We’re closing out 2024 with a recap of some of our biggest lessons learned and some coaching and training innovations we’re looking forward to in 2025. We cover the importance of mindset, why belief is crucial for performance, how goal mapping has helped us and our athletes, why comparison is the thief of joy, how to modify under high stress, the role of everyday nutrition vs. sports nutrition, training with the seasons, and more. We also go over some fun coaching and training insights related to Zwift, FTP tests, nordic skiing, and strength training, and we reflect on what it means to have reached our big one-year milestone of the pod. Thank you so much to all of our listeners to this point — we’re so pumped to see what 2025 brings!
Intro banter
We have passed one year of the pod!
The podcast as an individual, coaches collective and community created project. We are creating this together!
Coaching & Training Insights
Katie:
Zwift free ride vs. structured workouts vs. outdoor riding. In the spirit of trying to help athletes make choices and listen to their bodies, I’ve been reminding them that any time there is, e.g., a Z2 bike workout in TP, it is equally fine to do a structured Z2 workout on Zwift, free ride in Z2 on Zwift, or go outside if the weather allows. Many people think if they don’t do the perfect “Z2: High Cadence 20 x 1s” it will compromise their race. In reality, there are *many* roads to Rome and all Z2 is good Z2 at this point. When it’s really important to stick to exactly what the workout is (e.g. hard bike intervals later on), we will tell you!
Substitutions for other activities. Also true in base season - a 30-45’ Z2 run is usually fine to sub for a 30-45’ Z2 XC ski, 30-45’ Z2 hike, 30-45’ Z2 elliptical, etc. You want to get some running in, but occasional swaps like this based on availability and interest are totally OK and encouraged. Always come back to the intention of the workout (during pre-base and early base, this is HR in Z1/2, aerobic foundation base building).
Piece of evidence #900 that strength training is a hack. Ankle injury + death in family + gum surgery = very low volume in the last 6 weeks. Back on Zwift now and surprised to see really high power numbers. My hunch? Strength training, the one thing I have been consistent at (plus a lot of walking by nature of my city life) has kept fitness levels pretty solid in a way not reflected by TSS/ TP but that I can feel now that stress levels are down. And all the rest was probably good for me! Excited for what’s next now in 2025.
Jim:
Nordic skiing for moderate aerobic development and multi-directional glute/leg strength. If you can get out of Nordic skiing this winter, go for it. It’s very much like trail running; it organically builds your aerobic capacity and leg and glute strength. Particularly helpful is that most runners and triathletes are ‘north’ oriented with all their movement (think of north on the compass, we rarely go east/west and south). Nordic skiing is all about north, east and west movements. And it’s another great way to get upper fitness similar to swimming. And don’t worry about staying in Zone 2, cross country skiing is usually Z3 and up!
Ramp test vs FTP test
Don’t do the ramp test, it’s the least effective way to obtain FTP. It has a number of issues that we don’t need to discuss. Just say no.
For the best indoor FTP test, do the 73’ Zwift FTP test which will use ERG mode for warmup and ERG mode off during the 5’ and 20’ test. The 5’ part is all out to burn off some anaerobic power so your 20’ power test is more aerobic.
Key point: During the 5’ and 20’ test, ERG mode will go off automatically which means you will need to change gears to increase the resistance and find the level of watts that are appropriate for you.
With the 5’ test, go all out. Hold back a little during the first 1 - 2 minutes (95% effort) and then just go all in on the last 3’ like you are trying to win a mountain top Tour stage and Team Jumbo Visma is hot on your tail!
For the 20’ effort, use the first 3 - 5’ to find what is hard but sustainable. Then start to see if you can increase your effort throughout the last 15’. With racing and testing, always start a little on the conservative side and then work into the effort.
Swimming early season; Technical 50’s and beginner swimmer focus areas. The Base season is the best time to work on the technical part of your swim stroke. If you are an intermediate swimmer, then do a lot of 50’s with plenty of rest. Pick a focus point and work that for 5 - 10 50s. Do enough of one thing / one focus area that you can say you made progress during that swim session. A common mistake made is working too little time on stroke improvement. Your brain needs a lot of reps and time in order to learn. Take your time. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Just one small improvement is all you need for a successful swim. Progress not perfection.
If you are a beginner swimmer, a highly effective way to learn proper body position and tautness is kick on back with fins. This is magic. Do 10 x 50 and then start doing 25 kick on back / 25 freestyle with a catch up stroke focus. Here are two videos:
Kick on back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7KBmMN_2w0
Catch up stroke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LplmxO89t9U&t=21s
Focus early season on: catch up stroke, quiet head, entering in line with shoulder and pulling back in line with your shoulder.
Also, I highly recommend following these folks on Instagram:
Natasha Van Der Merwe - https://www.instagram.com/natashavdm81/
Effortless Swimming - https://www.instagram.com/effortlessswimming/
360 Swim Coach - https://www.instagram.com/swim360coach/
Don’t stress about fitness around the holidays. Have fun with family and friends. We have plenty of time to get fit. Miss some workouts!
Lessons from 2024 / Looking forward to 2025
Check out our first installment of this series—Episode 35: Lessons From 2024 (So Far!)—as well as our lessons episode from last year (Episode 5: Lessons From 2023) to hear about everything we have learned to this point!
Katie:
Mindset matters
Check out Episode 41: Recapping Katie’s Comeback Win at the Sea to Summit Triathlon
S2S: Why, on reflection, getting lost and having to actively choose to race for me without chasing any outcome was so powerful
N = 1, but I believe your very best races come from a position of racing truly for you and knowing that you are choosing to race and want to be there regardless of the outcome, and/or that your goal is to perform the best that YOU possibly can on any given race day.
Will the mindset coach: “Can you replicate it?”
Goal for next season: be able to use that mindset (both in training and in racing) without being forced into it
Related: cultivating belief
Check out Episode 51: Cultivating Self-Belief in Sport and Life
Our expectations create our reality
This is true both in terms of mindset and physiology
Work with the Mind and Body Lab
See, e.g., famous milkshake experiment
I have a hunch that this is true with how we perform in races, which is why cultivating a positive mindset and keeping up the positive self-talk matter SO much. Looking forward to building strategies to work on this with athletes (and myself) in 2025.
Note also that I’ve increasingly seen my role as a coach to help athletes cultivate belief in themselves. *Many* of us struggle with feelings of worth in sport or life and/or low confidence especially going into races. Leaning on your coach or other members of your support community can often be an important stepping stone to developing belief in yourself
Targeted goal mapping
Check out our Goal Mapping Worksheet and Episode 49: Setting Goals in Training and Racing
(1) Big goals, loosely held
Don’t be afraid to set a big and scary goal!
(2) Roll-down of A / B / C goals
Small sub-point -- many athletes have A goals related to place (e.g., top 10 in AG). I usually recommend mapping those goals onto some time (which you can do by looking up times for top 10 in previous iterations of the race), since we can train to perform at a goal pace but we can’t control who shows up on race day. Remember that you could have a “‘slow’ or ‘bad’ for you day” and finish 2nd in your AG, or smash a PB and finish 11th. Which matters more to you?
(3) You don’t always have to be better than last year or a previous version of yourself; important to realize that when ‘life overhead’ changes, even just maintaining your fitness or hitting 6 hours of training per week can be a huge A goal when life overhead is really high. Be realistic about what your life overhead is in a given year/season (Are you moving? Starting a new job? Taking on new responsibilities at work? Starting a family? etc.) and then ask yourself what races and what goals are appropriate for a change in life overhead. Which segways into…
Comparison is the thief of joy
A common trope but SO true in the endurance context
Part of this comes from comparing ourselves to others, e.g. on Strava or other social media platforms. When you catch yourself feeling bad about your own performances or stats relative to others, take a social media break.
An even bigger part often comes from comparing to previous versions of ourselves, which Strava has made easier and easier in what I think is a not so good way (e.g., reminding you what you were doing 1 or 2 years go or using AI to tell you that your run was slower than average). Remember that Strava never takes into account the life overhead or context of what is going on in life, even if it tries to with weird personal comments in the AI info.
When this is coming up for you, I recommend:
Using less data
Turning inward to ask what your body needs and what the intention of the workout is
Coming back to the values of joy, community, etc.
Stress is stress is stress / the body keeps the score
Check out Episode 22: Life Stress Score (LSS)
Increasingly seeing in athletes now and in my own life: the body interprets stress from life stuff, work stuff, training, racing, etc. in the same way
There is only so much stress you can be under at a given time before the body starts to shut you down -- and if you push this to the extreme, it can really come back after you later in life with chronic disease, inflammation, etc.
When LSS is high, TSS *must* come down. Keep your coach informed and lower the volume and intensity until your metrics start to come back under control and even more importantly, until you feel better. This is the fastest way to get back on track!
Sports nutrition is the 1% / everyday nutrition is the 99%
Check out Episode 53: Performance Nutrition with Chef and Registered Dietitian Megan Chacosky and Episode 9: Nutrition for Athletes with Cate Ward, PhD, RD
A quick one, but something I see often in athletes (and an important point that came up in our episode with RD and Chef Megan Chacosky) is that as athletes, we spend a ton of time thinking about optimizing our sports nutrition with the perfect gel or carb max, but spend less time thinking about the other 99% of our fueling (i.e. everyday nutrition). Obviously it’s important to nail your fueling strategy for racing, but what you eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks should have an equal if not greater amount of intentionality and focus. From a starting point of eating enough, you should also be thinking about eating the rainbow, getting enough protein/healthy fats/getting enough carbs, etc. *This is not an instruction to try to eat as clean as possible!* It is just that not putting any intentionality into your daily fueling while thinking extensively about everything in the sports nutrition bucket will likely create some gaps in how you feel in training and how you recover.
In 2024, I was glad to see many of our athletes set up appointments with an RD to dial in their everyday and workout nutrition. Will continue to encourage athletes to do this in 2025!
Check out Cate Ward, PhD, RD!
Embracing the seasons of workouts/training/life
Reflecting on how my season and the seasons of many of my athletes have unfolded, I think there’s something to be said for working with the seasons to structure your training/racing and movement
Winter is an amazing time to hunker down from a training and work perspective, get a lot done, stack base miles, get “indoor fit.”
Spring is a time to get outside, get outdoor durability and learn how to ride, run, and OWS LONG, prep for races, dial in mindset. Very busy time for athletes and coaches.
Summer is sort of a manic happy high intensity joyous celebration of racing that results from the work you put in during the winter and spring; the time we all have been waiting for as triathletes.
Fall is a great time to reap the benefits of summer fitness but transition into unstructured adventuring, and, once the weather finally comes back into winter, to rest and reset physically and mentally. I am way more okay with being less nomadic than usual and “nesting” inside during this time of year than any other time. No more scarcity mindset regarding outdoor time and full surrender to a slower and sleepier place as we build for a new season.
All this is to say: I don’t usually intentionally plan for seasons to unfold this way, but they generally have in the past several years and it feels good. Looking forward to following a similar progression this year and helping athletes do the same as we kick off the season.
Also, if you have an A race that happens to be in, e.g., December (shout out to 70.3 Worlds racers, recent IM 70.3 Indian Wells, etc.), that is OK too! Just know that your season may be a little bit unconventional with respect to usual outdoor time and structuring of life.
Jim:
Fueling: We always say. Fueling and fitness are equal partners on race day. And we’ll expand that to big training days. And expand it even further to always eat enough, always daily to fuel your training and recovery.
The next boundary to push is high carb fueling during training and racing. I’ll use big training days / Race Sim days to encourage my athletes to experiment with hard carb fueling and train their gut to take in even more fuel. I believe we will see breakthroughs on our team in 2025 by fueling even more.
Along this same theme, I will experiment with sodium bicarbonate in 2025. There is a lot of performance evidence that sodium bicarbonate works well.
Heat training: Both active and passive. Heat and humidity is always a challenge and seems to be getting more challenging every summer. It’s a huge performance killer. We need to do more to address this leading into our races.
More moderate / Z3 / steady running: especially after speed work. In the past, speed work has just been speed work. Will experiment more this upcoming year with speed work (at the track, for instance) into some Z3 / half marathon/15K pacing.
Progression runs: Developing more progression runs for 2025 for all athletes. This is mostly influenced by the runners I coach. Adding challenge at the end of a run seems to be a physical and mental boost of confidence.
Even more hills. We are big fans now and will incorporate hills even more. Huge believer in hills and speed combination. Examples are 30” hill intervals into 5’ flat fast running.
Mental training
Intention of workout
Mechanism to invoke parasympathetic nervous system - breath work, meditation, therapy, mindfulness
New favorite mantra: “It will be hard but I am capable.”
Level 1 - 5 athlete model focus. Don’t rush athletic development. Set a context for new athletes coming into the sport.
Challenge of the Week
Katie: Get some body work done! Sports massage, sports chiro, PT, acupuncture. Sometimes the latter three can be covered by insurance. All part of establishing your local network of care providers.
Jim: If you’re exercising a lot outside in the cold, it’s easy not to drink much as you don’t get the same thirst sensation as you do in the warmer months. But remember to keep hydrating. (And bonus focus on hydrating pre and post workout.)
Gear Pick of the Week
Jim: If you are looking for a protein powder with some vitamins/probiotics/super foods, check out Kachava. Combine with greek yogurt for a protein bomb!