15 Simple Changes To Make to Your Training & Racing

This podcast is brought to you by Trivelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. I'm your host, Jordan Donnelly, and on my left is former Australian Ironman champion and head coach of Trivalo coaching, Jared Donnelly. Once you get started in the cycling or triathlon world, a Pandora's box opens up to you with what seems like infinite choices you need to make about products, equipment, and everything to do with training and racing. So in this episode, we're going to give you our thoughts on some of the key decisions you need to be making and which options to go for. This includes bike equipment, training equipment, running shoes, and training decisions all the way through to race day. So we're going to get into that today. We're very excited for it. But firstly, Dad, a normal starting segment. What are you grateful for?

Very simple one, Jordan. It's been a while since caught up with our granddaughter Eden. So very grateful to have the opportunity to fly back up to Noosa Sunshine coast and spend four or five days with her. And actually my. My son and Liam, my son and. And his partner Lani, his wife, Lani. So it's been great.

Great. My. My gratitude is a very specific one and I know you'll appreciate it and it is for Ted Lasso. And if you know who Ted Lasso is, you might appreciate this. If you don't, it's a TV show about this coach. He's an American football coach and long story short, he gets poached to the English Premier League even though he's never seen a game of soccer or football before. And he's just an unbelievable coach. I think any coach out there would appreciate Ted Lasso. And his mantra is always just believe, no matter what. And we've both watched the show and we really love it. So I think anyone that's seen it will be a fan of this gratitude. Anyone that hasn't seen it should go watch it.

I love Ted Lasso. The theme to his episodes are, it's just so believable. It's great.

It's really great writing and it's really inspiring to watch. From a coaching perspective, it's really good. But getting into the episode, we've got a really packed one trying to smash through some of these topics. Basically, it's this or that option. Often we get presented with two options and we don't know what to go for. And dad, you will have had been asked tens of thousands of questions, probably more of your lifetime, about should I do this or should I do that with regards to training, equipment and everything in between. So we're going to start going through them and we'll start with some more general ones and we'll get more specific civic as we get into the episode. But to start off with a big one, with a bike, TT bike or road bike, what should you go for?

I love this podcast today because there are lots and lots of questions that I'm regularly getting asked on a daily basis and we're really good to get out one piece of information. Finally, to get across to the masses that this is just my, yours and my opinion on some should you do this or should you do that option? And let's take the TT bike or road bike for a start and you know, every single question that you're going to ask me, the answer would be it depends. And, and the first one straight off the bat, are you a triathlete or are you a cyclist? So if you're a triathlete, you should want to spend the majority of your time on your TT bike. Um, if you're a cyclist, you definitely want to spend all of your time on your road bike, but you may be a cyclist who does time trials, so you absolutely have to spend some time on the time trial bike. So, so yes, we, we want to have some periods as a triathlete where it might be in the off season where you just want to ride your road bike. So there's no right or wrong. It's just the more time you spend on the bike you're going to compete on is going to be more helpful to your body, adapting to that position. And, and I'm, I'm a big believer in, in riding the time trial bike. If you're triathlete, there's, you know, 90 plus percent of the time, but there are times where I definitely love riding my road bike just for a break even, you know, we've given many examples during the podcast. You know, on a recovery ride, I would ride the road bike just to practice my pedaling. I could also do that on the TT bike. So for me, I've spent 40 years on a time trial bike, so it's just not that important that I spend the time that's, you know, that I'm suggesting someone who's been on a time trial bike for six weeks in their whole career or six months or two years, they need to spend more time on the time trial bike in that position, working the muscles. You know that you're going to work on race day and get used to those working Muscles being in that position. Because you know, obviously there's going to be periods during your training week where you're going to have to get off the bike and go for a run. And if you've been riding the road bike, you're actually in a different position, slightly different. You know, from all of my experience, there is no one who sits on their road bike the same as I sit on a TT bike. So you have got a slight variation in the angle of your hip, your knee and even your arms and shoulders. You know, everything is looked, looked at differently on the TT bike. So if you want to practice running off the bike against the right bike, then you need to practice running off the bike against your TT bike.

The caveat to that is that for most people the TT position is quite an aggressive position and it's quite an aggressive change. So if you are new to it, we have seen a lot of athletes before spend too much time too quickly in that position and get a lot of problems through their hips and because you're really in that aggressive hip flexion motion. So that is just something to be aware of. And one last point I wanted to clear up was that it is assumed or implied in your language that a triathlete should have a TT bike in the first place, correct?

Yes, that's a good point. Look, there's been some. Let's take Nathan Jones for example. He came to us with 12 weeks to prepare for his is 70.3. And he won't mind me talking about this, but he only had a road bike and so he spent the first six weeks training on the road bike until he actually was able to get hold of a TT bike. And he wanted to get a TT bike earlier, but it just wasn't available. As everybody knows at the moment, the current state of affairs are there aren't a lot of brand new bike options available. So, so as much as he wanted to train on that bike, he actually couldn't. And he said the change from, from training on the TT bike to the road bike, he could barely run, you know, from. He was totally across riding his road bike and getting off and running. And the minute he changed bikes to get off and run, the same easy ride run combination, he found unbelievably difficult straight away. So, so that was a great example to me of far out. You don't even, you're not even intuitively thinking like this is an issue, but it is a major issue. Um, and imagine if you actually did that and tried to do something hard on the TT bike. And then tried to run hard, you would feel like you've never written or run before as a combination.

Yeah, absolutely. We'll keep moving through. We've got a lot to get through, so we'll try and keep flying through them. Next big one is from a training equipment perspective, using a chest strap heart rate monitor or just using a watch to measure heart rate.

I'm a big believer in the chest strap. The watch has got so much issues with getting accuracy, so that's a straightforward one to me. I want everybody I coach to have a heart rate monitor strap on their chest and a last resort would be on the watch if you can't afford to get a chest strap. But it is definitely not as accurate and I've worn both and they're being quite contrasting in their data.

Yeah. And it is known that the watch can be up to 20 beats incorrect, especially the more high intensity you get and especially if you're doing an interval session, it's just not getting the data as accurately as quick. So in a long, slow session, the watch can be as closer to this chest strap heart rate monitor. But if you're training properly and doing a variety of sessions, then there's just no way the watch is going to be getting you as accurate data as you need. And so much so that some people give me their heart rate data from their watch after a run or something and I just say I'm not paying attention to it because it could just be so inaccurate, you know, and it.

Will actually compromise the session. Um, so if you're trying to run under 75% of your threshold heart rate and your, what, your watch is actually reading 10% higher, you could actually run too slow because you're looking down and you're seeing a heart rate that's meant to stay under 140 and you're, you know, you're actually having to run 9 minute K pace to keep it under 140, where you look at your chest strap and you know you're able to run 6 minute K pace under 140. So that's how much it can influence the session.

Yeah, absolutely. Next one, getting a smart trainer for the bike or just a normal indoor trainer.

That'S a real difficult one. The obvious answer is, of course, get a smart trainer, but they are expensive and we have spent a lot of money as a triathlete getting all the equipment, as a cyclist getting all the equipment. And it's just one more piece of equipment that costs a lot of money. You can get the same functionality by Having a non smart trainer and I've proved it. I've got a set of rollers that I can do. Every single session that I've put to every athlete that I coach, I can do on the rollers. And you know, I don't need a smart trainer to do that because I've got a power meter on my bike. I jump on the rollers and use the bike power meter. I don't have, you know, there, there are smart trainers set up for rollers as well, but they're again, expensive. So I'm talking about the basic rollers with resistance. I'm not talking about rollers that don't have resistance. So I can't do the session with rollers with no resistance. That, that is actually a caveat I need to say out loud there. But, but certainly if I wanted to do all of the sessions that are on my program, I don't need a smart trainer as long as I've got a power meter. I miss out on using TrainerRoad or Zwift or any of the apps for sure. But I actually have, you know, a Bluetooth which enables me to run my power meter through my computer and I can use Zwift as well. So, so there are ways around it. But there is no, there's no compulsion for someone to have a smart trainer as long as they have a power meter.

So why do you answer, of course, get a smart trainer if, if it's possible for you and if it's, if you can afford it because you really. When, when we're doing our sessions. Okay, I'll ask the next question right now. If you're using a smart trainer, do you use the smart trainer power meter or use your bike power meter at.

The beginning of the people I coach, I actually want them to use both and have two separate files as you know. So if you're testing in your first week when you join, our coaching business is to test everybody and I want to see what their smart trainer power meter reads in comparison to their bike power meter. So I know my Smart trainer reads 10 watts lower than my bike power meter. So instantly I'm going to race with my bike power meter. So I'm not going to race with my kick out power meter. So obviously I want to train to the one I'm going to race with. So if I'm going to use the smart trainer power meter, that's going to throw all of my training, you know, 10 watts out. So right from the beginning I test people doing both. They run their smart power Meter, whether it's a kicker or attacks, they run that through Zwift and I get them to run their bike power meter through their Garmin or their head unit. Um, so they've got two different files loaded and we can see straight away what was your 20 minutes with the smart trainer? What was your 20 minutes with your bike power meter?

So, yeah, so based on that, if you and most people end up using their bike power meter because it's the one they're going to race on, what's the purpose of using the Smart trainer? Cause the whole function is that it's, it can read power, et cetera. Is it just for the enjoyment that it connects to Zwift properly and you can suddenly use a whole other app like that or Trainer Road?

Yeah, definitely. There's a few functions that are really, really good and one of them is that you can change the resistance to, you know, way higher resistance than I can ever get on the, the rollers and I can't, I can't get out of my seat and sprint on the rollers. Um, so there's things like that that I can't actually, you know, push 900, a thousand watts without using a Smart trainer.

But you could on just a standard, you know, standard block trainer.

Yes, I could.

Yep.

Um, so the ability to use.

For.

Example, if I wanted to do an endurance drive with strength and it was too wet outside and I couldn't get into the hills, I wanted to do an hour's climb. I don't live near a course that's got an hour's climb. Can jump on a Smart Trainer and jump on up to is or jump on von top and I can do a hill climb, you know, which replicates exactly what I'm going to experience outdoors. And if I'm fortunate enough to have a hill climb as well as the Smart trainer, which is another expense, I can, I can feel the bike at an angle and I'm actually riding with the bike, you know, at 10%, feeling 10% angle of my bike, where I'm going to, you know, have my hip angle more accurate than if I'm just sitting on the flat. So, so it is real resistance, real hip angles. So there is a, you know, there's definitely advantages if you could afford it to, to have those options available to you. Your options are less with a non smart trainer. So you can, you can then have your, you know, your coaches training peak session on your Zwift screen. And that's a real plus to be able to see what's next Just, you know, unfortunately, Zwift doesn't have lap power, it only has three second power. So that's a, I mean a limiter. But at least you've got, you know, a number to ride towards that's on your screen. So, you know, if you can afford it, I would definitely say it is worthwhile investing in, but you can still get away with it as long as you have a bike power meter on your bike.

Yeah, and we're going down a bit of a rabbit hole here, so I'll stop after this point. But I mean, you can connect to Zwift without a smart trainer, but it just doesn't do anything, you know, you just, it doesn't provide any resistance. You're just watching the screen and whatever's on the screen is you're writing to. But the whole point of riding inside Zwift is, with a smart trainer is when you're going uphill, the resistance increases, et cetera, and, and many other benefits. Last point on the Smart trainer and we, we've hammered this home plenty of times, but really clear answer. Erg mode, yes or no? No, we won't go into it. If you listen to any of our previous episodes, you will know exactly why. But yeah, big no from us.

So please, if you're watching this video, never, ever, ever, ever use Erg mode.

Yeah, do I. Next one is, do I need a triathlon watch and a bike computer if I'm a triathlete or can I just use the watch for it to track all my bike power?

Obviously, ideally, as a triathlete you have your watch on your wrist. It is near impossible to read the power meter with the watch on your wrist. So if you're serious about racing to power, you need to have a head unit on your bike and again, it costs more money. So you've already invested in a fantastic triathlon watch that's going to give you power, it's going to give you running pace, it's going to give you swimming, but you can't read it that well on your wrist. So, you know, for peace of mind and probably not, you know, getting into a situation where you might crash trying to find out and you can't keep your eye on it as well as you can just looking at a head unit. And so, you know, I would say it's compulsory, but if you can't afford it, then, you know, you can somehow strap your bike, your watch onto your handlebars and use it that way. I know the old 945 used to have an Actual backing where you could undo it and then just, you know, when you get out of the swim, you could just clip it onto your handlebars. I'm not sure if they still have that functionality, but, but I just don't know how you can realistically ride to power using it when it's on your wrist. You can't. It's just dangerous.

Yeah. And the, and the 945 now has six screens available, which is awesome. But it's still nothing compared to the size of the screens in the Garmin, which again, if you're just flicking your eyes down and looking still is a little bit dangerous in itself. So if you're trying to look at even an even smaller screen like you watch, then that rules that out.

Yeah. So I just think it's another tool that's going to give you clarity about feedback about how you're racing and you don't want to be squinting and going, is that, you know, is it 220 watts or 240? I can't actually read it.

Exactly.

And you're making decisions based on feedback which you can't actually understand.

Yeah. Next biggest one that probably the most common question we get is pedal based power meter or crank based power meter. So do you measure, do you get pedals or do you get a crank based power meter?

Look, if I'm, if I've got a couple of bikes and if I've got a mountain bike, a gravel bike, a road bike, a time trial bike, I would definitely go the pedal power because you can, you can have one power meter across every bike and it's going to read the same. So I love that aspect of pedal power. So I would be encouraging people and the majority of people I know have more than one bike and they can't afford two power meters or three power meters or four power meters. So I reckon it's a no brainer. But is it as accurate as a crank based power meter? Well, in my opinion, yes. They've become really good. You know the srm, which is the top of the range power meter that is going to give you the best accuracy, but it costs four or five thousand dollars. So we're talking about power meters that cost between 500 secondhand and 1500 brand new. So again, it comes down to a cost thing. But rather than having to buy two power meters or three power meters, I just think the pedals are the way to go. Plus you're using the same power meter across every bike. And you and I know we've got a power meter that's different on the time trial bike. That's different to our road bike. That's different to our climbing bike. So. So there's three. I have three power meters that are all different, all read differently. So. And then you've got a Wahoo kicker power meter. So, you know, there's four power meters I'm using that are all reading differently, which I just think is crazy.

Yeah. But at the same time, the inconvenience of softening your pedals over constantly compared to just jumping on your bike and going, you know, if you especially sometimes you just want to get out and ride. I couldn't think of anything worse than having to quickly, you know, change pedals if I chose to ride a different bike that day.

So that is the drawback. Definitely. That is a drawback, Jordan. You know, if you're lazy, that's a big drawback to you.

But.

But if you're. If you're determined to. You know, I just think having the same power meter across all the bikes is. Overcomes that inconvenience of. Of changing pedals.

Yeah. And. And lazy is a. Is a harsh term because you do want to remove as many barriers to entry as possible for training. You don't want things in the way that are going to stop you getting out the door.

Um, but I think the accuracy overrides it. Mm, true.

Yep.

You want to be training accurately. And if you're training with the same power meter, I just think it's.

Yeah, definitely doing a lot of mental maths a lot of the time with different power meters and constantly changing back and forth. And once you know your numbers, you do know them. But, yeah, it is. It is a bit of an inconvenience, mentally, to keep track of that.

And I'm writing down calibrations for four different bikes. You know, one's minus 117, the next one's 120 positive. Next one's 5, 050. And, you know, before I know it, I don't know which bikes which anymore. I've had to write down, then look at my diary to find out what does the calibration be for this one.

And you've been caught out in this before where you thought the calibration was different, but then you couldn't actually remember what the number was because you're trying to remember so many numbers. And so you actually didn't know, and you did find out later that the power meter had calibrated incorrectly, but you weren't sure immediately because you couldn't remember the number so that's an important point. Next equipment one which is a really, really big one and very important to think about. It's going to be a cost one again. But it's just we have to talk about this and that's disc wheels. Yes or.

The straight answer is yes and there are a few. It depends on, it depends on the course that your a race is. But you might do 10 different courses that have completely no hills. Some have massive amounts of hills. And the type of rider you are, are you a big strong rider where weight doesn't matter because they are a little bit heavier than a normal wheel? If you're a really light framed person and it's a hilly course, it might actually be a hindrance to you. The value on the downhills is unmistakable that once you get the thing going, you can gain seconds here and there. If you're going to ride at 25-28ks an hour, sometimes the value is not there compared to 42ks an hour plus. So if you're spending a lot of time at 25ks an hour to 30ks an hour, I wouldn't be investing in a disc wheel. I would be looking at other areas such as getting a bike computer or pedal based power meters or a smart trainer ahead of a disc wheel. If I was, if I was at that level, but if I was riding 40 plus KS an hour regularly then I, I definitely would be investing in the disc wheel. It's a little bit controversial what I'm saying and people might say, oh, if you don't ride fast enough, you don't deserve a disc wheel. That's not what I'm saying. I just don't think the value of spending all that money is as valuable as maybe investing in a bike computer.

I think you said 40 kilometers an hour just to throw a number out there off the top of your head. But the threshold would probably be a lot lower. It would probably be closer to that. If you're a 33 or so kilometer an hour rider, it would probably be giving you free speed. That's worth it.

Absolutely. And look, the disc wheels are out there for that reason. It improves the speed against the same power. So if you're pushing 200 watts you might be able to average 33. Without a disc wheel you're averaging 32.4. So yes, it is an advantage, but it's not a compulsory thing. And they're there are probably. If you're wanting to budget where to spend the money, that's probably the last thing I would be looking At I would be investing in a coach and getting fitter and getting all that stuff in place first before you went down the wheel track.

And at that top end of the spectrum, the faster you're riding, the probably more important that disc becomes because you are competing against other riders that are potentially riding 40, 41, 42Ks an hour. And you want every second of speed you can get at that top level.

Yeah, at the top end. And we're talking about people who are trying to win their age group. You know, if you're just a competitor, and I just shouldn't say just if your goal in your race is just to complete the event as a box ticker or your secondary goal could be either way, your number one goal could be just to improve from last time. Then sure, you know, if you want to get an edge, then invest in the disc wheel. But from a point of view of you're at the pointy end and everybody else who's trying to win your age group has the best equipment, then you don't want to be disadvantaged because you haven't invested in a disc wheel. So, yes, I would say it depends again, where you are in the field. Is it just that you're trying to improve or you're actually trying to win the thing?

Next, one aero helmet or normal helmet?

That's a good question because it's, it really is an advantage. There's all the data tells us that having an aero helmet is an advantage, but there are many disadvantages by putting an aero helmet on. Because in an Ironman, you could be out there for five, six or seven hours. And if you're in a, you know, a really hot environment, you could end up not finishing the event because you have cooked yourself under that aero helmet. And so it depends on the temperature and it depends on the length of the event. So I. My almost rule is sprint events and Olympic distance in cool temperature. I would definitely be using the aero helmet. If I was doing 70.3 or 9, man, it would have to be very cold conditions for me to put an aero helmet on. I would, you know, if I'm trying to run after being under an aero helmet for 90k or 180k, you know, I could have dehydrated myself so easily. So they're the things that I'm looking at. What's the risk reward? And in my opinion, you could cook yourself and spoil the whole event just by putting on a aero helmet. That might give you one or two minutes advantage where you could lose 40 minutes because you're walking because you've, you know, you've dehydrated and, and you know, you are just so, so tired from, from being, being too hot.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And luckily most 70.3 start early. So you, so most people are getting onto the bike at potentially 7am and so the temperatures are really way over that threshold of temperature that's going to have a negative impact and you're finishing around 8:30 or 9 or 9:30. But yeah, the sentiment is the same and, and if you've ever tried to wear an aero helmet in hot conditions, and I experienced this last summer, I was doing a hard session around the velodrome in a 30 plus degree day. I thought I'd chuck the aero helmet on because I was really trying to test some really top numbers of myself. It was only a 40 minute session and I absolutely cooked myself to the point where it was dangerous and I really was not in a good way the whole afternoon. I finished the session and I had to sit in the shade for a long time pouring water over my head because it could just get so hot under there. So it really, you really have to think about that a lot.

Yeah, look, I think the airflow of the standard helmet is going to, you know, enable you to ride and run properly. If you're just a cyclist who is just doing TT. You know, most of the events are between 20 minutes and, and 40, 50 minutes. That's, that's kind of what you know from the world level. You know, most of the time trials are no more than 50 minutes and a lot of the master's age group time trials are between 20 and 30 minutes. So, you know, I would put up with the inconvenience of being a little bit dehydrate as a time trial cyclist by wearing the aero helmet, having a disc wheel, having the aero suit. But as a, as a triathlete, I have to run and I've still got another leg of the event to go, so I can't risk causing myself to dehydrate to a point where I've got a headache when I start running. So I would rather have airflow and maybe lose a small percentage of time, which I'll get back because I can actually run properly.

Yeah, absolutely. The equivalent of disc wheels for runners. And that's the carbon plated shoes, the infamous carbon plated shoes that have come out the last few years. Yes or no, are they worth it?

Well, the times are getting quicker, so anything that's going to improve your time, I'd have to say yes. So there's a lot of things that depend on as well. You know, you need to have actually trained in them to get the, the feel because they do feel differently and you know, you've experienced yourself. Yeah, yeah, you are definitely getting feels like a bit of a propulsion forward and unfortunately if you use them too much, they're worn out very quickly. So. So it is a cost thing, so you have to get used to them without wearing them out. But it's going to improve your ability to run faster than, than I think it's definitely worth persevering and trying it. And it may not suit your style, it may not just be for you. So, you know, just because it, you know, it enables 95% of the people to run faster, you may be in that percentage that it doesn't help you at all. So just because, you know, all the sheep are being herded in this direction, you don't have to be part of it. So, yeah, it's a definite one where it, the statistics tell us it's faster, but it needs to be tested before you actually use it yourself in a race.

We discussed this in great detail in our last podcast episode with our shoe expert Mitch on the podcast last week and he really spoke about how the performance benefit is always going to be there, even if it is much more beneficial, much like the disc wheel for an elite athlete compared to an age grouper. So then it comes down to the cost is the next decision. They're very expensive shoes, they do wear out very quickly. So is that worth it to you? And next question goes more into the training side of things and we're going to look at some more specific training questions over the next few. And the first one we'll start with because we get really often we get a lot of people asking these specific questions just about training and they seem really simple, but there's a lot of depth to some of these questions. So starting off, is it better to train inside or outside?

Oh, how long's a piece of string on that one? I love training outside, so I've got a bias. I love riding my bike and riding indoor. And I suppose the COVID experience has really given me a lot of reasons as to why training is fantastic indoor and a lot of reasons why training is not fantastic indoor. And let's have a look at the pros and cons here. What has Covid shown us by the fact that we had to train indoors? We weren't allowed for some of us to go more than 5km outside of our house postcode. So we were forced indoors, basically. Even though the weather might have been perfect outdoors, we weren't basically able to do our training session because the courses within that five kilometer radius weren't applicable to the session we were doing. So. So all of a sudden we're doing all of our training sessions indoors and boy, did it improve us. It was such a game changer. I would go as far to say is it was almost like a science experiment where we saw that much improvement. Because if you don't pedal indoors, nothing happens. Whereas outdoors you still move, you can still be freewheeling and coasting, and you get lulled into a false sense of security. Outdoors, you can still be motoring along on a 40, 50k ride and actually only apply pressure over 20 or 30k of that 50 kilometer ride. There's a lot of time where you're freewheeling. And as you know, I'm a big believer in continuing pedaling so that you've got resistance the whole time. And that's one of the things we really stress in it in our program. But bang, for your buck, training indoors is going to have you constantly having pressure on the pedals. Otherwise nothing happens. If you're doing a session, it's asking you to do a warmup between 40 and 70% of your FTP. The minute you stop pedaling, you're outside the range. Nothing's happening that's the same outdoors, but because you're still moving, you forget that. And that's why outdoors has got its limitations in terms of improvement in your training sessions, because you forget that you're doing a fair bit of it where you're moving without the appropriate pressure on the pedals. The reason I want to train outdoors is because most of our races, and you can race indoor, there's a whole series of racing e races now there's world championship to indoor racing. So you can't use that argument that much anymore that there's no races indoors. So some people, all they do is race indoors. But you know, as a triathlete, that is very difficult to do. So training indoors is going to give you really good training outcomes. But we still need to get outside and get used to racing in the elements and in the conditions such as the terrain. So the wind, the sun and the terrain are things that we need to be practicing. The skill of riding, for example, and training on the treadmill as compared to training outdoors as a runner, you know, swimming in an indoor pool as compared to swimming in the ocean. You know, these are all examples of what decisions should you be making. And, and I think it's horses for courses. And that means that if you're trying to do specific sessions where you're just totally concentrating on riding to power and you don't want to be doing distance or time, indoor is, you know, far better bang for your buck and it's time efficient if you're trying to enjoy yourself with a long, you know, fun ride in the sun with the wind in your face and there's no time pressure and you don't actually have to, you know, do a session that's specific to power. It's got general power guidelines. I am absolutely going to ride outside ahead of riding indoor, but the benefits of learning how to be skillful on the bike is not going to be achieved indoor. You need to be outside turning corners, riding downhills, getting the lines right, learning where to sit in the seat, going uphill, you know, where do you put your hands when you're, you know, you're trying to ride uphill? Do you put them on the brake hoods or do you put them on the top tube? Do you, do you stand up a lot when you come to a steep bit? You know, these are the things that you, you get to practice outdoors that you, you can't actually do a lot of indoors. Um, so. So I think it's a bit of mixture of both and I would like to see people do both. My preference is always, if I can, if I've got a velodrome or a piece of road that's very suitable to the session I'm trying to achieve, I will always try to go outdoors. I love riding outdoors and I love testing myself on the terrain and the wind and the temperature. So, so I want to get used to those things because that's what's going to expose me on race day. So that would be my key answer.

So to follow up from that, if you decide to do a key session outdoors and a key interval session. Yeah. Do you choose a velodrome or do you choose the road?

So if I can do that exact session really well on the road, I would choose the road. But it depends again on the session. If I'm, for example, wanting to see what my average speed is against some, some power number, I would definitely use the velodrome because it's, it's, you know, repeated laps. Whereas if I'm trying to do five by five minute efforts out on the road, I might have a absolute massive tailwind where I'm doing 200 watts and in one direction I'm doing 40ks an hour and then I turn for the five minutes in return leg I'm doing 200 watts and it's 20ks an hour. So I don't have a clear idea of what 200 watts equals as an average speed. So, so I want to really learn what my average speed is against so many different variations in power numbers. So whether it's a sub threshold number, is it 90%, just 200 watts equal 90%. And I can't do that when I'm doing a one directional ride unless it's absolutely no wind at all and it's pancake flat. And the only place that you can get, you know, that is in a circle where it's, you know, for example, Albert Park Lake here in Melbourne is a, is a, you know, basically a 5K loop. For those who've watched the Grand Prix in Melbourne, whether you're in, you know, any part of the world, you know that the Albert Park Lake is 5K loop. And so on the bike you're starting and finishing at the same spot. So every 5k you've got a real clear idea of what your average speed is against your power. So you know, out and back courses are going to give you the same, but the velodrome, even though it's only a 200 or 300 meter circuit, is going to give you constant feedback about what your average speed is against what your average power is. So that's really what I'm trying to establish here. Also, if you're going to spend a lot of your time training outdoors, you want to test yourself outdoors as well. If you're going to spend the next three months during winter in Switzerland where you cannot get outside, there is no point in testing, you know, week one outdoors on an outback course or a velodrome when you're going to spend all your time on the smart trainer or your non smart trainer indoors, you want to actually test your FTP on the, what's the word? The, the training session that's going to be replicated for the next block of training in the conditions. Yeah, yeah, the conditions in the venue that's, that you're going to experience. So there's no point in going and doing a hill climb FTP when the next three weeks you're going to spend indoors that, that hill climb FTP is not very accurate. Just the same as if you went and did a time trial on your time trial bike and then you go indoors and you don't have a time trial bike available. The FTP and your time trial bike is Actually not useful outdoors or indoors because you're going to be training on your road bike. So you want to do your FTP on your road bike indoor. If you're going to train the next three weeks indoor. If you're going to train the next three weeks outdoor and you're going to use the velodrome the whole time, do your FTP on the velodrome. So wherever you're going to do that test, it's determined by what your next block of training is. And if you do a mixture of some indoor and some outdoor, which is absolutely normal, then you would be using the bike power meter anyway. So it would be resembling close enough indoor and outdoor. But I would rather you work out what you're going to use the most of. If it's going to be only using the indoor trainer, if it's wet, then you would test outdoors. If you're knowing that you're going to use the majority of the time in winter indoor, and if there's a good day you'll jump outside, then you should test indoor.

Bringing it back to the TT bike versus road bike argument in training. What about a hill session? Specifically? You tell a lot of athletes to go to their endurance in the hills. Can you ride your TT bike in those big hill sessions where you're doing massive elevation?

Yes. And I know that some of the listeners are going to have a bit of a laugh who I coach about this because I was doing a hill session and I came across the Trivalo group who were doing their session together, which was fantastic to see the colors out there in the Dandenongs. And I was on my TT bike riding two and a half thousand meters of climbing and they were on their road bikes and of course they looked at me and I looked at them and it was like, why are you on your road bikes? And yeah, it was a really good example to them that, well, I just thought you ride your road bike when you went to the hills. Well, no, you can ride your TT bike in the hills because you want to just get used to riding that bike as much as possible, whether it's in the desert, in the mountains, or whether it's, you know, on the flats or a velodrome. That's the bike you're going to race on. So as I said at the start, with exceptions, you need to be riding that TT bike in the hills. You need to get used to what it's like to ride up a rise in the position you're going to, you know, you might not have be in the TT position, you might be having your hands on the brake, the brake bars, but, but you still got the angle of your hip flexors and the length of the crank between. You know, it might, you might have a higher seat level on your road bike than you do on your TT bike. And that's normal to have different heights. So you want to be practicing riding any, any terrain on your TT bike. So yes, ride your TT bike. And you know, as I said, I think that day I actually rode two and a half thousand meters of climbing on my TT bike over four hours.

Yep. Next question. Should I train in the morning or night?

Well, this is going to be more relatable to your job, I suppose, and the amount of time you have. Do you have more time in the morning? Well, sure, train in the morning. If you have more time in the afternoon, obviously train in the afternoon. If you like training at the crack of dawn and you like being on your ergo at 5am, then still do that if you have to be at work at 7 or 8 o'. Clock. One of the things I want people to think about is though, if your race happens to be an afternoon race, it is better to practice in the conditions of the temperature that the actual race is going to be running. So if you're doing an ironman, you know, the swim is, you know, sun, sunrise, the, the bike, if you're doing an ironman, will generally finish between 12 and 1 or 2 o' clock in the afternoon and then you're going to run from 2 o' clock till midnight for some people or 2 o' clock till 6pm, which is the hottest part of the day. So I would be doing a lot of my endurance running in the afternoon. Um, and you know, a good, a good advantage of that. Say for example, you did a, an endurance bike session on a Saturday and then your endurance run was on the Sunday. You know, it's always good to give yourself an extra four or five hours and run in the afternoon on a Sunday after your long endurance ride on the Saturday. It gives you actually a bit more recovery time. Plus you're running in the temperature of what you would experience on race day. So that would be, you know, one thing I would really take note of. Especially for the endurance session midweek sessions when you're doing, it's more about getting the session done in the time you've got available. So. So yeah, on the weekends, you know, normally you would ride your endurance ride, you know, 7 o' clock start or 8 o' clock start. That's Normally when your ironman's going to start, or any triathlon for that matter. So you're going to be riding in similar conditions, but definitely the run, if you've got the opportunity to run the afternoon on a Sunday, if that's when you're running, endurance day is, or a Wednesday afternoon, that's what I would be doing. Getting used to running in temperatures that you're going to race in.

Awesome. One really common type of session for triathletes is the brick run. So that's a run off the bike. You do your bike session and then you get off and run to emulate that feeling of running off the bike. And this is really critical when you do hard sessions or an endurance session, running off that bike, because it really is similar to what you're going to experience on race day. But one common question that happens is do you cool down on the bike before getting off to run or do you just fit, finish your session and get off and run straight away and try and get out there as fast as possible.

And that depends on the session really. And look, generally I'm keen for no cool down, just get off and run. Um, but if you're doing an easy session where we actually trying to get a little bit of volume into your ride, so you might be doing a zone two session or zone two and three or zone one, it's absolutely fine to, to cool down and then get off and you might be doing an easy run. But if you're doing a high intensity session, I would want you to finish the high intensity session and don't do a cool down, get off and get your running shoes on as quick as possible. If you're doing a high intensity session ride and a high intensity session running, that is even more important that you don't have that cool down opportunity. Cause you are trying to simulate race conditions. So there's three things I've said there. One is if it's an easy bike, an easy run, do a cool down, have no worries about that, and then, you know, warm up before you run. If you wanted to, you know, take your time warming up. If you're doing a hard bike session followed by an easy run, you can do either way, do a little bit of a cool down and get off and run. But if you're doing a hard bike and a hard run, no cool down, definitely get off the bike and have as little time as possible in between. A minute or two is what you want, if you can and start the run.

Especially if you're doing a race Ready threshold or sub threshold like time trial or session, it's going to be more important to practice that transition and, and get off and run. Run straight away so you get that exact feeling.

Yeah, that first kilometer is so important at the off the bike into your running shoes and you want to get that feel of that first kilometer. Especially when I hear someone say I can't slow down. Well, if you practice, if you practice this, you will get used to running. If you, if Your goal is 5 minute K pace off the bike and you, you know, every time you do this brick session in training, you run 4:30, you know, you're actually not learning how to, to, to measure your, your effort properly. So this is a really crucial part of this where you're running and riding straight off the bike.

Final question for the episodes. Is it better to train with a group so you can push yourself more or to train on your own to keep the session controlled?

Again, it depends. If I'm really trying to get competitive and I've been given the go ahead to ride above the range on this particular session, I desperately look for some competition. I would love to have people better than me to push me, push me outside my comfort zone. If I'm doing a session where I'm asked to stay in the zones and the people I'm riding with are going to make me go outside those zones, I would say thanks very much, but I'm definitely going to ride by myself. You know, and we talk about recovery, not riding with groups because the recovery rides too hard. But even in interval sessions, whether it's the sub threshold or a tempo or a zone 2 or a high intensity session or a VO2 session, you know, if you've got zones that you're supposed to work in. We did a session today with, with four of us, um, we're lucky enough to be riding the Noosa Hill today and all four of us were doing VO2 session and everybody's got their own numbers to ride to, but we're doing, you know, whether we're doing a three minute, two minute or one minute effort, that doesn't really matter. But definitely it helped to have someone to chase or to have someone to measure against. It forced me to be more competitive because I didn't want to get left behind. I didn't want to get caught up as quick as I was, you know, the way we did it, I had the better riders chasing me so they had something to aim at and, and they said straight away, far out. What a difference. When I shared that session compared to. When I did it by myself, I was able to hit way better numbers. And, you know, that's worth that's worth doing if you can.

That's only because you were doing the exact same session. And rarely will you come across a bunch of other people doing the exact same session unless you're in a group.

So unless you're coached by the same person and you're doing, you're training for the same bent, almost. So.

Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. Well, we'll finish it there. I mean, there are a lot more common questions we get, so we may do another episode similar to this. Let us know if you enjoyed it or if you have any this or that kind of questions that you want answered. But that's it for this episode. As always, thank you very much for listening, and we'll see you next time. I can keep on, Keep on.