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:  Thanks for joining us today!  Hey, would love you to just take a second and subscribe and rate the show on Apple Podcasts, please and thank you.  Fascinating conversation today as our coaches cover all of the training terms and metrics we need to know to properly analyze how our workouts went.  It's a data rich sport and some things out there matter more than others.  Today we'll learn all about it.  Our first coach joining us today is Coach Jeff Rains.  Jeff is a USAT level 2 and Ironman U certified coach who has a Master's of Science in exercise physiology and was a D1 collegiate runner.  He has over 40 Ironman event finishes to his credit and has coached hundreds of athletes to the Ironman finish line.  Jeff thanks for being here today!  

Jeff Raines:  Thanks Andrew.  I love nerding out on data so I am super excited for this one today.  

Andrew:  Next up is Coach John Mayfield.  John is a USAT level 2 and Ironman U certified coach who leads TriDot’s athlete services, ambassador and coaching programs.  He’s 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.  You ready for this podcast John?

John Mayfield:  I am ready for this podcast Andrew.  

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

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

Andrew:  Musically inclined or not, most of us wish we were cool enough and musically talented enough to be in a successful band.  And as triathletes while we are talking about music I think we can all agree there is a hole in the music industry waiting to be filled by a triathlon themed band.  If you had the talent and the aspiration to form a band and cut a multi sport themed album what would be the name of your band?  John Mayfield, you’re up first.  What’s you got?  

John:  We would be these Snot Rockets.  

Andrew:  The Snot Rockets.  

Jeff:  Nice.  

Andrew:  That's a solid name for a band.  I don't want to see somebody else's snot rockets on course, but if the band was good I would see a band called the Snot Rockets.  Jeff Raines, what are you thinking for this one?  

Jeff:  You know I think my first single would be “PR or ER”, but for the name of my band I don't know.  My last name is Raines so I've kind of heard it all like “Rain Man,” “Rain Tri,” “Rain Dog.”  A lot of people call me “Rain Dog.”  So I don't know, maybe we're the Tridogs or Rain Tri, Make It Rain.  I don't know.  

Andrew:  Okay.  So just playing off your name and letting you be the featured attraction, which you–

Jeff:  Of course, I would be the lead singer.  

Andrew:  Yeah.  

Jeff:  I can't sing or dance, but of course I would be the lead singer.  

Andrew:  In this scenario you could.  

Jeff:  And I would grow out my hair like John Mayfield.  

Andrew:  Speaking of growing out hair, I'm glad you said that Jeff because I feel like–  So full disclosure.  We don't always talk about where we are when we’re recording episodes.  We are recording this episode in downtown Tulsa.  We're in town for Ironman Tulsa.  This episode will come out a few weeks after Ironman Tulsa so congratulations all of our athletes that we saw on course, but at the moment we're recording this we're at a table.  I'm in the middle of the table.  Jeff Raines is on one side, Coach John Mayfield is on the other side and while we’re talking about growing out hair I showed up to this trip and both of you guys are sporting brand new mustaches which is different for both of you and new for both of you.  So I feel kind of like Zach Galifianakis has his show Between Two Ferns.  I feel like this episode is the Between Two Mustaches episode of the podcast.  This has nothing to do with my band name suggestion, but just…Anyway, had to throw it out there.  That's what I feel like right now as I look from my left to my right and see a blonde mustache and a brown mustache.  

Jeff:  You didn't get the memo?  Everyone's growing out their hair for Tulsa.  

Andrew:  I don't know if I'm capable of growing a mustache first of all.  So I'm not sure if I'm quite man enough for that.  But anyway, getting back to the band names.  My band name for a triathlon themed band would be the Endorphins.  I love The Killers.  Simple name, straight to the point.  The Killers just flows.  It hits quick.  The Endorphins.  You know that just conveys energy, it conveys rock, it conveys happy feelings and happy times.  So the band name would be The Endorphins.  And just a bonus answer, our first hit single would be called “The Ironman Shuffle.”  So imagine the “Cupid Shuffle” that is popular or the “Electric Slide” that’s popular at weddings.  We need like a triathlete like group dance type party song called the “Ironman Shuffle” that can play before or after races.  And my band The Endorphins is the natural fit to cut that single.  

Jeff:  You always have the best answers.  I think you purposely ask these questions just so you can trump our mediocre answers with your just super awesome answers.  

Andrew:  In ya’ll’s defense, I write these shows.  So I have a lot more time to think about these answers than you guys do.  I usually write a show and then go do a workout and in that workout I'm thinking about my answer.  Anyway, we're gonna throw this out on social media because I think our athletes are gonna have some killer answers to this question.  So go join the I AM TriDot Facebook group, find this question posted on the day this episode comes out, and let us know what would your multi sport band name be?  And bonus points if you have an idea for your first hit single.  Can't wait to see your responses.  

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

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Andrew:  Descriptive data by definition describes what happened during a workout.  For example, the swim metric stroke rate describes how fast or slow we got our arms around for that next stroke and the run metric vertical oscillation describes how much our body bounced up and down with each step we took on a run.  These are just two of the dozens of descriptive metrics we can use to see what happened during a training session.  With so much data it can be a little bit difficult as an athlete to discern what data points are helpful and what is just noise.  So today Jeff and John will help us understand what to do with descriptive data and which metrics are most helpful to us day to day in our training.  So Jeff, John I'm not going to lie to you.  Just as a pretty normal guy without a data or analytics background to a certain extent to me data is just data.  When it comes to triathlon training that is not the case.  There are actually different types of data generated by our workouts and they serve different purposes.  So just kind of lay the groundwork for us today, John help us to kind of establish the difference between descriptive and predictive data.  

John:  So descriptive data tells us what is happening or what happened in the past and these are things that all athletes are going to be familiar with.  These are also the execution metrics that we use during the session.  These are things like time, distance, pace, heart rate, cadence, power, all those that things that we're looking at during those swim, bike, and run sessions and then perhaps going back and looking at afterwards to see exactly what happened in the session and see how the session went, that sort of thing.  So predictive analytics use descriptive data, but are very different.  In order to have predictive analytics we have to have what we refer to as big data.  This is a collection of a very, very large amount of data.  Specifically for us, this is millions of training files from tens of thousands of athletes.  Then what we do is use advanced analytics, advanced technology, to be able to predict what is likely to occur with a high amount of certainty.  So now we're able to look at different comparisons to see what one type of training would do for an athlete as opposed to another.  And then we're able to determine which is the best course of training for a given athlete.  Then we get into what are called prescriptive analytics that prescribe specific actions to achieve that desired result and that’s when we get into actually creating the training plan.  So quite a big difference between the descriptive data and the predictive and prescriptive data, but the good news is it's all taken care of.  We provide a path for all of that.  

Andrew:  John, I'm being absolutely 100% facetious here, but when you talk about big data and any time we talk about big data I just like I always picture big data being like a big data device like a Garmin A1030 bike computer.  You know something that has a huge screen and can just… you know it’s powerful and can show us tons of different metrics all at once.  And then I think of little data being like you know maybe a Garmin 130 bike computer that is a little and tiny and maybe shows just two other things at a time.  But that's not the case.  Big data and little data has nothing to do with what device we're looking at.  Big data has everything to do with the actual quality of the data.  

John:  Yeah, and this is actually something that is very prevalent in the world today.  So basically all the vast majority of decisions are made based on big data to where you have a very large sample size, you can then draw relevant conclusions; highly accurate conclusions that sort of thing.  Basically this is how decisions are made in the 21st century especially things at the corporate level, government level.  It's not just based on opinion or what you would kind of refer to as small data where it’s just a very limited sample size.  That's the value of having that big data.  It’s an incredibly large sample size where you’re able to get better information, draw more meaningful, more accurate conclusions based on that as opposed to– So for example, it's again I mentioned millions of training files from tens of thousands of athletes.  That's going to provide better insight than just looking at five athletes.  You know ten training files from five athletes, that’s going to tell you something, but looking at millions of training files from tens of thousands of athletes, now we're able to get much more specific on each individual athlete based on everything that makes them them.  So things like age, body composition, gender, all those things that make us us.  Now we can really segment and get very specific down to each individual as opposed to drawing conclusions based on somebody that maybe isn't like me.  You know again, if we're looking at 5, 10, 20 athletes they may be the same age as me but maybe a different body composition or maybe they've been in the sport– brand new to the sport or maybe they've been in the sport for 30 years, but they've been aren't really exactly like me.  When we have that much, much larger sample size, that's when we're able to really segment and dial down on a very truly individualized basis.  

Andrew:  So when it comes to our triathlon training, TriDot is using predictive data to determine our future training sessions.  That's happening everyday on our behalf without us doing anything beyond following the plan.  But the descriptive data is different.  The descriptive data presents opportunities for us to learn about how we are executing our training sessions and what we can learn from those training sessions.  As a coach when you kind of look at descriptive data, how the session was executed, what are kind of the opportunities to learn from those data points?  

John:  So there's kind of two uses for these data points.  One is the actual execution.  As I mentioned before, these are things that we're actually looking at during the training session.  So if you have a session– they're all based on time so that is a descriptive data point, the descriptive analytic is how long is the session, how long is perhaps a high intensity interval, how long is a recovery period in between those?  So time is a descriptive analytic that is very useful.  Then we get into different things based on the swim, bike, and run.  So with the swim, it's pace primarily, distance per stroke, those kinds of things.  On the bike it's cadence, power, heart rate.  Running there's a whole slew of them, but primarily pace, cadence, stride length, vertical oscillation.  All those kinds of things that you can look at during a session and really help dial in.  Then those are the same things you’re going to look at afterwards to see how well you executed the session.  TrainX is a descriptive data point that tells us exactly how well we followed the training and how well we followed the training and achieved the desired result of that session.  So a high TrainX score is indicative that you achieved the intended purpose of that session.  So that's something we can look at and use as something to help us improve the quality of the work that we're doing.  This data does not tell us what training we should do tomorrow, the next day, the day after.  Nor does it tell us was this the right training for today.  So that's an important distinction that we definitely want to look at this data, we value this data, but this is not the data that tells us what our training should be going forward.  

Andrew:  John tons of great background there on what descriptive metrics are and how they can influence and help us analyze our day to day training.  So guys what I want to do today, I want to walk through all three sports; the swim, the bike, and the run and I want to talk a little bit more about what descriptive metrics matter most while we’re working out and kind of after we work out.  So we headed into our workout, we've got our device on our wrists, we've got our bike computer in front of us; whatever it is that we're using to look at our data.  What metrics matter in the moment while we're working out?  What should we be looking at on our screens and then when a workout is done, what metrics matter then?  What metrics should we be tracking over time so that we can learn about what's going on in our workout execution?  So guys let's start with the swim.  When we're out there, we're in the pool, we're in the open water, whatever we're doing we've got our Garmin on our wrist.  What metrics matter enough in that moment that we should be looking at them in the middle of a swim workout?  

Jeff:  You know, this is a good question and I like how you're breaking this down.  You know, like you alluded to, you go do a swim workout and you get home and maybe it's a Garmin.  You go to Garmin Connect let's say and you're clicking on some of these screens and you're scrolling up and down and yeah there's 20 cool nuggets of info, descriptive data there.  So while we’re in the pool, we're wet, we're cleaning off our goggles to see better for that next set.  We only have 15 or 20 seconds rest and we're gonna get underwater, streamline off that wall, and go again.  There are only certain things that we're going to be able to take with us on the next set.  We’re not going to know our Swolf score.  We're not going to know our average stroke rate for that last set and stuff like that.  So most people are putting the time, the distance, and maybe you're looking at an average pace throughout the entire workout.  Something that I would encourage you to do on your device– to set up your watch to where when you stop and you hit that wall you have 15 seconds rest, hit the lap button.  So what that does is it differentiates your rest with your actual swimming time and what's really interesting is that after the workout which we're about to talk about in just a second, but if you're in the pool for an hour and 15 minutes, but you only swam for 38 minutes then there's a lot of rest.  You're resting more than you are swimming.  So simply hitting lap in between sets allocates the rest period into there.  So you can kind of see what your current rest interval is.  You can also see what the time was on that previous interval that you swam.  So you can glance at those in 1 or 2seconds and you still have your 12 or 13 seconds to get a drink, adjust your goggles, and start thinking about what pace, what stroke you're going to be doing on that next set.  So just being intentional with how you set up your watch is key, but I like to see the distance traveled.  Sometimes you know you kind of go cross eyed 3K into a pool swim let's say.  You kind of– am I at 200 or 250?  I'm in the middle of a 400 or an 800.  How many laps do I have left?  So seeing the current distance traveled you can glance at that watch underwater and you don't have to stop, pause on the wall, and ruin your pacing.  So that's something that I like to see is the distance traveled.  Then if you do set up that watch correctly you can see the time that you are spending on that current interval.  

Andrew: So Jeff, from everything you just said, it took me longer than it should have as a triathlete to realize that the lap button functionality was even there.  And I think you're right.  I mean, this is why we're having this episode because there's a lot of people out there that the tendency, the initial thought is, “Oh, I just finished that interval, I need to pause my watch before I start swimming again.”  But no.  Garmin Swim, you know it has the workout mode and so you need to find that mode you need to set your watch up to where you're hitting the lap button every single time.  You should not hit that pause button until after your workout is done and you're trying to save it.  But yeah.  I mean, it’s just what he said.  For me Jeff, I mean I've got the workout mode dialed in and so when I'm on the wall I can see my rest timer, I can see, how far that interval was that I just went, I can see the time of the interval that I just did, and then while I'm swimming the only things I'm seeing is the time for that current interval so I can kind of keep track of my pace.  It helps me pace that interval correctly.  If I know it's a zone 4 threshold interval I can look at the time at each turn to kind of know that I'm on track with my pace and then I can also see exactly what you said, how far I've gone because it's amazing how we have a 400 how hard it is to actually count 25 yards at a time how far you've gone.  So no Jeff, that's great.  It doesn't do me any good to know my Swolf as I'm swimming.  It's really just about pacing correctly.  

Jeff:  Yeah and one last thing here before we move on, is you know and I do this too.  I’m guilty of it.  You see your average 100 pace for the entire workout on that screen and I think what a lot of people do is they like to at the end of the workout– you know let's just say you swim a total of 3500.  You kind of like to see what the overall average pace was for the entire workout but that can be a bad habit.  That kind of idea of beating yesterday, stuff like that.  What if the intent of that workout was a recovery day?  So don't get too caught up in the overall average pace of the entire workout.  But what I see also is a lot of people skipping the swim drills because what they do is typically you're focusing on a good aspect of your form, drills tend to be slower than the pace that you swim at for the main set and so it brings down that overall average.  

Andrew:  Yeah.  

Jeff:  So people skip their drills because they don't want Strava or Garmin Connect to show a slower average pace and then people think that they're a slower swimmer.  So what you can do is while you're on the wall and you hit the lap button and so now your watch is in a rest period.  While you're resting on the wall you can scroll up or down on these screens and you can look at other metrics and stuff like that, but you can also in the middle of the workout say, “ Okay, I'm 2K in to a 3K swim workout, I'm going to do some tap and go catch up drill.”  You can scroll into drill mode, click on that, do your drill, you won't worry about it hurting your average pace if you're worried about that, and then when you get back to a faster set you can get back into that kind of normal you know pacing instead of drill mode.  So just get to know your device.  Some of these watches are 500, 800 bucks but we tend to only use $100 worth of their functionality.  So know your device and know how to use it there.  

Andrew:  So after a swim we can pull up all of the shiny data with lots of fun metrics that we can't look at while we're in the pool necessarily.  There are things that you've said like stroke rate, stroke length, strokes per length of the pool, etcetera, etcetera.  I know obviously our pace and time in each zone is there as well, but that's what we're looking at while we're swimming.  So Jeff, what is useful to look at right after each session?  

Jeff:  You know I'm looking to see my stroke rate.  Is my stroke rate similar to what I want it to be on race day?  Is my stroke rate way, way too high and maybe my average pace for some of those slow?  Knowing the purpose of that particular workout and the faster sets versus the longer or shorter sets, what were my stroke rates in the average distance per stroke are kind of the main things I look at.  Heart rate kind of closing I guess this with the heart rate.  Because so much of your buoyancy, your weight against gravity is taken against gravity due to the buoyancy of the water, it's okay for the heart rates to be a little bit high swimming.  We're not pounding the concrete and really putting this huge toll on our body.  So I take note of the heart rate during some of the speed sets but more importantly I kind of see what my heart rate gets down to in 15 seconds rest versus 30 seconds rest.  Does that extra 5 seconds here or there really drop that heart rate in between sets?  But I don't live or die by the heart rate during the workout.  When you're paying attention to your stroke rates, just know that that accelerometer on your wrist is on one wrist.  So if you're seeing 25 in your data, your descriptive data, it really means 50 strokes per minute taking into account both arms.  

Andrew:  Yep.  No, great stuff in that.  So that’s super helpful for us.  So of all the things that we see on the screen after a swim session, you know really just kind of taking a look from time to time at how our stroke rate and distance per stroke is interacting with different speeds can really help us discern some things about our stroke and about our habits and we can connect with a coach on those items to probably discern even more about what we can learn from those.  So moving on to our bike workouts.  I know it's probably a little bit different maybe between indoor and outdoor workouts, but tell us John, what metrics we should have our eyes on during a bike workout.  

John:  So it's largely the same whether you're doing a session indoors or outdoors.  Now there is going to be more data available when you're outdoors, but that data is not particularly as relevant.  The three primary things we want to keep an eye on when executing a bike session indoors or outdoors, one primarily is the power.  So assuming you have that metric, have a power meter or own a smart trainer, you know what power you're holding.  That is going to be a great objective quantification of your intensity level.  That's going to tell you basically how much work that you're doing.  Next would be heart rate.  That's going to tell you how your body is responding to that work that you are doing.  So this is kind of a pet peeve.  I see this quite often, is athletes will say “I've got a power meter so I don't need a heart rate monitor.”  Now, we're not necessarily relying on that heart rate as our primary execution metric, but it still is very important to see how your body is responding to the power; to that amount of work.  Then the other would be cadence.  So it has to do with how quickly you're turning over.  What is your RPM on that.  It’s important to vary that and to dial in that skill of being able to hold a lower cadence, also be able to hold a higher cadence.  There's going to be instances on race day where both are viable.  So being able to vary that cadence whether you’re going up a hil, down a hill, into the wind, around corners, that's sort of thing.  So keep an eye on that cadence and ensuring that you are at your optimum cadence.  So that's kind of a crossroads of where you’re able to produce the highest power with again, heart rate metric.  Where we're looking to minimize the heart rate and find where you are most efficient.  As a rule your higher cadence is going to increase your heart rate.  So if you're spinning, doing say a spin up early in a session, that's going to get your heart rate up because you're turning your feet over very quickly doing that spin up.  But it’s going to be pretty easy on your big leg muscles.  Where as the reverse of that is true.  You can maintain a very low cadence and you’re largely going to have a lower heart rate with that lower cadence, but you’re going to burn up those big leg muscles.  So it's kind of finding the crossroads in between there.  So that’s why it’s important to keep an eye an cadence during a session.  

Andrew:  Alright John, I hear you.  So the big three– power, heart rate, and cadence.  Those three should be in front of us during our bike workout whether we’re inside, whether we’re outside.  It doesn’t matter.  Those are the three that matter the most.  But after a bike workout is done and we have all these different metrics.  I think to my power pedals.  Whenever I look on my Garmin Connect after a ride I can see pace, power, heart rate, cadence, right/left balance.  I can see my pedal motion, where I applied pressure.  There’s all sorts of different things.  After a bike session what descriptive data points matter and are most useful to keep an eye on?  

John:  And this is where we can get into kind of a sticky area because as you mentioned, you were looking in Garmin Connect or whatever.  You’re looking at your metrics.  Most of those are displayed in a chart or a graph.  Oftentimes they are summarized into an average.  So averages can be deceiving and maxes are largely irrelevant.  So those are oftentimes some of those primary metrics we’ll see displayed there.  What was your average heart rate, average power, max power, max speed?  All of those really are kind of irrelevant.  They don’t truly provide the picture of what was happening within the session.  So if you have the ability and you have the time, it’s good to dial down into it and really look for consistency.  So instead of looking at your max power or your average power, go into that real time chart and see, did you hold a consistent power whether it was your zone 2 power or your zone 4.  How consistent were you within those intervals being able to maintain that or were you kind of all over the map?  Now, obviously things like wind and road conditions and turns and all that will influence that, but as you are able to control that, how well did you maintain the consistency of executing the session?  Something I hit on a little bit before earlier was heart rate and pairing that with the power.  This is something that’s very important to keep an eye on especially as your sessions get longer.  So especially if you’re doing 70.3 or Ironman distance races, we want to keep an eye out for heart rate decoupling.  It’s also referred to as cardiac drift.  This is where you are holding a steady effort level, so either power or pace; power on the bike, pace on the run.  We would expect to have a consistent heart rate paired with that effort level.  At some point every athlete will achieve this where they will begin to have that cardiac drift or that decoupling.  At some point for that given effort level the heart rate will begin to rise.  When that happens and by how much, that’s an important to keep an eye on.  When you are towards the end of a training phase, you’re approaching race day, you’re at your highest fitness level, what we would hope is that we would not reach that point.  If you are doing say a five hour Ironman ride and you begin to have that cardiac drift two and a half, three hours in, that’s going to be indicative of something going on.  Your body is having to work harder.  Your body is having to pump more blood, circulate more oxygen than it did previously for that steady effort level.  So something’s going on there.  So it may be a lack of fitness.  It may be dehydration.  So it may be just as simple as fixing the nutrition and hydration plan, but it’s important to know why the heart rate began to drift and then what can you do about it.  

Andrew: And, onto the run.  Now this is my favorite part of the training week is definitely the run sessions and there are quite a few metrics here during a run workout.  So Jeff, while we’re running we’re out there, we’ve got our watch on our wrist, what should we be looking at during a run session?  

Jeff:  Andrew, my favorite workouts of the week are also the run.  I’m a runner at heart.  A Runner turned triathlete.  

Andrew:  Yeah!

Jeff:  So I’m right there with you man.  You know, run power is something that has been able to quantified now so we can see current, real time, accurate watts and as we fluctuate speed or percent grade of the hill that you’re on.  That power, those watts just like cycling are very real time and accurate.  If you do have a device that captures run power, I would focus a little more on that live, real accurate, real time run watts.  But if you don’t have a foot pod or a run power pod then grade adjusted pacing.  That is something that I will always have.  Heart rate, current pace, and then also that run power.  There are certain workouts where heart rate should be the main metric and then there are some workouts where maybe pace.  If you are going to run on an undulating course then running with power would kind of trump that current pace, but I like to see “okay this is probably a 3 or 4% grade hill.  Okay, I’m supposed to run an 8 minute mile.  I’m running a 9 minute mile because I’m on an uphill, oh, but guess what?  My run watts are accurate.  They’re staying in zone 4.”  Those are kind of the main metrics.  The heart rate, the current pace, and then the current run watts, how they all kind of talk to each other.  So I like to see those in real time.  And then the total time, duration of how far I am into that session.  So those are the main metrics I like to see on my watch screen.  

Andrew:  A recurring theme here; now that we’ve talked about the swim, the bike, and now the run.  A recurring theme is that during your workout you pretty much need to look at the metrics, the descriptive data, that helps you execute the workout well at the right intensities during that moment.  And past that all of the other data points, just look at it afterwards.  Don’t worry about anything else except for the metrics that help you execute the session during the session.  So for a run, during the session what do you need to know?  You need to know the duration of your current interval.  You know if you’re supposed to be at a certain wattage or a certain pace or a certain heart rate for the next ten minutes.  You need to know the time of the interval and then you need to know your intensity.  So if that intensity is pace because you don’t have a Stryd Power Meter, or heart rate monitor then you need to be looking at your pace.  If it’s a heart rate day like you said and, “Okay, I need to do all of my intervals today staying in zone 2.”  You just need to be looking at heart rate.  If you have the power meter and you’re doing some zone 4 and zone 2 intervals back and forth, all you need to look at is power and time in that interval.  So for me that’s what I’ve set up.  I’ve set up data fields where I can see my wattage and the time of my interval at the same time because in that interval that’s all that matters.  So while you’re out there running, whatever you’re using to execute that session correctly– if you have the power meter and that’s power, great.  If you’re using grade adjusted pace because you don’t have the power meter, great.  But just make sure on your watch while you’re running you’re looking at the metrics you need to look at to execute the session as best as possible.  Jeff, I do want to make a quick distinguishment here for folks that don’t have the power meter.  TriDot is actually– you mentioned grade adjusted pace.  I mentioned grade adjusted pace.  TriDot is actually scoring your run off of grade adjusted pace and not your pure pace.  Can you just explain to us what grade adjusted pace is and how it helps us execute our workouts a little more accurately?  

John:  So it takes into account pace, but it also takes into account the grade of the surface that the athlete is running on.  So what we’re looking to achieve when we prescribe these training sessions, we prescribe them in a way to achieve a specific purpose.  So on the run we have the option of power or pace.  For those that have power it’s a great metric.  For those that don’t, we rely back on pace, but pace– it has pros and cons.  One being that pace is less reliable on an undulating course.  It’s great on a flat course, great on a track where you’re at 0 elevation gain for your entire set.  You can hold that pace.  That is going to accurately reflect your intensity level.  But, when you begin to run on an undulating course, a hilly course, that pace is going to become less reliable as a metric that is going to quantify your intensity level or the amount of work that you’re doing because you’re working harder when you’re going uphill.  You’re working less hard when you’re going downhill.  So grade adjusted pace takes that into consideration.  We don’t necessarily want to hold a steady pace.  We want to hold a steady pace on a flat surface.  We want to hold a steady intensity level for the session or the duration, the interval, whatever the case may be.  So that grade adjusted pace takes into account the ups and the downs that you’re going to encounter and adjusts the pace for that.  So say you’re running a 10 minute mile on a flat surface and now you encounter a hill.  Your pace may slow from a 10 minute mile to a 12 minute mile, but your effort level being steady, your grade adjusted pace would still be 10 minutes because you’re holding that same intensity level, that same effort level.  You’re going slower, but you’re going uphill.  So instead of saying I’m running a 12 minute mile up the hill, it’s the equivalent of running a 10 minute mile on a flat.  Then the inverse would be the same.  Once you crest the hill now you may be running an 8 minute mile, but you’re running downhill so it’s easier.  So that grade adjusted pace instead of being 8 minutes may be 10 minutes because you’re not running as hard as that truly reflects.  You’re taking advantage of gravity so it’s easier than that actual pace that it’s showing.  

Andrew:  Yep, yeah and so for all of our athletes listening, if you do not have the Stryd Power Meter, the next best thing that you can use to guide your run sessions is grade adjusted pace.  I have Garmin.  So if you’re a Polar or Suunto user, I don’t know what the protocol is for you, but for Garmin you can actually go in the Garmin App Store and you can download to your watch a grade adjusted pace field and while you’re running in real time you can see your grade adjusted pace alongside of your current interval and that’s going to help you keep the effort at the correct intensity as you’re going up and down rolling hills.  Before I had a Stryd Power Meter that’s what I did and man, the rolling hills around my house, it really helped me keep my intensity in check going up those hills and it really helped me execute my sessions much more correctly even before I got the Stryd power meter.  So I just really wanted to camp out on grade adjusted pace for a minute to help athletes realize how powerful of a tool that is for their workouts.  On the run especially there’s such a huge, long list of metrics we can look at.  You know, what are the ones that are worth our time to track over time?  

Jeff:  Good question.  If you’re somebody who’s really in a run focus, something that I like to do with some of my stronger runners is play around with stride length versus cadence.  So those are something that I track over time.  A lot of people believe running faster you have to increase your cadence.  You have to take more steps to run a 7 minute mile versus a 9 minute mile and that’s not necessarily true.  Stride length is what is manipulated for the most part in that.  So over time, I like to see at least a threshold, stuff like that.  When maybe in my assessment, my monthly 5K assessment to establish my new zones going forward I like to see, “Okay, I ran 20 seconds faster.  Great.  Was it because my cadence was better or worse or was it because my knee drive was better?  Maybe my flexibility is better.”  Stuff like that.  So I was able to lift my knee higher for longer and I was traveling further in each step and so I ran faster.  Stuff like that.  Then I also like to go back and look at your run cadence versus bike cadence on workouts.  A little bit more prevalent as you get closer to race day, but you wouldn’t want to have a super, super— let’s say a super low cadence on the bike and then a super high cadence on the run.  Just it can shock that heart rate.  So I use the plus or minus 10 rule.  Your bike cadence should average about within 10 RPMs of what your run cadence is.  So stuff like that.  Vertical oscillation is something that can really help you.  It can show you if you’re overly leaning, if you’re maybe hinging at the hips instead of that body lean being created from the ankles like you’re supposed to.  So things like that I will track over time after the fact.  So leg stiffness, right and left balancing, stride length versus cadence, and vertical oscillation.  

Andrew:  Now once race day comes, are there any changes that you guys make to your device setup.  I’ll give a small example on what prompted me to ask this.  For me in training I have auto pause turned on so my Garmin device is paused if I hit a red light or if I stop for a drink or whatever.  But on race day I like to turn that off so that it doesn’t pause if I make a porta potty stop or something, anything while on course.  It’s a small change, but it’s crucial to knowing my time while I’m racing.  Every now and then on a local sprint I’ll forget to do this and my time ends up a little off.  Do you guys have any race day specific tweaks that you make to your device setup?

Jeff:  Absolutely!  I love that you asked this question.  I do the same.  In training I like at a red light for my watch to pause, but on race day, no we want to know that split.  If you stop on the side of the road to puke or eat or change a flat, right?  That time is there on your finish time.  So good question.  I think the biggest thing here is triathlon mode.  You have a swim, bike, and a run mode on your watch and then you kind of have a fourth triathlon mode.  So for race day I use triathlon mode versus my everyday training.  So just know that in triathlon mode your watch defaults to whatever your main discipline screen is.  So we alluded earlier to yeah you have your main run screen right with power, pace, whatever on that.  But you can scroll down to a second screen and see five more pieces of data.  Maybe cadence or something like that on that secondary screen.  

Andrew:  So we don’t have to customize our triathlon mode on our watch.  Our triathlon mode is going to revert to however we’ve set up our swim, bike, and run mode?

Jeff:  Yes.  Yes and no I would say actually.  Because you may not want your race day screen to be the exact one that you train at.  If you don’t have heart rate on your main screen on a random bike workout, but you may want to see that live heart rate on your triathlon race day screen.  Just stuff like that.  So just kind of know day-to-day what metrics you want to see on that main screen and then, do you want to change anything on race day?  I think another metric for race day is that you can tell this triathlon mode, do you want to include transitions or not?  I usually, personally, always include the transitions.  So as soon as I get out of the water and I run across that mat, I will lap my watch and the lap button immediately goes into that next discipline.  Then take off my wetsuit, run to the bike, put on the helmet, shoes.  Flying mount or not, you cross the bike mount line and then you hit the lap button again and then it goes directly into the bike segment.  So it will differentiate swim versus T1 versus bike and so the transition time is not included on your bike split and pacing and all of that good stuff.  

John:  So for me, it sometimes depends on the distance of the race.  I do something different short course versus long course and the reason for that is– I won’t track my transition times when I’m racing sprint or Olympic and that really has to do with emphasizing getting through those transitions as quickly as possible.  So yeah it would be easy to come out and hit the lap button as I exit the swim.  My concern really comes more so in starting the bike.  Especially in that sprint and Olympic I want to get out and onto the bike and up to full speed as quickly as possible.  I do somewhat of a flying mount.  So my shoes are in the pedals, I’m jumping on the bike, I’m focusing on getting my feet in the shoes, and then from there it’s getting up to speed as quickly as possible.  For me to remember to hit that lap button or for me to take a hand off of the bike for even that second or two while I’m doing those other things, it’s not the safest thing to do and it’s not going to make my race results any better.  It’s not going to make me any faster.  In fact, it’s going to make me slower if anything.  So I just don’t have time for that when I’m racing sprints or Olympic distance so I’ll forgo that.  The good thing is all those splits are going to be there from the timing company so I’ll know exactly what that information is.  Same thing as I’m headed into T2.  I do a flying dismount.  So as I’m approaching that dismount line I will have my feet out of the shoes.  I will have one foot over the top tube so I’m standing on one shoe.  I’ve got another foot just kind of hanging out there in space.  As soon as I hit that dismount line I’m on the ground running.  Now I’m steering my bike by the saddle trying to get back to the rack as quickly as possible.  Again, I just don’t have time– or really at that point even a hand to reach over and hit that lap button.  So for me again I just rely on the timing company that they’re going to tell me exactly what those splits were.  So it’s less important.  Now, racing 70.3 and Ironman I’m not burning through transition quite as quickly.  In fact, I try to be a little more relaxed, but I’m still moving through there.  So there’s definitely more opportunity for me in that style of racing when racing long course as opposed to short course.  But again, they’re going to tell you exactly what those splits were so it’s not as important to really capture those.  Really what we’re looking to do during the race is capture those real time metrics that we’ve been discussing, all of those.  Again, we’re going to have exactly those times of what everything was; our swim, bike, run, T1, T2.  They’re going to tell us exactly what those were so it’s much more important to have the execution metrics in real time.  Again, so those, whatever we’re using to execute the bike, the run, that’s what we really want to emphasize during the race.  

Andrew:  To land the plane today, you know we’ve talked about the metrics that we like to see on the screen while we’re training.  We’ve talked about the metrics we should pay attention to after a training session, but tell me this.  After you guys finish a session, just you personally, you get home, the data uploads to TriDot, Strava, Garmin or whatever you’re looking at, what do you guys personally go look at after a training session?  

Jeff:  Yeah, as mentioned before, TrainX.  My TrainX score.  Did I do– you know, I know I did the right training because I followed the plan, but did I do the right training right?  So I thought I was trying to hit those goal paces, but how well did I actually do it?  So if I did not get a 100 TrainX score, why?  Why did I get a 70?  Why did I get a 50?  I tried.  In the moment I did the best I could to execute perfectly.  So I go into the data and I want to know the how.  You know the how and the why.  Why did things not go perfect?  So I’ll say, “Oh, man my cadence was great on maybe let’s just say a 175 goal was my goal.  Maybe my zone 2 I wanted to hold a 175.  Oh man, 90% through the workout my cadence went down to 160.  What happened?  Did I fatigue?”  Stuff like that.  So I like to go back and look at the TrainX score and then why.  And if there’s any red flags in that descriptive data, why?  What do I need to do different next time?  Next time I have this workout do I need to find a different hill?  Do I need to find a different course?  Do I need to do it on a different time of day maybe?  Maybe my heart rate shot up because it was 90 degrees you know, and stuff like that.  So it kind of depends on what I’m focusing on that day, that workout, and then how can I be intentional going forward future workouts to make the data look more pretty so to speak?  

John:  So the first off for me is my TrainX.  Again, TrainX is a descriptive analytic.  It tells me how well I executed the training as prescribed.  How well I achieved the desired results of that training session.  So my intent is to have those high scores.  Sometimes I know that if a session just didn’t go as planned or if something happened during the session I know, but I always want to go back and see that TrainX score, see how my weekly is impacted by the daily score.  So again, for me it’s a great motivation, great accountability in TrainX, and it keeps me doing the sessions right.  From there, things like heart rate as I’ve mentioned.  I want to know how well my heart rate performed.  That’s also going to give me some indication as to my fatigue level.  What do I need to do going forward?  If my heart rate was high on the day, maybe I’m getting into some fatigue and maybe I need to really emphasize recovery, maybe get some extra sleep, that sort of thing.  Then specifically for my runs one thing I’ve been focusing on is cadence; is reducing my cadence and increasing my stride length at my 5K pace.  So things like that that I try to have one or two things I’m working on at any given time for improvement.  So those specific things are what I want to look back at and really identify those things that can make a difference that I can work on that I can improve on and see over time how those improve.  So things like that for me.  I tend to have a high cadence; higher than it should be at my 5K pace or at my high intensity run pace.  So again, what I’m looking to do is increase my stride length which is going to reduce cadence.  So for me that’s a meaningful metric that I’m looking to improve on over time.  

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

Andrew:  If you have the personality to take on a triathlon you probably have the personality to take on other endurance challenges as well.  Some athletic challenges like a road marathon are well known and often done, but others like a long distance open water swim or notable through hike are a little bit less mainstream.  One athlete in the TriDot family is about to embark on a very unconventional endurance challenge.  Jarryd Irvine, a South Africa based TriDot coach, has set his sights on swimming, biking, and running his way all the way around his home country of South Africa and he and his coach have dropped by to tell us all about it.  So Jarryd, Louise, welcome to the show!

Louise Strydom:  Thanks for having us.  

Jarryd Irvine:  Hey guys!  Thanks.  It’s good to be here.  

Andrew:  So give everyone just a little background on the TriDot presence that we have in South Africa.  You both train and coach with TriDot through Infinitude Coaching and through that we have several TriDotters in South Africa.  Tell us about Infinitude and what the tri scene is like in your home country.  

Louise:  Ummm, so I started out Infinitude Coaching in 2016.  I had also started training with TriDot in 2016 after I moved from my old club and coach.  And yeah.  That’s how it started out with me and TriDot.  I train with Coach Kurt Madden.  Jarryd joined in 2017.  

Jarryd: 2018.  

Louise:  2018, yeah.  So we recently only moved over to TriDot as our training software and we currently have 23, 24 athletes.  That’s full-time TriDotters and then we are running a preseason challenge.  We also have actually 24 people.  So it’s growing.  TriDot’s not as well known in South Africa yet, but we are working really hard–

Jarryd:  We’re getting a bit.  

Louise: –to get word out.  Yeah, so currently we are the only triathlon coached club that uses TriDot.  We haven’t had any races due to COVID to actually test out how our athletes are doing with TriDot.  

Andrew:  Yeah.

Louise:  But hoping that will change soon when the new season starts in September, October, November.  

Andrew:  Well we will be hoping for that for you.  It will be really cool especially as our race season winds down in the United States it will be really cool to see you guys actively racing kind of while we’re not racing.  Just somewhere in the world every month of the year there’s a TriDotter out there racing and for you guys it’s in the winter for us.  So we’re hoping races come back strong for you all and we can’t wait to see all of our TriDot South Africa representation racing later this fall.  So Jarryd, kind of onto your challenge.  The dream is to swim, bike, and run around the country.  Where did you get that idea from?

Jarryd:  Well, probably a little bit of insanity mixed into that so whatever my response…

Andrew:  Okay, sure.  

Jarryd:  I sent Louise an email in September 2019 basically like, “Hey, this is the idea.”  And her first response was like, “Let me have my baby first before we worry.”  But yeah.  I think it was Ross Edgeley who swam around the UK and I was inspired by that and I thought, “Well, I’m not going to be swimming around the country.  So let me swim, bike, and run around it.”  So the first idea was to go directly across from one end to the other and we figured water would be a bit of a logistical issue.  So if you’re swimming around the coastline then you don’t have an issue with water.  You just have issues with getting in and out of the water.  So less logistically challenging.  

Andrew:  Okay, it’s funny that you reference Ross Edgeley as an inspiration.  I remember watching him.  So he swam around the entire island of the United Kingdom.  I want to say it was like 150-something days that it took him to do it.  I remember the number 150 being involved in that.  I don’t remember if it was the– There’s no way that’s the miles.  It has to be the days that it took him.  It’s way more than–

Louise:  Yeah, that was the days.  

Andrew:  Okay, so it was.  So you just imagine every single day for 150-something days you wake up and hop in the ocean and swim.  Like, just absolutely insane.  So is this– how long should your tri around South Africa take you?

Jarryd:  So the expectation is around 20 days more or less.  

Andrew:  Okay.

Jarryd:  And that’s also to bridge the gap between mental health and endurance sports because that’s where I found my love for endurance sport is that it just changed the way that I thought about things.  Especially triathlon the way I process things because you need a system in triathlon racing and you need to be able to execute it in the best way possible and that changed the way that I dealt with circumstances and emotional stress and all of that stuff.  

Andrew:  Yeah.

Louise:  Yeah and it also takes place…the event takes place in– is it the world–

Jarryd:  Oh, during the month of World Mental Health.  

Louise:  World Mental Health Month.  

Andrew:  Very cool.  Yep, absolutely love that.  Love that there’s kind of a cause being highlighted by it.  Once you decided to do this though, then you had to go out and plan it.  So for 20-something days you’re going to be out there every single day swimming, biking, and running.  So logistically, how did the course shape up and how has the plan for getting you around the country come together?  

Jarryd:  So we primarily, we’ve been connecting…Well, we’ve been very blessed with good connections for sponsors and partners just guiding us in the best way and also making suggestions with people that they know that can help guide us.  We also figured the best way would be like main cities along the coastline.  You know, if you’re going to try and say okay–  We initially thought okay let’s do like 70.3 distances and that’s a great concept if you want, but it’s really, you know every city has a different distance, but we used–  Well, we just worked out the percentages for each like discipline and then mapped that out based on the different distances between cities.  So then each day is in essence going to be a different distance.  So it ranges between like 3 and 5K swims and about 130 to 250K bikes and then around about 35 to 60K runs.  Based on that obviously the training is going to be very different, but even the nutrition on those days is going to be quite different.  So, yeah, it’s interesting and like I said it helps us develop a strategy for it and hopefully execute it in the right way.  

Andrew:  I imagine in the beginning of the challenge you’ll be kind of sticking to your exact nutrition and exactly what you planned on using.  I imagine by the end you’re just going to be eating whatever anybody will put in front of you, don’t you think?

Jarryd:  Yeah.  Doughnuts, sweet rolls, muffins.  If it’s sponsored we’ll go for it.  

Andrew:  So Louise, you’ve been using TriDot to prepare Jarryd for this challenge which involves taking the TriDot sessions and kind of doing some additional work to make sure he’s prepared for the days this effort will take.  What has the training looked like for this?

Louise:  Ummm, so because currently he is training for his first full distance Ironman that is taking place November– should have been earlier in the year, but hey, COVID.

Andrew:  Yep.

Louise:  That currently falls into the training, but I reached out to John Mayfield and to Kurt Madden just to help me on how do we use TriDot and how do we structure this?  So Kurt obviously has the Ultraman experience and John is on the coaching side.  So what we plan to do is we worked backwards from the event about a year.  So training for him– it was already started, but officially we are starting as soon as he’s done with his Ironman.  So what we’ve done is we put events into TriDot, full distance Ironman events, every month or every second month.  The events are in and then we just split it over three days.  So that’s the preparation for it, but then on one day he will do a swim, a bike, and a run and then the next day and then the next day.  So technically three Ironmans over three days and over five days and then our cycles work on three days, five days, seven days, and ten days.  So those continuous simulations of events or training sessions to prep him for it.  So, so far so good.  He’s following this.  He’s doing the right training right, being consistent.  

Andrew:  No. No, I love that.  

Jarryd:  I managed to get my TrainX scores from like 40 average weekly up to about 65, 70.  So I’m pretty excited.  

Andrew:  Alright.  Good man!  Good man.  So I’m looking to become an Ironman in October.  So Jarryd, you’re looking to become an Ironman in November.  For me, I’m going to finish my Ironman and then take a nice little break from long distance racing for a little while.  You’re Ironman is kind of just the warmup.  It’s kind of a practice session for your tri around South Africa.  

Louise:  Yep.

Andrew:  What different journeys you and I are on.  So Jarryd, for anyone that wants to just follow along and keep track of how you’re doing with the tri around South Africa, how can they keep track of you and your progress?  

Jarryd:  So this is going to sound a little bit, I don’t know the right word.  But don’t take it the wrong way.  The website is trimaster.co.za.  

Andrew:  Okay.

Jarryd:  But ultimately it’s mastering endurance sports and mental wellbeing and physical body; mind, body, soul.  All of that type of thing together.  So it’s trimaster.co.za.  That’s the website where everything is going to be happening.  Blogs, videos, if there’s any gear reviews.  All of that type of stuff.  Then there’s also links to our Instagram pages and Facebook pages on there so people can just click through if they want to follow us on social.  

Andrew:  Very cool.  Perfect!  We’ll make sure we put all of those links in the show notes for today’s episode so folks can find you and find your journey and support the cause and cheer for you as you take on this challenge.  So Jarryd, we wish you all the best.  

Jarryd:  Thanks so much!  I really appreciate it and looking forward to sharing more with you guys.

Andrew:  Well, that’s it for today folks.  I want to thank coaches John Mayfield and Jeff Raines for explaining which metrics matter for our day-to-day training.  A big thanks to deltaG for partnering with us on today’s episode.  Head to deltagketones.com to learn more about fueling with the deltaG performance ketone ester.  And remember, you can use promo code TRIDOT20 for 20% off your deltaG order.  Enjoying the podcast?  Have any triathlon questions or topics you want to hear us talk about?  Head to tridot.com/podcast and let us know what you’re thinking.  We’ll do it all again 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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