You Can Be A Triathlete! 11 Tips for Success

TriDot Podcast Episode 261

You Can Be a Triathlete! 11 Tips for Success

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

Andrew Harley: Welcome to the TriDot podcast. Today's episode: 11 tips for new Triathletes. Really excited to talk to triathletes out there who might be gearing up for their very first triathlon. Or maybe you've done one or two and you're still kind of new to the sport. I've got two TriDot coaches here on this show. Just to let us know in full honesty, eight tips today are from our coaches, so they're going to be fantastic. Three tips are from me, your host of the show, so they'll be okay at best, maybe, hopefully. But all in all, you're going to walk away with 11 tips that we feel are applicable to newer triathletes. If you are a seasoned TriDot athlete or a seasoned triathlete in our listening audience, this could be a great show for you to share with that friend of yours that is thinking about doing a triathlon or maybe starting to ask you questions because they're getting ready for that first triathlon. So listen in, see what you can learn. And yeah, excited to help some folks be a little bit more experienced and be a little more prepared for their first triathlon than perhaps myself and some others on this show today. Our first guest to talk about this and bring some great tips is Coach Jasmine Moezzi. Jasmine is the founder, president and head coach of the California based South Bay Squad. She raced collegiately as a member of the triathlon team at the University of Southern California where she received her BS in Applied and Computational Mathematics. She's an IRONMAN U Certified coach and is a certified nutritionist and health coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Jasmine, welcome back to the show.

Jasmine Moezzi: Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be back here with you guys and talk about some of these fun little tips and tricks we have in store for you all.

Andrew Harley: Our next guest is Rich Soares from Boulder, Colorado. He hosts the 303 Endurance Podcast. Rich has been coaching triathletes since 2017 and has been coaching with TriDot since 2021. He has been podcasting since 2015. I always like highlighting fellow triathlon podcasters. Rich's triathlon journey began in 2006. So at the time we're recording this podcast, he's got almost two decades of racing under his belt. He's a five time IRONMAN finisher himself. Coach Rich, thanks for coming back on the show to help me talk to our newer triathletes in the audience.

Rich Soares: Andrew, it's always a pleasure to be on with you doing these podcasts. And Jasmine, I'm stoked. We have coached on deck at pool school and now we're doing a podcast together. So I'm looking forward to learning from both of you too.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, it's funny, I never know necessarily which of our coaches know each other and have met at this point. We have so many fantastic coaches all over the world. And right before we started the call, we have these things here at Try Dot now that there is an amazing infrastructure. So our athletes might not know this. Coaches that are using TriDot for their coaching know this. But there are so many resources for coaches behind the scenes at TriDot to get better at coaches. Learn how to be a coach, learn how to run your business and grow your business as a coach. And Rich and Jasmine, you two are both in the same cohort in what's called our coach Mastermind groups, where coaches get together and get to pick the brains of some coaching mentors. I didn't realize you guys are a part of the same coach mastermind group. So I guess I'll go Jasmine and then Rich, what has your experience been like kind of plugging in to the coaching resources at TriDot?

Jasmine Moezzi: It's been amazing. I've loved connecting with the other coaches, learning so much about them, relating with them too, because we all are kind of going through similar things, which is sometimes nice—we're not alone, we're in it together. And then just hearing a lot of the different things, everyone's trying to grow their businesses or help their athletes through certain hurdles and just being able to hear those experiences has been super helpful.

Rich Soares: Coach Mastermind group is just the latest chapter in the coaching resources and education and training. And, you know, we say one of our values here is that excellence is a habit. And I have seen that in every forum that I have been in as a coach with TriDot. And the Coach Mastermind group just takes it to the next level. This is a great opportunity for coaches to work with each other, help each other, listen to each other, place for us to share things that we need help with. And there's usually somebody in the group that can help you with that thing. And it just makes us all better when we work together. And it's such a collaborative group that we've even taken up a Sunday afternoon version of our—it's just kind of a get together because we just love spending time with each other and helping each other.

Andrew Harley: And I just love, as an athlete, right, I'm not a part of these. I'm a TR at athlete myself. But just knowing that our coaches like working together and are all doing all of these things that you don't have to do—it's all in trying to give the athletes of the sport of triathlon the best experience possible. And yeah, I love that it's happening. I love that you both are part of it, and I love that you both ended up on this episode together being a part of the same cohort. Didn't know that. Total coincidence. Anyway, I'm gonna move us along. I am Andrew, the average triathlete, voice of the people and captain at the middle of the pack. As always, we're gonna roll through our warmup question, settle in for our main set conversation geared for new triathletes today, and then wind things down with our cooldown, where Vanessa will interview a coach to get our coach cooldown tip of the week. Lots of great stuff. Let's get to it.

Warmup Question

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

Andrew Harley: For every televised sporting event, there are several broadcasters on the mic calling the action and providing helpful commentary. Some of these folks blend into the fabric of the events, and we don't really give much thought to who they are. They just talk to us and we hear them and we're watching the action. But a select few are so beloved by the fans that they have become legends in their sport and purely for their time on the mic. And Jasmine Rich, for our warmup question today, what I want to know across all of sports, who is your personal favorite broadcast commentator and/or personality analyst, et cetera, et cetera? Jasmine, over to you first. Who is somebody that stands out for you in the broadcasting world of sports?

Jasmine Moezzi: I'm gonna have to go with Mike Riley, the voice of Iron Man. I mean, it can't get more epic than that. And I love whenever I hear his voice, whether it's in a race or just talking on a podcast, anything in person, it's like he just has the most epic voice and just such a great human being. So yeah, I'll go with Mike Riley.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, really is a great human being and definitely the standout legend on the mic in our sport. So definitely happy and he has some deep connections to try it out at this point. He does a lot of work with us behind the scenes and yeah, we love Mike. Coach Rich, over to you. Who is this answer for you?

Rich Soares: Oh, I love Mike too. I wish I could have had the chance to give his name as my favorite announcer. But I'll tell you what I'm going to—if he's probably the most well known announcer that we can think of in this sport, I am going to probably come up with the most obscure name.

Andrew Harley: Do it.

Rich Soares: It's a gentleman named Rob Warner. And you probably don't know him, but if you were to go and Google search "announcers give the best live commentary ever for mountain bikers run of his lifetime," it is the 2011 UCI Downhill World Championship. You've never heard an announcer more excited than this guy. I just play this just to make me smile sometimes.

Andrew Harley: That is such a specific answer and such a specific instance. Great answer. And again, very much in line with our sport, kind of plugging a mountain bike commentator. I'm going to go over to swimming and there certainly are—with television broadcasting in my background, I think I probably pay a little bit more attention to what the commentators are saying and how well they're doing their jobs than a lot of people do. And I certainly have favorites across the more major sports—football, soccer, basketball, hockey, whatever. But I'm gonna keep it more in the endurance sports family as well. To me, an absolute standout is Rowdy Gaines, who for in the United States anyway, does a lot of the commentating for major swim events. He's a former professional swimmer himself. Now he's a broadcaster. If you've never listened to Rowdy Gaines do a call of a swim event—some of these races, right? There's eight athletes in a pool and the way he's able to in a minute or two or eight depending on what event he's calling to kind of give you the background on who each swimmer is in each lane, keep you up to date with what's happening in the pool and make comments on form, make comments—he just educates you so well while he's saying the action of what's taking place while he's giving you the backstories and anecdotes about the swimmers who were in the pool. And then to top it off, he has his trademark enthusiasm where as the action starts heating up and it starts getting exciting and it's coming down to the last length of the pool or two, he just ratchets up the energy in a way that no other broadcaster can. So Rowdy Gaines is my answer. You can go to YouTube and type in "Rowdy Gaines calls a Swim Meet" and find a dozen videos where he is just fantastic. I will kind of give a special shout out. My wife is sitting behind me. We share the home office. If I'm answering this question from my wife, she loves it on the NASCAR broadcasts. Whoever the guy is at the start of a NASCAR race who says "boogity, boogity, boogity, let's go racing," she's all about that. She thinks it's hilarious. So anyway, I want to know what our audience thinks about this one. So go find my post on the I am trying to Facebook group or go find this post in the Athlete Community Hub and let us know who is a sports broadcaster that you just think is the greatest. Can't wait to see what you have to say.

Main Set

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

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

Andrew Harley: All right, excited to get to our main set topic today and share 11 tips to help new triathletes just have the best experience possible as you ease your way into this sport. There's so much to it. And so we are here to just kind of give you some tips, help maybe orient you in the right direction to just have a great experience as you become a more and more knowledgeable, experienced triathlete. I've got a couple questions for Jasmine and Rich, but the heart of the show today is me just getting out of the way and letting the both of them share four tips that they've brought on things they like to share for newer triathletes. So, Jasmine, Rich, what I want to hear from first is your first triathlon when you were first coming into the sport. Rich, I know for you we shared in the bio, it was back in the early 2000s. Jasmine, I don't know actually when it was for you that you had your first race. So we'll go Jasmine and then Rich and just kind of tell us when was your first race, what was your first race and how did it go out there? Jasmine?

Jasmine Moezzi: So my first race was actually 10 years ago on UCLA campus because I was on the tri team at USC and we had our first collegiate race. UCLA campus is huge. So it was a sprint distance race. Swimming was the one I was really struggling in. So that was gonna be a very difficult thing for me to see if I could make it work or not. And it was a pool swim, which was kind of nice. So we had to snake through the lanes and then we biked and ran throughout the campus and I made it. My mom was watching the whole time and she thought I would drown at one point in the swim, but I made it. And yeah, that was 10 years ago now, so that was my first race. Very memorable. I'm actually starting grad school at UCLA this month, so I want to see if I could revisit that race. I think it's in November usually, so I want to see if I could revisit it for my 10 year anniversary and just crush my time from 10 years ago.

Andrew Harley: Absolutely love that. Yeah, that's a great plan. And I call it a benchmark race, right? Having a local sprint or Olympic that you just do every couple of years just to kind of see how your time improves and yeah, revisiting that one after 10 years, that'll be special for sure. Rich, what was your first triathlon and how did it go for you?

Rich Soares: Well, we have something in common. We've all done sprint distance in the pool for our first triathlon experience. My experience was I was actually training for a marathon.

Andrew Harley: Okay.

Rich Soares: And had read something about doing some cross training. So I started going to the pool and I saw this advertisement for this local sprint, and I'm like, well, I'll do that. You know, how hard could that be? I had a 40 pound mountain bike at the time. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I knew I had taken swimming 101. So I kind of felt like I could get through that. Well, I ended up renting a road bike at the last minute so that I could go a little faster on the bike. I got the rental bike home and I didn't even know how to shift the thing. Yeah, that's how much of a newbie I was. So I had to call the bike store to ask him how I shifted the other direction.

Andrew Harley: That's amazing.

Rich Soares: So, you know, don't know anything about pacing or anything like that. I go out there, I swim as hard as I can. I bike as hard as I can. I'm like, this thing is like a rocket compared to my heavy mountain bike. So I just give it everything I've got. I get on the run—I don't even get a half mile into this run. I've been training for a marathon.

Andrew Harley: Yeah.

Rich Soares: It's gonna be no problem. I walked a good part of that run because I just spent every dollar on the swim and the bike. Immediately hooked, though. I think I bought a bike from that same bike store a week later and did my next sprint distance triathlon in the pool two weeks later.

Andrew Harley: Can you imagine Rich being the bike store employee who gets a call to the shop like, "hey, how do I shift? How do I shift gears on this bike?" Maybe they get that request more often than I think. But yeah, I sold my first road bike to a guy, you know, Craigslist. Drove to the house. He test rode around the block a little bit, liked it. But he came back from his test ride and was like, "hey, I really like the bike, but I think the shifters are broken." And it just turns out that he didn't know how to work them, and I had to teach him how to use those kind of shifters for the first time. So maybe it's a more common thing than I think. Rich, I very much like you thought the bike would be just the easy part. I'm like, hey, everybody grows up riding a bike. I bought my first road bike the day before my first sprint triathlon thinking, yeah, I'll get to that part of the race. It'll be easy. Riding a bike is easy. I was cramped—my calves were cramping so bad I had to get off twice on a 14 mile bike leg. I had to get off the bike two times to stretch out my cramping calves because I thought the bike was gonna be the easy part and it was the hardest part. But that's a different story. What I want to hear next—and then we're getting to our tips from both of you—in all of your race experience, getting past your first race and just getting to you racing in general, what is one thing that we can learn from you? Just something like a race day blooper, if you will. What is one major thing that has gone wrong for you on race day? And then I want to hear one day where just everything clicked and it was just the race of your life and you're like, man, that was the one. I really enjoyed that. Everything went well out there. Because I think a fantastic way to learn is through experience. So help our newer triathletes learn from your experience. Coach Rich, I'll go to you first on this one.

Rich Soares: Yeah, I think my biggest mishap was going off course on the bike on a race. Fortunately, I was able to recover from it after about a mile going the wrong direction, realizing, "hey, where is everybody?" But it really just comes down to really knowing the course and not getting confused by things that are out there that might indicate that you're supposed to turn somewhere else. Know the course, really study the course. Know it. Don't just trust that you can follow people. That doesn't always work.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. And what was a day, Rich, where everything just went really well for you?

Rich Soares: That would probably be my first IRONMAN. Working with a coach, nailed the nutrition, nailed the pacing and had an awesome experience. And that was IRONMAN Cozumel in 2009.

Andrew Harley: Coach Jasmine, same question over to you. Give us your blooper and then the day it all went well.

Jasmine Moezzi: For me, nutrition has always been a tricky one to nail down, especially in those longer distance races. For the 70.3, I'm like, I know I can figure this out. I know that it's in reach. I just had to kind of really play around with it for many 70.3s till I nailed it. Because I just kept bonking over and over again. And then finally, Morro Bay last year was where it kind of clicked.

Andrew Harley: Awesome.

Jasmine Moezzi: It was always when I would get to the run, I just would not have the legs. And the run is my favorite part. So I'd be so confused. I'd be like, why can I do this in the sprint and Olympic, but not on the 70.3? So finally, Morro Bay last year, I had my run legs. I finished feeling really good and strong, and it was just a really great day. So yeah, that's where it kind of all came together for me with nutrition. And that's why I became a certified nutritionist, because I was like, this is so vital to the sport, and I want to help people not go through what I went through.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. Yep. So kind of looping the blooper of bonking in previous races to finally figuring it out and now helping your athletes figure it out. So I'm really excited here. We're going to get straight into the tips now. There's some great stories. I've already learned some lessons through those stories, and so I hope our audience has done the same. But both of you have come to the show today with four tips that you have that you frequently share with newer triathletes. I've seen these tips. They are fantastic. So I'm just going to go Jasmine, Rich, Jasmine, Rich, Jasmine, Rich. And we'll hear what you have to say, we'll talk about it a little bit, and we'll move on to the next tip. So, Coach Jasmine, over to you. What is your first tip for a newer triathlete?

Tip #1: Find a Local Triathlon Team or Club

Jasmine Moezzi: For me, it's definitely finding a local triathlon team or club to join and train with because you really get that sense of community. You all support each other and can train for races together and sign up for other races together. I mean, I started triathlon by joining the USC tri team and then kind of kept joining different teams after I graduated. And that's kind of what's kept me in this sport and continuing to keep going in it. And I found some of my closest friends from there, my chosen family, I like to call it. And it's just something that I think is so helpful, no matter if you're a complete beginner or a seasoned veteran. Having a community there will keep you going even in the hard days where the last thing you want to do is maybe get up and swim, bike or run, but then you have your friends there waiting for you and you're like, "ah, gotta do it. They're there, they're waiting." So it's been a huge help.

Andrew Harley: This is a really great one, Jasmine. And you know, if you can find something local, that's obviously so key to plug in with a local group. You can obviously plug into the I Am TriDot Facebook group or to the TriDot community in ways if you don't live local with a tri club. But yeah, Jasmine, absolutely love this one. Rich, anything else you want to say?

Rich Soares: I think having that community—you're going to learn from others. That's the kind of—we're always better together. Use your community around you. Don't assume that you can figure it out on your own. There's so much wisdom out there from other people who have been racing for a while or training for a while. I love that tip.

Jasmine Moezzi: Actually, some other really cool thing that I discovered—I travel a lot, whether it's for work or just to travel, but I like continuing to train. So I find actually different tri teams and running groups anywhere I'm traveling to and I reach out to them ahead of time and I ask them if I could join in on their workouts. So it's actually a really great way to connect with other triathletes and runners in the area and also keep your training up while you're traveling and keep you kind of motivated and going. And I've met so many great people doing that. So you could do it locally where you are finding your group there, but then also wherever you're going abroad or traveling somewhere, you can also reach out and usually everyone is super friendly and welcoming.

Andrew Harley: I love that idea. I've never heard that. I think that's really a great way to get yourself out there and meet people and plug into new places. Really like that tip, Jasmine. Moving us on to Rich's tip number one. Rich, what do you got for us?

Tip #2: Volunteer at a Local Race‍

Rich Soares: I like to recommend that new triathletes volunteer at a local race. This is a great way to learn the mechanics of how a race works. Everything from when athletes arrive and they check in—there's a lot of different roles to volunteer for. Athlete packet pickup, transition area, the aid stations. Watch how athletes set up their transition area. Watch how they transition from swim to bike, from bike to run. If you're out there at an aid station, watch how they take aid. Watch what they take in, how they take it in. You're going to learn all sorts of things about hydration and cooling. And you'll also get some examples of things not to do. You might see somebody drop their nutrition. You might see somebody have it pointed out to them that they can't run—they can't ride their bike in transition. You'll learn the rules of triathlon too, as well as some just good protocols and social norms with racing. So yeah, I recommend volunteering for races. You're going to learn a lot about what to do and not to do.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, and really here, Rich, probably a good idea to do it a couple times and take some different posts. Volunteer in transition at one race, volunteer at an aid station on the bike for another race, volunteer at an aid station on the run for another race. Because to your point, you'll see different snippets of the course and it's really cool because early on in your shift you'll see the faster folks come through and you can kind of see like, man, these people really know what they're doing. How are they navigating these situations? Then you'll see more middle of the pack folks come through and then you'll see other slower athletes or beginners come through and so you'll kind of get a glimpse of how everybody handles those moments on course. So really great tip, Rich. Definitely something you can even do with your family. I love, as an athlete going through an aid station, you can tell a whole family is rocking the aid station together, passing out cups of water to athletes. Really great way to spend the morning if you have some local tris near you and be able to learn. Coach Jasmine, your second tip?

Tip #3: Take It One Sport at a Time

Jasmine Moezzi: Yes. So my second tip is take it one sport at a time because sometimes starting all three can be really overwhelming. For me, I started out as a runner and I was really comfortable. I didn't start running that much before triathlon, it was about a year before, but at least I felt like I had that down to save me when it came to race day. And then swimming—swimming was my biggest battle, so I kind of tackled that next. Cycling, I kind of just did it when I could. But swimming, I was like, okay, I really need to figure this out, because this is what's going to cause me the most issues in my race coming up. And with cycling, I kind of just did it with the tri team, but the swim was really kind of where I went next. So kind of just breaking it down, being like, okay, this sport I feel really comfortable in. This is the one I really need to work on. And then this one I'm feeling pretty okay at, so I'll just kind of do it when I can. But I'm going to really focus on improving on this one before adding them all three together. And I just think it could really help not bring down your confidence too much and really just focus on getting better at what your weakest one is and getting the help that you need in that so that you're not rushing to try to get ready for that when your race is coming up or just even overall being like, "oh, I don't know if I'm gonna even do this race because I'm not feeling confident in the swim or the bike." But if you really work on it for a while and get yourself to a place where you're comfortable—comfortable enough, I should say. It might take some time to really get comfortable at all three, but comfortable enough, I think, is important.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, I love this. Don't try to bite it all off at once. Kind of tackle it piece by piece by piece and give yourself the time to, "hey, I'm gonna get better at this over years." This is a journey. I'm not trying to conquer all three sports at once. That definitely helps you ease into the sport a little bit better. And, Rich, it sounds like you did this as well because you were coming into the sport as an aspiring marathoner and threw the swimming and bike in there. How did you approach kind of improving at all three sports over your first year or two?

Rich Soares: The running thing I felt pretty comfortable with. But I had to learn new bike handling skills for sure. I didn't even know how to shift gears on a road bike, so I definitely had a bit of a learning curve on the bike. The biggest learning curve was clearly the swim for me. And it's probably the number one thing that most of my new athletes need help with is the swim. They're not used to doing it or not used to doing open water swimming in particular. So I like the approach of don't give the athlete too much on their plate at once. Give them digestible, consumable chunks of instruction and training and goals so they don't get overwhelmed. And I think Jasmine's approach to some athletes anyway—one sport at a time—is a good place to start.

Tip #4: Don't Guess About Open Water Swimming

Andrew Harley: Now Rich, I know it's a little further down our run sheet, but while we're mentioning open water swim, let's go ahead and jump to your tip. You have a tip that you want to share about open water swim, specifically in that aspect of the sport.

Rich Soares: Yeah, my tip is—and I see this, and if you volunteer at a race, this is going to be one of the things that you are going to witness. There are going to be people that don't complete the swim. They just got in over their head. They didn't know what they were getting themselves into. So my tip here is don't guess about open water swimming in any distance race. Whether your first one is a sprint—even if it's a pool swim, don't underestimate it. But particularly open water swimming, even if you consider yourself to be a competent swimmer in the pool, open water swimming is very different. Cold water, wetsuit, current, chop, sun glare, can't see the bottom, can't see the buoy, sighting, just navigating. These are all new experiences and they can be a little bit overwhelming if you're not used to it. So it is a little bit of exposure therapy that's required here, but also it's just having the right equipment and knowing how to do this. The smoother and better your swim technique, the better the open water swimmer you will be. So one of the ways to be a better open water swimmer is to just be a better swimmer. Recommend going to—finding your closest TriDot pool school. It is the fastest way to get faster at swimming and more confident. Regarding the equipment, take some time, buy a wetsuit that fits. If it zips with very little effort, it's probably too big. If it zips and it feels a little snug, it probably fits. If it doesn't zip, it probably doesn't fit.

Andrew Harley: It's probably a little too tight. That's a great way to put it.

Rich Soares: But yeah, definitely make sure that you get a good fitting wetsuit. I see a lot of people that show up—get a triathlon wetsuit, not a scuba wetsuit, not a jet skiing wetsuit. Look for a triathlon branded wetsuit like Sailfish or similar.

Andrew Harley: And you can rent that for your first race or two or three even.

Rich Soares: Yeah, yeah. And find—and this is back again to a little bit of Jasmine's suggestion—find an open water swim group.

Andrew Harley: Yeah.

Rich Soares: Find a group that you can do this with so you have a swim partner. Get a swim safety buoy. It's a really inexpensive inflatable buoy. You can blow it up with three or four breaths and you snap it around your waist and it just drags behind you in case you need it. And yeah, get a coach and practice in conditions that you expect to see on race day. And then my final tip is understand that your body is not—I mean, there are 6 billion years of engineering in your body that tell you you are not a swimming mammal. You're going to have this reflex to cold water. Get yourself through that process before you get in that water. Splash cold water on your face, get it down, flush your wetsuit with it. Get your body reacting to that open water experience before you start exercising. Your heart rate is going to slow down a little bit. Your blood's going to go to the core. Your arms are going to feel a little weaker. Get used to that before you really start pounding out the strokes and heading offshore.

Andrew Harley: I'm glad, Rich, that you mentioned TriDot pool school and you're both TriDot pool school coaches. You mentioned being on deck together at TriDot pool school in Boulder not too far back. But I still remember in my first year or two as a triathlete—at the time, one of the local companies that produces races in our area, they would send emails out advertising a pool clinic. I think it was like a one day, two hour Saturday clinic that they were doing with a particular coach in the area. And I remember clicking on it and looking at it. I think it was like 200 bucks for this clinic. And I remember like, man, I'm not paying 200 bucks for that. I was interested cause I knew I knew nothing about swimming, but I wasn't at a place where I was gonna pay 200 bucks for that. Looking back, I mean for how much it could have accelerated my swim from the get go and my understanding of swimming—absolutely would have been worth it. And now we didn't have it at the time, but now we have TriDot pool school and there is a price tag attached to it. It's not cheap, but what you get out of it—you get this weekend experience. You have homework on the front end, you have follow ups with coaches on the back end. It is the most thorough, bar none, full stop, the most thorough swim refining of swim form, establishing experience in the triathlon game today. And that's because of how much love and passion went into this project by our TriDot coaches that do it there. There's a two to one coach to athlete ratio in the lane. So you don't have one guy walking around trying to instruct 20 athletes. You have two coaches per lane literally giving you feedback every length of the wall. So anyway, I'm endorsing it especially for newer triathletes because I remember being a new triathlete and thinking, "oh, I'm not ready for that yet. That's not for me yet." And now I wish in year one of my triathlon journey I had done something like TriDot Pool School to just learn proper form from the get go. Jasmine, I know for you, you're in California where a lot of the open water swims are in the ocean, the Pacific Ocean. What's it like getting out there with your athletes and getting them ready for a first open water swim in the Pacific Ocean?

Jasmine Moezzi: We actually just went out this morning for an ocean swim. We go every Friday. It's probably our most popular workout of the week. We get sometimes up to 15, 20 people coming out and we have just this great swim together and we have people of all levels. And I kind of do a really good job at pairing people up so that nobody is left alone out in the water. And yeah, it's just really nice to go out with a group and train together. And I never recommend swimming in the ocean by yourself. So always go with at least one person or a group of people and make sure you're checking—have checkpoints where you're seeing how everyone's doing and regrouping. But it's been—I love that we have the beach right here in our backyard and we could go play in it at least once or twice a week. And it's really helpful when it comes to races that have ocean swims or any open water swims. Most of us are really comfortable. I would say though, the amount of athletes that do start swimming in the ocean maybe just a week or two before the races, that's probably not going to help too much. I would recommend at least going a few months prior to really get comfortable. Even if you're a great swimmer and you're comfortable in the pool, the ocean is so different. It's darker in there. There's no line that you can follow, there's no walls. So get the really good wetsuit that'll keep you buoyant and just have people around you in case you need anything. But I think, yeah, getting out there a few months before a race is super important. If you don't have it near you, then just try to find somewhere you can go that you can get some open water experience. I think it's definitely really can make that race so much more comfortable and successful for you when you go.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. And depending on where you live, you don't have to jump into open water for your first race. Where I live in Dallas, Fort Worth, we have a ton of indoor pool swim sprint local races. So I think I did three or four sprints in a pool before I pulled the trigger on my first open water swim which happened to be Tri Waco in the summer in the Brazos River in Waco, Texas. And yeah, so I kind of gave myself some time to get comfortable in the sport first before I jumped in the open water. But you might live somewhere where you only have open water. So either way, really some great stuff from Jasmine and Rich about open water swimming. Jasmine, what is your third tip for a newer triathlete?

Tip #5: Set a Goal and Sign Up for a Race

Jasmine Moezzi: My third tip is to set a goal and just sign up for the race so you could have your commitment set. I personally know that if I'm not signed up, I may or may not be slacking on my training a little bit. But when I have a race—when I have a race I'm signed up for, I'm like, "well, you know, we gotta get ready for it. There's no other option." But I really recommend setting a realistic goal. If you're a brand new triathlete and you want to do a full IRONMAN that's a month or two away, might not be the smartest decision. Is it possible? Anything is possible, but I think just really talking with your teammates or a coach or anyone else that has some experience so that you could see kind of what a realistic goal would be and then really committing to it and committing to the process and the training and the journey to get you there. And there's always gonna—life's always gonna get in the way of training and things. So you just have to do your best. It's all about consistency and doing the best that you can. But I'd really recommend just setting some goals that you really want to try to achieve when you're wanting to sign up for any kind of races or events.

Andrew Harley: Absolutely love this tip. I personally actually right now am starting to look at races for 2025 because I need something on the calendar to get my butt in gear training. I have a triathlon podcast and I need a race on the calendar to really get myself back into my training. But anyway, Coach Rich, your tip number three. What do you got?

Tip #6: Integrate Strength and Mobility Training

Rich Soares: Yeah, so when we think about triathlon, we think about the three sports: swim, bike and run. That just makes sense. Seems pretty straightforward.

Andrew Harley: Sure does.

Rich Soares: What we often overlook or ignore is the importance of integrating strength and mobility training consistently into your regimen. It is the glue that holds everything together. And I'm not talking about—I get some athletes saying, "Oh, yeah, Coach, I did chest and arms today and I did legs and back today." And that's not necessarily the type of strength and mobility training we're talking about. As triathletes, we have these motions that are back and forth, whether you're swimming, whether you're biking, whether you're running. It's really just this sagittal plane, front and back motion that we're doing. And we don't do a lot of lateral moving motions. And it's really common for us to compensate by recruiting the wrong muscles for the job. And then the ones that are supposed to be getting used get weak and atrophy or eventually lead to an overuse of a muscle that was supposed to only have a supporting role. Similarly, the lack of mobility creates a risk of injury, but is also likely limiting your performance. So if, for example, your lats are tight, you might be experiencing some swim form issues and some inability to get in a good streamlined position and get a good catch. If you have tight hip flexors that can cause hip pain and limited range of motion, resulting in a loss of bike power or an inability to have that run extension as you push off. This will make you a faster, stronger, more injury resilient athlete. And you don't have to do a lot of weight to do it. In fact, make sure—work with a coach, work with a strength and conditioning physical therapist. Make sure that you're doing these movements in the right form. And the TriDot strength workouts are actually a really good example of these. They give you videos of each exercise that you're going to do. Shows you exactly how to do it. It's got a verbal explainer, a video explainer and the equipment that you need. These are not big barbells—bands, dumbbells, at most a kettlebell. These are pretty low bars in terms of equipment to do strength and mobility training.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. And we have several episodes of the TriDot podcast about strength and mobility flexibility with Dr. BJ Leeper. He's full time on our staff and he is an extremely accomplished and knowledgeable physical therapist who works with us. So go listen to a few of the episodes with Dr. BJ Leeper because Rich is dead on the money that you can strength train, you can be a crossfitter or lift heavy and be into that and be a triathlete. You absolutely can. They can coexist. But what you're talking about here in terms of keeping your body healthy to continue participating in this sport of triathlon, there's just a number of maintenance things—stretching, light strength work, functional movement work—that you need to do to keep the body really firing on all cylinders. So yeah, love this suggestion. When you're already learning three new sports—swimming, biking and running—there's already a ton to absorb. It's very easy for this to go to the wayside. And it doesn't have to be, Rich, an hour a day on a yoga mat doing something. It can be 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there. It's just being really smart with it and keeping it regularly in your routine and a little bit will go a long way.

Rich Soares: I tell some athletes if you're having a hard time fitting this in, try doing it during the workday. Have that workout, have that strength workout up with those seven workouts in them. Just do one in between each meeting. Yeah, it'll make your day go by faster.

Andrew Harley: Sure. Yeah, absolutely will.

Tip #7: Get a Coach or Training Plan

One more tip from the both of you. This is so many packed things in here already for newer triathletes to absorb from the two of you. So thanks so much for taking the time, thinking this through, getting your notes down. Jasmine, what is your fourth tip you want to give to our listener?

Jasmine Moezzi: Probably the most important is please don't be afraid to get a coach or a TriDot training plan because that helps with accountability, injury prevention. You're doing three sports and doing the form work and the strength training, the recovery—all the things. You want to make sure you're doing everything properly, especially if you're racing any of the longer distance races. You want to make sure that you really have a proper plan for that. You're fueling well. You don't want to get deficient in anything or injured or have any issues along the way. And coaches really, really help that. I actually did the calculations—for most coaches that's like a cup of coffee a day. If you break it down, it's really not that big of an expense. And you get the guidance of someone who has a plethora of knowledge to share and help you not make the same mistakes they might have done or a lot of other athletes do and keep you really—I mean this sport is about lifestyle and longevity. At the end of the day, you want to be doing this for a long time. I think most of us—maybe some of you just one and done. But I think a lot of you guys want to be in here for the long run and the way to really do it right is by either having a coach or a really optimized training plan like TriDot, which will actually adapt to your training and what you are or aren't doing. And it's not just telling you "go do this today" but you didn't do that last week. So it's kind of something that is really more personalized to you and making sure that we're keeping you healthy and injury free. Because I could not tell you how many athletes are just getting injured left and right because they're not training properly. So that's definitely one I'm very passionate about and I want to make sure everyone has the help that they need through their journey.

Andrew Harley: Love this tip, Jasmine, because again, from day one, I didn't think this was for me. And I wish 10 years ago I knew that training smarter could be for me.

Jasmine Moezzi: Honestly, I don't think I would have stayed in triathlon if I didn't—when I joined the USC tri team, there was a coach there that was telling us what gear to get, how to shift the bikes. All the things that I literally was like, "I don't know what I'm doing. I don't even know what I'm getting myself into." But because the tri team had a coach, he was at all the pool swims, went to all of our bike rides. Any questions we had, he was there. I don't think I would still be in the sport if it wasn't for him because he took the guesswork all out for me and I just had to focus on the training and that was it. And I felt very safe and comfortable knowing that, okay, he's telling me to do this XYZ. That's what I'm going to do. And I had such a great first year and I was able to get better so much quicker than I ever imagined.

Rich Soares: I want to add maybe one thing. I think that's a great tip. One of the things I think a coach helps do too is there's a lot of information out there. More so now than ever before. There's a lot of noise out there too. Misinformation. A coach will help you cut through that noise. And if you are on a budget, you're probably also on a budget with your time too. Think about the value of your time and the misadventure that you can have without a coach. What's that time worth in terms of all the articles you're reading? Listen to podcasts though.

Andrew Harley: Listen especially the TriDot triathlon podcast and the 303 Endurance podcast. Those are the two to start with, obviously.

Tip #8: Don't Guess About Nutrition and Pacing

Coach Rich, your fourth tip, please, good sir.

Rich Soares: Yeah, and I hope Jasmine appreciates this one. It's don't guess about nutrition and pacing at your longer distance races—at any distance.

Andrew Harley: Any distance.

Rich Soares: Yeah, for sure, for any distance, but particularly those longer distance races. I can't tell you the number of athletes—they don't even know their sweat rate. They have no idea how much they should be taking back in in terms of hydration. This is an easy DIY test to do, and just keep a spreadsheet. You weigh yourself before a workout, you weigh yourself after a workout with nothing on—both ends of this. Nothing on, not your kit. Make sure your hair is all dry and everything. You will have a good idea of how much your body weight changed. But you also record things like how much did you consume during that hour, let's say, and what was the temperature, what was the humidity, what was the level of intensity of your effort? I like to ask my athletes—and we actually keep a spreadsheet of these tests and we end up with a dozen tests before a race and then we can look by discipline, we can filter it for the run and we can say, "Okay, you're going to be running at zone three effort and it's going to be 72 degrees when you hit the run. What's your sweat rate?" We've got two or three examples of what their sweat rate is and that gives us a great place to start. Knowing your sodium content of your sweat—so you know how much sodium to take back in. Precision Fuel and Hydration—they've got a great service where you can get your sodium tested for your sweat. So you know how strong of a formula you need from a hydration drink, whether it's the Precision Hydration 500, 1000, 1500, or whatever your sodium source is that you're getting enough for the amount of water that you need to consume. And know your carbohydrate needs. Knowing how much glycogen your body is burning at any given intensity, how much you need to be fueling, whether it's a schedule that's on a 20 minute schedule, 30 minute schedule, an hour schedule to make sure that you don't get behind in your nutrition.

Andrew Harley: Yep, absolutely love it, Rich. So crucial to your experience in this sport. Those are your eight very intelligent tips from our two highly qualified coaches. I'm going to try to, in 60 to 90 seconds or less, say Andrew Harley podcast host's three tips to get us to our well rounded fun number of 11 tips for a new triathlete. So here's three things I wanted to add to the conversation very quickly. First off, I just want to encourage you to take your time in your triathlon journey. Don't feel like you have to keep a certain pace or have all the gear by race one, two, three, or be good at all three disciplines by race one, two, three, or do an IRONMAN by year number two. Do what you want to do in this sport. Don't rack your bike at your third race and think that, "oh man, I'm next to this other bike and this is a really nice bike and he's got all these bells and whistles and this guy has this and this girl has that and oh, my training partner just bought this helmet and I just had this little basic thing." Have what you have. You can accumulate the gear at your own pace. Don't feel like you have to have the latest and greatest of everything by year 1, 2, 3. I'm 10 years into my triathlon journey and I think I have everything I need. Do I still buy some stuff here and there? Sure. But it took me five, six, seven years to get a really good wetsuit, get a really good this, get a really good that, add aero bars to my bike. Don't feel like you have to do all that at once and don't feel like you have to do any particular race. If you love the local races, don't feel like you're a lesser triathlete because you haven't traveled for an IRONMAN or traveled for a half IRONMAN or done this famous race that your buddies did. It's a choose your own adventure sport. Do what you want to do with it and do it at your pace. The second thing I want to say is, across all three disciplines, this is my favorite race day tip to give anybody of mine that is doing their first race. When you first hit the pool or whatever your body of water is, when you first get on the bike and are going through the motions of that first quarter mile on the bike, and when you first get out there on the run—first 100, 200, 300 yards—it's so easy at the very beginning of all three disciplines to accelerate and go harder than you need to go and go faster than you realize you're going. And before you know it, your heart rate has skyrocketed and you're out of breath. And once your breath goes, particularly at sprint and Olympic distance where a lot of people are starting off, it is very difficult to get that heart rate back down, get your breath back, get yourself composed. And there's nothing worse—from personal experience, I can tell you there's nothing worse than your first or second, third race, you're still learning the sport, there's a lot going on, and all of a sudden you're out of breath just because you weren't paying attention to how fast you were going. The effort in all three sports always feels very easy, even though it's not. I got off on my run my very first 5K for a sprint triathlon. I thought I was running at a pretty easy pace. I looked down and I'm running way faster than I should have been. And it's easy to do that if you're not paying attention. So when you first ease into the water, don't feel like you have to hit the pool lighting it up. Ease into your pace in all three sports. Last thing I'll say: buy a picture. Race number one, buy a picture. Whether you never do a race ever again, you'll have the picture of the one time you did a triathlon. If you are in this sport for 5, 10, 20 years, like all three of us are, you'll always be able to look back. Was it really worth 20, 30, 40 bucks, whatever it was, for that one picture? Maybe so, maybe not, but I'm glad I have it. But stop by, buy a picture, celebrate your accomplishment, have fun. Remember the sport should be fun. To land the plane on our conversation today, I know you found value in our coaches' eight tips. I hope you found some value in my three little tips. But I want to hear Jasmine and Rich just from you—as coaches, we led the show hearing your first experience at the races yourself. But now as coaches, you have the joy of helping other people through their first 1, 2, 3 races as they become literally triathletes. What is it like being on this side of that journey, going out to the races and just seeing your athletes out there literally becoming triathletes?

Jasmine Moezzi: It's the most rewarding thing for me just seeing my athletes accomplishing their goals. I care more about their goals than mine now, honestly. So for me, seeing them put in the work, go through their ups and downs, just be a part of their journey in whatever way I can and see them out there racing. And I had an athlete who just did the swim run world championships in Sweden this weekend and I've taken her through her first 70.3, first marathon, first ultra marathon, just so many amazing things. And it's so rewarding for me to be able to see all of this come to life and just play a small part in that journey. And yeah, I couldn't be more honored and grateful to do what I do and help everyone in whatever way and capacity that I can.

Andrew Harley: Coach Rich, same question to you.

Rich Soares: Yeah, it is incredibly rewarding to watch an individual take on this goal that they don't know that they can do yet. And they realize that goal and it transforms them as a human, it transforms them as an athlete, it transforms them as a family member, as an employee. Everybody in their world sees this transformation happen and I find that to be so inspirational. To watch a father cry when his son crosses the finish line of an IRONMAN or watch the pride in an athlete's children or in their wife or their spouse—they are setting examples and creating ripple effects in their connections. Who knows what that's going to do for the next generation. The kids that are watching their mom—the young boy that puts a medal over his mom's head because she finished her first IRONMAN. Think about what that does for generations to come. That's incredibly inspiring.

Cooldown

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

Vanessa Ronksley: Cooldown tip time. And I'm Vanessa, your average triathlete with elite level enthusiasm. Our superhuman TriDot coach is someone that you may notice likes the extreme side of things. Full distance tris are child's play, so extreme races are more up his alley. Jason Verbracken, who is fondly known as Burby within the TriDot community, recently became a Hurt 100 finisher. He is a Norseman XTRI Blackshirt finisher and also placed second overall in the Starvation XTRI. These kinds of results happen because of dedication, consistency and with the heart of a lion. Not only does he exercise these traits in triathlon, but in his 25 year career with Pepsi as an account manager and with his wife and his two kids. Welcome to the cooldown, Burby.

Jason Verbracken: Oh, Vanessa, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure being on with you.

Vanessa Ronksley: What do you have for all of our listeners? My tip for today.

Jason Verbracken: Is surround yourself with the right people. That plays a huge part. You need somebody there to support your dreams, support you through those tough times. And if you're having that negative talk—"why are you going out for a run, you're going to hurt your knees" or "why are you doing that? That can't be good for you"—you want the people who are there bringing you up. I mean, because training is hard and there's times we are down on ourselves, and then if all of a sudden we're hearing something else, "oh, you should skip that workout. You don't need to do that." You want the people in the corner that are fully helping you reach your dreams, help you with your training, anything they can to support you.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, I think that's really a valuable tip for anyone. And something that is so wonderful about what we currently have with social media is that these people don't necessarily need to be in your immediate surrounding. There's people that you can follow on social media that are inspiring to you and that will have those little pieces of advice or those little tidbits that say, "hey, I saw that you had done three workouts today, and it was so inspiring." And those are the kinds of people that you can have in your corner as well, even if you don't actually know them.

Jason Verbracken: Definitely. I mean, the I Am TriDot group is huge with the support, and then meeting up for Saturday rides together with people you have never met. But you both have races going on and you're both doing workouts and you're chatting over Zwift in the group ride. And like you said, they're liking your Strava or giving you the kudos. And it's so great to have somebody who's going through the same thing as you and is there to lift you up and to keep pushing you and maybe even pushing you on a ride or something that you weren't feeling it that day. And then everybody else is doing it and you're like, "wow, they're doing it. I don't want to look like the slow one here or something." The adrenaline kicks in and off you go.

Vanessa Ronksley: I think that we actually met for the first time on one of those Saturday group rides with the I Am TriDot group, I'm sure.

Jason Verbracken: Yeah, definitely.

Vanessa Ronksley: And it was great because everyone is throwing around such positive affirmation, cheering everyone on. And I know for myself, when I was first starting out in triathlon, I didn't have very much support outside of the TriDot Facebook group and the Saturday rides. And it was so valuable for me to have people who are like you, who want the same things, who have invested themselves in this sport. And it's just so wonderful to have that community built up around you.

Jason Verbracken: Oh, definitely. And especially if you don't have family and friends that are in the triathlon world. So you start talking to them about it and you get all excited and you can kind of see their eyes start rolling back or looking off. There's somebody else I can go talk to or nodding their head and "oh, you just finished IRONMAN. How was that 5K run you did?" And you're like, "no, what?" And having those same minded people—either they're new like you or they're veterans like you and you're going through the same things and you know what they're going through and are able to help them and lean on each other when you need it.

Vanessa Ronksley: I often find when you're amongst people who are not in the triathlon space or even just the ultra running space, they don't really want to know what you're doing because a lot of times they feel that what they're doing is not nearly as good. And so they don't really want to hear about everything that you're doing. But one of the cornerstones of being a triathlete is wanting to share everything about your entire training program and your nutrition and everything that goes along with it. So you have to find your triathlon friends because they will legitimately be excited about what you're talking about.

Jason Verbracken: Exactly, exactly. And they'll understand, like say, "hey, I'm leaving this party early because I have an early workout in the morning and I want to get a good night's sleep." And they're not—I have many friends that when I first started, thankfully they understand now, but they would—and I probably would have done it to them too if I wasn't a triathlete—but "no, you can stay" or "you can skip that" or "you need to stay out with us. We're going to go to the bar and we're going to have a great time." And I'm thinking, "no, I'm not. I'm going to feel like no good tomorrow. I'm not going to get that run or ride in or swim. And I want to have a productive day."

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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