
Ownership

Weekly check-ins, goal setting, monthly and quarterly review calls. The mechanisms that keep you honest, keep you progressing and keep the coaching sharp.

R
Nutrition
Refuel

The 4x4 nutrition system. No crash diets, no meal plans abandoned by Thursday. Real food, real situations, built around family life.

G
The Daily Standard
Grit

The quiet, unglamorous habits that compound into results - the 4:30am sessions, the check-in on your worst week. Motivation gets you started. Grit keeps you going.

E
The Finish Line
Events

Training with a finish line changes everything. HYROX, half marathons, ultras, parkrun - the SBK community gets dads to start lines together. Further. Together.

Why I Get It

I'm not guessing why
the Monday reset
never worked. I lived it.

Twice, actually. Once before I knew what I was doing - as an athlete who could push his body further than most people ever would, but had no idea how to build something sustainable. And once as a dad with two daughters, who thought he knew everything about training, and discovered that all of it fell apart the moment real life turned up.

Every plan that's let you down - I've built one of those too, for myself, and watched it collapse by week three. Every excuse you've told yourself — I've told myself the exact same thing, in the exact same words, at 11pm with a packet of biscuits.

"That isn't something you can get from a textbook or a qualification. That's something you earn through living it twice and spending twelve years coaching other people through it too."

When I say I understand where you are, I'm not being polite. I genuinely mean it. And when I tell you the system holds even on the bad weeks — that's not theory. That's the system that got me through mine.

Your Turn

You've started over before
and told yourself this time
would be different.
You're telling yourself
that again right now —
and you're still reading.
Trust that.

Forge is the system built from everything I've learned - twice over. Built for dads who are done starting over and ready to build something that holds.

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