The TriDot Podcast's Best of 2023

TriDot Podcast Episode 222

The TriDot Podcast's Best of 2023

Announcer: This is the TriDot podcast. TriDot uses your training data and genetic profile combined with predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to optimize your training, giving you better results in less time with fewer injuries. Our podcast is here to educate, inspire and entertain. We'll talk all things triathlon with expert coaches and special guests. Join the conversation and let's improve together.

Andrew Harley: Happy end of 2023. What a year for you. You know, what a year for me, what a year for triathlon, and what a year for the TriDot podcast. We always like to end the year reflecting on our year in podcasting. So we will present to you today the 12 episodes our team considers to be our best episodes of 2023. There are four of us on the show to do this today, and the guests that I chose for this are all core team members that make the TriDot podcast happen. Normally, I sit down and do this episode with a few coaches that normally appear on the show, but I thought just to change it up this year, I would introduce some of the members that helped make the TriDot podcast a thing each and every week for you and me. So with me on the live recording today, are you, number one, TriDot assistant media producer Sarah Burney. Sarah helps just kind of keep my brain together. She does a lot of the creative planning behind the scenes of TriDot and earlier this year, she actually took over the editing of our podcast episode. So excited to see which, from editing them all, which episodes Sarah thinks are the best of 2023. Number two with us is TriDot coach and pro triathlete Elizabeth James. Elizabeth does a lot for TriDot and for the podcast specifically. She is the one who creates the titles, descriptions and episode artwork for each episode. And then number three is TriDot media contributor Vanessa Ronksley. Vanessa hosts some of the episodes of the TriDot podcast and she brings us our coach Cooldown tip at the end of every episode. She also does a variety of things behind the scenes for the TriDot athlete support. Hey there, Vanessa. How's it going?

Vanessa Ronksley: It's going great. I am so happy to be a part of this podcast team. Thanks so much for inviting me to be on this episode and I can assure everyone who's listening that the podcast is something that I look forward to every single day. So thank you.

Andrew Harley: Love to hear it. Elizabeth, thanks for joining.

Elizabeth James: Well, yes, this is, this is an awesome, I mean, just group that we have here. I'm so excited to be podcasting with so many members of our media team.

Andrew Harley: And Sarah, welcome to this side of the TriDot podcast. Being on a microphone this week.

Sarah Burney: it's so strange. But there's no one else I would rather be with. This is the best team ever.

Andrew Harley: Well, I am Andrew, the average triathlete, voice of the people and captain of the middle of the pack. As always, we're going to roll through our warmup question, settle in for our Best of 2023 main set, and then wind things down with our cooldown. On the cooldown today, I'm going to have Vanessa choosing her favorite coach cooldown tip of 2023. So make sure you hear which cooldown tip is her standout one from the year. I, for one, cannot wait to find out which one it is. There's a lot of good tips this year. All right. Lots of good stuff. Let's get to it.

Announcer: Time to warm up. Let's get moving!

Andrew Harley: As we look back on our year in podcasting. Let's also look back on our year at the races as well as our end of season warmup question. What was your favorite moment from the 2023 race season? It can be from a day that you actually raced. It can be from a day that you were supporting someone else or volunteering. It can be from watching the pros or watching the coverage of a race happening. It can be from a race report that you read on the I Am TriDot Facebook group that just was extra memorable for you. But just from 2023, what was your favorite race moment Sarah Burney?

Sarah Burney: My favorite race moment was IRONMAN, California with a hundred plus TriDot athletes. But my, my favorite moment from then was actually two days before the race. We all went to a park, sat, ate potatoes, played games. We all bonded. It was, it was just such a fun moment. I. My heart left so full. I was. It was just another moment where I realized that the TriDot family is so special.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. And what a reminder that there's so much special about being a triathlete and going to the races beyond doing the actual race. Right. Vanessa, were you. Were you at the potato party?

Vanessa Ronksley: I certainly was. And I have to tell you how excited I was. So everyone was asked to bring their favorite potato topping.

Andrew Harley: I thought you were gonna say favorite potato, like how many different types of potatoes are there?

Vanessa Ronksley: Their favorite potato topping. And someone actually brought tofu.

Andrew Harley: Hey, was that you?

Vanessa Ronksley: I was so excited. It wasn't. I was surprised. I thought no one. I didn't want to bring anything that was like, you know, irregular. And so I didn't even think to bring tofu. But when someone actually did it was like one of the greatest moments, was amazing.

Andrew Harley: Vanessa, what is this answer for you? What Was your favorite 2023 race moment?

Vanessa Ronksley: Well, this is a no brainer for me. It also comes from IRONMAN, California, where I had the opportunity to meet up with the Fab Four. My friends that I met through TriDot, Kristin Overton, Kristen Murer and Rhonnie Andrews. This was my first full distance and to be able to do it with my best triathlon friends was something that I will hold in my heart for forever. And we laughed so hard. We cried together. We lifted each other up and the love that I have for these girls grew even more, which I didn't think was possible. So I think we have, I've compiled about six days into the moment that you actually requested, but the whole race experience for me was ridiculously magical.

Andrew Harley: Sure. Yeah. And, and those four, you, the four of you kind of formed your bond at TriDot ambassador camp in St. George a few years back. And so that's just part of going to TriDot Ambassador Camp and next year we have TriDot trips. So there's five opportunities next year for you to go on a trip and meet other TriDotters and maybe meet your lifelong triathlon friends.

Vanessa Ronksley: Who knows, your future besties.

Andrew Harley: Your future besties. And the four of you had matching kits, is that correct?

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, we did. Fab 4 kits.

Andrew Harley: The Fab for kids. Elizabeth James, what was your favorite moment from the races in 2023?

Elizabeth James: So I'm glad that you mentioned, you know, it could be just also watching a broadcast because that was it for me. My favorite moment came from my couch as I was watching the women's World championship race. And I just had so many goosebump moments watching the broadcast from knowing some of the professional women personally, having some of my athletes racing, a number of my friends and training partners out there too, and then having Rinny and Kathleen and Michellie and Mark as part of the broadcast. And then another one of my training partners and friends, Dede is one of the commentators. Like, I felt such pride watching that just from a number of different perspectives. I mean, as a friend, a coach, a TriDot staff member, like, it's just giving me goosebumps again right now thinking about it. That was just an amazing day for me.

Andrew Harley: Well, there's four of us on the show and between the four of us, we're going to name two races because that race was also the highlight of the year for me. Uh, I, I, I literally, I mean, I, I think I've cracked a couple jokes in the podcast about how little I've trained and raced this year, just becoming a new dad and, and pouring a lot of my time and energy into that and a lot of time and energy into my responsibilities at TriDot. But I, I did get to go to Kona. Being in Kona again, I didn't plan on giving this answer again. This was my answer last year because last year it was my first time in Kona, but this year it was for a different reason. And EJ, it's partially what you're highlighting with the very first all women's IRONMAN World Championship to be there in person. It had a different vibe, had a different feel. And to just see the most badass like female athletes on the planet doing their thing was really, really cool. And then actually I had a moment where I was, I flew home that night. So the race was in the latter stages of the evening when I hopped on a plane and headed back to Dallas. But so I'm driving towards the airport in my Uber and I'm watching the, the kind of the last wave of female age group athletes making their way back towards town. Because we're driving down the Queen K towards the airport and just seeing like being there at the finish line as, as the winners were crowned champion and then being heading to the airport as the final finishers were making their way back towards town, just really, really cool. Just, just to see those ladies out there still doing their thing, still heading home to the finish line. And I think the finish rate was something like 97 or 98% of the field finished the race highest in the history of Kona. And so to know that, that a large majority of those ladies I saw still out on course as I was heading to the airport made it to the finish line. Super cool, super awesome. Really great day for triathlon and I was just privileged to be there. So what was your favorite moment at the races in 2023? Was a, was it a moment where you saw something really cool happen at a professional event? Was it a moment you yourself had out on the race course? We're going to throw this question out to you on the I Am TriDot Facebook group and see what was your best story. Favorite story from the 2023 race season.

Announcer: On to the main sets going in 3, 2, 1.

Andrew Harley: Before we get too deep into the show today, I want to give a shout out to our good friends at UCAN here at TriDot. We are huge believers in using UCAN to fuel our training and racing in the crowded field of nutrition companies. What separates Ucan from the pack is the science behind Live Steady, the key ingredient in Ucan products. While most energy powders are filled with sugar or stimulants that cause a spike and crash, Ucan energy powders powered by Livesteady deliver a steady release of complex carbs to give you stable blood sugar and provide long lasting energy. I personally fuel my workouts with the orange flavored edge gel and the unflavored Ucan energy powder. Between their energy mix, energy bars, almond butter and more, there is definitely a Livesteady product that you will love. So head to their website UCAN.CO and use the code TRIDOT to save 20% on your entire order. Now that code used to be 10%, but the fine folks at UCAN have upped it to 20% for TriDot Nation. So once again, that's UCAN Co promo code TRIDOT. All right, let's get to the good stuff today. I am very excited to see which episodes from this year are podcast team have selected to be the official TriDot podcast best of 2023. I've got my three nominations lined up, so let's find out what I've chosen and what the rest of our team have chosen. Elizabeth James, why don't you kick us off here today? What is your first best of 2023 episode?

Elizabeth James: Okay, so for number one, I am going to go with episode 178 which was Listen to your heart what your heart rate is trying to tell you. And I loved this episode. It totally puts the song listen to your heart in your head for the rest of the day anytime I think of this podcast but it was just an episode that was incredibly technical at times but also so practical in the application of the information. I mean, Jeff Rains and Ryan Tibble were on this episode and you combine their coaching knowledge with their experience in exercise science and Ryan's career in the medical field and you were learning a lot. A number of the TriDot workouts are prescribed based on an athlete's heart rate. And so having this episode as a resource to athletes to better understand why those workouts prescribed is just key.

<AUDIO CLIP>: Just, just a quick science and nerd out. We have to, we have to go here for a brief second here. But that's the point of today. EJ I want to learn all we can about heart rate. So please, please take us into the science lab and nerd out for us. Let's do it. All right, well, let's start with red blood cells. These red blood cells, they must load up appropriate quantities of oxygen to send to our tissues that are performing a certain activity. Right. The heart must then pump oxygen rich blood, those red blood cells, oxygen rich to those tissues and. Right. And it's gotta do that rapidly enough to deliver the required amount of oxygen. In the tissue cell, the mitochondria, Oxygen is required to make ATP. ATP is then used to fuel the activity. ATP is energy, so to speak. Right. And so our heart rates, they will vary from person to person. Right. Our heart rates depend on the intensity and also the energy requirements of a given activity. And so the fitter that you are, the more cardiovascular exercise you do, then the less demand there is to maintain that normal metabolic functioning at rest and hence a lower resting heart rate. Interesting.

Vanessa Ronksley: Now, this was also one of my favorite podcasts this year. It was because I love all of the technical details. I just, I'm, I'm a nerd. So I take a deep dive into scientific literature after listening so that I can have a greater understanding of what they're talking about. Now, one of the questions that most new athletes have when they actually start up with TriDot and that we get a lot in the support team is, is about heart rate and when the workouts are prescribed as heart rate workouts versus not. So this episode is like you said, EJ, it's a fabulous resource for anyone who's just starting out with TriDot and wants to know the details. But yes, I think that the title of this podcast definitely puts that song on repeat for days.

Andrew Harley: If you haven't listened to that one, go listen to it and understand what your heart rate is trying to tell you as you are training. Let's go. Vanessa, over to you for your very first of your three favorite episodes of 2023. What do you got for us?

Vanessa Ronksley: My one of my faves was 15 Ways to Make your triathlon training more fun. Obviously one of my favorite things to do, right? Yeah, like you have to have fun while you're doing your training and racing if you want to have longevity in the sport. And, and I personally, as you all probably know, is that I love to smile and laugh. So I had to choose this episode and it is my favorite one of them because it's full of amazing ideas on, on how to make that training more fun. And Matt Sommer was one of the guests and he is just so full of ideas on how to become more engaged with your training. And one of the things he likes to do is gather a group of friends and work together to push each other with some healthy competition. Because who doesn't like to infuse that into their training. And since this episode aired, I put this tip into practice on a Zwift ride. And I have to tell you that it was one of the most fun indoor training sessions that I've ever done. I was able to chase my own coach, Ryan Tibball, and it was, like, epic and so awesome.

<AUDIO CLIP>: So the first tip I got is a little game I like to play with my buddies when we're out on group training. It's called Catch Me if you Can. You can apply it to swim, bike and run. I like to do it out on the bike with my group of friends. Friends. When we're out on the bike on the weekend, we all have our training program. After we're warmed up and we get going, we'll pick a segment where we are riding in a pace line. And basically the person at the back has to sprint all the way up to the front. Once they make it to the front, the person at the back now has to sprint all the way back up to the front. So it's a great way to get some high intensity in there. And if the group's feeling a little bit split spicy that day, the person at the back is going to have a pretty hard time, especially if everybody's pushing some wattage, you know, and you can have a lot of fun with this. You can say, hey, we're going to do this for 15 minutes. You can say, hey, we're going to do it for five. Where each person gets five turns and just kind of make it what you want. But same principle. You could also do in the pool if you have a group of people in the pool. I like that strategy from a coaching side because it teaches you to kind of get up close and comfortable with people like you would when you're racing. You have feet in your face, you got hands on toes, and you can also do it on the track. It's a great way to develop some top end speed to get out there with people and apply the same principle where you got to go from. Play leapfrog from the back to the front, the back to the front and just keep working your way around. You might say, we'll do it for a quarter mile, half mile, do it for mile repeats. Depends on what group you're with. So. But that's just one way I like to incorporate fun into training.

Sarah Burney: I wanted to nominate this as my favorite episode, but I knew Fun and Vanessa go together, but I loved it. And, you know, every time I talk to Matt, he gives me tips to make things fun and break things up differently. And we invest so much time in this sport and we gotta remember, like, we do it for fun.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. I love the mix that was on this episode between Matt Sommer and Kurt Madden, who's just a legend in the sport, has been doing this since the early days of triathlon. Just decades of experience. And then of course, Elizabeth and Vanessa. And so what a great panel to just kind of share their ideas on how they make the sport fun for themselves and for the athletes that they coach. And yeah, a great pick all around. So, Sarah, let's go back to you. For your first pick is our third best of nomination. First one from you. What do you got?

Sarah Burney: So, without a doubt, this is my favorite of the year. It was the June 5, episode 10, finish line lessons from Mike Reilly, the voice of IRONMAN. We record the podcast in advance, so I got to edit it right before a race. So I went into the race and I struggled. It wasn't. It wasn't my best day, but the whole time I kept thinking about Mike's tips and tip number five when I was hurting, got me to the finish line.

<AUDIO CLIP>: Mike Riley, what is lesson number five from the races? Never be disappointed with a finish. Oh, that's so good. If you finished what you started, which is one of the biggest lessons in life we can teach our children, we teach each other. Never be disappointed with a finish. I don't care what your time was. If you went an hour slower than you went before, if you missed your goal, if you missed everything on race day, but you came across that finish line, you are a winner. You are a champion. You are someone who inspires others because you did finish. So don't be disappointed when you finish or with a finish of anything. I mean, even if you handed in a college term paper and you finished. It, but you gotta C, yeah, gotta C what the heck, I finished it. A lot of people don't finish what they start, so never be disappointed with a finish.

Elizabeth James: Man. Just listening to that again, like, gives me all the same feels. From when I heard it the first time, I just loved this entire episode. And that tip in particular, I think is so important. And I'm glad that you picked that again, Sarah, to really highlight as part of our best of 2023. We are often our own biggest critics. And it is not uncommon at all for athletes to feel disappointment after a big event if they didn't have that finishing time that they thought they could or the placement that they really wanted. I've been there. I was there a number of times this season, in fact. And it is just a great reminder about the overall journey and really finishing what you start.

Andrew Harley: I will go ahead and go next with my first nomination on the show today. This is our fourth best of 2023 episode as a group and this one aired on October 16th. It was episode 212 of the TriDot podcast. It was called your guide to race week success. It was myself, TriDot coach Jen Reinhart, TriDot coach Joanna Nami and pool school coach Trident ambassador Cari Lubinow. All three of them were racing Kona literally the day after we were recording this episode. We recorded this episode on Friday in Kona and they all raced it the very next day. And I just wanted, you know, so many of our episodes are triathlon coaches on microphones coaching the sport. And I just wanted them to kind of put their coach hat to the side for a second and just talk to us as fellow athletes about when you step into race week. And they literally were in the climax of their race week. What does race week look like for you? From just the way you fuel it to the way you plan it, to the way you execute that week, to the way you do your taper and your tune up events from start to finish. What are you personally doing to get yourself set up for success on race day? And it, it was just a great conversation with them as triathletes. You can hear the, the, the sounds of the ocean in the background several times throughout this conversation. And the clip I've chosen here is very specifically the very end of the episode. I asked them to share kind of how they were feeling about Kona happening the next day. Check it out.

<AUDIO CLIP>: Where are you at mentally? Where, where, where is your head with this race? Are you excited? Are you afraid? Are you, are you pumped? Are you trying not to think about it? Just, just, just give us your kind of, kind of day before thoughts on just where's your head at, Carrie? Ah, I'm very excited. I, the race I qualified at Lake Placid was the week that would have been my, my grandmother, my nanny's 101st birthday. And so I made, had this ring made up with the coordinates of our family house and she got me my Kona qualification. So I had, I had some rough things during that race, some blisters and you know, every time I'd start running. Again, I'd say, okay, nanny, we got this, let's go. And just kind of like hold the ring and go. And so I'm just really excited to bring her out on the race course with me and to be here and celebrate. And I think we're better to, to celebrate her life than in the first ever all female Kona? Crying now. I mean, we got to follow. I'm gonna make Joe go next, and best of luck to you. Joe on where's your head at for this? My head is. I don't want to. I'll get choked up talking about it, but I had some health issues in the last week or so. Yeah. Sorry. But I'm feeling much better. But a friend of mine, Ms. Cindy Reeves, sent me a text message and said, I'm praying that you feel better, but I'm praying that you find God's purpose for you there. And I really have thought on it all week and, like, a number of people have needed my help this week. And I think tomorrow's my day to. I'll have a great day and I'll finish, and I don't care at all about the time, but I really want to spend some time helping people on the course. Coach Jen, where's your head at? How are you feeling going into tomorrow's race? It is just such a privilege for me to be here again. I really, really wanted to be able to do one more Kona since having my knees replaced and then maybe listen to my body and back off a little bit. It was just meant to be. To be able to be here with this group of women to race, the women's only race for my, for my last Kona. I may. I may be back to cheer, but I don't know if I'll be back to race. I'm just going to take each part of the race tomorrow. I. I know I've done it. I know I can do it again. Will I be as fast as I was? No, but that's not the whole point of it. It's not going to give me a big paycheck if I go fast. I just really want to enjoy the day. And like Joe said, they'll. I might be struggling, and I know that somebody will help me because it's happened on other IRONMAN courses. The IRONMAN journey is about the friends you meet along the way.

Vanessa Ronksley: And you know, what actually blows my mind is, is this is a. A small sample. It's just three athletes out of the thousands of women that were racing the next day. And to think that those thousand women could potentially have similar stories or. Or even just a purpose for being there. All of that collective energy that they have. I think that lended itself to why this was such a special race is because everybody had a special reason for being there, and it was so important for them. And. And I think just sharing that energy and that. That passion for the sport is. Is just something completely remarkable.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. And, Vanessa, that point is so true. Like, I never get tired of hearing these kind of stories from our athletes and our coaches. Right. And every time we go to the races, like, there's always a handful or a dozen or so of these kind of stories that we hear. And, you know, these three happen to be at Kona the day before the race, and they were extra special to us because we know Jenn and Jo and Cari very well. But great point there, Vanessa, that everybody on that race course has a story, has a reason they're out there, has. Has some emotions behind it. And, man, what, What. What a special sport we have because of it. Okay, let's move on to. This is best of episode number five, the second nomination from Elizabeth James. EJ, what do you got?

Elizabeth James: Okay, I'm gonna go with episode 210, which was 5 nutrition mistakes triathletes make. And, Andrew, this is one where you and Taryn were just the duo on the show here, and Taryn is just a wealth of knowledge. And I am super excited whenever we have another nutrition episode because it is just such a cool, critical part to your best performance. And in fact, in the middle of this episode, Taryn is talking about, like, this supercharged zone where she says, you know, think of it like the middle of a Venn diagram. And on one side you have training, on the other side you have nutrition. And the part where they intersect is where the magic happens. And, man, it just was really cool to see her give examples of that magic between training and nutrition. Um, also in this episode, she points out some specific places where triathletes are often missing the mark getting into that supercharged zone. And that's what I wanted to have us go back and listen to in this clip.

<AUDIO CLIP>: When you're dialoguing with triathletes, when you're at the races and you hear just people chit chatting, like, what. What are some of the things you hear triathletes say? Or what are some things that you see triathletes do that, like, triggers for you that, oh, this person is just not even considering their. Their nutrition as seriously as they should be? Oh, there's so many things. Right? That's why we. That's why it's a long list, I think, you know, you can't out train a bad diet. And that is a very common saying that you really need to stop and think about for a second because as a triathlete you do a lot of training hours. And so you can mask some of those mistakes relatively easily compared to somebody that just does maybe a gym program. You know, you've got a higher calorie need on a daily basis and so you can, in a way get away with eating more crap food and not having that affect your body composition all the way. You feel as much as somebody that does less training. But honestly, the way that you feel when you have your nutrition dialed into training is so much different. And sometimes you don't understand how good you can feel until you do. So I think, like, you need to think about that because particularly racing, a lot of people will cross the finish line and they're like, yep, I'm done. They don't even think further about, okay, what's my recovery strategies after the race? And then what does my nutrition look like for the next 24 to 48 hours so I can recover really well? And then, you know, what does post race look like in terms of nutrition? We tend to do everything that we can to just get to the start line. And sometimes we have a plan for a race, which, you know, is another mistake which we're not going to talk about, but it's on my list. Like not having a race plan. The number of triathletes or IRONMAN distance athletes in particular that I have heard of that don't even have a race plan, like, blows my mind. How do you get to that point and not have that side of things sorted? But anyway, that's why I have a job. Yeah, I don't understand it. So many athletes, um, but you need to think a bit longer than, you know, crossing the finish line. Like, what is your nutritional plan? Way beyond that. I love any episode that has anything to do with nutrition. Um, it's one of my passions. And so listening back to this clip, it just makes me think that, yeah, it, it. Most of us, when we are new to a new distance or even new to the sport, we often think about how am I going to get to that start line? And we neglect to the post recovery or the post race recovery. And, and so just having that little piece of information come into your mind and thinking about that prior to the race is something that is very valuable for, for athletes. Um, and to get into that supercharged zone, there's a lot of little changes that can be made even though they are really small. Like Incorporating that recovery nutrition into your morning bag or whatever bag you have at the end of the race, that can have a massive impact on how you feel and it's going to have a massive impact on your recovery rate. And, and so knowing that what happens after the race is just as important as what happens before is, is. It's just, it's gold. It's just like a golden tip right there.

Andrew Harley: If you want more golden tips from Taryn, she has her own podcast, the Triathlon Nutrition Academy Podcast. Great stuff from her every single week on that show. That was actually a really fun conversation and a great pick for this episode. Vanessa, what is your second nomination for our best of 20, 23 episodes?

Vanessa Ronksley: Wow. I went with if the shoe fits. Anatomy of a Running Shoe. I love anatomy for anything, so I..

Andrew Harley: Love running shoes for.

Vanessa Ronksley: Right. So the fact that this had anatomy in the title was like, oh, I've got to choose this one. But no, what was actually amazing was this episode. There were two experts in the field discussing various components of running shoes and, and how these are able to impact run form and development of an injury. And I'm the type of person who would most definitely blame a pair of running shoes on the development of an injury. And Mark and Andrea confirmed that research shows that this is just not the case. Um, so this clip gives some insight on an important factor that helps to mitigate injury. And, and it might not be what you think.

<AUDIO CLIP>: The biggest thing, one of the few. Things we found about fitting shoes based. On all this research that's been done is, and I know we talk about this a lot, this thing called the comfort filter, we have found over time that shoes that tend to be very comfortable for the individual tend to be the ones that are going to work better for that person. Right. So if you're someone who, you know, there's always. I remember this from working in running stores, these kind of middle aged ladies that love the ASICS Keanu, even though they had the most stiff, rigid foot on Earth. And I was like, this doesn't make sense. You have a stiff foot and you like a stability shoe. It doesn't make sense. They found it comfortable and that's what kept them healthy. I'm not saying that's everyone, but yeah, comfort is probably the big thing if you're, if you're. And this is why, as Andrew said, you need to go try stuff. That's just exactly why this website started. You got to go figure out using some of the principles that we teach you and figuring out what applies to you, what's comfortable and what's not. Yeah.

Elizabeth James: That comfort factor, such a key part of this episode. Right. And I love how Matt and Andrea acknowledge that, like, you as the athlete, you have the final say. Like, on paper, what looks good might not be what feels good to you. And if it's comfortable to you, that's. That's the key piece. Um, and then when we had Dr. Andrea back on the podcast later this year, she was applying that same principle to bike fitting, saying, like, comfort is the number one factor. So to hear them talk about it in shoes and then have her kind of look at bike fit from not only a comfort perspective, but also how that relates to the biomechanics was just amazing. I mean, what great resources we had in them on the podcast episodes this year.

Andrew Harley: I will jump in for our next one. I'm going to interrupt the order here for a reason, because, EJ, you just referenced one of my episodes that I've chosen for this year. We had a pretty cool initiative this year. We had an intention going into the year to produce several episodes that were specific to the female triathlete. And so we took a few weeks and just dedicated it to Vanessa doing some interviews and Elizabeth doing some interviews where we solely focused on the triathlon experience of the female triathlete. And this was one of them. It aired on October 23, and it was episode 213, and it was called Better Biomechanics for the Female Triathlete. And I, as a male athlete, I was just riveted by this conversation. Really, really interesting to hear. What are some of the physical biomechanic considerations for female triathletes vs. male triathletes across the swim, bike, and run? And so with that, we had Raya Usher, who is a elite triathlon coach, sharing her expertise as a Coach. We had Dr. Andrea Myers from Doctors of Running, who also is a certified bike fitter. So a lot of great expertise here in this episode hosted by Elizabeth James. So here is a little bit of Raya and Andrea talking about swim form and females versus males.

<AUDIO CLIP>: So many of us women actually don't. Power through the water. We're not sitting there trying to muscle. You know, when I'm doing a swim. One to one with a man, nine times out of ten, I'm saying to him, okay, you've got massive muscles, you've got huge broad shoulders, and all you're doing is fighting with the water. You're splashing around. You know, you're being that, you know, shark trying to go through the water. Whereas actually women tend to be far more almost delicate. They look a lot more eloquent in. The water and they're not utilizing their strength as much as men are. So with men, often with my one to ones with swimming, I'm trying to get them to harness their strength far more, whereas men, I'm asking them to. Sort of ease off. So for me, specific strength training, looking at the muscles that will help sort of fix our catch or our body position in the water will really, really help. So I'm a big fan of strength training to help do that. Yeah, that's super interesting, especially what you were saying about, you know, the one on one lessons that you've done. And I, I know for a fact that, I mean, that's kind of like my husband and me in the water too. He's super strong. He gets in and he's just muscling through and I get in and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna more the perfectionist and I'm going to try to put my arm here and then here and then and it's like just pull the water, gosh darn it. And so, yeah, I can absolutely see that. Well, I love that Raya brought up the importance of form, particularly for women, because I've been swimming almost my whole life. I started on swim team, I think, at age 5. I had some great coaches who really, really emphasized the importance of form. I think we did form drills at just about every practice and I have found that that carried over to now. I hadn't Swam in probably 15 or 20 years. And one winter I decided to take it back up again just as something to do in the off season. And I found that it came back really fast. And you know, I had some triathlete friends with me who were like, yeah.  Your form looks good. You look like you've been swimming, you know, this whole time. So I think any movement pattern you're. Learning, of course, the more you practice your form correctly, the more you're going to lay down those neuromuscular patterns. So I think for women and for men, it's important to get form first. You know, Raya mentioned how a lot of her male clients tend to just muscle through the water, but they don't quite have the technique yet. Whereas women tend to have the opposite problem. I think it might actually be easier for an athlete, male or female, if you start out with good technique and then you get better by getting stronger.

Vanessa Ronksley: I really loved this clip. Not necessarily as an athlete, but as a coach. And I have the opportunity to coach beginner intermediate athletes. And something that I definitely noticed in the pool was this very thing that these two amazing women were talking about was how men muscle through the water and how. How women are way more delicate. And it is so apparent when you see side by side, you have women in lanes, you have men in lanes, and you can see this exact thing happening. And, and I, I saw it. Like, I, I could observe it, but until they said those words, I didn't know how to fix it. Like, I didn't know what that. That little thing was to help them. And so being able to say to, to the female athletes that were super delicate in the water, it's like, use your muscles, get in there, pull hard, and show where to engage those muscles is extremely valuable. So I loved this episode and particularly this clip, just because it's helpful as an athlete to take that information and that knowledge and to improve yourself, but also as a coach to implement some strategies to help male and female athletes improve their form or their, you know, their strength in certain areas.

Andrew Harley: Sarah, let's go over to you for. This is the eighth best of selection on the show today. It's your second. What do you have?

Sarah Burney: So this is actually before I was working on the podcast and one of the ones that got me really excited to start helping with the podcast. It's from January 10 triathlon training secrets from 10 TriDot coaches. And, you know, I think everyone knows that you can do TriDot without a coach. A lot of our new athletes don't realize how valuable the coach is to them, and so this was just a great way to show off our coaches. The TriDot coaches are amazing. We have some of the best, and we got to learn all sorts of things, from bike tips to listening to our bodies before it's an injury, to even the importance of doing things that we're not good at.

<AUDIO CLIP>: Coach Verbie's tip is do the stuff you suck at. Do you ever wonder where your weak points come from? They're born from your strengths, overriding the rest of your skills and you avoiding doing the stuff you hate. And we all do it. Why would we want to do something we hate? We're not getting any pleasure from it. We feel like we're not good at it. So let's just concentrate on the things that make us feel good and don't get us into good shape. But our weak points are caused by us avoiding that, avoiding all the things that we hate. And that's the difference between a competitive athlete and athletes that are just working out, the competitive athletes, really going to focus on those things they're struggling on and get better at it and become a better athlete because we can always go out and get in better shape by doing the things we like to do. But to excel at the sport, we really have to master the things that we hate. Let it be swimming, biking, running, core work, stretching, all those things. There's something all of us hate. Take it. I've heard it a hundred times. I just do the basics for swimming because that's the shortest part of a triathlon. So they don't focus on it because they're not good at it. But spending that little extra time getting a swim stroke analyzed, going to TriDot pool school, getting a coach and working on that extra swim is going to make you start enjoying it more and make you faster. So my main thing is really focusing on the stuff you hate and it's going to make you an all around better athlete.

Vanessa Ronksley: I love how coach Verbie just lays it right out there. He just goes straight to it. He says it like it is, right. It's so awesome. I, I loved that clip. I loved this episode. And you know, the, the pool of coaches in the TriDot family, as you said earlier, Sarah, it. It is so deep. And they all have amazing, unique qualities that allow them to impact people's lives in so many different ways. And this episode was just one of those instances that reminded me how much knowledge our coaches have. And not only that, but how much they love to give and to share it with other people. And that just makes me so grateful to be a part of this community.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. So that was one of the ten tips right there. That was coach Jason Verbracken. And my challenge to the coaches when I invited them to do this was share a tip with our audience that you feel, feel like most triathletes will not have heard. You know, probably something that you tell your own athletes that if they weren't being coached by you, they would probably never have heard otherwise. And all 10 tips are like that. They're great. So really, really good episode. Onto our next tip. This is number nine on the episode. It's number three from Elizabeth James. Your last one, Elizabeth, what do you got?

Elizabeth James: I'm going with episode 196, which was cycling science, optimizing your wheels, tires and tubes. And this was a conversation where, Andrew, you interviewed TJ Tollekson, who's the founder and CEO of Dimond Bikes, and then our very own coach Jeff Raines. And this is an episode that I Absolutely listened to twice. I was first listening to it in the car to and from the gym, from a swim session. But I wanted to listen to it a second time when I had, like, pen and paper nearby. Cause I wanted to take some notes and like, ooh, what they say about, like, wheels and like, all of that set up. And I mean, there were just so many great tips for optimizing your wheel setup and then, you know, making that triathlon wish list as well.

<AUDIO CLIP>: TJ, what does an athlete need to consider when selecting or upgrading their wheelset? Yeah, man, this is. This is a huge, huge topic to kind of undertake in one podcast. But we'll start here, right? So in typical sense, the deeper the wheel, the rim on the wheel, the faster the wheel, right? I mean, that's a generalization, but oftentimes that's the truth behind it. And so when you're talking about speed of a certain wheel set, typically the number one factor that anybody has to overcome is air resistance. And so a more aerodynamic wheel makes the bike massively faster. Right. And so going to a deeper rim profile makes the wheel faster. There's a lot of things that come into play. Spokes, aero spokes, tri spokes, full disc wheels. So there's a lot of things to consider. So, man, we could do, you know, PhD, dissertation on just wheel choices. But the number one thing we want to look for when we're looking at wheels is we're saying, what makes a wheel fast? Well, deeper wheel is going to be a faster wheel. It's going to come at the expense of having more side force to it. There are some cool, innovative products that are designed to increase aerodynamics and decrease side force. We can chat about those a little bit. But, yeah, the main thing you're looking for is a huge speed increase. And it's true, you can buy speed on a bike because of aerodynamic improvements. And so buying faster wheels is one of the ways that you can take any bike and make it faster.

Vanessa Ronksley: Now, just relistening to this, this clip here. I totally bought myself some speed with my new Dimond bike.

Andrew Harley: You sure did.

Vanessa Ronksley: Oh, man, it has deep wheels and. And it definitely made me a lot faster, that's for sure. But you know, EJ, I do the exact same thing with a lot of the really technical episodes. I love taking notes and putting as much information into practice as possible. And this was definitely one of those episodes where I did the same thing. And, and something that I remember from this episode is that they talked about tire pressure, and it took me so much time, like I remember going to the resource, the website that they suggested and putting in my. My, all of the information and getting the tire pressure, and I was shocked. I've been riding like 20 psi.

Andrew Harley: It was lower than you thought, huh?

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah. Oh, yeah. So much lower. And it took me a really long time to actually trust this was the case and I finally did went with a way lower tire pressure. So, yeah, this. This was a really good episode for me.

Elizabeth James: It was like a walk down memory lane of like, pumping the tires up to their maximum pressure possible. Like, as I was first starting out in the sport and then realizing, like, oh, actually, you know, maybe there is a better way to go about this. So, yeah, good, good tips all around in that episode.

Andrew Harley: If you are listening and you have never researched what your tire pressure should be, go listen to this episode because 90% of you are probably running too much air pressure in your tires and you would gain speed, it's free speed, just by running your tire pressure a little bit less. So, yeah, go listen to the episode. There's some great resources on there to help you get it right. Moving on to episode number 10 in our best of series. This is Vanessa's third and final submission. Vanessa, which one do you have for us?

Vanessa Ronksley: I have chosen episode 202, which aired in August. Calculating the right cadence. This is something that I constantly think about, and I am so grateful that there was a full episode on Cadence for Swim, Bike and Run.

Andrew Harley: You are welcome.

Vanessa Ronksley: Oh, yeah. So grateful. So I. And. And I am also a stickler for numbers. I love details. And so this podcast was right up my alley. I love getting into the nitty gritty of all these details in any aspect of training and then trying to implement them into my own sessions. And, and this was a great episode because it featured Jeff Raines, who likes to deep dive into numbers and basically everything. But it also had Coach Jose, who I had the pleasure of meeting in California. So this. This podcast is looking at all three disciplines and how quickly your limbs are moving. And in this next clip, Coach Jose explains the reason behind high versus low cadence prescribed in in some of the TriDot workouts. And. And it's just like peeling another layer off an onion to get maximum benefit from each training session. So this is one of those layers that is highly important for improving.

<AUDIO CLIP>: I like to remember here one training that I see from Sebastian Kinle. You know, Sebastian Kinle is one of the biggest cyclists all over the world. Oh, he's fantastic. Yeah, he's had a great career. Yeah. So one of the key sessions that he had before IRONMAN Hawaii was a 4 hour session with 4 times 4, 2 blocks, 2 blocks of 45 minutes separated by 30 minutes in zone 2. The 45 minutes, the 2 blocks of 45 minutes were pedaling at the race pace, at the race power. Okay. But with the cadence higher than he will expect to do in Kona. This way he was trying to mimic the same power during the. During the race, during Kona, but at the same time increasing the cardiovascular load. Because as Jeff said, it's very important to understand that when we go up with the cadence, this is something that we are doing with TriDot. Some of the training, as you said, Andrew, are explaining us. Okay, you must go over 100, for example. So the reason for to do that is because TriDot wants to increase our cardiovascular load. This is very important when we go to the other side, when we go and we pedal 60 RPM. Then is when we are increasing our strength. Muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons. So this is the other side of the spectrum. But both of them, both of those training sessions are very good to improve the coordination. All the muscle fibers are coordinating much better when you are increasing or decreasing your regular cadence. So for this reason, when you are aiming your specific cadence, then you are going to do a more efficient effort. And this is key. As we said before, efficiency is everything when we are talking about endurance sport.

Sarah Burney: So full disclosure, when I started TriDot, I ignored cadence.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, you did.

Sarah Burney: I did. Oh, I definitely did.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, you did.

Sarah Burney: And it, it took a while before I realized the importance of it. And this is an episode similar to the past ones where I have gone back multiple times and listened because each time there is a new fact and a new thing I can work on.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, and Coach Jose and Coach Jeff both have so much, literally university training in, in the science of this. So you know that the information they brought across that entire episode was fantastic. Two more to go. I've got one and Sarah's got one. And I'm gonna do mine first because I've seen the list and I know what Sarah's is and I'm not going after it. So my final one, our 11th submission for our best of episodes for 2023. I'm going all the way back to last week, December 18th, episode 221, us sitting down with the CEO of TriDot, Jeff Booher, and the CEO of IRONMAN, Andrew Messick, and talking about what the future of IRONMAN triathlon training looks like. I mean, sitting in this seat hosting this podcast every single week, I'VE had the privilege to get to know Mike Riley, get to know Mark Allen, get to know Bob Babbitt, get to know several professionals who have taken the time. Tim O'Donnell, Mirinda Carfrae. You know, so many really cool people and really big names in the sport have. Have crossed paths to TriDot and sat here on our podcast and talked to us about triathlon. And to add Andrew Messick from Iron man to that list especially, that would have been cool to begin with, but especially in the context of the fact that Iron man and TriDot are now partners. Just, just totally reshaping what the future of training looks like for an IRONMAN athlete. Just a pinch me moment. It was super cool to have him on and have him on across from Jeff Booher, our own CEO. And yeah, if you haven't heard last week's episode, go back and listen to last week's episode. A lot of really, really cool stuff coming out with TriDot and IRONMAN working together into the future and beyond. So check out this clip from that conversation.

<AUDIO CLIP>: What do you hope the triathlon experience looks like for athletes five to 10 years from now, Andrew? I hope that we've taken a step. Forward in making our athletes feel comfortable about our sport. Particularly about comfortable getting in the water. Yeah. And being able to start their race with confidence and with a bit of swagger. Yeah. Yeah. And that more of them will say. This lifestyle that I'm leading, where fitness is a big part of it, where I'm healthy, I'm chasing ambitious new goals. That I can do that for a long time and still be the parent and spouse and community member that I want to be, that all these things. Can happen at the same time five years from now if we can get there, that'll be awesome.

Elizabeth James: I think Jeff said it so well when he talked about how exciting this partnership is as it puts the latest training technology and resources in the hands of coaches and athletes. I mean, as a coach and an athlete, I have experienced the benefits of coaching and training with TriDot firsthand. And so to have IRONMAN and TriDot be in this partnership is like dream come true status. Just, just awesome. Thinking about the next couple years.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. And we've already, we've been on so many calls with members of their team from different departments and they've just been a joy to work with, a blast to work with. Very collaborative team behind IRONMAN. So, yeah, definitely looking forward to what the future holds there. And yeah, that had to. I couldn't. I couldn't get. I know it was just last week, but I couldn't get through a best of 2023 list and leave Jeff Booher and Andrew Messick off of the list, so had to include that one. Heading over to Sarah for our final nomination. And it's. It's a doozy. It's a good one. Sarah, what do you have for us?

Sarah Burney: This, to me, was the most powerful episode of the whole year. It's episode 199, the toughest race. Triathletes overcoming cancer. And normally after a podcast, Andrew will send me notes like, oh, it went a little long, et cetera. This. I got none. So I started editing it, and within 10 minutes, I was in tears. It is such a powerful episode. Everyone needs to listen to it. Jayson Williams and our own coach, Brandy Ramirez have faced some really tough times. And are some of the strongest people and they've managed to find positives during some of the most terrible times.

<AUDIO CLIP>: I. I started the race. Oh, well, leading up to it, my boss stopped showing up for training days, and she just. It was one of those things like, oh, okay, she's not feeling well. And. And her daughter had just been diagnosed with throat cancer. And so I was like, oh, I'm gonna race for her. I'm gonna. So Orange county, where I lived at the time, had. I could. I got an F cancer sticker, and I just threw it on my bike. And, um, my boss wasn't feeling well. And so I went to the race and I went by myself. Cause she couldn't come. Cause she wasn't feeling well. And I did the race. It was a very, very long 16 and a half hour day. Um, I have a huge respect for all those athletes that are out going, finishing at the very end. Um, and I crossed the finish line, and my wife, who is my girlfriend at the time, came up and said, you need to take this call. And it was my boss's spouse and said, she's so proud of you. She watched across the finish line, and I said, awesome. Can I talk to her? She died five minutes ago. Oh, my gosh. Sorry. Don't be sorry. And I go, what do you mean? I said, what do you mean? And he said, she's been fighting cancer, Jason. She didn't want to freak you out and bother you with, you know, work and triathlon training. So. She watched across the finish line and one of her last words were. Tell Jason I'm proud. Oh, geez. So when I came home, I. I started emailing that, you know, I went to the www.fcancerforward.com or.org sorry. And I started emailing and just emailing, please, I want to be part of this. What can I do? I started raising money by myself and just sending it to them. And then in 2016, they reached out to me finally back because they get millions of emails a day. And the founder finally said, I'm so sorry we didn't see this earlier. We want, what can we do?

Andrew Harley: Yeah, we have a lot of fun on the podcast, obviously. And every now and then there's there's reminders that there's more to this sport. Right. And sometimes and this sport can be extra meaningful some days in some instances. And Jayson Williams, who you heard in that clip, he has never personally battled cancer, but you heard the story in that clip where he, his boss at his work who got him into the sport of triathlon, you heard the story of her passing away and it made such a mark on him, it made such an impression on him that, that he now is the, the, the founder and lead of the F Cancer Endurance Club. And he is so passionate about advocating for cancer research, advocating for cancer education and advocating for cancer survivors to make it to the IRONMAN finish line. That, that, that's his, that's his whole deal. That's his, that's his whole thing. And I have so much admiration for him and I, I couldn't put another episode after that one. And so just, just want to encourage you, if you're listening, you know, you can go to their website, you can go to fcancer.org and you can donate or Google the endurance team and you can buy a hat or a kit or a shirt and all those proceeds go towards the nonprofit that is educating and raising money and advocating for people battling cancer themselves. And like you said, Sarah, our own coach, Brandy Ramirez, she's on staff with TriDot. She's a wonderful triathlon coach. She has faced cancer before and battled it and she's a, an advocate with her non profit of her own. So very meaningful episode. And because there's a lot of people beside you on the race course, a lot of people in front of you, behind you on the race course that are grappling with some things that you yourself aren't grappling with. And so be supportive of your fellow athletes, you never know what somebody's facing or what somebody's going through. And again, as we conclude the episode today, a lot of great episodes definitely take some time to support what the f cancer and that is F U C K spelt out. We're not going to say the word on the show, but they use the full word in their website. Definitely support the work that that triathlon club and that nonprofit organization is doing.

Announcer: Great set. Everyone, let's cool down.

Vanessa Ronksley: As part of our 2023 podcast, reflecting and Drew has asked me to share my top fave coach cooldown tip from this year. So it was a really tough choice. I've done a lot of cooldowns. There's been a lot of wonderful people, but the one that stuck out in my mind that came to me right off the bat was Mr. Jason McFall. Most of the time when I do a cool down, I've never met these guest coaches. And from the moment that I met Jason and we were on this recording platform, I felt like I was actually talking to an old friend. He has the most calming nature. He's extremely thoughtful, intuitive, perceptive, and how he views the world is extremely deep, which made it actually very easy for me to connect with him. The tip that he offers is really awesome. And when he tells his chocolate cake story, I literally can't wipe the smile off my face no matter how many times I listen to it. I can't even begin to tell you how much I want to hear about this little fact that not many people know about you, because anything that involves chocolate cake is right up my alley. So apparently the story is that you had a negative association with mile 80 of a bike ride. So to conquer this, you would stash a piece of chocolate cake in your jersey and reward yourself for getting past this mental barrier. So I think I need to know a little bit more about this.

Jason McFaul: So I would go on a lot of long bike rides, and I kept noticing that around miles 75, 76, 77, 78, and it was most pronounced at mile 80, I would get dejected, I would get almost sad, I would get frustrated, I would get angry. And none of these things were consistent with the emotions I wanted to have when I was on my bike and when I was doing this kind of training. And so I tried a lot of different things, and nothing seemed to work for me. And then I was at Costco, and I had an aha moment when I saw their just enormous chocolate cake. And I thought, you know, I could. I like chocolate cake. And that would be a good reward for me, something I could associate with mile 80. And so I could. I could take a slice of that, put it into a ziploc bag, keep it in my. My jersey pocket, and then that is something that I could have. You know, when I get to mile 80. I look at my Garmin, and sure enough, like, 79.9. And then 80, boom, I get my chocolate cake. And so it's. I did that for the first time, and it worked. And I started thinking a lot of negative thoughts and things at mile 71, 72. And then that other voice went, hey.

Vanessa Ronksley: You've got chocolate cake, nice chocolate cake.

Jason McFaul: In your back pocket. So it was great, and it was kind of my go to for a while. And then on one ride, once it had become normal for me, I was riding with my friend Roy, and he didn't know anything about this chocolate cake. And we're at mile 80. And so for me now, it was business as usual. I get to have my chocolate cake. And so I just, you know, we're in aero position, we're riding two abreast, and I reach back and I get my chocolate cake, and I'm squeezing it out of the Ziploc bag, and, you know, and it's delicious. And he doesn't notice anything. And then we both go over this bump in the road, and I smash the cake right in my face. So I've got the frosting hanging from my nose, and I've got bits of cake, you know, all over my cheeks. And that's when he looks over, of course, and he says, what. What are you doing? Are you eating cake?

Jason McFaul: My mouth was full. I was just kind of like, yeah, I love that. And, yeah, but it, you know, it worked, and it changed my association with that. That mile 80 mile.

Vanessa Ronksley: That is a fabulous idea, and it changes your perception of mile 80 from being one of potential dread to being something to actually look forward to and to get excited about. So aside from stashing chocolate cake in her bike jerseys as motivation, what tip do you have for us all today?

Jason McFaul: It's about friction, and it dovetails really nicely with the chocolate cake story. The way I'm using friction is deliberately increasing or decreasing resistance in an effort to reach our true potential. So, for example, with the chocolate cake story, there was. There was mounting friction when I was biking, and I knew that, oh, I'm almost at, you know, now I'm at mile 70 now. 72, 74, 76. I'm getting closer to 80, and 80 is when I fall apart, right? And so there was kind of mounting resistance keeping me from what I wanted to accomplish as an athlete. What could I do? Lower the friction. It's one of the best things about TriDot is that biology scales so we can periodize training and we can say, look, you're a human being, this is going to work for you, right? With personality, it's a little bit different. Personality doesn't scale. So for me, it's chocolate cake. For somebody else, it might be something else. But for the people listening to this, we can start really simple with friction. So let's say, for instance, a person is not getting enough sleep, which is a lot of us typically, right? So then it's okay, well, what's the culprit? Or what are one of the things. What's one of the things leading to the lack of sleep? And maybe it's something as simple as I'm watching too much tv. I turn on the TV with the remote and I just plan on watching it for 30 minutes and three hours later I'm still there. That happens to a lot of us. And in that case, there are different things you could do to add friction. So to increase friction, something as simple as taking the batteries out of the remote control when you finish. And you don't have to hide them, right? It's not an Easter egg hunt or anything. You just pop them in a drawer or, you know, put them in your dresser upstairs. But just make it inconvenient enough, add that small layer of friction so that tomorrow night when you sit down and you just habitually go to press the power button on the remote, you go, dang it, I don't have batteries, right? And then it. It's just enough to slow you down, give you pause and give you space to ask yourself the question, is this really what I want to do? Right? Because our discipline drops so much toward the end of the day, we just get exhausted and so we end up making some bad decisions. So these are just little things. For me it wasn't about getting enough sleep. I wasn't getting high quality sleep often. And it was because I like beer, I like to drink beer and I like to drink red wine. And then sometimes I make bad nutritional decisions after I've had a beer or two or a glass or two of wine. And so, you know, back in the olden days, the Garmin that we used were. The one that I had was called the 910 and it didn't have the sensor. And so it didn't provide the same metrics. But like, for instance, with the new Garmin, like, my 945 has an optical sensor. This was the best layer of friction that I could introduce because I got addicted to body battery and sleep score. So now it's really easy for me to say, no. The beer can say, hey, Drink me and I can go, you know what? I don't want to wake up and look at my body battery and see that it's 17. And that's just enough to give me pause. And sometimes that's all we need.

Vanessa Ronksley: No, I 100% agree with you. Even just with the sleep and the alcohol. I do not drink alcohol very often, but I notice when I do, once every few months, my HRV status just plummets. You know, it's so crazy to, and to be able to. To understand that before I choose or not to choose to have alcohol, it's like, do I want my HRV to drop that much? And the answer is it's often no.

Jason McFaul: Right?

Vanessa Ronksley: Like, I, I just don't want to jeopardize that, that extra, you know, bit of recovery and, and, and all that biological stuff that's happening in the body. I just don't want to really have it affect it. So it makes the choice a lot easier.

Jason McFaul: Well, and one of the smartest things is that you ask yourself that question also. Right? Because our brains love questions. And so if you say, do you want this to happen? And your brain goes, no, it helps make that decision for you.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, 100%.

Announcer: Thanks for joining us. Make sure to subscribe and share the TriDot podcast with your triathlon crew for more great tri content and community. Connect with us on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. Ready to optimize your training? Head to TriDot.com and start your free trial today. TriDot, the obvious and automatic choice for triathlon training.

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