8 Ways Triathletes Lose Time (And How to Fix Them)

TriDot Podcast Episode 307

8 Ways Triathletes Lose Time (And How to Fix Them)

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Andrew Harley: Welcome to the TriDot Podcast. Today I am joined by two triathlon coaches and they both are named Matt. It's the “Mattisode”, everybody.

Coach Matt Sommer works as the fitness director at Alamance Country Club and has a master's degree in exercise physiology. We also have coach Matt Bach, an Ironman, Maryland champion and triathlon coach.

They are joining us to talk about all the pesky little ways that triathletes lose time on race day and hopefully they'll help us fix them so that we can reach our finish lines a little bit faster. I'm Andrew, the average triathlete, voice of the people and captain of the middle of the pack. We treat the show like any good workout.

We'll start with a warmup question, settle into our main set conversation, and then wind things down by having our coaches answer an audience question on the cooldown. Let's get stuff. Let's get to it.

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

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Andrew Harley: All right, Matt, Matt, for our warm up question today, I want to know what was the most frustrating occasion where you lost time on the race course? The more you race, the more little quirky things happen when you're out there. What was just the one thing when I, when I posed this?

It's still just eating in the back of your mind. Matt Bach, take it away.

Matt Bach: Yeah, I have a feeling when you pose this question on social that a lot of people are going to answer with a mechanical issue that they have because that's just one of the things that just happens. There's so many pieces on a bike and for me, that is the case. That is immediately the first thing that came to mind. 2014 Timberman 70.3 up in Vermont.

I had a flat on my rear wheel. I had a deep dish, I think it was a Zip808.

And when I went to change it and I realized I never swapped out the repair kit from just a regular repair kit, you know, clincher with a short, what do you call it, a valve. And I didn't, I never swapped it out for the longer stem tube and so I couldn't change it.

I, I didn't have anything, you know, it, it wouldn't stick far enough through so that I could actually pump up the tire. So I, I ended up having a DNF. I, it was a silly mistake and not only did I lose time, but I lost the entire race. In that case.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do all the training. You work so hard and just one little over oversight. Your day was done way earlier than expected. So sorry about that, Matt.

Sorry to make you relive that. Thank you for reliving that so we could all.

If you're out there and you're making the switch to deeper wheels, make sure your flat repair kits, make sure your valves are long enough to stick through all of that carbon. That was definitely an adjustment for me when I, when I went from my entry level wheels to my mid depth wheels to my now the deeper ones that I have.

Same, same thing, Matt. Yeah, it's like, oh man, this isn't long enough. Find that out before race day. Good point. Matt Bachman, Coach Matt Sommer, what's this answer for you?

Matt Sommer: First of all, Andrew, thanks for having me. It's always great to be back on the Podcast with you, sharing some knowledge and I'm really excited about doing this one with coach Matt Bach today.

Both of us are big planners, organizers and I think our, our athletes are going to leave with a lot of wisdom and knowledge today that they can apply moving forward. So really to Matt Bach. I mean, you know, Matt's got a history on this course, but It's IRONMAN Maryland 2018. Worst day ever. Worst day ever.

I went, oh, terrible. Went down on the bike about mile 22, just one of those little lost focus, went down, drivetrain side popped right up like a rubber ball.

And I was like, oh, I'm good, I'm good. You know, kind of did the quick. Is anything broken? Moving the elbows, arms and bike tech was right there. Are you good? Do you need any help?

And I'm like, nope, I'm great, thanks. Throw my chain back on, start cycling again. And I shift into a gear and all I hear is rubbing.

And I look down and I notice my jockey wheel is rubbing my tire, my rear derailleur had bent when I went down and it was rubbing my jockey wheel that was rubbing the tire. So I shift out of it. Not in optimal gear, no power, it's not where I want to be.

And I'm kind of like kind of tiptoeing that line of the jockey wheel rubbing, not trying to maintain power. And I'm bleeding everywhere too. I mean, I was bloodied all over, can't go on.

My forearms are bloody and you know, I hit about mile 60 and all of a sudden I hear a boom. My rear wheel had shredded from the jockey wheel rubbing. It got caught up, throws me over the handlebars again.

Andrew Harley: This massive snowball effect of misfortune.

Matt Sommer: I'm in the weeds of. Of on the again. And I get up and now I have to wait for bike tech to come. They show up, they give me a rear wheel.

I get back on, and he looks at me and goes, your rear derailleur spent. And I'm like, yeah, I know. And he was like, I can try to bend the hanger back, but it might ruin your day.

And I'm like, at least I would have a reason now to stop, you know? So he starts to bend it.

Andrew Harley: Please ruin my day.

Matt Sommer: He gets it. So I'm like, all right, back on the bike.

And meanwhile, the guy that's in the 75 to 79 age group, no disrespect, goes flying by me, and I'm like, this is great. So I finished the bike. Get in transition. I switched, I changed. My tri shorts are shredded. I'm wearing a white tri top that is now pink from blood.

And I'm like, I just want to run. And they're like, oh, my God, look at you. And I'm like, just let me run. It still was a respectable day.

It was still 12 and some change, but it wasn't the day I had expected. Great grit, perseverance, probably some stupidity, but I finished. But, God, worst day ever. Worst day ever.

Matt Bach: So that's a brutal ordeal. How much time do you think you lost because of that whole message just waiting.

Matt Sommer: Easily an hour. But because of lass of power production, I mean, that's where you just. Your whole day.

Because I couldn't be in the appropriate gear because the jockey wheel was rubbing. So, you know, there was that piece of it too.

Andrew Harley: But you're on the bike course, you're on the bike course longer than you expect, so your run legs are more shot. Yeah, so it, yeah, it's. It cascades and there, there's, you know, there's. There's folks out there that would just. Just love a 12 something finish.

My, my Ironman was a 12 and something finish. But, yeah, Matt, Sommer, you. You're quite an athlete and you deserve more. Sorry that happened to you.

Matt Sommer: Just higher expectations, you know. But with expectations come disappointment. Right?

Andrew Harley: Yeah, there you go. There you go. This answer for me. I, I'm. I'm going to go away from bike mechanicals.

Thankfully for me, this was a porta potty stop that I knew in the moment was going to take me off of a certain goal. Pace clash, Daytona. I forget if it was 2021, 2022, one of those years.

I, I had a good swim I had a good bike and I was running strong like 705710 minute mile pace felt really good about halfway through that half marathon for that 70.3.

And I'm doing the math right, I'm looking at my garment, I'm doing the mental math and I'm like, if I hold this pace all the way around to the finish, I can get my first ever sub 5 hour half IRONMAN. And wouldn't you know it, I end up coming in in 50230, the two and a half minutes off of that landmark time.

And I had a porta potty stop about mile 8 where I was just like, man, I could not hold it any longer. I had to go visit the porta potty.

I, I got in and out as fast as I could, but I'm still sitting there doing what I needed to do and knowing this might be the thing that takes me off of going under sub 5.

So that was frustrating for me, was sitting in the porta potty knowing, man, if I could have, if my gut could have held on a little longer, I might have gotten that sub five. And I, I didn't. So I'm still seeking that. That's, that's one of my goals in the sport moving forward.

I would love to go sub five and maybe, maybe another day, maybe another day. But I didn't get it that day because I had the crap, guys. I had to crap. We're going to throw this out to our audience.

I want to know whether it was a big a race like an Ironman or was it a local sprint, whether it was a bike mechanical, whether it was a something, something more similar to mine. What is just the most frustrating thing that's happened to you on race day where you just lost time because of it? Let us know.

Find, find my post asking you this question on Facebook. We'll ask this question a couple spots on tried out social media and can't wait to hear what you have to say.

Announcer: Let's go.

Andrew Harley: On to our main set and a quick housekeeping item.

I don't think I've said this in a long time, but if you have not taken the time to leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you consume our Podcast, please go ahead and do that. It just helps our show with the algorithms and all that, all that tech jazz, please. And thank you. Thanks so much.

Our show is now on video on YouTube and on Spotify. If you consume us in those places, you can watch me and Matt and Matt have this lovely conversation or you might be in your car listening, whatever.

We're just happy to be with you talking about triathlon. So. So guys, I selected both of you, Matt and Matt, for this Podcast because I know as athletes you're both very competitive.

You, you look for every second you can find on the race course for your own performance.

And you both work with plenty of athletes who are targeting things like world champion slot chip slots, they're targeting age group podiums, et cetera, et cetera. And so you're very, very well versed in helping other athletes get the most out of their fitness on race day.

Finish as fast as they can and look for where are those spots in your race day where you might be losing time. And so I brought you two on to kind of have this conversation to, to help us not lose time when we go to the race course.

We work so hard to earn our fitness and our training and it really just sucks to lose time because your derailleur is bent or something like that. So guys, thanks so much for coming on and having, having this conversation with me.

Matt Bach: Yeah, and I'll jump in here. 30, 30,000 foot view on this is like in general in triathlon, like getting better at the sport, there are so many things that you could do and at a 30,000 foot view it's like the strategy can be just find the lowest hanging fruit and pluck that and then go to the next lowest hanging fruit and pluck that and then just you keep going. And there's hundreds of, maybe even thousands of things that you could do, some of them that are much more meaningful than others.

So as like a new athlete, some, you know, the beginner athletes that I work with and that I talk to. The lowest hanging fruit is just your fitness, right? You just, you just want to improve your fitness.

You don't need to go spending thousands of dollars on a new bike or thousands of couple grand on some race wheels or you know, to, to pick up a minute here or two minutes there, or to spend all sorts of effort trying to hone in on like learning how to do a flying mount or a flying dismount. That five seconds or two minutes or whatever it might be isn't going to be what makes a break, breaks your day.

And that might impact you in a matter of seconds, maybe minutes.

But the thing that's going to be the lowest hanging fruit for you at the beginning is just get some good solid training, get a routine going, get on, try to get your training going in a consistent way because that's where you're going to make many, many minutes, if not hours of time, depending on kind of the length of the race that you're doing and those improvements that you can make in your training alone. Build that engine.

Andrew Harley: I just want to know as coaches, when you're having conversations with your athletes heading in the race weekend before they got a big gay race coming up, you're on the line talking to them. What are those conversations like when you're prepping an athlete for race day?

What kind of things are you trying to point out to them to make sure they execute well and get the most out of their fitness?

Matt Sommer: Oh.

So, I mean, definitely the first thing we're going to talk about is where are they, like, mentally, physically, and emotionally leading into that race? I mean, I think that's going to be the first thing we got to inventory.

Clearly, we've been having discussions months leading into this, whether it's their. A race. What is the goal we're going after? Are we looking at a world championship slot? Are we looking at a pr.

Are we looking at just crossing the finish line? What is our purpose, what is our goal, and what are we going after?

So I think reminding them of what the goal at hand is and reminding them of what we're looking to accomplish, what they're looking to accomplish on that day. You know, I always tell my athletes, don't go in with expectations, okay? Expectations create disappointment. We all have heard that. We all know that.

So it's being realistic. I think race day is about a celebration of the training. I remind them of that. I also have a great analogy that I like to use with my athletes.

One of them is, if you played band when you were in middle school and you showed up for your band recital concert, did the conductor, did the band leader put a new song out there for you to sing that night or play? No. It's the song you've been practicing all semester long. Don't go out on race day and try to play a new song. Stick to the song we've been playing.

You've practiced it, you've played it, You've dialed it in. You know it by heart. Don't go out and try to do something new and special and play a new song on race day. Just do what we've been practicing.

Stick to all the plans, stick to everything to a T that we've been doing and just execute.

Andrew Harley: All right, Coach Matt, Coach Matt, let's. Let's give some free coaching today and let's kind of learn from you guys. These eight places.

These eight ways that we've identified where triathletes lose time on race day. Please help us not lose this time on race day.

And the first way we identified and when I say we this is the tried out staff coaching staff that where triathletes lose time on race day is by not thoroughly preparing for the race in advance. So talk to us when we talk about not being thoroughly keyword thoroughly prepared for a race in advance.

What comes to mind for you here on things athletes need to think through doing to make sure they're prepared? Coach Matt Bach?

Matt Bach: Yeah, there's so many of them and a number of them, you know. One, make your training specific to the course that you're going to be racing.

So understand what the course looks like, what the elevation profile is like. Are the hills in the back loaded on the bike or back loaded on the run or are they spread out evenly or towards the front?

And is it hilly relative to other courses?

If it is hilly, I mean you're going to want to ride run hills and you're going to want to practice and build some strength, hit the gym maybe more often. If it's going to be windy, you might want to start practicing riding and running in the wind.

Especially if you throw your maybe during a race rehearsal you throw the deep dish or the disc on the, on the bike and do your race rehearsal with the wind in a windy place so that you can kind of feel what it's like having the wind buffet you around the road and be prepared for that. Right. That kind of feeling because that does take a toll mentally and physically over time. So be practiced on that practice.

If you're like a sprint and Olympic distance athlete and you're trying to let's say compete at US Nationals or ITU long long or something, then you could, you need to get like the flying mount this mount down so that you can save I mean even just in that kind of format, a handful of seconds might mean the difference between you being on the podium or not or doing something pretty magical and maybe not if you don't take all the opportunities that you can to scrape a few seconds here, a few seconds there. So the athlete guide and the athlete briefings can help get you prepared with an understanding of all the information.

So if you understand, for instance that there's a slowdown zone where you're not allowed to pass like a no pass zone on the course, then that might be good information for you to know for one so that you don't make a pass and then get penalized.

But really, even, maybe even more so is knowing that it's coming up and positioning yourself leading into that zone so that you don't need to pass people or you don't feel like you're just losing time because you forgot about this no pass zone. And now you're stuck behind somebody who's much slower than you.

So you can kind of position yourself properly and then use it as a reprieve or recovery. And so maybe you're. You're pushing it a little bit beforehand, and then you're pushing it right afterwards.

And during that, no, no pass zone, then you. You use that as a recovery. But knowing about it and understanding little details and nuances of the race like that can help you not lose time or.

Or gain time relative to the competition. Uh, and then on race morning itself, like, you know, in advance of the race, get to T1, get to the transition zones early and get set up.

You know, you're not going to sleep well anyway, so what's an extra 20 minutes? Get up and make sure you're not rushed.

Make sure you got everything set up properly so that you're not setting yourself back right from the beginning.

Matt Sommer: So first off, I mean, Matt nailed it. I think all the nuggets he shared there are spot on.

I only have a couple I can actually throw in there to add on, but two of which I think are pretty valuable. You know, Matt really point out course specifics. If they're hills, you got to train on the hills when be ready.

But heat and humidity, those are two other factors we got to take into consideration are environmental conditions. Heat, humidity, or even cold. So much of our training, if we're going to a hot, humid place, you gotta be prepared for that.

You've gotta do your due diligence and prepping the body for it.

You know, there's tons of philosophies out there, whether we incorporate sauna time, whether we just get outside and train in extra layers of clothing, knowing we're going there. I laugh. I've been training east in North Carolina and racing west where there's no humidity, and it's been amazing.

My race performances have been great because the North Carolina heat and humidity, when I've gone to Boise, and it's like air conditioning.

So really making sure that you're staying on top of those things and doing your due diligence to make sure that your body is prepared for the environmental conditions you're going into. And the other thing that I'm going to talk about, as far as Being prepared for race day doesn't have to do with race day. Race day is the celebration.

It's the, it's the block of weeks leading up to it. Did you do the training? Did you put yourself in the position for success? Did you stick to your long rides?

Did you execute them as they were supposed to be done? Did you go out on your four hour bike ride and just do what you wanted because it was hard? Or did you do the work that was being asked of you?

If you do your work and if you come in prepared for the race, it's a celebration of the training. Race day is nothing but singing the song you've been practicing. If you didn't practice, you're not going to play well.

Andrew Harley: So guys, the second way our team identified that athletes lose time on race day is by mismanaging race morning and or your on site gear setup.

When you guys as coaches think about race morning and talking to your athletes about managing race morning correctly that you can, you can race strong. Matt Sommer. What do you think about here?

Matt Sommer: The first thing that jumps out to me on this one is definitely your transition setup. And I think the biggest thing you got to think about is that's kind of home base transition is your home base for the day.

Is it two different transitions? Is it a clean transition? Meaning that, you know, like a typical, a full 140.6 is typically going to be a clean transition.

You have bags, so you're going to have a bag System and most 70.3s are going to be a transition is right there at your bike. So setting up your home base to me is the key to success for the rest of the day. I'm very meticulous.

I split my quadrants, my, you know, 70.3 into quadrants. And I explain this to my athletes because systematically if we understand and have a purpose behind what we're doing, it's more meaningful.

So again, you know, top left, if I lay my towel down on the ground, that top left corner is going to be my running shoes and then in next to my running shoes on top of it it's going to be my hat or visor and in there folded up is going to be my run bib and it's also going to be any type of nutrition I need so I can pick it up. It's a closed contained thing that I can manage while running. You don't have to put it on right there.

So we discussed that there's time savings right there of take it with you, put it on as you're going, your sunglasses, gels, whatever you might need. Throw your running shoes on, they're there. The bottom left quadrant is going to be my cycling shoes. I personally, I do not put them on the bike.

I just have never again. I'm pretty competitive cyclist. I just haven't gotten to that point. I like putting socks on.

I always have some baby powder in the socks already sitting there. They're unfolded, they slide right on. Bike shoes on, helmet is upside down on the ground. I don't want to get knocked off my bike.

Those helmets are expensive. I don't want to chip my visor. And I also use my helmet as a vehicle to hold items that I need to put on my body.

So if I have gels, if I have ketones, if I have anything that I might need that I need to slide into back pockets on my bike, it's sitting in my helmet. So I don't forget it, I don't miss it. And it's right there because I'm visually looking at it. And then the bottom right hand corner is open.

It's for me to stand on, it's for me to dry my feet off. It's for me to sit down if I need it. It's where I'll leave my wetsuit, my goggles, my swim cap.

You know, when I come out of the water, I take my cap off my swim and my goggles in my hand. And as I'm pulling my sleeve off, I leave them in the sleeve. They're contained. I don't have to worry about dropping my goggles, dropping my swim cap.

If a peeler is there, they pull it off, it's still contained. I take my wetsuit off as soon as I get out of the water. Because otherwise, what's everybody doing in transition?

Standing there, losing balance, fumbling around, bumping each other. Mine's all done.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, it's a good show.

Matt Sommer: Yeah. I throw it down and I can get the business, you know. So to me, that home base is priority.

Now, if you're in a bag system, how you pack your bag is key. You know, you need to pack the bag the way you're going to be taking it out to put it on. So you really need to think reverse. If my helmet, if I. If you know, if the helmet's going to be on top, you better be ready to address that helmet on first, because that's a rule. So I really like having the helmet on top of the items you're going to take out. I’ll put the helmet on first.

I'll put the items that are in the helmet, on my body, on my bike, whatever I need to do. And then I get down and work my way down and go down systematically. So.

So you gotta find what works for you, but you also need to practice it and it's not unusual. I might encourage my athletes to say, pack your bags, practice it at home, see what works, try different ways. Okay. You know, a couple other things.

And again, I don't want to steal all the thunder, but things I think about here is making sure your bike computer's on, making sure that you turned off the auto shutoff feature. I can't tell you how many times athletes go, they go to their bike and they turn their bike computer on and during the swim, it auto powered off.

It creates frustration. They got to turn it on. It's not calibrated. It's an easy Garmin feature. Turn it off that way it's on when you get there.

And other little things, I mean, there's so many things. But home base on race morning, making sure it's set up is so important to success throughout the rest of the day. Organization, being prepared.

I think that's going to be the key word that Matt and I keep reiterating is preparation.

Matt Bach: Yeah, I love. Yeah, a lot of good tips there.

And, and one of them I really like is that visualization of the, the, the, the towel and the different quadrants of where you place things. That's awesome.

One of the things I observe on that is, you know, if you have, and I've heard this from, from another coach or two, if you have your bike items closer to you as you get out of the water, then you can address those first because that's what you're doing extra. And then towards the back of the towel is where your run gear goes because that's what you're going to be doing after the bike.

And so you kind of have it sequentially there so that you're not stepping on your bike stuff while you're trying to get your run stuff and you know, or the other way around and on with the bag. If it's a full ironman distance, I usually just take it and I just dump it all out so that, that way I don't even have to pack it.

I don't have to fish through and try to find something. If something that was supposed to be towards the top fell to the bottom, just take the whole thing and just, just dump it all out on the ground.

And one thing that helps too with that is don't Only have what you need and only what you need.

Andrew Harley: Yeah.

Matt Bach: And if there's a, like a high percentage chance that you might need something else. Right. Like, that's fine, include that. But you want to keep it simple.

You don't want to have, you know, everything from your, your cabinet, you know, at home, every form of nutrition you've ever had before, and all these, like, four pairs of socks and, you know, this and that and.

Because then when you dump it out, you're, you're fishing through all of it and trying to make decisions on the spot and you're trying to, you know, stuff it all back into the bag and you're taking it out and it's just sifting through to find what you want. It's just not good. So you try to keep it simple. If you need six items, you just have six items there, maybe seven or eight. Right.

But you're not going to have like, you know, 20 items in there because you just don't know what you're going to want to eat or whatever.

Don't, don't go too crazy with it, especially if you're sort of more towards the pointy end and you're trying to rifle through that stuff relatively quickly and make your decisions and get moving.

Andrew Harley: The third way that triathletes lose time on the race course is through core swim course navigation. When I pulled the coaches on our staff to say, hey, we got this episode coming up. What, what, what do you think?

Where do you see your athletes losing time? What are the things you like to address? This was the one thing or one of the things that every coach mentioned.

It is so easy to lose time on the race course through poor swim course navigation. Matt Bach, talk to us about this one.

Matt Bach: Yeah, and I think one of them is like, one of the tips here is very obvious. Get, get out there and do some practice open water swimming. Look at the map, see how zigzaggy it is with your GPS.

See how many yards you swam for, something that should be shorter. Swim the same course over and over again and see if you can swim the same route in fewer yards.

So, meaning you're doing a better job of swimming from point A to point B to point C to point D, however many points there are. But make sure that you're swimming in straight lines.

So you might swim a certain route and it's 2,300 yards and then you swim it over and over and over again and you get better at sighting and better at directing yourself and navigating yourself and maybe all of a sudden, that 2300 yard course is now 2150. Now you've just saved yourself 150 yards or what's that like? You know, it depends on how fast you're swimming with. A couple minutes maybe. So yeah.

Matt Sommer: I think two things that jump out to me on this one is correct goggle selection and I think bilateral breathing. I think these are two skills that if we practice efficiently, you know, that can really make navigation that much better. You know, get there.

I always encourage my athletes, get a practice swim on course, get out in the water, taste it, smell it, pee in it, do whatever you need to do the day before the race. Feel what it's going to feel like at the time the race is supposed to start. You know, also, where's the sun?

Make sure you know where the sun is for sighting purposes.

Matt Bach: Where's the sun?

Andrew Harley: Where, where are the waves going to be coming from if there's waves?

Matt Sommer: Current 100% you. Great point. Last two weekends ago, I did Boise 70.3. Worst swim course ever. The buoys were crooked from so much wind.

You know, this is where the windsurfers went to windsurf. We're out there the day before the race and we see these windsurfers flying, cooking, and we're like, oh, this sucks.

I mean, it was direct sight into the sun. The buoys were moving. So you just got to get out there and practice to know what you're getting into. But goggle selection is huge, tinted clear.

What's the water you're swimming in? Is it brackish? Is it lake? So you need to know that's going to help with navigation.

Making sure that you got anti fog put in your goggles beforehand because if you can't see, you can't swim straight. So just all of those little things to make sure. One other thing that I encourage is, and to Matt's point as well, is practice in your wetsuit.

If you don't ever get in your wetsuit and all of a sudden you get out there in it, your stroke changes. It is not the same stroke. Your body position changes, the tension in your neck changes because of what the wetsuit does to you.

So even if you got to get in a pool to get in it to see how that feels, you got to feel it so that on race day you're not getting out, going, oh my God, why is my neck killing me?

Let's, let's build that and start incorporating maybe some straight swims earlier in the month leading up to the race, you know, just to get Your body used to that. So a couple.

Matt Bach: That's a good point.

And when you're swimming in those, in the wetsuits, it might just the way that it fits on your body and the way that you feel in it might cause you to have kind of a chronic lean towards one side or the other. And so that's, that's a great point. One I hadn't even really thought of. I mean, you definitely.

I encourage my athletes to, to practice in the wetsuit that they're going to be racing in. But that's one very positive benefit there. That. And if it really kind of, you know, consciously observe.

Thought about one other thing too, is about getting out on the race course and do a practice swim and be on the course itself is that then you can look for landmarks. So that way you can use pieces of the horizon, right?

Like a house or a pole or whatever it is that you see out there, a wall or a bank, like a shoreline, whatever it is at each parts of the course that you can key off of. That way you're not using those buoys. That can be sometimes misleading or challenging.

And then of course, I mean, Lake Placid is infamous for its lovely little yellow line that's a few feet down and for that one, like my strategy, instead of swimming over it, because lots and lots of people want to swim right over that line. It's very crowded there, right?

Instead I swam over to the side of it and I just sighted off of everybody that was swimming over the line because I knew they're all swimming straight. They actually have something. I could actually trust them, right?

I can actually trust that they're swimming in the right direction because they're using the line. And so I just cited off of them. So come up with a strategy and then stick to it. Yeah.

Matt Sommer: And the other piece I mentioned, but I didn't elaborate on, is that bilateral breathing, I mean, if it's a clockwise course or counterclockwise course, and I'm guilty, I'm a right side breather. I mean, this is the pot calling the kettle black. Full transparency. You know, I, I struggle. I'm very transparent about my swim struggles.

But you know, as a right side breather, if it's a counterclockwise. If it's a counterclockwise course, I'm.

I'm not breathing the right way, you know, so making sure that you can be bilaterally breathing will help you in situations like that. And if there's a current coming from one side and every time I breathe, right, I'M getting a mouthful of water that's going to slow me down.

So if I can bilaterally breathe to the opposite side, I'm eliminating that extra stressor. So it just makes you stronger in the long run.

So little skills like that can make you much better on race day from navigation as well as just comfort in the water too.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, really good, tangible tips there from you guys. So I won't add too much here. I will say we have a Podcast episode. It's episode 253. It is called Swim straight, your guide to open water success.

It's exactly what we're talking about here.

And it is one hour and six minutes of me, coach Jen Reinhardt and Jan Sibberson, the founder of Sailfish Wetsuits, who is what was the Kona course record holder for a long, long time, very, very good open water swimmer. It was us talking about all these things, right? How to, how to sight well, how to get better at swimming straight instead of swimming crooked.

I will move us on to the fourth way triathletes lose time on race day, and this is by starting each discipline too fast and thus depleting your energy reserves. To early coach Matt Sommer, talk to us about pacing our disciplines correctly and how if we don't, we're going to lose some time.

Matt Sommer: Pacing, pacing, pacing. I mean, it's something we're going to practice the entire time we're training.

And hopefully by race day, we've gotten disciplined enough in our execution that we understand the importance of it. You know, we've all heard the saying, it's not who goes the fastest, it's who slows down the least.

All right, now that's very true for the longer races, all right, if it's a marathon, if it's a 140.6. But there are some races if you're racing sprint, that it's all red line, it's giddy up and go and, you know, all brakes, no gas.

I think at the end of the day, though, it's being committed and disciplined to your pacing plan. I always say triathlons like five car draw. You've got the swim, you got T1, you got the bike, you got T2, and you got the run.

You have five cards to play that day. How you play your hand will dictate your success.

If you have one ace and you go out crazy on the bike and you play one ace, you're going to walk away poor in Vegas. But if you come in and you can play a nice balanced hand across the hand, you might have five of a kind, you might have a wild.

You could come in with a full house. You're going to have a sweet day and it's going to feel oh so good. Stick to the plan.

You got to know what your thresholds are and what your limits are. Don't try to sing that extra verse to the song if there's not one that day. I go back to that analogy. Stick to the plan.

Also, I think for race day execution it's, it's important to understand your numbers. How are you watching your numbers? What is your speedometer that you're watching? What is your compass on the day?

What data fields do you have set up on your bike computer or on your watch for running? And how do you follow those?

That's an important conversation that you and your coach can have if you have one, to make sure you know what metrics to follow, what is meaningful and what's not. If we're following, you know, speed should never be your goal.

I always joke with my athletes, if you tell me you want to average 20 miles an hour, I look at them flat in the eye and say if you're going downhill, are you going to hit the brakes? No, you're not going to hit the brakes, but if you're going uphill, you're going to crush yourself trying to hit 20. We need to worry about power.

What's our average power for that day?

You know, are we breaking it down rather than for the two and a half full hours, are we going to every 30 minutes lap it so that we can see consistently over time that we're managing with same power? Do we have heart rate limits secondary that we need to worry about? What are we looking at to make sure we're staying optimal on the bike?

That's putting us in a good position to run. So really having and preparing. There's that word again. A good detailed pacing plan. What is my power output? What is my run pace I'm trying to do?

What is my plan?

Miles one through four, are we just testing the waters off the off the bike to making sure I'm establishing confidence, good rhythm, that I feel good. A good self inventory. Then based on that self inventory do we decide a 5 to 10 second improvement on time.

So having a plan, sticking to it and knowing what metrics to watch and, and again, if we did our due diligence in training, our fueling, our hydration, our nutrition, our electrolytes, I call them the controllables, they're dialed in. You just stick to the plan. Every 15 minutes, you know what your fueling is. It's not even a question. You're dialed in. It's a sequence that we follow.

And it supports the power output and the paces that we're commanding our body to present that to that deck. It's, it's all planned, it's all prepared. It's easy. I hate to say it, it's easy if you stick to the plan.

The brownies taste damn good when you follow the recipe.

Andrew Harley: Yeah.

Matt Bach: Another wonderful saying for me. Love that. So one thing I want to point out is that there, there's a mental challenge that comes with going out too fast.

I kind of alluded to it a little bit earlier in the episode here because initially you feel great.

You're fresh, you're flying along and you fading brings a disproportionate physical fatigue and mental fatigue, a mental trauma I would call it, of going slower because you're getting past, right?

You feel yourself going slower, you see your watts declining, you see your pace coming down in a bad way, unfavorable going down and you start getting passed by people, maybe people that you had passed earlier on the bike or earlier in the run and now they're passing you. That doesn't feel good. I mean, that doesn't feel good.

From a mental standpoint, it's very easy to allow those demons to creep in and make you slow down even more. Know also that 90 plus percent of the of the field is going to go out too hard. Just so easy to do, especially in a longer distance race.

A half or a full. It's so easy to do. And so use power, trust it. Know what power you should be going at for each segment of the race.

Look at your race X, allow it to guide you, have a conversation with your coach and ride steadily for however long you plan to be out there. Stick to it. Because if it's 160 watts, you might be tempted to go 170 or 180 because you just feel so good.

That feels really good in mile 4 or mile 10. But it doesn't feel great when you get to mile 110, right?

And so, or, or let's say like mile 80 and you're starting to get fatigued and now you still have a long way to go. And so don't get tempted, don't allow yourself to go pushing harder than you know from your training in your zones.

Also know that if you're pushing an extra 10 watts, let's say, or 20 watts, you're going to go marginally Faster. But it's going to have a potentially devastating effect on your later race, right later in the bike and then potentially in the run.

So don't be tricked by it, don't allow it.

Especially I'm thinking also in the run in many, many Ironman events, full Ironman events that I've done, where pacing really bites you in the butt hard if you mess it up. The last 10 miles of an Ironman of a full distance race, it's like a death march.

There are so many people out there that are just struggling just to get to the finish line at that point. And the race almost begins for your faster athletes at 10 miles to go, or let's say the half marathon at the end of the race.

Because that's when the people who have paced properly are going to be mowing people down. They're going to be going faster. Also biologically and metabolically, if you go out faster, you're more anaerobic than you should be.

And so it's hard for your body to settle back into that high aerobic energy production that you want. And you end up burning more carbs and calories than you want. You may end up with feeling problems later.

So it's, there's, there's this whole ripple effect of going out too fast that, that causes not good things in the race.

Andrew Harley: The fifth way triathletes lose time on race day is by botching the fueling plan and or the hydration plan causing anything from GI distress to fading on the run. Coach Matt Bach talk to us about botching our fueling plan. What are your thoughts,?

Matt Bach: Oh yeah, very familiar with this one. My training nutrition would be fine, but my race day nutrition would be terrible. I ended up with a lot of GI distress, a lot of bonking up to.

So it's, especially in the longer races, a little bit in the half iron distance, but even more so in the full iron distance. And I mean rule number one with nutrition is it's very personal, so you gotta find what works for you.

Uh, but also test it thoroughly in high intensity and sustained race rehearsal type sessions. It's pretty tough to fully simulate what race environment is and race intensity is.

But try to do it the best you can in training so that you can try to screw it up in training and fix it instead of screwing it up on race day and, and make sure your nutrition and hydration is secure so that it's not gonna eject.

Getting some like gorilla cages that are gonna hold it a lot better than, you know, maybe some lesser Quality kind of cages is a good idea if you need a rubber band or like a, you know, other devices of some way to try to keep it in, in place.

You wanna make sure you don't eject bottles because that could really derail you and have a backup plan or two in case you do eject a bottle or in case you do mess something up. And as Matt, Matt Sommer was saying, you gotta be ready to call an audible because things don't always go the way they're supposed to go on race day.

And sometimes things are unexpected or you have a craving for a certain type of nutrition that is not what you, you know, we're planning on having. And you may need to just call an audible. Right. Sometimes chicken broth on the run is incredible and it'll like, save your day.

Andrew Harley: Right.

Matt Bach: Like that kind of thing. It, it may not be part of your original plan.

You, maybe you thought you were good with all those salt tablets and sodium you're taking in otherwise, but you might want to just slug down some chicken broth because it just tastes amazing.

So sometimes you've just gotta be ready to adjust on the fly and then, you know, I, I, I, I'm adding this one because of your response about the Porta Potty Break, Andrew.

But if you eat less fiber in the last couple days leading up into a race, it's generally a good idea because you normally, you want to eat fiber, right? Fiber's good. But in the last couple days leading up into a race, don't eat as much of the fiber. So that way kind of stops you up a bit.

And that way you hopefully won't have to stop for number twos.

Andrew Harley: Yep, that's the dream. Yeah. To not have to stop. Uh, if you do have to stop, do it, do it as quickly as you as you can. Coach Matt Sommer, what, what do you want to add about just you're, you're losing time because of something related to fueling and hydration.

Matt Sommer: Yeah, I mean, so much wisdom and everything Matt just shared. I mean, only so much I can still add. You know, two things he talked about race day nutrition is you gotta practice, practice, practice.

But we also know that when it gets hot and it gets humid, our nutrition plan may change your body. May, may not take on the calories the same way as when it's cool. So you need to practice that as well. You know what happens to sugar?

Let's go back to basic chemistry. You heat up sugar. What happens? It gets thick and gooey. Right. So on race day, if it Is really, really hot out there.

Your body may not want to take all that on. You got to have a plan now. When it gets cold, we tend to not drink as much. That's, that can be equally as bad.

If it's cold out, Your body's need for hydration and water does not change as if it's 70 degrees. It stays the same. We can actually do a disservice if we don't drink as much in cooler weather. But we're not sweating.

Athletes say doesn't matter, it's just you're not seeing it, you're still evaporating. So cooler weather does not demand or command less hydration. Warmer weather could command additional, that's for sure.

But we still need fuel, we still need electrolytes, we still need hydration in cold weather. The other thing I like to think about, I call it the controllables. I've said this many times, people have heard me. Hydration, apparel.

I'm going to talk about apparel here for a reason. Apparel, electrolytes and our fuel. We need to dial those in.

Whether it's a 20 minute transition run, whether it's a three hour stamina bike ride, whether it's a two hour long run, whether it's 30, 30s, whether it's fart licks. We practice every single training session on all four disciplines. To Matt's point.

Like if you drop nutrition, did we have the ability to carry all our nutrition on our body? On our bike? We got to make sure that our, our apparel that we're wearing allows us to transport everything we need. Are we too hot? Are we too cold?

Can we carry the gels? Can we carry our coin cases? Can we carry a flask? Do we have the ability to meet our nutritional needs on our body or with handhelds?

How do we get it around? If you don't have it, you can't use it. So you got to make sure that that is dialed in.

The other thing that I think about when it comes to fueling is sticking to the plan. You gotta I, I'm a firm believer of God don't temptation. You know, Matt talked about chicken broth.

It's kind of like putting your hand in Pandora's box when you go to reach something new. You're gambling, you know, and you gotta be willing to take that risk sometimes. Because sometimes the return is amazing.

And chicken broth is one that I will always, always, always engage in. But you just got to be careful.

If you don't use on course race nutrition and you haven't practiced with it, you're putting your hand somewhere that may be dangerous and that could derail your whole day. So you just got to be batted, got to be patient, you got to be smart, and you just can't always give in the temptation. I made the mistake.

At 70.3 worlds, I grabbed a white Maurten gel. White Maurten's got 100 milligrams of caffeine. God, within 30 seconds of taking that thing, I needed a porta potty.

My stomach turned because of all the caffeine. And I advise all my athletes. I'm like, white Maurten's have caffeine, black Maurten's don't use half of each. You're not paying for them on race day.

Know what your body can take? And I made, I made the same air that I warned them about, and I took a white Maurten, squeezed the whole thing, and I was running for the porta potty.

Whereas I could have just taken one little nibble of it, tossed it, and taken, you know, a bigger nibble of a black one, and it wouldn't have affected me. But the caffeine turned me, you know, so practice, practice, practice. Prepare, prepare, prepare.

Andrew Harley: The sixth way triathletes lose time on race day is by not optimizing every bit of their bike setup before hopping on their bike out of T1.

And Matt Sommer, you gave a great item that, that should be part of this conversation earlier when you said, when you're setting up your transition area in the morning, get your tech turned on, get it connected, make sure it's not going to power down. That way, when you start rolling, all those sensors are ready to go. All the data that you want is ready to go. You don't have to fiddle with the gar.

I've, I've had way too many races where I'm fiddling with my bike computer for the first, the first half mile because something wasn't connected right, because I just didn't take the proper time in the morning. So, guys, how can we not lose time to our bike setup on, on race day? Push my buck.

Matt Bach: Yeah, a whole bunch of things there. A lot of little details. One, make sure your chain's lubed. Make sure it's in it, maybe waxed right. You, maybe you have one of the wax chains.

Also make sure there's nothing rubbing right. Matt mentioned a bent derailleur. Make sure that all, all your parts are in full functioning condition going into the race.

Make sure the, the run through the gears the day before on a short ride to make sure that they're all shifting smoothly. And one of the mistakes that some athletes make is that they switch their wheels out and then the gears don't run as smoothly as they want.

And so you really gotta make sure that you get that dialed in beforehand with the mechanic or if you have the ability to kind of figure that out on your own, making sure that it's swapping gears or you're moving through the gears very smoothly even after making that wheel change or the tire change. Make sure the tire pressure is good.

Checking the latest science on tire pressures, I mean, back in the day it was like, oh, the higher the better, and people running 120 plus, you know, psi. But that just is not the most prevalent science at this point.

And there's a few different factors like the road surface quality and your weight that kind of factor into it. But my understanding is it's generally going to be under a hundred psi at this point. That is. It is better than the higher PSIs.

So make sure the tire pressure's good and that's leading into the. But you want to check at the race morning as well. No rolling your bike through the sand the day before the race. Like, just don't do it.

I see people, they go to like a beach destination kind of place. They want to take a picture out on the beach and they're like rolling it through the sand and they're getting sand in their gears and stuff. Just.

Yeah, that's not smart. Make sure things are secure on the bike, as I mentioned before, like with your nutrition. But other things as well.

Check the bolts like on your aero bars and your pedals. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've seen athletes or heard of athletes that have arrow bars that just kind of like fall.

It's happened to me too, that fall down in the middle of the race and all of a sudden you're out on the bullhorns the entire time.

Andrew Harley: You'll hear stories about seat post slipping in the middle of the race. Haven't had a seat post problem in a year, and they'll have a problem on race day with their seat post slipping.

Matt Bach: Right. And target.

I think that too is because you often are shipping a bike, or not often, but sometimes are shipping a bike, and when you put it back together again, you might not put it back together again in a way that you know is as secure as what it was beforehand. So, yeah, got to make sure leave it in the right gear on race morning as well.

I did the New York City Triathlon back in 2000, I think it was 2011 or 2012 and the new York City Triathlon is one where you come out of transition and you immediately go up a super steep hill. And I left it inadvertently in the big ring as I normally rode in the big ring. And going up that hill, impossible in the big ring.

Even in a small ring it was hard to do because it was so steep. So had to make sure I left it in the small ring instead.

I think I had to get off my bike, reach down, like pick up the saddle and like swirl it around and switch the gears and like put it in the right small gear and then like back up and then get hop on the bike, clip back in again and then try to ride and get enough momentum and use the small ring to get up the hill. So that was obviously a waste of time.

Andrew Harley: Did you get second place instead of first because of that?

Matt Bach: I think I was on the podium, but who knows, Maybe I would have been second age grouper instead of third or whatever I was.

Andrew Harley: Coach Matt Sommer, anything you have to add here about that? You go over with your athletes on not losing time just because of some mishap in your bike setup?

Matt Sommer: Yeah, definitely. The biggest one is if your bike doesn't even make it to the course, you're not riding.

So two things there I would definitely say is make sure you know how to pack your bike if you're traveling with it. You can't bike if your bike's not there in one piece. So learn how to bike your backpack your learn how to pack your bike bag securely and safely.

And one tidbit I will give people and this has saved me personally and I actually saved two athletes in New Zealand at 70.3 worlds. When you travel with your bike, the most commonly damaged piece is your derailleur hanger. It gets bent in travel.

Bike shops do not have derailleur hangers on hand for every single brand. Do yourself some due diligence. Call your local bike shop today as soon as you're done listening to this Podcast.

Actually hit pause right now and call your bike shop and ask them to order you two derailleur hangers for you to have with you at all times.

Travel with them, because when you get to that race and your derailleur hanger got bent and travel or your bike falls over or anything happens, you're not even going to make it to the start line if that derailleur hanger's bent when you pull it out. And you tell the mechanic, I've got My derailleur hanger.

They're going to look at you like you are amazing because they can install it and you're back in business. I had two athletes, one from Costa Rica and one that was From Germany at 70.3 worlds that advertised on the Facebook page.

They needed one for their canyon. I had two with me because that's how I roll. And we linked up. I was able to give them to them, they were able to get them on and you know, they.

They ended up Venmo-ing me money. It was great. I saved their race day. But having. If you can't even get to the start line and.

But that derailleur hangar, I promise you will not regret packing one. Secondly, check your batteries, make sure your power.

Andrew Harley: Yes.

Matt Sommer: Make sure that your Garmin. Make sure all your battery electronic shifting your di to that one's got to make before. Charge, charge, charge.

And the other thing, we mentioned it earlier, but bike prep. Make sure your flat kit is there. If you're on tubeless, make sure you have what you need. Carry a spare tube even if you're tubeless.

Because if you have bad enough of a rupture, okay. And the tubeless does its job to kind of not rupture, you can still put a tube in. You can put a tube in tubeless to save your day. Okay?

But if your CO2 is corroded and it's rusty because you haven't looked at it, it's not going to work. So double check your flat kit, double check your batteries, and you got to make sure the bike makes it there in one piece. That's the big thing.

Andrew Harley: The seventh way triathletes lose time on race day is by stopping or slowing to do things that could be done on the move. Talk to us about this, guys.

There's a lot all over the race course right from the start of the race to the end of the race that people stop, they sit down, they walk, and they can do it on the move. Talk to us about some of these things. Coach Matt Bach.

Matt Bach: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's so many that I'm not even thinking of here, but here's just a few that come to mind. One is this is something that I do like to do that Matt, Coach Matt Sommer mentioned. He. He doesn't do. But attaching the shoes to the bike in advance.

I usually use rubber bands to kind of position.

Andrew Harley: Don't let, don't let Bach bully you about that. I don't do it either.

Matt Bach: Sometimes they don't allow It. So you do have to check the rules, check the athlete guide, make sure that it is something that you're allowed to do.

But if you are allowed to do it, I usually do do that. That way I can run with the bike. The shoes are just propped up nicely, and then when I get there, I can just flip the leg over and slide my feet in.

So that way I'm on the move while I'm putting my shoes on, reaching down, popping the boa or putting the Velcro on so that the shoes are in place. Aid stations. Do them on the fly. And that might be walking, but at least be moving. Right. And if you can run or bike through the aid stations, great.

If your plan is to walk the aid stations, that's fine too. Just make sure you're moving even the bike. Personal needs. I mean, you'll see, like the pros, they're like, grabbing that bike. Special needs.

Their hands are off the things. They're rifling through the bag as they're riding along.

And then by the end of the personal needs, you know, station area, they've got the stuff stuffed back in the bag and they're handing it off to somebody. I don't take it that far. Like, I have not been able to get the bike handling where I'm handless on the bike, rifling through my bag.

If you can though, great. Go for it. Peeing on the bike.

Not everybody's willing to do it, but I think if you're towards the pointy end and you're trying to save a little bit of time here or there, there is zero reason to be stopping.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, it's mid.

Matt Bach: Yeah, it could be a lot. You could be. Especially during an army, you could be stopping multiple, multiple times to pee. So just pee and. And big.

I think we've gone over these tips before, but I usually do it on a downhill. So that way it doesn't just run down my leg into my shoes, it sprays out the back. Make sure there's nobody behind you. As a courtesy, though.

That's kind of brutal. That's a. That's a jerk move if you're doing that. Or maybe. Maybe it's somebody you don't like very much.

Andrew Harley: Mad box. A very considerate on the bike peer. Let it be known.

Matt Sommer: You got to practice.

Matt Bach: You do? Yeah. You got to know to lift up. If you're a guy, lift up a little bit.

Like, I remember trying to pee one time and I couldn't, and I was like, what's going on here? And Then I stood up just a little bit, and all of a sudden it flowed. So I've even known people to poop their pants to save a minute.

Andrew Harley: Not me.

Matt Bach: So you got to do what you got to do. Most people are not willing to go that far, but it was the difference between a Kona slot and no Kona slot, and he did it.

So you do what you got to do.

Andrew Harley: I think for the most part, a lot of this is in transition, right?

Coach Jeff Raines has said before he encourages his athletes to have to go down, as in bend over and stand back up few times as possible in transition.

Because the more you're going up, down, up, down, up, down, the more you probably overcomplicate your transition setup, the more you're probably not doing things that you could be doing while running out of transition. Okay.

As much as possible, bend over, shoes on, do my quick essentials, grab the stuff I need, and then do everything else on the move out of transition. Coach Matt, is there anything else when you think of doing things on the move to save time? What are some things we haven't identified anything here?

Matt Sommer: Absolutely. I think one big one on the swim is coming out of the water. Start to take the wetsuit down, have it down around your waist. You're on the move.

I already mentioned earlier, I personally, if the. If there are peelers there, I will use them very efficiently. If not, I swear.

And I have athletes that have tried this and are like, oh, my God, genius. Take your wetsuit off in the water. It comes off easier standing in the water. It slides right off your feet. So stand there, pull it off.

And now I can run with it under my arm. So that's a great time saving thing there, too, because again, everybody's doing the balance game by the time they get up there.

And wetsuit's not even off yet, so I can have mine off and running in my swim time and again, five extra seconds versus standing up there, balancing with everybody, lock laces, huge go to for running shoes. That way you're not having to tie your shoes, but quick reach down, quick adjustment, good to go there.

You know, even what Matt said about peeing on the bike, you know, I mean, I. It's a skill. You got to practice it.

You guys pack left, you don't want to go down, drive train side, you know, but once you're up and it's just kind of a slight bend in the knee and again it blows off at the break. It's really easy, you know, and even I will be honest, I Have been guilty. And God, please don't look at me differently when I say this.

If you guys see me at the races, even peeing on the run, it's become something that people can do. And, you know, it's one of those things where I hate to say it, if you're not comfortable, you're not racing. Well, it depends on the time savings.

I can tell you last time, when it comes down, Matt said it to world championship slots at Boise. I got second place age group by three seconds over the guy. But next to me, we never, we don't know each other. We weren't out there.

It wasn't a mass start. Three seconds separated second and third place last year, 70.3. Wilmington. I got fourth age group. Nine seconds separated second to fourth. That's it.

It's a. It's a game of seconds sometimes. Okay, so you do. If it comes down to that, it could have been. I mean, come on, nine seconds.

Was that the time that I stood there and adjusted my hat or the time that I adjusted my sock? Yeah, very much so. So it really does come down sometimes to just even, you know, just any little bit of comfort coming up one time.

And also the other thing I would say for transitions is, you know, know where you're going. In the US all of our aid stations are on the right. You gotta practice them with your left hand.

You know, going to New Zealand was a whole new other thing because everybody's grabbing left handed and you're having to stabilize on the bike with your right. It was a little bit awkward movement.

So again, you got to be knowledgeable of that and just kind of know what's being thrown at you so you kind of can practice those skills.

Andrew Harley: The 8th way triathletes lose time on race day is by not being mindful each moment of the race, which can cause an athlete to troubleshoot problems too late or fail to make mid race adjustments. Clearly, Coach Matt Sommer, you actually started talking about this a little bit earlier. So go ahead and pick up on that. What do you feel about this?

How are we actually losing time by not making adjustments as we're racing?

Matt Sommer: Well, you got to stay locked into your plan. It all goes back to plan and preparation. If you stay locked into your plan.

Stick to your sequence, stick to the recipe, sing the song that you've been practicing. It all turns out pretty well. Don't try to push power you're not capable of. Don't try to run paces you're not capable of. Okay.

Stick to your skill sets that you've developed and you've honed in in practice and in training, and the day is going to be pretty darn good. If you practice what you've been doing, you're going to have a good day. You got to keep your head in the right place.

You got to stay focused on the task at hand and just stay committed. Stay committed to executing with passion and purpose.

Matt Bach: Yeah, the pacing was one that I was going to say the nutrition and hydration, it's easy to get behind on those and be out of that moment. But then if you're behind, it's too late.

Especially with nutrition, your body needs to digest and you're going to have to slow down to be able to properly digest fuel to get back, you know, your energy back. It's happened to me on too many occasions and yeah, don't, don't let it happen.

Andrew Harley: All right, onto the cooldown of our show, and I have kept coach Matt Sommer on to answer one question from a member of our audience. And this question, Matt, comes from Cindy from Houston, Texas. And Cindy asked this.

She says, coaches, I am going to start doing some strength training throughout my week. I, I don't have a lot of experience going to the gym and doing strength moves. I don't even know where to start.

What do you think are the best quote unquote bang for your buck? Muscle groups to work on for an athlete, a triathlete new to working on strength. Coach Matt, you can see why I posed this to you. This is your jam.

This is your background. What would you tell Cindy?

Matt Bach: I love it.

Matt Sommer: I love it. I love it. Oh, God. Strength has so many returns on investment, Cindy. I think the biggest thing is keep it simple, keep it stupid.

The old KISS principle. Don't over, don't make it complicated. You don't have to recreate the wheel. You've got five major muscle groups.

Matt Bach: All right?

Matt Sommer: It's really simple, Cindy. You've got chest, back, shoulders, quads, and hamstrings.

All I want you to do is one basic exercise for each muscle group and I'm going to make it simple. For chest, it's push ups, whether they are from the toes or modified from the knees. Easy. Just knock out eight to 12 repetitions.

One set for the first week, just one set each week. Gradually add maybe a second set to where you work up to three sets. But week number one, don't overdo it.

You don't want to hurt yourself, but just keep it simple. One set of 8 to 12 repetitions. So for chest, we're going to do push ups or modified push ups.

For quadriceps, we're looking at squats, lunges, something basic. When I say a squat, think public restroom. Hover just like a lady. You don't want to sit on the.

You don't want to sit down on the toilet at the public restroom. You're squatting low enough that you're hovering over the toilet. Okay, so that's a full squat there.

For upper back exercises, whether you have tubing at home or whether you have some light dumbbells, a pulling exercise, something that's going to mimic a row. You can do a quick search online, but a tubing row or a dumbbell row or any other household object.

Heck, a lot of ladies pocketbooks weigh enough that you could do a row with them or a gallon of milk or some other household object. For shoulders, pick up an object, lift it straight up out in front of you. It's called a front raise.

All you're going to do is hold an object and lift it straight up parallel to the ground. It's a great way to work the deltoids for your hips and hamstrings. Flat on your back, do some basic hip raises, bridges.

Lift your butt up off the ground, squeeze your glutes at the top, lower all the way back down again. We just. And that's all five exercises. We got chest, upper back, quads and hamstrings.

Eight to 12 reps of each one set for the first week, the next week add a second set, maybe add a few more repetitions, gradually build into it, and all of those are going to help make your muscles more stable, make them more mobile and help to build some basic strength. When the time's right and you're ready, maybe consider a gym membership. Get in there.

You can get a nice orientation, maybe set up a time with a personal trainer and just get a little bit more of a in depth program. But a great place to start. Doesn't have to be fancy, doesn't have to be expensive. You just got to be consistent.

Announcer: Thanks 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 TriDot Training on social. Ready to train with us? Head to TriDot.com and get started for free. Until next time, happy training.

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