The TriDot Triathlon Podcast

Triathlon training can positively affect health and fitness. But men should be aware of warning signs and symptoms that can occur when your energy expenditure exceeds your nutritional intake. Expert nutritionist Dr. Krista Austin outlines how REDs (Relative Energy Deficiency in sport) and LowT (low testosterone levels) can impact reproductive, psychological, and bone health. Ironman Champion and Director of Endurance Sports at the UCAN Company, Matt Bach, also shares his personal experiences with low energy availability and overtraining. Dr. Austin provides recommendations for assessing your health and what to do if you recognize some of these symptoms in your own training.

Triathlon training can positively affect health and fitness. But women should be aware of warning signs and symptoms that can occur when your energy expenditure exceeds your nutritional intake. Expert nutritionist Dr. Krista Austin outlines how REDs (Relative Energy Deficiency in sport) can impact reproductive, psychological, and bone health. Together with podcast host, Andrew Harley and professional triathlete, Elizabeth James, Dr. Austin provides recommendations for assessing your health and what to do if you recognize some of these symptoms in your own training.

Save time in transition with tips from the TriDot team! You're on the clock during T1 and T2, so it's essential to establish a plan for efficiently grabbing the gear you need and setting yourself up for success in the next part of the race. Coaches John Mayfield and Elizabeth James dish the details on the triathlon transition area, practicing your routine, and how to manage changing tents and gear bags for long-course events.

All triathletes swim, but few triathletes come from a swimming background. Understanding pool etiquette and lane lingo can give you confidence and help you feel more at home in the pool. What are the do's and don'ts when sharing a lane? How do you use the pace clock? How do I adapt to a master's swim session? In this week's episode, TriDot coaches Jeff Raines and John Mayfield answer these questions and many more! And Triathlete Magazine's Editor-in-Chief, Kelly O'Mara, shares her swim stories from around the world.

Training stress causes soreness and fatigue in the name of improvement. But other types of stress can undermine your efforts. TriDot coaches John Mayfield and Elizabeth James discuss the differences between stress and eustress and the way you react biologically. Apply this practical information to mitigate the negative effects of stress on your triathlon training.

Specialized Human Performance Engineer, Jesse Frank, uses aerodynamics and physiology everyday to ensure athletes are as fast as possible. In this episode, Andrew Harley and John Mayfield talk with Jesse about the wind tunnel testing process and how it's applied to a wide range of equipment options and racing positions. Learn the biggest take-aways that you can apply and which products offer the most aero advantage for your dollar.

The training you take on as a member of the multi-sport community is not for the faint of heart. Mental toughness and an ability to persevere through discomfort is a must if you plan to improve your performance. But can toughness be developed and improved like skill, power, and stamina? TriDot Coaches Jeff Booher and Jeff Raines will help you learn to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Develop your GRIT Factor to train and race at your best.

Whether it's due to tight scheduling, poor weather conditions, traffic-filled routes, or nailing a specific workout session, many triathletes are training indoors. In this episode, TriDot coaches John Mayfield and Elizabeth James discuss the realities of virtual training. They describe the role various virtual platforms can play in your training routine, provide guidance about incorporating them, and offer recommendations for competing in virtual events. Learn how you can train in a virtual world for real results on the race course.

Could your triathlon performance be enhanced with the use of an ergogenic aid? In this episode, sports nutritionist Dr. Krista Austin covers an extensive list of supplements intended to enhance training and racing performance. Learn about the potential benefits of sodium bicarbonate, beta-alanine, exogenous ketones, caffeine, and nitric oxide supplements—to name just a few! Dr. Krista also provides recommended uses for each supplement and the potential harmful side effects if used incorrectly.

If you've ever experienced a slump in training motivation, you're not alone! But what can you do when you're losing focus during training or struggling to get started? TriDot coaches John Mayfield and Elizabeth James discuss strategies for staying motivated and offer practical ways to keep your goals and training purpose in sight.

How do you know if supplements may be a beneficial addition to your daily nutrition? With a multitude of products promising to be the missing link in your nutrition regimen, sports nutritionist Dr. Krista Austin cuts through the noise and gives you the facts. Listen in as she shares how you can determine deficiencies in your diet and what considerations should be taken before adding supplements. Drill down on the benefits and best sources for vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, probiotics, and omega 3's.

Improve your swim times without getting wet! Dry-land swim training, properly executed, can increase your power, form, and speed in the water. TriDot coaches John Mayfield and Jeff Raines discuss how to supplement your swim training with out-of-the-water exercises. Learn how dry-land training develops swim-specific strength, reinforces proper technique, increases your range of motion, and establishes muscle memory.

A brief summary of this episode

Don't be a 'dull axe' athlete! Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you give me six hours to chop down a tree, I'll spend the first four sharpening my axe." Sharpen your axe with this episode and get ready to hack down your training goals! Go behind the scenes and meet the woman with the answers, the heartbeat of TriDot's athlete support and six-time Ironman finisher, Cindy Reeves. She, along with Vice President of Athlete Services, John Mayfield, will answer the most frequently asked (and funniest) questions and share the most valuable learnings from the thousands of athletes they've served.

What you eat the week of, night before, and morning of a race can have a large impact on how your body feels and performs. Join expert sports nutritionist Dr. Krista Austin and TriDot coach Jeff Raines as they outline considerations for pre-race meals. This episode provides specific recommendations for protein, fat, carbs, and fiber intake in the days leading into your event. Set yourself up for success on the race course with example meals and advice for proper fueling while traveling.

Training for an Ironman presents numerous challenges on its own. Training for the Ironman World Championships while in space is even more difficult! But for astronaut and International Space Station Commander, Luca Parmitano, it's a challenge that he embraced and conquered. Join us for an 'out of this world' episode as Luca and his coach, John Mayfield, discuss training in a zero gravity environment. Listen in as Luca makes comparisons between preparation for space and triathlon training.

Staying hydrated is essential for athletic performance. Expert sports nutritionist Dr. Krista Austin and TriDot coach Jeff Raines discuss how to manage your water and electrolyte intake while training and racing. You will also learn special considerations about racing in various weather conditions.

Power, pace, or heart rate? Learn how to choose the best metric based on the type of session to manage your workout and achieve the desired physiological adaptation. Join TriDot coaches John Mayfield and Elizabeth James as they share how and why each of these metrics are best used for different types of training sessions.

Start your race day strong. Learn to conquer the open-water swim. Coaches John Mayfield and Jeff Raines share their first experiences with open-water triathlon events and provide recommendations for sighting, breathing patterns, stroke rate, and wetsuits. Next they discuss how to adapt to open-water conditions such as water temperature, current, or lack of visibility. Gather tips for your particular swim start type, strategies for staying calm in the close proximity of other swimmers, and drills to implement in the pool to help you transition to the open water.

What is the most valuable training block of your season? The answer might surprise you! Most athletes believe that the few months immediately preceding their race are the most important. However, there is greater opportunity for performance improvement in the training further removed from race day. Join TriDot coaches Jeff Booher, John Mayfield, and Elizabeth James as they uncover how and why the training many months before your next triathlon has the most impact on your race results.

As Coronavirus continues to impact nearly all areas of our lives, many athletes are working to navigate this strange and unprecedented time. Not only has COVID-19 caused the cancellation or postponement of numerous races, but it has also caused a shut down of most local businesses, including gym and pools. The TriDot team addresses athlete questions about how to adapt your triathlon training in this unique environment.

To reap the full benefits of a training session, you must recover properly. In this episode, sports nutritionist Dr. Krista Austin details the importance of post-workout nutrition and how it impacts recovery. The TriDot team discusses how factors such as the time between training sessions, time to the next scheduled meal, and overall nutrition goals impact how you should fuel after your training. Establishing a recovery nutrition protocol will not only allow you to conquer your next scheduled session, but can also improve your sleeping habits and cognitive function, which will further benefit athletic performance.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed as you enter the sport of triathlon. Balancing swimming, biking, and running is already a lot to take on even before considering the gear requirements for each discipline. Join us as we discuss the essential (and optional) gear for completing your first tri. Spoiler alert: you don't have to spend a fortune for your first race!

Improving your run efficiency with better biomechanics can dramatically improve your triathlon run performance and reduce your injury risk. In this episode, Coaches Jeff Raines and Elizabeth James dig into run biomechanics and discuss running cadence, arm swing, body lean, breathing patterns, vertical oscillation, stride length, and more. Learn to identify inefficiencies in your run form and how to incorporate drills to improve your mechanics.

Olympic Gold Medalist and former World Record Holder Brendan Hansen is "allergic to average." In this interview, Hansen describes his competitive instincts and underdog work ethic in preparation for the Athens, Beijing, and London Olympic Games. Hansen also shares his experiences as a triathlete and unveils the importance of focusing on the training process and how the best athletes respond to failure and disappointment.

Open-water swimming can be a new, and often intimidating, experience for triathletes. In this episode, Olympic Gold Medalist and former World Record Holder Brendan Hansen recalls his first experience with triathlon's open-water swim. Hansen and Coach Jeff Raines discuss common swimming mistakes, open-water skills that can be practiced in the pool, and other considerations for your upcoming open-water swim event.

Dr. Krista Austin cuts through the noise of sports nutrition marketing as she offers insight about what a triathlete needs and the guidelines for using nutrition products. Join the TriDot team as they discuss shopping for sports nutrition products, sweat testing, electrolyte replacement, and determining the best use of particular products based on their molecular weight, osmolality, and carbohydrate oxidation rate.

Strength training is a key component of a well-developed triathlon training regimen, providing not only increased power generation but also enhancing muscle recruitment and encouraging proper technique. And yet, few triathletes make strength sessions a priority. Today's episode discusses how to balance strength training with swim, bike, and run sessions as well as tips for implementing this important part of training into your weekly routine.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies are not only changing triathlon training for athletes, they are significantly changing the role of a triathlon coach itself. Today's athletes are re-assessing the value of a coach and their expectations of what a coach brings to table. In this episode, we discuss how technology is changing the triathlon coaching environment, how athletes can determine if, when, and why they should hire a coach, and how coaches can best leverage technology (as professionals in other industries have) to increase their value to athletes and grow their business.

We all know there can be great power in goal setting. There are few things more satisfying than achieving a lofty goal after significant hard work and sacrifice. But the mere establishment of a goal rarely results in goal attainment. Today, the team walks through a practical process for effective triathlon goal setting that leads to successful follow through and increased likelihood of achievement.

Knowing how many watts you're producing on the bike gives you both insight and control during your training and racing. And with power meters and smart trainers becoming more and more affordable, training with power is more practical than ever. The ability to train with power is undoubtedly one of the most beneficial training investments you can make. In this episode, we discuss the intricacies of training with power meters and smart trainers and the tips and tricks to get the most benefit from using power in your bike training.

Data and analytics have become an integral part of triathlon training. Yet, most triathletes don't recognize the true power of their data or realize the incredible results they make possible. In this episode, we cover analytics for triathletes in a way that is highly insightful for both novices and techies. We separate the meaningful from the clutter. We overview advanced analytics technologies such as data mining, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning and discuss how these technologies are changing the way we train and race triathlons.

Nutrition is often referred to as triathlon's fourth discipline. There is undeniable value in properly fueling your body for training, racing, and a healthy lifestyle. Join us in this episode as sports nutritionist, Dr. Krista Austin, digs into performance nutrition and how to establish and maintain proper macro and micro nutrient intake relative to your resting metabolic rate and energy expenditure. She also offers clutch strategies for properly fueling and hydrating for optimal training, racing, and recovery.

Since its origin in 2011, The Preseason Project has been a powerful triathlon training research environment and a catalyst for continuous improvement and innovation. The participating athletes themselves have made this possible. Training data and direct feedback from more than 15,000 triathletes has driven significant measurable improvements over industry norms in training efficiency, race results, and overall athlete experience. This has fundamentally changed how athletes train and how coaches coach. Today we look back on the history of the Preseason Project and the milestone findings, results, and events that have defined its continuing influence on triathlon industry.

Whether you're training for a local sprint or a full IRONMAN, training at the right intensity levels in your run sessions will pay off big time! But how do you know when to run 'hard', when to run 'easy', what exactly is 'hard' or 'easy', how long to hold different intensities, and when it's better to use heartrate or pace? In this episode, we'll drill down on these and other topics with run experts Jeff Raines and Elizabeth James.

Assessments are about much more than just benchmarking your progress. Learn mental strategies to embrace the challenge of the week and practical tips for getting the most out of each session, We'll reveal many hidden benefits of your assessments, if performed correctly, and how they are used to optimize your training and increase your performance.

Significant improvement in your race performance requires training that is counter-intuitive for most triathletes. They are trapped in the Power-Stamina Paradox and will never realize their performance potential until they escape the mindset and training habits that undermine their progress. In this episode, we explain the paradox and how you can escape it's crippling effect on your training and race-day performance.

Do the right training right to reach your performance potential and get the most out of your limited time and energy. This doesn't happen by just "working hard" and putting in "more time." There are specific things you can do to ensure your training is the best quality possible and that you complete it in the most effective way. We'll discuss tips and tricks for getting the most value out of individual sessions, prioritizing sessions when life happens and you need to adapt your plans, recognizing training objectives for different types of sessions, avoiding the pitfalls that hinder your ability to make consistent progress, and much more.

Training for a triathlon can be a challenging balancing act of swim, bike, and run sessions. Travel, for holidays, family time, or business, can further complicate this. Join us as we share top tips for training while traveling. Know when to skip a session, what sessions to prioritize on the road, and how to find the best places to train away from home.

Your genome contains the specific code for how you respond to training, how quickly you recover, how predisposed you are to injury, and so much more. Genotyping services like 23andMe and Ancestry.com give you easy access to your genome. Learn how TriDot's Physiogenomix technology unlocks this code to leverage your DNA so you can train more efficiently and stay injury free.

Signing up for an IRONMAN® is a big commitment. Some athletes have dreamed of a particular finish line. Others agonize over the decision about which race to place on their calendar. Considering factors such as course difficulty, strength of field, location, and your own goals can ensure a memorable and enjoyable experience. Join the TriDot Podcast hosts as they discuss the tools, tips, and strategies of choosing the right IRONMAN®.

Improve your training results by better understanding the "how" and "why" behind your training. Get behind-the-scenes insight into the training optimization that produces your training each day. Learn how to get the most out of your training when life happens and things don't go as planned.

With smart trainers, cycling apps, club rides, and spin classes all becoming increasingly popular, there are a lot of ways to get in our bike training. But what works best? What are the pros and cons of each? What are the best practices for making the most of your bike training in these different formats? Warm Up: Best “bike fall” stories and Cool Down: “Race Recon” of Ironman 70.3 Waco.

Choosing the right running shoe is crucial for both performance and staying injury free. With such a wide variety of options produced by dozens of manufacturers, making the crucial shoe choice is not always easy to do. Coaches Jeff Raines and Elizabeth James will give you the "rundown on running shoes" so can choose the pair that's best for you.

In this episode, our two expert coaches will explain eight common barriers preventing triathletes from improving in their swim and how to remove them. We warm up sharing some of our own embarrassing triathlon moments, dive into our swim discussion for the main set, and then cool down with a Race Recon from Ironman Louisville.

In this official podcast launch episode, we'll dig into the origins of optimized triathlon training and some fundamental insights for how it is revolutionizing triathlon training. We'll talk all about how and why TriDot came to be and what it means when we say “I AM TriDot.”