Nationals Review + Ins and Outs for 2023

For the people who are new to a sport and have taken up a running career or a triathlon career, you need to get those first two things right. Frequency of training and getting yourself to be able to ride or swim or run for longer periods of time and build that aerobic base.

This podcast is brought to you by Trivelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. I'm your host, Jordan Donnelly, and on my left is former Australian Ironman champion and head coach of Trivalo Coaching, Jared Donnelly. Welcome back to the podcast for 2023. We have already had an episode come out last week, the interview with Chris Harbour. We wanted to publish that one because we interviewed him before he raced the nationals, and it was. We wanted to put it out so that you could hear how he went around the nationals weekend. But this is our first official proper episode of just us two for the year. So we're really excited to get into it. Today's topic is 2023. What's in and out? What are we sticking with? And what are we throwing out the window or into the rubbish bin? Before we get to that, our first gratitudes and what's caught your attention for the year? Dad, welcome back to the year. We're excited for 2023. Another great year of training and racing coming up. What are you grateful for?

Thanks, Jordan. And, yeah, I can't believe we're back into the year already and closing out the year. Last year, it was, it was. It was a fantastic year with so many positives and of course, there's always roadblocks, as we call them, that we had to navigate and negotiate. So I'm really excited for the. The year coming and, and I really, I can't. I can't emphasize how grateful this is. Not my gratitude. I am for the podcast and how many people we're touching. And I'm getting messages and people coming up and saying thanks for the podcast. And so thank you everybody for, for letting us know that you getting value out of it, because it means a lot to, you know, both you and I, Jordan, that, that we are actually helping people. And, you know, I know from the last weekend's 2xu race that's just happened, people base their training on our podcast information and our helpful hints, and I think that's fantastic. So I'm really, I'm wrapped for everybody who's getting some value out. So I. So with that in mind, I can't wait to do another year of podcasting because I think we are Helping a lot of people and that makes me really happy. Um, and so that brings me to my gratitude. And just before I talk about the gratitude, it was great having Chris Harper on last week before the Nationals, and funnily enough, it came out after the nationals, I was so hoping he would actually pull off the victory. And I, I was cheering for him on that last lap and I was, I knew that when I saw him on the front in that last lap that he was doing a job for the team and I was kind of disappointed that he was on the front then, so. But his time will come, I'm sure, and there will be an opportunity for him wear the green and gold, which he, he definitely wants to wear. So it was great watching it live and seeing, seeing how the race panned out, but we'll talk about that later on. So what's caught my. Sorry. What's my gratitude each year for the last. And you'll be able to tell me exactly how long. I think since we were maybe I was 30. So it's 35 years. We've been meeting with the same two families each summer holidays for 35 years. And you've been a part of that, Jordan, because when we were young and each of the three families had one family had three kids, another family had three kids and we had four kids. So you went on these holidays with 11 almost mates, girls and boys, and you grew up together from when you were born to when you were. I think the last time you came was when you were in your early 20s. And this, this time we met again, except no children came for the very first time ever, which was a really weird experience. And I don't know whether the fact that we were so far away from you all that caused you not to come and visit us or drop in, but that's actually what panned out. And it was a really relaxing time and in a busy sort of year, it was great to unwind with the people that I've been traveling with as a families, a Christmas family holiday together for 35 years. And we go to different venues every year and try not to do same thing and experience different places and just relax into the local environment and. And it was really great to spend time with the people that I went through uni with when I, I met them when I was 18. And when we've had, you know, a long lasting relationship, these, these specifically two couples and many other couples from my uni days, we still keep in contact, which I think is. We were talking about it actually on the, on the trip, how many people we still keep in contact with. And we have a group of 10 that I went through uni with 10, 10 individuals who we still see. And I think that's, that's really fantastic that we're able to reconnect and, and yeah. Get some, get some enjoyment about each other's company. So I'm really grateful for that opportunity to be able to keep doing that.

Yeah, that's great one. And I could agree with that gratitude because I am still friends with all the children that are part of that crew. And ironically while you were away I was staying at one of the guys houses when we're still good friends. And so I stayed at his house last weekend. It was great to catch up and we both agreed that it was too far this, this holiday that he went on this time it was too far down the coast and the drive, yeah, it was just a little bit far. But we all do keep in contact and a lot of the children have been getting married over the last couple of years as part of this group. And so we've all been able to enjoy a whole lot of weddings which I'm sure must be a weird experience for all the parents or for you to see having seen us all from scratch. And then now at the age where all those weddings are coming along. I really like that, my gratitude. I just use this one so much and I think when I thought of this I thought maybe I need to stop saying this. But I'm just so grateful for the summer weather. I just cannot get enough of it. And it's just so enjoyable to train, to race, to be out in the sun. Everyone seems to have a bit more of a positive attitude and maybe that's a problem with us. Maybe, maybe I need to learn to be a bit happier in the, the shittier the winter weather. But I'm just, I am, I can't deny I'm grateful for the warm weather.

That's a good one. And I must say you do your best to avoid the cool weather. So you're never in Melbourne during the winter. So I don't know what you've got to complain about there. So you spend most of your time wherever the sun is. So it's a good gratitude.

I do say that to people. I say I'm such a wuss about it, I can't stand it so much that leap. So anyway, getting into what you said before, which was the Nationals, that's what has caught our attention. That's what we want to tell about. We want to talk about the Australian National Championships happened last weekend. The National Cycling Championships, it's a really great weekend in January because all the pros come and race and then the age groupers, the masters get to race at the same time. And so you're down at the event and a lot of the pro riders are around, which is really cool. In the last two years, it hasn't been maybe as good because of COVID but it felt like there's a real atmosphere again this year, especially because some of the top riders in the world were riding and Australia just has such good depth now coming through and athletes that are really riding at the top of the world stage, men and women. And in the men's race there was I think 8 or 10 plus Grand Tour riders or at least a rider that had ridden a Grand Tour in the last year. We had Ben o', Connor, who'd come fourth in the Tour de France. We had multiple stage winners in the race. In Simon Clark, in Michael Matthews, in Caleb Ewan. In the females, it was similar. You know, some of the best female cyclists that are competing at the World Tour stage. Grace Brown, who was just absolutely dominating at World Tour level, you know, she's second in the world in the individual time trial. To see her come out and smash the individual time trial in the nationals, she won another Aussie title. Yeah, just, just phenomenal to, to get to see this caliber of athlete live. And we really enjoyed and we went down and watched the, the road races live and it was a pretty cool experience to, to sit on Botanyong Hill. And it's a really good course. So the women do nine laps, the men do 16. And so it's a really unique course where it's a really tough climb and you get to see them come up the climb. You know, we sort, yeah, every single lap you see what's happening in the race, whereas in a normal road race you might only see it once or twice.

Yeah, it's such a great event now. And I can't help think about how this was probably one of the best Australian National Championships. It's been for a long time. And as you said, whether it's because of COVID and it's. And the riders have been unavailable, I think it's more because we have such depth and we, we have always had some really good Australian cyclists in the female division and the male division. But to have them all here at the one time was, was really special. And, and for, for our own personal point of view, we had a trivelo rider riding in the Men's elite race, which was fantastic. And we were there at the feed zones feeding him. So we were a part of the race and really enjoyed the experience. And, and I just, you know, there's so much to talk about in this, in the, both the men's and women's race. And I don't know really where to start, but to see some of the local writers take it up to the experienced Tour riders who have been on the Tour, such as Matthews and Caleb Ewan. And you know, I suppose Luke Plapp now is one of those riders, but he's still, in my opinion, an up and coming. He's got such a future. But, you know, in the last lap there were three or four riders up the road who were ahead of the eventual winners. And if it wasn't for Luke Plapp's attack on the Kom on the last lap to bridge kind of across, I don't know whether, whether, you know, the race would have panned out like it did. And Chris Harper doing such a great job up past the feed zone to turn left to hit towards the, the Kom to bridge the gap and sacrificing himself to, to enable Blink to have, you know, Michael Matthews to have a great chance at winning. And, and the way Simon Clark, you know, just sits and uses other riders to his advantage to get himself where he wants to because he hasn't got a team around him. And Ben o' Connor the same and Jay vine and this, there's all these guys who are, who are winners in their own right who could win and, you know, and yet there was some Aussie local guys who were ahead of them with, you know, with literally a lap to go. So it was super exciting and, and to see it pan out the way it did, you know, the attacking and the mind games and, and taking a risk and having a crack when it counts and not leaving it to the sprint and you know, and actually seeing Simon Clark beat Michael Matthews in a sprint for second, which was, you know, and, but, you know, it's second, you know, they would say I wanted to win, that's, that's what I came for. And second, the third doesn't matter, but they still fight it out. But the move that Luke Plaque made, he made one at the Kom and he made another one just before they entered the uni, and then he made the last one on the downhill when, you know, you just wouldn't expect that that would be a good time to do it. But, you know, the, the heat of the day, they'd done 16 laps of that course. It was brutal up that hill every time. It's a seven minute climb 16 times. You know, you've got to feel fatigue and, and, you know, just repetitive attacks won the day for him. And it was tactical genius. And it might not have worked nine other times out of 10, but, you know, he caught out the two most experienced grand Tour winners. Michael Matthews has had the yellow jersey of the, the green jersey in the Tour de France. He has won the green jersey in the Tour de France. He's won multiple stages in Tours. Simon Clark has also won stages in all the Grand Tours. And for this young guy who, who ended up winning back to back Australian road titles, it was outstanding. That's the only thing you can say. It was unbelievably outstanding. And, and taking a risk like he did, it paid off big, big time. And I tip my hat to him and say, chapeau. That was, that was incredible.

It was your favorite tactic of making a move when it's absolutely the hardest. You know, when everyone's on their last legs, if you can somehow find a move there. And that's basically what he did. And he just said, I don't know where it came from, I don't know how I did it. But Simon Clark kind of did his last attack to see if he could break them and he just, he didn't have the leg, as you could see it. He tried to get away and he just, he was just too fatigued. And then the other two riders were just as fatigued trying to close that gap. And Luke Plapp went at that point and they just, they had nothing to, they kind of let a gap go and then that was it. They, they didn't have anything to close it. And then the moment they start looking at each other a little bit, that's done. And we were, we were live in the crowd at the finish and everyone had the same sort of gasp once, Once. I think Matthews looked around because he was leading the chase and said, well, I've got nothing. Everyone went, oh God, that's the winning move. He's, he's going to do it. It's just, yeah, it was, it was awesome to watch live.

And look, the women's race was, you know, pretty similar with, you know, making the move at the right time and, and, you know, taking a risk and, and, and getting the result. I just love exactly what, yeah, it's.

Exactly what you love. It's, it's what you say all the time when we're doing race reviews. You say the person that's gutsy enough to, to have an attack and just see if they can do something to make the race. And that's what Brody Chapman did. And you know, she attacked a bunch of really strong riders and you thought it was going to be one of our top girls that was predicted to win, that was going to take it, and they're all still kind of looking each other behind while she gets away. And you've got a long way to go on that last lap when you, when you make that move and you don't know if it's going to stick, but if you, if you're willing to risk it for a national title. And she did, it was awesome and it was such a strong ride. She ended up winning so comfortably and just usually the more they stuff around behind, the more chance you have a winning. And that's what she did and took it on and, and got the rewards. Yeah.

And, you know, I think that there's a lot we can learn from the tactics in that. And you know, we saw a lot of the Masters, obviously, for those who don't know, at the, at the Road Elite national titles in Bunningyong each year, they also run the Masters races as well. So, so not only do the pros race on this famous Bunnyong circuit, a lot of the female, male and pro Masters riders get an opportunity to race on the time trial course. There's also a Teamstone trial and there's a Gran Fondo on the same course. So our guys had, you know, lots of opportunities to race as teams and individuals and, and you know, some of the tactics that the guys were, were using in our, in our Masters races paid off dividends because of the stuff that we've talked about on, on a lot of our podcasts and they can implement that. And the, the, the way that the time trial in particular I wanted to talk about that caught my attention and I suppose I want to frame this in terms of, you know, time trialing is generally on a course that's reasonably flat with some undulations, and it's really the best and strongest rider who can really win. And there's not a lot of tactics in time trialing as compared to road racing. There are still tactics in, in time trialing and, and I'm the biggest one who can say that that's, that's a. Say there's not a lot of tactics in time trialing because I believe there are massive amount. But if you're comparing it to road riding or criterion writing, it's really Insignificant, but, but it will determine the outcome. And you know, we saw many examples of, of people who, particularly on this course, the, the Ballarat time trial course or the Bunning Yong time trial course, it has this ridiculous 12, 13% hill that goes for nearly two minutes. And that's not really a typical time trial course. You don't have a course that has something like that. And, and I had a really fast downhill, it was quite hairy. So it had lots of technical things that you really had to be understanding your ability and how to execute your game plan to get the best outcome. And, and of course, you know, we're really as a group at Trivala, are really good at understanding the requirements of the course, going and doing recons and training around those requirements. So, so when it came to the actual race day, it was no surprise that we, we won four races, got second in three and got third in two out of 10 competitors. We, we pretty much, you know, won 50 of the races. And I'm, I'm saying that not around basically performance, I'm saying it around execution, planning and execution. And of course you have to bring the performance on the day, but if you, if you just ride it with poor execution, even though your performance is strong, you can still lose and still not perform the way you want to. So there's lots of examples. And look, I'll use you as one example. And you won your, your age group, so you are now a national time trial champion, which is, you know, a kudos to you. But the way you went about that, because we, when you did the recon, you improved 45 seconds from your recon ride and that was within one week. And so the lessons you learned the week before, or was it 10 days? It might have been 10 days before. And the lessons you learned from that recon ride, you implemented beautifully. And you had broken down that course because it's, there's about 10 segments that you can break that 26 minute ride into. So that sounds like a lot of breakdown, doesn't it? But that's the reason why most of our athletes were successful and got the best outcome. Whether it was fourth place or seventh place or third or first, they got their best outcome. And we didn't have many riders who said, oh really? I really mucked that up. There was everybody finished their ride and said well that's the best I could do. And I'm really proud of my effort. And by the way, I won or I got on the podium or I improved my position. So, so I'm really, I really want to get that across to people. What caught my attention in the Masters was, you know, coming with a game plan, executing and having a performance based around your ability was a real standout for me. And, and it was, you know, a real almost congratulations to everybody in our, in our group who, who just performed so beautifully. And, and then we had another race, the, the teams time trial and we had four teams in it and we won two out of the, out of the four races. We, and unfortunately the team you were in had a, had a bad crash in it, which so your team didn't actually get to finish. One of the guys ended up going in an ambulance, so that was a bit of a, a bit of a downer. But you guys were on, on task to, to win that race as well. So we would have won three out of four and got fourth in the other race. So again, attention to detail and understanding how to ride as a team's time trial, we are very good at. And, and I feel a little bit bad because I'm using the podcast here, but I'm using it to get the message across to if you prepare well enough and understand the course requirements and practice together as a team time trial or as an individual time trial, you will get your best performance. And I don't care if it's 15th place or 30th or first. All I'm asking is that you get your best performance and you're happy at the end of that performance because you've done your best. And, and it's an outcome that you, that you hoped for would happen, whether it's the power or average speed or, or improvement in position. So, so that's the reason why I'm giving these examples. And I think at the end of the day, that's the message that the podcast needs to get across, is people want to know and, and understand how to improve, will do those things well. And all of a sudden your performance is going to be what it should be on the day and there's a whole lot of other things that will go towards making that happen as well. How did you train, how well did you train in that build up and how was your taper and how was your, your mindset on the day and you know, and actually going out and implementing your plan. So there's, it's not just one thing that's creating that outcome, it's a whole lot of things that you're doing very well. And so I want to congratulate our group and everybody involved in that for getting such an Incredible performance across road race. We had multiple winners in road race, we had multiple winners in time trial, we had PBS in time trial, which is more important to me than winning. And we had, you know, such great outcomes in the team's time trial where guys had an absolute blast riding together as a team. And you're pushing yourself way further than you possibly would ever think you can when you have to ride for a team. And that's an experience. We don't get to do much. And for those who've watched Grand Tour team time trialing, it is my favorite stage race in the Grand Tour, which they don't do a lot, but you can really see the guys who are strong and the guys who are, who are passengers and, and can't contribute, but because they're in a team, they'll try and do a 10 second term, whereas, you know, the guys who are the time trial specialists will get on the front and do a two minute turn. So it is a great, a great experience if you ever get the chance to do it. So that's my, that's what's caught my attention. I know it's a little bit long winded, but there's a lot that's awesome.

I mean, we'll get to the, you know. Our next segment is the rules for 2023. What's in and out for 2023? And one of the first things I would like to be in is teams time trialing at an amateur level because it's the only race of the year that we get to do it and it is easily one of the best races of the year. It's just so much fun. The training is fun. It is pretty sketchy. You know, you're in your TT position in a big team and we had a crash which was really bad and it's. You kind of, if it does feel a lot more risky, but I just wish it was more common because every time people do it they go, wow, that was fun. And when you're in a TT bike, you get to go faster, which is so much fun when you're in a team because the speed of the team is so good, you can on a flat section be hitting 50, 53, 55, 56ks an hour as part of your team. And it is really cool experience to be doing that. You feel just absolutely awesome. And so there's so many cyclists out there, you know, there's so many club races going on and the. I wish that it was more common for people to, for athletes to get involved in the team's. Time trial and for more clubs to put it on because it is so much fun. That's just my personal opinion. One last thing I wanted to talk about with the, with the pros and execution is it really highlighted to me and we saw plenty of individual examples in the masters categories about how the importance of the recon and it just showed to me that, you know, doing it so close to it and then getting that much of a PB for myself just. And it was purely because knowing the course and understanding the segments, it wasn't anything to do with fitness or the, in the recon. It was a full on race. You know, we did that recon, full bike set up, full arrow set up full disc wheels, going as hard as we could. And I feel like I executed the recon as well as I could have. But you know, 10 days later, beat it by 45 seconds. That just comes from understanding the segments. And you always say to us, if there's 10 segments or nine segments, if you find two seconds per segment, that's an extra 20 seconds. And in a lot of the races a time trial is decided by anywhere from 2 seconds to 30, you know, and so every segment counts. And last year one of our athletes lost by under a second in the time trial and it happened again in the pros. You know, Luke Durbridge lost by two seconds to Jay Vine. And so yeah, it just shows how important it is. And unfortunately the, the guys in our group who couldn't do the recon either by choice or either they're interstate and it's just too hard to make it happen. They did suffer because of it. They did perform worse because they didn't know the sections as well. That's just the nature of it. So for any race you're going to do, any triathlon course, if at some point you can make it a priority and if, if it's possible to go to a recon, it can be one of the most vital things you do. And last thing on the pro race, you know, I talked about having the caliber of riders that were in the race, you know, Grand Tour style riders. And what was interesting to me was it was really exciting to see a lot of the nrs and the local riders giving it to the race and really having a crack and getting up the road. But from a race maturity perspective, you didn't see these top guys, Michael Matthews, Simon Clark, you didn't see them all race. Every time they would come up, they'd be hiding in the pack. They were never at the front and you're kind of thinking, what are these guys doing? Luke Clappers at the back a lot of the time? Are they on today? Are they not stressed about the break? Are they. Are they just experienced and being mature about this course? And sure enough, three laps to go, you start seeing their heads pop up a little bit towards the front. Two laps to go, they start making the race. The last lap there they went counts and they're giving absolutely everything. And the whole race has fallen apart except for these guys. I just think that that shows a lot of experience and you can see why they're Grand Tour riders.

I would totally agree. And just one final point from. From me. I just really feel that the guys like Michael Matthews and Simon Clark, they are. And Caleb. Yo. And they desperately want to have that green and gold jersey for a year in Europe as the Australian road champion. And. And Chris Harper, he said that on our podcast. That is one of the big goals. And Ben o' Connor and Jay vine. And we've got such a talented field of people, and any one of those riders would do that proud during the European Tour season. And. And you can tell how much it means to these guys. You know, they are preparing properly for this event. And it's not just, you know, another race on their program at the start of the season. It's a race that they want to get an outcome from. So I think that's only good for cycling. And I just can't wait to see what happens next year because a lot of these guys don't have many years left. And, you know, there's been some great names on that jersey over the years, you know, that they would want to be part of that. And. And you know, Chris said on our podcast he wants to win that jersey one day.

Yeah, absolutely right. Moving on to the main topic of the. Of the episode. It is 2023. We are a few weeks in already, but I don't mind having this conversation now once the buzz of the new year has worn off a little bit and the excitement about New Year's resolutions, because it's so common practice. I think the stat. I don't even know how they get this stat, but 90% of resolutions are gone within the first week or two. So it's good to revisit this conversation about New Year's resolutions a few weeks into the year. What's actually sustainable for you? What should you be focusing on? And what was just a little bit of a motivation resolution that you're not actually going to stick to? So we're Structuring it today in a way of what's in and what's out. What are we keeping in for 20, 23, and what are we letting go of? We'll go one for one. We'll do one in, then one out. The first in is making sure that you have a plan to stick to and have a process. Now, we might sometimes call this goal setting or having a goal race, but we don't want to limit a plan and a process just towards a race, because sometimes people want to train really well and they want to train and better themselves, but not for anything specific, and we definitely think that's okay. Having a race goal personally is a huge motivator. Having that target, I find that the most motivating. But it's really important that you have a structured plan and process in place. Otherwise, what do we see that we just see athletes falling off the wagon and just having way too many inconsistent periods. And then months pass by and they go, oh, what have I done? I've completely let my training go. I'm so far behind. It's just not a position we want to be in.

Yeah, playing catch up is a shocker. And look, we did talk about this at the end of the season. The New Year's coming, and, you know, everybody's excited. You know, come up to Christmas, and we did have a podcast on this, and. And our thing was, you need to have a goal. And whether that goal is a race or whether it's just a improvement in fitness or, you know, become a better bike rider or. Or a better triathlete or a better marathon runner, whatever your chosen sport is, have a plan for the year. And so my question is, how's it going three weeks into January? Did you come up with a plan? Are you still procrastinating? Are you still asking yourself, well, I don't really know what my season is going to be based on this year. And, and what have you done in that three weeks? Have you already fallen off the wagon like you just mentioned? And. And you've become inconsistent straight away off the bat, you know, you may have. May have had two or three good rides. January, the first, second, and third. And then now, you know, January 20th, whatever date, you know, 20 days later, have you been able to, you know, get that habit going? Because one of the goals that I feel people should have is not an actual race goal or, Or a. Or a time or a pace. It should be to be consistent is my goal. That would be the thing that I think is foremost in my mind is If I can just stay consistent, I know the outcome of this year will be good. So the minute I have inconsistencies, why, there could be sickness, it could be injury, it could be a crash, it could be lack of motivation, it could be too much work, it could be family issues, it could be, I've just rattled off six or seven reasons that can be roadblocks in front of your year. And your goal is to be so well prepared and planned that you can cope with whatever's thrown at you. You could get Covid next week and then all of a sudden you've got seven days off. Great. Not great, but great that you can actually have a plan that is based around, okay, I need to do four days of no training because that's what I have to do to let this Covid thing pass. And then I start with my consistency of recovery. Ride zone one less than 50% of my FTP. If I'm, if I'm using a bike as an example, if I'm going for a run, I just Cruise around for 15, 20 minutes and then I go the next day, I increase the duration by five or ten minutes and I stay my, my intensity at zone one and I do that for three or four days, almost equal to what I had off. And these are things that you have enabled yourself to understand because you've got a plan and your goal is consistency. So you are going to absolutely hone in on the consistency factor. All I've got to do tomorrow is do a 25 minute recovery run or ride and then the next day back it up again with 30. So, so this is the thing that I want everybody to think about more about the year ahead is the goals and race plans that you have ahead. They're all great, they're all important. I'm not saying they're not, but if you can just have the one thing in your mind to be as consistent and make it a habit for the whole year, for the whole 12 months, for the whole 52 weeks. Consistency is, is your king and I guarantee you will have a breakout year. And, and that seems too simple for most people, but do that and see what happens.

I totally agree. And I think we would be remiss if we did a review episode or a rules based episode and we didn't mention consistency. But the reason we keep bringing it up is because it's so important. And you constantly still get athletes saying to you, I, I just want to get better quicker. You know, they know that they can't rush it, but how, how do I get better quicker. What more can I do? And your answer is always, most athletes aren't doing the program to the T. They're not doing 100% of the program. And if they are, they're definitely not doing it consistently. And like you said, if they do, they're the athletes that break out. And ironically, it feels like a slow answer, but that's how you get there faster, by doing more of the program. And don't worry about the extras until you're doing 100% of the program, 100% of the time for a consistent period. And then maybe you can ask, but by then you won't worry about it because you are faster anyway. You're fitter anyway. So they're our first two ins of 20, 23, the first two outs. We want to talk about kind of the opposite spectrum. You start to touch on that just then, but it's less focused on intensity. And I think that's something that we're just seeing more and more across the board. But that example you just described, then, frequency, so that how often you're training, the consistency of that frequency and your volume are your first steps to training. And they need to be your number one priority and focus on them over intensity. Intensity is important. Sure, these hard sessions are what really count, but at the same time, they're definitely overvalued for a lot of people. And it's getting those first two right and then getting the intensity right that is. That is most important. So we really want to focus less on just high intensity to get us through.

And look, there's a lot of generalization we could say, because who are we talking to here? We have. We have all levels of ability and experience. So if we're talking to an experienced triathlete or bike rider or marathon runner or fun runner, then obviously they've already got that frequency and duration down pat. And so intensity is the thing that's going to be the difference. But of course, they can still manipulate their frequency by training consistently and keep that going. That's a given. But the duration can. You know, the bigger the aerobic base, the more capable you are of handling the intensity load. So that is a key to the experienced person, the beginner person. They haven't got the consistency or frequency of training down pat, so that's their number one thing. And then they want to add the volume, which is the duration of their training time spent running, riding and swimming or canoeing or whatever your chosen sport is. You actually want to spend time doing that activity. And therefore you are not really worried about intensity at all. You're just trying to get your body used to adapting to the load. And so for the people who are new to a sport and have taken up a running career or a triathlon career, you need to get those first two things right. Frequency of training and getting yourself to be able to ride or swim or run for longer periods of time and build that aerobic base. Then worry about the intensity. The intensity is absolutely important in any training program, and we're not saying it's not, but less emphasis needs to be given to it when for a start, the majority of us really need to focus on our consistency and the amount of time we spend training.

It's not just new athletes either. It really is anyone most of the time. If you haven't had a consistent period, they're your first two goals. The next in for 2023 is specificity of training. And you just really want to make sure people get this point that as you get closer and closer to your event, you need to be training as specific as possible for that event so that you're ready for the requirements of that event.

I want to simplify a program down and this is a bit of a breakout statement for me. And, and if you think about you've selected a race that's in May or October, you want to get yourself aerobically as fit as possible. And it doesn't matter what the event is, whether you're a cyclist or a triathlete or a marathon runner, you select the race. You need to start off by getting yourself as fit as possible with a lot of consistency. Exactly what we said for the last point. But along that, along that journey, you, you have to understand what are the requirements of the actual event you're doing. And as you get closer to that event, you need to train according to what's going to happen on race day. Let's take a marathon runner. You want to do all your long runs and get your strength in the hills. You get that in for the first couple of months, say you've selected a marathon in May that it happens to be 16 or 20 weeks away. You need to really get, get that strength. Your, your, your body's load, used to that training load. And, and keep away from the intensity in those long endurance runs. Build up your aerobic capacity so you're really fit. And then as you get closer to your marathon, you want to start doing sessions that are going to be run at marathon pace. So, so every now and then you need to be actually doing training sessions. If you're going to be doing a 2 hour 48 marathon, you need to be doing some sessions each week in the last six to eight weeks that are at 4 minute K pace because that is the pace that you're going to run to do a 2:48. So if you're going to run four hours for a marathon, you need to be running somewhere around 5:55 pace to 604 pace in your training repeatedly. So that when it comes to race day, it's just what you've been doing in training that you're going to continue to do in the race. And that's what specificity is and also understanding what the course requirements are and the temperature. So getting all those things right to train in those conditions, train on courses that are similar, training conditions that are similar. And if you happen to be going to a race that's in hot climate and you live in the snow somewhere, you have to manipulate your training room or place to make it hot so that you are experiencing the same thing. So these are really important points that.

Actually leads perfect to the Next in for 2023 and that is heat acclimatization and heat training. And the two, there's two parts to that. The heat acclimatization is what you're speaking about is if your race is in a hot climate, you need to be getting ready for that. And that becomes really hard if you are leaving a cold environment, which has a lot of Aussies when they go to somewhere like Kona to train in a hot one. But there are ways around that and you can train in the heat to train for that. And we don't know the most up to date science on this specifically. And we base that off the fact that Norwegians, who are the leading experts in sports science at the moment, are putting so much weight and emphasis on heat training, but they're not revealing what their secrets are yet. That's how much they value it. So they see it as such a game changer for racing that they're putting heat acclimatization at the top of their list and they're not revealing exactly how to do it. So that shows exactly where that's at and that'll come out in the next few years, I'm sure. But we know that there's a lot of research around the benefits of sauna and heat acclimatization and that kind of thing is really important for this year for you to start taking on board on the opposite side of the spectrum. I'll go on.

I was just going to Say, Jordan, I just, I just was bringing to mind some of the training sessions that I did and I know that Ballarat, the Bunnyong Nationals was going to be hot. It's always hot there. And a couple of the Zone 2 sessions I was training myself at, I was using heart rate and power and I was having the fan off in my indoor training facility with, with, you know, training it on Zwift and doing a zone two ride. And, and for those who aren't, aren't understanding what we're talking about, the difference between training in heat and not training in heat. If I had, if I was doing 200 watts and my heart rate was 135 beats per minute for 200 watts, the minute I turned the fan off, and that's with the fan on, the minute I turned the fan off, 200 watts was 146. Heart Rate the same power, same sterile environment, same trainer, same zwift session, but with the fan on and the fan off, my heart rate was up 12 beats for the same power. So if you don't think heat acclimatization is a real thing. So eventually 200 watts after me turning the fan off over a period of four weeks, my heart rate started to come down from 147 to 143 to 139. So and, and it was like an aha moment for me getting my heart rate under 140 for 200 watts because I was doing the same session over, you know, 46 week period trying to acclimatize myself to not having a fan and the room was, you know, similar temperature each day I was training because it was the same time in the morning. So the rooms were all always around that inside 20 to 21 degrees. So the temperature of the room was saint the same, the power was the same and my heart rate response got better over time. So that was my body really reacting well to the heat.

And people could argue that's a fitness thing, but for you it's definitely not as much because you are almost at your capacity aerobic fitness wise, especially for a Zone 2 session. Of course, with consistent training and doing the same session, you do get fitter and then a heart rate coming down would be a natural response. But in this circumstance, with your training experience and level, it very much leads to the conclusion that you were adapting to the heat better.

I'm not trying to say it was the only reason. I'm saying it was a great indication of the difference between having the fan on and having the fan off. The cooling effect of the fan is incredible. So, so don't underestimate how that's going to affect you on race day. So if you go into the race thinking that, you know you can ride 300 watts for your 20 minute effort and you are overheating, your heart rate will go into the red zone and you won't be able to push those watts. So you, you're going to have to rethink the power that you can push so your heart rate doesn't go over the red zone. So that, that's going to affect your race strategy for a start. So, you know, these are really important key points that we're bringing up.

Yeah. Right. Our next two outs for 2023. This one is something that should happen no matter what and that is making sure that we are no longer turning up to a race without a good nutrition and hydration strategy. And this is just a discipline that's part of the sport that is so necessary for endurance races. And a lot of people still get wrong. And there's no excuse for this. It should be practiced in training, should be practiced over and over so that it doesn't become an issue on race day. It's just the worst feeling to hear or to experience yourself that someone's had a nutrition problem and that's what's made them fail a race. You know, it's just nowadays we know how important it is, we know how, how much we need to get it right. And quite simply, if you're not doing it, it means you haven't practiced it enough and that's not good. And there are other factors like the environment which can happen on race day, but we just need to get this right. I just want to say that one blanket, that's the rule. Let's move on from there. The next one is the Next out for 2023. Is relying on one piece of data too much, such as power or heart rate or using data only. And our caveat to this is we are so data driven and we spent hundreds of episodes talking about how much to use data. But once you understand how to use data now you need to use fuel more. And we've been saying this a lot, but dad, you're really big on this lately is you want athlete. You've driven so hard to use data and power and heart rate, but now they need to be experienced enough to use a bit of everything. Yeah.

And I can give you so many examples of recent races where people have come to me at the end of the race and said I was supposed to ride at 250 watts for that 40k time trial in the middle of my triathlon. But I couldn't get anywhere near it. And I was ended up at 2:32, 32, 233. And I just kept trying to ride up to 240, but it just wasn't happening. And so my answer to them is, if you knew after five or ten minutes that you couldn't raise to the number you were trying to raise, why would you keep pushing your body to a number that you can't achieve? You need to accept where you're at on that day and go right, let's see if I can hold 230 and after 15 or 20 minutes then see if I can go to 231 or 232. Be more willing to be adaptable to what's happening to you by listening to your body and getting a feel for your actual event. And then you'll get a better outcome because you're not trying to chase a number that's clearly not attainable on that day. And that's a really real example of what we're talking about when we're talking about have the data as a plan and go by feel on the day and try to use that plan to stop yourself from blowing up at the start. But then if you're not going to reach those numbers, then resettle and rethink your mind about the plan you're going to implement from this point going onwards with the feel you have.

Next in for 2023 is more recovery. Most of the time we know that how important zone two is and we know how important the 8020 rule is. But we just want to emphasize that when it's time to recover, you need to recover. And stagnation in training if you're not improving is a sign of either a poor training plan or over training. And if you're finding that's the case, then you probably need to be doing more recovery.

You are getting better at this yourself. And if I just give your example of last week where you had the nationals. Monday teams time trial, really high intensity time trial. Tuesday individual time trial, really high intensity. Thursday night criterium with 100k either side, high intensity, one hour at your limit in the heat, dehydration, cramping, all those things. Saturday 150k with a, with a 12 minute effort on a climb and by Sunday you're supposed to do a long endurance run and you took the really good step of no, I'm having a recovery day because I am just too Fatigued. And that's an example of getting it right. And just because it's written on the program doesn't mean you have to do it. You have to listen to your body and get the recovery right. It was great to see Chris Harper tell us that he takes days off. That's a pro who's full time job. So don't have this mindset that you can't. We talk about consistency but at the same time listen to your body. So recover well.

Yeah. And that leads us to the next out for the year and that's being a prisoner to the program. And this is such a fine line to walk and we could probably do a whole episode on this. But we want people to stick to the program. We want to do it 100%. But at the same time you do need to be flexible when you need to change things if that's what's appropriate and better for the program. And obviously people don't know that all the time. That's why they have a coach. But you have to understand that the program is there but it needs to be adaptable.

Yep. And I don't know how many times we've, we've said this and I've had conversations with everybody that I coach is, you know, if you felt like you weren't achieving in the warm up and the, you know, we have a specific warm up in our, in our programs where we have a ramp and we have some high intensity short efforts and if you're not feeling it there, that's a. And you were feeling very fatigued before you started. If you can't get through the warm up to be rate training ready. I should almost said race ready because the main set is kind of like, you know, specificity. It's race specificity. If you're not ready to do that session where you should be, then you need to reconsider whether you should be doing that session or not. So this is where it is important to understand the difference between, you know, pushing too hard and, and, and taking time out almost.

Yeah, yeah. And, and you talked, you talked about it with volume in sessions as well. And often you'll set a time limit of potentially two hours for a ride. And you want athletes to know when they can go over that, if it's okay and know when they should go under that, if it's okay as well. And often you get a little bit frustrated with experienced athletes who will just do the two hours. Exactly. Because that is sticking to the program. Correct. But at the same time we've got to start using feel here. And if you can, if you're not too tired and you can afford to do a little bit more and you can go up to two and a half hours, it's not going to affect the hard session the next day, then that's encouraged because that's good fitness for you. And if you're really fatigued, you can go down to an hour 30. And so again, we might talk about this more in another episode, but understanding that you're not a prisoner to the program is the principle. Yep.

And look, there's straight away, you know, I've got examples of, of people who are doing, you know, two hour endurance ride and I'm bringing him saying, oh, could you have gone another five minutes or, or could you have gone another 15? And they say, yeah, I could have. I said, well, it's okay, do that. You know, don't just because it's written two hours, you know, stick, stick to the, to the, to the prisoner of, of that, of that session. You, you are able to do that as long as you're, as you said, capable of backing up. And we're not talking adding an extra four hours onto a two hour program. It's that, you know, that's an extreme, ridiculous example I'm giving. But it is important that you understand that just because it says an hour 43, that doesn't mean that's all you do. You know, you can have the flexibility to go up to two hours. As long as it's in zone two, it's not going to affect the rest of your week. That's great. Do that. Be flexible.

It is a, it is a complicated coaching nuance and so I do feel like we might actually do a full episode on this explaining the difference, different examples of when that would work and when that would not work. The last in for the year is more cross training. And a little example I wanted to give is that I personally went through a period last year where I was really focusing on cycling, running and stopped a lot of other training, stopped swimming and did really well in cycling and running. But I got to the end of that period and found I was starting to feel really one dimensional. And those two sports are quite one dimensional in nature. They're just cycling is very one motion focused and running is just front and front and back. And I really relish trying to get back into more cross training variations that can be anything from walking to weights to different sports to in the gym doing more lateral plyometric movement, all these kind of things and just using your body more. And I guess the principle is trying to make your body more robust and make it able to handle different types of load. And it's a really nice feeling to have. And I think that is really important for a lot of cyclists, a lot of runners, a lot of triathletes with swimming as well. I mean and triathlon in nature is three different sports, which is really great, but more cross training to really keep our bodies up to date. And again, you might sacrifice a little bit with your performance. But I personally am happy to do that because I'm not a professional. So cycling isn't my life. Even though it's great, I'd like to be a bit more well rounded as an amateur.

I love that point, this last point. And you give you great examples. And for those of you who are thinking what are we talking about? If you, if you've just been a cyclist and all of a sudden you're at a family function and someone brings out the soccer ball and all of a sudden you're doing sideways movement and just a muck around in the backyard little family get together, you will be so sore from that five minute soccer game. Why? Because your movement is all on a bike, all fixated in one direction, all just a pedaling action. You have no lateral movement, you have no strength any other direction except on the bike. And the same with a runner or a swimmer. We need to give our body a whole experience. And this cross training, this is something that is so underestimated and we need to absolutely get on board with this. We need to do that plyometrics. We need to do any activity that's going to give us a well rounded body that can absorb any load. And we don't want to wake up sore because we've done some activity with our mates that you know that we are the fittest human beings on the planet on a bike, yet we are pathetic in any other activity. And that to me is the example of someone who needs to improve their well roundedness and include other cross training activities.

Last little points. I mean that's it for the episode in terms of topics, but I did write down some entertaining ones. I thought that could leave us for 2023. I thought I'd just mention them to finish off. And one is Ironman race feed. I think they could definitely come down. That would be a big help to everyone. I think they're exorbitantly expensive. I think chase packs not working together. I see this a lot in pro races where one person goes up the road and there's six riders that could chase them down and they don't. And I just get so frustrated with cycling tactics where people would rather lose the race because they don't want to work together than risk getting a win, but working too hard. And last thing that we talk about a bit on this podcast, and our shoe specialists will be very happy with this, but we want to see runners stop doing easy runs in carbon fiber shoes. That's not not what they're made for. They're not made for walking or easy runs. They're made for races and high intensity. And so I thought I'd chuck those in. But that is the end of this episode. Thank you, as always, for listening, and we'll see you on the next one. Sam.