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Racing Twice in 24 Hours: What My Training Actually Prepared Me For · The Endurance Athlete Journey

• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome everyone to the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Coach Justin, and today is a solo episode.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: So this is episode 119 of the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And today I'm coming to you with a race recap of my performance at the Kinetic Multi-Sport Patriot Race Weekend, where on Saturday I competed in the Olympic Aqua Bike, and then Sunday I turned around and competed in the sprint thrath lawn.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is the first time I've ever done a weekend race like this, where really I was trying to answer two questions.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: The first question is how hard can I actually race when I'm fresh enough to use my fitness?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the second question is, what remains in the tank 24 hours later?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to paint the picture of what took place this weekend.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Saturday we rolled in, I was signed up for the Olympic distance swim bike.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: There was no run component.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So really the question that I was trying to answer is really how deep is my bike fitness?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: When I don't have to hold back on the bike because I have to preserve a little bit for the run, how hard can I go?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And really, I wanted to answer this question because I really wanted some insight as to whether or not I feel like my bike training has been sufficient to generate true gains in fitness and really what kind of performance I can get out of this methodology of training.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: The way that I've approached my bike fitness has been really aggressive, and I've been doing this for probably about eight to nine months, and I really wanted to answer the question is this working or not?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think this weekend provided a clear answer to that question.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, not only was I interested in answering how hard can I go, where is my potential on the bike, but the question is how well can I recover from that particular level of effort and then turn right around and race a sprint?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to just complete a sprint distance race right after that kind of effort.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I really wanted to compete in both of these efforts.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I really wanted to go in and race these two races.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: What else do I need to do in order to help myself recover from a hard effort and turn right around and do another hard effort, less than 24 hours?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: What role does fueling and nutrition play in this type of environment?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: How do I recover nutritionally?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: How do I recover physiologically?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think this plays a big role in training because we've learned that performance comes from consistency.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can't be consistent, you're really going to have a hard time seeing your potential in terms of your performance.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Really, when it comes to long course racing, we have to be able to manage fatigue and still hold form and get stronger and build that endurance.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just top-end speed, which is really the focus of short course racing, is really that top-end level of effort.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I really wanted to test the theory on what else do I need to do to support my training so that I can be consistent and durable and really fuel for performance and not fuel for completion.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: So the Sunday race was a sprint distance race.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was competing in the Clydesdale division.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: I've been competing in the Clydesdale division now.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Since last season, I'm seeing really good performance in this division.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I think Sunday told a really great picture on where I'm at and being competitive in in Triathon and in particular this division, and whether I need to make a decision to continue to compete in the Clydesdale division or to move in back into my age group.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, do I really want to stay in this division, even though I qualify to be in this division?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Am I holding myself back from things like being able to qualify for age group nationals?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because racing in a Clydesdale division or an Athena division means that your race performance doesn't count towards getting a qualifying spot for age group nationals for USA triathlon.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one of my bucket list things that I would like to be able to do is to one day qualify for the Olympic distance age group nationals and be able to go compete with that level of athlete.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: I am trying to get myself squared away to get a qualifying spot for H Group Aquabike.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is the first time I've done an aqua bike.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was curious on how I could perform, where I would stack up, and really see what kind of potential I would have in order to determine on whether this is a path that I feel is worth walking down.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's a significant effort in terms of chasing that particular path because there's an opportunity cost associated with racing aqua bike.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: It means that I'm minimizing other aspects of my training plan and whether it's a worthwhile approach or not, or if I just go a different way.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so this race in particular, the Patriot race, was my first foray into aqua bike racing.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I really wanted to get a taste of what it's like and how I can perform.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I think the main question that I want to answer in this episode, and as I've been walking through my race analysis here in my office, the question that I've been asking myself is what did my training actually prepare me to do?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is an important question for anyone who is interested in either increasing performance or stepping up in their caliber of races in terms of whether you want to move from sprint to Olympic to half, half to full.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Really, we're trying to answer how efficient is my training methodology?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Is there something that I'm not taking to account?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do I need to do something differently?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: There are small changes that we can make within the emphasis and the focus within the training plan that will be enough of a catalyst or a stimulus in order to generate additional adaptation.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really the question that I'm trying to answer is that I've been using this same method for quite a few years, and I'm trying to figure out okay, I want to become a smarter, wiser coach and athlete.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I need to figure out what is it that I don't know, and what is it that I've stuck with because it's how I've always done it.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: If I need to move away from this thought process of I'm just interested in completing is good enough for me.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because right now, where I'm at in my journey, I I'm I feel like I want a little bit more.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I want a little bit more than just say, hey, I completed the day.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say I performed.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: But in order to say that, I have to determine whether my training is efficient, whether it's focused appropriately, and what is it that I'm not doing or what I am doing that is working or not working.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So let's take a look now over on what the training looked like for this particular race.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I will say that this is one of two race weekends that I've been training for.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I developed a 12-week plan because I'm racing again in two weeks at the Kinetic Giant Acorn State Championships, and I'm doing the exact same method.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing the stand the Olympic aqua bike on the Saturday, and I'm turning right around and doing the sprint on the following day.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: So this was a dry run a little bit to see how giant acorn is going to play out.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Very different courses, so it's a very different strategy when it comes to race day.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I did have to implement some specificity into the training plan that would prepare me for giant acorn that wouldn't have necessarily been all that beneficial in preparing me for the Patriot.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: But let's just take a look.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: So this race fell 10 weeks into the plan.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I've only got two additional weeks left, but this is the volume that I had accumulated over the 10-week build.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: So what did I actually do?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So across this training block, I had a total of 129 non-recovery training hours over 10 weeks.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: So non-recovery training hours could mean that I purged out the time that I spend in saunas, coal plunge tubs, normotec compression therapy, rolling, all that kind of softer stuff that you do to supplement the training.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: But this is 129 hours of training over 10 weeks.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I approximately had about 53 hours of cycling.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: I had 27 hours of running.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: I had about 21 hours of swimming, and 29 hours of weight room strength-focused work.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's quite a bit of volume when it comes to just being prepared for an Olympic and a sprint.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love high volume training.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess that's the question that I'm really trying to ask myself is that is high volume training working for me, or do I need to consider a different approach that will give me more specificity, better adaptation, and better ability to compete rather than complete?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: My the the average week was about 11 hours of training, was the average.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: During the peak of the training plan, I got up to just over 14, it was like 14.7 hours.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just shy of the 15-hour mark.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's a pretty solid plan.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: My typical frequency of sessions throughout the week are five bike sessions.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: I have found that for me in particular, five bikes a week really generates great results.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: For me in particular, I have also found in the athletes that I work with that having an having a larger proportion of the training plan focused on bike rather than the runs and the swims really does generate great results for them.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen significant improvement in performance, not just on the bike itself, but the preparedness to run off the bike.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, really, my methodology is I want to build the deepest bike fitness that I can possibly build in order to preserve something for the run.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because I find that the weaker you are on the bike, it doesn't matter how strong you are on the run.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: The bike took way more out of you.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's hard to run to your potential.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: You will never run to your potential off of the bike as long as you continue to shortchange the bike training.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: So my focus is heavy bike.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I spend I have five bike sessions that is split between a long bike, two moderate bikes, and two short bike sessions.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Moderate, long, and short are relative to duration.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not in terms of level of intensity.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: My run volume is right around three to four runs per week.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason that I do that for me in particular is because I have some issues with my Achilles in one of my legs.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: I also had posterior tibial tendinitis in my last race at the end of last year for Iron Man Florida.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: 70.3.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: I came down with that three weeks prior to race day.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so I can still feel it every once in a while.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm trying to find a way to generate some run volume without setting the house on fire.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I found that I can generally get that with three to four runs.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: And my my swim is right around two to three swims a week.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: More times I'm at the three swims, but generally speaking, I got three swims a week.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: One was typically a longer swim.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Another one was kind of like a race specific specific swim that I did.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other one was more of kind of like an effort or a technical swim where I was doing some drilling and things to work on some holes that I've got in my swim stroke because several years ago when I actually raced Ironman North Carolina 70.3, I did that race.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I did that race with a torn rotator cuff, a torn bicep tendon.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And after that race, I got it all surgically repaired, but I developed frozen shoulder syndrome during the rehab.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've spent the past several years now trying to be able to get my arm above my head without assistance.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: You can tell that would have a significant hindrance on the ability to swim efficiently, not just to get your arm in position, but to actually have the strength and power to pull through the water.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's another issue that I have to manage in terms of I can't swim a whole lot of volume or frequency.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I have to really sit back and think is okay, how much swim volume can I absorb without inflaming that area?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: How much run volume can I sustain and absorb without inflaming that area?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just gonna bike as much as I possibly can because I have some of these hindrances in the other two disciplines.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: So my point behind talking about the rate the volume of this training over the 10 weeks is to show you that my strength in fitness is not just some function of a couple heroic workouts.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a weekend warrior kind of mentality where you just go and you destroy yourself on Saturday and Sunday, and you're forced to take three days off in order to recover from that effort just to do it again.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: No, this training is based on frequency and consistency, and I found that more times than not, that approach works way better than the weekend warrior methodology where you end up spending more time recovering than you actually do training.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I was able to generate the fitness that I needed in order to compete.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess the question becomes as I continue to stack on fatigue throughout the training process, I was not really relying on going into workouts recovered, fully recovered, and fresh, ready to perform.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: My approach was can I manage the fatigue in such a way that still allows me to perform up to my expectations with the caveat of the level of fatigue that I'm carrying.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: The reason that this is important is because of the structure of this race.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Saturday I go in to a really hard Olympic effort on the aquabike to turn right around and do a sprint, which is still a hard effort the following day, less than 24 hours.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm racing Sunday with fatigue that carried over from Saturday.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: So my training plan should resemble a similar kind of situation.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: As long as I'm able to perform the training sessions with good form, it's a reasonable approach.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: The caveat to that is if you are carrying so much fatigue that the form is breaking down to where you can't perform or you're opening yourself up to injury, then the then that method does not work.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I found that during this training block, it seemed to have worked.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was able to manage the fatigue fairly well.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: I still implemented all the recovery things that that I felt were needed.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Should I have done more recovery stuff?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think so.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to be able to do more, but then there's an opportunity cost to that.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: And how disciplined do I want to be rolling every single night or getting into the Normotech in order to decrease the swelling and the pain in the in your joints and muscles so that you can be relatively fresh for the next day?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like this approach was done in such a way that prepared me for what I was going to experience during race weekend.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: So let's take a look at the bike training.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to walk through some of the approaches that I used for each of the disciplines to kind of give you an idea on how I approached it and what I was preparing for.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: My cycling build was I would classify it as substantial.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: My longer rides were anywhere between 50 miles to a max of about 75.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: That 75 mile day was with a group of guys that I've been riding with who are training for an Iron Man later in the year, and I would ride hard with them and really pushing the effort, putting myself into like what I would classify as like a tempo effort, even though they were they tend to ride like in a zone two, which is appropriate for their training and what they're training for.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, I had a different goal and execution.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: But that day, I was like, they wanted to ride four hours, and I was like, Yeah, you know what?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna do it.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think I got the fitness to ride four hours.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I pulled off a 75-mile day, felt fantastic, got off the bike, and felt wonderful.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it didn't show me, and so it really added more confidence to me that my bike training was going well.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: That kind of effort was substantial and absorbed.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: So not only is that kind of the volume around the average volume for my long rides, I still had significant big gear work on the trainer where we're working on uh strength and muscular endurance.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: I had progressive power works where it was ramp up in terms of intensity.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: I had group riding, endurance riding, which is all that kind of like zone two stuff, and some race preparation work where I had a couple workouts that were specifically designed to test race power ranges where I thought I might be able to execute and I wanted to see if it was something that was in line with my expectations.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: But the point is that those two race prep workouts were not FTP tests.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't trying to determine where my what my FTP is, I was really testing my race readiness, and I wanted to really figure out is like how well am I prepared to perform, not complete, but I want to perform to be competitive.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so what the I when I get to the point in this video where I talk about the results of the test of the results of the race, you can see how well or how poorly this training went.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: So the next thing, let's go into my run.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I've already said that my run is conservative by design.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: I will say that I ran enough to be durable, but I did not run enough to be competitive.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: So this is what goes on.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's like my run volume generally was around 14 to 18 miles a week.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: I had a peak run volume, a weekly run volume of about 18.1 miles.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Generally, my long runs were anywhere between five and a half to just shy of six and a half miles, and that's right around 60 minutes to 75 minutes.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: So these are not blistering paces.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: That hasn't been the goal of my run training.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: My run training has just been designed to build durability because of the issues that I deal with with the Achilles and the tendon issues that I have in my ankles and feet.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: If I've if I could prove to myself that I could be durable, then I might be able to consider okay, now let's start adding some intention.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: kind of stuff in here and see what we've got.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I did not have large run volume.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: I had enough to get by, I think.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And what I was banking on is my bike fitness that would allow me to the ability to run at my potential given how I trained my run, but give also given how deep my bike fitness was.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: So what I did find was during two of my long runs that were right around the same duration and the same kind of pacing that I had for those, I had two very different heart rate outputs.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: The one later in the plan actually had a substantially lower heart rate versus one that fell earlier into the plan.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: So what that was telling me was that I was producing or I was building efficient aerobic capacity and I was becoming more efficient in the run even though my run volume was fairly low.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was building efficiency.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a positive sign going forward for me as I branch back out into longer and longer races that I am improving.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: I may not be improving in terms of pacing and volume, but I am improving in terms of efficiency, which matters.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: So the question that I wanted to answer with my run volume is did my run volume prepare me to run competitively after the bike and I think that the Sunday race provided the answer to that question.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Since there was no run on Sunday or on Saturday that was moot but I really kind of wanted to see what that answer was.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so now let's dip into my swim training.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: I do tend to swim quite a bit even though I'm only swimming around three days a week the volume is still significantly higher than what would be needed for an Olympic and sprint effort.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: The final weeks of the training plan I was swimming around anywhere between six to seven a week which is pretty decent for an Olympic effort.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to train for the Olympic because if obviously if I can swim the Olympic I can swim the sprint swim no problem.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I was training for the Olympic I also got in some open water sessions with the Richmond Tri Club which I am a sponsor of and they have weekly swims.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: I attended as many as I possibly could but with my schedule and work commitments and family commitments sometimes I couldn't go as often as I really wanted to but I was able to go into a pool and get similar volume with a similar execution is just in a pool environment rather than an open water environment.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes they are greatly different but nonetheless I've been doing this for quite a while now so I understand what it takes to swim in open water and so it's not like I was going into it unprepared.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: I still know what to expect.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the swim volume.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said I worked on drills to fill some some structural issues with my swim and working on my catch and my pull and getting my myself in position improving my body position working on different cadences and in my stroke rates to find out which cadence kind of works in what different scenarios because I knew that this race is swimming in a river but it's a tidal river.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that there was going to be segments of that race where I was going to have to swim against the current and then across the current and then with the current.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to really fine-tune that swim strategy on what kind of cadence I was going to use in each segment of the the 1500 meter swim for the Olympic and the 750 meter for the sprint.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that this race the chances of this race being wetsuit legal were pretty slim.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: We've had a lot of warm weather is now it's still September and we're in Virginia and so we still get some pretty decent weather around now so I figured that the chances of it being wetsuit legal was going to be slim to none.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: So there was a particular approach in my swim training that that I used to prepare myself for a non-wetsuit legal swim.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now if I'm training for a swim that I know is going to be wetsuit legal I use a very different approach to the swim training and I can maybe for a future race where I do one of these race recaps or one of my documentaries that like I did for Iron Man of Florida where I can talk about that methodology in preparing for a wetsuit legal swim versus a non-wetsuit legal swim in terms of a race but for this one it was I assumed it was going to be non-wetsuit and I was right the water was way too warm.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think that there was a wetsuit optional which means that you could swim in a wetsuit but you were not going to be eligible for awards and since my ultimate goal was to be eligible for awards no wetsuit.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the taper because I think there are a lot of questions from athletes on you know what do I do for taper?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: How do I taper?
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: When should I taper?
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: How long do I taper?
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: What are the some of the mental things that I have to deal with during taper I'll talk about how I tapered for this one.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the week before the race I had about 6.4 six and a half hours of training for that week.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: The previous week I had about 13.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it was about a 50% reduction in training volume which is pretty standard when I want to do a short taper.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't need a long taper for this so I've I just wanted one week that felt that's all I needed but I went a little heavy on the reduction and went down to about 50% of my training volume.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: It seemed to work really well.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: My run volume fell from about 18.1 miles for the week and down to five and a half that's all I wanted that's all I needed it's all I really had time for because for this particular race as well it was part of the race day coaching tour and but this race was part of that tour.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: So not only was I there as a coach but I was also there as an athlete.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it was going to be a new experience for me on how to manage the stress of both and still race well without sacrificing one over the other I think this is all I had time for in that week was just about five and a half miles of running.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: They were still fairly structured running but it was just enough to kind of keep the body sharp.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: I know that there's no point in like there's the you don't have the ability to gain any additional fitness in terms of making it deeper but the the point of the taper is just to sharpen the knife right it's not to get a longer blade it's just to make it sharper right I want my body primed and ready to go I don't want it to think oh we're done training so now it's time to repair and recover.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what I want my body to think I want to think is like oh we're still on we're still moving forward I am resting a little bit so it's a different focus but I'm still primed and ready to go.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't stop training I still do keep some intensity in the plan and in the sessions I just fine-tune them a little bit so that they serve a very different purpose so now race day this is where this thing has been leading to so on Saturday I had we had the Olympic aqua bike so let's talk about the swim part again this is wetsuit I think it's I think you could classify as wetsuit optional it wasn't wetsuit legal and so I swam the distance in about 3253 was the time on my Garmin watch I registered about 1400 meters and so it was a little I registered a little bit short but I can say that between Saturday and Sunday I think this is the best that I have swam a course ever.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like I was swimming on a rope which means that I didn't have instances where I had to correct myself it's like I was on point and pointed in the right direction almost the entire time I had positioned myself in a way that kept me away from other athletes so I wasn't reaping the benefits of drafting but sometimes when you get into that kind of situation it can kind of stall your stroke a little bit because you're having to reposition yourself as others start to gather around you.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I remember there was a point in time where I looked up to make sure I was on point and there was almost nobody around me.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I looked over to my right and that looked like the entire race population was further out.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like why are they way out there?
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still inside of the kayaks and the swim support I'm looking at the buoys they're positioned correctly I'm in the right pos I'm in the right spot but everybody else is way over so I was trying to figure out I was like okay usually when you find yourself swimming alone you're like oh I'm way off course what's going on but that wasn't the case at all and I put very little confidence in the distance that's measured on a wearable device in open water.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know it's just spotty GPS connections anyway but it registered about 1400 meters and it was a little bit shy but you still get credit for swimming a 1500 meter course my average heart rate was about 140 max of 150 so it was a controlled effort.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: I felt strong and a lesson that I walked away from is that I swam this exact course months earlier in the summer at the Kinetic Jamestown race.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: Same swim course very different water conditions and that swim at Jamestown really put fear into me as like I I hope I don't have to go through those kind of conditions again because it really freaked me out because I thought I was well prepared.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: And this time the water was flat it was perfect conditions and I really got to see my fitness so I was really happy with my swim so really the story is really doesn't come down to my performance in the swim because I really didn't position myself place myself well within the aqua bike division based on the swim.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: It said that I was about fifth out of the water in the division.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: So really it's not the swim that that really got me where it was that I ended up but without that swim it means that I would have had to rely harder on the bike.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: So my swim still made me competitive and didn't take a whole lot out of me because I could have kept swimming with no problems at all.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I felt super strong and efficient.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: The different cadences worked great swimming against the current I had a little bit of a higher cadence a little higher breath rate and it I really muscled through that water but once I got to the point where I was with the current I lengthened that stroke out slowed the cadence down a little bit in order to make myself longer into the water and that worked fantastic because if I compare the first half of the swim to the second half of the swim you're talking almost minutes of a difference.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's remarkable and so I don't feel like it was just current based because I don't feel like there was a very strong current at all but I think the way that I approached the swim was significantly different in my selection of strokes and that led me some to some pretty decent performance I think in my opinion so the swim is not the story on Saturday what is the story is the bike and so let's get into what my bike performance was so for the Garmin output that I had I did the bike in one hour and five minutes 26 seconds I was 24.63 miles so I averaged around 22.6 miles an hour at an average power of 240 watts normalized power of 250 255 was 1.06 you want that number to be one or close to one so I can say that this is probably the most efficient that I have ridden in a race ever.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Even in training in training I can't generate these kind of VI indexes.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: I tend to be a little surgy in in my bike riding and so that's something that I need to work on and something that I'm fine tuning.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: So this ride in particular I was really efficient even compared to previous races my average heart rate was just shy of 160 so that is a solid like zone three maybe maybe low end of zone zone four effort for me.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: Cadence I had an average cadence of about 85 RPM which is really good for me.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: Most of my races I'm I find myself in the low 80s and I've spent a long time trying to build my cadence in order to support a higher turnover on the bike in order to preserve the strength and durability in the legs so that I can run off of the bike.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're sitting there thinking it's like oh how do I improve my cadence you can't just do it just by happenstance it's very purposeful and structured training that brings about that kind of adaptation and I've been working on this for a long time and now I'm starting to see the evidence of the work that I put in so with that VI index of 1.06 it shows that my performance wasn't just from just repeated high effort surges that are on the bike this was very strong consistent persistent and reasonably controlled effort throughout the entire time that I was on the bike what it did tell me is that my previous FTP is too low.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: So my training zones are off what is a zone three or a tempo effort under that old methodology is really probably closer to a zone two effort.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: So what this race showed me was the evidence that I needed to validate my my hypothesis was that my zones were a little off and so this has given me the evidence that I need to adjust my FTP higher in order to reset my zones.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: Previous to this I had set my FTP around 227 watts.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: So FTP is your functional threshold in power it's the maximum effort that you can sustain for the duration of a 60 minute effort.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: And what cyclists tend to do is they'll just do very specific tests like on a trainer in order to determine what that threshold is.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't test a lot.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like tests A, we race on the road so doing a trainer test tells me what kind of power I can hold on a trainer.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't tell me the kind of power that I can hold in the open road where I'm open to other conditions like wind, terrain, condition of the highway that you're riding on all kinds of other stuff that that comes into play.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: I tend to use real world efforts in order to determine really kind of like what my FTP should be and this was the evidence that I needed to justify it.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I've gone from an FTP of 227 and I think now I've got it set I think at 250 which is a pretty sizable jump in just the span of maybe a year and a half after I came back from my surgeries and things and I started to get back on the bike that FTP was reasonable then because I had lost so much bike fitness that 227 was probably a pretty high estimate of my FTP at that point in time but I've the amount of time that I've spent generating bike fitness has shown that it's resulted in a significantly higher FTP.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: The bottom line that I got from this race was that my cycling fitness had moved beyond my old training zone so that has been a big reset.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: So the question that I had for Saturday is did I execute the bike in such a way where I felt like I could run off of it which means that I may have gone a little bit I've been a little bit too conservative because I should have ridden in a way that didn't really leave a whole lot in the tank to run.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that that makes sense and after I got off the bike I honestly don't think that I could have had a quality run off of that bike.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: I may have held back just a little bit because I don't know if I could really sustain just an all-out effort and just ride absolutely as hard as I possibly could go and just leave it all out there.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because I did have to turn around and race in the very next day but I feel like the effort that I put in was was in line with the purpose and my goal for the day.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: I averaged like I said 240 watts 255 watts of normalized power for 65 minutes.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that's pretty solid in my opinion so let's talk about the results then what this did is this generated my very first place finish in a race I've over the years I've done all these races and I've never been able to place higher than second place.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just been over the past two years where I started to see some some performance gains.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I've never ever finished first and so this was the first time that I finished first.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I was super happy with the performance my mind was blown that when I got off and off of the bike and started looking at the standings that it showed my name at the top of the list and it's still a little shocking to me just because I've never been that kind of athlete where I've saw where I've seen that kind of performance and I guess in my own internal perceptions of me as an athlete I still see myself as that obese guy before I had gastric bypass so I still see a 365 pound you know pack a day smoker staring at me in the mirror even though that's not who I am anymore and that's not even remotely close.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I still see them I still see that guy in my mind's eye.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's what has led me to this perception that I should prepare to complete rather than prepare to compete.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm trying to change that that thought process and it's hard work.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard work to do that but I think this weekend really gave me some some fuel and allowed me to move one step further in that process of correcting who I see when I look in the mirror let's get into Sunday.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the rest of the day on Saturday I spent the day just resting and refueling I also had a very structured refueling plan post-race when I was going to eat what I was going to eat I ate very clean in order to replenish what I had spent racing hard so that it would set me up for the possibility of being able to race hard again the next day.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm very happy with how I was able to execute it was a very disciplined approach which is something that I kind of struggle with a little bit.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: I struggle with discipline in the kitchen and so the fact that I was able to execute this and withstand the desires like oh I want a celebratory pizza and this kind of stuff and just maybe get maybe get some ice cream as a treat.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: No, I stayed the course stuck with the plan ate clean and prepared for the next day did some recovery stuff I was at the race venue and I was rolling out my legs with a stick roller and then when I got back to the hotel I got into the Norma Tech and did some compression theory or compression therapy and the stuff seemed to work because I felt great.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: I felt ready to race actually and felt fantastic.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: So but what happened is that day Some severe storms blew into the area, and there was actually a tornado touchdown just across the river from where the race venue is, so it's not that far away.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we had some pretty severe storms blow in, lots and lots of rain and wind.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the question was like, okay, what's this going to do to the conditions in the morning?
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because it was still projected to be raining and pretty pretty poor conditions at the start of the race.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so that kind of meant that, okay, how am I going to do I need to adjust my execution of the race to accommodate for these kind of conditions?
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I just kind of sat back and I was like, oh, let's just see how things materialize.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: And got through the night with all the storms and everything else.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so Sunday was not a clean test in terms of performance.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this was a going to be a non-wetsuit legal swim.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: Water temperature kind of remained the same, really.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought that there was a possibility that maybe with some rain falling that it might cool the river down a little bit.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: But no, the temperature remained the same.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it was still non-wetsuit legal.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: But what it did do is it stirred up the river a little bit.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a little bit choppier than it was on Saturday.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew that I was going to have to contend with not as smooth conditions.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to prepare myself mentally for to face that, especially going against the current.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: When you're going with the current, maybe a little chop isn't all that bad because the current is helping support your body position.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: But when you're swimming against the current and chop, your body position kind of suffers a little bit because it's harder to swim in.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you may not be able to sustain that higher cadence in order to fight against the current and keep your position.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: So really what I was trying to do was say, let's just swim as best as we can, because now I am doing the full race.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a swim, bike, and run.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I have to swim it in a way that doesn't take too much out of me to prepare me for the bike and the run to go hard on those two.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I can't just swim it all out and just go for it.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I swam it very clean.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think that the swim distance that registered on my watch was like right around 750 meters.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was like right on point.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I found myself swimming alone.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody was out, was further out, and I just couldn't figure out because I was on target.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I finished the swim in 1536, so it's a pretty solid pace for me.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: That works out to about a 205 pace, which is really what I see in my endurance swims in the pool.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: What it did do is because I was racing in the Clydesdale, it put me in fifth out of the water in the Clydesdale division.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: But what was interesting is the spread of the member of my fellow competitors in that division.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty tight spread.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: And even though I finished fifth in that, the now, so this is a little bit of an alluding to the results.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: I missed the podium by a minute and a half.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I placed fourth in the Clydesdale.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I missed the podium.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was pretty disappointed.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_00: But what I did find is that I outswam the podium finishers.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: So my time was 1536, but all the others swam anywhere between a 1552 up to a 1624.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: So my swim was stronger than the people that found themselves on the podium.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that leads me to conclude that the swim was not my weakness.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was a decent swim.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't find it was very challenging.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: I swam it better than I thought I would, and things just held up really well.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel that my swim allowed me to be competitive up to that point.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: So a swim is not the reason I missed the podium.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: So off of out of the water, into T1, and on the bike, my bike split was 3646.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I had an average speed of about 20.2 miles an hour.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: My my power was around 212 for average power.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: Normalized power was 235.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that VI index that I was talking about before, not as tight, a little surgy, but with it being a shorter race, I could be, I could, I could do that.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't really looking for smooth and consistent cycling because it was only it's a 12, it's basically a 12-mile bike ride, and you just go.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: But the conditions that we were riding, because it was still raining during the bike, so that does play into my ability to really get after it like I would have liked.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I now have upgraded my helmet to I have an aero helmet now with a face shield.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: And an important lesson that I learned is if it's raining, put a towel over your helmet to protect the face shield.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because when I got into T1, both the inside and outside of the face shield were wet.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: Was wet.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it made seeing another thing impossible.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm trying to put it on my helmet as I'm riding down the road, and I can't see, I can't see anything.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm having to peel this face shield off, try and wipe it down a little bit maybe and put it back on.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_00: Still can't see anything.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I just had to attach it to the helmet and forego the arrow.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: And like it cost me a little bit in terms of being arrow in that position with this face shield just kind of stuck on top of the helmet.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't the best, but lesson learned that cover the helmet and transition.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: I I felt that this was a well-executed bike.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_00: I still got after it given the conditions.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: And especially after the performance from the previous day, I was able to go out and still hammer it on the bike.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: I actually finished with the fastest bike split in the division.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I finished first in the Clydesdale division in terms of the bike split.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that was 24 hours after finishing first in the Alco Bike.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: So solid bike weekend.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't be happier with the performance.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: And if I look at where my bike was in terms of the podium finishers, the guy the guy who won first place, I beat him by 22 sec by 22 seconds.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: And by the third place, I beat him by a minute, almost two minutes.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I was actually on the podium up until I came off the bike.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: So off the bike, I was on the podium.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: Into T2, that cost me a little bit.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like it was still super efficient compared to what I normally see, but I did lose some of my advantage coming out of T2.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I lost about 52 seconds off of the third place podium finisher.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so that kind of ate away at my lead a little bit, but not enough to really say, okay, I have no shot now at the podium.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was still on the podium because my lead was more than just the 52 seconds that I lost in transition compared to how he finished.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: So this is where I lost the podium was on the run.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty consistent with what I would think would be the result, but I finished the 5k in 3321.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that gives me about a 1044 mile, which for me is really good, especially since I estimate my zone two pace at around 1130, and that's the high end of zone two.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_00: So a 1044 average pace puts me solidly in what I feel is a tempo, a tempo effort.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: And given the the lack of run volume that I have and the issues that I have to deal with in terms of my durability on the run, I was really happy with a 1044.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_00: But it forced me, I I finished ninth in terms of the grouping just for the run.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_00: So this is where the whole story changes.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_00: I ran a 3321 5k, but the third place finisher ran a 3039.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so that tells the story is that I lost the podium on the run.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_00: A little bit of an inefficient T2, and that kind of ate away at it, because I think I might have been able to eke out a little bit of a faster run pace if I hadn't if I hadn't lost that 52 seconds off of T2.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it might have made the chances of getting on the podium with a slightly better run without really like deeper fitness in order to set me up for performance.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I kind of I know I got confirmation on where my weaknesses are.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_00: I still feel like there's improvement to make on the transitions, and that's just free time and free performance.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I need to become a little bit more efficient in transition.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think my setup is fine, but I think I can I need to improve that somewhat.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: And also just need to improve my run.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_00: So how am I going to go about that?
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's where this race result kind of comes into play and is kind of showing me.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it will, it's not necessarily showing me because I know I had a feeling on where it was, but it's really giving me the confirmation that I need to know how to move forward and what things I need to look at and consider doing differently.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just looking at my notes here.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_00: Entering so, yeah, some specific.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was actually ahead by two minutes when I was when I came in to T2 off of the bike.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that that that really does tell the story that practicing your transitions can make the difference between a podium spot and missing the podium.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_00: But that run, man, it's still that's still the spot that I need to uh improve on.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_00: So what am I doing next?
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to look at this in terms of my levels of preparation.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_00: So this is how I'm looking at my training going forward.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_00: Is there are three levels I feel to my prep.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_00: I can either be prepared to complete the race.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're an athlete out there who's maybe doing their first sprint or doing Olympic or whatever it is, you're doing your first race.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: This may be a completely reasonable and valid level of preparation, is just to complete the race.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that is a bad level or somehow not as significant, but for where I am in my journey, I need to break that mindset of I want to be prepared to complete.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I need to move away from that.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_00: So can I need to ask the question is like, can I cover the distance without falling apart?
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because my run wasn't bad, it wasn't poorly executed because I actually negative split the 5k.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not that it was a poor execution.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_00: I just think that my speed just wasn't competitive with the other people that showed up on that day.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it goes to show you that it's not just your absolute performance, but it's who shows up on race day.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, you could do everything perfectly well and still miss those award opportunities because you had an incredible field that you were competing against, and maybe it was completely different from all the other years that you may have looked at in determining how well do I need to perform to give me a shot at the podium.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_00: You could just have just one of those years, man, where just some incredible athletes show up and you did everything that you could do to set you up for success and you missed it.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not that you executed poorly, it's just you just didn't have that next gear that everybody else had on that day.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_00: So even after racing hard on Saturday, I still came out, ran the entire 5k sprint, and negative split it, performed well, in my opinion, and had a solid run.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I am beyond the point where I need to be prepared to complete.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's why I lent I tend to lean so heavily on high volume training, is because this is the mindset that I've had.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_00: Is I just want to be, I want the volume that sets me up to be able to complete the event, not what's the volume that I need and then what's the volume and intensity mixture that I need to perform and compete.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_00: Those are very different questions and very different levels of preparation.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that leads me into the second level of preparation is am I prepared to perform?
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_00: Can I execute a race that is close to my current ability despite the demands of the race that I'm about to take on?
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that my run fitness is right around probably this level two.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I feel like I'm prepared to perform because the negative split gave me that kind of evidence.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that I ran it controlled and didn't actually just absolutely collapse at the end.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't walk any of it.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_00: I still had solid control over my heart rate and my breathing.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_00: I felt in control the whole time.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I was running, but I didn't have enough to really threaten the rest of the competitors in my division.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like I was prepared to perform.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely was prepared to complete.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't really a question.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_00: So the question becomes what do I need to do to reach level three, which is prepare to compete.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_00: I need to be able to find that next gear.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_00: I need to find a way to generate specific adaptation that gets me away from just being prepared to complete and perform to really I want to be a threat to the other racers.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I think if I had to look at the three disciplines of triathlon, the swimming, cycling, and running, where do I stand in this level three mindset?
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_00: So the way that I view this is that, okay, my swimming, I still beat the the top three podium finishers in my swim.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I think my swim is competitive.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's by no means elite, by any means, but I feel like I'm a fairly strong swimmer.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like I'm efficient enough to where the swim doesn't take a whole lot out of me.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: So the volume, the way that I approach my swimming is a high volume approach and maybe less frequency because of the durability issues that I have in my shoulders, but that's something that I'm working on inside the weight room, outside as well.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's still a work in progress.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, but I have seen significant improvements in body position and my swimming performance just over the past several weeks because there was one workout that I had during the week where I was like, man, that was and I looked at my splits and I was like, man, that is faster than all my other workouts going back to the beginning of the training block for this.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this was just a matter of like two to three weeks ago.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it just came, it materialized out of nowhere.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm thankful that God allowed me to see this, see to see the potential that I'm working towards something and that it is working.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_00: I just have to be patient and continue to allow it to build and still stack on top of it, right?
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like I'm moving in the right direction.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_00: I know that because I don't do a whole lot of speed work in the pool, so the only way to one of the ways to get faster is to get used to uncomfortability in the water.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_00: Swim hard, swim fast, and you'll become a faster swimmer.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_00: Is it the only way?
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_00: No, absolutely not.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_00: But you can't go in and swim zone two all the time and expect to be faster and see significant drops in your time.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's just not the way this works.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I do know that there has to be some intensity that I have to add into my swim training, but I feel like I'm in the right ballpark with my swim.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_00: Cycling, I'm right up there with the top.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you, I'm not on a time trial bike.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have a triathlon bike.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a 2014 specialized Roubaix that has thousands and thousands of miles on it.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_00: I do have a set of carbon race wheels on it with clip-on arrow bars, but I'm able to generate this kind of performance on that kind of setup.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_00: So the thing that I've been kicking around lately is now it's I think now it's time to pull the trigger on a TT bike to really see where the performance could go.
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_00: Do I feel like my bike is holding me back?
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe a little bit.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I've got a really strong, I feel like I have a really strong bike engine.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_00: Could I get stronger?
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_00: But at what cost?
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a cyclist, I'm a triathlet.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_00: So there's that opportunity cost for riding more, and the specificity in riding is that it costs me the time that I could spend running, swimming, recovering, all this other stuff.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I feel riding five days or being on the bike five days a week is a really nice sweet spot for me.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think I'm gonna try and keep that in my future training plans and the structure is that kind of volume, but maybe start to bring in some more specificity into the plan rather than just saying, okay, this is going to be, I know I need to get stronger, so I need to do big gear work, so I'm gonna work on some strength stuff.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know I need to do cadence stuff, so I'm gonna do some some neuromuscular high cadence stuff and spin-ups and all this kind of things to get used to that that adaptation.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then just long drawn out endurance intervals to really get efficient in the position.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to find a way to stay in arrow.
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to be pretty strong and hold that position.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, really, what I have to do is I don't think that there's a whole lot that I could really work on in terms of improving my bike fitness and bike performance, because it's gonna, like I said, it's gonna come at a cost.
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe it's time to maybe look at a different investment that I can make and see if I can get into a different kind of position on the bike, a little bit more of aggressive position in an in the T on a T T bike, in order to save some energy and efficiency for the run.
• 1:05:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because if I can generate the same level of speed, even maybe a little bit more speed, but it costs me in terms of less watts that I have to generate, then that means that I have more going into the run than what I had before.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so everything that I need to do now is to find ways to set me up for a better run.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the next step, I think, for the bike.
• 1:05:41
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm really competitive there.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna maintain that status quo a little bit and continue to develop deeper, deep fitness, but maybe just hold on to that deep fitness.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so I can't slack up, but I don't feel like there's really any significant movements that I need to make in terms.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_00: Of my bike.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, for the run, that's a completely different story, and I'm not going to say that, oh, I just need to run more because I don't feel that that's true.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_00: What I do find is that if I'm going to stick with short course racing, then adding more weekly miles isn't going to make me a faster runner.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_00: It may make me more efficient, but it's not going to generate faster speed.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not going to say that I need to implement Track Tuesday into my training plan.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_00: So what I need to do is I want to improve my running economy.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_00: I want to improve sustainable run pace.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that means trying to hold on to that higher effort for a longer period of time.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I need to really kind of dial in some race specific running rather than just saying, okay, I'm gonna like some of the runs that I really like to do are some strength conditioning runs where I'm changing the elevation on the treadmill.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing some some pace work, so it's alternating pace, hard effort, slower effort, harder effort, it's that that undulating effort.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I really need to maybe dial into some some race specific, like what are some 5K specific workouts that I can do that would allow me to either hold on to my pace and not let it decay, which I did not see in in this race because I got faster as the race progressed.
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like I'm pretty solid there.
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's just I need to increase my my pace capacity.
• 1:07:47
  SPEAKER_00: I need to be able to find a way to run a faster pace and hold that pace.
• 1:07:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm not going to take myself from running currently 18 miles a week and now start trying to run 35 to 40 miles a week because I have to find a way to protect my Achilles and my posterior tip.
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so I need to find a way that I can increase my volume, make me a more competitive runner that my body can still absorb and tolerate and not have me break down.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the things that I lack in my training plan are really like what we call key workouts, and these are like race-specific stuff.
• 1:08:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think I do skill-specific workouts really well.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like I want to become a stronger runner.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I throw in hill repeats and things like that and different efforts.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that I'm good at developing a particular skill, but whether that skill transfers to race performance is another question in itself.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's the next thing that I have to start to work on and figure out as an athlete and as a coach, because I do work with athletes, and so this is something that I want to start incorporating into their plans as well.
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_00: As my athletes become wiser and more experienced athletes, this is stuff that I want to fine-tune for them.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I need to figure it out for me as well.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess the question becomes if I want to do like these Olympic efforts, and especially if I'm interested in getting a spot for Team USA for the Olympic for this what they call the standard aquabike, which is the Olympic Aqua Bike, I need to find a way to be able to ride at a hard Olympic effort and be able to run off the bike.
• 1:09:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because my ultimate goal is not to become an aqua bike specialist.
• 1:09:45
  SPEAKER_00: My goal is to become a better triathlete.
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I do have what I would call a side goal of developing that skill or capitalizing, maybe that's a better phrase, capitalizing on the skills that I do have so that I can see some performance gains there and maybe fine-tune some of the different training strategies and try something new.
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_00: But it's ultimately not where I want to take my endurance career, and that's to give up triathlon and really focus on or just regular like cycle cycling, just bike races.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's not where I kind of see myself going.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Do I would I consider doing a bike race?
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, with without a doubt.
• 1:10:26
  SPEAKER_00: I love I absolutely love the bike.
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, but I I don't want to become a cyclist.
• 1:10:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a triathlete, so different approach.
• 1:10:36
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say that what can I do going forward?
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I I again I don't think that swimming needs to be the main focus of my work of my training plan.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think that I've already got solid frequency.
• 1:10:52
  SPEAKER_00: I get good open water exposure as a as a sponsor and a member of the Richmond Tri-Club.
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I do have access to the open water swims and all that kind of stuff that we do.
• 1:11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And just by trying to race more, maybe, it still gives me the open water feel, really fine-tuning some of the open water skills that that need to be better, better developed, sighting more efficiently, working on swim cadence and changing that up and finding a cadence that fits particular scenarios.
• 1:11:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's something that I've started to develop and work into my training plan and my the execution of some of my swim workouts, and it's working really well.
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want to be a single cadence swimmer to where it's just like I'm at the I'm at the mercy of whatever the conditions that I'm in because my swim is what it is.
• 1:11:39
  SPEAKER_00: No, I want my swim to dominate the conditions, so I want to be able to adapt to that and say, I've got a strategy for this particular scenario.
• 1:11:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the way I want to develop my swim.
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the run is just going to be a continued work in progress.
• 1:12:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that this 10-week build worked really well.
• 1:12:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think I had a great performance, and I'm really happy with it.
• 1:12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Despite not sweeping the weekend of grabbing a podium spot for both Saturday and Sunday, I think that my performance was such that it gave me confidence.
• 1:12:22
  SPEAKER_00: It still gave me my first number one podium spot, but the Sunday race showed me the stuff that I needed to see.
• 1:12:31
  SPEAKER_00: I needed to see where the holes are in my approach, in my methodology, and I had a feeling on what it was, but this is the confirmation that I needed.
• 1:12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I've already signed up for a solid A race in 2027.
• 1:12:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to release what I'm not going to say what that is yet, but I do expect that I may come up with another documentary series on that, so keep an eye out.
• 1:12:57
  SPEAKER_00: It could be something that's interesting as I build for another race.
• 1:13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I will say is it is a 70.3 distance race, and it's going to be interesting.
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's a different one than what the what I'm used to, but it's going to require a different approach to training.
• 1:13:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is what I needed to see.
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_00: I needed the results from this weekend to see how to implement a different plan going forward.
• 1:13:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it gave me confirmation on the methodology that I'm thinking about running with.
• 1:13:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's a completely different model, a training model for this particular race in 2027 than what I've used before.
• 1:13:34
  SPEAKER_00: This gave me confirmation that I'm going down the right path.
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel that this race showed me that the consistency that I have in my training built enough durability in me to race hard twice in the span of 24 hours.
• 1:13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I still think that there's good stuff that's going on in the plan.
• 1:13:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like I have to throw away the whole thing and start over.
• 1:14:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think it did give me some valuable insight.
• 1:14:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that this episode has helped you.
• 1:14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Whether just listening to how I approached this weekend and some of the insights that I had from the performance, the insights is where the value really lies.
• 1:14:21
  SPEAKER_00: How do we look at training?
• 1:14:23
  SPEAKER_00: How do we look at performance?
• 1:14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And how do we marry those two together to determine whether our training is appropriate or if there's anything that we need to do differently?
• 1:14:33
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that you found this episode helpful.
• 1:14:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if it's been helpful, I hope that you will consider subscribing and tuning in for future episodes.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you found that this episode resonated and you know that there you think that there might be somebody else who would benefit from this, I hope that you'll share it with them, send it to them, and help them along in their journey.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have any questions or any comments, I hope that you will leave a comment.
• 1:14:59
  SPEAKER_00: So this is going to be hosted on the YouTube channel for Tabula Rasa Racing.
• 1:15:04
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you guys for joining me.
• 1:15:06
  SPEAKER_00: This has been episode 119 of the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast, where I talked about my race recap from the Kinetic Patriot Olympic Aqua Bike on Saturday and the sprint triathlon on Sunday, the Patriot weekend.
• 1:15:20
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you guys for joining me.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've been your host, Coach Justin, and I hope to see you all again next time.
• 1:15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And until then, bye-bye, everyone.
• 1:15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Endurance sports have a way of teaching us patience, humility, and resilience.
• 1:15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Lessons that carry far beyond the workout.
• 1:15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Progress in endurance sports doesn't come from shortcuts, it comes from consistency, discipline, and doing the work when it's not glamorous.
• 1:16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Wherever you are on your endurance journey, keep trusting the process and honoring the work you put in each day.
• 1:16:08
  SPEAKER_00: If today's episode resonated, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone to help on their endurance journey.
• 1:16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget to join the conversation on our social sites to help build and foster a community where we all learn and support one another.
• 1:16:23
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be back with more stories and insights from Coach Justin and Katie.
• 1:16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Until then, visit the podcast website at the endurance athlete journey.buzzsprout.com for more episodes from the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast.
• 1:16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Have questions or comments about the podcast?
• 1:16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Feel free to send us an email at the endurance athlete journey at gmail.com.
• 1:16:47
  SPEAKER_00: For all things coaching, visit Coach Katie at fuel the number two run.com and Coach Justin at tabooleromsterracing.com.
• 1:16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Again, thank you for listening to the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast, and remember to find Julie in the journey.