TriDot Podcast .147

16 Triathlon Skills to Sharpen

Intro: This is the TriDot podcast. TriDot uses your training data and genetic profile, combined with predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to optimize your training, giving you better results in less time with fewer injuries. Our podcast is here to educate, inspire, and entertain. We’ll talk all things triathlon with expert coaches and special guests. Join the conversation and let’s improve together.

Andrew Harley: Hey folks! Welcome to the TriDot podcast. Really fun topic today as two of our TriDot coaches will teach us how to sharpen our triathlon skills. The training improves our fitness, but we still have some extra work to do in order to stay sharp in our tri skills. Our first coach joining us for this is Coach Joanna Nami. Joanna is better known as Coach JoJo and has been coaching athletes with TriDot since 2012. She is the cofounder of Hissyfit Racing, a third year member of the Betty Design Elite Squad, and now has 17 Ironman finishes on her accomplished triathlon résumé. Coach Jo has qualified  for two Ironman World Championships and will be racing in Kona coming up here in October of 2022. Coach Jo, I am pleased to announce, is now a full-time member of the TriDot staff as our coaching community manager. Coach Jo, welcome back to the podcast.

Joanna Nami: Thank you Andrew. Happy to be here.

Andrew: Also joining us is Coach John Mayfield. John is a USAT Level II and Ironman U certified coach who leads TriDot’s athlete services, ambassador, and coaching programs. He has coached hundreds of athletes ranging from first-timers to Kona qualifiers and professional triathletes. John has been using TriDot since 2010 and coaching with TriDot since 2012. John, pretty fun show today, you ready for it?

John Mayfield: I am ready for it.

Andrew: I am Andrew the Average Triathlete, Voice of the People and Captain of the Middle of the Pack. As always we will roll through our warm up question, settle in for our main set conversation, and then wind things down with our cool down.

Warm up theme: Time to warm up! Let’s get moving.

Andrew: Miracle is a word that conveys something positive happening on your behalf. Typically some form of divine intervention is implied and usually when something is described as a miracle, it is not a day-to-day occurrence that happened, but rather an exceptional stand out “Wow! I cannot believe that just happened” type of event. And you certainly know when you are the beneficiary of a miracle. John, Jo, what was a time you’ve experienced something in multisport that can only be described as a tri miracle? John Mayfield.

John:  So I’ll often struggle with warm up questions, but I saw your notes on this one and my answer is better than yours.

Andrew: I hope so.

John: I actually… I feel like I have a good answer for this one. It’s not anything specific. It’s not a specific story. It’s the whole darn thing. Just the fact that I am a triathlete is a miracle. All those things you described really– As I thought this it’s the fact that I’m now currently a nine-time Ironman finisher.

Andrew: Yeah you are.

John: Coming from someone that was– I was overweight. I was unhealthy. I smoked. Just kind of lived the party life and now it’s been such a transformation for me to become an athlete that trains on a daily basis, that’s had some success in racing, and now even as far as my career goes. Here I am on the top rated podcast in the space and hanging out with guys like Mark Allen. Like the whole freaking thing is just a miracle and I’m constantly reminded. You know, going to these events and meeting these people all across the country and getting to go places where other people are taking a vacation to go and experience these things. That’s what we get paid to do. That’s just like such an amazing thing and it’s not at all lost on me. So the whole freaking thing is just a massive miracle for me.

Andrew: I mean it’s hard to even follow that. I mean, you’re absolutely right. That is tremendously better than what my answer is going to be here. But I’ll move to Coach Jo first. Jo, what is your tri miracle you want to share today?

Joanna: Now I feel like I need to be really sappy. I mean, I’m always the winner and I always have to beat John Mayfield. So, I think it goes back to– you know this was a hard question for me after so many different Ironman experiences.

Andrew: Sure.

Joanna: My mom always said God put you where you’re supposed to be in life, but I think He put other people where they’re supposed to be in your life. You know, going into St. George World Championship, I think you sometimes get very comfortable in your abilities and what you can do and have expectations of a race day and then you get your world rocked by an extremely difficult course and day. It probably happened 10-15 times during that day that in some of my worst moments I would look up and the exact person I needed was there at the exact time. I knew I could count on John as my coach to be where he knew I was going to need him on the run course after an injury. But looking up and seeing Andrew Harley and Kori like right as I’m approaching the finish line. I couldn’t have written a storybook finish. You know, exchanging the smooch with Mike Riley at the end or having Daniela Ryf medal me, but even just friends from locally where I am out on the middle of the bike course where you haven’t seen anyone in a long time and somebody standing there. That was a friend of mine, Susan Oiler. It literally was a miracle when I laid on those people in the exact moment that I was seriously doubting myself. So that whole experience in that day was pretty miraculous for me.

John: Alright Andrew. What have you got?

Andrew: At the time we’re recording this podcast, my wife and I just did a weeks-long holiday up in Canada. We went to Banff National Park and Jasper National Park. We were flying home from Calgary, it was the night before our flight home, we were staying in downtown Calgary and so I wanted to go for a run. I’m walking my way to the river pathway to start my run and I’m thinking of my head, “Man, I’m hungry. My stomach is grumbling. I’m going be fading on energy. I want to enjoy this run. If only I had like a gel or something with me.” And literally as I’m about to turn left onto this riverside pathway to start my run, press play, I press start on my Garmin watch, I take three steps and right to my right I see a running store.

John: It’s a miracle!

Andrew: In my head I was like, “Miracle!”

Joanna: It’s a Christmas miracle!

Andrew: So I went in. They didn’t have any of my Precision Fuel and Hydration gels. They didn’t have my UCAN Edge gels, so I picked up a campfire s’more flavored Gu and while I was talking to the guy, he was a really nice guy running the running store, I downed my gel, I threw it away and I went for my run. So small miracle, but it made me wonder. You know, what are some other triathlon miracles whether they’re small like mine or whether they’re bigger like John’s and Jo’s. We’re going to throw this question out to you, our audience. So make sure you’re a part of the I AM TriDot Facebook group and find the post asking you, what is a tri miracle that you have experienced?

Main set theme: On to the main set. Going in 3…2…1…

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Andrew: We do the day-to-day training to prepare our fitness for race day, but there are triathlon skills beyond simply just being fit that will help you execute on the race course and today, Coach Jo and Coach John will teach us how to sharpen 16 race day tri skills. So John, Joe, as coaches who work with everything just from new triathletes to average triathletes to experienced veterans, as you work on these skills with your athletes and how much of a difference can improving these skills make for an athlete on race day?

Joanna: I think it can make a huge difference. A lot of these skills get overlooked in training and that is reflected on race day. It can be the difference between a catastrophic race day and a DNF or an injury versus having a very successful, rewarding race day. So it is important to take time to learn about these and practice the tips we’re going to share today and incorporate them into your training.

John: So we train day in and day out. That’s really what we focus on is our fitness, our race readiness, all those things, but these are the kinds of things that really determine how well you’re able to kind of get what you’ve invested out of. It’s all about execution. So you can go arrive at the race with a very high level of race readiness, but if you don’t properly execute, you’re not going to– you’re going to waste potential. You’re going to be out there longer than you could have. You’re not going to place as well as you could have. So as critical as a component as fitness is, execution is also very important.

Andrew: I’m excited to get insight from both of you on these 16 tri skills and the first one is that swim start. And swim starts can be done in a couple different ways. You’ve got your rolling starts. You’ve got your wave starts. You’ve got your mass starts. You’ve got your indoor pool swim. So there’s a couple different types of swim starts that athletes will encounter. How can we sharpen our swim start skills?

Joanna: Yeah, I totally agree Andrew. I think the swim start is probably one of the most overlooked skills as far as planning and practicing during training. You know, we spend countless hours swimming in a pool, a little bit of open water here and there. I coach a lot on the preparation for an open water swim, whether that’s a practice or a race in that almost all athletes have some form of anxiety when starting a triathlon, especially starting the swim portion. Again, I always go back to how do we practice it? So there is a mental component and a physical component to starting a swim. Mentally, running through the steps and the timetable and the 10-15 minutes leading up to you getting in the water. What are you going to do during that time? What are you going to think about? What is your mental focus going to be? Then as you start to swim, what are my first steps going to be? What am I going to focus on as far as breathing, stroke, rotation? So the more you plan that out, the better equipped you are to reduce anxiety, be more comfortable in the water, be more confident, have better form, and that all leads to less energy exertion, a happier swim, more confident coming out, and shaving off minutes. So it’s definitely something that has to be practiced. Getting with a professional if you don’t know what that’s supposed to look like, what that swim start practice or preparation is. It’s good to get that information and to incorporate that into our training.

John: So a couple other things even taking a little step back is first, it’s knowing the course. That’s critical swim, bike and run. Know what the shape is, which way you’re going to be turning, which are directional buoys, which are turn buoys. Where is the sunrise going to be compared to how you breathe? So, what is your goggle selection? It’s all those kinds of things. A very common mistake I see is athletes that don’t know how their wetsuit should fit. So oftentimes what we see is athletes that don’t get their suit on properly which then can lead to the claustrophobia, the panic, all that, or kind of in a best case scenario they’re not getting the range of motion that that suit should be providing them. So they’re going to fatigue more quickly, they’re technique is going to be diminished because of that. So know how your wetsuit should fit and then make sure you’re getting it on properly. Then especially in the cold weather, cold water swims– this is a great tip. I’ve got to give credit to Jeff Raines for this one. We’ve talked about it before, is getting the wetsuit primed. So it is a wet suit. It’s not a dry suit. It is not intended to keep you dry. There is going to be a certain amount of water that is in that suit and when that water is warm, that is what is going to keep your body warm. So if you jump in and the first water to fill your suit is 60 degrees, it’s going to take you a while to warm up that water so that then the suit can keep you warm. What you can do though, is provide or pour warm room temperature water down the suit to begin with and it works amazingly. Ever since Jeff gave me that tip, I’ve done it numerous times. Like when we jumped in the San Francisco Bay at Alcatraz and all that, we were golden because we brought a big jug of water with us and poured the water down the suit and it allows that warmer water to saturate the lining of the suit and then the body is warming that already warmed water. So when we jumped in the 60 degree or whatever it was San Francisco Bay, the suit was already saturated so we didn’t have to warm that water. I think that’s a great tip that I always want to share.

Andrew: Great tangible tips from both of you. One thing I’ll add is just whatever type of swim start you have coming up, practice it. The week of, two weeks before, you know, if you know you have a pool start or you’re jumping in off a dock, the next couple pool sessions jump in a couple times and start swimming immediately off the side of the pool. If you know you have a beach start, find an open water swim venue if you can where you’re going to be jogging out into the water and starting that swim. Just being comfortable with the type of swim start.

Moving on. So once we’ve started the swim, we’re out in the water, we’re doing our thing, a triathlon skill that some people are better at than others is bilateral breathing. How can we sharpen up our swim bilateral breathing?

John: So first, just to comment on that, there’s a lot of people who think that bilateral is better than unilateral and especially in triathlon that’s not necessarily the case. I think a lot of that comes from pool swimming where you’re swimming for 50, 100, 200 yards and then you’re done. So you’re not having to think as long term as you are in a triathlon. Even our shortest races are an hour, give or take. So we’re having to think 60 minutes down the road and how we’re going to be using oxygen and utilizing what we have. An advantage of unilateral breathing is you’re breathing every stroke; you’re getting in more oxygen more frequently that is also going to not only help you through the swim, but come out of the water in a good state so far as that goes. Nothing against bilateral breathing. There’s also kind of a myth that it helps you swim straighter if you’re breathing to both sides. That’s not necessarily the case. You can certainly have– it’s much more technique driven how straight you swim. So you can breathe bilaterally and if you have something in your stroke that’s causing you to swim crooked, you’re still going to swim crooked. You can swim straight unilaterally. You can swim crooked unilaterally. So it really is kind of a– It’s not necessarily something that we all have to implement, especially on race day. Now it is a great skill to have. It’s a good thing to have like we’ve talked about with the sunrise and chop. There may be times where you may be getting a face full of water every time you breathe to the natural side. For me it’s to my right. On race day, I breathe unilaterally to the right side. But for me, fortunately, if there’s a little bit of chop on the water and every time I turn to the right I’m getting slapped in the face and the sun is blinding me, fortunately I have that ability to switch left or go bilaterally. I think probably the best way to do this is implementing breathing to that non natural side during drills. So specifically, there are certain drills that you have to breathe to a given side. So things like single arm lead, single arm swimming, you have to breathe to whatever side is dictated by whichever side you’re swimming on. So those are just great opportunities as you’re doing those drills to get used to breathing to that side that may not be comfortable. Then it’s just implementation of it. Sometimes even within the TriDot sessions it will be prescribed. Like during a warmup it will say unilateral breathing down and bilateral breathing back and it’s just as simple as that. Just implementing during your warmup, during your cooldown, as something to just think on and work on. It’s one of those skills it’s great to be proficient in, but you don’t necessarily have to breathe bilaterally either in your training or on race day.

Joanna: I agree with everything John has said. Bilateral breathing is definitely– for someone that customarily only breathes to one side, is not even used to bilateral breathing in any sense, that is a skill that has to be practiced for a very long time to be comfortable. My one question– and this comes down to whether we’re bilateral breathing, what kind of wetsuit we’re wearing. For my athlete they’ll come to me, say we have a wetsuit optional race and they’ll say “Am I wearing a wetsuit or not?” And I’m like, “What are you most comfortable doing?” Let’s not throw any other wrenches into this race. It’s going to be stressful enough. There are going to be things that happen. We are going to do everything during that swim that plays into us having the most comfortable and successful swim and if that means you swim and only breathe to one side, then we are going with that. We’re not going to try to change your swim stroke before a race. Now, if you’ve practiced this skill for six months to a year’s worth of training and you’re feeling very comfortable with it, then yes. It is a great skill. There are some big time benefits as far as sighting, where you’re seeded in the water as compared to other athletes. There’s some biomechanics and body movement benefits to breathing to both sides that affect you in other areas of triathlon, but overall that is a skill that has to really be worked on and practiced and perfected for it to be beneficial in open water swim.

Andrew: Tri skill #3. This is something that some people handle better than others and it’s something we can practice. Swimming in choppy water. If we have an open water swim and it is choppy, that is a skill we can work on. What do you guys have to say? How do you coach your athletes on a choppy swim?

Joanna: This is very tricky. Some of us are more fortunate to be closer to the ocean, have more access for opportunity to practice in choppier water or water that has more current, but some of us just don’t have access to that. My first response is exposure. Even if you get one opportunity to drive somewhere and swim in the venue that you’re going to be at or something similar, that’s huge. It could just take one opportunity to make you feel more comfortable and better. I’ll have athletes that do that. They know they’re a little bit more nervous, anxious about the swim and swim conditions at a race and they’ll take that one opportunity a month out from an Ironman or a half Ironman and go do that swim and that’s very beneficial on race day. As far as technique, there are a few techniques that we can instruct on as coaches. Making sure that my athletes remember to do those during a race swim is harder, but I have to drill it into them that if you’re feeling force, if you’re feeling current, if you’re feeling a lot of resistance from the water, or you’re taking chop from one side; two techniques and John has touched on some of this before is that if you are able to breathe to that opposite side, that is golden. It will take one time of you getting huge chop to the face and swallowing water when you realize that that’s not going to be a good option breathing to that one direction. So if you can, you have the ability to breathe to that opposite side and you stick with that, you’re going to have a much more successful swim. Secondly is a little technique that I always use with my athletes. When they’re feeling a lot of chop like Florida for instance, John had a memorable swim last year there at Florida was that you know, when you are feeling a lot of current, a lot of waves, if you can kind of press your chest, shoulders, head down a little bit right under that current it’s a very effective technique.

Andrew: Yeah.

Joanna: One thing that happens with us as swimmers is when our nerves are high with choppy water, it really, really intensifies that anxiety, our first instinct is to ride a little high in the water. Our head, or if we cannot see, we’re looking up higher, chest is riding higher, hips and feet drop, and now we’ve just doubled the resistance against us. So trying to get back to that completely flat position by pushing your chest, shoulders, head down just a bit and you’ll feel some relief from that chop, from that resistance.

John: Oftentimes depending on which way that chop is coming from, you may need to implement a higher stroke rate. So if you are one that has a low stroke rate with a lot of glide, even a dead spot at the front, that chop is really going to impact you more especially if you are swimming into the chop. That’s also true for swimming into a current or something like that. The more dead spots you have in your stroke, you’re effectively at that point neutral and that current or that chop is going to push you around. So having that higher stroke rate is going to allow you to maintain more consistent momentum which is going to help you better fight either a current or a chop.

Andrew: The next swim skill that I have here on our list of tri skills– tri skill #4 is rounding a turn buoy. What do you guys have for us here? How can we most efficiently get around those turn buoys?

Joanna: I think there’s a– a lot of my athletes kind of have a little bit of a misconception. They know they’ve got to go around these red turn buoys that are usually located at the corners of a swim course and they get it in sight, they see it and they think “Okay, I’ve got to go around the left side of this buoy.” They then turn their focus to aiming to a point that’s left of that buoy. In all reality, if they aim dead straight on for the center of that buoy, they’re going to be in a perfect position to get around that buoy. I often talk to them about wanting them to have their side body touch the side of that buoy. It’s funny. I think athletes have a little bit of a fear of touching it sometimes and like– I mean, it’s not going to bite you. So getting up close, aiming straight forward. If you aim directly at it, you’re going to come right up on it and get as close as you possibly can to it. I think most swimmers lose the most amount of time aiming to the left or right of a buoy and then being 100 or 150 yards away from it…

Andrew: Yeah. Sure.

Joanna: …and adding that to their total distance. So I always advise them to aim straight for it. Try to touch armpit, side body around that buoy and accelerate as you come off of that. You’re going to slow a bit in that turn and to accelerate coming off of that buoy.

Andrew: Triathlon skill #5; the next one. This is also a swim one. Drafting on the swim. The swim is a place that we are allowed to legally draft. You can save a tremendous amount of time by doing this effectively. Guys, how can we improve our skills swim drafting?

Joanna: You are exactly right, Andrew. You can save a lot of time, but you save a tremendous amount of energy and that’s where a lot of triathletes, I don’t think they know how important drafting can be in a race. You’re in a full distance Ironman, you’re about to exert a tremendous amount of effort on a bike and then a marathon. I’m trying to save a lot of energy on the swim and a lot of people think, oh, you’re a faster swimmer. You’re going to give full effort. You’re going to try to swim this pace. I understand all of those things, but if I see a guy that looks pretty fast and he’s lining up before me, I’m going to try to get in the water, try to get close to him, try to hug that hip. As far as misconception in drafting, it tends to be most effective when you’re kind of riding to the left or right hip of an athlete that’s in front of you. In doing that you decrease resistance tremendously and you will feel that pull from that athlete in front of you. So as a newer triathlete or someone that is not very skilled at drafting, it is something that has to be practiced tremendously. If you have a partner that you can go out to the lake with, someone that is more familiar with drafting, this is definitely a skill that can be practiced and learned. It is more of an advanced swim skill, but it doesn’t mean that anyone can’t learn it.

John: Yeah, as Jo said, even in the pool, you’ll feel it. You’ll feel kind of that being drawn into that slip stream. For me, it gives me something to think about. That’s something I struggle with in open water, especially Ironman. You’re in there for a long time, your face in the water. What am I thinking about? If I’m concentrating on staying on someone’s hip or staying on someone’s feet, that keeps me mentally engaged. I’m not having to think about anything else.

Andrew: Sure.

John: My only job in that moment is to stay on this person’s hip or stay on their feet. Another advantage, is depending on the skill of that person that you’re drafting on, it depends on how much faith you have in them, but if they prove themself to be a good, straight swimmer that is sighting often enough, it can reduce the amount of time that you need to sight. I wouldn’t say to fully trust in anyone that you’re on their feet or on their hip that they’re going to be swimming buoy to buoy, but especially if you swim 100, 200, 300 yards with that same person and they’re consistently hitting those buoys, then I would drastically reduce the amount of strokes that I’m sighting on which again is going to make me even more efficient and use less energy moving through the water.

Andrew: You know what, John? I’m a little embarrassed that I prepared a podcast format and I thought through all of the skills someone needs to have on race day and I came up with 16 of them and I didn’t think of sighting in open water. So, the title is going to mislead people.

John: Booo…

Andrew: This really just became 17 triathlon skills and the bonus skill we’re going to throw in right here, right now. Talk to us about how we improve our sighting in open water.

John: Draft off of someone that is sighting really well and then you don’t have to do it.

Joanna: You know, that’s actually– it’s probably one of the most important open water skills Andrew. Taking it to the lake any chance you have to get in open water, that’s a perfect opportunity to sight a tree line, electrical line, focusing and practicing on that is very, very beneficial. I often have my athletes practice sighting in the pool as well. You can sight something low on the deck, something higher in the building, but also in practicing the breathing technique John was describing before; sighting the lane rope to your left and right. That is mimicking exact race conditions where you’re going to be sighting swimmers to your left and right.

Andrew: Yeah, great point.

Joanna: If you see someone to the left, you see someone to the right, you’re in the right vicinity. You haven’t drifted too far.

John: So for me it’s about finding that sweet spot of how often do I need to sight? I want to minimize the amount of times that I’m interrupting my stroke, but still swimming straight. So for me I usually start off on a cadence of about three to five. I’ll count three to five strokes, I’ll sight. Three to five and sight. Then if I’m hitting it every time, if I’m in a straight line and a lot of this will have to do with conditions and how much is the water moving around? How much am I able to sight off those around me? If I can start to extend that, I’d say on the high end sometimes I can go as much as like ten strokes. So now I’m doing a ten count every time between sightings, but that takes validation. I’m never going to start a race sighting every ten strokes. Because I mean, if you go ten strokes and you’ve been swimming at a 10 degree, 20 degree angle, you may not know it, but you’re way off. Or if there’s a current that’s pushing you. Something like that. So it’s kind of one of those things that’s going to require some validation and then when you make a turn, you’re likely going to need to drop back and kind of revalidate because maybe the water conditions have changed. But for me– And if I’m starting to get off on every fifth, I drop it back to three and then you’ll find that sweet spot of how often you need to sight in those conditions.

Andrew: Alright, after our crucial bonus skill that we just threw in, we are now on to official skill #6. The final swim one I have on our list. How do we handle the swim exit? I mean, we spend the time getting faster at our swim, but then if we botch getting out of the water and take a little extra time to do it, those fitness gains were just negated. So how can we as efficiently as possible, Coach Jo, get ourselves out of the water and running towards transition?

Joanna: I think that starts as you’re approaching the swim exit. I have my athletes mentally start thinking about what’s about to occur. What are the steps you’re going to take as soon as feet hit the ground and that all starts with knowing that swim exit. Am I coming out on stairs? Will there be people to assist me? Take advantage of volunteers there. If they’re hoisting you out, let them pull you out. Save energy in that department. Know if there’s going to be strippers there; wetsuit strippers. That’s been iffy over the last couple of years and now knowing that you’re going to have assistance, take advantage of that. But I make them cite to me what order are you doing this? Are you taking your goggles and cap off first? Are you undoing, unlatching the back of your wetsuit? You don’t want to have those cap and goggles in your hand if you’re trying to undo the latch on the back of your wetsuit. So there’s definitely an order to that and to practice that. There’s no shame in being at the lake and saying “I’m going to practice this swim exit.” I’m going to use these stairs or this ramp to practice coming out and do that efficiently and quickly. The other factors there are you’re usually pretty cloudy and confused when you come out of a long swim, usually short of breath. I will see athletes that are just hauling coming out of the water and I’m sure they’re podium contenders, that’s fantastic. But it’s also important–

Andrew: Good for them.

Joanna: Yeah, good for them. Excellent! But it’s also important, I tell my athletes, this is an opportunity. You just swam a very long ways and you are a little cloudy. Take a few seconds to take some deep breaths as you’re coming out and walking toward transition. Let your heart rate come down. You’re about to do some pretty important stuff when it gets into transition and you want to make sure that you do all of that correctly.

John: So just a practical tip and this goes back to– I can’t take credit for this one. I remember this tip from I think it was the first open water session, or not session, but first open water clinic I ever did. I think it was something Cindy Reeves invited me to over a decade ago and I remember them saying specifically “You swim until your hand touches the ground.” So this would suggest some sort of lake or beach kind of deal where the water is getting more shallow as you approach. So not your stairs or that sort of thing. But you’re much more efficient swimming than you are walking. But so often, I think people are tired of swimming and so they want to stand up and try to either run through the water or walk through the water. You’re going to be so much more efficient if you continue to swim and usually it’s only maybe five or ten yards at most. So to this day I remember. That’s the thought I have. I’m going to keep stroking and a lot of times I’m swimming between people who are standing up. But, yeah. It’s stroke, stroke, stroke until the hand touches the ground. That’s the signal to stand up.

Andrew: Nope, great point there John. So I will say then we’ll certainly kind of talk about transition a little bit. There are a plethora of transition specific skills that I could have included on this episode, could have included on this list. I intentionally kind of avoided most of those because we do have a full hour long episode. It is episode 44, that episode is called “Time Saving Transition Tips for Triathletes.” So if you want to catch some transition wisdom from that episode go listen to that full-length episode. I’ve got just a few kind of specific niche transition ones here, but not a ton. So the one I’m calling this skill #7 for this episode, how do you run through transition with your bike the most effectively? How can we sharpen that as a skill? I’ve seen some people moving through transition, holding their bike and they are awkward about it and I’ve seen some people just glide like champions through transition with their bike as a time saving opportunity by being good at it. How do we do it?

John: Well, I appreciate you’ve picked a couple of my favorites here. I’ve never been all that spectacular at swimming, cycling, or running, but I can transition like a ninja. So this is kind of my space. Learn how to run with your bike by holding the saddle. I’m sure we covered that pretty extensively on that podcast episode. It’s something that’s kind of one of my hotbed issues. You can learn this in five minutes if you will just practice. To set out there’s not a whole lot of skill to it and it’s going to do you well. Not only does it look cool, it changes where you are in relation to the bike. So if you are holding onto the handlebars or the handlebars and the saddle, that’s going to put you right in line with the pedals and that can lead to bad things. So by steering and pushing by the saddle you’re going to be behind that. You’re going to be more level like with the back wheel which is going to put you in a better place and then it’s also going to allow you to get skinny. So if you’re having to thread in between people or a narrow space; maybe there’s a bike and a bag and that sort of thing, you can actually get all the way behind the bike and still steer. It is easiest when you have momentum. It is a little bit harder– it’s kind of like if you’re approaching a stoplight on your bike, trying to do that track stand kind of thing. The slower you are the more difficult it is to steer, but what you can do is get the bike off the rack and have that one hand on the saddle and go ahead and just get it started. Go, push it, get that momentum and that’s going to be plenty to get you from there. Then just practice. Get a little bit of momentum. Try making turns onto the sidewalk 90 degrees from the driveway to the sidewalk and really it’s not that hard. Just practice it a little bit and you’ll be great.

Andrew: Triathlon skill #8: The bike mount. This is something else that as we’re leaving transition I’ve seen people very elegantly get on their bikes and we’ll talk about the flying mount I’m sure, but even if you’re not willing to do the flying mount you can be very efficient and graceful in a regular mount or you can take up a lot of time and be really kind of stumbly through your mount. So talk to us about mounting our bike smoothly and practicing that as a skill.

John: It’s really going to depend on the distance of the race how much these seconds matter. Sprint, it’s everything. You absolutely have to get on that bike and be moving as quickly as possible. Ironman, there’s a little bit more room and then kind of in between. And it’s going to depend on your goals. If you are in it for the seconds or if you’re in it for the minutes, kind of like Jo said earlier, it’s really what are you comfortable with? Now that said, I would recommend getting comfortable with an efficient, quick mount and this has to do with starting with the shoes in the pedal. Now, you don’t have to do the run and jump on the bike and all of that. In fact, I don’t do that. I will start with my shoes clipped into the pedals. I use rubber bands on there to make sure that they are held in a horizontal position. I run through transition holding the saddle; steering with the saddle.

Joanna: Ninja.

John: I get to the mount line and that’s when I will…

Andrew: Ninja.

John: …I will grab the base bar, grab the handlebars and I simply step over the top tube and step onto that shoe with my bare foot. Stepping onto it, that is going to provide that initial momentum. Now I’m going so now my other foot goes on top and I will spin as I need to. It’s simple. You can get plenty of momentum, plenty of speed up with your feet on top of the shoes and then as I reach a place where it’s straight, I’m not climbing a hill, very easily slip the shoes in. Always, always, always eyes up. So this is something that you need to be comfortable doing not looking at it. I would suggest doing this, but practice, practice. Become efficient in it and always remember to keep your eyes up.

Joanna: I really like what John said about you know, there’s no shame in practicing this on the trainer.

John: Absolutely.

Joanna: You know, eyes up. You’re not going to watch this and you’re going to over and over and over again feet in, feet out and practice this skill. I will say, I do coach a lot of first timers for full Ironman distance and what we often witness coming out of the water is athletes pretty shaken by a swim. Pretty nervous, very shaky as they’re coming out. They’ve crossed over the mat line and there is no shame in hugging the side of that chute.

Andrew: Sure.

Joanna: Getting to the far right. Taking a few seconds to lock that foot in and get going. I mean not everyone is going to be able to do that kind of mount with shoes already in there, especially if they’re racing a longer distance and newer to the sport and that is okay. That is totally fine to take a few seconds. It’s way better than being in the middle of the chute and having tons of traffic and people trying to mount and get in each others way. So I often tell them to take a few deep breaths, go to the side, lock one foot in, make sure that you look back and that you’re clear to go, and then get moving and get that other foot in.

Andrew: Triathlon skill #9. We’re out on the bike. We’re riding. Bike handling; being stable on your bike, being comfortable on your bike, being a good citizen of the road, being able to make good solid U-turns. Most courses at some point you’ll be making a U-turn. I’ve had some go smoothly. I’ve had some where I thought I was going to run off the road. How can we practice our bike handling, turning, etcetera?

John: These aren’t especially hard, but you know, it is confidence. I think back to when we were kids. We U-turned on our bikes, we did circles and donuts. The big difference was our feet weren’t attached to the pedals so if we needed to drop down we always had that bail out. So these are great drills to do like in parking lots and that sort of thing to where you can start with a big circle and just get that circle tighter and tighter. Practice those U-turns. Mark out some kind of non– draw it out where there’s no side effects. Like, don’t necessarily go and find a tight two lane road with a ditch that drops off eight feet to practice your U-turns. Go to a parking lot or some wide space; some abandoned road where you have plenty of room. Start wide and just get more and more comfortable bringing it in tighter and tighter. It’s just about practicing and being comfortable with all those skills.

Joanna: And everything John said. A couple of years ago we did a bike handling clinic for brand new triathletes and that was very eye opening to me because we’re talking about U-turns and tight U-turns and for them it was can I ride in the aero position for a quarter mile? Secondly, how do I go over a speed bump? These are all little techniques that most of us had to kind of just figure out on our own.

Andrew: Yeah, sure.

Joanna There wasn’t a lot of, you know– And I’m hoping that locally we can have more bike clinics to show newer triathletes. How do I make a left turn correctly? What am I doing with my feet? my legs? with my arms? There’s all techniques of making efficient, close, safe right and left turns on especially in a race environment when you’ve got people all around you.

Andrew: It is a skill to be able to eat on the bike, to drink out on the bike, to be able to grab bottles from a variety of places, to be able to grab nutrition out of different pockets and different places. How can we sharpen the skill set of eating, drinking, and grabbing things that we need on the bike?

Joanna: You practice how you race. You know what you’re going to be consuming on the bike. You know when you’re going to be consuming it. Where is it located? Are you planning for that to be in a back pocket? in a Bento Box? Is it in a baggie? Is it solid food or strictly liquids? Practicing on all long bikes consumption of your calories is essential. That’s got to be practiced and perfected and fail proof. If you’ve done it a million times and removed a cracker or Uncrustable from a Bento Box and it’s so routine to you, then you’ll have no problem on race day. I think there’s a lot of new things happening with athletes on race day. Oh, I’ll try this or I’ll shove these in a back pocket and I’ll try to remove it and undo a plastic wrapper with my teeth. No! No. We increase the risk of wrecking, danger, hitting another, taking out another athlete. So as much as we practice holding aero position or practice form in our swim stroke, we need to be practicing how we’re taking in nutrition on the bike. Then following race etiquette, race rules and how we’re getting rid of the trash on the bike and not throwing that to the detriment of someone behind us that might hit that. It’s kind of silly, but I have my athletes do back extension on a giant yoga ball and instead of just lifting up I make them lift to the side like they’re removing and replacing a bike bottle. That’s part of their strength training because those are muscle groups we don’t really engage unless we’re practicing.

Andrew: Interesting.

Joanna: So definitely back extension, but the caveat is now do a bike bottle. Take and replace.

John: So one of the tried and true tips that I got years ago and it has always worked and is one that I always have passed on to numerous athletes. It’s going through the aid stations when you are taking something from a hand up– so a volunteer is holding a bottle or a gel or something like that– to avoid confusion with that person as well as those around you, what I will do is I will point to the person. I will make eye contact with the person and if there’s something identifiable about them I will call it out. Now, usually they all have like the same volunteer shirt so like green shirt doesn’t work, but if they’re wearing like a red cap it’s like “You in the red cap.” You know, I will point, I will make eye contact, and then they know I’m taking the bottle from them. There’s no confusion and then the person who is perhaps riding next to me or behind me also knows that. So that’s just one of those things that works really well. It kind of almost guarantees a clean handoff so you’re not catching someone off guard. They’re moving with you. A lot of times they’ll kind of start to run with you and that’s just one of those things that it’s all about communication in those aid stations. Those are dangerous areas. They’re the most dangerous area of the race course. So communicate with the volunteers. Communicate with the other athletes that are around you.

Andrew: Moving on to skill #11. It is a skill to be able to overtake properly, to drop back properly, and to practice the legal draft on the bike. Just interacting and being aware of other people on the road is a skill. What do we do here guys?

John: This is a big one. It’s easy to do, but it’s oftentimes not done properly. So it’s critical to know the draft zone. So for those racing Ironman events it’s six bikes and you have 25 seconds to bridge that gap. So that’s actually a pretty good amount of time. Depending on how fast that person in front of you is going, 25 seconds is pretty long for you to gap, to close that six bike length gap and it’s even shorter in most other races. So it’s important that every time we are in a race we stay to the right. I see that all the time and it’s super frustrating. I raced over the weekend and, man, there were people who were not only not staying to the right, they were like riding on the left and I refuse to pass anyone other than on the left side because that’s what the rules require. So that’s one of those things like Jo was saying. It’s just etiquette and it’s a penalty. It’s blocking, it’s not cool, and it’s against the rules. So as far as actually passing and overtaking, it’s kind of two things in one. You’re passing them, but you also need to take advantage of the legal draft as you mentioned. So what this entails is– a lot of times what we’ll see is when someone passes they immediately get over. So they’re six bike lengths back, they get over and then they will bridge that gap. But, you don’t have to do that. The rules provide for you to stay in that slip stream for up to 25 seconds. A pass is considered completed when your front wheels match. So you don’t even have to truly pass the person. You have to match the person. Once you are even, once your front wheels are even, it is now the responsibility of the person who has been overtaken to reestablish that six bike or whatever the draft distance is in whichever race you are. So you could spend 22, 23, 24 seconds at an Ironman race and as long as you are pulling even with that other person in 25 seconds, you have not done anything against the rules. But for those 22, 23 seconds, you were being more efficient because of that draft that you were in. Now if you’ve got a motorcycle sitting right on you, you may want to complete that a little quicker because even when you get that penalty it doesn’t do you any– you could say I’ve got it on my stopwatch. I was there for 24 seconds. They don’t care. If they think you were there for 26 seconds, they’re giving you that penalty. But yeah. So that’s something that a lot of people don’t take advantage of and if you are in the longer races, sometimes you are working through a field of hundreds of people and if you are passing hundreds of people that hundreds times 25 seconds per that you can spend a lot of time legally drafting and it’s not anything against the rules. It’s certainly different than someone who is just sitting on someone’s wheel and doing so illegally. Yeah, it’s definitely something to take advantage of.

Joanna: And I’m going to refuse to answer this question in protest of the five minute penalty that I received at the Ironman World Championships. I could not pass the cyclist in front of me because we were going three miles per hour on an incline and I get a penalty for drafting.

Andrew: Jo, on behalf of the triathlon universe, I apologize that that happened to you and we’ll move on to triathlon skill #12. This is talking about the bike dismount. This again, just like mounting the bike, it is a skill to smoothly get off your bike and it saves you time on the race course. What do we do here guys?

John: So it’s easier than the mount, but it’s a lot of the same stuff. You’re just doing it in opposite order. So again, it’s a lot easier to come out of your shoes than it is to get in your shoes. It’s oftentimes easier to release the shoes than to tighten the shoes. So I would say even start with this, but also same thing, start on the trainer and always, always, always keep your eyes up. That is the biggest thing. If you’re looking down trying to figure out where that buckle or where that Boa is, who knows where your bike is headed. So eyes up. Do what you need to do to loosen your shoes and it’s usually just a really quick push down on the heel of the shoe and your foot will just kind of pop out. Do it to the other side and in the meantime you’re riding with your feet on top of the shoes. Then begin to slow down as you approach that mount line and there are two things that you can do. A lot of people will swing their leg over backwards, over the back of the bike. I have two bottles on the back of mine that really prevent me from doing that so I go the other way. I step with my right foot up over the top tube and so now this is where it gets a little– It’s probably easier than it looks, but you’re standing on one leg effectively holding your bike, but you’re at a relatively slow speed by now. Then if you do it properly, if you slow down right, you can approach that mount line and then just step off and you’re right into a jog headed back to a transition rack steering your bike by the saddle.

Joanna: And again, this is one of these skills; I think I was telling John before we even started recording today was that, please practice this 200 times successfully…

Andrew: Oh absolutely.

Joanna: …before you attempt this in a race.

Andrew: Do not be a liability on course.

Joanna: Yes.

Andrew: Do not put other athletes in a situation where you might wreck them and ruin their day because you can’t–

Joanna: Yeah, you take out athletes and you take out two volunteers all at the same time. You know, this is something– And again, this doesn’t have to be done. It depends on your goals. It depends on the distance of the race. It depends on the circumstances involving that bike. What is going on at that time at that bike dismount line?

Andrew: Yeah.

Joanna: Are there 16 cyclists dismounting around the same time? There is no shame in slowing and pulling to the side. You’re also about to execute a second transition. So for my athletes I’m like, you know I want you to put it in an easier gear, start to spin those legs out, and start thinking about what’s about to occur. What’s going to happen and how are you successfully going to execute this next transition. So that’s all in good timing in that last part of the bike.

Andrew: Triathlon skill #13 is once you get off the bike it is very different running off the bike as opposed to just running. It is a skill that we practice, that we can sharpen, to get good at running off the bike. So when it comes to getting your legs under you, when it comes to getting those legs spinning and getting comfortable, how can we sharpen this skill of becoming better at running off the bike?

John: It starts with what Jo mentioned. Oftentimes doing the last period of the bike in a higher cadence. It’s great. We’re oftentimes riding around a 90 cadence, kind of again depending on the course and the rider, but that’s really where we want to be running is somewhere give or take that 90 cadence so it’s allowing those neuropathways to get used to that turnover of 90 times per minute. So it’s starting there on the bike and then a good transition. So for my kind of rule of thumb, and this is really more so for short course racing where I’m going really hard out of transition and I’m trying to get every second possible, I give myself a half mile. This is something I learned years ago. The first half mile is going to suck. You’re like, I can’t do this for three miles or 6.2 miles, but if I give myself a half mile it starts to get easier. So that’s kind of my mental thought for the first half mile. I have a short attention span so a lot of people have like an alert where they’ve run a mile. For me it’s every half mile. I just need to know I’m going somewhere. So when my watch chimes, I know I’m going to keep pushing, I’m going to suck it up. I’m going to be uncomfortable for that first half mile. I know that’s what I’ve got to do out of transition specifically in a short course race. Now, it’s kind of the opposite in a long course race and this is where you really have to be careful. A lot of times you’re excited, you’re high on adrenaline and you’re feeling great. You’re glad to be off the bike. You may look down and be running 30 seconds to a minute faster than your plan.

Andrew: Absolutely.

John: And as great as that is, that can come back to bite you. If that’s not your plan, chances are you’re not going to run a half marathon or a marathon all of a sudden 30 seconds to a minute faster than you thought you were going to. But you may feel like you are. It may be a very easy effort, but unfortunately I can also attest that that sensation also often comes to an end somewhere around a half mile in. But it’s just being cognizant of it and like all these other things we’ve talked about. I remember back in the first couple years I was racing triathlon, those brick sessions were really tough. My legs felt really heavy. It was a very different sensation running off the bike than running fresh. All these years later I’ve done numerous sessions for a number of years and honestly anymore I don’t have that sensation anymore. A run off the bike largely feels like a fresh run. Now, I’m not always fresh, but I don’t have that sensation of the heavy legs, heavy feet anymore.

Joanna: With my athletes, my first thing to yell is usually settle in and that is often because I think athletes often take off too fast. Breathing gets out of control, heart rate skyrockets and they don’t ever really recover. So I do yell settle in and I think they understand me to say “Hey, maybe slow pace a little bit and think about that quick turnover.” Think about quick, tiny steps, light feet and when you kind of start to focus on form a little bit, it takes away some of your attention from the pain that is happening– or for me because I hate running. Like, I HATE running. So I always say settle in, quick small steps, focus on form, and just kind of monitor your breathing. Take some deep inhales if you feel like you’re really winded and out of breath. Try to focus on that breathing.

Andrew: Moving on to triathlon skill #14 in the home stretch here. Eating and drinking on the run. Now, we’re not having to balance ourselves on two wheels here. It’s, in theory, not as difficult as eating and drinking on the bike, but it’s still– like I am horrible at drinking. I’m pretty good at taking gels while I’m running. I’m pretty good at popping electrolyte tabs while I’m running. I am horrible at drinking fluids while I run. It just ends up everywhere unless I stop and walk for a second. Talk to us about the trickiness here and improving our skills of eating and drinking while we’re running.

Joanna: A couple of tips, you’re talking about the spillage and Gatorade going everywhere when you’re trying to approach an aid station. So there’s a couple tips here. First thing I always say and that’s going to be the most valuable thing is there’s no substitution for a practiced and perfected nutrition plan. So that’s kind of above all we’re talking about timing and what is being consumed. That has to be practiced, long runs, so it is your routine when you hit the race course. Secondly, kind of the same technique that John talked about as we approach an aid station on the bike, very similar on the run. No, you’re not on a bicycle, but I definitely point to a volunteer– there’s usually a lot more athletes around and it’s more confusing, a little more chaotic and then I hold two. For me I always put two fingers up to show that– They put about an ounce in each of these cups. So I’m one that always holds up two fingers, combines the two cups, squeezing the cup in the center at the top will make it like a very narrow spout and it’s a lot easier to be running and pour that Gatorade disposable cup in your mouth without a huge mess if you use this technique and this is something that, yes I did practice, because Andrew this was something for years in Ironman I was like “Oh, I’m going to get these aid stations down quick. I’m going to be flying through them.” And then I created this complete mess and chaos and got no fluid in in the meantime. So that is a practiced technique of squeezing that cup at the top, making more of a spout and getting that fluid in. I always tell athletes that struggle with timing and nutrition, set an alarm on their watch to make sure they are getting in the right amounts at the right time.

John: So this is another one that’s going to be dependent on the length of the race and how long you’re out there running. Like for me when I’m racing a sprint race, I will hit the aid station, but it’s to grab a cup of water to pour over my body. So I’m not necessarily worried about fueling my next several miles. Again, that’s always we’re taking in nutrition for the future, for the next– usually it’s that window of the next somewhere in the next 15 to 60 minutes is what we’re fueling. So I’m hoping to be done before that time period. So for me, I’m not looking. So for the sprint distance, it’s just about grabbing a cold cup of water to pour over my head, but from there you need to begin to start thinking about those calories and they really become critical in those 70.3 and Ironman distance races when you are. Now, especially early on, you’re a little bit fresher so your stomach often is a little more friendly to that, but as that race progresses and that diminishes so does your need for calories. So think about what I just said there. We’re fueling the next 15 to 60 minutes. So when you’re a mile or two out, now you can start to shut it down and you don’t necessarily need to worry about taking on those additional calories and fluid because you’re near the finish.

Andrew: Triathlon skill #15 is running the course efficiently. So we talked kind of about U-turns on the bike. I mean U-turns at pace in your Nike Vaporflys on the run can also be difficult. Running the tangents is a skill that we can practice and get better at. We can save a lot of time by just running the course efficiently. How do we sharpen this as a tri skill?

John: First you’ve got to know where you’re going especially if there’s not a large crowd leading the way and then from there, yeah things like tangents are huge. Quick story here. I raced a sprint distance race over the weekend. I came out of T2 with a 22-year-old which just totally deflated me. I’m racing as a 43-year-old so I’m like literally twice this guy’s age and I was thinking, “I can’t hang with this guy. He’s 22 years old and he’s like 50 pounds lighter than I am.” Well, he pulled away and I started reeling him in and about a mile and a half in to where we were going to be climbing in to cross over a bridge and as I was reeling him in I noticed he was going around these curves of this ramp really, really wide and every time I would take the tangent and take that shortest path and I was making significant space on him. By the time we made it to the top of this to cross over the bridge, I had caught him and a lot of it had to do with the fact that he just ran further than I did. Then, so that was kind of one of those things. I couldn’t believe, I was like “why is he doing this?” Even in the moment, I had that thought of “Why is he taking these turns so wide when there’s absolutely no reason to?” So yeah, taking those tangents and that was a sprint distance race so for there it’s that, then they really add up when you’re talking about half marathon and marathon distance. So you can do an extra tenth or even quarter of a mile if you’re taking those turns wide and not taking those tangents. So there’s a real penalty for not doing that. Then just kind of a practical tip on the U-turns. A lot of times we want to take them real skinny, get right up on that cone and almost do like a little dance around it, but that almost requires us coming to a complete stop and the hardest thing to do is get going. So I would say on those U-turns, even if it’s like a sidewalk width, take it wide. That way– you’ll still have to slow down, but it’s about maintaining as much of that inertia, as much of that speed as you can. Starting from anything is going to be starting from an almost dead stop. So take a little wider, maintain as much inertia as much speed as possible.

Andrew: Triathlon skill #16, the last one we are including on our list today, and this is an important one particularly for your Instagram account. It is a skill to while approaching and crossing the finish line to take a dope finish line picture. What tips do you have as coaches for just nailing that finish line pose?

John: I will definitely toss this one to Joanna who takes much better pictures than I do, but I will say make it a finish line picture, make it a celebration picture. Don’t allow it to be a “stop your watch” picture.

Andrew: Yes.

John: I bet 80-90% of those finish line pictures have someone posing hitting their stop button on their watch. You can give it a couple more seconds. Clear the finish line. Let the pictures come. They’re going to tell you what your time was and whatever you have on your watch doesn’t matter anyway. So just enjoy the finish line experience. Don’t worry about stopping your watch. Don’t ruin your picture by making it an “I’m stopping my watch” picture.

Andrew: Heck, stop your watch as you hit the finish line chute to begin with and just enjoy the entire chute without even thinking about your Garmin the rest of the day.

Joanna: Yeah, I had some thoughts about this. I think in my first couple of Ironmans it was always about a quarter mile out, check yourself girls. I mean, get that tri top pulled down, fix the top knot bun, make sure you are looking stellar as you come across. I actually think– and sometimes I still say that to my athletes– You know, check yourself or hand me something so you’re not wearing something crazy in a race. But now I think the most unbelievable photos of finish lines is to feel all the feels. I think it kind of took a recheck for me at St. George to just let it all go. I mean, you can just let the feelings flow and some of the greatest photos I’ve seen is like Andrew at Waco or me coming through the finish line at St. George and it just being raw. You’ve achieved it. You’ve done the work. It is a journey and it is a finish where you should be celebrated and I think it’s all those feelings that capture some of it are the greatest photos that I’ve seen.

Cool down theme: Great set everyone! Let’s cool down.

Andrew: That was a lot of tri talk in the main set with our 16, but really 17, tri skills that we are now armed and ready to sharpen. So I want to keep the cool down short today and selfishly, I’m going to claim it for myself as I occasionally do. I just wanted to give a quick shout out to our Calgary TriDotters, specifically Dough French, Vanessa Ronksley, and Rhonnie Andrews. In the warmup I mentioned our recent trip to Alberta and several of our Calgary and Edmonton based athletes gave me some vacation planning tips for that beautiful corner of the world. But even beyond that, it was July 1st, Canada Day, when my wife and I landed in Calgary and normally I’m sure that is a day folks are looking to spend with family. Doug and his wife Susan invited us into his home where we got to take part in a Canada Day backyard barbeque where Vanessa and Rhonnie also brought their families over. It was just a perfect way to kick off our travels in Alberta and so awesome of those TriDotters to spend their holiday with the Harley’s. Big thanks to each of them for showing us some Canadian hospitality and Doug, those turkey burgers were delicious.

Well that’s it for today folks. I want to thank Coach John Mayfied and Coach Joanna Nami for helping us sharpen our triathlon skills. Shoutout to our friends at Precision Fuel and Hydration for partnering with us on the episode today. Head to precisionfuelandhydration.com to book a call with one of their sweat experts and use promo code TRIDOT10 for 10% off your order. We’ll have a new show coming your way soon. Until then, Happy Training!

Outro: Thanks for joining us. Make sure to subscribe and share the TriDot podcast with your triathlon crew. For more great tri content and community, connect with us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Ready to optimize your training? Head to tridot.com and start your free trial today! TriDot – the obvious and automatic choice for triathlon training.

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