How To PB Your Next Triathlon

And there's very rare do I see someone who does a PB first half who gets a PB second half? It does happen. There are exceptions, but if you start conservatively, you give yourself more opportunity to actually get a total pb. Your second half will be a big PB because that's how you get the personal best performance, by starting conservatively and trying to even split or negative split, if you're capable of doing it.

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, Gerard Donnelly. We had 21 athletes compete in a half Ironman last weekend, and almost every single one did a pb. And was this because of our elite coaching? Well, we'd like to think so, but actually no. It was mostly because the swim was short. For safety reasons, they reduced the swim to only a kilometer instead of the traditional 1900 meters. Did athletes still PB their bike and run legs? Absolutely, and that's worth celebrating. But it raises a really important point in triathlon races. Are PBS important? And how do we aim for one when there's so many varying factors? We believe here that it's absolutely worthwhile aiming for a pb, but there's a lot you need to consider into your race plan. So today we're going to go through everything you need to know about PBS and how to PB your next triathlon. Dad. Welcome back to another episode. Start with our normal segment. What are you grateful for?

Good introduction, Jordan. And I'm looking forward to this topic. The gratitude is a really easy one because we were talking off air about, I think it's our 200th episode coming up in a couple of weeks time and the fact that we've been doing one episode each week without fail. And when I added that up, that's four, four years of podcasting and podcast each week. And I'm unbelievably grateful that we have that many people who are supporting us and following us and coming up to us at races and texting us and emailing, who are really grateful as well for the fact that we give away all of our free coaching tips on our podcast. And that makes me incredibly proud. And it's a really big milestone to be doing this for this long and our following is growing. People are just on the weekend, someone emailed me before the Ironman Arizona race to say that they're Feeling so prepared. I don't know this person. They've designed their program from our podcast coaching tips, and they felt that they've never been as prepared in their life for. And they've done some Ironmans before. And I actually got online and followed them. I couldn't help myself. And it was great to see that she actually performed really well. And I can't wait to actually have an email back to her to say, well done. And yeah, my gratitude is that we actually able to help others and they're in fact, in turn grateful to us. So it's a double gratitude. And I just want to make the point that even if it's in podcasting or mowing the lawn or if you stay consistent at something, you will get a really good outcome eventually. It might take four years, it might take your lawn three years before it gets the way you want it to look like the hedges trimmed properly. But if you stay consistent with something, and our following was very minor at the start, and I think you would be able to tell me, so, yeah, if you stay consistent in training, in podcasting, eventually good things happen.

Yeah, I agree. The amount of cool messages we get from people is awesome. And it's funny to think about, you know, in those first, I don't know, 50 episodes, maybe there was great information in there. I think there was great information in there, but the potential audio quality or editing quality of them wasn't as good. But people still email us about those early episodes and they get enough out of it, so that's always interesting. I can't stand going back and listening to them because I just cringe. But that's. I think everyone's like that with their own voice or recording. My gratitude is quite a simple one, but it's about embracing mistakes and imperfections, I think, whether it's in training or racing, and it happens a lot where we might not do a session as well, or even just general things in life where you learn. It's so cliche, but you learn the most from the mistakes and failures that you make. And we see it a lot in racing lessons where you learn a really big lesson in a race, but it only drives you forward and it makes the next period of training even more valuable. And, um. And I just see it applying in so many contexts where if you're not making mistakes and you're not embracing those imperfections, you aren't able to grow. And actually, it would be pretty boring and you actually wouldn't get anywhere because you just stay on a flat line the whole Time, you know, it takes those periods of adaptation to actually get somewhere out of it. And one of the key examples is in, in the training progress, you know, it's often two steps forward, potentially half a step or one step back. You know, you, you experience some fatigue, you adapt to the stimulus, you kind of flatline. Use the stair example constantly where you go up the stairs, but then there's the flat section of the next step, then you go up that. Most people with fitness graph and improvement goes off that, but without those lulls, without potential mistakes or errors, you're not going to get that. So I think it's important to not be grateful for just the positive things, but to embrace the negative things and know that that actually leads to, yeah, you're getting stronger, you're getting fitter, or in the case of just general life, improving as a person. So a quick what's caught our attention before we get into the main topic of the episode and we were just again chatting off air about the marathon boom that's been happening over the last few years. Marathons are becoming more and more popular, which we're super excited about, I reckon. We did an episode, I don't know, 50 or 100 episodes ago, talking about how running is really taking off. I think it was in Covid when it was and we really noticed it taking off around the world because people really wanted something to do. But we're so excited for that because we just absolutely love running and we love the amount of people wanting to challenge themselves in the sport and we love nothing more than to see fun runs events, 10Ks, half marathons, marathons, park runs being absolutely filled up because running is just such a great thing to do. So, yeah, I think we're just chatting about the marathon boom and kind of what's happening worldwide and commenting on the trends that are happening and what we're seeing.

I love this caught our attention because generally we're talking about who's done something sensational in the world of sport, whether it be running. You know, we're always banging on about Inger Britzen or Kipchoge or Kiptum or any of the elite triathletes and runners and cyclists, Tour de France, etc. But this one, this is the everyday age grouper, the person who's got a little challenge that they've set themselves. And I think I'm just so wrapped to see marathon take its stage in the world of health and fitness. I think it's a great thing. I remember running marathons in the 80s and 90s outside of triathlon. And I was super excited to run an individual marathon without a freaking bike ride and a swim in front of it. So this is just music to my ears. And we were talking off air a little bit about the standard of marathon running and the depth of marathon running and the, the amount of people who are able to finish a marathon now. And it was interesting. There's sort of a positive and a negative here because we've got so many more people taking up the challenge of marathon who might be a five hour marathoner or 5:30 or a four and a half hour marathon. And those people back in my day would never have entered the event because it was only serious runners who ever did a marathon. And now we've got, you know, staff at work saying, yeah, I'll do the marathon. And then a week later they see them training and I might do that. And all of a sudden you've got this steamrolled effect of people joining in. And it is a huge challenge for the majority of people. They may never have run before or that their longest run might have been 5k. And to go from the couch to 5k to a marathon is massive step. But I think triathlon has helped that a lot because a triathlon is a 10 to 15 or 16 or 17 hour event where at the start very few people were able to do that. They were in their hundreds. Now there's hundreds of thousands of people who've done an ironman. And I think marathon is following that a little bit. And it's a lot easier. There's less equipment, it's not as expensive, it's easier to train, it's less time. And I think it's just a really good thing to do. And besides the issue of injury and the body not really robust enough with the modern lifestyle we have where we're kind of very sedentary and we could be office people who spend a lot of time sitting down. I think it is a lot more challenging to be a good runner now than it was maybe in the 80s or 90s when a lot of the work we were doing was less office style. Working was more manual type of labor. So you were quite physically fit and your body was quite robust. And maybe our diet's not as good maybe or worse then or better now, I don't know. But there's a lot of things that are different to when it was when I was doing it. And so I'm just ecstatic to see and look. The negative was because there's so many people who are a lot slower doing marathons now, which I think is great, which encourages other people who are feeling like they're not good enough. Well, if that person did it in 5 hours 10, I can surely have a go at this event. There's no embarrassment around a slow marathon time anymore. So I think that's made it more inviting and encouraging for everybody to have a go at it. It's still a hard event. I'm not diminishing how difficult a marathon is to run. It's really difficult. Everything about it, the training and the performance on the day. And your preparation has to be spot on to get it right, because it's a long walk if you haven't got it right. So the depth of the actual event. So now we've got in percentage. In the old days, in the 80s and 90s, if you were running say between three hours and 3:30, that would be the majority of the field because they're all really good runners. Now the average time is probably between 3 hours 40 and maybe 4 hours 30. That would be my estimate from the data that I've seen. You could back that up. That's amazing. And it would have been in the three something. I think you did say it was 350something in the early 2000s.

So I sat that said in 2001, the average was 358. So it's gone down because as you're saying, more people are accessing it, a wider range.

Yeah. And I think that's a good thing.

Yeah.

Yep. So. So that's what's caught my attention. And I'm, I'm quite excited about this boom. And, and I would be encouraging people if you hadn't thought about it. Get yourself. Get yourself organized and, and, you know, start thinking about where your next marathon is. And there's so many events that are available all around the world. And ironically, most of the big races now you have to qualify.

And that's so popular.

Staggering before you could enter a marathon two days out. Yeah. And now you. You absolutely have to be. I think Melbourne closed six weeks before the race, so if you didn't enter early, you actually didn't get in the race. And, and that just shows you the popularity of. Of where marathon's going. And, you know, there's, there's the big races, the big Melbourne marathon in Australia and Sydney and the Gold Coast Marathon. Perth and Adelaide have marathons, but there's also country marathons, marathon or the Warrigal. You know, there's all these little marathons here, there and everywhere. Ballarat's gonna have one next year. And that's the same everywhere in the world. You know, you've got all these other opportunities. You don't have to do the big one. In fact, sometimes the big one's worse because logistically getting to the race is so hard. And then queuing up, you know, the race starts and you don't get to the start line for five minutes because this 20,000 people in front of you. So, so there's, yeah, it's, it's quite an exciting period and I'm, I'm, I'm really looking forward to seeing where this goes.

This is completely anecdotal, but my own experience being a runner our whole life, my whole life is that I'm just seeing way more runners out on the road. You know, I, I, you know, would remember as a teenager going for runs and never ever seeing another runner around. And granted we're in a small population area, but even living in the inner city Melbourne the last 10 years, I, I could safely say that my own experience of seeing more runners out on the roads has absolutely increased, especially over the last five years. So that is interesting to note. And it's interesting you compare the triathlon and marathon. Boom. We posted a video just talking about Calvin Kipton's performance. And I said in the video, it's one of the all time greatest human performances we've ever seen in sport, across all sports. It's just there is no denying no human has ever ran that fast for two hours straight. You human has ever run that fast for 42.2 kilometers. I mean, Kipchoge did run that fast with pace, etc, but no one has run it on their own. It's just, it's just the epitome of human performance. And I had a few Internet trolls coming back at me saying, oh, you mustn't ever have heard of the Iron Man. That's way tougher. I just laugh saying we obviously have no idea what we do for our job, but you know, telling us that we've never heard of an Iron Man. But they're different, they're different categories. You know, the Iron man is a lot more of a, a lot more of a slow slog than the, the marathon. Yes, you're doing a marathon at the end of two sports, but it's a different event when you're doing a marathon fresh. And I think that's super fascinating. But yeah, I think it's just, it's one of the all time classic races in history. You know, it's An Olympic event. It's just, it's just you as, as a human body running 42.2 km as fast as you can. When you talk about the stats, you know, this referring to more stats from last year. I think if you run under three hours, you're about in the top 1 to 2% of runners. You know, that's bloody awesome. If you're running under 3:30, you're in the top 10%. So that kind of shows the standard of where you're at. So, yeah, it is super fascinating and we love it and we want to keep encouraging it because we love athletics, we love half marathon, marathon, and we just love seeing these events. Absolutely. Boom. And see more runners taking it on. Moving on that note to the topic of triathlon. And triathlon is a funny sport because no two races are the same. So how do you possibly aim for PBS when you're not in it, running the exact same conditions. And in triathlon you will rarely get the same conditions. But we want to talk about what can you do to try and improve on a past performance and aim for a pb. And there are a range of things you can do and there's a range of things you need to focus on. So let's start off with the differences. And most of the time, unless you're doing the exact same course, you're going to be running on potentially a different course. So it's hard to compare times. Or if you are running the same course, it's different conditions on the same course, one year apart. If you're running the same race, the temperatures could be different, the wind could be different, the competition around you can be different, which we saw recently. Even in the water, the water chop levels, the wind for the water can be different, the current can be different. So there's all these things you have to consider when you're considering, all right, I'm aiming for a PB here, but you might turn up the day and go, well, a PB is probably not possible today because of the external conditions.

Yeah. And on top of that, Jordan, the example we just had in Melbourne, the course was half the distance. So there's an asterisk beside Everybody who's Done Melbourne, 70.3, 2023. That time will never be beaten again because they swam 900 meters instead of. So how do you possibly put that in your PB list when it's not the full 70.3? So not only are the marker buoys in, if you did Melbourne five years in a row, the swim marker buoys are not going to be exactly the same spot. The current's not going to be the same. So straight away you've got different swim conditions. The course might be 50 meters longer one year or 100 meters shorter the next year. Generally the, the, the run course is the same turnaround generally and generally the ride course is the same. But as you said, the wind could possibly be completely different. You could have us, you know, 50, 60 kilometer hour wind on a one year. And then like last year, we had absolutely glass conditions in the water and no wind. And so they're completely different fastest race conditions compared to this year where it was. I'm just using this one race example over two years where everything's been so different. So you can't. And people are always. Before this event, people always say to me, I really wanted, I really want to break five hours for the 70.3. And I'm saying, well, that's a great goal, but you know, the total time is so far away from the PB that you should be looking at compared to what you should be looking at as your pb and we should delve right into that. But the, the course conditions and the temperature and the distances that, you know, the run could be shorter or you could go to an event where the run is 20.4 instead of 21.1 or the run is 21.6 instead of 21.1. So straight away you're doing a 70.3 with two different half, half marathon distances. The ride could be 86 one year at Noosa, at, sorry, Sunny coast it was 86k and then another year it was 89. So you've got the same course with two different, that's a big disparity. So the total time is something you should not be really, you shouldn't really be looking at the total time as your PB goal. That's the first point I want to get across.

Yeah, and that's what you want to go into is looking at execution instead. For PBS and for the Melbourne example, we had athletes who rode faster time over the 90k and ran a faster time than, than the year before. But you've also got to take into account they're slightly fresher because they swam half the distance. And so you want to, you want to celebrate it both ways, but you want to look at it realistically. I think that's the first point we want to make is okay, you've, you've ridden faster, which is great. But let's look at the story behind it. And we spoke about this Last week on the race analysis review, you know, what's the story behind all your numbers? You executed better, you felt really good, but you were probably slightly fresher than the year before because you hadn't done a 1900 meter swim. But we don't want to discount that performance based on the execution. So that's probably one of the first points we want to make about assessing a PB is the PB doesn't have to come from the total time, although it can. We want to look at your execution. Was your power and speed up from last year? Was your power up but your speed was the same or potentially slower, indicating that the conditions were not favorable, but you were riding stronger. So had you ridden that power on the course last year, you probably would have gone a lot faster. Yeah, I guess that's a starting point, is thinking about your execution and looking at other bits of data to see potential improvements.

So Jord, in that specific example on the bike, you could have accidentally been stuck in a bunch of 30 riders and, and you could have way lower power, but exactly the same average speed that you did the previous year. So how do you define whether that was a success or not? And obviously if you did ride in a bunch, which you're not intentionally trying to do, you would be fresher to run faster. So there's all these nuances about what actually happened in that specific race, which you should be looking at to work out whether that was a successful PB day or not.

And we want to be realistic. I think the point and the main reason we want to be realistic is so that we're not setting ourselves up for future failure. Because you might get a faster time, but if you're ignoring the reasons why and then you never get close to that time again, you know you're going to be disappointed with all future races. So it's important to be realistic about the story of the race. Big to go if you, if you rode, if you finished with a half Ironman time, 457, but then your next three half Ironmans were all 5 by 5 or 5 10, but the conditions were completely out of your, out of your control or favor in that 457, you happen to be in a pack and really get some good speed, yet really good bike conditions, then that result becomes unachievable for the future. So I think understanding this starting point is really important. But I wanted to ask the next question, and that is, what is our golden rule for time trials? We've got an athlete doing an FTP test or a 60k time trial or a 40km time trial, or a 5 or 10k run or half marathon time trial. Our number one rule, which we always start with, is refers to your previous pb. So can you take us through what is your instruction to all athletes of how they should start that time trial?

Yeah, and it's a really good starting point because if you've across your data from the last month up to six weeks, that's probably as far back as you should go. You should be looking at where your form is, and the goal is to start where your current form is. For example, we have this beach road time trial that we do locally here and, and I think I've mentioned it a few times on the podcast and I've probably done, I don't know, 25 of those Beach Road time trials over the last five or six years, probably more, because we average probably four or five per year. And just so happens that we've done six, I think this year, and, and in the last six weeks we've done three. So for my own example, just to make everybody understand what the point I'm trying to get across is, I looked at what I did last race and it was 250 watts. And so that's where I started my next race, around that number, because I felt like my form was similar to what it was three weeks ago. I felt a little bit better, but I wanted to be conservative. So I wanted to start somewhere around where I left off. The total average power that I left off with for the last race. Not my last minute's power, but the total average power of my last race. That's what I'm going to try and aim at and maybe a little bit more conservative underneath that. And, and that's going to set me up for, you know, to do the same as I did last time. And if I feel good throughout the race, I can actually use that as my starting point and then build on that and then I should end up with a PB. And over the last three of those races, I think I went from 250. Then the next race I started at 250 and ended up averaging 268. And then last weekend we did it again. I started at 268 and I average ended up averaging 280 by starting conservatively. So there's, there's three examples of me using my previous data to make sure that that's where I was starting. And had I not trained consistently, I would have had a different scenario. I would have started Way lower. If I had missed training sessions or I had some injury or illness, I would have started not at, not at the previous average, but maybe 5% lower just to give myself more room for preventing myself from blowing up. And that's really what a time trial goal is. You're trying to get to the finish by riding as hard as you possibly can without blowing up. That is actually the goal.

That's such a really good point. And the way you describe it is start where you finished off. And some people misconstrue that and hear that as well. Whatever I was writing at the end, I'll start at that. And sometimes in the last minute or two, you're letting everything out of the tank and you're riding at 290 watts spots. That's not what you're saying because your average was 268. So don't start at 290 because you'll blow yourself up. But the theory behind it is you've trained consistently for a period, you've trained consistently for a block or if this is race between race, you know, hopefully since last year, you've trained really well for the year and you've improved. You can afford to start where you averaged off last time. Again, we're always starting conservatively, so slightly under. Again, the example you used was start at 268. You probably started the first minute or two at 260 to 265 and built from there. But knowing that, that's a really great starting point. So I think that's a, that's a really good thing for people to understand for not just time trials or testing conditions, but for the actual race as well to know, and not only to know for a PB in the race, but it also sets up how you should train. So if you rode, you ended up riding 200 watts for the 90k in your race. That's a really good piece of data for you to then use for the next year of training to go. Well, if I want to improve next year, when I come back to Melbourne half Ironman or I come back to my next half Ironman race, I know that I can. When I was in peak form and I and I trained really well for this, I held 200 watts to 90k. Well, the goal for next year would be to hold higher than that. So we're not saying that means you ride 200 watts in every session. Obviously in your high intensity sessions you're going to be way over that. But it means whenever you're doing a practice Mock time trial or you're doing a sub threshold session, you're using that number of 200 watts for 90k as a reference point for what you're trying to improve on for the next year. So can you explain that a little bit when you, when you're thinking about, you know, future long time trials and future potential shorter races or sub threshold sessions?

Yeah, it's a great point. You're raising and, and taking it one step further. Just use the example you used. Say my, my 70.3 90 kilometer power number was 200 and I knew that 200 gave me 40Ks an hour. So you know that the average speed you ride will determine what the time is for that distance. So so 40Ks an hour will give me a 2 hour 1890K. So, so if I want to ride 2 hours 16, I've got to ride 40.2Ks an hour or 40.5. So we know 200 watts equals 40. So our goal is to push our power up to 205 and therefore we know that that will equal 40.3ks an hour. So they're the things that we're trying to, we're trying to, you know, not do the whole thing together. We're trying to go, okay, improve my watts maybe, maybe if I'm lighter I'm still going to be or more aero or better, better bike fit. I can actually get that average speed where I want it, which will give me the time I want. So they're the things that will set you up for PBing and, and you know what, what, what are we trying to do here in, in pb we're trying to actually get the most out of ourselves for that particular sport that we're doing. And we're using triathlon at the moment, time trialing. So it would be the same in your running or your swimming, you know, what you're doing in training. So therefore if you want to do a pb, you're going to have to work out exactly in your race strategy what you've been doing currently where your form is and then instant input that into your race plan, which we talk about a lot in, in preparation. But the pbs, the taking the next step, the personal best performance will only come if you set this stage for it. So if you give yourself a chance by the first example we used, then you can actually take more risk because you know you've done 200 watts before as the example. So if you're feeling OK, then I want my personal best to be better today. So I'm going to Put the effort in knowing that I have done 200. That's a safe, that's my safe number. Well, that's my personal best. So that's absolutely what I've done before. And if my form is similar and you know that, then it's time to take the PB comes with you taking a risk. And that risk can go one of two ways. You can get the result you want or you'll blow up. And that's where you've got to be really in tune with your body. Or how am I feeling? Asking yourself all these questions like we talk about in your race strategy plan, how am I feeling? Can I push this number up? And is it going to affect my run? If we're talking triathlon, but if we're just talking an individual time trial or a marathon or a half marathon run, your risk taking to get that PB has to be measured. And I've seen examples of people, okay, I want to do a PB. I'm so excited. I've got the 60k out of my 90k time trial and all of a sudden they go from 200 to 215. Well that's a ridiculous risk. That's going to end in pain, that's going to end in a blow up. You have to be measured, go from 200 and squeeze it to 202 to 203 for the next 10k and see where that takes you and then squeeze it again for another 2 or 3 watts. Now I'm at 2:06. I'm still coping. Great, let's squeeze some more watts out of this for the next 10 minutes. And all of a sudden you've gone from 200 to 215 watts in the space of 30k rather than 5k because you feel good. That doesn't mean you just go all out. Still with 30k to go. You can do that if you want, but the risk is too great. I feel so, so the personal best, the PB that we're trying to do still has to be based around execution. It has to be based around conservative start. And there's very rare do I see someone who does a PB first half, who gets a PB second half. It does happen, there are exceptions. But if you start conservatively, you give yourself more opportunity to actually get a total pb. Your second half will be a big PB because. Because that's how you get the personal best performance, by starting conservatively and trying to even split or negative split. If you're, if you're capable of Doing it. But, but the personal best is you deciding that where am I in this race? And if you're talking about a 10k fun run, you know, and you're trying to run 40, 40 minutes and we know that's 4 minute k pace, if you get to 7k and you feel like you're in control and you're and things aren't falling apart, then that's the time to try and run the next 3K at 358, 356 and 350. And before you know it, your time will be 39, 30 and that's a massive PB. And it's not too late with 3K to go to do that and it's not too late with 2k to do, to do those changes. So they're examples of what you can do and how you can get the PB in the moment.

Yeah, for sure. And that's such a brilliant example. And it's the reason why we do such smaller time trials so consistently. We're constantly doing 20 minute FTP tests. We're constantly doing a 5 and 10k time trial because time trials, because as your program progresses, if you're improving those shorter time trials, theoretically, as long as you're doing the right training program, you're doing the right endurance, doing the right race ready style sessions, those 5 to 10k improvements or those 20 minute FTP test improvements indicate that over the 21.1k and a half marathon or over the 90k or 180k on the bike, you will improve there as well. Again, that is as long as the training program is facilitating that. But yeah, you just gave great examples there. And if we, if we took a running example again using the Half Ironman race, you know, if you average 5:30 for the half marathon at the end of the Half Ironman over the next year, you know that is your goal to improve your 5 and 10k times and then keep testing yourself. You might, you don't have to do consistent half marathons, but you know, throwing in 15k efforts here and there where you are adding 515 pace or 520 pace or even, you know, potentially faster running 505 to 510 pace. If you're improving and you're getting, you're able to run that, that shows that in the Half Ironman half marathon at the end of Half Ironman next time you'll be able to beat that time. You'll be able to run 5:25 or 5:20 20 pace again as long as you execute well and you start conservatively at where you finished last time at 5:30. Given your form is good. That's how all these things start to line up and, and you get a pb.

Yeah. And I've got a great example from Melbourne. One of the athletes, Dane who came to us probably five main races ago, which might have been nearly a year I think and his, his PB for the half marathon in an, in a, in a 70.3 was around 4:38 pace. And over the progressive races that we've done, he's brought that down to, in the 420s. And in the, the last race he did, he did a 422 which by the way is a 17 second per km improvement in a race which is fairly handy. Pb, which is what we're talking about, we're talking about getting that pb. It doesn't have to be the total race but it's, this is just an example in a triathlon where his running's coming down. And in his race strateg he was saying, you know, 422 is where I'm going to aim for, which is exactly right. But I'm saying to him, your form at the moment, you're basing that decision on your last event. Your form is better than that. And I think you're making a mistake. You're being too conservative. And this was a great conversation between athlete and coach where I'm saying you're capable of running 4:10 to 4:18. And he's almost silent on the other end of the phone going do you really think I can do that? And I'm saying I wouldn't tell you that if I didn't think you can do that. You are absolutely capable of doing that. And you know, when he came back at the end of the race and we're at the tent at the finish, you could not wipe the smile off his face. And when I went home and looked at the data, he ran the best he's ever run. He ran a 418. So he knocked off another four seconds off off that pace for per kilometer. So he's now in the 120s for a half, half marathon. When I looked at his data, Jord, he started at the 425 pace, got to the 422s, then he knew he was in control and, and he just went faster and faster. He ran his last, I think his last 5k in 408, I think his last 10 or like the 5, 5k to the 15k, the 10k to 15k I'll get that out in a minute. The 10k to 15k I think he ran 415, so he ran four twenties for the first one to 5k, then then 418 for the next. And then he, then he brought it down to 414 or 415 and then he finished off with some ridiculous 4 minute K pace for the last K. And you know that's, that's how you do a pb.

That's.

And so just going by the example we used early, you know, look at what you did last race or your. That's good but it's actually not that accurate. It's a great start point but find out what you are capable of doing. And he went back to his. And he does some unbelievable preparation. I think I sent you his email with his race plan and it was every training session that he's pretty much ever done and he had his 16k run off the bike and he ran 4:15 or 4:16 pace and he had a 12k, he had a 10k. This is after a 70k or a 90k or a 60k training session where we're doing race specific race ready training. You know, in that last six weeks he had, he had multiple examples of where he'd ridden the 220 watts that he wanted to ride and then he got off the bike and he'd ran around the number that we thought he could do that he thought he could do from previous races. And you know, when he did a 1 off 10k time trial that gives me more data about what is your form right now. And we do that prior to the main race to find out what your half marathon and 10k and 5k numbers are. And depending on who the athlete is, you'll do one of those three. And you know, he was well within the range of 410 to 418, not 422. And that's an example of getting the PB right with getting the right information and then executing brilliantly. So it's not just one thing, it's a combination of many facets that come into calculation when you're actually planning it and then executing it. And there's one thing about planning that's that's all talk executing, that's all the doing and, and that's what I loved about. And that's what makes it so exciting and so gratifying is that you actually execute it.

That's great clarification on the, you know, the rule motto that we said is, you know, start where you finished off that really applies for minor scale time trials where you're testing yourself every month, every four to six weeks, you know, to really good way to go about it. But as you said, when you're looking at race to race, which could potentially be a three month, six month or 12 month gap, you need to take into consideration your form differences. And that's the point you just brought up then, which is great. So one of the next steps is to go, okay, if I want to improve on last time and this is at the start of your journey, you're reviewing your race like we spoke about last week, you're doing post race analysis, okay, if I want to improve next time, where do I find the improvement? And you've got to look at your own execution and look at, and potentially look at the three legs and go swim, bike or run. Where can I get more out of myself? Maybe you're a really strong runner and you're right at the top of your head potential range there and you can always improve, but maybe you need to be spending more time on the bike or swimming or vice versa and that is your focus for the next training block or your focus before next race to really get the most out of yourself. And I think the lesson there is spend the time where you're going to get the most gains. Yeah.

And look, the simple answer would be we all need to improve our swim, bike and run, don't we? So you know, it almost, it's almost a given, isn't it? But the point you're making, and it's a really good one, we need to dig into the micro scope of what you're talking about. And if you spent six sessions a week swimming, you might get an extra 30 seconds, an extra 45 seconds, maybe a minute over a six month period. If you spent an extra.

Depends where you're coming from.

Yeah, it does. There's a lot of generalizations there. If you spent an extra one or two sessions or extended time on the bike over a three month period, you have potential again depending on what your current form is. And if we're talking about guys who are at the pointy end, who are, who are winning, they're not going to improve more than a minute or two. But we're talking about the average age grouper and that's the majority of people we're talking to generally is if you're a mid packer and this applies to everybody in the race, but the bigger gains are going to be the people in the middle of the age group or towards the End So, you know, you could potentially get a 5 to 20 minute improvement on the bike if you spent a little more time focusing on the things in the program that will enable you to become a better bike rider. And on the run, the same thing. If you spent more time than, than that on the bike or the run or the swim, we're talking specifically triathlon here, that is going to give you more bang for your buck. But if we talk about a single sport like, like running or like time trialing or ocean swimming, the same thing happens, you know, you need to spend more time on that weak, weaker areas you have and delving into those you know. As a runner, do you have the strength from all your endurance runs in the hills to, to hold the pace at the back end of your marathon or half, half marathon there? That's an example of a specific target that you're trying to do on the bike and the, you know, on the time trial, you know, have you been doing the right work in that threshold training or in that VO2 area? Or is it all endurance and you haven't done anything in your race specific training that matches what you do on race day as a swimmer, have you gone into the ocean and practice ocean swimming when you've just been in a pool the whole time? All those little things that you can do that if you really break down the swim, bike and run in triathlon or just break it down as a runner or as a bike rider, or as a swimmer individually, as their own one off sports, you can find an enormous room for improvement in the training alone. But there's, there's other things you can do, but the training can be more specific to what your weaknesses are. You still need to concentrate on the things you're doing well, keep doing those but, but be more specific on the areas where you think you can get more gains.

Yeah, it's absolute brilliant line of thought and questioning and I think breaking down the individual legs, the swim, the bike and the run and asking some more deeper questions. So exactly what you just said. Are you in the swim? Is your stroke letting you down before your lungs? So are your arms getting tired before your heart rate and your breath? And does that indicate that you're not practicing your stroke technique enough or you're not spending enough time volume in the water or the open water or your lungs giving out, you're probably not used to swing at that intensity for long enough or maybe you're really good for 500 meters are okay, but then that last 100, you're really fading in the swim, indicating that you just need to be spending more time for volume. Same with the bike. Are your lungs, you always ask the question, is it your lungs or your heart? Are your legs giving out for your heart rate or is your heart rate through the roof with the intensity? And that could be indicating that there's not enough VO2 intensity in your program. But there's a lot of endurance. You're real endurance monster, but you're not good at that top end or the vice versa. You know, your, your lungs feel. Your lungs are struggling because you're all. Your lungs are feeling really, really good because you're good at high intensity. But you just haven't got the endurance to keep the power for a full 90k. Maybe you're really good at 20k time trials or 40k time trials. You've got a sprinter, Olympic distance, but it's just not translating and we see that a lot in running as well, where you might get a. You might be improving your 10k PBS by a lot, but it's not translating to the back end of a half ironman. So you, that shows that your, your running form is really good for a fresh 10k. But maybe you're not doing enough time trial running off the bike, or enough running off the bike in general to be strong enough or enough hill work exactly like you pointed out to be strong enough in that last 5 to 10k. So they're things you can really start asking yourself to find some improvement, but find out why you're actually potentially breaking down or cramping in a race or fading. Really important points to look at. So the next point I wanted to talk about was kind of this concept of inputs versus your inputs versus external inputs. And there are a bunch of cheat ways where you can just find time gains that don't have to rely on your own physical fitness or form or training improvement. Obviously, that's all your physical inputs. You know, your training, your race execution, your mindset on the day. You know you can find more time by potentially we've spoken about this, having a better mindset in the day and having a better mental action plan. But there's also these external inputs which are just cheap ways to find more time, which are well worth it. You know, you can. The external inputs are the equipment you're using. So can you improve your bike? Can you improve your aero helmet? Can you improve your skin suit, Your bike position? Can you improve your wetsuit? What technology are you using? Have you got an accurate power meter? Can you improve your aero wheels? Can you improve your nutrition. Is the fuel you're putting in actually detracting from your performance? Because you're not fueling properly enough. You're just sticking to potential Coke or the powerade from the stations and you haven't gotten proper nutrition. There's all these little cheat hacks that will actually get you a PB performance if you didn't even change your actual fitness.

Yeah, it's a great point, isn't it? And we talked about that early, which we wanted to dig into. And this is free. This is free pb. You know, I'm trying to do a personal best and I've got to the race with this amount of fitness and that's, that's, that's all I've got. This, this is where I am. But if you do a whole lot of these things better, you could find another 5% and that could, that could equate in a half marathon or a marathon or a 10k to a 30 second improvement. Just by thinking about your mindset and how you're going to approach the actual race and are you up for it and are you ready for the task ahead and have you prepared properly with your strategy? That's just without doing anything with equipment, that's just you getting in tune with the day and being up for the challenge. And I think that that has more value than almost everything else you can do on the day where that's free pb. That could, you know, if you have the mindset, I don't want to do it, I'm not feeling well, I'm feeling fatigue, you probably shouldn't even do the event if that's your mindset, you need to be up for it. And that's where we talk about the enjoyment factor of what you're doing in this sport. And I'm not talking about this sport as in triathlon, I'm talking about in this, this exercise, physical sport that we do where we train our bodies to get the maximum we can. And we're all the time about personal best. We're all the time about trying to do better than we've done before. So this is what you've entered these races in for. Because A, you enjoy doing it, you enjoy the training, but B, you are motivated by improvement. And if you, you know, ring me and say, no, I want to have a training program, but I don't care if I improve, I would say that's absolute garbage. You would not want a training program if you didn't care about improving. And so, you know, your goal could Be that I just want to get fit. And that's not what, I'm not saying that is okay. But along that journey with getting fit, your expectation is that you will be a better athlete than you were before. And so this is what we're talking about. The personal best you achieve is such a really good thing to have as a goal. And you know, in the early days when I was a youngster, it was you a winner or you are nothing. And that has changed in the world. You know, people, people didn't want to participate back in the day because if they weren't any good at it, they just quit. Because there was nothing in our society that was encouraging people to be a participant. It was all about winning. And that's great because you get this improvement amongst all those people who are striving to beat each other. But that's such a minor, and we use the marathon as an example. There's such a minor group of people that's, that's in the 1%. What are the other 99% of people doing? They're not doing anything. They're sitting on the couch watching the 1% of the elite people. And we're about getting those 99% off the couch and getting to do something that's going to help them be a healthier person for the rest of their life and have some fun along the journey. And putting some PB performances in that equation is what we're talking about. So, so, you know, this is something that you could, you know, really get your mind around and get some really good feedback. And there's no doubt that the chemical releases we have when we, we identify that we have improved from one training session or one race to another, that is addictive and that, that's what we, that's what we actually enjoy. And so this topic is brilliant because it is actually telling you how to go about it and where you can find the room for improvement. And, and the mindset is the underrated one. It's the elephant in the room that people think, oh yeah, that's just airy fairy. That's not. It is so critical for anything you do. If you know, there's one athlete we have, I said to a couple of guys over the weekend, he said he set the fastest time on the weekend's time trial. And I, I said this guy has got the mind of someone who just cannot be beaten down. He is so strong minded that no matter how hard he's hurting, he's just going to push through. I don't think I'VE ever coached anybody like it. It's quite impressive. We did a ride earlier the day before actually, and he was telling me how much he was struggling on that ride and, and we have this certain loop that he ended up winning. But halfway through that loop he was just saying how bad he was feeling. Next day he comes out and wins a time trial. You know, he's such a competitive beast that that's an example I'm telling you about how the mind is overcoming the physical. I don't think he's in that great shape at the moment. He's not been that consistent, but his mind is. You're going to have to do a lot of things to beat me today, and I just love that. And I'm not talking about winning here. I'm talking about if you get your mind right, you can overcome whatever you're wanting to achieve. If you're a, if you're a 2 hour 30 half marathon runner and you believe that that's, that's your limitation, you will always be a 2 hour 30 marathon runner no matter how hard you train. But if you are willing to push and risk the mind, you can do whatever you want. And you know that example I gave with dame, from a 422 to a 418 to a 410, they're just examples of me talking him through and getting him to believe that it is possible.

I didn't actually have it in my show notes to dive into the mindset, but now that you're talking, it is such an underrated part. And for me personally, and I don't know if you're the same, that is probably the part I spend the most time reflecting on after a race. I go, where was I mentally strong and where was I potentially mentally weaker? And where did I potentially lose time? Because when I always refer to the third quarter as the hard part, that is where the race is the toughest. Because when you're getting towards the finish, you get that kind of second win back always. And that third quarter is when it's hurting the most. You're the deepest into the race and that's when the demons come out and the mental demons come through. And that's where the real battle always starts, I feel. And I always finish a race and go, how did I go in that third period? When you're trying to hold your exact pace and I think about it in 5 or 10Ks, where I've been in positions where I'm trying to hold 3:13 or 3:14 every second counts. And I'm just starting to slip. And you're going, oh, it's just so painful to hang on. And you go, no, I'm going to get to the end of this race. I'm going to regret it so bad if I let this slip by a couple of seconds and I end up running 5 or 10 or 15 seconds slower than my PB because I just let it slip here in this k or 2. And that's the part where you're absolutely having to push yourself and go, no, hang on to the pace. Every second counts. Really push it here. And then when you get to the end and you get to that last K and you're still and you run home, it's so worth it. And so that's a great place to think about for your own race, is to go in that third quarter, did I start to give up? Did I start to let the demons take over? And did I slow down and run 5 seconds slower or 10 seconds slower per K because of my mindset, because of my body, because I wasn't fit enough? There's kind of two questions there. And sometimes you get to the end and you just go, I had nothing. My body just could not do it. Other times you go, and only you know deep down what you were telling yourself at that point. You just kind of say things like, oh, it just would hurt a little bit less if I just slowed down here. And only you know that that's the reason you did it. But that can happen when you get to the end of the race and you go, oh, I know that I gave in a little bit mentally there and I let my body's pain kind of stop me from running that pace. And that's disappointing. And you don't want to feel that. And so, yeah, there's another area where you can find improvement.

Yeah. And we don't want to harp on that too much. We don't want you to run through brick walls just to prove how tough you are. That's not what we're saying. But I think you have made a great point. You are very proud of yourself when you have been challenged and you are up for the challenge and you push through. That's what we're talking about. And only you can work that out, as you said. And you need to ask yourself that question. You should ask yourself, was I mentally tough today or was I a little bit weak? And there's been a heap of races where I've been disappointed in myself about when it got tough. I actually took the easy option because it was hurting too much. And I bitterly disappointed with myself at the end. And, you know, that regret, it lingers with me and actually motivates me to, to not let that happen again next time. And, and, and I absolutely love that feeling. I don't care where I finished in the race. I do care where I finish in the race, but I don't care in this particular example. I care about whether I was up for it. And I'm proud if I actually push through. And I've told a few stories about where I was actually, you know, collapsed off the bike and got up and kept going, kept walking up a hill when I was, you know, beyond continuing in the event. But I had that mindset of I am going to get to the finish no matter what. And they're examples of extreme behavior, which I wouldn't, I wouldn't be pushing people down that path. But, but, you know, you get very proud when you know that you've actually done your best and, and, you know, you're very pleased with the outcome because you didn't let yourself down. Yeah, and I think that's worth considering. And there's. There's a free PB there, for sure.

Exactly. Yeah, for sure. And look, we are human, and we've spoken a lot about this episode, about the, the external time, and we spoke about it last week. That's time. You don't want to put all your happiness into that part, you know, you want to put it into the execution and, and your performance and how proud you are. But we are human and we love seeing a PB and we love seeing a faster time. We just can't help it. You know, there's a big dopamine hit there. And so where you can find free time gains, do it. When you can find an equipment or nutrition, do it. Transitions is another big one. You specifically tell people not to rush too much in transition. Take your time, get it right, don't panic, don't get too much adrenaline, that kind of thing. But then people take that too relaxed and they just cruise in transition and over T1 and T2, especially in half Ironman, where there's kind of usually bigger runs, from the swim to the bike, bike to the run, et cetera. The transitions can be total between four and eight minutes. And if you're dawdling and taking seven minutes, you could give yourself. You could wipe off an extra three minutes if you just, you know, if you're really efficient, you're not dawdling and you're not rushing, but you're really efficient. And yeah, that's a, it's a really easy way to get a faster timer in a triathlon.

Efficiently fast is what I like to put the heading in my T1 and T2. Be efficiently fast. But, but don't be panicking, don't be rushing and don't be dawdling. You've just got to be in that. You know, we, we talk a lot in our podcast about being a balanced athlete. T1 and T2 is exactly that. Be, don't, don't be extremely fast or extremely slow. Be balanced and efficiently fast where you're getting the time you deserve rather than adding, you know, losing one and a half minutes in T1, then losing another minute and a half in T2. That's three minutes you've just given away for all the work you did in the swim and the bike and the run. I'm not happy with that. You know, that needs to change and every, every second counts. I don't care whether you're doing a six hour half Ironman or a four hour marathon. The difference between when it goes to 3:59 or four hours means a lot. But if it's a four hour 20 or four hour 1950, well, you know, that could be your PB and, and that's important if, if that's what you want. So we're talking again about what it takes to get a PB and some people are going, I don't really care about that and that's okay as well. But this topic is absolutely on giving you the gains that you can put in implement into your race strategies.

The last one which we touched on a little bit, but I really want to reiterate is the course itself and we've the time trial example you use this local time trial we're getting guys and girls gets PB gains just from understanding the course more. They've written the course so much, they know where they can be finding more time gains on the uphills and they know that they can just relax in sometimes the downhills and not strain themselves because they want to reserve that good power for the uphill sections or the hardest parts of the course. So if you're doing a race where you know the bike leg, you know the run leg, you know the course, you've done it before, you can find more gains. And we've gone through with our coaching group, you know, the next half ironman locally for us is Geelong. That's a really specific course where you can get much more time gains on the uphills and the hard parts and the headwinds than the downhills. And when athletes do it right without even adding any extra fitness, they can improve their times on the bike. Again, it's free gains when you do it properly. And I personally had my own example last year where for a time trial race six days out, I went and did the time trial. Full race setup, full race kit, full aero helmet, aero disc wheels, everything. Did the event as a recon. Six days later, did the same event and improved the time by 30 to 40 seconds. My fitness had not improved in six days. There was absolutely no way. Taper may be slightly fresher, but majority of the time gains was from understanding the course and knowing where to push the power. More analyzing each part of the process course six days later, same thing, 30 to 40 seconds quicker. And I think that is just that was in a 16 minute time trial. You know, in a 90k event you can get massive gains from doing the course properly. So again, free ways to get a.

Pb, not only knowing the course, that's one part of it, but actually knowing how to execute on that course. So knowing the course has got 16 left turns, 15 right turns, three U turns. That's important information. So you know, how do you manage your power? How do you manage your strategy about those turns? And will that affect your normalized power against your average power? So the more turns you have, the bigger the gap is going to be between normalized and average. So therefore, what are you looking at, normalized or average? And these are the things that we're talking about which will make you make better decisions. And then where are the hills? How many hills are there? How long are they? Where is the, where is the wind coming from? Understand that on race day, look at it, look at the weather and know that the wind's coming from the east or the north or the south. Know where the headwinds are. Work that out before the race starts so you have a clear idea. I know before the race started that this should be the tailwind section and therefore I don't need to be at the top of my range. So. So, you know, these are all things that will help you get a better outcome just by knowing the actual conditions of the, of the weather on the day. And we're not actually talking about the nuances of the courses, turning and twisting and hills and downhills, etc. So we've really got to be across all of that information at the same time as all the other things we've talked about. But this is quite Crucial in determining if you know that you're going to be unable to push power because such a big tailwind in the range that you want to, or it's a tailwind downhill, you need to be across your power so much that you can say, dismiss that that's not relevant to improvement of my bike ride or in the headwind. You know that you need to be at this point for this amount of time on an uphill because that's the important thing that's going to give me a better time. So you've got to do, discern or differentiate between the areas that are unimportant and the areas that are more important. And once you understand that, then you can execute to the conditions on the day and the course. So the conditions, the wind and hills, the course, where are the hard parts, where are the easy parts and where are the turns, etc. And what should my power be around those nuances of the course. So there's so much in this section that we could spend half an hour on giving an example, and I'll use one example, George, just before we finish. And one of our athletes who's training for Ironman Busso has been using Lake Eildon as his circuit for a lot of his race specific stuff. He drives from Melbourne to Lake Ilden, which is quite a long way to drive. This is how far this person is willing to go so he can actually execute his training session properly. He can't do it in Melbourne. He can't do this because he only is able to train his endurance day on a Wednesday, not on a weekend. So on a Wednesday there's just too much traffic everywhere. So he has to go out to Lake Hilden. So one week he's done 160k race specific time trial. And he.

I think he.

I think I might have told this story before, but he rode 5 hours 25 for 160k and his average power was right in the zone, right where we wanted it to be. And when I looked at his graph, he did have the right power in the right zones, but he also had half an hour in zone two and another half an hour in zone one and half an hour in zone five and half an hour in zone six. And those two hours took away from his two hours in the correct zone. I said to him, next week or the next time you do along along Race Pacific. And it happened to be a few weeks later. It might have been a week later, I can't remember now, but it was 180k. So it was 60k further than he did the previous week. And he did 5 hours 25 and he did that power. So the next week he did 180k. His time was 5 hours 25. So he did the same time as he did for 160k, and his average power was the same. But he had nothing basically in zone one and two and nothing in zone five and six. So he'd moved his power ranges to the right area so he had the same average power, but he just got rid of those outliers. Time below the power that he wanted and time above the power he wanted. And he improved 20km on what he did the week before. Well, that's about 35 minutes. He improved by just riding the same power, riding the course differently according to the wind and the hills and staying in the ranges that we wanted. And that's an example of free speed, same fitness, but just rode the course completely different, rode the conditions completely different, rode the power numbers completely different. And if you can't understand that, rewind this what I've just told you and listen to it again, because that is gold information about how you can get free speed for the same fitness level.

It's quite a hard one to grasp because you think, what? Same power, same course. How could you possibly do 20 kilometers faster for the same time? That just shows that the average speed of the ride was so much higher because you put the power down in the right areas. And that is a hard one to grasp. But as Tassie just said, re listen to it if you need to, because that is just so important. But there's quite extensive list we've done today to how to find a pb. There's a lot of ways that you can do it. So we hope you've enjoyed this list. We hope you apply any of these lessons to give you a PB for next race because it is really fun to do a pb, whether it's a sprint, Olympic, half ironman or ironman or any race. You know, these are all these principles apply to get a pb. So we hope you've enjoyed this episode. Thanks as always for listening. See you on the next one. Sam.