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: Well, we did it! We’ve made it to Episode 100 of the TriDot podcast, and we’re still here to talk all things triathlon with expert coaches and special guests. Every 25 episodes we shut down the normal programming to do a “Your Questions Answered” episode. So every question in today’s main set came straight from you, our audience. In honor of Episode 100, we’re going big y’all. There are five of us on the episode today, it’s basically going to be bananas. I’ve got the TriDot Director of Coaching John Mayfield, Professional Triathlete Elizabeth James, TriDot Vice President of Marketing Matt Bach, and TriDot Coach Jeff Raines all on with us today. They’re all gifted athletes, wise coaches, and now seasoned podcasters. So is everybody ready for Episode 100?

John Mayfield: Let’s do it!

Matt Bach: Yeah!

Elizabeth James: Absolutely! Gosh, what a fun way to celebrate with so many of us on here today!

Jeff Raines: Triple digits! Man, time flies when you’re having fun!

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 warmup question, settle in for our athlete question main set conversation, and then wind things down with our cooldown.

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

Andrew: The world of social media and apps are ruled by the mighty algorithm, and something that really helps a show shoot up the podcast listings are ratings, reviews, and folks subscribing to the show. Any show that I’m a fan of, I make a point to leave a rating and review as well as subscribe to them. And a huge thank you to everyone who has done just that for the TriDot podcast. Between the awesomeness of our show and all of you listening, subscribing, and leaving us a rating, we are now the top-ranked triathlon show on the health and fitness chart, and we are one of the top-searched triathlon shows. Y’all helped make that happen, so thank you so much! Guys, for our warmup question today: as I’m sharing that information we’re on our 100th episode. We have over 200 ratings and reviews on the Apple podcast app. So of all of those reviews, which one is your favorite? Coach Jeff Raines, let’s start with you.

Jeff: The one that I chose here is from Matt Zoom. It’s titled, “Packed Full of Info”. I think he just nails it here, I’m going to read it. “First, I love the host.” Shout out to Mr. Andrew.

Andrew: Thanks Matt Zoom!

Jeff: He says, “He has a great voice and demeanor. He is clearly well-prepared and is fun to listen to. I identify with him because I am also the captain of the middle of the pack!” That’s arguable, because there can only be one Captain, Mr. Matt! You or Andrew?

Andrew: Yeah, I’ll share it! I can share!

Jeff: He goes on to say, “I have been catching up and have listened to five episodes in the last week. These are amazing. They are packed solid with tips and info for new and experienced athletes. I am a short- to intermediate-course athlete who fights for age group podiums and have competed 57 triathlons and 15 duathlons, and it still managed to teach me new stuff. The podcasts have single-handedly brought back my love for the sport. Full disclosure - I have been a TriDot athlete for almost four years and am a true believer in the method and analytics. Before TriDot, I was the guy nervous at the swim start. Now, I step into the water and rip it. The podcast is the perfect companion to the training. Remember, if you have trained with big data and have listened to the tips from the TriDot folks, you are probably better prepared than the guy or gal next to you on the starting line. I can’t wait to listen to new ones to come!”

Andrew: Wow. Two things there for me. Obviously, I love how kind MattZoom was to me at the beginning of his review, but I also loved there at the end, to point out that if you have done the training and you’ve listened to the coaches on the podcast, you are probably better prepared than the people next to you at the starting line of your race. What a confidence booster to have that mentality, knowing that if you’ve done your homework and the learning, you’re going to be ready to rock and roll. That’s a great pick, Jeff. Elizabeth James, which one did you pick?

Elizabeth: Alright, the one that I chose is titled, “Interesting, Incredible, and Informative”.  This comes from LauraLovesHealthyLiving, and she says, “This is one of the best hours of the week!” What a great start there. She goes on to say, “The TriDot podcast is an incredible tool in your triathlon training toolbox. It is engaging, personable and enjoyable. I have learned so much from triathlon equipment to nutrition and from training to race execution. John, Jeff, Coach EJ, Andrew, Dr. Austin, and all of the specialists they bring in provide an hour of top-notch information to start your week off right!” I can say that this one for me hit home, because as a former teacher – and if I know who this Laura is I believe she’s a teacher as well – when she talks about how much she’s learned, that just made me really happy, because that’s one of the things that makes me most excited about doing these podcast episodes is the education that we can pass along to the athletes listening.

Andrew: Yeah, and I love that Laura just by name mentioned all of y’all that are just regularly on the podcast. I’m so thankful. I’m just one guy. I can sit here and ask the questions all day long, but y’all’s expertise coming on, and teaching me and teaching all the other Captains of the Middle of the Pack and the back of the pack or the mid-front of the pack, wherever our listeners land in the pack, you all just teach us so much. So thanks to each and every one of you for lending your voice to the show every single Monday. Matt Bach, which podcast review are you going with here?

Matt: There are so many great ones, but the one that I really loved and decided to pick for this is from Heysyb, and it’s, “Want to be faster on your swim? Listen to TriDot. Want tips and tricks for having a speedier bike? Listen to TriDot. PR that run? Listen to TriDot. The host brings on some great guest coaches and experts in related areas to help you through a lot of the mental and physical challenges that occur during triathlon racing. What am I listening to on my long rides? TriDot podcasts.” I mean, there’s so many fans, and this just really sums it up really well.

Andrew: Yeah, Heysyb really gets it. We could copy-paste that paragraph, and that could be the promo paragraph for the show. Just absolutely nails the essence of what we’re trying to be. That’s a really great pick there, Matt. John Mayfield, which review are you picking here?

John: So I’m going with TriKnight-, short and sweet, no title, just, “Defiantly not an infomercial.”

Andrew: Defiantly!

John: A little bit of a backstory there, but love the review, “Defiantly not an infomercial.”

Andrew: I’m sure that TriKnight meant to say, “DEFINITELY not an infomercial,” but DEFIANTLY works too, right? I mean, we really intentionally try to remain neutral.  We try to make sure that whether you train with TriDot or not, you will benefit from the podcast. Obviously, when we talk about training, we believe in the TriDot approach. We believe in using the data and having data drive the training. So yes, of course when we’re talking about training theory, we have to talk about TriDot. But that wasn’t the only one, John. There were several people that pointed that out, that this is not an infomercial for the platform, this is just great triathlon coaching. From our 200-something reviews, there was one negative one. Pretty much everybody gave us four and five stars, but there was one review that gave us one star. It was one of the earliest reviews, from a guy named Steadisteve. So whoever Steadisteve is, he felt like we were an infomercial. I don’t know what episode he listened to, but we really try to not be that way. So Steadisteve, if you’re out there, we love you, buddy. We hope your training is going well, whatever you’re using to train.

Hey guys, just a quick reminder, if you have not gone and left us a quick rating and review, we would obviously love for you to do so.  It just really helps our show find its way to new listeners. And for everybody who’s already done so, thank you so much for helping us land where we are in the charts. Couldn’t do it without you. Thanks for listening, thanks for being here, and I can’t wait to move this on to the athlete question main set!

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

Andrew: We recently had sports scientist Andy Blow from Precision Hydration on the show, and we learned that there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to hydration, because everyone loses a different amount of salt in their sweat. As someone who sweats a lot, I wanted to get a better understanding of how much salt I lose in my sweat, so I took their online sweat test. After taking the test, I received a personalized hydration plan, and was recommended their strongest electrolyte drink, PH 1500, which is three times stronger than most sports drinks. It's been a game-changer for me, particularly in hot conditions. I was drinking it just this last week on course racing Alcatraz. If you've ever struggled with hydration issues like dehydration or cramping during long, hot sessions, it's worth checking out precisionhydration.com. You can take their free online sweat test, find out which PH strength matches how you sweat, and then get 10% off your order with the code TRIDOT10. To learn more, you can even book a free 20minute video consultation with them to ask any questions that you have about hydration and fueling, or to even discuss your strategy for an upcoming race. Again, that's precisionhydration.com, and use the code TRIDOT10 to get 10% off your electrolytes and fuel.

And while I’m mentioning Alcatraz, I’m actually reminded that I’m still wearing my TriTats from the race at Alcatraz, even this past weekend. Apparently I need to shower a little better to get these puppies off. John, you’ve already got yours off, correct?

Jeff: That’s weird, Andrew.

John: That day. I don’t mess around with that.

Andrew: We have some fantastic audience questions to run through today. We threw it out to you, our audience, on the I AM TriDot Facebook group, and had so many of you chime in with good questions. So I want to say this: if you submitted a question and it does not get asked today, know that I’ve already selected several of your questions for Episode 125, where we’ll do more audience questions. Also this: we had several questions that we received this goaround that we actually plan on turning into entire podcast episodes in the near future. We had some questions about swim drills, about competing in duathlon and aquathons, about breathing and bike fits, about racing short-course, and we had questions about exercising in the cold. Several things that we plan on hitting much more indepth on shows here in the very near future. So if you threw out a question and you don’t hear it today, know that content for you is coming very soon. With that said, I will get us going with Question #1 for today. This one comes from Jerry Duggan. He is an athlete from Illinois, and he said this, “What is the one thing that you would change for your next race to improve your performance?” I wanted to start with this one today, it’s a nice personalized question. Coach Matt Bach, what would you change heading into your next race?

Matt: For me, for my next long hot race, is to better manage my hydration. My last big serious race was in Kona.  I lost 17 pounds, or about 11 to 12% of my body weight when I last raced Kona. Studies show that anything over 2 to 3% of your body weight, you start to impair performance. So needless to say, I was probably hampering my performance pretty badly, given that I’d lost 17 pounds of water weight. So I see that as low-hanging fruit for me. The folks at Precision Hydration and others are very well educated on the impact on hydration.

Andrew: That’s a great one, Matt, and I’m glad you get to revisit that before your next race. Professional athlete Elizabeth James, what are you going with here?

Elizabeth: For me, it’s going to be staying with the pack a little bit longer during that pro swim start. It is just so fast, it definitely has been a different experience for me than starting in that rolling start as an age-grouper. I’ve been practicing some faster starts and then settling into my pace. If I can use that and draft a little bit more, and help to cut down on the deficit out of the water, that would help improve my overall finish time and my performance on race day.

Andrew: Yeah, very cool. The wave start isn’t something that most of us do, and now that you’re in that pro field you’re doing it every single time you race. Really cool to hear that. That’s something that the pros practice. I wouldn’t even think about that as I head to the pool for my swim set. Now, the next three of us sharing here – myself, Coach John Mayfield and Coach Jeff Raines – our last race was Escape from Alcatraz triathlon, only days ago at the time we’re recording this podcast. So Coach John Mayfield, between that and your next race, IRONMAN Maryland, what are you tweaking, what are you improving?

John: For me, kind of like Matt, it’s hydration and nutrition. Over the years I’ve gotten by, but I see that as, like Matt referred to it, as some low-hanging fruit. I think that’s something I can further refine and get better, and support all that race potential. That’s one of those things where you can do all that training, you get the fitness ready, the race readiness, but a bad or misexecuted hydration and nutrition plan, then all that training, fitness, and race readiness just goes out the door. So I’m trying to really nail that down, get it dialed in, which I feel like I’ve got. I have a race rehearsal this weekend, so looking forward to testing and confirming that. Then I’ve also, over the last year, really emphasized strength training. Getting back in the gym and supplementing the swim/bike/run with the strength training.

Andrew: Very cool. Coach Jeff Raines, between Alcatraz and your next race, what are you tweaking, what are you working on?

Jeff: EJ was saying she wants to come out of the water a little bit ahead so she’s not playing catch-up on the bike. I’m kind of that same way, except it’s the bike for me. I like to make my comeback on the run. The run is my favorite, and arguably my best discipline. So something I’ve been focusing on for over a year now is my cycling. I’m really excited in my next A race coming up to really be more confident on the bike.

Andrew: Well, and particularly with that sweet, sweet tri rig Omni bike that you’ve got now, I’m expecting and hoping that you have a great race the next time you’re out on the bike course. So for me, just what Elizabeth said on the swim with staying in the pack. I don’t like contact on the swim. I like clean water in front of me, I like getting on the edge of the group and being able to sight and not having legs and arms flailing in front of me. I’ve really been focusing on knowing, okay, my next swim is a full distance Ironman, and I can save so much energy and come out of the water so much quicker with less work if I just learn to tuck in with the group, tuck in behind some people who are of similar ability. So honestly, the swim at Alcatraz was a great way to practice that. Now it was for a different reason there, I was scared of the sharks so I wanted to stick with other swimmers, but it gave me the motivation to stay next to other people and stay close to them, so it was a nice practice session at that. So the next time I head out for Ironman Waco, I’m really going to be focusing on, instead of looking for clean water in front of me, I’m looking for feet in front of me and following those feet to make that swim just a little bit easier.

Jeff: And running away from catfish instead of sharks in Waco.

Andrew: Very different marine life in the Brazos River from San Francisco Bay, great point. Question #2 comes from Terry Burgin, he’s one of our athletes from Oklahoma. “What are the best ways to climb hills from a time perspective? Do you increase watts or power up climbs and then accelerate on the downhills to get your speed? Should we just keep the watts static regardless of flats, climbs, or downhills? This I would think applies to the bike AND the run. Do you shorten your stride on the climbs to lengthen your stride on the downhill? Explain how RaceX works in selecting the best pacing in laymen’s terms.” So this is from Terry, just a question on all things going up and down hills on race day. Matt Bach, what are some notes here?

Matt: Yes, actually, just on the recent podcast episode, “20 Training Tips for a Better Bike Split”, I gave this tip, and it aired just a few weeks ago on Episode 97. Definitely worth revisiting though, it’s a great one. I got this tip from a very strong triathlete.His name is Tim Smith, and he did Ironman Texas back in 2014 or 2015 when he gave me this tip. As everybody knows, Ironman Texas is a kind of rolling-ish type of hill, and he was living in the New York City area, so there’s these rolling hills. He told me you want to hold fairly steady, maybe allow the watts to increase something like 10 or 20 watts on the uphills, and then burn the match at the top to get back up to speed before backing off by 10 or 20 watts on the way down, maybe more depending on how steep that downhill is. That’s different than what a lot of people do, which is to just go ballistic up the hill and then they get to the top and go, “Ah, I made it” and ease off, then it takes them a while to get back up to speed. So you’re losing a bunch of time there.  You’re burning that same match going up that hill, but then you’re just losing time. So take those watts and be smart with those watts by cresting the hill strong.

Andrew: Yeah, love that for the bike, that’s absolutely great stuff for the bike. Elizabeth, he also talked about RaceX here, and I know that you’ve raced a couple times with RaceX. What do we need to know in terms of how RaceX will have us handle hills?

Elizabeth: Yeah, I’m really glad that Terry mentioned RaceX in this question, because RaceX is going to optimize your race time based on the elevation changes of the terrain. So I think a short answer to his question is that no, you should not hold the same power throughout the entire course unless it’s pancake flat. If there’s changes in the terrain, then your fastest bike split or run split is going to come from managing that and varying your power. So RaceX is going to segment the course into where there are those different elevation changes, and then it’s going to prescribe power targets for each of those particular segments.

Andrew: Good to know. I was able to use RaceX in San Francisco for Alcatraz, and I’m excited to have the power of RaceX telling me step-by-step what power I’m going to be holding while I’m on the course in Waco coming up in October. Jeff Raines, as our run expert, what would you add here in terms of the best way or the best things to be thinking about as we’re going up and down hills on the run course?

Jeff: Yeah, we’ve got to touch on how this pertains to running, obviously. It’s a tough question. It depends, because everybody’s cadence and philosophy’s a little bit different, and no two runners are the same. But we know for the most part your cadence, at least on flats, should not change by much, regardless of speed. So as your speed changes, your cadence should not change a ton. Now as this relates to uphill and downhill, it will be manipulated a little bit. Some of the range of motion of your knee drive, you kind of touched on it in your question, your stride does shorten a little bit.  Your fist may travel up a little bit higher closer to your chin on an uphill, depending on how much of an incline that hill is. Traditionally, your fists don’t come up higher on a flat than your lower breast line or chest line. It may come up a little bit higher as you’re shortening your stride and increasing that knee drive, but something that on the hills will change probably the most is your body lean will be manipulated a little bit and your arm carriage. A lot of tri coaches actually promote a more acute elbow angle as you run uphill, and even just in general in the sport of triathlon. So if 90° is that elbow hinge safe angle or that perfect L, just coming off of the bike in a triathlon you’re starting a marathon, half-marathon slightly fatigued, and a lot of coaches will encourage their athletes to stay closer to maybe 80° elbow angle and close that arm angle a little bit to keep you a little bit more upright so you don’t overly hinge at the hips. Just to keep your body upright, not promoting that body lean come from the hips, but it comes from the ankles. Something on hills that we do is tend to bend over a little too much or hinge at the hips, and we don’t want to do that, and keeping that elbow angle slightly more acute than 90° on uphills can keep the upper body a little bit taller so that it will allow for better knee drive, and better knee drive equates to better stride length or DPS or distance per stride, and can give you an extra 10 to 15 seconds of free speed per mile, let’s say. So there’s a lot, we could go on and on, but absolutely your cadence will change a little bit, just as it does on the bike.

Andrew: I’ve got to say, recently, racing Escape from Alcatraz, I was on the run course running with my good friend John Mayfield, and the few moments where we hit uphills, I was a little bit quicker up the uphills than John Mayfield, and soon as we’d hit a downhill, John would just pull away from me on the downhill. So John is a much better descender than I am. We learned that in Alcatraz.

John: Well, I also have like, 50 pounds on you, so there’s a little bit of a gravity assist there.

Andrew: I wasn’t going to say it, I’m glad you said it. Thank you for explaining the reasoning there. Question #3, this comes from Noelle Cuomo-Cutter, she’s one of our athletes from the New York area, so potentially close to Matt Bach. Any strength training recommendations for building muscles to support the aero position? As a mom of four, my core has taken a beating. Aero is always super tough to hold for long periods of time. Thanks.” I think this is something that can be difficult for everybody. How we can we practice and strength train to hold that position?

Elizabeth: I’m going to jump in here first and just say that core work is important for all disciplines. Not just the bike, not just the aero position, it’s something that all triathletes should be doing. They should be training their core. Don’t neglect your strength training. I know a couple of us on the podcast mentioned that as a focus, and I would say with athletes with strength training prescribed in your training plan, you’re going to see core exercises listed. Don’t skip those, it’s going to help you in all disciplines.

John: Part of it too is simply doing it, riding in aero as much as possible. It’s a unique position, it’s not really something that you can feasibly replicate around the house or at the office. You would certainly get some weird looks if you sat working at your laptop in the aero position. It’s a very unnatural position, especially with the neck, the shoulders. That’s where we tend to fatigue early on, and really the best, easiest way to do that is simply to do it. I think there’s even a intentionality of going out and riding as much as possible with that. I know for me, every spring I get back in the roads after several months of being indoors on the trainer. I don’t stay in the aero position as much on the trainer, so those muscles are neglected, so definitely those first couple sessions back on the road, I’m feeling it. My neck’s getting tired, my shoulders are getting sore. But in time, just like everything else, you rebuild your stamina, and the ability to hold that aero position increases as well. It’s kind of one of those things that you just have to do it to be able to do it, the more you do it, the better you’re going to be. Be intentional with it, especially for those that are going to be racing long flat courses, you need to really focus on this, because you’re going to be in that aero position for a long time. Some of your hillier, more technical courses, you’re naturally going to have opportunities to sit up and move around in the saddle, whereas on a long flat course your best time is going to come from staying aero, but you have to be careful not to fatigue those muscles and then end up in a place where you’re having to sit up just to remain comfortable and to be able to continue using the right power. It’s just one of those things that’s just part of training, so train your heart, train your lungs, train those muscles, and train your aero position.

Andrew: Question #4 comes from Melissa Miller from Washington State. “When life takes a big bite out of training, like for weeks, what is the safest way to jump back in? Going straight seven out of seven training days with some double workouts would be overwhelming and clearly unsafe. What do you recommend, assuming that someone does not have any injuries?”

John: So I refer to this as the hierarchy of training variables. It doesn’t really matter what you’re coming back from, this is a similar sequence of how to return, whether it was a short-term illness or injury, a long-term illness, or just some time away where you lost some fitness. The first thing you want to reestablish is the frequency. So she mentioned getting back to training seven days a week. That’s one of the first things you want to be able to reestablish is getting back into that training frequency. Probably not a great idea to jump in seven days, depending on what you’re coming back from and what your level is, that may be, but maybe it’s a day on, day off. Maybe it’s two or three days on, one day off. Whatever works for you, whatever’s appropriate for whatever it is you’re coming back from. Then we want to reestablish the volume. So if you were doing one-hour sessions, in the beginning you may do 30minute sessions. Whatever’s appropriate for you. It could start as little as maybe 15 to 20 minutes. Maybe you can jump right back into one-hour. You want to reestablish the volume. Now we’ve got the frequency, the volume, and the last thing we want to add back is the intensity. So once you’re back to being able to train on a regular basis, once you’re back to those volumes that you’re accustomed to prior, then you can add back in the intensity. And like all of those, it’s important to add all of those back at a rate of increase that’s appropriate for your fitness, whatever you’re bouncing back from. I would always encourage people to be conservative. It’s one of those things where oftentimes, whether it’s an injury or illness, if you do any of these at a rate that is faster than you should, the worst case scenario is going back into whatever it was. You can get sick again, you can get re-injured, and that’s only going to delay your ability to get back to training. It’s going to reduce how fit you are on race day. So take your time, be a little conservative, add back frequency, volume, then intensity, and you’re good to go.

Andrew: So John, just to give everybody a tangible example of what you’re talking about, I’ve said on the podcast before I am an oft-injured athlete. I’m easily injured, particularly with running, I’ve got to watch my body and keep tabs on how everything’s feeling. Recently I’ve had some foot pain where under one of my metatarsals there’s a lot of pressure, kind of like the bone was bruised there on the bottom of my foot. So I had to back off running, so for two to three weeks I didn’t do a single run, just knowing that that area needed some rest. Not ideal in an Ironman training cycle of course, but I had to do it. I had to do it to get healthy. So I’m, “Okay, let me take a couple weeks off running, see what happens here.” My first run in about three weeks was actually the 8mile race portion of Alcatraz over the weekend, and thankfully no foot pain there. I did a 20minute run here this week. So coming off that race, having rested it for a little bit, no running for three weeks, this week I’m doing the frequency, I’m doing every single run that TriDot has scheduled for me to do, but I will be shortening those just a little bit. So my Wednesday run was supposed to be 50 minutes, I did my Wednesday run at more 30ish. My Sunday run coming up is going to be an hour and ten minutes, so I’ll probably do more like 40 or 50, and then assuming everything feels go, we’ll get back to normal next week. Just to give everybody a tangible example of exactly what you’re saying, John.

John: So an 8mile race is probably not the best way to start, but you nailed the rest of it, so good job.

Andrew: It had to get done. The race had to get done. Question #5 comes from Brandi Ramirez, she’s actually one of our coaches from the Arizona area. She asked, “We all have a secret tip or trick. What is your key weapon that you don’t usually share with others?” Now, I saw this question and I want to throw it out to you guys, because I was curious to see what you had to say. I feel like on the podcast we’re a pretty open book. I don’t think any of you guys are playing your closest card to the chest. I could be wrong though, so I wanted to throw it out and see what we had to say. Matt Bach, what are your thoughts here?

Matt: I agree. Definitely open book, there’s nothing that we’re holding back or anything. But I think one key fundamental thing is that for the most part there is no silver bullet. When you’re first starting in triathlon there are some things that you can do that will lop off many, many minutes, or hours even, off of your race times. But I fall squarely in the camp that for most of us, once we’ve trimmed that very low-hanging fruit, have gotten our training in order, for instance, then there is no real silver bullet, but instead a smattering of smaller things that you can do that end up adding up to some bigger things. I actually recently wrote an article for USA Triathlon called, “Five Tips for Free Speed”, which encompasses some of my tips. But here are some of them that are included from that article, but also elsewhere. So in the camp of aerodynamics or free speed, by free speed we mean something that you don’t have to pay for with fitness. You don’t have to get faster, but you get free speed. You might have to pay lots of dollars for that free speed in terms of helping you get more aerodynamic through gear for something like an aero helmet for instance. You may pay $100 to $300 depending on what aero helmet you’re getting, but it’s considered free speed because you don’t actually have to get any faster, but apples-to-apples you’re still going to go faster because you’re now wearing an aero helmet. So that’s one of those things that has definitely been proven to help. And getting a sleeved tri kit, there’s been lots of research and anecdotal evidence showing that sleeved tri kit that really fit well, there can’t be a lot of creases or wrinkles, those are faster in the wind tunnel and will be faster on you. Again, not by a massive amount, but you might save 30 seconds or a minute or two minutes over what you currently have, and those types of little things can add up. Another one for the guys, shave those legs. That’s’ been out for years, but put the ego aside, throw on the Italian opera, and shave those legs. You’ll definitely see some speed there, save some time there, especially if you’re a hairier sort of Chewbacca-style person. One of the things that was huge for me was incorporating UCAN into my fueling approach, that’s why I ended working for the company for 2½ years. I had lots of GI distress, and that rid it for me, so that for me was almost like a secret weapon of sorts. Then one thing that I’ve preached for a long time, which is set up the infrastructure of your training. For me, this was absolutely critical in the realm of training, because I had discovered that training with people was game-changing for me. I found that my motivation and the structure and how hard I pushed myself or how easy I went, and how the time went by on the easier days. All those things got much better and much easier to do and managing my training and getting the most out of my training when I was actually training with people. Maybe it’s for master’s swim or things like that. So setting up the infrastructure of your training, knowing where you’re going to be. Economically, you can set up your life, how efficiently you can set up your life so that you’re not spending tons of time, say, commuting back and forth to the pool or getting set up with such-and-such a thing. So set up the infrastructure of your training and find the right way to train most effectively given your life situation.

John: So Matt, maybe you inadvertently did provide a secret tip in there, because I’ve been shaving for years, but I’ve never shaved to Italian opera. But like I said, I’ve got a race rehearsal coming up, so it’s time to shave.

Matt: Have you ever seen “Breaking Away”? That movie from the 1970’s?

John: Yeah, now it’s time to hook up the Italian opera. Yeah, I’ve just been doing it wrong, apparently.

Andrew: Moving on to Question #6, this comes from Cari Lubenal from Massachusetts, and Cari actually just became an Ironman in Lake Placid, congratulations to Cari. She said, “I’d love to hear a bit about goal-setting. As a former coach, goal-setting was a huge priority for me in my coaching role, and I spent a fair amount of time developing and tracking progress of my team towards their goals. As I’ve shifted to focusing more on my own training, I am realizing that while I have identified goals, I am far less structured in tracking them than I was when I was coaching a team sport. I would love to hear how each of our TriDot coaches approaches goal-setting and tracking with athletes and in their own training.”

Elizabeth: I love goal-setting, so I’m going to jump in here on this one.

Andrew: Yes, do it!

Elizabeth: I mean, you have a different perspective here a little bit from coaches and athletes. I’ll speak to the athlete perspective on this one. I have a daily journal that I write in, and in the morning I read my devotion, I take my vitamins, and I set a short-term goal for the day. That’s my morning routine, and it’s just one thing each day that I focus on. It could be something like I’m going to outline my nutrition plan for an upcoming race or I’m going to attend an open water swim practice, or I’m going to make sure that today I don’t skip my strength training workout. It really can be anything, but something that can be done in that day and accomplished that day. Setting just one small goal each day really helps me accomplish that task, and then is good feedback, helps me feel successful, so at night I’ll take my nighttime vitamin, brush my teeth, and then initial that I met the goal for the day. So my morning and evening routine to do some daily goal setting.

Jeff: I love the short-term goal for the day. That is awesome, and it was kind of what I was thinking of from the coaching side. When I’m talking with my athletes about goal-setting, I promote stepping-stone goals or micro-goals, maybe not every single day, so as an athlete I think you can do that individually, just like EJ did. I think that’s amazing. From a coaching standpoint, let’s say your Ironman’s six months from now, let’s pick a monthly or maybe four stepping-stone goals to hit along the way to that big end-all-be-all A-race goal. It could be by the end of this month you’re going to find the perfect wetsuit for you. You’re going to get three open water swims in. By the end of this month we’re going to get a bike fit done, and we’re going to do a swim analysis one-on-one. Things like that, little stepping-stone goals to get you excited along the way, keep you on track, keep the morale there, the focus. Stepping-stone goals big-time.

Matt: For me it’s the same thing as Jeff. Break them down. Write them. I write them up in a Word doc or a spreadsheet, make sure they’re on paper, then I always do race recaps or race summaries afterwards and I’ll write down a bunch of detail afterwards. So basically I’m checking off to see what kind of goals I hit here, and what kind of goals did I not hit, and what kind of goals should I reset for the future. So I post some of the big goals near my bed, like on a Post-It note maybe, so when I wake up in the morning it's a reminder, sometimes it acts as motivation to get out of the bed when it’s 5:30 in the morning or whatever it is, and it’s freezing, and it’s in the winter, and it’s dark. Then it’s like you need something sometimes just to get you out of bed. But then this all comes down with the goals and breaking them down. There’s a whole bunch of quotes out there like that, very pertinent to us, like, “How do you run a marathon? You take that first step. You do it one step at a time.” How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. So sometimes these big goals can seem really audacious and impossible, but if you take them one step at a time and break them down, it’s that much better.

Andrew: Number 7, this comes from athlete Hilary Mauch from Nevada. We met Hilary in Coeur D’Alene. Coach John Mayfield, do you want to tell everybody how we met Hilary?

John: We met Hilary out there on that extremely hot run course. We were just doing our thing, hanging out on the run course, cheering for folks, and then I think she was one of those who recognized your voice if I recall, and she said, “That must be Andrew from the TriDot podcast!” So immediately Hilary had a couple fans, and then later that evening we got to be there as she made the final turn down that amazing finishing stretch at Ironman Coeur D’Alene. Yeah, I was going to say the same thing, shout out to Hilary. Great to see you. Once again, congratulations on you Coeur D’Alene finish. And got another one coming up as I recall, so good luck in that one as well!

Andrew: Yeah, and I ran with her for a second and got to know her, and John you were the one who noticed her bib number and was able to put her into the tracker so we know Hilary was on course to cheer for her. So Hilary wants to know about bike fit. Now this is one of those topics where we will have a bike fit episode with a master fitter sometime in the very near future, but just for the sake of this conversation, Hilary asks, “What should we know before we go, and how should we prepare, and what should we expect out of a bike fit session?”

John: So for me, especially going in and what do you know before, it’s very important to do your due diligence beforehand. My recommendation is to find the best fitter you have access to, and this is one of those things that I would say it’s worth perhaps driving a certain distance. I’ve known athletes who have even flown to work with fitters, because there are lots of them out there, but they’re definitely not all created equal. I say the same thing about tattoos, like this is going to be with you for a very long time, do what you have to do to find the best tattoo artist you can get, and do what you gotta do. Don’t just go to the closest shop and get your tattoo. Same thing with a fitter, don’t go just to the guy down the road. Oftentimes if you buy a bike, there’s somebody inhouse that will do a fit. They may be a fantastic fitter, or they may just be somebody who’s been given some guidelines, like some rough rules to follow that may or may not get you your best fit. So you can get that super high-end bike, but if you’re not fit to it properly, it’s not going to realize its potential, and you’re not going to realize your potential either. It’s critical that the fitter knows and understands the unique needs of triathletes. Triathlon represents a segment of the market, it’s not the biggest, where in this case you may be working with a fitter who is the absolute best at fitting road cyclists, they may work with Tour de France teams and professional cyclists, but they may not know anything about triathlon. So you need to have a fitter that understands the unique physiology and needs of triathletes. And often I say, “You get what you pay for.” Oftentimes people think, “Oh, I can just get comfortable, I can adjust the bike and it works.” For me, this is one of those things where I will spend the money. This is one of those things that I really think is truly a worthwhile investment. So I would encourage you, it’s a very small percentage of the cost of your bike, but it’s going to go a long way in helping you realize the full benefit of that bike. So again, don’t necessarily go on the cheap. This is one of those things that you’re going to get what you pay for. There’s also kind of a hierarchy here. It’s comfort, power, and aerodynamics. Oftentimes we think exclusively about aerodynamics, but really the most important thing is that you’re comfortable, because if you’re not comfortable, you’re not going to be able to generate the power, and you’re not going to be able to stay aero. So first is comfort, then generating the power, then being aerodynamic. I think once you get there, just one thing to be aware of is a good fit session takes time. I would say a good fit session takes at least an hour, and it can take several hours. I’ve been on the bike for sometimes two hours or more, if I’m on a new bike making big changes. Then I always repeat. For me, it’s largely annually. I’ll go back every year. So it’s not necessarily a one-and-done kind of thing. Your body changes, your race distances, all that changes, and along with that, your fit needs to be dynamic as well. It’s not necessarily a one-and-done kind of thing. Maybe not annually, but again, for me, this is one of my hotbed things, so I’m committed to doing it as often as I need to. It’s somewhere in the one- to two-year range. Again, I’m a big advocate of getting a great bike fit.

Matt: Definitely, a lot of good points there, John. The fitter I work with typically takes about 2½ hours for the initial fitting, charges around $300, and is very thorough. He uses lasers, sensor technology, slow-motion video, video analysis software, it’s pretty incredible what they do there. The follow-up fittings would be more like 90 minutes, and they typically charge something like $150 for the follow-ups. So that first one is really where they’re measuring you as a human being, getting a really good sense of how you’re going to fit on your bike, and from then on they have those measurements. Those don’t change dramatically, so from then on they can make the fittings a little bit faster in subsequent years. I agree you should be doing it regularly.

John: So I think some of those numbers may be even a bit of a shock. Two and a half hours, wow, what are they doing in that time? But yeah, that’s what it takes. Then again, that $300 price range is I would say market for a good-quality fit. Yeah, be prepared to pay give-or-take $300, and be there for a while.

Andrew: Alright, this next question exclusively is going to pro triathlete and coach Elizabeth James. This comes from Patrick Schneider from Illinois. “My wife asked the question last night. How does one become a pro triathlete?” Now I have no idea, but immediately thought of this. Maybe Elizabeth James can shed some light on the question. So, Coach Elizabeth James, can you shed some light on this question?

Elizabeth: Oh, what a fun question! So each national governing body will have their own qualifying criteria, so I really can’t speak to what other countries require, but to earn your elite triathlon card in the U.S., there are a number of qualification standards that you can meet. You can find this information on USA Triathlon, and they outline criteria like A, B, C, D, E, F. There’s quite a few different ways that you can actually qualify to be a professional triathlete, depending on if you’re qualifying at the collegiate level, if you are racing draft-legal events, or nondrafting shorter course or longer course events like an Ironman. A couple examples, probably the most common ways that someone would qualify to be a professional triathlete, you can get a top10 finish as an overall amateur at a Worlds event. You can finish in the top 5 in the amateur ranks at Nationals, or you can get a top3 finish as an amateur in a qualifying race. Qualifying races are often those that have a corresponding elite field and offer a particular prize purse. So for me, this was going to be my route for qualification. When I raced Waco 70.3 in Fall 2019, I finished second overall amateur female, and since there was a women’s professional field with a certain amount of prize purse there, then that worked as a qualifying race for me. Then if you meet one of those criteria, then you are eligible to apply for your elite license. So just because you meet the criteria doesn’t mean that you have to accept that designation, you can choose if you would like to apply for your elite license, then through the application process if you meet that criteria then you would be accepted as a professional. Beyond that initial application and qualifying process, then to continue racing as an elite, you have to re-qualify once every three years by finishing within 8% of the winner’s time at a race that offers at least a $5,000 prize purse. So there are particular races that you can do that have a professional field, and then you need to be within 8% of the winner’s time in one of those races for you to re-qualify again.

Andrew: Our next question comes from Kasia from Canada. She wants to know, “How can we adjust our running pace for winter running in the snow? You guys have spoken lots about adjustments for heat and humidity, but what about running in snow or on ice? Thanks on behalf of all of us in Canada.” Now, I’m going to throw this one out to Coach Matt Bach, who probably does a little bit more of this than the rest of us.

Matt: Yeah, I live in the Northeast, so not quite Canada, but I do have our fair share of cold winters and ice and snow. So I think there’s three different things here. From a physiological perspective, there’s not really a significant difference between running in cold weather versus running in moderate temperatures. TriDot’s environmental normalization doesn’t adjust your paces to make them slower in extra-cold temperatures like it would for something where if it’s 90° versus 55°, it will adjust the paces to accommodate the higher temperatures. With that said, how much clothing you’re wearing and how restrictive that clothing is will affect how much your paces will be affected. I know that when winter turns into spring and I put on shorts for the first time, my pace automatically picks up by something like 5 to 10 seconds per mile, and I know that during the winter when I’m wearing sometimes two pairs of pants or I might be wearing tights and a pair of pants, maybe even some thicker pants, thick socks, three shirts, thick hat, ski gloves, neck warmer, all sorts of stuff, there’s probably a very small weight thing, possibly aerodynamics a little bit, but I think that most of it is the fact that it’s restricting your body from flowing the way you’d like it to flow. So it all adds up into something where there is a time detriment there. As far as strategies, you may have already worked out quite a bit of these by living up in Canada. I don’t have a treadmill. I much prefer running outdoors when conditions aren’t great, and that’s probably at least partially a result of my history running in high school. We had a big team so there weren’t enough treadmills for everyone, and Coach was tough and knew the value of consistency, so he would make us run outside in all but the most extreme, extreme conditions. So I got a good handle on how to handle the ice and snow. I figured out how to run on them. Usually when you get up to ice, it’s just a patch of ice, so shorten your stride and don’t push off. Just let your momentum carry you over the slippery surface, so keep your center of gravity stable and keep it right over the foot that’s planted on the ground. Don’t try accelerating or try to stop, especially. A lot of people, they’ll see ice, they’ll get scared, they’ll try to stop or try to turn away from it, but that’s a recipe for disaster, because you’ll probably end up slipping, maybe pulling a hammy or groin or something. But I run with a lot of people, and many of the people that I run with are not as good at handling the ice, and you can tell immediately that they’re sort of panicky when they go over the ice, but I’ll just kind of glide over it by just letting my momentum flow and planting those feet right below, keeping that center of gravity right over the foot and not pushing off a lot, just letting my momentum carry me through the backside of the patch of the ice and just keep going.

Andrew: Alright, we’re going to end the main set with back-to-back questions from athletes from Canada. This is Matt Ireson. He wants to know, and guys, I think this is the most important question of the day, so I saved it for last. “How much coffee does Andrew drink during the recording of each podcast?” Any thoughts or guess?

Matt: I don’t think I’ve ever NOT seen Andrew with his TriDot mug and a bunch of a coffee in it. I’m beginning to think it’s like, you know in a wedding when your glass is bottomless because the waiters and waitresses are constantly topping it off. You don’t even know how many glasses of wine you may have had. Andrew, has your wife been constantly refilling your TriDot mug, you don’t even know how much coffee you’ve had?

Andrew: I wish that was the case. I wish I had that kind of a setup. I actually have one of those Ember mugs where the mug will keep the coffee at the temperature you want it kept, so typically at my desk that’s what I use, because I have the plate for it there, so it just indefinitely keeps my coffee at 135°, so I pour that first cup in the morning, and I can take my time drinking it the rest of the day.

John: I’ve had the pleasure of spending some time in the Harley home, and I will say that Andrew is the resident barista. He’s very bougie with his coffee, as he is with most things, so I don’t think he’d trust outsourcing his coffee to anyone, but I have had some mighty fine cups of coffee at Andrew’s home.

Jeff: I saw that Ember reheating, self-heating mug at Andrew’s house when I was there, and I thought it was so cool, so I came home and bought it for my wife as a gift, but I’m the one who uses it.

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

Andrew: We’re going to close down Episode 100 with just a little reflecting on the moment. A lot of our listeners have been with us from day one, as have Jeff, John, and Elizabeth. We picked up Coach Matt Bach along the way and are happy to have his voice and expertise on board. We’re also grateful for Dr. Krista Austin, Dr. BJ Leeper, TriDot founder Jeff Booher, and all of the other experts that have stopped by to teach us about this wild and crazy sport. So as we wrap up the 100th episode, Jeff, John, Elizabeth, Matt, when you think about where we started, sitting at the table, recording Episode 1 to where we are now, what comes to mind for you? John Mayfield, you were on the first episode with me, so let’s start with you here.

John: So I vividly remember sitting at the table, I remember exactly where I was. I remember the night before we were set to record our first episode, and I had a similar experience to before a big A race. I was nervous, I was anxious, I had zero experience going into this, and I knew it was going to be great, I knew it was going to be fun, but I was certainly nervous for it. And it was. I think I even commented before we started, and I want to say I even threw out, “When we’re 100 episodes in, we’re going to look back on this first one, this is just cringe-worthy.” But I will say it kind of holds up. I’ve listened to those episodes, I’ve gone back and listened to them all, and I’m still proud of them. I think they were good. Even that first one, which I think we’ve maybe loosened up a little bit, had a little bit more fun, but I think that first episode even still holds up. I remember saying one thing in that first episode of “What do we want the podcast to be?” and I spoke to the fact that when I was a new triathlete and I was coming up as a coach, that there were a couple high-quality podcasts that I listened to and it really helped shape me as an athlete and a coach, and that’s what I wanted for our podcast to be, was to be that source of information that people can really benefit from, that they can learn from, that we can share our experiences as athletes and coaches, and athletes can be better triathletes, they can better enjoy the sport. They can be more balanced, and just have a better overall triathlon experience. And I really feel like over these 100 episodes we’ve done a good job of doing that. I’m proud of the body of work that we’ve produced, and it’s been a ton of fun to do it, and I look forward to a hundred more.

Elizabeth: Man, yeah, this question is like a walk down memory lane. There are a lot of cool memories just from the 100 episodes that we recorded. I distinctly remember sitting in Jeff Booher’s house when we were even talking about doing a podcast, before we had even recorded the first episode, and there was a nervous energy about it of, “Oh my gosh, are we really going to do this? Do we know what we’re doing, is anybody going to listen?” Then to think, here we are, 100 episodes later. I also remember being so nervous for that first recording. I know that we were sitting around the table talking about, “Man, this is even worse than race morning!” We’ve got the jitters, and the stomach was in knots. That was fun. Then I just think of so many laughs along the way, from getting ready for the episodes, having to pause the recording because we’re laughing so hard, we’re crying. I remember being doubled over in my chair, clutching my stomach, thinking, “Oh my gosh, this is the best ab workout ever” because my stomach hurt so bad. Then just the number of places that we’ve had the opportunity to record episodes. Gosh, we’ve recorded episodes in Arizona, I recorded a podcast remotely from St. George, I’ve recorded from my bedroom closet when we had construction going on in the house next door. Ones that we’ve done together in various locations or just remote. There’s a lot of cool memories about the places we’ve had the opportunity to record as well.

Jeff: Wow, I can’t believe that we’ve started this back in 2019, preCovid, recording onsite to having to handle remote recording due to the pandemic. Now we’re all in person again. I just love that we’ve recorded these episodes with so many unique individuals, all around the USA, at races, at home, and all sorts of cool things. It just brings so many aspects to this podcast. The behind-the-scenes, the stuff that we have created here, and it’s just so fun. Each one is different, each story is different, each time of the year is different. It makes them all just as cool and even cooler. I think one of the coolest things, actually, is when we’re standing around at races and people walk up to us randomly and they just recognize our voices, and they’re not all in TriDot, they just say, “Hey, I’ve listened to your podcast, I recognize your voices.” Especially Andrew, and I will say, a funny story at Tulsa, I think Tulsa back in May was the first time that someone wanted a selfie. So John, Andrew, and I were all standing next to each other, and these people blew by John and I, they wanted a selfie with THE Andrew from the podcast. That’s just a funny joke that Andrew got the first selfie. We all get a few shout-outs, but I will say that Andrew is the voice, and Andrew has done a great job. It's been a great opportunity being a part of these podcasts. Thank you, Andrew!

Matt: Well, I only came on fairly recently. Unlike many of you who are longtime veterans/staffers at TriDot, but I have known you guys for a long time, so I worked with Andrew and the TriDot team on sponsorship when I was at UCAN, because UCAN is a sponsor of TriDot, and I brought Tim O’Donnell onto the show. I was the episode, I think it was 51 or so, when I was on with Dr. Krista Austin talking about REDS, and then at the Endurance Exchange meeting, I met all of you guys at the Endurance Exchange, I think it was early 2020, right before all this craziness happened with the pandemic. So I got to meet all of you, and put a face to all the names, and I really got to get an understanding of where the business was going with TriDot, and where you all were as people, and it was a blast. It was really fun getting to meet all of you, and I always kind of knew this would be an amazing place to work.

Andrew: Well, thank you all so much for those thoughts. I’m sure all of our listeners agree with me in saying I am thankful for all of you lending your time, your energy, your expertise to the show. You each give so much of your own coaching knowledge away for free every single week, and we the athletes of TriDot, the athletes that listen to the show, we’re all the beneficiaries of that. For me, as I reflect on 100 shows down, I just wanted to take a second and share the short version of the origin story of the show. It really all goes back to August/September of 2019. I was working for a television network producing a couple of live TV shows at the time. I was a TriDot athlete, I had raced several local races, some sprints and Olympics. I had done one 70.3 training with TriDot, and two key things happened around that same time, August/September 2019, that sparked the TriDot podcast. Number one, the next season of the NFL, the National Football League, was starting up here in the states, and so I was getting ready for the Fantasy Football draft I do with my college buddies, and I started listening to a Fantasy Football podcast called the Fantasy Footballers. The show was a hour long, and it quickly became my goto thing to listen to on those indoor training rides and all those runs that were about an hour long. And it was just three guys sitting around on microphones giving their insight and having fun just talking about Fantasy Football. It was fun to listen to, and several times I thought to myself, “Geez, I bet it would just be a ton of fun to produce a podcast like this, talking about something I’m passionate about.” Number two, that same fall, August/September, I signed up for Ironman Texas, and when I did, it just exponentially ramped up my interest in learning more about how to get better in this stupid wild crazy sport. So I started looking on YouTube, and in Google, and podcasts for shows or people that had helpful information. And don’t get me wrong, there are some great triathlon personalities out there. There are some great podcasts in this space and everything, but I just didn’t feel like anything I was finding met me where I was an as everyday athlete who needed to know how other everyday athletes were navigating their experience in triathlon. So those two things really came together right about the same time. I thought doing a podcast would be fun, and I was looking to learn more about triathlon. So Labor Day weekend, early September of 2019, I was really rolling around in my head what it would be like to start a podcast and a YouTube channel solely dedicated to helping average everyday athletes enjoy the sport, and I thought TriDot was the perfect conduit for this. I believed in the training as an athlete using it myself, I knew there were topshelf coaches and pros on staff, and I knew TriDot was passionate about helping athletes succeed and genuinely cared about us as people and not just as users. And so long story short, I sent an email to the team at TriDot, basically just pitching the idea that would lead to the TriDot podcast, and after a few phone calls with TriDot founder Jeff Booher where we talked and dreamed about what this show could be, it led to me coming on staff full time to produce and host the show, and geez, I had no idea that it would lead to me traveling around the country, meeting athletes, hearing their stories, cheering them on at the races. I had no idea it would lead to me hosting this thing. In my original vision I was just going to produce it, and other folks from the team would get to shine on the microphone. So to have my voice be recognized at races and camps, it’s just wild. And I’m forever thankful. It’s not lost on me that for a media guy that loves triathlon, I basically have my dream job. And I, of course, from all this, I’m excited to keep this thing rolling. We’ve got more topics to hit, we’ve got more learning to do, and we’ve got more room for all of our listeners, from the front of the pack to the middle of the pack, into the back of the pack to enjoy this sport and be part of the tribe.

Well, that’s it for today, folks! I want to thank TriDot’s very own Jeff Raines, John Mayfield, Matt Bach, and Elizabeth James for answering some super-great swim/bike/run and triathlon questions today. Big thanks to TriTats and Precision Hydration for partnering on today’s show. Head to precisionhydration.com to learn more about your own hydration needs, and be sure to use code TRIDOT10 when you check out with some of their fantastic hydration and fueling products. And quick plug actually for next week’s show, Andy Blow from Precision Hydration will join us to talk about crafting a race day hydration strategy. I can’t wait, it’s going to be great. Enjoying the podcast? Have any triathlon questions or topics you want to hear us talk about? Head to TriDot.com/podcast and click on “Submit Feedback” to 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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