Your Questions Answered: Maximize Your Race Schedule, Training by Heart Rate, Grit Factor, and More!

TriDot Podcast Episode 350

Your Questions Answered Maximize Your Race Schedule, Training by Heart Rate, Grit Factor, and More!

Andrew Harley: Welcome everybody to the TriDot Podcast. This is episode number 350. Can you believe it? They're still letting me do this. Wild. Thanks for listening. If you're out there, I kind of want to know this. If you're out there and you've listened to every episode of the TriDot Podcast from 1 to 350, please comment on YouTube or Spotify below and say, “Hey, here I am, hand raised. I've listened to them all”. Just want to see who my truthers are, who my OGs are. Today on the show, we're going to do a question-and-answer episode. So we've gathered some questions from our audience, and we have some really good questions today. I'm excited for this one. And I've got 2 coaches here to answer your questions about triathlon and multi-sport. Our first coach joining us is coach Ken Presutti from Victory Multi-Sport based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Also with us is Coach Ryan Tibble, founder and head coach of Ascend Multisport based out of Fort Worth, Texas. Ken, Ryan, hey guys.

Ken Presutti: Good to be here.

Ryan Tibball: Hey, yeah, great to be here, Andrew. Always a pleasure having a little chat with you.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, and Ryan, you've got a brand new Ascend multi-sport hat on your head. Glad to see it. Happy to see that. Coach Ken, can you show everybody the hat I was trying to convince you to wear today? You can change back.

Ken Presutti: We'll throw it on. It's the Victory Multisport Flip Top. I love this hat. I just don't know how it comes off on the video, so...

Andrew Harley: I want one bad. I want one so bad. That's a cool hat. It's a really cool hat.

Ken Presutti: We can make that happen. We'll flip it around.

Andrew Harley: I'm Andrew, the average triathlete, voice of the people and captain of the middle of the pack. As always, we're gonna start off with our warmup question, settle into our main set topic where we'll ask Coach Ken and Coach Ryan your questions about the sport, and then we'll wind things down with another audience question on the cool down. Lots of good stuff. Let's get to it.

Announcer: This is the TriDot Podcast, the triathlon show that brings you world-class coaching with every conversation. Let’s get started with today’s warm-up.

Andrew Harley: Gentlemen, for our warm up question today, I want to know: what is a life lesson that you learned from triathlon? Coach Ken, over to you first.

Ken Presutti: Yeah, this is a good one. I had this, it was like the perfect moment. I'm rolling down a steep descent, similar to the Keene Descent at Lake Placid. And I'm gripping on those handles, I'm white knuckling it. And I may have had some tunes on, and out of nowhere- 38 Special, Hold On Loosely But Don't Let Go came on. And I just thought, man, this is a great metaphor. Obviously gotta control this bike. But the tension I've got here is not helping me perform the best, take the turns. And how much does that apply to life, man? You've gotta grab the things that are important, but give room to grow into them, to grow with them. And so hold on loosely, but don't let go.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, very, nice. That's on my classic rock playlist. So I'm the age where I would consider that classic rock and great tune right there. Ken, great tune, great life lesson from triathlon coach Ryan over to you. What's a life lesson that you've learned from triathlon.

Ryan Tibball: Good song. I think it encompasses more than one situational thing like Ken, but it is yet a big life lesson. I really learned this in some instances the hard way. So don't expect the results you want if you don't put the work in. I mean, it's just plain and simple. I'm very goal oriented. I set boundaries, not boundaries rather, goals and expectations. The end, consistency has become like a bit of a mantra of sorts, along with a couple of the words. I mean, doing the right training right. And learning to just put the work in, get it done. Lastly, I will say, I think what really drives everything for me in this sport is my “why”, and just having my why. And really reminding myself of my “why” even through training sessions, hard days, and that didn't come about until I really got into triathlon. I didn't think about that. My “why”- I've got one now and I love it.

Andrew Harley: Yep. Yep. Got one for triathlon, got one for life. Good one, Ryan. Mine's pretty straight. There's a couple I thought of here, but the one I'm to go with is it's taught me to view food intake differently. Not like the “earn your calories”, kind of thing, but just in we have to fuel our training. If you're not fueling your body, you're not going to able to take advantage of the training session. For race day, have to fuel properly on race day, whether it's a sprint up to IRONMAN distance. If you're not fueling the day, you're going to fall apart. Your body needs fuel. And, I apply that now to non-training days. I apply that now just to life. I used to be a wake up, skip breakfast, not have any food or just coffee for fluids until lunchtime kind of guy. And now I wake up, I make sure I get some food in my body, straight away, I make sure I'm drinking water alongside of that coffee first thing in the morning. And it's amazing how much better you feel. It's amazing how much you, how much better you perform like energy for your family, and mental sharpness for your job. If you're fueling right. And I noticed the days where I skipped that breakfast, or I noticed the days where, man, it's 2pm. I haven't had water today. Man, I'm feeling it. So that's, that's one thing I've carried over from triathlon. I don't think I really paid that much attention. You know to eat healthy, right? So, my wife and I always made sure we got in fruits and veggies and stuff into our diet, but, I didn't view food as fuel for my day, and for my life, and to perform in life day to day like I would perform a triathlon based off of fuel. It’s interesting, I was in Kona, talking to Scott Tindall, the founder and CEO of FuelIn, which is an app that integrates into TriDot and can help you fuel properly for your workouts. Cool app they hav at Fuelin, so shout out to Scott for that. But, I was talking to Scott and he was saying how anytime he meets an athlete and the athlete's like, “yeah, I'm just really struggling with energy throughout my day”. He's like, the first question I find that I ask them is, do you get 4 to 5 servings of vegetables per day? He goes, the answer is always no. And I always tell them start there. And sure enough, they start, they up their veggie intake and “my gosh, I'm eating good things and my energy's through the roof!”. Anyway, so a lot of what I've learned is how fuel for triathlon is carried over to fueling for life and feeling better, having more energy in the day. I'm rambling. Let's move this show along. We're going to throw this question out to our audience. If you're watching us on YouTube or Spotify, comment in the comment box below and let us know. What's a life lesson you've learned from the sport of triathlon? Can't wait to see what you have to say.

Announcer: Let’s Go.

Andrew Harley: Onto our main set, where we're going to be asking Coach Ken and Coach Ryan some questions that you, our listeners, submitted. Guys, the first one comes from Lindsay. She wants to know, if you are prepping for a fall long course race, when is the best time to sprinkle in some shorter course efforts- sprints or Olympics- as kind of a race tune up? Where you don't compromise your long course training, but still get practice with transitions and performing under race conditions? And Lindsay's asking about a fall race, but just in general guys how far out from a race would you recommend your athletes kind of get some shorter practice races in? Coach Ryan over to you first.

Ryan Tibball: That is a great question, Lindsay. This is a very common question I hear often, because especially when you have that late season race and you're like, “what am I going to do before all that? I've got spring and summer”, et cetera. And so, if it is coming up, say you have an IRONMAN, a 70.3. And you think about this- I like to essentially match the volume that, wherever you're at in your training, with the distance of that particular sprint or race that you are going to go for. So in other words, if you're in race prep for a half Iron 70.3, then you're more than likely going to see that fall somewhere in that first 4 to 6 weeks. And that's probably a great opportunity to do that during that race prep phase. But hey, guess what? If you're not in that race prep phase, you're in development phase. Really you can add that in at any point in time there. And I 100 % agree with you, Lindsay. Absolutely get that experience, get that practice, that opportunity to work on your transitions. Not just transitions, but fueling. Andrew said this earlier in our intro here, fueling, and getting your fueling strategies right during a race situation. Also execution strategies, they do change obviously for distances, but you also start to understand your body a lot more in these different efforts, these different distances too. So again, everything is slightly different in those shorter, races in comparison to say a long course race, but getting that practice in, and having real time, real experience, is absolutely great. And not to mention the race atmosphere, learning to control your emotions, and harness that energy and excitement for your race day is great, those short course distances are great opportunities when you get up to that long course distance.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. I'm blanking on who- we've done 350 of these episodes now- but there's somebody, some coach on the show. I have a memory of somebody lamenting the fact that IRONMAN, very often there's races like IRONMAN Arizona. It's something like 6 or 8 weeks before IRONMAN Arizona, they will have 70.3 Arizona. They did the same thing in Panama City for IRONMAN Florida, about 6 to 8 weeks before IRONMAN Florida, there is the 70.3 version of that same race in that same location. I think some of the pitch and some of the hope is, athletes can sign up for both. Can get some practice in on the actual course, they're doing a half before their full. 6 weeks out, 6 to 8 weeks out. And one coach on the show was lamenting like, “that's too close!”. Like if you're trying to substitute that for your Saturday training session, your Saturday training session 6 weeks out from race day are longer, in duration. What you need in terms of building your stamina is longer than a 70.3 effort. And okay, if you really just want to get on the course, sure. Go do that. Or, maybe do that, and then after you cross the finish line, go hop on the bike for another hour. So they have, I've heard some interesting suggestions around by doing that. And I do want to point that out because I think a lot of people just blindly say this is IRONMAN putting these on, this is probably a great way to approach it, let me just hop into this 70.3. You can, but with a caveat. Ken let me hear from you on this. I'm curious what you guys think- If you're signed up for a 70.3 and you're wanting to go through the race motions, obviously sprint and Olympics are both right there, a little bit shorter. If you're signed up for a full, and training for a full, and you're trying to get in a practice race to go through the motions of fueling, having that breakfast, having that dinner the night before, et cetera, et cetera. Do you want to see your athletes doing a 70.3 as a practice? Or do you want to see them go a little bit shorter and not put the 70.3 effort on their body?

Ken Presutti: Thanks. Great question. I think it depends on the athlete and what their goals are. If their goal is primarily that IRONMAN, whether it's to get a specific time or even if it's just to finish, I never say they feel like they should have to do a 70.3. And in fact, if we do a 70.3, it is definitely 6 to 8 weeks out. But even that, a lot of times we are approaching it from the standpoint of “This is a practice run”. And we're working on the nutrition. We're working on learning the race environment. We're getting that fueling down. That being said, a 5, 6, $700 practice day is a very expensive.

Andrew Harley: That's a good point.

Ken Presutti: And most of us, when we jump into those races, we're going to burn the matches, even though we know we shouldn't. And our coach tells us not to. So typically in, I'm working with an athlete who has very specific goals and they're trying to hit a certain number of races for certain reasons, we don't even really approach it. Now that being said, a lot of my new athletes, I love having them in the shorter course races, especially if they've never done open water swimming in a triathlon before. Because, you do not want that first freak out moment in the water to happen during an IRONMAN. And I know lots of athletes never experienced the freak out, but I will tell you even as a very seasoned IRONMAN athlete, there are lots of times that I've been in the water and been, oh my gosh, I'm 400 yards in and I don't know if I can do this. Now to get myself together, take a breath, and I'm good to go, but that's a skill you've gotta practice.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, I think my only open water freak out was triatholon number 30 for me. It wasn't the first one or the 12th or the 24th. I had been in triathlete for 10 years! And granted, it was a race where I hadn't been training the swim. So, Ryan, going back to your warmup question on life lessons, you learned from triathlon. What was it you said?

Ryan Tibball: Knowing my why? On the warm-up question… yeah- don't expect the results you don't want to put it.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, that's the one. Don't expect the results. So I went into an Olympic distance open water swim, thinking I'll just kind of fake it till I make it. I've done these before. I hadn't really been swim training, and I got 300 yards in in a wetsuit and felt a little claustrophobic. Didn't know if I was going to be able to finish. So yeah, totally get you Ken. So really what we're taking away here is it, what you're doing with that tune up race, the length of that tune up race, how far you're putting it out from race. That can depend on what your goal is for the a race, you know, what you need from that tune up race. Are you just needing to go through the motions? Are you needing time in open water? And especially if you have a coach, talk it through with your coach and see what they have to say. Hopefully that helps you out Lindsay, lots of good stuff there from Ryan and Ken. Moving on the question two, from Megan. She says, “I am new to TriDot just in the past month. I don't have a power meter for my bike. So I've been trying to do the workouts by heart rate zone. Obviously it takes some time to raise and lower your heart rate. So I'm never quite hitting the targets. What can I do to do the workout better without dropping cash for a power meter?”. Really great question. A lot of athletes, I mean, whether you're new to the sport or not, that power meter is a bigger item to purchase. Not everybody has one. Guys, for athletes without a power meter on their bike, training, how do you recommend they do the training as closely as possible without that piece of tech. Coach Ken?

Ken Presutti: Let me jump in. I think the most important thing is to understand what the intent of the workout is, right? Regardless. And so if you've got something like a threshold and hold session where you've got a couple blocks of Zone 4 effort followed by some Zone 3 effort and then a nice long Zone 2 easy pace, the intent of that workout, especially on those Zone 4 blocks, is to put your body under some stress, right? Start to hammer it, put yourself in the tank a little bit, and then learn to transition into a steady state effort with those Zone 3 blocks and then finish out that Zone 2 time while you're already on legs, so you're getting your body to adapt. So number 1, just understand the intent of the workout and don't obsess over the numbers. Even if you do have a power meter, and you go outside and you've got terrain to deal with, it can also be very challenging to hit those numbers and get a perfect score. So I think that applies whether you're racing with a power meter, or just a heart rate monitor, or just understanding how your body feels. So I think that's the first piece, right? That whole “hold on loosely, but don't let go” to the numbers- comes right back around! So that's the number 1 thing. The number 2 thing is I think we also wanna tie- and maybe this is not a separate thought- but when you understand how your body's feeling and what's actually happening in the moment, you can react to that. So even if you are trying to nail those heart rate numbers, understand they can fluctuate day to day. What are your hydration levels like? Did you get your electrolytes in? How hot is it today? How stressed were you last night when you got home late, your kid had a baseball game, and you had 6 other things you had to do? So I coach my athletes all the time- first, let's think about how we feel. If it's Zone 2 we're looking for, could you carry on a sentence with 5 words and go all day? Zone 3, you're probably down to 3 words and it's that comfortably-uncomfortable feeling. And then Zone 4, maybe 2 words max before you had to take a breath and you are really starting to feel it, it is uncomfortable at that pace. And I think that if you just keep your eye on your watch, and you go for that interval of time in that feeling, rate of perceived exertion, the numbers will ultimately follow.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, great advice. And we've said before many times on the show, if that's the boat you're in, you're going to have great training through TriDot. TriDot is still the best training solution for you. Your training scores might not be in the 90s on those bike sessions. They may not be in the 80s, but you can walk away with, scores in the 60s, scores in the 70s- and to your point Ken, leave the session accomplishing the intent of the session. You just might not have the scores that quite reflect that. But if you know, okay, via RPE, via the time and heart rate zones I could see as it fluctuated. I feel like I did this workout to best of my ability. That's all you can do, right? Is to accomplish the intent of the workout with the numbers you have in front of you.

Ken Presutti: And before we let Ryan jump in too, let me just add- I think it's important to say we chase the numbers because it's fun to chase the numbers and it feels like a game to get a 90 or 100. Right? At end of the day, the numbers are really meant not to be the gamification of your training, it's meant to be a feedback mechanism. So if you look at that workout, and you can understand why you might have scored lower, even though you feel like you did a great job, then you're right on the money. If you look at those numbers and you don't understand why, number one, I love to talk to athletes. Feel free to ping me, ken.presutti@triDot.com. I will help you understand those numbers. There are also plenty of other resources out there through our knowledge base, through several of other podcasts where we talk about this. But the number should be a feedback mechanism to help you learn to get better, not a gamification item that you're chasing.

Andrew Harley: Ryan, I'm gonna have you move us on to question 3. Because I think Ken did a bang up job there. And question 3, I think is a good one for you, Ryan. Nick wants to know- on those long runs, those long bike rides, or if you're in a long race, and you're just in the doldrums of the race where everything's starting to hurt, grit factor really has to kick in, where do you go to in your head? What do you tell yourself when it feels like every muscle is saying, “You gotta stop. You can't do this”? All 3 of us in this podcast, we've done long course, we've done short course, we've pushed ourselves to the limit. So I think we all know that moment Nick's talking about, right? You often have that moment several times in a race where your legs are screaming no, your brain wants to slow it down, stop and walk. Ryan, what do you tell your audience to do when you get to that moment in a race to turn up the grit factor and keep on trucking?

Ryan Tibball: Yeah, Nick, man, this sport is so mental. And you get a lot of time to practice that. Every single workout you do practically. I can actually go back to the very first question. It wasn't the question from an athlete, but rather the intro today, was thinking of my “why” and my goals. And I really do go back to that quite often, and I remind myself. But not only just by thinking about them, actually write them down. They are written down. And I highly recommend writing your “why” down, your goals down, and also verbally saying these things to yourself. You have to say it out loud. I think this is one of those mental practices that every athlete should be doing is- you verbally tell yourself, why you're doing this, what is your “why”, what is your goal, what are you hoping to accomplish out of today, or what are you hoping to accomplish way down the line? These are motivational to you. And by saying them out loud, it actually resonates a whole lot longer, a lot more. Now, not to come out of that deep end a little bit, but I do also wanna say- listen to music when you're working out. There's nothing wrong with that. I know you don't get to have it at a race, but that's okay. There's a lot of other things going on on a race day that you won't even want the music anyways. This is a great opportunity to create that big nasty playlist that you want for those gritty days, where your legs and your body's screaming at you to stop and yet... you know what? You got that your favorite song rocking out and it's forcing you to dig deeper into that workout like you wanted. To accomplish what you hope to be accomplishing. Lastly, remind yourself, deep into those thoughts. This is a time that you earn it. This is a time where you are making those grit deposits. You said it yourself in your question, Nick, those grit deposits for race day. And then on race day, you tell yourself it is time to cash that grit in. What a great chance to do that. You're deep into your race, your body, your head, you're saying things to your- you know what? Tell yourself. It’s time to cash in, and cash that grit in that you've been working so hard for in all your training sessions.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, well, I haven't said this on the show in a long time- and I've said it a couple times years ago and it's been a minute. I mean, music's a big one for me in training sessions, particularly on those indoor bike sessions. if you're a Spotify user, I'm on Spotify and my FTP playlist, my 20 minute FTP playlist, which also kind of doubles as a 5k playlist, and my general workout mix. Both have the word TriDot in them. And I did that so they could be findable by all my TriDot friends. And so there's Andrew's TriDot FTP playlist with about 20 minutes of music, and Andrew's TriDot workout mix. I update the FTP playlist fairly regularly because I keep that one fresh for my own sake. It's been a minute since I've updated my workout playlist, but I add songs here and there, and take away songs here and there. So you can go workout to my playlist Nick, if you need a little boost, on your next workout. But this, Ryan, I think for me- when I'm on race day and I'm hurting and I'm trying to keep the pace strong- I think it's 2 things for me. One, I either try to distract myself, right? I'm a little ADD, which can be beneficial. I just start talking to somebody around me, or I just start people watching, or I just start taking in the sites, and just keep the turnover going on those legs- whether you're on the bike or whether you're out on the run and you're in pain- and it's wild how sometimes if you just keep going for 3 more minutes, 5 more minutes, the way you feel 5 minutes from now can change dramatically, right? Like you can feel horrible, and then 5 minutes later- with no changes, no gel, no water- you can just feel a little bit better. Or sometimes you just like turn a corner and just the change of scene. Like it's amazing how you're going to go through those dark patches for sure, but as often as those are going to come around, they're going to leave. Right? And so just keep on trucking at the pace you're trucking and, things can turn around very quickly. I think the other thing that I do is, I try to remember all the training I've done and I say, “I did all of that for today. And if I slow down or if I stop and walk, or if I, really phone it in for the last couple of miles, what was all that training for? What were all those stupid hours on the saddle for?”. And so I kind of peer pressure myself and bully myself and keep in the pace going. Anyway, Coach Ken, over to you. What would you add here to Nick's next question?

Ken Presutti: Man, put your therapist hat on. Here we go. So I have a lot of athletes who really have solid “whys” like Coach Ryan is talking about. They're doing it in remembrance of their dad, or several other, like they want to show up for their family and be an inspiration. If I'm being honest, I struggle with a lot of that. Trying to find that “why”, personally, other than to just say, this is what I do. Right. And when I'm buried deep, I remind myself, this is what I came here for. This hole is why I showed up, and I need to keep moving. The final thing I'll add that does provide a lot of inspiration too- we just came back from this triathlon camp, and there were a ton of former Recon Marines that were part of it. They raised a lot of money for a Recon Marine Foundation. Just a super ton of respect for our servicemen and women. Have a lot of family members that have served too. And just thinking of the things they have gone through to allow us to live the life that we live, that's the other thing I tell myself. So man, there are so many people out there who have been in so many more darker places than you are right now. you can run another 5 minutes.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, puts it in perspective, right? Puts it in perspective for sure. Our next question. I really like this one, guys. I really like this question, and I'm excited. I'm excited to see what you say- it's very open ended, extremely open ended. Lindsay- its not even a question. It's a statement actually, technically. She said, “Always love some good race day nutrition advice”. Didn't ask a specific nutrition question. Didn't point to something she's wanting to know. So gentlemen, the floodgates are open. Don't say, listen- we're 28 minutes in, we got 32 minutes left. Don't say everything you know about race day nutrition. When you hear this prompt, what's just the first thing that comes to mind that you would, like the number one thing you would tell an athlete about race day nutrition? Coach Ryan?

Ryan Tibball: Practice, practice, practice. Long before race day. I mean, whatever you plan on using, it's not just race day. It's happening long before that. So, I can keep it that simple and maybe I will go in a little bit here. Just saying, listen- if you plan on what's using on race course race day, then, you better practice with it. Get your gut ready. And this doesn't happen a week before the race. This happens many, many weeks, months in advance. And that way, race day is going to be a piece of cake for race day nutrition. And something I will say, and I think this is probably one of my biggest things I tell to many athletes who come to me going, “I really messed up on race day”. I go, “how much plain water did you drink on race day?”. And they're like, “none”. Well, guess what you missed. That's why you had those issues. That's why you had those GI issues. So Lindsay, I will tell you. When you're having nutrition on the race course, drink some plain water with it to help your gut, to help your GI system, calm it down. Digestion- it helps with that absorption. It helps with that. So that that's probably the simplest answer I can give because obviously yes, andrew we can go so darn deep into this and, but I'll keep it light.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, that's such a good one. I mean the practice, practice, practice, is great. But then the reminder to drink some plain water. I had GI issues at IRONMAN Waco, my very first full distance IRONMAN. It was a hot day in Texas. I'm a very salty sweater. I had practiced and all my training rides and runs taking salt taking, salt taking, salt taking, taking as much salt as humanly possible. And never had GI issues, but on race day I had them and I was talking with the guys from Precision Fuel and Hydration after the race, kind of telling them what I took in and what I experienced. And the girl from Precision, she was like, “you didn't have enough plain water”. It was because I was so concerned with dehydrating, and I was so concerned with just pounding salt and sodium as much as humanly possible, that I didn't counterbalance it with a little bit of plain water. And I needed to, I never heard anybody say that before until after my first IRONMAN. And she said that. Anyway, the one that I'll say here, I like to tell people just in terms of fueling on race day, do not fall behind. You cannot catch up if you fall behind. Your body can only absorb so many grams of carbohydrate, and so much sodium per hour to keep fueling for future hours. And so if there's a certain hour or a certain moment in the race that you kind of slack on it early, you cannot catch up later. You can rectify it a little bit, right? But you cannot fully catch up. Especially the longer the race is, right. Especially when you get to half IRONMAN and IRONMAN, start that fueling early, keep that fueling going regularly the whole way through. It's easy to fall behind on the bike, right? You get out of the water, you get on the bike, you have a gel, you're feeling good. Your hands are doing something. Your brain is active, and you just don't reach for that gel in your back pocket because you're in the wind or whatever. Try everything in your power to not fall behind because you will pay for it later if you do, you need to get that fuel in. Coach Ken, what would you say?

Ken Presutti: Trying to skinny it down, right? So you had mentioned sodium. Most athletes that I know do not take enough sodium. Precision Fuel and Hydration has a great calculator that can get you in the ballpark. If you can do a sweat test, fantastic, but if not just use their calculator, it's gonna help you figure that out. And then we talk practice, practice, practice. Make sure you know what you're practicing. You need to have a plan, right? So sit down, write out your plan, practice it during your long rides, practice it during your race rehearsal, look it over the night before your event and know what you're gonna take, when you're gonna take it, and what your fallback options are. “I don't feel like having another Maurten gel. Okay, great, let me swap for the Swedish fish that I put in my bento box”. Have a plan, and be able to execute the plan, and know the plan.

Andrew Harley: Yep, very good. Thanks so much, Lindsay, for that very fun, kind of vague one there. Lacey is the next athlete with a question. She says- and Ken, I'll throw this one to you because you do work with our product team and our software team- “is there a way to better match my Form goggle and Garmin watch paces to my TriDot? They never seem to correlate correctly and I get low scores on TriDot, but high scores on my devices for workout completion”. Ken, talk us through that. What communication is happening between our devices, whether it's Form and Garmin and our TriDot.

Ken Presutti: It's a great question and there are so many different ways that this could be answered and probably need some more information. So, I hate to say it.

Andrew Harley: Ryan's probably happy I threw it to you and not him.

Ryan Tibball: I've got a little bit to add, but I'm sure Ken has got a lot. Haha.

Ken Presutti: Haha. So, if you actually are having trouble and it looks to be off, we can work with you, our support team is fantastic with that. But it could be how your goggles are communicating with your Garmin watch, or if you are giving TriDot the data directly from Form and their database, or if you're sending it to Garmin and then having Garmin send it to us. There are all kinds of different ways that things could get mixed up. So I would say again, almost like we said with the heart rate monitor, number one, the most important thing is to understand the intent of the workout, right? If you understand the intent the workout and the paces that you are trying to hit for each of your intervals, those paces are going to be pretty accurate in your goggle display itself. So go by that first, and don't overstress about that TrainX number. And then again, there are so many factors in what model of the goggles are you using? Are you still using the very first one? Spoiler alert, I am because they still work great. And so I haven't been able to justify a new purchase in my Form goggles. I'm also using an older Phoenix 5 as my own training watch. So again, depending on the watch that you're using, there's all kinds of things that could be potentially happening there. Most importantly, execute your workout. Use those goggles to keep an eye on your lap paces and know that you did a great job when you're done.

Andrew Harley: Coach Ryan, anything to add? You said you had a little bit.

Ryan Tibball: Yeah. I do have a little bit, and I didn't know if this was 100% about the swim as well, or we talked about. She said paces, and so I thought, well, maybe this also talking about bike or run. Keep in mind what I love. This is the one of my most favorite things about TriDot, is the the environment normalization of your paces in your in your workouts. So in other words, as things are changing in the environment, so are your paces. And for that workout, Garmin's not gonna do that for you. And Garmin's not gonna actually quantify the loads and stresses like they should be, versus this is what TriDot does. This is exactly the precision of the measurements that TriDot's doing. So Lacey, I 100% trust your your TriDot zones, because they're gonna be adjusted. And so you have now real targets in your workouts because of the environment normalization. Especially when it comes to the bike and the run in particular. So that's the one thing I really wanted to add is that, be very confident in what TriDot's giving you, 100%.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, and there is the occasion. I mean, even as long as I've been a TriDot athlete and as often as many TriDot workouts as I've done- there will be the occasion where I'm ADD, I'm a little bit busy, I'm trying to get out the door for a run, and I don't tell TriDot before the run that I didn't do this at 8 a.m. I'm doing this at 2 p.m. I glance at the zones, I go do it, and I get back. And TriDot's going to score it based on what my zone should have been in that temperature. And if I didn't look ahead of time properly, sometimes on as the athlete, it's kind of your fault that you didn't quite have your zones right. That's a different story. Shannon talking about swimming now, Shannon, this is a really fun question. She wants to know, “when entering and exiting the swim part of the race, is there a definite point when it is best to start swimming or start jogging?”. And so I think this is probably applying to beach swim starts, right? Where you're running into the water. If you're jumping off a pier or if you're jumping, doing some a tread water start, this isn't a factor. And then if you're running out of the water. So if that's the case for a triathlon, I've wondered this myself, while doing it, that's the first time you think of it. You're like, would it be faster if I start swimming now or should I run as long as I can? You see people around you doing it both ways. Coach Ryan, over to you on this one. What do you think about these kind of beach starts and exits?

Ryan Tibball: Yeah, the most exciting part of the day. It's the start of the race and, when entering the water a beach start- I assume this is what Shannon's speaking to- is yeah, absolutely the best time to begin swimming as soon as you enter that water is when that water reaches right around your knees. And the reason why is because once it starts to get actually above the knees into the thighs, you are actually doing a whole lot more work. You're raising your heart rate up where you could just get horizontal and just begin letting the water support you and start your swim. So, again, right up to that knees and get in the water. Now, there is a little bit of a skill here too, if you want to add this. And I would recommend practicing this- go to your local lake, maybe they got a nice little beach to work off of. And that would be like what we call the dolphin dive. So where you, as you're entering the water, you kind of go along like a dolphin and jump in and dive in and then stand back up, dive in and stand back up. You might only do that maybe a couple of times, 2, 3 times tops, before you actually get really horizontal and get into your swim. So that's the entering part. Now, as far as exiting, as soon as you're taking your strokes, you're swimming along, you take that stroke and you start scraping the bottom of the ground. There's your first clue that, hey, after probably 1 or 2 or 3 strokes, you've hit the ground multiple times, go ahead and stand up at that point. And now you'll notice that the water's pretty much right around your knees and lift, kind of give yourself a little bit of high knees as you're exiting to get going forward and get yourself out of that water as quickly as you can. So I hope that helps you out, Shannon. These are some of my favorite things to talk about is getting in and getting out efficiently. So there you go.

Andrew Harley: It's funny. It's the practical, tangible race day skills that you don't think about until you're about to do it. Right. And if you are listening and you have the budget for a coach, this is something that coaches will talk to you about in advance. They know to think about this before you even consider thinking about this. If you don't have the budget for a coach, just keep listening to the TriDot podcast and we'll do our best to have you feel like you're being coached by our coaches. So, great job guys. I will say- shameless plug- TriDot Podcast episode 305. It's on YouTube, as a YouTube video. It was myself and, Ryan- you were actually on that episode as well. But it's called Conquer Every Type of Triathlon Swim Start. And we talked through jumping in the water off of something, doing a treading water start, doing a beach start, and fully fleshed out a little bit more what Ryan's talking about here. But very well covered from Ryan right there as well. Our next one. This is from Rick, kind of going back to salt talk a little bit earlier. He says, “As a very salty sweater, how do I avoid painful salt in my eyes on long bike rides?”. So this is a specific problem for him when he's biking. He's a salty sweater. He's feeling some stinging in his eyes. I think I get this more running than I do biking, I think the wind biking kind of helps abate it. I'm a salty sweater as well. So Rick's having some discomfort with that salty sweat. Coach Ken, what should he do?

Ken Presutti: Yeah, I would say I've experienced this from time to time. Somehow, even with that wind, it is always when I'm on a wicked descent and I love descending. So it's when I'm right about 40, 45 miles per hour. I'm like, “Oh my God, I can't see!”.

Andrew Harley: Hahaha

Ken Presutti: So, a few things that I think of are, we've got all kinds of great head gear out there now, and there are all kinds of moisture wicking sweat bands that you can buy. Some more expensive and fancy than others that have all kinds of things stitched into them, so I understand. But usually, I've got just an old school, moisture wicking, dry fit type material headband that I wear when I'm on my bike, and that seems to get the job done. A lot of times when I'm doing longer rides, I'll be on a loop or a circuit. So when I stop to get my nutrition I'll also just make sure that I've got some cool wet rags there in the cooler and I'll just kind of wipe myself down to remove all the sweat that has built up and all the salt that has built up. But that's typically how I tackle it.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, I think water is your friend, right? That's really all you can, 1 prevention, which you're talking about with, is there something you can wear that helps keep that salt out of your eyes? In some cases, maybe yes. In some cases, maybe no. A hat like coach Ken is wearing right now, might help on the run for example. I'm so glad I peer pressured you into wearing that hat. I am loving, I am loving it. I'm loving it.

Ken Presutti: I'm so glad you did too.

Ryan Tibball: Rocking it, man.

Andrew Harley: Great payoff for the people that go to the effort of watching the podcast instead of just listening. But yeah, water is your friend. If you're at an aid station, you can splash a cup of water in your eyes while you're biking. Or, if you can just squirt some plain water from a bottle on the eyes, water is going to be your friend. Or if it's on like a wet rag, like Ken was saying. I personally grew up in Florida, and every summer, just surfing, boogie boarding, on the beaches in Florida. Where the salt, and the sun, salt in the water, and the salt on your sweat. Eyes would always be stinging on the run. Same thing on the bike. Same thing. I just- it's just a reminder that I'm alive. I've never seen it as a problem to be solved. It's just, for me, it's always just been a byproduct of doing some fun activity out in the sun. And I just kind of lean into it and accept that my eyes are going to sting a little bit and we'll solve it when I'm done with the activity. Build a little character maybe. Next question is from Eric. “I have always loved to work out, swim, bike, run, weights, etc. I didn't measure metrics very much, but just enjoyed a good trail run or a bike or ride or swim. I started doing triathlons because of that, not the reverse. Do any exercises because I sign up for an event. Now I spend the majority of my time chasing numbers, focused on hitting the right or exact power zone or paces, and then feeling like crap when I get a score of 74.” So some commentary- here's the question. How do we balance the enjoyment of a good workout with matching the ideal metrics for a training ride, run, or swim? Coach Ken.

Ken Presutti: Hold on loosely, man. Don't let go. You have to lose control.

Andrew Harley: How many times can we reference that song?

Ryan Tibball: That's 4.

Ken Presutti: I get it that we- and that's where I worry that sometimes we look at these numbers as gamification numbers, right? And for some of us that is super motivating. So I get it, but the numbers are a feedback mechanism. And when we are looking at predicting race times and our results in RaceX, we're looking for workouts that are 70 or higher. I tell my athletes all the time, if you get a 70, you've nailed it. So I think that addresses really the metrics, right? But there's the other piece too. Sometimes you just have to know yourself well enough. Today, I was out on a fartlek run and I was supposed to be running my 3 minute intervals in Zone 3. It's a beautiful day. It's actually hot outside, so I know I should probably be going a little bit slower-

Andrew Harley: Ken, what is actually hot for you in Pittsburgh right now?

Ken Presutti: Yeah, we are at about 87 today. I get it, Texas, “that's our winter time”.

Andrew Harley: I was just curious!

Ken Presutti: But the sun's out. And I'm feeling great. And I took the first 2 on target where I was supposed to be. And I said, I'm going to juice this up a little bit today just because I feel so good. And then there are other days that I show up and I'm supposed to do the harder workout. And I'm like, you know what? It's still a beautiful day. I'm a little bit tired. I'm running next to a creek in nature here. Let me just slow down a little bit, enjoy the view. And I think the key is not making that every single session. Come into your sessions with intent and with purpose, but be flexible enough to know when you're like, you know what? Today is a special day- one way or the other- and I need to capitalize on that and do what my body is telling me. The numbers are there as feedback mechanisms and if I know I if I came home and it was a 30, then I really might have to reassess what I'm gonna do tomorrow or how I'm gonna improve that, or if there was something that was really off. But if you've got a 70, that's fantastic!

Andrew Harley: Yeah. And that's something I've seen Jeff Booher, our CEO and founder, give presentations to coaches. Right. And there's a chart somewhere, that I don't have right now to put in front of us, but I've seen a chart where- we think just in, like in the American school system, right? If you're not getting 90s, it's a bad score, right?Ah, that's a B that's all I see. So I think our notion of what a good and bad score is, is a little skewed from the American school system. But when you see how, Jeff and the algorithm have those TrainX scores categorized- his example is literally saying 74, right? I'm getting a 74. “It's a bad score”. That actually, on the chart, to the algorithm is a good training day. You did a good job on that execution. But I think a lot of type A athletes see that number and say, “man, that's a C “- like no, that's actually a good score. And we need to find that and publish that somewhere and show it to our listeners. But, obviously 90s and above is just exceptional execution. If you're scoring regularly in the 70s, you're doing a good job in your training. And that's important to note. Ken, I love your perspective there. The way I've always applied that- this has got to be fun. If it's not fun, what's the point, right? We want to improve. We want to train well. We want to make use of our training time. So the way I've applied that to my own training is when I have a big goal, when I have a race- whether it's my first IRONMAN or I'm going to do a 70.3. I want to go under 5 hours. When I have a race on the calendar, and I have a goal attached to that race where I want to perform as best as I can. for the 3 months, 6 months, 9 months before that, I'm really going to try to tick every box as well as I can in my training. But otherwise, when I don't have that, if I have a few C races, or if I have a 70.3 that I'm doing with some friends where I want to do well, but I'm not trying to PR or something, in those training cycles, I'm going to have some more fun days. And I'm going to let myself take a Saturday, and instead of doing the exact intervals TriDot has for me at a track, I'm going to go to the trails and have a fun trail run session. Or instead of doing my exact threshold and hold, I'm going to go on a group ride and chat it up with Ryan Tibble who's leading the group ride, right? So I'll kind of, I think I've lasted in this sport so long, and the people that I see staying in the sport year after year instead of doing it really hard for 3 years and flaming out. It's the people that seem to strike a good balance between recognizing when to really buckle down for a season to accomplish a certain goal, and when to just have a little bit of fun with the sport for a season. And you can go back and forth between those two athlete modes so to

speak and do it on TriDot. Coach Ryan, what do you tell your athletes around this?

Ryan Tibball: Yeah. You, guys nailed it. I mean, that's the first word. The F word is fun. I mean, I say it all the time. This has got to be fun, Eric. And listen, Eric, you said it without saying it. You're type A and we all are. So we want those great scores. We get it. And the 74- and Andrew's already explained it. It's a great score. It really is. But, and I'll be honest, I don't get 100s very often. And I'm absolutely okay because I'm still having a ton of fun in my workouts. And I'll see 74s. I'll see 80, I'll see some 90s- and you got to love the 99. I always laugh at that one. But when it happens it happens and again, it's not perfect. But that's the whole point is you're still having fun and never, never forget that Eric. I can tell you right now. Just keep crushing it, buddy. You will accomplish what you're going for in your races coming up. So keep crushing bud.

Andrew Harley: Our final question in the main set, comes from Michelle. Ken, this is another kind of product question, so glad to have you on buddy. Michelle says, “This isn't really a triathlon question, but more of a TriDot question. Why don't the runs by pace go by average pace? It seems as if my interval pace overall is within the pace for an interval, yet I get a crummy TrainX score”. Ken, how is TriDot as an application reading pace on a pace based workout?

Ken Presutti: there are a things we might want to consider here, right? First is what is a crummy score? If you think of 70 or 74, that's a crummy score. Think about that recalibration, right? 74 is a great...is a great number. Your outside runs are also going to be adjusted based on grade adjusted pace. So, it's more stressful on your body when you're running uphill. Our watches today all calculate grade adjusted pace. So that's the metric that we use. And you might say, and I've heard people say, “well, grade adjusted pace, that doesn't matter if I'm going to run a marathon and Boston's not going to take my grade adjusted pace time”. That's race day, right? When you're training, you're actually putting a certain physiological load on your body and we're crafting your plan to help your body adapt to that load. So grade adjusted pace actually does become more important there, because a 8 minute pace on a flat is very different than an 8 minute pace on a 3 or 4 percent grade. Right. So that might be one thing to look at. Make sure that you're capturing grade adjusted pace, and that you're displaying during your run the grade adjusted pace so that you know if you're going a little faster or a little bit slower. It's going to take a little bit of time to get used to, because it takes you seconds for that grade adjusted pace to kick in, but it is really going to help you control your zones a lot better once you learn how to do it and get you elicit the training effect that you're trying to elicit on yourself in your body. So that's really what I would say there. And then the other piece is when you're recovering, we're not going to ding you if you're recovering a little bit easier. a little bit lower. Oftentimes after fartlek runs or other interval sessions I do have my athletes do a little bit more walking, and then build back into a nice easy Zone 2 pace for that recovery before they hit their next interval. So I hope those help and see if Coach Ryan has anything else that he would add.

Ryan Tibball: Yeah, I love what you just said, Ken. Those are all very great points. And I'll add to it by saying, averages in the end, averages are not descriptive of what happened from point A to point B. I'll give an example- I'll use a 3 mile run. Your first mile you run at a 6 minute pace. The second mile you run at an 8 minute pace. The third mile you run at a 10 minute pace. The average would be 8 minutes. Right? However, the load and the stress would be substantially different than if you had run all 3 miles at an 8 minute pace. And so... TriDot's going to look at this and saying, we're taking that second-by-second data points and we're gonna give you and quantify your loads, and your stresses, and your lingering stresses, that may be impactful on future workouts. So, trust the system and again, just do your best, go have fun with it. But again, understand that averages aren't gonna be descriptive as in what TriDot's gonna be looking at from your second by second data points and your gap as well. What Coach Ken just mentioned as well. You're gonna get the best out of TriDot from your measured workouts for sure.

Ken Presutti: And I'm going to add just one more thing here because I think that we live this every day. We think, oh, everybody knows this, right? The other piece is taking into account environmental normalization. So make sure you know what your actual targets for the day are. If you've got your runs always set for 7 a.m. and it's 62 degrees at 7 a.m., Your paces are going to be faster. So if you miss that 7 a.m. and now you're all of a sudden doing it at 1 p.m., the sun is up, and it's 90 degrees. Refresh the app, take a look at what your new predicted times are. You put in, I'm doing this at 1 o'clock. We're gonna grab the weather and environmental variations at your location. We're gonna say, actually it is way hotter. Your body is gonna get the load we're trying to elicit if you slow it down by 30 seconds. If you actually go at that faster pace, you're gonna be in Zone 5, not in Zone 4. So that's one other important factor to consider is how environmentalization might change your paces before you start that workout.

[Transition Sound Effect]

Andrew Harley: Onto our cooldown question. Every single week on the show we end the show with a question from our audience. So feels a little strange to do it now when we've done a whole episode of audience questions. But I pulled one that I thought was really fun as our cooldown question for today. This one came from Billy. He said, “ My hometown doesn't have a dedicated Triathlon store. So where can I buy all the stuff I need? Does anyone have any online shopping tips?”. Oh boy, Triathlon shopping is fun. And there's a lot of stuff you can buy. There's stuff that you have to buy. There's even more stuff you can buy, for funsies. And there's a lot of ways to do it. I'm curious to hear what you guys have to say here. I'm sure I'll chime in as well. Coach Ryan, what are your thoughts here?

Ryan Tibball: Oh yeah, this is the fun and frustrating part of our sport is looking for stuff. And where to get the best deal. I there's a couple of places I've utilized in the past, and one of them has been allthreesports.com and trisports.com is a good place. Bike Tires Direct as well. I've utilized them in the past, and Competitive Cyclists too. There's a lot of great ones out there, and of course Amazon. I mean I look at Amazon- and I'm gonna compare pricing between all those stores I just listed, look on Amazon, and I might get it overnight or even the same day. So there's some benefits to how fast you need it and where you get it from. But those are some of the places that I've utilized personally outside of going to a local bike shop.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, and Ryan, think we're spoiled by the fact that where we live in Dallas, Fort Worth. Shout out to PlayTri, one of the biggest triathlon specific retail store chains in America. They're the official retail store of IRONMAN and they're onsite at a lot of IRONMAN events. So we can just pop down to our local PlayTri store. I used to coach kids triathlon at PlayTri in Colleyville, Texas. So I forget that most towns aren't going to have a local Triathlon store, right? And so I think something to remember is most of the equipment we need is not Triathlon store specific. I get most of running stuff from runningwarehouse.com or from fleetfeet.com. I get most of my bike stuff from my local bike shop down the road. We've got a Trek shop just up the road that's going to have my pumps and my tires and tubes and CO2 canisters- whatever I need. And so you can kind of shop for the bike stuff for the bike retailer, you can shop for the you running stuff from a running retailer, you can shop for swim stuff from a swim specific retailer. If you can't get access to something that is triathlon specific in your area. Or there's a lot of online shopping options. Coach Ken, what are your hot tips here? Where do get your stuff?

Ken Presutti: Absolutely. I mean, Amazon is the place to go for sure. They've got everything. I think a couple others- Facebook Marketplace? Look locally. I grabbed like a $4,000 gravel bike for 900 bucks, and it was a year old and had like 500 miles on it. You can get all kinds of awesome stuff there, and stuff that's in really good shape. Along those same lines, just being connected with your local triathlon community. And it might feel like you don't have a local triathlon community, but I guarantee you there are out there and you can use the social network stuff to find them. And once you find your people, they also know places and have gear that they might be getting rid of or want to swap out. And then finally- I don't know what this is like in the rest of the country, I'm sure there's something similar in most places. But in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio we've got this company called MacBid and MacBid basically just collects everything people are returning to Amazon and then there's a they got a website, and an app, and you can just see everything, anything you could possibly imagine. And oftentimes, they will have really nice bike gear. Like tires that you normally spend $60, $70, $80 on, grab for 10 bucks. My buddy got a- I don't remember the brand- but it's a really expensive pump for... $10. So, a place like that, and a retailer that is just collecting all the stuff people are sending back that's brand new and they just didn't want, is a fun option.

Andrew Harley: I think something else that I've done in a number of sports, whether that's running gear, or tennis gear, or triathlon gear, is once I find a brand- right now New Balance Rebels are jiving with my foot. So I'm gonna stock up on a few, and I'm gonna future-proof myself for the next 2 years on New Balance Rebels if I like the current model. If there's a certain cycling jersey- I love DeSoto sports skin cooler cycling jerseys. And so once I found that out, when I tried one on, I really liked this. Went and bought a bunch of them, and now don't have to shop for cycling jerseys for the next decade because I've got enough of them. So I kind of, once you find a certain brand that, this item fits me well. I like this sock. I like this run shirt. I just keep buying that same one over and over again in different colors and it kind of future proofs you. So you kind of can stop going to the store retailer, and just buy direct from a brand once you kind of discover that brand is your jam. So that's helpful as well. So guys, thanks so much. Episode 350 in the books. And we'll get both of you and Ken's hat, especially, back on the show sometime soon.

Ryan Tibball: All right.

Ken Presutti: Look forward to it. Thanks Andrew.

Announcer: Thank you for listening to the TriDot Podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on your listening platform of choice. For more opportunities to learn from our coaches, check out our YouTube channel and follow @TriDotTraining on social. Ready to train with us? Head to tridot.com and get started for free. Until next time. Happy training.