Thriving in Triathlon as a Beginner

TDP 367 - Thriving in Triathlon as a Beginner

Andrew: Welcome to the TriDot Podcast. Today I have podcast favorite Elizabeth James joining me to tackle the topic — thriving in triathlon as a new or new-ish triathlete. Elizabeth is a professional triathlete and has been coaching runners and triathletes for over a decade. Plus, Elizabeth is a fantastic podcast host — if you listen every single week to the show, you know she filled in for me basically the last month, through most of August 2026, as I was out on paternity leave. Huge shout-out to EJay and one of our producers, Sarah Burney for just cranking out excellent episodes in my absence. Elizabeth, how was it for you being in the host seat instead of the guest seat there for a little bit?

Elizabeth: Well, Andrew, first I have to say it was quite an honor to sit in your chair for a bit, and appreciate you reaching out to me. I already have so much respect for what you do on a weekly basis to make sure this show happens. I've been very fortunate to be a part of it as a guest coach on a number of episodes, helping throughout the years a little bit behind the scenes, but I hadn't sat in the host chair, and so this was kind of fun. But yeah, huge shout-out to you for prepping questions, booking guests, keeping the energy up, just making sure we have a quality thing to push out to our athletes every week. So I'm just glad I didn't break anything too majorly and we're still rolling along here. But yeah, it was fun, but I'm glad you're back.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah, I'm happy to be back. I have a three-year-old and a four-week-old now, so I'm tired, guys, I'm tired. Actually, Elizabeth, I went for a run a little earlier today, and man, my legs felt heavy off of just a couple hours of sleep a night right now. But anyway, happy to be back, happy to be talking triathlon, and happy to have you as our guest. I'm Andrew, the average triathlete, voice of the people, captain of the middle of the pack. Today, like always, we're gonna start off with our warm-up question, settle into our main set conversation talking about how to thrive in this sport if you're newer to it, and then we'll wind things down by asking Coach Elizabeth an audience question on the cooldown. Lots of good stuff, let's get to it. In the spirit of talking about being newer to the sport, I'm curious to hear from you, Elizabeth, and myself as well, and our audience — why did you sign up for your very first triathlon? That is our warm-up question today. Rolling back the years, rolling back the memories — what was that moment that made you say, you know what, I want to try a triathlon?

Elizabeth: So for me, and I think a lot of people will relate to this, it was somebody else that said, hey, you gotta do this. And it started in a spin class. I met this incredible instructor — she was a former triathlete herself, she was teaching spin classes at the local YMCA. Unfortunately, she had a very severe foot injury and a couple surgeries that ended her running, but she was still all in on swim, bike, strength training. I started taking her class, and we just instantly clicked. She basically took me under her wing, took me to a bike shop one day and said, hey, this is the bike you're gonna buy, because we're going on a trip to Colorado. And on the trip to Colorado, we started talking about running, and she's like, you know, you just gotta add the swim — the Cornhusker State Games, they're coming up. And by the time we had gotten back from the trip, I had already signed up.

So the encouragement of somebody else pushing you into the sport, kind of saying, hey, you should check this out — that was my entry to it. I'm so, so thankful for that nudge or push, as it be. And I'm interested to see what our audience responses are — I feel like there's gonna be a lot that can relate to that.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah, I hope there's some good stories here. For me, this was — I was running already a lot, just after college, just to stay in shape. I would get off work and go for a run, eat dinner, go to the gym — that was kind of my bachelor routine while Morgan was in college still at Baylor and I had nothing else to do. So that was every day after work — run, eat, watch a little TV, go to the gym. And at some point in my trips down to the gym, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna try swimming some laps, just to change it up, see how that goes. And I actually found I was really enjoying that — I wasn't good at it, but I was really enjoying that. I remember the first time I hit 10 laps in like a 25-meter pool, and I was like, my god, that was exhausting, I did 10 laps, that was awesome. So I already was running every day, I already was swimming once or twice or three times a week at the gym, and I knew of Ironman, I knew there were full-length Ironmans and half Ironmans — I didn't know what the distances were, I knew it was like wild — and I remember thinking, man, I'm just one sport shy of trying this triathlon stuff. I had no idea there were sprints and Olympics. And I happened to meet a guy at the television network I was working at, and it came up, and he — I wouldn't say, now that I know what I know, I wouldn't say he was like a big triathlete, he literally did one local sprint a year kind of thing at the time — but we were talking about running and going to the gym, and he was the one who mentioned — I mentioned, yeah, I actually would like to try a triathlon, I just don't have a bike. He's like, yeah, you can rent a bike and give it a shot, I do — and so he starts telling me about the local sprints and Olympics he would do, and I had no idea there were shorter races. So hearing that was such a revelation, because it was like, I can do that — I can do a couple hundred meters and bike fifteen miles and run a 5K, yeah, sign me up. And that kind of made this what seemed like a crazy idea, if I just bought a bike, become something approachable. And sure enough, tried it, and here we are, over a decade later, in three-hundred-something podcast episodes about triathlon. So that was it for me — I was already doing two of the three sports, and that made me interested in, hey, maybe I should try this thing if I just add one more sport.

And that's it — we're gonna throw this question out to our audience. Like Elizabeth said, excited to see what you guys have to say. If you're watching us on YouTube, if you're watching us on Spotify, go ahead and comment right in the comment section — I check those every single week — and let us know, what was the moment for you that you decided to sign up for your first triathlon? Go to the I Am Triathlete Facebook group, otherwise, answer this question there. Can't wait to see what your stories are for this one.

Andrew: Into our main set, where Coach Elizabeth is gonna help us thrive as triathletes if we are newer to the sport. And man, if you're new to the sport, there's so much to learn, so much to absorb, so many ways to make mistakes as you're trying to become a triathlete, and Coach EJay is gonna help us hopefully not do that. Elizabeth, I kind of want to assume here — if someone's listening to a triathlon podcast, they've probably already done something, right, or maybe they've been peer pressured and are about to. So let's just, for clarification, assume our target audience today is somebody who's done one, two, three triathlons, they're dipping their toe in the sport, they want to learn more — we're gonna help them, in the course of this conversation, speed up their learning curve to thrive in their early years as a triathlete instead of floundering trying to figure it all out. Years ago, Elizabeth, when I first met you, TriDot had a local partnership with Dallas Athletes Racing, which is a race production company here in Dallas-Fort Worth, and you were very often the coach who gave the beginner talks at like a packet pickup for a local event. So, knowing the audience at those races is kind of like our audience today, what did you try to emphasize in those sessions, and what questions did you find yourself getting from those aspiring new triathletes?

Elizabeth: Man, that's a walk down memory lane right there. I loved doing those. There's just something about this beginner audience that is so inspiring, and it's fun because there's so much that they have yet to learn. So I think one of the things I really emphasized in that is — please ask questions. It is okay to not have the answers, and you have permission to be a beginner — that's what this is for, that's what I'm here to help you with. If you don't know how to set up your transition area, let's talk through that. If you don't know what elastic laces are, great, I've got an example, let's talk through that.

I would say a lot of the questions I got over and over were about the swim — such as, what if I panic in the water, do I have to swim the whole thing without stopping? And then the rules were another thing — they're like, I don't understand, there's something about drafting that I can't do on the bike, and what's gonna happen if I do that, and how will I know? So those were a lot of the discussions from those Q&A sessions, really just reassuring people that you are allowed to stop and take breaks, you don't have to do this start to finish without ever resting a little bit. And then just helping to clarify some of those rules and pointing them to where they could read more information or find those rules for themselves.

So I mean, kind of more reassurance and resources is what I would say those talks came down to.

Andrew: Yeah, and if you're in our audience today and you are a new-ish triathlete and you're signing up for an event, whether it's a local event or something like a big-time Ironman, Clash, Endurance Challenge, Family Race — a lot of races have some form of a pre-race talk with a coach like Elizabeth. Go to those. Go to those so you can ask questions of the coach that's there, go to those and pick the brain of some athletes around that look like they know what they're doing. Don't be afraid to look for those learning opportunities, especially as you're learning the sport.

Elizabeth, now that you are a coach — I know you've worked with the full gambit, from beginners to high-end elite athletes and everything in between, older athletes, younger athletes, middle-of-the-pack athletes — when you're working with somebody who is a beginner, are there any topics that come up in conversation that you want to make sure you cover with them, as they're approaching race day, that maybe you don't worry about with your more experienced, established athletes?

Elizabeth: Yeah, this is a great question, because I do see a shift in just the type of questions that athletes are asking. A lot of times, with somebody who's newer to the sport, I will spend a lot more time on the why — so why are we doing easy runs, why do rest days matter, why do we want to look at cadence when we're on the bike — there's a lot of the nuances of training that we want to dig into a little bit more, so they have a good understanding of why things are planned for specific days, for specific workouts.

Experienced athletes usually have a good understanding of that as they get a little further along, whether they've taken the time to learn it, or unfortunately have learned the hard way that they need rest, they need recovery, they definitely need to fuel. So I talk a lot with some of those newer athletes about those experiences.

I think the other thing that's really important for somebody getting into the sport, and one of the discussions I frequently have with athletes I coach, is that progress isn't always linear. You are gonna have a few days where you have a bad workout, and that doesn't mean the training plan is broken or that all fitness is lost — we can peel back and understand what factors may have gone into that. And I think that's just the reassurance a lot of newer athletes need — kind of peeling things back, or drawing out the lens, looking more at the big picture, because they're very focused on, how do I feel today, was it faster than yesterday — it doesn't always have to be faster or higher power than yesterday, there's a reason this is sequenced and we're looking at long-term growth.

So I'd say it's really establishing that foundation and that base knowledge for those who are newer to the sport. And then, when I'm working with veteran athletes, the conversations tend to shift more to specific nuances — race-specific pacing, fine-tuning nutrition plans, marginal gains, like what do we need to look at to optimize your position on the bike. But it's really important that we have a strong foundation and really establish why we're doing what we're doing and look at that long-term picture for an athlete who's newer.

Andrew: Yeah, absolutely love it. When I was starting in triathlon, it never crossed my mind that I could have a coach — I didn't know there were people coaching other people in this kind of stuff, I just didn't, it never crossed my mind to try a structured training plan, I would just kind of go out for a run or go to the pool and clock some laps — I didn't have any methodology to it, it's just, what do I feel like doing today.

Actually, Elizabeth, I still remember this — might be a story I've never shared on the podcast in three-hundred-something episodes — I had probably done three or four local sprints, just wearing swim jammers the whole way through, and throwing on a running tank top for the bike and the run. And I remember going down the road, I found Play Tri, which we know is the official retail partner of Ironman, and they do a lot of the bike servicing — we have Play Tri stores here in Dallas-Fort Worth. I found a local Play Tri store and was going to go buy my first full-on triathlon kit to wear on race day, I had never had one before.

I was doing that just kind of quietly on my own, going in and out of the changing room, trying a couple things on, and the guy running the store kept coming over and talking to me. He wasn't concerned with what I was shopping for, wasn't concerned with, hey, do you know what you're looking for, hey what can I sell you — he was very specifically trying to convince me to become a coached athlete of his. He was trying to sell me hard — like, man, I'll get in the lake, we can go out on the lake together, I'll get in a kayak and kayak beside you and you can swim, and we can talk about your swim form. And it felt, in hindsight, like he was probably new to coaching and new to working at Play Tri, and was trying to beef up an athlete roster, right?

And I'm just like, dude, brother, I'm just trying to get a tri kit for my upcoming sprint, I'm not even thinking about open water swimming yet. But anyway, that was like the first time it was like, people coach other people in this, right, and that's an option. But even then, I thought that was an option for people who are more experienced, who were trying to win races, do well at races — I didn't even think that was something that would be worth my time or dollars. And now I know way differently.

So, while we're talking about being new to the sport and having a coach — who do you think that's for? At what point would you encourage somebody to think about adding some structure to their training, or adding a coach to the equation, when they're new to this, to everything?

Elizabeth: I totally understand why this doesn't cross people's minds early on — I mean, I think the story you gave, Andrew, is a great example. Plus, triathlon already feels expensive and complicated, so to a lot of newer athletes, they think, my gosh, adding a coach sounds like one more line item, another thing I need to pay for, another thing I need to coordinate.

But in reality, I think the most consequential decision an athlete makes is how they spend their training time. And whether that's with a structured training plan — we've got some great options for uncoached plans on TriDot — or whether that's working with a one-on-one coach, how you spend your training time is so important. And going at it alone usually means either random workouts — I'll admit, I was there, I didn't know what I was doing at first, I would go to the lake and swim around the lake, and then hop out and grab the bike from the car and bike around the lake and run around the lake — I thought that was perfect training.

It got me through those first couple events, but I didn't know there were options for even having a training plan for triathlon, let alone, like you, that there were coaches that did this. Now, to that point, can you finish a triathlon without a structured plan? Sure. But I really think it comes down to what your goals are in the sport. If you want to stay healthy, that's kind of a big one — absolutely should have a structured plan. If you want to improve, whether you're just starting off or wanting to get better and go longer distances, I think you need structured training. And the addition of a coach to that is just icing on the cake, because how you spend your training time is going to be a big piece of that.

The guidance of a coach changes the trajectory of the learning curve — as we started off this episode, there's so much to learn, and yeah, you'll get there, there's great resources, but just having somebody you can ask those questions to, help you all along the way, and really point you to what you don't know at that point — I mean, goodness, as I was starting off, I didn't even know what to ask, I didn't know there were shoes that clipped into a bike, I didn't know there were tri kits — I wore tennis shoes and volleyball shorts for my first super sprint, and I thought that was the closest to what a tri outfit looked like in a picture on the internet.

So I get why people don't necessarily have that as the first thing that comes to mind when they're getting started in the sport, but absolutely I would say a hundred percent you need structured training to not only figure out how all of these things are going to fit together with swim, bike, run, strength, but just to make sure you're staying healthy as well. Because I think a lot of newer athletes don't understand that your bike is gonna influence how you're running, and your run workout, if you're super tired from that, is gonna show up in your swim the next day. So it's not like you're training for a swim, a bike, and a run separately — all of those pieces need to fit together.

I feel like that was a super, super long answer, but —

Andrew: Yeah, that was super helpful. And I wish, in hindsight, I had found TriDot before I did — I didn't start looking for structured training until I started doing half Ironman events, so it was a couple years that I could have been learning more, getting stronger as an athlete, optimizing my training time a whole lot better, than just going out and logging mindless hours.

And I'm willing to bet, Elizabeth — I'm thinking back to my first couple years in the sport, like you mentioned clipless pedals — there was definitely gadgets, gizmos, gear that I bought in my first two, three, four years as a triathlete, that in my limited knowledge and limited experience, I researched a little bit and thought, I need this instead of that, and made some very wrong purchasing decisions, or just bought something that in the end wasn't necessary at all, right? And a coach steering me a little bit smarter in those early decisions, as I was accumulating the triathlon gear and equipment I needed, would have paid for itself, probably, in just saving me money on not buying things I didn't really need as I was getting going into the sport. Hey, think about this in your wetsuit purchase and not that in your wetsuit purchase — it might pay for itself to invest in a coach earlier than later.

But anyway, EJay, like we've alluded to, there is so much for a new triathlete to absorb, right — we have to train for three sports, plus how to put the three sports together. So I just want to quickly go from discipline to discipline for a bit and pick your brain. What does a newer triathlete need to know about becoming a stronger swimmer? Removing the bike, run, removing all the other components — just talk to us about becoming a stronger swimmer.

Elizabeth: For a lot of newer triathletes, swimming isn't a fitness problem. There's a lot of athletes that come from great sport backgrounds that have a really good base of fitness already, but as soon as they get in the water, they realize that fitness is not translating. I remember the first time I got in the water and tried to just get to the other wall, I was absolutely gassed and more than humbled, because I had already run —

Andrew: It's like, why am I out of breath all of the time in the water?

Elizabeth: Right, I was like, I seriously ran like a marathon three, four weeks ago, and I can't even make it to the other side of the pool. I think that's a very eye-opening and very humbling experience for a newer triathlete, because they realize, my gosh, all the fitness I have is not helping me right now in the swim. Honestly, it's a skill problem — you can be in incredible shape and still feel like you're floundering around in the water because it's different.

So the biggest thing I tell beginners is, stop trying to swim harder, and we really need to think about swimming more efficiently. One of the things we have now is TriDot Pool School — I so, so wish that existed when I started.

Andrew: Yeah, wasn't there when I started.

Elizabeth: Right. Goodness, I mean, I've been in the water, I've done Pool School, and I'm like, man, if I only had this as a foundation, I would have saved myself so many years of frustration just getting that foundational knowledge. Back to that foundational knowledge — I didn't know what I didn't know, I didn't even know what to ask, I didn't know how to start. And if you establish good body position, breathing habits, from the very beginning — that technique work, even just 15 focused minutes in the water a few times a week, is going to pay off so much more than just trying to muscle through and grind and be gassed by the time you get to the other wall.

So I would say, for the swim, you need to build the skills first — the fitness will show up, especially if you've got great aerobic fitness already, that will come to fruition once you've established those good skills.

Andrew: Yeah, and I know when you're new to the sport and you're seeing what your race distances are, right, you're saying, okay, I gotta do three hundred meters at this sprint next weekend, or I need to do fifteen hundred meters at my very first Olympic coming up — those numbers get in your head, and it's, okay, well I need to do that in the pool a bunch. No, no, no, no, no. Let's do technique first — the fitness will be there, 100%.

When I started training on TriDot, that was the very first time I did swim drills, and you start doing the drills and you're like, that's what this is supposed to feel like — it was really interesting. And for the first time I was given paces to swim at instead of just swimming the same pace the whole time — this is what it feels like to have different gears in the water. It was very, very eye-opening. So I love that suggestion of, don't focus, don't get hung up on the distance or the time or achieving a certain pace or fitness — really just focus on the form, focus on working with the water, not fighting the water like so many of us do when we started in the sport.

Carrying over to the bike — what does a newer triathlete need to know about how to get stronger on the bike?

Elizabeth: I think my biggest piece of advice here would be to get comfortable on the bike — so handling, cornering. If you have a bike set up to be in a time trial position, get comfortable riding in aero, get comfortable riding before you even start worrying about things like buying a power meter and all the fancy Garmin gadgets that are gonna measure all of these things.

I think that being comfortable on the bike and establishing a good bike fit are two things that every athlete newer to the sport should really take the time and financial investment to do. A bike fit is not only going to make you more comfortable, but it's gonna make sure you're in a position that's not going to injure you down the road. I've spoken with a lot of new athletes who are like, yeah, but that's like $300 — and I'm like, yes, I would rather you spend that $300 right now than end up spending $1,200 because you're in physical therapy for the next year, because you really jacked up your back because of the way you're riding.

And so it is kind of a long-term investment, but making sure you have a bike that you're fit comfortably on is gonna be huge. Because once you're comfortable there, and we know you're in a safe position, then the sky's the limit in terms of building fitness — the rest of that is gonna come. But if you don't start from a stable and safe position on the bike — if your seat is so low that your knees hurt every single time you ride — it's not gonna be fun, and that's really gonna affect not only your power output on the bike, but also how much you hurt trying to go do a run afterward.

So that's one of the things I end up emphasizing a lot, and it doesn't even talk about the cycling training, but the bike fit is so worth it.

Andrew: Yeah, that's great. Well, when it comes to the training, we can just say download TriDot, create your account, and do what it tells you.

Elizabeth: Yeah, and then you're set.

Andrew: Do what it tells you — but no, that's the kind of commentary, like, okay, we know the training plan is there, and we know the training plan on TriDot is excellent and it's gonna have you ready for race day. What you're giving us is exactly the coach insights of — you and I didn't think about a bike fit in our first couple years in the sport, correct?

Elizabeth: Gosh, no.

Andrew: Correct. How often, Elizabeth, are you driving around — for people who don't know, Elizabeth and I are both in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, different corners, but same Metroplex — how often, EJay, are you driving around town Saturday morning or Sunday morning, you see some cyclists out and about, and what percentage of them do you think have their bike saddle too low?

Elizabeth: Oh my gosh, a great number. Honestly, it's so hard, especially at red lights, to not roll down the window and be like, hey, if you just raise that up a little bit, I bet it's gonna be more comfortable — and that's not even our specialty, but just from our coaching experience —

Andrew: Yeah, we know, we know, we know.

Elizabeth: It's like, that looks painful, let's get you fit.

Andrew: I've made enough comments from the car on people's running form driving by them, and people's bike fits driving by them, that Morgan, my wife, who is not an endurance athlete, can now make comments like, that person's saddle is too low, look at their knees coming out as they're — yep, she can do it. Look at that person's vertical oscillation while they're running, that's a lot, they're wasting a lot of energy — yep, I've said that one before. Anyway —

No, so I love you pointing that out, because yeah, definitely again, something that early on I just thought was for the better triathletes, and that I didn't need to worry about. But yes, vital to have a good bike fit.

One thing I'll say, just thinking back to my time in the sport, very early on as a cyclist, I started doing group rides — sometimes out of triathlon stores, sometimes there's a couple different cycling groups in the area, where we've lived as we've moved to different suburbs. And I learned a lot on the bike — just about how to ride, how to carry myself, how to eat and fiddle with my Garmin, how to drink, how to carry fluids, where to put fluids on the bike, how to ride predictably and corner — just by doing group rides and chatting it up with the guys and gals around you and watching what they do, watching how they set up their bike, seeing where they have bottles positioned, etc. I learned a lot early on from group rides.

So even if you're on TriDot and you've got your Saturday morning training ride there, bail on that sometimes to go jump into a group ride and get that experience, that time on bike, that time on wheels outdoors. I do less of that now, because I'm doing my training program to a T on my indoor trainer where I'm safe and it's predictable and it's air conditioned, but that was a really great way for me when I was starting off in cycling — because for me, that was the last sport I added. Again, I was already running, I was already swimming, so adding the bike was the scariest part for me — whereas for a lot of people, it's the swim. So jumping into some group rides — even some of the group rides I was doing were with triathlon groups, but some were pure cyclist groups, and even still, I was learning from watching the way they carried themselves through the course of a ride.

Elizabeth: Love that, that's such a great piece of advice. I learned so much from the bike instructor who told me, hey, you're gonna go buy this bike — I remember sitting at her house and her saying, like, we can have dinner when you've changed this tire twice, and I was like, what? Okay. But those are skills that were essential for me starting off, and I love that — learning from other cyclists and getting that skill portion of it, beyond just the training plan and what do I need to do to improve.

Andrew: Coach Elizabeth, onto the run — what does a new triathlete need to know about how to get stronger in the running?

Elizabeth: This one is fun, because I honestly think the run is where a lot of beginners feel most confident. There's still a lot of triathletes who come from a running background and say, okay, I've got that down, ready to broaden things out, we'll add the bike and we'll add the swim. But it's where I also see bad habits do the most damage, in terms of training, because they're so used to running every single day, because that's the only thing they do.

Andrew: Yeah.

Elizabeth: So I'd say a new triathlete, especially if you're coming from the run, you're gonna have to rethink how you approach your run training, because you now have two other disciplines that are gonna influence how you feel.

Andrew: Running zone three and above every single time you go for a run?

Elizabeth: Right, yeah, like that's not gonna be what serves you best. In fact, even all of my best marathons have come when I've been triathlon training — there's such a great benefit to cross-training. So I'd say, a newer triathlete, especially coming from a running background, lean into that cross-training and kind of let the mindset go of being that pure runner — not going hard all the time, not running every single day. You need to build the durability as well as the speed, and you're not starting off the run fresh when you're in a triathlon — those runs off the bike, they're gonna feel a little different, but they're super important.

And then, kind of along the lines of the bike fit, having a real pair of running shoes, or multiple pairs of running shoes, is absolutely key. I've worked with a number of new athletes, and we won't call anybody out, but those of you that think Converse are running shoes, or your Nobulls that you've been lifting in the gym — that is not the pair of running shoes we want to see for your triathlon running workouts.

Andrew: And Elizabeth, in people's defense though, I'm always appalled when I go to a big box store — say where we live here, you know, people might have different chains where they live, but we have Dick's Sporting Goods all over the place, we have Academy Sports and Outdoors all over the place — where I grew up in Florida we had Sports Authority as one of the big chains out there. When you go to the mall and go to like a Foot Locker, there's always a wall, part of the wall, in the run section, that says "running." Okay, well here's 20 shoes on the wall that are presumably running shoes. And knowing what real running shoes are, there might be some Nike Pegasus or Asics Gel-Nimbus, or now Hoka — there might be one model of a Hoka — but the rest of the shoes in the quote-unquote running section are like $60 and not real running shoes that are gonna support triathlon training, right?

So in people's defense, I think that unless you really dip your toe into that world and go to a proper run-specific store, or go to — my one of my favorites online is Running Warehouse — shout-out to TriDot and RunDot coach Steven Haren, he owns a Fleet Feet Sports franchise in Charlotte, North Carolina, Fleet Feet has a great online presence — go to those sites and you'll see, here's dozens of actual shoe models that are good for runners and not just the one that's on the wall. Anyway, I'm getting on a soapbox here, that's totally a tangent, but yeah.

Elizabeth: No, it's important. And I think if an athlete has the opportunity to go to one of those running specialty stores, where they can actually do the foot mapping and watch you walk and watch you run and match the running shoe to your gait, then you are already eons ahead in terms of setting yourself up for success on the run. The equipment here is important, and knowing that you're gonna have to drop probably over $100 on your pair of running shoes is okay, and you need to invest in the quality of that — because yeah, if you're lucky, maybe you can get something for 60 bucks, but most of the time, the shoes that are $40 to $60 on the wall there are not what you want to be putting your feet in for tough training days.

Andrew: Yeah, absolutely. And actually, totally by coincidence, Elizabeth, this episode is gonna drop on Monday of the TriDot Podcast — to tomorrow, the day after this drops, when we — Mondays we release TriDot Podcast episodes, Tuesdays we release RunDot Podcast episodes. For people who aren't aware, we have a RunDot Podcast with Carrie Tollefson as our host, she is neck-deep in running culture, she's fabulous. And tomorrow's RunDot drop is her interviewing Nolan McKenna, who is a RunDot coach, a TriDot athlete — he's with No Coasting Coaching, based in the Chicago area, a couple coaches in that coaching group. Nolan, for a long time, for five years, worked in a run specialty store in Chicago, so he was helping runners find the right shoe for them in the store, and that's what the whole conversation's about — what he learned over the years and what he tells people to look for when they're trying to find the right pair of running shoes for their feet. So go check out the RunDot Podcast tomorrow, new drop, if this part of the episode today really speaks to you and you want to hear what Nolan has to say, that'll be good.

EJay, the last thing I wanted to say on running here before we move on — 'cause you said it, like you can't, once you become a triathlete, you can't carry your run-only days with you. That is definitely something I thought, because running was my original sport and I felt like I needed to run every single day because I was used to running every single day. And it's so funny, because when I was a runner only, I had this goal that I wanted to run a sub-20-minute 5K — I don't know why, that was just what I wanted to try to get to, and I think the closest I came was 21:45, 21:50, like right around the 22-minute mark. As soon as I became a triathlete and started doing all three sports, on my own, before TriDot, I was in the 20:30, 20:40, 20:28 range, doing less running, because I was doing these other sports as well. And then I got on the structured training of TriDot, and within months, 19 minutes, 18 minutes — my PR to date is like a 17:50. So it is amazing — you can let go of some of that, you need to let go of some of that run volume, your run will be fine, it will be fine — listen to Coach EJay when she says that.

So Coach EJay, my last kind of training-based question, and we're going to talk about race day a little bit, but — in our training, we're training these three sports, we've talked about how to get stronger on each of the three individually — what do we need to do in our training to get used to putting these sports together? Because on race day, we'll have to do that.

Elizabeth: I think this is one of the biggest aha moments for most beginners. We've talked a little bit so far in this episode about how triathlon training isn't just three separate training plans stapled together — how you bike affects your run, how you recover from the swim affects your bike, it's one integrated stress on the body. And that's exactly why TriDot leans so hard into the data, because it's a normalized way to quantify the training stress across all three disciplines, and it lets you see the whole picture instead of guessing how it all adds up with the three different disciplines.

The way I've outlined this for a couple newer athletes is realizing that you're probably gonna focus on one discipline per day — and that's not to say you won't have days where you swim and bike, or days where you bike and run, but of those, you're really gonna have that primary focus for the workout. I'd say a lot of newer athletes end up doing two main workouts per discipline each week — again, that's very, very generalized, but knowing how those come together, and realizing that this is a full puzzle, and we're not just looking at swim training, bike training, run training in their own silos. And the way it's integrated — I'm just so thankful that TriDot looks at normalized training stress and is able to appropriately distribute that between all three disciplines.

Andrew: Yeah, no, super, super helpful, great training wisdom in there — and again, all things that when we were starting, no one told us these things about the swim, bike, run and putting it together.

I wanna chat about race day for a little bit, because it was a little intimidating choosing my first couple races, right — it felt like a big deal. Now I can hop into a local event and it doesn't feel like a big deal, choosing an Ironman feels like a big deal — and we're blessed, Elizabeth, where we live, there are a ton of local sprints and Olympics, so we do have choices, I know that's not the case where everybody lives — but talk to me about, when it comes to choosing the race that we're going to do, every race is different, right, there's the different distances — sprint, Olympic, half, full — that someone can jump into. There are races in the summer when it's hot, races in the spring and fall when it might be chilly, open water races, pool swim races, hilly races, flatter races — you get the point, there's a lot of variety. What should a newer athlete consider when they're really analyzing what races to jump into while they're learning the sport?

Elizabeth: I love this question. I actually have a number of athletes right now doing some season planning for 2027 — they've finished up this year's races, and we're doing this right now. For any athlete, I think no matter how experienced you are or not, the first question I always ask them is — what is your goal?

What is your goal for the race next year, or the races next year? Based on that goal, that really helps us decide what events might be most appropriate. So for some athletes I'm coaching right now, their goal is to do their first half Ironman — okay great, that is your goal, to move up in distance, so now we know we're centered around half Ironman races. Then we start looking at budget — do you want to do something you're driving to, do you want the logistics to be easy, or are we making this kind of a destination vacation type thing? But it always comes back to that first question of, what is your goal for this.

For athletes picking races, their goal might be, I need something I can hop into on the weekend. I've got a couple athletes I coach who are extremely busy with their family schedule, and honestly their race schedule is very much in flux until the sports schedule gets figured out for the season, and then they're like, all right, actually I have an opening in two months where there aren't soccer games on this Saturday morning, and it's like, great, now we're just finding an event that fits the date that's gonna work for them and their family. And that's their goal — they're like, I still want to race, but it has to come second to what my family is doing, and I'm not gonna miss any of my kids' games. Great — so there's so many nuances, but if we just establish what is your goal, then I feel like that almost takes care of some of those next questions to come.

Andrew: Yeah, I love that. The two things I'll contribute here — one I'm being a little cheeky, one I'm not. The cheeky one — don't have your first or one of your first triathlons be Escape from Alcatraz. That's one I would flag and gatekeep as more experienced-triathlete-only, unless you're just super adventurous.

The real thing, though — I'll say, I tell people, listen, you can do an Ironman, you can do a full-distance tri as your first, second, or third, absolutely, people do it all the time, they finish, they get the medal, they're an Ironman. I advise any friend of mine that talks to me about this — do some local stuff and some shorter stuff before you jump into a full. Make sure it will be very helpful if you have a handle on what does a normal training cycle look like — you need to be a competent swimmer, cyclist, and runner, not just learning one of the sports, but feel pretty competent in all three sports. It's helpful by then to have a nicer bike, have some nicer equipment, have practiced fueling on race day in different scenarios multiple times. I just recommend that people really hold off on that until you feel competent in every corner of the sport, and then make that plunge.

So I'd say, that's when you can play fast and loose with that — you can jump into a full as your first triathlon, second, third, you'll — you're braver than I am, I did quite a few before I tried that — but that's just a loose recommendation, it will go better for you, you'll probably enjoy it more if you've clocked some shorter stuff under your belt before making that jump.

Coach EJay, when it comes to race day — let's assume the number one thing for an athlete to have a successful race day is to train for that race day, so let's assume our listeners have downloaded TriDot and done their training and are physically ready for race day. At that point, what else would you say to a newer triathlete on just ways to ensure the race goes well?

Elizabeth: Race day success starts with it not being an experiment. Your race should feel familiar, because you've practiced your nutrition, you've used the gear you're gonna use, you know your pacing plan, you've practiced those efforts in training. I think knowing your pacing targets, knowing your nutrition plan, knowing your gear — it takes all of that scary unknown away, and at that point, all you have to do is execute what you've already practiced.

So I think the best race day experience comes from confidently knowing what you're going to do. Yes, there's always gonna be things that pop up, we need to be prepared for the things we can't control, but if you've done your due diligence in terms of preparation for it, and your race day is not an experiment, then I think you've set yourself up really well for a successful day.

Andrew: Yeah, really, really great. And again, I can't emphasize enough — if your race producer offers, at packet pickup, some sort of coach briefing, or if there's some form of, you know, day-before, come down to the race site and rack your bike and look around — if there's not that, study the course maps, know where to park, know where transition is — no, knowing the logistics of your race going into them, especially for those first ones where everything's new, right, it's gonna go a long way to you feeling like you know what you're doing on race morning.

Two more questions, EJay, before we get to our cooldown question from the audience. We talk a lot on the podcast, for good reason, about nutrition, about recovery methodologies, mobility work, stability work, strength training — there's a number of things that, if you're going to be in triathlon for year after year after year, you need to maintain your body, take care of your body, you need to do these certain things on top of the swim, bike, and run training. It's probably a lot when you're becoming a triathlete — you're already learning how to be a swimmer, be a cyclist, be a runner, put it together, do a triathlon — to throw in a bunch of other information feels like a lot. So we're not gonna go deep on any of those topics, but what would you say a new triathlete needs to know about some of those supporting disciplines that will help them in triathlon long term?

Elizabeth: I love this question, and I've approached it two different ways with different athletes I've coached, because sometimes someone is really interested in getting started in the sport, hasn't started yet, says, hey, I want to do this, I have a race that's like a year off. We actually start by getting them set up for TriDot, but then establishing good habits even outside of training, as they're doing those initial assessments. So it's like, they don't even have a structured training routine yet, but we're talking about, when are you going to bed, are you getting good sleep, are you getting good nutrition — those are some of the first questions and first things we establish even before their training zones have been set, because those are foundational things that are going to support them for all the years in triathlon.

Now, somebody who's already started, has a little bit of a handle on the routine — once they have a training routine that feels sustainable, like you're not just flying by the seat of your pants trying to get workouts in and done, then it's a great opportunity to layer some of those things in. As you mentioned, trying to start with a swim-bike-run strength training plan, overhaul your nutrition, dial in all your recovery protocols in a month's time — that is not realistic, that's how people burn out, that's how people stick to a routine for four days and then throw their hands up and say, there's no way I can ever sustain this going on.

So I would say, make sure you've got a sustainable training routine — TriDot's gonna take care of that for you, okay, you'll know exactly what you need to do every day — and then pick one more thing to add until you've got that down. Maybe it's an established bedtime — great, once you feel like you've done that and that's consistent, whether that's two or three weeks, fantastic, then let's start to dial in nutrition even more. Okay, we've got the sleep, we've got the nutrition, we already had that training foundation — now let's talk about some additional recovery protocols. So layering it in one piece at a time is really important. But yeah, to your point, there's no sense in trying to put all of those things in at the exact same time — that's gonna be frustrating, it's gonna be overwhelming, I don't think that's a sustainable way to do it.

Andrew: And just for a reference point for our newer triathletes listening — we're talking years in some cases, right, not — you start training with TriDot and get a coach that accelerates your timeline because you have guidance. But like EJay, for you and I both, who started without a coach and started without TriDot, it was years before I was really practicing nutrition protocols on long outdoor rides, or considering staggering in proper strength sessions and starting to do some stability and mobility — it was years before I really had a handle on all of those corners of being a triathlete that we're talking about. So it's okay to slow-play it, right, and if you wanna accelerate your learning, get a coach, hop on TriDot.

Last question, EJay, for the main set — and again, this is something we could talk a long time about, we're gonna try to hit just the surface level — what does a new triathlete need to know? There's a lot of gear and equipment that you need to do triathlon, right — even just the bare minimum, you need your running shoes, you need goggles, you need swim jammers, you need a bike, a helmet — you know, it's — if you want to hop into a 5K or a marathon, you need a good pair of shoes, right, it's simpler, it's more complicated for triathlon just by default. And so, I don't know, if you're like me and you like spending money, it's kind of a fun sport to get into, because there's always something you can buy, right?

But talk to me about — not necessarily, I'm not looking for you to say, here's the essential stuff from day one — I'm just looking for, we get the stuff we need to get started, we get started, we do one race, two races, three races — just what, on the surface level, would you say is your recommendation for a good timeframe and a good way to play that upgrading of equipment over time as you get better and more experienced in the sport?

Elizabeth: This is a little bit of a tough question, because some of it does depend on goals in the sport, budget available.

Andrew: Budget.

Elizabeth: Yep. But I think one of the pieces of advice I've given some of my coached athletes is, think about the touch points. And what I mean by that is — your running shoes, your feet are touching the ground, so let's make sure that if you need to upgrade your running shoes, let's do that — maybe it's a time when we're looking at a few different pairs of running shoes now, where you've got your long run shoe, you've got the one for the track sessions, you've got a race day shoe. I think those are great upgrades to make, just to cycle through the running shoes, because again, that's a touch point that's really important.

We've also talked about bike fit — okay, at this point, in bike fit too, we might be thinking about, do you need to make any changes with your cycling cleats, are those shoes really what fits you best. The first pair of cycling shoes I bought, I had no idea what I was doing, I didn't even know there were different —

Andrew: Yeah, same.

Elizabeth: — pairs, I didn't know there would be ones that would fit my foot a little better than others. So if you're in that situation where you just were getting along with whatever you pulled off the shelf to get you started on the bike, or maybe you're still in tennis shoes and we can have that as an opportunity to do some clipless pedals — so again, your feet on the pedals, do you need a new saddle, and then what does the whole front part of the bike look like in terms of its setup? I think there's some great upgrades of just the aero bars and the aero pads — I remember one of the best upgrades I ever made was some more squishy aero pads, and it made it so much more comfortable to be in aero. Those were like 15 bucks. So we're not talking necessarily about a huge expense here, but we're talking about what's gonna make you more comfortable with all of those touch points that you have.

Kind of same thing — goggles that fit well, you're using those every single day — again, maybe it's not a super expensive upgrade, but something that touches your face, touches your body every single day. So I think about those touch points as some of the first upgrades an athlete can make. What's gonna make training more comfortable for you on a daily basis? I think safety and comfort are huge, and if we can be safe and comfortable, it makes training more fun, and those are good upgrades to make.

Andrew: Yeah, the two things I'll add here, because I like shopping, especially online, like a good millennial — when I was new to the sport, I was doing a lot of my triathlon gear buying either used, like looking at something that was gently used, not extremely used but gently used and in good shape, or kind of riding the sales. And a lot of these stores, like even in running shoes, right — the newest model of a shoe is gonna drop in the spring, and so in the fall, all the models go on sale by 30%.

I got my first wetsuit — it was a sleeveless Orca. I didn't know anything about wetsuits, but it was a sleeveless triathlon wetsuit that was on sale at REI — REI doesn't really carry triathlon stuff anymore, and I think I was getting into the sport at the time where they had some triathlon inventory and were just trying to purge it. So I just found an Orca, which is a name brand, a good triathlon wetsuit retailer, it was like 70 bucks in what should be my size — done, bought it, let's go. And I've told a lot of friends to get into the sport, like, hey, until you know you like this — my first bike was like a $700 entry-level road bike, right — and I told a lot of friends, find something on Craigslist or eBay or Facebook Marketplace that's your size and in good shape and get it.

Because you have a lot of people who get into the sport, do it for a few years, and then bounce, and so they've got their wetsuits for sale, they've got their high-end aero road bikes, tri bikes for sale, they've got their $500 aero helmets for sale at a fraction of the price because they've moved on, and a lot of times that gear is in really good shape. So I encourage people to start with used, or start with something that's just significantly on sale — kind of disregard, is this the best item for me — if it'll work for you and it's on sale, great, that's gonna get you started. And then once you know, okay, I love this sport, I want to do it for five years, ten years, I want to do an Ironman, I want to go big, I want to set a goal of a podium at this local race — okay, now we can talk about finding the best wetsuit for you and the best tri bike for you and the best power meter that you can put into your situation. So that's what I tell a lot of people when they're getting started.

And the other thing that made a big difference for me, Elizabeth, over time, was investing in training — things like getting the indoor bike trainer, right, that's an investment, depending on what model you get those things can be $200 up to $2,000-$3,000 — but having a way to just hop on my bike inside and do a ride and then go back to work, or hop on my treadmill upstairs, run for 30 minutes and then go back to work — making investments and making training easy to do helps you do the training, which helps you get better at the sport. So that's the two things I like to say — think about riding the sales until you love being in the sport, and also think about what purchases you need to make to make training easier — not just what's gonna be sexy on race day to have on your body or feet, but what's gonna make training easy to do.

Andrew: Our cooldown question for today, coming from the audience — this one comes from Steve from California. He says: "I got into triathlon at the end of last year" — welcome, Steve — "and I have some friends I've done a few local races with. It started in 2025 as a race every few months, but now there is that one guy in the group that is floating potential race plans what feels like every other weekend. Is there a thing as too much racing? What do our coaches think?"

Elizabeth: Great question, Steve — there absolutely is a thing as too much racing. I feel like I know this guy — although he says he's from California, but I feel like many of us will encounter a guy like this.

Andrew: And there's always that one guy in a training group, for the record.

Elizabeth: Yeah, he's like — we'll see what they say — but no, nope, sorry, this is not your whole pass. There absolutely is a thing as racing too much. Racing is stress on the body, just like a hard workout — even more stressful than a hard workout — it takes a toll physically, and it takes real recovery time to absorb that hard training stress. If you're racing every other weekend, you're not giving your body time to fully build fitness between races, and there's actually a big injury risk here — that's one of the things I'd really call out and point out.

Now, there's always these caveats of — what is the race, how long is it, how hard are you pushing, are we talking doing a fun 5K with friends as part of the training day, or are we talking, yeah, we're going all out in racing. Even if you're trying to do it as a fun event, sometimes good intentions go out the window as soon as the gun goes off — I'm gonna put that out there too, I've been to those.

Andrew: I've never been able to hold back and say, I'll just go 80% this weekend at this event — you always go all out, you always try your best.

Elizabeth: Yeah, exactly — the race adrenaline kicks in, and those thoughts of not going all out kind of go out the window. My kind of rule of thumb is that your races, they should fit into the season plan — they don't replace a season plan. Your races should be an opportunity to build fitness toward an event — you shouldn't use races as the main fitness builders. Again, there's a time and a place where that might fit into the plan, but racing every other weekend, you're really limiting what you can do in training.

So a couple key races that you specifically build toward, with maybe a couple low-key events sprinkled in, that's gonna work a lot better than nonstop racing with no downtime — you're gonna get much better results too. Going hard all the time, every other weekend, doesn't give you that appropriate periodization of the training plan, and so you're actually gonna get better results if you're not racing as frequently as, yeah, Steve's friend here. So Steve, I'd say you can cheer that buddy on, and then you can smoke him at the races you do together, because your training will be better.