Andrew and Vanessa's 10 Tips for Tackling your First Full IRONMAN

TriDot Podcast Episode 258

Andrew and Vanessa's 10 Tips for Tackling your First Full IRONMAN

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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, experts and let's improve together.

Andrew Harley: Welcome everybody to the TriDot Podcast. Very fun episode today. Very different episode today as it's just me and Vanessa, your hosts of the show and we are walking through Andrew and Vanessa's 10 tips for tackling your first full IRONMAN. I have to start with a quick shout out. There is some athlete inspiration for this topic. I got a text message earlier this week from a guy I know shout out to Andrew Miner. He is a triathlete from the great state of Texas and Andrew is somewhat of a friend. He's a fellow Andrew like me, which is always great. But Andrew is my wife's sister's college friend. That's how I know Andrew. He's my wife's sister's college friend. And Andrew text me. He's done a couple 70.3, dabbled in short course and he was like hey, I just signed up for my first full distance IRONMAN. What do I need to know about transitioning to that distance? And admittedly I haven't text Andrew back yet. So my apologies to Andrew. I'm gonna record this episode and then immediately text Andrew back and let him know here's my couple of tips and go listen to this podcast dropping on Monday. But it gave me inspiration. I get this question somewhat. Vanessa, I'm sure you get this question somewhat because people know we have a triathlon podcast. They know we work for a triathlon training company. They know we've done a few triathlons in an IRONMAN and so they ask us this question and I think it's different. The things that you would get if you ask a full on coach these kinds of questions, right? They're going to walk you through all the prim and proper things you need to know. But triathlete to triathlete, what do Vanessa and I think are the important things for somebody to realize before they step up to the full distance? That's what we're going to tackle today with 10 tips from me and Vanessa. We've collaborated on these and we're excited to bring them to you. I am Andrew, the average triathlete, voice of the people and captain of the middle of the pack. And as I've already alluded to joined today by Vanessa, your average triathlete with elite level enthusiasm, cohost of the show and TriDot's leader of our at the races experience for athletes. Vanessa, can you. Did I answer that properly? Are you excited to talk about this today?

Vanessa Ronksley: Oh yeah. You just did everything perfectly. I'm very excited to talk about this topic and I think the thing that was the best was your introduction because you nailed the elite level enthusiasm. That was good. Yes.

Andrew Harley: Just trying to match your energy with my own energy. Very difficult to do as an introvert. Hey, as always, we're gonna roll through our warm up question, settle in for our main set conversation and down with our cooldown. Lots of good stuff. Let's get to it.

Warm Up Question

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

Andrew Harley: Our last two episodes of the TriDot podcast have focused on some new partnerships and integrations that we have here at TriDot training. And it was awesome in those conversations just learning how TriDot athletes can now push their workouts to FORM smart goggles and to Zwift. And at this point there are loads of direct integrations with other apps that just add to our athlete experience as well as partnerships with nutrition companies, wetsuit companies, bike companies, race production companies and apparel companies. We now have quite a robust athlete ecosystem, don't we Vanessa, for our TriDot athletes. But what I'm wondering today for all our TriDot athletes and our TriDot Podcast regulars listening in what brand partnership or what app integration would you like to see TriDot form next? And our heads of marketing have no idea I'm asking this. Jeff Booher, CEO has no idea I'm asking this. We'll see what we stir the pot with. We'll see what ideas come out of this. We will see what brands we end up approaching after this conversation based on other things that you guys are working with. But anyway, Vanessa, what is your answer here? What would you most want to see us integrate or partner with next?

Vanessa Ronksley: I think I'm going to go with my newest obsession which is chain waxing. I'm sure all of my friends, triathlon friends, non-triathlon friends, have heard about me waxing my chains because I talk about it nonstop. So I'm thinking that a partnership with SILCA would be amazing. I actually used my birthday money this year to buy myself one of their chain waxing systems and it is so slick. It has like this heating tub where you can adjust the temperature just to make sure everything is perfect. And I do like to follow rules and regulations. So it's very wonderful to have a set a list of things to do to make sure that it turns out perfectly. But I think for everyone to understand how much different wax is to regular lube, I just have to tell you this one thing. My husband PJ who is not as into bikes as I am, thankfully, because we couldn't actually—

Andrew Harley: You can't have two. Yeah, you can't have two. Two of those in the family.

Vanessa Ronksley: Definitely. No, you can't have two people in the same household with that kind of addiction.

Andrew Harley: So that gets expensive.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, exactly. He walked by me when I was on my trainer the other day and said, whoa, your bike is so quiet. Is that because of the wax? I was like, yes, yes, P.J. yes it is. So it's pretty incredible. If you haven't waxed your chain yet, you need to. And hopefully at some point there will be, you know, a partnership with Silca so that it might get a little discount.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, that would be a very interesting one to kind of add to the, the service that the bike related services for athletes. I'm kind of, I'm kind of coming up with my answer here on the spot because there's a couple things I've been kicking around in my head even since forming this question. I think what I'm going to go with here in the moment, I think we need something more with running shoes, Vanessa. We don't have, you know, we have Diamond bikes, has a beautiful TriDot paint scheme and Diamond bikes that several TriDot coaches and athletes have. Now any athlete listening can get their hands on a Diamond bike. We have Selfish wetsuits that is helping us get into high end wetsuits and we don't really have much going on in the run specific market. You know, we have integration with Stryd Foot power meters and there's some stuff like that. But I love running shoes. I'm a shoe, I'm a shoe nerd myself. And I just, you know, it would, I think it would be difficult to have like some sort of deal with one particular shoe brand because every athlete's foot gets along with different things. So I'm wondering if there's—I know a lot of the running shoe stores have like those systems where you can go and you get like your foot scanned and mapped and it'll kind of like tell you like what shoes your foot would work well with or if you need a certain orthotic or if you need you know, a neutral or stable or whatever, it can kind of help guide your shoe buying experience. I wonder if there's some sort of like direct integration with a company that does that and so you can kind of learn exactly like what the shape of your foot is. And then furthermore, integrated with the app, like, could there be a way whenever you buy a pair of shoes that is good for your foot, for it to track how long you've been using that shoe? And we could know based on the category of shoe, the stack of the shoe, the type of foam in the shoe, how long that, how many miles, kilometers that shoe is supposed to last you. I know Strava and Garmin, they have like that kind of thing where you can manually track that yourself. But you have to tell the app like which shoe you use for that run that day. And I always forget to do it and I'll do it, you know, for a month and then fall off the bandwagon doing that. Like, is there, is there a way in our TriDot app while we already have the workout up in front of us for us to go ahead and click what shoe we're using and it can prompt us to replace a shoe when it comes to the end of its life knowing what the shoe—Anyway, that's my thought here is could we, and I don't know an exact company that does that? I'm just like, I'm almost like creatively imagining like could that be a thing? We're gonna throw this question out to you, our listeners. I'm very curious to see what brands you're enjoying, what apps, products, services you're getting along with as an athlete that are adding to your experience as an athlete. What would you, as our audience, as our users, like to see TriDot partner with and integrate with next? Can't wait to see what you have to say.

Main Set

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

Andrew Harley: TriDot pool school is the best way for triathletes to learn proper swim form and it is now the official swim program of IRONMAN. The TriDot coaching team spent years on the pool deck crafting functional freestyle and it has already helped hundreds of triathletes improve their swim by an average of 12%. As soon as an athlete registers for TriDot pool school, they are given a series of dry land exercises to help build crucial muscle memory long before the in person weekend. The weekend workshop is an engaging blend of instruction, demonstrations and drills with frequent breaks to rest and reflect. You'll be grouped with swimmers of a similar ability and taught step by step how to turn your muscle memory into full stroke swimming that's smooth and fast. TriDot pool school is for everyone. We have had entry level triathletes, back of the packers, mid packers, some elite age groupers, and even a few pro triathletes in attendance ready to jump in. There are pool schools available all over the country and around the world. Head to TriDot.com/poolschool and sign up today.

Andrew Harley: Okay, so we are into the heart of this show where Vanessa and I, we're gonna camp out, my friends. We're gonna camp out and we are gonna roll through our 10 tips for tackling your first full IRONMAN. Now, I do want to say we get feedback every so often on the podcast where there's some listeners that race short course and they enjoy short course. They don't intend to dabble in half IRONMAN and IRONMAN. And every now and then, Vanessa, I'll hear from an athlete, just full frankness that they'll be like, hey, you guys sure do talk about long course a lot. And there's two realities here. We do have some short course specific episodes on the market, and we actually do have a new short course episode coming out later in September. So all my short course athletes be on the lookout for that. The reality is there's certain components of triathlon that just get more complicated the longer and further you go. And so that's where we do kind of, and our coaches like talking about this sometimes just a little bit more to say when we talk about going long. And I just want to say that. So short course athletes, new episode coming up for you very, very soon. Long course athletes, this one is for you today. And this is Vanessa and I's list of the things that we personally tell athletes to think about, consider, work on before they approach their first full distance IRONMAN. When you step up to that distance, it's just a whole new ball game. Vanessa, do you want to reveal our very first one on the list here?

Tip #1: Get a Coach

Vanessa Ronksley: Of course I do. The first one that popped into my mind as soon as you presented this idea for the podcast. I was like, this is number one, the thing that you need to do, and it's to get a coach. And I—there's just so many intricacies. There's so many details that you have to sort out, and having someone to hear what you have to say and to provide feedback on all of these little things is really, really important. And I think one of the most important things about getting a coach is as the race day draws nearer your level of stress and anxiety might increase because you've put so many hours of training, you've made so many sacrifices to make sure that you can get to the start line and then hopefully get to the finish line and having that person to be able to calm you down and to provide you with tips, but also to provide your mind with facts as to why you will make it to that finish line. I think it's really important to have someone to sound board with and to just give you those facts. Well, look at all of these things that you have done and that is an indication that you will be fine when you get to the race. So I think getting a coach is like a no brainer.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, it's so funny because I knew that there was like apps to train. I knew there was the option of getting a triathlon coach. I never had an interest in any of that until I was making the jump from Olympic to half IRONMAN. And when I made that jump, it was like all of a sudden like, oh man, I'm doing half IRONMANs now. I'm getting in over my head personally. I need the help of somebody who knows more than me. And that's how I discovered TriDot in the first place. Was looking for a better way to train than just me doing whatever session I felt like doing that day. Swim, bike and run. And then when I got the itch to do my first IRONMAN, that's when I was like, oh shoot now, now I kind of want to make the jump from just using TriDot and following the training on my own. Now I would like that extra guidance that a coach can give. And for me, Vanessa, it was exactly that. It was just being able to pick somebody's brain, right? To just bounce things off of them and just be able to ask questions about that long day, that long race that I hadn't tackled on my own. And you know, there's athletes that have all sorts of varying degrees of involvement. There's folks like me who just want to bounce questions off a coach and there's folks who full on want the coach to tell them to do everything X, Y and Z. I will say that if you can afford a coach for your full distance IRONMAN, absolutely do it. But Vanessa's right. To have them guiding you through those 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, however long you can afford it months before going into the race to have them guiding you, it's invaluable to have somebody in your corner. If it's not in the budget, you know, you can consider, if you're not already training with TriDot, you can consider jumping on TriDot and following the structured training at a much more approachable price point or there's something in the middle, Vanessa, that I like to throw out there. There's this little thing in TriDot called the Mark Allen Edition where you get the fullness of TriDot training with some touches of Mark Allen coaching and I can't say exactly what right now but there is some exciting announcements coming out literally weeks from now regarding the Mark Allen Edition with some new touch points and some new coaching opportunities happening in that edition of our app. So there's kind of that as a middle ground. It's not the full price of a full on coach, but you get some coaching in that addition without having a one to one coach anyway. Definitely some options out there within TriDot to find a price point appropriate for you to get as close as you can to having a full one to one dedicated coach.

Tip #2: Build a Team of Practitioners

Vanessa Ronksley: I think that one of the other things that is really, really important before you make the jump from short course to long course is putting in place a team of practitioners who are going to be there to support you and finding these practitioners based on recommendations that you've had or who have worked with high level athletes prior. So people that I would want on my team and that I do have on my team is an amazing chiropractor, physical therapist, massage therapist. These are things that you're going to need to be able to get to that start line healthy. And there are really great chiropractors and there's really great massage therapists who work for the general public. And so I find that there's a great benefit to finding people who specialize in athletes and you could even take that one step further and specialize in triathletes. They understand the biomechanics that go in, they understand the amount of load that we're putting on our bodies and I think that that is a really important factor. You're going to develop niggles, but if you do get these little niggles, you need to make sure that you get it sorted out immediately because if you don't, it's just going to escalate and then it's going to become a massive problem. So you want to make sure that you have these people in place already. Do your research. And to be honest with you, if you don't know of anyone and you can't ask anyone in your community, that was kind of the situation I was in. I was like, I don't have anyone to ask. Go to Instagram and find people who are local to you that are high performing athletes. Because that's how I found my amazing chiropractor. And my life has been forever changed because of him because he just, he's incredible. And I didn't know that I could receive this kind of treatment from a chiropractor. So it's great to have all of these resources available and know that you have it in place before you start.

Andrew Harley: A lot of coaches and this kind of goes back to tip number one on find a coach. A lot of coaches network with certain practitioners and so if you—I think of our friend Craig Alexander with Sansego coaching. I think of Michellie Jones with Giddy Up coaching. There's a ton of coaches, Precision Coaching in the UK with Will and Raya Usher. They literally have nutritionists and practitioners that they trust that they know really well and they know how to talk to triathletes and they'll have them come in and provide services for their athletes and it kind of helps that vetting process again if you can partner with the right coach. But yeah, love that tip, Vanessa. Love that approach.

Tip #3: Communicate Your Training Schedule with Your Family

Andrew Harley: Number three is to communicate your training plan and your season with your family—about when you will be more flexible and have more time and when you'll be head down and committed. This is a tip that's come up on the podcast before. I think of TriDot coach pool school coach Shannon Cranston from Houston, Texas. This is what I've heard her say. I think she said this as a coach cooldown tip actually one time because it's a great point. You know you commit to this. Part of the beauty of TriDot—a majority of TriDot athletes actually train less for a full distance IRONMAN than athletes that aren't using TriDot because it's the classic train smarter, not harder. If you do the right training sessions the right way, you don't need the amount of miles that most coaches and athletes think you do. But even still, you get up to 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 hour bike rides. You get up to 90 minute, 2 hour, 3 hour runs. That impacts your family schedule, it impacts your friend's schedule. And so just being upfront with when those changes in your schedule are happening, when those long sessions are getting longer and longer and letting them know, hey, I've got this ride coming up on three Saturdays from now, it's gonna take me this long, I'm gonna go here and do it. I'm out of commission for nine hours on this particular day. Just making sure all parties involved know that and more importantly like having them behind you. Right. Like it's gonna go a whole lot better if you communicate those things ahead of time and if your support system supports you from the get go, they're going to be all for you stepping out to do all of those things. There's the classic and I hate it, Vanessa. There's the classic joke that if your spouse isn't filing for divorce after your IRONMAN, you didn't train hard enough. That doesn't have to be true. One, with TriDot training, not having you train endless hours. And two, if you have a healthy relationship and you communicate well, there's no reason for anybody to get burned by your IRONMAN training schedule. Vanessa, anything to add here on this?

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, I think a tip that you can do to make sure that you communicate is—I know for me, when I'm looking at my training plan for the week and sometimes even the month, and I fully understand what's going to happen. Like, I know that each Saturday my rides are going to get longer and longer and longer. If you can put that on your calendar, a shared calendar with your family or your partner, and make sure that they know, oh well, you know, in two months time I'm going to be riding my bike for six hours on this day.

Andrew Harley: Yeah.

Vanessa Ronksley: Or putting it in prior so that they have a lead up to it. Because when we look at it all the time, we know about it and then we're thinking about it all the time. But sometimes we just neglect to actually communicate that with the other people in our lives that are important to us. So putting it on the calendar, making sure that it's visible and  available I think would be really helpful so that everyone is on the page and then we can also use words to describe—you know, we have the visual stimulus, we can get the auditory stimulus, depending on how they receive information better. And it will just make things go a lot better for everyone.

Andrew Harley: Yep, that's a great tip. I think something that helped us—not granted, when I was training for my one full distance IRONMAN, we didn't have little Ellie, which at the time we're recording this podcast, Ellie is almost 18 months old. She's grown up so fast. But we were dual income, no kids. My wife and I had just a supremely flexible schedule. But even within that, I tried to keep the routine as much as possible. My wife, Morgan, she knew my long runs were on Wednesday and she knew my long bikes were on Saturday, and I tried to keep that. So every Saturday she knew I would wake up, I would eat breakfast, I would fart around upstairs for 30 minutes getting my pain cave set up for a long bike ride. And then I was out of commission for three, four, five, six hours on a bike. And so if she could count on that same block of time weekly being eaten up by the training, she just kind of knew in her head, okay, Andrew has this thing he's doing every Saturday for six hours on Saturday mornings. And sure, it can flex, right? Sure, something can come up. You know, every now and then I would do that Wednesday long run in the middle of the day so that I was doing it in the hot part of the day to heat train a little bit. Right. So there were times I would switch it up, but I would try to communicate that as well as I could. But having it be pretty consistent otherwise just kind of let her know in her own head what to bank on unless Andrew said something differently. But I love the added step of putting it on a calendar.

Vanessa Ronksley: The other thing that you might want to do is let your partner know that your schedule is flexible. Like if there's something that they really want to do and they know that your long ride is on Saturday, then you can say, well, just talk to me about it, because I can swap it to another time to make sure that we can attend to it—to make sure that the lifestyle isn't cramped too much and that there's still a little bit of give and take. Because I find with myself there's a lot of—oftentimes I just feel like I'm taking all of this time, and it's taking and selfish. And so if we can just make sure that we can communicate that there's other options as well in terms of flexibility, because TriDot is super flexible. Like, you can move your sessions and it will adjust accordingly. So go ahead and do that and communicate with your loved ones that this is a possibility.

Andrew Harley: And you know what? I think as triathletes, we're so type A, you know, we have in our heads that, oh, man, I want to do this workout on this day at this time. And when that gets thrown off, you know, we might feel like, oh, man, I'm not really getting my most optimum training this week. Okay. That happening a few weeks is not going to throw off your end finish time. It's not going to throw off your fitness. You know, it's consistency over time. We always preach that on the podcast. Consistency over time. So if your ideal training schedule gets thrown off for a day or two or a week or two, you know, I think we all agree your family is more important. Keeping the family happy is more important, and honoring your family is more important. Being there for other obligations is important. It's not the end of the world to flex a workout here and there. I've seen a lot of PRs and podium finishes and Kona qualifications happen with people whose training schedules might not have been ideal all the way through the cycle. But anyway, okay, moving on to tip number four.

Tip #4: Test Nutrition Products Early

Andrew Harley: Vanessa's tip number four for your first IRONMAN is to try out new nutrition products early in the season to see what you like and how easy it is to use them. Vanessa, talk to us about this one.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, you know, the area of nutrition and triathlon is so deep. And there's products that are being launched at us from everywhere. Like, you can walk into a store and you see a ton of different types of products, and then you also get blasted with things online. And so I think that if you want to try something new, do it early in the season so that you can test out which ones you like, which flavors you like. I know there's some flavors that I am very averse to. Like, I do not want to consume them regularly. And so it's important to see what you like and what sits well with you. And as your training sessions do get longer, that's when you're really going to see what is working and what is not working. I have been using the same nutrition products for quite some time and I ran out. Coach always says don't run out of your nutrition products. But I did run out and I had to use something else and I was not a happy camper. It was like a seven hour ride I think I was doing. I had this new nutrition product. I'm like, good to know this is not going to work for me. So yeah, test it out early in the season so that you don't do what I did and end up not feeling well for a very large portion of the day.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. So this is one of the tips that was on my list and Vanessa's list and so that shows you how important it is. We both thought of this one. Here's what I like to say here, Vanessa. When it comes to these longer races, when you start getting to those bike rides and they're two hours or more, three hours or more, four hours or more—we all know the race rehearsals are a chance to almost audition our nutrition process and see how it works at race pace in a race environment with a race mindset. But even before that, when you're in the four hour long stamina sessions, the three hour long stamina sessions, those are still opportunities to do the same thing. Those are opportunities to try new products, see how your body feels on them, see if you get along with them for multiple hours at a time. And if you do a long workout and you're not trying something with your nutrition, it's a missed opportunity to try something different with your nutrition or to be intentional about your nutrition. And you know, I had my system in place, Vanessa. For 70.3 racing, three or four 70.3s in a row, I did pretty much the same thing. It worked really well down to the minute of what I was eating and drinking. Obviously I would just adjust the fluid levels based on temperature. But anyway, same product, same routine. And when I got to IRONMAN, it was okay, well, let me see if this is gonna work for me for 140.6 miles. Right. It's twice the distance, it's a little longer than twice the time. Will this same strategy, this same time frame work that long? And it's not that it didn't, it's just that tweaking it some improved my performance over the duration. So anyway, when you get to the longer sessions, what I'm saying is be willing especially early in the training cycle when you first start hitting those 3 hour, 4 hour, 5 hour rides, start trying some stuff. You know, I pretty much almost exclusively fueled with liquid calories and gel calories. And so I did one or two long bike rides where I tried bars and then I tried some chews and I tried some different things just to see for a longer event how does my body get along with this type of fuel. And especially when you get to the last 30 minutes of the bike ride and you do that run off the bike, that was kind of the telltale sign for me is okay, I feel differently on the bike ride. How do I feel on this run off the bike? And if I felt great, okay, what I just did really worked. If I didn't feel great, okay, what I just tried on that bike ride didn't really work. So for both the bike and the run, every long-ish medium to long workout is an opportunity to try something new. And by the time you get to those race rehearsals, hopefully you've dialed in what you want to do is kind of the way I like to say it.

Tip #5: Prioritize Long Day Comfort in Gear Choices

Andrew Harley: So tip number five is very similar but with a different item. And really it's all items. And our tip number five is to rethink your gear choices and prioritize long day comfort. There are things that your body will get along with really well for a sprint or Olympic or half IRONMAN distance. And you're going to get to mile 70 on a bike ride or mile 12 on a run and realize, oh no, these shorts that I really like or these shoes I really like for Olympic racing are making my feet hurt on mile 12 and 13. You're going to get to mile 70 on a bike ride and realize that saddle that you got along with just great for 56 miles, you do not get along very well with that saddle by mile 70. So think about the fact that your race day is twice as far as a 70.3 and your race day is more than double the duration of a 70.3. You're going to be on course depending on how fast you are from 9 to 17-ish hours. And so when you're thinking about what you want to use all day in terms of the apparel you're going to wear, the shoes you're going to wear, whether or not you put on socks, what kind of socks you're putting on, are you going to have a change of socks in some bags, are you going to use lubrication and how often and where—I would never, I don't really use lubrication at all for short course other than some Body Glide on my feet. But half IRONMAN, IRONMAN, I'm using it in as many places as I can get that stick on. Right. And so just things like that. It's the first distance where if you haven't thought about comfort—maybe for that half IRONMAN you were wearing the skin tightest, most hydrophobic tri kit you can get your hands on. Okay. Think about a more comfortable tri kit for your full. So look at for swim, bike and run all the gear you're going to use for the race and in training start thinking about will this item I've been happy with for a short distance, will I also be happy with it for a long distance and make some tweaks accordingly because at the end of the day comfort—being comfortable in what you're wearing all day long in the gear you're using, the saddle you're sitting on, that's going to equate to speed deeper into the race.

Vanessa Ronksley: You know what's funny is when I first read this tip when it said gear choices, I was legitimately thinking about the gear choices on your bike. You know, like you might want to also think about which course you're doing because if it's your bike that you're looking at the gears for or it's the gear that you're wearing that might influence your decision based on what you want to choose. So if you know what race you're doing and you know that it's going to be really, really hot, you might want to rethink—if you're the type of person who has to use the bathroom often, maybe a one piece suit is not going to be as effective for you because think about having to pull those sleeves back on. You know, if you're really hot and sweaty it's going to be annoying and it might not sit right and there might be wrinkles and you don't want wrinkles anywhere. Like no wrinkles are allowed on your suit because you're going to end up with some blisters or something. But yeah, you do want to make sure that you're looking at the choices that you're making because what you said about being comfortable, it's a long day and a lot of people who are doing their first full distance race you might not be going for a specific time goal that's going to be blazing fast. And so I think being comfortable is going to trump anything else in your race because as you said, if you're going to be comfortable, you're going to be faster as a result. So I think that's an important thing to consider.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, I think of professional triathlete Lionel Sanders, you know, one of the most popular long course athletes on the circuit. You know, a fan favorite. Lionel Sanders, his YouTube channel and story and personality. But anyway, you know, Lionel, you see him at a 70.3, he's in a tri kit the whole time. You know, he's a professional. He's trying to win as much money and points as he can by winning IRONMAN races. He takes the time at a full distance IRONMAN to put on run shorts and a running singlet because he just likes running a marathon better in running shorts and a running singlet. And to him it's worth the time to put it on and change into that to be comfortable the whole way through the run.

Tip #6: Revisit Your Bike Fit

Andrew Harley: Number six. Vanessa, you want to introduce us to tip number six?

Vanessa Ronksley: The next tip is revisit your bike fit. Now this is super important. I mean, we should really be revisiting our bike fit on a regular basis.

Andrew Harley: More often than we do. Absolutely.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, yeah. Our bodies change, things get tight here, things are less tight there. As we age or even as life circumstance happens, we need to make sure that we're comfortable on the bike. So revisiting more often than not is great. But as we go from short course to long course, our bike fit and the position that we're in in terms of how aggressive it is, it needs to change. So when you're on short course, you can be in a super aggressive position. If you're on an aero bike or even if you're on a road bike, they will put you in a more aggressive or less aggressive position based on the distance that you're going to be doing to get more power out of that bike. Right. And so I think when we do make the shift, it's really important to tell your bike fitter, hey, I was short course, now I'm going long course. And they're going to make you more comfortable because being comfortable is the most important thing. It is a long bike ride. No matter how fast you are, what level you're at in terms of your athletic ability on the bike, it is a long day, you're there for a long time. So making sure that you're comfortable is the most important thing.

Andrew Harley: Yep. No, it absolutely is. And a good bike fitter should be asking you this. They should be asking you what races you have coming up. My bike fitter, Dynamic Bike Fit in Roanoke, Texas, Craig Falk—he's been on the podcast before talking about bike fit. It's in his questionnaire that you fill out when you're booking your appointment. Like what races do you have coming up? And you know, bonus points if that bike fitter is familiar with triathlon. But even a more road knowledgeable bike fitter should still be asking you what events you have coming up, how long you usually spend on the bike. Because yeah, it does zero good to have an aggressive position that might work great for sprint and Olympic if we can only hold that for a sprint and Olympic distance or even if you can hold it for an entire IRONMAN, if your back is tight because of it on the run, you're going to lose time. And so you actually gain time in the long run by being put in a slightly more comfortable position. Still as aerodynamic as possible, but as aerodynamic as possible in the context of being comfortable, holding the position for a long time and being able to run well off the bike. So a good bike fitter will factor all that in to that bike fit. And if you've been short course for a while or even half IRONMAN, and maybe you're happy with your bike fit still, go get it revisited before your IRONMAN.

Tip #7: Work on Your Mindset

Andrew Harley: Tip number seven is 100% from you. It's a great one to have on here. Talk us through this one. What is it?

Vanessa Ronksley: Well, this is my reality right now, so having to work on your mindset is something that you need to do. I've been injured for most of my race prep phase for my next full IRONMAN. And so one of the things that I could do is I could work on my mindset. So I started getting a whole ton of books and looking at which ones are going to give me the best tips so that I can move forward with progressing and making sure that my mind is as solid as possible because that is going to influence my physical ability as well. So the one book that I have, it's called The Comeback Quotient by Matt Fitzgerald and he's a really phenomenal endurance writer. And this book in particular has a lot of anecdotes in it about triathletes and other really amazing athletes. Rennie [Rennié Schelvis] has been featured in that book, which is really cool. I read some stories that I didn't know about her prior to reading the book, so that was great. And I think that one of the main things that I learned from this particular book is that these superstars that are featured and any superstar that is achieving at the top of their athletic game, it's not by accident and they have specific qualities that allow them to get to that level. And mental strength is probably one of the most significant factors in how they achieved that and everything they did. So this book in particular focuses on being an ultra realist and how to have that kind of a mindset, and it has helped me immensely. I can't even begin to tell you the difference between my prep for my last IRONMAN and for this one coming up in terms of how I am approaching things, because I'm being very realistic about what's going to happen on that race day based on the minimal training that I've been able to do. So, yeah, really great book. But I think even if that's not the book that you choose to read, get your mind right and get that mental ability starting to work for you instead of against you.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, when you jump up from short course to long course, you know, short course is all about just redlining it, right? Just going as hard as you can for whatever the distance is until your lungs are bursting and you're crossing the finish line. There's just a lot more time spent on course to have those head games, a lot more time spent in training. There's just some extra mental things that can go on in your head as you're approaching those races. So, yeah, and for folks listening, Vanessa is, at the time we're releasing this, about to go race the World Championships in Nice and had a little bit of an injury, had a boot on her foot for a little bit. So when she very quickly referenced not getting to train as much as she would like heading into this race, that's kind of the story there. She had a little niggle that kind of took her out of training for a little bit, only going into the biggest, probably hardest race of her life, climbing the mountains in Nice, France, but no big deal. Yeah, no, no, no big deal. No big deal. You have a blast, Vanessa.

Tip #8: Plan Your Aid Station Strategy

Andrew Harley: What's tip number eight?

Vanessa Ronksley: During your race rehearsal—this is a tip that I thought of because it's something I wish I had done in my first full, actually. Write out the distances where the aid stations will be and take note of what you might need at each one. So I have a list of where they are, what kilometer markers, or if you're in the States, you can look at the mile markers, but if you are a kilometers person or a miles person, make sure you're doing it and what will be presented at the race. So if it's a race in the U.S., make sure you have the mile markers and if it's not in the U.S., make sure you have the kilometer markers because it can get confusing. So write out the distances where the aid stations are, and then as you're coming up to that kilometer marking, take note of what you've consumed already. Do you need water at that point? Do you need more hydration? Do you need gels so that you know exactly what you're going to need when you come up to the aid station? Those things come up really, really quick. And if you're trying to grab and go and not slow down very much, you need to have a game plan that is rock solid. So I know that obviously you're going to need to be a little bit flexible because the temperature is going to affect how much you're drinking on a particular day. So it might not be the same as what you were in your race rehearsal, but it's good to know, like, before you get to the aid station, what do I need? And then you'll know what to call out when you get to that aid station when you're approaching it. And then practice calling it out when you're in a race rehearsal. For me, I was on my trainer last weekend doing my race rehearsal and I was yelling, "I need water!" And then, thankfully, no one came running down from the—

Andrew Harley: What is mom doing down there? Who's she talking to?

Vanessa Ronksley: I just wanted to make sure that I was practicing what I needed. And that means—

Andrew Harley: Banana!

Vanessa Ronksley: Pretzels or whatever they have there. I don't know. But it makes a difference to practice what's going to happen so that there's very few new things that are going to happen for you on race day.

Andrew Harley: If you've never worked at an aid station at a triathlon, it's very illuminating, frankly, how much confidence it gives you as an aid station volunteer, especially on the bike when an athlete is coming up and you know you have a very limited time to give them what they want as they roll by you. If they yell 10 seconds before they actually get to you exactly which beverage they want—if I'm holding water and they yell for electrolytes, I'm stepping out of the way. And it's nice to have that clear direction to give them what they want. So yeah, that's an underutilized thing is communicating with aid station volunteers. But yeah, I mean, I love this tip. And it's on this list, Vanessa, because if you're used to racing short course, you're taking what you can take when you can take it and your body largely has the fuel it needs on board from the get go to finish the race. Right? At half IRONMAN, if you get behind the eight ball a pinch on your nutrition, unless you're gunning for a podium, it's not going to affect your race as enormously. It could kill your race at a full distance if you get behind the eight ball on your nutrition. And so that's why it's on this list. If you're making that jump up to a full distance triathlon, you got to be aware the whole way through the race of what you're taking in, where you're taking it in and what you want from those aid stations. And obviously you need to be flexible in the moment with what's happening while you're out there on the bike and out there on the run and be able to adjust on the fly. But yeah, definitely have a game plan going in and knowing where aid stations are is part of that game plan.

Vanessa Ronksley: One other thing too, with the aid stations—if you've ever volunteered at an aid station, then you will know how important it is for the athlete to be kind to those volunteers and to be mindful of what they're going through on that day. Because a lot of people can put blame—like if you miss what you're trying to grab, don't blame it on the volunteer. What could you have done differently to make sure that that happened a little bit better? And the verbal communication is one, but also make sure that you're actually practicing like grabbing things from people. If you're not going to stop, then make sure that you know how close you have to be and how much you have to slow down in order to get a clean grab. And just be very wonderful to those volunteers because they're people who are giving their time to make sure that you have an amazing race experience. And so just be nice to them. That's what I hope—that you're all just wonderful, beautiful people who appreciate the volunteers as much as I do on the race course.

Tip #9: Build Races Into Your Training Schedule

Andrew Harley: Two more tips. Tip number nine is to have some races built into your schedule prior to race day. It's just a fact—racing is a completely different mindset. There are some skills that you will only use on race day or in practice for race day. Things like transition. I mean you can get rusty on your transition skills. You can get a little rusty on what you need to do in those moments. You can get a little rusty on running with your bike by the saddle and the handlebars through transition area. Grabbing things from an aid station like we were just talking about is an almost exclusively race day only skill. Practice drinking water out of a cup while you're on the go. Practice in your run sessions, right? Practice downing a gel from your back pocket, fishing it out of your pocket, putting it in your mouth, drinking it while you're running. You know, there's certain skills that you only use on the race course. You can replicate in training somewhat. But I found it helpful, I know Vanessa's found it helpful to have a sprint, Olympic, 70.3 on your schedule in the build up to your IRONMAN. And there's some athletes that try to game the timing where, oh, I'm gonna time it to have a half IRONMAN at about the time where that's how long my training is leading up to the full. And I personally—that stresses me out to think that granularly about it. To me even just having a sprint or Olympic on the calendar two months out from the IRONMAN and I know I'm going to roll up to this Olympic. I'm going to do the Olympic. I'm not going to burn myself to the ground. I'm going to hold back on the pace, but I'm going to go through the motions of race day. I'm going to have a fun day. I'm going to brush off my transition skills. I'm going to brush off my waking up early, having breakfast, driving to the race skills. Right. Just showing up on race day with everything and going through all those motions. Right. You only get that by doing a race. And I've always found it beneficial to do that before a major A race. Even when that major A race is a 70.3, I like to have a sprint or something a little ways out just to walk through those motions of doing a race. Sometimes we sign up for an IRONMAN and you shut down everything and okay, for six months I'm going to train for this IRONMAN. Great. Do that. Throw a race somewhere in there just to make sure those skills—to make sure you're confident in those skills when you roll up to your full distance IRONMAN.

Vanessa Ronksley: I think that it's important on the mental side to be able to practice how you're going to feel. I'm a very nervous racer and so I need to be able to practice that often so that the amount of nerves that I exhibit simmer down a little bit and the more exposure that I get is going to allow for that big deal—like that big A race that you're planning for. Knowing how you're going to react and be able to mitigate some of those feelings and that anxiety and what strategies you're going to use to get past those feelings. It's really important to practice that. And just recently because I was in a boot for so long, I lost my entire race schedule this year and came to the realization—training camps as well. I had a couple training camps I was planning on going to and a few races. I think I missed three races. And so I'm going in cold to this World Championship race and I'm like this cannot happen. So I actually found a way to get creative. And I'm going to be doing a relay. I'm doing the bike portion of the relay. Yeah. So it's giving me that race experience. It will be a little bit less intense in terms of how I'll be feeling because it's a relay. There's not as much at stake. There's not as much to consider. But I will still feel everything because it's a race. So getting creative with how you can—what are the options that you can do to make sure that you get a race experience? Even if it's just a run race. You know, like the logistics of getting down to the race and all of those things, they take a mental toll on us. And I think it's important to practice that level of uncertainty and also the amount of problem solving that we often need to do during races. It's good to practice that. So definitely get some racing experience in if you can. And if you can't, find a way to make it happen because you'll draw on all of those experiences when you get to that big A race that you're planning for.

Tip #10: Find a Friend or Group to Race With

Andrew Harley: Tip number 10, Andrew and Vanessa's 10th tip today. Hopefully you found these helpful. And the 10th item on the list here is to find a friend or a group of friends who has done a full before and see if you can do one with them. And if you can't do one with them, you know, you schedule time to ask them a bunch of questions. But find a cohort, find a buddy. There's a massive difference between showing up to an intimidating race day on your own versus showing up to an intimidating race day with a friend or two or five. It's a totally different tone. And my first IRONMAN, I got lucky that it was Waco and there was some TriDot staff members also racing—Joanna Nami and John Mayfield was there. Elizabeth James was there. There was a ton of TriDot ambassadors racing that race that were there in town. And several of us booked the same Airbnb and stayed in the same house. And being able to go through those motions, there was four of us with our bikes in the same living room, you know, putting the stickers on our helmets and putting the stuff on our bikes and mixing our nutrition bottles and—I underestimated, Vanessa, and this tip, admittedly was on your list and not mine. And I'm the one here starting this one and advocating for it, pounding the table for it, because I underestimated the impact that would make for me on that first full distance race. And then just seeing those buddies, like when you see another TriDot kit or whatever your triathlon club is, if you're passing another kit and you see a friendly face, it just makes the biggest difference in the world. Knowing some people on the race course and knowing they're out there and slapping a high five 1, 2, 3 times during the race, man…So being able to pick their brains in advance, being able to compare notes like, hey, we're two months out from the training. You've been through this before. I haven't. Here's the training session I have. Let me ask you some questions. Like all of those things, it's invaluable. Going through a training cycle with someone else or a group of friends and then going through the race experience together, it adds so much to the experience if you can swing it, if you can work it out. So when you make that jump from the half to the full or even from short course to a half, if you're stepping up to an intimidating distance that you haven't done before, going through it with somebody makes all the difference in the world. Vanessa, anything you want to add here?

Vanessa Ronksley: Oh yeah. This is just so key in order for you to have the best experience that you can. And the thing that I absolutely love about TriDot is that you have an entire population of people who love triathlon as much as you do. Ask people who's going to this race. Can we form a chat group? I want to make sure that I have the best opportunity—reach out to people on the community hub or on the Facebook page. Like find people, form a group and talk to each other. Because going through the entire experience with someone else who's going through the same thing that you're going through at the same time, there is nothing like that. And I had a very similar experience with my first full. The Fab Four friends that we met through TriDot, we went to IRONMAN California together. And even just packing your race bags the night before, having someone to go through that with you and to give you little tips and tricks, that was just the most invaluable experience possible. And another thing that you said—I was almost in tears, I'm still a little bit teary. Having people at the race that you know that care for you and love you and you're going to see them, there's nothing more special than that. They've been a part of your journey because they're your friends. And so being able to share that with them at the time of the race, there's so many wonderful, joyful, positive emotions that come out of this entire experience, if that's how you look at it. You have a choice to look at your race with those kinds of emotions and so I think that being able to share that with someone else, it just heightens the level of those feelings and that energy.

Andrew Harley: Vanessa's full time role at TriDot now is crafting our "at the races" experience and a lot of that is on site at IRONMAN events. With our partnership with IRONMAN, we now have a presence in the Expo and in Village. And so Vanessa is constantly in communication with TriDot coaches that live in certain corners of the country and the world to make sure there's coaches and ambassadors and friendly faces and a TriDot presence at as many races worldwide as possible because we want to be there for you in whatever way, shape or form we can. At some races, you know, we have a massive presence just because it worked out that way and at some races we have a couple people underneath a tent. But we work very hard too. So you might already have a tri club, you might already have a tri best friend, you might have somebody in mind as we're talking that you know you can sign up for a race together and go do it. But if you don't, lean into TriDot, lean into the ecosystem. Find some friends, jump into the community hub and ask who's racing what. And Vanessa, you mentioned that earlier but if nothing else, pop into the TriDot tent at a race. Introduce yourself and see what TriDot events are happening that week and who you can meet because it will make a huge difference in your overall experience.

Vanessa Ronksley: One of the things that came out of this experience that I had in California is that I wanted every single person to have as magical of a race experience as I did in California. And so when I came into this role, that's how I have approached this entire experience—I want people to have a magical race. And so everything that we're doing in the TriDot tent with athlete engagement activities and having a presence at the race and on the race course, it is with that goal of I want you to have a magical experience and I will do anything in my power to make you feel how I felt during my first IRONMAN. That's where this whole thing came from. So I'm just so grateful that this is part of my life, such a huge part of my life, as I get to allow for people to have these experiences. And so please, please do—if you are at a race where we're there, we're trying to be at most of the fulls that are on the IRONMAN schedule, please come and say hi to us because we just want to support you and we really feel that we want you to just have a really great day out there and anything that we can do to support you and to make sure that this happens, we're going to do that for you. We are there for you.

Announcer: Great set everyone. Let's cool down.

Cool Down

Vanessa Ronksley: Welcome to the cool down everyone. I'm Vanessa, your average triathlete with elite level enthusiasm. And I am here sitting with Louise Strydom who is going to bring us the coach cooldown tip. Louise is a rock star on multiple levels and she's joining me all the way from Pretoria, South Africa where she lives with her husband and her three and a half year old daughter, affectionately known by her athletes as Coach Junior. Louise is the owner and head coach at Infinitude Multisport Coaching and incorporated TriDot into her business in 2019. She was a provincial age group winner and was also the first South African female triathlete to get selected to take on Patagonian Man Extreme Triathlon in Chile. She specializes in beginner and intermediate athletes and has had great success with helping athletes reduce training and racing anxiety. Welcome to the show, Louise!

Louise Strydom: Thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here and to share some coaching tips.

Vanessa Ronksley: Excellent. Well, let's start us off with you telling us what it's like standing on the beach before a race over in South Africa.

Louise Strydom: In initial conversation, I only found out that apparently it's just us South Africans that do this. So when we stand on the beach and we're ready to race, they play the national anthem. So even if you don't agree with all the politics that goes on in South Africa, you do feel the sense of patriotism. You just feel so proud standing on the beach. And then with 30 seconds before the gun goes off, they start playing this heartbeat sound. So it's just—and everyone just quiets down and it's just this heartbeat that vibrates through your body and it's amazing. You have to experience it. So please come and race here. So standing on the beach, you're just so grateful for the fact that you made it through your training and you're able to toe the start line. So yeah, that's what it is to stand on the beach at a race in South Africa.

Vanessa Ronksley: That sounds like a pretty epic experience. And even just thinking about the heartbeat, I would imagine that it helps to bring your heart rate down a little bit. You know, like when you hear a heart rate or you hear someone breathing, it's kind of like an instinct to match that within your own body. So it's very clever. That's a very clever thing to do to help reduce those race nerves before you get into the water. And fortunately our race tip today coincides with this exactly. So what can you tell us about race day anxiety?

Louise Strydom: So race day anxiety is something everyone experiences. But what I've seen is it's more with your beginner triathletes. Even myself, my first ever 70.3 race, I cried. I just was crying the whole time because I was just so anxious. So what I do is because I work with beginner and intermediate athletes, race anxiety—we set out a step by step plan for race morning because that's when anxiety levels are the highest. So race week, you're excited. It's the expo and it's athletes and checking bikes and, you know, you get caught up into the whole vibe. And then race morning, it's like, oh, this is it. Oh my goodness, what did I get myself into? So we have a little checklist that we go through. One of the biggest things that I tell my athletes is if you have earphones, plug them in. Whether you're listening to a podcast or there's nothing, there's not even sound really, or music. Just plug in your earphones. Because when you get to transition, there's so many things happening. There's an announcer that's kind of putting out a vibe. Athletes are talking, people are rushing around. And if you lend out your ears to other things, it's going to increase your anxiety because you are going to be influenced by "oh, my soul, I didn't do that. I didn't do the same thing that person did." So it's just going to get worse. So plug in your earphones, listen to your favorite song, and go through your steps. Your first thing would be going to transition. Go to your bike, put your nutrition on your bike, check your tires, check that your bike is in the correct gear so that you have a really smooth exit when you go out of transition. Go to your bike bag, put nutrition in there, put your sunscreen in there, whatever you need to do. Then head out of transition. Drop your streetwear bag if you need to drop your streetwear bag so you can all tick those things mentally off your list. You've done that. You don't have to worry about it. You've got this. Then you're gonna head to the beach, you're gonna start putting on your wetsuit. So now you have to leave the comfort of your supporting Sherpas and your family. Get out on the beach, where obviously you don't have your earphones with you. So you are going to have to chat to other athletes, but you know they're also going to be nervous. So when you're standing on the beach, focus really on just taking those nice, deep breaths. If you're feeling anxious, don't zip up your wetsuit all the way because you're still going to stand there for 10, 20 minutes. Don't zip it up. Leave it open. Get that air in. Just before, you know, the gun goes off, ask someone, "Can you quickly zip me up?" They'll be more than happy to help you. While you're standing there, go through your checklist. Is your wetsuit comfortable? Is it sitting where it's supposed to sit? Is your neck—is the Velcro covered? It's not going to scratch your neck. Are your goggles in the right place? With most of the events that don't have the mass start anymore, you don't have to necessarily put your goggles on, cap over. The chance of you being kicked in the face is unlikely.

Vanessa Ronksley: Thank goodness. It still happens, you know.

Louise Strydom: So go through those little checks and then you can start to think about the swim. Don't worry about the bike. Don't worry about the run. You now need to focus on the swim. Just get to that first buoy. Don't worry about the distance. Get to the first buoy. Just get there. Once you get there, aim for the next one. Aim for the next one. And so you break that up into small little chunks until you get to the swim exit, then you can start worrying about the bike. Okay? So that's the main thing. Have your little checklist, kind of go through it. But when that gun goes off, it's just a swim and it's just a bike and it's just a run. You are going to mentally exhaust yourself thinking on the swim, "oh, my goodness, I still need to run. I still need to bike." Don't worry about it. It's just a swim. You've done the distance in the training many, many times before. You can do the distance now. There's just a thousand other people also doing the distance. Just do the swim and then the bike and then have fun. Thank the volunteers. High five another athlete. That's gonna drop your anxiety so many, many, many times more than just being on your own. You know, chat with the volunteers, chat with your fellow athletes. If they're gonna start telling you weird things about races and all that can go wrong, move on to another athlete and start talking to someone else. But there's much more nervousness and anxiety around you than you think.

Vanessa Ronksley: I really like those two things that you said. So having a list—that alone takes away the anxiety of forgetting something or forgetting to do something because you can just actually check it off, color code it if you want. You know, a lot of people love color coding their sheets.

Louise Strydom: It's a list. And then, you know, even if you have a supporting person hopefully there, or you have a streetwear bag, if you're done checking your list off, if you're a list person, dump it in your streetwear bag and there you go. You know you've done it. So those small little things just make it so—and it's things that you would create a list before going on vacation. Everything that you need to pack so that you take it off and make sure that you have it. Why not do the same when you get up race morning? If you have your list, then you don't have to worry about it because it's been ticked off.

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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