Episode 17: The Forces We're Up Against (Female Athlete Stories #4)

In the fourth installment of our special series, Female Athlete Stories, we’re tackling the forces we’re up against. Highlights of this super rich episode include: another deep dive on body image, the objectification of the female athlete body, safety as female athletes, femininity and athletics, the myth of balance for women in sport, navigating the medical system and health challenges as a female athlete, lack of research, and cultural assumptions about our abilities and performance. This was a fun one! 

To submit additional perspectives and experiences to future episodes, check out ⁠this link⁠!

Safety resources: 

On balance:

Articles we mentioned:

Female athlete research and resources we mentioned: 

Our emails:

Episode 16: So You Want to Do an Ironman?

This week's episode is all about what you should be thinking about (and what life will look like) if you decide to sign up for a big endurance challenge like an Ironman. We highlight four key things to ask yourself before you bite the bullet, cover the top practical items you will need to support your endurance journey, and outline the progression of training for big events like these. We also share some coaching and training insights on workout modifications and the ebb and flow of life and training, answer a bunch of listener questions, introduce a new segment (Challenge of the Week) and share our favorite gear picks. This is a fun one, so check it out!

Main Topic:

First thing first: Ironman has a big cultural influence; it’s marketed as the hardest one day challenge. But it is not. There are many ways to have a big day such as running a 50 or 100 mile ultra, a huge day in the mountains or a mega bike ride. Or you may be just starting your endurance journey and finishing a Half Ironman or a bike around your town is a big day. We are here for all of it and support you with whatever big challenge you want to tackle. Ironman is a huge accomplishment but it’s not the arbiter of physical and mental toughness. 

And if Ironman is not your thing, you can still apply these same principles, strategies and tactics to your big endurance day. 

Four Key Points

1) Develop and articulate the reasons why you want to race. Ironman training is very physically and mentally challenging. It requires an unusually high level of commitment over a long period of time - 9 months at the minimum and usually 2 - 5 years to build up the endurance. You will experience many deep highs and lows during training and racing. Ironman training is lonely, it is long days in the saddle, there are no crowds cheering you on on Sunday morning as you struggle out of bed to do another 2 hour run. 

  • During the lows, you will want to return to why you have chosen to race. When you have arranged your, and your families, entire life around this event, the importance of your why is utmost and fundamental to the process. The more your “why” is defined, the clearer and successful your training and racing. Your mental game will need to be as strong as your physical one.

  • Conversely, some examples of invalid “why” to race are cool Strava titles, attention seeking from peers and family, revenge racing and Instagram moments. Your why must be deep, meaningful and honest.

  • Katie example -- talk through “why” for IM Lake Placid this year (feeling like I wanted to see what I could do, display my fitness after challenging St. George, try new workouts and push limits, see what a healthier body could produce)

2) Get buy-in from your family and friends. Long distance triathlon training is extremely taxing on your time and resources. It is critical that you build buy-in, acceptance and support of your goals from your family, friends and colleagues. You are embarking on a very selfish (but healthy) journey. The time required to properly train for a long distance race should not be underestimated. You will be absent for large portions of weekends. Make sure you accurately portray the time demands to those you are closest to. In other words, if you’re going to ditch your wife with the kids for 10 - 20 weekend mornings you better make a sustainable, win/win bargain with them! You cannot do this alone. It takes a village to train a triathlete. 

  • A properly executed training phase will result in better relationships with your family and friends, not one that destroys those bonds. This is a delicate and deliberate balancing act for which you must always be vigilantly aware and communicative.

3) Do you have time to properly train for the race? You will need between 10 - 20 hours, depending on your goals. You will need to spend many weekends doing 5 - 6 hour rides, a 4K swim and log hours running. It is a full on lifestyle. 

  • We all want to be the hero of our story but it’s essential we match what is possible given our time constraints, family and work situation. 

4) Do you have the budget for an Ironman?

  • Ironmans are very expensive. The average cost for an Ironman entry is $750 but some races can be a lot more. 

  • Include housing, travel and gear expenses and an Ironman is easily a $5,000 - $10,000 commitment. Maybe even more if you buy a bunch of fancy gear!

  • Even things like nutrition and hydration products are really expensive here!

  • We want to emphasize that you need to square away the above four key points before you pull the trigger on an Ironman (or any big event/race).

Top practical items you will need: 

  • A bike and a bike fit. You will spend literally hundreds of hours on the bike. It must fit properly. If you are riding a road bike, you will want to put aero bars on it and practice in aero during the Specific Prep phase. If you are riding a tri bike, you will do most of your last 12 weeks of training on it. A smart trainer and Zwift/Rouvy will make bike training a ton easier.

  • Proper run shoes and run mechanics. You will run hundreds of miles. You need running shoes that are appropriate for you and that distance. And you should ensure your run mechanics are sound (see PT episode). 

    • You should also be switching our multiple pairs of shoes per Neil!

  • Regular access to a pool. Think 3X per week. You will need to regularly swim 3K and at least 1X 4K swim per week during the Specific Preparation phase (the last 12 weeks). You will need to do a number of 4K open water swims before your race. Ideally, you would swim 5 - 10 times in open water before your race.

  • Nearly everyone will need access to a local body care network. A PT familiar with endurance training is a good start. You will experience niggles and possibly injury. Be prepared to have a network in place so you can prevent and/or respond to what arises.

  • A tri kit or some active gear that you can spend 10 - 16 hours in. You must test this gear on all your Race Simulation weekends. You don’t want to find out on race day it causes chafing!

Training Plan outline: 

12/8/4 weeks out Race Sim Weekends: 

  • Our main strategy for race readiness is Race Simulation Weekends aka Big Days. We schedule these 12, 8 and 4 weeks out from your “A” race. They break down as follow:

    • 12 & 8 weeks out - over three days, complete your event distance.

    • 4 weeks out - over two days, complete your event distance (or close to it for Ironman).

  • An example of 8 weeks out Ironman Race Sim Weekend is a 4K Friday swim, a 100 mile bike on Saturday morning into a one hour run off the bike followed by a 90’ run on Sunday morning. 

  • For every Race Sim we plan and practice your race hydration, nutrition and perform at specific IM watts / run paces. 

  • Ideally, these race simulations are done on terrain similar to your race course. If possible, do the 4 week out race simulation on the actual course if you are able to travel there. 

  • These three key weekends are the primary drivers of your race day readiness. After the three weekends, we will have determined the key fundamental and small, critical details for your race day. 

  • Ideally, do a long distance training camp for one of your race day simulation weekends. 

4 - 8 weeks out: 

Plan and practice your race day hydration and nutrition on the bike and run. Ask your coach about our race plan nutrition and hydration Google Sheet. The gut is a trainable muscle; the more you practice training with race-day nutrition, the better. Nailing race day nutrition is a dynamic and iterative process. 

Correlate your performance with a heat and humidity index. The three biggest factors of race day success are fitness, hydration/nutrition and heat/humidity. During your longer rides, runs and Race Sim weekends, begin to track the heat and humidity conditions to understand where you may begin to struggle and have a need for more hydration. For example, your long ride may start at 7am in the morning at 70F with 80% humidity. I use a simple 70 + 80 = 150 “heat index” value. As you progress through the ride, the day heats up and humidity may rise or fall. If it’s a long ride, you may experience many levels along the heat index. This index is exponential, not linear. A heat index of 160 will feel way hotter than 150. Note when you start to feel hot, sweat profusely and/or develop a sheen of sweat on your forearms, indicating you are not evaporating heat away from your body. At this point, you are probably experiencing some level of heat degradation. The best way to combat this is internal cooling by taking in more hydration. If you have ice available to put down your tri kit and in your water bottles, even better. The main point is to start to understand under which heat and humidity conditions you begin to struggle. Under normal weather conditions, usually one water bottle per hour on the bike is sufficient. The higher the heat index, the more we want to drink, cooling our insides. Under heat stress, we recommend moving to 1.5 bottles per hour. Use your longer training days to dial in what level of hydration allows you to express your fitness, using a simple heat index calculation to guide your hydration and cooling plan. Everyone's a little different so use this time to understand how your body responds under what conditions.

Research which gels and hydration solution will be offered on course. You may consider practicing with those specific products during one of your Race Sim weekends. Currently Ironman is offering Maurten on course which, in my opinion, is a high quality gel with minimal risk of GI distress; however, they also offer Gatorade as a hydration option which can be very heavy on the stomach. If you use Gatorade, practice cutting it with water and see how it affects your stomach during a race-like situation.

Plan and practice your race day bike watts and run paces. Your race plan should include a Plan A, Plan B and Plan C. Plan A is if everything goes perfectly (realistically this happens 5% of the time), Plan B is the likely, realistic scenario and should be your main focus, and Plan C is to cross the finish line. Your race bike watts and run paces will be indicated in your TrainingPeaks account under key workouts. Make sure you are in alignment with your coach on what is an appropriate race pace (or more importantly what is not!). Our goal is no surprises on race day. Everything will have been practiced and refined during your Race Sim Weekends.

Identify race day controllable and uncontrollable variables. For the uncontrollable factors, consider potential solutions if something goes awry. For example, the weather is uncontrollable, but you may be able to execute the race simulations or long rides/run on days with similar weather (whether that is hot or cold). You can’t control whether you get a flat tire, but you can learn how to efficiently change your innertube. Your race may include a lot of fast competitors and peers. You can’t control who signs up but you can control how fit and race ready you are. Most variables are uncontrollable, but you can prepare solutions to mitigate the impacts on your race. The list of what we truly control is short but critical: breath, pace, effort, attitude, ingestion, gear and knowledge.

Use social media cautiously. Social Media, particularly Facebook Race Pages, are a curse and a blessing. You can learn a lot from the locals and past participants from these pages. There are many insights into the course, the weather, best gear choices, best times to train on the course (if an option for you), local peculiarities, etc. But these pages are also full of athletes who are anxious and often not well prepared for the rigors of the course. They display their anxiety by posting how tough the course is, how much they have, or have not, been training and often doing big workouts right up until nearly race day. While we are tapering, these athletes will be doing their biggest rides and runs two weeks out from the race. It will take discipline and judgment to sort through the relevant, helpful information and posts that should be ignored. The closer to race day, anxiety posts rise and less actionable information is provided. Two to three weeks prior to race day is a good time to not engage with these pages. 

Sauna Protocol. If you have access to a sauna, we can employ a sauna protocol before your 4 week Race Sim weekend, typically starting 10 days before this weekend. We will then use this same, or adjusted, protocol for your race day preparation. Adapting to the extreme heat has become a major challenge at most summer races. 

2-3 weeks out: 

Make a list of all the race gear and nutrition needed and order it. Always look for ways to reduce stress before race week. Ideally, all of your race hydration and nutrition products have been tested during the Race Simulation weekends. If any adjustments are required, use the rides and runs 2-3 weeks prior to the race to finalize your products. 

Open water swim in your wetsuit. If your race is wetsuit legal, you should be swimming in open water with your wetsuit at least once a week. Swim enough in your wetsuit that you are comfortable putting it on and taking it off efficiently (see swim/T1 below for details). The first 2 - 3 sessions in the wetsuit may feel uncomfortable on your shoulders, but you will adapt quickly. 

Listener questions: 

  • When to modify workouts and when to push through? 

    • Modify based upon Life Stress.

    • Consider swapping workouts around 

  • How do we think about downhill skiing?

    • Sub it for lighter zone 2 days 

    • It’s not an off day but it doesn’t really build base fitness

    • Ok to do it for fun! But not 2 weekend days in an IM build 

  • Why do we use paddles in swimming? To build swim specific strength. Also a good way to get in low HR, more swim volume and aerobic conditioning. Think of it like low cadene work on the bike.

  • What is the structure of your swim workouts and how do I best use my time? 

    • Our swim workouts are a guide and not meant to always be executed to the exact detail.

    • Warmup: Yards will always vary because your warmup should be specific to you. Your warmup should be between 500 - 1000 yards and include focus areas that activate your swimming body and brain. Warmups are very individualized so keep playing with focus areas and find the ones that seem to give you the best result when you move into the main set.

    • Main Set: Do this to the best of your ability. This is the meat of the workout. Do it with your best intention. Remember the focus is mostly on swimming well, not necessarily swimming fast especially this time of year.

    • Cool down: If you have time, 50 - 200 yards. Don’t overthink it. Get your HR down, take a few easy strokes and move on with the rest of your day. 

Challenge of the Week: 

Jim: At least once a day, be bored. Don’t check your phone when you have a free moment; just relax and breathe. Work on your mental durability. 

Katie: Be kind to yourself. Cut yourself some slack! 

Gear Pick of Week:

Episode 15: Community in Sport (Female Athlete Stories #3)

This is the third episode in our special new series, Female Athlete Stories. We start with a recap of Elena's outstanding win at the Black Canyon 60K last weekend, highlighting insights and strategies that transcend sports and ability levels across the board. We then cover some of the key differences our listeners have noted between male and female athlete communities, stories of female athletes in male-dominated sport spaces, intersectionality in endurance sports, and why we find that these communities are so strong.

To submit additional perspectives and experiences to future episodes:

Resources we mentioned in the show:

Episode 14: Interview with the Best Coach You've Never Heard of, Greg Mueller

When we started the podcast, we made a list of who we wanted to interview. Our guest today was Jim’s number one pick: Greg Mueller, AKA the best coach you’ve never heard of. Greg runs a pro triathlete squad via his TEAM INNOVATIVE ENDURANCE business and coaches age group athletes. Greg’s pro squad includes Colleen Quigley, Grace Norman, Allysa Seely, Brett Saunders, Malachi Henry, and Derek Oskutis.

Greg is Level 3 USAT Triathlon Coach, Level 2 International Triathlon Union Competitive Coach, Level 1 USATF Running Coach, Level 3 USA Cycling Coach & USAT Youth & Junior Certified Coach.

But more than that, Greg is one of the most well thought-out, communicative, person first coaches you’ll ever encounter. His insights into training principles, physiology, movement, communication, athlete development and much more are lessons for everyone. If you want to be a better endurance athlete or coach, this episode is for you!

Greg’s coaching website (Team Innovative Endurance Triathlon)

Episode 13: The Female Body (Female Athlete Stories #2)

This is the second episode in our special new series, Female Athlete Stories. We dive into many elements of female physiology that our form submitters cited as the biggest challenge of being a female athlete: periods, PMS, contraception choices, pregnancy, and menopause. We also do a deep dive on eating disorders, REDs, and body image, incorporating stories from our own lives with the stories we received from our community. If you think that you or someone you know is experiencing an eating disorder, please use the NEDA resources link below to find more information on getting help.

To submit additional perspectives and experiences to future episodes:

Crowdsourced menstrual cup recommendations:

Additional resources:

Recommended athlete social media accounts to follow:

  • Lauren Fleshman

  • Lucy Bartholomew

  • Allie Ostrander 

  • Molly Seidel

  • Tina Muir

Our emails:

Episode 12: A PT's Perspective on Endurance Athletes with Neil MacKenzie, PT, DPT, OCS

This week, we're bringing in one of our favorite experts to talk all things recovery, strength training, injury prevention, and injury rehabilitation. Neil MacKenzie is a PT, DPT, and OCS based at ⁠Cioffredi & Associates Physical Therapy⁠ here in the Upper Valley. Neil has been an Endurance Drive athlete for two years (and is a 2x Ironman finisher!), so he understands the unique needs and perspective of endurance athletes in his practice. We also recap some fun coaching and training insights on motivation, intentions, weight and performance, programmed Garmin workouts, and endurance training as a form of counter-culture. This is a can't-miss episode!

Training & Coaching Insights: 

“Motivation chips!”

Thoughts on the myth of ‘race weight’ / leanness.

Thoughts on the intention of the workout.

Thoughts on programmed workouts in Garmin.

Thoughts on training as a counter-cultural act.

Asking yourself what you really want to get out of sport.

Q & A with Neil:

  • Tell us your story! Background as a PT and endurance athlete?

  • What injuries or challenges do you see as most common in endurance athletes?

  • Top mistakes you see endurance athletes making?

  • How should endurance athletes strength train?

  • Recommended warm-up routine? Cool-down?

  • What should strength look like for injury prevention for endurance athletes? 

  • What other advice do you have on supporting recovery? Fueling? Sleep? De-stressing?

  • What devices or gear should every athlete have? Lacrosse ball, bands, Norma-tecs… what’s worth the money? 

  • Thoughts on gait analysis and bike fitting?  

  • Thoughts on body work? Massage, ART, cupping, etc.? 

  • Returning to activity after injury -- what is your protocol? 

  • When should someone see a PT? Do you have to be injured? Can a PT be part of a preventative wellness program?

  • Neil’s gear pick of the week: Get multiple pairs of shoes!


Episode 11: Introducing Female Athlete Stories

This episode is the introduction to a (minimum!) 5-episode series inspired by National Girls and Women in Sport Day. This series aims to blend the stories of dozens of female athletes in our network with our own perspectives and experiences. Here, we preview each of the key topic areas in our series (The Female Body, Community in Sport, The Forces We’re Up Against, and How it Makes You Feel), and then do a deep dive on our own journeys into sport. Featuring Katie Clayton and Elena Horton, coaches at The Endurance Drive.

To submit additional perspectives and experiences to future episodes:

Book recommendation that brought us together:

Crowdsourced female athlete gear and apparel list:

Mental health resources:

Our contact info:

Episode 10: Durability, the Endurance Athlete's Most Valuable Trait

In this episode, we do a deep dive on what we consider to be the endurance athlete’s most valuable trait: durability. Sub-topics include: what durability means in an endurance sport context, how to build physical and mental durability, why optimizing for leanness instead of durability is a recipe for disaster, what happens if you don’t have durability, and how to know if you are durable or not. We also share the story of one of our most durability-inspired adventures: running Maine’s 100 Mile Wilderness in 3 days back in 2022. Finally, we share some recent insights from coaching and training, answer more listener questions on swimming, and share some of our favorite Vermont-born gear!

New segment — weekly coaching & training insights: 

As we move into harder, longer workouts, fueling is key. I’m seeing that in my Nordic ski sessions which by nature include a lot of tempo and threshold work. We have left the comfort of the fat burning Zone 2 work. Hard work requires carbs!

  • My recent California 80 mile / 8500 elevation ride was a big lesson. Not fueling enough after with suppressed appetite, ended up waking up starving in the middle of the night and my body was in freak out mode. Haven’t had that happen in a long time because we got out of practice (haven’t done a big day like this since Kona) but you need to be taking in carbs like you would for a race to execute these mega days successfully. 

Exercise snacks: 30’ runs and bikes are perfect to get us consistent and maintain a level of fitness. When you are struggling, mid winter exercise snacks might be the answer and bridge to warmer and sunnier days when your motivation returns. 

  • Katie: This is jumping ahead to listener Qs, but an athlete asked me this week about whether she should be trying to hit 10k steps per day as she is very sedentary outside of IM training. I recommended mobility work and short walks to keep things loose but no need to be systematic about it (ie a day with a swim and bike where you don’t get 10k steps != a day where your only activity is a 6 mi run, so it’s a bit of an arbitrary cutoff unless you’re counting non workout steps, and you already count enough!) One recommendation is EC Fit 20 min mobility workouts 

Some thoughts on big goals:

  • Big goals are often why we have chosen endurance sports and we welcome them. Dream big. You can accomplish more than what you think. There is a narrative we all tell ourselves about what kind of athlete we are. We have an internal dialogue that is often limiting. But with months and years of proper training we will rewrite that narrative because we far exceeded our expectations. Big goals with proper training are life changing. It is a very powerful medicine!

    • Katie: Never EVER would have believed I could go to Ironman World Championship 3x when I couldn’t swim across the pool. By consistently stacking bricks in the foundation (metaphorical and literal bricks!), big dreams start to become reality. ANYONE can do this.

  • When you proclaim big goals, you strongly signal to yourself, family, friends and your coach that you are all in. Again, dream big, be bold. Let’s GO!  And if you choose this path, as coaches we will hold you accountable because we are being held accountable by you. If you skip key workouts, regularly go off plan, if you take a week off during the specific prep block because you made other recreational choices, our job is to step in and point out the inconsistencies between your pronouncements and your actions. 

    • As coaches we want to ensure that your big goals are backed up by consistent, mindful and patient action. We want to separate fantasy and ground our training and thinking in reality. 

    • Katie: And if your goals don’t materialize, that crew will support you just as much. It stings a little, but even trying to reach a goal and not getting all the way there can be a huge learning process. (We will do another episode on failure and resiliency!) 

  • Patience always wins in an impatient world.

    • Coaching is about being gentle, precise and honest. Gentle because we have a person first, athlete second coaching philosophy. Precise because training is about applying the right workouts at the right time to get a specific result. And honest because we are partners in helping you live up to what you said are your goals. Are you executing on the commitments you made to yourself, your family and your coach? We are here to help you answer and guide you through that question and process.

  • Additional lesson from Katie - process goals over outcome goals all the way. Outcome goals are too far out of your control and should always be secondary to process goals. And you can have as many process goals as you want.

Durability Main Content

  • As coaches we train endurance athletes for many traits - speed, power, aerobic and metabolic efficiency, lactate tolerance, VO2 max, dedication and grit - but the one that we value most and try to build in our athletes and in ourselves is Durability.

What is durability and what does it mean to be durable?

  • Durability means: you can tackle really big days in adverse conditions, and not only survive but thrive. And you bounce back even stronger afterwards.

  • Durability is also in context: Your big day may be someone’s moderate day or vice versa.

  • Physically, you don’t often: get cold, get overuse injuries, get sick, bonk, etc. You become known among your friends as being someone they can really count on to stay clear headed and strong when the adventure gets hard or goes sideways.

  • Mentally, you are confident and relaxed before and during big days, and you know how to push through when you are deep in the pain cave.   Your ability to keep cool and logical during an adventure helps lead others to the finish.

  • Important: Optimizing for leanness is not optimizing for durability; we do not optimize for leanness because that’s a shortcut to disaster.

How do you build durability?

  • Starts with stacking a lot of small workouts, month after month, year after year, building that huge aerobic base.

  • If you are just starting your fitness journey, training for any distance race is the best starting point on your durability quest.

  • Ironman training is a perfect way to build durability. (Jim: tell story of new athlete worrying about IM training making them slow).

  • In race context: Big Days / Race Simulation Weekends.

  • Big days outside (of many forms): trail running, mega hike, biking, even hunting day (Jim), etc., especially in adverse weather conditions.

    • And wear/bring proper gear -- we don’t believe in handicapping to build durability. Set yourself up for the best chance of success

  • Fuel your activity really well -- you never want to be on the ‘edge’ of low energy availability

  • Strength train (and organic strength training via hill climbing, weighted carries

  • Incorporate lots of movement - exercise snacks - into your day besides training (10K steps, stacking wood, up and down stairs, etc.)

  • On the mental side -- do things that seem intimidating, push your boundaries or scare you and practice pushing through when the going gets tough.  Start with small challenges and build from there. Examples: add one more big hill at the end of a long run or bike, swim another 500 yards. If you’re not an early morning person, get up early and tackle a workout. 

What happens if you don’t have durability?

  • You will inevitably get: at best, not faster, and at worst: injured, sick, burnt out

  • You will be cold all of the time (anecdote: Katie originally not a very durable athlete; turned around on Madison because too cold first time going into Whites)

  • You will get injured a lot / not able to sustain big days, even if you have 1-2 good races

How do you know if you are durable?

  • You can roll into big adventures on little preparedness and trust your body to handle the load

  • You are sleeping well, your HRV is up, your resting HR is down, you don’t get sick often or easily; women -- regular cycle

  • You feel calm and confident going into big days or races; good mindset; while pre-race nerves are common, they don’t cripple you or impact your performance

  • You don’t bonk often and can sustain hard efforts late in the day as well as early in the day 

Summary: If your goal is longevity and joy in sport (and the ability to do literally whatever you want whenever you want in the outdoors), your focus has to be durability 

Story of the 100 Mile Wilderness Express and Durability.

Listener Questions:

  • When swimming should I do bilateral breathing?  You should know how to breathe on both sides but we highly recommend picking the side you feel most comfortable breathing and take a breath every two strokes. This gives you the most oxygen and works best when incorporating open water sighting. 

  • Why do I get exhausted swimming?  Most triathlon training is front the hip down - think run and biking.  Upper body fitness is hard to get unless you do upper body  like swimming. Swimming fitness is very specific.

  • Are the swim yards listed in your swim workouts exact?  No. Consider them a guide. Everyone should develop their own warmup routine that is 10’ - 15’ long, anywhere from 500 - 1000 yards. Then focus on executing the Main Set.  Quick cool down and you’re done.  Don’t fret the yards or even paces this time of year. The win is getting to the pool and getting in the water!

  • Should I wear my HR strap in the pool?  Does HR matter?  No and No. Don’t be that triathlete wearing a chest HR strap in the pool. We don’t look at HR data and not even sure how reliable it is in the pool. What you should work on is developing at least three speeds: easy, moderate and fast.  

Gear Pick of the Week:

Episode 9: Nutrition for Athletes with Cate Ward, PhD, RD

As coaches, we get tons of questions about nutrition for performance and health. In this episode, we’ve brought in an incredible expert to share her expertise in the domain of fueling for endurance athletes! Dr. Cate Ward holds a PhD in Metabolic Biology, is a Registered Dietitian, and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford studying human nutrition. She’s also an athlete, and she brings her love for cycling and other sports into her practice as a dietitian and researcher. We cover topics including: how to fuel long endurance days, supplementation, relative energy deficiency in sport, the physiology of zone 2, metabolic flexibility, and so much more. Thank you, Cate, for joining us! Check out her website ⁠here⁠.

Cate’s bio: 

  • PhD in Metabolic Biology from University of California Berkeley

  • Trained as a Registered Dietitian at UCSF

  • Currently a Postdoctoral fellow at Stanford

  • Athlete

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background? What inspired you to become a dietitian and researcher? 

  • Always interested in science from a young age

  • Studied biology in undergrad, transitioned from molecular to metabolic biology 

  • Became interested in clinical human research and trained to become a dietitian 

  • Now doing research on human nutrition, particularly the microbiome, with Chrisopher Gardner and Justin Sonnenburg

One of the core focuses of our podcast is on the principles of endurance training and coaching. Do you have any principles of nutrition that guide your recommendations and approach, and what challenges related to nutrition do you see most often in the endurance community? 

  • Meeting clients where they are at in terms of nutrition experience, changes that are feasible to make, etc.

  • Underfueling = very common challenge; hunger signals can be perturbed after intense activity → need to be mindfully fueling even if you’re not feeling up to it at times

  • Intuitive eating is hard to rely on exclusively as an endurance athlete; think of fueling as like a medication you take before getting a procedure done

  • Fasted training: avoid as it hinders recovery and performance. Something is better than nothing, even a little bit of juice. Focus on easy, fast, digestible. 

What are your nutrition recommendations (in terms of macros, timing, ideas of what to eat, etc.)? Example of a weekend day with a long ride:

  • Morning pre-activity: Mainly carbs, lower fiber and lower fat as both can disturb GI tract or lead to GI distress, some protein. Examples: bagel and egg sandwich, bagel with peanut butter, oatmeal with milk (soy or dairy) and bananas

  • During activity: Simple sugars. You can generally tolerate more fiber in cycling (i.e., dried fruit, bars, muffins, cookies) than running (gels). Typically not tolerating any fiber in running.

  • Midday: Awesome to stop for a full lunch mid-ride (but not too high on fiber/fat); if not you need to compensate for those calories by taking them in during ride or after 

  • Dinner: Can incorporate more fiber/fat, playing catch up to compensate for not having as much throughout the day. Protein after. 

  • After dinner snack to make sure you are topped off and then honoring hunger cues the next day as you will likely be hungry

Q: Athletes often fuel less on off days. Thoughts on this?

  • People often equate working out to calories burned; instead, think about needing to fuel to work out rather than needing to work out to fuel. You don’t need to earn calories. 

  • Off day especially important to replenish the fuel tank. 

General nutrition throughout the day? 

  • Micronutrients, enough fiber on lower intensity days; but not too much fiber as you can end up not getting enough calories overall. Better to combine fiber with other macros that you need (beans, corn, whole grains = high fiber and high carb) than fill up on low calorie foods like lettuce. 

Do these recommendations differ at all across gender and/or age?

  • Older women often do not get enough protein; everyone should try for 20-30g at every  meal as a general rule of thumb 

  • College students often don’t fuel enough at the beginning of the day and backload calories; focus on getting a solid breakfast in, which can be hard with dining hall schedules.  

Do you recommend supplements? If so, which ones?

  • Best to start with getting labs done to see if you are deficient in anything before supplementing; if you don’t need it, you will just pee it out (which can be a waste of money).

  • Labs I ask for: full metabolic panel, full lipid panel, hemoglobin A1C, vitamin D, ferritin, iron, CBC, vitamin B6, B12, zinc; also need electrolytes (sodium, potassium, magnesium)

  • Anemia can be common in female athletes → iron supplement 

  • Hydration is important, although very individual-specific (sweat rate, activity level, type of electrolytes you are taking in); but do take in electrolytes during and before activity, especially in the summer 

  • First choice is to get the micronutrients you need via diet; supplementation only needs to be used when things are lacking 

Do you have any specific recommendations for athletes following vegan/vegetarian diets? Do you recommend going plant-based?

  • Definitely possible to get enough protein (soy, legumes, etc.) but need to be very mindful and make sure you are getting enough calories. If you’re getting enough calories, you can get enough protein. 

  • No stance on whether you should be plant-based or not, but always good to eat more vegetables; Cate incorporates meat as a supplementary role in diet 

We often see GI issues surrounding training for endurance athletes that can really impact race day or training. How do you approach this? 

  • Common in people training for first marathon; body not used to training and gut not used to handling new stimulus (gels, etc.)

  • Need to train your gut to handle more and more carbs per hour. Start with 30g/hour and work your way up by X grams per week depending on how they tolerated the previous week. Set up your run to have bathrooms along the way. Can’t predict how gut will respond until you train it

  • The grams of carbs you can absorb per hour does not actually depend on activity level, height, weight, etc. like daily caloric intake does; instead, it’s a function of training your gut. 

Underfueling: How do you know if you are getting enough? Symptoms of REDs?

  • Common symptoms: amenorrhea (lack of a menstrual period in females that would not otherwise be missing), low resting HR, high HR variability, unexpected cardiac abnormalities, dehydration, extra GI problems, stress fractures, persistent overuse injuries, weight loss, fatigue/weakness, low sex drive, persistent illness

  • Seek help -- primary care provider, dietitian, even parent/friend/coach

You work with people who have experienced disordered eating / eating disorders. We know this is very common in the endurance community. Why do you think these challenges are so common? What strategies are most effective for overcoming disordered eating / eating disorders? When should you seek professional help? 

  • A lot of social pressure in the endurance community can be a contributing factor (example: awkward to fuel on a group ride if no one else is)

  • Important to surround yourself with people who can support you 

  • Best strategy is to get help from trained professionals: psychiatrists, mental health providers, primary care provider, social work, dietitian, etc. -- centers that specialize in this. Reach out if you need help! 

  • Book recommendation: How to Nourish Yourself Through an Eating Disorder by Casey  Crosbie and Wendy Sterling

Weight loss and training/fueling. How do you approach it when endurance athletes are attempting to both train and lose weight at the same time? 

  • Can’t chase performance goals at the same time as weight loss goals; pursuing weight loss will usually come at the expense of performance (and leave you at risk for REDs)

  • Wait until after a goal event to be chasing weight loss goals 

  • As a dietitian, I’m never recommending weight loss and am leaving that up to the individual to come to me

  • For young athletes in particular, need to focus on fueling yourself 

Nutrition and Zone 2 training. How do glycogen stores work? How do you become more metabolically flexible?

  • Simple sugars taken in during a workout = best source of fuel; break down and give you the ATP that you need for your muscles to be working; carbs you take in are broken down and rebuilt into glycogen stores, the building blocks of glucose which is branched up and stored in muscles and liver; you access these while working out 

  • Glycogen stores range from 1600-2000 kilocalories; “hitting the wall” or bonking is when  you run out and have to switch to burning fat / working out at a lower intensity 

  • How to become more metabolically flexible? Train more in zone 2, as this improves your ability to use fat as fuel. Lactate testing can give you exact numbers

  • Becoming more metabolically flexible is almost entirely based on training status rather than what you eat, so avoid fasted training

We always end with a gear pick of the week. This week, I think we’ll do a snack pick of the week. What’s your favorite training-related snack?

  • Homemade trail mix cookies! Recipe here.

Are you currently accepting clients? Where can people learn more about you and your work? 

Episode 8: Why We Love Coaching

Today we're covering our favorite topic to discuss in real life—why we love coaching! We tell the stories of our respective journeys into becoming coaches, The Endurance Drive's coaching philosophy, what we love about coaching, why you should get a coach, and our favorite stories from coaching and being coached. Stick around to the end for listener questions and our gear pick of the week!

Jim and Katie life stories snapshot -- how we got into coaching. 

How we coach / Coaching philosophy

  • You are a person first, athlete second. Our training plans are individualized and account for you as a whole person. Everyone went professional in something else besides athletics. We are people first in the sense that most of us have full time jobs, families and community responsibilities. Athletics is important to our tribe but it’s not the only thing that makes them tick and it’s not the only thing they do.

    • Keep the recreation in recreational athlete.

    • Once athletics starts paying for our health insurance, it can tell us what to do!

  • Consistent, structured training: Appropriate workouts and intensities based on your training cycle, endurance event(s) and personal situation. Execute the fundamentals well. 

    • Fundamentals:

      • Zone 2 training and 80/20. Big value is taking new athletes out of chronic Z3.

      • Recovery is training!

      • Fueling and training go hand in hand. 

      • Injury prevention 

      • Fitness is a journey, not a destination.

  • Dynamic training. We adapt your plans based on so many individualized factors: abilities, strengths/weaknesses, injuries/illness, life stress, availability, etc. No two plans are identical.   

    • Jim to tell the story of trying to do a recent 3 week block for new athletes.

  • Communicate with each other. Coaching is a two-way street. 

    • Example: Athlete check-in sheet 

    • Every day we try to build a mental picture of how you are doing. We turn the dials on the plan one way or the other based on the feedback you give us. 

Why we love coaching 

  • The relationships. Coach/athlete is a very close connection. We coach the best when we have a whole view of you as a person -- your successes and failures, your challenges/insecurities and things that make you excited. 

    • Related: Getting to share in your athletes’ highs and lows. Coaching works best when it’s a relationship built on empathy. This is a huge privilege for us.

  • It’s the best intersection of being a: trainer, physical therapist, nutritionist, mental health provider, sports medicine liaison, professional athlete, teacher, etc. It’s great to not have to choose!

  • The ability to learn and evolve ALL THE TIME. Each athlete represents a unique set of considerations with abilities, schedule, strengths and weaknesses, availability, experience, race calendar. We are always innovating to best support our athletes. 

    • Related, the motivation to keep learning and innovating! 

  • Help others avoid the mistakes I made. I’ve probably made every training mistake under the sun. If you can think of how to do something wrong, I’ve done it.  My stupidity, ignorance and eventually learning the proper way benefits not just me but a larger community.

  • Lastly, we do it for the money - HA!  Coaching is the quickest way to become poor.

Why you should have a coach 

  • You are not always the best gauge of whether you need to go easier or harder. Overwhelmingly, athletes who are not coached do too much moderate / zone 3 / gray zone training and not enough easy or hard. Giving yourself permission to go slow is hard.

  • You are also not always the best gauge of when you need to recover.

  • Planning your own workouts is a real stressor. Taking that planning completely out of the equation frees up time and brainspace to do other things and mentally + physically recover from all of your training.

  • Accountability. You are more likely to do your workouts when you know that someone is reviewing them. Who doesn’t love a green box in TP?!

  • You have a go-to person to come to when, inevitably, tons of questions pop up about all of the ins and outs of endurance training.

  • Having a partner in all of the ups and downs of training and racing. (Note: Your spouse/partner may not want to hear about all of the intricacies of your Z2 workout! We do!)

Some of our favorite stories from coaching (or being coached):

  • IMLP 2019, 2023. 

  • Dartmouth Tri Club.

Listener questions:

How to make swimming more bearable? Hard to motivate for

Should I be doing flip turns in the pool? 

  • Never critical 

  • Open turns have many advantages, mostly we get a ton of air at each wall and, if executed correctly, they are just as fasel/zt as flip turns

  • For beginners, learning flip turns can be a way for them to develop a truly easy swim speed as they want to get a lot of breath before each turn

  • Ultimately you want to become the best swimmer you can become; the best swimmers do flip turns. 

Should I have different run shoes in the wintertime?

  • Avoid shoes that have minimal traction (e.g. Hoka Carbon X) when it’s slippery out 

  • Some people use Yak Trax; we generally opt for treadmill if the roads are really bad or just trail running shoes 

Gear pick of the week:

Episode 7: How to Get the Most Out of Indoor Bike Training

Last week's episode was all about unstructured time outdoors; now we're talking about structured time indoors on your bike trainer! Our big setlist of topics includes: why we train on the bike trainer, which trainer you should buy, cycling zones, specific and favorite workouts in the context of season planning, structured vs. unstructured trainer riding, cadence, Zwift racing, considerations for using a spin bike or Peloton, hours per week to target for various goal races, trainer pro tips, favorite snacks and things to do on the trainer, some awesome listener questions, and gear pick of the week.

Why did we want to do this topic:

  • Most athletes are experiencing winter and the trainer is an integral part of their program (triathletes and even runners).

  • We wanted to provide some insight on how we structure and progress trainer sessions in the winter.

  • Our most popular website page is our Zwift sampler download and wanted to offer a companion podcast to help those who we don’t coach get the most out of those workouts and provide guidance on how they could develop a winter trainer program. 

Why do we use trainers: 

  • Weather (snow, ice, rain, dark, fog).

  • Most direct and successful path to cycling improvement.

  • Efficient tool especially Mon-Fri for most athletes (gearing up for winter cycling can be a 15-20+ minute process).

  • Safety. You’ve never been brushed by a car in your exercise room!

  • Location - many of our athletes live where it’s not safe or easy to ride outside.

  • Community - Zwift, Group Meetups, invite friends to spin together where you can all be of different paces/abilities but still stay together virtually on the course.

  • Active recovery - a number of our runners use the trainer to recover and build aerobic foundation without impact

Which trainer should I buy?

  • I prefer the Wahoo Snap over the Wahoo Kickr as it’s half the price, the power accuracy is nearly identical and it rides very smoothly and quietly.  You can also check out DC Rainmaker’s annual trainer review.

    • Another advantage is that it’s a lot quicker to take your bike on and off the trainer if you use the snap. 

  • Whatever trainer you purchase, you’ll need to ensure that you get the correct thru axle for your bike that is compatible with your trainer.

Overview of Cycling Zones:

The below chart refers to a % of your Functional Threshold Power (FTP).

How we use the trainer January - March:

  • Jan - Lots of Zone 2 with 20” - 40” sprints, some short (20” - 40”  threshold intervals) and light Tempo. 

  • Feb - Continue Zone 2 with sprints, light Tempo and introduce Neuromuscular power and Anaerobic Capacity (AC) intervals, working on the least specific to most specific principle and build your top end speed reserve.

  • March - short and long Z2, Short and Long Tempo, AC intervals, maybe some Sweet Spot if you have some early spring racing. And hopefully some outside riding on weekends. 

Structured vs unstructured riding.

  • As we talked about in the 2023 lessons learned podcast, both structured and unstructured are very productive in the winter. The main thing is to get on your bike. 

  • Jim: Example of my favorite unstructured Zwift ride: Z1 spin for 20’ minutes into a few 10 - 15” pickups to wake up the legs.  Then ride for another 20’ in Zone 2, both sitting and standing to break up monotony and use multiple muscle groups.  In the 45’ - 50’ of the ride, find a Zwift sprint segment and go after it 4 - 6 times. These are usually 30” - 40” in length. Try to negative split your times i.e., get faster for each sprint.

  • Katie: You can use the natural terrain on different Zwift courses to mimic whatever stimulus you are looking for. We recommend switching it up (both worlds, e.g. Watopia vs. London vs. Paris etc.) as well as routes to get different stimuli, or repeat the same course to see improvements. Zwift tracks, e.g. PRs on a given route or segment.

  • One key difference between structured and unstructured. With structured, ERG mode is automatically on, which means you do not change your gears. I.e., if you pedal harder, power stays the same and resistance goes down. (Note that we recommend switching whichever gear your bike is sitting in naturally every couple of rides or else you’ll wear down some cassette rings faster than others. And don’t cross chain). With unstructured, you change your gears like riding outside to respond to the hilliness of the  terrain and the cadence you want to do. 

Why do Big Gear i.e., low cadence work? 

  • Done at Z1/Z2 HR but Z3 power. It is heavy torque/tension to build strength at a low cadence, usually 50 - 65 rpm. It’s a cyclist's version of rucking! Especially important if your race is hilly such as Placid, Tremblant and crucial for a race course like NICE with huge, long climbs.

  • We did a lot of this last year in Zwift in preparation for Placid and Tremblant. Road to Sky or Mountain Route in Zwift at 50 - 70 rpm. It’s a bit of “structured unstructured” training.

  • This is a topic where cyclists have figured out it works well but sometimes the science hasn’t quite caught up with why it works so well.

High cadence workouts

  • Why they are important: They are Neuromuscular, connecting our feet to our brain.

  • These can either be structured like our 10/15/20 x 1’ high cadence workouts or you can just do this at the end of an unstructured ride for 10’.  The power should be very low, think Zone 1 watts while spinning at 100+ rpm.

  • It’s a good way to flush out the legs at the end of session and leave the bike feeling fresh.

  • When I hear an athlete say they struggle with high cadence workouts, I know they need them and they keep getting more!

Zwift racing during the winter and spring

  • Are a fun way to challenge yourself and infuse some competitive spirit during the long winter months.

  • Can be used as a good substitute for a FTP Test.

Cadence:

  • Everyone has a little different natural cadence their body prefers or finds the most efficient for them. With that said there is some general guidance: 

  • Everyday riding - aim for 80 - 90 rpm cadence.  

  • The myth of riding at 100+ rpm like Lance does still exist. Ignore it.

  • Also, we have some new cyclists and cadence can be confusing. One athlete who was riding at 40-50 rpm because he simply didn’t know he needed to pedal faster. 

  • Sprint and Olympic distance racing tends to be ‘hot’ and goes off at higher FTP zones and faster cadences 85 - 95 rpm. Half Ironman cadence - 75 - 85 rpm. Ironman cadence - 70 - 80 rpm. 

  • Katie - some data:

    • Cohasset sprint tri: 92 rpm

    • IMLP 2023: 83 rpm

    • Kona 2023: 83 rpm

    • LAMB ride: 76 rpm

Do we do VO2 max work on the trainer?  

  • Jim: I personally don’t recommend it for most of my athletes and save this for outside work in the early/late spring.  VO2 max block is only 6 - 8 weeks so we can sneak it in before getting more race specific for long distance athletes. And for OLY, Sprint, you want to do this block in your last 12 weeks before “A” race which is usually getting into the warmer months.

  • Katie: I have used VO2 max work recently for athletes with winter races who are training almost entirely inside, but otherwise agree with Jim on avoiding VO2 max work inside.  

Is there a place for Peloton workouts in winter Base training?

  • Broader discussion on the differences and pros/cons of spin bike at the gym / Peloton vs. trainer on your bike 

    • Katie: We know that a smart trainer is expensive! In my view, if you can be outside for the entirety of your specific prep phase, you can get away with spin bike / Peloton free ride mode doing structured workouts in the winter months. However, it may be a harder transition to the overall feel of your bike when you get outside. If you do want to use a spin bike or Peloton, it is ideal to have as much data as you can (your FTP on that bike, power data, HR data, cadence, etc.), clip-ins, and above all be sure that your spin bike is properly fit to you like your regular bike to avoid injury. 

    • Jim: First, the best bike is the one you own so if that’s only a Peloton at the moment then that is the best bike!  And many people travel for work so doing a spin on a hotel bike is 100% better than not doing your workout at all. Ideally, everyone can spend most of their winter training on their bike as there is a significant biomechanical cost to switching your bike position. You need to build power and efficiency in the same position for which you will race. 

Favorite workouts we like on the trainer:

  • Jim: Z2 with 120% FTP sprints and short threshold intervals.

  • Katie: [10 x 30” at 115% or 125%, 30” at 55%] x 3, with 10-15’ % 55% easy between. Love it because it is the perfect easy is easy, hard is hard ride.

What is the best combination of inside/outside riding for an Ironman and Half Ironman training?

  • In the winter, it’s mostly trainer sessions. In the spring, we try to do a combination of inside during the week and outside during the weekend. Inside to build strength and power and outside riding to build volume / durability.  In the summer, depending on where our athletes live some do a combination of inside and outside riding and some do all outside riding.

  • Building outdoor durability is very important. Exposure to sun, heat, wind, rain, cold are essential long distance racing skills/qualities. Also, you can’t build bike handling skills inside (unless you are riding rollers!).

Favorite BRick workouts using trainer (use the HIM BRick sessions from Greg that use week 2 / 1 before a race):

  • Two weeks out from a Half Ironman race: 

    • Warmup:  15 - 20 min easy spin into; 3 min build to 90% of FTP.

    • BRick: 75 minutes as- 5 x (13 minutes @ Race Pace watts and aero/2 minutes @ FTP)-nonstop directly to run at:

    • 5 miles @ Race Pace

  • One week out from a Half Ironman:

    • Warmup: 15 - 20 min easy warmup in aero into; 5 min build to 90% FTP

    • BRick: 45 min @ low race pace / low Z3 (~80% FTP) into;

    • 10 min Z4 (85-90% FTP) w/ reduced cadence into; 

    • a 4 mile run at goal race pace.

  • Tip: If you find a really solid workout recommended by a top coach, think about scaling it up and down to either progress into that particular workout or use the structure of that workout to scale it to various triathlon distances and demands.

How many hours per week on the trainer for IM, HIM, OLY, Sprint?

  • This will partially depend on an athlete's goals and ambitions for their upcoming season. As way of general guidance, in the winter, our athletes trend toward:

    • Sprint & OLY - 3 - 5 hours per week. 

    • HIM - 5 - 7 hours per week.

    • IM - 6 - 10 hours per week.

  • One hack: Trainer doubles can be more bearable than 2+ hour rides. 

Trainer Pro Tips: 

  • Top priority - Get a fan(s). I use both a Lasko standing fan and will supplement with a smaller Vornado fan on a table and/or in an open window. You don’t need to spend the money on super expensive, cycling specific fans. 

    • One hack: we have had some athletes do fan-off sessions to try to acclimate to the heat. This is very case-specific and would only be done when you have no access to hot riding and are planning to race in a very warm climate (i.e. prepping for December races in FL/Mexico or potentially Kona). 

  • You don’t need a specific trainer tire. Ideally, you use the tires you were riding in the summer/fall, use them on the trainer in the winter and then replace your tires in the spring. 

    • Our favorite tires that offer a great combination of durability and speed are Continental GP 5000 tires. 

  • Have a towel(s) and/or rags to protect your stem, frame and handlebars from sweat. Sweat, over time, is very corrosive to your bike.

  • Have a headband and/or visor to help control sweat flow around your face. We like Boco visors.

  • A table on one or both sides of your bike will hold your laptop, snacks, drink, fans, TV controls, etc. I use these medical tables.  You don’t need an expensive specific cycling table although they are super nice!

  • AirPods or any noise-canceling earphones are great for mitigating the sound of the trainer. 

  • Use ANT not Bluetooth as a connection with Zwift. We use this USB ANT connector. Avoid Bluetooth connecting if possible. Katie: Preferred setup for connections is:

    • Power source: Assioma power meter connected via ANT (note the trainer can also be the power source, but you don’t get cadence)

    • Cadence: Assioma power meter connected via ANT

    • Resistance: Zwift KICKR connected via ANT

    • Heart rate: Garmin HRM-Pro or Polar H10 connected via ANT

  • To make a long ride bearable (have a friend over, special food treats, take a bathroom break every hour, stretch the legs off the bike, group pain cave playlist, leave your favorite show/movie until later in the ride, etc.)

  • Pump up your tires every couple of weeks. Lube your chain too. 

Favorite foods we eat on the trainer:

  • Jim - Nature’s Bakery fig bars, LMNT in ice cold water. On really long trainer rides, a plate full of food such as almond butter and jelly on a tortilla, banana bread, King Arthur Flour cookies.

  • Katie - +1 to everything Jim said. There was a time in 2019 where we all did homemade cinnamon bread à la Jim. Also like macro bars, stroopwafels. Skratch, Skratch superfuel in the bottles, or Nuun for shorter Z1 rides. 

Favorite shows/movies on the trainer:

  • Jim - The Office (Superfan episodes), football, any cycling races, adventure and climbing videos. 

  • Katie - Prefer podcasts + catching up on emails etc. for easy Z1 rides. 

Listener questions:

  • Can I ignore Garmin’s training status forever? Because we do so much Z2 training it’s always telling me I have a High Aerobic Shortage and an unproductive status. Is there any meaningful info to be taken from it?

    • This is a GREAT question. Unfortunately, as coaches, we spend a lot of time talking our athletes off ledges because Garmin said they are “Unproductive” and they probably just quit and take up pickleball.  

    • The short answer is please turn off and/or ignore all Garmin training notifications. The data is only one small piece of the training equation. As coaches, we are working together with you on a holistic approach to your training and health, most of which is not, and can not, be captured and/or understood by Garmin.

    • To give one example of how bad Garmin interprets your data: I have a Garmin 955 watch and a Garmin 520 cycling computer. I load all data to their servers. They have access to all my data collected from both devices. Yet their AI coach only reads and interprets the data from one of the devices.  They don’t even look at the entire user data!

    • Note that we will do an episode on good data / bad data in the future! Garmin training status = bad data.

  • Can you do too much Z1/Z2? Especially on the bike as we shake off dust from the off season

    • Short answer: Yes. While these zones create the  foundation, we need to remember several things: 1) Our bodies are really good at adapting to stimulus. If you do the same exact thing for weeks on end, after 6 - 8 weeks, your body won’t be getting any real stimulus.  This is why the 20% of the 80/20 is just as important. The 20% improves the function of the mitochondria. 2) Training is a novel stimulus then recovery which results in growth. We must have a novel stimulus. 3) Aerobic exercise is only one piece of the fitness puzzle. Aerobic efficiency is important but so is muscular endurance and strength. We need to challenge all systems: aerobic, metabolic, muscular, mental. 

  • Is Z2 training equally beneficial for male and female athletes?

    • Katie: At baseline, females have more Type 1 muscle fibers and higher reliance on fat metabolism compared to males. Ability to use fat for fuel is pretty good at baseline, so Z2 training doesn’t change this side of the equation as much as it might for male athletes, and it’s especially important to do plenty of pick-ups / hill bursts / other things that develop Type 2 muscle fibers and speed/strength/power. 

    • BUT! Gray zone training is still bad! In zone 2, you can increase overall training volume without beating up your body and mind.  In many cases, we can increase training volume 30 – 50% over your unstructured / gray zone training / Zone 3. You will feel much better, physically and mentally, with the increased training volume in Zone 2. And regardless of what is happening with fat oxidation, you need big volume to support the durability needed for an Ironman. So – what we said in Z2 episode still applies.

Gear pick of the week:

  • Jim: Staying with the trainer and bike theme, I use ISM saddles on all of my bikes - road, tri, gravel, snow and mountain bike.

  • Katie: ISM saddles didn’t work as well for me; I linked a few alternatives in my female athlete resource page. Favorite sports bra in the world is made by Indura Athletic — Square Neck bra. Small business started by a former Dartmouth XC skier; custom sizing and amazing fit that has gotten me through multiple Ironmans. Fill out our Indura bra order form which closes 1/21/24 to get a custom Endurance Drive bra!

Episode 6: Adventures as Training

In this episode, we talk about another one of the core features of our endurance training: unstructured adventures! Sub-topics include: different types of unstructured adventures; principles of adventures; why to do adventures; how to do adventures; and our favorite mountain adventures in New England. We also tell the storied tale of one of our most epic adventures yet: the New England Triple Crown, a self-made adventure that involved completing a single-day Presidential Traverse, a single-day Pemi Loop, and a single-day Katahdin ski/hike in one winter season in 2021. We also answer listener questions and highlight a few of our favorite winter adventure gear items.

Today’s podcast is on a topic that was number one on both our lists when we started this project. It’s near and dear to our hearts. And we hope after today, we will inspire you a bit more to think outside the traditional training box. Our topic today is: Adventures as Training.

In the last episode we talked through Katie’s high level training plan for Sea to Summit. We outlined a lot of the key swim/bike/run sessions and the monthly progression. 

  • But we also mentioned some non-triathlon related training such as trail running, summer and winter hiking and adventure biking. Today, we are going to focus on those qualities. We are going to define adventure training, why to do it, when to do it and how to do it.

Jim history of playing in the Whites - hiked the New Hampshire 48 4,000 footers summits in two years in college, led outdoor trips, 700 miles on the Appalachian Trail and then worked for the Appalachian Mountain Club as a tent site caretaker, hut crew (croo!) and roving winter caretaker at Carter Lake, Tuckerman Ravine, Crawford Notch and Zealand hut. This predates my triathlon career but was my first entry into endurance sports. In 2015 returned to the East Coast from Alaska and began blending triathlon training with mountain sports.

Katie has a similar story of including a lot of summer and winter hiking into triathlon training as an undergraduate and continues today. There was a major progression from beginner to now having high confidence moving in the mountains in summer and winter. 

Let’s break down our thoughts on adventuring so you can implement this in your own training/season planning.

What is an unstructured adventure?

  • Three types: 

    • (Easy or relaxed) An activity that’s usually in the woods, forest, mountains and has loose time/pace/distance goals. An exploring trail run, a hike into the hills and local mountain, exploring trails and dirt roads on your mtn or gravel bike. Preferably with friends. These are low pressure while gently building base fitness. Good opportunity to focus on joy and community.

    • (Moderate) A moderate day in the mountains, something that pushes your boundaries and fitness but doesn’t necessarily wreck you physically and the danger element is fairly low. These provide a nice training stimulus as they incorporate more volume, elevation, eccentric loading, side to side motion, hopping, built in base/tempo/threshold effort and a fueling strategy to some degree. (Always bring a snack!) Hopefully you can do this with a friend(s) and incorporate fun and community.

    • (High) Something like a FKT (Fastest Known Time) or big mountain objective like the Prezi traverse, Pemi Loop, 14ers out west. You could be going for a specific time or just trying to survive it! You can think of these as substitutes for an official race that really challenges your fitness, pacing, fueling, smart decision making and gear choices.

A few principles of an unstructured adventure: 

  • You don’t pay to do it. 

  • You plan and create it.

  • You choose your goals, conditions and distances, and you keep your goals, conditions and distances flexible. 

  • You can prepare, but you don’t necessarily follow a dedicated training plan; you simply use Big Fitness that you already have from an existing season.

  • On adventure day, no rules! You can incorporate any stops, snacks, or people you want. Blast music? Awesome. Take an hour break on a mountaintop? Do it. Stop for pie halfway through? Always.

Why do unstructured adventures?

  • They result from Big Fitness and build big fitness. Big Fitness is the ability to do big adventures anytime with a variety of athletes. 

  • They can feature more factors that are in your control (i.e. optimizing for weather, conditions).

  • They are often just as gratifying and fun or more gratifying and fun than races -- without the same level of pre-race anxiety.

    • Stakes are lower because you can always go back and try again if the day isn’t going your way. (Try asking Ironman when you’re having a bad day for a redo at a different date!)

    • Often done with a friend or group - community aspect. 

    • They are nicer on the wallet. Average cost of an Ironman race registration is over $750.  

  • They can help you be a more well-rounded multisport athlete. 

  • They offer a nice bout of mental recovery from high-pressure racing environments while giving you a big fitness boost.

  • They can give you unique skills that build confidence going into big races (pacing, nutrition/hydration, durability, grit, etc.). A moderate or high adventure in the mountains are essentially the same demands as a Half Ironman, Ironman or ultra-run.

How to implement unstructured adventures into your training and life:

  • Good choice for base building time when races are still relatively far out (for us, winter is a good choice -- and many cool adventures to do in the winter) 

  • If you are able, optimize for factors like weather and low life stress particularly important for moderate/high adventures.

  • Find a crew to adventure with.

  • Plan, but stay open-minded to deviations from the plan. Safety first.

  • In the context of season planning: any year can have both hard racing and unstructured adventures. Keep them separate.

Some ideas for incorporating unstructured adventures in your life:

  • Maybe you are a beginner to hiking / trail running: easy trail run in your local park, pick a local hike and progress to further and higher as you gain experience. 

  • Bike somewhere really cool.

  • Do a big day in the mountains.

  • Make it a multi-day adventure / stretch out an ultra.

We developed our own High Adventure during Covid and called it The New England Triple Crown (NETC). This is doing a Presidential Traverse, Pemi Loop and Katahdin all in the same calendar winter season. Katie: This remains one of the coolest things I have done (and that includes 5 Ironmans + 3x World Champs, etc.) with some of the most important lessons learned and fitness bumps 

Favorite Hikes in New England (from easy to hard):

Grab bag of listener questions:

  • Should you do any type of single-sport racing leading up to a triathlon? Sure thing! An early season half marathon, for example, can lead to a focused run block before your last 12 weeks of specific race preparation. These are great opportunities to bump your fitness and skills in one particular sport.

Many athletes ask if it’s best practice to do a stand alone marathon before tackling an Ironman. The short answer is a hard no. They are two very different sports with the only commonality is both require you to go 26 miles on foot. Otherwise one is very goal focused often around time or Boston Qualification and other is often just surviving 26 miles after you have already been racing for 6 - 9 hours already!

  • How quickly do you lose zone 2 base? Not fast which is the good news. You need to sit around and do nothing for about three weeks to really lose your aerobic fitness. You tend lose speed faster and that’s why we do a lot of pickups in our Zone 2 runs, to keep in touch with speed i.e., connecting your feet to your brain.

How to avoid HR strap chafing. Lots of options to mitigate including using body glide or tri glide, choosing a comfy sports bra that allows strap to sit underneath band (we like Indura Athletic), and keeping the band clean. If you are new to chest straps, we recommend the Polar H10 or Garmin HRM-Pro.

Gear pick of the week: 

Episode 5: Lessons From 2023

2023 was a big year for us! In this episode, we cover many of the lessons we learned from training and coaching. Topics include: strength training, mental health, how to get the most from the trainer, supplementation, fueling, Norwegian training, diverting injuries before they happen, and more! We also introduce a new segment—gear pick of the week—and reveal Katie’s 2024 A race and Jim’s vision for her training plan.

Extended show notes:

We just celebrated Christmas. Katie, what did Santa bring you?

  • Katie: Race registration! Signed up for 2024 “A” Race — Sea to Summit.

  • Sea to Summit Triathlon is a 1.2 mile swim near Atlantic in Maine; 95 mile bike with 6K elevation; 5 mile run/hike up Mt. Washington with almost 4,500 feet of vertical

Question for Katie: Why this race? Three reasons:

  • Life schedule: I have a busy year with 5 weddings and 3 graduations; don’t want the pressure of an IRONMAN (IM). Also don’t recommend doing IRONMAN every single year. I want to train a lot, but not at the same level as IM, and I know there will be many weekends in the spring where I can’t follow a perfect training schedule.

  • Terrain: this race replicates my favorite terrain, making it easy to train and prepare.

  • Preferences and goals: I’m not a huge swimming fan; really like biking; and love trail running / want to get better at it.

Question for Jim: What is your vision for the Sea to Summit training plan?

  • With any athlete and event, we start by discussing your race goals, what time you want to commit to training, where you will be located during various training blocks, work travel, any particular strengths or weaknesses you want to target. This is a partnership and negotiation between coach and athlete.

The following is a high level overview of Katie’s Sea to Summit training plan that can also be adapted for Ironman and even Half Ironman training:

  • January: Easy and tempo Zwift trainer rides. Base runs with 20” - 30” pickups. Winter hiking. Maybe 1-2X per week, easy swimming.

  • February: Z2/tempo/short threshold Zwift trainer rides, increase run intervals to 1’ - 2’ at threshold / 10K and 5K pace. 2X per week swim, some technical 50’s, speed and strength with paddles & buoy. (Our favorite is 4 x 200 Paddles & Buoy at the end of many swim workouts.)

  • March: Z2/tempo/neuromuscular (10” - 20” at 150% FTP) and Anaerobic Capacity (20” - 40” at 120-125% FTP). FTP = Functional Threshold Power i.e., what watts or effort you can maintain for an hour. Your hour power. Long rides outside if the weather starts to warm, run hill intervals, more short threshold running. 2X -3X per week swims.

  • April: Z2/tempo/Sweet Spot (~90% FTP) during week, long ride on weekends, more hill run intervals for strength, speed and work upper aerobic range. Sea to Summit is an aerobic threshold test for the entire hike. 3X per week swims - 1 mixed, 1 speed, 1 strength.

  • May: 3 - 4 hour weekend rides, run is similar to April, 3X per week swims - 1 mixed, 1 speed, 1 strength.

  • June: 4 - 5 hour weekend rides, focus on hiking, getting vertical gain on hikes, weighted carries with 10% body weight up steep hills or hiking, some road running. 3X per week swims (mixed, speed and distance in open water). We will do a Race Simulation 8 weeks out from race day on similar terrain as the course. This can be Open Water Swim, long hilly ride and end up hiking a smaller mountain with some weight.

  • July: Initially 1-2 4 - 5 hour weekend rides - goal is to race 100 miles at ~80% of FTP. 10’, 20’ & 30’ bike intervals at 80 - 85% FTP, hiking with vertical focus and weighted carries, some road running, 3X per week swims (mixed, speed and distance in open water). For the Race Simulation 4 weeks out, we will aim to hike up Washington and after a long bike ride on part of the course. Taper in the final 2 weeks before race day.

Thinking ahead to 2024, we also want to think back to some lessons in 2023 that we learned from both coaching and training.

Jim’s training lessons:

  • Strength training: I looked in the gym mirror and saw a skinny, weak endurance athlete who couldn’t lift half of what was recommended by strength experts for my age. Time to finally lift! I started very conservatively, learning how to move with weight, technique is very important. From there, I progressed to heavier weights and now I’m lifting 4X per week with fairly heavy weight. My goal is to really challenge my motor units - that’s necessary to really build strength.

    • As mentioned in the last podcast, I’m focusing on compound movements - bench press, squat, pullups, shoulder press. Throw in a lot of back extension, calf raises, lat pulls.

    • Question for Katie - you got serious about strength last winter, too?

      • YES! Worked with a strength trainer for a couple of months to establish a routine. Now lifting 2-3x per week; still not completely comfortable with really heavy weights but have developed a strength routine that works really well for me and prevents injuries. A lot of single leg work, band work, plyometrics, etc. Hoping to do more heavy weights in the next 1-2 months.

  • Mental health: Like many anxious, type A, high achieving, tightly wound triathletes, I’ve primarily always managed my mental health via exercise. I view this as a scale with physical on one side and mental on the other. Throughout the day, weight i.e., anxiety tends to pile up on the mental side, pushing the scale out of balance. By doing workouts, I add to the physical side of the scale and shave off some grams on the mental side to keep the scale balanced. But while that works for me most of the time, sometimes it does not work! I realized I may need to have other methods to deal with anxiety than just working out. For me the solution was being aware and conscious to carve out more time and awareness to balance out my scale.

    • Katie: I agree that exercise as a coping mechanism doesn’t always work. Getting injured is one area here that can really throw people, so it helps to have other mechanisms of mental health support before exercise is forcibly taken away. On my part, I’ve identified that a lot of it is about being outside with people I love rather than actually needing to exercise. I’d pick a day on a porch in VT over a treadmill run in the city for mental health a million times over.

    • As coaches we spend most of our time thinking about and programming physical health activities. But mental health is super important and equal partners with physical health. I’m encouraged we are talking about it more in our culture with many sports figures leading the way.

  • All roads lead to Rome on a trainer: All trainer work, structured and even unstructured, is all productive work. We have an extensive custom Zwift workout folder with 350 workouts. These are very specific to zones, periodization, key workouts and designed for specific stimulus for a physical training attribute.

    • However, I bet you could probably simplify your trainer work to easy/medium/hard throughout the winter and probably get a similar training effect. If you spend 5 - 10 hours on a trainer throughout the winter just unstructured you would probably be a beast in spring. It doesn’t have to be that complicated and specific. With that said, you should still have a coach!

    • Zwift sprints are a fun way to approximate the 125-160% FTP bursts we program

  • The last two are nutrition/supplement based. After years of avoiding any kind of supplementation instead focusing on a healthy diet, I changed my tune a little:

    • I jumped on the creatine bandwagon. I found it really helped for higher end, anaerobic capacity bike intervals. It’s very well studied and documented.

    • And then I completely sold out to Big Supplements and jumped on the Athletic Greens train. How cliche, having a podcast and drinking AG1! But seriously I was feeling a bit down last winter and it really helped. I suspect the big shot of B vitamins is magic. There are probably other ways to skin that cat but for now it’s very convenient.

    • Question for Katie: What supplements, if any, are you taking?

Katie’s lessons from training:

  • Fueling: If you nail fueling, you will be faster. Full stop. 70-80 g carbs per hour and the addition of Skratch Superfuel to my race and race sim fueling was huge.

  • Pre-race stress: Pre-race nerves and anxiety are not directly proportional to performance outcomes! I previously thought I could only perform well if I was a puddle of stress going into the race. As it turns out, you can perform well at varying levels of stress.

    • Note that this is predicated on feeling good about the controllables going in. You have a choice re: whether to stress about the controllables or not.

  • Racing Placid and Kona in the same year: Fitness carryover from IMLP into Kona -- how my approach this year was different and really successful relative to 2019. Release pressure of trying to optimize for two goal races at once; successfully avoided getting injured in the Kona prep and the Placid fitness carried over nicely.

  • Life stress and mental health: Learned a lot about mental health and training in the Placid build. REALLY hard to perform at max levels when LSS is high. Learned a lot about potential swaps and modifications that don’t preclude a really strong race.

Jim’s lessons from coaching:

  • You don’t always have to hit all the workouts to have a great race especially if you are an experienced athlete.

    • Lesson: There is a lot of play in the training plan especially with experienced athletes.

    • Remember: the training plan is an illusion of control. There are many roads to Rome. With that said, you need to have a plan in order to change a plan.

  • The second lesson was a case of the too’s: too much, too fast, too soon.

    • Case study: I had a very motivated, new athlete who was discovering their athletic self. Their schedule ended up with a workout seven days a week, no Day Off which should have been a warning flag especially for a new athlete. After a period of Base building, we started with 2X per week of 5K and 10K run intervals. But after a few months, this athlete developed an Achilles injury that ended up plaguing them for another couple of months. In retrospect, given this was a new athlete, new to running, I should have limited speed work to Half Marathon and 10K paces and 1X per week. The 2X per week with 5K efforts I’m sure contributed to his injury.

    • Usually injuries start occurring weeks and maybe months before they actually manifest. Be aware of the too’s.

    • And in preparing for this podcast, I became extra aware of the work my new athletes are doing and I went back and made some intensity adjustments in their TrainingPeaks this week.

  • Taking a page from the Norwegians: I included a lot more tempo, sub threshold running for 10 - 14 weeks leading into athlete “A” races especially for my more experienced long course triathletes. Focus on marathon / half marathon run pace block. This worked out beautifully. Who says we don’t know how to Zone 3! Katie, what did you experience from this new approach?

    • Loved it. Z3 as part of a structured workout with a great warmup is SO different from Wednesday Night Worlds tempo.

Katie’s lessons from coaching:

  • New data uploading automatically to TP that helps me keep an eye on athletes—sleep, HRV, ‘body battery,’ etc. Holistic approach to overall health and wellness.

  • Beta testing weekly check-in survey for U25 athletes: physical health and mental health.

  • Something I’m super proud of—diverting athlete injuries before they happen .

Gear pick of the week:

Episode 4: Injury Prevention

This week's episode focuses on injury prevention! We cover rest days; strength and mobility; warm-up and cool down; cross-training; maintaining proper form; fueling; sleep; zone 2; and establishing a local body care team. We also go through some listener questions, share our thoughts on how to choose a goal race, and indulge Jim's dream of becoming a basketball star.

Extended show notes:

Listener Question: How to choose a goal race?

Considerations:

  • Optimizing for the terrain you live in 

  • Optimizing for weather during your training window

  • Optimizing for your strengths/preferences -- do you like hills? Flats? Do you have a specific PR in mind?

  • Case study: Athlete living in Vermont choosing a 2024 trail race 

    • First choice - optimize fully for terrain/weather

    • If constraints on schedule/timing etc. (i.e., you need to race in April given availability in winter and not beyond that) -- how to prepare for a race with a different climate/terrain?

      • Lots of training tricks -- hill work, lower body strength work, even cardio on uphill treadmill/stair stepper. Hiking in the mountains. Etc. 

      • Add a training camp -- go out to a place you will compete if you are able to get a feel for the terrain there. 

      • Heat acclimation protocols (i.e. sauna protocol, fan off, etc.) for hot races 

Listener Question: Is season planning relevant even if you are not doing an official race?

  • YES! Periodization is good for several reasons:

    • Your body needs a natural off-season with 1-2 months of lower volume to recover and bounce back the next season.

    • Periodize with the weather -- get outside when the getting’s good, stay inside and do other activities when not. We are big advocates for building outdoor durability when the weather is warm.  

    • You don’t need to be racing to have goals -- getting fitter, faster, even having progressively better times up your local hill or around the neighborhood run loop is a perfect goal. 

10 Injury Prevention tips for endurance athletes

  • #1: Take time off when needed. 

    • 1-2 days off for a niggle can prevent 1-2 months off 

    • Most people can tell the difference between ‘normal workout pain’ and injury pain. 

    • Check your ego, shut down the run/ride/etc. and head home if you start to feel a yellow flag and take 1-2 days off or cross-train.

    • Inform your coach!

  • #2: Rest days -- even when not injured

    • 1-2 per week depending on goals/volume

    • Let your body rebuild and repair. What should you do on a rest day? Light Z1 activities are OK -- walking, light mobility-focused strength work, yoga. Or completely off, especially if that helps you mentally. If you can take time to sleep in.

    • A question we get frequently -- should you eat less / fuel less on a rest day? No! Time to repair and rebuild. Great day to top off the fuel tank for the week ahead. Takes ~24 hours for liver and muscle glycogen to restore. Especially important during heavy volume.

  • #3: Strength and mobility 

    • ​Focus on compound exercises. Compound exercises are ones that use multiple muscle groups in one exercise. Good compound exercises are bench press, deadlift, shoulder press, pull ups, and squats. There are tens of variations on these exercises. You can do them with a barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell or bands.  Start easy and light and progress to heavier weight over weeks and months.

    • For our Master athletes this is particularly important as you start to lose muscle mass and strength quite rapidly after the age of 40. 

    • How often? Ideally 3X per week during the Base period and then 2x per week on season.

    • Get a personal trainer if this is brand new territory for you 

    • You can try online mobility - ECFit Monday mobility videos

  • #4: Warmup and cool down

    • Especially important in winter/cold temps. Can warm up inside as needed (Active recovery spin on trainer pre-outdoor run)

    • Warmup -- we like walking, run drills, plyometrics, glute activation routine.

    • Cool down -- 3- 5’ walk after run or easy jogging, easy spinning at the end of a ride. 

    • The warmup is super important as we are all indoor cats with most of us sitting at our desks all day.  The goal of the warmup is to gently ramp our sitting HR to an exercise HR.  It’s not good for you to go from sitting with HR 60-70 to hitting the road straight to an exercise HR 130 - 140. 

    • A proper warm up will also help regulate your lactate system.

    • For post workout, always take a dry shirt and fuel. Any workout that is more than a few minutes from home, I bring a bag with a dry shirt and protein shake. And in winter I’ll include a hat and a warm jacket to put on right afterward especially if I’m going to coffee or run errands.  Always think your next workout starts immediately after your last workout ends. Fuel and recover to ready yourself for the rest of your day and tomorrow’s workout. 

  • #5: Cross-training

    • Incorporate activities like yoga, pilates, hiking, nordic skiing into your routine to avoid overuse injuries and improve overall fitness.

    • Think about activities that activate muscles beyond the forward-backward plane of swimming/running/cycling.

    •  I bought a basketball a number of years ago.  It’s fun to play with friends and it gets us moving in a side to side motion with lots of organic plyometrics.  Triathlon is a very forward motion sport.  I wanted a creative way to incorporate other planes of motion, quick bursts of speed and lots of jumping for speed and power training. 

  • #6: Proper form and technique

    • Having good form in all three disciplines is essential for preventing injuries. Consider getting coaching or videotaping yourself to identify any areas where you can improve your technique.

    • Run Gait analysis and working with a physical therapist can help. 

    • A bike fit is very important. An improperly fitted bike can lead to neck, shoulder, back pain. If you are numb anywhere when you cycle, this is not good!

    • If your bike fits improperly you will not be able to hold aero which is critical for long distance athletes and you will not be able to generate lots of power which is critical for our short course athletes.  If you are serious about triathlon or cycling, you should invest in a professional bike fit.

  • #7: Eat enough / fuel the work

    • Don’t want to be on the edge of illness/injury at all times. You need a buffer so that if a gust of wind comes you won’t get blown over. Fuel for performance. Get a sports nutritionist if this is something that you need help with

    • Key times to fuel: before activity (mostly carbs), during activities over 75 minutes (carbs), after activity (carbs and protein). Throughout the day, whole foods, fruits, veggies, healthy fats, etc. Don’t restrict. 

  • #8: Sleep and allow time for rest/relaxation 

    • That’s when the repairing happens. 7-9 hours per night and recommend tracking sleep to see patterns.

    • Consistent bedtime and wake up time. 

  • #9: Zone 2 / easy aerobic training

    • Talked about this before but injury risk goes down considerably if you are staying in zone 1-2.  Our Zone 2 podcast.

  • #10: Establish a body care team -- develop a local network of sports chiropractor, sports massage, Physical Therapist, strength trainer, bike fitter, your primary care doctor, dietician,  etc. These can all be part of your local network. 

  • Core message that underlies all of this: open dialogue with your coach. Difficult when we are not seeing you every day in person so as soon as something feels off, say something.

Episode 3: The Female Athlete

This episode focuses on the female athlete. Coach Katie provides an overview on aspects of female physiology, health, and wellness that impact how she trains and coaches across life stages, including: the young female athlete, puberty, and relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs); tracking and training around the menstrual cycle; contraception choices for female athletes; pregnancy and postpartum return to training; training through peri-menopause and menopause; gear for female athletes; and recommended resources.

Extended show notes:

Katie — do you coach male and female athletes differently? 

  • Specific workouts I prescribe and specific training principles I endorse do not differ very much between male and female athletes. Zone 2 is important. Strength training is important. Race simulations are important. Etc. 

  • BUT there is a lot of nuance when it comes to female athletes that I think is important to take into account when developing a training plan, and those nuances are different across the life stages.

Coaching the young athlete?

  • REDs / female athlete triad. See blog post 

  • Concerned about regular menstrual cycle; coming through puberty and body changes, it’s unfortunately really common to see a lot of overtraining, underfueling, and at that age there’s very little wiggle room for any type of energy deficit

  • At its worst, can lead to compromised bone density, bone stress injuries, with or without eating disorders -- which makes it SO important to be supporting athletes and asking questions about their health 

What kinds of questions to ask?

  • Regular menstrual cycle 

  • Note this can be tricky if on hormonal contraception, which is another topic I’ll touch on WRT the female athlete

  • Give specific advice on nutrition and refer to specialist as needed

  • Other indicators of LEA -- getting sick a lot, cold all the time, decreased performance, anxiety/depression

  • Key is you have to get people in contact with a specialist if you suspect this as a coach

Training around the menstrual cycle more broadly -- do you do cycle based training?

  • Generally no because you can’t control where your cycle is for racing 

  • But have had some athletes who have had particularly challenging cycles and have wanted to structure training around it 

    • Heavier training / hitting it hard in the follicular phase, back off on luteal phase

  • Broader point -- tracking your cycle and being open with coach about it can help you figure out why workouts may have felt particularly good or bad and set expectations around workouts. Definitely still recommend tracking it like any other metric 

    • Nutrition -- extra carbs around luteal phase; extra sodium and  electrolytes to deal with elevated body temp

Related to this - contraception?

  • See our blog post on contraceptive choices for female athletes

  • As a coach you might get asked for advice about this; some research says hormonal birth control has negative impact on athletic performance or recovery, other research says no impact

  • Want to underscore that this is a very new field that needs a lot more research 

  • But keep in mind that any new contraception can change how you feel WRT training, so important to keep an open dialogue and think about making changes to your contraception routine in the off season 

Later stages of life?

  • Pregnancy is huge - very new field of research; generally the best advice is to (1) listen to your doctor, (2) do what feels right and (3) OK to continue your pre-pregnancy routine as long as you feel ok.

  • Stephanie Bruce op-ed NYT

  • Post partum is also by feel; probably wouldn’t suggest planning big races for mid pregnancy but coaches can support you through whatever your doctor says is ok.

  • Will note that there were previously some misconceptions and guidelines that have been shown to be not grounded in reality.

Menopause / perimenopause 

  • Also under-researched but more attention to it now -- a time to focus a lot on strength training and maintaining speed rather than long, slow distance.

Any other thoughts on coaching the male vs. female athlete?

  • Gear is a big one! Recommendations for bike shorts, bike saddle, sports bras, etc. are different. See our female athlete gear page for details.

  • Strength training -- a lot of female athletes don’t come out of HS with the same kind of strength prep as men. Extra attention to trouble spots such as glute med, hips (avoiding IT band stuff, ACL injuries higher prevalence although mostly in team sports). Glute activation routine.

  • Some recommended reads:

Episode 2: Zone 2 Training

This episode focuses on the most foundational aspect of our training programs: Zone 2 (or low intensity) training. We will get into Jim's initial entry into endurance training and coaching; what Zone 2 training means both metabolically and practically; benefits of Zone 2; how we develop training plans focused on Zone 2; how to incorporate intensity into Zone 2 training; how to find your training zones; common Zone 2 mistakes; and how to make Zone 2 training interesting and fun.
Extended show notes:

Athlete case study:

  • A new Masters triathlete doing unstructured training

  • Always trained at the same distance, time, pace and HR (8’ pace, 8 miles, 160-165 HR). Raced at 8’ pace.

  • After some initial performance gains, plateaued and couldn’t improve.

  • Training in gray zone (Zone 3) resulted in no benefits of easy running and no benefits of fast running (speed/power). Task oriented running results in being aerobically weak.

  • Hired a coach and did metabolic testing (lactate & VO2 max) to determine proper training zones (pace, watts, HR).

  • Test Results: No aerobic or metabolic efficiency due to always Z3 (tempo/threshold) training.

  • Developed a structured plan which included running between 10’-11’ pace at 120 - 140 HR for nearly six months.

  • Did very little speed work leading into the first spring triathlon race.

  • Like magic, ran 7:15’ pace off the bike in the first spring Olympic distance race.

  • Common comment from friends: You train so slow but race so fast.

  • What happened?! How did going so slow make me a lot faster?! The answer: Zone 2 aerobic training.

What are the training zones?

  • There are many names for training zones. For example:

    • 3 Zone model where Zone 1 is easy, aerobic training

    • 5 to 7 zone models where Zone 2 gets its name.

    • Some use Recovery, Easy, Moderate, Tempo, Threshold, etc.
      The main takeaway is Zone 2 training is usually performed at 65% - 72% of max HR and 80% of overall activity is easy, aerobic and 20% is medium to hard intensity.

Why Zone 2?

  • Mitochondria are the cells that are responsible for producing energy (ATP process).

  • More mitochondria = a bigger fuel tank, more fuel and better energy byproduct regulator.

  • Increased energy production - more ATP = more energy = more endurance.

  • Enhanced metabolic efficiency i.e., primarily burn fat rather than limited glycogen.

  • Improve lactate efficiency and clearance.

  • Build efficient slowtwitch muscles. These are your endurance muscles.

  • Gently improve mechanical strength.

  • Faster Recovery: Mitochondria are involved in repairing and regenerating damaged muscle tissue.

  • Zone 2 allows for high volume which is highly correlated with performance.

  • It’s difficult to overtrain in Z1/2.

  • Reduce the risk of cancer and other diseases associated with metabolic dysfunction.

Zone 2 develops metabolic efficiency

  • We have about 2,000 calories of readily available glucose in our liver and muscles.

  • We have about 40,000 calories of readily available fat (adipose tissue).

  • Endurance sports are all about training your body to primarily use fat as a fuel source as you have 20X fuel available.

  • If you want to go long, you need to become a fat burning machine and dip into just a little bit of your muscle/liver glycogen.

Endurance & Speed are built from the ground up.

  • Adaptation starts in the first weeks of training and can be improved over a decade or more.

  • We want to build a foundation of Health first, then Aerobic Fitness and the tip of the pyramid is anaerobic fitness (strength/speed).

  • Low intensity aerobic training is the key to building a strong and wide foundation from which all other training will rely on.

Who uses Zone 2 training principles?

  • Every endurance sport uses the principle of 80% easy / 20% hard. Every sport from running, cycling, nordic skiing, speed skating, etc. If your sport last longer than a few minutes, you are an endurance athlete.

How to find your Zone 2

  • There are many ways to find your Zone 2 and training zones.

    • Get metabolically (lactate and VO2 max) tested to scientifically determine your training zones.

    • Aerobic threshold is ~ 70% of max HR. In my case, 0.7*187 = 130 beats per minute. My zone 2 runs should be in this area.

    • Use a run zone calculator on the Internet or TrainingPeaks.

    • Use easy nose breathing, conversation pace as a Zone 2 run governor.

    • When in doubt, aim lower in the zone, not higher. You get the same adaptations lower in your aerobic zone as you do in the higher zone. And you can get a lot more volume in the lower zone. Volume builds mitochondria (foundation) which helps drive performance.

How to Zone 2

  • Follow the 80/20 principle: 80% of your runs are easy - nose breathing, conversational pace, comfortable. 20% of your runs are moderate to hard.

  • Example weekly workouts in Base period:

    • Monday - Day Off / light strength/yoga/walking

    • Tuesday - Z2 run with 6 x 20” fast feet / turnover in last mile with 40” recovery

    • Wednesday - Z2 run, swim or bike

    • Thursday - Z2 run with 10 x 30” fast feet with 30” recovery

    • Friday - Other aerobic activity / strength

    • Saturday - Longer Z2 run. Incorporate some hills for organic strength. Walk hills to keep your HR in check.

    • Sunday - Other aerobic activity - walk / hike / cycle

  • Ideal progression is an extended ‘Base’ season with primarily zone 2 work, moving into more intensity as the race season approaches. Periodize your training based on time of year and race demands. Over nine months this is six months of Base training and three months of Base+Build.

Common Zone 2 mistakes

  • Most runners run too fast on their slow days and too slow on their fast days.

  • Believing they have an unique physiology and Z2 does not apply to them.

  • Ego gets in the way of slowing down.

  • Strava posturing. Consider taking a social media hiatus.

  • Task oriented, not process oriented.

  • Training partner/group runs faster than you should.

Fact: This is not a training philosophy.

  • This is human physiology.

  • Your return on investment is 100% guaranteed.

  • Trust the process.

Zone 2 Variety

  • It’s not all boring, slow running!

  • Fartleks - Speed Play i.e., pole to pole, run to a tree, end of a driveway. Recover and pick another feature.

  • Cut down run. Start really slow (Z1) and try to cut down pace 5”-10” per mile for 3 - 5 miles. Progression run in Zone 2.

  • Max hill sprints of 8” - 10” at end of workout. Build power and speed.

  • Max sprints of 10” on / 30” recovery on slight incline.

  • 20” pickups / 40” recovery (Strides)

  • 30” pickups / 30”-45” recovery on hill or flat

  • Run drills / plyos

Other ways to Zone 2 & build your aerobic base

  • Walking / Hiking, Trail running, Nordic skiing, Cycling, Swimming

  • Lifting weights - sometimes heavy, sometimes light

  • Stand Up Paddle / Kayak / Canoe

  • Gardening / yard work

  • Chainsawing

  • Walking the dog / searching for your cat(s)

Summary

  • Determine your run zones either via lab aerobic testing, % of max HR or use simple nose breathing.

  • Run easy a lot, some moderate and a little hard to build mitochondria, aerobic and metabolic efficiency. Employ the 80/20 principle.

  • Build a HUGE health and aerobic foundation. Speed grows from your foundation.

  • Keep it fun! Keep the recreation in recreational athlete.

Joy, Health & Community.

  • The best workouts have all three elements.

  • Find a friend or group to join. Have a fun workout and enjoy the benefits of movement and play.

Read our Zone 2 blog post.

Episode 1: Season Planning

This week’s episode focuses on season planning; how to structure your general and specific preparation blocks; how to plan your A race and supporting races; how to approach training during the holidays; how to incorporate early-season racing and training camps into your season plan; how to think about planning for being a lifelong athlete; and many other topics that we will cover in future podcasts!

Extended show notes:

It’s Taylor Swift’s birthday! And the first episode of our podcast 

  • Context -- situate this conversation in the time of year 

    • How do you handle the holidays? Take the pressure off in the context of changing schedules and variables; enjoy time with family; don’t worry about hitting all workouts perfectly, as goal is to hit the ground running on January 1st 

    • Looking for 80% compliance at this time of year 

    • Time to purchase necessary equipment and gym membership

    • Get familiar with TrainingPeaks, Zwift, with your bike trainer, etc

  • Big picture principles -- Ironman training 

    • 2 phases: general preparation and specific preparation 

    • General preparation + examples

      • A ton of Zone 2 base work. 80/20. Very easy. Many athletes are not even swimming now. 

      • Additional spice goes from least specific to most specific: Neuromuscular, VO2s, Threshold to Tempo to specific race watts/paces. Shorter intervals to longer intervals. 

    • Specific preparation + examples 

      • Last 12 weeks is key, most specific to your race. What you do in the last 12 weeks has the most impact on your race.

      • Big days: nail fueling, hydration, metabolic adaptations, gear, mindset, etc. Example big days 12, 8, and 4 weeks out from race day.

      • Consistent routine, less travel, good recovery, family is on board. Live a boring, steady life. Don’t let yourself get sick.

  • If racing an Ironman, would you race during prep period? 

    • Sprints and Olympics OK during specific period

      • Race mindset can be helpful. Example: Cohasset Tri. 

    • But do not race in the month leading up to IM. 

    • Why is it a problem to race long leading up to IM? Example: 70.3 six weeks out from IM. Takes too long to recover. If you do a one week taper and two week recovery, you lose three weeks of specialized training. 

  • Early season 70.3: March, April can be OK. Example: 70.3 in Florida. 

  • Should you go to camp? When? Specific blocks? 

    • Coast ride // CA camps Jan-Feb

    • May include specific single sport training blocks i.e., run focus, bike camp in a warm location, etc.

  • How about if your goal is shorter races?

    • General to specific, but specific looks different, affords more opportunities to race. If you do sprints and Olympics, race a LOT; 70.3 could do 2-3… etc.

    • Recovery is much shorter for shorter races. If you love to race, shorter races are the way to go. 

  • Life planning, beyond season planning? Shorter distances at younger ages into longer distances at older ages. We don’t recommend that young athletes are signing up for Ironman-distance events (e.g. while still in college). 

    • Katie’s triathlon progression -- 5-year development period. 

  • Being an endurance athlete is about being patient on micro and macro levels. Our goal is lifelong athletes with a healthy approach to sport. Joy, health, and community out of sport.