Fastest Ways To Improve As A Beginner Triathlete (Ultimate Checklist)

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, Jarred Donnelly. When you start training for a triathlon, you quickly realize there's about 300 plus things you could do or buy to improve. So. So where should you start? What's worth paying attention to? What do you need to do versus what could be helpful and what's a must buy in terms of equipment versus what would be a nice to have? Welcome to a mini series we're doing over the next few weeks of the fastest way to progress as a triathlete. And today's episode is about how to progress as a beginner and what's worth your time, effort and money. To start with, we're going to list out the things that are most important for you now and what things you can leave for later. And if you're an intermediate or advanced athlete, you want to make sure that you have these basic things ticked off. The next episodes in the series will be about how to improve as an intermediate or advanced athlete. Before we get into the episode, our website was down recently, so if you applied for coaching through our website and we didn't get back to you, we're sorry, your application has been lost somewhere in the interwebs and we sadly didn't get it. We do get back to all our applications, so if we haven't got back to you, it's most likely it was during this period. The website is working again and we'd love for you to go back and apply. You can do so at Trivelocoaching. And as always, this episode is brought to you by our partners at Giant Australia. The Giant family just love bike riding, training and racing. Ride life. Ride Giant Dad. Welcome back to another episode. Let's start with our normal segment. What are you grateful for?

Although it's the middle of winter coming up here in Australia in the Southern hemisphere, I love June and July for a whole lot of reasons. So I'm really grateful for this period of the year, especially this year, 2024, starting with the Olympics, we've got so many sporting events happening and we do say this a lot, but this is the period where now the big events are happening. Tour de France, some of the big triathlons around the world, gravel riding, just had Unbound, which is probably the world championships of gravel riding. And what an epic event that was. The Diamond League events are on and there's so many good quality triathlons now with the PT 100 and Ironman and yeah, and Challenger are just all offering so many events now. And for those in the Northern hemisphere, what a period to come into. And hopefully you're well planned and prepared and ready to take advantage of those opportunities.

Yeah, it's a negative for the Southern hemisphere going into colder weather, but the beauty is when you're sitting on the trainer, there's a lot of races and sport to catch up on. It feels like almost daily you could catch up on some races and see what's happening because the Giro just finished and then the Dolphin Ages started with a lot of the big contenders. So yeah, it's literally non stop, which I love as well. My gratitude is quite simply, we mentioned them a lot on this podcast, but for all our nieces and nephews, we've got three in the family now with four on the way. And every week it feels like there's more videos, more updates coming from them about their developments and I just can't get enough of it. And I absolutely love seeing it. And I was just thinking during the week how grateful I am to be able to see that and have them. So that is my gratitude. And on that note, I mean, it's become a bit of an unwritten rule in the family that when it is dinner time, the grandkids, the nieces and nephews from being grandkids for you, will facetime any one of us, most likely Grandma or Papa, to see if they'll answer at dinner time. And they just want to sit there and eat their dinner and talk to Grandma or Papa or one of the uncles or aunties, which is really funny. And on that note of unwritten rules, I think it's time again for us to mention an unwritten rule of the podcast is that if you enjoy these episodes and if you get any value out of them at all, the absolute best thing you can do for us is to share it with your endurance athletic network. You can do this by posting it on your social media and tagging us, or by just showing an endurance friend and telling them about the podcast. We've had some great messages and stories from many of you who have shared it with your network. And some people have sworn to us that they've got their entire Tri Club listening, which we absolutely love. Now let's get to this list because if you're a beginner triathlete, there is a lot of information out there telling you how to improve and the big mistake we see with athletes is they are focusing on the wrong things. Now, we're not saying that the information is necessarily wrong, they're not wrong because these things are incorrect. But they're just not the things that you should be focusing on right now. And they're probably things that could probably get you more marginal gains. But we want to help you here focus on the things that are going to give you the best chance of the greatest, fastest improvement. So we want to tell you, here's what you should be focusing on first. And everything we're about to say is giving you the fastest path to having a more enjoyable experience. So before we get into the list, dad, any notes you want to make with some pre context for this list?

Yeah, I think when we very start coaching people at a beginner level and we have lots of people applying at that level, which is so much fun because they've got the most to improve, I reckon. And that gives me the greatest joy seeing people improve so much. It's always hard when people are already fit and fast. They're only getting marginal gains. They are getting them, but it's such a hard way to extract more improvement. But the beginner athlete is great because they're willing to learn, they've got an open mind and they're wanting to change whatever they're doing and focus on the things that are more important. And that's the point I want to make, is getting your priorities of what is important to focus on. And sure, there's lots of things you need to do with equipment and getting technology organized, but you don't, don't forget, you just actually want to start training. If you're a triathlete, you just want to start swimming, you want to start riding your bike and you want to start running in a fashion that's going to enable you to be a better athlete. Don't get bogged down in the technicalities of all of the equipment and all of the sessions and how complicated it all seems. That seems to be one of the things that I have to really let people, right from the outset, don't be anxious about this, don't have anxiety about it. Overwhelming, and it can be very overwhelming. And so think about what are the priorities I'm trying to do here. I'm trying to just start a sport and I want to short track all the stuff that's noise and focus and strip back to the things that are going to help me be a better swimmer, bike rider and runner, and that'll help me on race day. Get the best outcome that I'm looking for. And all the other stuff that we go on about, data and technology and making sure your training sessions are accountable, that's all true. None of that's false. We stick by that. But at the start, we just first of all want to get you into the groove of training, get your consistency going, get the routine happening, that each day you've got a structured program. And if the technology doesn't work on that day, don't abandon ship. Just forget about the technology and go and do the swim session the best you can. If something's not working with the ride, continue riding the best you can. If your watch isn't working as a runner, it doesn't mean you can't run. You can still run without a watch. Just run to feel until you get these things sorted out. So stop having such anxiety around these things. And it happens to every athlete that just starts as a beginner. You're not on your own. It's happening to every single new athlete. So make sure you understand that you're not the one off. It's happening all around you. For people who are, who are new to the sport or have never used a piece of equipment before or haven't been willing to change from what they've been doing for a period of time. And now they've got this new way of training and racing. They're the things I want to preface this whole podcast by to say, look, the most important thing is that we are actually training.

So like I said, to become the ultimate triathlete. There's undoubtedly a list of 300 plus things and even more. And we're trying to just prioritize, okay, what's the first batch of things that you should be focusing on? And this list, I mean, ultimately what we're going to talk about, there's probably 20 to 40 things here, 20 different points. And so we don't want to overcomplicate it too much, but we don't want to strip it right back to absolute basics. Because unless you're someone that is literally coming into complete a triathlon or two, you're not in the sport for very long at all. You're just trying to get through it. Then you do just. You can just completely shiver back and ignore a lot of this advice. Even then this advice will help you. But this probably isn't the podcast for you. This is more for someone who, yeah, you're at a beginning level and maybe you're trying your first triathlon, but you do want to do it. The most efficient way possible. And yeah, we're not going to simplify it so much that it's just generically basic. There are still some things that might seem complicated on the surface, but there is a really good reason why they're in this list for us. And we're going to only talk about today. What is the stuff that's truly important to you, that's going to just make this whole experience a little bit easier. So on that note, we're just going to start with equipment. What do you need for each sport? What's the absolute minimum you need to have a good time in this sport and get through training for swimming? I'm just going to list them all out and then David, just make any comments on them. But assuming you just need a watch and look, you could get away with without a watch in swimming pool and just use the old manual clock that every single pool has, you know, the 360 second timer. But if you're going to be in triathlon, you just need at least a basic watch. Just need goggles to get through. Obviously pool access is going to be great for you and we really would recommend some basic drill equipment at an absolute beginner level. The more drills you do, the better. And the most basic equipment you get is fins and a snorkel. You can do so many really relevant swimming drills with fins and a snorkel. And all your training sessions should be made up of a batch of drills, plus the actual session. And looking for open water swimming opportunities wherever possible. So you need to be able to practice being out in the open water for your actual triathlon at some point. So pool or open water. So any comments on the basic equipment necessities for swimming?

I think it's pretty straightforward, isn't it? You can't do it without a pair of bathers and a set of goggles. So that's the priority. And if you can, as you said, you know, use the modern technology of a Garmin watch or whatever watch is going to give you some splits and some feedback. But if you can't just use the pool, what clock? But yeah, definitely just, you know, it's pretty simple. Assuming we can move straight onto cycling, I think.

Yep. And cycling, obviously whatever bike you want to have and what is in your budget is fine. People often ask, what bike should I get? And for most age groupers, we do recommend that if you're going to be in the sport, a time trial bike is better than a road bike because it's going to help you go faster individually in a Non drafting event. But not everyone wants to have two bikes. And some people just want to use their road bike. That's fine too, with clip on bars. But actually having a bike and wheels is the first, obviously priority. Another one is having a trainer. Now, this is a bit of a different guideline, but we won't let people come into our program without a trainer. And it doesn't have to be a kicker, doesn't have to be a smart trainer, a really complicated one. You can get away with just a basic trainer, but just some sort of indoor option. Because a lot of the best training sessions are better controlled on the indoor trainer. And when the weather doesn't permit, you need an alternative to be able to ride inside. So having some sort of trainer, a basic trainer or a smart trainer is required. Some sort of head unit, some sort of bike computer, whether that's a Garmin or something. And that's to read all the data that's necessary for the bike. Now, controversially, the next one, which a lot of people would argue beginners don't need, and we would disagree, is a power meter. Again, if you're in this for the short term and you just want to complete a triathlon or something, then maybe don't get a power meter. But for anyone that wants to have a good time, it's just like a watch in swimming and a watch in running, power meter is going to be your best friend and the easiest measurement of how to actually improve. And again, we don't accept anyone in our program unless they're willing to get a power meter. So any notes on those starting kind of five bits of equipment that we really think athletes need to get going on the bike, even at a beginner level?

Yeah, the equipment topic that we're on right now, you've named them all, but how do you use those pieces of equipment? That's something we'll dig into a little bit later. But definitely we can't give you coaching advice unless you have those five things that you've mentioned. And yes, I totally agree, you will. You will be a better triathlete if you have a power meter at your disposal to train to. And after all, we're talking about what equipment is going to be best for you to be a better version of what you want to be as a triathlete. So you really need to work towards getting these five pieces of equipment.

In the case that there's asimaps at beginners who've never cycled before, you obviously need your bike shoes with cleats on them. And get those fitted to your bike so you can clip in and out basic cycling equipment, socks, cycling big shorts with padding, cycling top helmet. But if it's your first time buying a bike and you're that beginner, then your local bike shop of where you're buying it should tell you all these things you need and give you this list and sell you a lot of this stuff. A heart rate monitor is a key one for all three sports. Swimming, cycling and running. You can get triathlon heart rate monitors that you can wear in the water and in the pool. So that's a really important one for cycling as well, is again, the watch heart rate just isn't enough. The heart rate monitor is going to be really your best friend. And then leaving the bike shop, there's some key skills that you should be asking them for help with. You can use YouTube or just. You need to learn as soon as possible. And that is clipping in and out of the bike. So using cleats for the first time, using them comfortably. Taking the wheels on and off your bike for various reasons, changing your wheels, tires and tubes, putting the bike on and off the trainer. So that's taking the wheel off and then being able to chuck it on and off the trainer so you know how the trainer works and understanding basic things like tyre pressure, pumping your tyres up, that kind of thing. These are just the basic skills that are going to go a long way in making this whole bike experience and bike journey easy. If you don't know this, you're going to run into a lot of problems and it's going to be super frustrating for you.

Yeah. And it all sounds very daunting. As a beginner, how do I get the wheel out of my bike? How do I get the front wheel and the back wheel? You know, front wheel is very straightforward. Just basically unclipping if you've got rim brake bikes and. And undoing the skewer if you've got the through axle. Sorry, if you've got disc brake bike. But on the rear you've got the chain and the rear derailleur that's in the way and interfering. And so, you know, you do need to be able to take your back wheel in and out as. And the more times you practice that, the easier it will become. The more times you avoid will be a struggle every time you do it. And the reason you need to do it is for a lot of reasons. The number one is if you're in a. If you're in a situation, in a race and you have a puncture on the rear tyre, you have to take the back wheel out. And if you've never done that because you've avoided it, you could be, that could be the end of your race because you don't actually know how to get the wheel out to change the tyre and you can't change the tyre with it still attached to the bike. So that's one really good reason. And you know, another good reason is because you want to, you want to ride your bike indoor and outdoor, you need to learn how to take that wheel in and out of the bike position or on the trainer position. So it becomes a really easy 30 to 60 second process. So if you don't actually practice that and you are presented with that situation in a race, if you haven't been used to doing that, you're going to find that the race is probably going to be over for you, which will be very disappointing.

Yeah, absolutely. And just as a heads up, everyone starts at some point. Everyone has to do it the first time and learn the first time, no matter where you're at. And so you can ask a friend, but you can also ask your bike shop when you get the bike the first time or next time you go back in, if you go to buy a trainer or just go to the bike shop where you bought a bike or any bike shop was actually willing to help, to be honest, and just ask them these basic questions. Just say, I don't know how to take my bike off and get them to show you and even film them. And so you have that recording there on your phone for good. You know, same thing with a trainer, just get them to show you how to take it on and off the trainer and ask them all these basic questions and that's what their job is, they're there to help. So most people when you ask around, are willing and there to help from a equipment perspective for running, you know.

Oh God, I was just gonna say Jordan, don't forget, you know, when in doubt, YouTube has a video on, on, you know, how to do anything in this world today. So, you know, we're being very flippant probably about taking your back wheel on and off the bike, but that is something you actually have to get good at. And, and there's a couple of little key technical things that you could do by making sure the chain is, you know, furthest away from the spokes of the wheel that will enable you to get the back wheel out easier than if the chain is right jammed up against the spokes. So Things like that. Once you learn those little nuances, then it is a really straightforward thing. You know, move the chain by changing gears to the furthest point away from the spokes on the smallest cog and then you'll be able to undo the skewer or the quick release, whichever method of bike you have. And then that rear wheel will drop out straight away. So these are things that will become second nature to you. And you'll laugh after you've done it 10 times, how easy it is. But it seems like it's daunting at the start.

Yeah, that's a really great point, is that once you're through that process, they do seem like beginner things. When you're at the start, they feel like advanced things. And look, we could strip this back further, we could make this even more basic. But the thing that would be doing you a disservice and it's not going to give you enough of what's required to make this a really enjoyable process for you and allow you to improve the best. So we've tried to find this line of what is the minimum stuff we can give you without making it too basic to help you improve and moving on to running. The saying is that from a running perspective, it's just about putting your shoes on and going for a run. And that's absolutely true. Having a running watch is great and obviously any running gear to help you and wearing your heart rate monitor, but that kind of covers it from an equipment perspective. And then now it's time to start training. That's the next thing we want to focus on. And again, we don't want to overcomplicate training, but there's a few key questions we want to ask to help you figure out how to get through training and where you need to start from beginner level. And the first thing is, what's the goal? The goal needs to be established. What are we trying to work towards? And that's anytime just a friend asks me, you know, I'm signing up for a triathlon, what do you think? What do I do? And I just, I say, I can't answer unless I know what you're trying to achieve. You know, I've signed up for a marathon or a half marathon, I say, what are you trying to trying to achieve here? And it's just establishing what point you're trying to get to and what you're trying to work towards. And once you have that goal, then you need to figure out, okay, where am I now? What's the gap? And so now we have a good idea of, okay, you're here, the goal is over here and we need to now fill in the path of how to get from A to B. So that's the kind of the starting point of the training perspective.

Yeah, I think they're really good points to start with. And that's the question we're always asking in our interview is you've selected the next Ironman or 70.3 or Olympic distance, You know, what is your goal in that event? You know, you've selected that race and for some people they've given themselves 10 weeks, some people have given themselves 12 months. And, and so, you know, we'll get a variety of answers back. You know, I just want to be able to complete this Iron man with no particular time in mind. I've got a little idea, but I just want to do it so that I'm feeling good the whole way. And you know, that's a tough ask in itself to feel good in an Ironman the whole way. But, but I understand their goal is that they don't want to be basically creeping across the line on their hands and knees or on the bike the same way. So establishing the goal of, of being fit enough to achieve the requirements of an Ironman or 70.3. And so, you know, are you trying to be at the pointy end as an example where you want to be on the podium, are you trying to just finish the event or are you trying to beat a couple of mates who are challenging you at the pub or at the local coffee shop? These are the things we want to establish as to the why are you doing this event? And that'll help us with the training process. And if someone who's really training to be on the podium, their training might look a little bit different in terms of things that are really non negotiable as compared to a person who's just trying to complete an Ironman where we're just really trying to improve their endurance. Not that we're not trying to do that with someone who's on the podium, but we're trying to just make them comfortable over long distance training where finishing sessions within the required range and not worrying about being too high up in the, in the ranges or in the middle or too low, but just actually getting through session after session and being consistent. There's a vast difference between that and someone who's actually really needing to focus on exactly the right, the right numbers at the top of the range and testing themselves almost in every training session. So, so Definitely the, the why of the goal is, is really important and, and you know in order to get to this Ironman and you've only done the longest ride or run you've only done is 90 minute run and a two hour ride when you're expected on the RA an Ironman to do 6 hours 30 and run maybe 4 hours 30. You know there's a huge gap from where you are now and what you need to be able to do come race day. So, so the training part of it is really key in as a beginner understanding where your level is now and then not in a. Not in a rash way but in a really structured overload method. Methodological type of training program where you're just going to add time to your endurance sessions and try to improve your thresh along the way is kind of what we're trying to do. And not over complicated but establish where you're at and then trying to guide you along that journey to make sure that you've got the endurance that'll cope with the requirements on race day.

And so at a minimum we get you do some basic testing. And again when people hear the word testing it can lead to a lot of freak out and it's just not necessary at all. Because testing can be absolutely basic or it can be quite advanced testing all the way up. If you're at that level we'll go through that later. But at a minimal the easiest thing you need to do is just go for a swim, a 500 meter swim and just see what kind of pace you can hold 500 meters. Now you've got your power meter. Do a 20 minute FTP test and it's not trying to do the most insane FTP test possible. We just want to see what kind of power you've relatively comfortable holding for 20 minutes. And it's just giving you a starting point. And then also we get people to do a 5k run if they're at that level. Some people come to us and they actually can't do a 5K time trial. That's fine. We don't even start start with that. We don't do that till later in the program once they've built up their running volume. But these are really basic starting points to just give you a baseline of. Here's some measurements and then we can retest this in six weeks and 12 weeks. And as you go through a program you get to see this improvement. But if you don't have this measurement to start with, we have no idea and you have no idea if you're improving or not. And so therefore you can't measure the success of the program. So a really big point is here is we're not trying to prove anything with the testing. It's just the most basic way to get some data, get some numbers and see where you're at officially.

Yeah, and there's huge anxiety around testing. I don't care who you are. Everybody who has been told that they're going to be tested instantly, their heart rate goes up by 10 when they know that they've got a testing session. So we've really got to think about it differently. It's just a measurement, A probably to see how well you can execute and B, to select some numbers to train to because we don't want to guess for three or four weeks of training as to where your level is. And that's if, if you didn't test, that's what you would in fact be doing. You would be guessing to see five or six bike sessions. What sort of power can you hold? Why not just find out straight away? And as a swimmer, can you swim 150 pace or can you swim 220 pace or can you swim 130 pace? And so all the sessions we give you, if we didn't know what pace you're capable of doing, you're just going to do some swimming sessions where you've got no real guidance about where to be training at. So it's anxiety raising sessions, but necessary.

I have definitely helped some friends with programs and it's always funny that when you do it this way and you try and do it a little bit different to the kind of rules we have within Trivelo, you know, it's like, oh, fine, I'll help a friend out. And they don't have all the equipment and they don't have this kind of stuff we've decided is necessary for a beginner and the challenges that just come with it, you know, they, and I don't have time to explain to them, you know, the necessity around testing and the benefits of it. So they don't end up doing a test. And then they don't have a clear goal, they don't really have any data. And I just sit there, I don't even know what to give you. You know, I could, I could guess and kind of give you some random stuff and you'll probably improve a little bit. But it's just so becomes an infuriating process because we don't have any clear data on what they can do. So we're not measuring their improvement. You know, we don't, we don't have any data to track their training, so we have no idea if they're training that well or not. And it just becomes they're at that level where they're not doing enough to even get the value out of the program. And it's just a frustrating process to try and coach and be a part of. So that's what we're trying to avoid here.

Yep, couldn't agree more. And you know, even though going training is still incredibly beneficial without having any paces or power numbers to ride at, if you just go out there and do it, there'll be a point where you, as a, as a normal human being being inquisitive, you would kind of, you know, you ask the question, I wonder if I'm actually getting any better. And, and this is the real short cut to that. You know, understanding, getting feedback, getting perspective and training accurately. They're the, they're the basic things that the beginner triathlete and any athlete, whether a marathon runner or cyclist or a triathlete or a gravel rider, they all need to have an understanding of, of the basics. So that you might as well, if you're going to do something, you might as well start with doing it correctly. And then everything, everything from that point on will be easier rather than being frustrated for four to six weeks about, you know, not really sure what's happening because I haven't done everything the right way and I haven't got the equipment and I haven't been measuring my sessions and, and you're, you know, you've got that six week period of anxiety instead of having it for one or two days, which is prior to, you know, doing it this way.

Yeah, spot on. And so we move into the training structure and spoken a lot about just the order of importance between frequency, volume, intensity and it's exactly that order. It's frequency. First, can you start training frequently, five to seven times per week, especially for triathlon training. And if it has to be at low volume and low intensity, because you're at that level and that's fine. And it's only once you can do that and you're adapting to that that you can start increasing the volume and introducing intensity. But that's not the opposite of what we were just talking about. And it does sound like it's contradictory advice. You're saying, well, firstly you have to measure everything, but now you're saying just frequency is important. Well, that's not it. It's all combined because you still need to measure what you're doing to make sure that the training you are doing is just hitting those frequency goals and you are keeping it low intensity and you are keeping it low volume. And we're actually measuring that. And so early on in the program, a common question we get so often people are so motivated, which is awesome, but they ask, can I be doing more? Can I do this, can I do that? And just so often we have to hold people back at the start because we know that six or 12 or 16 weeks down the track, it's really hard to be consistent for that period. And it's, it's really a challenge to go through three, four, six months of consistent training. So for us, it's, we don't want to see how fast you can go. It's we want to see how consistent you can be over that first three, four, six months.

Yep. I can't argue any that the consistency is king and anybody who lacks consistency against people who just stay, stay as consistent as they can possibly be, the outcomes are contrasting. You just get better outcomes just maintaining a low level of training with consistency as compared to inconsistent training with ups and downs in intensity.

So that leads us to kind of what are you actually looking at in the sessions? How are you actually recording your sessions? And so this is where the technology comes back a little bit in and there's just some skills you need to be able to set up. Right. So can you set up your Garmin and your watch correctly? What's your head unit and the watch you're going to use for swimming and running? Basically, do you know how to use it properly? Do you know how to start and stop it? Do you know how to use the lap function? Do you know how to set up your data screen so you can see your current pace, your average pace, the lap pace for that lap, your heart rate, the total distance or the lap distance? Just these little things that you need to be looking for. Same thing with the bike. Do you have current power on there? Do you have your average power on there, your lap power on there for that current effort? These are all things that you just need to again, spend some time understanding and learning how to set up. Then once you've set it up, those first few weeks will be getting used to it. And then once you go through a block, it'll become second nature and it becomes really easy. So before you go through that process, it's like, what the hell are they talking about? 3 second power, average power, lap power, normalized power. Like it seems all confusing words. But when you look back at it after just a short period of time, you realize that it is quite beginner stuff and it is really easy to get right. Yeah.

And understanding what to have on your screens takes some time and you need to spend a bit of time looking and reading the, you know, with your new Garmin or your new bike computer watch. Garmin or bike Garmin? Whatever, whatever you use. I keep using the word Garmin, which is probably inappropriate.

The only brand Garmin's just getting a huge plug here. So many brands out there.

Yeah, so, so I should be saying your, your, your running watch or your bike computer, you just need to spend time reading how to, to how the functions work. And, and that's just you being prepared. And that's part of it, that's part of being a new athlete is I'm going to use this watch, I'm going to use this bike computer and I need to know how it works. It's no different to you getting a new car or IKEA cupboard. You can have a go at actually trying to put the cupboard together without reading the instructions, but you're far better off just going step by step with screw by screw. And that's no different to setting up your running watch or your bike computer. You go into it and have a fiddle with it and spend, spend half an hour and a couple of nights where you're just, you know, practicing. What happens if I push this button, that button and follow the instructions the whole way and then set the thing up properly? That's going to give you the information you want, staring you straight back in the face. You know, as a runner, what do I need? Do I need to have lap power on here? Do I need to, do I need to have the session loaded from the Training Peaks workout? And how does that work? And am I linked to Training Peaks? Has my running watch got a link to all the things I want to link to Strava or Zwift or all the apps talking to each other. These are all important things that you need to actually do the research on and again go to YouTube videos of how to set it up. If you don't want to read the instructions, which I recommend you do, but there are other ways of finding out shortcuts that people have already done for you that you could use. But you need to do this work and if, if you don't do that work, you're just going to be ill informed the whole time and it'll be super frustrating for you. I've got people still loading sessions where they've got their bike computer set and it's set at 5k laps. So every time they load a training session, I might have asked them to do, you know, 10 by 30 seconds on, 15 seconds off, and they've got it set at 5K laps, auto lapse. And the data that comes back to us is just ridiculous. It doesn't make any sense and it wouldn't make any sense to them whilst they're doing the session. So you need to have those auto lapse taken off if it's not appropriate for the session you're doing. And most default settings will have it set for 1k as a runner's watch or 5k as a, as a bike computer. And they're things that, you know, if you don't read the instructions and get those things turned on or off, you're going to have data coming back at you that doesn't make any sense.

Yeah, look, we do say it takes a bit of time, but also when you get the instruction manual, it does actually take less than five minutes to go to the data screen page, learn how to adjust the screens. And actually adjusting them takes 10 seconds or 30 seconds once you're actually in the right section. So, yeah, it's not a super long amount of time. And then obviously one step before that is connecting your power meter and getting your power meter to actually your head unit, your bike computer, to read the power. Basic things like calibrating it at every session. Look, again, this seems like it's a lot, but these are just the minimal things that just really get you to improve really, really quickly. And so we just want to emphasize that there's a lot more advanced stuff you can learn, but this is the stuff that is absolutely worth it and will get you flying in your training at the very start of the program. So moving forward into the tech side of things, just making sure that you're training on the bike that you're going to race on, that's a really big one for us. We get a lot of people doing their testing on practice bikes, but then when they go out to race or do a time trial on the road on their actual bike, they can't understand why the power is so different or why the data is so different. And that's a really, really big one. And it can be. We spoke about this in a case study recently where you can almost have a mental breakdown because you're going, what the hell is going on? But you really need to train on the bike that you're going to race on. And that includes the position really training, the position that you're going to race in. So we get a lot of athletes trying to push more power sitting up out of the time trial position, when instead it's not about pushing more power on the test, as we always say, it's not about showing us how much power you can do it, it's what you can do replicating race conditions. And I think the last point on that is if we got to technology and structure is when you get your training plan, picking the right course to do a session on. So a big mistake we see athletes make is they get a training session, they go do it on a road that just isn't suitable and it completely interrupts the whole training session. You don't get the value out of the session. So just a bit of structure there to again get the most out of the session.

Yeah. And look, the reasons why we are pushing these, these technological points. You know, it's great to have a training bike sitting on your trainer that's not your race bike because you're saving your race bike for race days. But unless you've got the identical bike with the identical geometry, so you've got two time trial bikes that are both same model and the same setup, you're training on a different bike. And I've got people who are triathletes who've got a road bike sitting on their smart trainer and they're sitting up on a road bike position and their race day is totally in an aero position in the TT position. So you're just training completely different in a different. You know, your hamstrings are working differently because they're sitting at a, at a greater open angle than you are on a time trial bike position. So you want to be practicing what's going to happen on race day. That's your, that's your key concept with all of this technology is get the technology right and then practice what's going to happen on race day. Replicate in training what's going to happen on race day. So train on the same bike you're going to race on. Train on the same power meter you're going to race on. Don't use the smart trainer power meter. These are all things we say time and time again, but people still do the opposite. So when you go outdoors to train or race, you should be using the same power number that you do indoor, using the bike power meter, not the trainer power meter. And obviously when you're sitting up in an upright position indoor, it has no consequence to your result. But the minute you go outdoors to do a race or a training session, sitting up is like a balloon, you're catching the wind so your speed is going to be deteriorated. Sure, you're pushing good power, but you're going to be actually riding slower. And the whole goal of riding from A to B is to get there as fast as possible. So even though you're riding higher power by sitting up at a bigger angle as compared to sitting in time trial position with a closed angle, you're going to be so much slower with higher power. So you need to be training and practicing in race day situations so that come race day you are actually getting the speed that you want. And got one guy who openly admits that, you know, he can do more power if he sits up and if he stands up on the bike out of the seat, well, that's great. We all know that. And he, you know, but we don't want to practice that because it's not going to allow us to ride as fast as we want. So get used to doing the right thing in the right position and using the technology that we've got properly to get the best outcomes.

And again, position can seem like it's a technical thing and there's much more advanced stuff we can talk about, which we won't in this episode, because that's not the purpose. But it is important to bring up position because even beginner athletes, you're going to be spending 20k or 40k or 90k or 180km in a specific position on race day. And so you need to be practicing that in training, otherwise it's going to be really uncomfortable come the day. The next topic is nutrition and drink and again, this is a whole rabbit hole. But to start with, the earlier you can start understanding how to fuel your body in training and racing, the better. So that includes getting enough fueling to energize yourself so you've got enough energy for training and racing and recovery as well as practice training your gut. And so the earlier you can start training your gut to what it can handle at race specific intensities, the better. And just the skill of being able to eat and drink while riding, that's something that you know you want to be practicing early, as early as possible, because it has to happen on race day. And so if you can't eat and drink on race day, you're going to have a real problem because you're not going to get through the race.

Yeah, it's a great point. And you know, just Re emphasizing that if you're doing an endurance sport, you can't get through the sport. No matter how fit you are, no matter how well prepared we get you with all the training you're doing, if you don't practice and train your nutrition and hydration levels come race day, you could put too much in, you could put too little in, or you could just put the right amount in. And I know I want to put the right amount in and it will have devastating consequence on your performance. So much so that we've had athletes not be able to finish an ironman because their gut has prevented them from continuing to step, one more step in, in the, in the pedaling action or running action, in the race, they just can't continue. They actually have come to a grinding halt because they are that sick from the nutrition. They were unbelievably well trained, as fit as they've ever been, but the nutrition that they used on the day has had a bad reaction. And you don't want to have that experience, you want to trial that. The whole time you're preparing, whether it's weeks or 12 months, you're practicing the nutrition and experiment with all sorts of nutrition that's going to be, your stomach's going to like. And the minute you find that your stomach doesn't like something, try something else because there will be something out there that will be a best fit for you. The fueling is one thing, but the hydration is also another component that people try to put them all in together. The fuel you need, the food that you're trying to allow your body to consume to give you the amount of energy to convert it into carbohydrate, convert the carbohydrate into energy, you need to have that practice down pat. But also the hydration levels that you need to keep yourself from dehydrating is just as important. And if you, if you give yourself the right amount of food but not the right amount of hydration, you could still come unstuck with being dehydrated. And that will stop you in your tracks as well from executing the race and almost to a point where you won't be able to finish. And they're things we don't want to have happen. We want to avoid that at all costs. But getting that practice in, in the training sessions is key. So training while training, nutrition and hydration whilst you're actually exercising, but actually getting the right amount of nutrition and hydration before your sessions is also important. So if you've got a, a session where you're doing, you know, towards the end of your program, where you're doing 160k ride and a 20k run off the bike, you need to have, have fueled yourself well the previous couple of days for that upcoming session. And going into that with poor nutrition levels will, will not allow you to, to execute that training session. So these are examples I'm giving you. Even as a beginner, you need to start thinking about this process and, and, you know, the simple thing of I don't want to take my hands off the handlebars, but I need to eat or drink something. Well, you need to practice that. And, you know, whether you do that in the local park where it doesn't matter as a training session, you're just practicing, or you're doing it up and down your local street where you're just, you know, taking one hand off the handlebars. And if you're, you're, if you're that much of a beginner, you, you can't even do that without putting your hand down to grab a drink bottle. Just practice taking one hand off the handlebars at a time, for five or 10 seconds at a time and pedaling with one hand on the handlebars. And they're the progressive steps that you need to do. Then you can reach down and get a drink and stop pedaling, obviously. And one of the things, you know, you've got to try and do is drink and eat whilst you're riding in an endurance event. So you need to get this down pat. So however you have to start with that, that's what you have to actually do to make sure that you can get the fueling into you.

So do we expect you to have it all right straight away and learn it all straight away? No, that's not what we're saying. Do we expect you to know how many grams of carbs you need per hour in your training sessions and racing sessions? No, that's the stuff that comes later. But for now, it's just practicing the basics of, of learning to fuel your body properly and learning to do it while you're actually exercising. So the next question that kind of follows up from that is often comes around technique and efficiency. And a really common question is bike efficiency and economy and position and run efficiency and economy. And we just want to go through and tick off what we think is important for beginners with all three disciplines. So swim technique is that important for a beginner? Big. Yes, absolutely. As a beginner swimmer, you want to almost spend half your time working on your technique and getting that right and half time actually training and swimming, because at the start, if your technique is off, you know, you're just not going to improve without improving that technique. So that's a really, really key point for beginners is that's definitely worth your time spending on. Any comment on that?

Yeah, we would rather. Yeah, absolutely. We would much rather you not hit the times that the sessions asking you to say you're meant to be doing five times 100 and you're supposed to be doing them all on 150 and you've got 30 second recovery. If you have to sacrifice a swim stroke, technical thing that you've been practicing to try and reach that 150 pace, then we're not advising that in the swimming session. We're advising you to do whatever pace that you like. Even though we've got guidelines and they are there for a reason down the track. But as a beginner, we're talking here at the start of this program, don't worry about what time you're swimming, worry about how technically you're swimming, how efficiently are you swimming, Is your form good. And if you end up doing 205 for each hundred, we're happy with that. As long as you think that the form you're doing is correct. Because eventually, once you start learning the new technique, it's going to be using muscles that you haven't used before. So it's going to take a while to adapt and you'll divert back to the default type of swim stroke that you had to swim faster. And we want to avoid that. So, yeah, technique ahead of speed is a big yes in the beginning stage.

Of the program for the bike, it's a little bit more nuanced. And so we want to advise what you need to be focusing on. And you know, cadence and gear changing are part of the bike skills that are really important for beginners to get right. Because a very fair question we get often is how often should I be using the gears and changing the gears? And so how do you want to answer that?

Yeah. And look, as an indoor trainer using erg mode, you're never going to use your gears ever. So that's one of the things we want to avoid right from the start. If you're training indoors and you're brand new to bike riding, we had Sarah on the, on the case study just recently who'd never ridden a bike, and we've got her to learn how to sit on the bike, probably how to pedal properly and now how to change gears. On the indoor stationary trainer. And that's the great way to start. But once you get outside, you have all of these nuances that are going to be throwing you off. The wind, the hills, the sun, the coldness, the warmness of the day, all these gears. You've got the technical stuff that's on your bike computer screaming back at you, and it becomes overwhelming. And then you've got the traffic and pedestrians. So wherever you're riding, you've got a whole lot of things going on. So as a beginner athlete, we want you to focus on just making sure your cadence is not grinding. You're not doing 60 when you should be doing 85 and concentrating on not doing 120 because you get screaming down a hill and you're trying to keep up with, with the pedaling. So we want to use our gears around cadence. So changing gears, if you can learn one skill is your cadence should be between 80 to 100, depending on where you are and what the conditions are. And if you're below that or above that, it's possibly you need to change gears. And that is the one thing that we want to get right right from the beginning. Not worrying about power so much. Yes, power is important. But if you just learn how to stay in a gear that's consistently in that range, you will be able to ride uphill and downhill or on the flats quite comfortably. Because the minute you ride uphill, it gets harder. So your cadence drops. So Instead of being 85 in the first 10 meters, it drops to 60. Your RPM, your cadence, your pedaling. So you want to change gears to prevent it going from 85 to 60. So before you get to 60, change gears. So that's, that's what you should be practicing really from the outset. And on the indoor trainer, unless you're using one of the apps where you've got some hills indoor, you're not going to get to experience that. So we really advise people sometimes to do free rides on the apps, on the indoor trainers, on Zwift, you can ride any of the courses that have got hills, and that'll teach you to keep changing gears in a controlled environment inside. And then you get confident doing that inside, then you can take that outside. So when you get to an uphill, you change to an easier gear. When you get to a downhill, you change to a harder gear. And they're the things that we really want to get you to focus on right from the beginning of your riding.

The next two skills that are just really important for you to get right in terms of it's kind of a follow on from cadence, but it's just the whole purpose of bike riding is to just pedal as consistently as possible for as long as possible. Basically, just freewheel. Don't freewheel or freewheel as little as possible. Just the whole time you're outside, just be pedaling as much as possible. Maybe you stop when you're coming up to a light or something, or when the downhill is big enough that it's actually dangerous to keep pedaling. But realistically, you should be spending 95, 98, 99% of your time pedaling and not less than that. A lot of people do periods of one to two minutes pedalling and then freewheel for a period, or you're in a group and you, you just stop pedaling very consistently, and that's just a bad habit to get into. And the other part of bike riding outside is just understanding how to ride on a road and basic cornering skills and knowing how to turn the bike, where to put your weight, not having your pedal down the wrong way going into a corner. So if you're turning left, keeping the left pedal up instead of down so that you don't risk skidding your pedal on the ground and crashing. So those basic cornering skills are really important. Again, you can practice that in car park if you absolutely need it. But really, it's cadence, gear changing, pedaling consistently, and basic bike handling and cornering skills are the fundamentals to bike technique that are important for you.

Yep. And the reason we're adamant that pedaling should be part of the whole session is because if you're a runner and you stop running, you stop running. If you're a bike rider and you stop pedaling, the chances are your bike still propels itself forward without you contributing. So the whole idea is that you want to contribute to the pedaling action so that you can actually go faster. And the minute you stop pedaling, the bike will slow down. So we want to get you into the habit of pedaling the whole time to keep you assisting the bike in going forward. And also on race day, you will find that you won't be doing that on race day. You will be pedaling the whole time. And if you've spent all your training sessions pedaling 50% of the time and freewheeling 50% of the time, you're not training. What's going to happen on race day? And a lot of the stuff we're telling you is to get you ready for what's going to happen on your important day.

The next few questions that generally come up are upgrading bike equipment. So there's probably again 40, another 40 or 50 things you could do to upgrade your bike. Your equipment, your cycling gear, tri suits, aerosuits, aero equipment, all sorts of components, disc wheels, etc. And look, the simple answer is that the more you do that stuff, the faster, more free speed you're going to get. And that's absolutely true. So we're never going to say no to that. But it's just not your focus to start with. You know, it's, it's not a priority. Depending on your budget, it's not a priority. It's always a yes from us. You know, if it's in your budget and you want to do it, go for it. But it's not something you should be spending hips of time or energy focusing on at the start. There's a lot of other things you need to get right. To be able to take advantage of all that stuff is kind of the main thing here. So we just want to make that point really, really clearly.

I was going to say you do need to select a good bike to start with. So get that right, spend some time doing that. But then the focus is not on, you know, upgrading that straight away to the best wheels, the best helmets, the best, you know, start training the best way you can on the bike that you've selected. Then we'll worry about all those things that can be added on later, spot on.

And then we get a lot of specific and semi advanced questions about training structure, training principles, training programs and rules, intensity, distribution, cycling, efficiency, running efficiency, all these things. And these are all great questions. Like I said at the very start, there's nothing wrong with them. But so let's just first establish a solid foundation and a consistent base of training. Once you've really got that, then you should be asking those questions and trying to dial in and get the most out of yourself. But you're going to get so much out of just really building a solid foundation over a solid period of time to start with a really consistent base. And if you can get six months of consistent, uninterrupted, relatively simple training, that will do more wonders for you than anything else. And we get some people that come in really confident. They have a really good first 8 to 12 weeks and they are flying, to be honest. And they start really asking their staff and we say, hang on, don't get too ahead of yourself. It's very different doing 12 weeks of good training compared to 6 months of good training compared to a year of good training. And that's really important. The more foundation you can have, the more that these questions and answering them a bit later down the track are going to have an actual benefit for you. That's kind of the last summary and last point we wanted to finish on.

Yeah, they're super important though. And what you're saying is spot on. You need to get the consistency first and you need to be interested in the advanced questions about everything, about intensity, about what you're doing in your sessions. That's not what you're saying here, but what you're saying is they are important, but not as important as just being able to turn up each day and train in the zones that you've been asked to concentrate on the things that are going to make you more efficient in that training session rather than, you know, how much faster can I go down the track? You have to be a little bit patient, like in the middle of a race, you know, I feel good now, I want to go harder. Well, you have to be patient in a lot of endurance events. You can't just do that. You have to stay in your lane, stay where you're at because it will bite you at the end. And if you're concentrating on the wrong things early in the program, you're not getting the benefit of the training consistency that we're asking you to do early in the program. And that's, I think the difference between what you're saying here is, yeah, sure, these things are super important and they will be part of your program and they should be part of your program right from the beginning, but they should be the part of your program that you are just staying in that range that you're asked to stay in according to where your level is and concentrate on getting those sessions done as well as you can without the advanced extras. And, and that will be a better way of training as a beginner than trying to come in all guns blazing and being a 6 week, 12 week hero and then you disappear off the face of the earth because it's unsustainable. What you've tried to do in the first 12 weeks.

Yep, spot on. So look, we went through what seems like a pretty comprehensive lift. I just want to summarize it for you so you can get a good grasp of exactly what we went through is important. So we started off with the basics of equipment. We went through each discipline and the few things that are really important with each discipline to get right. And then we went through training. So not overcomplicating it, keep it simple, and just the process of finding out what your goal is, finding out where you are now and staying consistent to a simple structure that can get you from A to B. We spoke about technology, so setting yourself up so you can train well and train properly and you actually know how to measure yourself. We spoke about nutrition and that includes food and drink. We spoke about technique. So what kind of technique is important to focus on and what can you leave for later? And we just finished then with the advanced stuff that you can leave to the side and focus on those things that we just spent the whole episode discussing. So when we break it down and summarize it like that, it doesn't seem that much. So, yeah, it's really quite some simple concepts and there's some really key points in each of them. And if you can master all those key points we've spoken about, you're going to do that for six months, solid, consistent. You're going to be just so far ahead of you were if you tried to flound around focusing on other things or kept it too advanced or didn't get these things right. So any last words?

Yeah, just. Just be okay with the fact that setting up is. Is tedious and it can be overwhelming and it can be great anxiety because it seems like technology is way advanced from where your level is. But understand that within literally the first two or three weeks, you will look back at week one going, what was I so concerned about? Because once you master how everything functions, then you're off running, concentrating on the things that are important and not worrying about the setup stuff. Get the setup stuff right, do the research, ask the questions, find out. Find out however you can, whether it's YouTube or the bike shop or your coach. Just ask the right questions, get that going, and then you can concentrate and focus on the things that are actually going to improve you as an athlete to get you ready for your race. Yeah.

Understanding that the biggest learning curve is without a doubt those first few weeks, if you just spend that time, then that really can set up a whole year of good, easy and fun training. And so I think that's one of the biggest lessons in just trying to summarize exactly what you said, then it can seem a little bit hard at the start. But that little bit of work and that patience, if you can really be disciplined not to skip it, you'll have the most enjoyable time training. Whereas if you try and shortcut it and skip it and don't do it properly, you just end up having a really shocking time for the next six months in training, and it can really just take away from your enjoyment of the sport. So that's it from us. As always, thanks for listening to another episode and we'll see you in the next one.

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