5 Skills to Become a Savvier Short Course Triathlete

TriDot Podcast Episode 260

5 Skills to Become a Savvier Short Course Triathlete

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: Welcome to the TriDot Podcast. We are keeping things short and sweet today, and no, I don’t mean short with our run time. I'm sure today's show will clock in around our usual 60 to 70 minutes. I can sure talk myself, that’s the truth. We are keeping things short today with our topic as two short course savvy coaches are here to offer their wisdom on having a great day at a super sprint, sprint, or Olympic distance race. Our first guest is Coach Raya Usher. Raya is a British triathlon and Ironman certified coach assisting athletes competing in ITU and longer distances. Having been a former Canadian international alpine ski racer, Raya understands the intensities, pressures, and physiological demands that are placed on athletes no matter what level they are competing. Raya has been competing in triathlon since 2015 and has podiums at Ironman events and has qualified, competed, and medaled at ETU, ITU, and Ironman 70.3 World Championships. Raya Usher, welcome back to the TriDot Podcast.

Raya Usher: Hey, Andrew. Well, given the topic, I'm going to keep it short and sweet and just say great to be here.

Andrew: Yeah, love it, good. Good stuff. Also with us is TriDot coach Chris Navin from Chicago, Illinois. Chris has raced over 200 triathlons and multi-sport races, including winning his age group at the USAT State Championship in Illinois and qualifying for Team USA 18 times in short course events. He has been a full-time coach for over 15 years and has coached beginners up to elites, including an age group and pro triathlete to multiple overall titles at the Chicago Triathlon and the 2017 ITU Age Group World Champion in the Olympic distance. Chris is a level two USA triathlon certified coach and head endurance coach of Four Star Endurance, Team to End AIDS, and the Chicago Triathlon's new corporate challenge program with SuperTri. Coach Chris, you were actually just immersed in short course culture at the Chicago Tri a few weekends ago. How was race weekend there in your hometown?

Chris Navin: It was good. It's an honor to be back on the podcast again. And yeah, it was a hot weekend, a busy weekend with a lot of races and events and a lot of Olympians coming from Paris over to Chicago to race. So it was an epic, epic weekend for sure.

Andrew: Yeah, that is really cool to see them fresh off their work in Paris. Two astounding short course coaches here on the show today. And then you have me, your host, Andrew, the average triathlete, voice of the people and captain of the middle of the pack. As always, we'll roll through our warm-up questions, settle in for our short course mindset conversation, and then wind things down, kicking it over to Vanessa for our coach cool-down tip of the week. Lots of good stuff. Let's get to it.

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

Andrew: Traveling for a race isn't just for long course athletes. There are fantastic sprint and olympic distance events all over the world. I myself have actually traveled for a super sprint triathlon, but that's a different story. And that's the cool thing about short course. Depending on where you live, of course, your next short course event could be on the other side of town or on the other side of the world. Chris, Raya, for our warm-up question today, what is the furthest you have ever traveled specifically for a short course event? Coach Raya?

Raya: Well, I had to really rack my brains because in my head, I was like, I've gone to some amazing destinations for triathlon. And then actually, when I boiled it down, all of my international travel has been for long course racing. So I have only traveled all of 400 kilometers to get to a short course race. And that was the ITU Leeds, sort of WTS champs in the north of England when I was living in London at the time. So comparatively to a lot of people, not that far.

Andrew: Chris, over to you. Can you beat 400 kilometers?

Chris: I can actually, yeah. I had to think about it as well because most of my travel was usually for long course races. And then I realized I did Escape From Alcatraz, which was a pretty far travel many years ago. And then just last year, we did in Spain, Ibiza, we did the World Triathlon, the multi-sport worlds last year. And actually this year, so actually less than a month ago, we just got back from Australia. So that broke my record for this distance.

Andrew: Chicago to Australia, that'll do it.

Chris: I've done South Africa for 70.3 worlds and we went to Townsville, Australia. So the longest I've gone for a long distance race was 8,900 miles and now it's 9,000 miles. So pretty much the other side of the globe is the longest distance I've gone for a short course race.

Andrew: How timely of a question for me to ask then. Just a month ago for you. I mean, that is very hard for anybody to top and I can't top it personally, that's for sure. When I first put this question down, I expected my answer to be Tri Key West in Key West, Florida. My family lives in Florida. So I flew from Dallas to Orlando, met my dad there and we drove down to Key West, which for me, that whole thing was about 1,400 to 1,500 miles round trip. It was a lot of hours between the flight and in the drive with my father. So it felt like such a long endeavor, but actually, Chris you mentioned it, Alcatraz, Escape From Alcatraz in San Francisco was a farther distance. It just didn't feel like it to me because I flew straight to San Francisco from Dallas. So my answer here is actually San Francisco, Escape From Alcatraz, that 1,800-ish miles from Dallas to SFO Airport in San Francisco is the farthest I've gone for a short course event. That's an Olympic-ish distance race. I think they call it a modified Olympic. So it counts as short course. So that's this one for me. But Chris, you certainly demolished me and Raya when it comes to how far you've traveled for short course. Well, we are going to throw this question out to you, our audience. Make sure you're a member of the I Am TriDot Facebook group. I'm going to post this question there the Monday this show comes out asking you, what is the farthest you've ever traveled for a short course race? The other place I will post this question is the TriDot Athlete Community Hub. So if you are a TriDot athlete, make sure you have jumped onto the community hub where there is tons of TriDot-specific athletes chatting swim, bike, and run. This question will also be there for you to answer. Can't wait to see what's the farthest you've traveled for a short course event.

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

PRECISION HYDRATION (Andrew): Before we get too deep into the show, I want to talk about our good friends from Precision Fuel and Hydration. We've spoken to sports scientist Andy Blow during several episodes of the podcast to help our listeners nail down their hydration and fueling strategy for training and racing. The big takeaway from those episodes with Andy is that there simply isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to race nutrition. And that's why the team at Precision Fuel and Hydration have developed the Fuel Planner. Head over to precisionfuelandhydration.com to take the Fuel Planner and get your free personalized fuel and hydration strategy. The plan provides guidelines for how much carbohydrate, sodium, and fluid you should be aiming to consume so that you know your numbers for your next race. You can then hit those numbers by using the Precision Fuel and Hydration product range, which is designed to make it easier for you to keep track of your intake during racing as the carb and sodium content per serving is smack bang on the front of the packaging. It could not be easier or tastier. Just last night, actually, I encouraged my brother, who has signed up for his first half marathon, to head to the PF&H website and do this himself. So head to the website, and as a TriDot listener, you can use the code TriDot24 to get 10% off your first order of electrolytes and fueling products. That code just updated. So if you're a longtime listener for the year 2024, our code is TriDot24 at precisionfuelandhydration.com.

Andrew: Iron Man events often grab the headlines and the glory, but the fact is, in terms of both the number of races and the number of athletes racing, short course racing is the far more popular format. Many triathletes enjoy both and do both, going short and long throughout different portions of their season. Others exclusively race long course. That's it. That's their whole thing. And plenty more just keep it short and sweet for the entirety of their triathlon journey. Whatever type of triathlete you are, Coach Chris and Coach Raya are both here to make us smarter, savvier, short course athletes. And Chris, Raya, I want to start with this. Getting into those stats and kind of hearing that, it's not a surprise if you race short course. If you are super into Iron Man, it might be a surprise hearing that short course is more popular. Why do you guys think it is that super sprint, sprint, and Olympic distance are the more popular formats? Coach Chris, what do you think?

Chris: I think ultimately it comes down to just being easier to train for. It's a shorter distance it’s easier to tackle. You don't have to train for as long. So the commitment is a lot less, and that also helps to make it more maintainable as a multi-sport lifestyle. Being able to keep doing many races, the recovery time might not take as long. You can do more races in a calendar year, potentially. So I think just because it's easier to do more events, that's why you see more participation, just because the sheer numbers involved. But it's also fun and social, people refer their friends to join them into doing a shorter distance triathlon. It's more beginner friendly. You don't need quite as much of an investment of time and energy. And the people who are in it are using more beginner level equipment, so less of a financial investment as well. But at the end of the day, I think a lot of our sport comes down to being social, so if a friend is doing an event and it's something that you can sign up for on a whim, that's why people like doing them. So it's a team atmosphere, I would say, that really kind of gets people sticking to short course quite often.

Andrew: I think another funny thing you mentioned, like it's easier to do with friends and in groups. And I've noticed when you go to the Ironman events at this point, the teams there are the big teams, right? There's team Zoot, there's team TriDot, there's team Betty, there's team Wyn Republic. There's all these different worldwide really awesome teams to jump into, Cupcake Cartel, all these different racing groups. That's who's usually at the Ironman events with huge presences. Now, you go to a short course event, that's where you really see your local tri clubs coming to life and activating and supporting athletes. And they're 20, 30, 40, 50 athletes deep. To me, it's cool to be a part of both and plug into both and enjoy both in different ways and for different reasons. Raya, as you're conversing with your athletes, with precision coaching in the UK, what are your athletes reporting when it comes to their motivations for keeping it short as opposed to going long in their season?

Raya: Well, there's two trains of thought here. Motivation is often due to family life or time, and of commitment and ability. But generally speaking, most of our athletes start with short course. It's a much easier barrier to entry. Chris said that some of it, some of the equipment isn't quite as expensive, or you can get away with less kind of premier equipment, if you will. To be fair, you can do that with Ironman too, it's just a slightly longer day out of the office. Because of that, it becomes very popular. And I think it's really important to note that whilst Ironman is such a synonymous brand with triathlon, 80% of triathletes are short course only. They never go up into the big distances, right? So if you look at a pyramid of participation, Ironman participants are at the very top of the iceberg and everyone else is in that 80% doing short course, and multi-discipline short course. So it's not just triathlon. You might have a lot of people doing aqua bike. You have a lot of people doing aquathlon, duathlon, if the swim is a barrier to entry. And those disciplines, or those races, are much more widely available in short course format. They're also geographically often far closer. I don't have any 70.3s or Ironmans where I live in the UK. My closest long distance race is a three hour drive. After that, I basically have to leave the country to get to that sort of race. Whereas if I look on an event amalgamation website to look for a sprint triathlon in my area, I have one probably every other week between the months of May and September within my local area. So it's just far more accessible for us as triathletes and athletes. We're looking to race, to get to these races. Hence the fact that 80% stick with that distance.

Andrew: I'm curious to hear from the two of you, because I know you personally race these distances. You have athletes that race these distances, and, again, it's easy to look at Ironman and say, oh man. That's obviously just a huge accomplishment. It's a special accomplishment. It's fun to go and to roll into work on a Monday and be able to declare yourself an Ironman. We get why that is special, but on the short side, what do you think makes the super sprint, sprint, olympic distances so special in ways that going long isn't special? Raya, what do you think?

Raya: Well, for most of my short course athletes, if they are regular athletes and doing it for a long time, so seasonaires or lifestylers, I think they stay with short course potentially because of family restrictions. Like a lot of my girls, women, who I coach for short course, they've got three kids who are also competitive golfers, competitive swimmers, they're also doing triathlons. So they've got a lot of logistics to deal with as well as managing the house and work. Training for two and a half hours to four hours every day on a weekend isn't feasible. There's other athletes that I have that actually just love the threshold hurt that you have to kind of survive through to get through a short course. It's a very different pain to what you experience in long course. Long course, it's about enduring that stamina to get through. And that is painful. That second half of a marathon run or a 70.3 run is painful, but it is painful if you race a sprint or standard from the minute you start. There's a lot of athletes who prefer that kind of fast, furious threshold. You could taste the blood in your mouth kind of speeds that short course gives you that Ironman can't, cause you just can't race at those paces.

Andrew: Yeah, very true. Chris, same question to you. What do you think makes the short course distances special in a way long course is not?

Chris: I think it's just the variety, so many people like a new challenge or something different. And with short course, you have just a wider variety of different formats. At the multi-sport world championships I was at, we had duathlon, we have standard distance and sprint distance where it's draft legal, not just non-draft. And you have aqua bike, aquathon, all these different multi-sport varieties. But also the venues tend to be a lot different too. So the variety of triathlons in more urban settings, for example, right? A lot of long course events, you have to go out into the country to get those roads and get the police to let you have access to longer distances of courses. And with short course races, we have a super sprint triathlon we do, and they literally just need a mile and a half of road to pull that off and still have an event for 2000 plus people. So I think it's logistically easier for race directors to do, but then you can put triathlon into more settings, reach larger population centers where normally they might not see a triathlon, at least not the long distance one. And I've been working with Super Tri this past year and they have the professionals doing the, olympic athletes basically, racing a super duper sprint where they do swim bike run, swim bike run, swim bike run, nonstop. And they don't use any city streets. They literally are racing on sidewalks and running paths and it's circuit style draft legal racing. It's just a different type of energy, it makes it more spectator friendly too. So people that want to watch a triathlon don't have to be out for eight hours or more spectating. So I think those are some of the things that really make the short course triathlon and multi-sport races interesting for those who are always looking for something new and different. Just the variety at the end of the day is more diverse, I guess.

Andrew: I'm curious for each of you, because I mean, the deeper you get into your triathlon career and especially once you start coaching, like the two of you, there are some coaches that are still actively racing all the time. There's some coaches that because they coach so much, they don't race as much themselves. So I'm just curious for the two of you, when was the last time you raced short course? And when was it? And Chris, was it Australia for you or did you race in Chicago as well this year?

Chris: Yeah, I rushed back from Australia to race in Chicago, still very jet lagged. But yeah, that was the Chicago triathlon. They have a unique event called the Triple Challenge where you do all three races over the weekend. I like to take it a little further, so I made my own quadruple challenge where I do the super sprint, the sprint, and the olympic distance over the weekend. But I add in, they have a bike share super sprint called the Divvy Triathlon, the city bikes are called divvy bikes. And you don't even need to bring your own bike. You just show up with your running shoes, helmet, and you swim, bike, and run a sprint distance. Everybody's got the same bike equipment so it's a level playing field from the bike side of things. I joke around that that's my A race every year, but it really is. I have the most fun at it. I like to just go out there and have fun with people who are doing their first triathlon for their first time. So yeah, that was actually my most recent race just two weeks ago.

Andrew: Yeah. I love that. That's hysterical. Raya, what was your most recent short course race?

Raya: Well, I'm that typical coach, like you said, that I raced so solidly. I think in 2019, I did three Ironmans and six 70.3s and absolutely kind of burnt myself out. Qualified for everything, raced everything except for Kona, cause I couldn't afford to go. It's a lot more expensive to go from Europe. Then I got really sick, all for the last two years and I've been really, really poorly. I medically wasn't allowed to even train, let alone race. So when I finally got the all clear to start training again, because of the medical condition I had, I couldn't ride a bike yet, because it would put too much pressure on my cardiovascular, or, excuse me, my nervous system. So I decided to sign up to an aquathlon that the team was doing in Brighton. And it was the first short course race that I had done in probably seven years. And so, yeah, it actually was only a year ago, almost to the day. I think Brighton triathlon here in the UK was last weekend. So it was exactly a year ago at the time of recording and I had so much fun, exactly the same, like nothing changed. I won the swim by a country mile. And then I think three or four people passed me on the run because I still can't run. So yeah, so it was a year ago. I'm still working on that, but hopefully 2025, we'll see the return of triathlon properly.

Andrew: Love it. Yeah. We'll be eagerly tracking the coach Raya Usher comeback on social media. Last question I'm going to ask about these distances, and then we're going to start getting into some coaches tips from you guys. I'm curious to hear, Chris, you mentioned in Chicago, you raced all the distances. You did super sprint, sprint olympic, and even your kind of bonus race. But between those three distances, what do you personally find to be the most difficult, the most challenging of those distances? And when you're coaching your athletes, how different is the advice you give to athletes based on which of those distances they are taking on? Coach Raya?

Raya: From a personal perspective, I find the sprint by far, far, far the hardest. Given the fact that I was a ski racer and power is my middle name, I actually, in my older age, have become a diesel engine. And so actually the longer, the better I can sustain a very high power kind of threshold for quite some time, but ask me to race over my threshold in a sprint and I hit the wall before I even hit the run. And I have really struggled to perfect the discipline myself. I find that when I'm getting to the pointier end of athletes, they find the same. Sprints are by far the hardest, because you have to race, because of the distances, if you are at that echelon of speed, you are racing at 110 or 105% of your FTP. And that's hard, you know, that's hard. And a lot of people find that hurt locker or that pain incredibly difficult to tap into. So for me personally, but also my experiences that sprint tends to be the hardest. Or if you are taking on a challenge, like where you really harness your limiters. So for example, I have some uber bikers and uber swimmers that I coach, but running is their weakness. So those who take on the challenge of duathlons because they really want to build their running. Well, that becomes an incredibly difficult discipline or event style because you're sandwiching something you're incredibly good at with a discipline that is maybe your weaker one. So it really depends on the athlete's abilities and what they're looking to achieve. I have worked with many, many, many complete beginners where just finishing a sprint was all we were looking to do and all the aim was. In that, my advice is not to go out at 105% of your threshold because it's your first time out there, it's all new. And in that case, actually any distance is a mean feat, because it's the first or first few times you're doing it. So I still think no matter whether you are a pro or you are a complete novice, that sprint is the hardest discipline or distance to do in triathlon.

Andrew: Very interesting. I, personally, have have found it so far in my career, we'll see if it evolves over time because of what you're saying, I find the olympic to be the most challenging. Purely because, I'm 36 years old at the time of this recording, so I feel old in some ways, but also maybe not that old yet. When you go from the sprint to the olympic, you're doubling the distance, but you're not taking that much off of your paces. Like my 10k run is not that far off the pace of my 5k run, but then I have to hold it for twice as long, twice as far, and that just becomes agonizing. Sometimes TriDot, for my assessment, will cue me to do a 10k run instead of a 5k run. And me and my coach have an agreement that no, I'm not going to do that, because it's just that much more painful. Anyway, so, for that reason, I find the olympic to be, in my opinion, for me personally, the most challenging. Obviously it's different person-to-person. Chris, what do you find for yourself at the races?

Chris: I think it depends on the athlete that I work with and whatnot, but to Raya’s point, at the high end, it's very challenging sometimes to know exactly what intensity to go at. I'm a big metabolic testing geek. So I get very precise with being at just the right heart rate cause going one or two beats over your threshold makes a dramatic difference in terms of your finished time, even, and obviously how you feel during the race versus saying a couple of beats below and learning to really negative splits to perfection can sometimes take a while to master. Really, that becomes even more variable with the conditions too. If it's a hot day, like our big Chicago Tri race here. For those who aren't familiar, it's one of the world's largest triathlons, the Guinness Book of World Records certified at once, over 10,000 athletes. So some athletes are starting at like 10 AM or others are starting at 6 AM just because of the number of waves that are out there. And so you might be starting and it's 20 degrees warmer. And if you try to go at the same intensity when it's 20 degrees warmer, you're going to have a very different type of race experience. Tying it back to something like Tridot, it's important to do those assessments and to test yourself in different conditions, as well, if you want to get really good at short course. But the other thing that I like to work on a lot too is just equipment and skills too. Like transitions become a much bigger percentage of your day and contribute to your full time a lot more. And then a lot of races are, if they're in more urban settings, especially, they're usually a little bit more tactical, if you're talking about draft legal events, or just more technical. So learning how to take turns, learning how to do counter steering, being able to break more aggressively, to be able to maintain speeds when you're at the upper level become super important. And so I like just the variety of being able to focus on different things like that, they become a bigger or more important piece of the pie than just doing the swim, bike, and run. So at the end of the day, those are usually the things that I look at. So whether you're a beginner, you don't need to work on all those things, you really just need to do the basics and focus on having fun. But for the more competitive athlete, there's a wider range of things to work on, I feel like sometimes with the short course races.

Andrew: I'm curious, Chris, along of what you were just saying, I want to pose this question to both of you, as a coach who works with athletes who race short course and who race long,  why do you feel a short course athlete having a coach is vital to their experience? Knowing that long course is a little bit more complicated than short, perhaps, what would you say to an athlete out there wondering, should I get a coach for short course specific racing? Raya, what do you think?

Raya: Really, when you're looking at an athlete, there are some major differences between long course and short course, but guidance is still largely the same. So in terms of the same regular touch points that you need with an athlete managing reduction in risk of injury, making sure you're fueling your sessions correctly to maximize your recovery, transitions, all of these things are still processes that we need to coach through, whether you are short course or long course. The guidance might be slightly different, but I think, as a coach, you still are providing that same level of service. For me, the biggest problem that I face with high level short course athletes that I train is the higher propensity to injure, because so many more of our sessions are high intensity because we don't need to race for more than an hour for each discipline. Which means that your longest session at any one time is 75 minutes, but the number of minutes that you are training in threshold is greatly increased. And higher than threshold, right? So your zone five, your maximal speed work, that gets thrown in at a much more often rate than when we're racing short course. So navigating niggles and risk of injury is something that actually I'm checking in with my athletes on a much more regular basis. So with my long course athletes, we might speak every week, but I'm not necessarily concerned, saying, do you have any niggles? Is there any twinges that we need to be concerned about? Whereas with my short course athletes, that is a question that we discuss every single week. Is there any niggles anywhere? And if there is, do we need to take a day off? So honestly, as a coach, as long as you have your correct certifications, it's just as important to coach short course as it is long course. The fundamentals are still the same. The advice is just slightly different based on the distances.

Andrew: Yeah, and thanks for that. And I'll give a little more context here, just my own personal journey. I got into triathlon and I was interested in coaching. I knew that coaches were out there. I knew there were training plans out there. And when I was racing short course exclusively, I just felt like that was more advanced, like too advanced for me. I felt like I didn't need it. I felt like a coach's attention would be wasted on me. I don't want to take the step of saying I didn't feel like I deserved a coach, but I just felt like I wasn't in a place where I merited that attention and that knowledge and expertise. And then once I started going longer, that's when I discovered TriDot. That's when I started working with a TriDot coach. That's when I started realizing, man, there's a lot here. And now, I will preach it all over the podcast. Like whatever you race, having a coach is invaluable, because I see it in my own personal journey and knowing so many of our coaches, right, I know the value you guys bring to the table. That's part of me throwing this question in there is knowing there might be some people that are that way, that they hear us on the podcast, talk about coaches and having a coach. And there might be some people like me that just think, oh, that's not for me. I just do my local sprints. Well, no, everything Raya just said, it can be extremely valuable to you. And some of the things that Chris mentioned in terms of racing strategy, it can be valuable to you. Chris, anything you add on this question, on just what do you feel like you provide to a short course athlete that they wouldn't get without having a coach?

Chris: I mean, I think ultimately when people are doing short course, especially if they're more beginner, they have a lot of questions. Whether it's about equipment, gear, strategies, technique, that's where a coach can really be helpful. So especially for beginner athletes, I know they're sometimes intimidated on asking for a coach or whatnot. They don't think they're ready for it yet, but when you get a coach, regardless of distance, it just accelerates your development. And so you have a lot of people who get into the sport and it might take them two, three, four years to start getting things dialed in, whether it's technique, equipment, whether it's just their fitness level. I think that's where a coach can provide the most value. And even though we see athletes hiring private coaches more when they're doing a longer distance, that's usually because they're just more invested in the sport, putting more hours in. I think the short course athletes can benefit just as much. If you think about trying to train smarter, not harder, and if you can accelerate your development by a year or two, that's a pretty worthwhile experience to look into. So I think that's where a coach can provide a lot of value in just that one-on-one interaction.

Andrew: I certainly would have accelerated my learning curve quite a bit in my first three, four, or five years in the sport had I took that plunge sooner. Here's how we're going to spend the rest of our time together. Already lots of good wisdom about short course and a lot of good perspective on short course. But I want to walk away today just with six tips. I've asked three of you to bring three tips each to the show today of just things that you say to your short course athletes as they're heading into short course weekend, whether they're racing the super sprint, or a sprint, or an olympic. Obviously, there are so many more specific things you would say to an athlete when you know who they are, you know their situation, you know what race they're doing, and what their goals are, that you can get way more specific working with an athlete. But I asked you both to bring three tips each that would apply to any of our short coursers listening today. So we're going to go Raya, tip one, two, three, Chris, tip one, two, three. We'll talk about them, we’ll chat about them, and see what other questions I decided to ask along the way. So Raya, what is your number one, first up, short course tip for athletes today?

Raya: Well, I had a sneak peek at what Chris's are. And actually, I'm not going to go with my tip number one, because, actually, him and I have shared this tip. So my first tip is not going to be the one I share with Chris, because we can talk about that together. But this tip is acceptable for whether you are just starting your triathlon journey or you have done multiple, multiple sprint or short course races, is you must go hard, as hard as you can, but without blowing up and hitting a wall. That pacing and trying to find that balance, and I know Chris works very diligently and mathematically about this, but if you aren't working with a coach who works with those numbers, you need to really practice finding that pace. Because it is so easy to hit the wall and, listen, I've been a coach for almost a decade, full time doing this as a living, and I still do it on a regular basis, hitting the wall on the run. So practice, practice, practice. It's one of the reasons why I love the fact that TriDot as a system tests us so regularly, because, actually, for short course endurance athletes, it is a very valid session to do. In fact, when our triathlon team back in 2012 was only short course, we only coached short course. We had 80 athletes. We made our athletes do a 60 minute FTP test, not a 20 minute, because we were all doing olympic distance triathlon, which meant it was a very valid one hour session to be doing. We don't make our athletes do it anymore. We let them do the 20 minute. Obviously we've all gotten soft in our old age as coaches, all the tough cookies have now moved on to pastures new. So go hard, learn how to go hard, and learn how hard that is for you so you don't blow up.

Andrew: I love that you're saying this. It's so funny, Raya, because I had done dozens of sprints, a handful, up to 10 olympics probably. And I got invited to do, it was the when USA triathlon put the national championships in Irving, Texas, which is right up the road from me. And I got invited by a TriDot ambassador, Ande Wegner, to race in one of their relays at the championship event. I went first, I was the leading leg. So I had to do the mass swim start. And when I looked at it on paper, it more or less was a super sprint. It wasn't exactly a super sprint, but it was like a 150 yard swim, a four or five mile bike and a one mile run, somewhere in those ballpark of numbers. I forget the specifics, but I remember looking at those numbers and thinking, oh, I can redline this entire thing. I should be done in 24 minutes. And so I set off from the get go, thinking I'm going to go as hard as I can. And so I go off from the gun in the swim as hard as I can. By the time I hit the bike, I was already out of breath. I was already, my heart rate was through the roof. I had lactate building all over the place and my legs weren't, I had floppy legs on the bike. And I'm a runner. So I'm thinking, I'm going to get to that one mile run. And I'm going to fly by people on the one mile run. I didn't have anything in my system to run. I'm running next to these people who are, anyway, so yeah, every distance is going to be a little bit different, right? And you can either get with a coach like Chris Navin, who's going to help you dial in those exact power and heart rate numbers, or you can RPE, get used to the right feel, but learning for each distance, what is that. What is hard without blowing up? Because once you blow up, it's real hard to get it back on these short distances. That's for sure.

Raya: Well, it's almost impossible. It’s almost impossible, because your body has accepted so much lactate that it's at that point where mind over matter almost doesn't work anymore. So yeah, go hard, but only just hard.

Chris: I want to throw something in on that. If anyone is thinking about, hey, maybe I want to try to push it hard like that, a great way to do it, at least for people in our Midwest Northern climate area, we don't have triathlons all year round, but we have indoor triathlons and those are kind of like a super sprint triathlon basically. And the intensity level is threshold and above, if you're really pushing it. And it's a great way to test yourself, and as a data geek, it's a controlled environment. You can get your numbers and everything. So for anyone who's thinking about going, especially the long course athletes that want to dabble back in short course, but haven't done that high threshold work, just sign up for an indoor tri, like convince a friend, beginner to join you and it'll be a fun social race, but it can also be a great way to test your fitness and get a taste for that lactate buildup too.

Andrew: Coach Raya, what is your second tip that you'll give to all of our short course athletes?

Raya: My second tip is to nail your swim start. Now that might be different for every single athlete who's listening today, because it completely depends on your ability and the style of swim that it is. But generally speaking, especially in big competitions, short course still does mass swim starts, which can be a little overwhelming for some athletes. Even me, who is a very, very strong swimmer, my abilities go in order of the triathlon. So I get progressively worse as the day goes on, unlike Andrew. But, so even me, because I know the swim is my best discipline. You get anxious, and you get riled up, and you need to, kind of, have that controlled head and to have a look. So where is the flow of water going? Where is everyone going to start in the pack? And which direction are people going to swim towards the first boy? If I am a fast swimmer, do I want to get out ahead of everyone and get clear water to ensure that I get the best position for the bike? Or, am I a slightly more nervous swimmer and should swim strategically by getting in behind all the crazies like me who are thrashing and kicking and accidentally pulling people's goggles off? Not intentionally, but it happens. So, make sure you really understand and be honest with yourself about your swimming ability and where you would best place yourself in the swim start to have a successful race out there on the day.

Andrew: I tell any of my friends that are trying a triathlon for the first time, they're usually starting with a local sprint. I always tell them, do not overextend yourself in the first hundred, 200 yards of the swim. Ease into your pace on that swim, because it's your first race. You're going to be nervous. You're going to think you're going pretty easy and you're going to find about a hundred meters in, you're not going easy. You're going too hard and you're out of breath. And once you're out of breath, like we just talked about, it's very hard to get that breath back the further you go into the race.

Raya: I tell all my athletes, everyone feels like Michael Phelps for the first hundred meters of a swim. Everyone thinks they can swim like Michael Phelps. So, do not assess what your speed can maintain until you've at least passed the threshold of feeling like Michael Phelps in the water.

Andrew: Coach Raya, do you want to pull a third tip out or do you want to transition over to Chris and just combine?

Raya: Well, it's up to you, Chris. We have the same tip. So do you want to do your two tips and then we'll unanimously say the most important tip that we need to work on?

Andrew: I like it.

Chris: Sure. That works.

Andrew: Chris, over to you.

Chris: Alright, well, my first tip was, know the course and also know the rules, because some short course triathlons can be a little bit different, especially international ones. There's different rules on equipment and transition set up, things being put in boxes or not in boxes. The most important thing though, is just to make sure that you recon and know what the course looks like, what the terrain is like, what the turns are like, know where the turnaround points are. Some of the short course races, if you've done a lot of Ironman events, especially for the long course athletes out there, you get so used to the same super professional produced experience at Ironman events. We get a little bit tampered with that. I'll be guilty of saying I've done so many Ironman events. I rarely look at the athlete guide now, because I know I can expect the same setup and everything. But with short course races, it can be quite different. Like our Chicago triathlon is in an urban setting. There's speed bumps, there’s technical hairpin turns. We even change the side you're supposed to ride on from the UK style to the US style, riding on the left side of the road, or the right side of the road, on a different part of the course, just because of how the course has been designed. It's really important for athletes, even experienced ones, who think they know everything already, to make sure you know the rules and you know the course at the end of the day, because that can also tactically, that can help you produce a better result. If you know how to take certain turns at higher speed, how to take advantage of the course, that can make a big, big difference on race day.

Andrew: Very true. What is your short course tip number two?

Chris: Number two is work on bike handling and just bike skills in general, whether it's learning how to mount a little bit quicker. If you want to practice the flying mounts, don't just do those on race day. Make sure you practice those. But then also work on your bike handling skills, like knowing how to brake later in a turn, how to hit the apex, how to do counter steering. Also, when you're around other riders, cause a lot of short course races, the courses might be more congested than some of the long course races and so just being safe and communicating is something I like to have all of our athletes do, let somebody know if you're coming up to pass them, or if you're in a turn, letting somebody know if you're right behind them, and communicating can make you a lot safer, can make a better race day experience as well, but you can also have fun with it, cheer other people on. Oftentimes when you give out a little bit of positive energy, you get that back twofold in return. So I think communicating and having fun with that part of it is also a big part of short course triathlon in general, besides just working on the general bike handling skills, I think is my big tip number two.

Andrew: We love this attention, calling attention, to how much more dynamic the bike leg is and how much more you need to be thinking about it.

Chris: And a lot of people don't think about this too, that in short course races, you're racing at a higher speed on the bike. And oftentimes when you go into a turn, you're leaning more into the turn. And so little details of like keeping your outside leg down and your inside leg up, and keeping your eyes on the apex of the turn and where you're trying to exit the turn, like a late apex versus, looking right into the middle of the turn. Those little things can make a big difference when you're at higher speeds and not trying to go into that first pedal stroke coming out of a turn when you're leaning very aggressively because your pedal might actually clip the ground. And we do see people making some mistakes like that because they're racing at a speed they hadn't done in a long time and they're just not used to it. So, safety first, but also it can be a competitive advantage too.

Andrew: Alright, so we've arrived to the tip that was so crucial, you both had it on the list. This is our tip number five for our show from Coach Raya and Coach Chris on short course racing tips that apply to all short course triathletes. Raya, why don't you introduce it, say what you want to say, and then Chris will hear what you want to add.

Raya: Well, it was unanimous, but you must master the art of transitions. When we do our podcasts on long course, we talk about nutrition being the fourth discipline, and really, in reality, actually, the priorities change in short course. And whilst fueling is very important in short course, actually, your transitions are far more essential to make the race day successful. So, we really want to think about what happens in the transition. I get my athletes to rack their bike in the morning, and then I make them walk all the way to where the swim and swim exit is, and then walk the whole thing. And that way they can start to visualize how they're going to race it. And then, I'm going to make them do it again, this time with a camera. And I want them to film the route that they're going to take. Again, put the phone down, I want them to race it. And they're like, Raya, I'm going to look like such an idiot. I was like, yes, but when you win your age group, everyone else can be like, damn, I should have walked that transition like three times.

Andrew: Everyone there will know what you're doing. They'll understand, yeah.

Raya: Sometimes, yeah exactly. And so to make sure, you know. So my biggest advice is race your transitions. Because, here's an amazing story. It was in 2012, we had the London World Championship short course race right after the Olympics here in London. Our team consisted of about 80 short course athletes at the time. And every single one of them was trying to get a place on the GB age group team. And 60 out of our 80 athletes got spaces. And the 20 who didn't, lost out to their team members on our team. We had the largest represented short course race team of all time at a single international event for ITU. And I believe that still stands today. Out of those 20 athletes that didn't get a spot, 10 of them lost their place on the team in transitions.

Andrew: Wow.

Raya: So that's why it's so important. And, you know, those who didn't make it onto the team learned the hard way, because some of them had exactly the same splits as their team member in the age group, but one person was five or six seconds faster in transition and that got them their spot. So that is how important transitions become in short course, if you're looking to become competitive. I do have another athlete who raced two weeks ago, who finished the swim, was faster than his friend who was racing, and spent 17 minutes in transition, which was two minutes longer than his swim. So we could wait for his friend so they could effectively bike together. So it also depends on your priorities. But for most of us, priorities are racer transitions.

Andrew: To your point, Raya, even at my level, where I'm not necessarily trying to qualify for any crazy world championship, I'm not necessarily trying to win my age group at a sprint. Usually when I go to local sprint, I'm happy when I make the podium. And sometimes I do that. That's just where I am with my ability. So even when you're an average age grouper, right? I remember in my early triathlon career, when I was always like eighth to 10th to 12th in my age group, trying to get better, and better, and better. I'm looking at those athletes who are getting fourth, sixth, seventh, thinking, okay, what's the difference between me and them? And often, it wasn't the run split, or the bike split, or the swim split. Often I was just a minute slower on both transitions. These are the distances where that really matters and comes into play because the race is so much shorter. Coach Chris, what do you want to add in terms of wisdom, savviness, your two bits, two cents, on transitioning?

Chris: Obviously it's a bigger percentage of the day and a more important part of the race. So it's something that you should actually train, practice. Both outdoors, that's why every year I set up transition racks outdoors. I have our athletes do repeats of transitions to just practice. And usually everyone can shave a good minute or two off their transition times by just doing very simple things, but things you don't think about unless you actually practice them. So practicing the transition is outdoors, and also practice them before a race. So like even at Ironman events, I like to have my athletes pack all their gear like they will on race day, lay it out, and then in a hotel room, if you're packing the day before, two days before, do your transition. Have a family member videotape you doing your transition in the hotel room, just to see how are you planting your feet? How are you putting your shoes on? What order are you putting things on? And where can you save a couple seconds? Because you think maybe that it’s not that important, but if you practice for 30 minutes, you might learn to save a minute or two on your transitions. Little things like doing anything you can do moving, do while moving. Don't do it while standing next to your bike, and little things like that as you practice it more and more. We like to have mantras, so I tell people to keep it really simple for short course races. You don't want to have a lot of stuff, keep your transition as simple as possible. There was a podcast a long time ago called the age grouper. They had a mantra. They said sock, sock, shoe, shoe, glasses, helmet, go. That's what your transition should be, if you're using socks. But then I realized it's actually inefficient to do sock, sock, shoe, shoe. It's actually faster to do sock, shoe, sock, shoe. Glasses first, then helmet and go. And so I'd have our athletes recite that mantra in their head every time they go into transition now. And they know the order of operations, what they're going to do as soon as they get to the bike. They end up saving one or two minutes. And if you think about that, saving two minutes in a sprint distance race, when the run is only 5k. Imagine running a 5k, two minutes faster. Like that could take you a year to train for. You're going to be doing 30 plus hours of training, probably, on just that one discipline to get to that point. Whereas you could spend 30 minutes, and you can get the same net difference on your finish time. And then, when you get to the really short course, like super sprint, we've actually now seen over the last couple of years, USA Triathlon Nationals, pretty much the entire podium at the super sprint races, they don't use cycling shoes. They actually come to the race with flat pedals. They change the pedals on their bike. They use sneakers because they've generally found, they save another five, 10 seconds, and they can do that T2 transition so much quicker. You're actually seeing on the podium, the most competitive athletes in the country, using sneakers instead of cycling shoes on the bike and flat pedals. Experiment and find what works for you, but there's a lot to be gained by just practicing, practicing those transitions.

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

Vanessa Ronksley: It is my pleasure to bring you the cool down today. I'm Vanessa, your average traveling with elite level enthusiasm. Suzette Schutze is joining us today to give us a coach cool down tip. Suzette is a professional artist and works mainly with painting and sculpting. She is also one of those people who watched Kona coverage back in the nineties, decided she was going to be a triathlete in that very moment, and started training the very next day with a 20 mile bike ride. A few months later, she was sitting on the podium after her very first race, and has continued to do so in sprints, olympics, and 70.3s. Suzette is also no stranger to the full distance tri and has a soft spot for Ironman Coeur d'Alene, which happened to be her first Ironman. As a coach, Suzette loves working with athletes of all levels. And her main philosophy is communicating with her athletes as if they are her family members. One of her greatest joys is witnessing the success of her athletes because of their hard work and tenacity. Suzette currently lives in Pearland, Texas with her husband of 31 years, and she is also a proud mother of two grown sons. Welcome to the cool down, Suzette.

Suzette Schutze: Hi, Vanessa, thank you so much. It's great to be here.

Vanessa: Let's hear what tip you have for us today.

Suzette: One of the things I like to tell people is everybody wants to focus on what kind of equipment you can buy and what kind of things you can get to improve your abilities. I always tell people, it's really about what you have as an engine, what you as an individual can do with your body, with your knowledge, when you're racing. You don't have to have all the best equipment. You don't have to have the fanciest bike. You don't have to have the best wetsuit. You have to be able to use what you have and use it well. I actually think people worry about their equipment and what they can buy for themselves to make themselves faster. I always tell my athletes, some of my most successful athletes have done their races on road bikes. You don't have to have all the bells and whistles to do the race and to finish well. If you can use what you have with yourself and consider yourself like an engine on that bike, or an engine on the run, and stay within yourself, train like you're supposed to train, eat the way you're supposed to eat, do your nutrition the way you're supposed to do it. You will be just as successful as someone else who may have a lot nicer things than you do. For instance, I did a race one year, I did that race on a road bike and won the whole race. On a road bike, that was like five years old. Now, granted, it's great if you can have the fancy stuff, but you don't have to have the fancy stuff. Just keep that in mind.

Vanessa: I think that's a really important tip for everybody to kind of bring ourselves back. I think that if we spent as much time practicing mindfulness and strengthening our mental capacity as we did researching all of the latest gear, I think that we'd be further along.

Suzette: For sure. You know, and it’s like I always tell people, if your engine's not dialed in, your gear's not going to be dialed in. It doesn't matter what you're on and what you're doing. You have to make sure you are 100% in control of what you have going on. You're mentally ready. You're physically ready. You have a game plan.

Vanessa: One other thing that I think is really important to remember about this idea that the engine is what matters, is, oftentimes, we spend so much time making sure that our gear is all ready to go. We're paying attention to the gear, as opposed to how we're actually feeling while we're doing training sessions or when we're in a race situation. If that gear happens to fail, and we haven't practiced how we feel as opposed to just looking at the data, that can lead to a lot of problems down the road for anyone that might find themselves in that situation with a technology fail.

Suzette: Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. I help people break down their race into three separate segments and we talk about their gear for each one, right? But I tell them, let's say you get your wetsuit on, or you get your goggles and your cap on, if you get in that water and you get your heart rate up to 180 in the first three or four minutes, you're going to be in serious trouble further down the road. So you use your body as an engine. You focus on how you can make your engine better. And if your engine is good, your gear will be good. I want to do a study where you get on your old bike or whatever you're most comfortable with and then you go do, not a time trial, but you just go try to do a ride. And then you get a fancy new bike and you see the difference in the times. I can assure you they're not going to be huge. They won't. So, if they are, maybe you better call me and let me know what you're doing because I might try that out. But for the general average triathlete, everybody wants to get through their race, right? Everyone wants to do their race. They want to be healthy at the end of their race. They want to make it through. And in order to do that, you have to take care of yourself before you ever get to the start line. And then you have to implement what you've learned over those few months. Get yourself a great plan and you will be successful at the end.

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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