Swim, Bike, Celebrate: Your Guide to Aquabike

TriDot Podcast Episode 185

Swim, Bike, Celebrate: Your Guide to Aquabike

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: Welcome to the TriDot Podcast. This show goes out to all the aquabikers in the TriDot family as we chat with two TriDot coaches about the Aquabike race format. Swim, bike and finish. That's it. No running. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Here to share her experience, both racing and coaching Aquabike is TriDot 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, pressures and psychological demands that are placed on athletes no matter what level they are competing. Raya has been competing in triathlons since 2015 and has podiums at IRONMAN events and has qualified and competed in ETU, ITU and IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships. Raya, thanks so much for joining us. Welcome to the show for the very first time.

Raya Usher: Thank you. It's so nice to be here. I really appreciate you having me for this one and in my world because this is one of the biggest races that I do, it's not swim bike finished, it's just swim bike done.

Andrew Harley: Swim bike done. Thank you for the correction there. I appreciate that. Already learning the proper Aquabike vernacular and we're just two minutes into the episode. Also with us is Coach Jeff Raines. Jeff is a USAT Level 2 IRONMAN U certified coach and TriDot Master coach who has a Master's of Science in Exercise Physiology and was a D1 collegiate runner. He has over 60 IRONMAN event finishes to his credit and has coached hundreds of athletes to the IRONMAN finish line. Jeff has been training and coaching with TriDot since 2015. Hey there Jeff.

Jeff Raines: Hey mate. Glad to be here and so excited to record for the first time today with Raya, my new BFF mate from the UK.

Raya Usher: Nice to see you bud.

Andrew Harley: I'm Andrew, the average triathlete, voice of the people and captain of the middle of the pack. As always, we'll roll through our warmup question, settle in for our main set topic and then wind things down with Vanessa on the cooldown.

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

Andrew Harley: The N+1 equation teaches us that the correct number of bikes you should own is n+1, where n is the number of bikes you currently have. The point, of course, is that no matter how many bikes you own, you could always use just one more. For our warm up question today. What is something else in your life that you apply the n+1 equation to? As in, what is something that no matter how many you have, you are always down to buy one more. Coach Raya, what is this answer for you?

Raya Usher: I think it's probably fair to say that when it comes to my activewear leggings, I probably have...

Andrew Harley: That's a good one.

Raya Usher: A lot of those. Yeah. And for some reason, even though you own like 200 of them, you see another pair, you're like, oh, another one. And they're like, it's like moth to a flame. Yeah, I get it. Yeah.

Andrew Harley: I just wish that it - cause I do like running tights, especially in the chilly - when we get kind of in the chilly cool weather. I like running in running tights and we like keeping our house at a pretty chilled out temperature. So around the house, I often wear running tights. I just wish it was a little bit more kosher for men to wear running tights in public because that can be just fine in some social situations. That can be very not okay in other social situations. So, because I would be on board to buy more for myself if that was a little bit more mainstream like it is for the female athletes.

Raya Usher: I totally agree. I think it should be way more mainstream for everyone because they are so...

Andrew Harley: Thank you.

Raya Usher: Totally. And here in the UK, I don't know how you guys wear them stateside, but guys totally get a complex. So they wear their leggings and then like board shorts over top of them to sort of...

Andrew Harley: Sure.

Raya Usher: Keep every - like keep things to the imagination hidden.

Andrew Harley: Yeah.

Raya Usher: And you know, it's just an unnecessary layer. All you want is your leggings. I get it.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. It's so true. It's so true. Jeff Raines. Now that Raya and I have bonded over running tights and leggings. What is this answer for you? What is something else in your life you apply the n+1 equation to?

Jeff Raines: Oh, gosh. As a runner, gosh, it's too easy to say run shoes, but it's a very similar situation as Raya and the tights. I mean, we gotta have one of every color, every type, all those. Right. So I'll throw in a second one because I also never give one, right? I'll say coffee mugs. I am just kind of like a coffee mug collector or if I'm out somewhere on vacation, you know, try to find the coolest, fun, different one. And it's kind of funny. I have the same IRONMAN mug. I have like probably like 8 to 10 of them and they're the exact same except just the name of the location is different.

Andrew Harley: On the different location.

Jeff Raines: Yeah, but it's like I got eight of these, but this one says another city on it, so I better go ahead and buy it.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. No, very nice. I had a friend kind of do that with Starbucks coffee mugs. If you visit a new city, oftentimes the local Starbucks shops will have like a mug with the name of the city and kind of like the skyline of the city. And so he had two shelves in his pantry that were just nothing but wall to wall, just different Starbucks mugs. And it's kind of a fun way for him to track just the different cities that he's visited. So for you, Jeff, that's your way of tracking the different IRONMAN races that you visited. So I'm all good with that. I'm kind of going with your theme here, Jeff. I'm going down coffee caffeinated alley. Because for me, this is kind of just ways to make coffee. My counter, we have one portion of the counter in our kitchen that is kind of dedicated to our coffee setup and making coffee in the morning. And it keeps kind of growing the different ways that I can make my coffee. I've got options now, guys. So of course we have just the traditional coffee pot. And we have at a restaurant one time, you know, kind of a fancy restaurant, they brought like a French press and they French pressed your coffee like table side and then poured it for you. And I was freaking out because it was like the richest cup of coffee I'd ever had in my entire life. So my wife got me a French press for Christmas that year. I picked up one of those little like mocha pots, kind of like the old school Italian looking pots. And now I have a mocha pot and we had a Keurig. Now I'm not a huge fan of Keurig. I think the coffee is just okay, it's serviceable, but it doesn't taste great. But it came in handy when my wife and I got pregnant because she wasn't having coffee anymore and I still was. So instead of making a whole pot for the household, I was just making a cup or two for myself out of the Keurig, but that has now gone to the wayside because I just added my next N+1. I just got a Nespresso machine and it has changed the course of my life. It is my new favorite way to make coffee. I'm obsessed with my Nespresso machine. The Keurig is gone. I gave it away to somebody else. But anyway, then we're in Austin, Texas with the TriDot staff and one of our TriDot staff members, Billy Bourne, had a pour over set up that he was making everybody pour over coffee. I was like, I don't have this yet. This is something I haven't added to my arsenal. So that's what I'm working on. I still need to do a pour over kit. I don't have an Aeropress, I don't have a cold brew kit, so I still have a couple things to collect, but that is my N+1. Guys, we're gonna throw this question out to you, our audience. I'm curious what else in your world you like to apply the N+1 equation to. Make sure you're a part of the I Am TriDot Facebook group where we throw this question out to you every single Monday when the new show comes out. Can't wait to hear what you have to say.

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

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Andrew Harley: In our time podcasting about triathlon, we've already done a dedicated episode about duathlon and I still have Swim Run and Xterra on my list of multisport formats to chat about. But today we will be hitting Aquabike, which very appropriately named is a race format where you swim, bike and then finish or you swim, bike and then you're done. Now Raya, it is your very first time on the show, so I want to give our audience at least a little bit of background on you and precision coaching. You have a fabulous roster of tri coaches based in the UK and your coaches and athletes have come on board with TriDot very, very recently. Tell us about what you are doing with precision coaching and why TriDot was such a great fit for your coaches and athletes.

Raya Usher: Thanks. Well, for us we have always been a team that is - it's really important for us to be available to all. So it doesn't matter whether you're a total beginner, you've never ridden a bike before or you're a 10 time Kona finisher. For us it's about accessibility for the sport and creating a community that is super supportive, that's super knowledgeable, but non-elitist. So we just didn't want this sort of team that was competitive. We were really lucky though that in 2019 we were the number one IRONMAN team in Europe, Middle East and Africa and fourth globally.

Andrew Harley: That's awesome.

Raya Usher: So we had a stellar year. And when we were interviewing through lots of media agencies, which was so much fun to be able to say, we're so proud of how well the team had done, I think the one thing we could all say is that we got there because we're really big on disruptive technology. It's not just about how great our coaches are, it's not just about how willing our athletes are to succeed or how hard they work or how great they are working together and training together as a community, all of those things are really important. But if you're just a regular triathlon coach or if you're just using a regular training plan, what deciphers you or sets you above the rest? And we've always been so proud that we've been able to do that. I mean, my husband, Will Usher was the earliest adopter of Zwift. He was on the platform the first day it was in beta and used it.

Andrew Harley: Like athlete number four.

Raya Usher: Yeah, he literally was. And we were doing sort of team time trials on Zwift before any triathlete would even join Zwift. You know, Will was sat there trying to like, this is amazing. This is exactly what we need. It's a community. And people are like, are you serious, like, why would I go on a virtual reality platform when I can stare at my Garmin target staring at a blank wall listening to angry music? You know, people just thought we were crazy now. Like, if you look at where people are with Zwift - you know the same thing, we moved on from Zwift a long time ago because when everyone was there, we were like, right, well, now everyone's doing this. Let's do the next.

Andrew Harley: What's next?

Raya Usher: What's next? So we haven't used Zwift for three years, maybe four years now, and we've moved on to the next platform. And then we restructured our team in 2019 to do a whole bunch of new, different stuff to yet again make the industry a bit more disruptive. Because we were finding and it's the biggest form of flattery, in our opinion, that a load of triathlon teams were copying our model. And we were like, that's amazing. Okay, everyone's doing what we do now. We've got to change it up again.

Andrew Harley: You have to keep pushing the envelope.

Raya Usher: Keep pushing the envelope. So we did it again at the end of 2019, and then at the end of last year, actually halfway through last year, we started thinking the same thing. And that is when, unbelievably, we got a phone call from you guys to say, hey, listen, we've heard that you guys are doing really cool things. We'd love to talk to you about what we're doing. And within our very first call with Jeff Booher, the CEO, I think we had scheduled for an hour phone call and Jeff rescheduled two further calls after us because we spent three hours on the phone with him.

Andrew Harley: That sounds right. Yeah.

Raya Usher: So we were hooked from day one. So it's taken us probably three months to set everything up and another month to move everyone over, but we are now fully embedded in the TriDot family.

Andrew Harley: Oh, that's very, very cool. How are the athletes liking the training so far?

Raya Usher: So far so good. It's very different to what we did. So obviously adapting to a new style of workout, a new build phase. You know, TriDot uses a much more traditional phase where we had adopted our own style of build, mesocycle, macrocycle. So adjustments always take time. But we're really lucky that our athletes - one of our mottos is like, trust the process, right? Like if you're paying for us to make you better and to make you a better version of yourself, not necessarily because you want to be faster at swim, bike and run or in this case just swim and bike. But trust us because you know, you're giving us that sort of responsibility. And so even the athletes that are like, oh, I don't know if I liked this workout as much as one you used to do. When we drill down to the science behind it, everyone's really adopting well and we're seeing huge gains. So you know, in the coaching caves, it takes a big ego to turn around and go that programming by an artificial intelligence computer could be better than you. But you know, there you go.

Andrew Harley: I am barely a USAT level one coach, so I have no problem admitting that the algorithm is better than me. Now Raya, you are a very experienced aquabiker, most importantly for this episode, both racing it and coaching it. And I was amped when I found that out that that was in your background and I could have you come talk about Aquabike on the show. You are currently ranked third in the world for your age group in Aquabike. So tell us, how did Aquabike become such a core part of your multisport journey?

Raya Usher: Well, interestingly, I think it became part of my journey in the same way that I often push people towards it. My background isn't in triathlon, it was actually in downhill ski racing. And in 2001, my ski career, my racing career ended because of a very, very high speed, high impact crash which has left...

Andrew Harley: How fast were you going?

Raya Usher: Very fast. You guys work in miles. So when I say it was like a three figure digit doesn't work the same because I wasn't going hundreds of miles, I was going, I was just over 100 kilometers an hour when I crashed. So like 70 miles.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, that sounds about right.

Raya Usher: It's pretty fast. Yeah, I've, don't get me wrong, I've healed really well and I've been really fortunate that I've had the most amazing doctors and like years of therapy. But I still have one chronic condition left over which is a really, really serious back injury. And if I wasn't trying to be like an elite athlete like you are in triathlon, I probably wouldn't even notice it. But it does cause me major problems when I'm running. And so I got to the point where I loved doing my IRONMANs, but I just couldn't do as many each year because my recovery from a full distance IRONMAN would take me months to get over.

Andrew Harley: Wow.

Raya Usher: And obviously I enjoy racing.

Andrew Harley: So the idea - you want to race more than that.

Raya Usher: So Aquabikes gave me that amazing ability to still get my racing, to still get my fix, to still be competitive, but without the risk of my injury flaring up.

Andrew Harley: So I personally am much more of a runner than a swimmer or cyclist. So it's very, very difficult for me to imagine signing up for a race that omits the run - the part I want to do the most. But I know this is a great race format. Folks that do aquabike regularly, they just absolutely love it. Helps athletes that have some sort of running injury continue to compete like you're talking about Raya. So, Jeff, why would an athlete do an aquabike over a full swim, bike and run?

Jeff Raines: Well, first of all, I'll throw out that I'm like you, Andrew. I'm personally much more of a runner, or at least that's my favorite and best distance. That's my background. And I kind of feel like Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights when he's getting interviewed and he's like, I don't know what to do with my hands. It's kind of like I don't know what to do if I can't run, you know, and so I'm right there with you.

Andrew Harley: What's the point?

Jeff Raines: I have definitely, you know, I think we know and kind of understand that a big piece of why athletes partake predominantly in aquabike is due to injury, not having to do the running. And I actually, you know, I know this statistic that 50 to 70% of runners will experience an injury. That is a very unfortunate statistic. But just knowing that there's a greater demand, higher impact and a little bit higher likelihood of potentially getting injured running, that's the main kind of reason why people partake predominantly in Aquabike. But I will say that triathletes, swim, bike and runners definitely need to partake in aquabike. They're just right off the bat, kind of a different twist. They're a great sport, a great discipline, a great race to do for triathletes in training, right? Let's say a 70.3 or a full IRONMAN coming up. Right? They can use that as a B or C race, a great training day, learn how to pace without disrupting their training, having to have a huge taper leading into that, knowing there's a big runoff and then there's recovery after. And so they could use aquabikes as prep for their triathlon. And I think that a lot of swimmers, bikers and runners, triathletes especially long course, kind of look over that or they don't look down upon Aquabike by any means. But I think it's something that we should all incorporate more into our seasons is throwing aquabikes in there regardless if we're run injured or not. But straight from the USAT website, USA Triathlon website, the US Nationals event each year their distance is the 1.2 mile swim and a 56 mile bike. But there are lots of different distances and so don't let that intimidate you. There are shorter distances, intermediate and then that kind of higher long course distance is what the main event is at USAT Nationals. But straight from their website - who are the main competitors? Strong swimmers and/or cyclists. They enjoy cross training for other disciplines. Do not...

Andrew Harley: Yeah.

Jeff Raines: Do not enjoy or have an affinity for running traditionally. Have an injury that prevents any running or running long distances and then they just love the multisport lifestyle. But I'll say that time is a big one. They don't have time to train for three disciplines and so training for two, it helps with the budget. You probably spend the least amount of money on the run discipline than the other two arguably. So there's still a cost involved in Aquabike, but not quite as much. Having two of the three disciplines you can fully cross train. Now I encourage aquabikers to still incorporate running into their weekly regimen if they can and if that allows. But you can get away with cross training lower impact with swimming and biking. But the biggest reason definitely is to prevent injury from the high impact that running can elicit. But similar to - some just like duathlon, some just don't want to swim and are just more comfortable with bike and run races. And so that's kind of that idea of aquabikes. But they do some - actually the first one I ever did aquabike, there was actually a run and I'll let Raya - I'll end with this and let Raya kind of take this further. But the one that I did you did the swim and bike and then there was like a 100 or 200 yard run out of T2 so to speak. So you're at the quote finish, right. But you still - some people just ran barefoot out of transition with their bike helmet on across the finish line and then some actually put on a pair of shoes real quick and sprinted out. Some it just ends at that bike dismount line. So I know some are a little bit different.

Raya Usher: Yeah, it is, it is without a doubt one of the biggest anticlimactic races you could possibly participate in. And you have to manage your athlete's expectations when you enter because normally an aquabike is done on the same day as a triathlon and it'll be the same distances but, and that's why we coined the term swim bike done because the aquabikers, their finish line or their time starts at the dismount line. Then nine times out of ten you go and you rack your bike and you take off your helmet, put your helmet on your bike and then they say please watch out for the runners who are going onto the run. And then you cross the finish line without your bike, without your helmet, without your bike shoes and they take a picture of you in just your tri suit.

Andrew Harley: Yeah.

Raya Usher: Thumbs up as if to go, yeah, I finished. So there can be a bit of an anticlimax especially when you're not doing like an international race. But then other times they do say yes. So your finish line is you dismount, you rack your bike and then you run to the aquabike finish. So you do have to do 200 meters of running through transition which again I mean transitions are included in triathlons. So I guess you could finish with a T2 but it feels unnecessary a lot of the time.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. Like the T2 is getting you to the finish line in this case. And I guess even if you have a running injury or an injury that would prevent you from running seriously, I guess if you're healthy enough to do the swim and the bike, you're probably healthy enough to do a 200 yard run to a finish line. And this actually was on our sheet question 11. So we're just jumping to it. But Raya, in your experience - So I guess there are aquabikes where there is a finish line and there are some where you hit the dismount line and you're done. What is kind of the finish experience like race to race?

Raya Usher: It completely depends on whether you're doing a local race or whether you're doing it on like one of the international stages. I quite like the local races because they do make you do the running through - like your timing chip finishes on the run finish because obviously the timing chips have been set just like the triathlon.

Andrew Harley: Yeah.

Raya Usher: So in order for you to get a finish line time, you go off, you still have to dismount exactly the same way as if you were doing a run. You run your bike to your place, you rack, you can choose to take your helmet off. And then you can choose to run through transition to the, through the finish line. And the finish line is nine times out of ten, exactly the same as your run finish, but you didn't have to - your run exit and your finish line on the international events. So if you ever are wanting to do this as an age grouper, as an ITU or European or North American race or world race, they will build a whole other finish line chute for you. Which gives you, yeah, a sense that you've done something good, but it changes each time. So we had worlds - at worlds last year, there's always two Americans that I am racing against. And I know, I know my voice sounds North American, but I actually race for the GBR team and they beat me all the time.

Andrew Harley: Those darn Americans.

Raya Usher: I know, right? But just those two girls, it's fine. But I always start at the back of the swim so I can sense where they are. I like to chase better than being chased. It's just like something I do. And the girls are just that little bit better of a swimmer.

Jeff Raines: Prey versus predator. Yes.

Raya Usher: Just depends what you are. And I caught one of them on the finish line, but I didn't know if I was fourth or if I was third.

Andrew Harley: Oh, yeah.

Raya Usher: And when we came in, it was in Holland and we were on this major highway and all of a sudden to get to the finish line, you have to turn down one of these Dutch cycle paths. And so in the race briefing, they turn around and they go, okay, you can't overtake on this cycle path. On the cycle path race in the position that you're in until the finish line. So I was sat within my sort of 12 meters or 25 feet, just before I could see the turning. And I decided to take her right at the turning because I knew as soon as I got ahead of her I'd be fine.

Andrew Harley: Like, that was it. Yeah.

Raya Usher: But so I passed her and she was like, oh, my God, no. And you can see each other. You can see you're in the same age group because you've not only got a number, but you've got your letter for your age group. And she could see. And I was like, I'm so sorry. I just had to do it.

Jeff Raines: I...

Raya Usher: And we were chatting to each other, like giving each other a little bit of beef, but nicely like we were having fun with it.

Andrew Harley: Of course. Yeah.

Raya Usher: And then she suddenly went, wait, is the finish line the dismount line or is there another finish line? And I was like, I didn't listen that far - I knew whether we were going to be finishing on the...

Andrew Harley: This is at Worlds. This is at Worlds. Like you just didn't know.

Raya Usher: And she was like, are we second and third or are we third and fourth? I was like, I don't know.

Andrew Harley: No idea, no idea.

Raya Usher: Figure it out. So the two of us were like, oh my God, this is either we're both on the podium or we're not. And the two of us crashed through the finish line and like, rather than it being the most upsetting thing, we were in hysterics, we were laughing. There is a picture of the two of us on each other on the floor with our bikes everywhere. And luckily we didn't get disqualified. But so honestly, every finish line is different and you are never entirely sure what it is. So it is up in the air as to how you finish. But as long as you're having fun and you know you're with great competition, it doesn't really matter. Just listen to the pre-race briefing.

Andrew Harley: Okay? Yeah, so that's the note here for our athletes who want to take on an aquabike or are frequent aquabikers already. Make sure you know how this particular race is going to finish. It's always going to be different. Is there anything clever you do, Raya? Because I've seen this before on the IAmTriDot Facebook group from some of our Aquabike athletes where they do express that it can be a very anticlimactic experience. So if it is one of those races where you just cross T2 and that's it, there's no fanfare, there's no finish line picture, there's no any other part to the experience. You just rack your bike and you're done. Is there anything clever you can do to kind of create some sort of a fun moment for yourself at the end or you just kind of have to accept that that's the way it is, you're doing an aquabike?

Raya Usher: You know, that's a really great question. I spend so much of my time psyching myself up for the beginning of the race that by the end of the race I'm so done and so wasted that I probably don't have the energy to sort of do a cross the line celebration. But I guess that would be the same with my IRONMANs. Like when I finish, my finish line pictures are so awful because I put myself into such a bad hole. Most times I buy them just to show like a before and after because you can't recognize me. So I might not be the best person to advise. But it's the same with your race prep. If you're big into positive mental thoughts, if you're really big on how do you get yourself mentally prepared for a race you want to finish the same way you started. Right. So do a dance or go and ask to have your photo taken because the photographers are there.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, good point.

Raya Usher: Yeah, I love my, like holding up my medal and taking my own little selfie is like, I did it. Yeah, yeah. So like write your own destiny with it. If you need, if you need that end of race celebration, get in front of the photographer. Hey, can you take a picture for me? And don't be afraid to ask for that. Like I said, most of the time, because I am racing at such high intensities, I kind of don't care. But some people need that. Oh, yeah.

Andrew Harley: So I've done plenty of triathlons and plenty of run only events. I've done one duathlon and it's hard to put a finger on why. But to me, each race format has just like a slightly different vibe, you know what I mean? It offers kind of a slightly different experience, whether it's a run only or a triathlon that, you know, the duathlon felt a little bit different from a triathlon. Just kind of even getting ready for the event and transition, you know, so at an aquabike, what does it feel like to race one of these? Does the dynamic or the vibe change only having the two disciplines? What do you think, Jeff?

Jeff Raines: Oh, I'd say absolutely. The vibe is different just from triathlon to triathlon. And that's what I love about our sport, is no two races are identical, but especially kind of a whole different race being - I would say that the vibe, especially at the start of the race, is a little bit different. In a triathlon, I think many kind of use the swim as like a glorified warmup. Even though we know we want to warm up before a triathlon, but they still kind of ease their way into the swim as kind of a glorified warm up and then set up for maybe, you know, a little bit more aggressive, let's say bike and run. But in an aquabike, right, you kind of come out guns blazing and it usually equates to the stronger swimmers being a little bit more successful out there just because there's a little bit less time and distance to make up those gains for potentially weaker swimmers having, you know, let's say only the bike portion to catch the faster swimmers out of the water. So yeah, because it's kind of guns blazing right from the start of the swim. Especially more short course aquabike. You know, there's a little bit more intensity at the start. They're warming up a little bit more seriously. So I haven't done a ton of aquabikes, just a handful. But there were a lot of people out there like with their running shoes on, even like warming up before the aquabike or maybe if they're not runners or they have that type of injury, man, you'll see a lot more of like the swim tubing bands like hooked to picnic tables and tree limbs and they're out there just really warming up a lot more - arm swings and stuff like that. And then usually for aquabike they allow a little bit more - so in triathlon they allow you to get into the water to do a pre-race swim warm up. I know a little bit of that has changed kind of post-Covid letting swimmers get in the water and doing a big swim warm up. And that's also usually in the dark and stuff like that. Sometimes aquabikes start a little bit later in the morning and so there's a little bit more daylight before the race to get in and do the open water swim before the actual race.

Andrew Harley: Jeff is talking and I still can't get past him saying the word "swimmerly" a little bit ago on the episode.

Jeff Raines: I told you that would come back to haunt me.

Andrew Harley: No, very, very interesting though Jeff. Cause I've been on site at races where I'm getting ready for my sprint or Olympic triathlon and you hear the gun go off for the aquabikers who are doing their race and starting it a little early. So it's happening. But I'm never over there by it to kind of get a sense of what that vibe is. That's very, very interesting. Raya, for you having done more of these than Jeff and I have, do you kind of agree with that? Does it feel different from a triathlon or now have you done enough of them to where it just feels like a very similar process just without a run at the end?

Raya Usher: I don't think the race prep feels any different. So in the morning, still getting up at the same time, like when I've done the internationals, we actually start almost the same time, if not 30 minutes, 20 minutes before the middle distance or the equivalent distance of the triathlon because it's normally on the same day on the same course. So you still get that sense of excitement, that sense of occasion in the lead up to it. Where I think it feels very, very different is the intensity at which you race, which is far greater, because there's no run you can empty the tank on both your swim and your bike.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, true.

Raya Usher: So you're racing even, even if you're racing the longer distances. So my, the middle distance aquabike, when I did Europeans last year, I think I raced at 95% of threshold for 90 kilometers. So it's high, high intensity because there's nothing to do afterwards. Right. You can just collapse. Whereas you would never race like that.

Jeff Raines: Just to dive in - like most will race usually at that distance of the bike of a triathlon at arguably 75 to 80% ish. Right. And so that huge difference. Yeah. So just to put that into perspective, yeah, that is big time.

Raya Usher: Yeah, it's - and if my athletes aren't racing age group and they're not at like the top end of their age group, I probably wouldn't give them those sorts of targets on race day because obviously it completely depends on what you want to achieve, what your goals are, what your fitness levels are and what races you're doing. But yeah, up at the pointy end, you'll be swimming close to threshold. If you haven't found a pack, you'll be on your own. And on race day, it is effectively like a time trial on the bike. So even with my triathlon bike in an aquabike, I will have a far more aero setup. So rather than having the bottles, I'll throw a bladder in my tri suit and just use a straw. So I can be as light and my bike can be as light as possible. So it is a far more intense race for me. But I like that. But like you said, if you're a runner, you'll find that really weird. And a lot of people can't commit to racing at that intensity because you're so used to having the run after the bike.

Andrew Harley: I've never considered having your hydration in a bladder in the tri suit on the bike. That is so interesting. And yeah, when you go get that bike fit, you know your bike fitter, knowing you're a triathlete is having to fit you. And my fitter here in the Dallas area, he always asked me like, you know, what are you racing this year? Do you have an IRONMAN on the calendar? Are you doing half IRONMANs? Like what's your distance this year? Because if you're doing IRONMAN versus doing local sprints and Olympics, he can seat me a lot more aggressively if I'm racing short course and he has to take me a little bit more relaxed if I'm racing long course. And so yeah, if you are just doing that bike and your fitter knows, okay, she's not running off the bike, you can be more aggressive. I had not even considered that for an aquabike athlete. Now Raya, earlier you mentioned that you use aquabikes with your athletes who are returning from some sort of long term running injury. You know, what does your protocol or maybe that timeline look like for an athlete kind of easing them back into triathlon via aquabikes or do you just kind of exclusively keep them aquabike for the rest of their racing career?

Raya Usher: No, I think a lot of us - listen, I love aquabike, but I probably love it because I'm so much better at it and obviously I've got an ego. I love racing and I love hitting the podium and I know with my swimming and my cycling ability I can hit the podium every race I go to. It's very rare that I don't. Whereas in a triathlon for me my ability goes, my discipline abilities go in order in which we race, right? So my swimming is my best, my cycling is my second, my running is my weakest. So if I haven't gotten myself in an IRONMAN 20 or 30 minutes in front of the girl behind me, I'll probably lose a few spaces.

Andrew Harley: Wow.

Raya Usher: For me, that's why I've done it. I still love triathlon, I still love running. It hurts me but I still love it. And I think a lot of people who are in multisport still have that same feeling when they're injured or my guys that I've coached certainly have. So it's not necessarily about keeping them off running and sticking solely to aquabike for the rest of their career unless it's been medically advised. It's all about mixing it up to allow them to keep doing what they love, which is exercise and staying fit and being able to compete. So my protocol is 100% dependent on the athlete and what injury they have and what they've gone through and how long. The way we coach through precision is, if someone is injured or had a serious illness, we co-coach with our team medicine who is a sports doctor and team physio and we work with him to make sure that those athletes have got the appropriate protocol for their injury or their illness, and then we plan a season through that way. So protocol is a great word, but it's very individual to the athlete. How long does it take? Well, for a general person who I've never worked with before, I would say always follow the 10% rule on increasing your distances when you first start back and see how long it takes to get up to a comfortable distance. And at that point you can start to see how your fitness is coming through and whether or not your body's ready to do an aquabike. The stress on the body is far less because there's no impact. So your swim to bike transition isn't nearly as bad. And if that's what you want to try prior to coming back from injury for your running, then, you know, I'd be happy to chat with anyone about it. So it's a far shorter recovery time depending on the illness and injury.

Andrew Harley: So when both of you know that you have an athlete signed up for an aquabike, you know, do you add anything specific to their prep that you might not add for a swim, bike and runner? Or like, maybe some skills that become more important in those two disciplines? Maybe some swim and bike bricks, maybe some additional T1 training or a little extra time in the pool. Anything different for your aquabike athletes versus a triathlete? Jeff, what do you think?

Jeff Raines: Oh, gosh, yes. There's definitely some different approaches. You got to kind of think there's less time and there's less real estate to make up - swimmerly. Thank you, Andrew. I'm rolling my eyes for all the listeners out there. Like, if you're a little bit behind out of the swim and you're less swimmerly than somebody else - nice - you have less real estate to make up for it if you're behind out of the water. Right. So we don't have a T2. We don't have the run portion. And so, yeah, the swim to bike bricks are something that are very important. That T1 is going to be a little bit more important. You could make up more time there. So, yeah, practicing getting in and out of the wetsuit. Are you going to use a swim skin instead of a wetsuit because it's quicker to get off? Is that cost effective time worth it to you to potentially use the swim skin instead of a wetsuit? If it's barely wetsuit legal, you know, you don't have to use a wetsuit, right? So there's just all sorts of things that you can do, little tricks of the trade to maybe shave 30 seconds, 45 seconds to help if you're playing catch up out of the water. But yeah, I mean, you may go sockless on the bike because you're not running off. Just little things like that. The flying mount, the flying dismount, things like that will make your race time a little bit quicker. So if Raya and her competition out there at Worlds were kind of duking it out, rolling into T2, they didn't know, does it end at that dismount line up there? Or if that's the case, they can just go blazing, you know, head down time trial, 800 watts into that T2 dismount line. But if they have to run 200 yards out of T2 to another finish line, then they're going to want to have a more efficient, you know, flying dismount on, velcroing the shoes, you know, cruising in, dismounting and then kind of rolling and running off that dismount. So there's just all sorts of things to do. But I would definitely say that because it's less impact. I have my aquabikers definitely add more swims per week. They can afford to swim three to five times per week instead of maybe two to three, something like that. Open water. I definitely have them in open water a lot more regularly. Dolphin dives, right. If it's - is it just jumping off of a dock into deep water? Are they going to do a surface dive or, you know, all sorts of little things? I could go on and on, but yeah, it's knowing what is that race and what is the course? What is it like? Is it a deep water start, shallow start or a beach start? Are you going to do dolphin dives? You know, are you going to do two or three dives and then start your swimming? Just things like that.

Andrew Harley: Like in T1, right, there's analyzing, how quickly can I get a wetsuit off versus a swim skin versus nothing at all? And how much time do those items save me in the water? I think in triathlon, if we're all being honest, unless you're at the very pointy end of the performance spectrum, you're making assumptions at how long those things are going to take you, and you're making assumptions about how much time a wetsuit versus a swim skin versus no help at all is going to save you in the water and you get to transition and you really don't know. And so when the water temperature is kind of borderline, we're all making those decisions on, okay, I'm doing an Olympic today, so the swim is this long. A wetsuit would save me X amount of time versus a swim skin that would save me this amount of time. And then I have to get it off in transition, which is that amount of time. And we're making - I in my head have guesstimations for all of those things. You know, it's probably going to take me 50 seconds, 45, 50 seconds to get a wetsuit off. It takes me 20, 15, 20 seconds to get a swim skin off. Like, those things save me X amount of time in the water at X distance. But if you're doing aquabike and all those seconds matter a lot more, maybe take the time to go to the pool and see how much faster you are swimming 1500 meters in your wetsuit versus your swim skin. So you know that number a little bit more concretely. You know, practice taking those things off and timing yourself to know, okay, it takes me X amount of time to get my wetsuit off versus nothing at all. And maybe aquabikers don't do that. Maybe I'm just overanalyzing it. But as you're talking, I think these are things that triathletes - like, we like to think we're going to take the time to do these things, but none of us take the time to do these kinds of things. Raya, anything that Jeff missed that for you are skills that you point out to your aquabike athletes a little bit more so than your full on triathletes?

Raya Usher: Yeah. So a hundred percent. There's two things that I have a lot of my athletes trying. If they're focusing purely on aquabike rather than using it as a training tool alongside triathlon is I have them signing up to regular road time trials, which are individual bike disciplines which allow you to do 25 miles or 50 mile TTs. You can go longer if you really want, but it just allows you to...

Andrew Harley: Sounds painful.

Jeff Raines: Totally.

Raya Usher: Yeah, but they're great. It just allows you to practice that threshold racing as opposed to where us IRONMAN athletes have to dial it back down to that 75, 77% of your threshold intensity. And the same with your swimming, you know, signing up to a masters team that's local and racing the 700 meters in swim masters or the 1500 meter race to again get yourself into that position of understanding the race threshold as opposed to...

Andrew Harley: Yeah, it's a great point.

Raya Usher: Those two things for me take sometimes priority over the micro changes because those will give you your biggest improvements in the two disciplines. Once you've got those sorted, then worry about all the micro adjustments like your 10 seconds in TT or your 10 seconds here and what shoes you're going to wear because they're more aero. All of those things are super important and trust me, I'm doing every single one of those. You know, I've even got my little aero neoprene sock that goes over my shoe because it's more aero with the clip - like so I'm big into aero again.

Andrew Harley: Nice.

Raya Usher: But if you haven't got your time trialing technique and your swim racing technique down, focus on those first.

Jeff Raines: I love it. Instead of - if your race aquabike is let's just say long course and instead of focusing on let's just do a shorter or intermediate aquabike along the way, I love that of throwing in specific just let's say just road time trialing or just open water swim races and actually at a lot of these kind of larger events, these international events that have triathlon and aquabike and all those things usually the day before or two days before they'll have a swim only event right where you could just do the 750 all out swim and then you recover largely overnight from swimming and so it doesn't affect that race a day or two later and so you could partake in those as kind of like priming events as well. And I'm sorry, I'll throw out one more and you can edit this if we need to later. Andrew, is a good test that you were asking earlier like if you know, is it worth it to me to use a swim skin versus you know, maybe a wetsuit or something like that and the cost effectiveness of taking them off in T1 - a little test is to just if swimming in a pool with a pull buoy between your legs, if you're faster - like more elite swimmers should be slower using a pull buoy, it actually slows you down. You don't have that propulsion at all from the kick. So if you're a swimmer where when you use a pull buoy it helps your body positioning and the buoyancy a little bit better and you're faster with the pull buoy, you're probably going to be a little bit more effective or faster wearing the neoprene in the wetsuit than a swim skin alone. So that's kind of a little test at least to start with. Just to kind of if you're contemplating, oh, that race coming up, should I wear the wetsuit or not? Just a little maybe like a trick to kind of start that process.

Andrew Harley: Living up to my Andrew the average triathlete billing, I am faster with a pull buoy. That's not even close. That's not even in question - yes, I am faster with a pull buoy. Jeff, I'm curious. A question that I know we get often from our TriDot athletes who frequently do Aquabike is how does TriDot training - just the almighty algorithm and just the training calendar, the insight engine that is spitting out our training - what does TriDot do with our training when we add an aquabike to our season?

Jeff Raines: You know, that's a good question. And what I love about TriDot and Race X is it doesn't start everybody at the exact same week. You know, let's just say you're 10 weeks out from an A race. It doesn't throw everybody the same day, all three disciplines, same week, same time, into the pre-competition phase or whatever, right? And so it knows you, it knows your NTS and your training stress profile and it might - it starts off with knowing the distance you're going to race, but TriDot also doesn't just train you for that distance. It knows the actual amount of time you're going to spend in each discipline on your unique race day. You know, it knows the elevation of the city above sea level, the temperature, the humidity, and it knows all the yaw angles and wind and how the wind changes throughout the race because it's not the same mile per hour in the same direction and all that, the entire portion of that discipline. And so it just knows so many things. And so then what it does is it configures the amount of time that you're going to spend in each discipline on that race day in those unique conditions. And then it kind of sort of backfills, right? And then your season is kind of generated, let's say. And so you won't start, you know, bike and swim builds all on the same day and all of that. So that's really, really cool. It largely depends on the distance of the race and the stamina needed for that. If it's short course you probably won't go into a big race prep stamina phase, right? And so you can largely stay in that developmental phase that we call it. But many will adjust their preferences with the desired volumes for swim and bike and even run. And so you can tell TriDot, you know, run only - you can tell it swim and bike that you don't want any runs. And if you're an aquabiker, some want to still have some runs throughout the week. And so you change all of that in your preferences and then TriDot adjusts that season planner according to your preferences that you set and then also which phase of the season that you're in.

Andrew Harley: Jeff, I also want to talk a little bit about adding an Aquabike to Race X. So Race X is the portion of the TriDot platform where you're putting your races and it's telling you your race plan. You know how long you're going to be in each discipline, how you should pace each discipline. And currently the exact Monday that this show goes out, you cannot add an Aquabike or a duathlon, a swimrun, anything weird to your Race X. It has to be swim, bike and run. But we confirmed with the TriDot software development team that they are working on this and this year - I was told this year for sure - adding other race formats to Race X will be operational. So hold on to your butts, aquabikers. It's coming. In the meantime though, there are some workarounds to add an Aquabike to the schedule. Jeff, tell us what we can do for now.

Jeff Raines: Yeah, I mean we're a triathlon platform, but we can also make it run only. We can make it aquabike friendly, duathlon friendly and those single - single sport I say - or those unique sport distance apps are coming out. Just for example, we'll throw it out - RunDot is coming very soon.

Andrew Harley: RunDot? What's RunDot?

Jeff Raines: And many others. But so you can coach successfully and there's no fear there to coach an athlete for an Aquabike or duathlon or run only event using the TriDot platform. So no worries there. But I will say that for Aquabike what you can do is you could go into your preferences, let's say and turn running off. And so then in that Race X it would be swim, bike friendly. But you can also go into your Race X and customize distances. So we know that not all sprint triathlons for example, or sprint aquabikes are all created equal in the exact same distance. So you could go in, you could shorten a discipline to 2.1 miles or 0.1 or something shorter for the swim. And so you're still getting the Race X execution as far as pacing. Because if it's a race that's 500 meters shorter in the swim than another race, then yeah, there's a different type of pacing that you could train at and race at. And so all of that is adjustable and customizable in Race X. So definitely there are aquabikers that I coach very successfully on the platform.

Andrew Harley: So we've talked a little bit about pacing an aquabike race already and basically it is, you're removing the running. So it's more of the mindset of, I am time trialing this swim, I am time trialing this bike. There is nothing else I have to do afterwards as opposed to holding back a little bit because there is a run that you have to do.

Raya Usher: I like that. Gunning for Aquabike glory. It depends what distance I guess you're looking at racing. You would race a sprint aquabike or Olympic distance aquabike at far closer to threshold. In fact, you would race those at threshold. Just think about like your 20 minute FTP.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, yummy.

Raya Usher: Yeah, you want to hit those at that intensity. And then I would probably, personally, if I was looking to podium, I would race my middle distance. I specialize in the middle distance and long distance, I would look at hitting 95% for my middle distance and just under for full distance or 90%. Now it also depends on how long you've been using a platform like TriDot for, because not only does TriDot and your coaches help you build your FTP, the platform over time helps you what we call fatten the curve in our sort of language in precision. So can you - are you even capable of holding 95% for three hours? Not everyone can because they've not been training for as long. So know how, know what your stamina is and also know what your threshold is before you commit to saying, okay, I'm gonna - yeah, Raya has it - to race at 95% for this. Just double check that you have the stamina to do that and that you've fattened the curve enough to be able to do that. And you'll find as you get closer to race prep that TriDot will have those race simulation workouts for you.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, sure will.

Raya Usher: And you can test if you're capable of doing that over the distance that you're going to race. So you'll know ahead of time. So practice your race simulation testing. Try to race at 85% four weeks before, try and race at 90% three weeks before and see how you're coming along. And then you'll know what threshold you need to race at as an individual.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, I know something that we found is in general, it is very much person to person, but in general the closer to the pointy end of the performance spectrum you are usually the higher percentage of your FTP those athletes can handle. The more average you are, it starts going down. The more entry level you are, it starts going down. And so yeah, as an average triathlete, I shudder at the thought of trying to hold 95% of my FTP for anything longer than an Olympic distance triathlon. But for some, for you, Raya, that's commonplace for 56 miles on a bike. So yep, great stuff. But before we shut it down today, at the time we're recording this episode, TriDot just hosted its very first London edition of TriDot Pool School. And Raya, you were on deck with Jeff Booher and many other coaches from Precision Coaching. How did that pool school go? What did our UK athletes think of TriDot pool school?

Raya Usher: It was so awesome. I mean we, my husband Will and I had been to Houston and we'd met all the guys face to face. We'd done pool schools ourselves and we were the typical coaches that went in optimistic - optimistically pessimistic. Can I say that?

Andrew Harley: Sure. Yeah.

Raya Usher:  We wanted to see the gains and we just weren't sure. I mean my husband already swims close to a one minute per hundred. Right. We were like, are you going to see any benefits? Like, he was like, well, you know, just before I get too old, I want to dip back under that minute. So yeah, definitely. And I am really happy, you know, I'm not a swimmer and I took nine seconds off my swim back down to a 109 per 100 meters. We work in meters, so yards is slightly different.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, even more impressive. Yeah.

Raya Usher: So when we came to England - and we have to remember, okay, I'm sorry for all of my English guys watching today. You know I love you, but we also know you're way more pessimistic than Americans.

Jeff Raines: Fact.

Raya Usher: And I have spent 20 years living in the UK to be able to say that exactly right. And I'm super optimistic. So when we came here, we came back and said, guys, there's this new training school. It's absolutely amazing. We just weren't sure if we were going to get enough people on the course. And not only did we sell it out, but we got 12 awesome coaches certified the day before.

Andrew Harley: That's awesome.

Raya Usher: Now they were all like 1 minute 15 or faster swimmers. Right. So even each and every one of them improved by 7%.

Andrew Harley: Wow.

Raya Usher: Two of our guys dropping under a minute, which is amazing. And so for those guys who are swimming that fast, 7% is pretty big.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, it was massive.

Raya Usher: And they were just mind blown. And then all of us got to coach on deck for the swimmers here in the UK and we saw a 12% improvement and we were just, I mean it was just mind blowing. But also what I loved is that the Brits - there was Jeff on deck and I was on deck and I was trying to really emulate that positivity that we saw in Texas. And actually the group loved it. And I had three or four - for those who have done pool schools, you'll know exactly what this means, but I had three or four Brits - when I just turned around, I was like, okay, 1, 2, 3, drop into the water and then come and go, I love swimming. And they did it. It was just so good. So we're so excited that it went off without a hitch and we are really looking forward to the next one in June.

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

Vanessa Ronksley: Welcome to the cool down everyone. I'm Vanessa, your average triathlete with elite level enthusiasm. Our TriDot coach on the show today is bringing us life hacks for the time crunched athlete, which I can hardly wait to hear about and infuse into my own life. He hails from colorful Colorado and claims that his software and project management job is a little bit of a yawner. Which is probably why he decided to infuse triathlon into his everyday life with training, racing and coaching. Not only is it a part of his life, but he has his family involved as well. His daughter recently completed her first 70.3 and Rich and his brother have their sights set on racing in Yokohama in 2024. Rich is a USAT Level 1 triathlon coach and specializes in age groupers who are working towards their first full distance tri. And he helps them overcome confidence issues and work life training balance. He is an accomplished athlete himself with five foals to his name, numerous 70.3s, and he's a New York City Marathon finisher. However, what I find most notable and a little bit crazy is that every year on Independence Day, he rides his bike up Pikes Peak, which apparently has over 150 switchbacks and gains almost 5000 feet, which is 1500 meters of elevation with the summit reaching over 14,000 feet and 4300 meters above sea level. That is crazy high, y'all. So it's my pleasure to welcome Rich to the Cool Down.

Rich Soares: Thank you for that awesome intro, Vanessa. Love listening to you, Andrew and the whole TriDot team, but man, I'm not sure I'm worthy of that intro. That was very nice. Thank you.

Vanessa Ronksley: You are so welcome.

Rich Soares: I'm an avid listener of the podcast and grateful to be with you here today. And yeah, I can - it is a little nuts to do 14,000 feet on a bicycle.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, I'm a little, actually a little stuck on the elevation of this mountain because I once hiked up to and slept at 4700 meters above sea level and ended up in the hospital a few days later with high altitude pulmonary edema. So I find this incredible that you ride up this every year and I'm completely amazed.

Rich Soares: Well, yeah, high altitude is nothing to fool around with. But, you know, we have, here in Colorado, we have 50 peaks over 14,000 feet. Two of them have highways to the top, Mount Evans and Pikes Peak. And as road rides and bike climbs are considered, Pikes Peak is ranked 39th hardest climb in the world. And depending on where you start that ride, the climb can be reported anywhere from 5,000 feet, which would be starting from Crystal Lake, which is at roughly 9,000 feet. And from the gate, it's actually a little over 7,000 feet climb. And then there are some people that will go all the way from Manitou Springs, which makes it nearly 8,000 feet.

Vanessa Ronksley: Oh my gosh.

Rich Soares: I did it one day with our 303 Endurance crew and it's become a tradition.

Vanessa Ronksley: All right, well, how about you start us off with your life hacks for triathlon training? I'm super excited to hear about these.

Rich Soares: Well, you know, my experience of training for my five IRONMANs. You know, here's, I come from a background of being a working adult, you know, having a family, trying to balance all of those big rock priorities - work, family, you know, training and oh yeah, there's that thing called sleep, right? So, you know, you can easily figure out, you know, when you get eight hours of sleep a day, hopefully you work for eight hours, you can divide everything else up into that remaining eight. And you know, I always had these very tight windows to try to squeeze workouts in. So for example, if I had my morning one hour swim workout, if I wasn't at the pool right at 5, I wouldn't be able to be done by 6 in order to get home and showered and ready to get my daughters to school and myself to work on time. And more than once I would show up at that pool at 5am and realize that I left my swimsuit at home. And I'm faced with this following dilemma of okay, my house is 10 minutes away, 10 minutes there, 10 minutes back, 10 minutes to get back in the pool. Well, you know, geez, there goes my morning workout. So I'd feel like a little bit of a fool. So I learned how to foolproof my workouts. I learned to keep a spare swimsuit in the glove box for just such an emergency. This saved numerous workouts, as you can imagine. And it also was a great source of curiosity for anybody who happened to open up my glove box.

Vanessa Ronksley: I love that so much. And it's perfect because if you were to forget your whole bag at home, you still have your backup suit like right where you are.

Rich Soares: It's just having little tricks like that that you know - and whether it's having a spare swimsuit in the glove box, or it's having some run shoes and shorts and running shirt in your locker at work. You know, those little things that you just have those little backup plan B just in case so that you don't lose the whole workout for the day or lose multiple workouts for the day. Just having those little sets of redundancy is one of my...

Vanessa Ronksley: I love that because if you're at work and all of a sudden this time appears right before your face and you already have your stuff ready to go and you're like, I can go for a run right now. You know, if something opens up in your schedule or whatever, that's a really great idea. I like that very much. So thank you for sharing those life hacks with us. That's great. I can't wait to put my swimsuit in my glove box in my car.

Rich Soares: What you can't wait for is for your passenger to open up your glove box and see your swimsuit, right?

Vanessa Ronksley: That's more like it. Well, thanks for coming on the cool down with us today, Rich. And I look forward to chatting with you again sometime.

Rich Soares: My pleasure, Vanessa. Thank you so much.

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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