Florentina Spindler - I Wanted To See How Far I Could Go

Andrew: Hey everyone, welcome to the TriDot Podcast. Really fun conversation today. I sat down with TriDot Coach Will Usher and one of his athletes named Flo just to hear all about her amazing story. A little unconventional — she came to the sport of triathlon and said, you know what, the very first thing I want to do as a triathlete is qualify for Ironman 70.3 Worlds. She got connected with TriDot, got connected with Coach Will, and off to the races they went, trying to make that dream happen. We're gonna hear how her training went, we're gonna hear how her race went, we're gonna hear — was she able to meet her goal of qualifying for Worlds in her very first triathlon? Stay tuned to the conversation to find out. I am so excited to be joined by Coach Will Usher and one of his new star athletes, Flo. Flo, great to meet you.

Flo: Hi, good to meet you.

Andrew: And for our worldwide TriDot audience listening, where in the world are you located?

Flo: I'm based in Zurich in Switzerland, but I'm actually Austrian, which is not too far from Switzerland, so yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, and I just learned that. I always assume, Will, everybody you coach is from the UK where you are, and I could not be more incorrect on that, because we have such a worldwide coaching roster, an athlete roster. Will, good to see you, how are you?

Will: Yeah, really good, thanks. It's been an exciting journey with Flo — we'll get more into that in the moments to come, but it's been a great few months, and had quite a finish, and we're not done either, so the story continues.

Andrew: Love it, love it. Well, before we get into your experience training with TriDot, your experience targeting your very first 70.3, racing it, all of that jazz — that's what we're gonna get into. But you are fresh off a cycling holiday in the Dolomite Mountains, and I would be remiss if I did not ask you how in the world was that experience. Please share, please brag on your epic vacation.

Flo: It was really one of the best holidays I ever had, I gotta say.

Andrew: Ha ha ha.

Flo: Also most intense one, not gonna lie. I've never done anything like that — a bike trip with, also, not that much elevation and cycling distance experience. It was — yeah, it was just beautiful. I mean the mountains are breathtaking. We stayed up pretty high also, so all the cycling happened at like 2,000 meters plus in elevation. Obviously we went down and up again. And I think the first day was a bit of a bummer because it started raining and we only got half our tour through. But then the second day we prolonged it a bit, and I ended up doing 123 kilometers and 3,600 meters in elevation, I think, and that was intense. I have no idea what it is in feet, I'm sorry.

Andrew: That's meters, not feet, for our American audience — that's meters, it's a lot of feet. It's a lot of feet.

Flo: But it was — after that day, I thought I could never go on a bike ever again. And the next day we hopped on the bike and I was super motivated again, and I'm just glad I did all the training with TriDot beforehand, because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do that, I'm sure, and enjoy it.

Andrew: Yeah.

Flo: That's the funny thing — I enjoyed it.

Andrew: You know, many of us on staff have joked before — if you are consistent in your training, whether you have a race on the calendar or not, you are almost always in half Ironman shape, right? Because in the weekly rhythm, for a lot of athletes, your long run is oftentimes getting your weekly volume almost close to that 13.1 you need for a half Ironman, your weekly bike volume — so almost in any given week you could pop off an Olympic-distance or a half Ironman-distance event and do okay. And so there you go — just by doing the triathlon training, you were ready to take on the Dolomite Mountains on a bike. Love to hear that. But getting into your triathlon journey — where on earth did you get the idea to set a goal for yourself, to say, hey, I want to become a triathlete, and as I become a triathlete, just for kicks, let's qualify for 70.3 World Championships? Why did you decide to target qualifying for that race?

Flo: Yeah, so it started out way before that crazy goal came about, actually.

Andrew: Okay.

Flo: I wanted to do a 70.3 for a while now, and I've just recently had a big career change and I'm building my own business at the moment. Before, I was in finance, which is — let's say you put in a lot of hours of work — so it was just not possible to do the training. So now I was like, okay, now is the time, I wanna go for it, I wanna train for it. And I started researching for inspiration on how to train — I had no idea, I've never done anything like it before. And what I realized was that all the people on Instagram or YouTube or whatnot that did 70.3s, who did really well on it, they all had some kind of professional sports background — they were pro tennis players, swimmers, and I have nothing like that.

Andrew: Ha ha.

Flo: I mean, I was always very active, but I definitely don't have any professional background in anything. So I just had the question to myself — okay, so what can I do as a beginner? And I couldn't find anyone who was sharing anything that publicly about what it means to be a beginner. And maybe I'm also a competitive person — obviously I wanted to do something a bit challenging, at least, and not just complete it. Of course fun is the most important thing, and that's also one of the big things I learned along the journey. But yeah, so I came up with — okay, what can I do as a beginner? And in parallel, I found out about TriDot and thought, okay, I'll just try out the platform, because they had this trial period at the time. And I loved the platform right away because it was so intuitive and also personalized — the sessions, but also the whole plan — and I loved that. And I started coming up with the idea, okay, I do want to have a little bit of a challenge, and this whole platform is set out to be data-optimized training. So I thought, okay, what happens if I just go with an optimized training?

Andrew: Why not go for it? Yeah.

Flo: So I actually just reached out to TriDot and came up with this whole project about it, this whole experiment. I wanted to do an experiment of how competitive can you get as a beginner without any pro sports background. So I just reached out to TriDot, and then Jeff, the CEO, answered, and he basically had the same reaction as you just had — why on earth would you do that?

Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah — maybe try one first and then start talking about Worlds.

Flo: Exactly. Exactly. And that's basically how all of that came about. And that's when he introduced me to Will as well, and we came up with what's a realistic but also very challenging goal, and then we came up with time goals, and maybe somehow a world qualification could be in the cards. And then that was the goal, because I just had it in my mind somehow. That's basically the story of how I came up with this crazy idea.

Andrew: You and I, Flo, had very different paths to TriDot, and you were way wiser than I was, because before attempting a 70.3, you said, hey, let me look around and see how people are training — this thing called TriDot, that looks pretty cool. I did my first 70.3, was like, wow, that was really hard, before I do another one let me find a better way to train, how are people training? So I didn't actually ask myself that question until after I had tried one, and you were a little bit wiser than me. When you kind of set that target as, okay, let's try to qualify for Worlds — had they announced that it was in Chattanooga, Tennessee yet?

Flo: No, they only announced that, I think, a couple of weeks before my race was happening, actually, so I didn't know where it was gonna happen.

Andrew: Okay. Yeah, you didn't know where in the world you were gonna be sent.

Flo: But in the end, I mean, it's also — maybe what I would like to emphasize further, because where is this coming from — I was looking for inspiration when I started, and my idea was to do what I couldn't find when I started. So this whole thing — it's not only about, okay, find a crazy goal and go after it, it's about — because you never know whether it works or not. Of course challenge is great and it pushes us to go further, but for me it was really about this — how far can I go, and what's possible? And maybe sometimes we are allowed to come up with crazy goals and crazy limits, and just go after them and try it, no matter what people say — because most people said, that's crazy, why would you do that? Of course it's crazy, but if you don't try, you'll never find out. So there's fun in it as well.

Andrew: Yeah, and along those lines, you documented your journey through your Instagram account — and please let me know if it was wider than Instagram, I saw a number of your Instagram posts, I really enjoyed them, the TriDot account, the official TriDot training account — if you're listening and you're not following, please go follow TriDot on Instagram, lots of good stuff on there, like Flo's journey. And so your account is Desk to Triathlete, right, very cleverly giving a nod to — hey, I am becoming a triathlete, I'm going from a working woman to a working woman who does triathlons. What reaction did you get from folks on the socials as you started documenting your training?

Flo: So in the beginning it was really a small community that just started growing, and it's really cool to see how many other people there are just starting out, just wanting to connect, learn from each other, grow with each other, motivate each other. So that's really the main atmosphere and the main feel I got from it, and it's so fun to just connect and find people who are passionate about the same things. So that's really how it started, and it was — for me, it was a way to document just the journey, where I started, where I got from, and learn from other people. So it was just exchange really happening.

And as the time went by, and as I also started becoming a bit more vocal about this crazy goal — because in the beginning I was also super shocked —

Andrew: Ha ha ha.

Flo: I've never done anything like this as well, so that was part of the whole experiment. I was never a big social media person, and I'm still not.

Andrew: Same, same, girl, same.

Flo: It's really just fun and sharing and connecting — that's really the main focus for me, sharing the story and the progress. And as I became more vocal about this crazy goal, people started jumping on the train, so to say, and were really positive about it. Like most people said —

Andrew: Yeah, great.

Flo: — that's crazy, but go, and we'll be there and see how it goes. And that was really fun to see, and a lot of support also. And I think people are very grateful if they can learn something from each other and lift each other up. I was very surprised at how positive everything was — there was almost no negativity, and that is something I really appreciate, and I'm very positively surprised about that, about social media in general, gotta say.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah, so go follow Flo — @desktotriathlete — on Instagram, go follow the TriDot account. If you follow Flo or the TriDot account, I'm sure you'll see posts from one and the other, because the two of those collaborate here and there. Will, as coach, right — you meet Flo, you start talking to Flo, you guys kind of start hatching this plan to try to get her to qualify for Worlds — did you think it was possible? Did you think a brand new triathlete in her first race, in her first 70.3, could attain that goal?

Will: Yes. So I've been here before, and the conversation, but —

Andrew: In short, yes, move on.

Will: Yeah — so, interestingly, Rae, who coaches on the platform and is my wife, I actually met her when she had been dismissed by a coach, and she wanted to go to the 70.3 Worlds, and I looked at her numbers and her plan and everything else, and I was like, I didn't see any reason why you couldn't do this — and yet she'd been sort of dismissed out of hand. I also knew how angry that made her.

Andrew: Ha ha ha.

Will: And sure enough, on her first 70.3, we got her qualified. So I knew it was possible. And when I saw Flo's initial email, her introductory email, and we spoke — she's clearly organized, and this wasn't sort of doing it for the influencer journey. This was — she was serious about putting the time in, and the effort, and understood what it meant from a time perspective and equipment and everything. So I was really encouraged. I was like, well, you know, we don't know each other, but game on, isn't it? Five months.

Andrew: Yeah, so Flo, once you got on TriDot and got working with Coach Will and started doing the training sessions, what did you think of the training? How were those sessions for you? What was your impression of TriDot training?

Flo: So in the beginning, there were a lot of very tough sessions, I guess.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah.

Flo: But also — I mean, it's okay, to be fair, it's very balanced. There's a lot of very easy sessions, but then there's the hard ones, and they are really hard, but they're only short efforts of super hard. So yeah, obviously that was new to me — I never really trained in a structured way, let's put it like that. But I felt so taken care of by the program and also working with Will — I felt like, okay, someone knows what I'm doing, and I'm just doing it, I was just executing. It was so easy to just do the workouts because there was a plan that I would just follow, and it worked. And the crazy thing was — because you do a time trial every month on swim, bike, and run to see how you improve — every time I was just speechless at what the training has done, how well it worked. And it just kept going like that, it was insane.

Will: I think one of the biggest ones for me was the run time. And I still think we haven't hit the ceiling yet either — we went from like a 27:30 down to 21:20 or something like that, there's —

Andrew: Wow.

Will: — a huge shift. And I say we haven't hit the ceiling yet — we got as far as we could in that time, before we then had to expand the endurance range to meet the needs of 70.3. There's a lot more in the tank for sure. The swim — what did you go, was that 2:30 or 2:20 swim pace, down to like a 1:37 threshold, which is —

Flo: Yeah, through 30 unit — yeah.

Will: — again, huge.

Andrew: Yeah, I think the run was a big early one for me too, because before I found TriDot, I was trying really hard on my own to go under twenty minutes on my 5K, and I kept hitting like 21:15, 20:50, 20:45, and I just could not get close to the teens at all on my own. And two months on TriDot, I had like a 19-something; six months on TriDot, I'm in the 18s. And I'm like, that's not a goal I would have ever set for myself. I mean, Flo, you probably wouldn't have imagined that you'd be in the 21-minute range for a 5K, and here you are, and Coach Will is telling you you can go faster.

Flo: Yeah, which is — it's still insane to me, but let's go for it.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. So Will, as you were working with Flo on her training day to day, just seeing her in the thick of it, knowing what the goal was — was she able to kind of follow the training plan pretty smoothly? Were you happy as a coach, or were there any challenges you guys had to troubleshoot along the way?

Will: Yeah, super happy. I mean, with the time frame that we had, I was fairly —

Andrew: What was the time frame? How long did you have to get ready for Worlds? Okay, all right.

Will: Five months. Five months. So it's tight, and I was fairly upfront about — yeah, adherence to training would matter. There's very little wiggle room for big blocks of training missed, or any blocks of training missed really, and we were very lucky. But then some of this is also the balance of TriDot — Flo got sick once, but that was in like March, April time, something like that, which is a classic sort of spring cold for us around here — and it's inevitable, you're going to get one of those at some point. But that was the only thing. Again, because of the balance of the training, it's not too much — it's enough to get you to where you need to get, and it pushes to the limit, but never like beyond, and consequently — I think that's one of the big things, right? When I saw Jakob Ingebrigtsen was talking about — and Jakob Kiplimo, the mile record, just gone just now — you're talking very much about the best athletes, or the athletes that do well, protect tomorrow, and protect tomorrow.

Andrew: Wow.

Will: Right. And that's what TriDot does particularly well — you never go so far into the red that you couldn't train tomorrow, and you start a session knowing that it is possible. And there are things that could — maybe you haven't slept, or you've got loads of work stress going on, so your mind's maybe elsewhere, or maybe you haven't had the right nutrition — but in terms of the physiology of it, it is possible. And I think that's a fantastic starting place to start your day, particularly on the hard days, right — this is possible, all other things being equal. I think Flo understood that, and she protected — she ate well, she did all the right things, was happy to research and look after herself in that way, which was really important. But also, just really listened. Sometimes you have athletes come to you a little bit like the infamous New Year gym membership, where they get a coach and therefore think that the very act of having a coach means that they're going to succeed. But it's a relationship, and you have to work well together — if you don't do the sessions, or you don't listen, then —

Andrew: Ha ha.

Will: — guess what, you're not going to get the results. But she did all of that. And so pretty early on, it was obvious that she was going to do well. The TrainX score was a big one for me, and I just explained how important that was, and so she got tighter and tighter and tighter, learning how to execute her sessions well. So, yeah, no, it's really good, it's all positive signs. But it's still — it was a huge leap, because I reckoned from where we started, we needed to effectively take off about an hour and a quarter in order to get in range of qualification spots, which is massive, obviously. And effectively we had to, I think — what do we say, it had to be around about the 5:12 sort of area. I mean, Flo will tell you about the race, but — sadly there was some algal bloom, so we couldn't do the swim, which is a real shame, because I think you'd have been higher placed had you had the swim. But I think we worked out at around about a 5:08 that you would have finished up with, with the swim in place. So yeah, it was a great execution.

Andrew: So Flo — which I knew at one time, 'cause I did follow your journey on the Insta, but I'm blanking on it currently, I see a lot of athletes on social media — which race did you qualify at?

Flo: Luxembourg.

Andrew: Okay, in Luxembourg, yeah, I looked at that one one time — I toyed with doing that one, so we'll talk about that later.

Flo: It's a beautiful race.

Andrew: So once race week hit, right, and you're looking at 70.3 Luxembourg, you're ready to go, you're ready to do the thing — how did you feel? Did you feel like the workouts had you ready for the event?

Flo: Definitely, yeah. So I can just echo what Will just said about — first of all, the training scores, because I learned it's also very rewarding — you get those points, the execution points, how well you executed the session you were assigned. And it's very rewarding to see, great, I hit my targets, and that's exactly where the training progress also comes from. And then also I learned very early on, even if the sessions look hard — they might be hard also, but you're always able to do it. Like, the body is always able to do it, and that's something the program really gets to the point — the body can always manage, and that's also how we get better. It's the mind that's the bottleneck — most of the time it's just the mind that's like, god, this is hard, I can't do it anymore, but the body can, definitely. So that's what I could also use in those last weeks before the race — I knew that my body was ready, I was ready to go, I was ready to do the race, to execute. And from a mind perspective, yes, I got a bit nervous, and then all those things started coming into my mind, like — maybe I need to perfect my bottle setup on my bike, or it was hot so it would probably not be a wetsuit swim, so maybe should I consider a swim skin — so all those questions started popping up, but I definitely felt very prepared training-wise.

Andrew: No, great to hear. So tell us about the race — how did it go? There's no swim, so it turned into a bike-run, which happens — but how'd it go?

Flo: It turned into a duathlon.

Andrew: Ha ha ha.

Flo: Yeah, that was really a pity, actually. So they announced the swim would be cancelled due to some blue algae in the water, I think probably an hour before the official start, so very short notice. And I was very confused at first because I thought it was a very hot race — I think it was 35 or 36 degrees Celsius — so I was rather expecting maybe a shortened race because of the heat, but never would I have guessed they would cancel the swim. But then —

Andrew: Yeah.

Flo: — it makes sense, blue algae's dangerous and whatnot. So I was just like, well, I guess I just have to do another 70.3 now for sure, which is fine.

Andrew: You will, in Chattanooga, Worlds.

Flo: Yes, very true. So yeah, no, then I just readapted, and basically you just need to stay focused, and we started as if we were coming out from the water — so T1 was the start of the race, and that went quite well. I tried not to sprint, because people were sprinting since they didn't have to swim — I tried not to get my heart rate up too high and stay focused. So T1 was basically just get out as fast as possible on the bike route. Probably ten minutes after the start, I had a little scare moment because I needed to adjust something on my bottles, and then my bike started to get really unstable, and someone went by really close, and I already saw myself falling. But somehow I still managed, and that's when I just kept going, found a really good pace, also got a good speed around me, so I didn't have to overtake all the time. And the first part of the bike course is very flat, so you can just go super fast, and I love that. And then the two-thirds after that on the bike course are rather hilly — rolling, maybe — and it's also —

Andrew: Nothing like the Dolomites though, so you know.

Flo: No, luckily — that would be really bad for a 70.3. But I enjoyed that very much too, I just like climbs, and I think that might be a strength of mine as well. So that went really good, and then in the last third of the bike leg, actually, a very strong side wind came up, which I did not enjoy very much.

Andrew: Oof, yeah.

Flo: The only thing I don't enjoy while biking is heavy winds, because it just makes everything very unstable, and I get a bit scared, I'm honest. But everyone had the problem, so it was fine, I just had to take out a bit of speed in the end, but I wanted to finish and enjoy — that was my main focus for the race, and obviously do well maybe, if everything goes well — and it did. So the bike was, yeah, enjoyed it, had fun, loved it. And then for the run, I noticed that I felt really good already in the first couple of minutes after getting off the bike. The only thing was — on TriDot it gives you two race rehearsals before the race, a couple of weeks ahead, to try out your nutrition plan for the race, and — basically I think it's a couple of hours on the bike and then you do 40 minutes on the run. And I did the race rehearsals when it was very hot out, and on both of those race rehearsals, I kind of crashed on the run. And I wasn't entirely sure why, because I did execute my nutrition plan, so that should not have been the problem — maybe it was the heat, we're still not entirely sure. But for the race, that meant for me I was gonna go out super conservatively on the run, because I did not want that to happen on the run.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah.

Flo: So Will and I agreed the week before that on the first part of the run I would stay in — I think it was the 160 heart rate zone — and then on the second part of the run I could go over into — no, it was 170, and then go —

Andrew: Crank it up, yeah.

Flo: — over to the low 180s. That was, I think, what it was. And I realized that my heart rate was actually much lower than anticipated, and I didn't know why, but I also didn't want to go faster.

Andrew: Hey, nice, yeah.

Flo: So I just kept it very conservative. But then my family came with me as a support crew, and what they did — they were standing at the sides of the race and were shouting, so at one point my fiancé was like — there's two more spots ahead of you, thirty seconds and ten seconds.

Andrew: Good man giving you those splits — good man.

Flo: And that was, I think, in the last two or three kilometers of the half marathon, and then it was like, okay, let's go, and then it just started — I started running real fast, because then it didn't matter anymore.

Andrew: Yeah.

Flo: And then I just let it all out and started running really fast. It was super hot, I just kept cooling with ice cubes and water, and that helped a lot. And I really did give it all in those last kilometers, because when I ran through the finish line, I really felt my body — that was it, that was all I was able to give.

Andrew: Yeah.

Flo: But it was amazing just running through — on that carpet — and my first thought was really, I'm so happy I was able to do that, that my body was able to do that. I did not know any results, and that didn't matter at that point in time — it was really about getting through on that carpet, through the finish line, enjoying the moment. I had fun throughout all of the race. I learned a lot about execution, and yes, it's super important, but most important is that you have fun and that you're able to enjoy all the training that you've done. That's really what it was — I was able to finally put everything together out there and enjoy it, basically. So that was that.

Andrew: I love asking this question to athletes that have a coach, because the impact a coach can have on an athlete's journey is immeasurable in so many ways. What is an example of you being on the race course, you're flowing along, you're doing your thing, and you could just hear Coach Will — something he taught you, something he said to you — just pinging in your brain. What's a good example of one thing that stuck in your mind from your conversations with Coach Will?

Flo: It was — I don't know, well, you have this very — this calmness that I personally don't think I have, but I borrowed it for the race. It was really, okay, let's just execute it, we've planned it, you just do it — and that's actually something you said before the race too. I don't remember the exact words, but that's basically what it was — the training is done, the training is already done, the work is done, and now it's time to just basically reap what you sow. That's something along those lines, and that's really what it was, and that's really what I mean by I enjoyed it — all the work, and I was able to enjoy it. And I definitely had in mind the heart rate zones and the pacing zones that we discussed beforehand, and yeah, it was just this calmness and trust that gave me a lot of trust also in myself. So yeah, that made a difference for sure.

Andrew: Coach Will, I'm sure you had your Ironman tracker app up and were keeping tabs on Flo on race day — if you weren't, that's fine too, but I'm guessing you did. As you were seeing splits come through and following along her race day, what were you thinking? What'd you observe in her performance?

Will: Well — this seems like an odd connection, but it takes me back to the 2012 Tour de France, when Team Sky came on and Bradley Wiggins took the yellow jersey. What Team Sky did — and they revolutionized cycling in that period — they just pre-planned everything, right, and their view was that there shouldn't be any surprises really on race day, which the French found abhorrent — it's like, no, where's the random attacks going off, everything else. Now I know if we hit this power, then no one can attack us and no one can stay away — we'll always reel them in, and everything should be predictable. And I firmly believe in that — when people say, you know, on race day I got this extra 10%, it's like, okay, you haven't tested well enough then.

Andrew: From where?

Will: Exactly, right — it's like, I'll just pluck it out there. No, you should be able to predict with pretty close margins, which is a lot of what TriDot's about, and maybe why I enjoy the system so much. Watching her do the bike, she executed about as perfectly as I would expect from the race rehearsals she'd done, within a few minutes. There's always things that go on — you're not taking quite the perfect racing line, or someone throws a bottle on the floor at an aid station and it spooks you, or whatever — so that was about as close as it could be. And also the wind, right — whilst we take account of things like the wind, your angle and the side, sometimes it's windier than, you know, extra gusty or whatever.

But then the run was where, for me, I was really happy — it was about as perfect an execution as it could have been. Every split as it came through, a little bit excitable on the first K, but everybody is. But then after that, just bang, bang, bang — I was like, is she going to do it? And she wasn't slowing down. And that's the sign of a beautifully executed race — is when someone's looking at their heart rate, because heart rate isn't everything when you're training and coaching, because it can be a reflection of, you know, you've had a poor night's sleep, or you're overtired —

Andrew: Yeah.

Will: — or you've had a spicy curry, right, all sorts of things. But on race day, it's the rev counter and your output, your speed, your power, whatever — it's just a function of that. Your engine on that given day can only rev at the given revs, effectively, and if you go beyond it, you're going to blow, and if you go under, then you're going to underperform. And it was just a sign that she was perfectly on target, because the pace matched what we were hoping for. So yeah, it was a pleasure to watch it unfold.

And then the bonus, if you like, was the world slot — I think publicly we sort of said about this world slot, but privately that wasn't the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal was to execute the best race that she could on the day, and that should always be the case for anybody. We spoke about time goals purely because it's difficult with triathlon sometimes to come up with specific goals and what's even possible, right, particularly when you're starting out and you don't know each other and everything else. Race X obviously helps with that, but still you don't know how someone's going to follow through with their training, what work pressures and life pressures they might have. So yeah, the prize, if you will, is the perfectly executed race with the fitness that you had at that point in time. As it happened, the fitness she had at that point in time was enough to qualify for Worlds. So that was amazing.

Andrew: Yeah, and let's talk about that, Flo — because I didn't realize this until I started doing more Ironman events and traveling for TriDot and cheering on TriDot athletes — I didn't realize there's this whole ceremony where you have to be there, you go accept your slot for Worlds, you get a coin, you pay for it on the spot, you have to pay right there for that race — I didn't know that, you had to have the credit card ready at that ceremony. So to be at your first 70.3 and arrive at that ceremony ready to accept a slot — how were you feeling? What was going through your head? Was it a rush, was it scary? And at what point did you realize you had done it — at what point did you realize your ranking was gonna be good enough to accept that slot?

Flo: Yeah, that was actually a long shot — it felt like a very, very long shot to me. And we talked about it — after the race, I was also talking to Will, because my fiancé and I were heading home the same day, and the ceremony was only at, I think, six PM or so, and it was still a five-hour drive, so we would leave very late.

Andrew: Ha ha ha.

Flo: So we were discussing — my family and I — okay, do we stay, do we not stay? My fiancé was like, okay, is it realistic, because we need to be somewhere else tomorrow, we had plans. And I was talking to Will, like, hey, is it even worth it going? Because I placed sixth in my age group, but this year they changed how they give out the slots — before it was —

Andrew: They always are — they're always tinkering with that system.

Flo: Yeah, and it's super complicated, and I had no idea how realistic it really was. So we decided, after Will said, okay, it's a long shot but it might be worth staying — so maybe also it's good to know how far off we were actually if I didn't get the slot. So we decided to stay, and while waiting for the ceremony, there were also a couple of people at the accommodation I was staying at, and they were planning to go, and when we went to the ceremony I just felt a bit like in the wrong place, because —

Andrew: Wow, yeah.

Flo: — it was my first ever race, and I was thinking, okay, wow, even the — I thought it was so crazy that there was even a chance for me to get a slot, for me to be in that ceremony. That already made me nervous and already kind of proud, maybe, if I can say that — like, that already was so cool, that already was, for me, like, wow. And obviously the result itself was also mind-blowing.

And then it took forever until the ceremony even started, because they do all the pro clubs before, and —

Andrew: Sure.

Flo: — so by that, already an hour went by, and we were sitting there, and it's like, okay, now the ceremony starts, yay. And the slots just kept rolling out, and they kind of age-grade the slots, there's an age-graded, age-neutralized ranking or something —

Andrew: Yeah.

Flo: — so all the slots went out to the other age groups, because I'm in the age group that doesn't get any adjustments, and other age groups get like minus 20 minutes to —

Andrew: That's what you get for being in the prime of your life, Flo, that's what you get. Yeah.

Flo: Only one more year. So yeah, I thought, okay, maybe that's it, it's not gonna happen. And then I think it was the seven last slots or something, and they called a name that we knew — she placed right in front of me. And my friends and I were looking at each other and we're like, wait, why — wait, she's exactly right in front of me, and she didn't take the slot. And then the next name was mine already, because we were just a couple of seconds apart. And I was just jumping up and screaming and really excited and running to the stage. I think people didn't get why I was so excited.

Andrew: Ha ha ha.

Flo: Because for me it was just a subconscious goal somehow. And then, I mean, in the end, I was very vocal about it too, and it just got stuck in my head so heavy, and for me it was just, wow, this experiment worked and everything worked out so well. And I was so excited because it's still surreal when I think about it — to qualify on my first 70.3, and everything worked out, and everything was — it was fun, it was never any kind of negative pressure. So that was really just the party at the end of it, and basically that.

Andrew: No, we're so excited for you. Yeah, we're so excited for you. And it's a scary thing, right, to — not everybody's willing, or would enjoy, throwing themselves out there like you did, publicly on social, and sharing — I don't want people to see what I look like while I'm training. And here you are videotaping yourself training for people to see on Instagram, right, and to see you accomplish it — so cool. We'll be so excited for you to come to the United States and race that in Chattanooga. Is that what's up next, or do you have any other races in between now and then, or what's going on on the fitness journey? Any more trips to the Alps, the Dolomites coming up?

Flo: Yeah, the Dolomites, maybe not for now, that's done — but a couple of races are definitely in the planning.

Will: This —

Flo: The next one actually being a marathon, because I thought it's a great idea to improve the running time and take a bit on that. And then I will also be doing a full Ironman finally next year in the summertime. And there's also another 70.3 in the planning for springtime. And we've also got some exciting goals, but maybe we'll — we can talk about those.

Andrew: Well, well, well.

Will: Yeah, so, you know, those are fantastic little seasons — I'll say little, quite sizable season that's been planned towards the back end of this year and into next. There is a bit of spice though being thrown in — this will be Flo's first marathon, and we're going to be going for a world majors qualification slot — so a good-for-age slot. So, like, if you're an American —

Andrew: Why not, yeah — same thing, different format, let's run it back.

Will: Yeah, exactly. So for American viewers, something like a Boston qualifying time, or, you know, Berlin, London, one of the majors — it's unlikely that we're looking to take that slot because of where it would then fall within the next season, but it's just to know that you can, right. And so the run is a big focus now for this year. Actually, I always say to triathletes that your bike is your superpower, right, because what we're able to achieve with the endurance phase on the bike, without the stress load that you'd normally induce by lots of long runs, is phenomenal.

Andrew: Yeah, a hundred percent.

Will: Like, you could do a four-hour ride easy and not touch the sides the week before a marathon, whereas you couldn't do a four-hour run, right, it'd break you. And so going to the Dolomites — all of that, actually, whilst it wasn't planned as part of the training, is actually a beautiful segue into that sort of phase of the training. And then everything else will be focusing on that sort of top-end power and the speed of the swim, because early season next year, looking at something — might actually be a States visit again, actually, we're looking at April sort of races, and so Oceanside raises some questions. There's a couple of races in Europe as well — again, it's that season opener sort of time, because in order to be in the right place we want to be for the Ironman attempt in Austria, Klagenfurt, which is a phenomenal course — it's one of my favorite Ironmans for sure, it's got this cyan colored water set in the mountains, staggeringly good, and the support there is one of the best races I've been to, certainly. But that aside, we have to be ready for full distance there. And we're undecided as yet — we have an idea, but we've not fully locked in on what the sort of stretch goal will be for that. But then, of course, there's World Champs in Chattanooga, and ultimately that has to be a race, of course. So it's a pretty punchy season coming up. The only race without —

Andrew: That tends to happen to Will Usher athletes, it seems.

Will: Well, the race —

Flo: I'm excited.

Will: — which isn't so much pressure, I guess, well, whatever the season opener happens to be in April. But I think that's also an itch that Flo wants to scratch, because you just want to get a race in there that's got a full swim in it. And as I said, I think actually she would have placed better had the swim been in play. So, yeah, watch this space.

Andrew: Flo, we're rooting for you. Everybody go follow Flo on the socials and continue to witness her journey, and can't wait to see what happens next. I'm sure we'll have a reason to bring you back on the show in the future, and rooting for you from Dallas, Texas.

Flo: Thank you. And thank you to all of TriDot and everyone — Will, of course. It was quite a journey, I gotta say, and I'm definitely not — I don't have enough yet, as you heard from what's planned — so crazy goals ahead still.