Short-Course Triathlon: Racing Your Best

TriDot Podcast Episode 131

Short-Course Triathlon: Racing Your Best

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 hey hey. Welcome to the show. I am psyched for this show. Today we will be talking about short course racing. Full distance tries may get all the headlines, but short course racing is the epicenter of the triathlon experience. For every weekend, half and full distance try, there are dozens upon dozens of local sprints and Olympics across occurring at the same time and we want all of our listeners to feel prepared and coach on how to flat out dominate your next short course event. Joining us for this conversation is Coach Jeff Raines. Jeff is a USAT Level 2 and Ironman youth Certified Coach who is a Master's of Science and Exercise Physiology and was a D1 collegiate runner. He has over 50 Ironman event finishes to his credit and has coached hundreds of athletes to the Ironman finish line. Coach Jeff Raines Are you ready to go fast today?

Jeff Raines: I am ready. If you ain't first, you're last.

Andrew Harley: Next up is Coach John Mayfield. John is a USEAT Level 2 and Ironman U certified coach who leads Trot's athlete services, Ambassador and Coaching programs. He has coached hundreds of athletes ranging from first timers to Kona qualifiers and professional triathletes. John has been using TriDot since 2010 and coaching with TriDot since 2012. John how's it going today friend? Going good.

John Mayfield; Going good. How about you?

Andrew Harley: I am doing well. I'm Andrew, the average triathlete, voice of the people and captain of the middle of the pack. As always, we'll approach the show like any other workout. We'll roll through our warmup question, settle in for our main set conversation and then wind things down with our cooldown. Lots of good stuff. Let's get to it.

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

Andrew Harley: Had a recent post to the I Am TriDot Facebook group where pro triathlete and TriDot coach Elizabeth James shared a picture of herself chipping ice off the windshield of her car with a swim paddle. She finished an early morning workout session at the pool and upon getting back to her car found an iced over windshield with no proper ice scraper on hand. She had the innovative thought to defrost the situation with her swim paddles. 10 out of 10 heads up thinking by Elizabeth there. And it got me wondering, what are some other ways our audience has used triathlon items for non triathlon reasons? So, John, Jeff, what was a time you used a tri item for a non tri reason? Jeff Raines A good one that comes.

Jeff Raines: A good one that comes to mind is putting in an old set of arrow bars. I put them on my daughter's training wheel bike. You know, just, just to be funny, but also to plant that seed, right, that tri bikes are cool. And if you want to be cool, you got to be a triathlete, right?

John Mayfield: Start working on those aero muscles and building up the back and neck strength.

Andrew Harley: She'll be the only kid on the block who, upon shedding her training wheels, sheds them into the arrow position. Coach John Mayfield. What what's a try item that you have used for a non tri reason?

John Mayfield: As we talked about on our last short course podcast, my little chiweenie Penny, who is sitting here with me all curled up adorably, is not afraid of anything except for my massage roller stick. So I tried to think of something and that's the only thing I could really come up with is we around here sometimes for mean forms of entertainment, we will torture our little chiweenie Penny with that massage stick. And the whole family gets a kick out of it. And we try to ration it, try not to do it too much, but sometimes we just can't help ourselves.

Andrew Harley: For me, this answer, I'm, I'm kind of going to my nutrition here. I use my precision fuel and hydration electrolyte tabs to stay hydrated while traveling and on vacation. So if we're going on a trip and I know, hey, on this trip, you never know how much water you're gonna get to drink when, you know, when you have flights and car rides and all that kind of stuff, you don't want to drink too much water and have to go to the bathroom all the time. And so I like taking the little salt pills and I'll put them in my backpack for a long flight just to keep some sodium in the system. And then, you know, if we're kicking it on the beach for a week or if we're in the mountains for a week, wherever we're vacationing, you know, I'll kind of pop those precision hydration electrolyte tabs into my water bottles just to make sure I'm staying hydrated and getting those electrolytes into my system even while on vacation and traveling around. So that is my use of a try related item in a non try way. So hey guys, we want to hear from you on this as we always do. I will post this question to the I Am Trotted Facebook group and we want to see of all the triathlon items you have, whether it's your run gear, your bike gear, your swim gear, other training gear, recovery gear, nutrition items, whatever it is, what is a creative and innovative non triathlon way you use your triceps.

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

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Andrew Harley: When I think short course triathlon, I instantly think to the famous quote from the great fictional racer Ricky Bobby where he said emphatically, I want to go fast before jumping into a stock car for the first time. We too would like to go fast out there on course, but hitting a short course race hard and fast takes proper training, a good warm up, mindful pacing and excessive amounts of grid factor. So today coach Jeff Raines and John Mayfield are here to deliver the goods on all of that and more. Now guys, on last week's episode about training for a short course event, we heard the story of your first sprint try and had you identify a few of your favorite short course races that you've ever done. So to kind of give us a different peek into both of your short course careers, what would you say is the wildest moment you've had on course while competing in a sprint or Olympic distance race? Or maybe even a tale of short course racing gone wrong, so to speak? Jeff Raines what is this for you?

Jeff Raines: Kerrville, Texas. The Hill Country. Beautiful area of Texas and lush, green, you know, wildlife everywhere. And I was in the middle of the quarter distance, which is very close to the Olympic distance out there and having a good race and almost got hit by a deer on the bike. That city is known for, for, for having deer ran, ran across the road and gave me a little adrenaline boost right at my, my, I was already pushing 90, 95% of. Of my FTP and so my, my heart rate definitely went up into Zone 6 for that moment. But that was a, a nice surprise in the middle of, of of that race.

Andrew Harley: Coach John Mayfield, for you. What is the wildest thing that has happened to you while competing? Competing in a sprint or Olympic.

John Mayfield: The sprint Olympic. I don't have necessarily any great stories, but Jeff's did remind me of one that happened during a half and it was actually a race I did with Jeff. It was 2020 when we were just trying to find races to do. So we went and we found this little bitty half distance race. I want to say there were, I don't know, 30 or 50 people in the whole race. And so I didn't have a good swim. I ended up way behind everybody else. And with that few people and not having good swim, like it was super spread out. By then I was basically out riding these country back roads by myself. And I got, I don't know, 10, 20 miles in. I'm going down a pretty good downhill. And I think I'm like literally think I'm hallucinating. Think there's something, I'm seeing something in the road because it sure looks like there are two donkeys standing in the road at the bottom of this hill. And sure enough, there were actually two donkeys in the middle of the road as I rode by. And I just kind of went around them and they just kind of looked at me as I, as I went by. But I think that's probably the most bizarre thing that's ever happened.

Andrew Harley: So when we say short course, short course racing is. It's the sprint distance, it's the Olympic distance. There's also super sprints in the mix as well. The typical Sprint is a 750 meter swim, a 20 kilometer bike in a 5k run, and their standard Olympic is twice that for all three disciplines. Particularly with the sprint distance, the actual lengths can vary from race to race, but regardless, the effort and duration for an Olympic distance is about twice that of a sprint. What would you say are the similarities and differences between racing, each of these differences.

John Mayfield: So really what characteristics or what characterizes a the short course racing is the fact that they are pure power threshold type events where even though they fall under the endurance sports umbrella, these were, we're really not utilizing stamina nearly as much as the 70.3 or Ironman distance. And there's really no endurance. And we talked about that on the, the endurance podcast that we did that. You know, no one is not making it to the finish line of a sprint race because they lack the endurance to do so. Yeah, they may mess with their helmets and crash and not be able to make it to the end, but, you know, it's one of those things where it's not, do you have the ability to make it to the finish line? It's really about how quickly can I get there? So it's really walking or in this case running that fine line between going all out and really pushing yourself right there to that limit and making sure that you don't push too hard. Because that can certainly happen. Certainly does happen quite a bit. You're really trying to just milk every little bit of speed that you can. And that's really where this becomes kind of a delicate balancing act, is really finding that place where I'm pushing with every ounce that I have without going over too much and blowing up maybe in that last half mile or a mile out. One thing I think is really cool about short course racing is it really exposes weaknesses. So your talented short course racers really are strong in the swim bike and run to where if you have one of those, especially if it's a big weakness, you're just really going to get exposed where if you're not a really good swimmer, you're going to come out way behind and you're going to be working really hard to catch up. And it's not like those long course events where you've got a lot of time, so you could be maybe a weak swimmer, but a strong cyclist and you've got, you know, 56 or 112 miles to really make up that time. That's not really the case in this short course racing because, you know, everyone's going hard, everyone's pretty strong. So it really requires you to really focus on all three. You can't get away with kind of having their strengths and weaknesses. So in that case it's really great for, for rounding yourself out as a triathlete and then also setting yourself up for those longer events and working on those, working on those, those weaknesses. They require a Lot of grit, they hurt. That, that's kind of, you know, when you're racing a short course race properly, when you're uncomfortable, if you're comfortable, then you know, it's, you know, you can certainly do it that way. But if you want to be competitive, if you really want to experience the essence of short course racing, it's all about going hard and collapsing at the finish line. This is one place where we really see the value of doing regular assessments. So a lot of times the athletes will complain about doing those especially we do them approximately every month, every four weeks, something like that. And they don't like them for the same reason, because assessments, they're hurt, they're uncomfortable, you just want them to be over. But they really help dial in those skills, those abilities. So what does it feel like to be uncomfortable? It's kind of that old moniker of being comfortable, being uncomfortable, developing that skill and that ability. It's also getting in tune with your body to know how hard you can push. What are those max heart rates that you can sustain? What is that maximum effort level that you, you can hold. And the better you know that the better you know your body, the better you're going to be able to walk that line and really milk out every bit of speed and fitness that you can. And they're a ton of fun. They really are great, a lot of fun, especially when they're over. So, you know, it's one of those things. It's, it's not so much as they're happening, but afterwards you look back with fond memories and they really are a great experience.

Jeff Raines: John mentioned mainly similarities, but just a couple differences that I can kind of think in the moment here. You know, a lot of your super sprints and sprints will, will have pool options. They're great for beginners, but when you are ready to kind of upgrade to that more than twice or about double the distance into that Olympic distance. Just kind of in mind that there's, I've never seen or heard of an Olympic triathlon where you do that swim portion in a pool. And so, you know you're going to have to really hone in on and develop your open water swimming skills. You're, you're just being comfortable out in the open water and stuff like that. Know the water temperature, how you react and how you fit in that wetsuit. And if you're going to use that, there's a swim skin, you know, type opportunity as well. So, so you'll have some sort of different mindset, most likely going into an Olympic versus a sprint. John mentioned that, that they hurt, and sprint and Olympics both hurt, and they both require grit. And we'll probably dive a little bit more into this, but, you know, the sprint distances are arguably shorter than what your thresholds are established at. So if your bike threshold is based off of 60 minutes and you're only biking 8, 10, 12 miles in a sprint try, well, you're probably going to be biking less than an hour on course, and so you're going to most likely push an effort that is higher and harder than your threshold. Olympic trial, for example, on the bike. Not many people are breaking an hour on the bike in a 24.8 mile, 40k bike. And so your effort is just under threshold. So that level of hurt, they all hurt, but the level of hurt is a little bit different. But the Olympic. Yeah, it's a little bit less hard of an effort, but you're holding that for longer, and that's a different type of grit. And then also, you know, if, you know, if it's twice the distance, then you're at a point where in those Olympics, you're going to start really throwing in and paying attention to the nutrition aspect. You know, how many grams of carbs, salts, ounces of fluids and calories are you taking in and will that get you through the end of that run? Whereas a sprint, you can largely get away with that? Uh, for the most part, yeah.

Andrew Harley: So as, as soon as you double that distance, the, the intensity and, and how hard you're pushing on course doesn't go down by 50%. It goes down just a pinch. You're just holding that effort for longer. There's a lot more logistically to think of in terms of your nutrition, in terms of your gear, in terms of what is that swim like? So, Jeff, that. That's all great points for us to keep in mind as we decide which way we want to go. And, and, and many times a race will have a sprint and an Olympic on the same course at the same time. So if an athlete is looking to sign up and they could opt for either distance, what are some of the things to be mindful of as we decide between racing the sprint or racing the Olympic?

Jeff Raines: Really just before you jump into to that upgrade in distance or from that sprint to an Olympic, make sure that you're ready for that upgrade. So many people just are really anxious to get into that long course or even that half or full Ironman. But, and we've said it many, many times before, get stronger, faster, more confident at those shorter distances before you just, you know, take on those super long course races. So it's better to get fast at a shorter distance before picking, you know, or rushing into those longer course races. And also before you jump into that Olympic distance, just make sure your bike handling skills are on point. You're going to have to eat, you're going to have to drink on the bike. So if you're not comfortable sitting up, getting in and out of arrow and grabbing a bottle, putting it back, stuff like that. So make sure your bike handling skills are on point as, as well as kind of those open water swim skills before just rushing into, signing up for that Olympic distance.

Andrew Harley: So John, I'll have you follow up with, with this specifically. That was all great, Jeff. For the athlete who is a bit more experienced and you know, maybe they've got an Ironman in the fall on the schedule, They've got a 70.3 on the schedule and they, they looking for doing a different race, a different time of the year and they're, they're deciding between sprint or Olympic. Is there a reason why an experienced triathlete should opt for one over the other as they're trying to build out their, their season just in, in terms of the, the stress it puts on your body and, and the, the time it takes to train for them or is it just kind of do what you feel like doing on that particular weekend?

John Mayfield: Yeah, I would say it's kind of more of that. Unless there, there are reasons I had that thought. As Jeff was talking, kind of our rule of thumb when we were talking off season run races is it's great to do half the distance of the triathlon, a race you have for the season. So if you're going to be running a marathon in your Ironman triathlon, focus on racing a half marathon. In the off season. If you're doing the 70.3, focus on a 10K. So you could kind of apply that.

Jeff Raines: Rule.

John Mayfield: Where you know it's, but it's not necessarily in those, those last couple weeks prior. So if you're targeting a 70.3 later in the year then, then you can get a little bit of experience and use a little bit of that fitness that you've gained in, in that Olympic distance race that's going to be especially like on the swim. Their swim is not, not a huge difference between a, an Olympic distance swim and a 70.3 swim. So just some good experience there. It's a good use of that preseason fitness that you have. As Jeff mentioned, we want getting strong and powerful early in and this is a great opportunity to use that fitness that you've got that's going to perhaps translate to going faster on those long course races later in the year. So you know, they're fortunately they're short enough where you can largely recover from them pretty quickly. It's not like those long course races where you really need a week, 10 days, sometimes two weeks to really recover from as a rule, within a day or two or three, generally you're feeling pretty good. So they're not a major disruption disruption to your training schedule. So if you are targeting a another race later in the year, yeah, you can, you can really choose which one is up for you, which one aligns with your goals, which one you know is more appealing to you. But there's, you know, as far as you know, the preparation, the recovery, all those kinds of things. Not a huge difference between the two.

Andrew Harley: Okay, Yep, great to know. So before the race even starts, you know, athletes have the opportunity to set themselves up for a good day just by knowing what to expect in the morning and timing all the pre race activities correctly. Walk us through what to do once we arrive on site for our short course event.

Jeff Raines: Good question. You know, a lot of sprint tries, you will pick up your packet, you'll check in your bike the race morning. But some of the larger venues or even the races that, that call themselves festivals where, where there's maybe multi day events or there's multiple events going on the same day, some of them require you to bring your bike the day before, pick up your packet. Larger events where you got closer to you know, a thousand plus participants as opposed to maybe 100 or less, they, they want you to check in the day before. So that's definitely a logistic that you want to know before you sign up for that race. Are you able to travel and are you able to get there a day sooner rather than a smaller local super sprint or sprint try. But knowing all of that race morning you will either be walking up with your bike and have a more to kind of set up and prepare for or if you drop the bike off the day before and you did your body marking and you picked up your packet, stuff like that the day before then race morning is, is a little bit lower key I would say but really just kind of make sure what the guidelines are. So most races will send you that registration packet or, or that race week guidelines and, and that like welcome email and they'll give you instructions but it will open at a certain time in the morning. Before the race starts. And it will close largely an hour before the race starts. And so just because online the race starts at 7am you may have to be locked, loaded, ready to go out of transition at 6am and funneled into that swimming pool, natatorium or that long walk down to an open water beach start, something like that. And so just be prepared for an early morning and really your nutrition too. And so you're going to have to get that pre race meal in two or three hours before the race starts. So just be ready to maybe be a little bit sleep deprived, tossing and turning the night before, getting up extra early, getting the meal in, getting on site extra early, but really know when that transition closes and when your race starts, starts. And then inside of all that, we all know and have tons of fun, funny stories of Porta Potty lines. And so just, just like in the middle of a race, that transition goes by so fast. You know, you think you've been standing there for, for a minute and you look down, it's four minutes, I got to get going. Well, that's kind of the same thing. Race morning, you're walking around, you got to take your bike, you got to set up your transition, you got to get all of your gear, you got to get down to the swim start. Oh, you got to go to the bathroom and you look up and there 50 people in line for the Porta Potty. Well, is that a 45 minute wait? Right, so, so really just setting up your morning and when in doubt, getting there early.

Andrew Harley: Part of the morning routine that you guys just talked about is setting up your space in transition. There are a number of ways athletes can arrange their gear to set themselves up for a smooth transition. What tips do you have on the transition setup?

John Mayfield: So a great thing about being 100 and some odd podcast in is, is we've hit a whole lot of topics and talked about a whole lot of things over the last couple years. And we do have a whole podcast on transition, being efficient, getting in and out and making transitions as quick and as efficient as possible. So check that out. But a couple rules of thumb, probably the best is just to keep it minimal. It's one of those things where if you don't have to have it, don't have it in your transition area. Try to minimize the amount of steps that you take, both walking steps and the steps of things that you're doing. Practice and have a plan, know exactly what you do and make it a logical order.

Andrew Harley: Now on the short course, that that's kind of when you're coming into the sport, that's kind of a new thing, right? We're all used to running and all of a sudden there's this opportunity to save time by running sockless, particularly for sprint and Olympic, for both you guys, I guess. When you're coaching your athletes, what do you tell them about, about who, who is going sockless for and who is not going sockless for?

John Mayfield: It's really personal preference. Again, do, do. It's one of those things. Do you need it? So kind of like we talked about, is that one of those things that you need? As a rule on short course racing, I will go without it simply because it is largely time consuming to get those socks on. Especially your, if you're putting on T1, you're wet from the swim, T2, you're, you're wet and sweaty from the bike. So it can be a little bit more difficult to get those on. Now kind of same thing on the long course racing. I will take those seconds to put the socks on because, you know, going to be out there running a half marathon or a full marathon, I'm going to take 30 seconds or whatever it takes to get my socks on. But 30 seconds in a sprint race is, you know, that's the difference between first and second, sixth place sometimes. So that time becomes very, very valuable. But it really is a, is a comfort thing. I've gotten some really gnarly, nasty blisters from running without socks. You know, those are kind of the sacrifices that sometimes we're willing to make.

Andrew Harley: TriDot podcast episode 67 was called the why and how of your pre race warmup. And it taught us that the shorter the race, the more important it is to warm up your muscles for the event. If you missed that episode and you're racing short course sometime sooner this season, go listen to that episode. What does a good short course warmup look like?

John Mayfield: So personally, I do kind of my run warmup. So for me it's muscle activation movements and then things like leg swings is one we've established as one of our favorites. And then some of those other dynamic stretches, dynamic warmups that are really great for recruiting muscle engagements, getting the body warmed up, getting you ready to go and race, and then I try to get in about a one mile run if possible. Takes a little bit of planning, a little bit more time. Especially as Jeff mentioned, sometimes those transition areas close early. So sometimes I'll even bring a second pair of shoes where I'll have my race shoes in transition. I've got a Second pair of shoes that I can warm up in. Really what we're looking to do here is just get the body primed and ready, get it over that warmup period, get it into that state where it's, it's at its peak.

Jeff Raines: If you have time that sprint and Olympic short course, I'm probably before a full Ironman. I'm not going to do a run, I'm not going to do a bike warm up and I'm not going to do a swim warmup. I'm not going to do all three of those for an ironman. But for a sprint and Olympic, you bet I am. I would argue and encourage you to do them in opposite order first. So I would do your run first in your warmup, right. And then allocate some time to spin if you can. That's, I know, a little bit hard. You might have to have a secondary bike and a trainer or something to do that. But then swim, right, you're going to have to leave transition, head down to the swim start. Most races allow some sort of a pre race warm up. If they allow that, then I would do your swim warm up last. And if they don't allow you to do that, then bring your tubing bands time to a tree, time to, you know, a stop sign and that would be your swim warmup. But I would run first bike and then focus on swim opposite order.

Andrew Harley: Nutrition for a short event is much more straightforward than a long event, but that doesn't mean it can be overlooked. A wrong move leading to the start line for sure can mess up your race day. So what is a sound nutrition plan leading into a short course race and what do we need to do on race day?

John Mayfield: Like pretty much any other event, it starts with a good breakfast. So this is going to be hopefully a couple hours before the race. Your body has had time to digest it, get it out of the stomach. But you know, you've got your, your glycogen, carbohydrates all topped off, you're ready to go. As I mentioned from there it kind of transitions over into that pre race routine. So for me that's sipping on the sports drink, maybe taking a gel 30 minutes prior just to make sure everything is topped off before the race starts. And then it's really going to depend on the race distance. So as I mentioned before, at sprint, when you're at or beyond your threshold level, it's hard to take in nutrition. Now the fact that those sprint races are somewhere in the neighborhood, give or take 60 to 90 minutes, generally, if you've had a good breakfast and you've topped everything off in the, in the, give or take 30 minutes prior to the race, you shouldn't need a whole lot of nutrition throughout that race. Now I will have a. Generally what I do when I'm racing a sprint race is I have one bottle on my bike. I will fill it about halfway and I only fill it halfway because I know I don't, I'm not going to drink the whole thing. And so why am I going to carry around that extra weight? That's where that's, that's kind of funny but that's, that's actually part of the, you know, I want to shave those, you know, 8 ounces of water so my bike is that much lighter and I.

Andrew Harley: Can be that, hey, fluids have weight.

John Mayfield: Yeah, I'm not drinking 22 ounces of water or sports sports drink on that segment, so why bring it along? So I'll fill about a bottle halfway and I will look for those opportunities just to take a quick hit off that bottle. So a lot of times it's on turns and that sort of thing where I'm already maybe out of the arrow position, maybe I'm not pedaling something like that. So look for those opportune moments to just get a quick hit of something. Oftentimes even before the body has the opportunity to absorb things like carbohydrate. When your body tastes sweet and knows there's carbohydrate on the way. So it'll begin to respond knowing that that carbohydrate is coming. So even things like that can be good for the brain, good for the body. So I do recommend that. And then as needed, you know, if you've got that 5k on the sprint run, as a rule, generally 5k, hopefully you've got enough to, to get through it and you don't necessarily need to to spend time taking in nutrition on the run. Especially again at that threshold pace, it's going to be real hard to, to get it down sometimes. You know, you try, you may end up choking, which sometimes that can be be counterproductive. Olympic distance race, it's going to be a little bit more important to, to work on that. So maybe it is taking in a, a full bottle or something like that on, on the bike course as a rule that's going to get you, you can get enough calories, get enough hydration in that time to get you through that probably 60 to 90 minute bike depending on your pace and then that's going to set you up for that run? Now, your Olympic distance run is not going to be quite as. As hard, not quite the same intensity. So maybe it is taking just a little shot at, at an aid station or two early on, especially if you do it early on, hopefully in that case, you don't need it later in the race. But if you need it, you know, mile one, mile two. Take. Take a little bit of nutrition, and then hopefully that'll get you through to the finish line.

Andrew Harley: You mentioned when you take a little bit of a gel and your body, your body can sense that there's carbohydrate on the way. I remember reading in Alex Hutchinson's book Endure, where he writes about just the scientific side of human performance. That. That was one of the kind of factoids in there that blew my mind was that they actually did a study with a placebo and with a carbohydrate mix. And what they found was the blood vessels in the roof of your mouth can sense that there's carbohydrate in a gel or in a drink mix.

Jeff Raines: If it's.

Andrew Harley: If it's in your. In your bottle. And before those carbs even hit your system, your brain releases more energy to your body because it knows that carbohydrates on the way. Super interesting. And you kind of. You kind of glanced over that really quickly, and it reminded me of that book. And I wanted to kind of just, this isn't a nutrition episode per se, but had to give a quick shout out to that super cool factoid.

John Mayfield: So that's also part of the discussion in why things like pickle juice work with cramping. That's. That's been something that's been around for decades where athletes will take a shot of pickle juice and almost immediately they'll see relief from. From cramping. And that was always kind of a question of why and how does this work? Because it. Yeah, it's. It happens. It works much more quickly than that. Pickle juice could even hit the stomach and be absorbed into the body, where those nutrients could be delivered to those muscles. Like, it's so much quicker than that. And that was the explanation that it's a neurological response that in that case, it's probably the saltiness that the body is tasting and knowing. It's like, okay, we have additional sodium in the body, so now we can do these things. So it's really cool how our body does things to preserve it and keep it safe. Part of even cramping is a. Is a response to prevent injury to the body. But when we, when we tell the body, like, okay, we got this, we're taking measures to. And it'll be like, all right. Well, it's almost like a little bit of an advance. Give you a little bit of advance on this. So, yeah, that's a really cool phenomenon.

Andrew Harley: We talked earlier about setting up your gear on race morning and transition, but now let's talk about what to do once you get there during a race. I mean, I mean, the podiums and placement on short course races are decided by seconds, right, Rather than minutes. So efficient transitions matter all the more. We have podcast episode 44 that John, you alluded to earlier, that was called time saving transition tips for triathletes, which is one hour of transition goodness. But what would you say are the essential things to know about nailing the short course transition?

John Mayfield: Don't get lost. That's something that can, that can kill your race. You know, as you mentioned there, seconds matter. If you go down the wrong aisle and realize that your bike is on the next one over, you know, you may have just fallen off the podium. So those are the kinds of things that are is critical to know. Also know your exits. So know where your bike out is, know where your run out is and be efficient in there. Again, if you turn the wrong direction and run 10 seconds the wrong way, you know that took you 20 seconds to get back to, to where you were. That could be the difference between winning the race and, and, you know, falling off the podium. So be familiar with the layout. Those are the kinds of things that's important to do race morning, get a feel. And then to be competitive, you have to nail a quick mount and dismount. So it's not necessarily the crazy super fast flying mount, but do what you need to do to get onto your bike and pedaling as quickly as possible. We've talked about that before. I'm sure we talk about it ad nauseam that episode 44. But you know, there are things that you can do to get on the bike, get going, get up to speed real quick, and then I do really encourage developing the skill to be able to come out of your shoes on the bike. That's something that is not as difficult, it's not as dangerous as that flying mount or some of those quicker ways to get on your bike. It's easier to undo the Velcro or the boa, slip out of the shoe and continue to pedal with your foot on top of the shoe and then just simply step over the top tube or swing your Leg over the back, kind of. Obviously you want to practice it. You want to be efficient before race day, but that can be a huge time saver. And then another thing is just to be proficient in running with your bike and being able to steer. So this is usually done by steering your bike by the saddle. So holding the bike by the saddle and running either alongside it or a little bit behind it. And again, this is something that can be mastered in five minutes. Usually just take your bike out on the sidewalk.

Andrew Harley: That is the faster way to do it. It's the cooler way to do it. I mean, people running with their bike and transition by the saddle, like, John, I've seen you do it, and you just look so smooth and so cool and so in control. I, for whatever reason, cannot master that skill with my bike. I don't know if I just have a looser head tube or what, but I'm running out of transition with my hand on my aero bottle between the bars, and I look like a chump compared to what John Jeff look like gliding out of transition by the saddle.

John Mayfield: Well, the risk there and then the reason for doing this is one, you can get skinny when you need to. If you're trying to thread a needle or if there's something a tight space, it's easy to kind of be skinny and move through efficiently. If the space between the racks is crowded, you can just kind of squeeze through there. But the biggest thing is the fact if you're steering the bike or holding the bike by the bar, that means you're running right alongside the pedals. And what we'll see oftentimes is your eyes up as you should be looking towards that bike out. And what happened is oftentimes you can clip that pedal as you're running. I've seen people trip over their bikes. Things spill. Bad things happen when you're running alongside your bike, and all of a sudden you hit those pedals. So that's really what you achieve by being able to run with your bike and steer by the saddle is it puts you back kind of by the rear wheel, where it kind of takes the pedals and the crank out of the equation.

Jeff Raines: Yeah. And you mentioned a quick dismount. There was a new rule I want to throw out in 2021. You can't unbuckle your helmet until your bike is hanging in T2 by the seat. And then you can reach up and grab that helmet buckle. A lot of athletes will kind of do. What John said is the bike dismount line is about 100 yards up and, and you want to put your bare feet on top of the shoe so you can do that flying dismount. You don't have to run and hobble around in your bike shoes in transition. And a lot of people will go ahead and unbuckle that helmet also. So that way when they hit the ground running, literally all those things are already ready. Some races don't let you do flying mounts and dismounts, some races do and don't let you clip your shoes into the pedal before the race. So kind of just know your race. I will say that if there is open racking, that is something you want to know the week before the race. If there's open racking, what that means is first come, first serve on the racks. There's only a certain number of bikes. It's usually three to five, depending on COVID protocols per rack. And if you're one of the last ones to show up race morning, you might get a bad or worse spot in transition. If it is open racking and you're allowed to rack wherever you want, I would recommend racking your bike as close to the bike out as possible. So if you are like John said, maybe you're not comfortable running behind your bike with one hand on the seat, maybe you're going to do, you know, you're not comfortable doing a flying mount. And so you're going to run from your bike to the bike mount line in your bike shoes. And so you might be hobbling around, tripping and falling, stuff like that. So it's going to be much easier to do all of that if you're very close to the bike out. So if it's open racking, rack your bike very close to the bike out because it's less distance to run with that bike in transition. In T2, you'll put on your run shoes and you might have a longer run to the other side of transition. But it's easier to run by yourself with shoes on than bike shoes and holding the bike and all that good stuff.

Andrew Harley: So we've already talked about the warm up transitions and nutrition for short course racing. But the two big talking points for race day itself that we haven't hit on are pacing and technical execution. So we'll close out with those two items today. How should we pace ourselves at the sprint distance all out as a rule, that's hold nothing back.

John Mayfield: There's not a. Yeah. Not a whole lot of thought, not a whole strategy. Yeah, it's full send and that's, that's a Little bit different for, for everyone. But you know, that's the great thing about his intensity is, you know, it is what it is. So again, at its essence, sprint racing is, is all out. So that, that means near, at or even above your, your threshold pace. So some of those, those paces you're hitting in, in your training, that's likely where we want to be. But kind of a good rule of thumb for pacing the entire sprint race is to negative split the race. This is something I heard years ago and it kind of made a lot of sense. So we hear about a negative split in single discipline. So a negative split means doing say the back half of an event faster than the first half. So it's starting a little bit conservative and then getting faster throughout. So like in a 5K, you know, it'd be starting at one pace and then maybe dropping 10 or 15 seconds per mile for mile two, and then another 10 or 15 second drop for mile three to where you're really hanging it out there at the end. So that negative split just means effectively getting faster throughout that, that time period. So when you negative split an entire race, that means it's, it's a little bit conservative on, on the swim. So we're still going hard, we're still going near that threshold pace, but maybe holding back just a little bit on the swim because we don't want to overcook it there. And then once we get onto the bike, we're going hard, but we still recognize and realize there's a run to come. So it's a little bit conservative on the swim, holding back just a little bit on the bike and then going all out on that run and really letting things hang out there at the end. But that's kind of just a little bit of a nuance. And when I say holding back, it's certainly not taking it easy or anything like that. It's just being a little bit mindful that, you know, we've got these two other events to come. We're going to be going really hard on those. So, you know, we're, we're. And this is really where you need to practice it. This is where, you know, your, your threshold training is, is incredibly valuable. Have that mindset when you are doing those threshold intervals, swim, bike and running, knowing that this is what you're going to experience on race day, have that mentality, even get into those visualization techniques when you're doing those trainings, thinking about putting yourself there in that place on race day, saying this is what it's going to feel like on race day to really dial that in and be able to hold that threshold intensity for long periods of time.

Jeff Raines: You know, we always say that why train so, so perfect? You know this, this optimized data driven plan. Try dot, you're, you're getting this just super awesome training then if you're just going to kind of guess efforts on race day. Right. And so, so our Race X is just a valuable, awesome tool that each athlete has where you can dump your race course profiles, how much gain, wind, temperature, elevation above sea level. All these things are taken into account and our TriDot, our predictive fitness. Race X tells you exactly what to do in each discipline and it takes all those in to get you across the finish line at the absolute fastest time possible. Like for example, Google might say that you would hold 90% of your FTP on the bike for a 40K, you know, Olympic try 24.8 miles. But what Race X is going to do is know you better than yourself and know the conditions at which you're racing in. And it may increase or decrease that based on all these environmental factors and your data. And it will help you if you're just a deer in the headlights. And you know, it's, it's a hard effort short course. We know there's grit factor, it hurts and we were pushing ourselves to the limit. But if you need a little bit of guidance, just make sure that you are taking advantage of your Race X.

Andrew Harley: And onto the Olympic. We talked earlier about how tough these races can be. They are twice the distance but almost all the effort really. Do we back off the pace at all for an Olympic distance drive?

John Mayfield: Yeah, so it's exactly that mentioned. The sprint distance is probably at or maybe beyond threshold intensity, whereas your Olympic distance is just going to be a little bit lighter than that. So it may be near or at threshold and it's really going to depend on the athlete and how long you're going to be out there. So the really fast folks are out there for under two hours. Some of those, some athletes are out there closer to three hours or perhaps even beyond. So how long you're going to be out there on the course really is going to depend on how hard you're able to go, how close to threshold you're going to be able to go. And that's as Jeff mentioned, that's where Ray6 is going to come in and tell you exactly which level you can be at. So one thing to consider is most, when we're talking about threshold, as a rule, we're kind of talking about that 60 minute ability. So as a rule for for most athletes that swim is going to be give or take 30 minutes. So if you can do a 2 minute per 100, that swim is going to be 30 minutes. So for a lot of people it's going to be less than 30 minutes. So that we can generally swim at a very close to threshold pace for that standalone event. For the fast cyclist, it's give or take an hour. For most, it's somewhere in that 60 to 90 minutes. So we're again, we're a little bit above threshold, so we're still within that realm. And then for most that run is 6.2 miles, 10K, it's going to be somewhere in that give or take of an hour. So if you can do a 10 minute mile, that 10k is going to take right at an hour. So it really comes down to each individual discipline, but also putting them all three together. So there's that fine line of I'm going to swim for 30 minutes, I'm going to be on the bike for an hour and 10 minutes, then I'm going to run for 50 minutes. So again, all of those would largely put you in that threshold, intensity threshold, pacing. But when we put them all three together, that's where we just need to make those little bit of refinement. So yeah, whereas the sprint, you're at or beyond threshold, typically in Olympic you are just under, you're very near threshold.

Andrew Harley: With our pacing dialed in now we just have to execute while the clock is ticking. So for the swim, bike and run, take us through a race talking about what we have to be mindful of to nail each discipline. So when we hop in that water for the swim, what do you want in your athletes heads as they're hitting the swim course?

John Mayfield: Logistically seating. We've talked about it numerous times already, Seconds matter. Something you absolutely cannot afford to do, something I've done before is get stuck behind slow swimmers. That's something that can really cost you. It can cost you time, it cost you energy. You're going to have to swim further, you're going to have to swim harder to get around those people. It's going to be mentally frustrating. So be mindful of where you're seeding. And again, every race is a little bit different on how it starts. Is it a time trial start, is it a wave start, is it a mass start? Take all those things into consideration, but make sure you're placing yourself in an appropriate place where you can actually go and you can swim to your ability. You're not having to worry about swimming around some of those slower athletes. And then don't go out too hard. That is something I've also been guilty of. You get caught up in the excitement of race day. You want to go, you're charged up, you know, you're the cannonball that's fired out of the cannon. It's pretty easy to get caught up in the adrenaline, the excitement, and go out too hard and then, you know, five or ten minutes and realize, man, I'm kind of gassed and I wish I hadn't gone out so hard. So kind of like we talked about before, just take it a little bit easy on the swim, hold back just a little bit and build throughout.

Jeff Raines: I'll just throw in wetsuit if you're going to use it, or a speed suit. Make sure you practice in it. We practice largely in a pool. And those open water skills, your buoyancy has changed, the timing of the stroke, your stroke rate, these are all changed when you wear a wetsuit. So practice in it. Make sure that it doesn't throw off your pacing on race day and make sure that it fits correctly and that it's on correctly. And we don't want those shoulders burning that whole swim. So practice, practice, practice in your wetsuit and please get wet underneath your wetsuit before the race starts. We've talked about that on multiple other podcasts.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. While we're talking wetsuits, Jeff, and you mentioned swim skins earlier for some Olympics. Let's. I think one of the biggest gear selection questions athletes have going into a short course event is when to actually use the swim skin and wetsuit because they, they save you some time in the water. But then there's a time penalty to when in transition, you're taking those items off. I mean, swim skins you can usually rip off relatively quickly, but they only save you a few seconds per hundred. Wetsuits save you more per hundred, but they take a longer amount of time to get off. So what distance does it become beneficial to use a swim skin or a wetsuit in a sprint or Olympic swim?

Jeff Raines: Yeah, that's a great question. And that's even the million dollar question. A lot depends on the quality of your suit. Are you going to go shirtless or are you going to wear, you know, a tri suit? And if you're going to parachute in the water or something like that, then even in a 300 sprint try, then maybe a swim skin would significantly help you, you know, if it's going to speed you up 8 seconds per hundred, right? So that's 24 seconds, but it takes you 5 seconds to take it off, then you're definitely going to want to use it. So it's definitely that kind of give and take practice in it. But, but largely for me, I will not use a swim skin or, or even a wetsuit in those shorter distance swim sprints. So like a 300 or under, I probably will not wear it. If the sprint is closer to that 750, then I, I will largely also always wear some sort of swim skin or even, even a wetsuit. If the Olympic offers a wetsuit, I always take it. But that's to each their own too. If it's borderline wetsuit legal, you may not want to wear that wetsuit because you don't want to overheat. So if you know you're going to be out there a while, then maybe you would want to use that swim skin. Even if it is wetsuit legal, the water's a little chillier, so it's just get with your coach, practice with it. That's why it is very important to practice those transitions that we mentioned earlier. Bike to run intervals. You could even do swim to bike intervals. Practicing getting out of that, you know, that shallow, you know, your local state park shallow end swim buoy area, get your wetsuit on, swim a little and boom, run to the parking lot, practice taking it off, like John said, getting it down over the hips by the time you get to your bike. So practice, practice, practice.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. So the next phase of our race is transition. So we've talked a lot about transition already. But, but just, just while we're racing, while we're in the moment, just mentally, what do we need to be mindful of as we're going through T1 1?

John Mayfield: It's kind of getting your bearings, especially on that longer Olympic distance swim. You've been horizontal for 20, 30 minutes somewhere in there, been going hard. Sometimes there's a little bit of just kind of loopiness and it takes you getting used to being vertical again. So relax, catch your breath a little bit and then be efficient. No wasted movements. Get in and out as quick as.

Andrew Harley: Possible onto the bike. Now, this is the longest leg of a race, so we're out there for a little bit. Whether it's a sprint or Olympic. What do you want your athletes to be thinking of and focused on in terms of their execution on the bike leg of a short course race?

John Mayfield: So I would say to settle in, as you mentioned, it's the longer portion of the race. And then this is really where we begin to push. Some athletes have that ability to really push on the swim, but for most, as I mentioned, it's probably holding back a little bit. So now as we're, we're even negative splitting the entire race as we get to kind of the midpoint of the bike now it's time to really start to go, really start to kind of begin to get uncomfortable. If you're not hurting by this point, it's probably time to kick up the intensity. And you know, this is where, this is where it's go time. This is where if you don't go now, then it's going to be too late. So by, by the third to the middle of the bike is really, when that race is really underway. Now you should be good and warmed up. Your body's, you know, at, at or beyond your threshold heart rate, so, so now you're, you're really going. And then towards the end of the bike, begin to visualize the run. What do you need to do in T2 to be quick and efficient? Get in, get out, and then start thinking about the run.

Jeff Raines: Something I like to encourage my athletes to do is pay attention to and know kind of the bike cadence versus what is going to be for most, a higher run cadence. And so we don't want that differential to be too different because we get to the run. And you can shock your body, shock your heart rate. If your run cadence is just super, super higher than that bite cadence. So little things, little tricks can help you when you're kind of red flagging that whole race. Redlining effort, but also body positioning. So holding such a hard effort for short course in that arrow, you can get really tight. So take advantage. Like John said on the, on the U turns, some of the turns, maybe that's when you grab a sip of water, maybe that's when you sit up, maybe that's when you stand up, let a little blood flow, get down into the, the lower extremities and just kind of stretch out a little bit. So find those opportunities to stay loose off the bike.

Andrew Harley: Heading into T2. What should we be focused on, boys?

John Mayfield: Getting in and getting out as quick as possible. T2 is generally faster than T1. Fewer things to do, easier. Just get in, get out, and then something I will try to do. As I mentioned before, you're probably at or beyond your threshold heart rate. Maybe you're pushing max heart rate late on the bike, as you're standing there putting on your shoes, grabbing your stuff, just Try to get a couple good, full, deep breaths. At best. Your heart rate may drop a few beats, but that's a good thing. Those beats are. You're going to use a lot of them. So if you can drop just a couple beats as you head out into transition, that that's a good thing.

Jeff Raines: There's a saying in triathlon, whatever your heart rate is at mile two or three of the run, it'll never be lower than that again without slowing down or walking.

Andrew Harley: Yeah.

Jeff Raines: And then the second saying is once you slow down or walk, you never get that original pace back again. And so that's really what we want to do. When John is talking about don't be frantic in T2. Yes, seconds matter, but being frantic increases that heart rate. So try to bring it down a little bit. That's why the last mile on the bike, I have my athletes kind of switch back to maybe one gear easier, increase that cadence by five or so, flesh out the legs, match what is soon to be that higher run cadence, so that we can hopefully drop the heart rate a little bit in T2 and we don't blow up the first mile of the run.

Andrew Harley: So on to the run. What do you want your coached athlete to be mindful of and thinking about and doing to execute that final portion of the race?

John Mayfield: So something that can be highly motivating is finding targets and picking them off. So don't necessarily think about as you come out of transition. I've got 5k to run. Think about, I've got one person I can see who's 20, 40, 100 yards ahead. Work on reeling in that person. It, it's great if it's somebody in your age group, but just having something to focus on in that short term is really going to help pass that time. So it's having those shorter, more intermediate goals. Don't necessarily think about that finish line that's 20 or 30 minutes away. Think about reeling in that person that is ahead of you. Don't waste time at the aid stations. We've already talked about that, that, you know, when you're at threshold or max heart rate, it's going to be very difficult to drink, to swallow. But, you know, hopefully you've only got 10 or 15 minutes left. And if you've done everything right, then you don't necessarily need that. But grab the water, pour it over your head, pour it over your body, stay cool. As we mentioned, oftentimes the short course races are in the summer months where it's hot. That's really going to come into play on the run is really controlling your core temperature because that's something that can, as we talked about before, your body's going to shut down if your core temperature starts to rise too high. It's one of those self defense mechanisms your body has. So do what you can to maintain a cooler core temperature. So that's one of the few things you can do in a sprint races is sometimes folks will be out there with their garden hoses or their sprinklers. Maybe favor the shady side of the road if there is one. So do what you can to control the body temperature and then close it out. Really leave it all on the course. That's as we said, sprint racing is all about that. You know, pick your point, kind of, kind of know where you're going to go. You know, maybe it's that last mile, maybe it's the last mile and a half. You know, if you're a 5K specialist, maybe it's the last two miles where you're really going to just say when I hit this point I'm going to go. And then you know, go to your place, suck it up and leave it all out there.

Jeff Raines: A lot of people really get demoralized off the bike that first mile. Especially in short course. You're really tight off the bike. You, you feel like you have jello legs, you feel like you're running through sand and you're just like oh this is a, a horrible feeling having a horrible race. All that to say I would encourage you. Pacing, pacing, pacing, pacing. That first mile is always faster than you think it is. You, you think it's a 15 minute mile and you're just like oh my gosh, it's the slowest thing. Whoa. 8:30. Whoa. I went way too hard that first mile.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, absolutely.

Jeff Raines: So watch the watch. Know what that perceived effort is actually giving you on that average pace through practicing, running off the bike. So practice, practice, practice yet again. But really hone in on and pay attention to your pacing that first mile.

Andrew Harley: So to close out our main set here, when one of your coached athletes is heading into a race weekend for a short course events, what are your just final words of wisdom to them to really get them primed for that race.

John Mayfield: Be willing to hurt more and hurt longer than your competition. That really is the essence of sprint racing. Whoever is willing to hurt the most and hurt the longest is going to do the best.

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

Andrew Harley: I always love hearing from our audience just stories that you have from just your own triathlon training and racing. And so knowing that we were doing some podcast episodes about short course racing, I reached out to our TriDot ambassadors and I said, hey, does anybody have a good story they want to tell about their very first time they race a short course? Try it. And we had several just great submissions from you all to our podcast voicemail. So thank you to all the athletes that submitted. I will definitely be slipping some of these stories into future episodes as we, you know, keep, keep along with our podcasting. The story I wanted to share today, this comes from Canadian athlete Krista Cadet. Just a really great tale of her first ever Olympic. Such a wholesome story here, so I trust you guys will enjoy this. Here was Krista's first crack at the Olympic distance.

Krista Kaddatz: Hey y', all, this is Krista Kaddatz and I would like to share with you the tale of my very first triathlon. So being a mountain biker, of course I chose an XTerra off road tri and I had the choice between doing the Olympic or the sprint distance and being the overachiever. I guess I'll say that I am. And blue, blindly biting off more than I can chew. More often than not, I chose the Olympic because really, how much harder could that be? And I hadn't swam since swimming lessons as a kid and I couldn't sustain a run for longer than two and a half K. But no, no, I jumped right in and there I went. So on race day morning, knowing nothing about fueling, nothing about hydrating, nothing about eating the proper things. Here I go. I'm in for my first triathlon. Oh my goodness. That swim, 1500 meters in an ollie, was super long. It was three laps and between the second and third I thought I might die, but I still went right in. Continued. I finished the race, not the race. I finished the swim as the third last out of the water surrounded by five paddle boards that I think were all terrified that I was going to drown because with every stroke I think I was like underwater. Felt like a dolphin jumping in and out of the water. But I made it, I survived. And then was on to that sweet sweet bike ride. Well, the ride, knowing, you know, not knowing how to hydrate, the ride was a challenge. The swim was exhausting and I had no energy left. I wasn't drinking or eating. So by the finish of the 25k, I was dying. My legs were cramping so bad. I showed up in transition and you look around and crickets, there's nobody there but volunteers and my wonderful husband. But I'm cramping So bad. I'm like, nope, I'm done. I'm laying on the ground, my legs are flailing around back and forth because I couldn't flex or my hamstring would cramp up. And if I straighten my legs, my quads were cramping up and there was nothing I could do to make it better. So I'm laying down on the ground, legs flailing, looking like I'm making a snowman on the pavement. A volunteer comes up. Oh, bless her soul. She had a little, little halo above her head. Anyway, she comes to me, she's like, are you okay? I'm like, no, I'm done. Tap me out. I'm finished. She looks at me and she's like, but if you don't finish, you don't get your medal. And I freeze. And I look at her, I'm like, there's a medal. She's like, well, yeah, if you finish. And I'm like, oh, okay. You gotta love us triathletes, right? So up I go and I am like, I look like a race walker. My legs are wobbling all over the place. I'm cramping like crazy. But here I am doing my 10k up and down a mountain, like wanting to d came in dead last, but I finished the race. So that's my fun, fun story of an only distance triathlon. I hope you guys enjoyed it.

Andrew Harley: Well, that's it for today, folks. I of course want to thank Krista Cadets for sharing her first triathlon story with us. Big thanks to TriDot coaches John Mayfield and Jeff Raines for helping us succeed in short course racing. And shout out to Delta G for partnering with us on the episode today. Remember, you can go to deltagones.com and book a free 15 minute consultation to learn how you can use ketone drinks to supercharge your training and racing. Remember to use code TRI20 at checkout for 20% off your first order. Enjoying the show? Have any triathlon questions or topics that you want to hear us talk about? Head to Trout.com to let us know which what you're thinking. We'll do it all again soon. Until then, happy training.

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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