TriDot Podcast .198

8 Components Of The Perfect Pain Cave

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

 

AndrewHarley: Welcometo the TriDot podcast!  This should be afun one today, talking through the eight things every great pain cave shouldhave.  A good pain cave setup can make itso much easier and so much more enjoyable to knock out those indoorsessions.  And boy oh boy, do we have agreat pairing on the show to chat about pain cave setup.  Our first guest joining us today is Mike Clucas.  Mike is the founder and CEO of FulGaz, anindoor cycling app that is all about bringing the joy of riding outside to yourindoor rides.  As a cyclist himself, Miketraveled the world racing on a bike, spent a decade running the VictorianInstitute of Sport triathlon program, and worked with the national triathlonteam during the golden years of Australian triathlon.  He launched FulGaz in 2014, and continues hiswork creating virtual training experiences for athletes through the app.  Mike, welcome to the TriDot podcast, glad tohave you!

 

Mike Clucas: Glad to be here!  Thanks for theamazing introduction, makes me sound really important!

 

Andrew:  Alsojoining us today is the Ultraman himself, TriDot coach Jason Verbracken.  Jason lives in San Diego, California, wherehe works as a Pepsi sales manager, in addition to coaching TriDot athletes.  He has been racing tris for seven years,racking up nine Ironmans, one Ultraman, and five extreme triathlon finish linesin that time.  Coach Verbie, welcome backto the show!

 

JasonVerbracken:  Hey Andrew! Thanks for having me, always a pleasure to be here.

 

Andrew: Not mentioned in your bio, but I should mention it, Jason, is you have akiller pain cave.  I knew I needed aTriDot coach to come on and talk to us about making sure your pain cave wasready to rock and roll, I was like, “Yeah, I want to reach out to Verbie andmake sure he’s on this episode.”  Sothanks for coming on and taking the time.

 

I’m Andrew the Average Triathlete, Voice of the People andCaptain of the Middle of the Pack.  Asalways, we will roll through our warmup question, settle in for our main setconversation, and then wind things down with Vanessa interviewing a TriDotcoach to get a Coach Cooldown Tip.

 

We’ve had sports scientist Andy Blow from Precision Fuel& Hydration on the show quite a few times to help you nail your hydrationand fueling strategy for training and racing. We’ve learned from Andy that you’ll need to replace a portion of yourcarb, electrolyte, and fluid losses with what you eat and drink if you want toperform at your best.  So Andy and theteam at Precision Fuel & Hydration have developed a Fuel Planner so thatyou can take the guesswork out of your race nutrition plan.  Head over to precisionhydration.com totake the Fuel Planner, and get your free personalized race nutritionstrategy.  You can then book a call withPF&H’s athlete support team to refine your strategy, and don’t forget thatTriDot listeners can get 10% off their very first order of electrolytes andfueling products by using the code TRI23 at the checkout at precisionhydration.com.  

 

Warmup theme: Timeto warm up! Let’s get moving.

 

Andy: Anyone who spends hours outside on a bike will know how important it isto properly pack your jersey pockets with the items that you might need duringyour ride.  There are a number of usualcandidates, things like keys, a cell phone, gels, cash, a flat kit, jacket,sunnies.  Those are all typical items toend up in a jersey pocket for a ride. But what I’m interested in today, here on our warmup question – for allyour hours outdoors on a bike, what is something unexpected that somehow endedup in your jersey pocket?  Coach Verbie,what do you think?

 

Jason: This question has been bugging me.

 

Andrew: Has it really?

 

Jason: Yes, it’s been driving me crazy, because I can’t think of anything thathas been in my back pocket that’s out of the ordinary.  I’m very particular in what goes back there,and I’m just not going to pick up anything random, so just your normal – acouple extra tubes maybe, if I was going out for a really long ride.  I’m not one to dilly dally and stop, andnothing weird has gotten in the back, ever.

 

Andrew:  Ilooked at your bios, and I knew the two of you have spent a considerable amountof time on a bike, so I was like, if there’s two guys to ask this question to,it is Mike and Coach Verbie.  So we’refinding that Coach Verbie goes out extremely prepared, he stays extremelyprepared, and no nonsense ends up in the back pockets of Coach Verbie on hisride.  Very interesting.  Mike, do you have anything here to chime inwith?

 

Mike: The weirdest thing would probably be a surround-sound audio kit.  We were experimenting with 360° videorecording for the Olympic courses, and we had a special mount on the front ofthe bike about head high.  All the time,with visual stuff, it’s actually the sound that makes you think something ismore realistic or higher quality, so we figured we would record the audio inreally high quality, without the wind. The only way that would work was in my back pocket.  So we did it, and no one cared.  It was a complete waste of time.  It was an interesting experiment, but thatwas the only way to do it.

 

Andrew: Jeff Booher, our founder and CEO, he for years coached a youth andjunior triathlon team.  While he wasworking with the Tri4Him Junior Elite team, I was like, “Hey, let me come outand get some footage of the kids training and racing, and we’ll make a socialmedia commercial for the Tri4Him Junior Elite team, and other kids and parentscan find the team and join.”  So I showedup to one of their group rides, and I was riding with the kids and trying toget footage of them.  I’m riding aroundTexas Motor Speedway where they knock out their training sessions with a dronein my back pocket, and I would get ahead of them or behind them, and I wouldget off my bike and set the drone up and get the drone in the air, and they’dall come flying by, and I’d follow with the drone for a second.  Yeah, just chasing them around on their groupride with a drone in my back pocket makes that my answer to this question.

 

Likewe always do, we’re going to throw this question out to our audience.  Make sure you’re a member of the I AM TriDotFacebook group.  We’ve got tens ofthousands of triathletes talking swim, bike, and run every single day on thatgroup, and every Monday when the new show comes out, I throw this question outto you.  So you heard from Coach Verbie,no nonsense in his back pocket.  You’veheard from me and Mike, we had some good answers here.  I’m curious to hear from you, from all ofyour outdoor rides, what is the weirdest thing that has ever ended up in thatjersey pocket?

 

Mainset theme: On tothe main set. Going in 3…2…1…

 

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With avariety of options, budgets, and equipment combinations, there is no one rightway to set up a pain cave.  But there arecertainly some guiding principles that can make your indoor training much moreefficient and enjoyable.  And today, ourguests will talk us through eight things every great pain cave shouldhave.  You may not have the budget, thespace, or the desire to incorporate all eight of these into your setup, andthat’s okay, but you’ll certainly get some ideas from this chat today.  Mike, Verbie, where I want to start today,before we get into the things that a pain cave maybe even should have or canhave, what does your actual pain cave look like?  Mike, what’s in your pain cave?

 

Mike:  Mypain cave has got equipment in there I can’t tell you about, it’s not outyet.  Some of it’s pretty good.  Because if you think about it, because ourapp has to work with everything, we often have one of everything.  So our office is full of every brand oftrainer and smart bike you can imagine. But for me at home, it’s pretty simple. It’s a Wahoo Kickr, a Kickr Climb, and a Wahoo fan.  It’s not because – well, I’m a fan of Wahoo,to be honest – but it’s not because of any commercial relations, it’s becausethat stuff’s really good.  I’ve used abig TV, but actually, because I wear glasses, I just use an iPad really close,so I’ve got a stand that keeps the iPad really close to my face, and just wearmy reading glasses that I wear for short- and middle-distance stuff.  I can see everything, it’s all focused,what’s in front of me is there.  Theclimb stair, it’s one of those things that seems like a bit of an extravagance,and it is, but if you’re doing longer rides indoors, it just changes the anglethat you're riding up and down.  So itmoves those pressure points around, which if really you're doing a lot of workin doors, which I think people increasingly are, it really helps.

 

Andrew: Coach Verbie, what’s in your own personal pain cave?  What’s your setup like?

 

Jason: Well, my pain cave has been relocated many times through the years, or wecould just say I’ve gotten kicked out of many places in the house.  So finally I’m in a 10x12 wood shed in thebackyard, that’s where my pain cave is now. In mine, same thing as Mike, I’ve got the Kickr, Kickr Climb, and a rockerplate for my bike setup.  I’ve got awhiteboard in there that I can write on race goals, or when my race is comingup, or some kind of motivational quote I’m on right now.  I’ve got the TV with the surround sound, butI also – again with me and my glasses – I have next to me a stand with my iPadrunning everything, any virtual platforms I’m running on.  Let’s see, I have a cabinet in there that hasall my different cycling shoes, helmets, tubes, all the kinds of accessoriesyou have for training.  Then I have a BritneySpears cardboard cutout, she’s about five feet tall.  

 

Andrew: Yeah, you do!

 

Jason:  Idon’t remember where Britney – I know where Britney came from, she wassponsored by Pepsi many years ago, so she’s probably 18 – and somehow she endedup in the pain cave, and she’s been there for years now.  So when things get tough, I can go take aglance at her, and she’s there smiling, drinking a Pepsi, and I can just keeppushing.

 

Andrew: Yeah, definitely motivating to have a friend with you in the pain cave,so to speak.  I was not anticipating thatin your answer.  My own pain cave, mywife and I had a spare bedroom we were able to convert into a workout room, sowe have a TV on the wall with a Roku.  Mywife is not an endurance athlete, but she enjoys doing Beach Body workouts, soshe can fire up her Beach Body workouts on the TV in there, I’ll stream mySpotify music through that TV when she’s not in there.  Yeah, it’s pretty simple, the treadmill andthe TacX bike are side-by-side, and the rest of the room stays open for my wifeto do her workouts as she’s looking at that TV. Yeah, pain caves are really fun to look at.  I’m actually going to give a shout out to anaccount on Instagram called Pain Caves. There’s a guy, he’s a professional triathlete, and he runs an accountcalled @pain.caves, and he just features what other peopleare doing with their pain caves.  I loveseeing people’s setups, seeing what other people are doing.  That’s kind of the heart here today, is forus to just learn what we can do with our pain caves, and learn what’s helpful.  Mike, with all the equipment that you’vetested, and Verbie, with all the stuff you’ve looked into to optimize your ownsetup, I know we’re going to have a great conversation here today.  So we’ve promised to cover what I consider tobe the eight major categories for pain cave development.  So let’s get into that list.  I’ll introduce these one‑by-one, and we’lllet Mike and Coach Verbie share what is possible for each one in our paincave.  We’re going to start with the mostessential thing.  I don’t think you caneven consider it a proper triathlon pain cave without some sort of indoor bikesetup of some kind.  So guys, whatoptions are available for athletes to get their bike inside and ready for anindoor workout?  Mike, it sounds like youhave a lot of those options at FulGaz headquarters, so why don’t you starthere?

 

Mike:  Ithink the budget rears its ugly head over all this, so I think we can explainthe different ends of the spectrum.  Ithink you would spend most of your money on the thing you’re going to beriding.  If you’re going to ride indoorsa lot, and if you can afford it, get yourself a smart bike.  Get yourself the Neo bike, or the Stages bike,or the Wahoo bike, something like that. Because that’s not going to throw oil all over the carpet, which wouldget you moved into yet another location for the pain cave.  Focus on making sure the thing you sit on isas good as you can afford within your budget, and anything from there is abonus.  I’d focus on that first.

 

Jason: Yeah, like you said, you’re going to be spending the most hours on it, soyou want it the most comfortable.  Again,price is a big thing, so if you can go from rollers to like what you got, thewhole new virtual bike, just figure out what your budget is, and where you canspend, but remember, you’re going to be putting in a lot of hours on it, so Iwould say go with the upper end, because your butt will thank you.

 

Mike: That’s a really good point. Talking off that, even if you’ve got one of those, get a saddle thatyou’re familiar with, and ride a decent pair of shorts indoors.  The temptation is to say, “No one’s going tosee me, I’ll just put a crappy old pair of shorts on.”  To be honest, wear your best shorts indoors,and again, your butt will thank you.

 

Andrew: Mike, you talked about there’s different levels to what your bike isattached to.  Your bike has to beattached to something indoors.  There aremagnetic trainers, fluid trainers, there are rollers, there are smart trainers,and then there’s the smart bikes.  Mike,do you have any strong opinions on what level of trainer an athlete should belooking for to have their training be more efficient? Or it just whatever yourbudget allows, it’s all going to work out okay?

 

Mike: Anything is better than nothing, but if we were to draw a linesomewhere, if you’re serious about your training, I would get an indoor trainerthat’s a smart trainer, which nearly all of them are now, really.  But more importantly, one where you take thewheel off, so you haven’t got the tire spinning on a roller and spraying rubberup the back wall of your pain cave.  Youtake the wheel off, you put the bike on, and then that’s going to simulate lotsof different gradients that will allow you to really get the right amount ofresistance, if you’re doing a structured workout.  But I think there’s very much a feeling, orhas been in the past, that indoor training isn’t really proper training, it’sjust sort of like a substitute for riding outside.  But we’ve been doing a lot of research latelyinto the training effects of different types of training, like going right intopedaling dynamics, torque, and stuff like that. It’s a lot harder to rideinside, so it’s actually doing you more benefit.  Not only are you not stopping at trafficlights, but you’re spending more time, as the Europeans would say, “with thechain tight”.  Based on that, somethingthat’s really worth bringing up is, it is proper training, so it’s worthlooking after your bike.  Like, somepeople sweat heaps.  You know the guythat’s staggering through the finishing chute at an Ironman race just caked insalt.  Well, that same guy or girl hasjust about dissolved the handlebars on their bike.  Just put a towel over the handlebars or something,one of those microfiber towels, and have that between your hands and thehandlebars, and that’ll stop sweat seeping in under the handlebar tape.  Try and keep the sweat off, and keep lubingthat chain, because it’s under a lot more tension than it is outside, sodespite the fact that there’s no grit getting in there, they do actually wearout quicker.  It’s worth bearing in mindthat it’s not just a set-and-forget kind of thing.  You’ve got to look after that bike, eventhough it’s not going out in the elements, because you’re basically pouringwarm, salty water over it every time you ride, and doing your best to stretchthe chain.  So yeah, look after it.

 

Andrew:  I’vealways put towels over the front end of my bike.  I just drape towels over the aerobars, it’smore comfortable for my arms anyway, and it keeps the sweat off the front end,that’s for sure.  I am absolutely guiltyover the years of not taking care of my drivetrain while it’s sitting there. Idon’t lube the chain enough.  I think you’rejust thinking to yourself, “Oh, I’m not riding outside.  Dirt’s not getting in there, debris is notgetting in there.  It’s just inside, it’sfine.”  But yeah, you forget that you'reputting so much torque on that chain, and you’re using it day after day afterday.  So absolutely remember to take careof your chain, take care of your drivetrain, and freshen those up from time totime while they’re indoors on the trainer. Jason, talk to us about some of the things you have in your pain cave,and you’ve seen your athletes get, that can add some motion and ride feel toyour ride.

 

Jason: The best thing that I have, and I would tell that to any athlete, is ifyou’re going to spend a lot of time on it, get a rocker plate underneathit.  You and I have talked about itbefore, Andrew, and I think I helped convince you to get one.

 

Andrew: Yes, true.

 

Jason: It’s not an, “Oh my gosh, this is the greatest thing in the world!”, butit makes a difference to the point where you’re going to go, “Oh my gosh, mybutt is feeling so much better.”  Becauseit gives you more of that back-and-forth feel like you’re outside.  It just takes that little bit of pressure offof that lower region, and when you’re in Ironman training and you’ve got thatfive-hour ride, I can mentally go inside or outside, it doesn’t matter, mybutt’s going to feel the same.  Like Mikesaid too, I got the Kickr Climb, and that makes a big difference also.  Just working those different muscles, gettingjust that little bit of riding up a hill, changes the angle you're at, changesfrom sitting in that same position for that five hours.  It’s keeping the movement going, andsimulating the best you can for an outdoor ride.  That is key to training, to simulate it thebest you can.  Those two things are huge.

 

Andrew:  Okay,so we’ve talked about setting up your bike quite a bit there, that was reallyhelpful.  That is the crux of a good paincave, is having your bike properly set up, and knowing what your options are tooptimize that setup.  So let’s move on toitem number two, thing number two that every great pain cave should have, is avirtual platform to display what is happening on your ride.  Now Mike, you have literally created one ofthese with FulGaz, so you know firsthand. Tell us why should a great pain cave should have a virtual component?

 

Mike: It’s pretty simple really, what you’re trying to do is move from havinga “pain cave” to a “performance cave”. You want to be doing stuff that’s productive, and not hating everysecond of it.  You’ve got the virtualstimulation part of it, and different platforms do different things.  I think it’s keeping you occupied, andkeeping you honest, so you’re actually doing the work that you think you setout to do.  I think that’s reallyimportant, regardless of the platform.

 

Andrew: Make it a performance cave and not a pain cave.  Coach Verbie, I know you absolutely usevirtual platforms in your training. What’s your two bits when you’re talking with your athletes on why theyshould incorporate this into their pain cave?

 

Jason:  Someof the great things about it, one is it’s right there for you.  There’s really no excuse, and it gives you somany different varieties of training options. It has the realistic simulation, you can ride the race courses now.  You’re getting first-hand knowledge of whatthe course is going to be like, and what you’re going to feel at mile 80on the Ironman Arizona course.  Plusanother thing is, you’ve got the social engagement.  Again, you’re alone in your pain cave, butyou can be virtually riding with your best friend.  I could be riding with Mike, and he’s inanother whole country!  How great isthat?!  We can be talking, and we can setit up so we’re suffering together, or having our great performancetogether.  That’s what makes the virtualplatform so great.  Plus safety too,going out on the road versus staying in, just all those things.  Like Mike was saying, I can remember the timewhen my workout was just on a piece of a paper next to the bike.  And that gets boring, especially if you’redoing two, three sessions a week.  Aftera couple months of that, you’re over it. So this just keeps you fully engaged. And if you’re excited – “Hey, I’ve got a group ride with a whole bunchof friends coming on Saturday!” – something you look forward to, not somethingyou’re dreading and not wanting to go do. That virtual part of it, getting on that platform, is huge.

 

Andrew:  Ipersonally can’t speak to Trainer Road – I’m aware it’s out there, but I’venever used it.  TriDot has an integrationwith Trainer Road, so you can push your TriDot workout to Trainer Road and itwill be right there waiting for you. I’ve never used Rouvy.  I’vefilmed some courses for Rouvy, because we did a couple remote races withRouvy.  The two that I’m most familiarwith are FulGaz and Zwift.  I used Zwiftfor a long, long time.  I’ve always likedZwift, there’s a lot of pros to it.  Butat the time we’re recording this podcast, I did my first ride on FulGazyesterday.  And Mike, I loved it.  I had a very strong first impression.  TriDot has integrated with FulGaz, it wassuper cool.  I logged on, I fired up theKona World Championship course, and my TriDot workout was right there waitingfor me.  So I just had to click onebutton, and my workout was loaded.  I wasable to follow along with it, and as soon as that was done, my workout wentstraight to TriDot, and I got my TrainX score. So Mike, genuine positive feedback, and I’m not just saying this becauseyou’re on the podcast.  I had a very goodfirst impression.  But being on the show,and taking your time to come on our show to talk pain caves with us, I wantedto give you the chance to tell us what makes FulGaz different and unique in thespace of virtual training platforms.

 

Mike: The key difference with FulGaz over some of the other platforms that youmight try is in the realism.  Not only isit 4K vision, but the stuff that we do with the data means that that climb – ifyou’re climbing up Hawi, it’s going to feel just as bad is it would if you werethere in real life, sorry.  We get peoplewho sort of complain, “Your app’s terrible because it’s so hard!”

 

Andrew:  “Ibarely made it up that hill!”

 

Mike:  Ialways wanted to write back and say, “Yeah, that’s bike riding.  It sucks, it’s tough.”  I would want it to be more polite than that,but the point is that it’s the same physiological load, indoors andoutdoors.  If you’re just riding thecourse, it’s incredibly close.  So youcan mix it up, saying, “You know what? I’d love to do an Ironman in Norway.” Or, “I’d love to go exploring the Loire Valley in France.”  You can go and do that visually, whilstgetting that prescribed training load from TriDot, working through thatway.  There’s two different ways to useit.  To experience what it feels like tobe there, or to just experience what it looks like to be there, but do whatyou’ve been told to do as a workout.  Ithink it’s really important to understand that if you have got the Kona course,you haven’t got to start at mile zero, you can chop it up into differentsections.  So if you’ve got to do an hoursteady, you can say, “I’m going to do the final hour, then I’m going to go offand run.” You can chop it up and do that, which is super helpful.  Otherwise, you’ve got a hundred-something-milecourse, you don’t want to start at the beginning all the time, because you’llnever get to the end.  It’s a handylittle tip.

 

Andrew:  Iknow for our TriDot athletes, when they sign up for that half Ironman, thatIronman, they’re given a race rehearsal four weeks out and two weeks out fromrace day.  So you can do your TriDotsessions and follow along with the workout, and then once race rehearsal daycomes around, you can do your race rehearsal on our actual race course, and geta feel for what that effort takes up that hill, down that hill, up thatmountain, down that mountain.  Yeah,definitely a super-cool thing.  And with FulGazthere are club rooms.  We have a TriDotclub room. Our integration with FulGaz is very new, so we’re still kind ofbuilding this out, but I know Dan Caskie – our TriDot staff member who’s incharge of the TriDot community building – he’s developing a system for us tohave some group rides in our FulGaz club room, very excited to see that takeoff.  We’re going to do a YouTube videowith Beck from the team at FulGaz, just talking more about how the club roomswork, and how you can get into those TriDot group rides, so go follow us onYouTube to catch wind of all of that. But I had a great experience with my first FulGaz ride, and I’mdefinitely hungry for more.  So you guysjust helped us get our bikes ready to ride outdoors, but thing number three thata great pain cave should have is a way to run indoors.  Is this essential?  No, it’s not essential.  You can run outdoors, a lot of gyms havetreadmills.  But can a pain cave be greatwithout it?  I’m going to argue no.  We are swim, bike, and run.  Running is one of our sports, and if you wantyour pain cave to be a great pain cave, to me you need to have some sort ofviable way to do some run training indoors. Jason, what are the options here for athletes, and do you have a way torun indoors?  I don’t recall hearing itin your opening description of your pain cave.

 

Jason:  Ido not have one in my pain cave.  But Ithink you can have a great pain cave without a treadmill.  That’s going to vary though, too, where youlive.  Me being in San Diego, my weatheris pretty perfect.  I don’t have one,because I can just get out and get that run done no matter what.  So for me, I would say you can have a greatone without it.

 

Andrew:  Ibought a treadmill and put it in my pain cave to run indoors when it’s a heatindex of 111° in June, which is what we have today and this week.  To me, it’s an essential.  Some people will live close to their gym, soyou can kind of get this by proxy of just driving a couple minutes down to yourgym.  That counts, that’s good.  But you’ve got to have an easy way to get ona treadmill to knock out that training session. Mike, is this something that you have at your headquarters, at yourhouse, or no?

 

Mike: Headquarters yes, house no.  But Ithink it’s one of those things where the hardware’s not really there.  Like, the bike-riding hardware indoors isamazing, but there’s not yet anything on the market.  I know there’s stuff planned, but there’s notyet anything on the market that’s smart in that same way.  It’s kind of a chicken and egg thing though.  I think if the hardware is better, thensoftware people like myself and other people in the market can then put effortin.  But it’s hard to know what the levelof interest is, so that’s something that will be great to hear about from theTriDot community.

 

Andrew: That’s a very interesting thought. I would definitely fire up an Ironman course to see what the run courseis like.  Thing number four that a greatpain cave should have is equipment for strength training.  Lots of options here.  So many options, in fact, that everytriathlete should have some sort of a way to build strength in the home paincave.  What do you guys see athletesdoing at home for strength setup?  Mike?

 

Mike:  Onesticks in my mind for all the wrong reasons. Remember those BowFlex that Chuck Norris used to promote?  Well I had that, AND the poster of ChuckNorris.

 

Andrew: Sure!  All in, yeah!

 

Mike: He’s all in.  I was impressed andhorrified in equal amounts.

 

Andrew: Coach Verbie, what do you like to see your athletes have in their paincave for some strength work?

 

Jason:  Aslong as you have the basics, you can still get in an amazing workout with justhaving some dumbbells and some bands. Just those two things alone, you can knock out an amazing workout.  A good mat to be on if you’re doing crunchesor planks.  Those things are really allyou need.  Then depending on how muchroom you have and how crazy you want to get, like you said, you can get aweight bench, and the barbells, and a squat rack.  It depends on your budget and how much roomyou have.

 

Andrew:  Agreat pain cave will have a few dumbbells, and maybe a kettlebell or two layingaround.  Thing number five that a greatpain cave should have is a recovery corner. This does not have to be in a corner obviously, but we should absolutelybe doing stuff to recover as hard as we train. Coach Verbie, what can an athlete have at home to spark recovery?

 

Jason: Again, a good mat for doing yoga for stretching, that’s key.  Something that you’re comfortable on, on thefloor.  Then you’ve got your foam roller,a massage ball, a lacrosse ball, a tennis ball, to really get into thosehard-to-hit places, or a massage gun.  Ifwe want to start going more high-end, then we get the compression boots,hyperbaric chambers, we can go all‑out on recovery if you want to getcrazy.  But like you said, startsimple.  Get a good mat for yoga andstretching, a foam roller, a tennis ball. You’re out probably under $50 right there, and you’ve got a good littlerecovery area and some tools for it.

 

Mike:  Ifwe keep using that “performance cave” analogy, recovery’s all aboutprocess.  It’s not just the equipmentyou’ve got, it’s what you do with it.  Ifyou really want to go for it, you take the mantra that you go in the room, youdo not get on the bike until you’ve got your activation routine, and you do notleave the room until you’ve done your post-ride stretch-recovery routine.  I’m in Eastern Europe at the moment, so maybethat’s kind of rubbing off on me, “I’m going to do this, and this, and this,and this.”  And you think, “Ah, it’sgoing to take too long,” but that’s the time you would have taken to getdressed to go outside.

 

Andrew: You’re absolutely right.

 

Mike: You don’t need to go crazy, you can just do two minutes of stuff beforeyou ride, and do two to five minutes when you finish.  You think about the amount of times you dothat through the year, that’s a few hours of extra, full-on, quality pre‑rideactivation and post‑ride recovery, just by doing that.

 

Andrew: Being in western culture, I think for probably 98% of our audience thatreally struck home, or should have struck home. I am one of them.  I've got onehour for this workout, I've got things to do before, things to do after.  I'm going to hop on the bike, hop off thebike, and get back to my life.  Yes,absolutely.  That is a challenge to ouraudience today: when you do those pain cave sessions, add in a couple minuteson the front end for activation drills, add in a couple minutes on the back end.  And if you've got your yoga mat right therein your great pain cave, there's no reason not to hop off the bike and unrollit.  You need to cool off anyway, you'vegot to let the sweat calm down anyway before you go about your next dailyactivity.  So take that time on thefloor, do some stretching, do some recovery modalities.  Great word there, Mike, about the"performance cave", not the pain cave, and being intentional withyour recovery corner.  Thing number sixthat a great pain cave should have – I'm very passionate about this one, maybebecause I'm a Texan – is air flow.  Itdoes not take long for the sweat to start pouring indoors.  Getting air flowing over your face and yourbody will do wonders for your pain cave comfort.  What do you guys recommend that athletes doto get the air moving in their pain cave? Mike, what do you think?

 

Mike: Again, it comes down to budget, but get that air moving.  This also comes back to what we were talkingabout at the start, which is look after your bike.  If that sweat on your face is evaporatinginto the room rather than dripping down the back of your head stem and rustingthe headset onto the rest of the bike, it's a win.  The custom fans made for indoor training areamazing, they really blow a narrow shaft of air.  But if you can't afford that, a couple ofcheap fans from Amazon works wonders.

 

Andrew: Yeah, they sure do.  At this pointin our pain cave we have a couple fans. We have a ceiling fan obviously, but I also have a Vornado, I justbought it last week to put in front of my new TacX smart bike.  That just blows a nice column of air right onme when I'm on the smart bike.  We haveanother one that was just $60 at Home Depot – really good size, blows a goodamount of air – we have that in the corner facing the area where my wife doesher workouts, so she has some air moving on her face.  Then I have a little clip-on fan that was $20off of Amazon that clips on to the top of my treadmill and blows air right onmy face when I'm on the treadmill, and I am covered.  With that, I'm pretty happy in every singlecorner of the space.  Coach Verbie,anything that I'm missing here that is a nice addition to the air flow of yourpain cave?

 

Jason:  Ithink you hit it all.  It's fans, fans,and more fans.  That is the key.

 

Andrew:  Noneed to get FAN-cy, right?  Simple fans,whatever's in the budget.  I am curiousto hear, I know Mike you mentioned having the Wahoo Headwind solution.  That picks up pace as your workout getsharder, and it backs off when your efforts are easier.  Is that pretty cool?  Is that worth the money for somebody who hasthe budget for it?

 

Mike: It's also really good for the Beyoncé hair flowing around, if you wantit.  But you can set it up to work withheart rate, so that the higher your heart rate gets, the more the wind blows onyou.  That's inferring core temperature –you're working harder, so you get hotter. Or you can do it by road speed.  OrI just say, "I feel like I'm getting hotter, I'll turn it uphigher."  You can do that from yourphone, in their app, if you can't reach it. It's pretty cool like that.  Yeah,it just gives you a more focused blast of air, if that makes sense.  It's not just a general turbulence, it'sreally blasting that sweat off.

 

Andrew: One more next-level fan tip – and it sounds like you have this with theWahoo fans, that you can control with the app – but if you can, find a fan thatcomes with a remote control.  There isnothing worse than walking into your pain cave on a fall or winter morning whenit's actually chilly in your pain cave, hopping on the bike, starting your bikesession, starting your treadmill session, and then ten minutes in, having tohop off to go turn on your fan, because you did not want your fan on when youfirst started the workout.  Or converselyif it's warm in there, and you forget to turn on the fan, you start pedalingand you're like, "Ugh, I forgot to turn the fan on!"  I do that all the time.  One more next-level tip, if you are a TriDotathlete – we have TriDot athletes in the audience, we have non-TriDot Trainingathletes in the audience, we welcome both of course –when you do your TriDotsession, TriDot has environment normalization where we will tell you whatintensities you should be riding and running at based on your environmentalconditions.  So when it's hotter outside,you need to back off the pace.  When it'scooler outside, you need to increase the pace. There is a box in your TriDot app to check off that you are doing anindoor workout.  That indoor workoutdefaults to 70° and a moderate amount of humidity, because it's assuming thatyou have comfortable conditions indoors. So when you do your workout – you fire up your ride on FulGaz and you doyour one-hour TriDot session on a Tuesday – and if you did NOT tell TriDot thatyou are doing that indoors, it will think that you are outdoors, and your scorewill be reflected as the pace you should have done outdoors.  So it's always worth firing up the app,clicking the box that you're doing that workout indoors, so that you do thepaces you're supposed to be doing, and you get the correct score.  I just wanted to plug that, no othertriathlon training platform has that feature. It is something unique to us, we've studied it, so definitely want tomake sure I plug that.  Because everyonce in a while, even being on staff, I will forget to check that box before myride, and afterwards I'm like, "Man, why did I score 70? I should have scored100, I did that workout perfectly!  Ooh,I did not click the 'indoor ride'!" Verbie, have you ever done that before, have you ever forgotten to checkthe indoor bike ride?

 

Jason: Well, seeing as I'm in a wood shed, I keep it on outdoor conditions.  Because it's usually actually warmer thanwhat the temperature actually says outside, because the sun is beating on thewoodshed, and it's nice and warm in there. So I keep it on “outdoor”.  I'mlucky enough to be in outdoor conditions inside I guess.

 

Andrew: Yeah, good point!  Okay, we havetwo more things to cover here.  Thing numberseven that a great pain cave should have is entertainment!  Hop on your bike for 90 minutes indoors andjust stare at the wall and pedal, I dare you! Look, you absolutely can, you can get through your workout that way ifthat's your thing.  You are mentallytougher than I am if you can do that.  Ithink, personally, a great pain cave should have some ways to help you occupythe time.  We already talked about FulGazand other virtual platforms that certainly help keep your mind engaged, butthere are other options in addition to that. You can throw on some music, you can throw on a Netflix show, you canthrow on a movie or some podcasts.  Mike,Jason, what do you guys think about "in-flight entertainment", so tospeak, for the pain cave?  Mike I'mcurious to hear from you – when you do your sessions, do you find FulGaz to beengaging enough that you don't have anything else on, or do you find some otherways to mix up the entertainment?

 

Mike: I've got to be honest, I don't find it entertaining enough.  Particularly when you're going to ride hard,you want to take your brain away from the effort, so I want something thatengages my brain.  So I'll listen topodcasts, that's my go-to.  Some peoplelike really loud music or really motivational stuff.  I'm hyped enough as it is.  I need to be calmed down and taken away fromthe teeth-grinding effort it might be. So podcasts – do you want me to name some?

 

Andrew: Sure!

 

Mike: So obviously it would have to be theTriDot podcast as the first one.

 

Andrew: Thank you!

 

Mike: Second session, I would go to the SILCA Marginal Gains podcast, ifyou're a little bit of a nerd like me.

 

Andrew: Phenomenal, fantastic.

 

Mike: Fantastic.  They do a beautiful job.  Josh Poertner, the main guy there at SILCA,  is just fascinating, and it's always inspiringme to buy too many of their products I suppose, but also just discoverstuff.  Anything from the EscapeCollective, that was cycling tips, especially the Geek Warning episodes thatthey do.  They do three or four podcastsa week that's very strongly in cycling, but very fascinating nonetheless.  And if you want to go off on a completelydifferent tangent – something where I might say, "I need to be distractedeven more, I don't want it to be anything about sport" – being originallyfrom England, there's a podcast called the "Rock-On Tours", which isinterviews by musicians interviewing musicians from the 80's onwards tonow.  Sometimes you just really getcarried away by their story and what they're talking about and go, "Oh, Ijust finished the session!  That wasreally cool!"  Or there's a businesspodcast by a guy called Mitch Joel, his Six Pixels of Separation podcast is awesome,he interviews some incredible people.  Soagain, you get caught up in that conversational-like topic, and that just helpstime fly by.  That's how I do it.

 

Andrew:  Acouple great recommendations there from Mike for your podcast listening.  It's so funny, it's different foreveryone.  For Mike, it's podcasts, notmusic.  For me, I've got to have somemusic going.  I'm a music guy.  On Zone 2 days, to your point, it's somechiller, calmer music.  And on rah-rahdays, it is some hyped-up punk rock music. I know TriDot coach and pro triathlete Elizabeth James is a proponent ofdoing nothing.  She likes to stare at thewall and work on her mental grit factor on her indoor sessions.  I can't imagine it, but that's the way shelikes to do it.  Coach Verbie, what doyou think is the way to view optimizing your indoor entertainment options?

 

Jason: For me, I'm all over the place. I'm from podcasts, to music, to different shows on TV.  It just depends on what mood I'm in, and howI'm feeling for that day.  I've got my TVin there, I've got a Bluetooth speaker, and sometimes it changes three, fourtimes in an hour session, depending. Some music may not be working for me, so then I'll start listening to apodcast and I'll get bored with it, then I'll put YouTube on and be watchingdifferent things on YouTube.  I'm allover the place, and sometimes I'm an Elizabeth James and I just don't wantanything.  I just want to focus on what'sgoing on, and have nothing else going on.

 

Andrew: Something I saw that I thought was super clever, Tim O'Donnell andMirinda Carfrae, both Ironman champions now on board as TriDot coaches, they'regreat Instagram follows.  If you followthem on Instagram, you'll see some pictures and clips from their paincave.  They have their bikes on trainerson one side of the room, and there's a couple feet between them and where theyhave TVs on the wall.  But they havethese TVs mounted, not up where you would normally mount a TV, but those TVsare mounted down towards the floor.  Sothey can sit in aero, and their head position is looking forward towards thefloor, where they would be looking at the road on race day, but they're able towatch TV there.  I don't know if theyhave their virtual favorite cycling platform of choice, I don't know if theyhave Netflix or something that they're watching, but I thought that was reallyclever just in terms of TV placement, if your space works out that way, to haveyour TV placed where you can actually have a neutral line of sight and watchwhatever it is you're watching to entertain yourself.  I just wanted to throw that little tidbit outthere, shout out to Tim and Rinnie for that tip.  But yeah, Mike, in my newest setup, now thatI have my TacX smart bike, for the first time I just had my iPad in front of mein my iPad holder, and I had my FulGaz ride right in front of me, and the FulGazcourse footage in front of me with my Spotify punk rock playlist blaring, and Iwas cool as a cucumber. So yeah, this is personal preference, but whatever youlike to do, there's some clever ways to optimize the screens, and optimize theway you're looking at it or listening to it, and some great podcastrecommendations there from Mike.  So I'llmove us on to thing number eight that a great pain cave should have – last andfinal one we're covering – you've got to have some motivational decor,right?  Sure, it's your performance cave,sure it's your pain cave, but you've got to have something to remind you of whyyou're going through all this pain. Spruce up the place, people! You're going to spend a huge chunk of time in your pain cave, so make ityour own.  Deck it out, hang something onthose walls. Coach Verbie, what have you done to your shed?

 

Jason:  Myshed has my extreme triathlon –

 

Andrew: It's got Britney Spears.

 

Jason:  BritneySpears, yes, sorry.  She's number one.  Britney's number one, sorry, my fault.  Then I also have my finisher shirts from myextreme triathlons framed on the wall as my motivation.  If things are hurting, I look at those andgo, "I've done harder stuff.  C'mon,step it up."  Then I've seen, youknow, with people with all their race medals, I've seen whole walls of alltheir race bibs.  I always liked that, tosee a whole wall with just every number they've ever raced with.  Those are pretty cool.  You can have your Chuck Norris, I've got my BritneySpears hanging up there.  You've got thedifferent motivational quotes I've seen people have, framed motivationalquotes.  Whatever's going to get you goingand get you to focus in on what you need. I think it's great.

 

Andrew: Mike, anything to add here?  Whatdo you think is good, or is yours intentionally bare, because yours is aperformance cave and not a pain cave?

 

Mike:  Itell you what's really cool, I'm going to plug a friend of mine's businesscalled Velo Mats, velomats.com. He makes custom trainer mats.  Youcould have a TriDot one, you could have one with your own name on it, you couldhave one with your worst enemy's face on it, so you could stick your frontwheel on it. That's got you thinking. You could have whole collections, you can have team ones made.  A friend of mine shamed me, he's got one withcobbles on it.  Whatever design you canthink of, he'll make that in a mat you can put your bike on.  Or you can make one that's treadmill-size ifyou want it.  You could brand it up, youcould get a whole bunch made for your team. Yeah, they're really cool, I'd check them out.  That's like the ultimate finishing touch.

 

Andrew: Yeah, I need one now, so thanks for that.  Follow the pros, follow some cool Instagramaccounts, be on the lookout in pictures. That's something we're starting to do on our YouTube channel, is featureTriDot athletes in their pain caves, and let them give us a tour of their paincaves.  We've had two of those air on thechannel so far. Some of our episodes we do a kind of variety show where wefeature athletes in that way,  or sometimeswe just talk to a coach about something. So even on our own YouTube channel, we're trying to throw in a splash ofwhat different people are doing with their pain caves.  But definitely have something on the walls,definitely find ways to spruce it up. Something unique to me, Andrew the Average Triathlete, is I have a hookon the wall, and anytime I go to a conference, or go to something on behalf ofTriDot, I have my lanyard with my name and the TriDot logo on it.  Conferences like Endurance Exchange, or if Igo to an Ironman race and I have a VIP badge, I have those hanging on thewall.  That's kind of my history ofworking for the company, VIP lanyards hanging on the wall next to mytreadmill.  There's different things.  I have that, Verbie doesn't have that.  So if you have something different that youthink the TriDot audience should see, go to the Facebook group, make a post tosay, "Hey, Andrew told me to post my unique pain cave feature to the grouptoday."  I want to see what you guyshave, so please do that.

 

Thatwas number eight on my list.  I feel likeI thought through all the major things that we can do to improve the paincave.  But before we have Vanessa takeover for our Coach Cooldown Tip, Verbie, Mike, are there any other items orconsiderations that we have not covered already that I did not have on my listof eight, that you can think through this might be helpful for somebody to taketheir pain cave to the next level.  CoachVerbie, anything that I missed?

 

Jason:  Acouple things.  Make sure your internetis good.

 

Andrew: That's a great one!

 

Jason: With all our virtual things, I ran into that with shed, so I had to geta couple power boosters to get the internet out there.  Then we're running all this electrical stuff.Make sure you have enough outlets out there. Also, use surge protectors.  Youhave a lot of expensive equipment, and if something happens, lightning strikesyour house or whatever, you want to make sure your equipment's safe.  So have your stuff plugged into surgeprotectors.  I think that's huge.  Then also, as Mike just said about a mat onthe floor, something if you're going to be dropping weights, make sure withyour flooring, depending on if it's in your house or not, I don't know ifyou've ever gotten off your trainer and you've been sweating a lot and you havea tile floor underneath you, and you stepped on that in your cleats, and I mayhave fallen right down really hard before. So make sure you have something, a carpet, a mat, anything, for theweights, for the sweat, just some things to think of when you're designing yourpain cave.

 

Andrew:  Ilove those suggestions, Verbie.  Things Iwould not have thought to mention, like the surge protectors, and the Wi-Fi isa huge one.  A couple things I'll addhere, I always keep a laundry basket in the corner of my pain cave, so it'sreally easy to throw your sweaty towels and stuff in that basket.  Then once or twice a week, take that down tothe laundry and wash it all at once.  AlsoI'm a big fan of 2Toms, their skin lubricant, so I keep a roll-on of theirSportShield in the cup holder of my treadmill. Because I will get in the pain cave, I will have my tri shorts on, Iwill be about to hop on the trainer, and if that roll is not in that room, ifit is one room over and out of sight, I will talk myself out of walking overone room to grab it and apply it, and I will regret it right after theride.  If it's in the same room, if it'sin my line of sight, I will every single time grab it, roll it on real quick,hop on the bike, knock out the session, and have no chafing issues.  I also keep a tube of my Precision Fuel &Hydration electrolytes.  Mike, close downour main set today.  Any next-level itemsthat Verbie and I have somehow missed in this conversation?

 

Mike: You guys have set the bar pretty high. There's some really sensible,practical things that make sure you're covering the bases.  But just make sure every session happens,from beginning, to middle, to end, which people forget.  There is also a little gadget that you canget that will take your training to the next level, which is a core bodytemperature sensor.  You're going,"What do you need that for?"  It'sa little thing, you see the Norwegians wearing them, you see the Tour de Francecyclists wearing them.  It's atemperature sensor that senses and measures how hot you are.  It's fully integrated with FulGaz, so you cansee it while you ride.  So if you'retraining for a hot event, you can make sure that you're spending enough timegetting hot enough, though not so hot enough that it's going to do youdamage.  You perform differently as youget hotter, which is often a response to what's going on outside aroundyou.  But we're very inefficient, so ifyou're producing 250 watts, there's another 750 watts getting lost inheat.  That's why the pain cave room getsreally hot, and you get really sweaty. It's a fascinating new area of performance science, looking atcontrolling how hot you get, and it's one of the reasons that – the Norwegiansare a great example, they're performing so well – is that they've learned howto manage that heat, and train themselves to get hotter without doingthemselves harm.

 

Andrew: There's always triathletes looking for that next-level gadget theyhaven't heard of yet, so that's absolutely a gadget to look into there.  Mike, Verbie, thank you so much for all ofthe pain cave expertise, and we're going to kick it over to Vanessa.  She's going to interview a TriDot coach fortoday's cooldown.

 

Cool down theme: Great seteveryone! Let’s cool down.

 

VanessaRonksley:  It's Coach Cooldown Tip Time, and I'mVanessa, your Average Triathlete with Elite-Level Enthusiasm!  Today on the cooldown, our coach is MandyStarling.  Mandy works full-time ininternal marketing and communications. She also mentors clients on emotional, mental, and physical healththrough body mapping and as a breathwork facilitator.  On the side, Mandy started coaching withTriDot close to a year ago, as she loves sharing knowledge she has gained,having completed over 130 races within the last ten years.  Mandy loves coaching people starting out ontheir triathlon journey, and her specialty is short-course racing and emotionalhealth.  Mandy currently lives in Utahwith her husband, whom she describes as the man of her dreams, and they have ablended family with ten children and three grandchildren.  Welcome to the cooldown Mandy!

 

Mandy:  HiVanessa!  I'm so excited to be joiningyou today, thank you so much for the invite!

 

Vanessa: Well, I'm super-excited to chat with you today, because we havesomething in common.  We were both inmarching bands way back in the day, and not only were you in a marching band,but you got to do something really cool. You got to lead the Night Parade as a drum major at Disney.  To me, that sounds like a dream come true.

 

Mandy:  Itwas.  It was Disney World, it was theNight Parade, and it was so awesome.  Itwas just so much fun.  What instrumentdid you play? that's really cool!

 

Vanessa:  Iplayed the trumpet, but after about a year of playing the trumpet, I swappedover to color guards.  So I did flags,rifles, sabers.  My favorite was thesaber.  Yeah, it was super fun.

 

Mandy: Awesome.  I did clarinet and thenswitched to saxophone.  Everybody thinksa drum major plays drums, but I didn't.

 

Vanessa: You definitely were able to live a dream,that is such a cool experience.  Anyways,now this was way back in the day, and I wish I'd known at that time the powerof our thoughts and the impact on performance. I used to get so nervous before any competition I was participating in,and I think that your next coaching tip might have been very helpful for me tohear.  So tell me about the breathworkand the effect it can have on the central nervous system, and how this relatesto what you tell your athletes when they're about to do a triathlon?

 

Mandy: Yes.  So everybody has a baselinebreathing pattern.  Just like you have aswim, bike, and run baseline speed or power output, you also have a baselinebreath pattern.  Everybody breathes inand out at their own rate, and whenever that gets out of balance, your bodystarts to freak out.  It's like,"Wait!  What is going onhere?"  So it can often take youinto "fight, flight, or freeze". And as many people know, if you're in "fight, flight, orfreeze" too long, that starts to really wreak havoc on your body.  It can increase your blood pressure, it canincrease your blood sugar, your respiration rate, your digestive and immunesystems are all slowed down, and a lot of those things come in really handywhen you're at a race.  You kind of needall those things to be functioning properly. When all those things start shutting down and freaking out, it's reallyhard to stay in a positive mindset.   Sowhile you're racing, if your thoughts just start going down the drain – itcould be because you're in fight, flight, or freeze – there are breathingtechniques that you can do before you start your race, and during your race,that can help you to feel better, and to have a better experience.

 

Vanessa: Tell us, Mandy, I'm sitting on the edge of my seat, I'm really excitedto know these techniques!

 

Mandy: Keep in mind that before I startedtriathlon, I had a fear of water, and I never learned how to swim.  So in my 30s, I first learned how to swim. Myvery first swim coach, the tip she gave me has proven its worth in gold, andeveryone I've ever shared it, it has always helped them.  This tip is all about "blowingbubbles".  This helps if you'renervous before a race, it helps if there's really cold water, it helps to calmdown your central nervous system so you can have a better experience.  So whether you're starting the race as agroup, or jumping in one at a time, whether or not you can do a practice swimahead of time, it doesn't matter.  Assoon as you're able to get into the water, practice this technique, and it willhelp you to have a more calm race.  Youjust get in the water, you take in a deep belly breath, breathing in from yourbelly.  Just breathe in for four counts,and then put your entire face in the water and blow bubbles for eightcounts.  In for four counts, and out foreight counts.  Just do that a few timesuntil you start to feel yourself calm down. It's worked for me every time, especially those swims that are reallycold.  It helps you acclimate to thewater, and also it just tells your body that, "I'm safe, I'm going to beokay, I'm not in danger, so everything is good."  There was one athlete that I shared this with– she'd really been struggling with that, and it kept throwing off her entirerace – and when I gave her this tip, she said her entire season was completelydifferent.  It was amazing, because shewas able to get calm right from the get-go and stay that way.  But you can also use this breathwork patternanytime during the race, too, whether you're on the bike or the run.  On the run it's a little harder, but if youwalk through the aid station, that's a perfect time to breathe in for fourcounts, out for eight counts, and that just helps everything to relax.

 

Vanessa: Yeah, I have two things to say about this.  The first thing is I love that tip.  I think it's a really great way to allow yourbody to go from that high adrenaline that you might be having right before arace, to trying to dip into the parasympathetic nervous system, and allowingyourself to just relax a little bit.  Idid have a coach once tell me in cold water especially that you need to focuson the exhale.  But she didn't give methis recipe for doing it, so thank you for the instructions on how to do it,really specifically.  I can tell you,it's winter here in Australia right now, so the water's getting prettychilly.  I'm going to run down to theocean today, and I'm going to give this technique a try, and I'll let you knowhow it goes.  The second thing I reallylike about this tip is that I've noticed for myself, when I'm feeling a littlebit nervous about something or I feel like my heart rate has increased, I'venoticed on my watch – when I'm in the heart rate zone of my watch, I can see theactual heart rate – if I do that technique just while sitting anywhere – I takethe breath in for four counts and then I breathe out for eight counts – duringthat eight count period, that's when the heart rate is actually lowering.  Because you're getting rid of the CO2, and yourbody's not working  as hard.  So you're right, doing this kind of thing onthe bike or on the run, especially if you're doing a long-course race, that canhave a massive impact on your overall heart rate.  Because the whole point is to keep your heartrate low for the entire race, so if you can lower it even by a few beats perminute for five, ten minutes on the bike, and five, ten minutes on the run,you're good to go.

 

Mandy: Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that, because on my bike ride yesterday Ihad threshold intervals, and so of course my heart rate went up into Zone 4when I was in the Zone 4 interval.  Thenwhen I was in the Zone 2 interval later on, I started doing that breathingpattern, in for four counts and out for eight counts, and it helped me reset myheart rate back to Zone 2 much faster.  SoI was able to recover a lot more quickly after doing those tough intervals.  Also you're re-teaching your brain, you'rere-teaching your body that you're not putting it in danger.  I know I keep bringing that up, but if yourbody feels like you're putting it in danger every time you exercise, or everytime you do a race, it's going to start preventing you from exercising andracing, and that's when you start getting injured and sick.  Because your body's just trying to keep yousafe, and it thinks, "Well, if you're going to do another race, you'reputting me in danger!"  That'sanother way this breathing really helps you to stay healthy, because you'retelling your brain, "Nope, we're safe. We're okay.  I don't have to getsick, I don't have to get injured. You're good."

 

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

 

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