The TriDot Podcast's Best of 2025

TriDot Podcast Episode 327

The TriDot Podcast's Best of 2025

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Andrew Harley: Welcome to the TriDot Podcast. It is our final episode of 2025. Guys, we've been doing this show since 2019. We launched this the TriDot podcast in September of 2019 and here we are doing our best of 2025 episode. Nice to still be on the microphone talking, swim, bike and run with you every single week. Here's how things gonna work. It's me. It is podcast host Vanessa Ronksley, it is podcast producer Sarah Burney. And our team of three is going to just on our year in podcasting, each of us have come onto the recording today with four episodes picked out that were just our four favorite shows of the year. So all in all, you're going to hear 12 episodes, 12 clips, 12 takeaways from our year in podcasting, things that stood out to us, moments that we liked, things that we learned while working on the show. And yeah, it's going to be a fun way to wrap up the year. So get ready, get excited to learn. We're going to, as always, do our warm up question and then move on into our main set where we hear our 12 favorite episodes of the year and then we'll shut things down with our final cooldown of the year. Lots of good stuff. Let's get to it.

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

Andrew Harley: All right, for our final warm up question of 2025, I want to know, across the entire wide world of sports, racing, law maybe, or another sport, what was your personal favorite sports moment or sports story from 2025? Vanessa, what's this answer for you?

Vanessa Ronksley: All right, well, I kind of have two just because I have to shout out some Canadians. So the first one is the women's Canadian rugby team winning the second silver medal in women's Rugby World Cup. And it was absolutely incredible that they made it to the final in the first place. They knocked out New Zealand, which is like the powerhouse of rugby in both the men's and the women's side. So that was pretty amazing that they got there and got the silver medal. So that was pretty cool. But the one that I have to say is my all time top favorite is the Toronto Blue Jays. I just have to say it because, you know, we have this one baseball team in the entire country that most of us weren't cheering for and the last like the last time they were in the World series was in 1993. And so baseball, you know, not many kids were choosing to play baseball. And as that World Series went on, the number of people who became enthralled with the players and the sports, sport itself was just absolutely amazing. And so it's reignited this passion for baseball in, in our country. And I'm just so thrilled that people are getting excited and enthusiastic to be involved in, in a sport. So I think those are my two highlights of, of the year.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, I, I'm not a massive baseball fan but I gotta tell you that was just such a good series between the, the Dodgers and the Blue Jays. I had every game on right. And as we were kind of wrapping up our day during that series and just riveting, riveting stuff and yeah, so really good picks from Vanessa and there I gotta say first of all, thank you for coming on the show. Sarah is a true producer. She likes to be behind the scenes working on media but not seen on the media. And today I dragged her Vanessa and I dragged her kicking and screaming onto the media. So Sarah, tell us everything in sports this year. What was your favorite moments?

Sarah Burney: I'm going to change mine right now but it was going to be very similar. Relating to the Blue Jays is watching all the sports. There were like 10 game sevens in the playoffs of between hockey, basketball, baseball. They were so fun to watch and when your team is not in it it's even more fun because it's not stressful.

Andrew Harley: That's actually true Sarah. That's so true, so true, so true.

Sarah Burney: But I'm changing mine now because yesterday I was watching the NCAA volleyball tournament. Oh yeah, Texas A&M beat three number one seeds could go on and win the finals and they were only one of them was a close match. They just were like the underdog that kept going and it was so I got so into the tournament. So shout out to them.

Andrew Harley: I'm going to give a quick my honorable mention here. In a tennis world watching Jannik center and Carlos Alcaraz's rivalry just explode this past year the tennis fan has been great. Every time they meet in a major final it is riveting stuff. In particular this year's French Open Roland Garros final between the two of them it went five and a half hours. It was in my opinion maybe a top three tennis match I've ever watched. I watch it from start to finish for five and a half, six hours. But, but that's, that's a highlight for me. But my number one also going up to Canada, Vanessa is the Dallas Stars hockey team. When I moved to Dallas Texas. I adopted the Dallas teams as my teams, except for the NFL. I don't care about the Cowboys. I don't dislike them. I just don't care about them anyway, so I've adopted the Stars. I'm a Stars fan, have been the whole 15 years I've lived out here. And they now have a player on the roster whose name is Thomas Harley. He's from Canada. And so I had to go buy a Thomas Harley jersey. So I've got a Harley 55 jersey. My last name is Harley. In case you're listening. You don't know that. And so there's something about having a player on your actual favorite team share your last name and you can get a jersey. And it just. It makes me that much more. I was already emotionally invested in them. They're. They're usually a good team. There's a guy in the ice every single game. Go, Harley. Let's go. Hey, we're going to throw this question out to you guys, our audience. Make sure you're following us on the socials. If you're watching us on YouTube, you're watching us on Spotify. Comment in the comment section below of everything that happened in sports in the year 2025. What was your favorite moment, favorite story? Can't wait to see what you guys have to say.

Announcer: Let's go.

Andrew Harley: All right, moving into our main set, where the three of us will share our four mom each from four episodes each from podcasting that. Just things that stuck out to us, episodes that we had through 2025 that were just that much more memorable to us as a production team. And Vanessa, I'm going to start with you. We'll roundtable this. We'll go. Vanessa, Sarah, me. Vanessa, Sarah, me. Vanessa, Sarah, me. Until we've shared all of our clips. Vanessa, what was the first episode to you this year that you're going to nominate as a best of 2025 try it out podcast episode.

Vanessa's First Pick: Episode 307 - 8 Ways Triathletes Lose Time

Vanessa Ronksley: All right, so this first One is episode 307. It's called 8 Ways that Triathletes Lose Time and How to Fix Them. Um, and both Matt Smat Bach and Matt Summer were on this as guests, and I. I feel like it needs to be mentioned because it. It would have made a difference in my racing if it had been aired before I actually raced, but it came out like a week later, and I think it would have saved me some. Some time. And I. I have to tell you, like, a lot of people say that, you know, in long distance racing, seconds don't matter. But in the last four races that I've done, 20 seconds has been like my nemesis. And in the most recent race in placid, 20 seconds put me two slots back, which was not, I would not have qualified for Kona with those two places, but it still was like that much further away from my Kona dream. And basically it came down to my transition bag. And in this clip that you're going to hear, it's talking Matt Sommer talks about how he organizes his transition bag and then Matt Bach talks about how he organizes his transition bag and mine was a full on disaster and there was just like everything and the kitchen sink in my bag. So I think this would have saved me those 20 seconds and who knows, maybe even minutes and then I would have possibly qualified for Kona. So. So hopefully all of the listeners out there will listen to this clip and get faster as a result.

Matt Sommer: 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. With 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 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, 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, if something that was supposed to be towards the top fell to the bottom. Just take the whole thing and just dump it all out on the ground.

Matt Bach: And one thing that helps too with that is don't only have what you need and only what you need. Yeah. 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: I love both of those Matt’s. Matt Summer and Matt Bach, and they were the first coaches I reached out to when I wanted to do that episode because a lot of our coaches could, could speak to this and speak to this very well. But the two of them in particular, you know, Matt Bach won IRONMAN, Maryland. Like, Matt, Matt Summer has qualified for Boston like 3,000 times. Like, these are guys who, who are very well versed in thinking through how to eat every second you can out on the race course. And, and I, I, I just wanted a couple coaches to come on and just share, like, where can we save seconds here, seconds there, seconds there, seconds there that add up to minutes, that add up to qualifying slots, that add up to podiums, that add up to major savings and that, that Vanessa was a great clip.

Sarah Burney: It was. So there was so much information. But I also remember just laughing the whole time because Matt and Matt are comedians. It was so fun. Like, the hour just went by because I was smiling and laughing the whole time. It was a good one for sure.

Andrew Harley: Vanessa remembers what she learns and Sarah remembers the way coaches make her feel. So that's important, too. That's important, too. Really true.

Sarah's First Pick: Episode 309 - Returning to Training After Injury

Andrew Harley: Sarah, what is your first clip you're going to nominate? First episode you're going to nominate as a best of 2025.

Sarah Burney: So being a producer, I get to tell Andrew, let's do this topic and let's do it now.

Andrew Harley: Yeah.

Sarah Burney: So I have been injured most of this year. I had surgery, so it's been a lot of rehab coming back from injury. So episode 309, returning to triathlon training. After an injury, it was really directed to me. You guys all just got to listen to it. But Elizabeth James has had a lot of injuries, too, and she had the same advice that my physical therapist had. And so hearing it from a second voice without any prompting was so helpful. So if you're injured, hopefully this helps you, too.

Elizabeth James: Finding medical professionals that you can really have good alignment with is key. And that's something that I have found is super important for me. And I told the physical therapist that I've been working with all of this year, I was like, look, you have to give me very strict guidelines, because any leeway you give, I'm going to take, because I'm so anxious to get back to this. And so if there's something that's a hard no, like, I need to know that that's a hard no. It's not a maybe, or you can try it and you can see it's like, no, absolutely not. Like, we're not cleared for that yet. And so I know myself, I know that I need those strict guidelines, and I. I also know that I need to find medical professionals that are not afraid to tell me that, because that, that works well for me. I mean, I've gone through a number of physical therapists in order to find one that really jived well with me, my goals, the. The type of communication, getting me back to where I wanted to be. And that was.

Andrew Harley: And Elizabeth, when you say that, when you say that this, the one you're with now, you drive well with them, that doesn't just mean that they give you permission to do what you want to do. Right?

Elizabeth James: In fact, quite the opposite.

Andrew Harley: Okay.

Elizabeth James: It's been the most strict and the person that's given me the most limitations, and that's been very helpful for me. And it has kept me continually progressing versus somebody that gives me a little more leeway. And I. I go when I do too much. So, yeah, it's been great. And I mean, same thing with the athletes that I work with. You know, we. We work to find that gradual progression, that kind of individualized approach. We're continuously monitoring the symptoms. I mean, I think sometimes my athletes get annoyed with me because I'm like, well, how did it feel after? And then I'll text them again a few hours later. I was like, well, how's your pain level now? And then I'll check in again the next morning. I was like, how are you feeling before we're going into this training session? But, I mean, I do. I want to just monitor those symptoms. Continuously and make sure that, like, the gradual progression that we're going on is, Is appropriate for them.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. If you find yourself having to come back from a surgery, an injury some time time away, your body not feeling right, absolutely. Go higher up that episode and learn a little bit more.

Andrew's First Pick: Episode 319 - The Triathlete's Guide to Protein

Andrew Harley: My first nomination. I'm. I'm going to nominate a fairly recent episode. I learned so much from the conversation on episode 319 with Taryn Richardson, our friend. She's a registered dietitian who has the Travel Nutrition Academy based out of Brisbane, Australia. She and I did the episode the Triathlete's Guide to Protein. And I'll learn so freaking much about protein, you guys. I'm not even joking. I felt like I had a pretty good handle on it and there was just like three or four things very specifically that I was like, just blown away by that. I did not know like one of them. Did you guys know there's four macronutrients? Did you know?

Vanessa Ronksley: Yes. Yes.

Sarah Burney: No.

Andrew Harley: I thought there was three. I thought there was fats, carbohydrates and protein. Alcohol is the fourth macronutrient. I didn't know that. I found that out in this episode kind of tangentially. And so anyway, the clip I'm going to share. I always knew on heavier training days versus lighter training days, you need more calories, you need more carbohydrate, you need to refill the tank more because of the effort that you just went under. But one of the big learning takeaways for me in this episode was you actually don't need to vary your protein intake that much. Your body's protein needs are actually fairly stable. Whether it was a hard day or a light day or an easy day or, or, or a Wednesday or a Sunday or whatever. A double workout day, a single workout day. It's more your carbohydrate and your total calories that you shouldn't fluctuate more. But your protein is actually pretty stable. That was probably one of my biggest takeaways here. So I'll play a clip of. Here's Taryn kind of telling us a little bit more and a little bit more smartly that truth. Taryn, take it away.

Taryn Richardson: Yeah, your protein needs are actually relatively stable. Out of the four macronutrients, protein stays relatively stable. The. If you, if your training changes that much, we wanna periodize our nutrition to training. But you would do that primarily with the amount of carbohydrate that you consume. Because Obviously, like a 30 to 60 minute easy run is going to use way less carbohydrate as a fuel source than a six hour bike ride. So that's the main macronutrient that you would manipulate as well as your fat. Uh, it doesn't, it does go up and down. It can help us to periodize and I guess overall calories too because your calorie burn is obviously so different in those two different types of sessions. But your protein needs stay quite stable because we've got the same amount of muscle mass. That doesn't really change. All of your body processes still need to happen. Right? So your protein needs are actually relatively stable. They don't go up and down on a day to, day to day basis. They stay stable so that you, and you need to prioritize eating enough on the daily as well because we can't store it anywhere. So you can't have a day where you under eat. So say you did have a six hour bike ride. You still need to get the same amount of protein in that day despite being out on, out on the bike for six hours that you would a day that you are just doing a 60 minute run and you've got more time or more opportunity to eat protein. I love hearing everything from Taryn. She is so practical in terms of the knowledge that she shares and, and then everything that she talks about is, is something that athletes can put into place immediately. And so I think that when it comes to protein like hearing that, that you know, the things that you need to, to alter in the course of your day is not protein. That just gets us going and gets us thinking about what is what these different nutrients are doing for our bodies in terms of building muscle, retaining muscle and, and then having the energy sources to be able to fuel all of the activities that we, that we are doing. And protein is not one of those energy fuels. Um, and so it's really important for us to, to recognize that we, we often think that protein is the hero and, and it's like that consistent hero. It needs to stay at the same level the entire time and, and the other things need to come and go based on the intensity and the, and the volume of training that we're doing in a specific hearing the little tidbits of Taryn because she, she's so well researched like she stays on top of nutrition research and, and makes sure that everything that she is sharing has been, you know, peer reviewed and, and it's scientifically based and so I, I feel that she's a very good source of information and so always love Hearing what she has to say about nutrition.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, I'm always challenged when she's on or when I'm listening. Whatever we're talking about, it comes up all the time. Like, just the emphasis that. The good reminder that we should be getting our nutrients from Whole Foods as much as possible, and supplements where we have to fill gaps because there's so many. I'll be in front of my pantry and I'm like, okay, in 30 seconds, I can whip up a protein smoothie or, hey, actually, there's some grilled chicken from yesterday sitting right there. Let me heat that up instead. It reframes my thinking to just kind of have her in the back of my head from all the conversations we've had.

Vanessa's Second Pick: Episode 286 - Six Big Time Running Tips

Andrew Harley: Vanessa. So we've all gone. We've all gone once. What is Vanessa's second nomination for Best of 2025 Pockets episode?

Vanessa Ronksley: Okay, this one is episode 286, and it's six big time running tips for triathletes. And it was one of my favorites. I was hosting this one and I was sitting there with Jeff Raines and Mirinda Carfrey. And so having those two people as experts, there's just nothing better. They are both so, so knowledgeable about running in particular, and, and running is something that I want to improve at, and it's my area of growth, that's for sure. So hearing what they had to say is really fascinating. Um, but the clip that I chose for this one is actually the. One of the biggest mistakes that triathletes make with run fueling. And because a lot of our training is bike heavy, and so we practice a lot of nutrition and fueling on the bike, but then what we tend to do is we just, you know, hold on to the faith that we're going to be fine on the run. And we don't necessarily practice run fuel training. So in this clip, Rinny is talking about why fueling during the run isn't just about energy, but it's about training your gut to perform under a specific kind of stress, which is what we experience when we're racing. So this is one of those topics that can completely change how your race plays out in the final miles or final kilometers. And so I think it's just really important to. To hear what she has to say.

Mirinda Carfrae: Yeah, so the other thing, big run tip is practicing fueling while you're running. And I think, you know, a lot of our run sessions are an hour long or they're, you know, 30 minutes or outside of our, you know, big long runs, and maybe there's 75 minutes during the week. Sorry. On the, on the Sunday as well. Fueling during those is. Is not necessary. Right. Like, you can eat your breakfast, you can get through that session just fine without any fuel, but that's not going to help your gut. Learn how to process the food while you're at. At high heart rate. So there is a learning curve. Or you can train your gut to be able to absorb carbohydrates or more carbohydrates while you're exercising. And, you know, you think in a race, you absolutely are going to have to take on carbohydrates while you're running. 100%, you need it. You're not going to get through a half marathon or a marathon without some fueling. And so my tip is just to practice that. You know, eight weeks out from a race start, you know, if you aren't already. And I coach my athletes to any session that has quality in it, they should be taking in carbohydrates. Any session that is a longer duration, more than an hour, they need to be taking in carbohydrates as well. It's not only going to be good for the session itself, it's going to be good for their recovery. And of course, for when it comes to race day, they're training their gut. Um, so, you know, you can start small if you're not used to trying to take on fluids or, or carbohydrates while you're training, while you're running. Sorry. You know, 30 grams of carbohydrate, 200 milli milligrams of milliliters. Sorry, of. Of fluids. Try and take that in small sips throughout the run session and over time, you'll be able to build up the amount of carbohydrates that you can comfortably take on and it won't feel like a gut bomb. You know, back in the day, I used to hear people like Peter Reed would go and eat a burger and then go and run because he wanted his gut to be invincible. And, and certainly through my training as well, I got to the point where I could eat anything. I could go and, like, raid the fridge and then run, and I'd be fine. My gut was to a point where it was somewhat bulletproof. And you want that for when you are doing a marathon, because the biggest obstacle that a lot of people face is fueling, like, and absorbing that fuel, not fueling itself, because anyone can stuff food in their mouth, but there's. If their stomach hasn't learned how to Process those fluids and those carbohydrates, then it's just game over. And so obviously you want a mixture of glucose and fructose. There's so many great products now that are easily absorbed through the stomach wall. But yeah, just practicing it is so important.

Sarah Burney: I wish I knew this before my first IRONMAN because this is probably the third thing I ever said to Andrew. He was my IRONMAN, was, my stomach hurts on the run. Help me fix it immediately.

Andrew Harley: What do I do? What do I do?

Sarah Burney: I don't think I can run. I'm so jealous of an iron stomach. That's going to be my goal.

Andrew Harley: This, I don't have that.

Sarah Burney: When I start training, I'm going to follow all of that. That's my goal.

Sarah's Second Pick: Episode 278 - Sustaining Success with Strength Training

Andrew Harley: Sarah Burney, what is your second episode you're going to nominate as the best of the year?

Sarah Burney: I'm going to go back to Matt Sommer for a second.

Andrew Harley: We love Matt Sommer here on the TriDot podcast.

Sarah Burney: This is from January, so almost a year ago. Number 278, sustaining triathlon success with strength training. And this is really the first year I've done strength training. And you can hear a little bit of an embarrassing story about me not being able to lift my arms when they recorded this podcast because I told both of them that my baby muscles hurt. But I can feel such a difference when I'm doing the strength training. And I've noticed as I've started coming back, like, I, I mean, I did my first bike FTP test in about a year and it's still a lot, but I only lost about 40 watts, which to me is nothing because I did so much strength training, I figured I would lose so much more and so I was really surprised. So I have to give a lot of credit to actually doing the work.

Andrew Harley: I'm curious to hear, when you're out on the bike or you're in the pool or open water or you're out for a run, do you notice a big difference in how you feel out there in your tangible swim, bike and running when you're on top of your game with your strength sessions versus when you're not on top of your strength sessions?

Elizabeth James: 100%. I mean, without a doubt. Yeah, I, I could feel a difference.

Andrew Harley: Matt, how about you?

Matt Sommer: Same. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Agree. I mean, when I'm in the pool and I haven't been hitting the weights, haven't been doing my pull ups, haven't been hitting the lap machine, I can feel it in my stroke a hundred percent. I mean, I, my Endurance is not there. I feel more muscular fatigue through my deltoids more. If my running, I can definitely feel it in my quads as well. I just feel like the road beats me up a little bit more when I haven't been hitting the weights as consistently. And that's that durability I was talking about with the strength training. And same on the bike. You know, powering up the hills. You know, people always talk about, man, I struggle on the hills. Okay, let's get some squats going. And then all of a sudden, within a week or two, you're like, man, like, I re. I trotted up that hill on the bike. It was not that quickly, man, that quickly. Something like that can, can make a difference. Neuromuscular adaptations occur in the first four to six weeks. Yeah, I mean, it's that fast.

Vanessa Ronksley: I, you know, what's interesting about this clip is that Elizabeth James and Matt Summer were talking about how the strength training can be felt, you know, during the training session. And, and for me, I know that if I don't strength train, I'm going to get injured. So it's like I can feel it in a different way. Um, and so I think this, yeah.

Andrew Harley: It's a good point.

Vanessa Ronksley: It has like a, a double meaning here in that it does make you stronger, but it's also going to prevent injury. And, and that's, that is so key for so many athletes. And I feel like we talk about this so many times, but strength training is something that a lot of athletes just skip over because they think that it's not going to, you know, directly influence how they're perform, how they're going to perform on. In training sessions and during race day. Um, yeah, so it's, you know, it's, it's the thing that we need to be consistent with. And, and I can feel that as well, for sure. Like in my, this last training block that I've had, which has not included the run or very much bike, I've popped another session in the pool and really focused on upper body and I haven't moved my swim.in a very long time. But now that I've been focusing on those areas, I'm starting to get faster in the pool as well. So it, it works like, if you don't trust it, just trust it. Get after it, do it. You'll see gains in the ways that you want.

Andrew's Second Pick: Episode 282 - Ace Your Assessment Workouts

Andrew Harley: Matt Sommer and Elizabeth are really popular today because my next clip is also Matt Summer and Elizabeth. Maybe we need to pair the two of them together more Often for the podcast, I don't know, episode 282, it was called ace your assessment workouts. And we've covered assessment workouts in the past, like what they are, why we do them, what the training theory is behind them, the training design behind them. But this one with Matt and Elizabeth was very specifically for an athlete. On Friday, when you have that run assessment, swim assessment, and bike assessment week come up, how are you pacing those assessments? Because it's a free for all. It's, hey, go and do your 5K, go out and do your 400, 200, go out and lay down 20 minutes of power. But within that, it's a blank canvas of how you can approach it, how you can lay that power down, how you're going to pace it. Are you going to throw some micro breaks in there? You're going to go as hard as you can the whole time. Are you going to try to negative split it, where you start a little easier and work your way up? Like, it's. You can pace these things a number of different ways, and sometimes you'll blow up, sometimes it goes well. And there's an art to testing well, right? And some people test better than others. And so this whole episode was just Matt and Elizabeth, as coaches who work with athletes, talking through the way they kind of the hacks, the tips they give their athletes for how to pace these things, to execute those assessment workouts really well. So let's hear what Matt and Elizabeth have to say.

Elizabeth James: And I think that's the tendency in a lot of these assessments is for athletes to maybe start off a little bit too hard. And so that's one of the reasons why for the 400 and for the 200, um, one of kind of the mantras that I've told my athletes is breathe, pace, kick, race. And a lot of times when athletes are going out and they're going out hard, they forget to breathe. And then all of a sudden they feel hypoxic and they're like 50 meters into the 400 and you're like, you're done already? Yeah, just gasping, just absolutely gasping. And so that's why the. The first part of this is like, breathe. Like, do not forget to breathe at the beginning. Like, settle in a little bit. And then the next part is, okay, like, pace like, you know, and it's not like, hold back so much. But, you know, think about your pacing. Think about those threshold efforts that you've been doing in the pool. That's what we're trying to mimic here. Then on the like, third segment of it. It's like, okay, think about the kick. And this is just, I mean, from a lot of the athletes that I've worked with and watching them do some of the assessments. And I know for myself, too, like, as I get further into it, I, you know, there's little technique cues that I can give myself, and it's often forgetting to kick. And then, I mean, the last part is just, all right, come on, it's time to race. Like, let's. Let's burn it down. Let's see what's left. So breathe, pace, kick, race. And for me, that works for the 400 and 200. I mean, you've got four segments there. So for your 400, you've got something to think on for each hundred. For the 200. I mean, most of the athletes are doing this in a short course pool, so they've got kind of four laps to do. Four segments. That's right there. That's. That's what I give them for the swim.

Vanessa Ronksley: This episode was so fabulous. And it's. It's not only one that you want to listen to, maybe before every time you have to do an assessment, but something that you can offer as a resource to other people who are constantly asking, how do I pace my. My assessments? And, and this, the thing that I really, really, really love about this entire episode is that they give multiple ways of executing these assessments. And so regardless of you're doing your swim, your bike, or your run, you have different ways of attacking these assessments. And I can assure you that when you start focusing on the execution of the assessment like these coaches have just described, that's when you're going to start to see even larger gains in your performance, not only during the assessment, but during race day as well. Because it's hard to execute an assessment. And guess what? It's hard to execute your race plan, even if that race plan is holding back, you know, for a portion of it. And that's exactly what happens in a lot of these assessments. So we have to hold back. Our adrenaline is so high and we're ready to go, and we want to just blaze out there, but we don't want to, you know, fall off the tail end because we went out way too hard. And that's exactly paralleled in racing, especially when we go from, like, bike to run. Like, we have to make sure that we're executing that bike properly so that we can then execute the run properly. And so I think that when we start to focus on execution as opposed to performance within that assessment, that is going to translate into race day. And guess what, you're going to be way more successful on race day because you've now learned how to execute properly. So this is just like nuggets of gold right here. So thank you for choosing this one, Andrew.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. If you listen and you just try out for your training, go listen to this episode, get some tips, mail your next assessment. And it is a bit trial and error, right? You know, you kind of, it's, it's up to you how, how you pace these things and you'll kind of land on the right way to do it. But Matt, Elizabeth will give a lot of great ways to pace those workouts in this, in this episode. Okay, we've all done two. We've got two to go. We're going to try to speed up a little bit here because we all like to yap a little bit. And these are fun clips to listen to. But we got about 20 minutes left in our recording for eight more. Six more clips. Math. Math is hard.

Vanessa's Third Pick: Episode 279 - Mastering Mental Skills

Andrew Harley: Vanessa, what is your third episode you want to nominate as with Best of 2025?

Vanessa Ronksley: Okay, so episode 279, revisiting Mastering Mental Skills for Massive Gains. If you're a longtime listener of the podcast, you might already know that this is one of my all favorite episodes and I've listened to so many Times, but Bobby McGee is on here talking about mental skills and, and this is one of my favorite clips. It's something that I have put into practice in my training. So that it is. I'm pretty much on autopilot on race day.

Bobby McGee: And it's funny how that term that you state fear of failure comes up. I worked with a, a group in, in Boulder called Fast Forward and their head coach comes from winter sports. His name is Scott Fleigleman and he eventually came up with a T shirt with a cassette on it and it said, prerecorded for success, just press play. And to me, that was a great way to look at because I'm always saying when you are under duress in an endurance sport, you are intoxicated. Right? You are not able to think clearly and you really need to pre plan the context of your thoughts. Another top coach that I work with and sports scientists, uber sports scientists, is Dean Golich. And he's coached multiple medalists and world champions and Tour de France athletes and so on. And he says coaching elites at that level is really, really easy because there's no surprises on race day. And now he specializes in cycling coaching as well. But what he's pertaining to is the numbers are the numbers. And if you don't produce the numbers on race day, then there's something mentally going on. It's a very simple math, right? Did the coach make a mistake? Was the taper wrong? Was the training wrong? If none of those things occurred, then we have a. We have a mental situation that we need to deal with. Because that portal wasn't open, it didn't allow the performance to come out. Because a very freeing concept for mental skills teachers as well as coaches is they don't give the athlete anything. They just remove everything that is not performance.

Andrew Harley: Wow.

Bobby McGee: You know, so. So the gold is right there. We just reach inside and shake the other stuff off so that the athlete is. Is aware that, oh, I do have it. All I have to do is express it.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. It's one of our most popular episodes ever on the TriDot Podcast. That remains to be the case.

Vanessa Ronksley: Due to me.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, due. Due to Vanessa. And obviously Bobby is so gifted at sharing with athletes. He's worked with a number of high caliber athletes and age groupers across multiple sports and very gifted at communicating on tough subjects with athletes. And definitely go fire that one up. We left that episode a little longer than a normal episode because Bobby did say so much good stuff in there. But go listen to that full episode to get even more goodness from Bobby.

Sarah's Third Pick: Episode 284 - Five Questions Before Registering for a Race

Andrew Harley: Sarah, over to you for your third nomination for best of 2025 episode.

Sarah Burney: One thing Bobby just mentioned was no surprises on race day. And that leads in kind of into my next episode, which is number 284. Five questions to ask before registering for a race. I can't tell you how many times I've been peer pressured into a race where I sign up and then they're not my strengths. Like the force comes out to hurt me. So my girl Raya Usher has a nice little tidbit about how to pick the course that's best for you.

Raya Usher: What I would ask my athlete is what is your why? And where did that why derive from? Because sometimes I find that a lot of us as athletes are really influenced by other people's whys and so they're often not necessarily chasing their true goals and their overall season wise. And so again, it's that peer pressure of, well, I'll sign up to this one because my why is to do X, Y and Z. But it's not fundamentally what their true goals I think internally are. So one of the things that I'm always doing is just making sure that we are looking at that Athlete's true. Why? Don't be influenced by social media. Don't be influenced by the triathlon team. Don't be influenced by what, what the, the hot topic of today is. Make sure that your goals are your own. And that's, that's what I would then make sure would influence the next race that we add to the calendar.

Andrew Harley: Really great. From Raya here, I, I had a season, I think it was like my, my fourth or fifth year in triathlon. I had a season where I started off the year with like four races on the calendar that I really wanted to do. I registered for them, I put them on the calendar, I was training for them. And then, oh, you know, this buddy from church wants to do a triathlon and will you come do it with me? Okay, sure. Oh, my brother wanted to add a triathlon. Oh, my training buddies are all going to go do 70.3 such and such. Let's all go do 70.3 such and Such. And before I knew it, I had nine races on the calendar. And some people like that. Some people thrive on that kind of a schedule. That kind of a schedule like stressed me out and wore me down and somewhat took the fun out of it. I was kind of burnt out on racing by the end of that year. So powerful reminder from Rayya here to just, okay, you get an invite. That's not a bad thing. Maybe this is a good race for you to go do, but why examine that? Why examine you make sure what you're adding to your schedule, your calendar is a good fit in a number of reasons.

Andrew's Third Pick: Episode 293 - Running Strong on Tired Legs

Andrew Harley: So my next One is episode 293. It was called Running strong on tired legs. And this is another one where I can't believe I was on a podcast episode with IRONMAN world champion and famous gifted runner Mirinda Carfrae, who is known for her just rocket ship esque run splits. And then Bobby McGee, world famous run coach. And I had the two of them on with me to answer all my questions on running strong on tired legs. Because here's the thing, in our sport we rarely are running on fresh legs, right? But by the time we get to that run split, our legs are tired, they've been exercising, they've been putting in work and that's a skill to be developed. That is a skill set, being able to run when you are already fatigued. I remember as a high school college athlete, I had a soccer coach who loved running us running us running us running us in practice and then for the last 30 minutes of a practice when our legs were shot to hell. Then we would scrimmage for 30 minutes. And it was that practice of playing soccer, playing actual mat style, play while you're tired. And it's very different from playing when you're fresh. Right. And so here's a clip of coach Bobby and coach Rennie just kind of sharing a little bit of their insight and wisdom on as a triathlete, how, how to, how to practice this, how to get your legs ready to thrive on race day, thrive in your training, on getting that turnover well, holding your form well, even though you're tired and you're fatigued and you got a little ways to go. Here we go. What happens in our run form in that, in those moments, what starts to break down and can we do anything to, to alleviate that or, or prevent our form from breaking down even though our legs are getting tired?

Bobby McGee: Absolutely. It's quite a multifactorial question, right? It depends on the kind of gait you have, all right. And it also depends on what you've prepared to run, right? So somebody who's reasonably lightweight and has a long stride and a lower cadence, right, they always have access to going, I need to cue myself to shorten my stride length, do less damage to myself. From a mental perspective, people need to redefine what tired legs are, right? Is this an acute thing that I can solve through a little bit of cooling, a little bit of nutrition, a little bit of hydration, a little bit of pace adjustment, a little bit of walking, or is it a slow decline to death? And the mistake that the age grouper often makes is they think it's the beginning of the end, and it very seldom is. One of the golden rules of endurance events is you will have bad patches and they will pass. So if you have that mindset now, you can start cueing yourself to make changes, right, where you can, you know, eat or drink or walk or shorten your cadence, give yourself cues, right? But the big thing when you get tired legs is not to lose your rhythm. And if you try and sustain stride length as your go to place and slow down your cadence, all is lost. You've got to shorten your stride length, you've got to keep your rhythm going. Otherwise you're going to get into, into a hole that's really, really hard to get out. But if you go, okay, I'm just going to slow it down, I'm just going to hydrate, I'm just going to take a little easy, but I'm going to keep my rhythm. I'm just going to Keep going, right, and then pretty soon the nutrition starts to take hold or, or the couple of cold sponges or some cold water on your head and it starts to come back to you. And now you can extend it out again and get back to race space. Definitely in the long course events. That's possible.

Sarah Burney: Fun fact, this was the number one listened to episode this past year, so clearly, yeah, they had a lot of good stuff to say. And it all comes down to practice. We just have to practice on tired legs because that's how we're racing.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, go listen to that one in full. So we all have one last nomination. Can't wait to hear what they are. Three more episodes to go. Ten more minutes on our recording. Let's get to it, friends.

Vanessa's Fourth Pick: Episode on Jumping from 70.3 to Full

Andrew Harley: Vanessa, what is your final nomination for best of 2025? Try not podcast episode.

Vanessa Ronksley: All right, this last one, we were discussing the jump from 70.3 to full and how an athlete would make that decision to discover if they are ready for it or not. And there's been a trend recently in, in triathlon to just jump straight to the full. But I do think there's a value in, in doing 70.3 is prior to doing a full. And this next clip, it's. It's such a powerful reminder of why endurance sports matter so much further than race day. And I think that this is one of the reasons why a lot of people are searching for that IRONMAN finish line, even if they haven't done any racing prior to that. But Heather Yun is, is a TriDot athlete who is absolutely incredible and she is, she is, you know, top of, top of the age group often and she shares something here that goes deeper than training and finish line, finish line times. And what she talks about is identity and surprise and discovering what your mind and body are capable of long after you thought that you were done. So we'll let Heather say, say the magic words.

Heather Yun: Yeah, well, I mean to co sign what both Yaku and Louise have said, I mean just in the stories that we're able to tell about ourselves, you know, to draw upon life experiences when things get tough, just being able to add, also I'm a literal IRONMAN. You know, to when I have to talk myself into something or I'm in some kind of existential struggle, it's like, anyway, I'm an IRONMAN. What am I worried about? Having that little nugget there to draw upon is definitely interesting. But honestly, Vanessa, just to go back to the warm up question, you're talking about surprises. All of this really has been an astonishing surprise to me. I didn't identify as an athlete. I didn't grow up really thinking of myself as an athlete. I was a bookish kind of reader, doctor wannabe and spent all of my younger years. Sure, I was active, but I was really. That's not how I identified. So, you know, to be able to be surprised by your own capabilities in your 40s when you thought your body was done with maybe good surprises, you know, there's more surprises to be had, I'm sure. But what about the superpowers that your body was capable of in your mind all this time and you didn't even know it? Like, what a glorious thing to be able to unwrap in midlife and just be astonished by what your body was down for all this time. And what else can you do that you don't know about? I think that for me has been a revelation.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, this was a really good podcast episode, Vanessa, that you hosted. And I got to listen to it for the first time when I was editing this episode. And it was just several tried athletes on with you talking about what it was like making that step up from the half IRONMAN distance to the full IRONMAN distance. Because on paper it's just. It's twice the distance, but it's actually like times 10. The logistical nightmare and things you have to think about and things you have to practice and there's just so much more to it. So really valuable episode from start to finish. But I love this clip from Heather. Very, very, very powerful that I hope speak. I wish we'd just send 10, our best 10 episodes because I would just shut down the episode with that clip right there. Just that kind of quality clip. And Heather is. She's coached by the great Kirk Madden. So shout out to coach Kurt, whoever he is right now as we're recording. But yeah, really, really great clip.

Sarah's Fourth Pick: Episode 308 - Fine Tuning Your Bike Fit

Andrew Harley: Sarah, over to you for your final nomination. Best of 2025. No pressure. You gotta follow that one.

Sarah Burney: Okay. Wow. Well, we can't have a best of episode without a Jeff Raines clip. I think that's one of the rules.

Andrew Harley: Love it.

Sarah Burney: And if you have been fortunate enough to hear Jeff Raines nerd out on bikes, bike fitting,  bike gears, especially in person. You're so lucky. He knows every detail about every angle. Yeah, it's impressive.

Andrew Harley: So he holds back for the podcast episodes. Like, he holds back a little bit because if he says everything he knows he will take too long. So.

Sarah Burney: Yeah, I know. And sometimes I'm like, oh, you went a little too long. But it's so good, you want to keep it all. Yeah, but this is episode 308, about fine tuning your bike fit on your own. And there. There was so much in there that I made Andrew pick a clip for me. I don't even know what he chose.

Andrew Harley: You were down to a few of your favorites. So here's the one I picked from. I picked the longest one, frankly, just to hear more. More of Jeff. So here we go.

Jeff Raines: I would just say this, that, that there. You should consider getting a new bite fitter, making that little switch. If you feel like something you might want to try if one of three things changes. It's not just if you got, you know, you're done with IRONMAN and now you want to do sprints for a year and you want to go more aggressive. But I would say that, like, if your power output significantly changes your body weight, right, or even that watt per kilo changes significantly or, or your. Your goals in general, right, are significantly changed, that's when you might want to consider making an adjustment. And you know that that proper bike fit, it improves whether you're especially the comfort aspect. If you are comfortable, you're going to do better, right? But the biggest thing is if you're comfortable or you have a good bike fit, you're gonna have better power transfer. And that's the whole goal of it, right? You want to reduce fatigue, you want to enhance speed and endurance. That's it. And incorrect bike fits can lead to knee, back, neck pain and reduce your efficiency. I mean, that's. That's what it all comes down.

Andrew's Fourth Pick: Episode 304 - Race Morning Must Dos with Carrie Tollefson

Andrew Harley: My last one, and then we'll go to our cooldown. I have to give a shout out to episode 304. It was called 4 Race Morning Must Dos with Olympian Carrie Tollefson. And I'm picking this one. The four Race Morning Must Dos was good. I mean, Carrie gave us. She is literally an Olympian professional runner. A retired professional runner, has just a slew of collegiate and high school, you know, running records and is now a professional broadcaster and podcaster. But Carrie gave us some good insight on just how she approached race morning as a. As a competitive athlete. But beyond that, it was kind of our announcement that Carrie was coming into the RunDot and TriDot family as the host of the RunDot podcast. And that was exciting for me because I've always wanted to do a RunDot podcast for our running audience and our runners in our kind of athlete group. And so if you're out there and we have 10 episodes out, actually, literally, while we're recording this episode, my laptop is on my right and Carrie was hosting a rundown podcast that was being recorded to my laptop while we're talking into my iMac desktop computer. So literally, we have two podcasts recording at one sitting with Carrie hosting RunDot Podcast episode. But anyway, I'm getting off here. It's been so fun getting to know Carrie. She's such a good fit for the RunDot brand. She's excited to, with every RunDot podcast episode, just bring running knowledge, run coaching, run wisdom to the runners in our ecosystem and our audience. Go listen to that podcast. Go recommend it to your runner friends. I can't wait to partner with Carrie even more on that show in 2026 and listen to her podcast. She hosts a podcast called C Tolle Run where every single week she interviews some of the best runners in the professional field. Every single week. But this episode, 304, it was really fun for me just to kind of introduce the RunDot Podcast and introduce Carrie to our audience. So here's a little bit of Carrie Tolleson.

Carrie Tollefson: I'm excited about that. Aspect of it is being able to dig into it, learn a little bit more about it, but also, again, be able to share with your athletes that you already have at TriDot and at Run Dot the joy that this sport has given me and also the heartache and the ups and downs. You know, we'll work through that together. Everyone has it. Every single person, every single athlete. And I call everyone an athlete. We all have an athlete in us. Some people are like, oh, she's not talking about me. I'm not an athlete. I just go out there and I'm a weekend warrior. No, you're an athlete. You all have an athlete in you. And so I want just people if they're going to spend time away from home, you know, away from their kids, away from their jobs, and they're trying to get the best out of their bodies. Like, let's go do it right? And so if this is a way for me to encourage you to put me in your ears and be inspired by another story, let's do it. Let's have some fun.

Sarah Burney: I love Carrie. I get to work with her on RunDot and C Tolle Run. And she is as bubbly as Vanessa. She's wonderful, and she truly believes that everyone is an athlete, everyone is a runner, and everyone has a story and she wants to tell all of them. And so we're just so lucky at TriDot and RunDot to have Carrie.

Vanessa Ronksley: You know, Sarah, you always say that you don't like being on the podcast, but you just gave me shivers with what you said.

Andrew Harley: And I know she does great every time, right?

Vanessa Ronksley: I know. So kudos to you, Sarah. But I agree with you Carrie's message of, you know, just if, if you're doing the work, then that's part of your identity. And so if you're going out for a run, you're a runner, you don't have to be on the podium, you don't have to finish races even. Like, if it's part of, of your, your routine that you like to have and it's something that gives you joy, then embrace it and make it part of who you are. And it doesn't matter, you know, anything else aside from just that you're engaging in this activity. You're part of the community. And Carrie is so welcoming and she truly, truly wants everyone to be a part of that run community. And I think that she's a fabulous host for the, for the podcast and it's so wonderful to see such a positive, an accomplished person in that role sharing her knowledge and her enthusiasm for something that she is 1000% passionate about. So it's been so great to hear her on the RunDot podcast.

Cooldown: Looking Ahead to 2026

Andrew Harley: Onto the cool down of today's show, which we're going to keep really short and really sweet. I just want to know, guys, I can't tell you, our listeners listening, how much I appreciate Vanessa and all of her contributions to the podcast. Just being able to ping her and say, hey, I think I got this topic idea. I think you can do a great job hosting this one instead of me. And just knowing that she's there and she's ready and excited and willing to jump on and host any conversation I ask her to host. And then for Sarah. I can't tell you how many times Sarah and I ping back and forth at weird times of the week and how many small things and big things and medium sized things she does behind the scenes to keep all of our podcasts and shows and media going around the clock. Appreciate the two of you immensely. And so just as we, as we end the year, I want to know just personally, what, in your own sporting careers, endurance sports are you most looking forward to in 2026? Taylor, what is this answer for you?

Sarah Burney: My return to racing. I've signed up for a race next summer, so we'll see. And really, I just want to see the both of you guys in person next year because it's been way too long.

Andrew Harley: We're working on it. Yeah, we're working on it. I think last time we were at the same place at the same time was St. George Ambassador Camp. So we'll have to see which tread up trip we can all get on. Yeah, let's see which tread up trip we can all get on at the same time. Vanessa, what are you looking most forward to your 2026 race season?

Vanessa Ronksley: Well, the last time we talked about this on the podcast, I was hoping to be able to race at. At Little Elm in Dallas. Not sure if that's going to be in the cards for me just because my injury is taking a lot longer to rehab than originally thought. So I'm like Sarah, just returning to racing at some point. I love a good start line and I adore an amazing finish line, so hopefully somewhere along the line that will happen. But I just also want to say, Andrew, how grateful I am to you. You gave us a little bit of a shout out, so I need to give you a little bit of one too, just for sharing this with us. Like, it's. It's so incredible what you have built and the fact that you are willing to allow other people into this sphere and, and share this little podcast community. That's not so little anymore. I really appreciate the fact that you've done that and that you trust myself and Sarah and. And I think that the three of us working together has just become. It's one of the. My favorite things about my job is, is working with the two of you. So I'm full of love for the both of you.

Sarah Burney: So thank you so much. I agree with everything she said.

Andrew Harley: Well, thanks. Thank you all so much. And, and guys, you know, follow Sarah, Vanessa, follow their journeys, root for them when they go to the races. I am also looking forward to getting back to the races. I have not raced since our. Our little kiddo was born. She's almost three, which is crazy. But, yeah, I'm excited to get back to racing in 2026. I am definitely doing the caveman sprint triathlon in Flower Mound, Texas. That I think is somewhere in April. And so that'll be my. My first start line. I'm amped. I'm pumped to get back to that. We'll see what else is in the cards. There's a few other races that we're all talking about getting together and doing together, but that one I'm doing for sure. And it's the thing I'm the most excited about in 2026 for myself at endurance.

Sarah Burney: Let me just show up every time I fly over Dallas. I'm like, Andrew, I'm here.

Andrew Harley: I'm down here. I'm down here. Come on live.

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