This week's episode covers a lot of fun topics! First up is a recap of lessons and insights from the Cohasset Triathlon, Katie's first race of 2024. We then cover more insights from Jim related to active recovery principles, swim technique, dual-sided power meters, and bike fitting. Our main content is a deep dive on some of our favorite workouts for Ironman and 70.3 in the Endurance Drive library, including paddles and buoy sets, low cadence Zwift climbing, 10" max sprints, and more, which we hope will be useful for our athletes to understand the intention of the workout and for our other listeners to try out some new sessions in their own programming. Enjoy the listen!
Katie: Insights from the Cohasset Tri and more broadly
A question: Should you still race if it doesn’t feel like a hell yes?
We always say if it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no
But truthfully, I have never felt like racing is a hell yes, and that was especially true this week
Logistically not great because I would have preferred a big training block week for my A race
Coming off high LSS week of travel and little sleep
Coaching at the race, supporting family and friends racing, being ‘cruise director’ for all race and post-race party logistics etc.
Haven’t trained for a sprint tri
I think you should in most cases still race but try your best to go in with a curious mindset.
“I’m here to learn” / “This is a good opportunity to dip my toe in racing before my A race and practice mental strategies”
Ask yourself if racing is a hell yes when you’re deciding whether to sign up or not; not the week before!
Of course there are extenuating circumstances like illness/injury, etc., but most of the time you can always learn something from racing.
On racing in challenging conditions:
Swim: Most chaotic I’ve been in.
Need to hug the inside line and sight VERY often because your stroke will be continually interrupted.
Mass starts at big races are scary and hard to simulate (Dan challenges in swim given lack of mass OWS practice). One way we have simulated this with Dart tri is putting 12 kids in a single lane line and doing fast 25s. Try to do this even with a couple of other people and it can help!
Biking in crowds and in the rain:
Other racers can be an issue; two novice waves started before me and I spent the whole race streaming ON YOUR LEFT and STAY RIGHT. Not much you can do about this besides be really confident in your bike handling
Visibility is an issue; I ended up having to take my glasses off mid race and sticking them in my kit, even though they are transition lenses (fogged up). Consider not taking glasses in rainy conditions
NEED to be more cautious on sharp turns and bad pavement even if going hard. Not worth the risk (Connor crash)
Run: Humidity is tough even if it’s not that hot. Still follow cooling strategy even if you don’t think it’s that hot.
On keeping perspective:
Legs didn’t really show up for the run in the way that I expected them too and I crossed the finish line disappointed that I didn’t have the run turnover that I knew I had the fitness for
Felt a little better when I looked at my times from last year -- improved across the board in swim, T1, bike, T2, run, for 90” faster overall time -- and I had thought that I had a great day last year!
Just interesting to see how you can feel really different based on the data points you focus on and the metrics you highlight. As someone who is extraordinarily self-critical and big time on the negativity bias train, I have to work hard to focus on the positives. Three strategies for doing that:
Journaling, writing down as many pros as I have cons and/or trying to reframe cons
Ask myself what I would say to one of my athletes
Lean on others who can help you see the positives
On not underestimating the LSS load of a day like this:
Race day, party, Connor crash, car incident, one hour above threshold HR… I was WIPED the next day even though it was a comparatively ‘short’ training day for me. Give yourself the rest you need to bounce back quickly any time you have a high physical stress or LSS day.
Two podcasting insights:
Favorite moment of the day was having a podcast listener who I haven’t met before (but who we will be hopefully coaching for 2025) come up and say “I love your coaches and podcast! Are you coached by Katie?” and then realizing that I was Katie
A useful mantra when I was not having a good time out there: “But think of the podcasting lessons!!!”
Jim insights:
Midseason evaluation: A number of athletes recently who re-evaluated their 2nd half race season goals and made some fundamental changes. Most of the changes were to step back from structured training for the rest of the summer in order to focus more time on family and, in the end, make the sport more sustainable. We really encourage thoughtful training, or in this case, non-structured training. If this means taking a structured break, please do. We want to have fun, keep the sport fresh and feel open to what is next for you.
Active Recovery Principles: The two principles I use when doing active recovery are 1) I must feel better after the workout than before the workout. I should feel refreshed and rejuvenated afterwards. 2) This one comes from my attorney: can you stand in front of a judge straight faced and say you did this with honest intention? When I start to go too hard during my active recovery sessions, I come back to can I stand in front of a judge and say I actually did an active recovery effort?!
Dual sided power meter: I’m generally not a proponent of spending the money on dual sided power meters as one sided tends to get the job done. But there are situations where having dual sided is extremely useful and informative. Coming back from this broken leg, I’m using dual sided power to see where the dead spots and weaknesses in my pedal stroke are. And specifically doing what is essentially one legged pedal drills to build back strength and technique to get back to even sided leg power. If you have suffered a significant injury, having access to a dual sided power meter may be very beneficial. (And this also starts me wondering how many of my beginner cyclists may have a significant pedal stroke inefficiency.)
Key takeaway: my power balance is better when I think EASY and smooth. If I think just smooth, it can lead to trying too hard and key is thinking easy, relaxed pedal strokes.
Tension in swim recovery arm: One of the most common mistakes I see in beginner swimmers is a lot of tension in their recovery arm. It’s called recovery for a reason! And just that split second of no tension in your recovery gives enough time for your muscles to regenerate and get ready to produce force through the pull part of your stroke. Your arms will literally recover in milliseconds.
There are two tensions in your arms during swimming; I call them “nice kitty” and “big dog”. Nice kitty tension in your arm and hand are like you are petting your soft, warm kitty - it’s very gentle with very little to no tension. You should have this level of tension from the time your hand/arm exit out the back until you enter the water and have your fingertips pointed to the bottom of the pool/pond. This means that almost 220 degrees of your stroke have little to no tension. Then when your fingertips are pointed downard you activate “big dog” tension which is the tension you use when you pet a big dog on the body. This is the firm but gentle pet on the body of a big lab. Who is a good dog?! Use that tension all the way back until your hand pulls back past your hip.
Bike Fit: If you are experiencing a lot of pain, discomfort and/or numb hands and feet, you need to get your bike fit or refitted. This is not an acceptable or sustainable position to put yourself in. Like TSA: If you see something, say something!
Main Content
Caveat: There are no secret, magic workouts regardless of what social media, publications and pros say. There are workouts that give someone an extra bump in fitness or just makes them feel good or race ready. Those are legit workouts for that specific person. This does not mean that that workout will be right for you. Part of your athletic journey is appropriate workouts over months and years that best fit your athletic profile and address your capacities. Some workouts will just feel better than others; pay extra attention to those workouts as they are telling you something.
The secret workout is consistency with intention month after month, year after year.
SWIM:
Paddles and buoy - Easy 4 x 200 PB at end of nearly any main set. Builds strength and endurance.
Tech 50s - strict technical stroke focus while doing 50’s. Once you can repeat the same good stroke during 50s, you can bridge this up to almost any distance.
Snorkel only, tech set. Use a snorkel to watch where your hand enters the water and how it pulls through. Enter in line with your shoulder and pull back in line with your shoulder. Use the black line at the bottom of the pool to enter on the edge of it and pull back along the edge. This is a powerful and useful visual. These are great sessions for a recovery swim.
Similarly, I have had some of my favorite, best swims in hotel pools focusing only on balance and messing around in the ocean on vacation focusing only on a good pull or open water swimming/sighting in rough conditions. The point is to spend a big chunk of time with a technical focus with no regard to pace or distance.
Social OWS - swim with a crew.
BIKE:
Low cadence Zwift climbing. In the winter and even during your build use the big climbs in Zwift to do low cadence - 50 - 65 rpm at Z2/Z3 watts with Z2 HR. Grind up a big hill for 60’ - 90’. Those racing hilly HIMs and IMs will benefit greatly from this workout. This should be a staple.
AC/ST/Neuro blocks early in the season - 20’ - 30’ warmup into:
Main Set 3x:
6 x 30" at 125% FTP into 20" at 50% FTP
3' recovery at 50% FTP
(Total of 18 intervals)
Z2 with 120/125% sprints - An easy Z2 ride overall punctuated with 4 x 30" sprints at 125% FTP with 90" recovery at 50%.
Weekend coffee rides - Assemble your crew and ride social, easy and long. These are key foundational workouts and more importantly don’t feel like workouts.
RUN:
Hills & Fast - 10 x 30” uphill fast/90% effort into 5’ at threshold pace on flat. Many variations: 2 x 4’ threshold, add another 5x30” after 5’ threshold, etc
10” max speed - 20’ - 30’ easy warmup into
3X: 6 x 10" at max sprint intent w/ 10" recovery (on slight uphill). Total of 2'.
Norwegian sub-max runs
4 x 3' at Sub Threshold Pace (or Marathon Pace) = Threshold pace + 30" with 1' walk recovery
3' recovery into;
4 x 1' at 5K pace with 1' walk recovery.
Group Track runs - join a group and run fast with friends!
Listener Questions
The goal is to try and keep your HR as low as you can and push as hard as you can. With caffeine, it naturally increases your HR. How do you balance that? I notice after my coffee breaks on the bike, my HR is ~10bpm higher for a while.
Follow up Q: Do we have recommendations for a caffeine strategy on bike and run?
Follow up to a Listener Question from last week re: graphene cooling headbands, Jason Koop Koopcast podcast had a lot of information on heat management strategies and specifically addresses the graphene headband. This is an excellent listen for anyone racing in the heat (which is all of us!)
Challenge of the Week
Katie: Spent 10-15’ journaling after a race sim or race.
Jim: Plan to volunteer at a race after your race season is over.
Gear Pick of the Week
Katie: Women’s CONCEPT Merino Wool Jersey (Velocio)
Jim: Koia - favorite recovery drink