TriDot Podcast .235

Transforming Triathletes: Coaches and Athletes Share theirJourney with TriDot

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Intro: This is the TriDot podcast. TriDot uses yourtraining data and genetic profile, combined with predictive analytics andartificial intelligence to optimize your training, giving you better results inless time with fewer injuries. Our podcast is here to educate, inspire, andentertain. We’ll talk all things triathlon with expert coaches and specialguests. Join the conversation and let’s improve together.

 

Andrew Harley: Welcome to the TriDot podcast! Now back in the day when I was startingas a TriDot athlete, I feel like TriDot was kind of the best-kept secret whenit comes to triathlon training in the triathlon world. There were a lot ofathletes using TriDot, a lot of coaches using TriDot, but nowhere near to wherethings are today. With us being the Official Training Platform of IRONMAN, andlots of athletes and lots of coaches coming on board to use TriDot training –we are mainstream people, we are a mainstream training option. And we justwanted to sit down and have a conversation with some of our coaches who havecome on board with TriDot in the last year or two, and just kind of pick theirbrains on what it was like for them getting on board with TriDot, and moreimportantly what they're hearing from their athletes as their athletes starttraining with TriDot. So this is the episode. If you are a TriDot coach orTriDot athlete, you can maybe share this episode with your non-TriDot friends,and have them catch a glimpse of what TriDot is all about, and maybe decide tojoin the party themselves. So I've got three coaches here to talk about theirexperience switching to TriDot. Our first guest is Coach Raya Usher. Raya is aBritish triathlon and IRONMAN Certified Coach assisting athletes competing inITU and longer distances. Having been a former Canadian International Alpineski racer, Raya understands the intensities, pressures, and psychologicaldemands that are placed on athletes no matter what level they are competing.Raya has been competing in triathlon since 2015, has podiums at IRONMAN events,and has qualified and competed in the ETU, ITU, and IRONMAN 70.3 WorldChampionships. Raya, thanks so much for coming back on the show to talk aboutyour personal TriDot experience!

 

Raya Usher: Hey Andrew, it's so nice to be back! The last time I was on the show,it was an all-female lineup, so it’s really nice to have you –

 

Andrew:Yes, it was.

 

Raya:– and José, who is my big buddy over here in Europe. Getting to share a podcastwith him, I'm really excited to be here.

 

Andrew:Our next guest, as Raya alluded to, is Coach José. José is the founder andleague coach at Josérra Training based out of Reska, Spain. He is an IRONMANCertified Coach and has a university degree in sports science. José serves asTriDot’s market leader in Spain, spreading the word about TriDot and bringingnew coaches and athletes to the TriDot family. He himself is a 28-time IRONMANfinisher, who is equally passionate about seeing his own athletes cross thatfinish line. José, welcome back to the TriDot podcast!

 

José Ramón Callén Rodríguez: Andrew, a year ago I pinched myself when Ireceived your message to participate in the TriDot podcast.

 

Andrew:Aw, shucks.

 

José:And now 12 months later, I thank you again for being here again, and now withRaya, one of my biggest friends in the sport and in the triathlon world, we aretalking about coaches of course. And really being here is the best company, thebest team, so we are going to have a very nice conversation.

 

Andrew:Well, and as José alluded to, joining us for the very first time is CoachJasmine Moezzi. Jasmine is the Founder, President and Head Coach of theCalifornia-based South Bay Squad. She raced collegiately as a member of thetriathlon team at the University of Southern California, where she received herBS in Applied and Computational Mathematics. She's an IRONMAN U CertifiedCoach, and is a Certified Nutritionist and Health Coach through the Institutefor Integrative Nutrition. Jasmine, for the very first time, welcome to theTriDot podcast!

 

Jasmine Moezzi: Thank you so much for having me, I'm so excitedto be on with all of you! Yeah, I've been listening to the podcast for a while,and using TriDot for a while, so this is like a dream come true. Very excited.

 

Andrew:Well I am Andrew the Average Triathlete, Voice of the People and Captain of theMiddle of the Pack. As always, we'll roll through our warmup question, settlein for our main set conversation, and then wind things down with Vanessa takingover for our Coach Cooldown Tip of the week. Lots of good stuff, let's get toit!.

 

Warm up theme: Time to warm up! Let’s get moving.

 

Andrew:  There are a lot of professional triathleteswith loads of personality and loads of stories, and for our warmup questiontoday, here is what I'm wondering from the TriDot audience – if you could sitdown for a casual chat with any pro triathlete, maybe over a cup of coffee orbreakfast or something, who would you most want to hang out with? And I'm nottalking about a formal meet-and-greet sit down, I'm just talking about youbumping into each other at the café and you just get to know each other. Whatpro triathlete do you want to hang out with for just a little bit? CoachJasmine, first time on the podcast, what is your warmup question answer?

 

Jasmine:So I think I would sit down with Carolyn Carter, the LA triathlete. I don'tknow if you guys have seen her content on Instagram.

 

Andrew:I have!

 

Jasmine:Well, I actually already know her and I'm friends with her and stuff, so itwould kind of be just like a fun little gathering for us. But I've neveractually just sat down with her and hung out with her, I just see her at allthe races and cheer her on. So I'd love to actually just hang out with her andget a coffee or some breakfast, because I think she's just one of the coolest,most down-to-Earth people, and makes such fun content. Yeah, she's great, andobviously an amazing athlete.

 

Andrew:Yeah, if you are a triathlete on Instagram, she is a must-follow for sure. Veryhumorous content, a very funny take on the sport. It's a great pick, Jasmine.José, over to you here. What pro triathlete do you want to hang out with?

 

José:I have two names here, Andrew. The first is the professional athlete who frommy point of view has made more contributions to our sport, not only from thepoint of view of performance – six-times IRONMAN World Champion – but from amore human point of view, from the mental part of how to face the competitionand its balance with life. Here at TriDot we know his name, and his name isMark Allen.

 

Andrew:Heard of him. Yeah, I've heard of him.

 

José:Of course, yes. On the other hand, I would love to be able to talk with DanielaRyf. I think she has been a great evolution in women's IRONMAN training andracing, so I'm sure a conversation with her would be wonderful.

 

Andrew:Great picks there, José. Raya, over to you.

 

Raya:Do you know, actually I didn't realize this, but one of the problems of puttingJosé and I both on a podcast is that we totally agree on everything.

 

Andrew:Good to know.

 

Raya:Annoyingly, that is exactly the answer that I had. But for me it'sinspirational women, like powerhouse women. So one of the people that I was sofond of, arguably one of the greatest in the female sport, was Miranda Carfrae.And of course, I've just had the pleasure of spending three days with her inTexas working on the IRONMAN U stuff, so it's really cool that I've got to meether, and I've been able to have a chat with her. And what's so cool is when youmeet these incredible athletes who are down-to-earth, just really easy to geton and talk to. So she was amazing. But as a current pro, and because it's herlast season, Daniela Ryf was also my vote. Because I mean you can't, you can'tget a CV better than that right now, it's so impressive. So, yeah, I'm snapswith José on that one.

 

Andrew:Okay, well it's a good thing José said two people, because that kind of givesyou the wiggle room there to double up on his answer and have it be okay as wewalk away today. But I'm going to go real quick here. My answer here is SamLong, and it's not necessarily because he's my favorite pro to follow. I dolike following him, but I don't root for him over other people. I specificallywould love to sit down and just compare notes as new dads in the sport. There'sa lot of triathletes who are parents, moms and dads on both sides of the field,but he wasn't too far behind me in terms of having his first kid, and I wouldjust be curious to talk shop on how he's getting along with being a new father,and just how that's impacting his training as a pro. I can tell you how it'simpacted my training as an amateur with a full-time job. It's impacted itgreatly, I'm not training a whole lot. He's obviously training quite a bit, butit's his job to train. Anyway that's my pick is Sam Long, just to sit down and betwo tri dads having a chat.

 

We'regoing to throw this question out to you, our audience. Make sure you're amember of the I AM TriDot Facebook group, we have just tens of thousands of triathletestalking swim, bike, and run every single day of the week. I'm going to ask youthis question the Monday this show comes out – of all the pro triathletes,which one would you most want to sit down and just have a nice casual chatwith? Let us know what you have to say!

 

Main set theme: On to the main set. Going in 3…2…1…

 

Andrew:  TriDot Pool School is the best way fortriathletes to learn proper swim form, and it is now the Official Swim Programof IRONMAN. The TriDot coaching team spent years on the pool deck craftingfunctional freestyle, and it has already helped hundreds of triathletes improvetheir swim by an average of 12%. As soon as an athlete registers for TriDotPool School, they are given a series of dry-land exercises to help buildcrucial muscle memory, long before the in-person weekend. The weekend workshopis an engaging blend of instruction, demonstrations, and drills, with frequentbreaks to rest and reflect. You'll be grouped with swimmers of a similarability, and taught step-by-step how to turn your muscle memory intofull-stroke swimming that's smooth and fast. TriDot Pool School is foreveryone. We have had entry-level triathletes, back-of-the-packers,mid-packers, some elite age-groupers, and even a few pro triathletes inattendance. Ready to jump in? There are Pool Schools available all over the countryand around the world. Head to tridot.com/pool-school and sign up today.

 

Obviouslywe hear at TriDot love it when new athletes come on board using TriDotTraining, and using our coaches, since we have so many wonderful coaches thatare coaching their athletes with TriDot. Athletes find TriDot in a variety ofways and switch over for a variety of reasons, and here today we're just goingto hear from three coaches – they have a wonderful roster of athletes – andjust hear what their experience has been coming on board with TriDot, and whatexperience are their athletes having as they're getting their hands and feetand legs and lungs on the training. And for our three coaches, my very firstquestion today, I'm kind of curious about this – what was your very firstmemory of TriDot as a brand? Not necessarily when you decided to switch to it,not necessarily when you first finally gave it a look and considered it foryour business, but your very first impression of the red TriDot disc and thewhite TriDot text somewhere, anywhere. What was that very first encounter youhad with our brand? And Jasmine, you're the newest coach for me, just in termsof getting to know you, so I'm kind of curious what this answer is for you?

 

Jasmine:It's such a funny story. I totally thought that this was just Mark Allen'scoaching company, and I had no idea that it was a platform for coaches. And Iwas at Endurance Exchange in Austin, Texas last year, and I knew Matt Bach backfrom when he was at UCAN. But then he was at TriDot, and I saw all you guysthere and I was like, “Oh, they look so cool! Mark Allen has a great group withthem!”

 

Andrew:Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

 

Jasmine:Yeah, and then I got to talking with Matt. He saw me and we were catching up,and I was just telling him how I'm like flooding with work, like with thecoaching plans and all that stuff. And he's like, “Oh, well haven't you heardof TriDot?” I'm like, “Yeah, yeah! Mark Allen's coaching company, yeah!” Andhe's like, “No no, we're a platform not just for athletes to get coaching, butcoaches to bring their athletes.” Then I was like, “Ohh!” So yeah, it was likethe “aha” moment for me I guess. But yeah, I definitely initially just thoughtit was a Mark Allen’s coaching company. It was definitely a funny little storythere.

 

Andrew:In your defense, we were so excited when Mark came on to start coaching hisathletes with TriDot, that we did talk about that a lot, and we did market ourconnection to Mark quite a bit. So I can see why that mix-up would happen. Idon't think that's fully your fault. Mark obviously is one of our wonderfulcoaches. We love Mark, he's a regular here on the podcast. Very funny storythere. Coach José, your story actually also involves Mark Allen. I've heard itbefore, but for our listeners, what was your very first impression of theTriDot brand?

 

José:Yes, I remember back in 2022 I was walking along the pier at Digme Beach, thelittle beach that you have to start the Ironman World Championship. This is ofcourse in Kona. And the day before the competition you can meet all the prosand the big names of our sport, and there was Mark Allen talking aboutsomething new called TriDot. So I thought, “Okay, if Mark Allen is in TriDot,maybe I must know something more about TriDot.” So I started looking forinformation about TriDot and how it worked and everything, and the rest ishistory.

 

Andrew:Yeah, very good. And coach Raya, you and Will both are the bigwigs at PrecisionCoaching in the UK, so your story and his story I'm sure is one and the same.What was your very first encounter with the TriDot brand?

 

Raya:Well, ours didn't involve Mark Allen, but like José, it did involve Kona, andwe'd never heard of TriDot before. I know the TriDot team were down in Kona,and the CEO, Jeff Booher, turned around to one of our team sponsors – who'salso a team sponsor of you guys, of us – and said, “Hey listen, we don't haveany users in the UK. We've never even tried to go to the UK, because it's sucha big market, we don't even know where to start. Do you know any tech-savvycoaches that would be interested in hearing about our story?” And I guess likeJosé says, the rest is history. We got a phone call from the CEO of PrecisionFuel & Hydration, Andy Blow, who I know is a regular on the podcast too.

 

Andrew:Love Andy.

 

Raya:I know, he's so cool. He just called us and said, “There's a really coolopportunity to be first movers in the tech space.” My husband Will had alreadybeen talking for a good six months that he was “worried” about AI and how itmight impact or threaten our business, and our business was going really well.And yeah, our first phone call on TriDot lasted four hours with the CEO, andafter that we were kind of sold.

 

Andrew:Yeah, and for many of you, your first impression kind of led to you making theswitch for your entire business. I do want to talk about that a little bit,because your answer might be different, it might be similar and that's okay.But it's one thing to encounter TriDot the brand in the space for the firsttime, it's another thing to decide to move your entire business over to it. Tomove your athletes over to it, to get them on a new platform to get them doingtraining they're not used to and they’re already used to training that you'rewriting for them. So that's a big leap of faith, to make that decision of,“Okay, here's this thing that I found. It's a great tool, but is it the righttool for my business?” And again, your answer might be similar, but it mightnot. We're going to go around the horn here. For you, what was the actual sparkthat made you say, “Okay, I'm going to go all in on this and see what it doesfor my athletes.” I'll go over to Josérra first on this one.

 

José:The first big reason is something similar to Raya. It was the very first call.Because when the CEO of a company sits down with you for several hours andinvests all his time and energy in explaining all the details of the company,everything about TriDot, that's when you know that the company is a greatcompany. So the detail of talking for several days with Jeff Booher to startusing TriDot was very, very important for me from the very beginning. Then thesecond part is that I've been a coach for 23 years now, and I’d work as a coachfor two athletes, and my early workmate was my computer. So I've been a coachduring 23 years, and my only teammate was my computer every single day. So now,after starting using TriDot, I've discovered a huge and extraordinary team ofprofessionals from different fields, from top-level coaches as Raya, Jasmine,and many others, to administration and marketing staff. A big team of 50 peoplethat when you are working with them, you are feeling that you are inside the team.You are part of a team, and this is something that I've been able to use thathas helped me a lot to grow professionally and personally. Not just from thecoaching perspective, but from the personal part. On the other hand, now I candedicate much more time to my human relationship with the triathletes, sinceTriDot allows me to be more efficient thanks to the extraordinary technology.And this has allowed me to invest time in building the community of athletes,in educating them, to talk about nutrition, training, competition, etcetera. SoI think TriDot has been a huge discovery. It's helping me to have the bestmoment in my life. I always say that the last year has been my best year ever.

 

Andrew:I absolutely love to hear that. And your athletes had a great time in Kona. Igot to meet many of your athletes in Kona this past year, and they were justkicking butt on the race course out there at the World Championships aftertheir first year on TriDot. Jasmine, what is this answer for you? You talkedwith Matt Bach at Endurance Exchange, you learn that's not just Mark Allen'straining company. What was the spark that got you to just switch over to TriDotfor your business?

 

Jasmine:Yeah, I was kind of venting to Matt, I was like, “Yeah, these training planstake me so long.” Because I lead at least one or two in-person coachingsessions a day for the team. We have about 80 athletes in the area. So it'sbeen really hard to do all of that, plus be at all the races every weekend, andthen do the training plans and then my own training. I was just overwhelmed allthe time. And then when Matt told me, “No, this is like a tool for you coaches,and it makes it so much easier and faster.” And I was like, “Oh, okay, Iactually had no idea!” So then when I hopped on the call and found out more, Iwas just kind of mind-blowing that this even existed and I didn't realize. Ihad seen it, but didn't realize it was something that I could have been usingthe last few years. So yeah, I made the switch. I think I was coachingone-on-one like ten athletes at the time, and I just moved them all over, andyeah, it was amazing the amount of time I had on my hands to actually focus onthe things I wanted to be focusing on. Like with my nutrition background, beingable to help them more dial in their fueling, and more on the mindset portion.The data was just so much easier to analyze, all my time got cut in half, andall of a sudden I kind of got my life back. But not only that, I saw justtremendous improvements from my athletes as soon as we switched. Because I'mkind of just like a self-taught coach, I didn't really have a coach mentor oranything. So for me, having almost like the AI be my little road map forthings, it gave me more confidence basically, and I feel like I've learned somuch by using the platform for training plans and coaching and for myathletes.  I mean, I had one athlete whoshaved off 40 or 50 minutes from Indian Wells 70.3, and we did nothingdifferent aside from switching to TriDot in that year. Yeah, it was obviouslymost importantly, a great switch for my athletes, but also for me to be able togive my athletes that attention and coaching that they need and deserve, andnot just be working on training plans for 50 hours and never see the light ofday. So it was definitely a game-changer for me and my business and the team,and just being a part of the TriDot family and community, like having othercoaches to reach out to for help and things. It's been great.

 

Andrew:Yeah, and I love that for you. I love that change for you, that you got part ofyour life back. Yeah, I remember going through the USA Triathlon Level 1coaching certification, and when they talked about writing training plans, theyspent a whole half-day just talking about how to write a training plan. And I'min the back of the room pounding the table like, “There's a better way! Youdon't have to do all of this! You can just let the computers do it!” Anyway,Raya, same question over to you.

 

Raya:There is a better way Andrew, but one thing I would caveat with, that itdoesn't matter that the platform does help us write the training plans. I thinkit's still really, really important for us as coaches to really understanddeep-rooted knowledge of programming, which is really important to note thatwhilst it massively helps us with so many different aspects, I still sit andspend at least an hour checking each athlete's program, every week. But whatgot us moved over was really a TSS versus NTS argument, which is the ability tomeasure stress accurately.

 

Andrew: Classic.  Yeah.

 

Raya:Will and I are quite a tech-focused kind of triathlon team. We coach with a lotof advanced tools, not necessarily to make it complicated for our athletes, butwe want as much data as possible when we’re coaching. And one of the problemsthat we always felt is that we're using all these comprehensive tools that aredeep diving into data, but are we accurately measuring the stress that ourathletes are under, to get viable data from our Stryd meters, or from our corebody temperatures, from our HRV. TSS – which for those of us who aren't coachesis training stress score, which is the measure of stress that other platformsuse – it only takes two variables into consideration. The length of yourworkout, and potentially how stressful it is in terms of intensity. But there'sso many different aspects of stress. It's life stress, plus how much and howlong you've been training for the last seven days, and what you have seven daysinto the future. How many threshold sessions have you had that week? Whattemperature do you train in? What environment do you train in? What elevation,what's the humidity? What's your age, what's your gender? And we knew this, butobviously we didn't have the time to develop or look into that. So when Jeff,the CEO, sort of opened up with that, Will basically was sold. Because he hadbeen so aggravated by TSS for so long, that to have an updated, modernizedversion that can help us accurately quantify stress was a total game-changer.

 

Andrew:Yeah. Jeff, our CEO, he's always very clear – he has nothing but praise for thepioneers of the sport who created TSS. I want to say two decades ago, loosely,that's been a metric in the marketplace.

 

Raya:Yeah, and it was amazing when it was invented. Amazing.

 

Andrew:Yeah, it's just we know more now, we have more sensors now, we have betterknowledge now. And Jeff was like, “Yeah, it's time for somebody to updatethis.” And so he did it here at TriDot. Yeah, great point there, Raya, for thatto be kind of the tipping point for you guys to bring Precision Coaching overto TriDot.  So that was kind of youmaking the switch for your business. Now that you've made that switch, let'stalk about the reaction your athletes are having to the training. And Jasmine,you mentioned that you had one particular athlete at Indian Wells go 40 to 50minutes faster, just off of one year on TriDot versus the programs you werewriting. That was my personal experience. I went from a 5:57 PR at Half-Ironmanto a 5:02 PR at Half-Ironman, just in a year and change on TriDot myself. Whatare you hearing, Jasmine, from the rest of your athletes about their experienceto TriDot?

 

Jasmine:Yeah, all of them love it. Obviously in the beginning, whenever change happenseveryone's kind of like, “Whoa, what's going on, what's this?” And when wefirst switched, there was some confusion and hesitation. But then once they gotinto it and they started doing the training and the different plans andprograms – obviously I definitely heavily look at it as well, and make surethat it's still tailored to all of them and everything's feeling really good.Especially for some reason I get a lot of athletes that come to me injured, soI obviously have to adjust the plan quite a bit. But they have loved all thedifferent workouts that they get, the different training sessions, and they'vejust seen huge improvements. Really some of them are even training a littleless because work has gotten crazy, and life’s gone crazy. But they're stillgetting PRs and doing great, because the training is just so optimized andefficient that they could even get to those PR's better and more effectivelywithout putting in as much time as they were before with the super-heavy volumeand stuff. So yeah, it's definitely been great for all my athletes, and I'vebeen getting more and more athletes just by being on TriDot. Yeah, they'revery, very happy, and that makes me very happy!

 

Andrew:Yeah. Love to hear that, and I love hearing from our podcast coaches. Typicallythe coaches who are on our podcast on a regular basis, they're chosen for theirexpertise, but because people hear you and connect with you, people are like,“Oh, I want to work with that coach, I enjoyed hearing them!” So Coach Jasmine,Coach Raya, and Coach José could all be your personal triathlon coach, justknow that as we talk through this conversation. Raya, how have your athletes inthe UK received the training once you made the switch?

 

Raya:We had an interesting sort of leap into it, because we were literally the firstpeople to even try it. Most of our athletes hadn't even heard of it, and Ithink our team of which we had – I think we transitioned 120 athletes and fourcoaches. So it was a big deal for us, because we were doing something new. AndI think globally we have a resistance to change, but the UK – they know whatthey know, and they're comfortable with that. So I think it took a littleconvincing. We had the same as Jasmine, we had a couple of people thinking wewere totally crazy. And Will sat down and wrote – I am sort of the teammanager, and Will's the head coach. So often the voice on our community chatsis me, and Will pipes up only every once in a while. And he sat down andstarted this really long message to the whole team saying, “Right, everyonemake a cup of tea, sit down, this is going to be a long one. Yeah, I know youdon't hear from me…” and he launched into this long story of why we were goingto do it. And luckily our team trusts us, so they all moved over. I think theapprehension is just the change. It wasn't AI, it was just the platform looksdifferent to what they're used to, and they weren't sure, like, “Does that meanwe're going to coach them less, because the plan is written for them?” All thatsort of stuff. But we've had so many incredible stories, and one amazinganecdotal story from a team member spurs on another amazing anecdotal storyfrom the team. And it just creates this sense of success and triumph and fun.So yeah, the team has gone from strength to strength, so it's been a reallylovely transition, if not a little bit hiccupy in the beginning. But that'sjust change, right?

 

Andrew:Yeah, that's any change, especially with that many athletes all making thatchange. Coach José, same question to you for your community in Spain. How arethe Spanish contingent of TriDot finding their TriDot training?

 

José:For me, something key was the education. You know when an athlete understandswhat he's doing, they enjoy it more. If they enjoy it more, they improve evenmore. So it's always very, very important to educate every single athlete. So Ispend at least 30 minutes to one hour talking to every single athlete,one-on-one conversations, to explain to them why we are going to move from ourplatform to the platform that we are going to use now, which is TriDot. Whenyou explain to them little by little, I think they understood that this is ahuge improvement, so we are really convinced. And of course this is just thefirst part. You invest a lot of time in the education piece, but then when theysee the results, when they start feeling fresh, when they start feeling theexact amount of time that they need to train, always with high quality – everysingle minute of the training week is high-quality training – then is when theyrealize that this move was really, really good. Then of course the last part iswhen they arrived to the race, when they arrive to the Ironman or 70.3 races,and they realize that – maybe we've been working together 10 years, 15 yearswith the same athlete – and suddenly in one year they improve their ownpersonal best times by 45 minutes or one hour. One of my favorite stories is mywife, Tamara. She was racing her very first year in 2022, and she raced IRONMANVictoria. She finished the race, enjoyed it a lot, and she qualified for Kona.She did a very extraordinary race because she is an amazing athlete. And in2023, with using TriDot for one year, she improved one hour in Victoria and onehour in Kona, because she qualified again. So it was perfect. Then another oneis very nice. I've been coaching an athlete from Canada for ten years now, andthe first day that she met me was like, “Okay Coach, I would like to qualifyfor Kona someday.” So after ten years, this year she finally qualified forKona.  

 

Andrew:Wow.

 

José:She won her age group, and it was life-changing. So for her, it was the bestmoment of her life when we moved to TriDot, because she’s that kind of personthat she always wanted to train more and more and more and more. And I need alot of time to convince her that, “Okay, don't worry. You are now training justmaybe 10 hours, 12 hours, 13 hours, but you are doing correctly.” And of coursewhen she saw the results, she felt really, really happy.

 

Andrew:So all three of you individually are triathletes. You train yourselves, yourace yourselves. So I just want to hear, for the three of you – just strip thebusiness away from it, strip coaching away from it – just you individually asan athlete now following the training on your own, what is the biggestdifference you've seen in your own training and racing after coming on withTriDot? Coach José?

 

José:Every year I go to Madrid, here in the main capital in Spain, and I visit oneof the best cardiologists in the world. Every year I go there, I do myassessments, just to know that everything works perfectly, and that my healthand my heart is perfect. So this year, when I went to visit her after one yearusing TriDot, when she was doing my cardiac echography she told me, “What haveyou been doing during the last 12 months? Because your heart has always beenhealthy, perfect, nice, the heart of an athlete. But what have you been doing?Because this is beautiful. Your heart has been evolving perfectly related toyour training. So please let me know what you are doing!” And then I explainedto her that this is TriDot, this is the next generation, this is a new way tounderstand training, understand intensity, understand volume. So this was avery, very nice part of the journey, because it's not just the performance.Performance of course is very nice. All of us want to perform well when we aregoing to race. But when you go to the health side of the sport is when youreally realize that TriDot is perfect for our training and racing, but TriDotis very, very good and very important to help us to be healthier.

 

Andrew:Yeah, we'll have to add that to our qualifications as a company, that TriDottraining is “cardiologist-approved”, specifically in the country of Spain, inthe city of Madrid. Raya, same question over to you. As a person, as anathlete, what has your journey been as you’ve started doing the trainingsessions with TriDot?

 

Raya:Yeah, I couldn't agree more than José. I came into TriDot very injured andquite ill. I was diagnosed with Relative Energy Deficiency Syndrome back in2021 and I was hospitalized with it. So I had a really tough time coming back,and have really struggled with it because of some of the awful things that havehappened since being diagnosed with REDS. Which is what it is, and that is frompurely overtraining and under-fueling for years and years and years. Also Itried to go plant-based for a year, loved it, but even with the help of anutritionist, I just wasn't getting the protein volume in. So I was startingfrom a really low base, which is quite hard to handle when you're someone whohas won World Championship titles. But TriDot was able to help me layer sosystematically, so sensibly. I put my thresholds way down and started fromscratch, so I started walking rather than running for my threshold test.

 

Andrew:Yeah. Love that. I love that.

 

Raya:And I just started easing back in so sensibly, and then every test came aroundand I would just walk or run another minute faster for my 5K. So even though Iknew I was much faster than this, I knew that with my body I had to take iteasy. And the ability for TriDot to simply layer the load so gradually and sobeautifully, is better than I've certainly ever been able to plan for myself,that any other coach has helped me with, even my husband, who coached me forseven years. Because I'm someone who pushes and pushes and pushes. I've been aprofessional athlete most of my life, and it's all I want to do is be fasterand push harder. So actually that was amazing, and what was really interestingwas I wanted to get the full experience of TriDot to make sure I knew what Iwas asking my athletes to do, so I did my Physiogenomix. We always knew that Ihave a high propensity to get injured, even if I push myself. And also, eventhough I’ve always raced well, I would still not be able to walk like five daysafter an Ironman, no matter how slow or fast the race was. And thePhysiogenomix, when it uploaded, just changed my programming – not so severelythat you noticed, but just like in between my thresholds you get an extraminute rest. Then your husband who's on the turbo going, “Why do you have threeminutes and I have two?” Just such simple things like that.

 

Andrew:So my body doesn't break down.

 

Raya:Exactly! And I am injury-free a year and two months into the training. So it'shuge.

 

Andrew:Yeah, so glad to hear that. I am also an athlete who in my Physiogenomix has ahigh propensity for injury. We need T-shirts, like a “fall risk” or “injuryrisk” T-shirt club for all the TriDot athletes who are easily injured andtaking advantage of the program for that reason. Jasmine for you, when youstarted training with TriDot on a personal level, what difference has it madein your training?

 

Jasmine:It's made a huge difference, especially for me with the swimming. I feel like Ihad kind of hit a plateau with the swimming until I started doing all these newdrills. Some of the drills there, I had never seen or heard of them and I waslike, “What is this? Whoa, interesting!” Then when I did the Pool School andeverything, it just made a huge difference. Like, now I'm able to put downfaster times with way less effort. And my run and bike have significantlyimproved too, but for me it was really seeing some of these swim drills thatI've never seen or even heard of before, it's just been a huge game-changer forme and my athletes, and how I coach my athletes in the pool and stuff now. Soit's been awesome to see. And also less injuries for sure, because I am alsoinjury-prone, so it's definitely very nice to see myself and all my athletesinjury-free once they get started with me and the plan on TriDot. It's beenfantastic.

 

Andrew:Jasmine, what is one of the swim drills you had never heard of before, beforedoing TriDot?

 

Jasmine:The “finding fast” was a big one for me. Just even getting into the first poseof “fast” I was like, “What is this? How does my shoulder stay at 45°?” I feltlike a completely new swimmer trying to do all these things, but I love that ittook me from just going to the baseline of things and getting to the rootcause, versus just fixing little things in my form here and there. That was abig one for me, just really learning how to actually swim properly versus justfixing things. So I think that's the best part, is getting down to like theroot cause of things and not just the surface level.

 

Andrew:I did have down on our notes today to talk about TriDot Pool School. For time,I'm going to skip over that, but I just wanted to make a note while Jasminebrought it up, all three of you are Certified Pool School Coaches, and I thinkwith nods of heads you all agree TriDot Pool School is an amazing tool forathletes to revolutionize their swim. Whether you are a TriDot athlete or not,you're more than welcome to jump in to TriDot Pool School and fix your swimform, revolutionize your swim from the ground up.

 

SoI'm curious, now that you're on TriDot, and your athletes are on TriDot, everysingle workout that your athletes are getting is generated for them by TriDot.What workout that your athletes get sparks the most questions? Which one is theone that you just know, when it comes around on somebody's schedule, you'regoing to have to have an extra-long phone call to talk about this workoutbefore they do it. There's some doozies in there, between Big Gear workout andMAV shuttles and some of the sprinting stuff in the pool. I'm just curious tohear, what are the things that athletes really react to when they see it comeacross the training calendar? Jasmine, what is it for you?

 

Jasmine:I literally wrote down Big Gear Work and MAV shuttles.

 

Raya:I reckon we all did.

 

Jasmine:Yeah. Well, it’s that, and then maybe some of the swim drills that they'venever seen, like the sink-downs or some things like that. But the Big Gear workand MAV shuttles, especially the Big Gear work. I know anytime I put it inthere I'm like, “Oh, I know I'm going to get some messages about that.” But Ilove it, I think it's such a fun one, and I know a lot of my athletes getstrength. So this is the way that I know they're doing their strength work andgetting the ride in. So I torture them, if they don't do their strength I putthat in there.

 

Andrew:I literally cannot hold every single squat interval it tells me to hold. Ican't do it. I try every single time, and at some point my legs just give outentirely. One of these days, that's like a TriDot goal for me is that one day Iactually get through my entire Big Gear workout as prescribed. I'm going tocelebrate with a pint of ice cream or something. I don't know, we’ll see. José,Raya, anything different from you besides those two workouts?

 

Raya:Well my athletes are exactly the same as Jasmine's. Big Gear gets them everytime. One, especially because it's not a downloadable workout. So the way youhave to run the workout means that no matter how perfect you did the workout,you're probably only going to get 30 or 40 session XP's or TrainX score, and itdrives my athletes so crazy. Because we definitely have a problem withperfectionism in our team, and we're working on it, don't worry. “Hi, we'rePrecision Coaching, and we’re perfectionists.”

 

Andrew:Yeah. That's a triathlon problem. That's a triathlete problem.

 

Raya:But it's one of my favorite workouts. I don't know, is there a problem with me?I see it in my program and I'm like, “Yes, alright, here we go!” I love thewall set. I don't know, maybe something is wrong with me.

 

Andrew:Yeah. And just for the athletes at home, there is a reason why you might notget a good score on that workout. Basically it is very difficult to quantifywhat a strength session is doing to you. We can see what your heart rate isduring a strength session, so when you get Big Gear workout for those minutesthat you're holding your squats, we can see what your heart rate is doing, butit's very difficult to quantify in terms of a big data back-of-the-computeralgorithm kind of way what's actually happening there. Anyway, getting offtopic. Coach José, anything different that your athletes just react to when ithits their training calendar?

 

José:I have the same answer of course, and I have another one. My athletes alwaysreact when they see long Zone 4 repetition. So when they see 10, 11, 12minutes, even 17 minutes in Zone 4 is like, “Why I'm doing this? Becausethis is really tough.” So at the end, the nice part is that they feel the highintensity during the workout, but at the same time they feel the improvement.So finally, they understand how important these sessions are.

 

Andrew:I think when I see 2 x 18 on the bike, that's usually my cue that myassessments are right around the corner.

 

Raya:Yeah.

 

Andrew:So we have coaches all over the world now, and hundreds of coaches are usingTriDot to coach their athletes. We absolutely love it. There is more room underthe tent, we're a very welcoming community. Some of those coaches are veryinvolved in the TriDot community, some of those coaches just kind of do theirown thing with their athletes and the training is powered by TriDot. Bothapproaches are totally fine, both approaches are absolutely whatever is bestfor your business, however you want to do it. So I'm not saying one way theother here, I'm just kind of curious – from the three of you, how much has theTriDot community added to your triathlon experience and the experience of yourathletes? Coach Jasmine?

 

Jasmine:It's been a tremendous impact for me, because I was always wanting to haveother coaches to collaborate with, and talk to, and ask questions with. Andhaving that biweekly coaching call has been amazing for me, I feel like I'velearned and grown so much in this past year, more than I have in the last fiveyears of coaching. So for me, getting that TriDot community has been agame-changer, and also my athletes love it. It's like we have this whole otherbig pool of support for us, and it's also awesome because my team’s colors arealso red and black, so it just works really well.

 

Andrew:Yeah, it was meant to be.

 

Jasmine:But yeah, for me it's just been really nice to actually have that support andcommunity feel that I've been wanting, versus the very competitive feel thattriathlon has a lot of the time. Like sometimes you just want to talk withother coaches and help each other out. I've helped some other TriDot coachesget started with everything recently, so that's been really cool, getting themup and running in their own business. So I've loved being able to also giveback to the community with things that I've learned.

 

Andrew:Coach Josérra, same question over to you. What impact has the TriDot communityhad on your athletes and your coaching?

 

José:Yes, as I explained before it's been amazing. It's been a very beautifuljourney from the end of 2022, maybe December. Because from the very beginningyou feel that you are belonging to a team, you are part of a big team ofcoaches. It's very nice to learn from them, and at the same time to share withthem all your knowledge, your experience. For example, I have two big, bigreferences in Raya and Will, because they are the one of the best in the world,and every single detail that they can teach you – of course from the coachingperspective, but at the same time from the business perspective – it's the bestpresent that a coach can have. So it's beautiful to share time and experiencesand meetings and all kind of things with this big community of coaches. And Ithink this is very unique, because there is no other place in the world whereyou can find this passion at the same time that you can feel that you areworking together with coaches. And all of us want the same, we always want thebest for TriDot, which is the best for us. So I think it's beautiful becausethe message and the power of this kind of relationship is the best that anycompany can have.

 

Andrew:Coach Raya, same question over to you.

 

Raya:I love it. He says all the right things. Flattery will get you everywhere,José, every time. I mean, he said it so well. Before we joined TriDot, myhusband and I – we are a husband-and-wife combo, so at least we had each other.But so many triathlon coaches are like “solopreneurs”, they are doing this allon their own. They don't have anyone to bounce ideas off of. They don't haveanyone to help do the social media posting, or make sure that everyone gets totheir race, or make sure the team kit has been ordered. There's so many thingsthat are really task-heavy that you have to do, and you're doing it all on yourown. It can get really frustrating. Especially like maybe you've just lost anathlete that really meant something to you, and you know it's the right thingfor them to move on, but you're distraught and destroyed over it. Things likethat, where there's no one to bounce those things off of. And suddenly TriDothad these amazing mentor groups. And José and I, we joined at the same time. Wewere in the mentor group, and every two weeks, every Monday I'd be so excitedthat we were going to do our mentor group, I couldn't wait to get on the call.And like half of us join early and make sure the call is like an hour andtwenty minutes rather than an hour. That's cool. It's no way that beforejoining TriDot, I would have had this collaborative approach to working withcompetitors to be better. And that is something that nobody else is doing. Imean, my previous platform that I worked on, I couldn't even get a tech supportanswer from them, let alone them putting me in a group of coaches that made mebetter and helped me build my business. And the other cool thing is there's somuch that you can be involved with as a TriDot coach, but everything that'sthere for you to be a part of is totally up to you. It's up to you how much youtake advantage of it. If you don't want to do that, you don't have to. But it'sthere, and now that I've experienced it – I think José and I dived into thedeep end head-first. Anything that they said we should try and do, we did. Sowe got our TriDot coaching certification, we joined a mentor group, we startedmentoring. We've done everything that was available to us, and I don't thinkwe'd be the coaches we are today had we not done all of that. Even with all ofour years of experience, it’s been a game-changer.

 

Andrew:To me, the perfect way of doing this – you have the TriDot training there asthe base experience for your athletes. It's getting us all fitter, healthier,etc. But then the coach brings the flavor, and the coach brings the community,and the coach brings the extra things to plug in to, the extra learningopportunities. And all three of you, to your credit, are doing a lot with yourcoaches on-site. So I just want to give those kudos to the three of you. Andwe're going to wrap up our main set today with this. I want to hear from allthree of you, just your 30-second elevator pitch for TriDot.  Raya, go.

 

Raya:TriDot Training is such an amazing platform to join as a coach and to bringyour team, because of this collaborative community that we've built that notonly helps you be a better coach, but learn new skills and collaborate withother coaches that we've just never had before. Being able to quantify stresslike we've never been able to do before, and do it with a platform that'sactually so simple to use, and really pretty on the front end. It's doing allthe hard work on the back end. So yeah, it's just an amazing, amazing tool andcommunity to be a part of.

 

Andrew:Jose?

 

José:Artificial intelligence and human intelligence specific for triathlon and thebest team, all in TriDot.

 

Raya:Heeeey!

 

Andrew:Jasmine?

 

Jasmine:Just try it. Don't hesitate, just get on and try it. Give it a chance, foryourself, for your athletes, for your business, and see what it does. I thinkAI is the future, and coaches that know AI are definitely going to know what todo in the long run. So just hop on, try it. Same thing as an athlete, you won'tregret it. You won't get any injuries, you'll have a great season, it'll justbe so much better for both sides. So just try it, try it, try it.

 

Andrew:Yeah, we have great coaches, like the coaches on this podcast, who can be yourcoach! You can be coached by Raya, Jasmine, or Josérra all on your own. We alsohave a pretty okay podcast.

 

Raya:Oh yeah!

 

Jasmine:Oh yes, hundred percent!

 

Cool down theme: Great set everyone! Let’s cool down.

 

Vanessa Ronksley: Well, hello there everyone! It's Coach CooldownTip time, and I'm Vanessa, your Average Triathlete with Elite-Level Enthusiasm!With me today is Dennis Hetland. Dennis has been involved in the triathloncommunity for over 20 years as an athlete and is a Certified TriDot Coach.Dennis is the poster boy for something that I have always believed, and that isanyone can do the sport of triathlon. With a background in scholastics andmusic, Dennis claimed that he did not have an athletic bone in his body. Well,he sits here today having completed sprint all the way to full-distance tris,and he is also a proud recipient of a World Marathon Majors Six Star finishermedal. That is quite an accomplishment. Dennis enjoys working withtime-crunched athletes who are looking for work/life/family balance. His goalis to help them cross the finish line with a smile on their face and feelingthe support of their families and the TriDot community. Dennis enjoys living inArizona with his wife Patty, and visiting his children and grandchildren inColorado and North Dakota. Welcome to the show, Dennis!

 

Dennis Hetland: Well thanks, Vanessa! Happy to be here. Lookingforward to absorbing some of that enthusiasm that you have and also maybesharing a tip or two.

 

Vanessa:Sounds great. So Dennis, I think it's fair to say that you believe there is agreat depth in the power of the mind. So tell us how on Earth you have walkedon a bed of hot coals not once, but twice.

 

Dennis:Well, actually it's three times –

 

Vanessa:Oh my goodness.

 

Dennis:– but the first time wasn’t on purpose, and I actually did end up burning myfeet on that one. But the other two times were on purpose. Many of you may knowor have heard of Tony Robbins, and I participated in a number of his events.And one of the calling cards, at least at that point in time, was the firewalk. So I have had the opportunity to do two different fire walks. The firstone was a shorter distance, and the second one was about three times thedistance of the first one. So it definitely requires a lot of mindset controland a lot of energy that you take in to be able to successfully cross withoutburning your feet.

 

Vanessa:That is so amazing. I would love to hear a little bit about this mind control,and I think that that has something to do with the tip that you're going toshare with us today. So what do you have to share with our listeners?

 

Vanessa:Well, a tip that I want to share today, and I think that it's been shared acouple of different times in previous podcasts, but it's dealing with anxiety.We're all going to feel anxiety, and I think the more approaches that we have,the more tools that we have to be able to handle it, the better off that we'regoing to be in accomplishing that goal. So my tip is that the body and the mindreally can't distinguish between anxiety and excitement. It's the meaning thatwe put on it. So as hard as it can be at times, we have to decide to be excitedand not anxious. Yes, probably easier said than done sometimes. But the simpleact of thinking about what excites us for the day can do wonders. Is it yourvision of the finish? Is it seeing your support crew or your family along theway? Or perhaps that little treat that you decided to give yourself at thefinish? There are many things that we can be excited about, and thinking ofthese will change our focus from anxiety. Of course, the act of a simple smilecan do wonders as well, as it is hard to be sad and anxious while you have asmile on your face. Plus the smiles that you will receive in return add to thatpositive vibe that you are looking for. The mind is a powerful tool, and weneed to use it to our advantage.

 

Vanessa:I love everything that you said there. I think that's something that is reallyimportant that you mentioned, is that our body physiologically doesn't know thedifference between anxiety and excitement. It's our perception of what weperceive in the situation to be associated with those different feelings. Italk about this with my kids all the time. But it is easier to say than it isto do, so the thing that I like that you really hit home with was thinking ofthose tangible acts of shifting the mindset from anxiety to excitement. I justlove the one particularly about smiling, I think that is so valuable on therace course. And just like you said, if you give a smile, you will most likelyget one in return. Every race course I've been on, the fans that are on thesidelines, they came out to cheer for people, and that's what they're therefor. So if you engage with them, you're more likely to get something back, andit's this energy that keeps on going.

 

Dennis:Yeah. A little story behind the smile – I was participating in the FargoMarathon back in North Dakota, and afterwards I was having a conversation withsomebody I knew, and they were situated about mile 22. Her comment was, “I'mnever going to run a marathon.” And I said, “Well, why?” She said, “It’sbecause I see the look on people's faces when they come across, and nobody wassmiling.” I think of that a lot as I'm out at events, and if I'm getting intothat rough patch, the first thing I do is put a smile on my face.

 

Outro:Thanks for joining us. Make sure to subscribe and share the TriDot podcast withyour triathlon crew. For more great tri content and community, connect with uson Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Ready to optimize your training? Head totridot.com and start your free trial today! TriDot – the obvious and automaticchoice for triathlon training.

 

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