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: Episode .187 of the podcast, and it’s with two guys who have been on here since the beginning.  We’ll be talking through preparing for your next event, specifically through learning what you can from the athlete guide and whatever other materials your race might equip you with heading into the event.  Joining us for this conversation is TriDot Coach Jeff Raines.  Jeff is a USAT Level II and Ironman U Certified Coach, and a founding TriDot Master Coach, who has a Master of Science in Exercise Physiology and was a D1 collegiate runner.  He has over fifty Ironman event finishes to his credit, and has coached hundreds of athletes to the Ironman finish line.  No day like race day, eh Jeff?

Jeff Raines:  That’s right! A day like no other, the moment we’ve all been waiting for to put everything to the test.  Gotta love race day!

Andrew: Also joining us is TriDot Coach John Mayfield.  John is a USAT Level II and Ironman U Certified Coach, who is an expert on the North America Ironman scene.  As an athlete, he has double-digit Ironman finishes on his résumé, and as a coach he’s worked with 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.  Now John, longtime listeners of the show, if they have a keen ear, will notice there was a slight change to your show bio there.  After many admirable years of service, you have stepped down from your full-time role at TriDot in order to focus more on coaching triathletes full time. You will absolutely continue to be a voice on the podcast, and a face on the TriDot Triathlon Show on YouTube.  But John, just for our listeners who have connected with you, know you, and love you, why was this the right time for this change for you?

John Mayfield:  Coaching athletes has always been a passion of mine.  It was what began to transition me from my banking career into what became a long career and fulfilling venture on the TriDot staff.  Over the last couple of years I really wanted to get back to that, fulfilling that passion of working with the individual athletes and focusing on that.  I’ve continued to coach athletes over the last several years, but in a much diminished role, just a handful of athletes.  Really, what made the timing right was where TriDot is as an organization.  Over the last several years there’s been several features and different things we wanted to add to the app.  It’s largely built out now, it’s really a complete thing that’s really robust, and it’s at a great place.  Same thing with the TriDot staff.  In the beginning it was just Jeff Booher and myself doing everything, and I came from a career in banking so I was winging a lot of stuff. But now we’ve had the opportunity to hire some folks that actually know what they’re doing that are specialized in different things, and the staff is really in a great place with some really highly qualified individuals running the show. The community is absolutely amazing, now over a thousand Ambassadors.  With so many things going on, and everything is so robust, I think it just provided me the opportunity to step back from that and once again pursue my passion of working with individuals, and coaching them to whatever it is they’re wanting to do.

Andrew: I’m very excited for you.  As your friend and someone who’s done a ton of traveling for TriDot with you, alongside you – been in the truck with you, on planes with you, on site at races with you – and watched you communicate with your athletes, coach them, talk to them – you obviously love your athletes, and love getting them through the day-to-day training and getting them ready for race day. So folks, if you’ve heard John Mayfield on the podcast and you’re like, “Man, that guy sounds like he knows what he’s talking about,” he is expanding his roster of athletes right now.  Andrew the Average Triathlete, I am myself a John Mayfield-coached athlete, and I cannot recommend this guy enough.

On with today’s show!  As I said, I’m Andrew the Average Triathlete, Voice of the People and Captain of the Middle of the Pack.  As always, we’ll approach the show like any good workout.  We’ll roll through our warmup question, settle in for our main set conversation, and then wind things down with our cooldown.  Lots of good stuff, let’s get to it!

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

Andrew: Not at all a triathlon question, although I suppose the answer could be multisport related, but this warmup question is one that I’m curious to hear you guys’ answer to.  What is an everyday common task that you are simply, absolutely, horrendously horrible at?  Like you as a functional adult should never be the adult charged with completing this ordinary task?  I never go first on these, I always let the guests go first and I go last.  But since this one is kind of a public-embarrassment question, I will go first here.  I am absolutely horrendous at cracking eggs.  It’s a very normal, day-to-day thing.  Every single day, all over the world, people crack eggs and cook them for breakfast, lunch, dinner.  I should never be the adult in the room cracking the eggs for cooking breakfast. I can do it in a pinch, I can get by, but I have ended up with egg on my shirt, egg on the floor, egg a foot down the counter somehow.  I don’t know, it looks pretty basic, looks like it should be pretty simple, but I am horrendous at doing it.  I have a very high percentage rate, even when the cracking itself goes fairly well –

Jeff: Have you bit into an eggshell in the middle of your meal because of this?

Andrew:  No. I was about to say, I am very OCD with this. I do usually end up with a small piece or two of shell in my cracked egg, and I am very good about fishing it out with my finger.  It takes a little time, I’m probably better at that than I am at cracking the egg itself, a very ordinary, everyday thing.  I ended up with some egg on the floor the other day and was like, “This needs to be a warmup question.”  I need to find out what our guests are horrible at doing.  So Jeff Raines, over to you, what’s your answer here?

Jeff: Man, I think many dads are going to agree with me on this one, but having three kiddos, two, four, and six years old – get ready, Andrew! – it’s car seats.  I just want to go on the record and say – even though I am indeed in charge of the kid car seats, I do put them in, – but I loathe having to put those suckers in the car.  I’ve been doing it for almost seven years now, and I kind of finally have a system down to get those things in and out.  But man, they frustrate me.  I always get so mad hooking them, strapping them, I can’t reach, I can’t get it to fit. Oh man, car seats, but I always throw in a second twist to it all, so I’m going to add the dishwasher.  It’s not that I can’t use a dishwasher.  I know how, they’re very simple, they’re great. But I never use it.  Sarah, my wife, uses it.  I always hand-wash all of my dishes.  I don’t like the dishes just sitting in the sink or dishwasher.  I can’t even go to bed at night if there’s a sink full of dishes, I just like to have them clean.  I could just throw them all in the dishwasher and go to bed in 30 seconds.  But I don’t like going, “Hey, I need a fork,” and I go to the clean drawer of forks and there’s none in there, they’re all in the dishwasher.  I don’t know what it is, but I do not use a dishwasher.

Andrew: Okay, this warmup question is already getting some great insight into y’all’s daily lives and my own as well. John Mayfield, over to you, what do you got?

John: Man, I agree wholeheartedly with Jeff on that one.  I hated getting the car seats in and out, but also getting the kids in and out of the car seats.  Especially in our Texas summers, when it’s a billion degrees and they’re squirming and all, I hated that so much.  It was great when they could buckle themselves in, and it was even more amazing when they just didn’t need them anymore.  Now my youngest is weeks away from driving her own car, so like you’ve been told, fellas, it comes quick.  And yes, it is amazing when they can drive themselves.  So I actually asked my wife this –

Andrew: That’s a good call, yeah!

John: Yeah, it was like, “Hey Nicole, what am I not good at?”  And she was like, “Ooh, I don’t think we have time for this.”  But it all kind of summed up as, “just being the adult”.  Like when it comes time to be serious and get things done I can switch it over, but my default is I’m not the best adult, I’m just kind of like a big kid.  Like if anyone ever says, “Hey, let’s go do something,” I’m always down, kind of spontaneous.  My wife is kind of that way too, so we maybe don’t have quite as much in the savings account or in the college fund as we would like, but we’ve got lots of cool memories and that sort of thing.  Yeah, maybe I just shouldn’t be the adult in charge.

Andrew: All right, we’re going to kick this over to our audience.  I’m curious to hear what everyday common tasks you are horrible at.  So make sure you’re a part of the I AM TriDot Facebook group, tens of thousands of athletes talking swim, bike, and run every single day on that group.  Monday, when this episode comes out, I will throw this question out to you: what is an everyday task you are horrible at completing?  Cannot wait to see what public embarrassment awaits our audience.

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

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Everyone loves race day, but for race day to love you back, you’ve got to put a little work into the relationship.  Every event you do will be different, and thus every good event should issue you some form of an athlete guide.  The weather, the course, the placement of the aid stations, the contents of the aid stations, the orientation of transition, the logistics of the race location, the event schedule – it all should be in there, and if you familiarize yourself with these contents, you and race day should have a grand old time together. John, Jeff, before you gentlemen guide us on all things race logistics, hit us with a good story.  What was a time where you or one of your athletes just totally botched something practical that was probably covered in the athlete guide?

John:  I think I actually already shared this story on the podcast – this was something I totally botched, and it’s hard to botch anything worse than this.  Last summer I showed up to a race, went down to registration to pick up my packet, and at first they didn’t have my name, couldn’t find it.  I thought no big deal, it’s been many months since I registered.  I went to the other table, and I come to find out I’d never registered.  It’s hard to do anything, or really none of these logistics matter, if you haven’t actually registered for the race.  And this is one I actually traveled to – I drove three hours, stayed in a hotel and all that – so it wasn’t just a race around the corner.  Fortunately I was able to sign up there, but here I am, an experienced coach, been doing this for a long time, triple-digit races, and I guess at some point you just assume they automatically register for you.  Yeah, that was a good one.  Another one – this is not so much race logistics, but it kind of is – I had an athlete years ago who I was tracking at Ironman Arizona, I was there with him.  He was out on the run course, had done really well at swim, bike, and first loop of the run, and then just disappeared.  I was like, “What’s going on?”  It took forever to find him, and finally he shows up in the med tent, DNFed after having a really great start to the race.  He was like, “Yeah, my blood sugar crashed.  I’m diabetic, and if I don’t manage my insulin really closely, my blood sugar will crash.”  .”  I’d been coaching this guy for months, and this was the first time I’d heard this.  We’d had numerous conversations about all sorts of things, and it’s like, “You never thought to tell me this?”

Andrew:  “By the way…”

John:  So we didn’t have a plan for it.  So for one, it was frustrating that he had DNFed after such a great start.  But yeah, it was something that we could have just managed.  We could have mitigated this.  But such a major thing to not tell the coach. It was disappointing.  It was sad, but it was also pretty frustrating.

Andrew:  I think it’s very easy, when you start doing a lot of triathlons, to forget how intentional you have to be about being ready for every step of the race.  From literally registering for the race in your case, to all the different things you have to do to be ready for the morning – prerace, postrace, T1, T2 – there’s just so many things to think through and have ready.  This isn’t in relation to the athlete guide or the course logistics, but I did PTO Dallas last year, and I as an experienced triathlete, I did not charge my DI2 shifters the night before.  All of a sudden, I’m probably two miles into my 13ish-mile bike ride for PTO Dallas, and my DI2 completely dies, and I had one gear for the rest of the race.  So you cannot take for granted, whatever race you are doing next – it doesn’t care if you’re a tentime Ironman or if you have done 300 triathlons before – if you have not done your due diligence to be ready for that race, it doesn’t matter how experienced you are.  Jeff Raines, same question for you.  What is something that you or an athlete have botched simply because you just weren’t quite ready for that particular race?

Jeff:  There’s a ton, I’ve got a huge list.  Gosh, we say that you can’t plan on race day going perfectly, because if you do you’re going to be disappointed.  We have to prepare for the what-ifs or the curve balls that are thrown at us on race day. What we’re preparing for is how we will respond to some sort of potential issue.  We want to be as prepared as possible, but we also have to be able to respond accordingly and adapt and still have a great race day and not let it ruin the day.  It’s not one of those “ifs”, it’s “when”.  I’ve had a couple races where it’s on us to know the course, the bike and run course.  There’s been races where I took a wrong turn or something like that, and it cost me the podium.  But that’s on me, I should have known the course.  I did have a race where I happened to be leading the bike, was just following the pacesetter vehicle out in front of me, and THAT person took me down the wrong street.  So it’s like, “I think I was supposed to turn left there, but I’m following the lead car, what do I do?”  I’ve had circumstances like that.  Another one I saw just yesterday – you know Ironman Texas is coming up in just a few days. Very fitting for this episode, I saw someone just posted on the forum, “Hey, I’m just reading through the athlete guide and holy cow, the race is Saturday?  I thought this whole time it was Sunday.”  So now they have to change their hotel, try to get another day, because we have to be there at least two days or further out from an Ironman.  One of my athletes at Ironman California had a unique circumstance where, it’s not his fault, but his father was in the ER and he couldn’t arrive two days earlier.  But there are races where, even though there are these rules, there are exceptions. They let me, his coach, go to TriBike Transport and get his bike, they let me go get his packet.  So the day before the race they still let him come in, arrive on site, and still race, it all worked out.  But there’s always unique circumstances.

Andrew: Yeah, and the more prepared you are, the more you’ve studied the athlete guide, the more you know about your race, the race schedule, the race course and all that, the better prepared you are to navigate when things like that pop up.  Great stories, guys.  Now every race director and race producer provides different forms of content before a race.  Often it’s an athlete guide that’s emailed to the athlete, sometimes it’s printed when you do packet pickup.  Sometimes it’s maps and event schedules on a website somewhere.  Some races have onsite briefings, some races have YouTube video material.  From y’all’s vast race experience, what have you seen over the years that stood out for better or for worse?  Jeff Raines?

Jeff:  I really like when a race will have their own phone app, where everything is placed in that app.  If there are changes to a course or updates –

Andrew:  See, I don’t like that, because then I have to go download another app, and then delete that other app after the race.

Jeff:  I do get that, totally understand that.  But at the same time, if there’s a course change or something like that, it can get lost in an email.  It’s two weeks before the race and now, “I’ve got to go back and find that email, what was that change?”  But I also understand that a lot of smaller, newer races, for budgeting or funding, they’re not able to have super indepth apps or even race guides.  I always like races that show the nutrition they’re going to have on course, and then parking.  Parking, parking, parking.  Race morning, you’re kind of on edge.  You want to get down there and get set up, and if you’re in a super-long line of cars, or you knew some back road, or, “Hey, there’s a better lot over here,” it saves you that anxiety.  Parking maps are great.

Andrew:  Jeff, I am the Millennial, I saw this on a Tweet somewhere so I can’t take credit for this, but it was like, “I’m at the age now where, if I’ve been invited to a social function, I will decide whether I’m going to go or not based on the parking situation.”  If there’s easy parking, I’ll even pay for it.  Just as long as it’s easy-in/easy-out, I’m game to go.  Yeah, I always like it when a race shows you – and a lot of the races here are very good about that – “Here are the available parking garages, here’s the available lots, this grass field, that Kroger,” whatever.  It’s always really nice when they point that out, because that just takes one stressor from your morning off the table.

Jeff:  I could go on and on, but I’ll just throw out one more.  I’m interested to hear John’s thoughts, but I like races that have a specific host hotel.  Because race morning, typically you won’t have to drive to the race site.  Another big thing is if it says in the athlete guide that the host hotel has late checkout, that’s a huge step.  I’ll usually call a couple hotels in the area of a race that I like to do, and ask if they’re offering anything special for racers or late checkout.  Do I have to pay extra, can I shower after the race before I have that drive home? Stuff like that, that’s always a perk.

John:  Unfortunately, there’s oftentimes a lack of quality information, especially from the races that are more inclined for new triathletes to be doing.  It’s one thing for us, we have a pretty good feel for what’s going to happen on race morning, we have our routines down.  As experienced triathletes, as long as we’ve registered for the race, it’s not as important to have all those details further out.  But a lot of times at these local sprint races, you may have the maps, things like that for the course, but not a whole lot of logistical information.  I wish there was more of that, and I’m not exactly sure why not.  Maybe it’s just an assumption that these athletes know, but then it’s kind of the inverse.  Whereas you go to a race like a 70.3 or Ironman, generally you have a whole lot more information.  Like Escape From Alcatraz and the extreme triathlons start months out with webinars and information, and all sorts of things to prepare the participants for it. Unfortunately there’s just not that same level of resources available to newer athletes.  I think it’s important what TriDot does, one of the things we strive for, is providing that education.  Not all though, there are some.  The first triathlon I ever did, they had a beginner clinic that I went to, and it was fantastic.  So there are some that do better than others.

Andrew:  To your point John, at the local sprint and Olympic level, it is totally hit or miss what these race directors are providing you with.  Some of them have very thorough information with good quality course maps, accurate aid station placements and listings of what’s going to be at them and all that jazz.  But for some of them it’s just, “Show up at this time, we’re going to start at this time.” Oh cool, thanks so much!  So we as athletes obviously have to do our due diligence to find everything we can find.  Absolutely look at the race website, absolutely see what emails they send you, absolutely when you go to packet pickup, see what they can provide you with, and get all the information you can to be ready.  Obviously, this is going to depend somewhat on what your race provides, but as coaches, what do you make sure your athletes look at as they prep for an event?

John:  I would say the most important variable to consider, headed into the race, is the weather. Obviously we’re getting our fitness there, our training in, but as we prepare for the race, the weather really has a massive impact on everything.  Primarily the temperature, which is going to affect the gear you're selecting, what kit you’re going to wear.  Is this something where you’re trying to be as cool as possible, or are you trying to be as warm as possible?  Is there rain in the forecast, which that can affect the gear you’re using, your tire pressure, all of that.  Then wind as well, which is a bit more difficult to predict.  Sometimes you don’t really know until you’re out there, but that’s going to have a big impact on your day as well.  It has a big impact on pacing, but the biggest thing that the weather is going to impact is nutrition.  What I found out over the years is that there’s really nothing more important than staying up on your hydration, your electrolytes, and your nutrition.  If you get behind on those, it doesn’t matter how well you trained.  It doesn’t matter how fit or how fast, if you’re behind on nutrition, hydration, electrolytes, you’re never going to perform to your best. Again, weather obviously has a huge impact on that.  So pay attention to the forecast, what adjustments we need to make, what gear adjustments, what nutrition, hydration, electrolytes adjustments do we need to make. Then course logistics – and this is really where we get into a big variance of those – some courses are very technical and have a ton of stuff that need to be taken into consideration. What are the potential variables on the swim, the bike, the run, that we need to account for?  You may get into some true open water where you have currents, waves, all that.  You may get into very technical bike courses where you have ascents and descents, sharp turns.  Same thing on your run, we may have some hilly, technical courses, or maybe it’s different surfaces that you're going to be running on.  You don’t want to be surprised by any of those things, so all those need to be taken into consideration.

Jeff:  Are you going to transport your bike?  How are you going to get your bike there?  What hotel are you going to stay in?  The logistics of getting there and getting to the race site race morning, is there a bus that gets you to the venue race morning?  Then the type of course, is it going to most likely be wetsuit legal?  If not, are you prepared for that?  Are you prepared to swim a particular distance without that wetsuit on? There’s just so many things. Once you have all those logistics, something that I make sure they prep for are those different scenarios on what race day provides, making sure that you’re ready for any scenario.  If it’s usually a cold race but it happens to have a really warm front come through the week of the race, you may want to tone down the effort you're going to push, or percent of FTP.  Your pacing’s going to change, your nutritional intake is going to change.  A big one is that nutrition piece, and where in those traditional ranges will they end up on race day, based on the conditions and everything that John was mentioning earlier.  We want to train for the high end of the ranges, but then we’ll taper that down, or race the lower end of the range.  You may want a little bit less salt, little bit less grams of carbs per hour if it’s going to be a cooler, less demanding day. But if it happens to just be a unique, crazy, last-minute heat wave, it’s going to be miserable out there.  If you’re not used to taking in an extra 20 or 30 grams of carbs per hour, you’re going to have GI issues on race day.  So train the gut for the worst-case scenario, and then hope for the best in the moment.

Andrew:  For athletes listening, the important thing there, as we’re looking at the information, we want to look at the weather ahead of time.  There’s a ton of implications there for your nutrition and what you’re going to need.  Look at the course logistics, look at what they’re going to provide in terms of aid at the aid stations.  Because to an extent, unless you’re Jeff Raines and you’re an elite on the bike, you can just hop in the water and follow the feet in front of you.  You can just hop out of the water, get on your bike, and follow the bike in front of you.  You can just follow the runners in front of you. But knowing the weather, thinking through what you’re going to need in terms of staying fueled for that race effort, it’s going to be a real bad day if you don’t do that.  So let’s truck through the items that most events will be providing to their athletes.  Again, we’ve already established it’s going to totally vary based on what race you’re doing and how thorough the race producer is.  But we’re going to talk through a lot of the things that races will or might provide for you, and we’re going to cover just what you can learn from those items that are provide.  So the first item I want to talk about is the course maps.  On the surface, you glance at it and get a sense of the layout, and the elevation profile for the course.  But what does a nuanced eye pick up here?  When you guys are looking at a course map and you’re heading into a race, and you’re talking through with your experienced athletes, “Okay, here’s the map, here’s what you need to think through, here’s the elevation gain.”  What can we learn just beyond where we’re going?

Jeff:  One thing that I like to look at inside that course is, are there no-passing zones? There’s a lot of races, with certain hills or descents and trying to keep the course safe, you need to know where those nopassing zones are.  That could hinder what place you’re in, or you could get stuck behind somebody, but obviously you want to be safe.  There’s other races where there might be unique areas on the course, like lowwater crossings.  There might be bridges, overpasses cattle guards, that are unique.  Are there sharp turns?  Looking at the course maps, where are the aid stations and how many?  Those crazy, more technical areas of the course, you’ve got to think about where the wind direction is usually coming from as well. Is half the race potentially going to be a miserably headwind?  Things like that.  We have a kind of ranking system in our TriDot RaceX where it ranks the course in how open it is.  Is it an open plain? Is it a coastal where you might get some coastal winds?  Is it wooded, forest areas?  If 90% of the course is in trees, then you don’t have to worry a lot about wind, you can get away with sitting up a little bit more potentially, not having to stay super in aero, things like that.  Shade is another one.  If it’s a hot race, how much of the course is shaded?  Are the roads narrow, are they smooth?  We also have a road smoothness ranking system in our RaceX that helps you with your pacing.  Is it open to traffic?  A lot of people like to know that their race course is closed to traffic, and they don’t have to worry about cars.  That’s a big deal for a lot of people, a lot of courses aren’t fully closed to traffic. There’s just so many things.  I guess the last thing is the elevation gains. Where are those big hills, those ascents and descents?  When are you going to eat?  Are you able to have good bike handling during those unique aspects of the course? A lot of people like this super-fast, long, 30minute descent, but you’re flying downhill, you may not want to or be able to grab a bottle, take a drink, or eat that gel in the moment.  So you’re going to have to time your eating and nutrition based on some of those aspects of the course.  A lot to think about, for sure.

Andrew:  Yeah, really interesting stuff there, Jeff.  I want to point out for folks that, even beyond looking at the course map, just thinking about what that spot on Planet Earth is actually like.  It’s very easy to say – at 70.3 Galveston for example – you look at the course map and the bike route is just a simple out and back. But you start considering what that road is like, being next to the beach it’s always really windy.  So being on that road on Planet Earth, it’s a flat, smooth road, sure, but one direction’s going to be really windy, one direction’s going to have a massive tailwind.  And to your point, there are some fueling ramifications for that. There is some pacing, knowing that the whole way out is going to be really difficult, and the whole way back is going to be a lot easier in terms of energy expenditure.  So for your race course, however it’s laid out, look at what that road is like, what that spot is like.  If you’re running in an area where it’s very still, not very windy, and it’s going to be very hot, that’s going to be very different from running under some trees where it’s shaded.  So look at the map.  I like to go to Google Earth, actually.  If I can go to a race site and drive the course first, that’s always preferred. But if I can’t do that, I like to click the route on my Google Maps and follow along, just to see what the road looks like.  That even helps me in my race visualization, just knowing I’ve seen this overpass before, I’ve seen this hill or this patch of road before.  Because even on Google Earth, I clicked through this route to see what those spots on Planet Earth look like, because there’s going to be some ramifications for what it feels like when you’re actually there. Something we tell athletes all the time, is to go to our race venue ahead of time and drive the bike course, or maybe bike the run course in advance.  It sounds smart, it makes sense.  What should we pay attention to if we get the chance to do that?

John:  Heading down to the swim venue, it’s great if you can do that around the time that you are going to be in the water.  A primary consideration here is where is the sunrise in relation to the swim course? Are you going to be swimming into the sunrise?  Is it going to be on your dominant breathing side?  Things like that can factor into your goggle selection.  Then also keep an eye on what are the current conditions and how do those compare to the forecast?  If it’s equal wind as forecasted for race day, look at how much chop is on top of the water.  Are there currents, are there waves?  Which way are they coming from?  All those kinds of things, so you can begin to strategize.  If you see that every day that there’s a decent amount of chop that is on your predominant breathing side, then maybe it’s time to switch your strategy to breathe to your nondominant side, otherwise you’re going to be getting a face full of water every time you turn to breathe.  These are the things that we want to consider prior to the race, and if we don’t take those into consideration, it’s going to make for hardship on race day.  Headed out on the bike course, as Raines mentioned, we’re really looking for the technical areas.  Are there any tight turns?  What are the climbs like, what are the descents?  What are the bad roads?  Some races do a better job of marking potholes and things like that than others. Certainly you don’t want to catch a pothole or anything like that out there on race day.  Oftentimes at the bigger races, Ironman races especially, the aid stations and personal needs are marked in the days heading into the race, so you’ll know exactly where those are and you can plan your strategy. That’s really what we’re looking for. We don’t want any surprises on race day. We want to be aware of what we’re going to encounter.  if there’s anything out there that poses a threat, we want to be able to have a strategy, or at least be prepared for it.  I did not make it out onto the bike course prior to racing Ironman Des Moines last year, and I was caught off guard.  It really kind of messed with me, I did not enjoy that bike course.  From the elevation chart that I saw, I was expecting much more of a rolling course that was kind of up and down the whole time, not a whole lot of climbing.  It wasn’t a climbing course, but I was caught off guard by how steep and how long some of the ascents were.  It wasn’t difficult, I was able to get through the course fine, it just wasn’t what I was expecting.  I had surprises on race day, and that’s one of the things that I preach, is no surprises on race day.

Andrew:  Yeah, I’ve certainly had some as well.  When I’m taking those course recon trips, I like looking at the road quality for sure, seeing where that chip seal is, seeing where the road is smooth, making mental notations of that.  Because that’s just a mental thing.  If there’s a patch of rough road, you’ve just got to mentally be ready for it.  It’s just no fun to trek through those.  It’s good to know where they are, how much of that you have to deal with, as opposed to just getting on some chip seal and going, “Is it going to be like this forever, or is it like this for a mile?”  Driving the course and learning that is always good. Something you guys mentioned is that many courses will put the actual placement of the aid stations on the map. It’s easy to see where they are, and you move on with your life.  They typically are placed at fairly regular intervals, and it kind of is what it is. Sometimes I pay attention a lot, sometimes I just kind of glance at it.  Is there any nutritional strategy we should have in mind as we look at the aid station placement and the list of what they’re going to have at those aid stations?

Jeff:  Definitely. I don’t like to fully rely on what is there on course.  I like knowing that it’s there, kind of an insurance policy.  But we’ve had races before, at least I have, where they’ve run out of things.  They’re out of ice, or those gels that were promised are all gone, or on the way, things like that.  Well, I need it now.  So I like to be a little bit more self-sufficient on my nutritional strategy. But yeah, you’re going to plan those nutritional intakes usually on better, safer areas of the course.  We talked a little bit about not relying on, “At this time period I’ve got to have this many calories in.” If that’s on a long descent like we talked about and it’s not safe, you don’t want to go 30 minutes without eating until you get to the bottom of that hill.  So you’d want to time that nutritional intake on those safer, better areas of the course.

Some races, typically the longer ones, have a personal needs area where there’s an opportunity for you to stop, and there’s a bag that has been sent out onto the course in that designated spot and it’s waiting for you.  It’s your unique own food that you’ve prepared ahead of time that is waiting for you at a certain part.  At some races you can access personal needs more than once, at more than one mileage opportunity.  Trail races for example might have a bunch of multiple loops, so you can access that many, many times.  Some races say you’re only supposed to do it once.  But there are races where you might have an opportunity to take that twice, and I am always an advocate of taking it sooner rather than later.  But if it is offered more than once, definitely take advantage of that.

Something else to consider also is taking the tangents.  Let’s say you’re at a standalone half-marathon, and you don’t have to access every single aid station every single mile if you don’t want to.So I might skip an aid station if it’s not on a perfect tangent.  If I’ve got a sharp left-hand turn coming up, I don’t’ want to run to the right really far on the other side of the road, add ten seconds to my race, grab the drink and then come back and add distance to the race as well.  Things like that.  If you can get away with it and you know it’s safe and okay, you might want to skip an aid station.  Even though I’m not in an Ironman or long-course, I like to utilize something at every aid station, but there are certain times when you might want to skip that.

John:  Along those same lines, I tell athletes to take something at every aid station, especially on the run, because there’s always something that you’re going to need by that point.  Again, most of the races that we do are warm weather, controlling our core temperature is critical.  So I always say if there’s an opportunity to take a cold water bottle, always do that at that aid station.  Know where that is and begin to prepare for it so you can get over.  Maybe it’s clearing out a cage, maybe it’s throwing out a bottle that you’re going to be replacing.  You may have half a bottle of water left, but it’s going to be warm by then. So ditch that warm water bottle and get some fresh cold water, pour it over your body, get some cold water down to help cool your core temperature from the inside.  Again, just know where those aid stations are, on both the bike and run course.  If nothing else, it may just be pouring a cup of water on your head or dumping some ice down your kit, or it may be sticking to your nutrition plan, but knowing where those aid stations are is going to be important in your planning and execution.

Jeff:  I definitely time my nutrition knowing where those aid stations are.  If I know an aid station is coming up in a half mile on the bike, I might start taking a gel on the bike, so that I can wash it down or rinse it.  On the run, if I’m going to pop a salt pill, I might take it right before the aid station so I can wash it down with water.  And we’ve all been there so I’m going to say this, but I’ll pee on the bike, knowing there’s an aid station up ahead.  If I can see it way up there, I might time my onthe-bike restroom so I can rinse immediately afterwards. Things like that definitely help.

Andrew:  It’s potty time!  Sure! I think the biggest thing I try to note, whether it’s full distance, middle distance, or short course, is how far apart are those aid stations, what are the intervals?  Because, John to your point, normally you have one by the time you need one, but there are races where they are a little bit farther apart than is preferable, and I like to notate that.  I might take a small handheld water bottle if that’s going to be the case, I might take a gel or something in transition if there’s not going to be an aid station pretty quickly after transition.  Just noting how far apart they are is a crucial thing that I always look at as well.  So let’s talk about the schedule for a race weekend.  Race info should absolutely give a comprehensive schedule.  For something like a local sprint, everything might just be on the day of the race itself.  From packet pickup, to the time transition is open, to the time transition is closed, to the time you're in the water, is all within two hours sometimes. That’s all it is, pretty straightforward for a local sprint.  For middle distance or long course, this could be a full-on long weekend.  So as we look through the schedule, what needs to jump out at us?  What will become a race weekend blunder if we don’t catch it on the schedule?

John:  Something that Raines mentioned earlier, a huge thing is having that check-in deadline. This is something we see pretty much at every race, it’s one of those mind-numbingly, head-scratcher, “How did you miss this?”  But inevitably, every race – I saw somebody different than who Raines was referring to with Ironman Texas coming up, saying they’re arriving on Friday.  Well you can’t, and this has been out there since you signed up.  That is absolutely critical, I would say that’s the biggest.  That’s one little caveat about Ironman, they generally they do require two days out from the race.  Most other races will have packet pickup available the day before, some even the morning of.  Which I’m not really a big fan of, but if it works for you and that’s what you have to do. Then things like bike drops – some races require it, some offer it, some don’t, so just know that.  Do you have to drop your bike off the day before?  Can you, if that is something you want to do, or is it only available on race morning?  Something else to consider is race morning traffic.  A lot of times getting to the venue is great, because it’s very early on a Saturday or Sunday morning and there’s not a whole lot of crazies out yet, so getting to the venue is nice and fast.  But depending on how the layout is, how many people, how many entrances there are, I’ve heard horror stories of folks getting into some massive traffic. There was a 70.3 I think two years ago, I want to say it was maybe Des Moines, I forget exactly.  But there were folks still waiting in traffic trying to get into the venue when the race was supposed to start.  You basically had two or three thousand athletes all being funneled in to one entrance, and everybody kind of showed up at the same time. Parking wasn’t real easy and smooth, so you had a traffic jam that backed up, and it really threw everything off. They delayed the start of the race and all that, but that’s not how you want to start race morning, so take all those things into consideration.

Andrew:  Great stuff there, John.  I’ll just speak to the local races, because I remember signing up for my first couple local sprints put on by Dallas Athletes Racing and by Playtri.  The local races in Dallas-Fort Worth, most of them will offer a race morning packet pickup.  Not all of them do, so when you’re racing those local sprints or Olympics, if you’re used to having packet pickup days in advance, just know it might or might not be there race morning.  But if you can get to one of the packet pickups before race morning, it’s just going to take one thing off your plate that you have to take care of on the morning of the race.  If you wait for race morning, you’ve got to pick up that packet, you have to put your numbers on all the spots that are supposed to have your numbers, it just adds to your morning.  Plus it’s another opportunity to just go and find out more about the race.  Oftentimes whoever’s hosting the packet pickup will be knowledgeable about the race and about the course, so you can ask any questions that you have.  So I always recommend, if you can get to a packet pickup in advance, always do that. John, you implied the same thing, you’re not a fan of waiting until race morning for those.  Definitely something to be aware of.  I was not aware that packet pickup was a thing until I signed up for my first triathlon, and thankfully Dallas Athletes Racing sent out an email letting you know when the packet pickups were.  I was like, “Oh, now I have a packet to pick up, got it!” Definitely a fan of doing that. As you look at the race schedule, you can start to do the math on when or what time of day you might be on certain portions of the course.  At all distances, from sprint all the way up to Ironman, there are implications for race strategy based on the timing of your race and the weather on the day. Talk to us about tweaking our race strategy based on what we see on the race schedule.

Jeff:  I know we keep using this example of Ironman Texas, but it’s happening in a few days, and I’m actually having this conversation with three of my athletes who are racing.  As always in Texas, the weather is this huge question mark.  It can be 95° out there towards the end of the bike and onto the run course.  It can be direct sunlight, super-hot, super windy.  But it’s actually looking like it might rain out there, and it’s also looking like it could be 50something degrees in the morning.  The water temperature for a while was probably hit or miss on if it is going to be wetsuit legal or not, but now it’s in the 60°s, so it’s like, “Goodness, I was going to use a sleeveless wetsuit, but if it’s going to be that cold, maybe I want to bring that full-sleeved, just in case.” Things like that, adjusting contingency plans and having everything set ahead of time.  Something else to consider is if it’s going to take one to two hours to get everyone in the water.  Some races, especially open water, they can get everyone in there in 15 minutes, and everyone starts out about 7:00 a.m.  But if your wave is going to be 9:00 a.m., where some people are well into the bike before you even get into the water – something I talk about is a second breakfast, or you’re going to time your big meal a little bit different, or you’re going to have another snack.  If there is a weather delay, or it takes a long time to get everyone in the water, you don’t want to start feeling hungry and having those blood sugar issues when the race hasn’t even started yet.  So consider the timing of that, and when you’ll actually be in the water, and just have those contingency plans.  Then the last piece is training the gut for the high end of the ranges, then tapering that down based on what the actual race day shows. That’s another big one.  You’ll do that with your pacing strategy and with your nutrition strategy, based on what the day is going to throw at you.

John:  Another consideration of weather is how is it going to change the route, the course of the event itself.  Some climates are going to have drastic swings, where you may have a very cool morning to start, then when the sun rises it can get warm quite quickly, depending on the time of the year.  So how is that going to affect those things?  Then when you get into Ironman racing, when you’re out there from sunrise to sunset and then potentially beyond – we’ve been at numerous races where it has gotten quite hot in the afternoon, but then as the sun begins to set, the temperature really begins to drop.

Andrew:  It’s gets chilly, yeah.

John:  And that’s where something like a long-sleeved shirt or jacket can really be useful in a personal needs bag that you have access to.  Just a little tip here, I’ve seen this many, many times on these real hot races, where folks will get behind on hydration, they’ll get overheated, and that’s when people start to walk.  But there’s a little bit of hope that sunset is coming, so that’s the tip I give those people.  In that moment when they’re out there, maybe even on the first half of the run where, they’ve got a long way to go but maybe it’s getting later in the afternoon.  I always remind them to top off their fuel, get hydrated, because the temperature is going to begin to drop, they’re not going to be baking in the sun anymore.  If they do that right, then they can get back to running, they don’t have to finish out walking.  Just a little tip there, is if you get overheated, if you get behind on hydration, go ahead and get topped off, and then once the temperatures drop, hopefully they’ll get back to running.

Andrew:  Great, John. A thing you said that I wanted to touch a little more on is the fact that, depending on the swim start – the race starts at X o’clock, you might be first into the water, you might be into the water in 20 minutes, you might be in the water in 45 minutes or an hour and a half after the actual swim start – knowing that, and having nutrition available according to that, is a great tip that I didn’t want to overlook.  Something I want to add to that is, usually races should tell you what type of swim start it is.  It could be a wave start, where your wave is told, “You are going at 8:05, you are in the water,” so you know exactly how much time you have to kill.  In a rolling start, if you’re faster, you’re getting into the water sooner.  If you’re slower, you’re getting into the water a lot later.  Is it a mass start?  Just know what the swim start is like, and then do the math on how much time it’s probably going to take before.  If it’s a rolling start, is it a race with 150 athletes, so everybody’s in the water in 16 minutes?  Or is it a race with 800 athletes, where it’s going to take a little bit longer?  Just knowing that, how the race is going to start and how many swimmers there are, is going to help you do that math on if you need a gel or some hydration, just to top your energy reserves off before the race starts.

John:  A great example of that is Age Group Nationals.  The advantage is, it will be published what time your wave is going to go off, so you’re going to know that.  But there is a huge delta between that first group in the water and the last group, I want to say it’s something like 2½ hours.  So a huge impact here on your nutrition, as Jeff mentioned. You’ve got to keep eating and drinking in that time, you don’t want to just fast and not take anything for that 2½ hours.  Then chances are, it’s going to be considerably warmer 2½ hours later in the day.  That race is held in August, and even up north where it is held, it’s going to get hot. That’s a huge variable to consider in that race.

Andrew:  One other thing that I’ll talk about before I move on from the race schedule, is it’s very important to note when transition is opening and when it is closing.  Often there’s a couple-hour window to get your stuff done and ready, often it’s a short window.  But something to note is, I think most people aim towards the middle of that window.  Because you don’t want to be rushed at the end of that window, but you want to get as much sleep as you can get, so you don’t want to be the first one there.  So what happens is there’s this huge influx of people right in the middle of the range.  If you know that, it’s fine.  But maybe you err on going a little bit earlier than you want to, just to make sure you’re not super rushed.  Or if you’re fine and know what you’re doing and you’re in and out really quickly, you can risk it and take a little bit longer.  But just note how much time you have there, and just keep in mind that most people are going to target the middle of that window, so depending on how big the race is and how much stuff you have to accomplish, plan your time accordingly. A couple more questions, guys, we’re going to blitz through these.  A thorough athlete guide will also give the layout of the race venue, things like where the athlete check-in is, the expo, transition, orientation, VIP areas, any potential local amenities for your family members and sherpas.  What do we need to know about the actual host venue to make sure we are prepared for the race experience?

John:  I would say the most important thing here, and this is going to vary from individual to individual, is make sure you’re not overdoing it.  A lot of times there are really cool expos, villages, things going on down there at the host venue, and it’s certainly possible to overdo it. Take too many steps, expend too much energy, get behind on your nutrition and hydration, especially if it’s warm out, spending too much time in the sun.  That’s going to zap you, and not really set you up for the next day. So plan accordingly.  This is why I always recommend doing those things early on. Check in, go into the village, things like that, get those done earlier in the day, earlier in the week if you can. Then especially as those hours and days lead into the race, those become more and more valuable to really rest up, stay off your feet as much as possible, make sure you’re up on your energy, your nutrition, your hydration.

Andrew:  An even more thorough athlete guide will show some key logistics for the host city.  So we’re expanding the circle from where the race is to the actual city itself that is hosting the event.  They’ll highlight things like the host hotels, key parking areas, and more.  What info is helpful here, what do we need to absorb?

John:  A lot of times, some real important information is where NOT to park.  Especially for races that are in kind of urban areas, that’s often a thing where there ae definite yeses and nos.  Sometimes you’ve got a great parking lot or field where it’s super easy, others you’re somewhat fending for yourself.  Suppose you’ve gone out and raced 140.6 miles, and had a great race.  You’ve gone and picked up your bike, and you go to put it in your car, and your car has been towed or ticketed.  That’s definitely going to be a blemish on your awesome day.  So make sure you know where to park and where not to park. Another thing is good locations to eat, get groceries, last-minute supplies.

Andrew:  Great point, John, thinking through what you are eating the night before, what you are eating the morning of.  Is that taking some groceries with you, getting some groceries on site?  Definitely think through what are the food options where you are.  When I did my first half-Ironman in New Zealand – when it’s an away game, when you’re not in your hometown, you’ve got to find what is the brand of grocery store that is in this city that I’m going to be at, and what do they sell?  Yeah, always an adventure, always something to think through as you’re looking at the host city itself.  I think I hit the highlights for what a race athlete guide should cover.  We talked about the race site logistics, the race city logistics, the race schedule, the course maps, all that kind of stuff.  But there certainly can be more info included in a good athlete guide. These things are often, at the big box races, pages and pages of information.  I’ve seen letters from the race director, offers from race sponsors, coupons to local vendors, and all sorts of other things.  What else have you guys seen an athlete guide include that can help us nail race weekend?

Jeff:  Food vouchers, or like you said, local vendors or attractions.  Sometimes there will be coupons, things like that could be gold.  Let’s say I’m racing, but my wife and kids are on site, what are they going to do for five, six hours while I’m on the bike?  Those race athlete guides will have some of those vouchers or coupon codes and things like that.  And I guess a last thing to really consider, and something we could have mentioned before, is the bike course usually covers a lot of real estate.  If you’re going to do a local attraction, make sure it’s in maybe the opposite direction of what the bike course is going to be, so there’s easy access. Stuff like that.

Andrew:  Yeah, probably just in general, Jeff, when we go spectate and we’re cheering on TriDot athletes at some of these major events, it is very crucial to know where the routes are, what roads are going to be closed.  At some venues it’s pretty easy to get in and out as a spectator, some venues you go down there and you stay down there, because it’s not easy to get in and out or to get around.  So certainly knowing which is the case, and preparing the family for the day is super helpful.  That’s a great point there.  One thing I’ll add, is there are some races where they actually have YouTube videos and video elements that can help you prepare for the race.  Escape From Alcatraz is such an interesting, challenging race that they have very good videos pointing out crucial things you need to know about the course.  But if you go on YouTube or just Google “Ironman Texas swim course” or “this local Olympic triathlon”, oftentimes there’s an Average Joe triathlete who has put out some sort of video that can give you some insights to the course. Always go to Google, punch in the name of your race, and see what might be out there.  You never know what you’ll find that can be helpful.

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

Vanessa Ronksley: It’s cooldown time!  I’m Vanessa, your Average Triathlete with Elite-Level Enthusiasm! For our Coach Cooldown Tip today, we have a very special guest in the house, whose specialty is teaching about the caves we reside in, and the masks that we wear.  Jason McFaul is a tenured professor of English in Walnut, California, and his other passion involves triathlon training in Chino Hills State Park, which happens to be right outside his backdoor.  He comes from a strong athletic pedigree, as his dad was a bike racer, and his mom a marathoner.  Which allows us all to have a better understanding of how he has 34 full-distance tri finishes, and two Kona qualifications to his name, how he qualified for a pro card in 2014, and also holds a Boston Marathon finish time of 2:59:30.  Jason has been coaching the sport of triathlon for over a decade, with athletes finishing their first triathlons, all the way to those getting PRs at 70.3s and full-distance Ironmans, in addition to Kona qualifiers.  He has been coaching with TriDot for almost two years, and his specialty is sports psychology.  One of his magical powers as a coach is turning run-haters into run-lovers. Welcome to the show, Jason!

Jason McFaul:  Thanks Vanessa, thank you so much for having me.

Vanessa: Well, it’s really exciting to have you here, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much I want to hear about this little fact that not many people know about you, because anything that involves chocolate cake is right up my alley. Apparently, the story is that you had a negative association with mile 80 of a bike ride, so to conquer this, you would stash a piece of chocolate cake in your jersey, and reward yourself for getting past this mental barrier.  I think I need to know more about this.

Jason:  So I would go on a lot of long bike rides, and I kept noticing that around miles 75, 76, 77, 78, it was most pronounced at mile 80, I would get dejected, almost sad. I would get frustrated, angry, and none of these things were consistent with the emotions I wanted to have when I was on my bike, and when I was doing this kind of training.  I tried a lot of different things, and nothing seemed to work for me. Then I was at Costco and had an “ah ha!” moment when I saw their enormous chocolate cake and I thought, “I like chocolate cake. That would be a good reward for me, something I could associate with mile 80.”  I could take a slice of that, put it into a Ziploc bag, keep it in my jersey pocket, and then that is something I could have when I get to mile 80.  I’ll look at my Garmin, and sure enough, 79.9 and then 80.  Boom, I get my chocolate cake.  I did that for the first time, and it worked.  I started thinking a lot of negative thoughts and things at mile 71, 72, and then another voice went, “Hey, you’ve got chocolate cake in your back pocket.” It was great, and it was my goto for a while.  Then one ride, once it had become normal for me, I was riding with my friend Roy and he didn’t know anything about this chocolate cake.  We were at mile 80, so for me now it was business as usual, I get to have my chocolate cake.  So we’re in aero position, riding two abreast, and I reach back and get my chocolate cake, and I’m squeezing it out of the Ziploc bag, and it's delicious, and he doesn’t notice anything.  Then we both go over this bump in the road, and I smashed the cake right in my face. So I’ve got the frosting hanging from my nose, and I’ve got bits of cake all over my cheeks, and that’s when he looks over and he says, “What are you doing?  Are you eating cake?!”  My mouth was full, I was just kind of like, “Mmh.” But it worked, and it changed my association with that mile 80.

Vanessa:  I love that! That is a fabulous idea, it changes your perception of mile 80 from being one of potential dread to being something to actually look forward to and get excited about.  So aside from stashing chocolate cake in our bike jerseys as motivation, what tip do you have for us all today?

Jason:  It’s about friction, and it dovetails really nicely with the chocolate cake story. The way I’m using friction is “deliberately increasing or decreasing resistance in an effort to reach our true potential”. For example, with the chocolate cake story, there was mounting friction when I was biking. I knew I was almost at mile 70, then 72, 74, 76.  I’m getting closer to 80, and 80 is when I fall apart.  There was mounting resistance keeping me from what I wanted to accomplish as an athlete, so what could I do to lower the friction?  One of the best things about TriDot is that biology scales.  So we can periodize training and we can say, “Look, you’re a human being, this is going to work for you.”  With personality it’s a little bit different, personality doesn’t scale.  So for me it’s chocolate cake, for somebody else it might be something else.  But for the people listening to this, we can start really simple with friction.  Let’s say, for instance, a person is not getting enough sleep, which is a lot of us typically.  Then it’s, “Okay, what’s the culprit?  What’s one of the things leading to the lack of sleep?”  Maybe it’s something as simple as I’m watching too much TV.  I turn on the TV with the remote, and I just plan on watching it for 30 minutes, and three hours later I’m still there.  That happens to a lot of us.  Then in that case, there are different things you can do to add friction.  Something as simple as taking the batteries out of the remote control when you finish.  You don’t have to hide them, it’s not an Easter egg hunt or anything, you just pop them in a drawer or put them in your dresser upstairs.  Just make it inconvenient enough, add that small layer of friction, so that tomorrow night when you sit down and habitually go to press the power button the remote, you go, “Dang it, I need batteries.”  Then it’s just enough to slow you down, give you pause, and give you space to ask yourself the question, “Is this really what I want to do?” Because our discipline drops so much toward the end of the day, we just get exhausted, so we end up making some bad decisions.  These are just little things.  For me, it wasn’t about getting enough sleep, I wasn’t getting high-quality sleep often, and it was because I like beer.  I like to drink beer, and I like to drink red wine, and then sometimes I made bad nutritional decisions after I’ve had a beer or two, or a glass or two of wine.  Back in the olden days, the Garmins that we used – the one that I had was called the 910, and it didn’t have the sensor, so it didn’t provide the same metrics.  But with the new Garmins, my 945 has an optical sensor.  This was the best layer of friction that I could introduce, because I got addicted to body battery and sleep score. So now it’s really easy for me to say no.  The beer can say, “Drink me”, and I can go, “You know what, I don’t want to wake up and look at my body battery and see that it’s 17.”  That’s just enough to give me pause, and sometimes it’s all we need.

Vanessa:  I hundred percent agree with you.  Even just the sleep and the alcohol – I do not drink alcohol very often, but I notice when I do, once every few months, my HRV status just plummets, it’s so crazy. To be able to understand that before I choose to, or choose not to have alcohol, it’s like, “Do I want my HRV to drop that much?”  And the answer is no, I just don’t want to jeopardize that extra bit of recovery and all that biological stuff that’s happening in the body.  I just don’t really want to have it affect it, so it makes the choice a lot easier.

Jason:  One of the smartest things is that you ask yourself that question, because our brains love questions.  So if you say, “Do you want this to happen?” and your brain goes, “No!” then it helps make that decision for you.

Vanessa:  Yeah, a hundred percent!

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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