How to Prepare for Your Upcoming Race

This episode of the Get Fast Podcast is brought to you by Tribello Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. You are joined, as always, by your host, former Australian Ironman champion Jared Donnelly, and I am Jordan Donnelly. After much uncertainty and a change of date this weekend, the Geelong 70.3 is finally happening, and we are recording this episode two days before the race. However, by the time this episode is released, it will be after the race has happened. But because we're so excited that a race is actually going ahead today, we're talking about how to prepare for your upcoming race. Whether that's your first race or it's your 10th, there are things you need to know or be reminded of in order to have the best race day possible. And just because you may have done plenty of races before, that doesn't mean you've been doing them in a way that could be getting you the best result. So today's topic is how to prepare for your upcoming race. But before that. Dad, what's caught your attention?

Whoa. There's so many things that I could talk about here. I'm gonna hone in on one particular event that happened, the Milan San Remo. And I'm sorry to keep bringing up bike races, but I do get excited when the spring season comes in Europe, and how lucky are we that they're actually racing somehow in the middle of the pandemic, but they're managing to do it. And there's been an incredible amount of races happening. And I'm just picking on Milan San Remo because it is an exceptionally different race. And, and that's one of the reasons why I want to bring it up. It's a 300k race, and, you know, the Melbourne to Warna used to be the longest race in the world, and the Italians went one further and added a kilometer or two onto the Milan San Remo to make it that longest race in the world. But, but from a professional point of view, and just for the everyday athlete, it's really important to understand the differences between, say, Strata Bianca and Milan San Remo. The, The. The. The volume of riding time is so significantly different, and the outcome is a result of what you do in the race throughout the whole day will determine how well you finish. And this is. This is a classic example of this race. So that's. That's why I wanted to bring it up, is, you know, to ride 300k and ride. I mean, the last 60k is probably where the race is. And, you know, you've watched the Last 60K and you know the Depressor and the Poggio are the key parts of the race. And if you're a little bit tired getting to that point then you're got no chance of featuring in the finish. And so understanding how to execute from kilometer 300 to 240 is all about hiding, conserving, not burning matches. And for the everyday athlete this is really important because we have the equivalent. If you're doing a 60k road race and all of a sudden you're asked to do 140k you have to treat it differently. You can't be as gung ho, you can't be as willing to burn matches along the journey because you will suffer at the end. And I wanted to particularly bring up Caleb Huon and what an unbelievably good race he executed. He did not see him until pretty much the Poggio where he was third wheel and he was riding with the best riders in the world. He is a sprinter. He is not an alaPhilippe or a Wud van Aert or a Van der Poel. He's not in that class but he was absolutely in that class on that day. And I reckon he must have done 50 days of 6 minute efforts so that he could absolutely stay with them. And at one point I almost thought he was going to attack them. He was riding so beautifully up the Poggio and then he descended, holding on to Woot Van Aert's wheel, did not leave it by a millimeter. And had Jasper Sturgen not done what he did, Caleb would have won that race. And why? Because he measured his efforts from kilometer 300 to 160 to 260. So 260 kilometers of hiding, basically being protected, eating, staying out of the wind, not burning matches.

Talk about getting specific for the race. You could tell that this was Caleb's, a race that he went, I want to win this because two months ago on Instagram, which is a long time ago, he posted one little clip of him on his bike turning the corner up a Poggio and he's clearly been there doing efforts for I don't know how long, preparing on that hill, learning that hill, doing it over and over again to for this race and Perry.

N I think he was in or the Arden, the other, not the Arden Classic, the, the other race that was on at the same time. I can't think of what it was called. Strata Adriatica.

Yeah.

And he pulled out and that to me was oh, he's absolutely tapering for this, for this particular race and, and the second part of this. Well, so well done, Caleb. You. You did everything right. But unfortunately a guy outsmarted the whole lot of you and what a fantastic result that was for a guy who was not going to win the bunch sprint. So he had one chance in 10 of doing a breakaway and getting caught on the line and losing. And it was Jens Void esque. You know, I have 1% chance or I have 0% chance. I'll take 1% every day. And. And he attacked and they didn't catch him. It was. It was incredible.

Yeah.

And I love to see someone risk everything. What do I want to come fifth or tenth or first? And, and I'll. I'll. I'll put up with coming tenth if I, if I risk it and it doesn't work. Tense is tense. But I want to win.

Yeah.

And what a great outcome because everyone.

Behind just played just too many games of hesitation, didn't they? Because they were only 10 meters behind him at the finish line. But they were kept hesitating and just.

You just. It just shows you. You just keep risking and you will get the big risk, big reward, but also big risk, massive poor result.

Yeah.

So, yeah, that's. That's pretty much what caught my attention.

Yeah, that's great. So what's caught my attention. And I'm going to touch on a topic that I believe is highly underrate. To be honest, most people either just scoff at it or just nod their head and they move on when they hear this topic. But I really think it's worth paying attention to and thinking more about. And we're going to include it in the podcast more regularly because of this. And the topic is gratitude. So I want to tell a story about gratitude and this is why I believe it is so important. So I used to run a bootcamp in the city, a fitness boot camp. We'd be there every morning doing big fitness outdoor activities with a whole group of people. And we started. I can't remember why we started it, but we just thought it'd be a good idea to start because we knew the power of gratitude and how good it is for your mindset, how healthy it is to practice being grateful for things in your life. And so we started this practice with our group that every time the session would finish in the last five minutes, we'd do our cooldown. We'd all sit in a circle and stretch and everyone would go around the circle and say something that they were grateful for. And it could be anything. And at the start, everyone found it a little bit weird, but very quickly people caught on and it became such a good part of boot camp that people looked forward to coming just to be part of the gratitude circle at the end. And anyone new that came to boot camp and joined the first time, they'd be a little bit weirded out, not sure what this is. And then after three or four times, because everyone else is so confident in it, they just love it and it can be anything. And people would just sit there and say, I'm grateful for my job. People would say, I'm grateful for the sun, you know, I'm grateful for warm weather. It'd be, might be a bit deeper. I'm really grateful for my relationship with this person. Or some people had, you know, some stories behind theirs and some people literally just said, I'm grateful for food, I'm grateful I have access to food, you know, and just depends on what you're feeling for the day. But what we noticed was something really powerful happened among the group of boot campers was that people started going about their days, their day to day life, trying to find things that they were grateful for to be able to say at boot camp the next day. We were there every day training. And so you didn't want to sit there in the gratitude circle, have nothing to be grateful for. So people were going about their day trying to look for things to be grateful for. And how powerful is that if you're spending your whole day pointing out things that, oh, is that good enough to say tomorrow? Is that good enough? You know, people might try and one up each other sometimes in terms of their gratitude.

What are you doing? You're searching for exactly. Positive.

Yeah.

Day, daily activities.

I can't tell you how much of a profound effect this had on the boot campers. And it was just, it was something that's, you know, mental. But it was so visible, it was so physically visible. And we talk a lot about how mental illness is invisible. Well, this mental healthiness was visible and it was quite incredible to see. And there was one particular woman who came and she was, I have to say, without a doubt the most negative woman I've ever met in my life. But good on her. She came to boot camp and she really wanted to improve her health and almost everything she said when she came to these sessions was a complaint or something negative. And we would have funny conversations with her and I would, I would actually take the mickey out of her, to her to say, you know, are you going to say something positive? Or is it something negative? And she heard me, but she kept going on her ways, which is a habit, I guess. But she was the most profound change, because after it would have been about six months of doing gratitude circles every day, she was starting to come to boot camp, and her whole language of her life shifted. And she just stopped saying negative things. She just stopped complaining. And I can't tell you how much of a positive impact that had on her life personally. And for me, that was quite incredible to see how someone shifted the way they spoke and viewed about their life just by this daily practice of reminding themselves of what they're grateful for. And that story actually gives me goosebumps because after six months, me and my partner, business partner, who we were running it with, we couldn't believe it. We said to each other in the car one day, can you believe this change that this person has had just from this simple practice?

And it would have had the same effect on the people around her noticing the change. It doesn't happen like anything in life.

Yeah.

You can't just switch a flip, flick a switch.

Yeah.

It takes time for your body and your brain, physically and mentally, to adapt to change.

Yeah. And I don't know what the neuroscience is behind it, but I. It would. I would not be surprised if, you know, neurologically, your body changed by focusing on these things. And so it's a common. It's a common notion to. That everyone says try and be more grateful, but you actually have to do something about it. And the act of verbally saying something out loud to a group obviously had that change. And so you can do this by writing down something you're grateful for each day. You can just say it to yourself, but it would be useful to say it to a partner or a friend or someone at work each day. And so we're going to include it as part of the podcast from now on to remind ourselves and remind you, the listener, of the power of this. And because we were talking about it over the last couple of weeks, and we both agree that it was something really powerful and something that we wanted to share on the podcast that really has a positive impact on your life. And so we encourage you to have a conscious think about what you're grateful for. And then whenever we say something on the episode that we're grateful for, have a think about what it is for you. So I'll start today and say, what I'm grateful for is the fact that I'm actually injured at the moment. And every time I'm injured, it's a great reminder for me of how grateful I am to be able to train and how much I love training. And while it's frustrating while I'm injured, it just reminds me and gives me that drive and passion to be able to go for run again. Because when I can't train, all I want to do is go for a run and go stretch my legs and spread my legs. And so for me it feels even more powerful for how much I love training when I can't train. So it's.

Once something's taken away from you, it's like the fear of missing out, isn't it? You desire it more and more and that truly shows you have a passion for what you're doing, which is a great real. It's a realization, isn't it?

Yeah, definitely. So what are you grateful for?

I'm gonna dig deep into the history here and I'm just going to come out with this. So not many people would know I have never been near a triathlon since 1990. The Commonwealth Games is the last event I ever did in New Zealand in Auckland and for whatever reason there are many, I've never set foot back into a triathlon and that's my decision and I'm really happy with that decision. But this year I decided that I would really get myself back involved in. In thinking about because there's a new event come which is called an Aqua.

Bike and actually competing.

Yeah, actually competing in triathlon again. So I've lined up for the Geelong teams event which is on the 21st of February and that got cancelled. So that was pretty sign from above. That was pretty funny. And then the next event you and I were lined up for was the Sufferfest at Safety beach and you're injured and I happened to spend a couple of days in hospital so we missed that one. So this weekend I am eternally grateful that I look like I might get to the start line. And believe me, in triathlon or in any sport, getting to the start line is half the battle. Oh, maybe it's 90 of the battle. And when you get to the start line, all you got to do is execute, which we'll talk about later. But I am eternally grateful for the opportunity that I now have been given to actually resume the sport that I love the most.

That's amazing. And it's something you've been reminding a lot of athletes of is don't forget how amazing is it that we get to race this weekend. Be grateful that the race is actually on because it could have been Canceled. Totally.

Yeah. And except for some professional sports that are unbelievably continuing around the world, where Covid is just rampant. And we are so fortunate and we should be grateful in Australia that, that we are on top of the pandemic at the moment and we are able to participate in an event and a sport that we love.

So, a bit of a different direction with the topic of gratitude, but we think it's valuable enough that we will do a quick gratitude on each of the podcasts as well as what's caught our attention. So, moving on to today's topic. How to prepare for your upcoming triathlon or race. Because we say triathlon, but the principle applies to any race or any event, whether it's a cycling race, a running race, a tri race, a footy game, whatever. So with this topic, let's assume that the preparation has been done. You can't do anything more now to get fitter. You know, we want to focus on the week leading into the race and race day because there are so many things you can do to help yourself on race day outside of your fitness. Um, and there are so many things that you could do wrong that would make your fitness irrelevant because you're just ruining your race. So I want to start with one of the biggest and best lessons you've taught me about racing, and that is to either get a sheet of paper. I use my iPhone, but some people use a sheet of paper and start with the race time. Race time starts at 7:15am or 6:15am and work backwards and talk us through that.

Yeah, it's a lesson that I learned very early in my competing career because I made the mistake of underestimating how quickly time goes. So this is a really bad thing to do, which, which is to be blase about understanding your start time and when you should get to the venue and when you should be preparing and, you know, rushing the whole way through and missing the start. That, that was. I was. How did I possibly do that? You know, I'm, I'm getting to the start behind everybody else. So, so what, what can I do about this? Right? I need to work out exactly what you just said. My, my start time, whether it's a running race, is at 8:04pm and I need to be warmed up at 7:12 till 7:40 so that I can walk from my warm up area to the, the marshalling area, et cetera, et cetera. So I have every detail. When do I get to the venue? 650. What do I do? I go get my Number all of the details, I've got them all written down on a bit of paper and I'm working backwards from 804 is my start of my run and I'm going to do everything working backwards so that I'm allowing enough time for every single scenario that I need to cover, which is parking the car, leaving home, parking the car, how long is it going to take me to get to the venue, parking the car, then getting from the car to the area, getting my numbers, getting registered, warming up, getting to the start line, etc. Etc. So I'm going to eliminate the panic, the underpreparedness on the day you've prepared all these training sessions and why would you under prepare on the two hours prior to your race? It's the key to making sure that you have a good outcome. As you know, warmup is key and if you start a race without a warmup, you're going to spend the first half of the race warming up, which is not going to give you the outcome you want. So, so I can't, I can't emphasize how important it is.

Yeah. And the biggest lesson I've learned is that you can't be too meticulous with it. So you end up having two lists. You should have your packing list, which is the day before, and make that the week out, you know, with every single thing you need to pack so that you can just cross it off once you've packed it so you're not worried about forgetting anything and you don't have to trust yourself in the moment to remember something. And the second is that timing list. And one of our athletes posted in our group this week and they wrote down a sheet of paper, their whole packing list and that's their way of crossing it off. And I commented and said, oh, I use the iPhone notes because you can use a little checkbox. But I am as meticulous as you're saying. For every race now I'll put start time 7am and I literally put 6:54 walk to start line, 6:50 have my last sip of water and I just do all these things. The main reason is that, so that I don't have to spend any energy on that morning making decisions. Everything is there for me, I just follow it and I can just focus on getting in the zone, just follow the plan as is and you've got to be a little bit more on the conservative side as well of how long things take. So registration, you need to go get your tag and your number and that kind of thing. Don't allow five minutes for that because it could be a line, you know, put in 20 minutes, because if you get more time, then that's fine. You can then relax and do a bit of stretching, get yourself ready. But the point is, it takes away any energy you have to in making decisions in the moment and gives you the ability just to focus on the structure and then you can get in the zone for the actual race. And it just puts you at such ease.

And we had an example during the week of one of the guys doing the police and emergency games. Fire, police, ambulance. Great event. And traveled down, got all his gear already. No helmet, you can't race.

Yeah, exactly.

I had to go to the bike shop and buy a helmet.

Yeah.

That throws. Yeah. Everything into turmoil.

Yeah.

Straight away. So that checklist is key.

Yeah.

There's so many examples of guys turning up to training sessions where they've driven from home, got their bike out of the car, no front wheel.

Yeah.

No helmet.

Yeah.

No shoes. You know, it's going to be one of those things. I've done it myself. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm driving out the driveway. One of the question I asked myself, helmet and shoes, of course the bike's there, but helmet and shoes. Haven't got them.

Yeah. Well, you can't say of course because you think, of course you have your helmet. It's actually the NASA principle, and I really like the NASA principle. And it's. When NASA are launching a rocket that costs $2 billion into space, they cannot afford a mistake, they cannot afford to forget their helmet. So they. It's called the NASA principle because they have the ultimate checklist. They have incredibly detailed checklists and every single astronaut and every single team member has to go in and read through it and check it off. And then not only that person, the next person comes in and checks it off so that not one thing can be missed, because they can't afford one single mistake. So when you think about the NASA principle, you're not going to forget one thing.

Attention to detail.

Yeah, exactly. And with triathlon, there's so many things to think about. You know, there's just. You've got three sports of things to pack for, three sports of equipment to get ready for on actual race day. There's the most amount of things you need. You've got your gels, you've got your belt, you've got your number, you've got your timing chip. Uh, so you don't have to be trying to think of all these things in the morning. Yeah. You Want it to be taken care of?

Absolutely.

Main part is, what's your race plan?

Which is the key, isn't it? And I've been talking to a lot of the athletes this week about their race plan, and it's been fantastic to see so many people understanding the detail that you need to go into. And it's been really rewarding as a coach to really not have to make too many changes because they know their data, they've gone and looked at it and they've written down their race plan. And I make them write it down. It is so important that you put it pen to paper. It's okay just running it through your head, but, you know, it means more in anything in life if you write it down. The minute you write it down, it becomes fact. If it's in your head, it's just in your head. Even though some people that's. That's your plan. But yeah, it's really important to, to make sure that you have all the details. What are you going to do at the start of the swim? You know, how are you going to function in the first two minutes as compared to the middle section, the last section? What are you. What are you thinking about from the end of the swim to transition to the bike? You're concentrating on the process of. Wetsuit off, goggles off, zoom cap, bike helmet on, grab the bike, where's the exit? All these details are part of your race plan. Then when you get on the bike, what power am I going to ride at? Is it a hilly part of the course to start with? And Geelong, we know it's 150 meters of flat straight up a hill. So if you haven't got your shoes on or your feet in your shoes, you're going to be going up that hill struggling. So there's all these little detailed things that you need to have in your race plan. So not only what power you're going to ride at, whereabouts are the hardest parts in the course? What's the wind doing? And these are the things you should be concentrating on. How's my cadence? What's my pedaling technique? You know, we've got a checklist of 100 things we run through with our triathletes.

Yeah. And everyone knows that we're data driven and all our travel athletes won't be competing without data. But there might be some listeners out there that say, oh, Jared and Jordan, I'm not using data yet. So how do I have a race plan without data?

Well, if you don't have any data to to recall on. You've got to recall on the training sessions. So it's kind of a tough question to answer really and it's, it's going to cause you all sorts of trouble if you have no plan. So the plan is I want to go by feel if that's what you. I'm really struggling with the answer.

Yeah, yeah. Your eyes are going.

I wouldn't, I would be lost to be honest. But, but, but I'm trying to help people who have no data.

Yeah. And I'll clarify and say pretty unhelpful. Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't think anyone has nothing. Everyone has a watch or just people might not have a power meter or. Yeah, well, still got their speed and their.

Yeah, well, the average speed is only helpful halfway because if it's, let's take Too long, it's 45k out and back and you've got lots of hills, lots of wind and the only time you think that the average speed is going to be accurate is at the halfway mark and you're going to repeat the same thing. So you could have wrecked your race by halfway without any data. So, you know, the average speed is helpful. Your heart rate, well, it takes 10 minutes for your heart rate to get into the zone that it should be in. So you could spend the first 10 minutes riding too hard and, and you're in the red zone. So you've built up lactate up. That is you're going to have to deal with for the, for the next 90k. So that's, it's helpful but it's only helpful during the, the, you know, from the 10 minute mark onwards or even some people takes 20 minutes because they've got such levels of fitness and their freshness is so good and they're tapered so it will take a while for your heart rate to get in the zone. It is, but it is helpful.

Yeah.

So they're the only two things that you can. And by feel, obviously. But of course you are so tapered and fresh, you feel magnificent in the first 20k. Well, that feeling at 80k is completely different. Even though you might be riding, you know, 15 watts lower, but the feeling is that you're riding the same as you were in the 20. But that's the trouble with going by feel. It feels what you feel is just what you feel.

That was the answer I was looking for though. And there's a word you use which is a key word because I have heard you help someone who's that had no data and you said, well, here's my advice anyway. And the word you use was just conserve all day, conserve. Because exactly what you said then you might feel good at 20k but you won't feel good at 80k. So 20k, 30k, 40k, 50k, keep conserving, keep conserving. And then in the back half, you know, once you start feeling heavier, you get a real truer indication of really how you're going.

Yeah. And look, endurance sport is all about patience. And you know, if we use the Milan Sam Remo Race 300K, it's easy to show your face and the camera and ride hard up some of the hills or drop back and, and have to chase back onto the bunch. These are things that are, that are not a patient athletes, things he wants to just spend no energy with anything other than conserving. Because that's what endurance races are, patience and conserving.

Yep. And I guess that's why we're data driven, because it is much easier to be confident in a plan.

And, and why are we. Well, it's principally, and I've said this a couple of times in the, during the week to the athletes we're coaching, I've said, why are we, why are we using the data so much? Well, obviously it will prevent us at the start of the swim from going too hard at the start of the bike from riding power that's way too high, that's unsustainable, and from the start of the run from running a pace that's unsustainable. So they're the three key reasons why we use data, and that's to stop you from wrecking your race in the swim, bike and run. So if you use data for only that, then you've succeeded. But the next reason we use data is because it's a continual guide. It's like a map. It's like a map we're using throughout the day. And obviously no course in a triathlon is pancake flat with no wind. So you can't ride the same power over a 90k ride that you could if you were on a velodrome where it's, you know, no wind indoors, pancake flat, and you sit on 240 watts for 2 hours, 10 minutes.

You wouldn't want to anyway. It's the most uncomfortable it is.

But in a triathlon that, that doesn't happen. So you need to understand a lot more about it. When to ride hard, when to ride easier and your power will fluctuate. And understanding that is what the race plan is all about. And that's the key message I'm telling to all our triathletes during the week, what to ride at at various times in the course. Where is the wind, where are the hills? And that's what the plan's about. Not only at the start for stopping you from going too hard, but actually executing properly with detail throughout the rest of the day on the bike and on the run.

Yeah, perfect. So talk to me about the principle of having your three potential scenarios, because this really helps me mentally.

Yeah, so. So we, we are a confident group of humans that we want to have the best outcome. Even if we've had an average preparation, a shocking preparation, or a perfect preparation, we still expect our ambitions are always. Our ambitions in life are generally always higher than our ability. And there's very few people who could argue with that. You know what you want to do and what you can do. The person who's closest to that, keeping them together, is going to get the best outcome. The person who's got. And I see it all the time when people send me a race plan, I just go, whoa, that's just not going to happen. Where do they get these numbers from? They're not numbers they've trained to. I don't even know why they're thinking about. The average wattage might be 160 for 90%. And they're saying they're going to ride at 180. And I'm just looking at it, saying, where'd you get that information from? That's ambition and ability confused. And so we really try our best to get those two things as close as possible. So the three scenarios we're really going to hone in on here is on my best day, this is how I'm going to feel. And I'll execute because I know halfway through the swim or the ride or the run that I'm on a good one. And therefore I'm going to go for my top result, which is my pb, and I'm going to do everything I can because I think it's going to happen today. I feel I've got the feelings that's going to happen today. And that's something that continues to evolve as you go through the race. And obviously in an endurance race, that can change very quickly. You know, we're talking about an ironman. You know, at six hours you quite could be quite comfortable. And then, you know, seven hours, 30, you've fallen apart. But, you know, hopefully that's not going to be the case. Because you've trained and prepared properly. But, but scenario A is we're, we're striving for our goal. We've got our goal and we're on target. Okay. Scenario B is I'm not actually feeling that good today. What is a good outcome today that I can get? And I know that I'm not going to achieve my pb, so, so I've then got to rethink the numbers, the data that I'm actually going to and realign my thinking, my thought process and concentrate on that, not drop my bundle. Oh shit. It's all done. Today's a waste. Absolutely not. You can learn so much more about consistency and sticking with the task and never giving up and mentally pushing through. But, but go for a second, a second tier option which is, which might be 10% worse than that. And that's okay because you know, you live to fight another day. And the third option is if it's all going pear shaped, if, if nothing's going well and you feel like stopping, then this is the challenge I set out to. People, don't give up. Mentally finish the event unless you are so injured that you're going to do more damage and it's unhealthy for your well being. Doesn't matter whether you're half an hour behind your goal or an hour, don't give up. Push yourself through. You will be so glad that for once in your life you've actually not thrown and towel in and you've. And you've finished the task that you started and you'll actually be happy. You'll be disappointed with your result, but you'll be pleased with your never giving up attitude. And I think you'll still get an outcome. You'll get a pb, you'll get close, you know, if not off the pb, but close to it. But you'll still finish the event.

Sometimes they can be the most rewarding times as well when you really struggled but you found something within yourself to push through and you look back and go, actually that was one of my best races. Cause it was the hardest and I still pushed through.

Can I use an example? It just happened last week. It was. I watched this race and I just almost stood up and applauded Roglich. So he's winning Paris Nice. It's the last stage. He can't lose. He's that far ahead. The only thing that can happen to him is a crash or a mechanical. Of course he crashes and instantly he crashes. He gets back on the bike, chases back on and he's back in and he's got the thing covered again. He crashes again. I don't know if anybody saw this. And now he's having a hard time. He's off the back of the pack. He's got no skin left on either side of his legs. Legs. And he's done his shoulder. I think. I think his shoulder was dislocated and someone put it in before he got back on his bike. And he rode the best ride I've ever seen a cyclist do in all the years I've been watching. He put his head down and there was a bunch of 60 riders up the road and they all had race radio telling them that Roglich had crashed. And he's off the back and he's not going to get back on. And they all went to the front and rode as hard as they could. So he couldn't. So he had the whole race against him. And not just one team. Bora Quickstep. There were other teams all pushing for to move their riders up in gc. And it's fair enough. That's part of racing. But this guy did not give up. He rode a 40k time trial. And the good thing was there were other team riders helping him at various stages for 4 minutes, 5 minutes. Bouhani, who's a sprinter, rode with him for 15 minutes and gave him a little rest. And I just thought that Rogic must have such a good respect in the bunch that all these guys were willing to. Who weren't his teammates willing to help him on this journey. And he never complained. He never threw his arms up. He wasn't angry. He had his head down. He was riding as hard as he could. And he only lost three minutes to the bunch. The after interview congratulated the Bora guy for winning. No complaints. That was exceptional behavior of someone who made the most out of a shocking situation. That was his Tour. He's lost the Tour de France on the last day. That would have been mind blowing. Monumentally bad for your mindset. And. And he never lost the plot. And he's won other races since then.

Yeah.

And here he is at a seven stage Paris Nice. He's the unbackable winner with one stage to go. And. And he just rides the hardest ride of his life. And I take my hat off to him. That is an example of what we're saying.

Yeah.

You can still get value from a shocking situation. Didn't win the race.

Yeah.

But he got such respect from anybody who loves sport, I think.

Yeah. Absolutely. I really love that. And I mean they're extreme examples. You know, you can have the extreme best case scenario, worst case scenario. But to summarize, it's, it's really, here's my a, a scenario is that this is if I perform really well, this is what pace I'm going to be doing, this is what power I can ride to, is what pace I'm going to do it be doing. If I, if I'm performing okay, like not my best, not my worst, here's probably the numbers I'll be around if I'm not performing not so well, here's the numbers I'll be around. And the worst case of that is what you're saying where you're absolutely crashing. That doesn't happen all that often. But you have to be prepared. But what this does is it just means that you don't panic. And I've had situations myself where I haven't been feeling good and I, but I've been looking at the pace I'm running at and I go, oh, I'm not running too bad, I just, I'm not feeling it on my absolute A game right now. And so I just relax and say okay, say it might not be my day for a pb, I'm just gonna settle into this pace. But then doing that immediately relaxes you and within a couple of minutes it's turned around and I start running really well again and my pace apps lifts, you know, because you've just relaxed and accepted and that can happen like you said before, it can turn around badly in a half. Iron man or Ironman, like you said, you gave a six hour example. An hour and a half later you might be feeling shocking but the same thing can happen in a positive way. Six hour mark, if you're not going so well, just relax into it, accept where you are, you might actually come good in an hour, an hour and a half.

Yeah, and that's happened in training so many times. When you start warming up, how many times have you gone, there's no way I'm going to do this, this high intensity session today. And you just keep plugging away, just keep warming up properly. And if, sure, if you get to the end of your warm up, then your ramp, then your, then your efforts and you're ready to start the main set and you're still not feeling it fine. But I guarantee by the time you get to the main set you will be going, ah, you know, it's not so bad. And even start lower than you should.

Yeah.

And before you Know it and you'll be so happy that you finished the session. You know, the endorphins you get, the release you get from, from satisfaction of Geez, I overcame.

Yeah.

A feeling of averageness and I ended up, I feel ecstatic now that I've actually A completed it and B, close to what I was trying to do.

Yeah, absolutely. Moving forward, we talk about data and paying attention to the right data throughout the race. And um, one golden tip that I'm going to bless our listeners with because this is one of the best things I think you've said to our athletes this week. Just as a reminder, so everyone should feel lucky that they're hearing this tip because it's one for the athletes is remember the accidental effect that drafting has that is just so important come race day.

Yeah. And I, I don't think it should be underestimated and it's not your fault. You've been doing all your training in your own wind or you should have been doing.

Yeah.

So most of the data you've, you've accumulated should be based on you training in your own wind. So you know that, that if you do a one hour sub threshold at 260 watts, that that's what you're capable of doing on race day. 260 watts. But come race day and say that averages out at 35Ks an hour, 260 watts equals 35Ks an hour. So we come on our race day and we know that if our speed at the halfway mark is 35ks an hour and our watts are 220, we'll just go into panic mode. Oh, the watts are so far down. And you know that's happening because you're riding all the way through the ride. What's going on? Why are my Watts not 260? It could be the power meters not working properly. That's why average speed's quite good. But by the time you get to the halfway mark and you realize that this is the accidental drafting, it's, it's periods of dirty air, turbulent air, where, where you're either getting passed by someone or you're passing others and the bike is not getting the normal resistance because drafting effect is obviously 30 gain. If you sit right on a wheel. We're not saying you're doing that but, but just by being 5 meters or 2 meters or 8 meters or 10 meters, you're still got dirty air, turbulent air. And when your bike passes through that, it can do the same speed for less watts. So that's something that's so Important that you must remember. So get to halfway. See the watts are lower than they should be, but your speed's correct. Put a smile on your face means I'm going to be able to run so much better because I've been able to output less watts for the same speed that I was actually aiming at. So don't discount the accidental drafting effecting effect.

If you find that that's the case, your speed is much higher for what you're normally used to seeing. Would you increase your wattage?

No. Depends. The straightforward answer is yes, but it also has a depends. Is the. Is the race so packed in the second half that you still got all that turbulent air, or is it spreading out?

It's most likely going to be spreading out.

It's most likely going to be doing that. And you're most likely, because you've been trained well, be passing people and not being passed.

Yep.

So that would change the airflow as well.

Yeah. Next race tactic. You spoke about this a few months ago on the podcast, but what should you be reminding yourself mentally throughout the race? What are the questions you need to be asking yourself?

Yep, it's. It's quite involved, the answer for this. And I'll try to be as brief as we can because it's quite a long podcast already. But. But certainly if I broke down the swim bike and run, would you like me to go through that or just. Just in general?

Let's go through general.

Okay.

I feel like we'll be here for an hour if we go through specifically.

So all the time I'm going to be asking myself questions throughout the race. That is the best way to keep focused. So the minute you stop asking yourself questions, it means you're daydreaming. It means you're not focusing on what you should be doing. The examples are if I'm riding on the bike and I see someone I know and I'm busy waving and stuff, it's another 10 seconds that I've stopped concentrating. And it's great to wave and say, hello, I'm absolutely all for it. But if you know 35 people, that's a lot of time where you're waving. So stop waving and start concentrating on your numbers. And believe me, the minute your mind starts drifting, you're actually not executing where you should be. So forever on the course. And look in the swim. Just an example. I'm actually looking for bubbles the whole time. I'm looking for free water, which is, you know, bubbles means it's moving water in my direction. So that's what I'm searching for on the bike, I'm absolutely searching for where the wind is and where I am on the course. Am I on a hill uphill, am I downhill or am I on the flat so wind and the terrain. And the third thing I'm thinking about is how am I pedaling? Am I pedaling full 360 degrees? Am I pulling up on the pedal stroke? Is my cadence showing 70 something? I'll shoot you if it is. It needs to be have an 8 at least in front of it and a 9 if, if you've trained well, so admit you see 7 something that means you are grinding and you are going to absolutely take so much energy out of your legs. Come run. So. So they're the three things I'm thinking about on the bike. On the run. I'm forever concentrating on the pace from the start. So ideally we want to run the same pace in the run from start to finish and possibly finish strong. And if it's good enough for Ikanga or for the world record holder now I can is 1970 but the world record marathon holder to run 251 pace from start to finish and then run the Last K in 249 to break the world record, then it's good enough for everyday athletes to run the same pace and, and not run with a different ability and strategy. So yeah, yeah. So they're the three things the way I would look at it and the things I'm thinking about. So I'm forever think going through in my mind, for example I would be saying every five minutes where am I on the course? What's the wind doing? How's my pedaling going? And rotate those three questions for the whole time and give a wave to someone along as I'm going.

Yeah. So if you see too many athletes waving, you can hear that stop waving. That's great. And that, that pretty much leads us to the final point I wanted to make is what you're talking about is the process. The process that you need to focus on throughout the entire race. And I want to take this quote again. This is a quote that you have said to the athletes. I just think it's so powerful I wanted to share it and it's just. This is your advice athletes is be process driven and not results driven and you will achieve the goals you are aiming for.

It sounds easy in, in words but I want to do 2 hours 10 on the, on the bike ride on Saturday, Sunday and I'm just focused on 2 hours 10. Well I probably Won't do that. If I just focus my whole race on 2 hours 10 for the 90k. If I focus on where I am on the course, what the wind's doing, am I uphill, what's my power, how's my cadence, what's my pedaling action, If I do that, that's process driven. And guess what? If I ride to the numbers that is in my race plan and follow that data properly, I'll end up with a 210, there's no doubt about it. Or a 220 or a 230. Whatever your goal time race is, sure have that as a goal, but don't have that in the race. Whatever you do in the race, you will get that outcome if you follow the process. Is that clear?

Yeah, absolutely. Yep. That's as simple as it needs to be.

Yep. We don't have to say any more about that. You know, I always use the example of the full forward in footy. That's my classic go to, you know, Grand Final siren goes, he takes the mark on the right on the siren. He's 30 metres out. All he's got to do is kick the goal and they win. If he misses, they lose. So he's going back and all he's thinking about is, I've got to kick this goal, I have to kick this goal.

Or he's thinking, don't miss, don't miss.

Don'T miss, don't miss, don't miss. I've got to kick the goal, got to kick the goal. And it goes. Shank off the side and he's lost the game for them. He'll live that. He won't leave that down for the rest of his life, he'll remember that. But if he went back and then said, okay, I've done this since I was 6 years old. I know how to kick a goal from 30 meters out, directly in front, go back 10 steps, run forward, follow through, head down over the ball, drop the ball onto my foot and look at kicking the ball over the goal umpire's head. All processes that I've done a hundred times. The result will be, ah, a goal. We win. Yep.

Perfect. And last thing, again, I think I've said this three times this episode, that this is my favorite thing. But I put this in bold in our notes because when I asked you for some points about this topic, you this is the best point that you raised and said this absolutely has to be said. So tell us this final point after everything we've said about race plan and strategy and process what's the final point?

I want everybody to get their best result. There's no doubt about that. And we've given everybody a strategy and a plan and an idea of things to think about to get that result. But if you aren't enjoying the day, then you're going to struggle. By the end of the race, you'll have negative thoughts that are going to destroy or sabotage your race. So as we said, be grateful A, that you've got an opportunity to race, B, enjoy the process. You're on top of it, you've got a plan. Be happy about that. Do the thing with a smile. So when you're waving smile as you're going past people, you're in control and you're doing something you love. So you know, this is what you go to work for. This is what you, you know, you spend all your time training for, preparing for. Enjoy it, enjoy the day and don't put pressure on yourself to perform. If you go there with a mental framework of, I can't wait for this day, I'm going to enjoy every minute of this and I'm testing myself and I should get the outcome I want, but if I don't, I'm so grateful to be here anyway. You know, this could be, I could be in Brazil where thousands of people are dying every day. So that's an extreme example. But, but the minute you get back to your roots of this is what I love doing, then you will have a good outcome. There's no doubt in my mind. The minute you start thinking with negative thoughts about this is a pain, this is a chore, I don't know what I'm doing. Too much pressure, you shouldn't be doing it. So if you haven't got that enjoyment factor, then that's a really big missing link.

Soak it all in. That finishes that topic. And the last thing we're going to do in this episode is we have decided to answer a question from a listener. We got a message from listener and we're going to answer it on here. If you do have any questions, feel free to send them to us. You can message us on any of the social media platforms, Instagram or Facebook, Traveler coaching and we will answer some future ones on the podcast as well. So this fan said, I'm a fan of the page and podcast. Very useful content you guys are putting out. So thank you. It's our pleasure. I have a question. As a triathlete, I struggle with running as my legs aren't as conditioned for long distance training. I always Pull up sore, especially cars and shin area for distances more than 10km. I'm currently doing swim, ride and run three times a week. Each session having different intentions. I'm strong on the bike and coaches Osteos recommend cutting back a day on the bike to condition more to the run. I feel as though there's more time spent on the bike in a race and it being my strongest leg, I should do more time on the bike and maybe just cut one day of the swimming. Can I have your thoughts on the situation? If you can, please. Thanks. Legends.

Okay, there's a whole lot of answers in that question. I'll try and go through them quickly.

The main point he's asking is do I the bike's my strongest, should I cut it to sacrifice for the run?

The quick answer to that is no. Keep working on your strength. B, do cut a session out of the swim because you need to become a better runner. So go from three to two sessions, keep your bike exactly the same and concentrate on making that a strength. Get medical advice with something that's going to help you become a stronger runner so you don't have sore shins and calves, etc, do the rehab. And the answer here depends on how injured you are, how damaged it is. You need to. If it's really bad injury, you go back to walk run. But if you're actually able to still run. So there's a whole lot of, I don't know the answers to these, the scenario this particular person's in, but if they're injured enough where they can't actually run, they need to go A, get it fixed and so stop the problem. B, start with walk run and see if they're actually able to do some running. Then they need to. As we've talked about many times, we have intensity, frequency and duration. So forget the intensity in the running, just don't run with intensity. You've got to be able to build a good framework of body strength before we can run fast. Okay. The frequency of running is something that we can control. The duration we can control as well. Of course we can control the intensity, but we don't add time to the duration of our runs. We have in fact the opposite. We run shorter but more frequently. So he's doing three runs a week. We need to push that to five if he's able to run without injury. So we would do shorter runs but more of them and keep our endurance progressing through the journey. So that would be a simple answer.

Yeah. And I really like your point on don't, don't discard your strengths because they are your strengths for a reason. So keep them going. But yeah, obviously you need to build up your running at the same time and, and build up that frequency so that your body can get more used to doing it more often.

The adaptation from doing shorter runs more frequently, as long as you're not injured. That's the thing we keep saying that adaptation will occur and it takes longer in running than it does for swimming and riding. It takes twice as long. So you need to be very patient in your training for this. And it could mean that you miss out on an events that in six months time, if you're really struggling that much with your running, there's no point in going and doing a half ironman, a half marathon when you haven't run further than 10k. You're just mad to enter those events. You need to get your running up to a point where it is going to sustain a full, a full event. So you know you as much as you want to compete, unfortunately you have to. It's a three event race unless you're doing an aqua bike, which is a tool event where there's no running in it. So that would be another solution. And I have one of our runners who's one of our triathletes who's actually doing an aquabike because he's still building up from his running. He's actually running. Okay. He started with his 30, 30s, 30s walk run, but he's not ready for a full on 10k. So we'll do the aqua bike. Swimming bike.

Yeah. And it's important to say that. Disclaimer. This is not specific advice, this is just general advice because we don't know your situation and the reason you give such a conservative answer around injury is because we wouldn't want anyone to push themselves silly if they're at risk of injury. He might just be saying I get sore calves and shins, but they're, they're fine. He could be handling the distance fine. We don't know that. And so that's why we don't want to give any. We're not in a position to give any specific medical advice around running on injured legs.

All our answers are based around if you can or can't run. So.

Yeah, but thank you for sending that question in. Feel free to send any more questions in. As I said, this has been a pretty epic episode. I've really enjoyed it. Thank you very much for listening and we'll see you next time.