TriDot Podcast .200

YourQuestions Answered: Muscle Cramps, Strength Training, Performance Assessments,& More

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

 

Andrew Harley: Andrew: Welcome to the show, everybody! It is episode 200 of the TriDotpodcast. That's right, they've let me do this for 200 episodes, and we're goingto keep the podcast rolling. Still plenty of swim, bike, run, strength,recovery, nutrition topics for us to get to here on the TriDot podcast.Thankfully, when we launched this podcast, triathlon is just such a complicatedsport. There are plenty of things for me to ask our coaches and pick theirbrains about. But here on Episode 200 – if you're a longtime listener you knowthis already, every 25 episodes we dedicate the show to asking a panel of ourcoaches your questions. Questions from you, the athletes in our audience. I'vegot three TriDot coaches and experts here to help us out for this episode.Number one, pro triathlete and TriDot coach, Elizabeth James. Second, thefitness director at Alamance Country Club and TriDot Founding Master Coach,Matt Sommer. And exercise physiologist and nutritionist, Dr. Krista Austin. Ireally like this panel. It gives us a professional triathlete that we all knowand love with Elizabeth. It gives us a fellow podcasting TriDot coach in MattSommer, and it gives us our favorite source of nutrition information with Dr.Krista Austin. So thanks to all three of you for joining us for Episode 200!

 

Elizabeth James: Two hundred, oh my goodness, already?! I guesstime flies when you're having fun! It is hard to believe that we are alreadytwo hundred episodes into this journey. So excited for today!

 

Krista Austin: Congrats on such a great achievement! Such a valuable resource that hasbeen developed for athletes. I'm excited to see it thriving, and look forwardto seeing more of it.

 

Matt Sommer: First of all, thanks for having me back! I am privileged to bealongside these industry experts with EJ and Dr. Austin. So first of all, thankyou for that. And wow, what an accomplishment. As a fellow podcaster myself,that's a huge milestone. We're still in our infancy, we're only 29 deep, and Ican't even imagine going to two hundred, but I'm sure it will be here before weknow it.

 

Andrew:Sure will.

 

Matt:Andrew, this is such a valuable vehicle that you're doing here for the TriDotfamily, providing so much wisdom, guidance, and just another reference. That'swhy TriDot is the leading triathlon expert out there. So much to offer, what agreat thing you're doing here.

 

Andrew:I'm Andrew the Average Triathlete, Voice of the People, and Captain of theMiddle of the Pack. As always, we'll roll through our warmup question, settlein for our main set conversation, asking our experts your questions, and thenwind things down like we always do with Vanessa on the cooldown, getting ourCoach Cooldown Tip.

 

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

 

Andrew:Today's warmup question is also an audience question, and it comes from TriDotcoach Gina Rymal. Gina asked, "What is the hardest triathlon thing thatyou have had to retire or trash?" Yeah, this is a great question. Tri gearand endurance sports gear comes and goes, it serves its purpose as long as itcan, and inevitably we have to retire or trash it. So I'm curious for each ofyou on the show today, what was the hardest piece of triathlon gear to move onfrom? Coach Matt?

 

Matt:This one made me laugh out loud, I'll be honest. This one was a no-brainer. Idon't know if anybody remembers Fuel Belt. They're not really in businessanymore, but I had an original Fuel Belt, and I loved that thing. Call itsentimental connection, I wore it for my first Ironman I ever did, I wore itfor my first marathon I ever did. Great piece of training equipment. Thething's falling apart, holding on by threads. I think the Velcro is wearingoff. The caps leak, I think I put the bottles through the dishwasher. I stillhave it, I still pull it out, I still like to use it. It smells terrible. I'vegone as far as looking on eBay for replacement parts. You just can't find themanymore. There are other belts out there from other vendors, but I tell you,they just don't make equipment like they used to. I love that thing. I stillhave it, but I'm very strategic about when I use it now.

 

Andrew:Now Dr. Austin, you are not a triathlete per se, but you have done some stuffin endurance sports, so I will broaden this for you. You can really say anypiece of athletic gear that was sentimental to you, we will allow it here. Whatis this answer for you?

 

Krista:I've given up a lot of nutrition products over the years. I test them out onmyself and just be like, "How does this sit, how does it taste?"Things like that. I've gotten rid of a lot of the products that I kind of keepin my "slush drawer" I guess you could say, to use with athletes.I've seen some interesting ones over the years, and just kind of said,"You know, we just won't be going back to this one." But every oncein a while, people pop up and they're still being made, and they go, "Whatabout this one?" It happens on a TriDot webinar, when we do those everynow and again, and I go, "Oh, that one's old." I'm like, "Ican't remember what's in it, or the research behind it. I'm going to have toget back to you." That's what happens when you've been doing this for overtwenty years.

 

Andrew:You've seen it all, yeah.

 

Krista:You've seen a lot, and been through a lot. So yeah, it's usually nutritionproducts that I just say, "Yeah, we're not going back to that one."

 

Andrew:Elizabeth James, what is this answer for you?

 

Elizabeth: I think I'm kind of along the same lines as Matt, in that I don't knowif I've fully moved on, because I still have my pink Oakley sunglasses thatreally just need to be trashed. I mean, the lenses are so scratched thatthey're honestly a little hard to see through. But I still have them, I stillwear them. That was a big purchase for me, it was the first pair of sunglassesthat I paid more than ten dollars for. And when I got them, I decided I wasgoing to do it properly, so I customized them to match the colors of my trigear. They have been through so many training sessions, all of my personalbests in terms of running and triathlon. I just can't seem to give them up. SoI don't know that I have moved on, but I tell you, when those have to go, it isgoing to be a sad day.

 

Andrew:So this answer for me is my first road bike. Since I became a triathlete, I'vehad four different road bikes, and two different TT bikes. But when I sold myfirst road bike, that helped get me into the sport, I did not anticipate thatto be a "oh my goodness" emotional attachment, a "Thank you forgetting me into this sport" moment. But when the guy came, took it for aspin around the block, came back, "Yep, I like it, I'll buy it", andhe loaded it up in the car and took off, I was like, "Oh my goodness,thank you so much for your service, and for really getting me into the sport oftriathlon as my first road bike." That's this answer for me.

 

Guys,we're going to throw this answer out to you, like we always do. Make sureyou're a member of the I AM TriDot Facebook group, where we will post CoachGina's question to you. What is a piece of tri gear that was just reallydifficult to move on from? You retired it, you trashed it, but you didn't wantto. Or maybe you're like Matt or Elizabeth, and it's something you know isabout to be retired or trashed, and you are just dreading that moment. Let usknow, I can't wait to see what you have to say.

 

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

 

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Allright, real questions from real TriDot athletes! I always love doing theseshows. I don't have to write any of the questions, it's a lot of fun. Y'all domy job for me on these episodes, so thank you everybody! Before we get to thequestions, I want to give a quick shout-out to a few questions that came infrom athletes that I am NOT asking today, because we have a full-length episodeon these topics coming soon. First off, Caleb Spreiter suggested a questionabout Athena and Clydesdale athletes. Flaquita Campos asked about menopause andperimenopause. Vanessa is already writing that show, we have that interview inthe works to do a conversation about that very important topic for our femalepopulation. Then Wilson Farrell asked about sleeps, naps, and power naps. Thatwill be a crowd-pleasing episode for sure, I can't wait to learn about that. Ican't believe we've gone 200 shows without talking about sleep, it's soimportant to recovery. Krista has talked a little bit about it on episodesshe's been on before, but we're going to do a full episode learning about sleepand its importance to our training, racing, and recovery.

 

Sofor today, let's get to today's questions. We're going to rip through these asquickly as we can. We had a lot of really good submissions on this one, and I'mgoing to get to as many of them as I can on my list. Question number one camein from Vince. He wants to know, "How do you balance getting down to ahealthy weight while ramping up your training?" Dr. Austin, you're on thisepisode, we've got a lot of great nutrition questions to direct to you today.What would you say to Vince on trying to lose weight while fueling properly foryour training?

 

Krista:I would say, first and foremost, we've got to go back to nutritionperiodization. That's really why it exists, because you don't want to be insuch an energy deficit that you're going to compromise your most criticaltraining time points. The approach I try to take when athletes are in heavyloads is that we fuel the body, we fuel the process. We want to put thisconcept at the start of our training blocks, and make sure that we find thatenergy deficit that's going to allow us to lose about one pound a week, andmake sure we understand how long it can actually be accommodated. I try to getmy athletes to take a look at weight loss five pounds at a time.Psychologically it's very manageable, and it doesn't keep you in too much of anenergy deficit for too long. Then give them a little bit of a recovery period,and then try to go at it again, if we've gotten out in front of it early enoughin the season. But I think all too frequently, triathletes still have thistendency to be mid-season, and turn around and say, "I want to try to loseweight, I want to try to optimize for my racing." At the end of the day,it doesn't work well then. Even in elite athletes, I will not do that. I'mlike, "You're better off to fuel the process, even if you can't get weightdown, you can't reduce your body comp to where you want to be. Fuel theprocess, optimize the training, and then let's come back to periodization atthe forefront of next season." That's always the best way to do it. Don'thurt your gains in training, because those are going to be more importantanyway. I would say the only exception to this is when people do use triathlonpurely to help facilitate significant amounts of weight loss, which I have seenover the years. I think it's great, it's a great tool, because there'svariation in how much you bear your body weight. It can allow the individual toactually recover better, typically because they are needing to lose such asignificant amount of weight that the joints can't handle the pounding every dayfrom running, or the way the body is put into different angles when you're onthe bike. So then that way when you step down, running-swimming-biking,swimming-running, that kind of pattern, you actually offload their jointsenough to help keep them training. So you will see that, and it will help quitea bit, especially people coming from a background where they've never trainedbefore. That's when we do incorporate the dual component, but the focus istypically getting down to a healthy body weight, and learning to use sport tofacilitate it, rather than how competitive we can be. That's when I do it onthe opposite side of it, where we're not necessarily at that point where wewant to be competitive. I've had people in the past come through and use sportto help them get a healthier lifestyle, and then get more competitive. It's allabout where you're at. But just know that if you are in full-bore triathlontraining, we have to make sure periodization is a part of it.

 

Andrew:Question number two, this comes from Russ. He says, "I am new to TriDot.How do these structured training plans account for age differences amongathletes, specifically in regard to volume and recovery? Most plans I'vetrained under seem generic, and seldom focus on an individual's performancelimiters. For example, I’m a weak runner, but I have solid swim and bikeskills. How does TriDot account for recovery regarding age, and how does theplan account for individual strengths and weaknesses in developing a specificplan?" Russ, thank you so much for this question. We are always very happyto answer a question that allows us to talk about how special TriDot trainingis. Elizabeth, I'm sure you'll be more than happy to crush this question!

 

Elizabeth: Yeah, I feel like I'm over here with my hand raised like, "OohLaquita ooh, I want this one!"

 

Andrew:I knew you would be!

 

Elizabeth: Yes. So first of all, welcome, Russ! I’m just so glad to have you aspart of the TriDot family and part of the community. And yeah, I absolutelylove this question. There is so much that is going on behind the scenes in thedevelopment of every athlete’s training plan. So TriDot’s algorithms aredesigned from more than a decade-worth of athlete training data, and thealgorithm has learned what other athletes similar to you have done fortraining, what has been most beneficial for reaching your performancepotential, and it's continuing to learn and refine training every single day.And that's really just scratching the surface. There are so many factors thatinfluence training. Your profile information that you input, such as your age,your training age, how long you've been doing each sport, your gender, bodycomposition, your functional threshold in each discipline. And not just thespecific value of that threshold, but how they compare relative to one another.As Russ was talking about, if they're strong in one discipline but maybe need alittle bit more improvement in some of the others. So we're looking at that notonly discipline-specific, but how they interact with one another. All of thosethings are different for each person, by discipline, by the energy system thatyou're using based on that threshold. Then we also take a look at how muchstress you can handle in a day, in a microcycle, a week, a month, a mesocycle.So all of these are factored to optimize your weekly volumes – what you're doing,by each discipline, how long your long sessions are, how far you go – not justin a particular week, but what you're capable of increasing that to, whilekeeping that injury risk in check. And then additionally, we've gotPhysiogenomix, which can further enhance the specificity of the algorithms foryour training, particularly when it comes to recovery. So with Physiogenomix,we're looking at the specific alleles for recovery rate and injurypredisposition. I feel like I almost kind of gave so much information that itdidn't even necessarily answer the question specifically, but rest assured –yes your age is taken into consideration when we're looking at recovery, whenwe're looking at the stress of each session. We are also taking a look at thedifference between swim, bike and run, what your strengths are, what youropportunities are for your best performance. Some of that comes in withbike-to-run factor, others of that is just looking at those “physi factors” andwhat you have as an opportunity in the training.

 

Andrew:It’s really fun too, Elizabeth – if you are ever signed up for the same race assomebody else, particularly if it's middle-distance or long course, and if thatperson is very different from you biologically – send some texts back andforth, and ask them what their training looks like on a particular day, becauseit's really fascinating to see the differences in place. The example I’ll give,I think I've said this before in the podcast, there's a guy I ride with prettyfrequently, Paul Wolfe. He's a TriDot athlete from Southlake, Texas. Paul and Iwere signed up for the same Ironman Texas. Sure, it was Ironman Texas thatended up getting canceled, but we didn't know that at the time, so we'retraining for Ironman Texas that's doomed to not even happen. And we werecomparing notes, because Paul is in his 50s, I'm in my 30s, and Paul is abetter cyclist, I’m a better runner. So we could see the way TriDot wasprepping us for that race a little bit differently. We'd have the same sessionsperhaps on a Saturday, the same bike, the same run, but his bike might be anhour shorter than mine, because I needed more time on the bike, because I wasgoing to be out on course longer. And then my run might be shorter than his,because my run in theory was supposed to take shorter than his. He texted meone time. I had a run on Strava and I was like, “Oh, Zone 2 run,” and he couldsee my average heart rate for my Zone 2 run was like 152 beats per minuteand he's like, “150, is that really your Zone 2?” “Yeah, that's myZone 2.” And he's like, “For me, that's interval pace, that's Zone 5!Like, I'm passing out at 152 beats!” So if you compare notes with a verydifferent athlete getting ready for a similar event at the same time as you,it's really cool to see how TriDot does things differently for every singleathlete. Great response there Elizabeth. Question number three, and I have astrength training triple-header here, three very similar questions. FlaquitaCampos says, “I want to know when to lift. My legs are too sore if I liftpre-run or pre-bike, but I feel like I don't get the quality workout if I do itafter.” What do you think here?

 

Matt:It's all about priorities. I think when we think about strength training, wealways gravitate to load training. Strength training is not just load training.It's really important for our listeners to understand that. Strength trainingcould also be mobility work, stability work, and movement-based work. All threeof these can be implemented year-round in season, because they are not loadtraining. I'm a huge fan of separate sessions. Dr. Austin also mentioned aboutusing fueling. You need to go into these sessions optimized to get the bestproduct out. The priority should be the bike or should be the run on that day,and then later on at a separate time if that is possible, go and do yourstrength work, whatever that might look like for you on that day, but go intoit ready for performance, not at a deficit.

 

Andrew:The second strength question in our strength triple-header comes from Ryan. Heis asking about strength training days, things like doing your arms and yourcore on swimming days, or doing your legs, et cetera on run-bike days, how manydays a week, reps, sets. So just in general he's looking at – and Matt, youstarted to get to this a little bit – but within the calendar week, when I'mlooking at my training week, where in the week should I be putting certaintypes of strength training? And I'm sure this varies athlete-to-athlete. Dr.Austin?

 

Krista:I think the philosophy I've used over the years is, “What is going to allow youto do the highest quality?” And optimize recovery. Oftentimes you will see thaton swim days you may follow it up with some upper-body lifting. And then onbike run days, that's when you do your lower body. However, at the same time,if there's not enough recovery in between bike-run-lift-type days, and you gointo a swim and you’ve got to do a lot of kick-based work, that might not bethe smartest thing either. So it's got to be flexible, and you've got to thinkthrough what you are truly trying to develop, and what is the strength trainingfor? That's how I approach it, but I think you'll find that for the most partyou can get upper body twice a week, lower body twice a week. If you can get tothree times a week, it's great. I'm a big advocate of it, but it's kind of hardto do it with triathlon training. So you’ve got to be really intentional withthe strength side.

 

Andrew:Donna Allen Tosh, “Advice for athletes 60-plus years old, how to deal withsoreness, fatigue, recovery, without missing workouts?” We absolutely want totake care of our master athletes here, so Coach Matt, what do you say here forathletes over 60 years of age?

 

Matt:I don't care if you're 60, I don't care if you're 20. Recovery, recovery,recovery. Embrace it with as much zeal and intensity and passion as you do yourintervals. It should command so much more attention than athletes currentlygive it. Sleep, hydration, nutrition, they're the cornerstone. Those are the –I hate to say the “easy” things that we can put our energy and time into, butthey're the things you can't buy. Focus on getting eight hours of sleep. Focuson rehydrating. Focus on good nutrition. Those are the things that prepare thebody for getting back to working out the next day. It's crucial. Also makingsure you're getting an adequate warmup. Are you doing your dynamic warmups? Areyou adding in self-myofascial release? Are you doing your drills to prep thebody for exercise? Then also make sure you're doing a proper cooldown. It'simportant that you get your static stretching post-exercise, that you revisitthe foam roller again. If you have access to compression therapy, such as maybethe Normatecs, or maybe some of the other devices that are out there. Do youhave access to ice baths, cryotherapy, massage therapy, muscle scraping, dryneedling? There's so many things out there, so many things that we can takeadvantage of in this day and age, that if we want to invest our time and energyinto, that are there to help with recovery. But at the end of the day, I thinkit all goes back to getting sleep, hydration, nutrition. And the other thing isstaying within your zones. Don't outkick your coverage, I tell my athletes thisall the time. If it calls for Zone 4, keep it Zone 4. Don't push to Zone 5 justbecause you felt good. If it calls for Zone 2, keep it Zone 2. Don't make Zone2 into Zone 3, Zone 4 work because you felt good. What you do today has hugeimplications on tomorrow. So stay within your zones, don't overcook it. Ialways tell my athletes we're baking brownies. You’ve got to follow the recipe.If you don't follow the recipe, the brownies don't taste good. Follow therecipe.

 

Krista:Yeah, I think the biggest thing that I'll come back to is the nutrition side.What I find my clients have struggled with the most when they are an oldercompetitor is that they say, “Krista, I'm trying to manage my body weight, mybody composition.” And as we do age, our resting metabolic rate decreases, andthe overall caloric consumption that we can utilize to optimize performancedeclines. So you'll hear them say, “I feel more sore, I feel more fatigue.” Sothat's just where the intent with every timing opportunity, with every qualityopportunity that we have, has to be there. But then the other thing that I'velooked at a good bit is just supplementation with creatine for older adults.Even if it's a small amount, like one gram before a hard workout, one gramafter to help the muscle itself recover. It actually seems to be reallybeneficial to them, so just something to stay cognizant of. I think sometimeswe villainize supplements a little bit, or say get your nutrition, right. Butas we age, the caloric intake that we need actually declines, so sometimes alittle bit more reliance on supplements actually helps us if we're going to bereally active.

 

Andrew:I'm giving Elizabeth a nice long break here, because my next set of questionsis a double-header about intermittent fasting. Dr. Austin, I’ll just say bothof these questions at once. I think they're super similar, and I'll let youkind of talk to us about intermittent fasting. We do have a full episode withKrista about intermittent fasting, but for today, Laura Rachita and Karen Smithasked these two questions. “Can you do intermittent fasting while training foran Ironman, and fasting during training, or fasting after a season? Curious ifthat will help pare down those extra 15 pounds.”

 

Krista:So I come back to, “What is your why?” The question is, “Why are you doing theintermittent fasting, and when are you putting it into your plan?” You have toremember that fasting by definition doesn't have to be full refrainment fromfueling. It could just be refraining from certain macros before key sessions,or refraining from fluids for some reason. The question is, “What do you meanby fasting, even?” I have certain clients who say, “What if I want to cut itdown to an eight- or six-hour window?” And I say, “Okay, why are you doing it?”Sometimes it's just that in order to control or optimize when they take intheir fueling, they will fast for that long. I know that that's something kindof newer in the endurance sport world, but I'll have ones that say, “I’vereally got to fuel for my training which happens in the afternoon or theevening.” We'll move that window all the way up to maybe 10:00 a.m.in themorning, so that by the time they get to a 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. workout, they'veactually been able to put the calories in they need to really fuel the session,and then have calories for afterwards. A lot of it is about manipulating thecaloric intake that you are supposed to be taking in. People do useintermittent fasting to help them try to lose weight, and that's what thatconcept's talking about, but they want to optimize training at the same time.So I’ll say, “Okay, we'll expand that window from 12 to maybe 16 hours, and putan 8 hour window there.” Because you need a certain number of calories to makeyour workout, and then a certain number of calories to recover, so the timewindow and when we eat is scrunched down. So there's a lot of differentconcepts around fasting. We do an entire webinar on it with TriDot, and we talkabout all those different types – what is fasting versus fueling, what's themaximum versus the minimum, and what are the different strategies we can use toactually implement this concept. So it's kind of broad, but it is somethingthat you can use to try and help drop body weight. For a lot of women it'slike, “Okay, I’ve got to get this down. I'm not as big as a guy is, I don't getas many calories, and I've got less to play with, in essence, in order to dropthat weight.” So we kind of have to help them optimize when they are takingtheir calories and macros in.

 

Andrew:Thank you so much. Great response there. Our next question comes from JoshVernon. Now Josh, in case you don't know, he is a TriDot Ambassador. He's alsoan Athletic Brewing Company ambassador, and he is the guy – if you ride ortrain with Peloton – if you ever see somebody in the background of the Pelotonstudio classes that end up in front of you on the screen wearing A TriDotAmbassador visor, that is my man Josh Vernon. And he wants to know tips andtricks for fueling reminders on the bike, when to do it, and where to store it.Elizabeth, go ahead. Jump in, say a little something.

 

Elizabeth: All right, yeah. Honestly, I've told athletes, “You need to eat likeit's your job,” because I found that a lot of athletes actually under-fuel onthe bike. So in terms of when, I'd say often. We need to fuel, and a lot ofathletes will find that smaller amounts of fuel, more frequently, will lessenthat GI distress that they may have dealt with in the past, or we're looking toavoid. One of the best things that I have personally done and recommend for mycoached athletes, is to set timers or reminders. Often I do this on a timeinterval, versus anything with distance, because depending on where they'reracing, there may be varied terrain and it may be different. You know, ifthey're doing five miles up the side of a mountain versus five miles on adescent or a flat area. So I really like having either a timer on their bikecomputer, or on their watch that beeps and reminds them, “Hey, now it's time tofuel.” Sometimes we also do this in terms of, “This is my timer for fueling onmy bike computer, and on my watch I've got my reminders for hydration.” Basedoff of what they need to be consuming, both from a nutrition and hydrationperspective, they have those reminders for what to do. Then in terms of whereto store it, I think this is a really important consideration as athletes areplanning their race nutrition strategy. Because yeah, not only do we need toconsume all of this, but somehow we have to transport it or have access to iton the course. This will vary a little bit if an athlete is going to be able totake in some of the nutrition that's provided on the course that they'reracing, or if they are going to be responsible for carrying all of it, or ifthere's an opportunity for them to stop at a personal needs location and getsome more of it as well. You know, Bento box on the bike, jersey pockets, thebottles that they're carrying. I mean, you might have to have a little bit morenutrition in a bottle versus all in the Bento box, depending on what'savailable on course. So I just say that that's part of what needs to bepracticed. That's the big thing here – practice it, know what you're going totake in, know where you're going to carry it, and how often you need to consumeit.

 

Matt:I refer to nutrition, hydration, electrolytes, and apparel as thecontrollables. Every training session is an opportunity to work on nutrition,electrolytes, hydration, and apparel. It doesn't matter what they are, weshould be drinking fluids no matter if it's a 20-minute run. Get in the habit.Carry your handheld with you, get used to having to sip water every 15 minutes.Use those audible reminders. If you don't develop the little habits on theshort sessions like the 20-minute run, they won't carry over to the bigsessions. So develop the habits. Use the audible reminder. Get used tohydrating, using the electrolytes. And at what rate? That's trial and error.That's why we train. It's better to try those things during each individualtraining session to see how much fuel your body can assimilate, what yourhydration rate is, what your electrolyte utilization needs to be. Hydration,electrolytes, and fuel don't always occur at the same rate, so you’ve got to beflexible in your approach. Aero hydration parts, people tape things to theirframe, whatever it is you need to do. And I can't emphasize enough, takeadvantage of that personal needs area. If you go in there and you just take thetime to sit down, refuel, top your bottles off with whatever your fuel ofchoice is, the return on the investment is huge. Most of us are not going to bemaking the podium, so by taking the time in personal needs to fill up yourwater, top off your nutrition, and get what you need, it's a huge return oninvestment.

 

Andrew:Question number seven, this comes from an athlete who has a pretty cool coach.Jennifer Charters, she's an Elizabeth James-coached athlete, she said, “I wouldlove to hear about a protocol for using deltaG. Why should I try it, and whatbenefit might I get from it? How does one use it for providing that benefit?Right now it seems like a solution looking for a problem that I don't know Ihave. Elizabeth mentioned she's been experimenting with it, and Dr. Austinseems like she could add some good insight.” I also think Dr. Austin could addsome good insight here. Krista, talked to us about leveraging the deltaG ketoneEster into our training and racing.

 

Krista:Yeah. Well, the first thing I will say is, if you don't feel like you need it,then that's okay. If you don't feel like you've got that problem, you don'thave to go diving into something. But they are overly attractive right now,because it's a newer item on the sport nutrition market. So the question is, doyou need it for cognition during the day, do you need it as an alternative fuelsource? At the end of the day we have to ask, “What is your ‘why’?” How longare you racing? How long will you be out there, and how does that help youimprove your performance? I think you've got to step back and say, “If this issomething that is a solution for a problem I don't have, that's okay.” Youdon't have to go try them. But if you want to work with them as an alternativefuel source maybe and try starting there, go ahead. I would start with thesmallest dose you think is reasonable for you. Typically for like a 70.3, takea half a bottle of the Performance and see if it helps your swim and your bikeand run, and then say, “Hm, did that help me at all?” Then if you say, “Yeah,it did,” put the other half of the bottle midway through the bike. It's asimple protocol, but I think it's something you could give a try. Then if youwant to add on to it, say, “Let me do another half bottle at the end of my raceto see if it helps facilitate recovery.” The biggest thing you might find isthat it's more cognitive and recovery based, or lets you kick back on thecarbohydrate fuel and use a different fuel source. So really the question is,you know, you know, what are you trying to utilize it for?

 

Elizabeth: One of the things that I really like about deltaG is just theavailability that they have to do those free consultations with athletes. Ihave found that to be a great resource. You can schedule a call with Brian fromdeltaG, and if you find that it's a beneficial source of fuel, or a great wayto recover, he can sit down and talk you through how to best implement that,not only with your current nutrition strategy, but offering suggestions forwhere else you might want to put it in terms of after hard training sessionsfor recovery as well.

 

Andrew:Question number eight comes from Trey. He asks, “Is there any way to identifywhether muscle cramping at the end of a race is because of a nutrition issue ora training issue? How do you tackle it once you've experienced that?” Treysaid, “I have trained with no cramping issues, I’ve even had race rehearsaldistances, and then on race day and at race effort, I get muscle crampingpretty hard towards the end. Do I need a coach or nutritionist or both? Isthere anything I can do on my own until I can get that kind of help?” Yeah,it's funny, I don't think I've had cramp issues during races, but I’vecertainly had cramp issues during hard training sessions, so kind of theopposite of Trey. But I've had a similar thought, like, “Am I cramping rightnow because of hydration, or am I cramping right now because my muscles arejust a little weak, and need to probably be beat up with some strengthtraining?” So Matt, Dr. Austin, talk to us about this. Matt, I’ll start withyou.

 

Matt:Yeah, I definitely think it comes down to adequate electrolyte and hydration.This is a hard concept to understand, but you’ve got to make sure you'regetting enough electrolytes AND enough hydration. They work in tandem. Youdon't want to over dilute. It's all about concentrations, and I think that's ahard thing for people to understand. If we over-saturate and put too much waterin, we can actually risk excreting the electrolytes we want to have. But if wedon't put enough in, then again we're also at a deficit there. I can't stressenough, we have access now, guys, to doing sweat tests. We need to take a lookat what we're actually losing, and looking at replenishment and replacement. Wehave the technology now that we don't go in blind, so I think we need to do ourdue diligence by doing the research on that, putting ourselves through thesweat test. That way we can make sure that we're adequately replacing what welose while biking and while running. I also will go back to the training – wereyou doing the right training? Did you miss training sessions? Were you hittingthe intensities that were specified? Because if you're missing those sessions,and the body is not able to get those adaptations, maybe race day was just alittle too much of higher intensity that the body wasn't ready for. That couldbe a possibility as well, but I would tend to go back that it was moreenvironmental conditions and inadequate hydration and electrolytes.

 

Andrew:Dr. Austin, anything to add there on cramping?

 

Krista:Yeah, I typically look first and foremost at sodium concentration. How much doyou lose in your sweat? Have you done the sweat testing necessary? Then I tryto make sure athletes are having more than they're actually sweating out. Andthen I also say, carry BASE salt with you or something similar like that,another product like that to just give it a dab on your tongue. If all of asudden it's relieved, then you know that that's a pretty good sign that it'selectrolyte-based. Now on the back end of that, if you don't get a response offof the electrolyte side of the coin, then know that it may be morebiomechanical, and it just may be that you haven't seen it in training yet, andthat somehow biomechanically you’re getting fatigued enough that you'reinducing cramps due to alterations and mechanics, fatiguing muscles that justhaven't been trained properly enough. So I start with the electrolytes, butthen I go into the biomechanical side typically.

 

Andrew:Question number nine comes from Matthew. He wants to know if there's any tipsand tricks on nutrition, and balancing workouts and recovery for age grouperswith what he is calling high-impact jobs. Things like landscapers, concreters,construction workers, or anyone else on their feet all day. Krista, what wouldyou say to somebody like Matthew, who maybe has a high-impact job or is ontheir feet all day, about tips and tricks for nutrition and recovery to trainand do their job?

 

Krista:Breakfast needs to be very energy-dense, something like avocado and eggs ontoast, and put cheese in there. Something that really tastes good, so you'rewilling to eat a good bit of it. Then once you're out there, the question iswhat can you easily take with you? Is it higher-energy-density foods like nutsand dried fruit, trail mix, crackers with peanut butter on it? Do you need amore sustaining fuel source like the ketone esters maybe, or some UCAN? Thenmake sure, if you're going to do your training a little bit later in the day,that you look at the timing of fuel before the training. Maybe that's the mostimportant time for you to make sure that you do get something in, based offwhat you're able to carry as you go and do your job. Typically you can pack thepockets with energy-dense snacks and utilize those, but my guess is youprobably will have a big job to do when you go home for dinner, in making sureyou get everything you need for the next day. That's the trick I've oftentimesworked on with people who do have high-impact jobs. The other thing you mightconsider is whether or not you're hydrating well enough to help even optimizethat hunger, or optimize what you're putting into your body. Because they’relike, “Eventually I just shut down.” It gets so hot, you're so fatigued, thatyou also stop drinking. They don't put electrolytes in their fluid. So basicslike that, you have to figure out, “How can I try to do this? How can I go backto my truck? How can I go back to an office that's maybe there on-site to grabthe snacks that I need?” And it's not just high-impact jobs like what he wasdescribing, that might also apply to medical professionals who work in ahospital. Like nurses, they're really busy running up and down the hall. The questionis, “How am I ever going to eat during the day?” We have surgeons who go intosurgery for hours on end, and the question is, “How are they going to make suretheir hand doesn't get shaky while they're in there?” Yeah, you don’t want thatto happen. They’ve got to make sure they frontload. They might be using someUCAN or ketone esters to help them get through the actual surgery, and thenthey might have to backload on the back end. So there's a lot of occupationsout there that actually require it, but definitely packing items like that thatcan get you through until you are able to get home, or are able to get whereveryou need to go to get something that's much better for you.

 

Andrew:Question number ten from Leslie Kratcoski. She says, “I'm interested in moreguidance on how much open-water swim practice is needed. Before TriDot, oncethe weather cooperated, most of my swim training was open-water, as I thoughtthat is what I needed to do. But TriDot swim workouts and Pool School have doneso much to develop me as a better swimmer. I struggle with how much open waterswimming I need to incorporate now.” And Leslie, thankfully for you, we havetwo TriDot Pool School instructors on the episode today. Elizabeth, Matt, whatwould you say to Leslie about how much open-water swimming to incorporate inyour training?

 

Elizabeth: Well, first of all, Leslie, just congrats on your Pool Schoolgraduation! Just awesome to hear that you are continuing to work on technique.What I'd say here is that we race in open water, so it's super important toincorporate this into training. I know that Coach JoJo is a big advocate ofthat as well. She's like, “Most of us are not racing in the pool, so weshouldn't expect to do all of our training in the pool and then perform wellonce we get to open water.” Because there is a skill set that is needed inorder to have our best performance in that environment. I would say that asweather allows and as it's safe to do so, a weekly open-water swim is a greatopportunity to not only practice those skills, but increase your confidence. Sothat when you arrive on race day, you feel not only comfortable, but you'vepracticed what you need to for your best performance. A lot of my coachedathletes will see a weekly open-water swim session on their schedule. If thatis something that you know isn't available, or is only available seasonally,we'll put that in when we can, and really just make the most of thoseopportunities. But I would say if you can do an open-water swim session once aweek, that is going to be a fantastic resource.

 

Andrew:Matt Sommer, anything to add?

 

Matt:A hundred percent agree, I can't emphasize that enough. I mean, we develop whatI call our absolute speed in the pool, but speed is nothing without confidence,and you develop that confidence in the open water. As EJ mentioned, yeah, werace in open water. You’ve got to get out there. One little thing I like to do,if you can add an extra swim – most people have their swims on Mondays andFridays, that's the default TriDot schedule – add it on a Wednesday or add iton a Sunday. If your schedule permits, throw an open water swim on Wednesday orSunday. That way the swims are structured throughout the week, and you have alittle bit of time in between. If you cannot add an extra swim on Wednesday orSunday, I'm a big fan of substituting the open-water swimming for the Fridayeffort. Again, it gets you in the open water. Now, the biggest thing, and EJmentioned this as well, is safety. Never swim alone, people. Don't go out inopen water by yourself. Make sure you're doing your due diligence. Wear a swimbuoy, make sure you're not swimming at dusk or dawn, make sure you're highlyvisible. If you do go out there, have somebody else with you. It's always abetter idea to have a kayaker or somebody on a stand up paddle board, just incase something happens. But you’ve got to get out there, you’ve got to buildthe confidence. You’ve got to work on sighting, you’ve got to work on yourentries, and you’ve got to work on being in the wet suit. You’ve got to work oncoming out of the water and getting out of the wet suit. These are all skillsthat can be developed and honed in on in training. So again, it's not just theact of swimming. It's confidence, it's comfort, and it's moving towards thetransitions then of getting out of it as well. All huge things to think about.

 

Andrew:Our next question – I'm looking at the clock, and I really genuinely trying topack as many questions as I can into these episodes, and our next one comesfrom TriDot Ambassador Nadav, and his question is how to get better atrecognizing good pain versus bad pain. I was going to ask this and have Kristaand Matt talk to it, but just for time, I'm going to tell our audience that Ihave a YouTube interview with Doctor BJ Leeper that went out on the TriDotTriathlon Show maybe a month or so ago, where Doctor BJ Leeper talks about thisexact thing. It was 15 minutes of us talking about good pain versus bad pain,answering this exact question, so I would encourage you to go find that. Or onthe podcast, there's an episode on August 9th, 2021 called “The Hurt Locker:Why Athletes Feel Pain”, where it's one hour of this. So I'm going to directyou guys to that episode so I can move on here.

 

Questiontwelve on this show, we have a couple athletes asking about their assessments.Matt, Elizabeth, I know both of you coach your athletes through how to do theirassessments on TriDot as well as they can. Here are the exact questions. Timasked, “If my 5K times aren't changing, and I'm always able to hit the high endof my threshold pace during my runs, when is it okay to lie to the system andmanually input a faster 5K time than I actually did?” Here's what Tim issaying, “Maybe I just can't pass that pain hurdle during assessments, but Ihave no problem on my normal workouts. I feel like my zones need to be higherto see any improvement.” So he feels like maybe he's just not testing as wellas he works out. Tim is a long-time TriDotter, so I know he's not new to it,he's observed this over time. Then Bryson asked this about his assessments,“Tips on how to structure the assessments, particularly the run and the bike.Doing what I think is an all-out usually means I can't sustain it, and tryingto guess off the last threshold pace isn't helpful either.” So Bryson's asking,“How do I pace those swim, bike and run assessments?” Matt and Elizabeth, Iwould love to hear what you guys think about how to execute our assessments,and can we lie to the system to make sure our workouts are what we need them tobe at? Coach Matt.

 

Matt:First of all, lying is never a good thing, so we'll let that transcend to ourtraining as well. You know, execution and ability are two separate things. Itell my athletes all the time, “Execution of an assessment is a skill of itsown. It takes practice, it takes time. It doesn't happen perfectly the firsttime.” We've all been there, myself included, we blow up on an assessment. Justbecause you do poorly on an assessment – I joke when I say this, “Just becauseyou fail one test in 4th grade doesn't mean they send you back to 3rd grade.”So we have a bad assessment, we let it go. If it was an ability issue, we'lladdress that a lot sooner. But if it was execution, we learn, we live, we goback to the drawing board. We don't look in the rearview mirror. Now I'm a bigfan, when it comes down to assessments, to really answer Bryson's part – andagain, I'm a man of quotes – You’ve got to play the song you've beenpracticing. Assessment day is not the time to sing a new song. You've beenrehearsing this song for the past three weeks, don't go out on assessment dayand try to play a new instrument or play the new song. Practice what you'vebeen doing. All you're doing is your rehearsal day. It's just like your kids,when it's time to do band rehearsal, or choir, or whatever it might be. It'syour recital day, go out there and recite what you've been doing. Now, as faras pacing. I've got little ways that I like to execute the assessment. For theFTP, I break it down into four sessions. I break it into an eight-minute chunk,a five-minute chunk, a five-minute chunk, and a two-minute chunk. It makes itmore manageable, and makes it easier to approach. That first eight minutes,it's nothing but a standard threshold interval that we do every week. That'show you have to approach that. That first eight minutes is just gettingcomfortable, that's all it is. You're working typically on the middle to thetop end of threshold, which we've done. We've sung that song, we're doing it,that's all we're doing. The next five minutes, we're going to start working atthe top end of Zone 4. Again, we've been there, we've done that. We're notoutside our comfort zone yet. The next five minutes, it's a step-up. Thinkabout the step-up workouts, where we build confidence. It's a five-minuteZone 5 step-up. Then that last two minutes, think power builders. We gothere where we do the 60 seconds all-out, so it's a power builder for that lasttwo minutes. So we're really just ramping up and doing a nice progression ride.I find that when my athletes follow the recipe, the brownies come out great.Then for the 5K, I break it down into four chunks, three-quarters of a mile,three-quarters of a mile, one mile, six-tenths. Similar philosophy as far asgoing in at threshold, starting to build, starting to build, and then all-out.You’ve got to be disciplined. You’ve got to be focused. Then for the swimassessment, it's like Doctor Seuss – pace, pace, build, race. Pace the firsthundred, pace the second hundred, build through the third hundred, race thatlast hundred. Again, you’ve got to go in with a game plan, go in with therecipe, stick to it. Stay disciplined on the front end, okay? So have fun withthem. Assessments can be a huge source of stress, you can't let it go there.Have fun with them. All you're doing is rehearsing and reciting what you'vebeen practicing.

 

Elizabeth: Honestly, I would say that my advice is super similar, I just didn'thave all the cool analogies with the songs and the brownies. So I feel like Ineed to take a page out of Matt’s book there and make it a little bit more fun.But I just love what you were emphasizing in terms of how we've already beendoing this. That's the biggest thing that I try to tell my athletes, too. Imean, by the time you are at the assessments, you've had the opportunity to dolong efforts at threshold, and this is just another opportunity to do athreshold interval. Granted, it might be a little bit longer, but we need to gointo that as we would any other workout session. And truly that's all that thisis. Yes, it has the name of “the assessment”, but this is another opportunityto train, another opportunity to build fitness. That's what it is at the end ofthe day. I used to have so much anxiety over these sessions, and once I couldstart viewing them as, “It's just another Tuesday bike workout, the interval is20 minutes today,” then it really changed my perspective of it, and allowed meto execute it better than when I got all worked up about the title of theworkout itself.

 

Andrew:OK, I'm going to close out our main set here. I'm calling these questions quickhitters. I want one coach to give a quick answer. We're going a little alonghere, so I'm going to challenge y'all. I'm going to pose the question, I'mgoing to assign it to a coach, and I want you to give a 20- to 30-secondresponse and we're going to move on, because we’ve got to shut this down andget to our Coach Cooldown Tip with Vanessa. So quick-hitting question numberone from Jessica Smith, “How to get braver going faster on the bike. Any tipsfor practicing confidence and good bike handling?” Coach Matt.

 

Matt:Well, first off this is a technical skill you have to practice, and safety isalways first, so keep that in mind. What I would say is first start withsmaller hills, staying aero and learning to pedal downhill. This will help youmaintain balance and momentum, and then gradually just start doing this onsteeper and steeper descents, and build your confidence. Confidence and bikehandling, that's what's key here. I will say this though, Jessica, there's noshame in being cautious, but it is a skill that can be developed technically.

 

Andrew:Nicole Hobbs, “I'd love to hear tips on when to set a discipline to low,standard, or high on TriDot. Based on the descriptions, I would guess mostpeople use standard, but it seems a fair number of coached athletes usedifferent settings.” Elizabeth, talk to us about this.

 

Elizabeth: Yeah, great question. Coached athletes don't necessarily use adifferent setting, but they just have the opportunity for their coach to makethose manual adjustments to the training plan that might account for theirschedule, the life stress that they have. I would say this – keep it atstandard unless you have the reason to change it. If you're not able tocomplete your workouts at that standard level, let's take it down to lowvolume. Let's be successful there. If you have additional time for training,high volume might be something for you, but just keep this in mind – more isnot better if you cannot recover from more. Additionally, understand that thismight change from season to season. Like as a school teacher, I could managehigher volumes of training in the summer than I could during the school year.When I was getting my master's degree, I could only manage a lower trainingvolume, because at a standard volume of training, I was not recovering well, Iwasn't getting enough sleep. So more isn't always better, standard, unless youhave a reason to change it down a little bit lower, or you have the opportunityto bump it up, if you can recover from it.

 

Andrew:Yep, that's great. Our next one comes from Scott. He said, “You had a greatepisode on the TriDot YouTube Show that talked about trying out running shoes,and which ones best suit you. With all the aero and TT helmets out there, howcan the Average Joe know they are investing in a triathlon helmet that suitsthem best for shaving watts.” I've asked you a lot of questions. I'm actuallygoing to take this one because I'm just a gear junkie, I love nerding out onthis stuff. Actually Scott, back on Episode 41 of the TriDot podcast, if youhaven't gone back that far, that was called “Is Aero Everything: Answers From aSpecialized Wind Tunnel Engineer”. We had a wind tunnel engineer fromSpecialized bikes on the show talking about aero. Basically, when it comes tohelmets, helmets are a huge help if you get the right one for you. But you canonly tell it's the proper one if you get into a wind tunnel, and sometimes whatyou think might be the best one, isn't the best one. It all comes down to youraero position, and how your body and your bike interacts with the wind. His onetip that he gives on that for the Average Joe is to take a picture of yourselfin the helmet from the front and the back, holding what is your actual aeroposition – not the position that you wish was your aero position, but youractual aero position – and just kind of visualize how it interacts with theback of the helmet, how it interacts with your shoulders and your back. So myrecommendation is to almost do what I say with running shoes – order three,four, or five of them on a credit card to get them in, get on your trainerindoors with the tags still on. Don't sweat in the thing, but take that picturefrom the front and side and just kind of see by the eye, what has the cleanest linegoing from the helmet to your back? That's probably the best way us AverageJoes can do it. Return the ones that don't work, keep one. Now what I didpersonally, I found a cool-looking black aero helmet on eBay that had thebiggest sale, I bought it, and I've used it ever since. Was it scientific? No,but that's the way I did it. But that's what I would recommend – since most ofus can't afford the time in the wind tunnel, maybe just get a few – whetherthat's ordering them to your house, or going to a bike shop that has a few –but before you buy, eyeballing how it interacts with your back. That was longerthan 30 seconds, I apologize, after making a big deal about that. Next one,Debbie Colson, “How does being a Type 2 pre-diabetic/diabetic impact workoutand race nutrition?” Dr. Austin?

 

Krista:So working on a prediabetic or diabetic state means making sure your overallglycemic response throughout the day and caloric intake are appropriate. Duringtraining, you should be able to keep the recommendations that they have outthere for the everyday person. However, I will say if you're addressing theprediabetic or diabetic state with any type of ketogenic or carnivore-typenutrition approach, you typically can lower the overall intake, maybe even tothe bottom end of the recommendation of half a gram of carbohydrate per minute.So feel free to fuel training with carbohydrates, but just so that it's theoverall glycemic response and caloric intake that's really going to help youkeep that under control.

 

Andrew:Alright, two more. Craig Jimenez says, “I'm about to turn 58 and I pee a lot. Ialso sweat a lot.” Craig’s just really, really airing it out there. I admireit. He says, “I take in all of my calories on the bike as a liquid, and Itarget 32 to 40 ounces an hour, but I find I have to stop several times duringa race to relieve myself.” He's also taking in 1,200 milligrams of sodium anhour, which is quite a bit. “If I take in more, I pee less, but then my handsswell up with water retention. I'm hesitant to lower the fluid intake for fearof dehydration.” So, he does know his Precision, Fuel and Hydration sodiumsweat rate is around 1000 milligrams of sodium per liter of fluid lost. A lotof detail there, but basically the question is, what advice do you have, Dr.Austin, for somebody who is just trying to hydrate properly and just findingthat they're having to pee a lot.

 

Krista:Yes. The first question I would need to know the answer to is what is youractual sweat rate. You talk about what you take in per hour versus the amountof sodium you put per liter of fluid. That's good to know all of thatinformation, but it may just be that we've got to manage the amount of fluidintake with that level of sodium. So the question I also have, I guess, iscould you use something like BASE salt, because it's a different-enough form tomaybe make a difference, so you could take it more intermittently. Then thequestion from my perspective is what is the difference between 1200 milligramsat 32 ounces, and 1500 milligrams at 32 ounces, versus doing it at 40 ounces.So it goes back to knowing the actual sweat rate per hour. Once we have a pieceof information like that, we could actually try to help you answer thisquestion. I just don't know if, when you say sweating a lot, means “I sweat 32to 40 ounces of that an hour.” I will tell you that the most I've ever seen myelites take in is a liter an hour, which is about 33 ounces. So it may be thatyou've got an upper limit there that we've got to kind of take a look at.

 

Andrew:Andy Blow from Precision has talked about sweat rate, and you can verysemi-scientifically find that out by weighing yourself before a session andafter a session, and seeing how much weight you lost during a session. Lastquestion for today, this comes from Jason Cole. He says, “What is the trick toconsistently getting up early and getting your workout in? The whole ‘bedisciplined’ thing, it gets snoozed some mornings. Wondering if it ever clicksand just gets easier.” Elizabeth, are there any tricks to being moredisciplined with getting up and getting at it?

 

Elizabeth: Well, I would say that getting into a routine of waking up earlier isabsolutely possible. I joke often that I have a toddler bedtime, but I do go tobed very early to make those early morning wakeup calls easier. Yeah. Assomeone, Andrew, that has been on a number of staff trips with me, you knowthat I'm always like, first to retire and go to bed. But yeah, if you arestruggling to get out of bed, put your alarm clock across the room. That way,you physically have to get out of bed to turn it off.

 

Andrew:That was my college trick. Yeah.

 

Elizabeth: Yeah, because likely, once you're out of bed, you're just going tocontinue on with what you set your alarm for in the first place. Last thingI'll say is, just have everything ready in the morning. Set out your workoutclothes, make your bottles ahead of time. For me, if I've got a bike workout,I'll download the TriDot Zwift file, load that into Zwift, have the computerthere. And just know that you've already set everything up, so there's not awhole lot to do once you're out of bed, too. You've already won half the battleby being prepared.

 

Matt:If I can add one thing to that, I know Jason. I know Jason well, but what Iwould say is, Jason, put the alarm clock on your wife's side of the bed. She'llmake sure you get up.

 

Elizabeth: There we go!

 

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

 

Vanessa Ronksley: Guess what time it is? It's Coach Cooldown Tiptime, and I'm Vanessa, your Average Triathlete with Elite-Level Enthusiasm!Joining me today is Raya Usher. Raya is a full-time triathlon coach with theUK-based Precision Race Team, and her and her husband Will are the UK teamleads in charge of growing TriDot and Predictive Fitness on British soil. Rayais no stranger to competitive sports, and found her way to triathlon as she wasrehabbing from a career-ending ski crash. Since 2017, she has raced six fulls,and more than twenty 70.3s, often sitting on the podium, or qualifying andmedaling at ETU and ITU Championships. In coaching, Raya has helped hundreds ofathletes, from beginners all the way to Kona qualifiers, and they all have onething in common. They want to reach their potential and smash their goals.Welcome to the cool down Raya!

 

Raya Usher: Hey, Vanessa! I think I'm actually going to ask you to write my biosfor the rest of time, because that was so well put in such a short space oftime. That's awesome! It’s really great to be here.

 

Vanessa:It’s so awesome to have you here, and I'm so excited to finally meet you. It'struly a pleasure to be here with a fellow Canadian who loves triathlon, andsomeone who also loves to travel, which is one of my passions as well. Now,something that most people don't know about you, is that you have been to overone hundred countries, which is absolutely incredible. So I have a question foryou, I'm wondering what is the next country that's at the top of your list?

 

Raya:Well, I've been so lucky to go to so many, but there is still one on my bucketlist that I haven't been able to get to yet. I would love to go to Chile. It'sgot three of my biggest passions in the world. One is you're traveling, so likeat the most southern end of Chile you've got the archipelago, which is justlike, for me, the most incredible thing. All those amazing islands, and thetopography of the sea and the sand and the mountains. It's got beaches andmountains, so you can ski and swim and cycle and surf. Then to top it all off,it's got some of the best wines I've ever tasted. So I mean, it's kind of likethe best trifecta you could possibly imagine.

 

Vanessa:That sounds incredible.

 

Raya:Yeah, so why I haven't been there yet –

 

Vanessa:Right? I was just going to say, it sounds like this is the perfect place foryou. Why have you not been there yet?

 

 

Raya:Yeah, it's been on the top of my list, and I think maybe the reason why Ihaven't been there yet is because for me, it's like a two-month adventure. Iwant to start at the top and make my way all the way down, and in order to dothat, I need enough time. And definitely during tri season, it’s just notpossible with all the races you've got.

 

Vanessa:Yeah. Well, hopefully you get there sooner rather than later. All right, Sowhat tip do you have for us today?

 

Raya:My biggest tip for anyone doing triathlon, no matter whether you are a totalbeginner or you are a Kona qualifier, is “You do you, Boo!” I say that to everysingle one of my athletes, probably on a weekly basis. Because most of us whoget into triathlon are A-type personalities. We're very driven, we're veryambitious, and probably more so than so many different sports, because whywould you try and perfect one sport when you could perfect three? It means thatwe're a certain type of person. That certain type of person is competitive.They can be competitive with themselves, but more often than not, we can becompetitive with other people. And so many things can influence us. There’ssocial media, and the influence of what people are posting, and how what theysay is going on with their lives. Or your teammates telling you what wattsthey've pushed, and how fast they're running. At the end of the day, eventhough these might be your friends, we don't know how accurate social mediaposts are, or whether their FTPs are what they are. So you do you, and don'tworry about what everyone else is doing, because you're on your own triathlonjourney, and that journey is going to have its peaks and troughs just likeeveryone else. But those peaks are going to be a different time as yourtraining partner. You do you, and don't worry about what anyone else is doing.

 

Vanessa:I think that's a really important message for everyone, just like you said.It's really hard to not compare yourself to everybody. As you said, beingcompetitive – how many times have we seen this GIF that comes around, you know,“If you're asking, the answer is yes. We are racing.” Have you seen that one?

 

Raya:Right, yeah!

 

Vanessa:And it's so true, right? Like, you're always trying to compare yourself tosomebody. You have no idea what their background is, what their trainingprogram is, or what their workout is for the day, but we just have this innatesense that we need to be in competition. Yeah.

 

Raya:And you know, I don't allow these things to affect me many times. This is why Ilove this tip, because I have to eat, sleep, and live this own mantra myself.Because I am a competitive person, and I look at what's happened in my trainingand go, “Oh god, why couldn't I break that 2½ hours on that bike course?” Or,“Why didn't I do this? Why didn't I do that?” And I recently had a really badbout of illness, and I'm very, very lucky to be alive right now. That happenedonly four months ago. I just got back to running, and I've only done three“runs”. And when I say “runs”, I have to put inverted commas around it, becausethey're not really runs. Right now, they're like little light jogs, where I'mbriskly walking, and then I'm running a little bit. And someone commented onsocial media, “How far you've downfalled!”

 

Vanessa:What?!

 

Raya:Yeah! And one, that makes you feel so insignificant. But it also is a truereflection on that person, as opposed to something you've done, or theachievements that you've achieved. There are so many different parts of thissport that are amazing, but there's also that competitive side that can,unfortunately, almost feel toxic to some people. You focus on you, and don'tworry about what anyone else is thinking about you, or what anyone else isdoing, and you follow your own path, your own training, your own guidance.Speak to your coaches and your small group, you will be far more successfulthan allowing other outside influences to impact your training or your ownpersonal journey.

 

Vanessa:Yeah, I hundred percent agree with you. I think another thing that's reallyimportant, one of the things that I love about triathlon is that it is a solosport. You are the only person that matters with what you're doing. You aredoing your program, you're doing this for yourself. And yes, we can becompetitive with other people, but ultimately we're in competition withourselves, and I think that lends itself exactly to your tip. You do you, Boo.

 

Raya:You do you, Boo! There's this amazing – I don't know if you guys have seen him,and if you don't follow him on social media, I really recommend you do. Hisname is Chris Nikic.

 

Vanessa:Oh, yeah. Yeah.

 

Raya:He is one of the very first Down Syndrome men to compete at Ironman fulldistance into Kona, and he has this like 1% rule. It's just be 1% better. Aslong as you're 1% better, and you're doing you and you're following your ownpath, you are going to succeed. Don't worry about anyone else.

 

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

 

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