Season’s Greetings: Triathlon Training Tactics for the Holidays

TriDot Podcast Episode 270

Season’s Greetings: Triathlon Training Tactics for the Holidays

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

Andrew Harley: Hey everyone. Welcome to the TriDot Podcast. This is a holiday episode of the show where we have a couple coaches with us helping us navigate how do we approach our triathlon training when a major holiday rolls around. Depending on where in the world you live and what holidays your culture celebrates, there are a number of things throughout the year that we want to unplug, unwind, hang out with friends and family, eat some extra festive food and hey, we're still triathletes. We still want to train. How do we marry it all together on those big holiday weeks? Yep, two coaches here to talk about it. Our first one is Coach Raya Usher. Raya is a British Triathlon and Ironman certified Coach assisting athletes competing in ITU and longer distances. Having been a former Canadian International Alpine Ski racer, Raya understands the intensities of pressures and psychological demands that are placed on athletes no matter what level they are competing. Raya has been competing in triathlon since 2015 and has podiums at Ironman events and has qualified and competed in ETU, ITU and Ironman 70.3 World Championships. Raya, thrilled to have you weighing in on this topic. Mainly honestly just to kind of give me a non-American flavor here to talk about the holidays. Thanks for hopping on.

Raya Usher: It's so nice to be here. I always feel so privileged that you think that I sound British, given I'm from Canada. But I at least I live in Europe so I might have a European flair for it. But it's nice to be here, Andrew.

Andrew Harley: Exactly. You're the ultimate world traveler. The ultimate cultural nomad. Also with us is Coach Brady Hoover. Brady is a full time triathlon and running coach from Newburyport, Massachusetts. He is a certified functional Strength coach and ACSM Certified personal Trainer and a strength program design specialist. Brady is a double digit Boston Marathon qualifier who has been training with TriDot since 2018 and coaching with TriDot since 2019. He also serves on TriDot's Coach Support team teaching coaches how to get the most out of coaching with TriDot and RuDot. Brady Hoover, thanks so much for joining the holiday episode of the podcast.

Brady Hoover: Man, I am pumped to be here. It's been far too long since I've been with the two of you. I'm really looking forward to this one.

Andrew Harley: And the time we're recording and releasing this, it is Thanksgiving week in the United States. Sorry, Raya, that's not a holiday for you. Tough, tough cookies. Tough beans. We're gonna live it up here in the US of A this week. Brady, what's the holiday plans? What's the family plans for Thanksgiving?

Brady Hoover: We're gonna go up to the in-laws in Franconia, New Hampshire, do a little turkey trot up there, push the kids in the double stroller that I break out once a year. I'm slowing down over the years, man.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, well, you're already flashing why you're on this episode. You've got that turkey trot experience. You're locked and loaded. You're ready to go. Well, I am Andrew, the average triathlete, voice of the people and captain in the middle of the pack as always. We'll roll through our warm up question, settle in for our holiday training main set conversation and then wind things down with Vanessa taking over for the coach cooldown tip of the week. Lots of good stuff. Let's get to it.

Warm Up Question

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

Andrew Harley: Whether it's a turkey trot like Coach Brady Hoover just mentioned or some sort of jingle jogathon, family this or that, there are all sorts of ways to take part in a holiday themed race event. And so what I'm curious about today for our warm up question, I want to hear what our TriDot audience has to say about doing holiday themed races. So Brady, Raya, have you ever taken part in a holiday themed race and if so, what would you say is your favorite memory from doing so?

Raya Usher: Coach Raya, I've never actually done a themed holiday race.

Andrew Harley: Okay.

Raya Usher: However, we at Precision every single year do a festive squad ride.

Andrew Harley: Love it. Please expound on that dress.

Raya Usher: So you have to be Christmas themed and you cannot come in typical cycling attire. You have to be dressed up. And we have had some real crackers over the years. Will has dressed up as Santa, a Christmas tree, reindeer. I've done Mrs. Claus, I've been a candy cane. I've even been a Christmas pudding which for our British audience, they'll know what it is. I don't know if you guys have Christmas pudding in, but it's an upside down kind of fruitcake with lots of icing on it. And I dressed as that on my bike and we got so popular with what we were doing that all the other local teams started doing it too, and always on the same weekend. And one of our favorite ones is we were all dressed in fancy dress at the coffee stop of our bike ride. Obviously it's cold and sleeting and it's pouring, but we're all having so much fun. And as we're all sipping our coffees in fancy dress, there is another squad who has got the head coach dressed as a rival squad with all reindeers cycling in front of him. So it was like Santa and his sleigh and it was the best thing ever. And they were like, oi, oi, over to us because it was obviously the famous holiday themed squad ride. So never a race, but squad ride. However, I have always been incredibly interested in doing Disney World's marathon on Christmas, which I know.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. Nope, that is worth it. I haven't done that event, but I've been to Disney World plenty growing up in Florida and yep, you should absolutely do that, Raya, if you ever get a chance to. And for not being a race, that's a tremendous story and a tremendous example of the ways you can have fun with our sport over the holidays. Right. I absolutely love that story. Brady, is your family Turkey Trot your answer here? Is that kind of where you form your holiday racing memories or do you have something else locked and loaded for us?

Brady Hoover: I think I'm going to take you back to where it all began. My first 5K, first official 5K was a holiday. Oh, man. I'm going to try to remember it because it's a little fuzzy, but we'll get to those details in a moment. There was this road race that my dad asked me if I wanted to do.

Andrew Harley: The year was 1954.

Brady Hoover: 2012 asked me if I wanted to do this 5k in town and I said, sure, I could do that. It's called The Jingle Bell 5K, gets about anywhere between 5,000 and 8,000 runners. Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts, New England. We got tons of holiday 5Ks been to many of them, but this one really stands out because it was my first official 5K, but it's the race I also like to nickname "we run a 5k where we party like we just did a marathon." Harpoon, big beer sponsor or Big Beer Co. here in Massachusetts, they sponsor the race. There's about 25 participating bars and pubs and restaurants that each get two kegs of harpoon. It's free for the runners, so you may not be the first to the finish line, but we might be first to the beer.

Andrew Harley: There you go.

Brady Hoover: You pick up your registration, you get a jingle bell. So you got about 8,000 jingle bells tied to people's shoes. So that's all that you hear going down the road. Highly competitive race. You've got elite level runners. You get cash prizes for first, second and third. Then they have cash prizes for first, second and third Santa, first, second and third elf for the females. I mean, if you want to get 100 bucks, if you're the first Santa, you got to break 16 minutes. If you're a fast elf, sure, under 18 minutes as a female. So highly, highly competitive. Some years, I mean, we did this every year. I pushed Declan in the stroller one year. We always go back to the same bar. Some years are a little blurry. Other years, you remember everything after the race, seen it all. We've had couples meet in our running club and go off and get married. Two of them dating right back to race where they met. So I look forward to that every year.

Andrew Harley: I think in all of that, Brady, I think the real stroke of brilliance is the runners doing the events with jingle bells tied to their shoes. That is hysterical. Yeah.

Brady Hoover: There's reindeer, like there's a reindeer and a Santa sleigh and it's full on blow up. Like we have the Dottie costume. Full on blow up reindeers with Santa in his sleigh. Just, you see it all.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. So I've only done this one time and I participated in a December in downtown Dallas. It was a couple of days before Christmas, whatever the Christmas run in downtown Dallas is called. I'm blanking on the name. And it's kind of that, it's just that family feel. Come down with your friends and family, do the event. Very non serious, non competitive atmosphere. You know, vendors with food trucks and hot chocolate and all the works. And my wife's job—my wife is an accountant for PricewaterhouseCoopers in downtown Dallas. Shout out to PwC. And as a work, one of the partners at the firm was like, hey, let's all go do this together. It'll be a lot of fun. Because PwC was sponsoring the event that year and so we might have even gotten free entry. I forget. But my wife registered her, she registered me knowing I like to run. This is pre TriDot. This is right before I ended up on board with TriDot. So a number of years ago and I went down there and my wife's there with all of our accountant friends that work in her office and their plan was to basically speed walk it with the partner that dragged them into this. Like they were just out there for fun and just they, I think they came in in like 54 minutes or something like that. And I'm down there like, okay, I'm gonna burn it to the ground and see what my time can be. And so I went like 20, 30, something like that. I was just over 20 minutes. Part of my TriDot story is I could not break 20 minutes in a 5k pre TriDot. With TriDot, my PR is like 18:15, 18:16, something like that. So TriDot works people. It works. So anyway, I go out there, I burn it to the ground. I was pretty happy at that day with my 20, 30 something. And then I have to wait like 35 minutes for the company employees to come down with the partner and they, you know, like in hindsight they did it right. They were out there, they had fun. I probably took it too seriously. I should have just had, you know, let loose and had fun with them because they come strolling. You got this big partner man, you know, in his just plain white T shirt and basketball shorts, you know, walking with all these like young millennial and Gen Z employees. And they're walking, having a good time with jingle bells all around and really, really fun, you know, team bonding event for my wife and her co-workers. So while I just kind of stood there in the cold and waited for them to come across the finish line. So that's my one experience with a holiday themed race. So it's the only one I can share today. But we're going to throw this question out to the TriDot audience. Make sure you're part of the I Am TriDot Facebook group. I will pose this question to you. Would love to hear your holiday themed race stories. We'll also pose this question in the Tri Community hub. So find this question and let us know what is your best memory from a holiday themed race. Can't wait to hear what you have to say and please include a picture if you can. Thanks so much.

Main Set

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

Andrew Harley: Excited to pick Coach Raya and Coach Brady's brains about how to handle our training when it comes time to the holidays. Just from my own personal experience, there's some holidays where just by what our family schedule is and what we're doing, it can be really easy just to naturally slot the training sessions in. There's other holidays where we are on the move and traveling and have a lot of events to go to and people to see and things to do and training through that holiday can be very difficult. So Coach Raya and Coach Brady are here to help us navigate how to handle our triathlon training through a major holiday. And I'm curious from the two of you as you're working with your athletes throughout the year. You know, I imagine that through the training season with your athletes that there can be multiple major holidays that can disrupt an athlete's normal routine. We're recording this episode Thanksgiving week in America because that's one of them. But between Thanksgiving and Christmas and Diwali and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and New Year's and July 4th and Independence Day celebrations around the world for different countries, there's all sorts of holidays that can disrupt an athlete's training schedule. So I'm curious to hear from the two of you, how much is the holiday training schedule a point of conversation between you and your athletes throughout the year? Coach Raya?

Raya Usher: Well, I think it's a pretty big one for a lot of us, especially if we are family orientated and we've got responsibilities like kids and parents and our spouses in particular. Athletes who might really like control and consider consistency, they can sometimes struggle with holidays because they're so used to being in a regular routine that a holiday can really throw them. You know, holidays and the holiday festive period can often involve travel and family commitments, potentially indulgent meals and snacks and all of those things can be so wonderful but can also create stress and anxiety and make you feel terrible about yourself. So how do our athletes kind of approach it? Well, you can approach it one of two ways I think. Depends on where you are in your season plan as to what approach is going to work best for you. One, you can really think about, you know, sticking to a plan, agreeing to it and trying to stick to that plan as much as possible—i.e. if you have a race coming up and you need to really focus, but don't panic if it's not perfect because holiday is supposed to be fun, you're supposed to enjoy it. Two, and my preferred approach is take it easy and don't give yourself too hard of a time on losing a little bit of fitness or making those indulgences in some snacks or some, you know, alcoholic beverages, these sorts of things. We work hard as triathletes to enjoy and embrace that. So for me, it's all about checking about where the athlete is in their season and seeing how it can adapt to make the holiday season as enjoyable as possible.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, I absolutely love that. And several of the things you mentioned that you talk with your athletes about are questions I have for us to kick around a little bit more in depth today. So already starting to get some good insight from coach Raya. Brady, same question to you as you're talking with your athletes, is this a pretty big point of communication throughout the years, navigating these kind of holidays, or is it just kind of athlete to athlete? Just kind of depends?

Brady Hoover: Kind of depends athlete to athlete. It's definitely a topic of conversation. Most of my athletes, actually all my athletes are here in the state. So our conversation is, okay, we're all in, most of us are in the development phase. Minus one of my athletes is running a marathon this weekend, so she's going to enjoy her time off right after this. So first question I'm asking is as the 5K test is coming up on their schedule is, hey, are you doing a turkey trot this year? You are. Okay, are you racing it or are you going to run it for fun? So we're kind of strategizing and then we'll kind of look at the weeks prior to the vacation week, the holiday week and the week after. Sometimes it's, we'll probably talk about this later around strategy, but sometimes we might move a recovery week to, you know, that holiday week, just depends where they are in their season. And when is that next big race? That next big race, is it a 5k, a 10k or is it something like a half marathon, marathon or you know, half distance triathlon, full distance. And then we'll kind of work around that.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, no, totally makes sense. And I'm excited to unpack all those things a little bit more as we go through our questions today. But one thing I want to ask about because I think it's really easy for like our friends and family who are not triathletes or not in the fitness lifestyle themselves in any way to just look at us at the holiday and say, hey, yeah, it's Christmas. Like, why would you even want to train? Like, why is this even like a talking point? Why aren't you just like kicking back, relaxing and enjoying yourself like the rest of us? And you know, most of us, like, we're just wired to move, right? Like, we want to be moving. We want to be like, that's our therapy. That's like our enjoyment, that's what we want to be doing with our me time, right? Is going out and enjoying a run, enjoying a bike or a swim. What do you think it is about endurance athletes that causes us to enjoy training even when we are supposed to be taking a holiday break? Raya, what do you think?

Raya Usher: Well, you've hit a few key words that I would have used and I think we just tend to be wired a little differently. You know, we are all endurance athletes because of how that makes us feel. Sometimes I often wonder if we get into long course triathlon in particular because it means that we get longer training sessions to have that time just to yourself or maybe to train with a squad or whatever it may be. But in some cases, I think endurance training can be our identity. And if we go into the holiday season, especially if you have loved ones who either don't get it or think you're a little bit crazy. I'm very lucky in our household, we're all endurance mad or sports mad. So why wouldn't you go for a 5k run on Christmas day before you start cooking? Yeah, it's nice that it works out right. You know, so it just allows us to kind of escape and have that me time and, you know, when you have indulged in mince pies and Christmas dinner and you're feeling, everyone's feeling a little bit bloated, it's really nice for us as athletes to move and I think that's what people necessarily might not necessarily understand, but why we still feel the need to do it.

Andrew Harley: Yep. Love that. Brady, anything to add there from your perspective?

Brady Hoover: It's definitely the endorphins. I work out in the morning, so it wakes me up. It sets the tune for the day. I spend my days helping everybody out. It's that one chance during the day where I get to actually focus on me. I got little kids. I coach a lot of athletes, coach a lot of coaches coaching on TriDot. So it's that one time, that one hour out of the day or sometimes longer, I look forward to those longer ones where I don't have my phone with me and I can just unplug.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, great point.

Brady Hoover: And most of the time I do. I go out for a workout and nobody knows I even did it because they're still in bed when I get back.

Andrew Harley: That's where you and I are not the same, Brady. That's why we're not the same. I just don't have that gear in me to get up and do it early, but yeah, that's different. Different podcast topic. So a big question that I think a lot of athletes would concern themselves with that I want to square away straight away is if we're shutting it down for a holiday, right. Depending on the holiday, that can be a day, that can be a couple days, that can be up to a week, right, if your family's going big for a week long Christmas thing or a week long something else thing. So let's just square this away. When we stop training, like, if we were just to go cold turkey and enjoy the holiday, like, are we losing fitness in that time that we've worked so hard to earn? Coach Brady?

Brady Hoover: Technically, yes, a little bit. Does it make a big impact if you're very consistent prior to? No. You know, we could go, if we're very consistent in our training, we're getting good train X scores, 75 or better consistently. Missing a week is not going to be the, it's not going to make or break, you know, anything, you know, if we hit 90% of the workouts we're doing all right, we're going to have the endurance in us to finish the race. How fast? Well, that's going to depend. But missing a week of training isn't gonna, it's not gonna change anything, really. You know, could have a tough workout in two weeks and miss a week. And chances are we're gonna be able to execute that tough workout that was originally scheduled there without any problem. Go two weeks. Okay, maybe it's another story, but a week, I wouldn't sweat it too much.

Andrew Harley: Good to know. Coach Raya, you confirming that?

Raya Usher: Yeah. I mean, a week, if, like Brady said, you are consistent all the time, is a drop in the endurance ocean. Like we're doing this over a long term, months, weeks, years. And in fact, for most of my athletes, when they're stressing, I often kind of explain to them that sometimes a week is really good to take off because it can recharge your batteries. It makes you miss training. It gives you all those kind of pauses that allow you to take stock. And actually, sometimes when I do a lot, I do this a lot. Like, I will go in to TriDot, like after a big race or when I know that it's like a family wedding or something really significant, I will go in and delete all the sessions for five days and I'm like, you are not to train. You can't take any lycra. You can't take any running shoes. You have time with your family. This is sacred. And I want you to come—I don't want you to text me or call me. I want you to be sans coach, sans endurance training. I want you to come back ready to train and enjoy it. And what's interesting is when you tell an athlete they're not allowed to call their coach for a week at the beginning, they're like, really? And I was like, I know you're actually paying me to not talk to me for a week. But what's amazing is that reset is, you know, I'm not badgering them. Hey, listen, I'm just checking. You didn't train yesterday. Are you feeling okay? Did you roll your ankle? And that relationship, it's, I mean, if you have a great relationship, it's never going to be strained, but it just gives you that break clean. And you would be so surprised how many of my athletes come back and perform better and faster and stronger because of that emotional and mental reset. So, yeah, no, it doesn't make a big difference at all. On the other hand, if you're not training and you're taking a week off every third week, there's a problem.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, that's not a holiday issue. That is a discipline or seasonality issue. Passion issue. Yeah, that's a little bit different. Raya, something I'm curious is just in terms of balancing the desire to train with the desire to spend time with friends and family. You said a little bit earlier, you made a comment about how one of the talking points between you and your athletes are just talking about the guilt of either not—sometimes we feel pressure to train and we feel guilty if we don't do the training, but then conversely, we can feel guilty if we're not in on everything our family's doing for a holiday. What do you talk your athletes through just in terms of how to balance what your family wants to do on a holiday versus what your training schedule tells you you should do?

Raya Usher: I think the most important thing to focus on when you are in a holiday season is to have fun. It can be really stressful going to visit family. I love my family so much, but we're all as loud as I am. So you can imagine 10 of us in a room. It's a big event, right? And that can be stressful. But if you go in with it with the right attitude, you'll find balance. Like, don't feel guilty if you have to miss a session because your family needed you to go to the garden center to buy a new Christmas tree because the dog ate the other one. Like, these things are going to happen. It's just part and parcel of what happens during the family holidays. So balance is key, but having fun is more important. Like, holidays are sacred, and you really need to embrace that. And, you know, just as our last question says, it's not going to kill you to not train, but if that is something you absolutely have to do, negotiation and compromise with the rest of your family, they have to understand how much you love it. And you need to find the time that fits around the schedule so everyone's happy. Brady, I know, is probably one of the world's earliest risers. He probably wakes up before I do, which is saying something, given I'm five hours ahead of him. But, like, I know that he will always go for a run because he's home before anybody has woken up, and that doesn't impact anyone. So there's balance, there's compromise, and there's just simple planning. But just have fun.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. And I think the easy answer here, right, is to say, oh, if you want to train on a holiday, just get up and get it in. Right? And that works for people that's their rhythm. Like that doesn't work often for me. You know, in my family, we're night owls, right? So when we're catching up with family, we're often catching up with family late into the night. And so I need that sleep, right, to be ready for the next day. So, Brady, what do you tell athletes when it comes to just the timing of it, if you're trying to fit in? Because there's your easy answer. There's your solution, which is certainly a great solution. Just get up and get it in if you really want to get it in. But as you're talking with your athletes, if an athlete has a different rhythm, what's that conversation like? Brady, what's kind of the Brady Hoover tips for just navigating the holiday schedule and keeping workouts on the docket if you're wanting to do so?

Brady Hoover: Yeah. So we'll kind of plan in advance. You know, what are the priorities here? How long are we going to be gone for? How many days are we looking to miss? Where are we in our season? And then prioritizing. Okay, you're not leaving until Wednesday for Thanksgiving. Well, what can we knock out the weekend before Monday, Tuesday, you know, do you have things that you have to prepare, how much time you have and we'll strategize and then kind of working, what are your family obligations? What time do you have to be somewhere and where and work backwards. Like know that you have to take a shower, know that you have to eat breakfast, know that you might have to get the kids ready if you have little kids and kind of work backwards. Okay, what time do I have to be in the shower? What time do I have to eat? What time do we have to leave? And how much time is that going to take? Work backwards. Don't stress about it. But know the very latest I could do a workout is 9:00am because I have to be wheels turning by 11:00am, you know, that gives me time to get the kids ready, give me time to eat, get everything ready that needs to be done and be where you need to be on time. Now if that doesn't happen and we miss the workout, no big deal. We accounted for that. We planned ahead. I like to go unstructured, if you will, when it comes to the holidays where I don't delete the workouts like Raya does, but I leave them on my schedule. I leave, sometimes leave them on the athlete schedule just depends on the athlete and their mentality. I say take it or leave it. It's there as a suggestion if you got time for it. Great. Oftentimes, you know, I stayed up late. I still wake up at the same ungodly hour. So that means I might be getting five hours sleep. I look at my workout and I just laugh and I'm like, yeah, I'm not doing cruise intervals today. I'm going zone two. Maybe if it's Thanksgiving, I'm throwing on a turkey hat too and going for a run. You know, give those early morning drivers something to laugh about.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, I intentionally, when the holidays come around very much like Raya has suggested, I don't stress about it. Like if something just happens to fit into our family's routine, you know, everybody ate at noon and everybody just kind of has downtime and everybody's just kind of mixing and mingling until dinner. Like if there's a hole where it makes sense to just slip away for an hour and do a run, I'll go do so. And I find personally there's a different time and effort commitment in going for a swim, right? You got to get your stuff together. You got to get to the pool, you got to get in the water, got to get out of the water, dry off. Similar to the bike, there's a time investment and some extra steps to get outside, out on your bike. Inside, you know, if you're at home base, right, and you've got your pain cave set up one room away, different story. But I personally, if I'm trying to get some training in, I'm trying to keep the body moving. You know, I try to do it with those easier to get in workouts, which is your zone two runs, your pain cave bike rides. And I try to make it as minimally invasive to the family schedule as possible. And that's kind of what works for me. But, you know, it's gonna be a little bit different for everybody. Raya, anything to add on that, just extra insight from what Brady said on fitting it in with the puzzle pieces of what your family is doing for the holiday?

Raya Usher: Yeah, for sure. I mean, nine times out of ten I will say to people, even if you're not a morning person, get up and do it in the morning because then nobody's gonna be like holding it against you. But for those who really can't, I know Andrew, you're one of them.

Andrew Harley: I can do it. I can do it and I do it when I have to. I do it when I have an A race on the calendar. I just don't prefer to do it anyway. Continue.

Raya Usher: If you are really, you struggle with being a morning person, then I always say piggyback off activities that are happening. So like, if one of your family members is like, oh, I need to go to the supermarket and pick up something, you're like, oh, okay, can I meet you there and I'll run? Or like just integrate it. So you're still being part of the activity, you're still being involved. Like grocery shopping is something that's really important because you got to get all the family's favorites. So utilize that time and say, well, I'll run there and then you can drive me home or something, you know, something like that. I also agree that your running shoes and an at home gym session or at home strength session is your best friend. Those are the two sessions that will be the least offensive and the least kind of time consuming. And if everyone's watching a holiday movie and you fancy doing a few, they're gonna laugh and roll their eyes. But at least you're doing it together.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, no, it's a great point. And because of what you just said, like, I just find myself on holidays, you know, just going for some extra runs. And I will say this, like, don't move all of your intensity run sessions to the same back to back to back to back days, because you're stacking all your runs together because that's what you can get in. Just to be clear, if I'm subbing a swim for a run because that's what I can do that day easily on a holiday, it's zone two. If it's an extra run that's not on the calendar, I'm not going above zone two. You gotta protect your body. You gotta have your training stress in mind, right? Another component of it is travel. Sometimes, depending on the holiday, you stay close to home. Oftentimes, for various holidays, you'll travel. I mean, the common ones are Christmas and Thanksgiving. We had a pretty good spree where every July 4, Independence Day in the United States, we would fly to the beach and do a beach week with my family in Florida for July 4th. And so that was an example of a holiday where I'm navigating travel that wasn't Christmas or Thanksgiving. But regardless, if an athlete finds themselves traveling over the holidays, they're away from their equipment, they're away from their pain cave. But if they still want to keep the body moving, what are your tips for doing so as practically as possible? Coach Brady?

Brady Hoover: That depends. Are we staying with a friend or are we choosing a hotel? Because if we're choosing a hotel and we're going somewhere for fourth of July like you are, we're going to be selective about that hotel and find one that at least has a gym with some sort of bike in there, because then we can do some cycling, the pool. Those are harder to find. Depending on where you're vacationing, the pool, sometimes it's bringing a tether with us and tying ourselves up and just swimming. Nowadays there's so many different variations of power pedals. So you can just bring a wrench and your power pedals and you can screw them right onto a bike. I know a lot of the Hilton branded hotels, anything in the Hilton family, they generally usually have a peloton.

Andrew Harley: That's great.

Brady Hoover: Absolutely. Most of the time. So I always book with Hilton because I know they're going to have a peloton bike whether it's in use or not. That's another story. But at least it's there. And now I have some flexibility. Oh, the bike's in use today. Well, I brought my running shoes. I can go out for a run. So just kind of planning ahead. And again, not getting too hung up on the intensity, especially if you're jumping time zones, right? As long as we're still training, we are gaining some fitness. We might be staying up later, so that's adding to our daily stress. That's something that we can't account for yet. You know, personally, we can feel it. But no, we don't have really good data on that yet.

Andrew Harley: Yep, great point. Raya, same question over to you on travel for the holidays. Any hot tips you give your athletes that Brady didn't cover?

Raya Usher: Yeah, I mean those are great ones. If you have access to equipment, which is really good. If you're ever traveling and you don't really have access to anything, then exercise bands are your best friend. You can get really, really thin ones that you can use for practicing your catch or small resistance work on the floor. And they take up almost no room, especially if you're traveling with carry on luggage. So you can just emulate things like strength work to replicate running and cycling in a static environment and then just travel with your trainers so you don't have to take so much with you. You can run anywhere and you can do strength anywhere. So it's kind of a replication of my last answer. But those two things, even if you are with people who don't want you to train and you don't have enough luggage or equipment, are my two top tips.

Brady Hoover: Kind of piggybacking on what Raya said. I used to have this thing called a gym in the backpack back in my competitive days, right? I would have a TRX system that you could pretty much hang that up anywhere or wedge it in a door. Gliding discs or paper plates, those allow you to do different things. And then when there's no weights involved, we can always do time under tension and focus on that muscle, deep muscle contraction and we can fatigue our muscles really well that way. So just switching it up and just being creative.

Andrew Harley: I can tell you Elizabeth James, you know, frequent coach who's on the podcast and TriDot staff member, professional triathlete. Her answer to this is she has a Lifetime gym membership. And she's got whatever the membership package is, you can go to any lifetime fitness like countrywide. And so I can't tell you how many trips I've been on with our staff where Elizabeth found the closest lifetime fitness and she disappears for three hours in the middle of the day or first thing in the morning and gets all of her workouts in because she's a professional triathlete. That's what professional triathletes do. I'm hoping people hear the message here that don't overthink this, don't stress about this. Most family holidays are not long enough to help you to have you lose fitness or get knocked off your game. You know, do what you can but don't force anything. Enjoy it. I'm hoping they're hearing that message come through in a couple of ways. But the one avenue where I could, the one scenario where I can really see an athlete wanting to stay on top of their training like to the percentage degree is if somebody has a major A race coming up, you know, if they have a long course Ironman, an Ironman 70.3 or even a sprint or Olympic where they really have a goal, want to be competitive, it's an A race on their calendar. That for me at least is when like man, I know I'm traveling but how can I replicate my training program as closely as possible, you know, over this holiday? So let's talk about that. Let's talk about how we can get as close as possible. The Elizabeth James strategy is certainly one of them, right? Finding a gym that has treadmill, strength and pool, that kind of stuff. But what else would you add to that conversation? If you have an athlete traveling, big A race coming up and you're trying to help them really facilitate their training as effectively as possible. What are the go to moves? Coach Raya?

Raya Usher: Well, I think if you have an A race really close to the holidays, one, you have probably negotiated that with your family so they understand where you are in your training. And so hopefully negotiations are slightly easier to handle if you have family that might not necessarily—they support you but hopefully you have buy in at that point because proximity means that you need to plan. So my biggest advice is to plan ahead and really prioritize. So what sessions do you really need to focus on? Do you need a bike? Are you gone for that amount of time? How can we get the sessions in that still fit around your family? Focusing on the key priority sessions. We can drop sessions even when it's close to an A race as long as we're looking at those high value workouts.

Andrew Harley: Great point.

Raya Usher: That will fit around the program. You know, if you look at an easy bike ride and it's only got a 12 in terms of value, we know that that's a lot less important than a bike ride that's 67. So I highly recommend just focusing on priority sessions and looking at your training facilities where you're going to be. Are they training friendly? Training specific friendly. Can you sneak off? But at the end of the day, and like you said, Andrew, we're trying to say don't sweat about it. Most important thing is if you're stressing about skipping one session, it's not going to ruin your race. But stressing about continuously skipping sessions could. So don't stress.

Andrew Harley: No. And just love the direction of focus on your most important workouts that week and getting those in whether it's before the travel or before the holiday. Maybe it's taking that stamina bike ride that is, you know, four and a half hours long and maybe it's supposed to be Saturday, but that's when the family's getting together. Okay, we'll do it on Thursday. Like find a way to get those high value sessions in and don't stress the other ones. That's huge, Raya. Great, great stuff there. Anything to add, Brady? Anything to add on Raya's brilliance?

Brady Hoover: I love when we added that XP, especially for those athletes that aren't utilizing a coach that don't have a way to bounce ideas off of a coach. That XP is huge. You look at the whole week and it's like, what's the most impactful workout is those with the highest XP. So prioritizing those, whether it's before you leave or carving out that time when you're on vacation or on holiday to make sure that those ones get done. Those are your more important ones. Other tricks, you know, see where they are in their cycle. Typical instances we build for three weeks, we deload for a week. But sometimes we can move things around to make, oh, okay, we're going to build for two weeks and you're going on vacation. That's your deload week. And we'll build for four weeks off of that. But I'm going to make some changes to that fourth week to kind of deload but keep the volume high but to keep the intensity lower. You know, we'll play around with that and then we'll get back to our regular scheduled program. So there's a few ways to skin the cat.

Andrew Harley: Yep. Absolutely. Love it. Raya earlier mentioned food at the holidays and definitely included that on my things to talk about. So I'm glad it's come up a little bit. But in many cultures, depending on the holiday, there is often food indulgences at holiday gatherings that are not around normally. And I think most of us want to partake in the holiday feasts and treats. But what we eat does affect how we feel in our training. So you have a lot of mashed potatoes at lunch and go for a run, you're gonna feel like a mashed potato out there on that run. Talk to us guys about this. Like what's the right balance here in partaking in the holiday but also being primed and ready to do the sessions that we plan on doing?

Raya Usher: I mean one of the reasons why I ultimately got into Ironman was because I love food. So this allows us to eat so much more. And one of the things that was really important to me when I first started long course triathlon was that I did want to be able to indulge. I love going out to restaurants and really great rich foods. I don't necessarily have a sweet tooth. I mean I do, but not maybe not as much as Brady's, certainly not as much as my husband's. But you know, going out to this restaurant and it doesn't even have to be unhealthy food. I just love food. So as a coach who has this as her why for doing triathlon, for my athletes is to enjoy the treats and do so guilt free because you have worked so hard to be able to enjoy something that if you don't, you're going to start to resent the sport that you're doing. And as long as you are mindful about what you eat all the rest of the time. Now I am someone who, I talk about how much I love eating, but I'm also incredibly good with my nutrition. I fuel my sessions correctly, I know exactly how many calories and macros I should be eating on a day to day basis. I make sure there's biodiversity in my food. So with all that in mind, when it comes to the festive season, let's eat and enjoy it guilt free.

Andrew Harley: Hopefully a lot of people listening to this podcast right now are giving you a standing ovation for that speech right there. Honestly, what this looks like for me, and I kind of, I don't know. My wife and I, we like vegetables. Like, we like fruits anyway, so it's not super difficult to work those things in. What gets me is just carbs. Like, I will eat way too many carbs and breads and stuff if I let myself. So I just make sure whatever I'm plating, you know, I'm going to enjoy what I want to enjoy at a holiday meal, but I'm making sure there is a serving of whatever vegetables available on my plate, whatever salad is available on my plate. And okay, sometimes there's less of that depending on the holiday. But I'm gonna eat as many cornbread rolls as I want to eat at Thanksgiving, but I'm gonna make sure I have a good serving of green beans along the way. Right? So just making sure that you're looking at your plate and seeing a little bit of nature on it is all, I just feel better if I do that right along the way. Totally, totally agree.

Brady Hoover: I wanted to add to that. It's like if you eat your vegetables first, your protein second, well, there's only so much carbs you can eat after that.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, very true. Yeah, very true.

Brady Hoover: Carbs first, man, you pack it in. So sometimes order of operation helps.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Order of operation. Yeah. Tackling that plate. Very, very good, Brady. When I do decide to train on a holiday, I personally like to cut loose a little bit and make that session a little more fun. Both of you have kind of mentioned a few ways that you like to do this. Whether it's Brady putting on a turkey hat or Raya doing that group ride at the holidays with the crew. I'm just kind of curious, like, what else have you seen athletes do? Just to give our folks ideas because if it's a holiday and I do like to keep my body moving over the holiday, but let's make it fun, right? This is a chance to cut loose. Especially, you know, TriDot training for A races. Sometimes you're just doing the right training, interval after interval after interval. Yeah, these are a good opportunity to cut loose just a little bit. So just tell us, what have you seen your athletes do to kind of spice up their holiday workouts other than the kind of things you've already shared? Coach Raya.

Raya Usher: One of my favorites is, it's not just, I mean, we like to get dressed up and do crazy stuff all the time. But one of our second favorite sessions to do is the 12 days of Christmas as a team swim. And we do, it's like a relay race where you have four or five people in each lane and every length is like a relay. So you know, imagine ankles tied, then handing over the swim hat, doggy paddle, then handing over the swim hat, then the next person has to do windmill for every length and then a whole length underwater. You know, it's brutal, but it's so festive and it's so much fun.

Andrew Harley: Just proving that swimming can be fun. Yeah, swimming can be fun, right?

Raya Usher: Exactly. We love swimming. But the other thing that I always think is fun is integrating your family into doing really fun sessions, you know, having a fun run where the whole family, including the dog, has to wear a costume and you get everyone involved and so you're integrating your family into your passion rather than just doing your own thing. And that I think gets your family really excited. I mean you don't have to go crazy costume like we do, but we highly recommend it. It's great. But just make it fun and make sure that everyone's involved so they can see how much fun you're having when you're doing your training. But they can also see the enjoyment side of it too.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, I personally, I keep it a little simple. I like holiday themed socks. So I do have a couple like Christmas socks and a couple, you know, different holiday themed socks. So I'll throw those on for the holiday and what I like to do, and it's so funny because this is the only time of year I ever do this, is like if I'm going for a run on a holiday. Are you familiar with the concept of like segment hunting on Strava? And so you hop on Strava and you find what segment and if you're traveling, you can do this when you travel too. Like wherever you are, whatever aunt or uncle's house you're having dinner at, pull up what Strava segments are around and go see if you can take a Strava segment that you don't normally get to run. And I never do this the rest of the year. I'm always doing my TriDot sessions, interval by interval, how they're prescribed and so just to take, you know, take a 45 minute, one hour run and go find two or three segments in your area and see if you can top the best time, you know. So zone two, zone two, zone two. Boom. There's the segment. Go, go, go, go, go. Like, I don't know, it's kind of fun. And sometimes you, on those leaderboards, you'll wind up in the top 10 or you'll grab the top spot depending on how competitive the segment is. But some people do that for fun every single Saturday. I do it on holidays. I don't know why. It's just kind of my cut loose and my way to individually kind of make that workout a little different from the rest of the year and makes it a little fun for me. Coach Brady, same question over to you. What have you seen your athletes do to make a holiday workout extra holiday fun?

Brady Hoover: Just like what you all said, like getting the families involved. You know, some athletes, they'll do a holiday 5k with their folks and that's the only race that they do a year. Some of them will walk it, but it kind of brings the whole family together that we're all participating in the same event. Rarely does anyone really race the holiday races. It's more about dressing up, having fun, just being in that holiday spirit and cheer. Personally, my kids are getting older, but I still New Year's and Turkey Trot, still pushing the double stroller. I'll do that for as long as I physically can, but don't break as many hearts as I used to when I beat folks. I'm slowing down. They're getting heavier. I think the stroller is a little over £100 now with the two of them in it. So this one in particular next week has a really good hill, which I'll probably have to walk up this year. But, you know, it's nice when you see the families coming together and you've got that athlete that's dedicated to the training, but their spouse maybe isn't into the sport as we are and there's the parents and the parents are just going to walk the 5K. It's so heartwarming when they can all participate in the same event at the same time.

Cool Down

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

Vanessa Ronksley: Guess what time it is. That's right. It's cool down time. And I'm Vanessa, your average triathlete with elite level enthusiasm. Our featured TriDot coach with us today currently lives in Detroit and is relocating to Salt Lake City in the near future. Jake Graham is passionate for the beauty of sport as it has transformed his life and also the lives of his nearest and dearest. He is an engineer, triathlon lover, coach, and thrill seeker with a bright and inquisitive mind. After discovering TriDot as an athlete, he immersed himself in the community, became an ambassador, and soon afterwards, a certified TriDot coach. Jake loves working with athletes with diverse backgrounds, those who enjoy analyzing data to maximize performance, in addition to those with unique dietary needs. Welcome to the Cool Down.

Jake Graham: Thanks, Vanessa. I'm super excited to be here today.

Vanessa Ronksley: There is something that you would only find me doing if I was a participant on Amazing Race and winning was on the line, and that is bungee jumping. But you did this just for fun, which leads me to ask you one question. Are you crazy?

Jake Graham: Well, I think all of us in this sport are a little bit crazy. I think that's a requirement of being a triathlete. So if that's how you want to describe me, I'll certainly take it as a compliment.

Vanessa Ronksley: Okay, cool. And what was the bungee jumping like? Was it absolutely terrifying?

Jake Graham: It was a phenomenal experience. I was able to do it from the Bloukrans bridge in South Africa, which at the time was the world's largest bungee jump. So the scenery around us was incredible. But when you're bending your knees to take that leap, your heart rate is definitely hitting the top end of your zones there.

Vanessa Ronksley: Oh my gosh. Did they have to push you off or do you have to do it yourself?

Jake Graham: I ended up taking the jump, but as the video shows, my buddy was making fun of me afterwards as to how scared I looked making that leap.

Vanessa Ronksley: Really? And then when you were actually free falling, did it feel like forever?

Jake Graham: To get to your terminal velocity speed seemed to happen super fast for me. And before I knew it, I was bouncing back up with the bungee recoil. And then I think my terrified face turned to a smile at that point and I was able to enjoy it for a bit there.

Vanessa Ronksley: So what tip do you have for us today? I don't think it has to do with bungee jumping, but what tip do you have for our athletes?

Jake Graham: No, bungee jumping I can't give tips about that, but I can about triathlon. So my tip today is focusing on run form to prevent injury and maximizing your efficiency.

Vanessa Ronksley: Woohoo. Yeah. Everybody can relate to that, right?

Jake Graham: Yes. As we know, research shows 50 to 70% of runners experience injury at some point. And I think it's not uncommon for people to just accept that fact. But we don't have to. We can do something to prevent injury within ourselves. So instead, it should serve as an indicator that we need to focus on improving our technique. So, like many triathletes, I came into the sport with a running background. I joined my first run club in fifth grade, learned how to pace and how to run longer distances, and then through track and cross country, I had some great coaches to further grow in the sport. But it wasn't until I got older that the importance of running mechanics really came into focus for me. So when we think about swimming and cycling, many athletes have invested a lot of time into learning the finer details of elbow positioning through the swim stroke or cycling cadence. But what about running cadence? That's something that can really enhance our techniques and something that we should be focusing on. Running form has just as many nuances as swimming and biking, so those who invest in learning about them are going to become stronger and less injured runners. The best option that I advise athletes to do is to get a run gait analysis done. So this can be done by a lot of different coaches. What they'll do is identify any deficiencies that you may have in your run form. So it involves the athlete usually sharing a video of their run, and a coach will walk them through opportunities they have for improvement. But if that's not in the cards for you, there's two other main things that runners can focus on, the first being cadence. So each runner is unique. It may take some time to identify your personal ideal cadence. In general, you should be targeting around 160 to 180 steps per minute. The cadence shouldn't change too much as you increase your speed, which means that as you start running faster, your stride will lengthen in comparison to slower jogs. But there's a balance to this that you want to consider with your cadence and your stride length, something that you can learn more about talking to coaches, engaging in the TriDot community. The second thing that I wanted to talk about is foot strike with respect to center of mass. I think a lot of times when people think of foot strike, they're thinking of toe, midfoot, or heel striking, which there's important considerations there. But more important than all of those is where your foot is landing with respect to your center of mass. So if you're running and your leg is reaching in front of you, when your foot strikes, it's essentially acting as a brake. So it's slowing you down on each stride that you're making. What you want to do to minimize the wasted energy and maximize the benefits of our natural elastic recoil is to strike your foot directly below the center of mass or directly below your hips. So this is going to minimize the vertical displacement that you have. It's going to reduce that braking effect that I just talked about and minimize your ground contact time. So in doing that, it will maximize the energy return and elastic recoil and create better propulsion for you. So essentially maximizing that elastic recoil of your calf, your Achilles, you don't have energy expenditure in that area, so they won't fatigue like your legs will. So taking advantage of that free energy is really going to maximize your running technique and minimize your propensity for injury.

Vanessa Ronksley: That's all really, really great stuff. I do have a question about how you would go about ensuring that your foot strike is under your center of mass. Like, are there any cues that you would have, aside from looking at video footage, like, what cue would you have that you're hitting too far ahead of your center of mass?

Jake Graham: Yeah. So something that you might start feeling more than anything is fatigue in your legs. So if you are going out for a run and you're feeling a lot of lower leg fatigue, think about when you're making that stride. If you're braking, you'll feel a stronger impact because your leg is absorbing that energy rather than your calves and Achilles absorbing that energy. That's going to be a difference that you can definitely feel that might be after a run. During a run, what I suggest is thinking about being aware of where your hips are in relation to the rest of your body. So I always think about leading with my hips. And if you're doing that, there's a good chance that your leg strike is going to fall below your hips because you're not reaching forward with your leg. Instead, you're leading with the hips. And so your leg is making contact below your center of mass.

Vanessa Ronksley: Right. Excellent. And what drills? We have a lot of drills prescribed to us in the TriDot workouts. Which drills in particular are those that are trying to get us to simulate this foot strike under the center of mass?

Jake Graham: Yeah. So there's a lot of different things that you can do around this. I think one of the things that I would focus on is doing drills where you're kicking behind you so that your legs are developing that muscle memory of not reaching forward in your stride. So by doing a butt kicker type drill, that's going to be helpful and just focusing on those warm up drills, all those warm up drills that we do, thinking about where your legs are landing during those drills is going to make that connection from your mind to your legs that will show up in your run then.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, I think that's really awesome. And I also think that it's important to be mindful of what those drills are trying to get us to do towards the later stages of those runs because that's when our form starts to deteriorate as we get more and more tired.

Jake Graham: That's a great point. Making those mindful connections is, that's when it shows up, right? When you get fatigued, the form starts to loosen up a little bit. But when you're doing those warmup drills, if you're thinking about the purpose behind those while you're doing them, you're getting a lot more out of it rather than just going through the motions all the time. So that's a great connection to make.

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.com. The obvious and automatic choice for triathlon training.

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