Episode 47: How to Plan Your Race Calendar

A lot of our athletes have had their eyes on signing up for races next season, so in this episode we're deep diving on the most important things to think about when planning your race calendar. Highlights include: an honest evaluation of your skills and experience level, your life commitments, finding your why, race logistics, cost, and more. We also answer some fun listener questions on aligning high-volume training with busy lives, how to tap into different swim speeds, how to get more comfortable on the bike, and what our podcasting process looks like. Check it out!

Coaching & Training Insights

Katie: Thoughts on ways to “touch” speed without overloading or taxing the body as the off season progresses 

• 4-8 x 25 fast in the pool

• 4-6 x strides at the end of a run 

• 4-6 x 30” high cadence pickups at end of ride 

• 4-6 x 20-30” sprint pickups during a ride

• All organic and only if feeling like it, but realizing that ALL Z1/2 ALL the time can leave you feeling a bit sluggish 

• Jim: Speed is easy come, easy go. Light touches 2X-3X per week keeps the brain-to-fast twitch muscle connection.

My pool/gym is a 15’ walk away from my apartment. Didn’t realize, but this has been an incredible organic warm-up for swimming and strength. Recently I was in a situation where my gym was close by and I rolled right into strength without the 15’ walk and felt terrible! 

• Warm-ups do not have to be complicated; if you can walk for even 5-10’ before you start any activity, it makes a huge difference with how the entire workout is going to feel. If short on time, better to shorten the main set than skip the W

• Jim: My favorite run warmup is a 10’ walk uphill.

Psychology segment of the podcast: thoughts on vulnerability in sport 

• I’ve been listening to a lot of Brené Brown (professor and researcher at UT Austin, motivational speaker, etc.) -- studies courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy

  • Here are her TED talks and she has a million books/audiobooks, a Netflix special, and other speaking engagements:

    • The power of vulnerability

    • Listening to shame

• Vulnerability is: uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure

  • Unstable feeling we get when outside of our comfort zone

• Racing is vulnerability in a huge way!

• Uncertainty: we don’t know what the race outcome is going to be

• Risk: we may have a good outcome and we may have a bad outcome; we may win, we may lose; we may PR, we may blow up. Toeing the line is a risk

• Emotional exposure: if anyone else knows that we are racing (most of the time, people do!), they will see us perform (and will see the emotions associated with that) -- joy, disappointment, fear, etc. 

• Vulnerability can take two routes:

• If met with secrecy, silence, judgment → can lead to shame (feeling of not being enough; not being worthy of connection; etc.)

• If met with empathy and understanding → can lead to connection, joy, etc. 

• So! What do we do? In racing and life context:

• Self-kindness and compassion -- what would you say to a friend? 

• Common humanity -- everyone deals with this in different ways! 

• Mindfulness (without over-identification) -- observe feelings but don’t judge them 

• Lean on your support squad to accept empathy 

Jim: Following up on racing and vulnerability, I was talking to one of my athletes this week about racing and looking at the big picture. We talked about how you want to feel in 5,10,20 years. This puts a one day event in perspective and context. What I ultimately want from sport in three buckets in this priority order: 

• Bucket 1: Fitness, wellness, social connection and adventure - probably drives over 80% of motivation

• Bucket 2: Strength, mobility and longevity - ~20% of motivation.

• Bucket 3: Race results. Less than 1% of motivation!

Fun weekend watching UTMB - 100 mile trail race around Mont Blanc and listening to follow up podcasts with David Roche breaking down his Leadville 100 win. This is my reminder that long course triathletes can take a lot of lessons from ultra runners particularly around building run durability, fueling for long distance, pacing, strength training, etc. 

• And reminders that big breakthrough performances like David at Leadville and Katie Schide at UTMB have been over a decade in the making. See the 10,000-Hour Rule: “the ten-thousand-hour research reminds us that the closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play."

• Or as Brad Stulberg writes: 

  • Pick your thing.

  • Pick a good system for your thing.

  • Surround yourself with people who support you doing your thing.

  • Do your thing for a decade.

Bike maintenance: Regular ride went from 1:15 to 1:10 to 1:05 with some basic bike maintenance. 

• Also, you can use off season easy rides to work on skills. I’ve been working on a better aero position on the road bike. Thinking and acting fast is a skill not necessarily more watts. 

I receive a weekly email from a very reputable podcast platform which often includes swim/bike/run workouts. The run workout this week was:

• 16 miles with 8 miles at threshold pace

• A 5K pyramid workout that had nearly 30’ at 5K pace

• Both of these workouts are VERY advanced. No context was given for the workouts and there was no mention of scaling them for various levels of abilities. While I respect this platform and benefit from their knowledge, these types of workouts can lead one to think they aren’t doing enough or don’t have the ability to do hard workouts. Just remember, we are all at a level appropriate for us now and working toward a better athletic self at our own pace. Take a big grain of salt when looking at workouts from elites. 

Quick reminder: Often September races start quite cold. Bring a warm jacket, hat, gloves and tights for race morning. 

Main Content 

Start with an honest assessment of your current triathlon skills and experience. This is critical to choosing the appropriate goals and races for the upcoming season.  

To provide some guidance, here are five levels with corresponding goals:

Level 1:

Overview: You are new to the sport of triathlon. You may know nothing about any of the sports or gear or you may have come from one of the sports in HS / college.  This is the most important level in your development as a triathlete. Do not rush through this phase. It’s OK to be at this level for 2 - 3 years. 

You have 4 - 8 hours per week to train.

Swim Skills/Gear: 

• Learn how to swim

• Learn how to open water swim

• Learn how to open water sight / navigation

• Own a wetsuit

• Swim goals: 

  • You should be able to swim 1700 yards continuously in open water in a wetsuit sighting every 7 - 9 strokes. 

Bike Skills/Gear:

• Own a road or TT bike. 

• Able to clip in/out safely with clipless pedals

• Comfortable riding on the open road

• Able to drink from water bottle and eat while riding

Bike Goals:

• You can safely ride 25 miles on the open road, navigating traffic, other riders and be able to drink from your water bottle and eat while riding.

Run: You can run at least 6 miles at a Z2 HR.

Appropriate races: Complete your first Sprint and Olympic triathlons

After you have completed 2 - 5 Sprints and 1-2 Olympics and all of the above skills, you advance to Level 2.

If you take away one thing from this podcast today, it is this: Level 1 athletes should NOT sign up for Half Ironman or Ironman races.

If you sign up for an IM as Level 1, you will spend 6 - 9 months fighting your physical and mental skills and being. We want to see you have long term enjoyment and success in your sport. Our recreational pursuits should make us happy, not stressed. Happy = long term, sustainable fun.

Level 2: 

You have a fundamental grasp on the above skills and fitness and are confidently doing triathlons. You are consolidating the skills from Level 1. This level is mostly about accumulating experience and starting to see the nuance of your sport. You might spend 1 - 2 years at this level. Lots of racing at sprint/Olympic level will provide you with a solid foundation to move to the next level. We often see these triathletes doing other races like run and bike races to improve their skills/experience and transfer that single sport race/focus back into triathlon.

Regularly training 7 - 10 hours per week.

We recommend sprint/Olympic races at this level. A Half Ironman is also an appropriate stretch goal.

Level 3: 

Overview: You are very familiar with triathlon and are looking to become competitive in your Age Group or finish fairly high overall in local triathlons. You have been racing for 2 - 4 years and have a developed sense of racing.

You have 9 - 12 hours a week to train on average, for months at a time, and ability to train up to 15 hours per week during big weeks.

Level 3 athletes are doing sprint/Olympic/70.3 and Ironman races.

Level 4: 

Overview: You are a competitive age grouper and compete for top 10 positions in local to regional triathlons. You are looking to win your Age Group at local/regional Sprint/Olympic/HIM/IM races.

You have 12 - 20 hours a week to train on average, for months at a time, and ability to train up to 25 hours per week during big weeks.

Level 5:

Overview: You are an elite or professional triathlete.

You have 20-30 hours a week to train on average, for months/years at a time.

Through all levels you also want to consider the following factors:

• Finding your WHY: Deep--and specific--dive on what you actually enjoy doing. Fun and enjoyment is key for sustainability. If you really don’t like one of the sports then maybe consider other types of events. (A person who really doesn’t like to swim but loves to run maybe focuses on becoming a better marathoner, ultra-runner, etc)

• Helps to get really specific. Why are you swimming? Why are you biking? Why are you running? Why are you strength training?

• Honest evaluation of your schedule and life commitments. How much are you actually able to train? Do you have regular access to a pool? Do you have a safe place to ride your bike? Is your support network in alignment with your goals?

• Related: Calendar mapping in the context of work, travel, life commitments 

• For many of our late 20s through 30s audience, weddings, bachelorette parties, baby showers, graduations, etc., take up a LOT of weekends. Keep in mind that if you have many of these events during the specific prep phase and work full time M-F, it will be hard to get your big days in for IM and 70.3 and it may be better to focus on shorter distance training.

• I usually look at my calendar for the entire year and add in when big weekends will happen (i.e., 4, 8, and 12 weeks out from race day). There is some flexibility (big days 3-5, 7-9, and 11-13 weeks out can work) but in general the specific prep phase should be pretty protected.

• Do not underestimate the LSS toll of weekend travel, especially air travel or car trips over 3 hours. 

• Cost--keep in mind the many hidden costs of races. Budget considerations are HUGE in triathlon. It is a very expensive sport initially and all along the journey. That giant sucking sound you hear is the triathlon industry taking away all your disposable income!

• Figure out your budget in advance and then add 1.5x what you think you are going to spend. 

• Race logistics--driving vs. flying, international vs. national vs. local

Check out Episode 16: So you want to do an Ironman? and Episode 1: Season Planning for more!

Listener Questions

How do you improve balance/stability on the bike? I find fueling and hydrating on the bike very awkward, so would love any tips!

• Getting reps in is the best way to get comfy with fueling and hydration on the bike. I recommend finding a flat and quiet road (even in your neighborhood) and going out and literally practicing taking a hand on and off, then hand to touch bottle and back, hand to touch back pocket and back, take bottle out and put it back in, take bar out and unwrap it, etc. etc. etc., “leveling up” in difficulty once the previous step feels easy and comfortable. Once all of that is smooth, you can experiment with doing it at faster paces or on other roads. Like all things, taking it slow and getting reps in (even with short 15-20 min “technique” rides) can lead to some pretty fast progress.

I heard there are 3 paces when it comes to swimming. How can I determine my « fast » pace other than « if i swim x more meters like this I’m gonna be in cardiac arrest »?

• Fast - Do as fast as possible 25s. 

• Threshold - do a Critical Swim Speed test to set your swim threshold.

• Moderate/aerobic - ~3-5” slower than your threshold. You probably do most of your training in this area. 

• Easy - At least 10” slower than your threshold pace and preferably even slower.

I would be interested in how your work/life balance has evolved as you yourselves have evolved as endurance athletes. As a beginner I’m currently doing after school/ after work training and just one of the three sports a day. How did you transition to multiple sessions a day (not sure if you do this necessarily, but i do see other triathletes doing this a lot on instagram) or just generally finding the optimal time that worked for you? Did you find yourselves choosing jobs that allowed you the flexibility to train?

• Jim: Great question. Everyone has a little different situation so I encourage athletes to start with the question; what do you really want to accomplish in sport? 

• And then start work to align your schedule, priorities and actions with those goals. If I’m clear with my mission, my daily decisions and actions just seem to fall into place.

• All of my athletes are super busy with work, family, school, and social commitments. If you really start to granularly look at your schedule you probably have more time than you think you have. This might mean going from a non-morning person to a morning person - that’s super hard!
  Think about exercise snacks for times of the day that have short windows. A 30’ run done dozens of times per season adds up to HUGE gains. An exercise snack is a great way to enable double workouts in your day.

• Another consideration: Does social media give you inspiration or anxiety? If the former then it can provide inspiration to get out there when your motivation is lagging. If the latter then consider curating your follows. The last thing you need is to feel bad about your recreation which is supposed to be fun and uplifting.

What is your podcasting process?

• One of us will usually come up with an idea and pitch it to the other (for me, those ideas flow the best when swimming, biking, or running). Note that way back in December when originally started the podcast, we made a list of probably 15-20 ideas, but somehow we still keep coming up with fresh ones or new takes on a similar theme.

• Next we build out our outline together -- if you didn’t know, we put all of our outlines on our website in the extended show notes so you can see what we’re working off. It isn’t a script but we do spend a lot of time sketching out the points we want to make and refer to it throughout the recording

• We record on zoom at least four days before release date because it takes a lot of time to get the episode ready. Katie edits using a platform called Descript. Usually editing takes around 3x the length of the episode, so 3 hours for a one-hour episode! Good excuse to sit in Normatec boots

• Then we send off the edited content to an audio engineer who smooths out the audio, normalizes the volume, edits out any stray background noise (dogs etc.)

• Finally we prep the episode on Spotify for Podcasters, prep our show notes for the website, and set everything to release at 3am eastern on Thursday mornings 

• It’s a labor of love! But we love it so we’re rolling with it for now :) 

Challenge of the Week

Katie: Something I've done in the last couple of weeks - delaying caffeine intake for about an hour in the morning (not the first thing I do) and having coffee with food. good for cortisol reduction and generally feeling more chill/calm. We often see high HR in our athletes in the morning and some of this could be proximity to caffeine intake! 

Jim: Staying on the breakfast / morning routine, I’ve been focusing on big protein in the morning which seems to set me up very well for the rest of the day. My go to is eggs with cottage cheese. Good cottage cheese is my favorite. Their one serving Strawberry Chia and Pineapple make for fantastic snacks or additions to eggs, salad, on toast, post workout, etc.

Gear Pick of the Week

Katie: Snake & Pig goggles -- won these at S2S and was skeptical but love them! Super comfortable goggles (I have graduated from the kids’ speedo goggles I found in the Stanford lost and found in 2019) 

Jim: Massage Lacrosse Balls - incredibly effective for muscle massage and release. Try it on your glute max!

Episode 46: The Olympics, Athlete Development, and Storytelling in Sport with Mac Morse

Fresh off a summer in Paris with Team USA, Mac Morse joins Katie and Elena this week to share her perspectives and wisdom gained from a career working in athlete development with the best of the best. We cover Mac’s own career as an elite athlete, her entrepreneurial path to creating The Sideline Perspective—a platform for injured and retired athletes to find support and community—and her current role in Athlete Development with the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee. We dive deeper into the business of sport and how we can unpack the nuances of its impact through owning our narratives, both internally and externally. And we get a bonus treat of her poetry! This episode is about humanizing all athletes, from the recreational runners to the Olympic champions, and it isn’t one to be missed!

Check out The Sideline Perspective on Instagram, online, or through their podcast!

Gear pick of the week:

Mac: Desitin for anti-chafe

Katie: Socks! For running - Lululemon Power Stride Crew; For cycling - Rapha Pro Team socks

Elena: Hex bar!

Episode 45: How to Get Fast With Swim, Bike, and Run Intervals

In this week's episode, we are bringing it back to basics with Intervals 101. We cover what intervals are (and what they are not), why do intervals, when to start doing intervals, how to determine what intervals are appropriate for you, basic considerations and mistakes with intervals, and examples of a basic interval progression in our programming. We also cover lots of fun coaching and training insights related to the off season, using repetition as a way to track progress, overcoming workout anxiety, positive mindset tools, defining race goals, the magic of high-carb fueling, and more. We had so much fun with this episode—check it out!

Intro Banter

Katie is feling recovered! Talk about how great it has been to lean into the off season / recommendations to other athletes to do this (many of my athletes have started to feel the effects of a LONG season) 

• Physical metrics: HRV, RHR, sleep, overall good energy 

• Mental metrics: excited to get outside and move! 

• How I’m approaching next few weeks:

• Still a recovery phase – no hard workouts 

• Strength: stability, anti-rotation, etc. and fixing the listing things

• Endurance: whenever I can, switching things up in terms of movement planes and activities

• Yoga 

• Pickleball (lol)

• Harvard stadiums 

• Hiking 

• Some SBR because it is convenient, but all fun and social Zone 1/2 

Coaching and Training Insights

Katie: 

• A useful way to track progression - repetition 

• Can be exciting to do lots of different workouts and keeps things interesting, but sometimes the best way to check in on how you are performing day to day is via repetition 

• Examples:

• Doing the exact same swim set for a series of weeks – sometimes you will be faster, sometimes you will be slower, but on average you should be trending faster as you build fitness

• Doing the exact same route multiple times and seeing what your pace/HR is – I especially like this for trail running (example from trail run over the weekend)

• For me, this feels less stressful than regular “testing” for benchmarks. It’s just part of your regular training, but a nice way to see progress over time

• On the flip side, big declines can give you a window into challenging conditions: are you getting sick? Tired? Weather is hot/humid? Etc. 

• Weather is a big pitfall here so be sure to use the JAHI!

• Jim: High performers thrive on boredom and repetition. If you constantly need a new workout or variation, you are probably more focused on entertainment than process and performance.  High performers keep it simple, low stress. They practice the fundamentals over and over and over. 

  • Great read: The Mundanity of Excellence

    • “Excellence is mundane. There's nothing 'special' about high performers. They just have a set of habits, practices and mindsets that individually aren't particularly groundbreaking, but when added together and compounded over a long period of time, result in the phenomenon of excellence. It's all very mundane.”

  • Jim: Organic fitness testing is way more enjoyable than a formal threshold test.

• Some athletes reporting anxiety about executing HARD workouts

• Many of my former IM or 70.3 athletes are closing out their seasons with sprint/OLY training and racing which is hard in a different way 

• One athlete remarked: a run that had 20’ at OLY race pace off the bike felt more intimidating than a run with 60’ at 70.3 race pace off the bike!

• This is totally normal – short and intense workouts often hurt a lot more. One day in the spring I told my coach that I would rather race an Ironman tomorrow than race a mile on the track (and as a result she had me do a LOT of hard track and tempo workouts until they weren’t so scary)

• Anything new/uncertain often causes anxiety. Exposure is one of the best things you can do. Worst case you don’t hit your intervals, and that is OK! Will help us make a race plan going forward. In my experience the anticipation is so much worse than the real thing (true for racing too) and the more you do it the less scary it is.

• Jim: “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” - Seneca

• Advice for life that is also advice for racing and pre-race mindset: how to not catastrophize 

• Catastrophizing = assuming the worst case scenario will happen

• In a race: well I’ll probably get a flat; I’ll probably walk the marathon; I’ll probably have GI issues

• From a psychological standpoint, the more we do this, the more we create neural pathways that do this in the future. Imagine it like a groove in a piece of wood from a knife

• One way to work against this is to force yourself to also imagine that the best case scenario happened

• I PR’ed 

• I had no GI issues

• I won the race 

• Etc.

• You might not believe it, and that’s fine. Even if you don’t believe it, the PRACTICE of imagining the best case scenario is usually because it creates new neural networks. Eventually, you may always think of both the best and worst case scenarios automatically (or bias towards better scenarios) which can help manage pre-race stress and anxiety 

• This is a life skill too! Any time you catch yourself assuming the worst, try to imagine the best.

• Jim: Humans have a natural negative bias because this is a survival instinct. We are alive now because generations before us were cautious and probably weren’t full sending out on the plains or on the farm.  But, luckily, we have a very evolved frontal part of our brain that can distinguish between real danger and imagined danger.  Defining and drawing that line is a mental skill that requires a lot of conscious practice.  

• A listener (athlete) question that could also be an insight: if you are sick, when should you take extra rest and when should you push through?

  • General rule of thumb: if you have a fever, aches, any symptoms below the neck (chest congestion, cough, etc.) or GI issues, take the day off and focus on resting and hydrating 

  • If you have a cold and are just congested but energy levels are OK, I sometimes find that an easy Z2 ride or run can help flush things out. I would still avoid hard workouts and shut it down if you start to feel worse 

  • Also helpful to track metrics like RHR and HRV - this can tell you something about how deep the sickness is or if it’s more just a nasal congestion situation

  • Remember our rule for injuries / niggles: sometimes 1-2 days off can prevent 1-2 weeks or months off! Going all in on recovery can pay off and get you back on your feet faster than half-assing it for weeks 

Jim: 

• The difference between strength and coordination. You can be strong but if you are not coordinated, you will not move efficiently or even properly. Your muscles need to fire in the correct order.  This underscores the importance of technique development, particularly with swimming and running. Don’t skip your drills!

• The importance of defining your race goals especially for some of these late season races. Some athletes are using late season short races to really test their well earned summer race fitness. They are going all out to race it before they take an off season. It’s a high risk / high reward strategy.  Typically these athletes have achieved their goals for the year and are really just letting it all hang out before the off season.

  • Some athletes are using these short races to set themselves up for their last long race of the year. Their approach is a bit more conservative and they aren’t necessarily looking to PR at a Sprint or OLY.

  • Whatever your late season race goals are, take a moment to really define what you want out of your last races as this will most likely be what you remember the most heading into next season. Your brain will often consolidate on your last reps.

• Fueling: The difference between 60 grams of carbs vs 80 grams can be HUGE. We are seeing so many athletes this year hit new performance levels just by increasing their carb intake by 10 - 20%. That may not sound like much but it’s the difference from feeling sort of like you are fading at the end of a race to finishing really strong.

Main Content: Intervals 101: Get fast with swim, bike and run intervals. 

What are intervals?

Let’s start with a typical one hour workout. 

An easy run of 60’ is not an interval. And often this run is Z3 for uncoached athletes. It’s not easy enough or hard enough to stimulate an adaptation.

An interval happens when we begin to slice up the time pie into smaller chunks to target certain adaptations.  For example, the 60’ run becomes a Z1/Z2 20’ warmup, 2 x 10’ at threshold pace with 2’ easy between and 15’ cool down.  

We commonly think of intervals as the times when we are doing the actual work.  In the above example, we focus on the 10’ work increments, however, the interval and workout structure changes A LOT based on the recovery interval. A 2 x 10’ threshold pace workout with 1’ recovery is very different from a 2 x 10’ threshold pace workout with 5’ recovery. The first interval set is a near continuous interval of 20’ of work. 1’ is not a lot of time to recover and is really just a psychological break as your HR and lactate will remain high going into the 2nd 10’ interval.  

But if you add a 5’ recovery interval between the 2 x 10’ intervals, you get full recovery and it is two distinct 10’ intervals. 

You may use the 1’ recovery intervals as you get closer to race day to mimic race demands and use the 5’ recovery intervals earlier in the year or Base period to challenge but not overload the athlete. 

Important point: While we talk about Zone 2 a lot, there is only one energy system. There are no silos or zones in the body. Training in one “zone” will have an effect on all other “zones”.   An easy run not only helps build out your aerobic foundation, it also helps raise your threshold and VO2 max. When we include intervals within a workout, we challenge the body to work more in multiple physiological “zones” or levels.

Why do intervals? 

Recruit slow and fast twitch muscles

Turn on all motor units; you need muscle engagement to grow a muscle.

Challenge the heart / aerobic system to increase stroke volume. Deliver more blood and oxygen to your muscles.

Mental race preparedness - mimic race demands

As a coach, we are programming around what are we trying to improve with this athlete.  What is their current fitness, skills and capabilities and how do we best use the time we have to move them to the next level specific to their “A” race demands?

When should I start doing intervals?

It is important to have a basic foundation of fitness and aerobic training before you start intervals.  Intervals are powerful medicine and you will do more damage than good if you start them too early in a season and/or in your athletic development.  

When in doubt whether you are ready for interval training, do more Base work. You can never be too robust!

For example, I have a returning triathlete / marathon runner who just started this week on a marathon plan for Philadelphia marathon which is in late November.  Her average weekly miles are ~15.  Given this is fairly low volume heading into a marathon plan, our first priority is frequent, easy runs. Over the next 4 - 6 weeks we will focus on ramping up easy run volume with some 20” pickups/strides before we introduce any type of run interval or speed training. 

How do I determine intervals appropriate for me?

Need to first measure your current thresholds. In other words, what is my current fitness level and set a baseline to measure your improvement.

Swim: 400/200 best effort, take average time to determine your Critical Swim Speed (CSS)

Bike: Functional Threshold Test - 30’ warmup, 5’ all out effort, recovery into a 20’ best effort. Take .95% of Normalized Power from the 20’ test.

Run: 2 x 10’ best effort. Average times and add 30”. 

Lactate / HR / pace / watts testing in a lab.

Garmin Guided Lactate Threshold Test.

Main considerations for intervals: 

There are three levers for intervals: 

Duration - how long is the work and rest interval 

Frequency - how often are we doing intervals in the week/micro/mesocycle

Intensity - the primary adaptation we desire will dictate the level of intensity. 

Important: As coaches, we value them in that order. 

If the intervals are too hard, we lose training time.  We value volume and consistency more as this will serve you best in the short and long run. 

You will probably do 50-150 interval sessions per year. As such they need to be sustainable. If you are destroyed or discouraged every time you do intervals you will stop doing them. 

Think accumulated work duration (AWD) over a period of months as the goal.

For coached athletes, we emphasize commenting on how it felt in TrainingPeaks as it is important for us to learn what is happening during this work. It’s not always about the numbers.  

Beside the numbers, we are looking for: 

• How it felt

• Consistency 

• Where was your mental game when things get tough

When in doubt, keep your intervals simple. You should be able to easily remember your interval workout. A workout that needs extensive notes that you have to refer to during the workout is probably too complicated. Less is more.

Always leave one rep in reserve. End every interval session knowing you could have done at least one more.  Frequency and sustainability are the keys to long term athletic development and performance. 

Is Training Stress Score (TSS) a good measure of interval effectiveness?

No. TSS is not the arbiter of a good interval workout as TSS really favors volume. 

Basic Interval workout progression:

*Activation: This happens before you even begin to swim/bike/run. Particularly with running, we recommend a few minutes of glute activation.

*Warmup:  It is very important to transition your body from resting HR to active HR to very active HR. The longer and gentler the warmup, the better you will perform your intervals. This physically and mentally prepares you for the work. 

*Primers: Wake up the body / muscles / mind. Prime the pump for the hard work. 

Swim - 4 x 25’s FAST with 20” rest.  

Run - 2 x 2’ at tempo / half marathon pace. 

Bike - 6 - 20” hard effort / 40” easy

*Main set:

This is where the fun happens! Intervals combinations are endless. Use the above guidelines to develop your interval training. 

Some common interval workouts we like during the Specific Phase:

Swim:

• Fast 50’s - 100s.

Run: 

• 6-10 x 1-2’ at 10K / 5K pace

• 2 x 10’ at half marathon pace

• 200/400s on track

Some of our favorite half marathon and marathon intervals in our How to crush your best fall marathon or half marathon podcast.

Bike: 

• Sweet Spot - 5-7 x 7-10’ at 92% FTP

• Threshold - 5-10 x 5-20’ at 100% FTP

• VO2 max - the classic 3-5 x 5’ at 125% FTP with 5’ recovery is a staple. The goal is to accumulate time at ~90% of max HR. Rarely are most athletes going 95-100%.

• You can download our Zwift workout trainer sampler for Zone 2, Tempo, Sweet Spot, Threshold and VO2 max workouts.

*Cool down: Keep it simple, easy 100-200 in the pool, 3-5’ walk at end of run, 5’ - 10’ easy spin on bike.  A good cool down will set you up for recovery from this workout and set you up for the next workout.

For additional reference, you can check out Our Favorite Ironman and 70.3 Workouts podcast.

Common Interval Mistakes: 

Modifying the intervals such that you don’t get the stimulus / adaptation that you intended. For example, if you have 2’ at 5K run intervals but then modify them to .5 mile at half marathon pace, that is a very different workout. 

Once you have a plan, try to stick to the plan.  (Unless the plan is inappropriate for that day for whatever reason.)

In general, athletes who modify their workouts a lot, are the athletes who most underperform at races. 

Burying yourself on the first interval and then slowing down on subsequent ones. You want to do the opposite of this.

Too much, too soon, too fast.

Challenge of the week:

Katie: End of season best practice – organize and label all of your tri gear that you won’t use until next spring/summer. You will thank yourself later so you don’t have to buy a new race belt for the 19th time. 

Jim: End of the season - check out the sale prices on gear you want for next summer! What better way to celebrate your off season but with a little retail therapy.

Article/movie/podcast rec of the week:

SWAP podcast on David Roche at Leadville 100. Key themes:

• Adversity during race week and training cycle won’t necessarily kill your race 

• Major self belief (bolstered by his wife and coach Megan’s belief in him)

• Quality over quantity training (lower mileage than many peers in the sport) 

• Fueling drives performance. ~120-140 grams of carbs per hour.

Gear Pick of the week: 

Katie: Fins! Endless entertainment in the pool

Jim: Peacock subscription to watch (and re-watch) Olympics, Tour de France (Men’s and Women’s race) and Vuelta a España and of course, The Office.  Winter inspiration!

Episode 44: Training Lows, Athlete Health, and Going All In

In this week's episode, Katie and Elena chat about a bunch of different topics that have featured in both of our lives in recent months, including highs and lows in training, health struggles as an athlete, and the idea of going "all in" on something you love. We specifically dig into Elena's decision to start and DNF the Lavaredo Ultra Trail in the Italian Dolomites, important insights she has picked up about health and fueling in the last several months, and an exciting next chapter of focusing on endurance training and coaching as a primary career objective. We hope this episode is relatable for listeners out there going through the ups and downs of training and life, and we close with an important lesson: when you commit, magical things happen! Check it out.

Nike ad we talked about

Gear Pick of the Week

Katie: Boco visors (bring back visors!)
Elena: Janji hyperlight hat (but don’t wear it backwards)

Episode 43: How to Crush Your Best Fall Marathon or Half Marathon

In this week’s party episode, we are welcoming all four coaches (Jim, Katie, Kevin, and Elena) onto the podcast for the first time ever to share their tips and tricks for how to crush a fall marathon or half marathon coming off a summer triathlon season. We hear about why marathoning is so hard on the body, how to structure a marathon or half marathon training week, favorite workouts for marathon and half marathon, mental training for long runs and races, and lots more. Jim and Katie also cover some fun coaching and training insights including season planning tips for 2025, aging and endurance sports, the magic of no-watch swimming, what happens when our training priorities or values come into conflict with each other, and a deep dive on a new paper covering principles of Norwegian endurance training. This episode is jam-packed full of something for everyone. Enjoy!

Coaching and Training Insights with Jim and Katie 

Katie: How I’m approaching season planning for 2025

• First golden rule: wait 2 weeks after your A race to sign up for any other races!!!

• Made a list of: what I liked about this season, what I didn’t like about this season, what I want to focus on for next season 

• Look at major life events, travel, etc. and how busy the summer will be given all of that

• Factors to think about:

• Can I train in the terrain I will race in?

• How long do I want my season to be? 

• What do I want my life to look like at different times of year?

• What sounds fun? 

• Jim: Physical writing down a list makes the brain be very specific,  deliberate and true to the author. It can be more effective than typing. 

A rogue comment on my dad’s Facebook post about S2S: “So impressive that you are able to keep performing at such a high level!” 

• Funny! Because what’s so great about endurance sports is that you can continue to improve at a really high level through your 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond; especially true for female athletes

• Jim: Men 40-44 is often the most competitive AG at HIM and IM.

• Gen X is the first generation to embrace decades long training for endurance sports. We really don’t know how long high performance is possible. Some sports scientists are conjecturing that we can maintain a high level of performance into our 70s!

One more funny story / insight from S2S

• Extremely long check in line the day before the race

• GET OFF YOUR FEET! 

• I was the only person out of 200+ people sitting on the grass waiting in line for 45 minutes. If you know you know. 

Seeing more and more athletes pick up “no watch swimming”

• “Swam open water without my watch today. Was able to estimate but needed the mental break from tracking. Felt SO great and peaceful”

• “Not sure if it’s data overload, but not wearing my watch in the pool has made swimming more enjoyable again. If it’s okay with you, I might keep doing that for a while?” 

• Jim: For historical context, Garmin registered the name "Forerunner" with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in August 2001 but released the first watches—the 101, 201, and 301—in 2003. We’ve only really had these watches for 20 years!  In other words, the majority of Olympic gold medals, Tour de France, Kona and marathon wins have been without any training with smart watches. The four minute mile was run in 1954!

  • And for any activity you do regularly - whether that’s pool, run or bike session, your overall time, even estimated overall time, will be plenty to record in your training log.  My bet is most of our athletes can approximate VERY close to their actual yards and miles spent in an unstructured workout.

  • Why? Because your body is very good at being efficient and stable; your brain highly values and prioritizes predictability and homeostasis.

• As we always say, on race day no one cares about your training log. Literally tens of thousands of races have been won without a single workout being cataloged.

Addendum to some points we made in recent episodes:

• I talked a lot about wanting to nail my off season and true wellness > fitness recovery 

• BUT then I went to Utah and two of my really good friends were in town so I wanted to trail run, at altitude, with some moderate mileage and elevation

• Brought up the question of what to do when two important principles come into conflict:

• Respecting the off season vs. connection > perfection 

• How I think about this: free pass for stepping outside of Z1 area when the goal is connection/play (as long as it isn’t all the time); otherwise, be as honest as possible with any solo training and movement  

• Took an off day before and after two BIG days to balance it out because I knew I had spent some higher intensity chips 

• Also, I reverted to a third principle: can you stand in front of a judge and say you are approaching the off season with honest intentions? We all know when we are and aren’t

• Answer: mostly yes but we are not perfect and that is ok!

Jim: 

• Taking a few insights and confirmations from a new study:  Training Session Models in Endurance Sports: A Norwegian Perspective on Best Practice Recommendations

• Twelve successful and experienced male Norwegian coaches from biathlon, cross-country skiing, long-distance running, road cycling, rowing, speed skating, swimming, and triathlon were chosen as key informants. They had been responsible for the training of world-class endurance athletes who altogether have won > 370 medals in international championships.

• Context - here’s how they define some zones:

  • Z1 - Low Intensity Training (LIT) - 60-72% max HR

  • Z2 - LIT - 72-82% max HR

  • Z3 - Medium Intensity Training (MIT) - 83-87% max HR

• Overall, LIT sessions account for approximately 75–80% of all sessions. Athletes from all disciplines surveyed performed the vast majority of LIT sessions in Z1 and only to a limited extent in Z2.

• MIT sessions (i.e., Z3) account for approximately 10–15% of all sessions across the annual cycle. 

• High Intensity Training (HIT) sessions comprised about 5–10% of all sessions and are mainly conducted as intervals and competitions in all sports.

Points from the study that The Endurance Drive regularly incorporates:

• Hard–easy rhythmicity - Days of hard workouts (i.e., interval training or extra-long slow-distance sessions) are systematically alternated with days of easy low-intensity training in between. Most coaches advocate two to three hard training days (so called key sessions) per week during the preparation period (e.g., Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays)

  • Most of Endurance Drive athletes are on this exact schedule. 

• Mostly controlled, very few “all-out” sessions - Very few hard sessions (competitions not included) across the annual cycle are conducted to complete exhaustion, but rather with a “reps in reserve” approach. The main purpose with this approach is to increase the accumulated working volume at high (but not too high) intensities and ensure that the athletes are sufficiently recovered for the next key session. All-out sessions (which are very similar to the competition-specific demands) are only performed the last 3–6 weeks prior to the main competition of the macrocycle. Elite coaches seek sustainability and optimization through session programming, not maximization.

  • It’s not just about one epic session or one interval session, it’s a sustainable approach to training to achieve a manageable and appropriate accumulated work volume (or duration).

• Combination of intensity zones - the coaches implement sessions that combine training intensities. Combinations of Z1/2, Z3/4, and Z4/5 are most often applied.

  • We like to use workouts such as:

    • Z2 runs with 20” - 2’ threshold intervals, flat or uphill

    • Z2 bikes with 120% 20-40” intervals

    • Swims - a good principle to employ is at least three speeds in your workout ie.,easy warmup/cooldown, medium intensity 100 - 400 yard/meter intervals and include some fast 25-50s, 

• Progressive intensity increases throughout the session(s) - Most hard sessions are performed with a slight progressive increase in intensity. The difference between the first and last interval may be 0.5 km/h during running intervals and 10–25 W during cycling intervals. Similarly, continuous long-slow distance sessions typically start at the lower end of the intensity zone, then gradually increase to the mid or upper end of the zone as the session progresses.

  • Start conservative, finish strong

  • Most athletes naturally gravitate toward going strong at the end as they begin to ‘smell the barn’. 

Main Content: How to Crush your Best Fall Marathon (& Half Marathon)

Why is it difficult?

• The human body is not designed to run 26.2 miles.  There’s a reason most people hit the wall 18 - 20 because that’s where our liver and muscle glycogen becomes very depleted.  The brain is a predictive machine and a glycogen hog. It runs on sugar and prioritizes glycogen to itself first.  Your brain’s one job is to keep you alive.  It does this by constantly running internal and external assessments. Running a marathon is a MAJOR internal threat!  Once it senses low glycogen, it sends all kinds of signals to your muscles to slow down.  You slowing down is paramount to its survival and it will do anything emotionally, mentally and physically to slow or stop you.

• 10+ limiting factors in the marathon. You don’t know which one, or combinations, will show up on race day:  

  • Fueling

  • Muscle cramps / fatigue

  • Blister

  • GI distress

  • Dehydration

  • Environment - hot, humid, very cold, rainy & windy (Boston 2018)

  • Injury & Niggles

  • Race excitement - lack of impulse control

  • Logistics

  • You can have the perfect build up to the race but race day can bring lots of uncontrollable variables.

• A lot can go wrong over 3 - 5 hours of pushing at sub-max intensity.  There is a lot of discomfort over a long period of time. You need to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

  • You need to train your mind to respond to adversity and uncertainty. At 3 - 5 hours, that’s a lot of time to cope with what's in your head.

  • Great athletes welcome the pain cave and have mental tools to pull out in these situations. They respond to the situation as opposed to react. 

  • When the mind gets cloudy, you need the ability to chunk work. For example, light pole to light pole or street to street.  

  • And you need to be able to fight through rough patches. It rarely gets worse and most often it gets a lot better or back to neutral.

• Like Ironman, you need to do a certain number of them in order to get good at them.  Good marathoning is a multi-year project.  Consistency year-after-year is key.  It usually takes 5 - 6 marathons to really get it.  You have to love the miles and process to be successful.

• Tempo / Half Marathon and Marathon running can be difficult to recover from.  You may need to give yourself more time to recover from a run workout, especially if you are coming from a Half Ironman / Ironman background where the running needs to be balanced with two other sports and is therefore not as intense as stand alone run training.  You may need to take up to three days between harder sessions.  You may need to get off the standard 7 day cycle and go to a 10 day training cycle.

• Each marathon course presents different challenges: 

  • Boston - need to be good at downhill in the first half and strong for the uphills in the back half.

  • NYC - need to be strong to run the hills late in the course

  • Chicago - fast and flat

  • CIM - California International Marathon - net downhill

Training

How do you structure a week for half and marathon?

• Kevin: Monday-Easy / Tuesday - Track / Wednesday - Easy / Thursday-Hills or Tempo / Friday - Shakeout - Saturday LONG RUN, RP sets 8-10 weeks out. 

• Elena: 1-2– building one of those workouts into the long run ~ half the time

• Jim:  1x-2X speed sessions with HM and 10K speed and then some marathon pacing in the long run during the last 10 weeks.

How do you set an athlete’s marathon pace? 

• Elena: by feel and workouts!

• Kevin: By previous races or a Trial! It's always good to get a feel on Race Pace run. Even before your big block, on a week day run have them do 2 x 3 Miles at their goal pace, and can he/she sustain that for 26? Have them be honest.

• Jim: I like in-the-field testing after an athlete has done a number of marathon pacing sessions. Use the principle: If you are standing in front of a judge what would you tell them is your honest marathon pace? I.e., what can you REALLY maintain for 26 miles. 

How important is the long run and should I run longer than 2.5 / 3 hours? Why not? 

• Kevin: The long run is SO important. Your body needs to push volume, in order to run volume! But Running is TUFF on your body. My general rule of thumb is no longer than 18-20 miles for LR. Athlete dependent we can do 22 but in rare cases. 

• Elena: super important to hit your long runs, both mentally and physically, but you don’t have to go super long! I think 22 is a good cap for marathon training. Mentally– know how it might feel and how you’re going to get yourself to keep digging. Physically– know how to fuel and hydrate yourself for that long, give your body the stimulus to build fatigue resistance

Any specific mental training you do or recommend?

• Elena: thinking through the emotions you might have and how you’ll handle them, having your A/B/C goal cascade, knowing your race strategy and committing to it.

• Kevin: Treating Friday, like pre race day. Especially for the big days (W5-W2)

Favorite Half Marathon & Marathon workouts:

• Elena:
long run progressions, long run ladder (22 miler as the big kahuna with 5/4/3/2/1 miles at marathon pace), speed fartlek workout mid week (5x 30s on/off, 5 x 1 min on/off, tempo run, 5 x 1 min on/off, 5x 30s on/off)

• Kevin: 1k Repeats for workouts, then the 3x5 RP day 

• Katie: Hills early in the season - hill sprints, hills & fast progression, etc. before transitioning into flatter track work

• Jim: Friday - easy 1 hour Z2, Saturday - Long run with marathon pacing into Sunday Z1 / recovery run.  Total mileage over 3 days is marathon-like, plus or minus. Double run days for my more advanced marathoners (and Ironman athletes)

The Race:

We have a lot of best practices on race week in other podcasts (here and here) so we’ll skip right to race day.

How do you warmup on race day?

• Kevin: Foam roll, massage gun, lax ball. Then some dynamic (high knees, butt kicks, and some strides) SIMPLE

• Elena: music, dancing, sit and get myself in the right headspace, dynamics, 1 mile warm up

How do you recommend pacing a half marathon and marathon? And can I bank time in the first half?

• Elena: ”the first half is all about building your confidence to go attack the second half” → negative splits is the holy grail of marathon running!

• Kevin: You have to look at your course, and talk to your coach about a plan. I am not totally against banking time (I did it at OC) but be smart with it. 

What is your general half marathon and marathon nutrition plan?

• Kevin: Carb w sugar before, carb drink before. Then a gel every 4(ish) miles (depending) and then I grab water and ice at each aid station to throw on myself. 

• Elena: gel every 20 mins, drink electrolytes every chance I get, dump water on me if it’s hot

Quick Tips: 

• Run the Tangents - courses are measured by the shortest possible way to run it.  Don’t add any extra yards!

• Might be obvious, but warm up! Even though it’s running an extra mile, it’s net positive for your body

• Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to hit the “splits”... Some will be slower, some will be faster. Trust your game plan and keep an eye on your elapsed time. 

Gear Pick of the Week

• Katie: Leukotape for blisters / hot spots with running

• Elena: your basic ankle resistance bands— so versatile, travel well, and a necessary part of running warm up and maintenance

• Kevin: Dream Mask + Tape : ) 

• Jim: Mine is an anti-pick of the week: Ketone-IQ I noticed no difference in appetite, mental clarity, etc.  Dug into the scientific research and it doesn’t support such a product. Don’t fall for the hype. Half of the peloton may be using it because half of the peloton is either getting it for free or being paid to take it.

Episode 42: Why We Need an Off-Season

The main topic of this week's episode is why the off-season may actually be the most important season of all. We discuss what chronic stress does to our bodies, how to shift our training focus from fitness to wellness, the magic of Zone 1, three levels of recovery and their varied time horizons, what happens if you don't respect the off-season, and a whole lot more. We also share additional insights from Ironman Lake Placid and Sea to Summit, answer a great listener question about how to get into triathlon as a brand-new beginner, and introduce two new sort-of-joking segments that seem to come up in every single one of our podcasts: the "Ironman is hard" segment and the "eat our words" segment. Enjoy!

Coaching & Training Insights

Katie additional insights from Sea to Summit: 

• A question: should you scope out the competition before you race? 

  • Jim: No. But advance benchmarking of athletes in your AG or top 10, can be pointers of where to improve over months/years.

• Ironman is so hard. Hiking 5 miles with 4200’ was a piece of cake compared to running a marathon off a very similar bike, and my body felt so much better after. 

  • Uphill technical power hiking on rocks is not the same skill as road running. I didn’t fully appreciate how specialized of a skill this is, and it comes from time on feets in the Whites.

  • Jim: A huge aerobic base, superior brain/feet coordination along with dedicated progressive strength work is a winning combination in the mountains.

• Sleep issues after a big race:

• High cortisol, adrenaline, caffeine

• What I’ve been doing to combat it: rest even if I can’t sleep, naps during the day, fueling/hydration etc. 

Jim insights:

• Be the verb not the noun

  • You may identify as a Triathlete, Runner, Liberal/conservative 

  • Be careful with identity.  Identity can lock you into a specific set of beliefs or ideology about yourself and your world view.  Remember, you are a dynamic, open, evolving being.  You like doing swim / bike / run but not your not just a triathlete.

  • Swimmer Lydia Jacoby opened up about the severe depression she experienced after winning a gold medal in Tokyo as a 17-year-old. “I was feeling like my identity was locked up in sports,” Jacoby said. “The biggest thing for me lately is (remembering) that being a swimmer is something I do. It’s not something I am. I have so many interests and passions. I have amazing friends and family outside of the sport. Remembering those things is a big thing for me.

  • Post summer race season / the off season is a chance to open back up to the world of possibilities.  

• Connection over perfection: I was talking to one of my athletes and planning out a fall marathon and we settled on two group runs per week. One or both may not end up being Z2 but this athlete has been very disciplined over six months doing mostly individual Z2 / structured training.  As part of their next training block, we would place emphasis on social training i.e., connection over perfection. 

  • And emphasizing very different marathon run training than triathlon run training. Between new run training workouts and social partners, this should keep things very fresh and interesting.

• Corollary: Play over performance.

  • With the above athlete we are going for play over performance.  In general, I encourage our endurance athletes to incorporate more play into their structured training.  An ideal situation is to have the majority of workouts feel like play rather than performance. 

  • Play could include doing a workout with other people, switching up the workout from road to trails, forgetting about pace and choosing hills on your run, playing chase on the bike or in the pool, etc.

• Combat sloshy stomachs

  • We are fortunate to have many new types of liquid carbs on the market.  However, I’m seeing a lot of comments about sloshy stomachs on the bike and recommend athletes start experimenting with incorporating solid foods on the bike.  You can even go beyond the typical shot blocks and traditional performance fueling products to regular food such as fig bars, cookies, brownies, banana bread, etc. Save the liquid and gel calories for the run.

Another insight -- backtracking on what we said about not being competitive on a road bike

• Congrats to Audrey on 3rd AG / qualifying for 70.3 worlds at 70.3 Maine on a road bike after asking us if podium contention in 70.3 / Olympic was possible on a road bike

• We love to be wrong!

• On very hilly/technical courses, athletes with excellent fitness and bike handling skills can excel :)

• Also, congrats to our friend and pod listener J Smitty (Julie Smith) on 1st 50-54 AG 

Additional reflections from our athletes at IMLP

• Going by feel / losing data: “At the half marathon mark, my watch ran out of battery. This was a blessing in disguise because I had to run on RPE which helped pace myself pretty nicely.” 

• Highs and lows -- you can feel terrible at mile 4 and great at mile 18. Don’t assume the day is over: “I started cramping pretty much from the start so this is where the mental game started. I knew it was going to be uncomfortable for a long time so I focused on taking in the course and the energy in town. I had to improvise and started drinking 2x the electrolytes and CAF gels than I had budgeted. By the 1/2 marathon mark I was feeling better.”’

• Bike handling can be scary on crowded courses / triathletes are generally not great bike handlers: “Maybe this is normal but I was passing people the entire bike course so this definitely brought an additional mental load to my bike (700 new participants this year from what I heard). I also saw some close calls from people passing on the right side which made me ultra vigilant.”

• Hitting mental low points during a race & mental tools to continue- Charlie losing timing chip: “The internal spiral starts and I called myself every name in the book “Disorganized piece of shit” and it only gets worse from there (the day before I misplaced my bike computer and this only amplified the negative emotions; bike computer was later to be found in my road shoes). As I’m swarmed with people my first ever big boy panic attack hits and I can feel my mind hit the eject button and think that my day is over before it even started. I was very lucky to find an absolute angel of a security guard who let me on the beach as the pros started. I find the right volunteers that handle the chip, tell me it's going to be okay, and send me on my way. As I line up in the crowd, I go back to breathing and mindfulness exercises (standing tall through your feet, long and slow breaths in and out). I acknowledge that things aren’t going to plan but I mentally throw away all of the earlier dread and anxiety. I have a chip, I’m good to race, and nothing else matters now. Athletes are everywhere and at this point I’m just begging to be in the water. Time starts to slow down but I am eventually within sight of the water. As I head into the lake, I’m thanking every single one of my village by name. I’m remembering how much unconditional love, words, support, and sacrifice I’ve received to be here at this moment.” 

• Mindfuck by the pros: “Right as I entered the change tent to get ready to run I heard the pros crossing the finish line. This was a pretty big mindfuck. I couldn’t really wrap my head around the fact that these guys are done and I have an entire marathon to go. Should never be worried about them but in the moment it was pretty discouraging.”

• Catastrophic GI issues: “the idea that “if you have Gi issues your day is effectively over” was echoing through my head. I couldn’t think of anything except the nausea that I was feeling; I was ready to turn in my timing chip. I kept checking in with myself and asked if the pain of quitting the pain was better than the pain of continuing. It had unfortunately reached that point. Despite the pain, I tried to smile and say thank you to every volunteer or spectator I walked past. Gratitude and positivity are part of who we are, so if I can still live that out then I can probably keep going. Also, if you can still talk, you’re not hurting that bad (another Steve Magness banger). Eventually, the logical part of my brain took over. I try to avoid letting numbers do the driving, but I checked my watch and heart rate and pace looked great when I was actually able to jog. My heart and lungs wanted so badly to give it to me. In addition, I know from experience that GI issues don’t resolve anytime soon or with the wave of a magic wand. Even if I quit, I won’t feel better immediately. If I’m going to suffer, I might as well walk it into the halfway mark and re-evaluate.” 

• Experiencing a DNF:

  • “Jim promised a very sore butt by 80 miles but that was the least of my issues. I cramped up big time (quads, hamstrings)and just couldn’t shake it, that never happened to me before and I had no karma for that. I could walk but not pedal up any sort of incline. It was around 2:45 so getting thru the bike before the cutoff was very much in play. But After 30-45 minutes of finagling on and off the bike with plenty of walking,  and trying to play catch up with fluids and electrolytes, I set my sights on 2025. It was after 6 when we finally rolled in, the “loser van” (ok that’s a little strong), like the van that transports inmates from the county jail! My family was relieved to see me, having spent 2 hours in a fruitless search to try to find where I was and how I was. I feel like I learned a lot, and I am one step closer to getting one of those “Finisher” jerseys. Congrats to all of you. I tried this race in 2017 for the first time, and the song blasting at the swim start that year was “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”… the older and wiser I get, the more I find that to be true.”

Main topic -- Why we need an off-season

• Plato in The Republic:  “Have you noticed how a lifelong devotion to physical exercise, to the exclusion of anything else, produces a certain type of mind? Excessive emphasis on athletics produces an excessively uncivilized type..”

• (For credit we are pulling a few ideas and quotes from Alan Couzens The Off-Season: The most important phase of all)

• “Resuming training too early is much like pulling an onion out of the garden and realizing it is not yet fully grown. One cannot put it back in and expect more growth!” -Peter Coe (Coach of middle distance legend Sebastian Coe)

• After your “A” race and 12 weeks of Specific Training, your body and mind need a much needed break. For many athletes, they have been training seriously for nine months for their A race. This is a HUGE ask on body and mind.  

• Just the Specific period alone is a major stressor: Your brain, the central nervous system, and peripheral system - muscles, tendons and metabolic system are under constant stress and demands. During this time you are probably chronically dehydrated and glycogen depleted and have some level of compromised sleep.

• In sum, you need a serious break from the grind! The off season allows for a metabolic reset, muscle repair and a needed break for your brain / central nervous system and hormones.  

• We take an off season to shed all acute, and more importantly, our chronic stress.  While we will feel ‘recovered’ after 2 - 3 weeks of an off season, we should take up to 8 weeks to shed all chronic fatigue.  If you continue to carry over even a few percent of fatigue year after year, this accumulates in your body making it impossible year after year to improve. 

• If your body is under constant stress, it will stop responding. 

• A key principle of training is stress + rest = growth.

• And your body can only progress when it is trained under a novel stimulus.  If you continue to pound your body and mind with stress, it will become desensitized to it and stop responding. 

• Another way to think of it is that your brain is the master controller of your body. Training is really just a way to challenge your mind. It is very taxing on the brain to swim/bike/run/strength.  Off season is about giving your brain a well deserved break.  And this is why it’s so important to not ‘think like an athlete’ during off season.  The brain's primary job is to assess the threat state, internally and externally in order to keep you alive.  Off season really starts with giving your brain a chance to stay out of a high stress / high readiness state.  

• The primary reasons athletes don’t progress the next season is they 1) didn’t take an off season and 2) continued to do train race / specific efforts during the off season. 

What should you do during the off season? 

• Your focus should turn from fitness to wellness.  Wellness equates to overall good health.  Fitness, at times, can be at odds with overall general health.

• For 8 weeks, when you exercise, it should be at Zone 1 or 60% of your max HR. Discover the zone below Zone 2!

• Examples are: walking, hiking, paddle board, kayak, garden, etc.  Anything that is ‘active recovery’. 

• After a few weeks of Zone 1, you can introduce some light strength and mobility exercises. 

• There are no structured workouts in those 8 weeks. 

• Focus on sleep, rest, fueling, hydration 

• Mental recovery - switch off the athlete brain that is always chasing fitness, read, social connection, limit social media (the modern cigarette).

• Massage, physical therapist, sports chiro -- you may need multiple sessions

Very optional and marginal gadgets & gear 

• Normatec boots 

• Hypervolt 

• Foam roller 

• Ice bath, sauna, steam room 

Listener Questions

How to get into triathlon as a brand new beginner? 

• Someone asked me this recently, looking for advice as a marathon runner looking to switch to tri. What resources to look at, what to think about?

• Basic gear items:

• A bike and helmet

• Goggles, cap, swimsuit

• Running shoes

• With all of the above you can do a sprint tri

• Learn about Zone 2 

• Sign up for swim lessons if not experienced and get comfy riding a bike outside 

• Jim: I had a new athlete interview this week where they aren’t sure if they want to tackle triathlon, and more importantly, the triathlon training lifestyle, or not.  They asked me what would be a way for them to preview the triathlon life. I said take a 30 day challenge of 3 x 30’ runs / 3 x 30-60’ bikes and 1-2X per week at the pool.  At the end of the 30 days we are going to reconnect and discuss the results.  

Challenge of the Week

Katie: Pre-run glute activation with bands
Jim: Practice 1’ walking on your long runs to simulate aid stations

Gear Pick of the Week
Katie: Cheap amazon bike bottles that work well and can get lost on race day no problem, $7 each.
Jim: Large Rubber Bands for securing between the TT bars water bottles.

Episode 41: Recapping Katie's Comeback Win at the Sea to Summit Triathlon

In our second ~emergency podcast episode~ of 2024, Elena catches up with Katie about the Sea to Summit Triathlon, where Katie came back from a 20+ minute deficit after taking a wrong turn on the bike course to run down five women on the Tuckerman Ravine Trail and finish first on top of Mt. Washington with a run course record. We chat through her uncertain road to the starting line, racing under pressure and strategies for taking pressure off, the importance of cultivating your own performance bubble, focusing on process goals over outcome goals, perfecting the “car door pee,” and effective mental strategies, among other topics. This episode is full of clichés that somehow all proved to be true for Katie on race day. The biggest ones? You can be down but never out of the fight; don’t give up; believe in yourself; and no one runs the Whites off the bike like Katie Clayton runs the Whites off the bike. Check it out! 

Ali on the Run Instagram post.

Sea to Summit Triathlon.

Gear pick of the week:

Elena: Quest Diagnostics

Katie: Skratch Superfuel

Episode 40: Takeaways From Ironman Lake Placid 2024

In this week’s episode, we go over key takeaways from the 25th iteration of Ironman Lake Placid, where Katie was on course all day as a spectator and coach rather than a racer and where a dozen brave Endurance Drive athletes toed the line. Sub-topics include: creating a performance bubble, avoiding high LSS on the day before the race, chaotic swims, fueling and hydration insights, digging deep when the day becomes more mental than physical, and more. We also get an update on how recovery is going for Jim at 12 weeks post bike crash, share insights related to tapering and post-race blues, and a whole lot more. Check it out!

Extended show notes:

Jim injury update / takeaways: 

• Realistic expectations are key

  • Expected to not be talking about my injury at week 12 post surgery. 

  • Expected at week 12 to be ‘all better’ and would celebrate with a long bike ride. Was even dreaming that I would do a century!  But got to week 11 and my hip felt really blown up from a normal bike ride. The last two weeks have been a real struggle to feel like I was back at week 6 - 8 post surgery.  

  • While recovery, at first, was noticeable by the day and especially by the week, you have to think about recovery in terms of months for a major injury.  

• Being strong and fit was an advantage but being mechanical sound is also very important.  My left hip has chronically been shifted up and forward for years.  And according to my bike fitter this spring, I was really internally rotating my left hip to get power on the bike.  So I was already battling how to get biomechanically sound on the bike and run before the injury.

  • This is unfortunately the side I fell on and got a spiral fracture at the femur head where it goes into the hip.  This has resulted in a lot of discomfort with the hardware and very challenging to keep that hip stable and find the proper hip/femur movement while walking and biking.

• Key focus on strengthening, mobility and hydration for the next few weeks and staying off the bike except for dog running / rail trail 30’-45’ Z0 rides.

Coaching & Training Insights

Katie: 

Why tapering is hard 

• Common to feel illness/injury etc. coming on, random niggles that never bothered you before 

• Change in the amount of endorphins and other happy chemicals that you are used to 

• Changes in eating habits, sleeping habits, etc.

• How to make the taper more bearable:

• Allocate time you would have spent in workouts to doing other non-training tasks that will help you prep for your race, such as packing, organizing gear, writing your race plan or nutrition plan out, working on mental prep

• Allocate extra time to self-care -- get that massage!

• Allocate time to people who lift you up and calm you down 

Insights from Dr. David Spindler / Rich Roll episode Jim mentioned last week:

• Happiness increases time to exhaustion; you can sustain a higher physical output for a longer period of time if you are happy. The more happy thoughts you can create, the better you can perform 

• Related: in the 10 days leading up to your A race, you need to do everything you can to eliminate allostatic load: “cumulative burden of chronic stress and life events” 

• Going back to the point on self care

• Be really honest with yourself about things in life that are creating stress that you can control 

• Breathwork can help, box breathing, etc. 

• Finally: creating a “performance bubble” 

• Who are the people who are directly responsible for helping you perform -- this can be physically, mentally, emotionally?

• These are the people you should be interacting with in the leadup to your event. It’s OK to be selfish and try to eliminate interaction with people outside of the performance bubble. To the extent that you can, say no to events/interactions/etc. that increase allostatic load 

• Obviously you may have to go to work, etc., but steering those conversations away from topics that stress you out as much as possible is helpful. Keep it brief and superficial

• For both pro athletes and amateurs, a performance bubble could include: coaches, sport psychologist/therapist/mental performance coach, physical therapists, dietician, partner, close friends. Note that this circle should be as tight as possible. 

How soon should you wait after an A race to sign up for 2025 races? 

• Wait at least two weeks; you want to see how you feel about your next race after the post-race high wears off and after you’ve adjusted back into what life feels like without an Ironman looming on the horizon

• I.e. every day for two weeks, ask yourself “is doing an IM a hell yes?” 

• Include your primary support peeps in that conversation 

• It should be a hell yes from everyone in your primary support bubble if you are going to sign up for another IM 

• Note: IM will try to convince you that 2025 races will sell out the day after the 2024 iteration, but that is not the case 

• Jim: Emphasize talking to your coach before signing up for another big event. You and your coach can evaluate your skills and athletic capabilities and chart out a development path.  Your skills and fitness should be a match for your A race.

  • For example, a lot of people sign up for IM races and then come to us to get coached. But some of these athletes would be better served spending another year or more building up their fitness and sport skills to tackle an Ironman. A year or two racing sprints, Olympics and Half Ironmans would build them up to where racing an Ironman is commensurate with their skill and fitness level. 

Thoughts on post-race blues: 

• Very common to feel a bit of an emotional low after a big event, even if it goes perfectly

• You put so much energy into preparing for this one moment that it can often feel like there’s a hole when it’s over 

• This is all OK! It will pass. Journaling is helpful and finding joy in other things that you can do now that your race is over is one helpful strategy. Emerging from the monk lifestyle you have needed to maintain to stay up late sometimes, spend time with friends, have a drink, etc. etc. 

• Your body will adjust quickly to the new normal but know that if you are feeling this way you are not alone! 

• Jim: One of the worst ways to combat post-race blues is to immediately sign up for a lot of races for the next year.  I know because I did this for years and resulted in never taking an off season and finally burning out on the sport!

Main Content

Just got back from IM Lake Placid! Key takeaways from race day…

• Katie: Coming off this race I had a renewed sense of being proud of doing this race in the past. IM is so, so hard.

  • Jim: If Ironman was a two day event, it would still be considered an insanely hard event. 

• It is so easy to get SO tired the day before a race. There is a lot you need to get done. High allostatic stress day whether you want it to be a high stress day or not. Do everything you can to: only complete tasks you MUST do; eat and hydrate well; be efficient with your timing and chill out whenever you can

• “If you are standing but can sit, sit; if you are sitting but can lie down, lie down; if you are lying down but can sleep, sleep” 

• Power of the performance bubble. To the extent that you can, choose your spectators and people you are staying with wisely. 

• Bring an extra pair of goggles on race morning. Goggles break easily / easy to drop them.

• The swim will be chaotic no matter what:

• “As a swimmer growing up I thought the swim was going to be the best/easiest part but (as was stated above) it was the most chaotic. I likened it to swimming in a zombie apocalypse. I got kicked in the face at one point and had to do a mental reset to pause, take a breath and reorient myself - and truly just remain calm. I kept telling myself, just one stroke at a time and to concentrate on what I could control and not the chaos of my surroundings.” 

• “During the swim there was a lot of thrashing, kicking, clawing, and elbowing. I know how to swim, but I felt some panic coming on the first time I got kicked in the solar plexus. At that point I had to get my mind calm and focus on my swim stroke and try to block out the chaos.”

• The bike:

• “On the bike, I had to dig deep on the second loop on the new section. We hit a 13% grade at one point and I kept repeating the mantra, “you don’t have to do this, you GET to do this and you WILL do this.” 

• “During the bike my mind went to some dark places throughout. Trying to shift my mindset, hiding some of my metrics, and taking in nutrition were key.” 

• The run: 

• “During the run my legs felt like cement, but checking in with myself I realized I could still move them even if it felt like running through mud. Just one foot in front of the other, one patch of shade after another, a cup of ice to look forward to. My mind wanted to slow down and walk or even give up knowing that it was all optional and all I had to do was stop to make it not hurt anymore.”

• “On the run that smaller out and back at the top of Lisa g’s was where it really became mental. You can hear the announcers and the stadium and the roar of everyone on the hill and once you crest the top you make a right and turn away from all that. It is that feeling of you are so close, yet so far. But in that moment I just thought of all the love and support I had throughout my months of training and the energy of the spectators in town. At that point I made it my mission to run (shuffle) back to that energy - telling myself just one foot in front of the other.” 

• Ironman is a slow day.

• Mental prep is key. Many of our athletes this year did A LOT of mental prep and it showed on race day.

• 70-75 degrees and sunny is HOT. It doesn’t sound hot but it is. Cool effectively.

• Fueling is the WAY. So many athletes crushed their days and were super consistent due to fueling.

• Robyn example: 14.5 hours and 15.5 hours at previous IM. Nailed fueling this year and 12:45 at IMLP, hardest course of all IMs he has done. Super consistent run all day 

• More thoughts on best practices for spectators

• Downtime is KEY. Talk through how I approached the day

• Don’t try to spectate the bike, though you can zip out to see the course briefly if you live close to it without getting stuck in the full IM fray 

• Seeing the pros and seeing age groupers on run can be a 6-8 hour time delta. Be prepared. 

Challenge of the Week

Katie: To improve sleep hygiene, spend less time on your phone. 3 tips:

• Timer on social media apps

• Put your phone in a different room before you go to bed (bunk bed story)

• Try to have a 30 min buffer from screen time to bedtime (read, meditate, etc. instead)

Jim: Start dreaming about fall unstructured adventures.

Article/Podcast/Movie of the Week 

Katie: circling back to last week, +1 on:

• Rich Roll interview with David Spindler 

• Mark Cavendish documentary, Never Enough 

Jim: 

• Recommend following Steve Magness on Instagram

• Outside online subscription

Gear Pick of the Week

Katie: LMNT hydration and LMNT seltzers

Jim: BikeHand Heavy Duty Precise Bike Bicycle Head Hex Allen Wrenches Set

Episode 39: Grab Bag of Recent Insights, Lessons, and Listener Questions

Thanks to our awesome listeners, we were able to build out an entire episode worth of content requested by our community! We skip a single big topic in favor of a medium-dive on a bunch of really awesome ones: a six-step emotional regulation strategy to use when workouts feel rough; how to distinguish between training fatigue and "deeper" fatigue; more examples of mental work in practice; how to crush Ironman and 70.3 spectating; our favorite endurance adventures in New England; when to get a TT bike and what to be thinking about; tips for dealing with plantar fasciitis pain; and a whole lot more! Check it out.

Extended show notes:

Coaching and Training Insights

Jim: How to identify when the workout isn’t going well and what to do

• In this heat and humidity, this internal dialogue may sound familiar: 

  • “I’ve worked too hard to run at this pace and HR.”

  • “I guess I’m not fit.”

  • “My race is going to be a disaster if I perform like this.”

  • “Maybe this sport isn’t for me.”

• If this, or something similar is happening to you, here’s a quick way to recalibrate your emotional state: 

1. If you are running, stop your watch, start to walk and find some shade.

2. Take a few deep breaths. It’s really effective to say to yourself, “I breathe in and I breathe out”. Focus on breathing for 5 - 10 breaths.  This will bring your body and mind into alignment quickly.

3. Name the feeling: Anger, frustration, just feeling awful from the heat.

4. Notice the feeling: Is it in your head, heart, stomach or other places. Don’t judge it, just notice where you are feeling your emotion.

5. Listen to the feeling: 

   1. What message is my body sharing with me about what it needs?

   2. What action is called for?

   3. What connection does it need?

      Maybe the need is physical (stop, rest, walk, run/walk or slowing way down), or maybe it's emotional (care, validation or love from your support network and/or coach). 

      Either way, you don’t need to judge the feeling. Take a couple of seconds to  ask how you might support, or seek support. Don’t overthink it. If there’s no obvious answer, that’s okay! The practice of listening is enough. And feel free to journal this in TrainingPeaks for yourself and support from your coach.

6. Let the feeling go. Feelings are meant to share their message and then leave the body. Usually this happens in 90 seconds or less. Then continue on your way, whether that is running, walking or heading back home to a cool place.

• In sum, this strategy is aimed at achieving emotional stability. Getting good at this practice will serve you at home, at work, in your relationships, etc.  Endurance athletes are some of the best at practice so add this to your toolbox for even more baller status.

*How to handle the rest of the summer of heat and humidity:

• At this point in your season, all of our athletes are fit and race ready.  We don’t need to chase fitness in this heat and humidity.  We have worked for months (and years) to arrive at this place. It’s much more about maintenance now and refining our race skills and tactics. 

• The take home message: if you are suffering in this heat/humidity for the next few weeks, no stress. You are exactly where you should be as we have planned it this way! 

Katie

Distinguishing between workout fatigue and deeper fatigue 

• As athletes we live in a state of fatigue, which makes it hard to tell when something deeper is going on (sickness, vitamin/mineral deficiencies, etc.)

• Some tips for distinguishing:

• If a few days of rest doesn’t make the fatigue go away, could be something deeper 

• If you have three days of workouts in a row where you feel really tired / get outside of the rule of thirds, could be something deeper

• If you feel exhausted when you wake up even after getting enough sleep, it could be something deeper 

• If you feel like the exhaustion is paired with mental health dips/symptoms, issues concentrating/focusing, etc., could be something deeper 

• What to do: take some rest days, take note of your symptoms and how you feel (TP comments can be a good place for this), get some blood work, check in with doctor, be more intentional about fueling, loop in your coach 

• Jim: Sometimes the TSB indicator in TrainingPeaks can help validate when you are overtrained and need a true recovery week.

Two examples of specific strategies for mental work in pros

• Mark Cavendish: 39 y/o professional cyclist, famous sprinter, famous for winning a record 35 Tour de France stages over his career

• Has raced at TdF 15 times 

• “Has trouble staying happy while racing” → has a word/phrase that can make him smile and help him stay happy

• “Bibbity bobbity boo” which is a lyric from a Cinderella song -- reminds him of a video of his 2 year old at dance class in a tutu; reminds him of why he does what he does

• Jim: There is a recent Rich Roll interview with Dr David Spindler.

• Allie Wilson: women’s 800m runner; qualified for the Olympics at the trials; works with a mental 

• “Burn ceremony” → write down all your negative thoughts on a piece of paper; reframe each one into a positive thought or the opposite on a separate piece of paper; burn the negative ones, say the positive ones out loud 

• Citius Magazine podcast interview 

An interesting experience on fueling

• Shout out to athlete Gigi for sharing this -- “the devastating reverse bonk”

• Had hyper concentrated carb drink in a front bottle; very thirsty coming out of the water which is normal; ended up taking in 150 g carbs in the first 45’ which was a lot of her nutrition 

• Then had a lot of trouble fueling for the rest of the ride with liquid sources because stomach wasn’t happy

• Saved the day by packing extra bars which settled better

• Three lessons:

• (1) Pack plan B fueling strategy if possible (or rely on aid station options as a backup if your nutrition isn’t working or if you lose it like in Jim’s rabbit story)

• (2) You do have to pace yourself with liquid carbs -- make this part of your race plan 

• (3) Having some hydration in T1 (even a few sips) can help with the post swim thirsty feeling and give you a quick hit of carbs to start off 

• Jim: Weirdly, I have found salt pills as a great remedy for a sloshy stomach in a race.

How to crush IM/70.3 spectating

• Broader point about spectators for athletes: 

• As athletes we do so much of our training alone; it can be great, but it can also be a lot to have a bunch of people enter your circle on race day 

• Best way to ward against any tension is (1) communication about what you expect to need; (2) pre-planning spectator logistics so you don’t have to think about them on race morning or day before race; (3) if possible, designate a spectator captain who you trust and who can delegate/answer questions.  

• Broader point for spectators:

• IM spectating is HARD and exhausting work (almost as hard as doing an IM). Don’t underestimate how big of a day this will be for you and be sure to take care of yourself and rest when you can so you can show up for your athlete when it is most needed 

• For athletes: Make a schedule of events for your spectator squad (not everyone knows that a triathlon is swim/bike/run) and walk them through what will happen during the day

• For athletes: Communicate what you expect to want/need at different times (e.g., want or do not want people cheering for you up the Lisa G’s hill) 

• It can be fun to give people different “jobs” to keep them busy -- e.g. Colleen has always crushed social media for us, Jim in charge of strategy and real-time race updates on positioning, Connor there for primary emotional support, etc. 

• If you have many spectators, encourage them to spread out especially along the run course so you have people to look forward to seeing at different times 

• For older/less mobile spectators: park them somewhere where they can see a lot but are able to sit and don’t have to move around so much. IMLP ideas:

• In town, several restaurants overlook the swim

• Set up a chair on Mirror Lake Drive in the shade

• Question for Jim: was VIP spectator pass worth it at IMLP?

• For spectators at Ironman and even half Ironman:

• Be with athlete pre-race if they want you there; helpful to take their morning clothes, phone, etc. if they don’t want to check a morning clothes bag 

• **You are there to support; do not ask them too many questions on race morning, especially about their performance; sometimes being a calm, quiet, and steady presence is the best thing you can do.***

• Watch swim start and finish; then go get brunch, rest, chill out for most of the bike. You can use the tracker to see where they are on the bike and make sure to be in position for the run; save energy by not being on feet/outside while bike is happening 

• Spectator bag of essentials:

• Comfortable backpack (possibly with hip support containing): Hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, water with electrolytes, LOTS of snacks, warm layer(s), raincoat/umbrella 

• Portable phone charger 

• Comfortable shoes, dry fit clothing 

• Pack and dress like you are going on an all-day hike

• Bonus points: ultralight camp chair 

• For athletes: THANK your spectators! 

Listener Questions
“I would love to hear more ideas and suggestions for fun and unique adventures that people could do… Across range of abilities. Being in a relatively urban place, I don’t always know what cool things I might like doing or places to explore… Would love to get Katie and Jim ‘s top 10 list of best adventure workouts Or trips or activities!”

As a starting point, check out our Episode 6: ADVENTURES AS TRAINING and the podcast notes.

Trail/mountain adventures in New England:

• Franconia Ridge

• Mount Chocorua

• Mount Katahdin

• Maine’s Bold Coast - Cutler Coast Public Preserved Land 

• Presidential Traverse (and Presidential Picnic)

• Multi-sport adventures in general -- we’d love to do a traverse over Katahdin and gravel bike back on the park road 

• Pemi Loop

• Hut Traverse 

• New England 67 

• AT in VT, NH, Maine; the Long Trail; The Dartmouth Fifty; Maine’s 100 Mile Wilderness (backpacking)

Bike adventures: 

• White Mountains Century (work up to it with Bear Notch cutoff)

• The LAMB Ride (work up to it with any combo of Gaps)

• VT 6 Gap Ride (LAMB + Rochester and Roxbury)

• The East Coast Ride -- riff on the idea of doing a point-to-point ride with friends and SAG support. The Peter Fuller van! 

• Or Acadia National Park alone; sunrise bike up Cadillac Mtn 

• 200 on 100 

Adventures I want to do: 

• Open water swim at Crystal Lake in Barton, VT

• Open water swim at Lake Willoughby and hike of Mt Pisgah and Hor

• Climb all VT 4K peaks and bike between

“This might be a controversial topic, but how would you approach weight loss while adhering to a training plan?”

• You can’t optimize for performance at the same time as weight loss

• Nutrition interview with Cate Ward -- recommend (1) working with a dietician and (2) only focusing on weight loss goals when you are not actively focusing on performance goals 

• Especially don’t recommend weight loss goals for our young athletes; focus on fueling the work with our principles of triathlete nutrition and your body will likely settle where it needs to be 

“Question for extended listener questions episode, kind of gear-oriented: I'm curious about what stage in your triathlon careers you both were at when you got your first TT bike! Was it a big decision, or kind of a given? What factors played a role in you deciding it was time to get a TT bike? And what was the shopping process like? I.e., more word-of-mouth recommendations or lots of online reading? Did you try on multiple bikes or just one and then got it fit? 

• Jim: The first year or two, I used a road bike with aero extensions. When I was sure this was my sport, I went to my local bike shop who sold Felt TT bikes.  My local bike shop was able to provide a basic fit and the relationship with the local bike shop makes maintenance sometimes easier/faster.  Local bike shops are very important to our sport (and cycling) so it's good to support them. 

• TT bikes I like are Felt, Cervelo and Canyon but also other manufacturers make great TT frames, too. The most important item is a proper frame size/bike fit and the color of the frame!

How much do disc wheels matter (in your opinions)? 

• Jim: They matter in very competitive age group / cycling TT competitions. Plus they just sound cool when you ride by a guardrail.  Also deep rim wheels like Zipp 808 are just as effective.  With that said, a nice training and racing wheel is a Zipp 404 or equivalent.  

Any amazing bike shops or fitters in the New England area to recommend? 

• Jim: My go to bike fitters are FitWerx in Waitsfield, VT. They also have a location in Peabody MA. 

• Recently heard good things about Grace Bicycles in Holliston, MA.

• Katie: Retul bike fitting at Landry’s in Boston

Related: can a triathlete be "competitive" (podium-material) at Olympic and 70.3 distances without a TT bike?”

• Jim: No. Unless you are a professional cyclist, you will need a TT bike or a very good aero fit on your road bike with TT bar extensions.  If you have access to a wind tunnel or a very good bike fitter you can make a road bike just as fast as a TT bike.  But if you are that into the sport, you should own a TT bike.

What to do about plantar pain?

• Consult with a physical therapist

• New shoes, go to a speciality running store

• Frozen plastic water bottle rolled under your feet

• Heel That Pain insoles

• Stay hydrated

• Theragun

Challenge of the Week

Katie: Annual physical and blood work! Common deficiencies in athletes: iron/ferritin, calcium, magnesium, vitamin B12, vitamin D, zinc. And/or get a PCP that you trust if you don’t have one  

Jim: Do the above emotional stability exercise the next time you have a bad run (or bike).

Request from Seb: Article/book/movie of the week

Katie: The Price She Pays -- Confronting the Hidden Mental Health Crisis in Women's Sports―from the Schoolyard to the Stadium

Jim: The Opposite of Trying - The Art of Accomplishment podcast

Gear Pick of the Week

Katie: trail shoe, unisex Salomon S/Lab Ultra 3

Jim: Giro Imperial Shoe

Episode 38: Stories of Our Best and Worst Race Days

In this week's episode, we asked our community to tell us about their best and worst race days—what happened, what factors led to success or failure, and what lessons they learned. We then mixed in a bunch of our good and bad race day stories to come up with an episode that's full of actionable information about how you can approach racing, as well as a lot of laughs as we dig back through the racing archives. We also share coaching and training insights and answer listener questions related to mishaps on race sims, mental strategies for racing, bike care and maintenance, FTP in racing, and a whole lot more. Check it out!

Extended show notes:

Ironman weather watching has started. 

Today, in northern NH, the weather could be a preview of Ironman Lake Placid weather: first driving, cool rainy, followed by 75-80F sun and 100% humidity - extreme heat index, followed an hour later by dropping humidity followed a couple hours later by a supercell which dropped 2” or more of rain in 30’, followed by sun / humidity again.  In other words, welcome to mountain weather. 

In sum: Anything can and will happen on race day.  Be prepared for all types of weather especially in Lake Placid

Coaching and Training Insights

Katie:

When race sims don’t go as planned

• Flatted at mile 78 of race sim and stem valve too short for my deep back wheel → had to take a ride at the base of the 11 mile climb, the most daunting part of the Sea to Summit course.

• Bad race sims are scary because they can really shake our confidence going into race day. “What if this happens on race day??” // “Can I actually execute this race??”

• Some things to remember:

• If something bad happens on race day and it has happened before, good! You have had practice dealing with it.

• Don’t waste any energy or headspace getting upset about what is happening. Just start doing tasks that will move you towards the next step. 

• Making sure I was locked in for a great run even after not getting to do the bike I wanted 

• Think about lessons learned when things don’t go according to plan that you can use for race day. For me, that was:

• *MUST* check flat kit extremely carefully and make sure it is truly ready to go

• For this race, have 2nd bike ready to go on car in case of catastrophic mechanical 

• Often, bad race sim = good race! (Note the reverse is not true: we have seen many athletes have great race sims and great races. But just as many have had bad race sims and good races.) Mindset shift = “would rather have this happen now!”

• Finally, grateful this happened because I felt like I ‘saved something in the tank for race day’ -- otherwise I would have basically just executed the entire Sea to Summit race, making this type of race and sim different from our standard Ironman race sims where we never run the full distance

Thoughts on workout timing and race timing

• Realized Sea to Summit starts at 5:30 am

• To avoid GI issues can be helpful to try to dial back your sleep schedule a bit so this feels ‘normal’

• BUT have to balance with getting enough sleep, which takes priority 

• The upshot? Plan a low stress race week 

Getting cranky on a long ride (pissed off at drivers, frustrated with other bikers, generally bad headspace) → Solution: EAT!  Your brain needs sugar.

Mental work in practice

Nikki Hiltz - W 1500 m race at the Olympic Trials (which took 3:55, a trials record -- 3:58 was the old record)

Their post: Some of the mental work I put into these Olympic Trials

• Met with my therapist once a week

• Kept randomly adding to my notes app things that motivate me, calmed me down, or instilled belief

• “It’s not that deep”

• “It’s just a race”

• “I truly feel like this is just the beginning of my career”

• “The same jump we made this year, we’re going to make that again next year” - Mike (coach) fall of 2023

• “I’m doing this for me and not for anyone else”

• “You’re going to perform how you practice” 

• Journaled positive self talk and manifestations 

• Meditated for 100 days straight 

Jim:

Running in extreme heat

• Jim Anderson heat index: What is it? Take the temp + humidity. Anything over 140, you start to get into challenging conditions. 150 is the danger zone and 160 is extreme. Your run may start at 140 and move to 160. 

• Slow down, run by HR. Be conservative. You can end your race season by getting a heat illness.

• Take hydration

• Try to plan a shady route

• Most importantly, don’t get discouraged by your pace / HR. 

In praise of trail running / hiking

• For our long distance triathletes and ultra runners, the long run / hike serves us well. For Half Ironman and Ironman athletes, our primary goal is time on feet and a long run/hike is perfect.  

• Trail running builds in organic strength, Z2, tempo, threshold and mobility work. 

• It gets us acquainted with the outdoor elements: wind, sun, rain, humidity, heat, exposure. 

• A long hike is like a long race day; you’ll need to focus on pacing and hydration/fueling regularly. 

• This all helps build race day durability. 

• And it’s a great social activity. For Ironman athletes, grab a friend and/or family member, take a long hike! It’s not about pounding the pavement on your long runs during the specific prep phase; it’s more about time on feet as that is most race specific for most people.

FTP is relative

• FTP = Functional Threshold Power

• FTP is like playing centerfield. You know which ballpark you are in, you know your position but depending on the hitter, you may shade a little or a lot to the left / right / in / out.  

• Your FTP on your road bike uphill is way different than your FTP on your TT bike on the flat. 

• Use your long weekend rides and Race Sims with your race bike, in race position, to determine your ‘in context FTP’. You must relate your FTP and % of FTP for racing to your race equipment, race position and race terrain. Your FTP may be 10 - 15% lower in aero on your TT bike than it is on your road bike uphill. 

Railroad tracks

• Just a reminder to be very careful when crossing railroad tracks as they can quickly catch your wheel and send you crashing to the ground.  Try to hit them at a 90 degree angle.  If in doubt, stop, walk over them and then continue your ride.

  • Katie: YES! Another important insight from Sea to Summit bike course is that there are at least 8 railroad crossings including some very gnarly ones…

Main Content

Weather / terrain 

Heat related: 

Jim:

*First Lavaman OLY - heatstroke at mile 5.

*Syracuse 70.3 - started to fall over / list to one side before mile 1. Running as fast as I could at 9:45 pace going downhill. Only stayed in the race to see all the slow motion carnage throughout the run.  Ran 10’ pace and was only passed by a couple of people in my AG toward the end. Everyone was absolutely cooked.  Lesson: Heat kills everyone.

*IM St George - passing out at mile 2 on the run and nearly again at mile 11.  Lesson: you can’t train at 40F and then race at 90F.

Katie:

Patriot Half 2021 - SO hot and didn’t manage it well

Other Environmental Challenges:

Jim: Kansas 70.3 - 3-4 foot waves which smoked most of the field. It became a survival situation just to get back to shore.

“Worst race ever was Ironman Florida. The day before was beautiful weather. Tested the swim course and it was fast. Day of the race there were red card conditions with winds going 20 mph and gusts up to 35 mph. The swim had rip currents that made it feel like I wasn’t going anywhere. After the first loop I stood on the beach and threw up a bunch of salt water, then went in for the second loop. I barely made the swim cutoff, and a huge number of athletes didn’t. I was noticeably bloated and my gut felt awful. I didn’t want to drink or take in nutrition. The ride somehow felt like 80 out of the 112 miles had headwinds. When I got to the run the sun was setting and it got cold. During the run I would go into the portalets to get warm.” 

“Lake George 70.3 circa September 2016ish.  Race day was 40 degrees and pouring rain. I chose not to start because the conditions were so miserable, but I hung around to volunteer. They called the race before most participants made it to the halfway point on the bike because so many people were getting hypothermia. (So amongst the worst races, but it was good I did not start).” 

Freak things

Jim - anything can happen and will happen

• Muskoka 70.3 - hitting a rabbit at mile 17, losing all hydration / calories in the front aero bar bottle. 

• Vineman 70.3 - just missed getting hit by a falling tree that took out two people.  (Also, swimming in a 3 foot river, half the field was walking instead of swimming.)

High LSS

“Losing my entire wallet on the way to catch our flight to CA from Coach Katie’s apartment: I arrived in California feeling giddily excited and grateful, with barely-discernible nerves. (This, despite losing my whole wallet—license, credit card, school ID, etc.—mere minutes before we needed to check our bikes at the Boston airport! Enormous shoutout to Coach Katie for speed-searching the car, Robin for keeping me sane while I frantically turned every bag I brought inside-out more times than I can count, and Noah for knowing what to say on the phone when I called in utter distress.) By some miracle, TSA let me board the plane to our race without any form of identification.” 

Nutrition 

“One time I used Gatorade chews I had never trained with before and I actually pooped my pants in the final mile of a 90 degree half marathon.”

Crashes

“Season Opener 2024 - wet course and challenging cycling conditions. I had a good swim and was hammering the bike. Pre-race, Katie gave us a warning that there was a sharp right hand turn after a downhill and to watch out for it. I thought that had come and gone (Katie I did listen to you!) so had settled into aero and was cruising...hit a downhill and picked up speed to ~40 mph...and then saw the turn fast approaching. Tried to get to my brakes but hit a divot in the road, slid, and lost control. Launched myself into a telephone pole, helicoptered, and slid to a stop about 20 feet later. End result was that I was okay: nothing broken, a concussion and cracked helmet, lots of bruising and road rash, and two severely sprained ankles. EMS and the volunteer who watched the crash told me I was probably 6 inches away from a spinal cord fracture or worse.” 

BEST Races

“My best race ever was a local sprint. Everything went right. I got on the toes of some fast swimmers and held on, then held a strong 21mph 12 mile ride, did my 5k in sub 7 miles and came in 11th overall in a field of about 200.”

“BOGO here: Harvest Triathlon 2022 - I wasn't racing but showed up to take photos of some teammates. Ended up meeting a new team member and had a great time. I convinced her to volunteer at our water bottle station at Patriot Half the following weekend which I was racing. She did and I ended up outperforming all of my expectations and having the race of my life. And to make it all a little better, at the finish line I got a big hug from the person that I'm going to be marrying in September.” 

“Best race ever was probably my last race--Mighty Montauk Oly on June 8th of this year.  It was really the first time I felt like everything clicked in a triathlon.  Nutrition was spot on, could  possibly have gone harder on the bike, but I was consistent which set me up for a great run.  I have been doing triathlons for almost 10  years and it's the first time in recent memory when I could actually run the run.  In all the time I've been racing, until recently, I have failed to recognize the skill that is required for triathlon--being smart on the bike, ensuring proper nutrition, keeping form on the run, knowing how to pull together data from your watch/HR/power, etc. and combine that with what your body is telling you based on conditions.  It was great to have a race where it felt like someone flipped a light switch.  Also lets me know I have a lot left to learn, but it has already given me confidence and helped me view what is going right or could be better in training sessions.”

Listener Questions

From Seb: “I get we need to fuel a certain amount of carbs per hour on race day, how does this change when doing e.g. Z2 training? I would assume we need less and could go for maybe an entire workout before fueling?”

• Anything over 75’, you should fuel. When in doubt, fuel more

How should I maintain and take care of my bike between rides? What products should I use and how often should I maintain it? 

• Ideally wipe your bike off after every time you use it.  Every other time is fine, too.  Lube your chain every ride or every other ride.  Recommended products below: 

  • Bike Cleaner

  • Drivetrain Cleaner

  • Cleaning cloth

  • Chain Lubricant

As a first time Ironman participant, should I have a goal time? 

• No. Your goal is to finish. We can set up some broad pace ranges for the swim and bike but the run is a big wildcard for first time Ironman participants. The goal is to survive!  

• Once you can run the majority of the IM marathon then we can start setting more concrete goal times.

Challenge of the Week 

Katie: Mobility! Try EC Fit Monday Mobility video 

Jim: Do a 60’-90’ Z1/Z2 ride with cadence between 90 - 100. 

Gear Pick of the Week 

Katie: SEAL SwimRun Paddles and Finis Swim Buoy

Jim: Continental GP 5000 tires

Episode 37: Our Favorite Ironman and 70.3 Workouts

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!)

Podcast Link

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

Episode 36: Finding Balance with Lifelong Athlete and Executive Coach Laura Fay

In this week's episode, Katie and Elena sit down for an hour of wisdom from the woman who does it all: triathlete, mom, career woman, and community champion Laura Fay. Topics include: how Laura has found and built communities in sport throughout her life as an athlete; how she built a career in executive coaching and what principles make effective leaders and athletes; how to balance career, being a parent, and endurance sports; the physical and mental effects of aging in athletics; and the mental toll and comeback process of a major injury, among lots of other topics. We also chat through when and how to effectively listen to your body in endurance training. This is a can't miss episode with one of our favorite people - check it out!

Gear pick of the week:

Katie: TRIHARD shampoo/conditioner/body wash for chlorine 

Elena: Nathan exoshot handflask for hydration while running in the heat!

Laura: Shokz bone conduction headphones

Episode 35: Lessons From 2024 (So Far!)

In this super fun episode, we're celebrating a whole bunch of big milestones including: Jim's return to riding six weeks after his crash and surgery, Katie officially earning her title of "PhD Coach Katie," and most importantly, six months and 35 episodes of our podcast! To mark the occasion, we're returning to a format we used in episode five of the podcast and reflecting on the big lessons we've learned in the last six months of training, coaching, and podcasting. This was one of the most fun episodes we've recorded, so come for the wisdom and stay for the laughs about what constitutes a recovery week. Check it out!

Intro - celebration episode!

• Jim back on the bike

• Katie graduated from Stanford PhD program

• And most importantly - 6 months of the pod + 35 episodes! 

Coaching and Training Insights

Katie:

Keeping humor and joy in training and racing:

• Gigi’s pre race call “I’m tired of this Grandpa!!”

• “When you get this feeling, eat a snickers! You’re not you when you’re hungry” 

• Taylor Knibb reflections on T100: “I was reading Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being on the plane to San Francisco. In his “Area of Thought” on Play, he writes, “We embrace both the seriousness of the commitment and the playfulness of being completely free in the making. Take [it] seriously without going about it in a serious way” (354). I kept thinking about this idea all week.”

• Jim: Have always loved the phrase, “you can be serious without being a serious person”

Dialing in your watch and bike computer settings before the night before the race; practice them well in advance:

• i.e. use triathlon mode in race sims; be aware of what the data screens are and change them as necessary 

Jim:

Two formulas:

• Training + Fueling = Performance

• Training + Fueling + Performance = Racing

• Performance is also experience.  The main point is we need to do a lot of training, fueling and experience in the sport before we really understand how to race. 

Training is physical, mental and relational

• Relational is concerning the way in which two or more people or things are connected.

• Relational: Location, your peer group, your support network. 

• You can have the physical and mental capacity to train but it really helps to have a low friction training universe.  A good example of this is the Dartmouth Tri Club where there is an entire practice schedule and programming easily accessible every day and lots of peers to practice with.  Then we people graduate, they have the same physical and mental skills to train but the relational part is no longer there and it can then be a struggle to find the same motivation to train. 

• Which is another way to say, we endorse Master swims, group rides and runs because they provide a relational part of your training program.

Main Content:
We did a “Lessons from 2023” episode early on in the podcast; now, we are hitting the 6-month mark of starting the podcast and the 6-month mark of 2024. Our goal is to share some bigger lessons we have learned from training, coaching, and podcasting in 2024.

Katie training lessons:

Back on my strength training soap box 

What was different:  

• Progressive overload 

• Recovery/deload weeks

• Fitness testing and benchmarking over time 

What I felt:

• Bigger breakthroughs in running especially, and same or better bike+swim with less volume than last year 

• Plan for the rest of the year:

• A more dedicated strength building season in the late fall 

Jim: You can never be too strong.

Fear of flying too close to the sun / Icarus moment 

• Minor crises averted with serious recovery

• Thoughts on how to avoid:

• If you feel like you’re having a training breakthrough, take a step back. You will eventually soar higher than you thought

• Don’t mess around with recovery weeks 

• Example of me messing around last year with Strava reminders 

• Sleep and fuel are SO important 

Jim: Always leave one interval, or bullet, in the chamber. Never do something today that will jeopardize tomorrow.

Swimming 2x per week -- “minimum effective dose”

• One tech swim + one swim workout 

• Made possible by good strength training and other years where I have majorly prioritized swim. Need to earn this! 

• An example of me tapping into what I like and maintaining joy and balance; also being strategic about the demands of my race 

Jim: great approach for experienced athletes.  Emphasize the need to earn this. If you are a beginner triathlete and swimming is new, your 3X per week investment in pool time is worth it for a few years.

Changing up coaching 

• Drivers: we have a lot of overlap and our main joint focus right now is building the business; I have learned a ton from Jim and was interested in learning more and continuing to build our experiences 

• How do I do programming? I make my own plan, work with a strength trainer/ run coach + physical therapist in person who oversees plan and helps me manage overall load; use much of the framework and principles that Jim and I have used over the years

• Works well as Jim and I can focus on the business and podcast while still of course collaborating on building out our strategy and workout library 

• Bigger point: mentorship is a journey! At a certain point the student becomes trained like the master, and then it’s exciting to branch out and see what else we can (both) learn 

Jim: A coach's ultimate job is to train their athletes so they are not necessary. You want your athletes to be able to make their own decisions in the short and long term.  One of my goals with athletes is when they leave The Endurance Drive structured training, they have the principles and tools to train themselves and even others. 

Jim training lessons:

ZO / Z1 is legit

• With this leg injury, I’m doing lots of Z0 / Z1 work to build back into fitness. While it may seem like this isn’t real training, it accumulates quickly and starts to make a significant impact over even just a few weeks.  

• Examples of Z0/Z1 you can do in your life:

  • Light, social bike or run with your family and/or dog. 

  • Brisk walking, again even better with family and friends.

  • Regular walking throughout the day and especially after meals to help regulate insulin. 

  • Snorkel only swimming, all technique focus

Big bike -> Big Fitness

• Not particularly a new insight this year but coming back from injury and watching my new triathletes, I’m reminded that big bike volume, time in the saddle really forms the foundation for fitness. 

• If you want to achieve Big Fitness, there’s no better place to start and build a foundation like bike volume especially at Z1/Z2 watts.  Ride your bike a lot!

More focus on mental health

• For many years I was primarily managing my mental health through physical activity and in many ways that is still the case. Physical activity can be a great way to manage my surface stress and refresh the body and mind. However, this year I wanted to make a deeper change in thought patterns, behaviors and world views. With the help of a professional, I’ve started to work on unlocking and revealing my deeper inside. Instead of managing stress and mental health acutely through workouts, therapy has been a better tool for long term, sustainable change. It’s not always fun to dig deep but it’s been well worth the effort. 

• And I’ve seen a number of athletes take this same journey this year and am amazed by their growth, insights and enthusiastic mental energy. We are breaking through both physically and mentally!

Katie coaching lessons:

Identifying coaching values / participated in the Coaches Collective

• My values: empathy, communication, attention to detail, enthusiasm

• Values alignment = better mental health, life harmony, etc.

• Mismatch between your values and what you are doing = messy 

• Have encouraged my athletes to identify their own values as athletes too → align athlete values and training approach (Joy? Community? Competitive spirit? etc.) 

Managing athlete load 

• 20 athletes this year; this is my max while also working full time something else to be able to provide a person first. Could probably go up to 40 if I were full time, but at a certain point you will inevitably lose what makes TED coaching so special 

Gratitude for what coaching gives you

• Can be a pretty close relationship

• Exposure to people’s deep vulnerabilities, insecurities; their lives; seen athletes go through grief, trauma, heartbreak, loss, illness, injury, so much more. This is a huge privilege 

• Comes back to values alignment: communication, empathy 

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: fueling 70-90 g carbs per hour is MAGIC! 

• So fun to see athletes absolutely crushing it by prioritizing fueling

Jim coaching lessons:

Mental side of training is HUGE

• In parallel with my own personal mental training journey, I’ve become fascinated with sports mental training. In the past, it’s been about building out the training library, Zwift workouts, collecting as much data and knowledge from mentors as possible. This is an integral and necessary step in becoming a coach. Part of coaching is loving the data, why a workout is effective and how to apply those workouts across a wide spectrum of athletes. But it’s one part of the equation!

• This year, I’ve spent more time understanding the mental side of training more.  Have just started this journey and feel like just starting scratching the surface.  

Always searching for the minimum effective dose

• Every athlete is super busy with work, family and community.  Time is precious and limited.  As a coach, I try to find what is the minimum we have to do in order to get a stimulus that is appropriate for their training and race goals.  Less is more!

Greatest variety of athletes this year

• This year I’ve had more athletes of more varieties than any other year. This is both challenging and exciting.  It means having to really dig into everyone’s plan to meet them where they are and to be very flexible on a weekly basis.

• A plug for The Endurance Drive: Our coaching staff is extremely knowledgeable, agile and adaptable.  We are not locked into one plan, one approach.  Because we have A LOT of experience with all levels of athletes, training and race distances, we have the desire and ability to work very individually.  

Play is super important

• Related to relational: This year, more than any other year, I’ve been encouraging athletes to join groups to train together.  Those workouts may not be a perfect fit for a Zone 2 model but the community and joy aspects of working hard with other people outweighs any zone considerations.  

The Endurance Drive Live

• We have a twice monthly Zoom call with all coaches and athletes.  This is a great opportunity to learn from other coaches and athletes. It’s informative to hear a variety of training and racing tactics and strategies. There is literally a brain trust of coaching and racing knowledge on these calls.  If you are not being trained by The Endurance Drive, you should!

Katie podcasting lessons:

On vulnerability

• Vulnerability is really powerful; inspires other people to be vulnerable; and can be scary but feels good too. “Sharing your story” can be as helpful for the person sharing as much as it is there to help other people 

Being in the ‘public eye’

• Surprises me when people I haven’t seen in a while say they feel like they are caught up on my life when I am not caught up on theirs -- hard to conceptualize how many people have my voice in their car or on their run in a given week even if we can see the raw numbers! 

• I would say I sometimes pay more attention to how I appear on Strava, Instagram etc.

• Inevitable (self-inflicted) pressures to be perfect; to be authentic; to be palatable; etc. 

• But I always go back to the idea that authenticity is a good place to start, and we all need to decide what level of transparency we feel comfortable with; I also like to think that our podcast is not all about my own life and that people don’t really care! 

The COMMUNITY!

• Feel very attached to our listeners and so grateful that people actually think we have something useful to say and want to listen.

• Makes my day when people reach out to say they love the podcast or when athletes mention principles/tips/tricks that we have just called out in passung. 

• Shout out to the 20 people that usually listen to new episodes that drop before 6am on a given Thursday!!

Jim podcasting lessons:

Many of the same as Katie’s insights:

• It’s a little scary to be in the public eye, knowing literally millions of people can access your thoughts, perceptions, values, actions and knowledge. 

• Podcasting is a great way to organize your thoughts on a daily and weekly basis. I write something down nearly every day that pertains to coaching, lessons learned and new knowledge or insights.  It’s way easier than a blog post and has a lot more reach and therefore effectiveness to spread our training principles, strategies and tactics.  I am a much better coach having to organize my thoughts on a daily basis. 

• Podcasting has been a great way to spread the word about our coaching collective. Many new athletes come to us now having listened and are familiar with our training philosophy and are coming to us because it resonates with them.

• Grateful for everyone who listens, provides feedback and encourages us. It feels like we, The Endurance Drive community, are on this journey together. Thank you!

Listener questions:

• Hi I have a question about what the difference is between logging your power over a swim/bike/run workout versus logging heart rate? Why do some people use one over the other? Is it beneficial to use both, and how do you usually do that for each sport (swim/bike/run)? What do you prefer? Can a garmin watch do this?

  • Swim - primarily focus on technique, then pace and superior open water navigation skills. 

  • Bike - mostly power if you have a powermeter. If not, HR works, too. And you should use power and HR in conjunction. 

  • Run - mostly HR and pace based. We don’t use running power (but maybe we’ll change our minds in the future!)

• What are those fancy cooling headbands that pros are wearing during races and should I wear them?

  • The pros are working on the last .01% gains.  Almost all age groupers need to focus on the fundamentals, the big rocks and getting to the 99%.

  • Always focus on maximal gains: consistent training, good recovery, nutrition and be immune to triathlon marketing.

• What is your process as a coach?? How do you make a plan and take into account all of the individual details of a person’s life to best support their training?

• Katie: Relevant because a group of my athletes who are friends recently remarked that all of their plans are different even though they are training for the same race, and they were curious how I keep track of all of those individual variables.
  - Jim: Coaching is art and science. As coaches we have dozens of  tactics and strategies, and hundreds of workouts, to get people fit. But each individual has a unique capacity, skill set, background, physiology, race goal(s), etc. Holding all these variables, we ground in our training principles and use all of our acquired knowledge, tactics and strategies to craft an individual training plan.
  Plans are like a Mozart composition:  Changes can be made to the melody, rhythm, harmony, counterpoint, timbre, or orchestration but the theme of the song, or in our case training principles, remains central.

Gear pick of the week:

• Katie: Patagonia Black Hole 55L Duffel Bag

• Jim: Salomon 12L pack

Episode 34: A Deep Dive on Ironman Lake Placid

In this week's episode, Coach Jim sits down with Coach Katie and Coach Kevin to cover everything you need to know about our Beast of the East: Ironman Lake Placid. Katie and Kevin have both qualified for the Ironman World Championships not once, but twice, at Ironman Lake Placid. We chat about the history of Lake Placid and why it's such a special race; the nitty gritty details of the swim, bike, and run course; the crazy weather and conditions we have seen at Placid; the key workouts that prepared us to qualify for Kona at Placid twice; and considerations for why you should or shouldn't sign up. We also go over many general Ironman training and racing considerations you should be thinking about for any Ironman race. Check it out!

Coaching and training insights: 

Katie:

• Tried out a new effective mantra for training, racing, race sims: “reserve judgment” 

• Recent race sim, had urge to judge the whole ride 5 minutes in because I felt like HR was up (hot day)  

• Later on, was coming up on a coffee shop stop and kept saying “I’m definitely going to want to call it when I get there, I’ll be so close to the car anyway”

• Both times, and throughout: RESERVE JUDGMENT. Don’t judge the entire ride/race/race sim based on how you feel in any one given moment. Tell yourself to get to the next checkpoint and we will evaluate how we feel when/after we get there. 

• Feel like “reserve judgment” is easier for me than “woohooooo go Katie you’ve got this” because that the toxic positivity frame doesn’t feel as authentic for self-talk. Trying out something neutral may be helpful for our cynical athletes!

• Race sims in hot weather: Easy to overheat, under hydrate, under fuel because you don’t have aid stations, especially on the run 

• Idea: set up an aid station in your car and do loops from there. Cooler with ice, icy bottles, snacks, etc. and do 1-2 mile loops or out and backs so you can practice exactly what it will be like to have that consistent fueling/hydration/ice access 

• Using the difference between normalized power and HR as a gauge for how you are feeling. 

• For me, when I am feeling good on a long ride, there is a roughly 30-35 difference between normalized power and HR (example: 135 HR, 165-170 normalized power). 

• If I am sick, or overtired, that gap shrinks. I might see 145 HR for 165-170 NP, or 125 HR and 140 NP. 

• Recovering from a GI bug right now and I was seeing 125 HR and 137 NP. Not good! 

• Everyone’s ‘gap’ will be very different and power is somewhat related to bodyweight, but figuring out what normal looks like for you can give you more data for understanding if something is off.  

Jim:

• If you need to take time off from your sport because of work, family, injury, you will be fine!  Sometimes it’s scary to imagine life without sport as a centerpiece for identity and physical and mental health. But a break from sport will inevitably happen.  You can still focus on eating well, plenty of sleep, 10K steps, and lifting weights. This will provide a health bridge to when you can resume your sporting life.

• As you enter W8 and W4 and Race Day, start to focus on showing up 100% healthy to those sessions.  By this time in the training cycle, you are quite fit. The Monday - Friday sessions are supporting workouts but not always critical workouts.  Weekends and particularly Week 8 and Week 4 Race Sims are the most important to closely approximate race day demands. These weekends provide the most important stimulus that will allow you to adapt to race day conditions.

  • The number one thing you can do entering those weekends or race day is showing up mentally and physically fresh. If this means taking an extra day off, scaling back some Monday-Friday workouts, do it.  You want to bring your best on those days so be sure to make space in your busy life to ensure that is the case.

Kevin:

• Reverse planning to execute race sims and long runs on the weekend

Main content:

A little background on why we are doing a deep dive on Ironman Lake Placid:  

• History of this race and the Endurance Drive

• We have spectated or been to this race MANY times

• Kevin and Katie 2x KQ at IMLP

• Relevant to many of our listeners as it’s one of the closest IMs you can do (and can drive to) if you live in the Northeast

• Kevin family history in LP

All about Placid: 

• Upstate NY (5 hours from Boston, 3 hours from the UV)

• In the heart of the Adirondacks

• Hosted the 1980 olympics / Miracle on ice — a ton of sports history 

• 26 (!) years running

• The VIBE!

Let’s get to the course: IMLP is known for its amazing swim, hilly but beautiful bike and hilly, and usually hot and humid run. 

We going to give you a general description of each section and most importantly how you approach racing this section of the course:

Swim:

When you should be up at the Lake from transition
How to seed yourself
Where to swim (on the cable, of course)

How to pace each loop
How is the swim traffic on loop one vs loop two?
How to exit the water and make your way to T1 (under control, not running!)

T1/Bike:

Swim to T1: what to do, what not to do. (gear, calories, etc)

LP to top of Keene Descent

Keene Descent

Keene to Jay

New section loop / Jay climbs

Wilmington to LP (Three Bears)

Bike Special Needs

T2/Run:

T2: Any advice?

Out of T2 down Lisa G hill

Lisa G to River Rd

River Rd out and back

River Rd back to Lisa G

Lisa G hill up

Out and back on Mirror Lake Dr:

Climate — can vary (rain, heat, humidity, colder temps). Last year the weather was awesome except a freak rainstorm; Kevin’s 2021 year had low air quality; Katie 2019 was pretty hot and humid on the run

• There can be 3 - 4 different weather systems at play on race day. LP / Jay / Wilmington can all have very different weather/conditions.

Training considerations for Lake Placid

• Big piece of advice that goes for this race and any other IM: traveling to the course beforehand and ideally doing a race sim out there is one of the most valuable things you can do leading into race day. TED W4 race sims at Placid have been crucial.

• Open water sighting and general OWS skills are less important than in some other races given the underwater cable.
  But, in training, you still need to make 4K a standard weekly swim during the last 6 - 8 weeks before race day.

• Need to know how to climb on a TT bike: tons of hill training on long rides, low cadence work on the trainer.
  Placid particularly rewards the cyclist who has a smooth pedal stroke in all terrains.  Pay attention to your VI on long weekend rides and Race Sims.
  You should have a 34 cassette on your back wheel for Placid. If you don’t know what this means, take your bike to your local bike shop and tell them you are doing IMLP and need a cassette for big, long climbs.

• Hill work on the run as well. Prioritize strength running over speed.

• Talk about the 9 miler we did off 112 mile bike at W8 Race Sim with all of the Placid climbing condensed into it. 

• BRick sessions that include a lot of climbing on the bike and especially on the run.  For runs, become familiar with sustainable effort rather than pace.

• BIG bike volume during training. You need to make 100 miles feel routine.

Reasons to definitely do IMLP:

• The crowd and energy are amazing

• Climate is similar to what you are training in in the Northeast — this is a general point about choosing a goal race that has weather you can train in 

• Lake Placid is a special place and IMLP is a true classic like some of the big, famous European triathlon races.

Reasons to definitely NOT do IMLP:

• If you can’t train on hills, IMLP will be super hard 

• Lodging can be very expensive in LP and will sell out really early 

• If you are just starting your triathlon journey, get in 2 - 3 seasons of shorter races, learn the triathlon craft, build durability and then sign up for the big one.

Other races that are similar to IMLP? Any 70.3s that we think are particularly good prep races or dress rehearsals that can give you a feel for Placid terrain? Tremblant 70.3? White Mountains Triathlon - the 70.3 distance and even the Olympic is beefy.

• Key point: Ironmans are closer to 3X - 4X harder than a Half Ironman. It’s not just 2X harder because the distance is 2X longer.  It’s an exponential curve.  The best way to be prepared for an Ironman is to do Ironmans. Be prepared to do many Ironmans if you want to get good at Ironman.

Gear pick of the week

• Katie: Hypervolt Massage Gun with Heated Head Attachment

• Jim: Roka Sim shorts - not for the pool but for OWS when the water warms up and it’s too hot for a wetsuit.

• Kevin: foam roller and bands

Episode 33: Mental Health and Endurance Sports

In this week's episode, we asked our community about the intersection of mental health and endurance sports. We were blown away by the vulnerability and powerful insights that people shared! We dive into how endurance sports helps optimize or manage mental health, how endurance sports can get in the way of mental well-being, and the tools that members of our community have used to help take care of their mental health. We also share stories from our own experiences with mental health and endurance sports. The upshot of all of this is that if you are struggling with mental health and sport, you are not alone. Thank you to everyone who shared experiences to help us create this episode!

Episode 32: Top Mistakes Triathletes Make

In this week's episode, we had fun coming up with a long list of mistakes that we have either made ourselves or seen as coaches at some point in our endurance journeys. We hope that by sharing those mistakes with you, you can skip ahead to following the best practices for optimizing your performance and well-being as an athlete. Topics include: zone training, fueling and recovery, gear, skills and technique, racing, open water swimming, and a whole lot more. We also get an update from Jim on how his bike crash recovery is going, share a bunch of fun data-driven insights, and answer some A+ listener questions. Check it out!

Extended show notes:

Coaching and training insights:

Jim: 

• Having a professional network to support your training & recovery: Shout out to PT Neil for putting me back together again and making room in his busy schedule for me.  

• Importance of including some play in our recreation; do it for our brain health.  “Engaging in playful activities during exercise, rather than repetitive tasks like running on a treadmill, activates different brain networks, enhancing cognitive functions such as mental flexibility. This approach to exercise trains the brain in a dynamic and enjoyable way.”

  • Example of play on your runs: during pickups, pick a tree/driveway/pole to run fast to. Repeat. Keep the pickups fun and dynamic.  

  • Replace one of your road runs with a trail run. During your trail run, bound up some hills, or play fast feet on the way down. Mix it up!

  • Challenge a friend to a town line sprint. Or play chase on the bike where one person goes up the road for a count of 5 - 7” and you have to chase them down. 

  • Race in the pool with friends.  Slower people start first and the faster people try to catch them. 

  • Play and get smarter!

• Check out a couple videos on how to put on your wetsuit: 

  • Video 1

  • Video 2

  • Katie: recently had an athlete who thought their wetsuit didn’t fit but then used Trislide and it went right on!

Katie: 

Why it is SO great to be a triathlete:

• Recently had a calf niggle come on after a long tempo run 

• No pain swimming/biking —> dialed back run for 2-3 days until the niggle cleared up and dialed up the bike/swim 

• Magic of 1-2 days off! 

• Runners talk about how awful it is to cross train but as a triathlete we are just training for our sport/shuffling around days and flavor of intensity  

• Also on the calf niggle: this was a good reminder to get new shoes! 

Difference between TT bike and road bike:

• My go-to loop in Cohasset MA is 28 miles. Comparing two recent rides:

• 2 loops (56 miles) on road bike: 173 NP, HR 137, 17.3mph

• 2 loops (56  miles) on TT bike: 173 NP, HR 142, 19.1 mph

• 1 loop recovery ride on TT bike: 146 NP, HR 122, 18.1 mph

• Upshot: TT bikes are “free” speed. Close to 2 mph difference for me on a flat course 

Another point on the power of comparing the same workout 2x: 

• Have been doing a lot of tempo running recently 

• Tempo on a cooler day vs. hotter day - HR was pretty different 

• Upshot: as we transition to hotter weather, you’re going to need to dial down pace/power to keep HR in the same place. That is OK! You will acclimate as you do it more. 

When data is not all that helpful:

• Comparing Chronic Training Load (CTL) of previous seasons to this one 

• What TrainingPeaks CTL doesn’t capture: gains from better strength training, better fueling, better sleep; the idea that volume volume volume isn’t everything; all about keeping in perspective

Main Topic: Top Mistakes Triathletes Make

TRAINING

Ignoring Z2 or 80/20 (often this manifests as too much gray zone, too much intensity, or occasionally not enough intensity) 

Putting too much weight on the outputs (training) and not enough weight on the inputs (sleep, nutrition, recovery, functional/safe gear) Specifically -- not fueling your fitness during training and especially racing.

Using too much data (i.e. not listening to your body) or too little data (usually results in overtraining unless you know your body very well)

Ignoring strength training (i.e. just smashing endurance all the time)

Ignoring technique and skill development -- this is especially true for Open Water Swimming (OWS) and bike. Related: not training on TT bike but trying to race on TT bike, or not training in open water but racing in open water. 

This is a tough one but most triathletes don’t swim enough to make the swim a non-event. As the weather warms, make sure you are getting out for some long swims that replicate your race distance.

Get outside in the heat of the day. Nearly all races will be hot and humid. If you only train when it’s ideal or early morning, you won’t get the necessary training / racing adaptation. You have to learn what you can and more importantly what you cannot do in the heat of the day.

GEAR

Not investing in the bare minimum of gear that will allow you to train and compete comfortably and safely. You do not need to break the bank, but you need to have new running shoes, a bike that is properly fitted to you (and service it when needed), a good helmet, a Garmin or other sport watch (we do not recommend Apple Watch or something that doesn’t give you good data or dies), a chest HR strap, a triathlon-specific wetsuit, and a comfortable kit. Also: quality nutrition products. 

MINDSET, APPROACH, LIFE

“Not seeing the forest for the trees”

• Easy to get caught up in the minute details (“the swim workout says 2600 yards but when I did the set I only came in at 2450!”) 

• Probably because the minute details seem more controllable and tractable than the bigger questions 

• SO much more important to focus on the big picture / ground in the intention of the workout 

Inflexibility with training. Breeds a lot of anxiety when things don’t go according to plan (i.e. the pool is closed, your car broke down, you have a niggle and don’t ignore it). Important to try to hit 80%-90% of your workouts, but be OK with the occasional yellow, orange, or even red box (and embrace it), and to learn how to listen to your body (also related to our point on using too much data). Also important for avoiding burnout. 

Focus on process not outcomes. Focus on the day to day consistency and developing Performance Standards that you control. Examples of performance standards are quality of mind i.e., developing a positive mindset and mantras, effort based level standards i.e., give your best effort even if you are falling off your desired pace and positive attitude.
RACING 

Racing too much OR racing too little. We see both -- racing too much leaves you in a chronic state of high cortisol, will probably lead to overtraining, and makes it hard to focus on things like aerobic base building. Racing too little makes it hard to develop the skills you need on race day and can lead to a lot of extra pre-race anxiety if you put all of your eggs in a single racing basket. Related: how much racing do we think makes sense from a season planning perspective?  

Signing up for races that aren’t appropriate for your experience and fitness level. Build to longer races over years.  Resist the marketing of long distance racing until you are ready.

Racing on TT bike but not practicing on TT bike. Your last 12 weeks before your “A” race should be on your race bike.

Pacing - be disciplined during training and especially during a race as you are tapered and the watts will be coming easy. Stay within your target range early in the race when it’s so easy to go too hard/fast. 

Listener questions: 

Why don’t we program strength for our athletes?

• Strength is individualized and should ideally work on your imbalances and limiters - we aren’t PTs/strength trainers so we don’t know what those are!

• Wide variance in exposure/abilities to strength training 

As an athlete, how should you go about building your strength routine?

• Hire a strength trainer if you need one. As a general principle, focus on areas that get neglected for triathletes: core, side-to-side motion (glute medius, etc.), some plyometric work, etc. 

What makes an athlete coachable? How to improve coach/athlete relationship so it’s beneficial for both parties?

• Katie: Communication/transparency and open-mindedness

• Jim: Communication and a positive mental attitude.

As an athlete I like to set relatively competitive goals for myself when it comes to races--i.e. Running under a certain time, placing in my age group, getting a podium finish etc. This places a certain amount of stress on me mentally and I’ve learned to love it. I let it drive me to be consistent with my workouts and push me on days when I’m feeling lazy. However, as a coach, when an athlete approaches you with competitive goals, do you feel a certain stress? How do you handle it? Does it get worse around race day, similar to an athlete’s stress? Have you ever turned away an athlete if their goals would cause you too much stress?

• Katie: I try to help athletes focus on process goals over outcome goals, and I have process goals for myself as their coach. Not “I want my athlete to PR” but “I want to deliver flexible, individualized, dynamic training plans on time; I want to communicate clearly; I want to show empathy; etc.” I do get some race day stress around uncontrollables -- bike crashes on course, rip currents on swim, etc., and I FEEL for my athletes when this type of thing happens. But I try to remind myself that when those things happen, a coach is often the person who can understand it the most and support, so I have an important role to play.  

How do I use my power meter while racing?

• We target a range of power, not a specific number. For example, if you are targeting 170 watts for an Ironman, aim to spend most of your time in the 160 - 180 range.  In other words, target +/- 5-10% of your watts target.

• On hills, don’t go above your threshold if you can help it.  Think smooth and relaxed up hills. Don’t push up hills. Let the hill do the work.  You can think of the hill as almost a break as you don’t need to work to generate watts.

• Use your Race Sims to work on a smooth pedal stroke.  Your Variability Index (VI) in TrainingPeaks should be between 1.01 and 1.05.  If you are above 1.05, you are spiking your power and that is burning matches and killing your run legs. 

• For an IM, we are aiming for ~72% of your FTP as NP Lap.  With that said, that's theory.  90% of the time we see NP lower, more in the 65-70% of FTP.  And depending on the course and environmental conditions along with focusing on staying in aero, a 65% NP can still be a very fast IM bike split.  In the end, it's all about the avg MPH and the best way to get that is to develop superior aero position and durability. 

• For HIM we are targeting 85% of FTP but all of the above applies.  You can still do a very fast HIM at 75-80% if you are holding a good aero position. 

• On my Garmin bike computer, I have the following on the main screen: Time / Cadence / 3s Power / Heart Rate / Speed.  

• On the 2nd screen:  Lap Distance, Lap Time / Speed / Cadence / 3s Power / Lap NP - I use this screen mostly when doing intervals. 

• 3rd Screen: Distance / Avg Speed / Total Ascent / NP (for the entire ride)

Why use speed when we use watts / % of FTP most of the time? 

• We use watts / % of FTP primarily inside where all variables are controlled. 

• Outside we have to interact with many more variables such as: 

  • Heat, Humidity, Wind (head, cross & tail), pavement surface, other racers, frontal drag, aero position, not aero, downhills/hills, etc.  In other words, riding outside is VERY dynamic and just paying attention to one variable - watts only tells a part of the story. You need to factor in MPH especially on courses where you aren’t familiar with the wind, false flats or race course. 

• You should spend some time paying attention to MPH while you are training and think fast. Always be thinking where can I gain free speed?  How can I reduce my frontal drag?  Can I sneak out low watts but fast speed on this part of the course because of wind, for example.  

Challenge of the week

• Katie: 3-5 mins of breath work 

• Jim: Check in with your primary support peeps. The season / training is now very busy / time intensive.  See if you can do anything for them.

Gear pick of the week:

• Katie: Scicon bike bag for travel 

• Jim: Aquasphere Kayenne swim goggles for open water

Episode 31: Training, Coaching, and Life with Olympic Biathlete Susan Dunklee

In this week's episode, we welcome a very special guest to the podcast: Susan Dunklee, a 3x Olympian and 2x World Championship Silver Medalist in the sport of biathlon. Susan currently directs the biathlon program at Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Vermont, and she shares her wisdom on a ton of topics including: life as a professional athlete, mindfulness in sport, balance, sense of place, training on the east coast, highs and lows throughout her career, and what life looks like in her post-competition phase. We also catch up with Elena to hear how her 100 mile recovery has been going and share a bunch of coaching and training insights from a busy couple of weeks. We're excited for you to listen to this episode!

Links to things we mentioned in the show:

Bike MS: Cape Cod Getaway 2024 ride

Follow Susan on Instagram!

Book recs from Susan: Demon Copperhead, Gather

Episode 30: How to Crush Race Day + Coach Jim's Injury Update

On our 30th (!) podcast episode, we're continuing on our theme of best practices for race week by covering everything you need to know to crush your Ironman or Half Ironman / 70.3 race day! We go over pre-race breakfast, how to execute a proper warm-up, and our best tips and tricks for approaching the swim, T1, the bike, T2, and the run. This episode also features an interview with Coach Jim about his recent bike crash and subsequent surgery—a super scary experience, but we hope that sharing the lessons Jim has learned so far and will continue to learn throughout the recovery process will help us support listeners and athletes experiencing similar incidents. We're excited for you to hear this one!

Extended show notes:

Coaching and Training Insights — Links We Mentioned

• New Wave Swim Buoy for OWS safety

• Garmin Varia Radar Light for bike safety / care awareness

RACE MORNING

Breakfast – Stick to familiar pre-workout breakfasts that you know works well. What sits well in your stomach normally and fuels your regular workouts is reliable for race morning. There are many opinions on how early you should eat your pre-race breakfast. Your best guidance is what you have done on your Race Sim Weekends.
It is a long time between when you wake up until your race actually starts. Thus, you can parse out your breakfast when you get up, when you are going to the race site and snacking as you wait for the race to start. Little amounts of food every 30’ or so is better than one big breakfast three hours before your race start.
You will be nervous so eating in small increments may be a better strategy to ensure you start the day fueled. If you are a coffee drinker and need it to avoid a caffeine headache, drink some. Otherwise, your digestive system will be quite active and coffee could exacerbate this.

Snacks – Bring a bag of snacks and extra hydration for pre-race morning. Often by the time you make it to the start line, it has been multiple hours since you had breakfast. As you drive to the race, set up transition, and wait for the race start, remember to continue hydrating and fueling. Stress raises cortisol and adrenaline levels, which burns through glycogen quickly. Take a gel 15’ before the race starts. 

Clothes – Even if the forecasted temperature is high, early race morning can be cold. Bring tights/pants, a jacket, and warm clothes for race morning. If you have a very long wait for race start, consider bringing a sleeping pad and bag (if you can hand this to a family member/friend before the race). 

DURING THE RACE

Swim:

For early season races where the water is cold, mitigate cold water effects by wearing double swim caps and silicone ear plugs. Enter the cold water up to your waist, get your hands acclimated and put your face in the water briefly and blow bubbles out. Do this 5 - 10 times until you feel your face and breathing react normally to the cold water.  You want to avoid cold water shock at the race start. In my opinion, cold water shock combined with a rush of race start high effort and adrenaline is the leading cause of cardiac issues in the swim.

If a swim warmup is allowed, try to time your warmup to end just before the pre-race meeting starts. Consider bringing a big towel, coat, or blanket to put over your shoulders during the pre-race meeting to stay warm.  

If a swim warmup is not allowed, you can jog briefly in your wetsuit just enough that you are warm but not overheated.  A support team member can pour warm water into your wetsuit, too (logistically difficult at most races but effective.)

If the race is wetsuit legal, wear one. They are significantly faster than no wetsuit and the flotation reduces stress.  A sleeved wetsuit is always faster than a sleeveless one. 

Pacing — Seed yourself with a group that swims faster than your normal pace. Most triathletes don’t know their true swim pace/time and seed themselves in the faster waves. As such, if you seed with your true swim speed group, you will need to swim around many triathletes. Don’t be polite; seed yourself in a faster group. For example, if you plan to swim ~35’ for HIM, seed yourself with 32-30’ group. If you plan to swim ~1:20 for IM, seed with 1:10 group.

Technique — Swim relaxed and easy. If you don’t get in a swim warmup, start even easier and use the first 10’ to warm up into the swim. While swimming, think about full exhales underwater, catch up stroke, and long/strong swimming. 

Plan to sight every 7-10 strokes. Don’t blindly follow other swimmers. Triathletes, in general, don’t practice sighting enough or even at all. Most navigate like a drunken sailor. If you do find a compatible, competent swimmer, draft off them for as long as you can. Let them pull you along for major energy savings. 

You may find yourself, especially at the beginning and around turn buoys, surrounded by many other swimmers. Use a combination of breast stroke, sighting and even a few strong strokes to get away from the fray and back into clear water.

If you have bilateral breathing skills (every three strokes), this can be a good governor of effort i.e., it will keep you swimming aerobically. 

In sum, it is more important to swim well than focus on your actual swim time. A well executed swim will leave you fresh and ready to apply your bigger efforts on the bike and run.

T1 — If the race has wetsuit peelers (formerly called strippers), use them to quickly strip off your suit after completing the swim. If the race does not, use the time between the water and T1 to lift your goggles onto your head (don’t take them off), unzip your wetsuit and take it off down to your waist, or below your hips, by the time you reach T1. Then in T1 you can take off the rest of your suit, your goggles and swim cap. 

When exiting the water, either walk or easy jog to transition. Work on lowering your HR. You should not run or hurry to transition. Take your time, settle, and breathe. There will be a lot of spectator stimulus from the water to transition. Resist the urge to “put on a show.” When you get to your transition spot, consider a gel to replenish energy after the swim. If you are doing an Ironman, consider a substantial snack (ie. bar, croissant with jelly, etc).

If you are doing an IM, you will enter a tent to collect your bike helmet, shoes, socks and anything you did not place on your bike race morning. Take everything out of your bag and put it in front of you. This will ensure you don’t leave critical gear or nutrition behind. Take your time, make sure you snap your helmet strap (an unbuckled helmet strap is a DQ offense). Volunteers will often be there to assist you.  Pro tip: if you have electronic shifting on your bike, put an extra, charged battery in your T1 bag. 

If you are doing a HIM, put your helmet on first, buckling the strap.  Proceed to put on shoes, socks, stuff your pockets with snacks, sunglasses, etc.  You do not need your race belt with a number for the bike. 

Bike:

Nutrition and Hydration — Upon starting the bike, immediately begin to drink every 15’ and eat every 30’ (even if you don’t feel like it!). In general, you will want to drink one bottle per hour. Once your HR settles from the swim, focus on fueling. Your ability to take in calories is highest early in the race. These will be some of the most critical calories you will take in all day. Take advantage of your ability to eat. Underfueling is the most common mistake triathletes make. Your fueling must support your fitness (You have built a race car, now keep filling its tank). See your race plan for exact calories/carb/hydration oz and memorize it. Stay diligent and execute your race nutrition plan. IM athletes should plan to pee at least once on the bike. It’s up to you whether you do this on the bike or stop at an aid station. 

Use a bento box to store your food. Pre-cut the wrappers of bars so you are not struggling opening them up in aero! Consider cutting up bars into smaller pieces that you will eat at the 30’ and 60’ mark. If you don’t have a bento box or need extra storage, use the pockets of your tri kit. 

Consider salt tabs if you have used them in training or in past races. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that supports use of salt tabs (the science is mixed on this topic). There seems to be many benefits and few drawbacks based on athlete experience. Ideally, practice with them during a race simulation so they are familiar on race day. A guide is 500 - 1000 mg per hour.  Practice your sodium intake during a Race Sim weekend(s).

Heat/Humidity — If it’s hot and humid, hydration needs will increase to 1.5 bottles per hour. You can determine if it’s hot and humid if there is a sheen of sweat on your forearm, indicating you are not evaporating the heat away from your skin. Alternatively, use the weather forecast to determine heat and humidity values for the day. Humidity over 70-80% becomes challenging. In this case, drink 1.5 bottles per hour. For IM athletes, also consider stopping at aid stations to put ice down your tri suit. 

If the heat and humidity index is up, be very careful with your effort today. Once you lose thermoregulation of your body, your race is essentially over. In the excitement of race day, it is easy to overcook yourself on the bike and run. Know the weather conditions and govern your efforts accordingly. 

Pacing — For HIM, bike at a 2- 3 hour sustainable pace. For those with powermeters, that is 80-85% of your FTP. For IM, bike at a 5 - 6 hour sustainable pace. For those with powermeters, that is 65 - 72% of your FTP. If at any time you question whether you can hold that pace for the entire duration of your race, bring the effort down. When you get to the run, no one regrets biking “too easy”.  In the words of Aristotle, “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”

Your HR will be ~10 beats above normal. Don’t worry! That’s expected on race day from all the excitement, nerves, and swim. If HR is elevated more than that, use the first 20’ of the bike to calmly breathe and get your HR under control. 

Keep an eye on the mph pace to determine if there is a headwind, tailwind, false flats, etc. If going faster than normal, ease up some, and if going slower, apply a little more effort. When moving over 30mph, stop pedaling. If your speed is under 15mph, there is very little aero advantage. Sit up and use a favorable body position to pedal up the hills.

Think fast. Keep your head low. If on a road bike, use the faster sections to be in the drops. If on a TT bike, stay aero as much as possible when moving over 15mph. The greatest resistance against you is your frontal profile, so staying low can help reduce your profile and increase efficiency.

On hills, keep your pedal pressure light. Think soft, relaxed feet and ankles. Many people will charge up the hills – resist that urge. Hills require extra effort, don’t make it even more difficult by pushing hard uphill. Try not to exceed more than 15% of your race watts/effort. Keep your effort until you have crested and are back up to speed on the other side of the hill. 

If you have a power meter, chances are it has been reliable during training. Be prepared for your power meter to betray you on race morning; power meters often strike on race day.  We must have done something to anger the triathlon Gods!. Adapt to the situation, rely on perceived effort, HR and MPH. You have trained well and are prepared to race on several different metrics.

During training, you have focused on hitting specific watt ranges. It is common, probably due to the metabolic and aerobic cost of the swim, to be on the lower end of your goal race watts. You will also be passing, slowing for other riders, making corners and dropping back out of a draft zone. That’s OK. If you can’t hit your training numbers within 10 - 20 watts, switch your focus to riding well, staying aero and perfect nutrition plan execution. As long as you stay disciplined around these other factors, watts are not the biggest determiner of your bike leg. In the end, flawless execution, especially nutrition and hydration, will be the biggest factor in a successful bike. Agile thinking, adaptation, impulse control and patience will win the day.

The bike leg is considered an individual effort which means you must maintain a certain distance between yourself and the cyclists in order not to draft. Usually this is six bike lengths but read the athlete guide to confirm. You will notice athletes bunching at the beginning of the race and on the hills; don’t stress about a drafting violation in these conditions. The race will soon sort itself out and it will be clear where you can respect the draft zone and avoid a drafting penalty. 

Most races have at least one lane closed to traffic. Most of the time you will be vehicle-free. However, there are many residential streets and other conditions where you will encounter cars. Just like in training, keep your eyes open and aware of your surroundings. Also, triathletes tend to be bad bike handlers so watch out for them, too! When you go to make a pass, quickly look left to ensure you won’t plow into another biker who may be making a pass at the same time. If you encounter a rider, or group of riders, riding across the road or obstructing your passing ability, yell “on your left!” Don’t be shy.

If you are doing an Ironman, everyone wants to be off the bike by mile 90+. This is normal! Stick with your pace and nutrition plan all the way to T2. Decrease your watts/pace if necessary later in the race in order to give yourself the best chance of running (or shuffling) your best IM marathon. This also applies to HIM, especially if you are new to the HIM distance.

Remember, if you haven’t done it in training, you shouldn’t do it on race day. You will feel fresh from the taper which means pushing bigger watts in the beginning will be easy.  Stick to your race watts plan and control your impulses and ‘race-day magic’ thinking. 

T2:
When you get to transition, consider a gel. If you are doing an Ironman, take your time in the transition tent. It’s okay to take a few extra minutes to get organized and mentally ready to move your body 26 miles. 

If you are doing a HIM, be efficient in transition: collect yourself, take a few deep breaths, and start the run. Make sure you have your race belt with number on, gels in pockets, visor or hat and sunglasses. 

Run:

Nutrition — Like the bike, focus on consuming carbs and good hydration early and often. Fuel through the entire race, even at mile 12 for HIM and mile 18 and on for IM. Take a gel every 2 - 3 miles. Walk through aid stations to get whatever you need. There will be little time loss for walking and massive gains because you did. 

The more sugar you can consume, the more you will be able to push yourself physically and mentally. You may not feel physically hungry, but your body and brain still need the fuel! When you hit a low point on the bike or run, consuming sugar will often help. Fueling and fitness are equal partners on race day. Hot take: Coca Cola is the best run performance fuel on the planet - caffeine and sugar!

Have a run nutrition plan and be ready to follow it (if you practiced with a certain type of gels, bring those on the run); however, also be prepared to supplement it with additional calories from aid stations. Rarely does a run race plan get executed perfectly. Listen to what your body wants at the aid stations – this can mean grabbing Coca Cola, pretzels, and chips like it’s a SuperBowl party. Be willing to walk through the aid stations to get everything you need. If you’re struggling to settle a sloshy stomach, consider salt tabs.

Heat/Humidity — If hot and humid, pour water over your head and ice down your Tri suit. Hold ice in your hands and keep ice chips in your mouth. Do this at every aid station.  When World Champion, Chelsea Sodaro, was asked why she walked every Kona aid station she said, “Invest in managing your core temperature.”

As mentioned above, be very aware of the weather conditions and govern your run pace accordingly. Losing thermoregulation will lead to major gut issues, cramping, blacking out, walking and sending you directly to Plan C which is just trying to cross the finish line without heat stroke. 

Pacing — Always start with a more conservative pace with a goal of increasing speed in the latter half to finish faster. This is tough to do, but focus on running with relaxed form, breathing easily, and bringing the heart rate down during the first 2 miles. Your HR will be higher than any Race Sim run. A good IM run will be done at 10 - 20 beats below your threshold HR. A HIM run will be ~10 beats below your threshold and up to your threshold HR. Pay attention to leg turnover and practice good run technique. Ask your coach if you have any questions regarding your run IM or HIM paces. 

Inevitably, the run gets very challenging. The monkey comes out of the bushes and places a sack of bricks on your back!  He is always lurking. Your goal is to put him off as long as possible.  Be armed with consistent nutrition and hydration and the recall of your “why” you are racing.  Long distance racing is less about being perfect and more about making the least amount of mistakes. When we signed up to race, we made a contract to experience a very difficult and painful situation. Embrace the hard, make smart decisions and be grateful you are able to experience it. It might feel like time stretches on infinitely but be assured the run is a finite task. There is an end and you will reach it.

Everyone is experiencing the same thing; long distance racing is group suffering. Think back to those Race Sim weekends and hard workouts where you persevered. Find a way to move forward. It doesn’t have to be fast (because often it’s not!), you just have to move forward with intent and purpose.

At the finish line, savor the moment you’ve worked so hard to achieve. Slow down, soak it in. Slap some high fives along the finisher’s chute. Keep an eye out for your support team. Smile at the finish line, your race pictures live forever!  (Don’t stop your watch at the finish like a type A athlete and ruin the finish line shot!  Stop it afterward.)

And remember to thank the volunteers a lot! Gratitude extends beyond yourself and to others around you. These races would not happen without the volunteers suffering nearly as much as you!

Listener Questions 

If I am racing on a road bike, should I get clip-on aero bars?

• For some hilly races, may not be worth it as you can often get a similar aero benefit by riding in the drops 

• Aero bars probably do confer an advantage in flat races, but race wheels and/or a triathlon bike will likely make a bigger difference 

• If you do, make sure you get a bike fitting with the aero bars and practice during race sims  (don’t install 1-2 weeks before the race)

Should I learn two-beat kicking? 

• Nearly everyone should learn two beat kicking especially if you are an adult learning how to swim. A  Two beat kick is about helping you rotate your hips / shoulders. It’s not meant to provide much velocity especially in a wetsuit.

• No one has ever finished a Half or IM and said they wished they had swum harder!

• Two beat kick swim video 1 and video 2

Feeling super hungry on a rest day or once a taper starts -- why and what to do about it?

• Possible explanations: (1) could be under-fueled; (2) sometimes hormones do weird things with hunger (i.e. for female athletes, resting metabolic rate goes up in luteal phase, cortisol affects appetite, etc.) -- prioritize getting enough sleep, low LSS, hydration, and keep an eye on indicators like resting HR/HRV/sleep quality etc.; (3) anecdotally I have personally experienced getting REALLY hungry during a recovery week or taper because your body finally is starting to play catch-up from the big demands you've put it through, and because high intensity and heavy training can have a counterintuitive appetite suppressant effect so taking that down a notch allows your body to actually tell you how much you've been working it! 

• What to do about it: 

• Honor those hunger cues! / don’t try to ignore them → want to set yourself up for success post recovery week/day or when you race 

• Make sure you’re getting enough fat in your diet (except the 1-2 days before race day)

•  Mindset of a recovery day/week or taper should be to refuel the body 

Gear Pick of the Week 

Katie - Ornot Cargo Bib shorts 

Jim - Ornot shorts and pants

Episode 29: Canyons 100 Mile Recap and Lessons with Coach Elena Horton

In this super special ~emergency~ podcast episode, Katie sits down with Elena less than 48 hours post-race to talk about her recent victory in the Canyons 100 Mile Race, the American Major for ultra-running presented by UTMB. This was Elena's first 100-mile race, and she talks us through how she got into trail running, how 100-mile ultras and the UTMB circuit work, how she prepared for this race (including her victory at Black Canyon 60K in February), her racing strategy, the mental prep work she did before the race and mental strategies she drew on during the race, the 60 (!) gels she consumed on course, the gear that got her across the finish line, what recovery has been like so far, and where she's headed next. Regardless of whether you're a fellow ultra-runner, a triathlete, or even just a fan of endurance racing, this episode has a wealth of knowledge and insight for everyone. Thank you to Elena for sharing your wisdom and a huge congratulations!

Elena’s Gear Picks of the Week:

Fenix Headlamp

Patagonia Airshed Visor

Peregrine 13 GTX Shoes

Salmon ADV Skin 12 Pack

Patagonia Switchback Sports Bra

Coros Arm Heart Rate Monitor

Patagonia Houdini Jacket

Episode 28: Best Practices for Race Week

Race season is finally here! In this episode, we cover everything you should be thinking about in the 1-2 weeks leading up to your goal race. Sub-topics include: bike prep and maintenance, race week sleep and fueling protocols, final workouts, tapering, mental preparation, what to do at the race site, and a whole lot more. We also spend time on some coaching and training insights related to carb intake, resilience data points, bike handling, TT bike position, and more. Happy racing!

Extended show notes:

Coaching & Training Insights

Katie:

• Getting comfy with bike handling  

• Rocket pocket for snacks; pre cut and unwrap bars

• Taking one hand off to drink a bottle

• Practice in a parking lot 

• Slight uphill can be a good place to hydrate/fuel

• If you aren’t comfortable, best to stop for 30 seconds at an aid station to drink/eat than not fuel at all -- you will pay for it later

• Listener question on optimizing fat oxidation that is worth an insight/ quick rant. Worth it to take in less carbs for Z1/2 efforts? Three big points: 

• If any pros are doing this, it’s because they are trying to get from 99.98 percent to 99.99 percent (and a ton of supervision with a dietitian rather than DIY low carb). We are recreational athletes, and our goal is to get you from 75 to 99 percent first. Start with improving your swim/bike/run threshold paces, getting a TT bike, and getting 9 hours of sleep per night, and then we’ll talk (and when we talk, we’ll just tell you to get an aero helmet). 

• Especially female + young athletes have such a low threshold for slipping into LEA/REDs. NOT worth the risk for what is dubious science at best

• Messaging in the endurance sports space can be so toxic re: food/body/sport that I think it’s easy to have motivated reasoning about random headlines re: underfueling (see clickbait  type info about fasted training or carb restriction). Instead, let’s listen to the messaging that clearly shows us eating a lot of carbs during activity is the best way to perform. 

• Return to the four golden rules of triathlete nutrition which we have covered before:

• 3 meals and 3 snacks per day 

• No fasted training

• Carbs before, carbs+protein after, healthy fats throughout the day

• 70-80 g carbs minimum during activity

• RDPs -- resilience data points 

• Bike in 3 hours of steady rain the other day

• Wanted to quit in the first hour, stuck to it, ended up having an amazing ride

• Broader point: Do hard things to build RDPs and recall them when the going gets hard. 

• Hard things do not need to be fitness related!

• Jim: Document your RDPs in TrainingPeaks. They will become super useful during race week.

• Justin Ross 12 week sports mental skills program sample: You've heard the saying, "Trust your training." It's a well intended trope, but it's not specific enough. You have to trust specific things about your training. Part 1 of building trust is thinking about this most recent training block in preparing for your event or race.

• When you think about what you've accomplished over the past few weeks and months, what you've done, what types of workouts you finished, the total volume or miles/kms completed, what stands out to you to inform you that you're ready?

• What stand out moments in your training remind you of your mental strength? Those times you may have doubted your ability to be successful or continue, but did so anyway?  - Dr Justin Ross

Jim:

• Importance of training on your race bike (and shoes/wetsuit). 

  • Muscle activation is very different on TT bike than road bike. Don’t expect to push the same watts on TT as road (at first). 

  • Bike handling is very different. You want to be 100% comfortable on your race bike on race day.

  • Feeding/fueling is very different.

  • Avg speed is very different. Have mph as a primary data field on first screen as this will tell you when to be in aero (under 14mph, sit up), when to pedal (no pedaling over 30mph).

  • Principle: Specifically train for your race. Nothing new on race day.

• Racing and lots of Race Sims going off. Peeps are crushing it!  Consistent work over many months/years pays off. Many people are changing the narrative of what they are capable of.

• Calling an audible. You have a set workout and intention but things don’t always line up, for many reasons, as you get into the workout. That’s OK. Important to employ the art of modifying workouts. Principle: the training plan is a map, not the territory. Many athletes the last few weeks making great calls on modifying based on real-time factors: 

• Had limited pool time so cut down warmup, focused on Main Set

• Hotel bike was funky, cut down the bike and saved something for the swim

• HR wasn’t responding on the run so focused on having a good time, letting go of expectations and freeing the heart.

• Tempo run turned into a trail run with a buddy. We pushed on the uphills.

• Feeling really good on base run, threw in some pickups.

• Charlie comments, capturing the ups and downs of long distance training and big challenges:

• “Really felt like the block was on life support yesterday. With some patience, we’re going to change that. “If I’m happy and healthy, I’m gonna be pretty dangerous” - Ollie Hoare in an interview recently. As someone who isn’t particularly happy or healthy at the moment, this quote really provided something to chase over the coming weeks. I’ve had some hard days reconciling why I should keep pushing for Placid, only for that to be turned up to 10 by one of the most painful runs of my career. Yesterday I let the demons run wild. I gave every ugly voice in my head an unlimited podcast deal.

• “You’re not training hard enough and you got injured anyways” 

• “You’re not eating clean enough and you don’t look like someone who competes in an Ironman” 

• “What did you expect? You were never cut out for this” 

• “Every decent effort you’ve ever put out was just a fluke. This is your real normal. This is who you are.” 

• After listening to them all I finally remembered. I re-read the training logs, the old race mantras, and journal entries. I found supportive texts or comments from my village. I remembered again. Placid, and more specifically this build isn’t about the race. While bombing hills in the Adirondacks on race day is going to be just Batman levels of badassery, this training is about a future version of myself being able to do whatever he wants. Wake up and ride hard for 80 miles? On it. Swim in the ocean however long I want? Hell yeah. Run like a fucking animal? Always. It’s also about weeks exactly like this: when we’re getting hit with haymakers and we don’t have anything to answer back with. I want more than anything to be able to show my future kids that even in a low point, we can find our balance and keep going. 

• The last thought I had was I reminded myself that at the end of the day that we do this for fun. That this doesn’t fill our cup, it simply tops it off. Even with the running and swimming complications, I'm blessed with a tall glass of cold chocolate milk. A rocky 48 hours but the sun is going to rise tomorrow. The sun is also going to rise on July 21st. And most likely on July 22nd. This race will come and it will also pass. I don’t know what the coming weeks will bring, but now I’m in the hands of professionals to show the path. Pending no terrible news, I know where I’m going to be.

Main Content

1-2 weeks out:

Check your bike: Is your bike squeaking? Shifting smoothly? Is your chain and cassette clean? Do your race wheels fit with your brakes? Make sure you consider all of these factors with ample time to make adjustments. For important races, consider bringing your bike into your local shop for a tune up. Don’t wait for race week. Ideally, have all of your bike gear sorted before the last Week 4 Race Simulation. 

• You should have bike storage for an extra tube, two tire levers, two CO2 cartridges, an inflator and the knowledge of how to change a flat. If you are using deep, carbon wheels, ensure your extra tube is long enough to account for the rim depth or have a valve adapter. (80mm is the longest valve stem and safest option to fit most aero wheelsets.)

• If you are doing an Ironman, your bike should have the carrying capacity for at least three water bottles. For Half Ironman, two bottles are sufficient although three can be ideal (one for pure water, the other two for water with electrolytes). 

Tire pressure: Hot take: 99% of all triathletes and cyclists pump their tires up too much. If your wheels/tires were made within the last five years, you should check the wheel manufacturer website for recommended tire pressures.  You will probably find that PSI recommendations are in the 70s and 80s.  Some manufacturers recommend tire pressure into the 60s!  They have the data to back up these recommendations. Lower PSI results in less rolling resistance and helps smooth out the bumps. Every road bump is absorbed by your soft tissue. Bumping reduction equals less body strain. Always aim to increase comfort on the bike to maintain pace, reduce body strain and set yourself up for your best run.

Practice bike-run transition: If you are aiming for a specific race time, have speed laces for your run shoes. (More important in HIM than IM.) In addition, if you have not practiced any fast bike to run transitions, take time this week to practice up 4 - 5 bike to run transitions. You can do this in your front yard. Bike in, make the transition to run, run 100 - 200 ft, then repeat. Practice until this feels smooth and efficient. Bonus points if you do this with your race belt!

Tapering: What it is, how we do it, why we do it, etc. 

• The last two weeks are all about shedding acute and chronic fatigue that has built up over months.

• “The hay is in the barn” Don’t try to gain any fitness in the last 2 - 3 weeks despite all those race Facebook posts. 

• You should feel like a caged animal by race week. 

• Don’t be surprised if you feel terrible during the taper. That is very normal. Your body is fully repairing and is probably sending you signals that it needs time to repair.  You could be feeling a mixture of being very antsy, on edge but also not wanting to really exercise.

1 week out (race week!): 

Sleep: Try to “bank” sleep. It works. Expect that it will be hard to sleep the night before the race, so instead focus on sleeping well the nights leading up to the race. Don’t stress if you don’t sleep much the night before the race; instead think about “resting.”

How we think about carb-loading during race week:

• Increase fraction of plate taken up by carbs rather than major changes to overall food volume.

• Don’t go long periods without eating; snacks and hydration on hand always. Hunger cues may be disrupted due to change in overall volume, so fueling needs to be super intentional to make sure you are getting enough. We don’t want to go into race day with any deficit.

• Fueling and hydration 1-2 days out from race day (reduce fat/fiber, stick to what you know, hydrate with electrolytes at all times) 

Nutrition plan: Write out your nutrition plan for the actual race. Ask for our nutrition calculator and template. Ensure you are getting sufficient grams of carbs per hour. Ask your coach to review your nutrition and hydration plan together. (Ideally, we have planned and tested all your hydration and nutrition during the Race Sim Weekends.) Plan what nutrition and hydration you will start with on the bike and run. And if you are doing an IM, write out a plan for what you will pick up in your bike (and possibly run) special needs bags. (Special needs bags are available to athletes halfway through an IM bike and run.)

Weather: Check race day forecast but don’t obsess over it. It’s uncontrollable, so instead focus on what you can control, such as making any necessary adjustments to your bike and run nutrition plans to account for heat, humidity, or cold. Check the direction of the wind in relation to the swim and bike course. 

• If the forecast calls for cold and/or rain conditions, consider an extra layer on top such as a light jacket and gloves. While we often experience very hot and humid training days, race mornings can be cold especially if it’s raining or an early/late season race. The one consideration for extra layers is you either have to carry them back to T2 or drop it at special bike needs for an Ironman (no bike special needs drop for Half Ironman) but you may not get that gear back; special needs bags are often thrown away by the race organizers.

Sample packing list: Start packing ~1 week out or earlier to make sure you have everything you need and can order or buy anything you don’t have well in advance.

What kind of workouts we do during race week: 

• No longer building fitness.

• Activation workouts, test gear is in working order.  

• Key principle: If tired, skip it. The hay is in the barn and this week is all about rest and recovery.

1 - 2 Days out from race: 

Considerations for travel / destination races (especially air travel or international):

• If you are flying with your bike, use a generous amount of bubble wrap and tape around your bike. Take a near equal amount of bubble wrap in your bike bag for the return trip along with tape and scissors. It can be very difficult to re-use taped bubble wrap for the return trip. (Masking tape is easier to remove from bubble wrap than packing tape.)  Put all small bike components, screws, skewers into a ziploc bag. Double check your work area to ensure all pieces are in this bag. It’s common to take something apart, set aside the screws or components and forget them! Put all your bike assembly tools into another Ziploc bag. While many races have bike mechanics on hand before the race, aim to be self-sufficient with your bike packing and assembling skills. 

• Once you assemble your bike at the destination, be sure to test it out briefly. Check for rims rubbing, brakes, shifting.

• If you have electronic shifting bring an extra battery and/or charging cable.  It’s not uncommon for bike to fully discharge during travel.

Course Preview: If your race is not local, use the preceding days to drive the bike course, bike the run course, and plan race-day parking/time from parking to transition. Familiarize yourself with the swim/bike/run maps, elevation profiles and bike aid stations. (Run aid stations tend to be every mile but worth confirming that on the run maps.) Race course knowledge is free speed.

Race day parking: make sure you scout where you will park on race day. Some races also utilize a shuttle to a swim start or if transitions are in different locations. Know exactly where you are going and when on race morning. You do not want to search for parking at 4am in an unfamiliar, dark location. Share this plan with your support team. Detailed logistics planning will drastically reduce race day stress. 

Day before race workouts: Use these to engage your body but not overload. Ideally, get to the swim venue at about the same time you will start the race. Check the direction and angle of the sun. Are your swim goggles appropriate for any potential sun glare? Check the water temperature and confirm whether wetsuits are allowed or not. Either bike the run course or bike the first few miles of the bike course. Keep running to the bare minimum. You want to stay off your feet as much as possible today. 

Race check in: Try to do this as early as possible, a day or two before the race. Confirm time when you need to drop off your bike and gear (usually the day before).  There are many shiny objects in the race expo. Minimize your time at the race expo if you are there the day before the race. Your job today is mostly logistics, keeping out of the sun, hydrating, and fueling. 

Mindset prep: Review your “why” you have chosen to race. You will call on these core reasons on race day. Reach out to your network to thank them for all their support. Gratitude creates happiness, perspective and meaning.

How to deal with pre-race nerves: Breathwork, journaling, visualization 

Listener Questions

How should I execute planned Zwift bike workouts outside? Are there times that I should definitely ride inside vs. outside?

• Beginner HIM and IM: Just ride Z2 for long endurance rides outside. Especially if you are riding somewhere windy or hilly, you will get some tempo work in naturally. During the week, getting in some intensity indoors can be helpful and time-efficient (i.e., sweet spot or AC intervals on trainer).

• Advanced HIM and short course: Good to practice race watts outside if possible, but be sure to find a road that is safe with minimal traffic and stopping. Avoid being in aero without access to the brakes when in busy areas. Still valuable to do some trainer workouts inside for convenience.

What should I do for a pre-race warmup if I’m not allowed to get in the water before starting?

• Arm swings and other dynamic activation in the corral can help if feeling particularly tight

• Even if you can’t swim, try to get some cold water on your face (stand at shore and splash on face)

• Take a gel 15’ before you start 

• Broader point: for most races in HIM and IM, the swim itself should be your warmup for the rest of the race, so don’t stress it too much if you can’t get your usual warmup in.

• If you CAN get the warmup in, aim for 5-10’ easy swimming and practice sighting to make sure that your goggles are adjusted properly and that you can see the buoys. Evaluate race conditions and sun position in the water. Make sure your wetsuit is comfortable. Include 2-4 short pickups (10-15 seconds) with faster arm turnover/ race pace. 

• Don’t put your wetsuit on too early pre-race. Don’t walk around a lot in your wetsuit or if you to wear it to the start area, put it on only up to your waist.

Challenge of the Week

Katie: If you are starting to do big outdoor rides, consider a bike tune up; after an entire winter on the trainer, you may very well need a new chain/ new tires etc. 

Jim: Start to work in open water sighting in the pool for at least one set. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6r3M4GGgIY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmRqDu8ApG4

Gear Pick of the Week

Katie: Nathan ExoDraw & ExoShot 2.0 Flask

Jim: Race Belt