11 Things Smart Triathletes Should NOT Do On Race Day

Welcome back to the Get Fast Podcast. By the end of today's episode, you know the top 11 race day mistakes smart triathletes avoid so you can stop sabotaging your performance and actually race to your potential. We're going to move through the crucial and sometimes overlooked parts of race day: before the gun, during the swim, bike, and run, transitions included, equipment mistakes, data, nutrition, adrenaline, drafting, and more. And as always, I'm joined by former Australian Ironman champion Gerard Donnelly, and here at TriVelo, we coach hundreds of triathletes every year, from first-timers to podium finishers. So Dad, welcome back to another episode. Let's get straight into it. The overall theme of being smart on race day and what the smart athletes do versus don't do is actually our motto for training, and it's plan, prepare, perform.

I couldn't agree with, uh, you more that this is a great topic to discuss, especially at the start of a season or in the middle of your off-season, when you can actually think about things that might not be that significant, uh, and don't seem to be factors that you would spend a lot of time considering, but when you look at all the 1%ers that we always talk about in the world of the modern technology, we always say think about 99% rather than the 1%. But this is— some of these things could actually make a difference to your end result. And if you get these things right, it will be a more enjoyable day and you'll probably get a better outcome.

So to start off, we just want to tick off the first point, and this kind of covers a lot of mistakes. So very broadly, we just kind of covers— could cover 50 mistakes, but it's just try and avoid anything for the first time on race day. So we don't need to go through it all, but essentially it might be your first triathlon, and it might be your first time trying to put everything together all at once. And race day is kind of the only time you get a chance to put together a full swim with a transition with a full bike with a transition with a full run. So we don't expect you to do that often in training, but you should at least try every single element of the race at least once through. That includes warm-up, that includes transition, that includes your breakfast the morning of, that includes any equipment you're trying, you know, every single little bit of equipment that you need. Sometimes you get to race day and you go, oh, here's this thing I'm putting on my bike and actually haven't tried this yet. You know, you want to make sure that there's absolutely nothing new on race day.

There could be so many points to this topic, this, this number one thing. We had an example not long ago where one of our, uh, TriVelo athletes unfortunately, but very fortunately, got a new bike. He got the new bike the day before the triathlon. And the big dilemma is, from my point of view, I would rather he rode the old bike and lived to use the new bike on another race. But guess what? He'd sold his old bike.

Mm-hmm.

So he didn't actually have any other bike except for the new bike. And so in that situation, you know, I'm saying to him, well, just jump on it, you know, the night before and have a little bit of a pedal. Make sure that, you know, you've got your setup right. That's a given from when you're taking it out of the shop. It's roughly right. But, you know, that is going to be an issue where the power meter is different to the previous power meter. The position might not be exactly the same. That's the reasons why we don't want you to ride a bike that you haven't actually you know, felt comfortable and confident that you can actually ride the way you want to. So, you know, we come up with a little race plan about, you know, using speed to understand what the power meter is going to do. And, you know, they're little things that are very off-putting. So you might be in a situation where you have no choice, like this particular athlete had. He had no choice, either ride this new bike or don't do the race. And so, yeah, We'll find ways of making it work, but it's not ideal. And same with running shoes, you know, you shouldn't actually run in a brand new pair of shoes. You would wanna at least have worn them around the house or for a short run. You know, a new wetsuit, it's not really good to do that. But, you know, I've got another example of a guy ripping his wetsuit the day— the day when his practice swim before the actual race, and then luckily had a spare wetsuit that was given to him. Hadn't tried it before, but had to put it on. And these are the things we're not talking about. The things that you can have control over, they're the things that you shouldn't be doing that you haven't tried before.

There's enough new things on race— on each race day as it comes. Every triathlon is quite different. Even if you're doing the same course each year, it's different conditions, different people, different environment. And so you know, given the fact that with the amount of people around on race day that you just can't replicate in training, you want to limit the amount of things that are new for you in the first time, given all those things are going to be different. And the reason it's such a hard and fast rule is, is you just want to limit anything going wrong. So obviously with a brand new bike that you've never used before, the chance of things being wrong or off or the height being wrong, the saddle being wrong for you, bike not being comfortable, just increases. So, you know, If it has to happen, then you just cop that risk, but the more you can mitigate those risks, the less anxious you'll feel coming into the day.

The biggest example I can give you is Fiona, she won't mind mentioning this, it was totally out of her control. She went to Kona, she crashed the week before, couldn't get a replacement bike, had to hire a bike from the local bike shop in Kona. You know, everybody knows out there that Kona is the world championships. It's the biggest race of your career, probably, or of that year. And for that to happen is really pretty disappointing. And I had, you know, I felt bad for Fiona to be in this position, but she got the new bike, got it all sorted, got the bike fit as close as she could. And, you know, riding 180K on a bike that you've never ridden more than you know, 2 or 3 times. Halfway through the bike ride, she was absolutely feeling the worst she's ever felt, and it was purely to do with position. And so therefore, you know, when she went to run, she is probably the most consistent runner that we coach at TriValley. Her run times are all between 5:15 and 5:30 pace off the bike. and she couldn't run in the first 2 or 3 Ks. She couldn't run at all hardly. Her hamstrings were so tight from being in a really bad position on the bike, which, you know, it wasn't her fault. It's out of her control. She couldn't do much about it. And this is an example of how it can absolutely destroy the whole experience of the race. And that's an extreme example, but it happened. And that's the point we're trying to get across, you know. Well, what— you know, the answer is what do you do about that? Well, there's not a great deal. She did everything possible, but but you've got to understand that you won't be able to compete the way you think you could have with the preparation that you'd done. And, and that became evident to her. And it was the, the good thing about this was she actually finished the event, um, even though she could barely run. Um, and you know, this is a, this is a girl who, who running is her forte, and not be able to run in the first kilometer, um, you know, is something— there's something definitely wrong. But but you can still find a way to get to the finish even though you've, you know, you've had that experience.

Yeah, that is, that is the equipment, equipment side of things. And but it comes down to anything, don't try a new product, some, some new tip someone gives you, um, on race day, you know, you should try this cream or something like that, you should try this supplement. It's, it's all the same principle. You did mention the shoes, and I think that is one of the biggest ones that could derail your race the fastest, you know, trying new shoes or wearing new shoes on the day, just biggest chance of blisters in a half marathon or marathon could really inhibit you. So, so that's worth saying specifically. The next point we want to touch on is less about equipment and those, those little things and more about the, the, the right way to execute. And smart athletes, you know, use the right data input. And so a lot of people have the same— you've got a power meter, you've got a bike computer, a head unit, you've got your triathlon watch set up, but we just find a lot of athletes are are looking at the wrong thing and using it in the wrong way. And, and you've— if you're going to— you've got that stuff there, you've got to use it in the right way to get the most out of yourself on the day.

Yeah, not using all the metrics available. Um, I just had a conversation with a new triathlete who said that they just raced purely on heart rate the whole time, and, and that she felt that she wasn't able to push because she was instructed to to keep the heart rate at a certain level. And heart rate's great information, but it's not the only information. If you feel it's too easy and your heart rate's high, well, that's actually not a problem if it feels okay. Um, if the, the power's high, the heart rate's high, and it still feels too easy, that's probably going to be a problem down the track in a, in an Ironman or a Half Ironman. But there's so many nuances to, to each of the metrics, you know. How you feel, uh, the power number, the heart rate, um, you know, your actual speed that you're seeing, uh, the cadence that you're riding. All of these data information points are really helpful when you're making good decisions. So if you're not actually looking at all of them and you're just looking at one in isolation, I think it's quite detrimental to your ability to make good decisions. And, and I think that's a really big big mistake that most athletes are making. They might have all the equipment, but they're not actually— in terms of data, but they're not actually using or looking at all the information that's available to them. The more informed you are in life about anything, about work, about school, about relationships, the more informed you are, the better decision-making you can— and you, you'll make less mistakes if you've got all the information at, at hand. And I think that's a key thing in getting the best outcome on the day.

Dad, you and I have, have, um, uh, probably been accused a little bit of making it a little bit too complicated, the, the amount of data and feedback in real time. We are just big believers in you've got your head unit there on your bike, like, you can have 8, 8 bits of data on the one screen at a time, and we want athletes using all 8 bits of data and potentially 2 pages to swipe back and forth on. And some people would use the argument that, you know, that's too complicated to be looking at on the race, like, you're not focusing on the race. That's a little bit dangerous, which we agree. You don't want to just be looking down all the time and trying to focus on the numbers. But we are just such big believers that we— I want to see the time, the distance that I've gone, the current gradient, the live gradient, so I know if I'm on a slight rise or not or how steep it is, my current 3-second power, my lap power right now, my total average power for the ride. I'm interested in current speed, average lap speed, heart rate, cadence. Like, I want to be seeing them all the time because at some point I might just wonder to myself, okay, I'm feeling this, I need to see my heart rate. Okay, I feel like I'm grinding a bit here, what's my cadence doing right now? And so we can get that that can be overwhelming at first, and so we don't want to overwhelm a new athlete with that. We try and introduce it a little bit at the time. Like, a new athlete, it's more, okay, let's just focus on the most important input is your 3-second power on that power. Just try and, just try and look at that and don't worry so much about the total distance or time. or your cadence, and slowly introducing it to a level where we'd want— and we think the best athletes are using every bit of data available and checking all of them all the time, and that allows you to be getting the best input possible to make sure that you're executing well.

And look, let's really simplify it here. When I'm on the bike, and you're the same, and all the TriValley athletes have been drummed into their psyche, is to concentrate on what you're doing, what's happening up the road in terms of what you see first of all and what you feel. And then ask yourself, am I coping with what I'm feeling? And then refer down to the key things that you're trying to look at. It might be— well, as you know, we try to emphasize to all the TriValo athletes that speed is really going to dictate what you do next. So if you glance down and you're doing 30 k's an hour and you're expected to do 30 k's an hour for the whole average speed of that ride, then you would, you would be saying, well, great. 30 k's an hour is— this is my power number. This is my heart rate. This is my cadence. And so that's just one metric that'll give you a whole lot of information. If you're gonna average 30 k's an hour, just to make things easy for this example, and you're doing 38 k's an hour, you must be aware that there's something different happening. You either gotta screaming tailwind or you're going downhill. And so then you can make a decision about what power should I be doing. And the same when you look down, you see 22 k's an hour when you're supposed to be averaging 30, it must be either a headwind or, or an uphill section. So just looking at the speed alone can simplify a lot of your decision making. You've got all this metrics on your screen, which is what we want, but you know, see the speed, then decide what power, then decide what cadence, then decide how your heart rate is, and you're also asking yourself how you feel. So that's a really simple way of using all the data by just actually looking at one metric, which is speed. And, and the thing you'll feel is, boy, it's starting to feel a little bit hard. I don't feel like I'm going into a headwind or uphill. And you look down and you're doing 24. Well, oh, actually I am. So what you felt was right, and therefore you make a decision by looking glancing down, you know, you're still racing the bike, you're glancing down, oh God, the speed's 24, I need to actually get the power up a bit here, change gears, my cadence has gone down to 78 or 82. So, you know, what you feel first determines what you do next. And then glance down to the metrics, and I think that's the thing that people are getting confused with. They think that we're just staring at the screen all day long. No, we're asking ourselves how we feel and what should we be doing next by glancing down and looking at the speed?

Yeah, it's— I do get the logic. Sometimes athletes just say, I just want to simplify it on race day, you know, I really— I just want to see my power, my lap power. And a lot of athletes like to use that little Garmin graph, which is personally a pet hate of mine, that keeps you in the range. But again, I understand the logic. It is nice and simple, and that's why Garmin has made that function. But for us, we just go, you're really missing out. And if you're just looking at a couple of things you're really missing out on the potential of having a lot more information. But more importantly, at the end of a race, it really, you know, an athlete might say, I think I rode okay. And we go, well, you should know, you know, if you should know every single section how you rode, you know, you should be able to get. And this is, this is the difference between, you know, the top athletes executing well. They will finish a race and they'll be able to give a very, very clear report. And they'll say, my power was down, but my speed was good. So I was happy with that. Heart rate was a little higher than normal, but I really did feel okay. So, you know, in certain sections it crept up, but by the end it settled, you know, I was on top of my cadence. Sometimes an athlete will say, I think my cadence is okay. They weren't looking at it, and turns out they were at 79 RPM when they left. They thought they were at 90. And so if you were looking at that, you would see, you know. And again, a smart athlete could give you the report on all those metrics and go, first few sections I nailed my power, the last few I was a bit lower, but the speed stayed high. And that's an athlete who's concentrating the whole time on all the right data inputs.

Yeah, couldn't agree more. And that's what I try to simplify now. And, you know, using how you feel as a starting point. And obviously at the start of any event, you feel fresh. In the middle of the event, you start to tire, and towards the end of the event, you're starting to feel some fatigue. So you're going to feel differently, and that's why the metric data is so good, because what feels— if 200 watts is your average for the expected for the race, that'll feel easy in the start of the ride, but 200 watts at 80K or 140K will feel like 400 watts. So, so the feel has its limitations as well. And so that's why the data is such a good— almost like, uh, the teacher saying, no, here's your, here's your numbers. Uh, this might feel easy, but no, stick to these numbers because we know down the track that these numbers are going to get harder, um, in terms of feeling. So, so trust, trust your preparation and your planning so that the numbers that you're going into the race with, they're, they're right, that they're what you've done in training. So, so you have to trust that and, and Don't try to go outside that range. And if we could use another example is if someone rides past you and you feel that that's something that you're capable of doing, if you spend 5 or 6 minutes outside of the range, that could ruin your whole race. So don't be sucked in by what's going on around you to a degree, but there's other times where it's important and we'll talk about that as well.

Yeah, and it goes both ways. We had an athlete who's a really, really good executor, who's a really, really even bike rider and There was one time trial I spoke to him afterwards and I said, how'd you go? And he said, really good, hit the exact power I wanted. I said, oh great, what speed were you averaging out there? He said, oh no, just looking at power, don't even have speed on the screen, that doesn't matter. Like, the time will be the time and I'll just go power. And I thought, that's great that they've learned that lesson of the most important input. But in a race, you need speed and you need all these things, you know, and they had taken that too far. And your own example, a couple weeks ago, you were riding around the velodrome and you're going, my power is phenomenal, my speed was right down, and you're a little bit annoyed with the session. I said, it's so funny, we still make these mistakes ourselves by getting frustrated with one metric over the other. And we were saying, it's— the principle is almost on race day, you kind of focus on speed a little bit more and, and, and use the power to guide that as execution. And in training, you're trying to hit the power and get the power response, and the speed is a little bit whatever. And I'm curious, we spoke about you were going to do the same session with the disc wheels on a week later just to see, you know, how much the speed would be different. Did you end up trying that, or?

Yeah, I haven't got to that session yet, but that's one of the things I want to do. Um, but what you've just said is so true. You know, speed is everything. How fast you can go from A to B in a race, that, that is everything. And what's your heart rate, what's your power, how do you feel— they're all things going to contribute to you getting that fastest A to B, uh, average, average speed and the time it takes. But in training, you know, we want to focus more on, on the power. And the speed's important if you're outside, and as long as you're on a velodrome where it's, you know, or going out and back, very controlled, where you're doing the same amount of time out into a headwind, the same amount of time back into a tailwind. So therefore the speed becomes relevant. If you're just doing speed in one direction, that's an irrelevant metric when you're training, because you could be in a block headwind doing the right power but your speed is 5 or 6 kilometers an hour slower, or you could be in a massive tailwind and doing 8ks or 6 miles an hour faster, uh, and the, and the power's also correct. Um, so, so power in training is quite important, but it is a metric we use very much in, in the race, but it's dictated to by the speed. And I hope that's a message that people are really trying to understand. But that takes a lot of understanding because not every course is flat. And so most courses that have got wind and hills, you're trying to ride the course, you're trying to suss out where is the slow parts, where is the fast parts. That's what we mean by executing. And you could, you could actually execute 200 watts, which is your goal watts for the whole ride. And in the headwind you were doing 200 watts, in the tailwind you're doing 200 watts. That's not executing the course. That's the point we're trying to get across to the next level time trialers. That's almost the next secret that TriVelo athletes have under their armory, because they understand how to ride the course, and using speed will dictate what you do next.

I want to move on points, but I just have to say that the same principle applies for your running as well. I just see so many people have their running watch way too simplified about what they're looking at. And I'm, I'm almost looking at 8 data points of data as well, which seems a bit ridiculous, but I really like to look at, you know, your real-time pace, your lap pace for that current kilometer, your total average pace, the distance you've run, your heart rate, obviously. And so I see a lot of people not making the same mistake with, with running, so I think that's really important to mention. The, uh, the next point, point 4, uh, again, we're not going to harp on this because we've said it a lot and it is just a cardinal sin in triathlon, but there's one key element of nutrition that we want to talk about. So Obviously, same principle. Don't try any new or random nutrition on race day. That's just the highest risk thing you could do to muck up your race. It's the most common and big mistake that people make. They haven't tried the on-course nutrition and they use that for the first time. When you're in a desperate situation, it's a little bit different. When something's gone wrong, you've bonked, you're collapsing, and you just need a Coke or some sort of energy from the on-course nutrition, absolutely go for it. You only want to grab things that you've tried in training just to mitigate that risk. But the thing we wanna mention is smart triathletes aren't just getting the nutrition right on race day, they're getting it right the morning of, the night before, even the week of, you know, and that comes from practice.

Yeah, and you could go as far to say, as you know, when you start to have a build towards an event, you should really thinking about everyday nutrition. You know, am I eating well during the day? Am I eating well for the next training session? It's a really hard one coming up. I need the right amount of fuel for that. I've got a really long endurance session coming up in a couple of days. I have an easy day 2 days later. I don't need as much nutrition. So that, that is part of the event, even though it's 6 months away or 6 weeks away or 6 days away. That's part of the event. And then, you know, the night before is something where you have to experiment with. The foods that you do like, they may not suit you on race day. Foods that, that are better for you. That might be what you have to experiment with. I've tried pasta and I actually felt bloated on race day, or I didn't try pasta, I just had protein. You know, you should actually try and experiment in some of the, the race-ready sessions you're doing prior to your actual race. And that's what we mean by experimenting with nutrition the night before, especially some of those long endurance days where they are specifically race-ready, where you're doing the same intensity. that you would be doing on race day. And, you know, when it comes to the morning of, you know, if you're doing an Ironman or a half Ironman, that's different to a sprint or Olympic distance. The distance or the time of the event will dictate what you should be doing the night of or the morning of. So some athletes don't actually need that much for sprint or for Olympic distance as compared to, you know, full-on Ironman where you're you know, you're trying to start the event fully fueled. And so, you know, the morning of, you need to not, you know, if you're used to having cereal and honey or toast and honey or just a coffee or just some electrolytes and you've found that it sits well, then in the B or C races, try and experiment with other things so that you can find out, you know, just because it works with this, there might be something else that's better for you. That you haven't tried because you've been so used to doing the same thing. But don't do that in your biggest race. That's not the time to do it. And on the day, if you actually lose your nutrition and you haven't tried the race nutrition of the course, which you should have actually found out what that was and had some previous, but if you actually haven't done that, you then have to, just like the person who had to try a new bike for the first time, you have to use the nutrition. You can't say, oh, my coach said I can't try something new on race day, so I'm not going to have any. Um, that's not what we're saying. You know, get whatever's available to you, and unfortunately you may end up with a, you know, a stitch or an upset stomach, um, or worse, need to go to the toilet, um, so, or vomiting. Um, but it, you know, it's better than actually not having nutrition enough so that you actually bonk or can't actually finish. So, yeah, there's a lot to be put into the nutrition side of this topic.

I love that point you make about just 'cause something might feel like it's working, it still doesn't mean it's the most efficient thing for you. And there's a great example of an athlete who was having bacon and eggs before a race every single time, which is absolutely the worst food you could be having. You really don't want high fat, high protein before, and almost zero carbs in that, or very low carb in that before a race. But it sat in their stomach fine, and they thought that was good, and their nutritionist said to them, that is just the least efficient food. It might work for you fine at the moment, but switching to, you know, simple carb options will make you feel way better. So if you feel good on that, you're probably going to feel way better on switching to proper carbs.

That clarifies exactly what I was trying to say before. I don't mean to say that you should be having protein the night before as your source of fuel. If you've been doing that in the past, you know, it would be a really good idea to experiment back to what the carb can do for you, even though the protein seemed to work for you, you would get more advantage by actually having more carbohydrate in your pre-night-before meal.

Exactly right. Point number 5, uh, this is a really interesting topic to figure out the nuance of, and it's, it's all about drafting. So can't draft in races, but especially in age group, it just happens. It's rife because the courses are so busy, so sometimes you can't just help it. And You want to do the right thing. You don't want to be one of those people that you want to try and, you know, get in someone's slipstream legally and stick to the draft zone. You don't want to be one of those people that's just taking the mickey and just ride on someone's wheel, you know, because the marshals can't see everyone. You can get away with it a lot, and it's just not part of the race. It's just really, really not part of the spirit of triathlon. But at the same time, groups just happen all the time. And you also, if you get caught in that, it's not really your fault. So For the pros, they obviously have very, very strict rules. Plenty of age groupers do get caught, which is part of the rules, which should keep happening. But we want to talk about the nuance of being in a legal draft zone and how you can— or group— and how you could use that to your advantage and what the smarter triathletes do.

Yeah, it's a really topical conversation, as you know, that the World Triathlon has now instigated the 20-meter draft rule for the pros, which is super exciting. makes it more like a time trial, which is what the event— that's the event's original idea was that you ride a time trial, you swim by yourself, you ride by yourself, and you run by yourself. And so, it's gone away from that because of the numbers in the event as you just explained. And for some situations, you can't actually get out of a pack unless you actually put the brakes on and let the pack go and you ride by yourself. So, you know, Drafting is something that we— and you've explained it, that it's not in the spirit of it. You shouldn't be outwardly seeking to get an unfair advantage by drafting. We're really adamant about that. That's something that we don't encourage. But if you're stuck in a situation where you can't actually get out of a pack of 20, you've tried many times and you are stuck. We've got examples of— there was a a magnificent Melbourne day back in 2022, I think, or '23, where some of the fastest Melbourne times were ever recorded. And they won't be beaten, um, because it was a perfect day with hardly any wind, and there were just packs of riders everywhere. Um, and some of our riders who are 2-hour-30 riders, 2-hour-35 riders, they were riding 2:15, 2:20, and their power was literally 30 or 40 watts lower than it would have been for 2 hours 30, uh, is because principally they're in, in an unavoidable situation where they were stuck in a pack. And, and everybody in the pack was, was getting, was getting frustrated, but no one could do anything about it. Um, and there were people in there who were loving being in the pack, but there were people who are, you know, seriously trying to get out of the pack. Um, so it is a tricky situation, and I've got a few ideas that you know, could help you to almost alleviate that mindset of, "I'm getting anxiety about it." If you find that you're in a position where you can't get out of and you see that your speed is where you want it to be, yet your power is way lower and it's unavoidable, then you have to just go with the flow and be happy that you're going to be spending less energy at the same speed that you're going to do, and you should be able to run so much more efficiently. So that's, that's the A scenario. The B scenario is you're trying to get yourself out of that position, and there's certain situations where you've got a course that's got opportunities where there's hills or headwind. And this doesn't happen so much when a flat course with no wind because it's easy for people to sit on you no matter how hard you ride and then all of a sudden, they'll go past you and then you're stuck in a draft position again. You go back past them. The normal situation is most TriVelo athletes, because we've got them into riding a range, when they get to an uphill section, they're going to ride to the top of the range. A lot of the athletes who aren't riding the same philosophy as we teach, they'll be riding way above their range up the hill so they'll pass and then get passed on the downhill because they're not keeping the pressure on the pedals because they're exhausted from the effort that they've just done. So you've got this situation where you're getting passed uphill, you're passing the other person downhill, and this keeps going backwards and forwards for as long as that other person starts to get tired and then you end up riding away. So you need to think about that. It will happen for a period, but eventually that person is riding so hard over the top of the hill if the course has got enough undulations, they will eventually drop off. So you've just got to do your best and not be too disappointed that you're stuck in this situation. But, but drafting is, isn't— it's just part of the event, unfortunately.

Yeah, so I think the crucial question is there is, is what do you do if you're stuck in a pack and they're surging and not surging? Do you drop back 30 seconds, just go, I'm sick of this, I'm just going to ride my own race? Do you let everyone pass you on the uphills and you keep passing them on the downhills and coming back and just you know, just watch out for safety and not getting in the way. What's the best strategy there? Because the worst thing to do is to try and stay in the pack for the drafting effect and be surging on the hills and start riding the same way as everyone else because you're ruining your own run doing it that way.

Yeah, the choice is simple. Two choices. One, you try to— when you know there's a hill coming, you try to sit in and get a run-up and actually ride outside your range, which is very few and far between, we would say that. So that when you get to the top of the hill, you will keep the pressure on the pedals because you're used to training like that. and everybody else who's been following you at a higher rate will actually slow down, and now you're at the top of the group. Whereas if you just ride your own power, you'll be at the middle or the back of the group by the end of the top of the hill. So that's the different strategy. Get to the front of the group, ride it hard, go outside your range for that one-off situation, and then keep the pressure on the pedals and you'll ride away from the group. And that will distance you from the group from that point on. That is probably the best scenario.

Yep, fair enough. And then the other pacing strategy is if someone comes past and, you know, you get into a legal strip stream, so you're not drafting but you want to pace off them, that's something that we do encourage. You've got to be really careful of— you've got to make a really quick assessment of, okay, am I following this someone because my ego doesn't want to let them go and I'm riding outside my range, or are they a good pacer and it is mentally nice to try and sit on someone and you find they're within your range and you'll stick on them?

Yeah, you've got to give it, I think, 2 to 3 minutes where you've got to accelerate. And if you want to see what the, you know, legal, the legal power that you're able to ride, I mean, the legal distance. So if you've got the 12-meter rule for the age grouper and you look down and you're still riding outside of your range and you're doing that for 2 or 3 minutes, that's what you should back off. If that person you're following is going to maintain that. And you're assuming a lot of things here, but 2 or 3 minutes is sufficient time for you to work out whether, even though now you're in the legal 12-meter draft zone but your power's still outside your range, that's it, no more. You go, you let them go.

Yeah. Okay, the next points we want to touch on are all based around transition, and the reason we want to focus on transition a little bit is because when you look across age group results, there can be, you know, 2 to 6 minute difference between the fastest and, and slowest age group athletes on race day in transition. And so we're always fighting for time gains, and if you were able to make up, you know, 4 to 6 minutes on your run or bike, for example, that would be a great day. And so if you can find 2 to 4 to 6 minutes sometimes just in transition, that is well worth it. So, so it's worth touching on just to really emphasize that Anytime there's free time gains to be made, you want to find them. And there's a lot of little elements to it to find, you know, 20 seconds here and there that we do see a lot of people just— we say take your time in transition, but not fluff around.

Efficiently fast. That's what I want to see. I want to see efficiency, but I don't want to see your heart rate spiking. And, you know, the scenario would be you get out of the water and you run flat out to transition. You get your wetsuit off as quick as you can. You grab your helmet, grab your bike, and you sprint to the mount line, and you, you could save yourself 20 or 30 seconds from someone who is efficiently fast. But I would still rather be 20 or 30 seconds slower but kept my heart rate down so that by the time I get on my bike, I'm not having to actually recover from the transition. So, so there's that, that's the extreme, too fast, and then the efficiently fast is where we want you. And the extreme too slow is dawdling out of the water. And I'm just using, you know, swim to bike transition here. It's the same from bike to run. Getting to the bike rack and sitting down and, you know, just gently taking your wetsuit off and, you know, not having your cap and your goggles off already, not having your wetsuit already down to your waist so that when you get to the bike, all you've gotta do is pull it down over your legs. And you know, not having your nutrition already, you know, sitting there waiting, the bike helmet not on the bike, you keep picking it off the ground, and you're just taking your time and you're actually grabbing your bike, you know, after you've had a gel and a bit of a drink. You know, these are things that are gonna cost you time. So they're the two extremes. You wanna be not consuming any fuel in transition. You wanna be consuming all the fuel when the when you're moving, you're either running or riding.

Yeah, nothing stationary. No, no. Yeah, yeah.

Not consuming any food stationary. You want to be moving and consuming, and you need to have practiced that. Um, and so, so yeah, trying to be that happy medium. And look, there's been examples of, you know, people go, what does it matter if I'm just trying to complete the event? It, it doesn't matter, but you're just wasting more time out on the course. If, you know, in an Ironman, if you, you know, some people I've seen have been 15 minutes in transition and other people have been 4. you know, that's a— that's an 11-minute loss, you know, that you're gonna spend more time out on the course. You know, the less time you're on the course, you know, the more efficient day you'll have. So— and some people have lost races because they're 30, 40 seconds in transition 1 and 45, 50 seconds in transition 2, and they actually were faster swimmer, biker, and runner than the person who beat them, but they were slower in transition. There's margins of 10, 20 seconds in the overall final time. And you could actually, you know, T1 and T2 is part of the race. So be efficient, just like you are in your preparation for swim, bike, and run. Be efficient in T1 and T2 as well.

Yeah, and that leads to the next transition point, which is— you touched on it, but sprinting in and out of transition is just a common one with so much crowd around and high adrenaline energy. You're in between the monotony of each discipline. It's very easy to get caught up in that, but Yeah, we very often see the TrainingPeaks graph when we go and look at the run specifically, and often people start the run just as they're leaving the bike rack. And for example, they're supposed to be running 4:30 pace, and the first 30 to 60 seconds is 4-minute pace, 3:50 pace, because it's like, you know, all the fun of coming out. And then they settle slowly back down to their 4:30 pace. And it's hilarious to see the top of the pace chart on TrainingPeaks is super high in that first 30 seconds, and then it drops down to steady way. And the reason that's a problem is you're just spiking yourself and putting your body under pressure straight away, which is just always the opposite of what you want to do in an endurance event.

Yeah, look, spiking that heart rate, that's the one thing we want to eliminate all throughout this endurance event. You know, we're not running a 400, it's an endurance 10K or 5K. You know, 5K is 20 minutes, it's not a sprint. So holding your heart rate where it's meant to be for 5K is just as important as it is for a marathon or for a half half marathon. And so any area, whether you're on the bike sprinting up a hill or sprinting out of transition as a runner, they're going to increase that heart rate, which is gonna, you know, cause you to have fatigue down the track somewhere where you can't run or ride or swim sprinting into the water. You know, running flat out into the water, dolphin diving as fast as you can, that's great if you're a pro. But for the average age grouper, You need to actually keep your heart rate as level as possible the whole way around this endurance event. And just like we say in T1 and T2, just, you know, getting on the bike and then powering out at 700 watts for the first 2 or 3 minutes, getting off the bike and running 2:50 pace when you're a 5-minute K pace runner, they're the things that are gonna spike your heart rate and create havoc for the next 5 minutes until you can get it back down under under control. So don't do that to yourself. Just be disciplined and, and let the others do all that crazy, you know, inefficient endurance style of racing.

The last point on this is, is the dis— the, the mounting and dismounting. And if you ever go and stand at a triathlon and stand at the dismount line, there's, there's plenty of viral videos around of what happens there. But, you know, That just comes down to a) a bit of practice, but b) just a bit of a plan in your head about what you're going to do. And you don't want to cost yourself time by not having a plan about how you're going to enter that dismount line. You don't need to be the pro and do a flying dismount, but you just want to be organized with 200 meters out saying to yourself, okay, I need to unclip here, get one foot out at least, get the other one loose, or get both feet out. So when I come to a stop, I can get off the bike safely, not risk a crash, but efficiently move straight through the line and not be unclipping really slowly because you've done it all too late and braking really hard because suddenly the lines come up way faster than you anticipated.

Yeah, I did stand at the last race and I started taking some footage of people coming in. There were people coming in and not actually stopping at the line and having to back, back, back over the line still with one foot clipped on the bike and falling over, you know, because they're still clipped in. They just hadn't thought it through. You know, you're either going to leave your feet in the shoes or you're going to take your feet out of the shoes. They're the two options. So if you're going to leave your feet in the shoes and you're going to get off the bike and run with your, with your cycling shoes on, that's fine. That's absolutely fine. But make sure you've unclipped one foot 30 meters before you get to the dismount and you've actually unstraddled the bike. And so you just really got one foot clipped in and the other one's dangling so that when you hit the ground, you just unclip the other foot. 5 meters before the line, and then you can run smoothly over the dismount line. Same with the feet out of the shoes. You know, one foot is out of the shoe, then you take the other foot out of the shoe well before you get to the dismount line so that you unstraddle the bike just as you do if the shoes are on, and then you just jump off, um, and just continue running. People who did it smoothly, it was great to watch. People who are having so much struggle, they they were there for 30 or 40 seconds too long. Mm-hmm. And same with getting on the bike. You know, you decide in transition after the swim whether you're gonna run with your shoes on or have your shoes clipped in and then do the, the flying mount. And if you wanna practice that, that's a great way to save time, but it's just as equally as good to run with your shoes on if that's what you wanna do. A lot of people were spending— the people who had their shoes on the bike they were zigzagging all over the road because they hadn't actually practiced getting momentum for the bike. And, and a few people fell off their bikes because they were going too slow and trying to put their foot in the shoe. You need to pedal with your shoe feet out of the shoes to get the speed of the bike going, then put your feet in. And if you've, you know, got a good system, you can, you know, with the Velcro, you can actually just slide your foot in very easily without having to you know, do the zip-ups with a normal cycling shoe. So it's, you know, these are very minor things, but they all contribute to it. We're trying to get the most efficient day out of you from start to finish.

And look, you can go to a velodrome or an empty car park, a closed car park, because if you're doing it for the first time on race day, or it's the only time you practice is actually on race day, it is a high-pressure situation. You know, there's a lot happening there, and it's very easy to get overwhelmed. And, you know, like you said, course differences. If there's a long run from the dismount to transition, you really don't want to be staying clipped, staying in your shoes, unclipping and running in your cleats all the way back to transition. You know, you want to practice getting your feet out. And so being able to get off the bike and then run barefoot to transition. And look, don't do what I did and decide you're going to have a full practice session the day before a race for a flying dismount, you know, and try and be like the pros and then crashed and broke my toe, so that wasn't an ideal way to practice the day before a race. But you can go to the velodrome and really practice doing a lap riding and getting your speed up like you would in a race, and then giving yourself a cone point where you've got to dismount by and practice unclipping like that.

So, and you can do that anywhere. You can do that at a local park. It doesn't, you know, not everybody's got access to a velodrome, but, but you should do the opposite as well. You should, you know, you know, take your wetsuit, you know, take your wetsuit off even in your own house. You know, you could jump in the shower with the wetsuit on, jump outside, take your wetsuit off, grab your bike out in the main street, you know, shoes on the bike if that's what you want to do, practice the mount, and then start pedaling hard, and then try and put your feet in. That's something you can do at home. So these are things that are going to help you have a smoother day.

Last few points we really want to touch on, point 9. The smartest athletes turn up to race day with a really, really clear plan, and they know, they know exactly how they're going to execute the day. And so, you know, for what the plan is, they're doing a lot of thinking throughout the week, and that's why pre-race plans are so important to us at Tribello. But, you know, throughout the week they're going, okay, here's what I know I can do, here's what I— here's my plan based on my numbers, here's what the weather's looking like right now, so here's my plan based on that. But then that's just, you know, that's— you're making little adjustments all the way until the morning of to decide what you want to do. But The point is, you know, we say plan, prepare, perform. The more well-planned you are mentally, you know, the higher chance you have of executing a smooth race on race day.

There's nothing better, George, than standing on the beach and being super confident about what you've strategied, what plan you've had with your coach, you know, during the week about what is going to actually happen in the swim, transition, bike, transition, and run. And there's a calmness about this is what I'm going to do in the swim, this is how I'm going to execute the transition, this is how I'm going to absolutely ride the bike according to the course and the wind, the undulations and the wind. I know what my numbers are, I'm going to stay with that, and if I feel good, I'm going to push to the top of the ranges. And then transition too, I thought about that, I've practiced it. And then come out of transition for the run, super, super calm. and then build the run. And then if I'm nailing the pace early with that, that really easy transition into the run, I can really come home strong and, and really finish with, with great speed. And, and that's what we're talking about with, with having a really good plan for the day. And, and then when you think about that on, on the beach, when you're standing there amongst the other 1,500 athletes around you, the majority of those athletes don't have that plan and their anxiety is high and they're hoping that they have a good day. They haven't actually thought through any of the details. You know, I know I can ride 3 hours, I'm just gonna try and do that again. I know I can run 2 hours, I'm just gonna try and do that again. No, the person who knows exactly what's gonna happen in every little detail, we talk about, you know, being in the moment, that's having a plan. You can't be in the moment if you don't actually know what the plan is. Being in the moment, you can strategize about what is the wind doing here on the bike, you know, is it a headwind or a tailwind, and what am I doing here with the run, am I feeling good, you know. These are the things that we want you to do pre-race so that when it comes to race day, you actually can execute the way you want to.

Point number 10 is all about how you turn up physically on race day, and the smartest athletes don't turn up exhausted. You know, so it's this really fine balance of doing the right amount of efforts in that last final week with the right amount of taper and recovery. And smart athletes have a really scheduled and— and, uh, and what's the word? Not focused, but, uh, but well-planned training week that they've practiced before. Um, that it's a conscious choice, you know, you're not just doing random sessions in the last week because you're panicking a little bit about your fitness, you know. Chasing fitness in that last week is a really big mistake. And if you haven't been training that well and you kind of feel like you need something, then you could potentially do a hard session on Tuesday or Wednesday and give yourself 3 days to recover before the weekend's race if you're really stressed about it. But the work should have been done before then. But the point is, you know, you still want some efforts in that race week, but there's some structure to it, and it's about half the volume of what you'd normally do, plus some recovery. You don't want to go to sleep, but you don't want to go too hard and turn up to race day physically exhausted.

Yeah, and this takes a little bit of experiment, actually. You need to actually use a lot of the B, C races, and we keep talking about that, and I hope people understand what we're talking about. These aren't— these are races that are going to contribute to the main event that you've got for the first part of the season or the end of the season. So using these other events to actually work out what taper or what preparation during the week of the race best suits you. And that you could, you could have tried 2 or 3 different things. And, and I know some athletes really need a little bit more work than others, and some athlete— other athletes need the least amount of work possible to get the, to get the best feeling on race day. So that takes a bit of experimenting, just like nutrition does with the amount of carbs you need. Might be more or less on a given day. But, but here with this, this, you know, coming into the race, um too exhausted, that would be fine if it's a B race or a C race and the coach is specifically wanting you to come in there tired and, and trying to get you to execute, with some fatigue. That, that's a different scenario. But, but for what we're talking about here to get the best result on your most important day, you, you wanna have experimented with all of these things so that you know what amount of effort you need during the week so that it gets you ready to go on race day.

To finish off, we just wanted to try and give an overview of, of a little checklist of what you should be able to aim for to tick off at the end of your race. And we were kind of thinking, what does a smart athlete really do different on race day? And, and it's this little checklist that we want to go through that our best athletes can look back on and go, this was a gold standard race for me, I really nailed these things. If you can say you ticked off these things, then you had a really good race despite whatever time or place you came. That would be a really good race for you, whether you're a, whether you're a a 4-hour 70.3 athlete or a 7-hour, if you tick off these things, it's a really successful race. And so, Daryl, I'll just list them out and then get you to add any of the gold standard. But, you know, the swim execution, you know, you just want to stay calm. You want to swim to the pace that you've practiced in training in any endurance efforts. And a big thing we look for is, is was your time a little bit off? You know, what's happening in training, which might indicate that your open water swimming is a little bit off compared to your pool swimming, you know, and something about you in the open water with your wetsuit, you're not practicing enough, you're not quite swimming to to the standard you want, or were you within the range, and that shows that you're getting enough of that training in. T1 and T2, we spoke about at length, getting those things right, and basically look at your age group and go, how do I compare? Am I losing time anywhere? On the bike, it's pretty much as simple as, did I hit the power and speed ranges I was aiming for? When I look at my analysis, you know, was I in the range most of the time, or was I over and under too much? Did I execute the sections well in terms of headwind, tailwind, where out and back sections of the course, and then leads to the run. Did I negative split the run? Was my first kilometer my slowest? Was there not too big a gap between the first half and second half, which indicates I might have been too conservative? Did I come home really strong and finish strong at the end? And they're kind of the major, major things. If you tick off those things, you've had a great race. There's a lot of little things in there, but how would you add to that?

Look, I just think the summary is perfect, and you should be thinking about this exactly those sentences you were using just then. You should be thinking about that. That's the thing you should be concentrating on prior to you starting the event, even on the beach. This is, this is how I'm going to execute today. And then the other thing I would add to it is, after you've done the race, go back and write down, how did I do the swim, T1, T2, bike, and run? I had the plan, and you've got that written down because that should have been sent to your coach. And you, you discuss that. And now you're going to write down what happened. You take an analysis of your own event and then you discuss that with your coach. That would be the, the final piece of the puzzle. Because why, why would— why is that important? Because the next race you want to make sure that all the little things that you weren't happy with, you've done something about, you've identified it, and now you can do something about it between the end of that race and the, and the and the, you know, the start of the next race.

That's, that's it for the main points of the episode. We do want to finish with a section that we do like to include as much as possible, and that's our gratitude. We really think that the physical training and the racing side of things is really important, but we really believe in the mental health of the athlete. It's important to, to stay grateful for all the things that bring us little bits of joy in life. So Dad, what is your gratitude for the week?

Yeah, it's completely away from, from, from racing and competing, and I actually I have an example of— it made me laugh because our eldest granddaughter Eden has turned 5 and she's now in prep. So it was her first day of school last Friday and Andy, my wife, and I were lucky enough to be able to travel to go and see her on her first day at assembly. And the joy she had of being— and excitement she had on her first day of school, the journey ahead of her. Is, is all before her. So, um, the funny part about it was, uh, the next time we took her to school on the Monday, we all decided to ride to school. And she only lives a couple of kilometers from school, it's pancake flat. And Liam, your brother's got two sort of surf bikes that he uses, that bit of clunkers. And, um, and Eden's got the— she's actually got the new Giant little, uh, kids bike, uh that's coming up to be sent to her place, but she's got an old bike as well that she's really good on. She's a very competent bike rider, I must say. She hasn't got the clip-on bars on yet, but on her first ride, she had to lead. We all rode, and the only bike available for me was the bike that I had with me, which was the time trial bike. So I'm riding to school behind Eden and your brother Liam, my wife Andy, and I'm on the time trial bike with thongs on, and she's just up the front. We're not allowed to pass her because she has to be first. And so it was just so— I'm just so grateful to have those experiences, and can't wait for the other 3 or 4 grandchildren to have their first days at school. But it was such a fun, fun experience. I'm grateful to be able to experience it.

That's absolutely brilliant. My gratitude is I'm actually in Japan at the moment getting a little of skiing in for the week. But before that, I was in Tokyo and I got to join a pretty elite run club on Saturday. Japan has an insanely high density of just world-class runners. I think it—

you—

I think this stat is still true, that they have the highest percentage or highest number of sub-65 half marathon runners per capita in the world. So they're very high quality, and I got invited to a pretty elite run club where You have to be a sub-3-hour marathon runner to be able to join because they run these long Saturday sessions in these big groups and it's around a pretty busy park in Tokyo. And so you have to run single file and follow the rules. And it was so much fun to kind of join a bit of an elite squad and you go off in trains and I joined the 3:45 pace train and it was a 20K run and it was just so good. But there was a train of 12 of us just working together, running loops of this epic track. And, and I just felt so cool. And they're all very welcoming, and as you'd expect for Japanese people, they're the kindest people in the world and very professional. You know, the front guy would pick up a water on the, on one of the laps, and then you'd pass it back to each person on the right-hand side behind you. And then it would get— the last guy would then drop it off at the end of the next lap. And just a very fun experience. So very grateful to be invited to that and And funnily enough, I can speak a little bit of Japanese, but when they were giving instructions at the start, I couldn't understand anything. And my numbers are okay, so I thought I was hearing the right numbers. And me and this other, um, other Westerner were the only non-Japanese guys there, and we accidentally joined the 3:30 group to start. So we did the first, first couple of k at 3:30 pace. And he had said to me beforehand, he said, look, they'd love to go out really hot and then they kind of settle, so just just kind of nestle into the hot pace at the start and then it'll settle back. And I go, oh, just my least favorite way to run, but sure, I'll do that. And we took off at 3:30 pace. I'm going, this is— come on, guys. Like, this is— I turned around to him and said, this is pretty hot, you know. After a couple of kays, he goes, I think we're in the wrong group because they weren't slowing down. So we had to slow back and jump in the group behind. But yeah, that was a super fun experience.

Were the other guys having a laugh, the 3:45 group, when you guys got dropped?

Oh, I don't know. There's a lot of language barriers happening, so they're just looking at these clueless Westerners going, who are these these guys jumping in. But no, everyone was, was very, very kind. It was, it was fantastic.

What a great experience.

Yeah, it was. All right, that's it for this episode. We hope you got a lot of value from that. And if you want some coaching, individualized based on all these principles to you and how to apply them to you for race day, you can go to triathlonoaching.com.au to apply to get coached from us. That's it for this one. Thank you very much for listening as always, and we'll see in the next episode.