Complete 70.3 Beginner Training Program [Case Study]

In today's podcast episode, we take a beginner athlete and break down a training program that you can use to take you to your first 70.3 half Ironman. Vijay was an athlete that joined us back in December and over the course of six months prepared for his first 70.3. Today we're going to break down the exact structured training program that we gave him. And there's a lot of nerves and a lot of fear around your first 70.3, your first half Ironman, and a lot of athletes asking themselves, how do I know if I'll even make it through? And specifically the swim is the first challenge, that first 1900 meters, can I actually make that swim? For any beginner athlete, it could take you anywhere between five to seven plus hours. And how do you make sure as a beginner that you're ready for that event? And that's exactly what we're going through today because it's a big misconception that here at Trivella we only coach top level athletes or age groupers. And that's absolutely not true. We coach right from absolute beginners through to the top. And very often we do get people come to us and just say, I could not care less about what time I get. I just want you to help me get through it. And I want to be confident that I can get through it on the day. So that's what today's episode is about. Dad, welcome back to another case study episode. Take us through the start of Vijay's journey and the position that he came to us in.

Thanks, Jordan. I love doing the case studies, especially one Vijay. If I can almost go backwards from his completion of his port max 70.3. The Conversation we had post race was one of the best conversations I've ever had with any athletes to understand where Vijay came from and where he got to give you some sort of idea of the emotional roller coaster that happens from, you know, starting a program to actually getting, getting the event completed. And, and Vijay was a guy who had no swimming experience at all, so couldn't swim. And you know, that's, that's something we, we don't even consider that some, someone who wants to do a triathlon comes to a program where they can't swim. And, and this is, this is make or break. And if you can't get through the cutoff time for the swim, then you can't complete the rest of the event. And so that was almost as important as training on the bike and training as a runner, getting him to be able to get through the swim in the cut off time and generally people can swim 30, 40, 50, 60 minutes. But you know, if you're swimming any more than that, you, you are in danger of being un disallowed from continuing in the event. And that's what those cutoff times are about. So, so we're going to be touch and go and that was the first kind of thing that we had to get going as quickly as possible.

Yeah, and from that starting position, you know, I think one is recognizing where he was in the swim and two, just recognizing any sort of training history. And look, he was doing some semi frequent aerobic training, just some easy riding and running semi frequently a few times a week. Yeah, definitely getting a little bit of volume in, you know, not nothing. But even with his running it was, it was a few times a week, but never off the bike, which is again triathlon specific specificity. And overall he just needed some specific triathlon training structure that would get him 70.3 ready. So getting bike and running endurance and learning how to ride the bike in a way that's necessary for a triathlon and getting enough running strength in his legs to be able to run at the end of a triathlon. That's kind of the overall theme of the gap of where he was to where he needed to get to. And so before we break down the training structure and the sessions that made up his training structure, can you just give me some thoughts into your mindset around. Okay, you get an athlete like this, what are you thinking at the start and where does your mind go to start coaching them?

Yeah, especially when they don't really have the equipment. And so his first task was to get himself smart trainer, get himself a proper bike, get himself a bike fit, get himself a power meter for his bike and then get him on the bike to start practicing riding properly with some guidelines. And so you can't dismiss that. That is overwhelmingly took the first six weeks of getting all of that stuff in place so that he could actually then concentrate on riding the bike properly, but understanding all the nuances of how a power meter works and the basics of cleats on your shoes and clip in to the pedals and, and then getting outside and trying to train outdoors when you've got, you know, other distractions such as cars, pedestrians, undulations, wind, temperature. So we started, you know, pretty much basically indoors so that he could get confident on his bike with all of that's new, all of that equipment is new, he's never used it before, so, so that's where we're starting from. So we're trying to make sure that he gets confident in a pedaling properly. Getting the cadence is something, you know, his first couple of sessions he was 50 or 60 rpm, 70 rpm. Just no idea of where his cadence should be and how to pedal properly. You know, how to pedal with good technique, pulling and pushing through the circle, pedaling motion, what, where to sit, where to put your hands, what should you be looking at with your bike computer? All these things we take for granted, but they're the absolute things that you need to be actually helping these new people understand a fast track model of get these things right. And then we can start concentrating on coaching you with getting the session done very well. And that took time.

Yeah, for sure. And for anyone that sees that as overwhelming, firstly, we just did a podcast episode last week going through the entire beginner's checklist of things you need to know and things, the minimum amount of equipment and things you need to get started as a beginner triathlete so you can go back and listen to that episode. As well as the fact that whenever an athlete comes into Trivalo, once they start, we have a whole kind of training bible and program that we get them to go through that runs through all this stuff so that you don't get lost and you can actually do it because there is a lot to learn and we take you through it step by step. And so on that note, once you've got everything that's required and you can start training and you can start training properly, it then becomes, okay, what do I actually do? What are my sessions each week? So can you start with kind of. Of course, the first principle is frequency. So what are you aiming for frequency wise from the start and what kind of sessions are you doing for Swim, Bike and Run to start the program?

Yeah, well, it's an incredibly low starting point. And that's okay. Everybody who comes to our program has got a level, whether it's at the elite level, whether it's in between age group, middle pack or front end age group, or both basic beginner. And so we don't have any bias around people's standard that they come to us with. In fact, sometimes there's going to be more improvement if their standard is a really low base. So we have no issues with that. And so understanding where that is and you still have to test people to find out where their level is. And so that's pretty much where we started was we couldn't swim more than 50 meters without stopping. So there's no point in testing us, testing the athlete as a swimmer and, and you know, just, just getting him to try to execute a 20 minute FTP, writing in the, in a, in a cadence that's comfortable and, and trying to measure the execution and teaching that in the first, first two or three days. About all I want you to do is start really easy and see if you can progressively increase the power as you go across 20 minutes. That's the, that's the instruction is to, just to get them to think about execution right from the very first session. And, and so we're just going to test them and then find out where their, where their power numbers are and what, what pace they can run for 5K. And then we're really just trying to get them used to turning up each day to train. And that sounds very basic, doesn't it? But, but that's really hard when you've been sporadic in your, in your approach to a week's training program where you might train Tuesday and then, you know, might come back and do something on Friday, then do something on Sunday and then the next week you might do another two or three days. And here we are now giving someone something each day, something very basic each day. We want to start with, you know, some swimming on the Monday, an easy bike ride on the, on the Tuesday, an easy run on the Wednesday, another bike ride on the Thursday and then, you know, possibly another swim because that's what he needs on the Friday and then try to, to get some endurance to, into them on the weekend. That sounds obvious, but it's not what the beginners are used to. And so their body is going to have a hard time coping with that load in week one. So it's all got to be easy. And, and that's why the testing is important. So if he, if he tested at 125 watts, that's where we train him at right from the outset and making sure that we're got a clear idea and he has a clear idea of what his capabilities are right from the start. So, so you know, to his credit, he's really on board with listening and understanding and, and wanting to implement after his testing week. And it was really enjoyable coaching him because it was, you know, what do I have to do now? And did I do that? Well, am I in the ranges? And you know, him asking me those questions tells me that he doesn't actually know what he's looking at on his bike computer. So if he knew that he wouldn't ask me how did I go today? He would know that from his data, but he doesn't know to look for that. So you're really stripping it back to the most basic thing. And again, that's okay. So once he understood what am I looking for in my session and then the next text I get is, I think I did really well today. I hit the ranges and I was in my zones and it's absolute excitement and motivation. Can't wait for Thursday session. And what are we looking at there? Can I go into those ranges? And you know, geez, it was hard but I got through it, you know, and that's the sort of thing you're looking for from the athlete, is him getting on board with the information you're giving them and then understanding that if I do this in four weeks time, I could possibly be 20 or 30 watts better than I am now. And that's the message that I'm giving a guy like Vijay is you just keep chipping away here at your level with these reasonably easy sessions. They're not, you know, smashing you where you're crawling off the bike and you will progress if you just keep the frequency going. Just turn up every day, tick those sessions off and before you know it, in four weeks, if you've done, you know, six sessions per week, you, you've got 24 sessions under your belt compared to the last three months where you've had 24 sessions in 12 weeks and all of a sudden you've got that frequency, you've got that habit and that's the start.

Yeah, spot on. And it was actually, it was nice to look back over the data and look back over the training program in preparation for the episode and to see the first six week block was pretty much exactly what you're saying. Predominantly just easy training. There was, you know, a couple of sessions in there where you prescribe some intensity and it definitely wasn't VO2 max, but it was, you know, definitely closer to that FTP kind of intensity. Um, but that was maybe one a week. Um, and that was after a few weeks of training. But anyway, the first block, I think the first testing period came at week, somewhere between weeks four and six where you tested again. And he had a major improvement in his FTP in that after that first block. And that was literally from four to six weeks of easy training. And, and that just shows what consistency can do. And that's what triathlon training is. You know, we might get influenced and, and inspired by watching pro triathletes and there's a lot on social Media, now on YouTube of what pro triathletes are doing. And they're doing some monster epic sessions. They're doing crazy training. And you think that when you start your triathlon training program, you're going to train like a pro athlete and do that stuff. And for most age groupers, that's not what it is. It's just a lot of consistent, slow endurance training and that's what triathlon's about. And so I really liked looking back at that first block, seeing how easy the training was and still seeing that improvement after the first block in testing. That was really, really cool to see. It's a testament to exactly what we're saying. And then once he got used to that, then it was about assessing the volume and going, okay, now that he's getting used to it and he's showing improvement and he's getting used to how to actually train, how do we go about then increasing the volume and, and getting him to start doing enough that's going to be preparing him well to actually get through a 70.3 because just easy training, you know, for short periods won't, if you do that for six months while you improve at the start, that won't get you ready for a 70.3.

Yeah. And remember we did start him with some strength work and that was kind of the key thing and that replaces a lot of that high intensity stuff which actually just trying to build some leg strength on the bike and, and you know, we didn't introduce any hill run in that first period. It was just getting him used to running frequently, you know, when you're tired and, and there was no intensity in any of the running. We just didn't want to injure him, but we were trying to get him to be stronger on the bike straight away. So a little bit of low cadence work and a little bit of tempo stuff at, at high cadence work and then progress that duration for the endurance ride. And I think he started at, you know, 90 minutes for his longest ride indoor. And then we just progressed that to, you know, an hour 40 and now 45 and our 52 hours before we actually went outside. And, and you know, they're the, the things that you forget when you look back is, you know, he could nail three hours in a TT position in the, in the race ready period. You know, six weeks out from his, from his Port Mac 70.3. You know, it was a different athlete. If you took a picture of him at the beginning, you know, unconfident, not used to riding a bike for that long, longer period of, you know, hour and a half's a long ride. And, and here he is, you know, out three hours and three and a half to four hours on a, on, on a Saturday morning and running off the bike. You know, these are the things you just can't believe. It's the same athlete. And, and that was the exciting part, knowing that if he just stuck with it and the beauty of Vijay was he was just all in. What do you want me to do, coach? What, how, what sessions? You know, how, how do I get quicker, better? How do I get better quicker? And you know, I'm just saying you can't. You've just got to do the patient game and just allow your body to, to build the, and absorb the load that we're giving it as a progression rather than jumping, you know, 20, 30% each week. We, we just have to slow and you've given us enough time to do that. So, so definitely the frequency was, was what we tried to, to instill in, in him early on and then add time to the endurance component of his run and ride. And, and you know, without that, then you're, you're going to lack that, that endurance on race day. That is key to you getting through the event. And you know, sure, if we had had more than six, six months to teach him how to ride a bike, in 12 months time, he'll be a different rider. You know, I can't wait to see what he does at Western Sydney in his next race. He will be a much better rider, having gone through this early phase because we're starting now his new campaign where he's, you know, 50% better athlete than he was six months ago.

Yeah. And look, we're going to move into kind of the intensity discussion next and talk about the actual, you know, some of the major sessions to do. But I want to be clear that when we talk about frequency, volume and intensity, they're not just totally separate things that we do one at a time. That's not how a training program works. And like you said, there was, there was strength sessions at the start that had intensity and tempo in them. And from week one, the volume started to increase. You know, week on week, you were adding more volume on top of the frequency. It's not, they're not totally separate. But in this case, you know, coming from such a beginner level, there's very limited intensity and as you said, absolutely no intensity in the running and limited intensity on the bike. And then, but yeah, after six to eight weeks, start to include more. And then honestly, after 12 weeks he was, he was pretty much on a pretty standard triathlon program where it was a couple of high intensity sessions a week, plus the weekends start to have more, more race like intensity where you're training at that, that race pace. And so yeah, just want to make that really clear that for some of our young gun athletes, you know, they're training pretty hard multiple times per week. You know, they're, they're potentially doing some really hard sessions, Tuesday, Thursday, virtual max stuff, potentially some strength stuff on a Wednesday. And then the weekends can be some mixed intensity, you know, some zone two work with some strength in the hills or bunch rides, that kind of thing. So that's a lot for a body to handle. So that's kind of the top end of what someone could do. And then what we started with in the first block with VJ was a very stripped back version like you said. But very quickly the frequency, volume and intensity are all building up. I think the main point I'm trying to make is that it's not just stripped back version the whole time. Even though you're a beginner.

Absolutely. And you know, you've got to remember what, what are the duration requirements on race day? And that's the thing, you know, is he going to be running for 2 hours 30 and riding for 4 hours on race day? So you've got to work backwards from what your estimate is of the time it's going to take him on race day. So no point in doing, you know, 90 minute runs when he's going to, on race day be a two and a half hour runner for a half marathon. You know, you've got to understand early the capacity that each athlete has and what their overall race duration time is going to be. And I think that once you get that into the athlete's mind that you know, come race day, these are the numbers and times you expect to do. So we're going to work our way from week one all the way up to, to week 25 or week 30 to allow your body to understand that if we just keep increasing the duration by 5 or 10%, you know, over a few, a few weeks at a time, you will get to race day confident that you can do the, the duration of the 90k and the half marathon. And obviously the swim is a major component for Vijay that he, you know, if he doesn't get through the swim, he's not doing the other two events anyway. So, so it's really important that, that the athlete understands that, you know, what is the expectation of a time that you think you'll be out there for the 90k ride and for the half marathon? And we need to get our training volume similar to, to those duration times, not the distance. We're talking about time in training and getting the body, you know, used to that progression each week so that it's not a shock to it and it doesn't, you know, absolutely fall apart because it can't handle the load because we've jumped too quickly. And that's why we don't like people coming to us for an eight week program or a six week program for a half iron man, because you can't increase the load at a slow enough progression. And this is what was good about vj. You know, he realized early that he needed help. And you know, right from the outset. Just tell me what to do. And, and yeah, barring some absolute shocking weather that, that Sydney had to have in the lead up to a lot of the outdoor sessions we were trying to do, he pretty much, you know, was, didn't miss a session.

Yeah. And so take us through. Once you've established that base phase and you've tickled those first few goals of stripping it back and getting the athlete used to training for a triathlon, what kind of intensity sessions do you start thinking about and what should people be doing in that kind of next phase of building towards their race?

Yeah, we really want to build their engine now and get that FTP up. So in our program we use the FTP number and take a percentage of that on race day when we're doing our race strategy plan. And so we want our FTP to be as high as possible because if our FTP is high, then our average speed is going to be better than if, if we're FTP's at 130. And then by race day, 130 FTP equals 26Ks an hour. And by race day we're at 200 FTP, 200 watts and that would equal 30Ks an hour. You know, you want to build that engine so that you can get your FTP as high as possible. So lots of threshold riding all around that FTP number and lots of VO2 stuff to go way beyond your threshold so that you can actually change as we've talked many times on the podcast about being a two cylinder or four cylinder and trying to become a six or eight cylinder athlete where the capacity to improve is greater if you're doing a lot more efforts at VO2. So those things, along with strength work, continually pushing the strength for the first pretty much 16 weeks of the program is doing a lot of strength work. And that includes the weekend riding where it's not about race ready stuff where you're in a TT position on a flat bit of road trying to ride the watts and the speed that you're going to do on race day. It's more about getting in the hills and getting the body absolutely stronger and really building that endurance strength so that when it comes the back end of the bike ride in a 90k time trial on race day and the, the last 7k as a runner, you've got that strength in your legs to keep and maintain the power and the pace. You want to, you want to hold, you know, all the way to the finish and not fade. And this is where to do it in that first, that first block of training where we've, we've got them to get used to the process of how we train and now it's trying to introduce some intensity on the bike so we lift and raise their FTP so they can actually, you know, ride at a faster average speed on race day. So they're, they're in a position to, to, to complete the event at a, at an intensity they're, they're quite capable of coping with all day.

Yeah, I had a conversation with someone recently who they were, they were three or four weeks away from their half ironman and they, and they were just asking me some questions. I just was talking to them at a random event and they said oh, I'm training. And I, I, I learned online that you've got to do 80, 20 training and that you know, 80% of your stuff has to be easy and then 20% is hard. So I'm doing, I'm doing that, I'm just doing a lot of easy stuff and 20% hard. And I kind of asked some questions and I dug deeper and found that they really weren't three or four weeks out. They were still training the same way they had been the last few months. Cause they heard about this 80, 20 rule and they really hadn't shifted into anything remotely race, race ready like or remotely to do with what their plan was on race day. And so I started asking them, you know, what's your longest kind of effort you've done that you're trying to hold on race base. You don't even have to have a power meter on this person didn't or you know, any advanced data just to understand that. Okay, well if I'm aiming to ride for 90km at x speed at 25ks an hour. You know what have I done that in training before? Have I held 50, 50Ks at 25Ks an hour? Have I hold 70Ks and have I done a session like that and this person hadn't? And I said how long have you ran for it at your goal race pace? And their goal race pace was 6:30 ish minute K pace and they hadn't really done any runs more than potentially hour an hour 10 at that pace. And so my advice to them was, look, you need to stop this 80, 20 thinking right now and start doing some sessions trying to get you as close as you can to that timeframe at the goal race pace. That's the last part of this key to the programming is you can't train the same way through the whole time. You've got to start switching up the training to get yourself in a race ready phase. And my question to you is, how did Vijay feel at the end of the race ready phase and did he feel adequately prepared to get through the requirements of the distance of the course?

Absolutely. You know, the confidence we got from that race ready phase where we'd done, you know, six to eight weeks of outdoor riding, you know, honing in on the watch that he was going to ride on race day. And it's hard to replicate if you don't live near the course. You're just trying to find a course that's similar and has no traffic to stop with. And that was one of the things when you live in a big city is trying to find a course that you can actually replicate, you know, a 60 or 90 or 110k training session where you're not stopping all the time because that pressure on the pedals is what's going to happen in the race. You're not going to be stopping at traffic lights in the race and the body's not used to continually riding. Every time you stop at a traffic light, you recover. Whether it's a minute or 30 seconds or two minutes, you're getting this recovery period. Whereas on race day that doesn't happen. So, so really understanding course selection and those race ready sessions where you're trying to replicate the power that you're going to ride on on race day and what does that equate to an average speed. So then you can work out how long you're going to ride on race day and they're the things that he really nailed and running off the bike on those sessions, whether it be 6k, 8k, 10k or 12k or even 16k runs where, you know, we're, we're absolutely trying to practice what pace he can run in those training sessions and replicate that on race day.

So that was the training program. He went through the race ready phase and got through it. And, and that was evidence that he could, he could put it all together on race day, but then you actually have to do it and put all three disciplines together. And so what was the conversation like on race week and how did it all pan out?

So one of the things we, we emphasize in that last period was getting him down the beach, the local beach and away from swimming pools and really just swimming parallel to the shore and at a height that he could stand up to make sure that he could swim for, you know, 1900 meters. And, and that was, you know, that was really confident building for him because we'd progressed our swimming as well as we could. But, but getting out in the open water is completely different to swimming in the pool and the safety of the pool where you got lanes and you got the end the walls to hang on to after each interval. But, but actually getting into the open water was the best thing we did. And, and you know, that was the anxiety that he was having. You know, can I, can I swim in the open water for 1900 meters and, and make it under the, the cutoff time? And, and you know, those last, you know, four or five sessions outdoor, he was able to do all the, all the swimming parallel to shore where he's at waist deep, so he's quite safe and he was able to do that distance in the time required. And I think that was a big game changer. So on race day he was confident. Even though he still had anxiety about the swim, he was confident that he could break that cutoff time. And he did. And, and that was, you know, get on solid ground and let's see what we can do next.

And I will say for any beginner triathletes out there, and honestly not even just beginners, for any level of athlete, it only takes a couple of these sessions to give you a massive confidence boost. And you might do one of these sessions and it not go so well and you kind of get that first one out of the way and there's a bit of fear in the open water or even like a long, if it's your first 90k bike ride, attempt to try and get that distance, that's your first two hour run and you're not sure you can make it. You do the first one, you might make some mistakes, but then the second or third time you do it, you've learned a lot, you get through it again and you gain massive confidence from it. And it only takes a few to really get you to feel like you're, you're race ready. So that's just a really important point. And that was obviously the key to him with those open water swims and then. Yeah, how did, how did the day pan out on the execution of the bike and the run.

Yeah. And you know, the same thing with the swim practice, you know, there's no doubt about it that, that doing that on the bike as well and doing it running off the bike, you know, they're, they're massive confidence boosters. You know, to, to be able to, to be able to replicate that in training. You know, you're standing on the beach, We've said this many times, you've already done it in training. All, all you and the coach have, have, you know, got the plan around based around replicate what we've done in training and, and don't try and do anything, you know, different. And the day should go well. On the day, lots of things happened that was kind of out of his control. He made the cutoff by six or seven minutes I think on the swim, which is a great start. And then I wasn't to know this when I was watching it on the, on the computer, but his power meter didn't work. So, so pretty much he had to, he had to ride the whole thing, you know, with no, none of the data that we'd planned. And, and the day was horrible, wet, windy, really disgusting day at Port Mac this year, which is the same for everybody. But yeah, he managed it, he managed it really well and you know, didn't get put off by that, that fact that he wasn't getting data fed back to him. It's a really tough hilly course and, and you know, at the end of the day he, he got through the, the bike no problem. You know, nutrition wise executed well according to his feel and the times weren't too bad, it was pretty even. So really good execution even though he couldn't see the data and got off and ran probably to the level that he wanted to and wasn't much of a fade and ran down the finish line with a huge smile on his face, super excited. And his family were there and I'm sure, you know, they're very proud. His young son was very proud of his dad and, and they're the things that you loved. You know, the story when I'm on the phone with him afterwards, you know, how grateful he was for, for the journey together. And, and he never thought he could achieve this, this epic event coming from a background where he really hadn't ridden a bike or swam. And here he has done a 70.3 at one of the hardest venues on one of the toughest days that you could possibly someone for their first go at it. And yeah, he just couldn't take the smile off his face. He was super proud of his effort and, and yeah, you know, he didn't crawl across the line. You know, even though he was exhausted, you know, he achieved everything that he set out to which was to complete his first event.

Spot on. And look this. Normally in case studies we really dive into the data a lot and we purposely didn't for this episode because it's not relevant for the kind of topic that we're trying to talk about. We're trying to talk about getting through a beginner training program. And that doesn't mean the data is irrelevant. We absolutely recorded every single bit of data. We tested very regularly and his data did improve. You know, but the fact that he's, you know, FTP went up 40 or 50 watts over the period, you know, for a beginner, it's kind of like, so what you can improve your 20 minute number when we're testing you, but can you actually still get through a 90k race? And can you do it in the cutoff time that we spoke about? And the goal of the day, as we said from the start, was I don't care what time I do, I want to get through. And you just said the feeling running down the home straight when you get through it that comfortably and you're able to execute to what you need based on the data that we've all recorded the whole time. But then also what you just said, based on the feel, the fact that he lost the power but he had enough practice that he knew how he should be executing. You wouldn't be able to do that unless you were tracking the data all through training. So that is an important point to make. And, and yeah, he finished the race in, I think it was 7 hours 31 or something. A really big day out there for a half ironman. And that's really good inspiration for any beginners out there that with proper preparation you can get through a monster endurance event because that's a long time to be putting your body under pressure. And we know a lot of people out there who are training for half marathons or marathons and preparing for a two hour run. Or a four hour, five hour marathon run. Seven hours plus is a long time for your body to be exercising. So you need to be well prepared and you won't get through it unless you are well prepared. So it's a really important point.

Yeah. And for any new person who's contemplating listening to this case study, doing an event like that, you really have to have your eyes wide open and understand that you need to give yourself enough time. If you're a beginner. I'm not talking about people who have done lots of them who are advanced or even still middle pack age groupers have done a lot of them. We're not talking about that. We're talking about absolute beginners. You need to get yourself set up. You need to get yourself some really good help with, with a coach who knows what they're doing and, and you need the right equipment to make sure that you can actually get through the day and execute. And you know, they're the things that Vijay did very well. You know, he reached out, asked what he needed to do in terms of what things do I need and we just went through that methodically, that process so well and he just kept doing that the whole way through. A real pleasure to coach and absolutely gem of a guy. Yeah. Couldn't have been happier to have him on board with our, with our program and to see him get that end result and now be super enthusiastically waiting for the next event to come around is, is even, you know, he's just so motivated to, to, to beat that now. Now he's talking about, you know, how can I improve my, my times and that's how it should be. You know, get through your first one. Get a perspective of what's involved. And ironically, he's been really quite sick since Port Mackenz has been unable to trade pretty much at all. So. But yeah, I can't wait to get the journey started again and, and see what the next, next event holds for, for Vijay. But I want a big shout out to him and I hope he's listening. And it was a real epic, epic result for a guy who really had very little knowledge about triathlon at all and ended up completing, you know, a really tough event.

It's always hats off to anyone that trains properly and gets through a 70.3. It's a monster commitment. And as much as we can sit here and say, here's what you need to do, the athlete actually has to do it. And it's far easier said than done to do six months of work like that and be as consistent as possible and turn up week in and week out and obviously not every single week goes right. And I think he was sick a couple of times in there. But to mentally keep showing up and not give in is. Takes huge guts and commitment and discipline. So, yeah, it is always on the athlete. And we love to say that, we love that we can show them the door, but you have to walk through it and that's the exciting part. And then to get to go through it. And then now we're in a position where it's almost the fun part. Now, you know, you've covered the bases, you've got through the actual distance of the program. Now you get to see how much intensity you can improve. And you know you can do it. Now it's a little bit like, okay, can I go faster? And that's. That's really fun as well. That's really exciting. So that's it for this episode. Thanks again for listening to another case study. And if you want to get similar results, if you're a beginner athlete, you want to get help getting through the event, or you want to get through the event at a certain level and intensity, then you can go to our website@relevablecoaching.com and apply to get coached there. We'll have an interview process with you where we'll talk to you about where you're at, find out more about you, and see if you're a fit for our coaching structure and processes and see if we're a good team. And as always, we have an absolute guarantee that if you don't improve the first testing period in the first eight weeks of the program, then the coaching is on us. So that's trivelocoaching.com thanks as always for listening to another episode and we'll see you on the next one.

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